Fragile Earth Fooey

Why is this site even called fragile earth there is only one thing thats fragile on this Earth and its mankind. The arogance we exhibit to assume that we can effect the Earth is just pure nonsense. The Earth is a Terra Forming Planet that is in constant change, there is nothing that mankind can do that will have any lasting effect on it what so ever. If we nuked the whole Planet it may take centuries or milenia but the Earth would recover and change just like it has always done and will continue to do so.

No indeed the current bunkum thats passed around as science and fact is just that bunkum. lifeforms have come and gone millions of them long before man ever trod the face of the Earth and the process will continue. Of all the present lifeforms on this Planet man is the weakest and there is
no doubt we will go the way of the dinosaurs but what does that matter.

What we have at present is a two fold thrust, one to seperate us from our money and the environmentalists who want to live in some utopian garden of eden. Well its not going to happen so enjoy it while you can. It does not matter one iota what we do good or bad it will make no difference at all.

I am sorry friend, but 6.7 Billion people does affect the Earth. You may say the earth will change over time, but will it change for the better or for the worse?

If we keep breeding, expanding our borders without paying tribute to mother nature in the process, she will come and put balance back into this world by diminishign the species.

We make a difference, not in this global warming type deal they are trying to push on us, but in the grand scheme of things, we are preventing the planet from regenerating itself as we continue to consume and develop.

It's called fragile earth because at this moment, with our imput and our destruction the earth truly is in a state of fragility. We don't mean it's going to break or magically pop out of existance, we mean that it is very much on the brink of removing us from it's surface.

You know when you see images from space during the day of continents that have been heavily populated by humans, you know what it looks like?

It looks like mold on a sandwich, that's what it looks like. As if we continue to abuse the planet will retaliate or it will die.

You may not believe a planet can die, but look at Mars. Do you honestly believe Mars has always been the way it is now? No, it was destroyed, by what means I do not know, but without the atmosphere, the planet is not regenerating.

It goes the same for Earth, we loose our atmosphere, goodbye population, goodbye plants, goodye everything. We need to take a stern look at our activities and make some drastic changes in order to survive peacefully and in harmony with the very place that gives us life.

~Keeper

I agree that this forum's name is misleading. Earth itself is not at all fragile. What is fragile is the eco-system that we depend on, and therefore us.

We can screw that up and kill ourselves in the process, but a couple of hundred years after the last humans are gone, there will be virtually no trace of our modern civilization left (unless you were to dig down), and life will carry on as usual as if we'd never been here, minus a few tens/hundreds of thousands of species at the rate we're going, but nature will still fill those gaps in time.

No you are wrong we do not have an impact on the Earth we have an impact on each other which is quite a different thing. It is mans impact on his fellow man that causes the problems not the Earth. Irrespective of what man may or may not do to the earth it is a living organism that copes with change all the time and we are but a momentary item on the menu.

Its is us that is out of sync not the Earth there is nothing that we can do that will effect the earth in the long term and even if we could or did is that then not all part of the process of evolution. it is only mans arrogance to assume otherwise.

To think that we can affect Earth is ridiculous, this Planet has gone through thousands of cataclismic changes some of which we know about and others we don't. This all took place long before man ever showed up and these changes will continue no matter what. To even describe the Earth as fragile gives a total lack of understanding of how the Planet even operates or the environment in which it exists.

No the fragile Earth is nothing more than a construct created by those who make money and those who want to live in utopia. Tell the millions that have died in floods, storms, earthquakes, famines volcanic eruptions that the Earth is fragile. All it would take is a 10 mile wide bollide to hit this Planet and man would cease to exist but the Earth would survive just as it has done many times over.

We live in an age of fear fear controls everything and right now the perps and the tree huggers would have it that unles we all live in caves its curtains, well i have got some news its going to be curtains full stop. That is the way of evolution, man is nothing more than just another species on Earth and like all others it will die out and new life will spring forth.

And in time new species will appear as they have done so for billions of years untill our Sun goes super nova.

I think you meant "phooey", not "fooey".

What is the point of your post, but to express an extreme sense of fatalism?

I think it is a proven fact that small changes to Earth's biosphere can have significant consequences, and that human beings are indeed changing the biosphere. Some of these changes can be seen from space--the Aral Sea drying up as a result of using its source waters for irrigation, smoke soaring into the atmosphere from burning thousands of acres of rainforest, the "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico caused by agricultural run-off, just to name a few examples off the top of my head. I'm sure the Earth will weather these changes just fine, but our own species as well as the other species we share this planet with might not make out so well. I don't act or speak from fear, but from concern and compassion for others, and a desire to make the world a better place for my kids. You got a problem with that?

Charis, its got nothing to do with doom or gloom, I' a realist and we are nothing more than part of an evolutional cycle who cares if we survive or not and does it even matter. Life will go on maybe we will eveolve into something else who knows but there is nothing we can do so why worry about it, just sit back and enjoy the ride.

All mans actions are part of that evolution who's to say we are wrong. I don't think you or anyone else who states they are concerned are trully concerned, it s just the current fashion, to fit in to be accepted nothing more. Its just a passing craze a trendy pastime practised by people who don't really care at all.

But either way believer or not one cannot stop evolution and what will be will be. the only threat to man is his fellow man. Mother earth is just doing her thing with or without us.

