Tipping Point? Earth Headed for Catastrophic Collapse, Researchers Warn

[White Eagle]

Here's something to get our minds off of Politics for awhile. I get a newsletter from Live Science and this is their article today. It is predicted to be tilted at the end of this century, so I doubt any of us have anything to worry about. Go to some of the other links. Interesting web page.

Earth Headed for Collapse, Researchers Warn | LiveScience

Tipping Point? Earth Headed for Catastrophic Collapse, Researchers Warn
Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience Senior Writer
Date: 06 June 2012 Time: 12:59 PM ET

Earth is rapidly headed toward a catastrophic breakdown if humans don't get their act together, according to an international group of scientists.

Writing Wednesday (June 6) in the journal Nature, the researchers warn that the world is headed toward a tipping point marked by extinctions and unpredictable changes on a scale not seen since the glaciers retreated 12,000 years ago....

They had this image of the earth with the article, but I don't think it is showing a tilt, or is it?

 

[rareboy]

The earth is not reaching a tipping point. It will survive. The species that inhabit earth are likely going to be dramatically affected though...even to the point of extinction for many...including humans one suspects..since we are anything but resilient under extreme conditions.

Sic transit gloria mundi.

Here's to the post humanoid and mammalacious world.

 

[maxpowr9]

humans will destroy the planet long before any natural disaster does.

 

[Benvolio]

Does anyone seriously think it would be possible for humans to do enough to make a difference? The liberals have seen environmentalism as a tool against capitalism and for more big government and big taxes with little or no chance of success. World wide the one possibility which might make a difference is an attempt to slow population growth. No one seems interested in that. In the US, the liberals want to committ the US to serious reduction in emissions BUT they want to continue importing millions ot new polluters and emitters.

 

[maxpowr9]

All it takes is a psycho to get a hold of a few nuclear bombs.

 

[Kulindahr]

The evidence is there. Humans use something like 95% of the earth's vegetated (or that could be vegetated) surface, and have altered almost all of that from its natural state. Humans have altered the balance of species radically, including eliminating thousands of species. Humans have changed entire hydrological systems, including the reversal of the directions of rivers. Humans have depleted topsoil across millions of square miles and are changing the chemical balances of entire seas by replacing the nutrients with chemicals that pollute the runoff. Humans have paved and built up hundreds of thousands of square miles, altering the albedo of the planet's surface and changing the pattern of insolation and re-radiation. Humans have filled the spaces they use with machines which generate heat every time they are used, pumping multitudinous kilocalories into the atmosphere, warming it unnaturally. Humans pump chemicals into the atmosphere, which return in rain and alter the pH and other aspects of numerous bodies of water. And yes, humans have pumped millions of tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, causing the planet to heat more rapidly than it ever has in the geological and biological record.

Anyone who doubts that humans not only can change but already have changed the planet drastically is scientifically ignorant -- in many cases, willfully.


OTOH, that the tipping point is now being set that far in the future is a sign that we've been getting something right -- I can remember when scientists thought in would be in the mid to late 20s.

 

[frankfrank]

Does anyone seriously think it would be possible for humans to do enough to make a difference? The liberals have seen environmentalism as a tool against capitalism and for more big government and big taxes with little or no chance of success. World wide the one possibility which might make a difference is an attempt to slow population growth. No one seems interested in that. In the US, the liberals want to committ the US to serious reduction in emissions BUT they want to continue importing millions ot new polluters and emitters.

It's still an open question, but there's no doubt that humans are contributing enough to increase the statistical chance (and substantially, I think) of reaching an irretrievable tipping point.

 

[chance1]

debbie downer much ?

 

[andysayshi]

Here's to the post humanoid and mammalacious world.

I, for one, welcome our new mammalacious overlords.

 

[Joshua_me]

I'm reminded of the opening 20 min. sequence of "Superman: The Movie". (1978, I believe)

Perhaps that's not so far off the mark.

*Sigh*

I mention it only in passing.

 

[Benvolio]

It's still an open question, but there's no doubt that humans are contributing enough to increase the statistical chance (and substantially, I think) of reaching an irretrievable tipping point.

Actually my question was intended to ask if we can actually do anything NOW to make a difference? I doubt it.

