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Post by andrea1994barney on Apr 4, 2010 20:28:06 GMT -5
Ok, so I know this is a touchy topic with many of you, but that is why I am bringing it up. I have decided to make a section of my Youtube channel for discussions like Dan does (I like the Idea and I love to discuss thing and learn new things.) But I need your help, I will try once a week to post a new topic to discuss on Youtube and I will also post a Thread at this point I am just going to post a thread.
So the starting Topic is Global Warming. What are your opinions on Global Warming? Do you think it is a real concern? Or that it is even happening?
Don't just post your opinions but keep discussing it with each other.
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Post by jmejia1187 on Apr 4, 2010 22:28:50 GMT -5
It is a very simple issue. Look at peer reviewed journals. Peer reviewed journals are the the way science is done. They all agree.
English majors are taught to show both sides of the story, so they look for two sides when CNN and Fox and other news organizations report. We shouldn't listen to them. We should look at what science says. And by the way, the world is just warming in some parts. Other parts like New England will get cooler because the water from the polar ice caps are melting. So you should change the thread to global climate change.
But again, if you don't read peer reviewed journals, and see the scientists side, then you probably don't know what your trying to debunk (if you are against global climate change).
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Post by andrea1994barney on Apr 11, 2010 9:57:10 GMT -5
It is a very simple issue. Look at peer reviewed journals. Peer reviewed journals are the the way science is done. They all agree. English majors are taught to show both sides of the story, so they look for two sides when CNN and Fox and other news organizations report. We shouldn't listen to them. We should look at what science says. And by the way, the world is just warming in some parts. Other parts like New England will get cooler because the water from the polar ice caps are melting. So you should change the thread to global climate change. But again, if you don't read peer reviewed journals, and see the scientists side, then you probably don't know what your trying to debunk (if you are against global climate change). I know that Climate change is there but I honestly don't see it as a big issue. Well not as big of an issue as people are making it.
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Post by jmejia1187 on Apr 11, 2010 10:43:36 GMT -5
Well, when your kids ask you, what was a Polar Bear, then perhaps you can see what the issue is.
I suggest reading the following books: Under a Green Sky by Peter D Ward (PhD) An Inconvenient Truth AL Gore (also available in documentary form).
One of the big problems with climate change is the shift in climates locally. Before when the U.S. was mostly forests, if there were a change in climate, animals would just move north or south accordingly. Now that humans have fragmented the forests, animals can't migrate to adjust to the changing weather conditions.
We need biodiversity and life to survive. A threat to most life, is a threat to human life. It is like the rivet affect. One or two species dying is not so bad. But climate change is causing major shifts ecologically, which can eventually lead to collapse. The rivet effect is as follows (and is also commonly seen in a twilight zone episode of the monster on the planes wing). If your on a plane and one or two rivets pop off it isn't such a bad thing. But after a point, if you continue to remove the rivets, the wing will come off, which is a major disaster.
I am a biologist, and I have seen firsthand the effects of climate change. If your scientifically literate, I can offer some peer reviewed resources on the topic.
Thanks for continuing this discussion. I had forgotten all about it.
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Post by jmejia1187 on Apr 11, 2010 10:54:45 GMT -5
And it is a actually a BIGGER issue than people are making it. I am actually surprised work isn't being done faster to help prevent climate change. Every month dozens of papers are released in multiple scientific journals, speaking about the effects, causes, and most importantly, how we can reduce, the phenomena of climate change. en.scientificcommons.org/53484563epic.awi.de/epic/Main?static=yes&page=abstract&entry_dn=Chu2001aeebweb.arizona.edu/courses/Ecol206/Walther%20et%20al%20Nature%202002.pdfThese 3 papers are enough for us to worry about the problem. I choose these 3 peer reviewed papers as an example of the THOUSANDS of papers on climate change. The first two are on the inevitable rise in sea level, which is enough to bring NYC under water. The last one speaks of ecological changes scientists are currently measuring that are directly relating to climate change! There are many many more interesting papers where these came from, but most people can't read them because of statistical and scientific illiteracy. I mean, how many people really know what a p value is? Or a type I or type II error for that matter? Which is why I recommended the two books instead of scientific papers, in the previous post. HOWEVER, our primary source of information on climate change should be scientific publications from peer reviewed sources, and not the popular media. The popular media ias run by english majors and reporters who are often LOOKING for both sides of the issue. So they have the scientists who study climate change on one end, with climate change deniers on the other end. This is really bad because most scientists are in a consensus on the issue, although the media makes it seem as if there is a debate.
