http://news.independent.co.uk/world/environment/story.jsp?story=603975

a few happy highlights...

The countdown to climate-change catastrophe is spelt out by a task force of senior politicians, business leaders and academics from around the world - and it is remarkably brief. In as little as 10 years, or even less, their report indicates, the point of no return with global warming may have been reached.

....

the danger point of global warming, that is, the temperature rise beyond which the world would be irretrievably committed to disastrous changes. These could include widespread agricultural failure, water shortages and major droughts, increased disease, sea-level rise and the death of forests - with the added possibility of abrupt catastrophic events such as "runaway" global warming, the melting of the Greenland ice sheet, or the switching-off of the Gulf Stream.

....

The report urges all the G8 countries to agree to generate a quarter of their electricity from renewable sources by 2025, and to double their research spending on low-carbon energy technologies by 2010. It also calls on the G8 to form a climate group with leading developing nations such as India and China, which have big and growing CO2 emissions.

Why do I get the feeling that nobody will care until it's too late.

This's gonna get worse and worse and I could almost imagine a "major" climatic catastrophe happening in our lifetime *humph*

The earth will change with our without humans. we wont last forever. the dinosaurs sure didnt. The earth's climate has changed by itself, there is no real scientific fact that we caused it. There are so many animals that dump ungodly amounts of methane into the atomosphere and no one seems to look at that. The earth is way to big, and the amount of developed technology in this world compared to the earths population as a whole, is its a pretty small minority.

While environmental care is important, global warming is not caused my humans. there is only 2 things I think we need to focus on.

Alternative Fuel - Not because of global warming, but because we are pulling it out of the ground before the earth can reproduce it. (which takes thousands of years)

Distruction of Rainforests - Cut down all our trees, and then we will have a problem.

On another note, if they are so concerned about carbon, just find some more places to grow some more trees.

Hmmm, what struck me was that maybe, just maybe, if we all cut back on everything which required burning energy like television, transportation, etc. we wouldn't need to find alternative sources of energy. Man from the early ages didn't have luxuries and though they strived to achieve them, the could live without them.
This's a very VERY far-fetched idea which has a 90 % failure rate ^_^ heh ....

:p you dont know how many people would like to kill you for taking away their TV. X'D

That's a good point you got there *flees to the moon* ^_^ ... I was just generalizing you know :p like, we could all ride bicycles or something. Crazy idea totally heh ...

:p you dont know how many people would like to kill you for taking away their TV. X'D

Why? There hardly is anything worth watching on TV anymore. All you ever see nowadays are stupid reality TV shows, which ironicly, almost only "stupid" people watch.

GRX has a point. Too many ppl will probably not miss the TV since ppl, like me, are fed up with all the reality tv shows. I only watch them cuz I need a laugh at how stupid ppl r. It wouldn't mattr to me at all.

Yes, it is horrible how the World is as a whole... I sometimes wish that we DIDN'T live in today's life - but as in the Medievil ages... No school, no paper homework to waste trees... No cars... No fossil fuels being wasted...

Why? There hardly is anything worth watching on TV anymore. All you ever see nowadays are stupid reality TV shows, which ironicly, almost only "stupid" people watch.

Yes, are there not millions of stupid people out there? In my opinion there is a majority of stupid people in this world these days. I personally watch very little TV. But to call people stupid for watching TV is ridiculous. When I do its either, News (which a lot of is garbage), Football, or an AS show(very few these days).

In the last study, I believe Japanese watch 50-70 hours of TV a week. Americans watch 30-45 hours, and I believe Europe was in 3rd with 25-35 or something like that.

I can pretty much gaurantee that a large mass of the Japanese population are smarter than you, smarter than me, and probably smarter than everyone on this forum. They are a very intelligent culture. Hell most of the technology we buy comes from them. I do believe their crime rates are far lower than ours.

