But the goal isn't just scientific exploration . . . it's also about extending the range of human habitat out from Earth into the solar system as we go forward in time. . . . In the long run a single-planet species will not survive. We have ample evidence of that . . . [Species have] been wiped out in mass extinctions on an average of every 30 million years.
Meanwhile . . .
Apocalypse Now
Floods, storms, and droughts. Melting polar ice, shrinking glaciers, oceans turning to acid. Scientists from the fields of glaciology, biology, meteorology, oceanography, and ecology reported seeing a dramatic rise over the last 50 years of all the indicators of climate change: increase in average world temperatures, extreme weather events, in the levels of CO2 and other greenhouse gases, and in the level of the oceans.
[. . .]
Quite a few climate "skeptics", fossil fuel executives, and members of the Bush administration are still denying that there is such a thing as human-caused global warming. Many of them claim that the sun has just grown hotter. However, a warmer sun would have heated the stratosphere as well. In contrast, the stratosphere is cooling -- suggesting a blanket of greenhouse gases that prevents the earth’s heat from radiating back into space.
3 comments:
Ken--
"Space weather" is in its infancy. I wouldn't be surprised if the sun does in fact play a quiet role in global warming. However, Occam's Razor -- and lots of research -- suggest we're doing just fine at raising the Earth's temperature all by ourselves.
WMB--
Those Whitehouse gases are the worst...
we will be the owners of all the universe in few years, I absolutely sure of this, I think that it will be the highest point of intelligence of the human!
Gosh, there is so much effective material here!
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