[at-l] ANWR

[icw39@ncfreedom.net (Clark Wright)]

The only thing I "claimed" [remember- that was your label on my words]
was not to know - I restake my personal claim in that regard; you
certainly are entitled to be much more sure as to your own personal
conclusions . . .

I would observe that the obvious common ground here is that we all can
and should support increased personal and societal energy efficiency and
conservation, and the conservation of special places that we reach an
accord among oursleves ought to be preserved with as little additional
human impact as possible . . .  that's enough to keep me busy right
there for several lifetimes! :)

hike on,

Thru-thinker

"Bob C." wrote:
> 
> "...it (global warming) sure as heck to me is a LOT more complicated an issue
> than most who debate it seem to admit," claims thru-thinker.
> 
> Scientists for more than a century have been able to calculate what the natural
> temperature of the earth would be given our distance from the sun. Those
> calculations showed that the world should be a lifeless orb of frozen ice.
> 
> They calculated again and decided it was the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
> that trapped the heat needed to allow life on earth to evolve. No one has
> seriously disputed this conclusion to my knowledge. My high school physics
> teacher explained the fundamentals to me nearly 60 years ago.
> 
> For the past two centuries humans have been mining billion year old carbon and
> dumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. If some carbon dioxide keeps the
> earth warm enough for life, it seems reasonable to me that more carbon dioxide
> would make it still warmer. The surprising thing is not that this is so, but if
> it for some reason it were not so.
> 
> There are confounding things that complicate this simple picture, I know. Clouds
> for one. Some clouds reflect the energy of the sun, reducing global warming.
> Other clouds serve to trap the energy of the sun, all depending on their
> thickness. Other pollutants humans put into the atmosphere also complicate the
> picture. Some reflect energy from the sun. Some help trap that energy.
> 
> But the picture is clear to most scientists who have studied the matter. The
> earth is getting warmer and humans are to blame.
> 
> This is a very dangerous game we are playing. If the earth was the size of a
> basketball, the atmosphere that sustains life would be only a bit thicker than
> the smear of sweat after a hard-played game.
> 
> If the earth were the size of a blueberry, this life preserving atmosphere would
> be thinner than the bloom that gets rubbed off on our fingers as we place the
> berries in a pail.
> 
> Weary
> 
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