"Global Warming"

Akuko · Chosen of Bast Age: 45 Gender: Joined: 03 Mar 2006

As many of you probably don't know I am from Millwaukee Wisconsin. This winter we have been hit hard by bitter cold, lots of snow and I just need to RANT!

All these politicians and "Eco-maniacal" people are trying to tell us that the world is warming at an alarming rate. If that's true, we wouldn't be having bitter cold winters and 17 inches of snow in a 24 hour period!

If anything we might be heading towards another ice age! If you don't believe me, or want to get a bit more informed, read Michael Crichton's (sp??) State of Fear. It is a fictional novel but the data in the book is all factual. The temperatures around the world may be increasing, but at a rate of .0000001% every hundred years.

The Eco-maniacal people of this world have got to relax about "global warming." The glaciers may be melting, but they are refreezing at an alarming rate and I am just sick of this being such a "crisis" in our country.

I do love our planet and I do my best to take care of it. I recycle and I do my best to conserve energy.

it is just so alarming that by distorting facts scientists get better grants and more money and constantly scare us from one crisis to another to get more and more and more. Even our scientists are being corrupted by money and power.

SirGunslinger · Rebel without a clue Gender: Joined: 21 Jun 2007

The problem with the debate on global warming is that every scientist or pseudo-scientist that gets involved already has a pre-concieved theory in their mind instead of a hypothesis, and the find only the facts that support them, and dismiss the facts that do not.

Also one of the things that muddy the waters of Global Warming is the understanding of the difference between climate and weather. Despite what most meteorologists would say otherwise, we really do not know that much about how climate works on a reproducable scale. We are restricted to just parroting observable phenoemon, and making correlations.

Akuko · Chosen of Bast Age: 45 Gender: Joined: 03 Mar 2006

I totally agree. Yet we are force fed to believe that global warming is happening at an alarming rate and in order to stop this we have to throw money at it, or it is used to divert our attention from wars or other things in the news.

I just hate the fact that everything on the news is so sensationalized! Global warming and climate change has been happening for thousands of years and now all of a sudden it's a problem?

Shandriz · Your Death Shall be Swift Gender: Joined: 28 Sep 2003

I don't care whether Global Warming is true or not, I -like- the focus on the environment that's come from it. We -seriously- need to take better care of Mother Earth, or we're going to regret it.

SirGunslinger · Rebel without a clue Gender: Joined: 21 Jun 2007

It also distracts from some of the more immediate affects of our industrial by-product. I'm more concerned about the damage to the oceanic environments because of dredging for fish, industrial dumping, overfishing. Poor disposal of industrial by-products (paticually in stage 3 industrial countries). Introduction of non-native flora and fauna in environments.

If global warming was occuring... we can't do shit about it now, but we can do something about a lot of other things. It would also show more immediate effects.

Akuko · Chosen of Bast Age: 45 Gender: Joined: 03 Mar 2006

Yeah, I do agree, but I have said this elsewhere in the forum. Mother Nature will ALWAYS survive. WE may NOT, but SHE will.

Granted we are not helping by overfishing, dumping waste and cutting down rainforests to make more grazing land for cattle. We are a selfish creature, bending our environment until it suits us. We do need to think globally and be more responsible about what we are doing to our great mother, the earth.

ScrumYummy · bunnyhunches of scrums Gender: Joined: 29 Jun 2005

SirGunslinger · Rebel without a clue Gender: Joined: 21 Jun 2007

I would like to see the implementation of "skyscraper farms" basically, they are huge self contained farms that resemble glass skyscrapers that are hundreds of stories tall.

They regulate the internal environment using a combination of solar energy, and water pumps. It is powered by bio-diesel and ethanol from waste biomass, and it can generate several degrees of magnitude more food than a traditional farm with a fraction of the disruption to the outside world.

The inital startup cost of them is extremely high, but past that, maintence is very cheap compared to the potential food output. Granted, our biggest problem with food distribution is the energy required to transport it. Regardless, widespread use of this technology would go a long way to fix alot of problems.

ScrumYummy · bunnyhunches of scrums Gender: Joined: 29 Jun 2005

...or we could just stop eating cows.

The majority of the soy that is grown in America is used to feed cattle; it takes less farmland to yield more soy crop than it does to farm cattle, and soy is not only diverse but very complete in nutrients.

As a side note, a recent study shows that going vegan is more helpful to the planet than switching to a hybrid:

SirGunslinger · Rebel without a clue Gender: Joined: 21 Jun 2007

Or we could raise our livestock on land that is unsuited for crops, but are good for grasses. The problem is that we are using corn and soy to raise cattle, and that occupies land that could be used for something else. Heck, we could raise Bison free-range as a native species, and cultivate that for meat without large impact on the environment.