Nicker on 26/3/2015 at 08:59
Quote Posted by bjack
Well, those were due to hunting. The wholesale extinction of most everything is what they were getting at. I also loved Carlin's hypothesis that the Earth created Man because it wanted plastic. :D
Were? This is an ongoing event, accelerating with human population pressure, wholesale destruction of habitat and exploitation of food stocks, especially in the oceans.
Some propose we are now in the Anthropocene Era with its own eponymous extinction event. We aren't just causing species extinction but entire genera, possibly families. We are changing the fundamental chemistry of the planet.
People can piss and moan about whether CO2 is the cause and whether people are responsible for the CO2 but what about the other few thousand contaminants we are pumping into the ecosphere. It's like bitching about the wallpaper while the fucking house is burning down.
bjack on 26/3/2015 at 17:02
Quote Posted by Nicker
Were? This is an ongoing event, accelerating with human population pressure, wholesale destruction of habitat and exploitation of food stocks, especially in the oceans.
Some propose we are now in the Anthropocene Era with its own eponymous extinction event. We aren't just causing species extinction but entire genera, possibly families. We are changing the fundamental chemistry of the planet.
People can piss and moan about whether CO2 is the cause and whether people are responsible for the CO2 but what about the other few thousand contaminants we are pumping into the ecosphere. It's like bitching about the wallpaper while the fucking house is burning down.
I am with you on your last point. My "were" is in reference to the few animals shown in the Wikipedia post, not the entire event. Don't worry though. We are well due for a plague of some sort to wipe out at least 1/2 the world's human population. My bets it will come from No. Korea or maybe ISIS. I hope not to be around here when it happens. Trust in government will die. Only brute force will remain. Sort of a Walking Dead without the zombies.
faetal on 27/3/2015 at 09:50
Wow.
heywood on 27/3/2015 at 16:02
I don't know about plagues. I'm more worried about population growth combined with agriculture consuming resources at an unsustainable rate, such as the depletion of undergound aquifers. I think it's likely the next real world war will probably be over food in the mid-late 21st century.
bjack on 27/3/2015 at 16:02
Yep faetal, that is what I fear will happen, but it probably will not.
The big fear used to be "the bomb", that big nasty out get get us all. I also grew up with Planet of the Apes, The Omega Man, Erwin Allen disaster flicks, The Andromeda Strain, etc. Later is was Steven King stories like The Stand. We had to duck and cover. Red China was out to get us. All of South East Asia was going commie. Hippies would kidnap us and force us to take LSD. Lots of doom and gloom.
Somehow though we rode bike without knee pads and helmets. We had diving boards on pools. We were allowed to walk to school. And speak of school, they would suspend any kids that did not get vaccinated. In 7th grade, I had to skip a day because my mother could not find the record of a booster shot. We had to show "our papers" to stay in class. It was a very different time.
But I do think society, at least in the USA, will break apart in a long term disaster. It does well with short term events, mostly because there is an outside to help. When there is no outside help, I think the people will turn on each other like rats. This feeling is shared by many. It is why apocalyptic shows are so popular. I sincerely hope this never happens though. If it does and I survive somehow, I will be one of the people trying to help. At least I like to think I will be. :D It depends on what the circumstances will be. I hope it will not be some survivalist's worst nightmare.
Tony_Tarantula on 5/4/2015 at 15:29
Quote Posted by heywood
faetal - I understand your point about efficiency gained by using GMOs helping to mitigate a global food shortage.
He's also greatly overstating the benefits. On average GMO crops do NOT have a higher yield than conventionally farmed crops, while also leading to massively increased pesticide/herbicide use.....with devastating consequences for the environment.
The mistake that both faetal and a couple of other people on here are making is by assuming that people who work in "science" care about science and advancing humanity for it's own sake. From my (brief) experience working with people in the industry let me tell you that this is absolutely not the case. For the people who run the companies "science" is little more than the R&D line item on a 10-k statement, and they don't give a rat's ass about the science other than how it effects their EPS(Earnings per share) and EBIDTA(Earnings Before interest, depreciation, taxation, and amortization). You can guess how much they care about the integrity of science.
There's a reason why most disruptive innovations come from small, unknown companies and not large ones who specialize in "settled science".
RE, Global warming, i found an old column that's sure to get you all steamed:
From the guy who founded what is widely known (if rarely acknowledged as) the best economic analytical and forecasting firm in the business...
You may be familiar with him if you've seen the documentary "The Forecaster"
Quote:
I attended the dinner in Washington that was a political bash. I went with my friend Dick Fox who was Chairman of Temple University at that time. The person in charge of seating put the two of us at the table with the environmental group heads. They assumed we were with a university and spoke freely.
The conversation was frank and it was all about how to use the environmental movement to reduce population. They fought for wetlands to stop construction. We listened to this revelation and Dick egged them on pretending to be on their side.
They even want harsh prison terms for minorities to stop them from have children. Dick finally asked them - Whose grandchild are you trying to prevent from being born? Your's or mine? The farce was then up.
There is a difference from wanting a clean environment and using this as a tool for a hidden agenda. It is no different from taxing the rich that ends up as always the middle class while they borrow from the poor and do not even pay them interest with their annual tax refund.
Overall he's critical of "global warming" with his argument being that the "science" doesn't incorporate data over a large enough timeline and is the equivalent of drawing conclusions about the health of a forest by examining a single tree.
Quote:
I have reviewed the cyclical discoveries of Sallie Baliunas. Ice core samples were taken going back thousands of years and what was discovered is that the sun is indeed a thermal dynamic system that beats like your heart and there is a 300 year cycle between maximum and minimum.
Do not confuse short-term trends or local observations for a few decades and assume we have altered the entire planet.(
http://armstrongeconomics.com/2014/02/13/global-warming-why-it-is-nonsense/)
bjack on 5/4/2015 at 19:09
Careful Tony... Don't try to confront dogma with reason. :)
bassoferrol on 5/4/2015 at 20:20
Obamacare requires every insurance plan to offer mammograms (for free, no less)
It's been for free here for many years. My mother is still alive and kicking thankfully because of that socialist measure.
Welcome to the first world, U.S.A.
