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Thread: Environmental Awareness *Go Green!!!*

  1. #31
    Join Date
    Oct 2004
    Location
    Northern California
    Posts
    3,182
    I disagree and agree to a certain point. Loss of habitat is an enormous concern. But our methods of destroying habitat are contributing to enviornmental health (or, rather, lack thereof) and the subsequent global warming. Slash and burn techniques in the Amazon kill innumerable animals and destroys precious habitat, yes. But it also produces acid rain and an even larger amount of CO2. Habitat destruction and global warming go hand in hand. In an effort to curb our CO2 output, we should also be aware of how we leave our footprints in the world.

    Indeed, the earth has been around for more than 100 years. But in the 100 or so years that we've been studying it, we've managed to look back in time at least 650,000 years in terms of ice ages and heat waves. While that is nothing compared to our actual time on the earth and the earth's age itself, it provides a good look at what normal activity is and isn't. What we're experiencing now is not normal by any means.

    Perhaps we are overdue for our next ice age, but human activity is certainly speeding it up. And should we completely ignore the signs, we might as well sign off now and continue living the trash-exorbitant lifestyle that we, as a whole, live now. The point is not to debate whether or not global warming is "real" or that it truly is happening. My point was to mention that these things are truly happening, and while they are nature driven to a certain point, we are speeding it up at an insane speed. Is that not digging our own graves? I read the article and I did not read that the antartic is "cancelling" out the overall sea level rise:
    Sea level is believed to be rising worldwide by 1.8 millimeters a year due to the expansion of warming water and the added outwash from melting glaciers in Greenland, Alaska, tropical highlands and elsewhere in Antarctica.
    The growth in the East Antarctic ice cap is enough to slow sea-level rise by a fraction of that — 0.12 millimeters a year — the researchers reported.
    If I did my math right, that's about 6.67%. That's not nearly enough to set back the effects of glacial melting. I'll need to get back to this as Christmas festivities are calling me, but I'll finish this later.

    Continuing on So we've come to the conclusion that 1) the earth has always had heat waves but there's no doubt that this heat wave is much prolonged and much more intense 2) habitat destruction is a definite problem and a large contributor to global warming 3) the enviornment is definitely in need of a little boost. So one thing is crystal clear: We as a whole community need to do something. This was the whole purpose of my initial post: to call PTers forward and urge them to make an impact in their community, and, hopefully, in the larger community - our earth and our world. It's commendable that you are so passionate about tropical forests and such as the destruction of these precious and diminishing habitats is a large contributor to global warming and the overall health of our earth and its inhabitants.

    While this, er, debate might seem troublesome, I think this is a fabulous learning experience. I hope PTers do read this and make some wholesome decisions for themselves. Plant a tree (lots of trees!!), buy local and organic, dump your old gas guzzler for a more efficient car, replace your lightbulbs, replace your old appliances with EnergyStars, walk dont drive, heck, you might even consider going veg! And fight to keep your local flora and fauna. Global warming requires global changes. Global changes start locally. Let's all start locally, PTers.
    Last edited by Giselle; 12-23-2006 at 11:49 PM.

  2. #32
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    At university in Hertfordshire, UK
    Posts
    4,944
    Quote Originally Posted by TamanduaGirl
    As for global warming well the ice caps are crumbling at the edges but they are getting thicker in depth so are really about the same mass as always. The oceans around the equator have actually gotten cooler. The air temp has gone up a bit but the earth has NEVER had a stable envornment. There have been many ice ages and hot dry times, it cycles and this we are living in now has been the longest in between there has been yet. Finlay all the other planets in our solar system have heated up to about the same amount in the same time frame so it could well be related and we certainly aren't responsible for them too.
    That's a good point. However, whether or not the ice-caps are increasing in depth and therefore staying on average at the same volume, the crumbling of the edges reduces the surface area of the ice-cap. In the Arctic, this harms the polar bear, as I'm sure someone mentioned before. The seals which it hunts do not have the relatively thin sea ice to make breathing holes in, the method that the polar bear relies on to catch them. The seals can just swim in the unfrozen water and the polar bear doesn't stand a chance of outswimming them.

    It's true, the oceans will and are getting cooler, due to the ice that is melting into them. I heard that Britain will get a lot cooler before we get hotter due to a current that runs between it and Ireland being affected by the melting ice.

    You do have a good point about the fact it may not all be down to us. For millions of years, Earth has plunged in and out of ice ages and heatwaves, so we can never expect that to change. But due to this unstability of our climate, we could really do without hurrying it up.

    I agree with Giselle, this certainly has been an interesting thread.

    Zimbabwe 07/13


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