 

[White Eagle]

The evidence is there. Humans use something like 95% of the earth's vegetated (or that could be vegetated) surface, and have altered almost all of that from its natural state. Humans have altered the balance of species radically, including eliminating thousands of species. Humans have changed entire hydrological systems, including the reversal of the directions of rivers. Humans have depleted topsoil across millions of square miles and are changing the chemical balances of entire seas by replacing the nutrients with chemicals that pollute the runoff. Humans have paved and built up hundreds of thousands of square miles, altering the albedo of the planet's surface and changing the pattern of insolation and re-radiation. Humans have filled the spaces they use with machines which generate heat every time they are used, pumping multitudinous kilocalories into the atmosphere, warming it unnaturally. Humans pump chemicals into the atmosphere, which return in rain and alter the pH and other aspects of numerous bodies of water. And yes, humans have pumped millions of tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, causing the planet to heat more rapidly than it ever has in the geological and biological record.

Anyone who doubts that humans not only can change but already have changed the planet drastically is scientifically ignorant -- in many cases, willfully.


OTOH, that the tipping point is now being set that far in the future is a sign that we've been getting something right -- I can remember when scientists thought in would be in the mid to late 20s.

I knew you would answer this with something like this. You must have read further in the links supplied.

BTW i love mammalacious

 

[Telstra]

what's the solution and, more importantly, who's going to force China and India to comply?

birth rates are falling in most of the western world... my understanding is that the US would actually be seeing negative population movement if it wasn't for immigration.

comply at home first and set an example ...

 

[Kulindahr]

Actually my question was intended to ask if we can actually do anything NOW to make a difference? I doubt it.

We could, if we had the will. A French experiment showed that we can orbit very large mirrors, and JPL work has shown that the number of such mirrors needed to cut down on the incoming solar heating is not huge -- that's not cutting it down to balance the mess we've made, but enough to give us till around 2080 to 2100 to fix our mess.

The biggest cost of that approach wouldn't be launching the mirrors, BTW -- it would be in keeping the mirrors supplied with station-keeping fuel decade after decade (though that could be brought down tremendously if we can get an elevator to orbit).

I knew you would answer this with something like this. You must have read further in the links supplied.

BTW i love mammalacious

Actually I didn't glance at the links. When I went to OSU, I was a global warming scoffer. It took like four years, but the evidence started getting through to me, and I realized humans actually could screw with the planet, mostly because it's not a matter of super-massive influence as would seem to be needed against a static system, but of just a little influence in the right places needed against a dynamic system of precarious equilibrium. Even without greenhouse gases, just the heat we produce and the change in albedo would bring about serious climate change; it would just take a bit longer.

 

[Kulindahr]

You just don't seem to fully comprehend the severity of the situation. Capitalism is the problem right now and it is polluting this planet without respect for future generations. Of course the republican and libertarian only care about now and not the future.

Capitalism isn't the problem; incomplete accounting is a problem. Complete accounting makes sure that all the costs of doing business are covered. Pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere causes damage to the environment, and is therefor a cost. Since corporations aren't going to pay those voluntarily, the solution is a tax.

But don't give that tax into the hands of the government; give it into the hands of an international foundation made up primarily of hard-headed scientists (who can say what should be done) and hard-head practical businessmen (who can say what can be done). As other nations start paying in, they'd get to add scientists and businessmen, too. Call it "Balance the Earth, Unltd.", or something, with the sole responsibility of working to restore balance. Since the biggest problem right now is the atmosphere -- though, increasingly, also the oceans -- that's where they'd start.

Maybe they'd begin by buying scrubbers for industrial stacks in Indonesia (who knows?), but at least they'd be doing something.

 

[White Eagle]

We could, if we had the will. A French experiment showed that we can orbit very large mirrors, and JPL work has shown that the number of such mirrors needed to cut down on the incoming solar heating is not huge -- that's not cutting it down to balance the mess we've made, but enough to give us till around 2080 to 2100 to fix our mess.

The biggest cost of that approach wouldn't be launching the mirrors, BTW -- it would be in keeping the mirrors supplied with station-keeping fuel decade after decade (though that could be brought down tremendously if we can get an elevator to orbit).



Actually I didn't glance at the links. When I went to OSU, I was a global warming scoffer. It took like four years, but the evidence started getting through to me, and I realized humans actually could screw with the planet, mostly because it's not a matter of super-massive influence as would seem to be needed against a static system, but of just a little influence in the right places needed against a dynamic system of precarious equilibrium. Even without greenhouse gases, just the heat we produce and the change in albedo would bring about serious climate change; it would just take a bit longer.

I can understand what you are saying and what the scientists are saying. But since I haven't studied for the test, I will just believe you.

 

[andysayshi]

BTW i love mammalacious

With BBQ sauce?

 

[Telstra]

how's that working out for Scandinavia?

What i've heard, they do pretty well.

 

[Kulindahr]

With BBQ sauce?

Depends. Grill, or rotisserie?