Environmental food for thought

[Kristy_07]

This was sent to me in an email this morning... Yes, it's worth the 2mins it will take to read it

Food for thought...

Remember the current volcanic eruption going on in Iceland? Grounded all those flights? Yeah, that's the one...
Well, its spewing of volcanic ash, in just the first FOUR DAYS, negated EVERY SINGLE EFFORT you have made in the past FIVE YEARS to control CO2 emissions on our planet… all of you.

Of course you know about this evil carbon dioxide that we are trying to suppress - it’s that vital chemical compound that every plant requires to live and grow and to synthesize into oxygen for us humans and all animal life.

I know, I know.... (group hug)...it's very disheartening to realize that all of the carbon emission savings you have accomplished while suffering the inconvenience and expense of driving Prius hybrids, buying fabric grocery bags, sitting up till midnight to finish your kid's "The Green Revolution" science project, throwing out all of your non-green cleaning supplies, using only two squares of toilet paper, putting a brick in your toilet tank reservoir, selling your SUV and speedboat, vacationing at home instead of Bali, nearly getting killed every day on your bicycle, replacing all of your $1 light bulbs with $10 light bulbs ...well, all of those things you have done have all went down the tubes in just four days.

The volcanic ash and gasses emitted into the Earth's atmosphere in just four days - yes - ONLY FOUR DAYS by that volcano in Iceland, has totally erased every single effort you have made to reduce the evil beast carbon in the past half decade.

And there are around 200 active volcanoes on the planet spewing out this crud - EVERY DAY.

Oh, I don't really want to rain on your parade too much, but I should mention that when the volcano Mt Pinatubo erupted in the Philippines in 1991, it spewed out more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than the entire human race had emitted in its entire 40 MILLION YEARS on earth. Yes folks, Mt Pinatubo was active for just over one year, but the main climactic eruption lasted just NINE HOURS… think about it. Oh and this was only the 2nd largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century. The largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century was the 1912 eruption of Katmai-Novarupta (Alaska).

Of course I shouldn't spoil this touchy-feely tree-hugging moment and mention the effect of solar and cosmic activity and the well-recognized 800-year global heating and cooling cycle, which keep happening, despite our completely insignificant efforts to affect climate change.

I'm so sorry. And I do wish I had a silver lining to this volcanic ash cloud but the fact of the matter is that the bush fire season across the western USA and Australia this year alone will negate your efforts to reduce carbon in our world for the next TWO to THREE years. And it happens EVERY year. So we are going backwards twice as fast as all our efforts to go forward, JUST from bushfires... let alone those pesky volcanos.

Just remember that your government just tried to impose a whopping carbon tax on you on the basis of the bogus “human-caused” climate change scenario.
Hey, isn’t it interesting how they don’t mention “Global Warming” any more, but just “Climate Change” - you know why? It’s because the planet has COOLED by 0.7 degrees in the past century and these global warming bullshit artists got caught with their recycled pants down.

And just keep in mind that if that same government is re-elected, you will have an Emissions Trading Scheme - that whopping new tax - imposed on you, that will achieve absolutely nothing except make you poorer.

It won’t stop any volcanoes from erupting, that’s for sure.

But hey, grab a Coke, give the world a hug and have a nice day!

PS: I wonder if Iceland is buying carbon offsets?

Thoughts?

 

[Sock Puppet]

Humans have been around for 40 million years? I don't think so. OK, so I'm nit picking......

 

[Kristy_07]

I didn't pick that up on first reading

Still, I think it's an interesting point of view. I don't think I believe in all the climate-change mumbo-jumbo as much as I used to...

 

[Kristy_07]

(not based solely on this article, I should add)

 

[Sock Puppet]

The only "green" changes I've made are energy bulbs, & roof insulation.
The former item mainly because soon incandescents will be obsolete anyway, & the latter item because my house was a dead set sweat box in summer. I'm surprised just how much difference the insulation makes actually.

I don't think a Prius would do a good job of towing the boat....

 

[Dipcdame]

WOW great research there Kristy. All that goes to validate what I've been saying to my family for some time now, that all this climate change is, is the Earth's natural cycle. It's been changing all the time, swinging between ice-ages and temperate times.
We as the human race, in our cleverness believe however, that we can halt the natural progress of the Earth. Well, maybe it's time now to just sit back, and stop trying to manipulate the environment around us.... (short of not chucking poisonous and toxic waste everywhere, that's definitely a no-no). Perhaps now, they will accept that the Earth and nature will fix itself, as it always has. If it means getting rid of the cancer growing and expending on its surface (us unfortunately), then that's what it will do.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm.............. maybe there IS something to this 2012 thing??

Sorry to sound alarmist, but apart from the last line, I think there has to be something in that theory.

 

[Kristy_07]

I've come around to the same line of thinking, Dip. I'll still do my part to be environmentally conscious, but I'll do it because it's the lifestyle I want, not because, if I don't do it, I'll be responsible for the future generations and the state of the earth and etc etc.

 

[slim6y]

It's several of those things we call statistics - you know, the ones where 94% are actually made up on the spot?

Despite the 'spewing 'of CO2 the volcanoes also emitted copious amounts of sulfur dioxide, dihydrogen oxide (the most potent greenhouse gas on Earth - without it the Earth would be on average something like 15'C cooler - that could be one of the 94% statistics made up on the spot - but my lecturer told us that once.

Of course these volcanoes also blow out the incredibly toxic CO, the rotten egg smelling hydrogen sulfide and not to mention the only thing known to disolve glass but hydrofluric acid - luckily in small concentrations, and it only becomes an acid when in the presence of water....

As far as undoing my good work... NO!!!

It's the other way around...

Without the volcanoes the Earth would be cooler.... Much much cooler. They provided us with many of these greenhouse gases we now attribute to global warming.... We do however add to it of course, considerably... but... As of yet, and in the past 20 years since I've studied the environmental sciences, I believe that its only got hotter on Earth because I moved closer to the equator.

I have however, regardless of my preconceived ideas, still purchased long lasting, energy efficient light bulbs, I live in a water efficient house with an energy efficient (non-solar) water heater. I grow plants.... I light fires for my BBQ instead of burning gas (hahaha... gas is really bad!!!).

But above all... I 'educate'.... that's the important one! No kid comes out of my classes without feeling guilty for something our generation has done! Now they have to clean it up

I do remind them that the previous generation was far more responsible for nuclear weapons....

And my generation was far more responsible for stopping the wide use of CFCs - now what is the next generation going to do?

 

[Flaviruthless]

I wonder who came up with that? Because if they were educated at all they would realise that the global warming or climate change researchers (and people who know what they're talking about in general) talk about is man made; it doesn't matter what the volcanoes do, because of human impact there is already a high amount of CO2 in the air - the volcano is adding on to what humans have already done. What I mean by this is say the volcano raised CO2 to 600ppm, and humans have caused 300ppm, then you have 900ppm instead of the NATURAL 600ppm. So, yes volcanoes do impact in an immense way, however they have already done this and this is a largely natural process. The industrial revolution changed the world for ever, not necessarily for the better though. I have read studies and I am a firm believer that the human impact will push us past the tipping point, if it hasn't already.