Comments on: Hope for Peak Oil. Soon.

By: Aaron Fay

Aaron Fay — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 02:49:08 +0000

And it’s not like the news headline about the toxic properties of degrading plastic (assuming there was one) would say, “Plastic producers worldwide shut down in favor of a home (Planet Earth)”…it would be more like, “Scientists believe there may be a connection between the degradation of plastics and the population decline of (insert obscure, never-heard-of species here).” …but maybe that’s just me being cynical…

Thanks for the post,
Aaron

By: Sami

Sami — Fri, 25 May 2007 09:09:20 +0000

D’Arcy I am definitely with you. I do agree that it’s a major problem, but I personally feel that its only a matter of time and its not really preventable. In the long run it’s an eventuality that we’ll have to deal with… Economic growth essentially means pollution and plastics are a cheap source of generating revenue (thinking of China). By the time we fully understand the relevance of what we’re doing to the planet, it’s likely to be too little, too late — if it isn’t currently. Hopefully we’ll figure out how to colonize space, which in itself seems somewhat of a pipe dream considering the amount of complexity involved — not to mention the current scientific impossibility.

By: dnorman

dnorman — Wed, 23 May 2007 13:57:41 +0000

Olorin: the effects that contrails have on the environment were spotted when aircraft were grounded after Sept. 11, 2001. It showed that without the manufactured high-atmosphere clouds resulting from contrails, the atmospheric temperature variation increased by about 1˚C - over the three-day window. And here's the direct link to the Corpus Callosum post on Global Dimming, in case it trickles off the front page of that blog.

By: Olorin809

Olorin809 — Wed, 23 May 2007 11:25:05 +0000

We need more time! I wonder if you are leaving out “Global Dimming”. Check this out: The basic idea is this: particulate pollution and jet aircraft contrails have combined to reduce the effect of global warming. This suggests that the models used to understand global warming need to be revised. There are several lines of evidence that indicate this is true. The implications are bad. There is reason to believe that it has already led to the deaths of millions of people.

I need not belabor the point: the emotional message is carried in the video, and the technical details are covered well in the Wikipedia entry on global dimming.

50 minute Nova video: The Corpus Callosum – http://scienceblogs.com/corpuscallosum/