Lost the plot

[Dennis1234567]

I just mowed my small lawn. Two day from December and i had to mow my lawn. Having done that i started thinking.

We have altered the planets weather to the point were some of our most bullet proof plants are infected with diseases that they would have cast aside a decade ago. The UK, New Zealand, and a host of other countries are building up seed banks as a safe guard man made extinction. Zoos and wildlife parks are slowly changing from animal prisons to wildlife banks for endangered species, and run breeding programs to try and stop more man made extinctions. We have killed most of the North Sea of life forcing sea birds to feed inland from lakes and rivers instead. We have introduced species and plants into non native areas then watch them decimate the natural ecology around them. We have put a big hole in the ozone layer, shrunk both north and south pole ice packs, and slowed the gulf stream to a trickle. If that wasn't bad enough we go and shift the jet stream. To top it all off i noticed teletext mention a tornado warning for some place in the UK.

Somehow i think the human race has lost the plot.

[Dorcas]

sadly I have to agree with you

plus the new behaviour that seems to be observed in africa - species grouping together for a big kill because of lack of food - one of those the well publicised ele attack and I'm sure there was another example.

not a climate change issue but a different developmental outlook as kenya was at one time beginning to demolish parks by removing park status

other countries setting up private parks and stocking with animals and there's not much historical research as to stocking levels so the one I was at was losing gazelle quicker than they can breed so they had to restock every year - shopping list - 1000 gazelle for lions dinner!

oh and don't forget the tigers now in african parks.

it's a strange evolution

here I've often thought we over conserve some places but then again we have brought back a lot of missing habitat and in the uk great success stories like the chough and kite and otter.

but at least we are conserving what we have albeit too prettily at times

sorry I don't mean to depress anyone - I'm aware I have conservation fatigue

[Rich_]

Whilst I fully agree that direct interference by mankind, such as deforestation, overfishing of the seas and destruction of habitats (greed in other words) and such like is responsible for much of the problems in nature, I am not convinced that climate change ,and there is no doubt it is changing, is anything other than a natural cycle.

Even many of the "experts" can't agree on this, and of course the government won't be interested in natural cycles because they can't tax us for that. (just greed again,but it looks as if they care).

[StuartDH]

The blue line in the image below shows the levels of CO2 in the atmosphere over the last 650,000 years - records taken from ice core surveys of several km deep in Antartica. The peaks and troughs show that as the earth has gone in and out of several ice ages the peak levels of CO2 have been about 280-300 parts per million.



What the graph doesn't easily show is that in the past 150 years we have seen a huge rise in CO2 levels and we are now at about 380 ppm (you can just make out the line on the right-hand side) - significantly higher than any other time in 650,000 years. Despite some misinformation by the popular press, many "experts" definitely do agree that this is a manmade problem.

Stuart

[Paul mabbott]

Originally Posted by StuartDH

............. Despite some misinformation by the popular press, many "experts" definitely do agree that this is a manmade problem.
Stuart

Actually, I think that most of the press, *in Europe*, fairly reports the situation - there are a couple of newspapers (owned by USAmerican billionaires, coincidentally) who quote dissenting (USAmerican industrial) sources but .....

[Dorcas]

first let me say I believe we, as mankind, have altered our planet to such as extent is it nearly irreversable.

I think the next decade is going to be very difficult for people to judge what's right or not as there is some very clever spinning going on.

maybe this is a spin and you may have read it too, but I read that some big influential companies are spinning oil shortages as they do have a lot to lose. This denial is catching on. This year was the first I heard someone say 'the oil is not going to run out'.

We live in strange times.

I think what bothers me is that there's no - oh we'll do something about it just in case it's true

it's a wait and see


wait and see



oh guess what my gas has run out

[StuartDH]

Originally Posted by Paul mabbott

Actually, I think that most of the press, *in Europe*, fairly reports the situation - there are a couple of newspapers (owned by USAmerican billionaires, coincidentally) who quote dissenting (USAmerican industrial) sources but .....

Hi Paul,

I work as an energy consultant and present to companies and organisations on climate change and in my experience popular opinion seems to be similar to Rich's view, with probably 50%+ going for a natural cause for climate change.

Most of these opinions seem to have originated from UK press, like Richard Littlejohn's column in the Daliy Mail - who seems to be have been fed from over the pond.

I think UK press is definitely doing a lot better than the US, but there are still some very influential media reporting from junkscience etc that leave most of the public questioning what almost all of the scientific community having been agreeing on for years.

[matt_xyz]

I agree Stu. There is a very vocal minority, particularly in the US, who are funded by large oil companies to keep the anti-climate change arguments prominent within the media. Their aim is to give the impression that the scientific community is fiercely divided on this issue. In reality there are differences of opinion, but the overwhelming consensus agrees that we are influencing the climate.

The historical correlation between CO2 concentrations and temperature is almost perfect. And we know that CO2 concentrations are now at record levels due to fossil fuel emissions. It therefore doesn't take much of a leap of faith to expect temperatures to increase accordingly. And hey presto, they are....

Matt

[Jane_Russell]

I'm not convinced that all this change is so bad a thing anyway. Why shouldn't "man" be part of an earth cycle that sees us "born, thrive and become extinct". Nature isn't static and yet the cry goes up "preserve, preserve, preserve".

Jane

[Dennis1234567]

This will be the first time that we've had no winter since the meteorite smacked into Florida, maybe a lot earlier. We will never reduce our greenhouse gases because mankind is too stupid. Mankind will i think, be extinct within the next century, and earth will be a dead, lifeless rock

The moment we stuck a rock on stick and called it a club we killed the old girl.