Free Republic

Add me on!
Please.

I’m a real hardcore lurker, but I like to keep informed.

I’m for the good guys!

Is that the Empire or the Jedis?

(Hard core lurkers like myself are always way late with their comments ...That's why we usually just lurk)

"....Westerners think everybody is normal and think normally. He is abnormal -- you have to understand -- he is dangerous." !!!!!!!

I have seen several references to this “directed energy” weapon in the press, but no details.
What is it ?
How does it work?

Folks, I don’t like to hit and run, but I don’t have a lot of time to post here, so I generally stay out of the discussions. But, I feel compelled to answer some of your comments.

liberally: You didn't read Lomborg's reply to the "experts" and Scientific American
No, I missed his reply. Can you point me to it or at least tell me which issue it was in? I’m very interested in his reply.

CafraudPI:Does common sense and logic mean nothing to you? Of course the earth is warming but it has nothing to do with man.
Yes, the earth is warming. Is it natural or man-caused? How can you dump 25%more carbon dioxide, plus methane and assorted hot house gasses into the atmosphere and not have an effect? You are the one who needs to use common sense.
If you don’t think that man has a major impact on the atmosphere just look at the “hole” in the ozone. (Yes, I know it is healing, but the CFC’s have a very short life in the atmosphere compared to the other stuff that we have been dumping in.)

Prodigal Son:Which part of Lomborg's findings do you disagree with? Are resources getting more plentiful or not? Certainly our oil reserves have increased over time. With the exception of a very few, the same can be said for precious metals. There are less people starving and suffering from malnutrition. We are living longer. Which part do you disagree with? These are all facts.

Our resources have gotten more plentiful over time because of technological innovations. Can this pace really be maintained?

Bjorn Lomborg is the most optimist commentator I have ever read on the environment. But taking the past performance of technological progress and projecting it into the future is s risky business.

Most experts project that we will run out of “cheap” oil between 2020 and 2050. After that the price of oil will probably double as we begin to extract oil from the oil shales and tar sands. At what cost will that be, torn up mountains, more pollution/depletion of the aquifers? Is this worth it?

People around the world are eating better than at any time in history. How has this been accomplished? By the addition of new improved crops and the additional of fertilizers. But at what cost? The fertilizers run off and kill our rivers and, lakes and yes even impact the ocean. (Look at the dead zone at the mouth of the Mississippi or Chesapeake Bay for examples).

Major aquifers in the world are being depleted. Many of the major farming areas rely on fossil water that will not be replenished. Can GM foods really continue the “Green Revolution? And where will the water come from?

Every major fishery in the world is in danger. Many have already collapsed. Already the fish that were once considered to be “trash” fish and were thrown back as wasted by-catch are making it to market. (Fish sticks were once made out of cod and halibut, they are now made of “whitefish”.)

The sea level is rising. How much and how fast will it rise? The estimates run from 1 to 3 meters, and probably a century or two. At one meter you can say goodbye to Bangladesh and all your favorite beaches. At 5 meters you can say goodbye to most of Florida. Who is right?

The most dire prediction is that the Gulf Stream could shut down. This is not a very popular theory at the moment, but it is down right scary. If this happens it could shut down in as little as 10 years. All the other changes should be slow enough for us to adjust to. This one would be too fast and too big to adjust to without some major upheavals.

This whole environmental business reminds me of the way I handle my credit cards. We have been making advances at some environmental cost and increasing our standard of living. We have paid a bit here and there, some pollution here, some extinction there. But like my credit card, the debt keeps getting bigger. As we try to increase the overall world standard of living, the debt just keeps getting bigger and bigger.
The “wacko” environmentalists say that there is a big balloon payment coming that will effectively bankrupt the world. Are you sure that they are wrong?

The big problem is that we don’t know what will happen. We have only limited data from ice cores, lake bottoms, etc. on the history of the earth’s climate. We don’t understand the overall ocean/atmosphere heat and water circulation enough to make absolute predictions. Our computers are not fast enough to run the most sophisticated models, and the models are not even complete.

We had better slow down and rethink the way we do business. In the past we were living for today, not understanding the long-term implications of our actions. Now, everywhere you look you find negative impacts and you have to question sustainability. For the sake of the future we must start to consider what will happen 20, 50 and 100 years from now.

It would be a damn shame if chicken little was right and we didn’t spend the time and money to change what we could – before its too late to change.

Bjorn Lomborg is a statistician, not a scientist.
Before you go running off and declare him the only sane voice in the wilderness, go to Scientific American (http://www.sciam.com) and read what the scientist have to say about his work.
(Do a search for “the skeptical environmentalist”).
Basically, the experts say that he takes a set of statistics and makes claims about the health of the environment without understanding the entire picture.

The book is essentially worthless except as fodder for the right-wing, knee-jerk anti-environmentalist camp.

I’m outa here.

Are cartoons pornographic?

I not one to follow the ups and downs of porno cases (child or otherwise) across the nation, but can you answer me one thing?

When and where, in recent times, has the government got a conviction for pornography that did not involve pictures or movies? I am wondering if the written word is pornographic or a cartoon drawing, as interpreted by Miller?

I seldom log on to FR, I lurk every day...but I so sick of reading about the “big, bad tree huggers” and how its their fault that the forest is burning I will make an exception today.

WAKE UP! GET A GRIP ON REALITY!

The Forest Service has “managed” the Forest in Northern Arizona for 100 years for lumber. All the big trees were cut down and fires were suppressed. What we call a forest now is a mass of dog hair trees, mostly 10-16”, 30-40'tall. One hundred years ago, when my great grandpappy arrived here, you could “ride a horse at full gallop through the trees” or “drive a wagon” through the forest. It is estimated that there was 60 trees per acre. Now we have 300-600 trees per acre. I know of a few places around here that you can walk under tress that are 3-4’ in diameter and 100' tall, but only for a few hundred yards at a stretch.

Over the last 10 years or so the Forest Service proposed plans to thin the forest around Flagstaff, to protect the town for a big fire. Their time estimate? 20 years!

Sure the tree huggers have stopped a thinning project here and there, blocked some roads and saved a few owls. But they are not responsible for the fires.

If the Forest Service had worked at full capacity, unhindered by stupid lawsuits, over the last decade, this fire would still have happened. And the next one, just as big or bigger will happen, lawsuits or not. The forest is in deep s***! thanks to the manner in which it has been managed – for lumber.

Go to mapquest and look for Forest Lakes, AZ. Zoom out and find Ashfork along I-40. From Ashfork to the Grand Canyon and Flagstaff, the forest stretches, unbroken. Form AshFork go south to Prescott, the east through Camp Verde, Strawberry on to Heber, Show Low, all the way to New Mexico. This is a big chunk of land and its all just like what is on fire today - ready to burn.

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Thank my luck stars!

I can sleep better at night knowing that our youth will not be traumatized by reality.

Maybe someday the great American Melting Pot will finally boil down to a cesspool of mediocrity. Then we can all feel real good about ourselves.

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It just keeps growing and growing with pauses between growth cycles

It seems that Obler’s Paradox would put some constraints on this theory.

I told you so!

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