Global Warming - a lesson based on an astroid

[MorkandMindy]

Greetings Earthlings!

It appears you have an impasse on your planet as to whether Global Warming is man-made or natural. And if it is natural than nothing can be done about it and nothing should, so say some.

There's a very big asteroid heading toward the Earth and if it does turn out to be on a collision course and can be destroyed, will you do it?

 

[ReesePiece23]

I think humans should just stop meddling about, full stop. We can all agree that solar energy is the way to go, so let's use it. But to influence the Earth in any way shape or manner, is just not right. Even if it's to make the atmosphere more sustainable for life, it's STILL not our place to mess about.

We're just guests here. VERY lucky ones at that. (Obviously, our influence is unavoidable for as long as we're here.)

 

[OldWiseGuy]

We'll watch it on tv, as entertainment.

 

[Goonie]

Greetings Earthlings!

It appears you have an impasse on your planet as to whether Global Warming is man-made or natural. And if it is natural than nothing can be done about it and nothing should, so say some.

There's a very big asteroid heading toward the Earth and if it does turn out to be on a collision course and can be destroyed, will you do it?

Global warming is natural. Last time I checked Humanity is part of nature(though some define humanity as separate, I disagree). And as such anthropogenic climate change is both natural and man made. And like the asteroid we definitely need to act to divert, mitigate it's effects, and address how we impact the environment.

Be a good shepherd, not an asset stripper.

 

[mindlight]

Greetings Earthlings!

It appears you have an impasse on your planet as to whether Global Warming is man-made or natural. And if it is natural than nothing can be done about it and nothing should, so say some.

There's a very big asteroid heading toward the Earth and if it does turn out to be on a collision course and can be destroyed, will you do it?

Well that is just typical ,using project fear to try and stop the asteroid!!! Since when have we be taking advice from a bunch of foreigners anyway. My mate from the pub was chatting online with me over our Zoom pub meet the other day over a few jars and he said that this was a just a conspiracy by the Illuminati using aliens as their cover story, everyone knows the Lizard people are already here. Our strategy is to say nice things to it and hope it turns away or better still ignore it completely.

 

[MorkandMindy]

I'm sympathetic to Global Warming deniers for a bunch of reasons because the claimed temperature rise was too small to verify empirically as some of the weather stations had been enveloped in urban growth and therefore were warmer and the weather stations were progressively repainted from the original whitewash with CaCO3 pigment to latex paint with TiO2 pigment.

And the proposed methods for dealing with it were very expensive and unlikely to be effective.

And it appeared that the proponents had backed away to a safer claim that the Climate was changing, which it always does, so they appeared to have retreated and to be hedging their bets.

 

[MorkandMindy]

Recently the Global Warming has been verified but the next reason is why?

If it is part of a natural cycle then it would be reasonable to claim it will simply swing back again in it's own time.

But analytically the man-made contribution to the atmosphere will by my calculations give about 2/3 of a Celsius based on the data for oil reserves and coal mining back around 2004.

The scare factor is even a small change might result in methane emissions which could be a run-away situation.

There are various factors in the opposite direction for example that saying the CO2 levels are much higher than they were in the past million years, which also implies that the rocks could be in equilibrium with lower levels and therefore are now able to absorb CO2.

 

[MorkandMindy]

CO2 can be expressed as oxidized top soil so this could all be re-conceptualized as an agricultural problem.

SO there are answers.

1. Look after the soil, many areas are getting too low on top soil to grow crops efficiently so make that a planet-wide priority.

2. Plant a zillion trees.

3. Might work to use the higher sulfur fuel on high altitude long distance flights, making the upper atmosphere more reflective. This is being researched.

4. Might work to block the Bering Strait, keeping the deep water with high CO2 content in the depths of the Pacific rather than flowing across the shallow Bering Strait and exchanging into the atmosphere.

5. I think we would all be happy to waste less and to install photovoltaic panels or have big solar farms in the sunniest parts of the country. It conserves petroleum and it feels good. Anyway we have to vote Green because the other two parties are being stupid.

 

[Vylo]

There is no impasse, just people who ignore the science and history. We have never had such an abrupt temperature chance in our planets history, and that includes the incident where a city sized asteroid smashed into the planet wiping out most life. It would be hard to conceive of that being coincidental with our massive output of greenhouse gases.

