Budikka666 wrote:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4928010.stm

"The research shows that the rift in the plates of the Earth
that caused the gap to open up happened about 41 million years
ago, which fits in with the build-up of ice sheets on Antarctica
a few million years later."

The more evidence they find, the better it fits and utterly
rejects young-Earth creationism.

In addition to the well-established fact that the YECs spew
nothing but YUCK, this article discusses global climate change.

Anybody reading it should come away with some very clear ideas of
some very important points.

First, the Earth's climate changes. It's been much warmer than it
is now, and it's been much colder. This is a well-established and
unquestioned fact.

Second, the biosphere deals quite well with the temperature
swings.

Third--and most relevant to us humans--individual species do /not/
tend to deal well with temperature swings. Worse, individual
populations within species are usually fucked.

Finally, we /are/ changing the Earth's climate. It may seem
impossible to fill a lake using eyedroppers, but millions of
people all constantly using eyedroppers to move water a few drops
at a time will fill that lake in no time at all. Each time you
turn the switch in the car, flip a light switch, or boot up your
computer, you're adding another drop from from your eyedropper.

What can one conclude?

Well, first, that we don't need to worry about the Earth or the
environment as a whole. A million years from now--the blink of an
eye, really--it'll all be just as happy with or without us,
regardless.

On the other hand, there're some really delightful parts of the
environment that we're destroying with alarming rapidity. The
Earth can get along just fine without coral reefs...but do you
really want to deprive yourself and your grandchildren the chance
to enjoy them? It's like smashing up great-great-grandpa's fine
hardwood chest of drawers and tossing it in the fireplace just
so you can toast some marshmallows. Or, worse, stealing your
neighbor's great-great-grandpa's chest to burn....

If we don't modulate our voracious appetite, we'll kill ourselves
off.

No, likely not humanity--I think we're probably at least as
adaptable and resourceful as cockroaches or sharks; there'll
probably be humans around for a very, very long time. I mean,
instead, us individually. What happened in New Orleans could
happen many, many places around the globe. If it gets bad enough,
we're looking not just at massive loss of life here and there,
but a true global economic depression that'll make the Great
Depression look like a mild case of the blues. People will die off
in huge numbers as basic infrastructure collapses--just as it did
locally in the aftermath of Katrina. If you're not one of the ones
who dies, you'll at least be one of the ones out of a job and out
on the street. If you're one of the rich, you'll suffer the same
fate as the French Monarchy during the Revolution. Nobody--and I
mean nobody--will be happy.

But it doesn't have to be like that. I still have hope that we'll
dodge the bullet, mostly. We're in for some pain and rough times
ahead, but I /think/ that the negative feedback will be sufficient
to avoid the worst of it. Oil is getting scarce, causing prices to
rise, at just about the time when burning more oil is a very bad
idea. But more expensive oil means that people won't be burning as
much....

What we need to do is intelligently apply the two mantras of the
environmental movement: ``Reduce, reuse, and recycle'' and ``Think
globally, act locally.''

This is NOT a call for a self-induced ascetic poverty--quite the
opposite! Remember Ben Franklin--``A penny saved is a penny
earned''? /That's/ what I'm talking about.

The most environmentally-friendly options are /also/ the
friendliest to the pocketbook and to personal prosperity. True,
some--if not most--of them require greater initial spending, but
the personal payoff comes immediately in the form of a better
materialistic lifestyle, in the medium term financially, and
environmentally in the long term.

Never, ever buy another incandescent bulb. Compact fluorescents
don't have to be changed anywhere /near/ as often, they're capable
of providing much higher quality light (much more resembling
natural sunlight than normal bulbs), they cost less over their
lifetime, and they use less energy (thus reducing the load from
extraction and emissions). (There are some even more exciting
lighting technologies on the horizon.)

Don't buy a new car until it costs you as much to keep your old
one going as it would to buy a new one. Spend lavishly on the best
mechanic for repairs and rent a luxury car while it's in
the shop--and factor those increased costs into your financial
calculation. Barring an accident, you could well wind up driving a
prized classic antique that's a better car in every way than the
day it rolled off the factory floor. And you'll have saved tens
of thousands of dollars over what you would have had you bought
new cars every few years.

When you do buy a new car, buy one that gets the best possible
mileage and otherwise shows signs of excellent engineering. It'll
last longer, it'll cost you less money, you won't have to stop and
pay for gas nearly as much, and you'll generally be happier all
the way 'round.

In other words, think beyond just the next few days or
months. Make your plans for years at least, decades and more if at
all possible. Buy /quality/ goods, not cheap *****, and take
care of what you buy. When it's no more use to you, take
every reasonable means to make sure it doesn't wind up in a
landfill. Find some other use for it, sell it to somebody who
wants it, give it to somebody who could put it to good use, or
have it salvaged for scrap. The landfill should be the option of
/last/ resort--not the first as it is today. And, of course,
always opt for quality used items if it's just (or almost) as good
as new.

Remember, at the rate modern medicine is improving, it's /you/
who's likely to be stuck with the consequences, not just your
grandchildren.

``This concludes our irregularly-scheduled tree-hugging idealist
rant. We now return you to the illogical fuckwit fundy flamefest
already in progress.''

Budikka666 wrote:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4928010.stm

"The research shows that the rift in the plates of the Earth
that caused the gap to open up happened about 41 million years
ago, which fits in with the build-up of ice sheets on Antarctica
a few million years later."

The more evidence they find, the better it fits and utterly
rejects young-Earth creationism.

In addition to the well-established fact that the YECs spew
nothing but YUCK, this article discusses global climate change.

Anybody reading it should come away with some very clear ideas of
some very important points.

First, the Earth's climate changes. It's been much warmer than it
is now, and it's been much colder. This is a well-established and
unquestioned fact.

Second, the biosphere deals quite well with the temperature
swings.

Third--and most relevant to us humans--individual species do /not/
tend to deal well with temperature swings. Worse, individual
populations within species are usually fucked.

Finally, we /are/ changing the Earth's climate. It may seem
impossible to fill a lake using eyedroppers, but millions of
people all constantly using eyedroppers to move water a few drops
at a time will fill that lake in no time at all. Each time you
turn the switch in the car, flip a light switch, or boot up your
computer, you're adding another drop from from your eyedropper.

What can one conclude?

Well, first, that we don't need to worry about the Earth or the
environment as a whole. A million years from now--the blink of an
eye, really--it'll all be just as happy with or without us,
regardless.

On the other hand, there're some really delightful parts of the
environment that we're destroying with alarming rapidity. The
Earth can get along just fine without coral reefs...but do you
really want to deprive yourself and your grandchildren the chance
to enjoy them? It's like smashing up great-great-grandpa's fine
hardwood chest of drawers and tossing it in the fireplace just
so you can toast some marshmallows. Or, worse, stealing your
neighbor's great-great-grandpa's chest to burn....

If we don't modulate our voracious appetite, we'll kill ourselves
off.

No, likely not humanity--I think we're probably at least as
adaptable and resourceful as cockroaches or sharks; there'll
probably be humans around for a very, very long time. I mean,
instead, us individually. What happened in New Orleans could
happen many, many places around the globe. If it gets bad enough,
we're looking not just at massive loss of life here and there,
but a true global economic depression that'll make the Great
Depression look like a mild case of the blues. People will die off
in huge numbers as basic infrastructure collapses--just as it did
locally in the aftermath of Katrina. If you're not one of the ones
who dies, you'll at least be one of the ones out of a job and out
on the street. If you're one of the rich, you'll suffer the same
fate as the French Monarchy during the Revolution. Nobody--and I
mean nobody--will be happy.

But it doesn't have to be like that. I still have hope that we'll
dodge the bullet, mostly. We're in for some pain and rough times
ahead, but I /think/ that the negative feedback will be sufficient
to avoid the worst of it. Oil is getting scarce, causing prices to
rise, at just about the time when burning more oil is a very bad
idea. But more expensive oil means that people won't be burning as
much....

What we need to do is intelligently apply the two mantras of the
environmental movement: ``Reduce, reuse, and recycle'' and ``Think
globally, act locally.''

This is NOT a call for a self-induced ascetic poverty--quite the
opposite! Remember Ben Franklin--``A penny saved is a penny
earned''? /That's/ what I'm talking about.

The most environmentally-friendly options are /also/ the
friendliest to the pocketbook and to personal prosperity. True,
some--if not most--of them require greater initial spending, but
the personal payoff comes immediately in the form of a better
materialistic lifestyle, in the medium term financially, and
environmentally in the long term.

Never, ever buy another incandescent bulb. Compact fluorescents
don't have to be changed anywhere /near/ as often, they're capable
of providing much higher quality light (much more resembling
natural sunlight than normal bulbs), they cost less over their
lifetime, and they use less energy (thus reducing the load from
extraction and emissions). (There are some even more exciting
lighting technologies on the horizon.)

Don't buy a new car until it costs you as much to keep your old
one going as it would to buy a new one. Spend lavishly on the best
mechanic for repairs and rent a luxury car while it's in
the shop--and factor those increased costs into your financial
calculation. Barring an accident, you could well wind up driving a
prized classic antique that's a better car in every way than the
day it rolled off the factory floor. And you'll have saved tens
of thousands of dollars over what you would have had you bought
new cars every few years.

When you do buy a new car, buy one that gets the best possible
mileage and otherwise shows signs of excellent engineering. It'll
last longer, it'll cost you less money, you won't have to stop and
pay for gas nearly as much, and you'll generally be happier all
the way 'round.

In other words, think beyond just the next few days or
months. Make your plans for years at least, decades and more if at
all possible. Buy /quality/ goods, not cheap *****, and take
care of what you buy. When it's no more use to you, take
every reasonable means to make sure it doesn't wind up in a
landfill. Find some other use for it, sell it to somebody who
wants it, give it to somebody who could put it to good use, or
have it salvaged for scrap. The landfill should be the option of
/last/ resort--not the first as it is today. And, of course,
always opt for quality used items if it's just (or almost) as good
as new.

Remember, at the rate modern medicine is improving, it's /you/
who's likely to be stuck with the consequences, not just your
grandchildren.

``This concludes our irregularly-scheduled tree-hugging idealist
rant. We now return you to the illogical fuckwit fundy flamefest
already in progress.''

Cheers,

b&

--
EAC Memographer
BAAWA Knight of Blasphemy
``All but God can prove this sentence true.''

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