I am extremely amused that you think I am motivated by the desire to be "trendy". I couldn't care less about trends or fitting in. I believe the current "green" trend to be little more than a marketing gimmick, and many of the so-called earth-friendly products on the market are no more sustainable or eco-friendly than the alternatives they are replacing. To me, environmentalism isn't about what you buy, anyway; it's about what you don't buy. It's about living sustainably, not consuming more than you need. It's about leaving something behind for the next generation.

Magicmushroom, I am guessing you don't have kids. When you have kids it changes your perception about a lot of things, most importantly, about what kind of future you want them to have. You stated you don't care if we (as a species) survive or not. Well, I'm sort of rooting for Mankind to make it, at least long enough to live up to his potential. The end will come soon enough--with an asteroid or a plague or the sun burning out--but in the meantime, why hasten our own doom? You can sit back and do nothing if you want, but I'm putting up a fight.

Charis, I do have grown up kids, but the way I see it that the only way we can say that we are really trying is when we are living in caves with animal skins on our backs living off the land. But thats all in the past.

Don't get me wrong if we can do better or clean up our act thats fine I do my bit but we cannot stop evolution and if by fault or design we don't make it its no big problem for me. We a but a mere speck of dust in a cosmos teeming with life.

But the facts are that we cannot control Planet Earth no matter what anyone says or thinks they can do. The Earth is subjected to changes and conditons that we have no control over what so ever and never will. Our best chance is to get off this unstable Planet. And I would happily see every last penny in the World that is spent on war and arms spent on getting into space. But we are a dumb animal, on an evolutionary scale were still in the slime stage, not that I agree with Darwin's theory.

Right now there are too many people on this Planet and that is our problem, when nature kicks in it will do what it does best and thats get rid of us. You cannot blame the Earth given what we have doen to it and are doing to it for getting its own back.

Sorry for jumping to conclusions; I was just trying to understand where you are coming from.

I suppose in the cosmic sense of things we humans are nothing significant and our extinction would make little difference. If an unpreventable catastrophe like an asteroid colliding with the Earth wiped us all out, so be it. But, if we bring about our own demise by poisoning the biosphere--spraying our crops with dangerous pesticides, pumping sewage into our lakes and rivers, contaminating the air we breathe with pollutants--that is not inevitable and outside our control; that is not "evolution". It is suicide. Actually, it is murder-suicide, if we also bring about the extinction of other species as well as our own.

I rest my case. Anything more and I would just be repeating what I have already said.

I suppose we could call it the Fragile Human, Flora, Fauna Dependancy Upon the Atmospheric Envelope Surrounding Planet Earth (FHFFDUAESPE Forum), but that might be a bit ponderous.

Fragile Earth works fine for me, but then I'm not into semantics so much.

You are out of line magicmushroom.
Totally misinformed.
Think of it this way..
Your body would still work even with all of your limbs gone, but what an existance you would have....
limited and incomplete.
As is the world.
Sure we all understand that the planet will regenerate, and at some point, die with our host star. But why live on a polluted ugly, negative, sphere in the mean time. Whats so wrong with a utopian garden? Really? What the HELL is wrong with that!!!! Understand a perfect forest is proof enough of a fragile planet. So easy to destroy.

By the way:
Just because the earths changes are violent and constant, does not equate to a planet not being fragile. It is because Earth has the ability to adapt just as we do. Adapting is the best trait we can possess. Granted,there are certain things we can not adapt to. But those have to do with science more than natural occurances. And yes, we can deaden the planet forever. We know how.

Originally posted by JerichogirlLA
Granted,there are certain things we can not adapt to. But those have to do with science more than natural occurances. And yes, we can deaden the planet forever. We know how.

Bingo!

I always enjoy these discussions. Yes the Earth will survive, the real question is will man? Global warming/ Climate change/ Fragile Earth call it what you want!

The facts are that Earth has had major and minor Eco changes all throughout its history. In geological terms Mankind is a newcomer to such things.

Have 6.7 Billion people contributed to a change? I will say yes! Will this lead to the destruction of Earth? No! Again the Earth will survive but will it be an Earth mankind can survive on?

Whether these are changes that happen naturally over time or whether man has contributed to a change is really irrelevant what’s really important is what can we do for our children and grandchildren?

This argument over what to call it or what is causing it is like having our house on fire and instead of doing something about it, we are all standing around arguing whether it was a lightning strike or was it the coffee pot that short circuited and do nothing to put out the fire.



There has been ice ages in the past and then massive melt offs and possible meteorite or comet impacts that caused massive extinctions nobody argues that those events have not happened. We could be in the middle of a cycle that has been happening for billions of years.

We should stop arguing over what it's called and whats causing it. The dinosaurs died off and I'm pretty sure to them their idea [if they had any] of the Earth was destroyed as they knew it. I think we are headed for a massive change!

How soon and to what extent? Nobody really knows. We can run computer simulations all we want and they can be pretty accurate, heck those types of simulations are what got us to the moon! So I think they are pretty valid again what can we do about it?

I'll tell you right now that a carbon tax or whatever they want to call it won’t do squat! What we need to do is get off the freaking fossil fuel kick! If anything else we could all breath a little easier!

Hey people the house is on fire!









[edit on 6-3-2009 by SLAYER69]

Jericho , you put too much importance on mans existance I don't and its not just science dear its nature and only ignorant and arreogant humans think we can control the Earth. The damaged we could inflict with all our weapons combinned would not present mother Earth with any real challenge but it would remove us off this Planet. And even if we could so what, the multi verse has that many inhabited Worlds that we in our savage like imagination connot even fathom it.