Haunting face crying a river of tears as glacier melts into the sea

reply to post by obilesk


Please someone tell me where the summer has been cool and how do I move there? I feel like I'm living in the Sahara for the past six years.

Interesting image.

On the whole debate about global warming, I actually don't care if we are causing it or not.

What I do care about is the arrogance we have as a species.

People go on and on about how we're not causing it. So do those same people suggest that we just carry on ripping up the earth, tearing down the forests, burning whatever we can to make power for games consoles and iPods, dumping crap in the sea...

We are not destroying our planet.
We are destroying any chance we have to live here safely and happily in the future.
Whatever we do, the Earth will carry on, it will adapt and new life will come about. Yes, we'll take a few other species with us through our arrogance, but the main damage we are doing is to the Human race.

People are consistently missing the main point of this entire thing through their self-righteous, opinionated arrogance;
How can it be bad to at least work towards being responsible?
Just in case?

Lets look at the options...

1. It is us causing this, and we do nothing to rectify our damage. The Result is the suffering of the Human race to the point of eventual near-extinction.

2. It isn't us causing it, but a natural cycle of events, and we do nothing to change our habits. The result is the suffering of millions, extinction of numerous species', eventual collapse of society.

3. Whether it is or isn't us causing it (which is the correct option to choose right now) and we do work to clean up our act. The result would be cleaner environment, cleaner air, cleaner water, progression of the Human race, a new respect and appreciation for our world...

Is it really that hard to see the correct response? Instead of just creaming about science, we all know what the morally superior response is. I don't care about any data anyone can offer to prove or disprove anything. Not a single person on this planet can say we are doing well as a species or that we treat our home responsibly.

THAT is what has to change, and the scientific data plays no part in that obvious fact.

I think it was HL Mencken that said 'sometimes a good horse laugh is worth ten thousand syllogisms". So in that regard, I will just give a good horse laugh - Ha! Ha! Hee! Hee! - to all those that cling to the asinine idea that the climate is NOT changing.

Can't change the earth? We've been doing it steadily for 10,000 years. Turning forrest into farmland; turning farmland into cities; turning savanah into desert; depleting vast swaths of ocean of fish, etc. etc.

Climate hasn't been warming? shrinking ice caps, almost snow free winters at former ski resort areas, and warm climate plant and animal life migrating farther from the equator?

CO2 levels not a concern? Its a by-product of formerly innert items. Prove me wrong, and go suck on a tail pipe for a few hours, breath in the smoke of a forrest fire, or eat the ashes of my Labor Day BBQ.

Really people - do you hate humankind so much that you want to hasten our exit through ignorance and petty jealousy?

reply to post by Sashromi

CO2 levels not a concern? Its a by-product of formerly innert items. Prove me wrong, and go suck on a tail pipe for a few hours, breath in the smoke of a forrest fire, or eat the ashes of my Labor Day BBQ.

Sucking on a tailpipe for a few hours means you breath in carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide, both hazardous chemicals which do not occur in large numbers in nature. The dangers have nothing to do with the CO2 levels you are breathing.

Breathing the smoke of a forest fire means you are breathing in a lot of charcoal ash that tends to stick in the lungs and cause excessive and acute irritation. Again, the smoke does not contain an excessive amount of carbon dioxide.

Eating the ashes of your Labor Day BBQ will introduce absolutely NO CO2 into your body. Instead you will be ingesting several different chemicals, most of which are added to the charcoal as flavor or accelerants. Ash contains absolutely no carbon dioxide.

CO2 is a colorless gas that is produced any time carbon is oxidized in an excess of oxygen (this includes the metabolism of food in animals). It is the compound that allows photosynthesis to occur (translation: plants to live), liberating oxygen. The atmospheric concentration as of March 2009 (according to Wikipedia) was 387 parts per million, or 0.0387%. The toxin threshold for humans is along the order of 5000 parts per million, or 0.5%.

