The Environment

[Laeril]

Why would you want organic food when you can get food that's been genetically modified to be more efficient?

I'd go organic if I could afford it because I don't trust Monsanto to not completely take out the nutrients of grain in order to turn a profit. I don't trust the largest food companies to keep out all the excess fat and sugar in their products, even with FDA mandates, if keeping them in turned a profit. And I certainly don't trust the FDA to not be in all those companies' pockets.

Come to think of it, money seems to be at the root of all our environmental problems.

 

[khluva010]

What are you doing to help the environment?

I am doing the usual things of recycling and picking up trash on a regular basis, not just when I volunteer for various organizations but on my own terms. Where I live, the community has made conscientious efforts to have more & more smoke free zones & my alma mater is a smoke free college campus & implemented a sustainability major/courses & other sustainable buildings along campus. Since I don't have much political influence or power, I do the little things I can, I would love to get more involved in environmental causes if anyone knows of any.

Are the radical environmental changes as a result of man made pollution or the coming of a new ice age?

To my understanding, it's a bit of both. A new Ice Age was suppose to be inevitable centuries from now but because the polar ice caps are melting at rapid rates due to the effects of carbon dioxide and other gases being omitted into our atmosphere which is causing heat to be trapped in our greenhouse gases (caused by factories, oil companies, automobiles that aren't electric/hybrid, etc. the produce these unnatural gases), this, our new ice age, cannot be as easily predicted as before. Ice caps should be melting at normal levels to sustain water levels, but because they are melting quicker and true winters are becoming shorter during the year because of global warming, ice caps are not and cannot form as quickly essentially, I know there's a more scientific explanation but this is off my general understanding of what is going on. This is partially caused by natural climate change that we don't have much control over but majorly, a lot of environmental problems are being caused by our irresponsible uses of Earth's scarce resources, which has been radically developing since industrialization began in the 1900's. We can now see the results of pollutants in our atmosphere and know beyond a reasonable doubt that global warming has existed for sometime. I'm really oversimplifying all the factors involved but I'm sure others on here have covered this more thoroughly.

Which one of the endangered species you'd want to protect?

I want to protect as many species as possible. I haven't looked at recent list of endangered wildlife but the more that we can help protect the better for our planet, especially since our endangered species is being cause less by survival of fittest/Darwinism natural selection and more to do with the destructiveness of man hunting and killing species for profit, it'll never make sense to me.

 

[Kagayaki]

I've been wondering why I don't really see too many effects of global warming. And now I know. It's because the United States isn't a tiny island country. But with the polar ice caps melting and sea levels rising, Hawaii's going down first. Not to mention the coastal states such as California, Florida, and Maine.

And now that sushi has become more popular, there is a risk of overfishing bluefin tuna. Many of the popular fish are nearly extinct because of overfishing, directly affecting our food supply.

 

[BlackOsprey]

And now that sushi has become more popular, there is a risk of overfishing bluefin tuna. Many of the popular fish are nearly extinct because of overfishing, directly affecting our food supply.

Tuna were being overharvested loooong before sushi's popularity began to rise. Just walk into your average grocery store, take a look at the canned food section, and tell me what's the most common fish you see in there.

 

[Deleted member 36435]

I've been wondering why I don't really see too many effects of global warming. And now I know. It's because the United States isn't a tiny island country. But with the polar ice caps melting and sea levels rising, Hawaii's going down first. Not to mention the coastal states such as California, Florida, and Maine.

You don't see the effects because the largest impact from climate change are long term effects. However, you're foolish if you haven't noticed habitat loss of certain species or an increase in average temperature.

 

[redcrown]

Is it weird to think the the environment going to total shit in the near future is a valid reason not to have kids?

 

[BlackOsprey]

Is it weird to think the the environment going to total shit in the near future is a valid reason not to have kids?

Not really. And if humanity dies out, that solves about a million problems at once.

 

[Deleted member 36435]

Not really. And if humanity dies out, that solves about a million problems at once.

I mean it solves exactly no problems because the problems aren't problems for anything but humanity. Life will continue to exist on earth no matter how badly we fuck it up. That's just nature. It's a matter of whether or not it will be able to sustain humanity.

 

[redcrown]

I mean it solves exactly no problems because the problems aren't problems for anything but humanity. Life will continue to exist on earth no matter how badly we diddly it up. That's just nature. It's a matter of whether or not it will be able to sustain humanity.

There will be a lot of suffering and habitat destruction before the earth repairs itself if/when humans are eventually gone. But that is nature I suppose.

 

[Deleted member 36435]

There will be a lot of suffering and habitat destruction before the earth repairs itself if/when humans are eventually gone. But that is nature I suppose.

The earth doesn't 'repair' itself, really. Things just continue on and the natural cycle continues.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Oxygenation_Event is a good example of what happens when environment becomes too toxic to support current life.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambrian_explosion

 

[BlackOsprey]

There doesn't 'repair' itself, really. Things just continue on and the natural cycle continues.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Oxygenation_Event is a good example of what happens when environment becomes too toxic to support current life.

