David Kirsh wrote:
> Friends,
>
> I'd like to acknowledge that some good points have been made all around
> on this topic.
>
> Regarding the depletion of populations, extinction of species and
> devastation of habitats, I find myself beyond the analogy of the pimple
> on the elephant's rear. This may be more on the order of shifting deck
> chairs on the Titanic.
>
> The issue that trumps all others, I believe, is the question of the
> consequences of rapid climate change. Some scientists claim that the
> most prominent models have been too conservative and the northern ice
> cap may be gone as early as 2013, as one example. Even if one is in
> doubt, the effect of being wrong and doing nothing is far greater than
> the effect of being wrong about the seriousness/existence of the change
> and acting to remedy/alleviate it. So why not act?
>
> In my belief system, my personal action is relatively meaningless
> unless I'm acting in concert with many others. In fact, the answers
> need to be political (meaning policies that are enforced). But to
> approach political change, there are major impediments. I would start
> with the tacit (U.S.) myth that the only/chief way to participate in a
> democracy is to vote once every 4 years (every two years at the most).
> Add to that myth the idea that great leaders will save us (as if their
> pronouncements are reliable indicators of their intentions and their
> intentions are impervious to the pressures of prevailing political
> forces).
>
Snip was for shortness of bandwidth - save a cyber tree.

While I am in full agreement of warming world - so are the other planets.
What is occurring is twofold (at least!).

1. The Sun for some unknown reason is putting out more energy.
    We as scientists know it will in millions of years, but now ?
    The space probes are detecting this in real time.  I hope
    the initial calculations that predict our Sun to overtake our
    orbit are still functional.  If not we might be in trouble.
2. The great Ice Age all but did in the world, but some of us
    lived and created societies.  The little ice ages - 2 - the last
    was in 1888 that was the year without summer.  It almost
    made the northern part of the US and Canada an ice sheet.

What is very interesting to me is mines and villages are being found
in the mountains (now free) of Greenland.  It was once green or
greener and had Viking families living there.  They made some
of the mines for metal.  The same is occurring in the Alps.

While I think generations since most of recorded history have
used the Earth for what they could get from it.  We also know the
xxx volcanoes as in the Philippines pollute far more than man have
in modern times.  That is really saying something, but even with the
burning oil fires in IRAQ...etc we can't touch the volume of junk they do.

With that said, I for one of many, do what I can when I can.
We recycle, we compost, and when many send to landfills their
leaves or burn them - we compost them for use around plants.
We use wood chips to cover open dirt to allow microbes to live
and grass to take over.   The power company sent two trucks
over here to 'trim' some of our trees.  Thirty five, 35, are stumps.
I had them put our now wood chips destined for fill on our
property so we might save them for nature.

What we can do will make our lives a little better and conserve.
If we do or not, the earth is going to do what it wants but the
Sun rules.

Since we are now in an elliptical orbit from the normal near round
we can expect a cooling trend and perhaps another baby ice age
as we swing further away.  I think the recent alignment of four
planets (and our Galactic center!) had something to do with the
orbit change.

Martin


[ oops - yes it would be good for COA to be a 503! ]
> <snip>
>
> David Kirsh
> Durham, NC
>
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--
Martin H. Eastburn
@ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net
TSRA, Life; NRA LOH & Patron Member, Golden Eagle, Patriot's Medal.
NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder
IHMSA and NRA Metallic Silhouette maker & member.
http://lufkinced.com/

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