Climate change, don't you know? is the real issue facing our society today.
We went through the 50's and 60's dreaming of a new, technically modern reality (remember 2001 - A space Odyssey? - we were supposed to have cocktail waitresses in space over 10 years ago.
Well, today we have a presidential election being decided between two candidates who refuse to discuss this issue.
Below is my take on why it is important to push this issue.
I wanted to reply to everyone here
but don't have the time to write 30 messages! I had no idea this was happening. I am glad to read all you have to think, no matter how shortsighted and Naive you all can be.
The simple fact is that we have already locked in a climate change that will profoundly change our ability to feed ourselves, our future generations are already set for a long, hard struggle for survival within the next 50 years.
China has scheduled burn to add 350 Giga tons of carbon in the next 20 years.
if the whole world adds 565 Giga tons of carbon into the atmosphere we will see temperatures rise to 5 degrees centigrade on average. . .the last time this happened the globe lost 95% of all life on the planet at the end of the Pleistocene.
When our polar ice cap is completely gone in the next 15 years the change in the earth's absorption of sunlight in June will be enough to effectively DOUBLE the amount of CO2 in the earths atmosphere (from present levels).
I am not opposed to satellites, science or studies, hell, it was the studies of Venus' atmosphere that gave us the heads up to what we are facing today.
however, to spend any time talking about much of anything else than how to get the hell off of coal and natural gas and oil in the next 20 years is a fool's errand and will lead to the collapse of technical modernity within the lifetimes of most of you reading this now.
This was a response to a comment I made on fishoutofwater's recent
diary.
His diary was about a kind of rock that was discovered on Mars that indicates the potential for tectonic plate subduction, much like earth has.
I said,
In physics class my professor was expounding
on the benefits of scientific exploration to mars, he wanted to establish a colony there.
I raised my hand and said, "to what purpose" and he stated a scientific philosophical treatise on the human condition and it's need to expand and explore new realms, to seek out new life and new civilizations. . .whatever, some kind of b.s. based on star trek. . .
It seems to me that if we halted extra planetary activities and focused entirely on this planet, we may (just maybe) have a chance for continued existence with some minor semblance of technologically advanced society (albiet after a massive climate-change induced die off).
what do you think?
It turns out that you all think that the sanctity of science for science's sake is good enough, that the economic return on investment for this kind of scientific research pays for itself. . .yada yada yada.
All that is fine and good. Hell I LOVE science.
the simple fact is, if we don't get our shit together people, I mean like NOW we won't have a society to come back home to in 50 years. I mean that quite literally.
so what are you going to do about it?