Quote:
Originally Posted by Kusa-San
Oh yes about that, there is a scientist (Damon Matthews) who explains that with his new method it's really easy. You just need to multiply a single ratio by x and you obtains the Global Warming in Celcius.
Here the link (it's in french) :
http://www.futura-sciences.com/fr/ne...72/#xtor=RSS-8 |
I won't deny the correlation between CO2 concentration and global temperature, as shown by our isotopes and gaseous records.
But the thing is that this is not a one sided relation: warming can have a rise in CO2 as a consequence (hence the fears about "runaway greenhouse effect will transform our planet into another Venus", but we are far from that, as during the Mesozoic (dinosaur time), atmospheric CO2 was
way higher (the Sun was also a little dimmer but not that much)).
To put it short CO2 variations are a good marker of temperature variations, but (considering past records), there are some instances where warming is triggered by other factors, and
results in a rise of CO2.
Anyway I'll go read this Nature issue at my Faculty's library to check it.
Poll: I voted no, because:
-this is not "our" Earth: we are just one specie that has been inhabiting it for about 200000 years, and won't last much more.
-the Earth is not in any danger to be "saved" from: along with it's biosphere, it has withstood several crisis of considerably higher magnitude, and anyway geologic cycles don't bother with it.
Now if we were to survive and prosper for a longer period, with our technology progressing without major dark age, I'd vote yes to prevent anyone who would want to export the atmosphere and hydrosphere, or dismantle the whole Earth.
What we can at least try to preserve or adapt, are our environments, because we are closely depending on them to ensure our survival.
We won't be able to "save" them all in a fixed state, because they are inherently evolving, but we can reduce the damage and adapt our pressure on them.
Another point of the movie I haven't commented yet (a bit negative): it presents the pre-industrial age as a time when mankind was living in equilibrium with it's environment. But that's akin to a fairy tale, considering the extinction of the megafauna in all the continents colonised by mankind (apart of Africa where the fauna evolved along us), the fact that environments such as savanna are to some extent manmade, and all the ruins of defunct civilizations (well that as least was commented).