Australian Politics Forum - Existential risks

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Existential risks
Sep 8^th, 2013 at 11:19am

Existential risks to our planetary life-support systems

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Once a species masters sources of energy larger by orders of magnitude than its own physiological process (for Homo Sapiens this has been fire, electricity and nuclear fission), the species can hardly be expected to have the wisdom and degree of responsibility to stop its inventions from getting out of control.

Quote:

Government and corporate decisions on climate change are being influenced by misrepresentations of the evidence. What began some 20 years ago as demonstration of solid empirical evidence has deteriorated to media-controlled debate replete with misunderstandings of the basic laws of physics, paleo-climate science, climate science, biological and ecological principles.

Quote:

Does responsibility lie with vested interests and fossil fuel lobbies promoting carbon saturation of the atmosphere? Does it lie with media barons and their mouthpieces hijacking the information systems of democracies, or with cowardly political “leaders” – presiding over extensive demise of future generations? Or does responsibility lie with all of us, with the species?

Deceived by pseudoscientific misconceptions, Homo “sapiens” continues to march toward a cliff, taking much of nature with it.

For those who might not be aware, the first line is a link to the source of the quotes. To avoid making a fool of yourself you'd be wise to follow it and read the entire article before responding.

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muso

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Re: Existential risks
Reply #1 - Sep 8^th, 2013 at 12:20pm

The only part I have problems with is the term "Anthropocene Era". Era normally refers to several hundred million years. For example, "The Jurassic Period was part of the Mesozoic Era". A more appropriate term (if any) would be "Anthropocene Age", which refers to millions of years. In geological terms, he chose the least appropriate time scale.

However, I'd be surprised if the whole problem can't be fixed within thousands of years, albeit with some substantial loss of life.

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Ajax

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Re: Existential risks
Reply #2 - Sep 8^th, 2013 at 12:52pm

# wrote on Sep 8^th, 2013 at 11:19am:

Does responsibility lie with vested interests and fossil fuel lobbies promoting carbon saturation of the atmosphere? Does it lie with media barons and their mouthpieces hijacking the information systems of democracies, or with cowardly political “leaders” – presiding over extensive demise of future generations? Or does responsibility lie with all of us, with the species?

Deceived by pseudoscientific misconceptions, Homo “sapiens” continues to march toward a cliff, taking much of nature with it.

No I suppose according to your beliefs responsibility rests with the world bankers who want to create a $2 trillion dollar carbon credit market.

Once this market is up and running they will make sure that even more manmade CO2 emissions go up into the atmosphere so the market increases.

That's your idea of responsibility I guess...???

Where is the proof................????

Goggle how many BILLIONS that's BILLIONS of dollars the bankers around the world have pumped into the AGW religion.

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1. There has never been a more serious assault on our standard of living than Anthropogenic Global Warming..Ajax
2. "One hour of freedom is worth more than 40 years of slavery & prison" Regas Feraeos

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Re: Existential risks
Reply #3 - Sep 8^th, 2013 at 1:18pm

muso wrote on Sep 8^th, 2013 at 12:20pm:

...
However, I'd be surprised if the whole problem can't be fixed within thousands of years, albeit with some substantial loss of life.

I certainly hope you wouldn't be surprised. The change should be slow enough that none of us will live long enough to find out.

As Stephen Hawking said Quote:

We don’t know where global warming will stop but the worst case scenario is that the earth will become like its sister planet Venus, with a temperature of 250 degrees C and rain sulphuric acid. The human race could not survive in those conditions.

As I've pointed out before, that's an extreme worst case. Nobody says its inevitable or even likely. But do we have a right to take the risk? Will denial mitigate the risk?

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