News and Current Events - 2012

[janjo]

I think the human race is capable of changing the weather, because there are too many of us on the earth. We have used our large brains to make ourselves live longer and to feed ourselves efficiently and this has thrown our numbers as a species out of whack with the rest of nature.
As nature is self regulating, as you say evolution will have an effect, and I suspect our numbers will be brought back into balance by famine, disease, or something else.
A year or two back I had an IT degree student who was doing "data mining" research on population growth and on CO2 emissions, the only time they went down was within about 10 years of the Black Death.
In other words the only sure way of getting the climate back to its usual meteorolgical influences is for there to be less people in the world.
We may be able to defeat these effects by using science of course, but that means an acknowledgement of what is going on.

[doodler]

And I say let nature take its course. Face it, humans are NOT going to give up all their toys and machinery much less restrict breeding. Wars will be fought over it. And in the end, it's going to turn out exactly the way it would anyway. Why go to the hassle?

[janjo]

Unforyunately, Dood, I think nature probably will take its course. I worry about my children and grandchildren though.

[AZ.bbm]

And I say let nature take its course.... And in the end, it's going to turn out exactly the way it would anyway....

I notice that in 'nature,' every advanced physical system allows for some amount of 'variation' (even our DNA), some moderating influence  in order to keep the system from becoming 'static' and dying... Could the human species with its high intelligence be that 'variance' in the global ecosystem? -- IOW, are we here to keep things from getting 'too far under control'..?

+ As Taoists like Ang Lee might say, We are the 'dots' in the Taiji (the yin-yang symbol) -- the flies in the ointment. 

[doodler]

Absolutely. We are part of the system. At least, I think we are. Of course, it could all be preplanned and nothing we do or have done or will do has any influence at all. We like to think it does because it makes us think we can keep or get control. And the fact of the matter, in my opinion, is that's nonsense. We are no more in control than the dinos were.

I can do nothing to make any impact, one way or another. Yeah, yeah, yeah, a lot of people believe if we ALL... but we ALL won't. I won't. The majority of us won't. The kids get the world they get just as we got the one we got and the caveman got the one he got. There's no sense worrying about that aspect since it's out of our hands.

[Marge_Innavera]

"Weather" does not mean just a snow storm in January or thunderstorm in June. Or vice versa.

LOL, actually it does.  Those are weather events, not climate.

Short-term thinking again.

And I say let nature take its course.

Better be prepared for some nasty surprises; Nature doesn't regard human life as anything special. And in mammals, it tends to favor the survivor of adults over the survival of children and babies.

[AZ.bbm]

Absolutely. We are part of the system. At least, I think we are. Of course, it could all be preplanned and nothing we do or have done or will do has any influence at all. We like to think it does because it makes us think we can keep or get control. And the fact of the matter, in my opinion, is that's nonsense. We are no more in control than the dinos were.
I can do nothing to make any impact, one way or another. ...

-I see your point.

Individually, we do seem powerless, but as a collective we are very good at destroying our "house" (Earth)...

In fact, we now have weapons (the neutron bomb) that can destroy ALL life within their kill radii (while leaving the infrastructure intact).

As if that wasn't enough, the UK has developed the world's most powerful laser,capable of unraveling the very fabric of space, itself. [Guardian UK]

Hope that project doesn't get out of hand, or we could all be gone in an instant.

[Tony_]

-As if that wasn't enough, the UK has developed the world's most powerful laser,capable of unraveling the very fabric of space, itself.

    This sounds similar to the building of the first nuclear reactor under the University of Chicago, and the later news that one of the scientists pushed it to its limit (all for the sake of human knowledge, of course).
    There can't BE any human knowldege if there aren't.....any humans.  I don't think this experiment, to study ghost particles, is worth the risk.

 Unless, of course, it's near to Camilla, Charle's Duchess of something or other.  In which case.......

[doodler]

And that might be the way it goes. It's not up to me or you or any group or collective. On one hand, we have all this kicking and screaming about government control. Well, without it, there will be no collective change. And on the other hand... well, there is no other hand. Whether or not all the world's governments... or the one world government in a few years... tries to get a handle on things, doesn't matter. We cannot change nature.

[doodler]

LOL, actually it does.  Those are weather events, not climate.

Short-term thinking again.

Better be prepared for some nasty surprises; Nature doesn't regard human life as anything special. And in mammals, it tends to favor the survivor of adults over the survival of children and babies.

Actually, what I said was

Well, the universe is a whole lot of routine cycles within routine cycles within routine cycles. Annual seasonal weather may just be a cycle within the world's general eonic climate cycle.

Annual seasonal weather.
A cycle within another cycle, specifically the eonic climate cycle.
Which is hardly short term. Unless you're eternal.
At least, around here, an eon is longer than I expect to survive.

[brokebacktom]

What my mother always said: "Man will probally destroy the world because of greed, wars and/or carelessness long before the end should occur or before God planned."

Not sure if this is totally correct, but it's close.

[janjo]

    This sounds similar to the building of the first nuclear reactor under the University of Chicago, and the later news that one of the scientists pushed it to its limit (all for the sake of human knowledge, of course).
    There can't BE any human knowldege if there aren't.....any humans.  I don't think this experiment, to study ghost particles, is worth the risk.

 Unless, of course, it's near to Camilla, Charle's Duchess of something or other.  In which case.......

Not a Camilla fan, Tony?
I like her personally.

[Tony_]

Not a Camilla fan, Tony?
I like her personally.

Well, Jess, I guess that, and her fondness for horsies, could be some recommendation.  It's the UK laser I really object to, and also, it did occur to me that if she goes, we all go  .

 I didn't care much for the research for the Higgs boson either, FWIW.  Sooner or later, these crackpots will create a black hole, or we'll all drift into an alternate universe. Seriously, some of these experiments are unsafe.  I don't trust the Large Hadron Collider or fidgeting with ghost particles.  And scientists that warn about jumping past what we're sure is safe have been too frivolously dismissed.

[doodler]

The Brits have Camilla and we have Rielle, although I don't think Camilla went around bad mouthing her guy's wife in public. Actually, come to think about it, there is no comparison. I'll take Camilla any day.

[Cally]

Camilla's ok, apart from the occasional misguided choice of clothes or hats.