Ghosts, Goblins and Global Warming

[lsippell]

Actually, the way I look at it, houseflies have been around for about 65 million years (since the beginning of the Cenozoic era). And since one fly can lay about 8000 eggs, there has been a LOT of housefly’s around. And since they all eat, it’s safe to assume they defecate also.

So, I figure, we must all be about 10 ft deep in fly S*it.

Louis

[MAXIMAN]

No no Louis. It's "bullsh*t" we're standing ten feet deep in today.

[oseaghdha]

Global What?

Greenland was green and forested once
Researchers discover ancient DNA from an ice core indicating the presence of trees and insects

Another Inconvenient Truth, I suppose. What's that make, about #4086?

[Pat Kelly]

Ok. Assume chicken little is right and mankinds advanced, civilized lifestyle is causing the earth to warm-up. The ice melts and the ocean rises and billions of people die in coastal flooding.
Problem solved, less people without the advanced, civilized lifestyle.
Checks and balances. Maybe all the humans will die and the Earth will get back to normal, before the alien humans landed here.
Notice that humans are the only species that destroys everything for our own purpose? Oh wait, we're the advanced, civilized spieces.

[Special Ed]

natural enemy's

"Notice that humans are the only species that destroys everything for our own purpose?"

Good to hear you chime in Pat, but you are half wrong. Or is that half right? I did a paper once on beavers. They wreak havoc on their environment. But they have natural enemies such as wolves, cougar etc. to control their numbers. We have eliminated most of our natural enemies. But, like that cartoon Guru Pogo once said: "We have met the enemy and he is us!" We, who have eliminated most of our natural enemy's have become our own worst enemy!

Your observation that human activity will limit human activity is spot on.
Hey Maximan, it's not the pot, it's the Scotch!
E.Liberty

[MAXIMAN]

Re: natural enemy's

Originally posted by E.Liberty
"Notice that humans are the only species that destroys everything for our own purpose?"

Good to hear you chime in Pat, but you are half wrong. Or is that half right? I did a paper once on beavers. They wreak havoc on their environment. But they have natural enemies such as wolves, cougar etc. to control their numbers. We have eliminated most of our natural enemies. But, like that cartoon Guru Pogo once said: "We have met the enemy and he is us!" We, who have eliminated most of our natural enemy's have become our own worst enemy!

Your observation that human activity will limit human activity is spot on.
Hey Maximan, it's not the pot, it's the Scotch!
E.Liberty

Hehehe..

All living organisms utilize the earth for their purpose. There is nothing inherently worng with that. The notion that only man pollutes is a ludicrous earth worshippers attitude. Every creature on this planet crap, pissies and pukes. We are the only ones that even ATTEMPT to clean up our messes.

And Pat ... I hope you are joking...man came from another "planet"? So all other life originated on earth but man?PROVE IT!



But this attitude should tell you us all something about the the hater's of mankind and the earth worshippers. They believe man is the "Zenolith" in the matrix of life...an alien invader. Al other life is original...only man is the foriegn intruder. And the sooner man is destroyed the better earth will be. We'll I say if you believe that garbage why don't you practice what you preach. LEAD THE WAY! Exit stage left (pun intended).

[Wildkat]

Ahhhh... c'mon Cody...

I don't think that natural bodily functions are the problem... (unless, of course, someone does it in the middle of a foot path in a park somewhere... Man do I ever hate that!)
but I digress...

Earth worshipping... there is a problem with this? I've said it before... I hug trees... talk to the animals... blow kisses to the flowers... Why? I like to breathe... I find it helps me to keep on with my day to day activities... I know... I'm funny that way. I find that the flowers and trees help me to continue doing this... vile habit, I know... but it is what it is...


Sure the beavers make a mess of things... so do termites.. don't even get me started on fire ants... but I don't see too many of them paving over every blade of grass to put up a shopping mall... or dumping millions of gallons of raw sewage into the water (oh sure... blame the whales for pooping in the water)... I don't see them building factories that send toxic gases into the air... No... humans pretty much have that market cornered...

Lead the way? I do what I can with what I have... I recycle... save trips to the store... don't drive unless I have to... I could do more... but there are others out there who just won't do anything to protect the earth... and don't... and never will...

[Special Ed]

I do my bit to SAVE THE PLANET: I park my 16 mpg van and hop on my 45 mpg XS11 whenever possable. You might say I'm an XSive environmentalist. Or I'm XSivly concerned.

My response to Mankind coming from another planet when I have more time. I just got up and I have work to do.
E.Liberty

[malber]

A lawyer once told me that he's reducing his carbon contribution by giving up pencils. I told him that he could reduce it completely by having all contracts drawn up in blood.

[fredintoon]

"Sure the beavers make a mess of things... so do termites.. don't even get me started on fire ants... but I don't see too many of them paving over every blade of grass to put up a shopping mall... or dumping millions of gallons of raw sewage into the water (oh sure... blame the whales for pooping in the water)... I don't see them building factories that send toxic gases into the air... No... humans pretty much have that market cornered..."

Hi Wildkat,
sure they do, they just ain't big enough to have the effects noticed. Every live thing on the planet seeks to maximize it's own turf regardless of consequences, is all.
A case could be made that humanity's real purpose on the earth is to provide a step in the mosquito breeding cycle.

[mro]

I don't think that natural bodily functions are the problem

While the total amount of water being polluted by man is but a small fraction of the total it does have a significant impact and fresh water is in high demand and short supply here in CA. So much water from the Sacramento/San Joaquin delta has been diverted that the entire ecosystem has collapsed. BTW, there’s over 1,000 miles of navigable water ways there to give you an idea of how vast the delta is.

