10 Years to save the Planet ?

[Cordoba]

Surge in disappearance of Arctic sea ice sparks global warning

Two recent NASA studies reveal that Arctic meltdown is speeding up... sea ice is vanishing faster than ever before... polar bears face extinction...

America's top climate scientist warns we only have a decade to save the planet

The changes are alarming scientists and environmentalists, because they far exceed the rate at which supercomputer models of climate change predict the Arctic ice will melt under the influence of global warming - which is rapid enough.


[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article1603667.ece[/FONT]


This Hadith is on climate change:

Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him as saying:

"The Last Hour will not come before wealth becomes abundant and overflowing, so much so that a man takes Zakat out of his property and cannot find anyone to accept it from him, and till the land of Arabia returns to be meadows and rivers."


For more background by Dr. Farouk El-Baz of Boston University on climate change in the Arabian Peninsula:

http://www.islamonline.net/english/science/2004/06/article08.shtml


What do you think?

 

[Booko]

http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article1603667.eceThis Hadith is on climate change:

Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him as saying:

"The Last Hour will not come before wealth becomes abundant and overflowing, so much so that a man takes Zakat out of his property and cannot find anyone to accept it from him, and till the land of Arabia returns to be meadows and rivers."


For more background by Dr. Farouk El-Baz of Boston University on climate change in the Arabian Peninsula:

http://www.islamonline.net/english/science/2004/06/article08.shtml

I'm acquainted with Abu Harira, but not this Hadith. Very interesting article, Cordoba, and very interesting Hadith.

As you know, Jewish texts also have a prophecy that the desert will bloom.

Isaiah:

35:1 The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.

35:2 It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the LORD, and the excellency of our God.

 

[Idontknow]

Lol water wont flood the world, you guys should investigate about the effect of the oceans rising up, its nothing like human anihilation....another thing ur not so far from true that we have 10 years to save the planet but it will be caused by different reasons, first off the farming grounds are ending, soon there wont be anywhere to farm as grounds are getting sterile, nowdays in all the world there arent anymore space to farm than the ones that are being used (tho we could kill several forests and use them) the other fraction is that our civilization most valuable resource is running out, the hydrocarbures, that CH4 that makes our world spin

 

[Ody]

Agnostico?

You es teh w00t police =]

 

[Halcyon]

10 years left? That's crazy talk. It's already too late!

We needed to cease CO2 emissions completely 10 years ago to prevent a climate shift, its just a matter of waiting and watching now. We're way past the point of no return already.:sorry1:

 

[HopefulNikki]

nowdays in all the world there arent anymore space to farm than the ones that are being used (tho we could kill several forests and use them)

That's actually a common misconception. John Stossel (spelling?) did a report on that claim for 20/20...over 90% of American land is undeveloped. Our problem is overcrowding, not that there's not enough land.

 

[Ryan2065]

So if the planet warms up does that mean girls wear bikinis all day long?

 

[Cordoba]

Climate change was one of the main threats to human civilization identified by Prof. Hawking in his recent talk:

He asked how can the human race survive the next hundred years?

This is his answer:

http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=178f89d3d9987efabcf31c6fb8364fd6.654968&fr=yvmtf

Climate change is happening at an ever increasing rate. While we are hoping to stabilise it, and maybe even reverse it, by reducing our CO2 emissions, the danger is that the climate change may pass a tipping point at which the temperature rise becomes self sustaining.

The melting of the Arctic and Antarctic ice reduces the amount of solar energy that is reflected back into space and so increases the temperature further. The rise in sea temperature may trigger the release of large quantities of CO2, trapped at the bottom of the ocean, which will further increase the greenhouse effect. Let's hope we don't end up like our sister planet Venus with a temperature of 250C and raining sulphuric acid.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,,1836036,00.html

 

[Willamena]

America's top climate scientist warns...

Heehee! Don't you mean America's top weatherman?

 

[doppelganger]

So if the planet warms up does that mean girls wear bikinis all day long?

Maybe. But they'll be covered in melanomas.

 

[Kungfuzed]

This planet has been warm before. It's been frozen before. It's been blasted with large meteors. Life will adapt and evolve as usual.

 

[Cordoba]

Maybe that is tthe case, but the transitions are always dangerous.