This is precisely why I tend to jump into these threads. You are complaining about smog, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, and chemical ash, yet you are advocating restricting carbon dioxide. There is a difference!

Please, just look at that Wiki link. It won't take long to scan through it, and you will sound a LOT less ignorant when you debate the subject. This just ain't advanced chemistry we're talking about; it's second-grade science class.

TheRedneck


[edit on 9/5/2009 by TheRedneck]

That has to be the most photoshopped picture i've ever seen in my life.

The Earth is probably crying because of what Obama is doing to America.


[edit on 5-9-2009 by GigaloCool]

Originally posted by calmbutwary
What if the earth is just going back to the way it's supposed to be?

It's sad that some humans are so arrogant as to think that we could alter the earth's climate so dramatically by our presence, or that we could stop it.

You see I thinks it's sad that some humans are so arrogant as to think that we could NOT alter the earth's climate so dramatically by our presence.

but there you go...

If we get mushy and say the earth is crying, she is definitely crying for us, not herself.

If we crap in our backyard to such an extent that we mess it up for ourselves and a good amount of creatures, the earth will easily bounce back after we are gone like she has done thousands of times in the past.

Humans are not the most significant event that has ever happened to the planet, we just happen to like making the place less comfortable for ourselves (and some are very convinced this is a great thing)

It's Michael Jackson.
Eeeeee heeeee heeeeeeeeeee a chamon!

reply to post by TheRedneck

Redneck, Thanks for the link to the Wikipedia. The article on CO2 was indeed informative and I did in fact learn a few new items. However, I respectfully suggest that you should do a little reading of your own on the link you recommended.

From the link you provided: “Carbon dioxide is produced mainly from six processes… including among others from combustion of fossil fuels and wood.”

Based on this information I think my analogy of tailpipes and forrest fires have basis. In fact, auto-exhaust has numerous by-products of combustion of which both CO and CO2 are included. Please see this link:
Car Emissions

The BBQ ash…. O well maybe you got me there, maybe I just got caught up in the spirit of the weekend.

However, these are all trivial matters in the overall scheme of the issue. The bald fact of the issue is that mankind is destroying the climatic and environmental status quo with our 19th century technologies. I have no doubt that the earth’s procession and sun cycles have something to do with it as well. However, why do you want to throw gas on the fire?

Nice use of imagination, I would have never seen it. I cant even make things out of clouds anymore. Happens to us realists. I just wanted to comment that this picture has been 'doctored' with photoshop brightness and contrast to bring the disfigured face to life.

Won't everyone be surprised though if after all the ice is melted from it, the 'face' turns out to have a huge statue underneath the ice...of a face!

reply to post by A Fortiori


Sure anywhere in the MO northern AR. This summer was the coolest I can remember.

Earth is a cold place most of the time.



[edit on 5-9-2009 by Donkey_Dean]

reply to post by Sashromi

From the link you provided: “Carbon dioxide is produced mainly from six processes… including among others from combustion of fossil fuels and wood.”

No disagreement there; combustion of any compound containing carbon in an excess of oxygen will lead to the formation of carbon dioxide. Thus, there is carbon dioxide produced when hydrocarbon fuels (gasoline, diesel fuel, heating oil) or wood (actually any orgabic matter) is burned.

However, in order to get to that toxicity level of 5000 ppmv, it would take a LOT of fuels or wood to be burned. Possibly that amount could be achieved with engine exhaust, but definitely not with a wood fire. Should the level rise to that point, it would slow the burning process by displacing oxygen.

But let's take a look at some of the other things you would be breathing:

• Gasoline vapors - including the dreaded Benzene. These are indeed toxic primarily due to their irritative effects on the mucous membranes and their tendency to combine with ionic compounds in the body, forming unwanted chemicals.
  
  
• Carbon monoxide - technically not poisonous, but rather an asphyxiant. It tends to mimic oxygen in the lungs and can attach itself to hemoglobin, but it doesn't really want to let go like oxygen does. So the victim suffocates to death from an inability of their bloodstream to supply oxygen.
  
