Gas prices in 2012? At least $4?

[NeilBlanchard]

You should be able to edit it?

[Frank Lee]

XL Pipeline delayed yay!

[brucey]

Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard

You should be able to edit it?

Normally yes, but he already quoted it. And it wouldn't change his message.

[suspectnumber961]

As far as global warming goes, I haven't been impacted by it yet, and I don't foresee my life being much different if the climate is a couple degrees warmer over the course of many decades.

I imagine we will be fretting over something entirely different within a decade. Iranian nuclear weapons perhaps? I dunno, but I'm fairly certain it won't be the weather.

I can just see you maybe 20 yrs in the future....with some amount of environmental degradation surrounding you...but you see a flower blooming and call it a miracle? And maybe it will be much more of a miracle at that point.....? But as long as you are happy.....

Or are you just irresponsible?


CO2 levels rise 6-7% in one year?


Climate Change Is Here Now


No changes here yet ? ? ? ? ? ?


Temperatures rising: The Earth’s surface is growing ever hotter. The decade from 2000 to 2010 was the warmest on record, and 2005 and 2010 tied for the hottest years on record.

Extreme weather: Extreme weather events such as droughts, floods and blizzards are striking with increased frequency, with sometimes deadly consequences for people and wildlife.

Public health: Millions of people are suffering from climate-related health impacts, and hundreds of thousands of people each year die climate-related deaths from excessive heat, extreme weather and climate change-exacerbated pollutants and disease.

Species endangerment: Many animals and plants are losing their habitats and food sources, struggling to move poleward and upward to keep pace with climate change, shifting the timing of their breeding and migration, and disappearing as populations die out.

Ocean acidification: The oceans have become 30 percent more acidic due to their uptake of human-produced carbon dioxide, which is harming ocean life from shellfish to corals as they struggle to build the shells and skeletons they need to survive.

Food and water security: Climate change is reducing food security as crop growth and yields diminish; droughts, floods and changes in snowpack are disrupting water supplies.

Melting ice: The world’s ice is rapidly melting away, raising sea level, threatening water supplies and jeopardizing ice-dependent animals like the polar bear. Arctic summer sea ice is half the area and thickness it was several decades ago, alpine glaciers are in near-global retreat, and the giant Greenland and west Antarctic ice sheets are melting at an accelerating pace.

Sea-level rise: Global sea level rose at an average rate of 3.3 millimeters per year in recent decades (1993 to 2006), and in some regions of the world it is rising even faster, threatening wildlife on coasts and low-lying islands as well as 40 percent of the world’s population that lives within 60 miles of the coast. The small island nation of Tuvalu in the South Pacific has already started evacuating its people because of rising sea levels.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by suspectnumber961

As far as global warming goes, I haven't been impacted by it yet, and I don't foresee my life being much different if the climate is a couple degrees warmer over the course of many decades.

I imagine we will be fretting over something entirely different within a decade. Iranian nuclear weapons perhaps? I dunno, but I'm fairly certain it won't be the weather.

I can just see you maybe 20 yrs in the future....with some amount of environmental degradation surrounding you...but you see a flower blooming and call it a miracle? And maybe it will be much more of a miracle at that point.....? But as long as you are happy.....

20 years from now I do anticipate happiness. No doubt I will mourn the loss of some things and rejoice the gain of others. Mostly I find the notion of humans having the capacity to wholly destroy nature egotistic. Certainly we impact the environment, and might even significantly change it, but it's not going away.

I do consider myself an environmentalist. Being a good steward of resources is important to me. Heck, I've even planted or otherwise cared for thousands of new trees. Perhaps the difference between me and other environmentalists is that I am not fearful of change.

We generally do a good job of solving the problems we create. Heck, 100 years ago the US had much fewer trees and old growth forests, but we decided that it was valuable and now our forests have been vastly improved. I remember LA smog being much worse in the early 80s; cars now emit just a fraction of those pollutants due to regulation. In my school days, the doomsday topic was ozone depletion, but I don't hear so much as a whisper about it now. Actually, 20 years from now I envision nearly zero smog from vehicles because I expect most will be electric.

Or are you just irresponsible?

I am heinously irresponsible, just like everyone. I accept that my existence will cause destruction. I'm a consumer that isn't content to live in a cave and subsist on berries. I want a big TV, a comfortable house, and toys in the garage.

CO2 levels rise 6-7% in one year?

I searched for this and found no evidence. Care to point me in the right direction?

Climate Change Is Here Now


No changes here yet ? ? ? ? ? ?

