Climate change could mean the extinction of our species

[Ben]

The very powerful Koch brothers...

Koch Brothers' Activism Protects Their 50-Year Stake in Canadian Heavy Oils

Long involvement in Canada's tar sands has been central to Koch Industries' evolution and positions the billionaire brothers for a new oil boom.

http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20...alberta-canada

Koch Brothers Flout Law Getting Richer With Secret Iran Sales:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-1...ran-sales.html

Opening paragraph from the first article:

"Over the last decade, Charles and David Koch have emerged into public view as billionaire philanthropists pushing a libertarian brand of political activism that presses a large footprint on energy and climate issues. They have created and supported non-profit organizations, think tanks and political groups that work to undermine climate science, environmental regulation and clean energy. They are also top donors to politicians, most of them Republicans, who support the oil industry and deny any human role in global warming."

[Prospero]

Thanks Ben. We do need constant reminders of the heinous influence of these people.

[Ben]

Thanks Ben. We do need constant reminders of the heinous influence of these people.

They do wield enormous influence.
Which should frighten people if we're supposedly living in a democracy. (We certainly have elections. But do we have meaningful democracy? No, of course not.) We don't even have a free market. Let alone a democracy....

[Ben]

A photo that's going viral of Appalachian women shaving their heads, in solidarity with their mountains (which are being stripped and blown up for coal).

[Ben]

ConocoPhillips on Climate Change:

http://www.conocophillips.com/EN/sus...ges/index.aspx

[Ben]

[Cuchulain]

'Arctic CO2 levels have hit a milestone. Reaching concentrations not seen in the last 800,000 years, 400 ppm (parts per million) is now being measured all across the Arctic.'

'While it's currently only the Arctic that has reached the 400 level, the global CO2 level is expected to follow suit. According to NOAA, the global average, which currently is at 395, is expected to reach 400 ppm in about four years time. To put this into context, before the Industrial Age in the 1860s, levels were around 275 ppm.'

'In 2008, when the CO2 level was at 385 ppm, a group of scientists from NASA, Columbia University, Yale University and others published a paper on what the global target for atmospheric CO2 should be. They concluded that "if humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced to at most 350 ppm" and noted that "if the present overshoot of this target CO2 is not brief, there is a possibility of seeding irreversible catastrophic effects." - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-...html?ref=green

[Gouki]

according to Al "man bear pig" Gore, the west and east coasts should have been drowned out by massive flooding due to sea levels rising when in fact the opposite has happened, but then again he knows that because he owns a few mansions on the coast lines, man made global warming is a hoax to levy more global carbon taxes on the general population

[Gouki]

mind you Mr Inconvenient Truth himself owns oil companies that are constantly polluting the ocean waters on a daily basis, the Sun is the primary heater of the planets which are all going through a current cycle, I'm more concerned with water pollution, GMOs, genetic splicing, the honey bee die offs, nuclear disasters due to energy and experiments and bioweapon development, once you start splicing and connecting different DNA this can give rise to a true global pandemic

[trish]

Read the whole thread. The Sun cycle hypothesis has been debunked about eight times already.

Where the current energy imbalance due to an increase in solar constant, then

1) The mesosphere would be heating up. It's not. Instead the carbon dioxide below the mesosphere is holds the heat radiating from the Earth's surface in. Light passes through, heats the surface and lower atmosphere and is prevented from radiating back out by anthropogenic carbon dioxide.

2) The satellites that have been monitoring the Sun for the past fifteen years would have measured a significant increase in the solar constant (see SOHO satellite observatory). They haven't. In fact no examination of the measurements of the solar constant which have been made over several centuries show a significant increase in solar radiation which would account for the increase in average surface temperature rise since the industrial revolution.

3. The current observations confirm the current model of global energy imbalance.

I'm more concerned with water pollution...

Me too. And I'm concerned with the move toward the privatization of aquifers and lakes.

GMOs, genetic splicing,

Not so much. The patent law on these things needs to be changed so Big Ag isn't able to exploit these methods to the detriment of third world farmers. E.g. The creation of infertile grains means that farmers have to buy seed grain every year because the seeds that grow from the grains they plant are infertile. This is just a fucking racket.

the honey bee die offs

This is a big agricultural problem because of course bees are primary pollinators, and they work for free. Apparently honey bees are suffering from a viral disease which is carried by a mite.

nuclear disasters due to energy..

This will continue to be a problem unless we can implement other sources of energy. As oil and natural gas become more scare and more expensive, nuclear will begin to look better and better. As we've seen, accidents are a problem, but IMO the major problem with nuclear is waste disposal.

experiments and bioweapon development, once you start splicing and connecting different DNA this can give rise to a true global pandemic

Indeed, especially if the sole purpose of the research is to weaponize a virulent contagion. It is, however, difficult to assess how much of a threat we're under since bioweapons research (if it's being done at all) is done in secret.

Let me add, poorly regulated mining and lumbering practices are a major threat to the health of the planet. Poor practices in these areas have been responsible for the fall of civilizations for eons.