Happy Eartha Day!

[Coffee Diva]

http://www.earthakittfanclub.com/art/photos/rdgry.gif



Now if you'll excuse me, I have some littering to do.

[Hudson]

I am all for saving the Earf, but one question has been nagging me for about a year after a Vegan/Tree Hugger told me that Cows are producing Methane in their flatulance, which in turn, is causing a hole in the Ozone:
Wouldn't the entire race of humans, (how many?) just by sheer numbers outproduce the methane produced by cows??

[BravoSierra]

Hudson, I've heard that too from my vegetarian hippie roommate. It doesn't make sense to me but who knows. Here's a question that's been bugging the shit out of me FOR YEARS. Haven't really researched for an answer, just been trying to logically explain it to myself.

So, if water expands when it freezes, why would ocean levels rise when/if the ice caps melt? Wouldn't the water level go down? I'm probably just retarded but will someone explain it to me on this fine, fine earth day?

[Hudson]

Hudson, I've heard that too from my vegetarian hippie roommate. It doesn't make sense to me but who knows. Here's a question that's been bugging the shit out of me FOR YEARS. Haven't really researched for an answer, just been trying to logically explain it to myself.

So, if water expands when it freezes, why would ocean levels rise when/if the ice caps melt? Wouldn't the water level go down? I'm probably just retarded but will someone explain it to me on this fine, fine earth day?
Just to Piggy- back your question...Are the ice caps salinated or fresh water? If they are melting so rapidly, wouldnt there be an effect on a massive scale due to overly salinated or underly salinated water?

[BravoSierra]

Just to Piggy- back your question...Are the ice caps salinated or fresh water? If they are melting so rapidly, wouldnt there be an effect on a massive scale due to overly salinated or underly salinated water?

Wow, I just thought of something from this. If we pour salt on ice to melt it, why doesn't the ocean itself melt the ice? Like, if the ice caps are fresh water, how the fuck did fresh water get there? If it's kind of a salty ice, why doesn't the salt melt it? Man, the ice caps are fucked up.

[Coffee Diva]

I just want to know why I'm supposed to give a shit about "global warming" in the first place. Even if it's true, who cares? I'll be dead before it causes any real problems. Let my kids worry about it.

[DeltaPin]

I am all for saving the Earf, but one question has been nagging me for about a year after a Vegan/Tree Hugger told me that Cows are producing Methane in their flatulance, which in turn, is causing a hole in the Ozone:
Wouldn't the entire race of humans, (how many?) just by sheer numbers outproduce the methane produced by cows??

Hell, the way it's going today, I'm outproducing the methane produced by all the cows.

[nevnut]

Hell, the way it's going today, I'm outproducing the methane produced by all the cows.

I'm sure glad I'm not your room-mate:tounge:

[B54]

I just want to know why I'm supposed to give a shit about "global warming" in the first place. Even if it's true, who cares? I'll be dead before it causes any real problems. Let my kids worry about it.

My exact attitude towards it. I don't live in a Gulf state, who cares if hurricanes pound FL, AL, MS, and LA? The world is overpopulated anyways, plus, the South has a ton of blacks. If people do not like it, they could move to the North or Mid-West. I can't believe they are re-building New Orleans. In case anyone forgot, it is Hurricane Season once again. New Orleans is going to get hit again by a hurricane, maybe by one with a higher power than Katrina, and at this point, they would be in trouble with a Catagory 1 hitting them.

And to the global warming, I am still not 100% convinced that it is a negative. Why don't we just adjust to it instead of trying to stop it when we obviously can't.

The Kyoto Protocol provided no help, the US did not sign it and it is the largest producer of emissions. Under the Kyoto Protocol, the United States would have agreed to cut greenhouse emissions by about 400 million tons per year by 2012; in the same period, Chinese emissions are expected to rise almost 2 billion tons annually. Today the world net output of artificial carbon dioxide, the chief greenhouse gas, is about 6 billion tons annually. Even with the Kyoto Protocol, global emissions by 2015 will rise to perhaps 9 billion tons, 50 percent higher than today's level. Such nearly-inevitable carbon buildup ought to tell us is that if greenhouse theory is right, a warming world is now unavoidable: at least through the next generation, until a renewable-fuels energy economy can be created.

