io9 
Enter your username and password.
San Francisco, 7:37 AM
Sun Dec 6
12 posts in the last 24 hours
Tip your editors:
Editor-in-Chief:
Annalee Newitz |
News Editor:
Charlie Jane Anders |
Associate Editor:
Meredith Woerner |
Assistant Editor:
Lauren Davis |
Weekend Editor:
Graeme McMillan |
Contributors:
Joshua Glenn
Stephen Goldmeier |
Ed Grabianowski |
Austin Grossman
Paul Hogan |
Lauren Davis |
Chris Hsiang |
Lynn Peril |
Ann VanderMeer
Alasdair Wilkins |
Graphic Designer:
Stephanie Fox |
Interns:
Tim Barribeau |
Julia Carusillo |
Alex Eichler |
Cyriaque Lamar |
Caitlin Petrakovitz |
Mary Ratliff |
Josh Snyder |
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
07/29/09
07/29/09
07/29/09
07/29/09
Is pollution bad? Sure.
Is there anything we can do to prevent global warming? Nope.
It's a natural and cyclical thing that the geological record proves is gonna happen again and again regardless of what humans do.
And before someone says "OMG BUT THE ICECAPZ BE MELTING!!!" If the ocean rose even 6 inches, the slightly increased surface area of the ocean would result in global cooling. How do I know this? Take a physics class and learn about entropy and thermodynamics.
Didn't mean to rant. Just annoyed at people panicking over something natural that has been happening for millions of years.
07/29/09
The amount of carbon dioxide pumped into the atmosphere in a single hour of a volcanic eruption, dwarfs anything humans could produce in a year.
Too bad we've been pumping massive amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere for close to 2 centuries. The problem is cumulative, as there's no place for last years CO2 to go once it's up there.
As for the melting icecaps causing global cooling, Global Warming does not mean it just keeps getting hotter. Maybe you should take a class on climatology and learn the difference between climate and weather.
07/29/09
07/29/09
07/29/09
07/29/09
07/29/09
one should really think if the current global warming is::
A:The natural Earth climate changing
B:Are we the cause of it all
C:Or is it a combination of the Earth climate change and pollution together.
07/29/09
Add to that the fact that human beings have now stressed the natural capacities of ALL ECOSYSTEMS to support us means that there is literally no latitude left in the system. There's nowhere left to stretch in our current model.
A couple degrees warmer, and a couple of glaciers melt completely, and suddenly 50 million people simply cannot eat. Seas rise a foot globally and suddenly 75 million people need to be relocated. There's simply no more stretch left, so things will soon start breaking.
07/29/09
07/29/09
07/29/09
The Earth had a population of roughly 300 million people 1,000 years ago.
There's just no comparing our current society and the effects of previous climate change.
07/29/09
If the earth were currently 1 degree warmer and there was the possibility that a hundred years from now the temperature might drop to what it is now, the same people would be screaming about the dangers of "global cooling" (like they were a few years ago). There's nothing special about whatever the earth's temperature is this year that means a change of 0.1 degrees either way is going to kill us all.
07/29/09
07/29/09
Yes, the current climate change will benefit some people. And also the Gulf Stream might shut down and turn Europe into a frozen tundra.
That's 700 million people right there that need to be relocated.
Please don't make it harder to explain to people how difficult global warming is going to make our lives.
07/29/09
Actually, the news item is beyond ridiculous. Saying that the Incan empire has long been regarded as the only major Bronze Age civilisation without a written language is bizarre.