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Post by andrea1994barney on Apr 11, 2010 11:02:33 GMT -5
Well, when your kids ask you, what was a Polar Bear, then perhaps you can see what the issue is. I suggest reading the following books: Under a Green Sky by Peter D Ward (PhD) An Inconvenient Truth AL Gore (also available in documentary form). One of the big problems with climate change is the shift in climates locally. Before when the U.S. was mostly forests, if there were a change in climate, animals would just move north or south accordingly. Now that humans have fragmented the forests, animals can't migrate to adjust to the changing weather conditions. We need biodiversity and life to survive. A threat to most life, is a threat to human life. It is like the rivet affect. One or two species dying is not so bad. But climate change is causing major shifts ecologically, which can eventually lead to collapse. The rivet effect is as follows (and is also commonly seen in a twilight zone episode of the monster on the planes wing). If your on a plane and one or two rivets pop off it isn't such a bad thing. But after a point, if you continue to remove the rivets, the wing will come off, which is a major disaster. I am a biologist, and I have seen firsthand the effects of climate change. If your scientifically literate, I can offer some peer reviewed resources on the topic. Thanks for continuing this discussion. I had forgotten all about it. I actually have seen the Al Gore documentary unfortunately, big waste of time, but that documentary is one of the reasons I don't think it is a big issue. As Al Gore points out the CO2 levels go up like this every million years or whatever the ammount is and then an Ice Age happens, scientist have said we are a couple hundred thousand years past due for an Ice Age, so we have 2 problems and both can't be solved. We either died burning up or frozen. I'm pretty sure our excess CO2 and warming of parts of the Earth are keeping the Ice Age from happening. Anyways, yes dieing and extinction of animals is sad and shouldn't happen, it is going to, it happened to the dinosaurs.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 12, 2010 15:51:45 GMT -5
While it's true that climate changes occur naturally, it is a fact that they never happened so quickly. It's also the first time there's such a huge amount of CO2 in the air. Yes, CO2 levels have risen in the past, but never so dramatically of quickly..
I agree with jmjia. This should be a much bigger concern of every human being on this planet.
But, I think global warming is but a symptom of the bigger problem. That problem is humanity and the form it exists in at the moment. There are about 7 billion people on this planet at the moment and scientific research has come to the conclusion that that number will grow to about 12.5 to 15 billion people. Now this was a huge relief, because earlier scientists believed the number would grow to as much as 25 billion!
However, if you look at the amount of people this planet is able to accommodate, we're totally on the wrong track. (again) Scientific research pointed out that the MAXIMUM population of the Earth, in order to keep natural balance, is 2 BILLION. I KID YOU NOT! 2 Billion, a border which we have long crossed.
Critics posed the question "If we already crossed that border, then why aren't we all dead yet? If this planet can't support us, how come we can still live?" The answer is simple: We're eating away at the reserves stored since the beginning of this planet, 4.5 billion years ago. Now this is NOT something I looked up, but if I remember correctly from the article I read, we've already worked through half of these reserves in the past century. With the current rate of technological development, I think that poses a huge problem for the future on every possible aspect of our society. Going from food supplies over energy supplies to actual living space.
This is what we all need to realise and why we need to work together to change our society. Or humanity will die earlier than it should.
I probably forgot some stuff, so correct me if I missed somewhere.
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mooxim
Meteorite
[SKB:]
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Post by mooxim on Apr 13, 2010 9:22:14 GMT -5
English majors are taught to show both sides of the story, so they look for two sides when CNN and Fox and other news organizations report. Brilliantly summed up. This is a way of communicating it that school children should be able to understand very easily. I'll be using this when I teach about climate change. I think climate change is the biggest issue facing our world by far. If the worst case scenario comes true (our planet becomes uninhabitable) then all other campaigns, charities etc will have been in vain. I think that CrrackTheSkye is right though. If we do manage to survive the threat of climate change then there's still the problem of sustainability. The two are different problems which have very similar solutions. I'd love to get behind a pogotribe project which targets sustainability.
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Post by jmejia1187 on Apr 13, 2010 15:44:14 GMT -5
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Post by andrea1994barney on Apr 13, 2010 20:48:05 GMT -5
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 15, 2010 7:20:24 GMT -5
I think that CrrackTheSkye is right though. If we do manage to survive the threat of climate change then there's still the problem of sustainability. The two are different problems which have very similar solutions. I'd love to get behind a pogotribe project which targets sustainability. So would I, but I have no idea what to be honest..
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