Plus, why not look at the positives of global warming, why does everyone have to be so negative towards it? Plants form the basis of the biosphere. By means of photosynthesis, they use solar energy to convert water, nutrients, and carbon dioxide into usable biomass. Plant growth may be limited by a number of factors, including soil fertility, water, temperature, and carbon dioxide concentration. Lack of carbon dioxide can induce photorespiration, which can destroy existing sugars. Thus, an increase in temperature and atmospheric carbon dioxide can stimulate plant growth in places where these are the limiting factors. IPCC models predict that higher carbon dioxide concentrations would only spur growth of flora up to a point however, because in many regions the limiting factors are water or nutrients, not temperature or carbon dioxide. Despite the limiting factor of water, an increase in carbon dioxide concentration has the direct effect of increasing the transpiration efficiency of most plants so that they actually produce more net biomass per unit of water used by the plant. Satellite data shows that the productivity of the northern hemisphere has indeed increased from 1982 to 1991. However, more recent studies,found that from 1991 to 2002, wide-spread droughts had actually caused a decrease in summer photosynthesis in the mid and high latitudes of the northern hemisphere. Moreover, an increase in the total amount of biomass produced is not necessarily all good, since biodiversity can still decrease even though a smaller number of species are flourishing. Also, melting Arctic ice may open the Northwest Passage in summer, which would cut 5,000 nautical miles from shipping routes between Europe and Asia. This would be of particular relevance for supertankers which are too big to fit through the Panama Canal and currently have to go around the tip of South America. According to the Canadian Ice Service, the amount of ice in Canada's eastern Arctic Archipelago decreased by 15 percent between 1969 and 2004.

Also, who is to 100% say it is occuring? The warming is within the range of natural variation, the warming is a consequence of coming out of a prior cool period — the Little Ice Age, the warming trend itself has not been clearly established, and the warming is a result of variances in solar irradiance.

[nevnut]

I just want to know why I'm supposed to give a shit about "global warming" in the first place. Even if it's true, who cares? I'll be dead before it causes any real problems. Let my kids worry about it.

IMO Global warming is just some thing all the tree-hugging liberals bitch about. It's prabably just a natural cycle the earth goes thru. In 50,000 years if any one survives the global warming or whatever, they'll be bitching about the ice age!!:fight6:

[abudabit]

If we reused our condoms we could reduce rubber consumption by .1%!

Toilet paper - after you wipe with one side, fold it up and wipe again. Don't use two pieces.

Fetuses make wonderful mulch.

If we work together, we can save this planet.

[The Lurker]

I am all for saving the Earf, but one question has been nagging me for about a year after a Vegan/Tree Hugger told me that Cows are producing Methane in their flatulance, which in turn, is causing a hole in the Ozone:


All the more reason to eat steaks by the truckload.

[crescentwrench]

Cattle produce half a pound of methane a day, way way more than people. Those 4 stomached behemoths digest different so they make more.

And if a hippy tells you that methane is killing the ozone layer then punch him in his soft vegan teeth. Methane does nothing to the ozone layer, it's a greenhouse gas. I know it's a who cares type fact but if someone claims to care enough to give you a lecture on it and can't even get this simple fact right then he has no business getting on his soapbox.

[Kyle]

I just want to know why I'm supposed to give a shit about "global warming" in the first place. Even if it's true, who cares? I'll be dead before it causes any real problems. Let my kids worry about it.

The whole point is that you're suppose to care about your kids.

[Coffee Diva]

The whole point is that you're suppose to care about your kids.

Why should I care about something that doesn't exist?

Besides, beylorussian54 is right. Even assuming that the most nightmarish scenarios of the environuts are correct (and I don't, not even slightly), there is nothing we can do about it except learn to adapt. We could cut our carbon emissions to zero right now and the effect would be barely measurable. Kyoto is feel-good bullshit.

