The New Café

[Jester]

The thing that's open for debate is mainly humanity's impact on the climate change.

[Katie]

Sure. I personally believe global warming (and there is documented global warming) is a combination of human activity and natural cycles.

My point to her (and other people who drink the no global warming kool aid) is that just cause your backyard hasn't turned into a desert dosen't mean global warming isn't happening. That theory I listed is a good example of how climate change can cause unexpected twists in how hot or cold it is in a given place.

During the last cold phase of the ice age, the whole earth wasn't covered in ice. Some places were tropical.....just not the ones that are tropical now.

Its all pretty darn interesting.

Its always better to research this stuff and form your own opinions rather than regurgitating polarized information that you see on TV (....cause that's ALWAYS true)

[Candy Kappa]

How the winter time has been acting here in Norway should be a clear sign that global warning is not a mere myth.

[BubblyShell22]

I don't watch Fox News, so I don't get my information from anyone. I believe in climate change, but I don't believe in the B.S. Al Gore keeps spouting about it, and frankly, I just don't care. Climate change does happen, so people need to deal with it and realize that it's not going to go away as it's a natural thing due to the Earth's rotation. At least, that's how I see it anyway. And there's really nothing we can do about it because it's going to keep happening, so why the hell should I give a f*ck?

[Katie]

Originally Posted by BubblyShell22

I don't care about the stupid environment anymore or global warming. It's all a dumb myth anyway.

....but you said this. So....you do belive in global warming (climate change) or is it a myth?

Its pretty obvious that whoever you are listening to does watch Fox pretty heavily. Or is a pretty involved Tea Party person. You can't rely on a single source of information for controversial issues. They are controversial because there's strong evidence for both sides....and strong feelings for both sides. You can't draw conclusions without even understanding the other side's arguement. That's incredibly ignorant.

The truth about climate change lies somewhee in the middle of the far right "its a myth that human activity causes it, its all natural cycles" and the far left "all humans are awful and killing the Earth". Its both. That's why both sides have their evidence. Plain and simple.

You may not care now, but I guarantee in 15 or 20 years you will be complaining about how the government didn't do anything to fix it.

[Leo656]

I'm torn between already pissed that people didn't do more to fix it and the malaise of "we're all kind of f*cked anyway." Very bipolar about it.

[Katie]

That kind of apathy is why the human activity part continues.

It's like the ozone layer hole issue from the 80's. Some people didn't believe it cause they couldn't see it. Others didn't think it could be fixed. But eventually the situation was explained plainly and urgently enough that the masses understood. Things changed. CFC's were banned and the hole was managed.

Same urgency needs to be used with climate change.

[Gabriel GP]

I do believe in global warming, in fact here in Brazil right now we are in the summer, and in january, it's supposed to rain a LOT, but this year literally didn't rain a single day, at least in my city, but in the rest of the country it's not so different since we use mainly hydroelectrics to generate energy in the country, and the reserves of water are already reaching 20%.

Maybe coincidence, or another factor besides global warming that is causing this, but I really doubt that it has nothing to do with it.

[BubblyShell22]

Yeah, I did say that. So what? I thought global warming and climate change were two separate things. So sue me. And no, I don't care about it and never will because I know the government won't do anything because they're stupid a**holes. That's politics for ya.

So my sis went to the doctor yesterday, and she has two tumors on the frontal lobe. One is pea sized and the other is quarter sized. However, the state won't approve a neurosurgeon because they said it's not medically necessary which makes absolutely no sense to me. However, the doctor did say that they look benign and that she should try homeopathic remedies to try and possibly shrink them. But to me, if the state doesn't approve of it, it might be because she's married and in a different bracket than someone who's single. Whatever the case, that's what she's dealing with now. She's not moving down here because she claims Mom will yell at her all the time, which is a load of garbage, but she does this all of the time. And she said the reason her hubby didn't call us was because he didn't want to get yelled at by us, which we wouldn't have done anyway. Guy needs to grow a set.

[Jester]

Originally Posted by Katie

That kind of apathy is why the human activity part continues.

It's like the ozone layer hole issue from the 80's. Some people didn't believe it cause they couldn't see it. Others didn't think it could be fixed. But eventually the situation was explained plainly and urgently enough that the masses understood. Things changed. CFC's were banned and the hole was managed.

Same urgency needs to be used with climate change.

See, that's always been one of my sticking points about the man made effects of climate change. In the past it was global cooling, then global warming, then to catch both extremes "climate change". First the warming was because of unfiltered UV radiation coming through the ozone hole, and now it's reflected light not being able to escape all of the green house gasses.

I know science is constantly being updated and proven and such, but it all seems to be pointing to the same presupposition, "It's all OUR fault."