This for example is a summary of the current environmental dangers facing a country like Bangladesh:

In Bangladesh the future has arrived; we have environmental refugees, because our country is unusually vulnerable to climate change. Some 70 per cent of the country consists of flood plains, and most is less than 6m above sea level. If there is a 1 per cent increase in average global temperatures, we will lose about 10 per cent of our land. That is a huge problem for Bangladesh.

http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article1603631.ece

 

[Valjean]

That's actually a common misconception. John Stossel (spelling?) did a report on that claim for 20/20...over 90% of American land is undeveloped. Our problem is overcrowding, not that there's not enough land.

Just because land isn't "developed" doesn't mean it hasn't been degraded.What appear to be Natural deserts, forests and plains are actually much altered by human activities. Converting these spaces to farmland would be disasterous.
Various types of pristine ecosystem are essential components of the biosphere. They are the planet's tissues and organs. The planet needs it's Natural, undegraded wilderness areas. Our life depends on it.

 

[Ryan2065]

The planet needs it's Natural, undegraded wilderness areas. Our life depends on it.

Why do we need it?

 

[Valjean]

Why do we need it?

The Earth we know is a complex fabric woven of millions of living and chemical strands. We see the big, obvious ones -- trees, chipmunks, streams, sunlight, &c. But more important are those we're generally unaware of -- phytoplankton, cryptobiotic crusts, fungi, nematodes, jet exhausts, &al.
All these form a web of interrelations and interdependencies. Altering one factor affects the whole. Tweak one apparently insignificant thing and there may be only a local readjustment, or a lake may dry up halfway around the world, or a whole ecosystem may topple.

Undisturbed forests, lakes, oceans, deserts, tundras, &c are vital to the maintenance of the ecosystem we now enjoy. The biological model may be unpopular with some, but the complex chemical and structural interrelationships within a coypu and continent really are similar. A tiny structural or chemical alteration in either can affect the whole organism/landmass.

 

[Cordoba]

I read today about Al-Gore's new film on the BBC.
[FONT=Arial,Geneva,Verdana,Sans-Serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Geneva,Verdana,Sans-Serif]An Inconvenient Truth[/FONT]

Al Gore's new global warming movie has been a blockbuster in the United States. At this point, it stands third in box office history among documentaries.

Gore's film, An Inconvenient Truth, has even beat out Madonna's Truth or Dare; an estimated 2.3 million Americans have seen it.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5345808.stm


Out of the textbook

An Inconvenient Truth takes climate science out of the textbook and moulds it into something which we can see and almost taste.
"This is Mount Kilimanjaro 30 years ago," he says before an image of Africa's snow-capped landmark.

As the shot changes to a nearly snow-free peak: "And this is it last year. Within the decade there will be no more snows of Kilimanjaro."


He plays the same then-and-now trick for a Patagonian glacier, before moving into the future.

Melting of the West Antarctic icecap would raise sea levels globally by about 7m (22ft) - so what would that do to major coastal cities?
Computer simulations show us this future for Shanghai, for Calcutta - and then for New York, the final heartstring tug coming as the World Trade Center memorial site disappears under the waves.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5348692.stm

 

[Valjean]

Think of the ocean pollution that would result from the inundation of the myriad costal cities around the world! Think of the results if the pollution wipes out the pelagic phytoplankton and microorganisms -- no more oxygen and no more CO2 sink! And what happens when the fresh meltwater shuts down the Atlantic conveyor? A European Ice Age!

 

[sandy whitelinger]

What do you think?

Ask me in 11 years.

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

The planet is in no danger at all ...
It will be changed...
It will survive...
We won't.

 

[MdmSzdWhtGuy]

Reminds me of something George Carlin said once "At some point, evolution will give us something that can play a piano better than a human" the only constant for the last 4.5 billion years is change, we have been through ice ages, hot periods, at least 2 large mass extinctions of which we have evidence right now. The one that killed the dinoasaurs 165 million years ago was not even the worst mass extinction in history, there was a much more extensive one long before that.

The Earth will continue to be here for a long time, tho it may be less than comfortable for us humans as the Earth changes. As for 10 years to save the world, I highly doubt that, but I plan to stick around and find out.

B.