Whoa, that's actually pretty fascinating. I knew that the oxygen in the atmosphere was created by photosynthesizing microorganisms, but I had no idea that it nearly wiped out all life on the planet... and so that's why gaseous oxygen became such a vital part of life as we know it...

Speaking of toxic stuff, I've heard of these "dead zones" in the oceans where pollution has become so densely concentrated, the body of water is too poisonous for anything to live. I have to wonder what would happen if all of the oceans became like that, especially after reading about the oxygenation event.

 

[Deleted member 36435]

Yea, they are basically areas of hypoxia in the water where there is not enough oxygen for animal life. Nitrogen and phosphorous runoff from agriculture cause algae blooms usually which will create these 'dead zones.'

I've studied this sort of stuff (ecology) in school and plan on specializing in it in the future, so feel free to field any questions to me and I'll answer to the best of my abilities.

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

I've been wondering why I don't really see too many effects of global warming. And now I know. It's because the United States isn't a tiny island country.

You don't notice them because much of the changes that have occurred in the last 30-50 years have been progressive. The signs have been around in the United States for years, though. An increase in average temperatures, less rains in dryer places, erratic and extreme weather changes (i.e. the increase in super storms, the polar vortex in 2014), and we see it right now in the way the current El Niño has been acting. Most El Niños produce extreme rain and a loss in the upwelling of cold, nutrient-carrying waters in South America (which bad for our fish ecology) due to the warming waters in the Pacific Ocean. And now we have the rising temperatures that follow without the benefits of the heavy rain and snow that was supposed to come.

But with the polar ice caps melting and sea levels rising, Hawaii's going down first. Not to mention the coastal states such as California, Florida, and Maine.

California is a massive state. Costal cities will likely be affected, but not for a looooooooooooong time.

The whole world is diddlyed over by the ice caps melting, though.

 

[redcrown]

Yea, they are basically areas of hypoxia in the water where there is not enough oxygen for animal life. Nitrogen and phosphorous runoff from agriculture cause algae blooms usually which will create these 'dead zones.'

I've studied this sort of stuff (ecology) in school and plan on specializing in it in the future, so feel free to field any questions to me and I'll answer to the best of my abilities.

Biggest question of all, how fucked are we humans, the environment, and pretty much all other animals on the planet? 2014-15 is when that major study came out saying we only had a short amount of time, around 5 years (which I don't expect humanity to do, or at least not well enough in time), to cut our CO2 emissions before it would end in huge consequences with catastrophically high temperatures in the future, specifically around 2050. How accurate is that simplified summary?

 

[Xickin]

You know what I watched this documentary called "The Great Global Warming Swindle" a while ago, and it really got me thinking. Now I'm 100% certain global climate change is occurring, no questions asked; but are the cause? It's a British documentary talking about all of these things that the government and all these environmental activists have been feeding to us about what global warming is and how it's affected our planet and how we're at fault. But this documentary makes a lot of sense in places that this politicians and environmentalists can't. I would definitely check it out.[video=youtube;D-m09lKtYT4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-m09lKtYT4[/video]

 

[Deleted member 36435]

I am not going to watch an hour long documentary but I can assure there is a mountain of Scientific evidence backing man-made climate change as a reality.

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

Why would global warming be a conspiracy anyways? What benefit do scientists and politicians get for trying to change our energy sources into renewable sources? Certainly nothing from big oil, and nuclear power is definitely not something many scientists are promoting considering the detrimental effects it has on our planet.

 

[Deleted member 36435]

Nuclear power is actually pretty good as far as energy sources go. https://www.epa.gov/cleanpowerplan/fact-sheet-clean-power-plan-opportunities-nuclear-power

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

Nuclear power is actually pretty good as far as energy sources go. https://www.epa.gov/cleanpowerplan/fact-sheet-clean-power-plan-opportunities-nuclear-power

Energy-wise, yes, but I was thinking more about freak accidents like Chernobyl and ‎Fukushima Daiichi. We still don't even know what the full effects of these nuclear accidents have had on the environment and on humans. As we improve on technology and do more research into nuclear power, we can limit the amount of these events happening in the future, but the best energy is the one with the least potential to cause damage to our environment.

 

[BlackOsprey]

Energy-wise, yes, but I was thinking more about freak accidents like Chernobyl and ‎Fukushima Daiichi. We still don't even know what the full effects of these nuclear accidents have had on the environment and on humans. As we improve on technology and do more research into nuclear power, we can limit the amount of these events happening in the future, but the best energy is the one with the least potential to cause damage to our environment.

Emphasis on freak accident. Chernobyl was caused by a combination of cheap design (USSR and all, you know?) and a series of stupid mistakes and human error. Fukushima... well, I guess you could say that you shouldn't build nuclear power plants in an area that has a history of tsunamis and earthquakes like Japan. But neither of those incidents, nor the factors leading up to them, were completely spontaneous or unpredictable.

And the best energy is not the safest. It's the most efficient and safest that's the best. An extremely clean but extremely expensive and inefficient energy source is hardly a solution to any problem. And combustible energy may have less drastic, but incredibly damaging effects in the long run as well.