Happy Earth Day

[LamontCranston]

Remember the folks who tried so hard to tell us that cigarettes were not harmful?

Wait.. cigarettes are harmful to my health? Uh-oh..

[LamontCranston]

I like the earth and I like the air I breath and it would be a shame if either of those were damaged. The problem I have with the Global Warming crowd is their passion for the subject. The earth changes all the time. It seems there's something else we'll all be dealt once the discussion fades and that's what makes me a skeptic.

The dinosaurs seem far more robust creatures than homo-sapiens but they are all gone (except the turtles.. perhaps there's a lesson in being slow). There are port cities from antiquity that are now inland. New England was stripped of its forest only 200 years ago and now it's dense with trees. And anytime someone suggests we're on the short side of the bell curve between ice ages, I say, "hmmmmm... that makes some sense." The local environment changes all the time.

So what? So the globe is warming. It's the whole concept of taking the car out of my driveway and diverting my direct deposit to people who love the rain forest that alarms me, not the rising waters.

[Naturist Mark]

So what? So the globe is warming. It's the whole concept of taking the car out of my driveway and diverting my direct deposit to people who love the rain forest that alarms me, not the rising waters.

Of course, nature always finds a balance. That doesn't mean the new balance will be good for a world with 7 Billion human beings. The plains of central Canada may be able to grow more wheat, but most of the US South is in a decade long drought and that will just get worse as global temps rise. As seas rise slowly, fertile land and forest will be lost, but it will take a century or so to happen, people will easily migrate, and big cities that can't migrate will wall themselves like New Orleans.

No one is saying that temperatures going up a few degrees on average will be uncomfortable, they are saying that the changes in geography and climate will cause food scarcity and hardship and disease. It won't be the end of the Earth, nature always finds a balance. It won't be the end of mankind. But it will lead to famine, economic collapse, death and war. I mean worse than we already have, which is bad enough. And of course we are already so far down that road that we can't turn back, but we can, if we have the will, do what we can to make it less bad. And all of the things we should do to make that happen are things that would be beneficial even without a climate crisis.

[LamontCranston]

And all of the things we should do to make that happen are things that would be beneficial even without a climate crisis.

Sure. That's why I recycle everything at the local transfer station and have a compost system out back that feeds the garden. I also work from home and so don't burn so much gas on the commute. But in the spirit of Earth Day and because I like the cartoon, I'll get a set of those reusable bags for the grocery store and make it a habit to use them.

Some things seems silly and bureaucratic. Here in Connecticut we have emissions tests on the car exhaust every two years -- cash only and run by the state -- and every morning on the news you can look at radar pictures showing that the air mass from the morning commute blows well out to sea by evening. Yes, I know, the poor fish. But the fishing banks have been over fished for decades and the Atlantic Ocean is huge and deep. Glad I don't have to explain that to a 10-year old who asks pointed questions..

[ibrahim]

But in the spirit of Earth Day and because I like the cartoon, I'll get a set of those reusable bags for the grocery store and make it a habit to use them.

I have a few cloth bags that I use for grocery shopping. But even if you use plastic bags, you can use them several times.

[Sanslines]

"If we don't halt human population growth with justice and compassion, it will be done for us by nature, brutally and without pity - and will leave a ravaged world."

Nobel Laureate Dr. Henry W. Kendall


A time when gas was 18 cents a gallon and a new car cost $700: Black-and-white photographs taken by Ansel Adams capture laid-back Los Angeles in the 1940s



By Daily Mail Reporter
PUBLISHED: 23:38 EST, 20 April 2012 | UPDATED: 23:39 EST, 20 April 2012


It is the country's second largest city - bustling with would-be stars, flamboyant street performers and traffic-packed highways.


But these images by famed photographer Ansel Adams show Los Angeles at a less frantic time - before World War II when the population was 1.5 million, fewer than half of the people there today.

The rarely-seen pictures reveal the laid-back lifestyle of the California city in the 1940s - a time when gas cost 18 cents a gallon, a car cost just $700 and a new home averaged at $6,500.


Empty streets: Los Angeles is captured by famed nature photographer Ansel Adams in the 1940s



Different world: Another image shows Ocean Park Pier in Santa Monica, taken in 1940




Nostalgic: Among the shops in Westwood Village - now popular with UCLA students - is a Sears store






Quiet: The images show streets significantly emptier than Los Angeles's traffic-crammed roads today



Looking ahead: Friends enjoy the view from Ocean Park Pier, Santa Monica in 1940

[LamontCranston]

Looks like Moe, Shemp, and Larry on the right..

[Skinview]

The dinosaurs seem far more robust creatures than homo-sapiens but they are all gone (except the turtles.. perhaps there's a lesson in being slow).

Turtles are not dinosaurs. Birds are dinosaurs. Perhaps there is a lesson in being fast...

[marko486]

Turtles are not dinosaurs. Birds are dinosaurs. Perhaps there is a lesson in being fast...

A little perspective. Dinosaurs were around a good 200 million years, and humans, depending on your definition, maybe 200,000 years. Sure there has been natural causes of global warming, but it was much slower and there was no humans around. Sure one can buy beach property and be alright for awhile, but if one was to do so as an investment for your grand children and great grand children, I really wouldn't bother.

[Gloria]

I actually like warm weather. But I sure don't want the seas to rise and create a crop of "Atlantis". I don't want to see farm land become barren or jungles to dry up. I don't like the idea of Penguins and Polar Bears drowning and it is frightening to think of Costa Rican butterflies mating with 747's....or whatever.

According to the "scientists" the only way we can prevent this crisis is to limit or end man made CO2. Not natural CO2...only the man made stuff. Now I am pretty sure that these "scientists" have computed everything in their "computer models" and researched our climate in every possible way. Therefore I am hoping that they can tell us what is the ideal temperature and climate condition we should aim for. I mean, we wouldn't want to shut off too much man made CO2....that could lead to a too cold sort of thing....and that would not be conducive to all-over-tanning. Really...how much CO2 do we need to control to create and maintain the ideal Earth Climate???

Anybody..??
Bueller....Bueller...?
Anybody..??