And now for something REALLY DIFFERENT...

(multiple science studies affirm)

This statement can be used to justify anything. Trees and Plants - please save us! We promise to stop cutting down forests!

From the Big Bang? to beginning of written history the earth has undegone untold upheavals of it's own internal making. In one form or another, life-forms survived and evidently thrived if we're any indication. I see no reason to doubt that things will not go on just as earth intends.

atreis wrote:

Yes, the planet WILL recover eventually, pretty much regardless of what we do to it. The problem isn't that it won't recover, it's that some of us would like it to remain habitable for many of its current inhabitants, and for it to remain a place where we humans can continue to thrive.

Then you'll have to get the cooperation of China and other nonAmerican nations and I don't see that happening.

magnusfide wrote:
Plants ingest CO2 to grow. The rise of CO2 is creating rapid growth in the planet's forests and plant life (multiple science studies affirm).

The forests and other plant life scrub the air of CO as well. So yes, the planet is self-healing and yes, within 50 years it could look like that if the fields aren't replaced by concrete from developers.

Unfortunately, it's not healing as quickly as we're wounding it. Despite this increased consumption (as well as ocean acidification) CO2 levels are still rising.

Yes, the planet WILL recover eventually, pretty much regardless of what we do to it. The problem isn't that it won't recover, it's that some of us would like it to remain habitable for many of its current inhabitants, and for it to remain a place where we humans can continue to thrive.

magnusfide wrote:
Plants ingest CO2 to grow. The rise of CO2 is creating rapid growth in the planet's forests and plant life (multiple science studies affirm).

The forests and other plant life scrub the air of CO as well. So yes, the planet is self-healing and yes, within 50 years it could look like that if the fields aren't replaced by concrete from developers.

Agreed, however for plants oxygen is a waste product (yes folks, we breath plant excrement) it's the carbon that the plants use, so I'd have to guess that any atmospheric carbon compound could ultimately be useful to plants.

I like the part about the world being paved over by developers. I had an environmental consulting business for years. Part of what I did was historical research of property usage. It was scary seeing multi-decade aerial photo sets showing beautiful Midwest farmland becoming subdivisions, all because it was relatively flat and cheap to build on.

Steve

Plants ingest CO2 to grow. The rise of CO2 is creating rapid growth in the planet's forests and plant life (multiple science studies affirm).

The forests and other plant life scrub the air of CO as well. So yes, the planet is self-healing and yes, within 50 years it could look like that if the fields aren't replaced by concrete from developers.

There are many many natural events far better at disrupting the planet than anything we puny humans can do. The really comical part is Mother Earth doesn’t care, she’s self-healing. Take anything mankind might do, even all out nuclear holocaust, and within a million years (a hiccup in geological time) there will be very little evidence it even happened, of course mankind will be gone, but Mother Earth will be just fine.

Great news! So what you are saying is that this:


And this:


Will, in a million years, look like this:


No disrupting the planet in the first two pics - I feel much better now....

Geocritter wrote:


I have to chuckle at these save-the-planet groups. There are many many natural events far better at disrupting the planet than anything we puny humans can do. The really comical part is Mother Earth doesn’t care, she’s self-healing. Take anything mankind might do, even all out nuclear holocaust, and within a million years (a hiccup in geological time) there will be very little evidence it even happened, of course mankind will be gone, but Mother Earth will be just fine.

So anyone who wants to hide in a cave, by all means do, as for me I’d rather go out in the initial cataclysm then die a slow unpleasant death during the aftermath.

Steve

Agreed. Well put.

Being a geologist for 34 years I’ve read about and even studied (to a small degree) many extinction events. Many involve a supervolcano eruption such as the Yellowstone Supervolcano eruption 660,000 years ago, which formed todays Yellowstone caldera (when you drive into Yellowstone NP, you're actually driving into an enormous crater), or a large meteorite strike such as the Chicxulub Meteor that struck the Yucatan Peninsula 66 million years ago (and took out the dinosaurs). Events such as these put massive amounts of dust into the atmosphere partially blocking out the sun, often for years, without the sun weather becomes disrupted and it becomes colder, much colder. Hmmm… no photosynthesis, severe cold, bye bye plant life creating a domino effect on down the food chain. An extinction event is a good time to be a cockroach, something that can live on decaying dead things.

I have to chuckle at these save-the-planet groups. There are many many natural events far better at disrupting the planet than anything we puny humans can do. The really comical part is Mother Earth doesn’t care, she’s self-healing. Take anything mankind might do, even all out nuclear holocaust, and within a million years (a hiccup in geological time) there will be very little evidence it even happened, of course mankind will be gone, but Mother Earth will be just fine.

So anyone who wants to hide in a cave, by all means do, as for me I’d rather go out in the initial cataclysm then die a slow unpleasant death during the aftermath.

Steve

I guess you just leave the solar panels behind...