Interesting reading to say the least….I’m not a scientist either but enjoy the discipline of science since I prefer to see things in black and white, be measurable, etc.
I too remember, as a child, snow falling and melting for months on end. Around Chicago, that has not happened in a long time.
The combustible engine has not been around for a long time, a blip on the map when looking at the age of the earth.
All I can say is I hope is that my children and children’s kids have a climate that is similar to what we have today.
By all rights, much like some of the folks commenting on this article, I should also be an \”ostrich\” in denial about global warming (not to mention the relative merits of the Bush administration): white male, raised in the South, brought up in a fundamentalist Christian church, educated and employed in a conservative field (engineering), AND I\’ve worked in the oil industry for a decade.
But I\’m not. It doesn\’t take a logical engineering or scientific mindset to realize that the trend within my short lifetime in the earth\’s temperatures is UP. Even ignoring all the scientific data proving this, I can\’t tell you how many folks I\’ve heard mention that when they were kids, there seemed to be a lot more snow. I\’m in Scotland now, working in the North Sea \”oil patch,\” and driving past ski centers that closed down years ago due to this.
When the phrase is taken literally, \”global warming\” isn\’t a theory – it\’s a reality. The only theory is whether man has helped to cause it. And to me, that doesn\’t even matter. I take a dim view that, even if all 6 billion or so humans were to wake up tommorrow morning KNOWING we are the cause, anything would or could be done about it. If nothing else, in a few years there\’ll be SEVEN billion of us sucking oxygen and spitting CO2 from our various modes of transportation – including simple walking.
Here in the U.K., I am constantly inundated with green \”propaganda\” funded by the government (like everything else seems to be funded by the government here). Radio and TV advertisements about energy conservation, \”campaigns\” to reduce driving and increase reliance on public transportation, \”green taxes\” and road tolls to increase the relative cost of private vehicle ownership, \”turn it off\” messages about inefficient appliance stand-by modes. Green spin said with a frequency you would never hear in the U.S. anywhere.
Here\’s an irony about some idiot\’s earlier comment concerning how the U.S. \”is expected to save the world\” on global warming. The U.K. produces a TINY fraction of the total output of greenhouse gases of the U.S., and yet by any American standard at all these folks are giving their utmost to reduce their carbon footprint on the planet while we \”proudly drive our huge SUVs\” (as per another idiot\’s earlier comment). Have you seen the size of the average European car . . . ?
Not that it matters. The average American produces 10 times the garbage of the average citizen of a third-world country. The same ratio goes for energy consumption. Even though China is currently behind us on that ratio, I\’m sure they will catch up soon as their amazing rate of industrialization continues. And there are a lot more Chinese than there are Americans. . .
If I seem a bit pessimistic, or as I call it \”realistic,\” it\’s because no matter how many green-campaigns are mounted and actions taken by countries who care, like Scotland, they are rendered irrelevant by those countries too eager to \”produce, produce, produce\” at all costs – even those to the environment. And all this in an effort to support unsustainable \”standards of living\” for their citizens, enabling them to consume massive resources and produce the corresponding levels of pollution because it\’s their God-given right to do so.
But if you\’re \”green,\” not all is lost. The basic laws of economics still apply. As resources diminish and more garbage piles up, the costs of the remaining resources, or garbage disposal with fewer available locations, will rise. And those proud idiots with \”huge SUVs\” will be paying more in simple cost-of-ownership. (That trend is already seen in the diminishing sales of SUVs the past couple of years actually.)
So here\’s a question: will the economics play out quickly enough to force even the most die-hard \”ostrich\” to change his lifestyle BEFORE irreparable damage is done to the earth? (because he can\’t afford the huge SUV anymore)?
To me, that doesn\’t matter either. My oil profit-driven paycheck only continues to rise, thank you . . . and I have no kids to which leaving a scarred and torn earth matters.
That\’s really saying something Mr. Jon with no kids. Us Americans are over consuming, freedom loving pigs…God Bless our Messy America! I really hope we get our act together sooner rather than later. We need informative leadship in order to really make a difference.
Any student of physics knows that if floating, and I emphasize floating, ice at the North Pole melts it will not result in any rise in sea levels. This is explained by the Archimedes principles which date back to 287-212 B.C.. When ice floats in water, the weight of this ice is exactly equal to the buoyancy force, which is equal to the weight of the displaced water. If there are problems from melting ice, rising sea level is not one of them.
