Forecast for Earth in 2050: It's not so gloomy

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Forecast for Earth in 2050: It's not so gloomy

Postby robertdreed » Tue Jan 24, 2006 11:38 pm

I found this on the Web, and thought to post a good-news forecast for a change:<br><br><!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>Sci/Tech > Environment <br>from the January 20, 2006 edition <br><br>Forecast for Earth in 2050: It's not so gloomy<br><br>But people must begin to manage its ecosystems to put the planet on a sustainable path, a new report says.<br><br>By Peter N. Spotts | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor <br><br>When researchers scan the global horizon, overfishing, loss of species habitat, nutrient run-off, climate change, and invasive species look to be the biggest threats to the ability of land, oceans, and water to support human well-being. <br>Yet "there is significant reason for hope. We have the tools we need" to chart a course that safeguards the planet's ecological foundation, says Stephen Carpenter, a zoologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. "We don't have to accept the doom-and-gloom trends."<br><br>That's the general take-home message in an assessment of the state of the globe's ecosystems and the impact Earth's ecological condition has on humans.<br><br>Thursday, officials released a five-volume coda to the UN's Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, an ambitious four-year attempt to explore the relationship between the environment and human development. Summary reports of the findings as they affected four international environmental treaties were released last year. These new volumes represent the detailed information that underpins the earlier reports... </em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> <!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0120/p04s01-sten.html?s=u2">www.csmonitor.com/2006/01....html?s=u2</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>There's an interesting link on using algae to clean power plant smokestacks at the bottom of that article, too...<br><br> <br> <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Forecast for Earth in 2050: It's not so gloomy

Postby steve vegas » Wed Jan 25, 2006 12:28 am

<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>But people must begin to manage its ecosystems to put the planet on a sustainable path, a new report says.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>The above would seem to be the gloomy part. It's like saying, I won't be broke on Saturday morning if I don't blow my entire check at the bar on Friday night, in the midst of blowing my entire check at the bar. Nice thought though, I have a kid, it would be great if the planet was still habitable in 2050, I'd feel a little less guilty. <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Forecast for Earth in 2050: it looks like all sand to me

Postby sceneshifter » Mon Jan 30, 2006 12:36 am

<!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong><!--EZCODE FONT START--><span style="color:blue;font-family:helvetica;font-size:medium;"><br><br>here with my head in the sand - <br><br>if ostriches ever did put their heads in the sand when a lion roared, they didnt survive<br><br>inequity factor at one billion and violence proportional - on a graph with lowest hourly pay at one millimetre, average hourly pay is at one metre, and highest hourly pay is at 1000 kilometres=a million metres=a billion millimetres= five times the height of the atmosphere<br><br>inequity, and war and weaponry, escalative for 1000s of years past - ie, pedal-to-the-metal acceleration to extinction<br><br>bombs in existence that can lower the world temperature 25 degrees [one degree drop kills a summer, as in 1816 - 8 degrees is an ice age]<br><br><br>third world wealth headed for 80% of world wealth by 2050, and population headed for 98 billion by 2100, and world topsoil headed for zero by 2080 - ie, huge populations fighting over, and thus faster-destroying the disappearing arable land - ie, goths-and-vandals times a million<br><br>simple, effortless solution available, but humans too something [thinkless, mentally myopic, defeated, selfdestructive?] to apply the solution<br><br>have i forgotten anything? - oh, a little blip on the future radar: tokyo overdue for its regular earthquake, which will trigger withdrawal of trillions from the world economy, which will cause a godalmighty shock many times the size of the 1929 depression<br><br>anyone got the nobility to wake up and work at the shitface?</span><!--EZCODE FONT END--></strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Forecast for Earth in 2050: it looks like all sand to me

Postby sceneshifter » Mon Jan 30, 2006 12:48 am

<!--EZCODE FONT START--><span style="color:blue;font-family:helvetica;font-size:small;"><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>by work at the shitface, i mean: discuss and discuss and discuss, serious, sober, sincere - and by sober, i mean metaphorically - if you are going to do some hard thinking, you do well to have a whiskey every halfhour</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--></span><!--EZCODE FONT END--> <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Forecast for Earth in 2050: it looks like all sand to me

