Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2007 7:21 pm Post subject: Re: Converging Catastrophes
I am reading Lovelock's Revenge of Gaia, and it makes Al Gore's take on Global Warming look mellow. He feels that we are on the verge of a tipping point that will send the world into a new hotter equilibrium that could turn the land into desert and the seas into sterile tropical oceans. This would not bode well for us humans.
I walked along a rocky shoreline here in Maine on Wednesday and saw huge white spruce trees that had absolutely no soil around their roots. They must have lived 100 years and thrived, but now the soil around their roots has washed into the sea. If that isn't proof of sea level rise, I don't know what is.
Joined: Apr 12, 2007 Posts: 1168 Location: Central NC
Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2007 7:35 pm Post subject: Re: Converging Catastrophes
Hey Revi,
I lived in Maine for 20 years. Moved to NC two years ago.
My understanding from friends in Maine is that lakes and ponds in midcoast Maine didn't freeze over until February this year, and did not freeze over at all the winter before.
A widely accepted theory for the permian extinction (95% of all species went extinct) is a two step process. First a volcanic eruption in Siberia covering thousands of km2 caused global warming of about 5C. That caused the oceans to warm thereby releasing resevoirs of frozen methyl hydrate below the ocean. As the gas bubbled upwards through the ocean water it killed off most marine species. Once in the atmosphere it as methane it caused an additional 5C of global warming, which toasted off the terrestial species.
Joined: Oct 23, 2004 Posts: 5891 Location: New Jersey
Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2007 8:26 pm Post subject: Re: Converging Catastrophes
billg wrote:
Quote:
"Surprisingly rapid changes" are occurring in Antarctica's Amundsen Sea Embayment, an ice drainage system that faces the southern Pacific Ocean, the experts said in a statement, adding that more study was needed to determine how fast it was melting and how much it could cause sea levels to rise.
I often wonder...what are we not being told? Obviously, evacuating all coastal areas around the world is not an option.
Bill
Quote:
"All of the ice on Earth contains enough water to raise sea level over 200 feet, with about 20 feet from Greenland and almost all of the rest from Antarctica,"
If they admit seas levels will be rising 200 feet, the US and other governments will be asked to do something about it - with huge and likely futile sea wall projects. _________________ It's already over, now it's just a matter of adjusting.
Joined: Aug 26, 2005 Posts: 1008 Location: "Mad as Hell !"
Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2007 8:44 pm Post subject: Re: Converging Catastrophes
DantesPeak wrote:
billg wrote:
Quote:
"Surprisingly rapid changes" are occurring in Antarctica's Amundsen Sea Embayment, an ice drainage system that faces the southern Pacific Ocean, the experts said in a statement, adding that more study was needed to determine how fast it was melting and how much it could cause sea levels to rise.
I often wonder...what are we not being told? Obviously, evacuating all coastal areas around the world is not an option.
Bill
Quote:
"All of the ice on Earth contains enough water to raise sea level over 200 feet, with about 20 feet from Greenland and almost all of the rest from Antarctica,"
If they admit seas levels will be rising 200 feet, the US and other governments will be asked to do something about it - with huge and likely futile sea wall projects.
This is exactly why there is no admission by the current administration. They figure the cost of doing something as an unacceptable burden for their short end game. Like the wars in the Middle East they hope to pass the problem over to the next office holders. Their agenda positions stay intact and the base is placated right up to the very end.
They may then only have to argue with history that they were aware of the problem and had done great things in trying to get the country to move along on CO2 reduction through energy independence. _________________ The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life.
... Theodore Roosevelt
Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 3:05 am Post subject: Re: Converging Catastrophes
Revi wrote:
I'll tell you a few of the good things happening around here. We have a re-invigorated farmer's market opening in our town with 14 vendors, a wood fired pizza oven, music and an environmental group every week until the end of October. I have begun to see the re-emergence of small farms with young people running them. The local food movement is thriving.
Good for you! Sound like you'll have a nice head start for the collapse phase.
I can relate to your feelings. News from the world are so depressing nowadays that I'm tempted to find comfort in the relatively good circumstances of my closest environment. _________________ "A devastating error is to set up a political system based on [individual] desire... the best dictatorship would be one where the government prevents any economical growth."
"Only scarcity and effort make life worth living."
-Pentti Linkola
It is hard to gauge the exact extent of the local devastation caused by climate change because severe flooding and catastrophic river erosion are part of every day life in rural Bangladesh. But the island of Aralia, in the Haor flood plain of north-east Bangladesh has, in the past 50 years, diminished to a fifth of its size, according to its older residents.