  
• Sulfur dioxide - a deadly poison that tends to transform into sulfuric acid when in the presence of water, oxygen, and UV radiation. Ironically, all that is in the air we breath. Can anyone say 'acid rain'?
  
  
• Nitrates - the basis for smog. That's what you see hanging over Los Angeles.
  
  
• Ozone - normally harmless in small quantities, it is the responsible party for both the fresh smell after a thunderstorm and the sharp biting smell after a close lightning strike. I understand Sharper Image is selling units that are designed to produce ozone in the home, to make it smell better.
  
  
• Soot - The all-time favorite of chimney sweeps everywhere. It is also a large part of that LA smog, but it at least tends to wash out of the air easily. It is basically small clumps of unburned solids, mainly carbon.

It would appear to me that if you were sucking on an exhaust pipe, a little carbon dioxide would be the least of your worries. From Wikipedia again:

Amounts above 5,000 ppm are considered very unhealthy, and those above about 50,000 ppm (equal to 5% by volume) are considered dangerous to animal life.

5000 ppmv is about 12.5 times the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. So if we increase the amount of CO2 by a factor of 12500%, some people will start getting headaches. Increase that another 10-fold, a total of 125,000% and it will start becoming life-threatening.

You know, they say water is good for you, but I also know too much can lead to drowning.

The bald fact of the issue is that mankind is destroying the climatic and environmental status quo with our 19th century technologies. I have no doubt that the earth’s procession and sun cycles have something to do with it as well. However, why do you want to throw gas on the fire?

Because we need more carbon dioxide!

No, seriously, there are plenty of things we can do to make the environment cleaner and easier on us. It's just that society seems to want to forget about the real dangers and instead focus on a minor condition that isn't that dangerous and is extremely difficult (if not downright impossible) to correct.

Let's talk about not dumping sewage into rivers. Let's talk about not dumping litter in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Let's talk about increasing efficiency so cars will burn cleaner and use less gasoline to boot. Let's talk about regulating industrial wastes like HCl or SO2. Let's talk about minimalizing the amount of packaging being used for products, sometimes more than the product itself. Heck, let's talk about building a scrubber to clean the air and make it better instead of just not much worse. I'll side with you on these issues, and fight tooth and nail for them.

What I will not do is lie to myself and others when someone with a lot of money to spend and a lot more to make decides to make it by lying to the public about a chemical compound that has existed in our atmosphere since life began.

TheRedneck

The planet is fine, after a billion years of tectonic movements, everything will be recycled again.

The people, on the other hand, are #ed.

Originally posted by calmbutwary
What if the earth is just going back to the way it's supposed to be?

It's sad that some humans are so arrogant as to think that we could alter the earth's climate so dramatically by our presence, or that we could stop it.

I know, I would think the damage done by one super volcano far outways what we have done to earth. other than like mercury pollution and they way noone disposes batteries properly. And i'm pretty sure there has been more than one super volcano eruption.

RedPill

reply to post by BluePillOrRedPill


The main difference is that you can't help a volcano erupting, while it is possible to stop emitting that much pollution.

Originally posted by OzWeatherman

It is quite depressing, regardless of wether the glaciers are melting due to the natural mechanisms of climate or, due to man made pollutants

Why is it depressing, that's kinda what glaciers do.......melt and move. You would still be depressed if it were naturally occurring? I don't get that.

whats depressing is how humans have turned the planet into a giant garbage dump. i guess its only depressing for people who'd rather not live in a dump and for animals that get stuck in all the garbage. i spose if that doesnt bother u then its not depressing.

Could atmospheric temperature be raised by ,
- a couple of billion petrol / diesel motors ,running 24/7. [they are hot]
- black tarmac [in abundance]
- ever increasing airborne particles that trap the heat

?????????????????????????????


yes........