[TrashMan]

right...those who want to discuss about it, come in here and don't post in other threads (anti-grav especially).
yes, the topics might be connected to some extent, but it seems people have been straying too far..
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I'm..what? 23....24 years old. Not much of a life experience, but I do wathc documentary and science shows extensivly and rea lot of books, so i  consider myself ell informed on some subjects.

Tehre is no doubt man is causing MASSIVE damage to the planet even as we speak.
Hell I myself in this odd 20 years have experienced climate changes were I live... my old man and otehr older people see it too.

And planet-wide changes are more than noticable.
comparing data for floods, tsunamis, earthquakes, droughtrs, agarage rain falls, etc.. duting the last 50 years gives a clear warrning - earth is getting f***.

The hurricanes that hit Florida - their intensity and appearnce is increasing. The same for floods and droughts trought the world.

Polluting th water is another big problem. Of all earth waters, only 2% is rivers/lakes.. or in other words drinkable.
Of those, over 50% are polluted..and the number is growing.
Water will be more precious than oil in the near future..unless we do something...

As for oil - it's allmost gone. Estimates are we'll have enough for hte next 30 or so years...and prices will be getting higher and higher.
Not to mention that pumping oil leaves vast subterranin caverns, and when they cave in - earthquake..

I can continue this for days, but I think this is enought to think about for starters.

[Flipside]

Well, I'm not certain we are damaging it as such, but we are certainly helping accelerate the cycle of change.

What we need to remember is that Dinosaurs would not survive today, not because of hunting or huge inter-spacial comets, but because the air is different in composition, they would choke to death.

The weather problems etc are a side effect really, not the problem, the problem is that the composition of the upper atmosphere is in flux, and we are pouring loads of chemicals into it.

It's been suggested that, when the Earths magnetic poles flip, which they are due to do pretty soon, it makes a massive alteration to the flow of ionised particles around the planet. Our UV protection level will be around equivalent to that of the outback, and with the change of particle flow on the upper atmosphere, it's going to have pretty large effects on weather as well.

The pollution of water supplies is indeed a very serious issue, and what makes it worse is that much of this dumping of toxic material is ok, with a nod and a wink, by the government, and this is in a large number of countries.

[karajorma]

They've pretty much proved that atmospheric pollution can clause global dimming.

 There's no need for fancy climate models or anything of the sort. 100 years of logging the results of evaporation from a pan of water conclusively proves that man can have a definate effect on the climate.

[Black Wolf]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4391835.stm

Read.

[TrashMan]

Good find BW..

It's not the question if climate changes would happen on their own. They would in a million years or so - Earth is prone to change. But we are insanely acceletaring that process and causing more damage than a simple climate change.


PLANET UNDER PRESSURE
60% of world ecosystem services have been degraded
Of 24 evaluated ecosystems, 15 are being damaged
About 20% of corals were lost in just 20 years; 20% degraded
Nutrient pollution has led to eutrophication of waters and coastal dead zones
Species extinction is now 100-1,000 times above the normal background rate

[Flipside]

While I'm not arguing the point that Mankind is damaging the Ecosystems, indeed, I'm a very strong believer that we have very little, if any time to avoid a chain of events that will lead, quite literally, to billions of deaths, imagine an ecological Wall Street Crash.

What we need to be careful of is using our own idea of how nature and the ecology works and saying 'Thus it is so'.

Look at any creature which has overbred, be it the overly prolific Dinosaurs, which speculation suggests were already fading off due to a multitude of things, including over-hunting, as well as the Asteroid hit; to the Rabbits (or a host of other creatures) in Australia. It unbalances and damages the Ecosystem. But the Earth is not sentient, it reacts only to the stimuli applied to it. Admittedly, the Rabbit problem was man-made, but you know what I mean

We aren't as such destroying the Ecosystem, but we are forcing the Ecosystem into a position where it may have to redefine itself, and there may well be no room for Humans in that definition.

Clean Water is a good example, if a creature that eats ants becomes so prolific that there are practically no ants left, and that creature either adapts or dies. It is humanities arrogance that makes us believe that we are not a product of Nature, but a goal of it.

[aldo_14]

We don't have the power to destroy the world....but we can destroy ourselves.

and soforth.