Postby chiggerbit » Mon Jan 30, 2006 12:49 am

Didn't I just read somewhere that since 1998, we have had the WORLD'S five HOTEST (not above average, but hottest) YEARS on record since measurements began? I'm thinking we have no clue what the consequences are going to be with those kinds of records, or how fast it is going to happen, or what the impact is gong to be on situations we had no clue would be impacted (say, for instance, on earthquakes, hurricanes, etc.). With these kinds of records, I don't think I would like to make any predictions. <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Forecast for Earth in 2050: it looks like all sand to me

Postby sceneshifter » Mon Jan 30, 2006 1:17 am

it is true, chiggerbit, that it is very hard to tell, with all the ups and downs of temperature all over the shop for many many causes, what the longterm trend is - but intergalacials have lasted 10,000 years in the past, and we are 600 years overdue, and we know iceages are preceded by globalwarming - the warming increases evaporation, which increases snowfall, which increases ice - even if the average temperature rises, there are still many places where the temperature goes below freezing - hence increased ice - in the longterm - but locally, ice areas may lose ice due to rise in temps there, and most of the temp drop occur in nonfreezing areas - we dont know - but we are overdue for an iceage - an iceage started 600 years ago and then for some reason went away - an iceage wont kill us all of course - then there is the possible shift of poles - there are subtropical trees under he antarctic ice<br><br>[incidentally, amazing mystery/coincidence that all the continents [in english] begin and end in the letter a, isnt it - asia, africa, america, australia, antarctica [to consider europe as a continent is like considering the western united states as a separate continent - but note europe, as a continent in a secondary sense, begins and ends with the second vowel - spooky or what?] <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Forecast for Earth in 2050: it looks like all sand to me

Postby chiggerbit » Mon Jan 30, 2006 1:52 am

Let's put it this way. If part of the changes are natural, and some are manmade, wouldn't we want to do ALL we can to modify the manmade consequences? And you have to wonder if "natural" would have happened so ....extremely... in just 8 years. <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Forecast for Earth in 2050: it looks like all sand to me

Postby sceneshifter » Mon Jan 30, 2006 5:25 am

you really have to wonder if we have any brains at all, or alternatively, if we love selfdestruction, or if we are all dead tired, when you read that we are still pumping tons of cfc's into the ozone - cfc's kill 10,000 times as much ozone<br><br>would anyone like an endoftheworld?<br><br>you could probably get up an endoftheworld cake and it would become fashionable <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Forecast for Earth in 2050: it looks like all sand to me

Postby chiggerbit » Mon Jan 30, 2006 1:03 pm

Whether natural or unnatural, I wonder if we are ready for the possible consequences. This January here in the Midwest has been like the usual March, not that I'm complaining--yet. If this is of a more permanent nature, will it affect precipitation levels, change weather, impact plant and animal diseases? Yikes, can my state expect to receive coral snakes and worse termite infestations, scorpions, swarms of killer bees? Will the corn belt turn into a desert? Aaaaak! <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Forecast for Earth in 2050: it looks like all sand to me

Postby nomo » Mon Jan 30, 2006 5:01 pm

It's 60 degrees in New York City today. Temperatures have been around the 50 mark for a couple of weeks now. It's real nice, but also slightly disconcerting. <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Forecast for Earth in 2050: it looks like all sand to me

Postby marykmusic » Mon Jan 30, 2006 6:34 pm

Yeah, and in other parts of the world there are record LOW temperatures. But when it's all averaged out, it's all normal. --MaryK <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Forecast for Earth in 2050: it looks like all sand to me

Postby sceneshifter » Tue Jan 31, 2006 7:55 am

<!--EZCODE FONT START--><span style="color:blue;font-family:helvetica;font-size:medium;"><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>okay, no one is going to discuss a simple, effortless plan to solve these enormous problems</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--></span><!--EZCODE FONT END--><!--EZCODE EMOTICON START 0] --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/alien.gif ALT="0]"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Forecast for Earth in 2050: it looks like all sand to me

Postby nomo » Tue Jan 31, 2006 2:56 pm

I'll bite.<br><br>What's this simple, effortless plan?<br><br>But moreover, what, realistically, are the chances of getting said plan implemented?<br><br> <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Forecast for Earth in 2050: it looks like all sand to me

