Weather cast upon...

Mr. Helm

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I've just finished reading the book "FIELD NOTES from a CATASTROPHE", brilliantly witten by journalist Elizabeth Kolbert. The tittle is alarming in itself, and the series of reports she has made around the world show why: there's no doubt about the current consequences of global warming. I recommend it for anyone who's interested in finding out deeper information concerning the theme. Here are its last words:

last paragraph: "(...) Ice core records also show that we are steadily drawing closer to the temperature peaks of the last interglacial, when sea levels were some fifteen feet higher than they are today. Just a few degress more and the earth will be hotter than it has been at any time since our species evolved. The feedbacks that have been identified in the climate system - the ice-albedo feedback, the water vapor feedback, the feedback between temperatures and carbon storage in the permafrost - take small changes to the system and amplify them into much larger forces. Perhaps the most unpredictable feedback of all is the human one. With six billion people on the planet, the risks are everywhere apparent. A disruption in the moonsoon patterns, a shift in ocean currents, a major drought - any one of these could easily produce streams of refugees numbering in the millions. As the effects of global warming become more and more difficult to ignore, will we react by finally fashioning a global response? Or will we retreat into ever narrower and more destructive forms of self-interest? It may seem impossible to imagine that a technologically advanced society could choose, in essence, to destroy itself, but that is what we are now in the process of doing."

That would be harsh enough, was it not by the contents of one of the series of stories she has written for The New Yorker Magazine that is not part of the book. It's about the "ice core reports" mentioned, is called "Ice Memory" and can be read from this link: http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2002/01/07/020107fa_FACT.

In essence, it is pointed out that the heating process is a natural ocurrence, which we are but accelerating.

The consequences of all those facts are already impending upon us, as with sudden climate shifts and unprecedented metereological events such as tornados and hurricanes down here in Brazil, for instance.

How it will end? No one can say, exactly. Neither if anything drastic will affect us more than we are currently being affected.

But then this is just to call your attention for the facts that do show how changes are already taking place.

Beware is being aware, and this call is just a tentative effort to help out in terms of awareness.

Call it a Christmas gift!
 
Mother Earth will kill us off this planet one way or another. She did it to the dinosaurs, and with all the disease, famine, and other natural disasters, she'll do it again. Global warming is just one of them, made all the more political because humans think they can stop it.
 
Mother Earth will kill us off this planet one way or another. She did it to the dinosaurs, and with all the disease, famine, and other natural disasters, she'll do it again. Global warming is just one of them, made all the more political because humans think they can stop it.

+1... Earth has been hot before and it's been cold before and nothing we say or do will stop it.. It's a cycle we know little about...Plus I drive a 4 cyl ford focus so I feel good about myself : ), Cannot wait to be able to afford a Prius so I can start driving with my nose in the air...LOL
 
Then find a spot to get rid of the glut of batteries these cars will use. A lead filled, acid filled land fill.
 
It's bothered me that climate scientists - the people who know more about this than any - see cause for concern. I'm more inclined to believe them than politicians, just as I take the advice of top musicians when it comes to music more than than, say, plumbers ... no offence to plumbers, I'd ask them about hot water systems before I'd ask a muso :)

But I'm also hearing stuff about how we're supposed to be entering an ice age so, in that case, maybe a little warming is a good idea? I only know pretty simple data analysis methods and bits and pieces of other stuff, so I have to take the word of people who know more than I do.

I try to minimise my consumption to do my bit, for what it's worth, which isn't much.
 
At any given time, humanity is threatened by any one of several dozen or so potentially world-ending scenarios.

All we can do is enjoy our time spent here and love one another. While we will all shed our skins eventually, we live forever...for that is how long it takes to learn who we are as spirits. It takes an eternity to know that which is infinite, and we are given all the time in the universe to figure it out.

Peace.
 
At any given time, humanity is threatened by any one of several dozen or so potentially world-ending scenarios.

All we can do is enjoy our time spent here and love one another. While we will all shed our skins eventually, we live forever...for that is how long it takes to learn who we are as spirits. It takes an eternity to know that which is infinite, and we are given all the time in the universe to figure it out.

Peace.

That is so indeed! But I guess it would help our evolution once we managed to live in perfect harmony with the environment that ultimately sustains us as embodied spirits. Just an impression...
 
That is so indeed! But I guess it would help our evolution once we managed to live in perfect harmony with the environment that ultimately sustains us as embodied spirits. Just an impression...

I don't think it's possible with 6 billion people (and rising fast), all aspiring to have a house, car, a range of electronic goods, nice clothes etc. Something's got to give. I do feel that, ethically, living well includes being mindful of what we consume and the non-human lives / habitats that have been lost so we can have our goodies.

This whole thing feels like being in a massive ocean liner with a turning circle of 10kms and watching it heading towards an iceberg that's 2 kms away ... most of us seem to take a similar fatalistic view as the band that played on while the Titanic sank. Might as well go down swinging ...
 
Let's move to Mars!

It's been mighty cold here in Norway, but I don't think it's because of the climate changes.
 
It's pretty arrogant of us to think that WE are killing the planet. She'll die one way or another. Just a fact. Glad I won't be around to see it :)
 
Ice ages are usually (have always been) preceded ny warming. It has to do with the balance caused by underwater currents. A good source is Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth".

Is this the same Al Gore who invented the internet. Please. This clown is making millions from a panicky public.
 
It's pretty arrogant of us to think that WE are killing the planet. She'll die one way or another. Just a fact. Glad I won't be around to see it :)

Well, we've caused mass extinctions, put a whopping great hole in the ozone layer (which means it's dangerous to spend a lot of time in the sun in Oz), entirely dominated most land masses, fished out areas of the sea, and we have enough nukes to turn the planet into a wasteland for thousands of years. Even then the planet would remain alive ... I expect there'd still be lots microbes and lower order creatures. The outlook would be a tad less rosy from our end.


Is this the same Al Gore who invented the internet. Please. This clown is making millions from a panicky public.

GD, all Al did was turn hard science into popular science to raise public awareness. The vast majority of scientists who work in related areas and who aren't aligned to political think tanks believe there's a major problem. Like I said, I'll listen to them on the subject before I listen to anyone else, especially politicos.
 
Well, the planet won't die. She'll keep going. Every few millenia or so a new species will rise to the be the dominant lifeform. We weren't the first. Probably won't be the last, either.
 
Well whether or not, we all get killed off or the earth implodes, I think we all have to agree (if you're paying attention) that both land, sea and air are getting pretty polluted. It wouldn't hurt live cleaner and less consuming life styles.
 
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