Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Heading for catastrophe?

This from The Guardian is well worth a read.

As usual it has brought the diametrically opposed views out of the cupboard; there are some quite astonishing posts in the comments already.

"Our biggest problem is not global warming but over-population. Our ranks need thinning out a little, and judging by some of the posts here on this supposedly 'intellectual' forum, that may not be such a bad thing."

I particularly like the walking blindfolded towards the edge of a cliff analogy from one poster.

"We, the entire planet, need to start emitting less carbon. Whether global warming is happening now, whether it's happening because of our CO2 is debateable. But the fact remains that AT SOME POINT, the carbon emitted will become a problem. We know the absolute top limit points of that -- it's in tens thousands of ppm, but it is there. And that's the point at which human breathing will become a problem (because your lungs won't be able to diffuse CO2 out of your blood). Long before then we **WILL** cause climate change. The only contention here is whether we're already starting to or not. It's like standing blindfolded before a cliff and arguing about how many more paces we can take forwards; some people think we're right on the edge, some people think we can walk for a bit. But there IS a cliff there."

1 comment:

Emma said...

'As usual it has brought the diametrically opposed views out of the cupboard; there are some quite astonishing posts in the comments already.'

Oh, no there are not!

Oh yes there are... you ist/denier/zi...

Which is why such original posts, and the subsequent self-absorbed comments they attract on CiF are hardly any longer worth engaging with.

Pity. There is still some good stuff in there if you sift the dross, but boy, the effort it takes.

I just hope none of them think most take much that happens there too seriously any more.

You do like your analogies!

We've had the plane full of aero engineers and we've had the pier (I think it's a manmade version of cliff, though).

I'm agreeing, mind. Only not with this lot and how they are going about it... via hot air.