The way I would care about my kids, if I had any, would be by ensuring that I bequeath them a giant house with the best goddamn central air conditioning system money can buy and round-the-clock security. Teaching them to be reactionary idiots, living in constant fear of tomorrow because we're all doomed anyway, does not constitute "caring" in my book.

[Kyle]

Why should I care about something that doesn't exist?

Besides, beylorussian54 is right. Even assuming that the most nightmarish scenarios of the environuts are correct (and I don't, not even slightly), there is nothing we can do about it except learn to adapt. We could cut our carbon emissions to zero right now and the effect would be barely measurable. Kyoto is feel-good bullshit.

The way I would care about my kids, if I had any, would be by ensuring that I bequeath them a giant house with the best goddamn central air conditioning system money can buy and round-the-clock security. Teaching them to be reactionary idiots, living in constant fear of tomorrow because we're all doomed anyway, does not constitute "caring" in my book.

There's no real scientists that dispute at this point. There's a lot of "scientists" fueled by oil company "studies" that dispute it. But we could debate that endlessly...you either believe it or your don't.

You're right about Kyoto, it's a bullshit treaty. But because that's a failure doesn't mean this country shouldn't be taking measures on it's own to figure out the problem.

You have to remember, the problem isn't necessarily the Earth slightly warming up...it's all the potential instability in the environment it can cause. Rising ocean levels that will fuck up seaboard cities, more powerful and destructive storms, and climate change and extinction of tons of animals.

But if you can't be motivated by trying to do something good related to humanity, be motivated by pure simple greed.

Fossil Fuels cause greenhouse problems. Gas is fucking expensive and it will not get cheaper (not to mention the whole Middle East bullshit network that we have to maintain to get affordable gas). Maybe it's time to start looking at people who are in favor of renewable, alternative energies. Save money and if it helps the planet in the long run, hey a nice side effect.

[B54]

You have to remember, the problem isn't necessarily the Earth slightly warming up...it's all the potential instability in the environment it can cause. Rising ocean levels that will fuck up seaboard cities, more powerful and destructive storms, and climate change and extinction of tons of animals.

But if you can't be motivated by trying to do something good related to humanity, be motivated by pure simple greed.

Fossil Fuels cause greenhouse problems. Gas is fucking expensive and it will not get cheaper (not to mention the whole Middle East bullshit network that we have to maintain to get affordable gas). Maybe it's time to start looking at people who are in favor of renewable, alternative energies. Save money and if it helps the planet in the long run, hey a nice side effect.

Wow, you have given into popular belief, watched "The Day After Tommorrow" one time to many I suppose. :icon_lol:

Who cares about animals anyway? We are the superior beings, anyone who puts an animals thought before a humans is a fool. Gas prices rising have nothing to do with the Middle East, don't be a tool and believe that for one second. I do, however, agree with you one one point, we do need to look a little bit further into alternative energy, even though we are doing very well at the moment. E85 Ethanol is coming along and a few new models now use it. However, that will not save us money. E85 will be more expensive in comparison to crude oil. As of 2005, E85 is frequently sold for up to 36% lower cost per quantity than gasoline. Much of this discount can be attributed to various government subsidies, and, at least in the United States, the elimination of state taxes that typically apply to gasoline and can amount to 47 cents, or more, per gallon of fuel. The US federal tax exemption that keeps ethanol economically competitive with petroleum fuel products is due to expire in 2007, but this exemption may be extended through legislative action. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the price of E85 rose to nearly on par with the cost of 87 octane gasoline in many states in the United States, and was for a short time the only fuel available when gasoline was sold out, but within four weeks of Katrina, the price of E85 had fallen once more to a 20% to 35% lower cost than 87 octane gasoline. The point is, if there would be a massive demand for this resource, we would be in big trouble, there is not enough corn to power every automoblie in the world.

[WaddleDoodle]

We were trying to discuss this in German class (don't ask) when I said that I had seen studies on both sides of the issue. My German professor got a murderous look in her eye, and started to lay into me for a good 10 minutes. I couldn't get a word in edgewise. Nice old German lady otherwise, but the Germans are notorious for their Green leanings, and this was just a sample of it.