This could be the end.
 

http://science.monstersandcritics.co...t_of_no_return


If this is true, we are fucked. All of us. We are witnessing the end of the world, if it's true. What this means is the world in the next few centuries will go from the world we know to something more resembling the planet venus. This could be very bad. The only ray of hope is this is just this guys oppinion of the data. Other scientists don't believe we've passed the failsafe point. I pray they are correct. I think it's time we stopped bickering about the bullshit and actually get off our asses and save ourselves and our children, who may not even be born yet.

There is no such thing as an "Earth life-control system". I'm not worried.

No matter how many of these articles written by extremists I read, they never provide any facts. I want to know why we are past the point of no return. Because without anything to back this up, this is just another "humans are destroying the earth, sell your SUV" ad.

Our planet has climate cycles which are known to last decades, so even if this guy has data to show the contrary, his information has a high chance of being flawed.

Why even worry about it if there's nothing we can do about it, as this guy says?

The motive behind Lovelock's position might be to scare people into changing their habits. Bloodless eco-terrorism, some might call it. And that is a noble cause, but it just doesn't work.

Hopefully there will be new advances in rocket technology so that humans can escape the planet and colonize (read: infect) other planets. If the technology isn't developed, all our "eggs are in one basket" and whatever happens to earth-zero threatens everyone. If the species is spread out over many planets, extinction is less likely.

I get a kick out of these, which is why I suggest you check out sites like Exit Mundi if the whole rapid apocolyptic scenario thing tickles you. I know it tickles me, but it's also mostly bullshit. I mean, if it's too late, I think I don't care.

On the other hand, someone shouldn't brand all forms of environmentalism or conservation biology as an extremist case. Owning an SUV is, by and large, pointless and on a larger scale harms the environment.

That being said, even while there are climatic cycles that run for decades, centuries, or longer, there is sufficient scientific evidence to suggest climate changes occurring solely because of humans. The realm of speculation is when someone postulates that Hurricane Katrina was our fault. I doubt that, but that isn't to say human effects haven't started increasing the intensity or frequency of weather patterns (from a level 4 to level 5 hurricane, more hurricanes annually?). More specifically to global warming, it's more or less a carbon dioxide balance, and the logic is rather straightforward behind the problem. Carbon dioxide in a flexible balance, humanity's ability to crap out so much carbon dioxide we actually manage to start affecting this balance, climate changes.

But of course, no one should sell their SUVs, because as long as the effects aren't disasterous and horribly rapid, it means everything is perfectly fine (note, human ignorance). It should be noted there are more wasteful things happening than SUVs, but that doesn't make SUVs "right."

One thing I find interesting is how global warming really is affecting us. I know at least three places in the US alone that have started to get worried because the average climate during, example, winter, is declining.

On the end of the world: I actually think that mankind, given enough time and pressure, could prevent most doomsday-scenarios. Hell, if we can make breathable water, we can fuckin' anything.

PS: Pave the Earth!

Climate has changed, I'm not a scientist so i can't say it's global warming for sure, but most likely it has a hand in it, again I can't say how big it is. But examples of change i can tell you about. Maybe it's just a natural temperature cycle, but during my entire lifetime winters have gotten warmer even if they've started earlier, to the point of leaves freezing stuck to the trees before they fall, which I thought was really cool when I first saw it two years ago.

And maybe it's been hyped, but there's been a lot of heavy wind disasters, tornadoes and whatnot.

From my understanding the ecological point of no return isn't exactly that, its just that what it'll take to get us back to the climate we know & love may be gauged in thousands of years after a certain point. Of course, when we're talking about Global Warming we're talking guesswork for the most part.

I mean, its damn near impossible to quantify the whole global climate in any substantial way. But I'll simplify it as best I can... Certain gases released into the atmosphere break up the ozone, this is proven science, ozone keeps heat out. Furthermore, some of these gases keep the heat in, increasing the heat on the planet.

When we're talking about the point of no return, we're talking the point there isn't enough glacial mass to keep the tempratures consistent. Eg - the point where we've melted so much that it'll just keep melting no matter what we do.

Of course it's all guesswork, but it will likely be too late before its obviously too late. Pretending global warming isn't real doesn't help anyone, but unfortuantly I think lowering emissions is something of a losing battle. What we really need is people thinking of alternative methods of fixing things.

I mean, I don't see why it isn't technologicaly feasible to siphon off excess carbon monoxide from the atmosphere. Likewise, there has to be a way to introduce additional ozone to the upper atmosphere. We start moving down that line of reasoning, I see something of a solution.

SWB
- As for leaving the Earth, that's just not an option. I mean, where you going to go? There's nowhere else that can support life, you'll run out of supplies in short order & even *IF* we could terraform Mars, its unlikely to be any better than Earth for possibly as much as 1,000,000 years.

I just don't believe in Global Warming anymore.

Climate's change. The earth's weather is changing on it's own, with no real help from us, and it doesn't give a damn about us at all. If we can't adapt, we're fucked. Simple as that.

I personally think this guy's a quack.

May I ask who the hell thinks that we can kill the planet?

I mean, seriously, what a big ego we have. Kill this planet, which has survived eons without us? Hell, we've probably done much less damage than a massive asteroid strike. That would "kill" a planet, I guess.

Come to think of it, is it possible that the other planets were "killed" because of asteroid strikes? (Venus, Mars and such. Jupiter and Mercury and such are just plain impossible for life) If so, how'd Earth survive? I mean, we don't have good gravitational shield, just the moon...

Hmmm..