shakh your bootie

The IPCC report can be found at:

http://www.ipcc.ch/press/index.htm

My question is, would you willingly accept a decrease in your quality of life to mitigate the effects of climate change? I suspect human nature is such that we would not. The next question is whether Governments will legislate to force us to change our lifestyles & behaviour- do they have the courage and vision to do this? Will it end up that some "honest" Governments will react, whilst other nations cheat???

shiva

its a governments dreams come true, fear is the name of the game these days and we're bored of terrorists, you watch the next thing to "FEAR" will be climate change, and they cash will start rolling in for the select few! the media will ignore the numbers and predict tidal waves 1000ft high on a weekly basis.

personally i think we'll be ok, smallish but noticable changes but our kids and grandkids are ****ed.

would i change the way i live, yeh why not as long as its not a drastic knee jerk no use to anyone propaganda driven change. I cooked my dinner by solar power the other day and it was mighty tasty and sickeningly green/enviro/left wing/eco warrior friendly to boot. was well surprised how good it was actually

http://solarcooking.org/

http://solarcooking.org/plans/windshield-cooker.htm

The Dean

Nobody will do anything until they actually FEEL the effects...... by which time it will of course be too late.

I have never met anyone who, in polite company, admits to worrying about 'global warming', 'climate change' etc.

As one of my intelligent (......er, well Eton and Oxford actually, but in theory.... well, you know) friends once said to me: "Greenhouse effect? Warmer winters and drier summers?? Yes please!!"

We are doomed.

And what's worse - as the problem intensifies, there will be more of Al Gore on the telly........

Eeyore

Of course, depending on where you are in the world, it can also mean wetter summers and colder winters.

Unfortunately, yes. Far too many vested interests in the fossil fuel industry. As shiva says, we probably won't be affected all that greatly, but our children and grandchildren are screwed and will be cursing our names once we've gone and left them with a ruined planet.

Confucius

Where's GarethR???

littlejimmy

It ain't Global Warming that you want to worry about, it's peak oil. That is really scary. Oil is nearly 100 dollars a barrel, and it is looking more and more like production has peaked. The alternatives just won't cover it, so prepare yourself (and your kids, if you care for them) for a post-oil world, people. No more driving to the mall to buy designer shoes in your big ****-off SUV.

Cheerful stuff.

Oh, and I'm missing Dubai immensely. Well, the weather anyway.

Eva

[QUOTE=littlejimmy;5584316]It ain't Global Warming that you want to worry about, it's peak oil. That is really scary. Oil is nearly 100 dollars a barrel, and it is looking more and more like production has peaked. The alternatives just won't cover it, so prepare yourself (and your kids, if you care for them) for a post-oil world, people.


Oh so this is the answer to another Board's Question....i.e
''What is the best contraceptive?''

shakh your bootie

[QUOTE=Eva;5584553] My mama always told me the best form of contraception was a 1 penny piece held firmly between the knees....

shakh your bootie

Peak oil in itself can actually be a helpful factor; with the oil price as it is, it makes fossil fuel alternatives financially attractive. There is no conceptual reason why you could not supply energy needs through a mix of nuclear, ethanol fuels, solar produced H2 fuel cells, geothermal, wind power etc etc... There are good reasons why 4 nations are sending probes to the moon over the next 12 months - or more correctly, one good reason which is Helium 3 - sufficient supply of which would fuel a tokamak-geometry fusion reactor industry, which is a measure of the growing level of confidence that the Euro-Japanese tokamak fusion reactor project will finally realise the dream of sustainable fusion.

There are sufficient alternatives to the energy suply problem to both sustain humanity and mitigate the need to produce energy through carbon-chain combustion that produces CO2 - the question is whether collective humanity has the intelligence to fundamentally change its behaviour, or whether market forces and short sighted political interest will continue to determine our decision making and lead us down a destructive path.

Nature is fundamentally self-regulating; if you simplify it down to a simple predator-prey model, if we overuse our resources we will eventually reach a tipping point where the population is significantly reduced, or wiped out all together (depending on the parameters - it is a non-linear feed-back system, so has sensitivity to parametric variation). Given that we have the intelligence to understand our own condition, it then becomes a question of whether we then have the intellect and wisdom to make strategic decisions, or charge lemming like into an uncertain future...

{Shaks removes his spectacles and wanders from the lectern}

Eeyore

Mind your backs - lemmings coming through!

shakh your bootie

Ain't that the truth... The hot, fluffy towels always win out in the end...

Madam Medusa

ooohh soz syb...i do offset it by walking to the supermarket, does that help??!!

MM, xx

shiva

[QUOTE=shakh your bootie;5586683] it then becomes a question of whether we then have the intellect and wisdom to make strategic decisions, or charge lemming like into an uncertain future...QUOTE]

thats it then were all screwed.

oil at $100 + is the best thing for us as it will as you say drive the uptake and further development of the alternatives

shakh your bootie

LOL - I'm no better. I don't recycle....

Madam Medusa

ohhh...i do recycle since the kids schools have started offering the facility...must say it was much easier at home cos the council were really hot on recycling and we had all sorts of recycling bins and boxes which were collected every week...

MM, xx