What we see on TV is primetime television, which really does blow ass, at least here in the states. There are various other types of shows that play while we are all at work and school. Such as soap operas targeted at stay home moms, and kid shows. Plus a lot of good reruns from the days when TV was good.

LordSesshomaru: While that seems like a nice idea, you have to remember back in thoes days, you were either Rich, or apart of the poor majority that lived in rags.

humans cause global warming by sucking up oil from the ground, burning it and expelling it into the air. everything that has an exhaust pipe/tower is something that was made by man and emits particles into the atmosphere. on a large scale, if these emissions were cut back, the amount of materials in the atmosphere would decrease and the earth would be happy. :p on another note, rainforests and other large forests have been harvested for lumber and for housing developments. the majority of these trees are never replaced and the atmosphere that they feed on is building up with excess materials that the trees would normally filter out (ie. carbon).

United States Environmental Protection Agency official website:
http://yosemite.epa.gov/oar/globalwarming.nsf/content/emissions.html


*watches captain planet re-runs in the morning* X'D

The EPA blows :p

DX: Notice I said: "All you ever see nowadays are stupid reality TV shows, which ironicly, almost only "stupid" people watch."

I stated I was refering to reality TV.

People in Japan probably watch more TV because there are more things worth watching. Hell maybe that's why there smarter then us. they don't have "stupid TV".

Note: I use the term "stupid TV" as a metafore to TV shows that don't make you think what so ever. I swear, Americans are affraid to think. Either that or the ruling powers are affraid to let them think.

Note 2: nothing I stated above is to be taken litteraly. You have to think about it for two seconds. :p

the EPA rates just above the UN -_-;

DX: Notice I said: "All you ever see nowadays are stupid reality TV shows, which ironicly, almost only "stupid" people watch."

I stated I was refering to reality TV.

People in Japan probably watch more TV because there are more things worth watching. Hell maybe that's why there smarter then us. they don't have "stupid TV".

Note: I use the term "stupid TV" as a metafore to TV shows that don't make you think what so ever. I swear, Americans are affraid to think. Either that or the ruling powers are affraid to let them think.

Note 2: nothing I stated above is to be taken litteraly. You have to think about it for two seconds. :p

Yes, and since all that is on is reality TV, then the only people that watch TV are stupid. You argument is worded to imply that people that watch TV as a whole, are indeed stupid. :p

As far as the japanese go, Tiahiti's(sp) Castle (MXC) anyone? they too have similar shows beside better anime X'D

*downloads some live sailormoon episodes* X'D

Rotfl!!!

http://www.whoi.edu/institutes/occi/currenttopics/climatechange_wef.html

Robert B. Gagosian
President and Director
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Prepared for a panel on abrupt climate change at the
World Economic Forum
Davos, Switzerland, January 27, 2003

this is a pretty good read.
Me, I dont want to see my frickin home have to go thru hellish winters for the next 100 years. I live here and I see that this is already happening. New York is just gonna keep getting colder and snowier and thats a load of shit. The summers here are awsome, but ppl will leave if they have to endure too much winter. We're New Yorkers, not Alaskans -_-;
I'm sittin right in the middle of one of those " large regions may experience a precipitous and disruptive shift into colder climates" -_-;

Another thing they should look at is the earths orbit, which shifts every so many years. into a larger elipse, bringing the earth further from the sun in winter and fall, and much closer in the summer and spring. This has happend many times in the earths long history, and could very well cause a new ice age. New york was once under a large glacier.

Y'know, if people weren't so skittish about nuclear plants they'd do a lot to cut down on our fossil fuel use. We've got enough U-238 to power the world on breeder reactors for a good long time, probably until long after they'd become obsolete. The only significant problems are the politics and the initial cost.

and there wonderful terrorist targets in todays world, which is another set back sadly. Nuclear plants is the best solution no one wants interestingly enough.

'Cause of Three Mile Island and that P.O.S. timebomb at Chernobyl. Plus, "high level radioactive waste" sounds really bad and nobody wants it around.

