Though I agree with Global Warming (though not that it is anthropogenic; my position is stated elsewhere), I'd like to point something out.

Hey, you know the Northern European Plain? Yeah, that thing that stretches from France through Northern Europe and along through Russia's Fertile Triangle? The English and Irish flatlands are also sometimes included. Basically every part of Europe north of the Pyrenees and south of the Scandinavian Peninsula (but including the Jutland). You know what I'm talking about? Yeah, that was all forest once. Now only about 10% is still forest; the rest is all farmland and cities. Yeah, deforestation is a problem, but this ain't nothing compared to what went on from about 1200 to 1900.

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An' it harm none, do as ye' will.


Never argue with an idiot. He'll just drag you down to his level of intelligence and beat you with experience.

Global warming, yes, man made, not proven. There is nothing you or anyone else can do to stop the Earths natural weather cycle. All man will do by interfering (caused by mass hysteria) is bankrupt us in vain attempts to control the weather. We need to gradually decrease emissions and get off fossil fuels. Gradually, not hysterically. Relax, stay home this weekend and give that CO2 emitting machine a rest. You'll feel better, less guilty, and save gas.

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Reality Land

Care to tell it to the people of Thailand!!!!!!!!

Thai temple fights off encroaching tide as world sea levels rise by Charlie McDonald-Gibson
Sun Mar 30, 12:47 PM ET

Thai temple fights off encroaching tide as world sea levels rise - Yahoo! News

KHUN SAMUT CHIN, Thailand (AFP) - Crabs scuttle across the wet floor of the near-deserted Khun Samut temple, the only building left in a Thai village that has disappeared beneath the rising and advancing sea.

Waging a battle against an encroaching tide that has sent all the villagers fleeing inland, a monk in orange robes and faded tattoos meant to ward off evil spirits stalks the newly-built sea wall, planting mangrove shoots.

Somnuek Atipanya points 20 metres (65 feet) out to sea, where electricity pylons poke out of the water, now useful only for resting marine birds.

"The waves attacked here and they will destroy everything," says Somnuek, chief abbot of this Buddhist temple south of Bangkok which is surrounded by water and accessible only by a concrete walkway.

"I don't know what happened, but when the experts came they told me it was global warning and melting ice in the North Pole."

Over 30 years, the sea around Khun Samut Chin village has engulfed more than one kilometre (0.6 miles) of land, World Bank figures show, mostly because fishermen have cut down mangrove forests -- the Earth's natural sea barrier.

Tourism development, sand mining and damming rivers upstream have also taken their toll in an area naturally prone to coastal erosion.

The community have realised their errors and are trying to replant the mangroves, but the situation may soon be out of their hands as global warming sends sea levels rising and powerful storms lashing the coast.

"The process has been occurring over some time and accelerating with land use changes and local human activity," says Jitendra Shah, the World Bank's environmental coordinator in Thailand.

"Climate change impacts are likely to accelerate the pace and make things worse in the future."

Coastal erosion of varying degrees affects 21 percent of Thailand's coastline, says Greenpeace climate campaigner Tara Buakamsri, citing figures from Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University.

Along the Gulf of Thailand, seaside areas seriously affected by erosion are receding at a rate of five to 20 metres per year.

Climate scientists say that as global warming heats the Earth up, glaciers and polar ice caps will melt and sea waters will expand, sending oceans rising by at least 18 centimetres (7.2 inches), or possibly a great deal more by 2100.

World sea levels rose 3.1 millimetres per year from 1993 to 2003, the Nobel-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says.

This is not good news for the five monks who remain at Khun Samut temple. Despite their best efforts, they may not be able to save the site from the same fate that befell Khun Samut Chin's sunken school and homes.

Visanu Kengsamut, 26, has already moved three times in his life, while his mother -- the village chief -- has fled the crumbling coast and rebuilt her home eight times, and each time the village has paid for its own relocation.

Khun Samut Chin now sits about one kilometre inland from the temple.

"We know that the cause of this is the effects of global warming," says Visanu.

"This problem, everybody should take responsibility and the government should help. If possible, the international community should come to help because they started the problem."

As the world tries to work out a new pact to battle the threat posed by global warming, poorer countries -- who the IPCC says will suffer the most from climate change -- are battling to have their voices heard.

They argue that because the industrialised world was historically most responsible for global warming, they should contribute generously to a fund to help poor countries adapt to the changing world.

The so-called adaptation and mitigation fund will likely be discussed at key United Nations climate change talks in Bangkok from March 31 to April 4.

"Whether or not it is a small contribution or major contribution related to climate change in the past, this community needs to be taken into account when they discuss about the mitigation measure or adaptation fund," says Greenpeace's Tara.

"Because they are facing the impact -- they are one of the first groups in Thailand that is facing the impact."

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Yea can't keep the words of your great leader.

Prophet Muhammad - “Do you love your creator? Love your fellow-beings first.”

I bet if you were to tell the ancient inhabitants of Easter Island not to cut down all their god damned trees, they would have balked too, calling you an "alarmist environut!' ..until it was too late, of course.

People never learn. It's more comfortable to be in denial.

Northern Euro Plains had deforestation.. I did not deny this. But what I have said is the what has happening in the last 30 years of damage can not compare to 1,000 years worth of damage. As one is over 1,000 years and not just in 30.

Lets use common sense. CO2 has had a rapid increase in the last 30 years. But the mass Deforestation in European ended in 1900s by your account. So that does not explain the increase. So Deforestation from other places have to be the problem. So the current Mass Deforestation in 3rd World.. is making a bigger impact then something that ended in the 1900s.

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Pioneers are walking all around singing songs about Lenin and they should be shot for it.

Handlebars

"If you are looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror"- V

It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office.
H. L. Mencken

come on you know you wanna play football..

Beagán agus a rá go maith.

Economic Left/Right: 3.75
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.87

There were trees on Easter Island?

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Reality Land

Yes, deforestation is a factor. But please don't act like you know what you're talking about if you're just going to dismiss CO2 emissions as the major factor.

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"Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states...Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds."



~Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Global warming is relevant, but it ain't happening as quickly as Al Gore suggests. It is dependent upon many factors, the three major ones i believe are: 1) Deforestation as mentioned. 2) CO2 emissions. 3) The hole in the Ozone Layer which yes, is due to mankind.

Less trees means less Carbon Dioxide is being converted back into Glucose via photosynthesis. This wasn't really a problem before the industrial revolution because we were not outputting so much CO2 before then.

CO2 Emissions means the more we produce, the greater strain it is on the environment to convert that naturally back to glucose. Planting more trees and plants could be an option to help alleviate the strain but unfortunately it is not the be all and end all answer.

The hole in the Ozone Layer is a major factor. The more free radicals that we produce, as well as CO emissions means that the hole is only going to get bigger. This is a problem not only because it is situated on top of the largest polar ice cap which would submerge many, if not all, low lying land but also because it means UV rays are coming in unhindered, making the sun's rays stronger and more dangerous.

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So can dumping excess CO2 into the atmosphere.

My god. It's probably both.