Saving the Planet

Is anyone else getting a bit fed up with the 'hype' associated with Global Warming?

I heard yesterday on the Radio about the latest report which is saying we should eat less Lamb and Tomatoes. The reason being given is that Lambs burp a lot and release gasses that are harmful to the environment. The Tomatoes bit was associated with 'mass production techniques' rather than the plant itself. So if we reduce demand etc....

I'm all for conservation and careful management of waste etc. - seems like good houskeeping to me, but the things they're coming out with to 'Save the Planet' are just getting a bit silly.(IMHO) Whatever happened to the hole in the ozone layer? I seem to remember we were all going to die from exposure to ultra-violet radiation.

I would love to see / hear a proper debate between the 'It's our fault and we can fix it' and the 'it's all part of the natural cycle of the Planet and there's not much we can do about it' brigades.

 

I wad fed up with it, until the latest news that the North Pole Ice Cap is melting a lot faster than previously thought. Hmmmmm...not sure what to think now.

 

I just found this:

"New research from NASA suggests that the Arctic warming trend seen in recent decades has indeed resulted from human activities: but not, as is widely assumed at present, those leading to carbon dioxide emissions. Rather, Arctic warming has been caused in large part by laws introduced to improve air quality and fight acid rain."

"Shindell's research indicates that, ironically, much of the rise in polar temperature seen over the last few decades may have resulted from US and European restrictions on sulphur emissions. According to NASA:

Sulfates, which come primarily from the burning of coal and oil, scatter incoming solar radiation and have a net cooling effect on climate. Over the past three decades, the United States and European countries have passed a series of laws that have reduced sulfate emissions by 50 percent. While improving air quality and aiding public health, the result has been less atmospheric cooling from sulfates."
​

Heads I win, Tails you lose...

 

Not really, because it's not "hype". We really are damaging our planet beyond repair, faster than ever before, and the attitude of "It's all hype" isn't helping that one bit.

It's still there, and it's still growing... it's just not the number one news item anymore. Melting ice caps are a more recent discovery so they get the headlines.

Although I do agree with you that eating less lamb is a bit daft... maybe driving less cars, burning less coal etc might help a bit more!
I'm intrigued as to how Lamb's burps damage the planet though, do you have a link to the story?

 

I remember this discussion here before! It'll always be a hot topic, until something happens to provide conclusive proof...but if you look at history, there have been quite a few fluctuations in temperature (just been reading about the destruction of the Spanish Armada off the coast of Scotland and Ireland, caused by severe winter storms in the North Atlantic, which in turn were caused by The Little Ice Age).

I do think humans abusing the planet hasn't helped, but to contemplate that human activity alone can cause a shift in global temperatures is incredibly arrogant. The planet has been here a long, long time and humanity is only a blip in it's history - the planet will be here a long time after we are extinct.

Reducing, recycling, reusing needs to be promoted on a far greater level than it is currently, in my opinion. We all know a lot of our resources are finite, but many are not - we'll always have wind in this country, yet you still get protests about building wind farms.

 

I remember we've had talks on this at college and the conclusion that most of us came to is that were all *~&^%$"£

 

The regarding the Ice Cap link is here: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/04/09/arctic_aerosols_goddard_institute/

Haven't looked for the Lambs burping, it was something on BBC Essex Radio

EDIT: but found this: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6350237.ece

 

Guys, if you're really interested in this sort of thing, can I suggest www.physorg.com This comes up on a regular basis. Some of these guys are "proper" scientists and some come from the left field. At least you get a variety of views. Be warned, this site is unmodded, you will get ripped apart if you try to explain anything from the "Mails" point of view

 

Wow. That link worked.Guess I'm now a "Geek":D

 

"Apprentice Geek" perhaps

A fully qualified Geek would have done This :D

 

I dont believe in it, there are records dating back to the days of Samual Peep proving that temprtures have progresivly increased, long before all the suposedly damadging poluting habits we now have.

IMO the whole thing is overated and even if it is happening we will never solve it as the bigest poluters are the third world.

Simly another goverment propaganda tool and stealth tax.

 

Do you mean Samuel Pepys? If so, you are aware that they were burning fossil fuels like they were going out of fashion in Pepys's days? There was a constant black fug over London back then... so I'm not surprised that temperatures have been increasing since then.

 

As a scientist, I have no doubt that it is a genuine effect. You only have to look at the massive increase in carbon dioxide levels over the last 100 years to know that something is up. Certainly there have been natural changes in the past, but we also know that natural phenomena in the past have wiped out up to 80% of all living things - on several different occasions.

However I am also fed up with being told not to do this or that. To my mind there is only one cause and that is - world overpopulation. No one has the guts to say that, let alone do anything about it. There are many countries that are actively trying to increase their populations including Iran and China (yes they are now trying to increase it after years of trying to keep it down). What is the point in using long life lightbulbs if there are going to be 500 million more people over the next few years, and all the existing population wants a higher standard of living.

I am an optimist on most things, but a pessimist on this. I see global warming as similar to the financial crisis. I think a lot of people saw the crisis coming - the evidence was very clear for anyone who wanted to see it. But no-one had the guts to be a party pooper.

Incidently, I have no compunction about using peat. It will be under 20 foot of water, from rising sea levels caused by global warming, long before we have exhausted it

 

No Doogle. Given my total lack of knowledge of these "clever spanners", I promise you, in my eyes, that makes me a "geek":D:flag:. Peter, nice to meet a real scientist. What field? So you think that the evidence (supposedly) that says that the rise in CO2 in the atmosphere is out of sync. with the rise in temps. is flawed Call me what you like, I'll never call the mods.

 

Cajory, I did Physics. I have not studied climate change closely, but I respect those that have. The aspect that strikes me most strongly is the graph of carbon dioxide levels.

I know there is discussion about the time lag effect, and I don't know enough to comment. There is a lot that we don't know about the past and our theories are constantly being updated. However, what we do know, is that we are currently creating massive quantities of CO2 from man made sources, that CO2 levels are rising faster than at any other time in the last 600 million years, and we know that CO2 is a greenhouse gasse that will raise the global temperature. To me that is enough to be worried about.

The fact that temperature rises, occuring first, can cause higher levels of carbon dioxide at a later date is no consolation. We are seeing a similar effect now. Global warming is already causing the perma-frost in Russia to thaw, and that in turn is releasing more greenhouse gasses in the form of methane. The methane is the result of millions of years of slow decomposition of organic matter, but it was trapped by the ice. Now it is being released. A program on television showed that if you made a hole in the ice of many frozen Russian lakes, you could set the escaping methane alight.

My view is that if you drink heavily and also suffer chronic liver disease, its better to drink less than to try to prove that there is no connection between the two.