[geeks] Global Warming causes...

[wa2egp at att.net]

-------------- Original message ----------------------
From: der Mouse <mouse at Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA>
>
> > Also, there are other things to consider: coal mining and use
> > generates large amounts of radioactive nuclear material, much of
> > which is pumped into the atmosphere or captured.
> 
> Generates?  Or merely dredges out of the ground and brings up into the
> surface ecosystem?
> 
> > Of course, since almost none of the general public even knows coal is
> > radioactive...
> 
> This means little; most of the general public - at least in North
> America - is perfectly willing to sign petitions to ban dihydrogen
> monoxide.
> 
> It also borders on meaningless to say that coal is radioactive; so is
> damn near everything else.  It's the kind and comparative quantity of
> radioactivity that are interesting.

The problem is the ash left behind is radioactive.  Since the carbon is
missing, it is now concentrated into a smaller volume and becomes a low
level radiation source.  Some coal power plants release more radiactivity
into the environment than a nuclear plant where they try to prevent 
exposure.

> >> Since we evolved to fit the current climate, more or less, pretty
> >> much anywhere significantly different from what we've got is likely
> >> to be uncomfortable for humans.
> 
> > Um, no.
> 
> > Humans have evolved during long time periods of rather massive
> > change, and we currently occupy huge temperature differentials.
> 
> Huge only with respect to us.  If, say, the mean surface temperature of
> our planet were to rise to 600, we'd be hard put to deal.  (So would a
> lot of the rest of the life on the planet - but there's some that
> wouldn't even notice, and a lot more that could adapt quickly enough to
> handle it fine.)

No.  We live in "caves" which have a smaller variation than "outside".
Are you sure enough would adapt quickly enough?  Adapt?  Paper burns 
at 450 F.  Maybe you mean 60 C (which is still pretty hot).
 
> And that's a fairly mild increase.  When I was talking about the
> climate taking off into otherwise remote corners of the state space, I
> was talking about things like a mean surface temperature above 1000, or
> mean annual rainfall that makes Death Valley look like an oasis, or
> atmospheric oxygen dropping to pre-plant-life levels.  (Are those
> possible?  I don't know.  I'm definitely not sure they're impossible.
> Since it's a question that can be answered definitely in only one
> direction, I hope we never find out.)

All we have to do is shift weather patterns a small amount and food
production gets messed up because some areas of the world the "farms"
are maxed out as far as production.  A reduction in productivity 
and people starve.

Bob