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To: xcamel; steelyourfaith; SunkenCiv

Ping.


2 posted on 01/11/2009 5:15:35 AM PST by decimon
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To: decimon
Ward himself believes that the only help for the planet over the long run is management by human beings - whether that means actively adjusting the chemical composition of the atmosphere or using giant satellites to modify the amount of sunlight that reaches us. As Ward sees it, the planet doesn't need our help destroying itself. It will do that automatically. It needs us to save it.

Hoo Boy! Why not just invade other planets and save ourselves? Let the 'catastrophes' fall where they may...

This crap just opens the door to more control over human endeavour, not less.

4 posted on 01/11/2009 5:30:40 AM PST by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: decimon; calcowgirl; Horusra; CygnusXI; Entrepreneur; Defendingliberty; WL-law; Genesis defender; ..
Thanx !

From the link:

"At the very least, Ward hopes to shape the image of the earth in the public imagination, and by extension in public policy. Beneath much environmental regulation lies the basically Gaian belief that, when faced with a brewing global problem like climate change, our best response should be to try as much as possible to take ourselves out of the equation, to reduce our carbon emissions to the point where we're no longer a factor in the feedback loops. Trying instead to manage something as hopelessly complex as the climate is seen as an act of Frankensteinian hubris.

Ward, however, argues that this way of seeing things only makes sense if one assumes that the earth will, once righted, inevitably return to the set of conditions most suitable for our continued survival. History, he argues, suggests it very well may not. Faced with a planet where life is almost guaranteed to wipe itself out - and take us with it - he is urging us to be active, and occasionally intrusive, guardians.

To combat climate change, Ward sees that role including engineering projects on a previously unimaginable scale, like cooling the atmosphere by seeding it with sulfuric acid or installing giant shields in space to deflect away sunlight. As the scientific consensus around climate change has spread and hardened, these so-called "geoengineering" projects have received more of a hearing, but most climate and earth scientists remain skeptical because of the enormous uncertainties about what their full effects would be.

Ironically, Lovelock himself has also, in the last few years, become an advocate for a geoengineering fix for climate change - specifically, an armada of vertical pipes placed in the oceans to bring colder, nutrient-rich water to the surface to absorb more carbon out of the air. But while Lovelock has described his proposal as an "emergency treatment" for a critically ill planet, Ward believes such schemes are going to have to become business as usual if we and our descendants are going to survive."


 


Beam me to Planet Gore !

8 posted on 01/11/2009 6:33:57 AM PST by steelyourfaith
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