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Hawke[_3_]

On 1/14/2011 5:02 AM, wrote:
On Jan 14, 2:09 am, wrote:

You have to pick a side.

Or simply it's better to be
prepared for the worst than have it hit us at the worst possible moment.

Hawke

I think it is too early to pick a side. There is a lot a research
going on, but as far as I can tell no one has figured out a model that
tells how much of the change is anthropogenic and how much is caused
by other causes. I pay a lot of attention to John Christy at the U of
Ala. at Huntsville. He has done a lot to measure the global
temperature using satellites. And has pointed out the many problems
with using weather stations. But he is a realist. He agrees that
2010 was a hot year, just as hot as 1998 by his data.

We are kind of between a rock and a hard place as far a doing
anything. Alternate energy sources are still not economical. And if
we decided to act now, it would be many years before we could replace
the current sources of energy. So taking a few more years to
determine exactly what the causes are is not a bad idea.

Meanwhile if we have to do something, maybe it should be to help the
Chinese put out the underground coal fires. They consume twenty
million tons of coal a year. A major source of CO2 that produces no
benefits. We could practice on some of the underground coal fires in
the US.

Dan

I think our only hope is some kind of unexpected breakthrough in energy
that will allow us to transition away from fossil fuels. Wind and solar
are great but we all know the sun doesn't shine all the time and neither
does the wind blow. But if we had a breakthrough in algae or something
completely unexpected it would solve the problems.

The way I see it now is that it's a race between us destroying the
planet by overheating it or finding some alternative energy source that
would prevent that from happening. When you look at how India and China
are growing and how much more energy they are going to need plus all of
our future needs you can't help but notice that it would take a huge
jump in fossil fuel consumption to allow it.

We are probably overheating the planet right now with the level of
burning we're doing. If we increased that to keep up with much higher
energy demand it would accelerate all the negative outcomes that are
predicted. So we either find something to take the place of fossil fuels
or we screw ourselves. The question is which comes first. I hope I'm
dead if we don't find an alternative in time because things are going to
get bad, real bad, if we raise the planet's temperature too much.

Hawke