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Interesting reading to say the least….I’m not a scientist either but enjoy the discipline of science since I prefer to see things in black and white, be measurable, etc.
I too remember, as a child, snow falling and melting for months on end. Around Chicago, that has not happened in a long time.
The combustible engine has not been around for a long time, a blip on the map when looking at the age of the earth.
All I can say is I hope is that my children and children’s kids have a climate that is similar to what we have today.
By all rights, much like some of the folks commenting on this article, I should also be an \”ostrich\” in denial about global warming (not to mention the relative merits of the Bush administration): white male, raised in the South, brought up in a fundamentalist Christian church, educated and employed in a conservative field (engineering), AND I\’ve worked in the oil industry for a decade.
But I\’m not. It doesn\’t take a logical engineering or scientific mindset to realize that the trend within my short lifetime in the earth\’s temperatures is UP. Even ignoring all the scientific data proving this, I can\’t tell you how many folks I\’ve heard mention that when they were kids, there seemed to be a lot more snow. I\’m in Scotland now, working in the North Sea \”oil patch,\” and driving past ski centers that closed down years ago due to this.
When the phrase is taken literally, \”global warming\” isn\’t a theory – it\’s a reality. The only theory is whether man has helped to cause it. And to me, that doesn\’t even matter. I take a dim view that, even if all 6 billion or so humans were to wake up tommorrow morning KNOWING we are the cause, anything would or could be done about it. If nothing else, in a few years there\’ll be SEVEN billion of us sucking oxygen and spitting CO2 from our various modes of transportation – including simple walking.
Here in the U.K., I am constantly inundated with green \”propaganda\” funded by the government (like everything else seems to be funded by the government here). Radio and TV advertisements about energy conservation, \”campaigns\” to reduce driving and increase reliance on public transportation, \”green taxes\” and road tolls to increase the relative cost of private vehicle ownership, \”turn it off\” messages about inefficient appliance stand-by modes. Green spin said with a frequency you would never hear in the U.S. anywhere.
Here\’s an irony about some idiot\’s earlier comment concerning how the U.S. \”is expected to save the world\” on global warming. The U.K. produces a TINY fraction of the total output of greenhouse gases of the U.S., and yet by any American standard at all these folks are giving their utmost to reduce their carbon footprint on the planet while we \”proudly drive our huge SUVs\” (as per another idiot\’s earlier comment). Have you seen the size of the average European car . . . ?
Not that it matters. The average American produces 10 times the garbage of the average citizen of a third-world country. The same ratio goes for energy consumption. Even though China is currently behind us on that ratio, I\’m sure they will catch up soon as their amazing rate of industrialization continues. And there are a lot more Chinese than there are Americans. . .
If I seem a bit pessimistic, or as I call it \”realistic,\” it\’s because no matter how many green-campaigns are mounted and actions taken by countries who care, like Scotland, they are rendered irrelevant by those countries too eager to \”produce, produce, produce\” at all costs – even those to the environment. And all this in an effort to support unsustainable \”standards of living\” for their citizens, enabling them to consume massive resources and produce the corresponding levels of pollution because it\’s their God-given right to do so.
But if you\’re \”green,\” not all is lost. The basic laws of economics still apply. As resources diminish and more garbage piles up, the costs of the remaining resources, or garbage disposal with fewer available locations, will rise. And those proud idiots with \”huge SUVs\” will be paying more in simple cost-of-ownership. (That trend is already seen in the diminishing sales of SUVs the past couple of years actually.)
So here\’s a question: will the economics play out quickly enough to force even the most die-hard \”ostrich\” to change his lifestyle BEFORE irreparable damage is done to the earth? (because he can\’t afford the huge SUV anymore)?
To me, that doesn\’t matter either. My oil profit-driven paycheck only continues to rise, thank you . . . and I have no kids to which leaving a scarred and torn earth matters.
That\’s really saying something Mr. Jon with no kids. Us Americans are over consuming, freedom loving pigs…God Bless our Messy America! I really hope we get our act together sooner rather than later. We need informative leadship in order to really make a difference.
Any student of physics knows that if floating, and I emphasize floating, ice at the North Pole melts it will not result in any rise in sea levels. This is explained by the Archimedes principles which date back to 287-212 B.C.. When ice floats in water, the weight of this ice is exactly equal to the buoyancy force, which is equal to the weight of the displaced water. If there are problems from melting ice, rising sea level is not one of them.