Posted on 01/17/2006 7:43:06 AM PST by NYer
Renowned scientist James Lovelock says he believes the world has passed the point of no return for climate change, and civilization is unlikely to survive.
Thirty years ago Lovelock conceived the idea that Earth possesses a planetary-scale control system he named Gaia, which keeps our environment fit for life, The Independent reported Monday. But now he believes mankind's abuse of the environment has made climate change insoluble and life on Earth will never be the same again.
In an extraordinarily pessimistic new assessment published in Monday's Independent, Lovelock suggests efforts to counter global warming cannot succeed, and that, in effect, it is already too late.
Lovelock now believes Earth and human society face nearly complete disaster, and sooner than nearly anybody realizes.
He writes, "Before this century is over, billions of us wil! l die, and the few breeding pairs of people that survive will be in the Arctic, where the climate remains tolerable."
"And there's other big fish to fry before then BTW!"
The Moon.
We're DOOMED, doomed, I say! The ecoweirdos are at it again.
11 Jan 2006
Scientists baffled!
Filed under:
* Climate Science
* Greenhouse gases
gavin @ 5:56 pm - (fr flag)
Every so often a scientific paper comes out that truly surprises. The results of Keppler et al in Nature this week is clearly one of those. They showed that a heretofore unrecognised process causes living plant material to emit methane (CH4, the second most important trace greenhouse gas), in quantities that appear to be very significant globally. This is surprising in two ways - firstly, CH4 emission is normally associated with anaerobic (oxygen-limited) environments (like swamps or landfills) but chemistry in plants is generally thought of as 'aerobic' i.e. not oxygen-limited, and secondly, because although the total budget for methane has some significant uncertainty associated with it (see the IPCC assessment here), the initial estimates of this effect (between 62236 Tg/yr out of a total source of 500+ Tg/yr!) give numbers that might be difficult to incorporate without some significant re-evaluations elsewhere.
Reactions so far have been guarded, and there will undoubtedly be a scramble to check and refine the estimates of this process's importance. Once the dust settles though, the situation may not be so different to before - some emissions may turn out to have been mis-identified, this source may not be as large as these initial estimates (10-30% of total sources) suggest, or it might radically challenge our current understanding of methane's sources and sinks. However, the process by which this is decided will demonstrate clearly that the scientific method is alive and well in the climate sciences. That is, as long as a work is careful and the conclusions sound, papers that upset the apple cart can appear in the major journals and have a good chance of ending up being accepted by the rest of the field (providing the conclusions hold up of course!).
Didn't Erlich predict mass global starvation by the 80's?
Ho hum...
As long as Uranus stays a comfortable distance from me, we'll be fine.
http://www.exitmundi.nl/
Fun page - thanks for the link!
I can see that that is true, but even if we move Earth but don't cross the plane of other orbits, we'd still run the risk of being close enough to the other planet to interfere with the orbit of the moon and such, I'd think.
"The few breeding pairs..."
Something tells me they won't be from Old Europe...unless the Caliphate has been re-established, of course.
We all need to work to do what is reasonable to be good stewards of the earth and try to make peace unless making peace will erupt into worse killing.
I haven't read it for awhile, but 1/3 of the trees will be destroyed; that may have already happened if you look at what the world probably was in Jesus' time.
In many places, human effort has damped down a lot of the pollution in developed nations which is a positive thing imo.
From a scientific viewpoint, I suppose they do and say what they believe from a strictly worldly pov. God forbid we mix religion and science. Actually the negative aspects of science (it's a doubled-edged sword to me) will contribute to the deterioration of society and the environment.
Well, he is right about one thing. Before this century is over, billions of us will die. Of old age.
But if we can move the earth we can move it wherever we want. It's not as if the other planets are gonna chase after us. That's my point!
I say let's get to the planet-moving stage of technology first and then worry about the details. :)
OH NO!!! WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!
Space is far more vast than you apparently realize.
Check out http://space.jpl.nasa.gov/ - the Solar System Simulator - for details.
Given that there are billions of us on the planet right now, it takes no brains to conclude that billions of us will die before the century is over.
Yeah, the thought of being chased by Uranus is disturbing...
Calling the Pierson's Puppeteers!
Good point. I think he also said that within the next century billions of people will be born. Gawd, this man is a friggin' genius. Did he also say the sun will rise and set over 34,000 times during this period. He is so smart. He must be a liberal.
If I'm one of the remaining males, I just hope that the remaining females aren't ugly.
Good news for the Social Security Admin!
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