Interesting site, although I did not state that there have not been changes, only that I have not been significantly impacted.

As climate change slowly makes some areas unstable for certain activities, we will move to other places that those activities are suitable. Humans have been doing this since our beginning.

I'm not denying the human contribution to global climate change or even saying we should do nothing about it, all I'm saying is there is not compelling reason to be fearful of the future because of it.

My mantra is something along these lines-

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference

[Olympiadis]

Redpoint, that was a very intelligent and reasonable post.
Unfortunately a lot of people around here will not like that.
If you can keep your head when others about you are losing theirs...

[user removed]

Originally Posted by GRU

yes but back then you could buy a new car for $3000. Don't forget the inflation, yes fuel was cheaper but it wasn't 10 times cheaper than 30 years ago. When considering inflation it's probably 2 to 3 times higher than 30 years ago.

Last time I checked a 1964 US quarter was worth $3.60 in silver. When that quarter was issued it's silver value was 75% of its face value.
So for the 18.5 cents a gallon I paid in 1966 during a gas war, today I am paying $3.25 for the same gallon of gas.

Looks the same, smells the same, and is-was the same.

Oh yeah, in 1973 when I maxed out Social Security at $13.5k income, that equals how much today?

$110,100

Also in 1973 I paid $3k in Federal Income taxes, more than John D. Rockefeller did with a net worth of 175 million.

regards
Mech

[euromodder]

Originally Posted by suspectnumber961

Climate Change Is Here Now

Yes.
You can stop stop worrying.
It's always been with us.

Remember why they called Greenland ... green ?
Why most of its newly immigrated / invaded population left again ?
Merely a few centuries ago, that was.

Earth has been warmer for a whopping 90% of its life, so even 2010 hardly qualifies as the warmest year on record - it only is a record if you restrict your records to the onset of scientific research.

Sharks have swum where I now sit.
Yet mammoths have also walked this place !
Earth changes continuously, it's just that people are afraid of changes.

Mostly because we as a species are stupid enough to do things that are very susceptible to even minute environmental changes - like building houses if not cities on cliffs - or near shorelines.
Then we'll wonder why the bloody cliff collapses !
Well, it's just following the rest of the cliff that has long gone down ...
Or we wonder why New Orleans floundered.
Well, that's kind of normal when you build it below flood tide level.

Those warmer periods have lead to explosions of life - and to life itself.
Life has been nearly wiped out a few times before - and it has recovered, minus some species that became unadapted to their environment.
That's the way humanity is headed, and it is not a problem, just inconvenient.


What you should worry about is humanity running out of oil, gas and other resources.
It's being burned at an alarming rate, while it could be used for far better purposes.

[suspectnumber961]

The big difference is the issue of responsibility?

An indisputable FACT is that humans are the top predator and the species most affecting the biosphere...except maybe for termites, etc?

Except that termites and all other species are acting in accordance within the limits of evolved characteristics that function as a PART of the overall biosphere and within the evolved limits of that biosphere.

Humans are acting OUTSIDE those limits as defined by the environmental destruction they cause...which is documented.

Those who shirk this responsibility are weiny-heads.

The best remedy for these types is to drop them off on Alaska's north slope with just a few basic necessities for a few months...if they don't survive...they feed the wildlife...if they do...they have now have some sense?

I too live each day and try to enjoy my life...but I also try to keep some perspective and accept some responsibility for the damage I and my species do...not just say I'm a hot-sh*t human and I can do whatever I want....I'm not a Republican.

[Ladogaboy]

Originally Posted by suspectnumber961

Except that termites and all other species are acting in accordance within the limits of evolved characteristics that function as a PART of the overall biosphere and within the evolved limits of that biosphere.

Humans are acting OUTSIDE those limits as defined by the environmental destruction they cause...which is documented.

I'm sorry, but this is a very ignorant and narrow-minded viewpoint. It is also just as arrogant as the belief that humans are somehow above and better than their counterparts in ecosystem.

We aren't the only species to cause extinctions. We aren't the only species to radically change the environment. We aren't the only species to enforce selective breeding on other species. We aren't the only species to "pollute." And, despite popular belief, we would be hard pressed to actually destroy life on Earth. Life as we know it, sure, but life, never.

The fact is, our ability to manipulate our environment as well as we do (our hands) is an EVOLVED trait. As is our ability to plan ahead; think of contingencies; create machinery more able than our bodies; imagine a world as it might exist; work cooperatively in order to maximize effect. Some might even argue that our brains/intelligence are the greatest evolved trait that we have.