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Originally Posted by Thor
This is why I tend not to get involved in global warming discussions, the utter lack of understanding of what is going to happen makes me give up hope of even trying to discuss this.
Firstly we are talking a few degrees over all the earth, this won't make Calgary California.. It will however change weather patterns, bring us a lot more extreme weather, and a host of unknowns we will just have to find out.
I don't want to waste my time talking to people who think this is all a natural cycle and that we are having no effect pumping all this greenhouse warming gas into the atmosphere.
I do however want to talk to people who are trying to do one of two things:
1. Find ways to build new industries around green energy, green technologies. These are genuinely exciting areas filled with innovation, scientific breakthroughs and will be a source of incredible wealth and prosperity for those who lead the charge.
2. Those who seek through technology and innovation to lessen and slow the impact, or even start to manipulate the environment with new ideas and technology. There was a great documentary on this on PBS not too long ago, geo engineering is a term that will gain a lot of interest in the next 50-100 yrs.
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I just wanted to chime in on this a bit as I watched a show last night on Netflix called Amazing Planet that went through the history of the formation of Earth and it's many shifts over time. I'm not sure how accurate it is as it seemed to be geared towards a lesser educated audience ("Earth is the only planet in the solar system with water", pretty sure that's untrue ie. Mars and Europa).
But it had an interesting point about early Earth organisms that used CO2 as energy and expelled O2 as waste and as the numbers of these organisms increased, the CO2 in the atmosphere was replaced by, then poisonous to most life, Oxygen. And it eventually reached a point to cause global atmospheric shifts that allowed for the life as we know it today on Earth. So my thought is, while man is certainly affecting the change, how is it any different from a similar global shift in the reverse direction? Humans are part of the Earth and have a huge impact on its ecosystems, but couldn't that be counted as a regular planetary shift just the same as the prehistoric organisms over saturated the atmosphere with Oxygen eventually rendering them extinct?
The only difference is humans have the self awareness to know that we are accelerating it and may have the ability/knowledge to slow down what will inevitibly happen in a few million years, but is it not just part of the cycle of Earth, regardless of how we affect it? I mean we are part of the ecosystem just the same as an ant. Either way, it was an interesting show and nothing like a geological time frame to make you realize how much of an insignificant blip we really are (or may become).
I'm not arguing, but science is not necessarily my strong suit so I was interested to hear other view points on it.