: It was our beloved Physicist with Space Science, Dr. Deathy, Farinata, and yourself that proselytised the coming doom of "Global Warming" and that we were going to bake ourselves to death in 50 years time.I think you're talking about me, Robert.
At no point have I ever said that we would bake ourselves to death within 50 years. It would be foolish and unfounded.
What I have said is that our current rate of environmental destruction and contamination is possibly likely to result in the collapse of our present order within the next 50 years; it is likely that this would be accompanied by a large death toll, but it is by no means the end of humanity; merely the end of the world as we know it.
(Which is no more or less shocking to say that the world and human society changed on 05:29:45 on Monday July the 16th 1945. Human society undergoes these monumental changes and generally settles down to live with the new order.)
As for "coming doom"; don't be so complacent; (human-induced) global warming is here and has been for the last twenty years; it's just that we are reaching the stage where it becomes noticeable.
Typical expected symptoms include an increase in "extreme" weather conditions; the normal variations like El Ninő becoming more severe; ocean currents like the Gulf Stream and the Humboldt Current shifting and an increase in violent storms and tornadoes (in areas like the Midwest).
There's also recent material on heat loss in the stratosphere (the part of the atmosphere above the troposphere); unusually high heat loss has been observed over the last 5 years in the stratosphere; current trends indicate a stratospheric cooling of 8-10 degrees C by the year 2020 (according to Drew Shindell of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS)). This effect is due to greenhouse gases in the troposphere (our level of the atmosphere) acting as insulation and preventing the normal heat flow up through the atmosphere.
What does this mean?
In practical terms, a doubling in the rate of ozone loss; CFC levels in the atmosphere are still rising and their ozone-destroying action is related to temperature; it is quite likely that an ozone hole bigger than the one in Antarctica will develop over the US and Canada and Northern Europe.
I'm not mentioning this to scare you; there's sod all (nothing) you can really do to prevent it, so you might just as well invest in sunblock.
It will make no difference whether you're afraid or not; and you're more likely to approach rationality if you are not fearful. I'm using it as yet more evidence that the Greenhouse effect exists. You can find the article from which I got those conclusions at New Scientist.
: It was the same bunch that told us that the Y2K was going to start a nuclear exchange between Russia and America.
Again; it has been mentioned as a possibility. Nothing more. However, it's something that the US and Russian governments have taken seriously enough to sign an accord to make sure this doesn't happen; except that the Russians are refusing to sign the accord in protest at the US's actions in Kosova.
: It is the same bunch that wound everyone up about the population "time bomb", nuclear "nightmares", and all sorts of other fear mongering.
Funnily enough, all of the above are reasonable things to be concerned about; there is direct evidence of their possibility. As such they're not "fear mongering".
If evidence of "fear mongering" you seek, look at the doctrine of Hell. What power would the threat of Hell have, were it not for fear?
: To which, my reply has always been: What Hogwash!
Uh-huh. You never seem to provide any solid evidence, though, leaving your claims somewhat flimsy.
: *(Folks, now watch and notice how my arguments are always based in actual fact, and my acedemic opposition's arguments are always based in "modeling", "estimating", "suggesting", "Armegedon could be 50 years away", etc. type strategies.)
Well, yes, we deal with the physical world. The physical world is fuzzy and imprecise. That doesn't mean we can't make fairly accurate guesses. Apollo 8 flew to the Moon on Newton's theories; those "approximations" got a spaceship a hundred thousand kilometres to the Moon only 8 seconds late...
An estimate is not necessarily imprecise.
: Now, when your Green leaders are IN ACTUAL FACT exploding depleted uranium over Europe, spilling chemicals and petroleum into her rivers, leaking poisons directly into the atmosphere, and on, and on, and on, unt do weiter... What is your response?
Firstly; I don't have Green "leaders". I'm an anarchist. Robert; you're a Christian - does that make you a Catholic?
Secondly; I've been against the bombing from the start, as can be seen by the post I made to this board on the 25th of March which can be found here; one of my major objections was that;
"The Serb army and police force now have a carte blanche to do whatever they want, since a de facto state of war exists; and as such, the Albanians have gone from potential guerillas to outright targets."
How many Kosovars have died or been "ethnically cleansed" since I wrote that, 5 weeks ago?
(I can understand Lark's POV; but, as a pacifist, I feel that the only true solution to this problem is peaceful.)
Thirdly, it's "und so weiter" (joke!)
: Defend them to the hilt. No questions asked. Even after they, in lock-step, pleaded with us how "necessary" it was to sign the Kyoto Treaty.
See my above comments; I've not defended NATO's actions. Nor has SDF or Red Deathy. So saying that we support the bombing is blatant misrepresentation.
: Do you all now suffer from environmental schizophrenia?
Nah. We live on Planet Earth.
And I think the best question I can reply is;
Why can't you get your head out of your arse for once and actually try to debate, rather than just parroting your Master's doctrine and rubbishing any opinion that doesn't agree with yours?
Gideon.
None.