Very depressing _________________ Stocking up on popcorn
Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 4:57 pm Post subject: How does peak oil fit in with all the other looming issues?
So, I watched Inconvenient Truth last night -- looks like things are changing with our environment rapidly.
Water depletion.
Peak Cod.
And honey bees, of all things, are disappearing rather quickly.
Heck, Maui is running out of sand.
2 years ago I thought peak oil was the biggest threat to mankind, but I'm not so sure any more. _________________ "Tis easy enough to be pleasant,
When life flows along like a song;
But the man worth while
is the one who will smile
When everything goes dead wrong.
-- Ella Wheeler Wilcox
High tides are taking their toll in the US too. Here on the northshore of Boston we had the highest tides in 40 years last week due to astronomical conditions and a low pressure system. Massive erosion and sand displacement occurred. The waves were pounding over walls that contain the beaches.
I just hope we aren't paying to rebuild the Plum Islandpalooza. I think that all the houses that washed into the ocean here in Maine were too close. They need to rebuild at least 100 feet from the high water mark. Dunes move around, and should never be built on.
Joined: Mar 18, 2006 Posts: 1196 Location: Last outpost of Civilisation
Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2007 5:44 pm Post subject: Re: Converging Catastrophes
Revi wrote:
I just hope we aren't paying to rebuild the Plum Islandpalooza. I think that all the houses that washed into the ocean here in Maine were too close. They need to rebuild at least 100 feet from the high water mark. Dunes move around, and should never be built on.
I think a more practical step would be to stop burning fossil fuels and to plant more trees. Some of us have been saying that for a long time (sigh)...
JPL _________________ The three most beautiful things in the world -
a full-rigged ship, a woman with child and a full moon.
Joined: Sep 17, 2006 Posts: 633 Location: No man's land
Posted: Wed May 02, 2007 7:20 am Post subject: Re: Converging Catastrophes
Who cares about Peak Oil anymore!?!?
Quote:
Arctic ice cap melting 30 years ahead of forecast
Tue May 1, 2007 3:11PM EDT
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Arctic ice cap is melting much faster than expected and is now about 30 years ahead of predictions made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a U.S. ice expert said on Tuesday.
This means the ocean at the top of the world could be free or nearly free of summer ice by 2020, three decades sooner than the global panel's gloomiest forecast of 2050.
No ice on the Arctic Ocean during summer would be a major spur to global warming, said Ted Scambos, a glaciologist at the National Snow and Ice Center in Colorado.
"Right now ... the Arctic helps keep the Earth cool," Scambos said in a telephone interview. "Without that Arctic ice, or with much less of it, the Earth will warm much faster."
That is because the ice reflects light and heat; when it is gone, the much darker land or sea will absorb more light and heat, making it more difficult for the planet to cool down, even in winter, he said.
Scambos and co-authors of the study, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, used satellite data and visual confirmation of Arctic ice to reach their conclusions, a far different picture than that obtained from computer models used by the scientists of the intergovernmental panel.
"The IPCC report was very careful, very thorough and cautious, so they erred on the side of what would certainly occur as opposed to what might occur," Scambos said in a telephone interview.
Posted: Tue May 08, 2007 2:13 pm Post subject: Re: Converging Catastrophes
This virus in North America's Great Lakes, looks like a very nasty thing to say the least , article
Quote:
The disease does not threaten people; cooking kills the virus. But environmentalists fear that it is only a matter of time before one arrives that poses a danger to human health. "The lakes are vulnerable to any pathogen getting in here", says Jennifer Nalbone of the Great Lakes United conservation pressure group.
Scientists fear that the virus will spread throughout the continent's rivers and lakes. "Once a species has been introduced and establishes itself, it will continue to grow and spread, not only in the Great Lakes, but across the waterways of North America", says Professor David Lodge, the director of the Centre for Aquatic Conservation at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana.
And Dr James Winton, the chief of fish health at the US Geological Survey in Seattle - who calls VHS "the most important and dangerous fish virus known worldwide" - adds; "Its discovery in our freshwater is disturbing and potentially catastrophic."
Joined: Apr 09, 2007 Posts: 5856 Location: Alaska (its much bigger than Texas).
Posted: Wed May 16, 2007 11:41 am Post subject: Re: Converging Catastrophes
There was another great catastrophe mentioned in the new ECONOMIST.
The earth's magnetic field is decreasing in strength by a few percent per year, and may collapse. The magnetic field protects everything on earth from cosmic rays.
Mutation time is coming. Get ready for some new species to develop. _________________ "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." -- George Orwell
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