Now beyond the man made warming, we have to contend with the fact that global warming is inevitable. While the sun's output has not noticeably changed during our ecologically short stay on this planet, it will over time, and on top of that the normal cycle will occur where we leave our current ice age. We need to prepare to contend with that approaching reality, and dealing with the more pressing issue of our self-inflicted disaster could prepare us for down the road when more natural forces take a swipe at us.

 

[mindlight]

CO2 can be expressed as oxidized top soil so this could all be re-conceptualized as an agricultural problem.

SO there are answers.

1. Look after the soil, many areas are getting too low on top soil to grow crops efficiently so make that a planet-wide priority.

2. Plant a zillion trees.

3. Might work to use the higher sulfur fuel on high altitude long distance flights, making the upper atmosphere more reflective. This is being researched.

4. Might work to block the Bering Strait, keeping the deep water with high CO2 content in the depths of the Pacific rather than flowing across the shallow Bering Strait and exchanging into the atmosphere.

5. I think we would all be happy to waste less and to install photovoltaic panels or have big solar farms in the sunniest parts of the country. It conserves petroleum and it feels good. Anyway we have to vote Green because the other two parties are being stupid.

All of which is already being done in the UK and Germany (my countries), both of which have been reforested over the last century and are pursuing alternative energy strategies for the future. My wife and I are considering purchasing our first electric car for local travel and are hardly alone in that idea. We already have 13 trees in our garden so I think we are sucking up more CO2 than we are producing. The target is to remove Petrol engines entirely before 2050 in most European states. The Pandemic has put air flight and also long distance rail travel on hold for the near future. Once this crisis is over there are ways in which both could be environmentally improved. Railways are already mainly electrified here but different kinds of aircraft engine fuel with only water as their by product is one way forward. Local supply chains and an end to just in time global supply chains might cut sea traffic significantly and provide some insulation from global catastrophes but will require storage spaces we have not planned for for many decades.

It will be interesting to see what the Pandemic suspension of normal traffic does for CO2 levels and for the weather over the next year. We are living the experiment of lower CO2 levels right now.

 

[mindlight]

There is no impasse, just people who ignore the science and history. We have never had such an abrupt temperature chance in our planets history, and that includes the incident where a city sized asteroid smashed into the planet wiping out most life. It would be hard to conceive of that being coincidental with our massive output of greenhouse gases.

Now beyond the man made warming, we have to contend with the fact that global warming is inevitable. While the sun's output has not noticeably changed during our ecologically short stay on this planet, it will over time, and on top of that the normal cycle will occur where we leave our current ice age. We need to prepare to contend with that approaching reality, and dealing with the more pressing issue of our self-inflicted disaster could prepare us for down the road when more natural forces take a swipe at us.

Actually for those of us who accept a more catastrophist understanding of nature rather than a uniformitarian one catastrophies are written into the natural record and explain almost tropical conditions in places suddenly entombed in iceages and various large scale extinction and flood events. But mankinds contribution to the possibility of an impending catastrophy is very clear this time round. I am hoping that Europes better performance on Green issues may well give it a bit of a pass on the next extinction level events but we are probably all going down together on the same sinking ship

 

[Jonathan Walkerin]

I think humans should just stop meddling about, full stop. We can all agree that solar energy is the way to go, so let's use it. But to influence the Earth in any way shape or manner, is just not right. Even if it's to make the atmosphere more sustainable for life, it's STILL not our place to mess about.

So you would be ok to live as hunter gatherer or farmer without our current technology ?

 

[MorkandMindy]

I don't think the situation is all that hopeless, many young people World-wide are willing to take up the Green agenda.

 

[mindlight]

I don't think the situation is all that hopeless, many young people World-wide are willing to take up the Green agenda.

Absolutely my daughter won't stop nagging me about it

 

[MorkandMindy]

yes, it's largely an age thing.

I recall back 1981 seeing a poster of Peak Oil, at that time it was looming ominously not too far ahead. Young people wanted to conserve oil while old people didn't, for example a car rental said 'I'll have the Lincoln, compacts are for kids'.

Reagan was a champion of the old and was a conservative Christian: 'let us eat, drink (and be merry) for tomorrow we will die' (1 Cor 15 v32)