I wouldn't be so worried about them as terrorist targets, simply because they're not really symbolic of anything. Also, I'd imagine protecting them is easier than the typical targets since there's not a whole lot of human traffic.

a meltdown can be catastophic. It would indeed be a desired terrorist target. especially if it was close to a city.

we have 5 nuk sites 'round here

INDIAN POINT NUCLEAR POWER PLANT - 24 MILES N OF NEW YORK CITY, NY.
GINNA ROCHESTER GAS AND ELECTRIC NUCLEAR POWER PLANT - 20 MILES NE OF ROCHESTER, NY.
FITZPATRICK NUCLEAR POWER PLANT - 8 MILES NE OF OSWEGO, NY.
NINE MILE POINT NUCLEAR POWER PLANT - 6 MILES NE OF OSWEGO, NY.
KESSELRING SITE - WEST MILTON, NY
the plants arent like a cap gun :p you dont just smack em and they blow. its the chemical waste from the plants that ppl freak out over. there is no "safe place" for radioactive waste :(

another eye opening article


http://www.ktuu.com/CMS/templates/master.asp?articleid=11157&zoneid=4




Dr. Lonnie Thompson is one of the world’s leading experts on climate change. He’s been studying glaciers for his entire career and is currently working at the Byrd Polar Research Center



According to Thompson, the famed “Snows of Kilimanjaro” are 80 percent smaller than they were when Ernest Hemingway published his novel in 1938. At the rate those snows are disappearing, Thompson said, they’ll be entirely gone in 15 years.

http://www.time.com/time/daily/chernobyl/860512.cover.html

waste is the least of concerns.

I'm sittin right in the middle of one of those " large regions may experience a precipitous and disruptive shift into colder climates" -_-;
A good portion of the NE is having a seriously bad winter. It's not just the snow, it's that the snow or ice come all at once, one big storm after another and temps all over the place are below normal.

http://www.time.com/time/daily/chernobyl/860512.cover.html

waste is the least of concerns.

Chernobyl blew up because it was poorly designed. Nobody except the Soviets ever made reactors like that.

Incompetence was the star of the show for Chernobyl. The dudes were just not watchin their shit. -_-;

Incompetence was the star of the show for Chernobyl. The dudes were just not watchin their shit. -_-;
It wasn't the reactor that was the problem :happy:. What really happened was - they were just exposed to too much radioactivity, which invariably made all their feaces very harmful(acidic, radioactive chemical kind like the Aliens'). Anyway, being incompetant, what Lady actually meant was, they were just not toilet trained. Those Russians would take a dump anywhere and everywhere, resulting in their acid poop cutting through the ground/pipes you name it. Two explosive gases (from the cut/exposed pipes) got mixed and boom, disaster struck.
I think I need to sleep ^_^:

LMAO! X'D


oh, and heres a couple good links i found:

Nuclear waste:
http://www.nei.org/index.asp?catnum=3&catid=461

U.S. Nuclear Accidents:
http://www.lutins.org/nukes.html

Pretty interesting read, both websites.

25 February 1983
A catastrophe at the Salem 1 reactor in New Jersey was averted by just 90 seconds when the plant was shut down manually, following the failure of automatic shutdown systems to act properly. The same automatic systems had failed to respond in an incident three days before, and other problems plagued this plant as well, such as a 3,000 gallon leak of radioactive water in June 1981 at the Salem 2 reactor, a 23,000 gallon leak of "mildly" radioactive water (which splashed onto 16 workers) in February 1982, and radioactive gas leaks in March 1981 and September 1982 from Salem 1.


15 February 2000
New York's Indian Point II power plant vented a small amount of radioactive steam when a an aging steam generator ruptured. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission initially reported that no radioactive material was released, but later changed their report to say that there was a leak, but not of a sufficient amount to threaten public safety.


1981
The Critical Mass Energy Project of Public Citizen, Inc. reported that there were 4,060 mishaps and 140 serious events at nuclear power plants in 1981, up from 3,804 mishaps and 104 serious events the previous year.

