



Source: Science Daily

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Another short-sighted study
By dgingerich on 8/7/2012 3:25:10 PM , Rating: 2
Oh, woopie, another "my internet hasn't been working for the last half hour so the internet must be down" kind of study. They compare a very short period of time and proclaim that it must have been this way forever, and we're the only thing that can change it. Frankly, it's a bit of an overblown ego problem. Human's aren't that powerful. (yet?)

Never mind the fact that the sea levels have been provably higher at least three times in human history. (There are several port cities uncovered in the Middle East that date back to 500BC that are now hundreds of feet inland. There are also ports in Greenland that are now several feet above sea level.) Never mind that ice caps have been completely melted at least twice in human history. Never mind the fact that there were vineyards in Scotland and thriving colonies in Greenland during the middle ages.

The global warming idiots seem to forget that there was any history before 1800. If they were to actually look at the history of the planet, the ice caps, and the sea levels, they'd know that the sea level does rise and fall, ice melts and comes back, all without human intervention. Frankly, I'm glad it's getting warmer. I hate snow, and I certainly don't want us to have to go back to the days of the little ice age.

RE: Another short-sighted study
By amosbatto on 8/9/2012 3:09:22 PM , Rating: 2
Yes, there have been warmer periods in the planet's history, and the climate scientists are very busy studying these periods to understand what we can expect in the future. James Hansen has written a number of articles about these periods (see his book, The Storms of My Grandchildren). The reason why Hansen argued that we should limit emissions to 350ppm, instead of 450ppm like the rest of the scientific community, is his study of past warm periods.

If you look at the 4.6 billion history of Earth, the majority of the Earth's history has been in warm periods, rather than cool periods like we have now (see Robert Strom's Hot House). The Earth is currently in a 10000 year period of stable cool weather, which has permitted the rise of modern agriculture and civilizations. If the Earth slips into a warmer climate, it is very likely that human civilization will collapse.

The Earth has experienced 5 major die-offs in its history which were caused by climate change. It is very likely that we will provoke the destruction of the majority of species on this planet if we change the climate.

Even if we don't kill off most of the species, we will make it very hard for our grains like corn and wheat to grow, so we will likely experience mass starvation. One study studied the effect of adding extra CO2 and ground-level ozone (caused by burning fossil fuels) to crops and found that that these gasses cause weeds to grow faster, but retard the growth of grains. The study predicts that we will have 20% lower yields per hectare by mid-century and 30% lower yields in China. (See chapter 2 of George Monbiot's Heat for reference to this study.)

Considering the fact that we will have 9 billion people on the planet to feed by mid-century and vast swathes of land in Northern China, Australia, the US Southwest and Subsaharan Africa are turning into infertile desert, it is highly likely that we will have massive food shortages.

At the same time, the extra CO2 in the atmosphere is entering the oceans, creating carbonic acid which eats away the microscopic shells on phytoplankton, destroying the ocean's food chain. Most of the fish will be gone by mid-century, meaning that humanity has to search for another source of protein.

Finally, the glaciers will be mostly gone by mid-century, meaning that the fresh water sources for most Asian rivers (Ganges, Mekong, Yellow, Yang-tse, Indus, etc) will dry up, ending the wet-rice cultivation that currently feeds 2 billion Asians. Likewise, the Andean glaciers and the entire Amazonian basin will dry up, converting into a desert or dry plain.

All of these things will probably happen due to climate change and it isn't something to flippantly joke about if you care about the future of humanity.