[BubblyShell22]

Well, I think that it's mainly due to greenhouse gases, which is a natural thing for the Earth to have, so if that's the case, then global warming is just a natural process. It's not entirely the fault of humans as many want to believe, and there's really nothing we can do about it if it's a natural thing.

[Candy Kappa]

Dammit, when I finally get my light bulb it stops lighting after a few minutes, and it smells burnt inside the ceramic fitting, guess I have to replace that one too...

This is seriously frustrating me.

[Storm Wolf]

that's like my lighting in the kitchen. Every time the upstairs tenants walk in that area the bulbs blow! I've spent so much on bulbs it's not even funny!

Must be bad circuitry?

[Refractive Reflections]

Originally Posted by Katie

That kind of apathy is why the human activity part continues.

It's like the ozone layer hole issue from the 80's. Some people didn't believe it cause they couldn't see it. Others didn't think it could be fixed. But eventually the situation was explained plainly and urgently enough that the masses understood. Things changed. CFC's were banned and the hole was managed.

Same urgency needs to be used with climate change.

That's typical of humanity, most won't care about climate change because the science is so abstract and in the future (won't affect their lifetimes) that most people are like, "Well I'm not gonna be here and it's gonna happen, so screw it, who cares!"

While the earth has always had global cooling and warming trends, the reason this present age is so concerned is that the change is occurring faster in centuries, rather than a gradual transition of thousands and thousands of years. What's funny is that climate change is actually more a national security issue than most people realize, even the U.S. military has looked into worldwide political instability due to climate change:
http://www.livescience.com/38167-nat...g-climate.html
http://www.theguardian.com/environme...ocks-nsa-prism
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/renee-...b_1929398.html

...And it's not like these worries are far-fetched either because climate change has been at least partially responsible for the fall of some ancient civilizations:
http://climate.nasa.gov/news/1010

As archaeologists continue to turn up ever more signs of collapsed civilizations, they are finding plenty of evidence that climate shifts are at least partly to blame for the decline in many cases. Those links offer the opportunity to protect the future of our own society by learning from the mistakes of our ancestors.

“When we excavate the remains of past civilizations, we very rarely find any evidence that they as a whole society made any attempts to change in the face of a drying climate, a warming atmosphere or other changes”, Ur says. “I view this inflexibility as the real reason for collapse.”

“Today we have an unbelievable ability to learn about our environment and communicate what we learn to all of society,” he adds. “We need to take better advantage of our communication technology advances in the face of a changing climate.”

[Katie]

The inability to adapt is what kills civilizations. Now that could mean inability to discontinue harmful activities or inability to adjust habits to thrive under new conditions.

Humans are stubborn for the most part. We tend to fear change and have a hard time admitting that sometimes we don't have all the answers and how things were to us in younger days might not be how they are now.

It's not all human activity. There are theories on sun cycles, ice age cycles, galactic position, tilt of the Earth, and so forth. Most of them are interesting reads.

There's no mistake that industrialization hasn't contributed. Carbon levels ( greenhouse gasses included) come from our use of fossil fuels. Naturally that stuff would have never been unlocked by us... But we're innovative creatures.

Industry is good though. Eventually we'll invent cleaner ways to get energy and figure out ways to adapt. If we don't, whether its natural or of our own doing, climate change will do us all in.

[BubblyShell22]

Well, China certainly hasn't helped with all the factories they have. But you're right, Katie, that climate change is going to do us in and in some cases, there's nothing we can do about it. That's why I just don't care about things that are beyond my control and only worry about the things I CAN control.

[Candy Kappa]

Even with a new lamp, both if the remaining bulbs from amazon is now dead.

So pissed I want to break something or someone.

[BubblyShell22]

Whoa. Obviously they were faulty. Not good.

[Hamato Yoshi]

Be careful with old 9V batteries lying around , they can explode and cause fires if they're faulty produced.

Polar bears on Svalbard have a hard time finding food due to the ice melting , saw a docu where one of the 2 pups prolly died due to lack of food

[Storm Wolf]

Either we have really thin ceilings or the people (and their cats) are decendants of elephant people. They constantly walk so heavy footed that lights flicker in the the kitchen and it sounds like they are running in work boots.

The cats are constantly chasing and wrestling each other. When I had cats all they did was sleep! These, non stop, run thru the upstairs apartment. Every so often I hear them knocking something heavy off onto the floor and then playing with that.

I don't feel it'd be right to complain because they aren't nasty people and they don't have loud parties or anthing. I know you can't realy make your cats stop playing and I wouldn't want the poor things cooped up in a cage or something.

Guess I'll just have to deal with the kitty bowling alley upstairs.