28 March 1979
A major accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant near Middletown, Pennsylvania. At 4:00 a.m. a series of human and mechanical failures nearly triggered a nuclear disaster. By 8:00 a.m., after cooling water was lost and temperatures soared above 5,000 degrees, the top portion of the reactor's 150-ton core collapsed and melted. Contaminated coolant water escaped into a nearby building, releasing radioactive gasses, leading as many as 200,000 people to flee the region. Despite claims by the nuclear industry that "no one died at Three Mile Island," a study by Dr. Ernest J. Sternglass, professor of radiation physics at the University of Pittsburgh, showed that the accident led to a minimum of 430 infant deaths.


Apparently we dont watch out shit either. I knew of maybe 2 accidents that happend in the US. But according to the site Sledge has found, there are far more problems than I expected.

i read the book "The Tommyknockers" by Stephen King and there is a character in it that is a super anti-nuclear freak. he spouted off more US nuclear accidents and theories in that book than i've been able to find online. o_o; he even mentioned some world-wide accidents even. :\

the only safe way to do it is to make them all under ground in desolate places or inside mountains, and shoot the waste into the depths of the galaxy

ever so often i say we pollute space and send that shit up there, like i dunn every 5 to 10 years maybe just send a shit load up ther never too be seen agai, unless aliens exist....

If someone comes back because we put our junk on their planet, then we will know that there is life out there X'D

i remember watching a cartoon a long time ago.. (can't remember the name of it). aliens were invading and the earth was pretty much doomed.. right when surrender was inevitable, the aliens stated their demands. they wanted the uranium deposits at 'such and such location'. the humans realized the aliens were talking about their nuclear waste..

humans: sure! take it! we'll even give you more of it as long as you stop attacking!

aliens talking to themselves: stupid humans, such power at their fingers and they give it away!

humans talking to themselves: stupid aliens, taking our garbage!

X'D

Haha X'D

UK urges U.S. action on climate

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/02/01/england.climate.reut/index.html

America is one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide (CO2), but rejects what is now majority scientific opinion that mankind is largely to blame for climate warming and has refused to join the Kyoto Protocol on curbing emissions.

full species chaning evolution was disproven by darwin himself, yet it is still the most popular belief. they simply won't admit it because it is how they make their living. science has this problem in many areas.

I'm not a total 'Darwin was 100% right about everything' person. There have been too many new discoveries about plants and animals over the past 100+ years.
I also shake my pom poms for the spontanious evolution theorys :p

I believe in evolution to the effect that we as a species evolved to adapt to the environment. I don't believe we evolved from another species.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6915621/
U.S. exports its air pollution to Europe
Study reveals how emissions have global impact

Whether it unfolds quickly by fire or slowly through global warming, the future of this forested river basin is a key to the future of Earth's climate. Hundreds of scientists are working overtime to understand that critical relationship -- between the atmosphere and the region known as Amazonia, more than 11 times the size of Texas and home to one-third of the world's species.

...

Satellite reconnaissance showed that 600 fires were started in the region each day on average last year, the Brazilian government reports. The rate of destruction has almost doubled in the past decade, to 9,000 square miles over 12 months of 2003-2004 -- an area about the size of New Hampshire.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/02/07/warmer.world.3.ap/index.html

i remember watching a cartoon a long time ago.. (can't remember the name of it). aliens were invading and the earth was pretty much doomed.. right when surrender was inevitable, the aliens stated their demands. they wanted the uranium deposits at 'such and such location'. the humans realized the aliens were talking about their nuclear waste..

humans: sure! take it! we'll even give you more of it as long as you stop attacking!

aliens talking to themselves: stupid humans, such power at their fingers and they give it away!

humans talking to themselves: stupid aliens, taking our garbage!

X'D

X'D Oh man! That is too funny! *dies laughing*

Damn, those articles are pretty scary. Mankind's caught in it's own web of disaster :spider: