With all the hype about global warming, I think it only proper to ask whether that might be a good thing after all. Not sure about the actual year, but sometime near 1900 it was cold enough for ice to form in Galveston bay. A man I worked with watched people driving their cars on ice on Lake Worth,(I think it was that lake he said) That was sometime in the early 1930's. I can remember when nothing was moving in central Texas because of ice. (1949 & 1950 were both severe) I'm glat it's not that cold here now.

It will be for many lifeforms existence, including our own, if it causes a shift or realignment in the continents. But personally I don't think of global warming as necessarily man induced, at least not to the point some have suggested. I do, however support keeping as many pollutants out the air we breath. I'm on neither end of the spectrum concerning this particular issue.

Depends how close to the coast you live I suppose.

It will not cause a shift in the continents (continental drift depends on magma movement, not atmosphere). But it will cause major changes in animal migration and competition as more that are used to warmer climate move North. Many will go extinct from changes in their habitat - polar bears will lose hunting grounds, some shore animals won't have time to adapt to rising seas (incl'd us), plants may bloom before the insects arrive to pollinate (or vice versa), plants or prey will disappear and those that depend on them will naturally follow.

Is this all bad? Depends on your POV. The Earth's organisms will probably adapt - at least some will, but we most likely won't like the changes at all. With loss of farm land and rising seas conflicts and wars will increase due to our own competition for resources.

While I don't believe we are entirely to blame, we definitely speeded up any warming that might have been occurring until it's at a pace that afects all life drastically.

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From what I've read some scientists believe it's possible albeit over tens of thousands of years. Granted this is an interesting subject, however admittedly it's bit of out of any the fields of study that I've had to learn, or that I have been associated with. In my opinion our immediate concern should be over pollutants we'd have to breath (see Beijing Olympics http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...413102036.htm), as opposed to any possibility of platonic shifts, etc... in the distant future.

The Seattle Times: Nation & World: The truth about global warming

"Global average air temperatures have risen about 1.2 degrees over the past century. The warming is also apparent in the oceans, in boreholes sunk deep in the ground, in thawing tundra and vanishing glaciers.

Earth's climate has swung from steamy to icy many times in the past, but scientists believe they know what triggered many of those fluctuations. Erupting volcanoes and slow ocean upwelling release carbon dioxide, which leads to warming. Mountain uplifting and continental drift expose new rock, which absorbs carbon dioxide and causes cooling. Periodic wobbles in the planet's orbit reduce sunlight and set off a feedback loop that results in ice ages."

I'm certainly in favor of cutting out all pollutants that we possibly can as long as we don't destroy our economy in the process, because I don't think it is necessary to do that. Internal combustion engines are many times cleaner than they were in the '50s for example.
As to seas rising to flood levels because of melting polar caps, I remain unconvinced. Has anyone realistically calculated the foot acres contained in these caps and spread that amount over all the oceans of the earth to give us more than an "educated guess" as to how much rise that would cause?

Yes, they have calc that, Tho I don't have the fig ready at hand, it's figured in multiple inches at least.

I watched a video in school that within a 100 years greenland will break up and cause water levels to raise drastically due to global warming. If this is true, not a good thing

"Multiple inches"? New Orleans can get a small break in the levee and get a lot more rise than that! Now if they said "multiple FEET" that might mean something. Otherwise, it's a non-issue except to the "chicken littles" among us. These people are indirectly responsible for the uncontrollable fires on the West Coast. (Musn't control burn or take ANY wood out of the woods) They destroyed the lumber business in the Pacific Nortwest didn't they, all to save the spotted owl. Later the horned owl moved in and ate the spotted owl. In Centeral Texas, we about had the fire ants wiped out, and then the whackos made them stop using that awful insecticide because it was making the birds egg shells soft and was affecting their population. What happened? Why those fire ants climbed right up the trees and ATE the hatchlings in the nest. More could be said, but the man who said that a little learning can be a dangerous thing really got it right!

It may be a good thing in other ways as well.

Heat causes more evaporation.

More evaporation, creates more rain.

More rain, creates more and healthier plant life.

More plant life, consumes more carbon dioxide.

More plant life also creates more oxygen.

As a human, more oxygen is a good thing, right?

It depends what you believe... lots of people over here think it's a load of eye wash, the government pulling a fast one, especially when it comes to the recycling issue.

We've just heard that our gas prices are going up by 35%, there's no possible way I and many others will be using the central heating this winter, so I guess global warming right now seems to be are only saving grace.

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Originally Posted by Galveston1

With all the hype about global warming, I think it only proper to ask whether that might be a good thing after all. Not sure about the actual year, but sometime near 1900 it was cold enough for ice to form in Galveston bay. A man I worked with watched people driving their cars on ice on Lake Worth,(I think it was that lake he said) That was sometime in the early 1930's. I can remember when nothing was moving in central Texas because of ice. (1949 & 1950 were both severe) I'm glat it's not that cold here now.

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It all depends on if you are a sea creature, or if you are human being living on some low island or in a river delta like Bangladesh (yes Galveston : that are real human beings too !)

All seaports under many meters of water... Salt Lake city at sea... Evaporating CO2, Methane, and other gas-ice deposits under the ocean floors... Extinction of polar bears , possible extinction of reindeer and eskimo's... Your own waterfront for sale... Getting in an ever increasing circle of global warming till it is too late...

Not a good thing, Galveston. A very bad thing, even if it is only a possibility...
Those who play with fire may burn their fingers. Let's hope it will be your fingers and remain with that...

:rolleyes:

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Credo - you forgot the changes in weather patterns. Droughts in 'breadbaskets,' floods, maybe an increase in hurricane severity...

It seems our only option is to eventually get off the planet.

Sun's dying.. We are using up all our reasources.. And our solar system is going to crash into another... In many years yes.. but still.

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Originally Posted by WVHiflyer

Credo - you forgot the changes in weather patterns. Droughts in 'breadbaskets,' floods, maybe an increase in hurricane severity....

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Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa ! I just provided a general picture. :)

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Originally Posted by KissMe10der

It seems our only option is to eventually get off the planet.

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Rather difficult for humanity, once you have (mis) used all your resources for very temporal personal gain.

Note : Our solar system may crash into another. But that is no problem.
Not even the crash of our Milky way galaxy into the Andromeda galaxy will change much.
By that time all life on earth will have been extinct for eons anyway... :)

:rolleyes:

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We will eventually transition out of using petroleum much like we transitioned from whale oil to electricity .

Climate change happens. Was it human activity that turned Greenland from lush inhabitable farm lands to an ice sheet ? The area I live in used to be covered by glacier .But the glacier receded long before the SUV.

Humans have had to adapt to changing conditions throughout our brief history on the planet. Certainly dramatic climate changes have occurred in our recorded history before ;and certainly before the advent of the internal combustion engine.

The problem with the alarmist is that they want draconian changes in a time frame they know will never happen . Also their main spokesperson is a complete hypocrite enriching himself with chicken-little proclamations.

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Originally Posted by Galveston1

Is global warming necessarily a bad thing?

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Hello Gal:

It DOES depend on your circumstances... Because an oil pipeline in hot, one of your right winged brethren suggested we SHOULD drill in the Anwar because the poor frigid caribou will like it.

Do YOU believe somebody actually elected her? Yes, I guess YOU would.

excon

Ex, have you seen pictures of caribou grazing near the pipeline? Animals too are adaptable. Some of you are really paranoid.
Cred, really! Meters of water? Those figures are unproven. Can you prove them? That's what I thought!