Climate Change

[RZ1029]

On a relevant note, something that's a very serious environmental issue that also pertains to climate change:

 

Due in part to its widespread use in industry, Dihydrogen Monoxide (DHMO) is involved in many environmental incidents each year. While most are unavoidable given current technology, there can be little doubt that the presence of DHMO in each significantly increases the negative impact to the environment.

 

Among the many commonly-sited DHMO-related environmental impacts are:

 

DHMO contributes to global warming and the "Greenhouse Effect", and is one of the so-called "greenhouse gasses."

 

DHMO is an "enabling component" of acid rain -- in the absence of sufficient quantities of DHMO, acid rain is not a problem.

 

DHMO is a causative agent in most instances of soil erosion -- sufficiently high levels of DHMO exacerbate the negative effects of soil erosion.

 

DHMO is present in high levels nearly every creek, stream, pond, river, lake and reservoir in the U.S. and around the world.

 

Measurable levels of DHMO have been verified in ice samples taken from both the Arctic and Antarctic ice caps.

 

Recent massive DHMO exposures have lead to the loss of life and destruction of property in California, the Mid-West, the Philippines, and a number of islands in the Caribbean, to name just a few.

Research has shown that significant levels of DHMO were found in the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 which killed 230,000 in Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and elsewhere, making it the deadliest tsunami in recorded history.

It is widely believed that the levee failures, flooding and the widespread destruction resulting from Hurricane Katrina along the U.S. Gulf Coast in 2005 were caused or exacerbated by excessive DHMO levels found in the Gulf of Mexico, along with other contributing factors.

 

I'm with you on this one HeyYou, we clearly should start raising aware about the dangers of Dihydrogen Monoxide...

 

For those of you who are chemically challenged, DHMO is better known as water. DHMO.org. Because people are gullible.

Edited June 15, 2011 by RZ1029

[Ghogiel]

It's not 1 thing. It is all the things working together into a single system. And it all compounds each other. The cycle spirals around in loop and is self perpetuating.

 

Strictly speaking CO2 is a long term green house gas. Water vaper lasts until it rains.

Edited June 16, 2011 by Ghogiel

[csgators]

One of the very few things we really know about our climate is that it changes.

[Skevitj]

Don'tcha just love out of context info like that? I remember back to first year science when I managed to convince some fool that DHMO and DMSO were two different acronyms for the same thing, shoulda seen the look the the profs face when a student handed in a report on the dangers of DHMO.

 

On a serious note though, as Ghogiel said atmospheric CO2 has a long half life meaning it's per unit effect is mush larger and unlike CO2, atmospheric H2O has a low condensation point, ie it dumps itself out if it gets too high meaning it's contribution will remain pretty much static (ignoring temperature variations). It's not like we could ever hope to control evaporation anyway, hmmm... Would've been a perfect time to make a Moses joke along the lines of God only managing to part a river, oh well.

[BlackBaron2]

I'm undecided.

 

However, I definitely think that waste and overpopulation are bad things. The world's resources are not infinite and there is just not going to be enough space for everyone if the population keeps growing exponentially. It would be a helluva lot better if we'd stop looking for ways to kill each other, and go take our modern science to places that need it so we don't have more poor people with huge families and every member of them sick.

[Sync182]

^ This.

 

Do I deny our climate is changing (if only ever so slightly)? No.

 

Do I disagree with what some people are telling us about it? Yes. (Am I entitled to disagree? Yes.)

 

Do I believe that the World Will End Tomorrow if we don't do something about it now? No.

 

Do I believe that mankind as a whole would be far better served if it got off its collective backside and looked at ways to colonise the Moon and Mars, that we might survive as a species once the Earth's resources are consumed/exhausted? Hell, Yes!

[csgators]

Do I believe that mankind as a whole would be far better served if it got off its collective backside and looked at ways to colonise the Moon and Mars, that we might survive as a species once the Earth's resources are consumed/exhausted? Hell, Yes!

 

This is also what I think we should be doing and in many ways we already are, many countries now have space programs and even the private sector is getting involved. Forcing people to cut back or to have a limit on the number of children people can have is not the solution, we need to expand and grow, it is the natural state. Heck, we haven't even colonized the oceans yet.

[csgators]

Oh, BTW. It looks like the world might be starting to get colder, a much worse scenario than it getting hotter. Shockingly enough it has to do with the sun, not humans and there is nothing we can do about it.

 

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-06/hibernating-sun-during-next-solar-cycle-could-chill-earth-new-forecast-predicts

Edited June 16, 2011 by csgators

[marharth]

Oh, BTW. It looks like the world might be starting to get colder, a much worse scenario than it getting hotter. Shockingly enough it has to do with the sun, not humans and there is nothing we can do about it.

 

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-06/hibernating-sun-during-next-solar-cycle-could-chill-earth-new-forecast-predicts

It is much worse for the earth to get hotter, its easier to produce mass heat then it is to produce mass err... Cold?

 

But if it does have to do with the sun it is much worse for the earth to get colder, only if it has everything to do with the sun.

[csgators]

Oh, BTW. It looks like the world might be starting to get colder, a much worse scenario than it getting hotter. Shockingly enough it has to do with the sun, not humans and there is nothing we can do about it.

 

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-06/hibernating-sun-during-next-solar-cycle-could-chill-earth-new-forecast-predicts

It is much worse for the earth to get hotter, its easier to produce mass heat then it is to produce mass err... Cold?

 

But if it does have to do with the sun it is much worse for the earth to get colder, only if it has everything to do with the sun.

 

When the world cools we loose arable land If the earth warms we will gain arable land. Not to mention the number of people that die from exposure to cold is much larger than that of heat.