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The World as We Know It Is About to End, Say Some Really Frightened Scientists
The Atlantic ^ | Jun 7, 2012 | Alexander Abad-Santos

Posted on 06/08/2012 7:16:05 PM PDT by presidio9

A new study by 22 biologists and ecologists has found that environmental changes on our planet are reaching a point of no return that leads to mass extinctions and harms human welfare. The situation, said one scientist, “scares the hell out of me.” That would be James H. Brown, one of the authors of alarming paper published by Nature, talking to New York Times Green blogger Justin Gillis. Brown is not one of your everyday cranks predicting raptures and the end of days. He is a macroecologist at the University of New Mexico. And as The Atlantic's James Fallows, who pointed out this terrifying study to us, writes, this could be the most important news of 2012. How soon do these scientists expect the world as we know it to end? Gillis writes, "within a few human generations, if not sooner." The most frightening thing is that this finding isn't about what will come if we do not act, but that our effects on the planet's environment -- global warming, population growth, and overall resource extraction -- means that we've already passed a "tipping point." This isn't a plea for change. These are things scientists have been warning us

(Excerpt) Read more at theatlanticwire.com ...


TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 666; brown; chickenlittle; chickenlittles; endoftheworldlyrics; globalwarming; jameshbrown; manbearpig; population; scares; tippingpoint
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To: Diggity

In order to stave off the end of the world, one must be prepared.

The following items will be needed, and I have a huge inventory for sale at a good price.

Left-handed screwdrivers.
Tent-strechers.
Skyhooks.


101 posted on 06/09/2012 9:48:00 AM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Lame and ill-informed post)
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To: presidio9
James Fallows has himself, writing in the Atlantic & in books, authored more “the U.S., or the world, as we know it is doomed” tomes in the last twenty years - and always scenarios that did not pan out - than any other author I can think of.

It's not surprising that he and the Atlantic have lent their names to this latest doomsday piece.

What Fallows has always missed, and what these writers miss is the resilience and adaptability of the U.S., and over time of humanity.

102 posted on 06/09/2012 10:05:56 AM PDT by Wuli
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To: supremedoctrine

I got ya beat. In 1982, Hubby and I were gardening on a clear, sunny, cloudless day, when a huge, drenching downpour drove us into the house.

Yep, right out of a clear, blue sky.

The perpetrating clouds never did show up.


103 posted on 06/09/2012 11:17:10 AM PDT by TheOldLady
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To: presidio9

“Tipping Point...” Makes you kind of imagine the green, oozy letters they used on the old movie posters for “Vampires...”


104 posted on 06/09/2012 3:56:25 PM PDT by redhead (Libs can't win without cheating--Conservatives don't have to cheat to win)
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To: presidio9
Brown is not one of your everyday cranks predicting raptures and the end of days. He is a macroecologist at the University of New Mexico.

When civilization has collapsed, when all sense of the old orders has been hollowed out and is the stuff of lore and when barbarians rule the streets it will look like.....







New Mexico

105 posted on 06/09/2012 4:18:48 PM PDT by MARTIAL MONK (I'm waiting for the POP!)
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To: Kartographer
Mr. Bill
106 posted on 06/09/2012 8:20:05 PM PDT by 2CAVTrooper ( For those who have had to fight for it, freedom has a flavor the protected shall never know.)
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To: Vendome

Add to the list:

Syria
Iraq
Most Muslim countries
All of Africa
Iran
Downtown Detroit


107 posted on 06/10/2012 1:11:54 AM PDT by Netz (Netz)
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To: presidio9

The world as i knew it culturally has already ended in total degradation


108 posted on 06/10/2012 1:18:52 AM PDT by wardaddy (the GOP are cowards)
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To: GraceG

Well there ain’t no time to wonder why,
Whoopee! we’re all gonna die.


109 posted on 06/10/2012 5:28:29 AM PDT by RonnG
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To: presidio9

I would argue that the world as we know it ends every day and the world begins anew when the sun comes up (we hope) once again.

Perhaps we should emulate previous enlightened cultures and start cutting off the heads of our fellow villagers and toss their carcasses down the stairs. Maybe we can re-start that benign practice of tossing virgins into bottomless chasms to appease the earth gods...

If only we could reduce our footprint, perhaps return to binding our women’s feet will do the trick, eh? Maybe we should strap on “tiny shoes” on our overgrown feet to reduce our “footprint’?

No, you say? That’s not the answer? More money is the answer? Well the way I figure it, we have to rape the planet more to come up with the “Earth Rape Tax” filed twice monthly.

I guess I could keep going, but I got some Melvin Seals on the stereo and it has a much finer groove than worrying about how the world as we know it is all about to end, (only to be replaced with a new, improved, day)


110 posted on 06/10/2012 8:47:36 PM PDT by abigkahuna
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To: cripplecreek
There has been a population explosion of bullfrogs this year. I guess the mild winter allowed a lot more of them to survive. I don’t think I’ve ever heard so many as I do now.

HA! Sounds like a biblical plague to me! Time to buy up MRE's and ammo!

111 posted on 06/11/2012 7:24:52 AM PDT by Kenton
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To: cripplecreek

“There has been a population explosion of bullfrogs this year.”

Tons more snakes here in TN, too. Milder-than-normal winter; that’s probably all it is.

I’m much more terrified of a second Obama term than plagues of frogs, locusts, snakes, etc.


112 posted on 06/11/2012 7:31:03 AM PDT by MayflowerMadam
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To: MayflowerMadam

Lots of bunnies too.

The February thaw brought the mosquitoes out and they were killed by the April freeze.


113 posted on 06/11/2012 7:35:26 AM PDT by cripplecreek (What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?)
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To: central_va

Oh my gosh!

You mean I’ve been singing it wrong all this time?????


114 posted on 06/11/2012 8:05:54 AM PDT by green iguana
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To: presidio9

I’d love to have these people in a situation in which they can’t run away, and have to answer my questions.


115 posted on 06/11/2012 9:33:57 PM PDT by wastedyears ("God? I didn't know he was signed onto the system.")
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To: presidio9

Your face is about to end. ;)


116 posted on 06/11/2012 9:36:36 PM PDT by <1/1,000,000th%
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To: Domestic Church
Small farm goats a couple horses it was under all weeds when i got it and it was under for a long long time I’ve cut down hundreds of pin oak saplings and poison ivy trees I'm in the process of clearing it now to grow fruit trees and chickens maybe some grapes and honey bees
117 posted on 06/12/2012 3:01:28 AM PDT by ATOMIC_PUNK (Any man may make a mistake ; none but a fool will persist in it . { Latin proverb })
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To: presidio9

Some scientists are really frightened that Evil Republicans will take away their research grants.


118 posted on 06/12/2012 3:08:39 AM PDT by Fresh Wind ('People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook.' Richard M. Nixon)
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To: Kenton

Wrong! Time to research recipes for frog legs!


119 posted on 06/12/2012 10:04:38 PM PDT by tdscpa
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