Which produces more CO2 in a year; the normal exhalation of one human being (not the auto exhaust or other industrial output a person is responsible for, just breathing) or the CO2 from equivalent living mass of the northern fungi in the study?
@Necoras: It's not about destroying all life on Earth or destroying th planet. We simply don't have that kind of power yet.
The real problem with human-caused global warming is that it makes it more expensive for us to live on this planet, what with a rising sea level, change weather patterns, increase energy use to combat the side-effects, death and injury due to global warming induced changes, etc. etc.
It was never about the planet or life on Earth. It's about us fouling our nest to a point where we just can't go on the way we used to.
Yes, the Earth will survive the worst we can currently dish out. We could wipe out all multicellular life on Earth and things would just anew from all the bacteria we spared. But human extinction is much, much easier to achieve and the fact the Earth as simply moved on is of little consolation to our burned out cities and dead civilization.
Environmentalism is not really about saving the Earth. It's about human self-preservation
@corpore-metal: I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet.
@evildead1971: Well, we could make the argument that the existence of humans proves that evolution is truly a blind process.
If there was any sapience in charge of evolution on this planet, why would they be so stupid as to let such risky species as ourselves emerge? Or maybe there is a sapience in charge but it's rather childish and just enjoys watching us screw ourselves over, like Sim City or Lovecraft.
But putting aside all the negativity for a moment, I'd really like to believe that we can fix this, that we can put our brains to it, do the hard work and figure out ways to go about our technological business without killing ourselves by temporarily reducing the planet to ecological diversity of a parking lot. Intelligence got us into these messes. Intelligence can get us out!
@corpore-metal: I so want to agree with you. That's the science-fiction mindset, ain't it-- the future will work out, if we apply some rational thought to our most cherished dreams then actually follow through with the right engineering, physical and social. That's the optimism we can learn from these goofy books & movies.
11/03/08
Which has more biomass; our species or the fungi?
Just curious.
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11/03/08
The real problem with human-caused global warming is that it makes it more expensive for us to live on this planet, what with a rising sea level, change weather patterns, increase energy use to combat the side-effects, death and injury due to global warming induced changes, etc. etc.
It was never about the planet or life on Earth. It's about us fouling our nest to a point where we just can't go on the way we used to.
Yes, the Earth will survive the worst we can currently dish out. We could wipe out all multicellular life on Earth and things would just anew from all the bacteria we spared. But human extinction is much, much easier to achieve and the fact the Earth as simply moved on is of little consolation to our burned out cities and dead civilization.
Environmentalism is not really about saving the Earth. It's about human self-preservation
11/03/08
11/03/08
If there was any sapience in charge of evolution on this planet, why would they be so stupid as to let such risky species as ourselves emerge? Or maybe there is a sapience in charge but it's rather childish and just enjoys watching us screw ourselves over, like Sim City or Lovecraft.
But putting aside all the negativity for a moment, I'd really like to believe that we can fix this, that we can put our brains to it, do the hard work and figure out ways to go about our technological business without killing ourselves by temporarily reducing the planet to ecological diversity of a parking lot. Intelligence got us into these messes. Intelligence can get us out!
11/03/08
I
WANT
TO
BELIEVE
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