Ever wonder why the bottled water business here in the US is such a major success selling billions of bottled water annually?

Subic and Manila Bays in the Philippine Islands had been used for disposal of untreated waste for generations as well as from our own military. Not sure if they ever got around to "fixing" it. India, Africa, China, South America, Central America, South Pacific and every third wold nation discharges untreated waste into the oceans. Some places it's so bad that the ocean floor has become a "sterile desert" in the area of disposal.

If you live near a coast here in the US it is common for "public alerts" warning that beaches near cities become unsafe/hazardous due to ecol. and other contaminants discharged by local community facilities that just can not handle the volume of waste.

Would not like to live "down stream" in any third world country. The neighbors up stream use it for there toilet and getting rid of anything "unpleasant" they don't want around.

Don’t take my word for it, take a look for your self....I have...think you may be surprised that I’ve not mentioned half of it.

Then agin, like the oil supply, “global warming” and a few other problems...just won’t become critical in my lifetime if ever


mro
Of the many things I think of myself, one is an environmentalist, but with a touch of common sense and a grasp of the reality of "human limitations"

[Wildkat]

Ever wonder why the bottled water business here in the US is such a major success selling billions of bottled water annually?

YES!!!
Especially when it's marked:
Source:
Ft Worth Municipal Water Supply

If it were from someplace that actually could provide clean water... I might buy it more often...
I get your point, Mike... just thought that was a bit interesting when I read the label...

Every live thing on the planet seeks to maximize it's own turf regardless of consequences, is all.

Well yeah... survival of the fittest and all that stuff...
I think the problem I have with the way things are... humans have the capability to make the earth a better place for everything and everybody.
(man... I can see Cody's eyes rolling already )
We are fortunate enough to have the intelligence to do it... However, we don't seem to have the willpower to do what we need to do to protect those that we hurt in the process of making a better life for ourselves...
We've discussed this before with the big, bad oil company thread...
So... what's it going to be? We do what we need to do to make things right? or keep going at it and end up killing off everything except for the cockroaches?
Forget global warming... the earth goes through natural cycles of heating and cooling... always has and always will... I worry about the amount of toxic chemicals that we put in the air and water... and few things get me more upset than seeing a bunch of garbage on the side of the road... or worse yet... in what should be clean rivers and streams. I wouldn't eat fish out of half the lakes in Texas... and I LIKE fish.

[Pat Kelly]

There is no pollution.
Beaver dam rivers but that makes a habitat for other forest creatures to use <insert happy forest music>. A high-rise apartment building benefits humans, cockroaches, and pidgeons (not exactly in that order).
The only pollution comes from space, meteors and such. Everything we call pollution is stuff that's already here, we just redistribute it. Chemicals dumped from factories, these chemicals came from somewhere, used, then discarded somewhere else. I bet you use the product the factory made. Ok, so they brought chem A from there and chem B from over there, mixed them and produced chem C. Now they are dumping yucky chem C near me. Polluters.
Attempt to clean our mess? We don't clean anything, we cover it up. Out of sight out of mind.
Other than fossils, do you see anything done by any other animal besides humans that is from the past? The pyramids, the Great Wall, Appian Way, Stonehenge. Gametrail in the wild might last a year or two at the most.
Actually Cody, you and I agree just differently. The Earth was here long before humans and it will be here long after we are gone. It may change and no longer be nice for humans to live here but it will be here just the same.
Maybe by then we will be able to go somewhere else that is habitable for us. The sun is expanding. The habitable zone that humans can live in is moving farther away from it. What if (using imagination here), long ago, when the sun was smaller and the habitable zone was closer in, Venus supported life. Over billions of years as the sun grew, life on Venus reached out to the next planet. First with probes, then with explorers, then colonists, as they made the next planet habitable for them. For a while there were two planets they lived on. Eventually the habitable zone was leaving Venus and all the living things moved to the next planet (Earth). Fast-forward to current time. Probes sent to Mars. Plans for explorers and visions of terraforming Mars. Eventually the habitable zone will move out past the Earth. Where to next?
Human life on the Earth is a mere spark in geologic time. Human influence is negligible in the greater scheme of things. Yes, the Earth is warming-up as it has in the past several times. We as humans might even be influencing it by .000000001% but it will warm-up anyway. Then it will get colder again.

[xs650mike]

Very entertaining thread Maximan. Do I believe global warming is caused by man or alien life forms? Dunno, but there are an awful lot of aliens in these parts and it sure has been hot lately. There oughta be a law...oh right...there already is one...

[MAXIMAN]

Gawd I love this!!!! So many targets...so little time! Mwhahahahahahah (Evil laff!)

I a short. I do not oppose man making the planet a "better place to live". It's just your idea and mine maybe radically different.

I see so many people talking trash about ... we should stop doing this or that. And yet those very same people continue doing the things they are so adamantly opposed to.

Al Gore burning half a megawatt daily at his castle while preaching the ills of energy usage. RFK Jr. flying around in freekin Gulfstream telling everybody else to quit flying around in a freekin' Gulfstream!

The world isn't turning into a pit. No no... It's turning into COMEDY CENTRAL! And the biggest clowns are the environmental extremists.

One last thing...if any of you think I am disrespectful of the earth and have no regard for the well being of our home you are fatally wrong. Why do you think I spent the past 30 years studying this planet? So I could figure out how to "tear it up"? ...how utterly asinine.

The thing that disturbs me is the public's sheer lack of understanding of the various natural systems of earth. Most are almost superstitious about it. Thus my "Throw the virgin in the volcano" analogy.

Again I digress.

PS: Mike...Now that was genuinely funny! Don't get me started on aliens. We just might crash the server.