Postby sceneshifter » Tue Jan 31, 2006 10:19 pm

<!--EZCODE FONT START--><span style="color:black;font-family:helvetica;font-size:small;"> <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong> <br><br>What's this simple, effortless plan?<br>See my reply at 'open letter to floyd smoots ...'<br><br>But moreover, what, realistically, are the chances of getting said plan implemented?<br>Good question. Reasons for hope that this plan can be implemented:<br>1. Everyone in the world already agrees with it. I can prove that in a minute. They dont know yet that they agree with it, but I show them they do.<br>2. Everyone wins bigbig. Everyone wins bigbigbig. Everyone, from richest to poorest. Everyone, without exception,100 times happier. I can prove that everyone already agrees it will make everyone 100 times happier. <br>3. 99% win financially, 90% win financially bigbig.<br>4. People have brains. They can read. They can think. They can follow the arguments.<br>5. People want to be as happy as they can.<br>6. People dont want to become extinct. Without this plan [or a better one] they have a very high probability [like 99%] of becoming extinct before 2050.<br>7. All it takes is learning that you already agree, and learning some other points too, and then passing it on to loved ones.<br>8. If each person who learns it teaches it to just one person a month, everyone in the world will know it in just 33 months. <br>9. When virtually everyone knows it, there is nothing to stop us passing the simple laws to get it.<br>10. Everyone who learns it becomes a new talent and way of expressing it.<br><br>Reasons for fearing it will not be implemented:<br>1. People seem to have lost the power to respond, to react, to absorb, to get ignited. Blame television, which apparently makes people passive? Blame schools, which teach passivity by pumping students full of dead info for years and never asking students' to share and discuss their opinions, which would be wakening, activating? Blame atrophy of action, because people have been deprived of a fairshare of power for so long?<br>2. People prejudging it to be a fraud, a con, a moneyscheme, a nonsense, a group that steals your soul, etc. People assuming immediately it must be no good. People assuming it must involve sacrifice. People being unable to think it may be good. ['Test everything and hold on to what is good']<br>3. People not giving top priority to their survival and happiness. People being 'busy'.<br>4. People being unable to face reality, people being too good at hiding their heads in the sand. People too inclined to think everything's okay. Procrastinating on problems. <br>5. People too confident that the status quo cannot be wrong, that accepted ideas are sound, that new ideas must be wrong.<br>6. People's energies absorbed by the millions of less important things. The road to the most vital information being blocked with unvital information. <br>7. People's mental vision tending to be more microscopic than macroscopic. Having difficulty seeing new patterns in the complex tapestry of life. Solving small problems. Removing poisonous leaves, not poisonous trees.<br>8. People putting too much faith in authorities. Too many adult babies.<br>9. People being exhausted by all the problems that this plan will solve. People being exhausted by the centuries of unnecessary pain and suffering and failure.<br>10. The world having been turned into a war zone, and truth being a casualty in war, lies, propaganda, selfdeception being many and great.<br>11. Humans being 98.4% identical to chimpanzees. The human brain consisting of a very thin thinking brain built over a mammal brain built over a reptile brain. Money being so important [being food, shelter, everything], people tend to use their primitive brain in 'thinking' about money. People rarely really thinking. Lack of grits and determination to conquer. Too much fat in the brain for an idea to spark.<br>12. People falling for flattery instead of rising to realism. </strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--></span><!--EZCODE FONT END--> <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Forecast for Earth in 2050: it looks like all sand to me

Postby BajaSur » Tue Jan 31, 2006 11:09 pm

So whats the difference between what you preach and ParEcon? What you suggest is complete unity, but really all you do is divide everyone into different camps and nothing will get done. Should everyone involved in ParEcon drop their beliefs to follow what you are saying?I can guess what your answer to that would be, something like "If you all don't do it my way then we are all doomed"<br><br>You also claim that if you can hold audience with Bill Gates you can convince him to pare down his net worth to 3 to 10 million.This i would love to see.If you pull that off I will even be the first to drink your grape flavored Kool-Aid.<br><br> <p></p><i></i>
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