Posted by Kromey at 12:05pm Dec 16 '08OMG GLOBAL WARMING IS GOING TO MELT THE ARCTIC ICE AND ALL THE POLAR BEARS ARE DOOMED!!!!
Well... not so much. They're migrating toward the tundra, and are beginning to collide with nesting snow geese. Geese eggs are a wonderful source of nutrition!
Bad for geese, right? Wrong! The snow geese population has recently expanded beyond the point that the arctic can support; enter polar bears, nature's population control!
When will people learn to stop doomsaying about shit we don't understand? Nature adapts, folks, that's a fact of life. Not everything will adapt, but there is absolutely no way to predict what will and what will not adapt.
Take, for example, industrial runoff flowing unchecked into the waters. Our most brilliant scientists told us that it would be a death sentence for every living creature. Guess what? They were wrong!
Now we're being told that we're precipitating the sixth extinction. We'll just ignore that the long-"extinct" coelacanth has been found several times over the last 70 years. We'll also ignore that there have been 5 major extinction events previously, that man had nothing to do with, and yet the world carried on!
At the same time that this supposed disaster will doom the planet, we're still finding new life. A new species of penguin has been found in New Zealand, to add to the more than 1000 new species discovered in the last decade.
All of this nonsense about a global catastrophe stems from the even more nonsensical notion that the planet has a "status quo". Guess what, folks - it doesn't. The 7 continents used to be a single landmass. That changed. The entire world used to be a lush, warm jungle, before it became completely covered with glaciers. Even within our own history, we've seen the Little Ice Age and the Medieval Warm Period alter temperatures well beyond the supposed "status quo".
Is it any wonder that the planet is changing? Not, not changing again - it's still changing!
Remember that when you're discussing the planet, you're talking about time scales measured in eons, not minutes, hours, or even years. In this scale, we're but mosquitoes, who's life span is a mere 7 days. We've all seen entire weeks of rain; imagine a mosquito who's entire life is lived under rain, until the 7th day when the clouds part and the sun shines down bright upon the world - can you just imagine the apocalypse that little mosquito envisions is befalling the world?
The world changes, folks, that's just a fact of life. Nature will adapt - slime will feed off of industrial runoff and polar bears will begin eating goose eggs instead of hunting seals. At the same time, a new species of millipede "dragon" will spew cyanide and long-extinct fish will resurface in fishing nets.
We somehow recognize and accept that nature will produce new species, but when a species begins to fade into oblivion like has been happening for billions upon billions of years, we panic and scream that the apocalypse is upon us.
Change, folks, it's all just change.
Well... not so much. They're migrating toward the tundra, and are beginning to collide with nesting snow geese. Geese eggs are a wonderful source of nutrition!
Bad for geese, right? Wrong! The snow geese population has recently expanded beyond the point that the arctic can support; enter polar bears, nature's population control!
When will people learn to stop doomsaying about shit we don't understand? Nature adapts, folks, that's a fact of life. Not everything will adapt, but there is absolutely no way to predict what will and what will not adapt.
Take, for example, industrial runoff flowing unchecked into the waters. Our most brilliant scientists told us that it would be a death sentence for every living creature. Guess what? They were wrong!
Now we're being told that we're precipitating the sixth extinction. We'll just ignore that the long-"extinct" coelacanth has been found several times over the last 70 years. We'll also ignore that there have been 5 major extinction events previously, that man had nothing to do with, and yet the world carried on!
At the same time that this supposed disaster will doom the planet, we're still finding new life. A new species of penguin has been found in New Zealand, to add to the more than 1000 new species discovered in the last decade.
All of this nonsense about a global catastrophe stems from the even more nonsensical notion that the planet has a "status quo". Guess what, folks - it doesn't. The 7 continents used to be a single landmass. That changed. The entire world used to be a lush, warm jungle, before it became completely covered with glaciers. Even within our own history, we've seen the Little Ice Age and the Medieval Warm Period alter temperatures well beyond the supposed "status quo".
Is it any wonder that the planet is changing? Not, not changing again - it's still changing!
Remember that when you're discussing the planet, you're talking about time scales measured in eons, not minutes, hours, or even years. In this scale, we're but mosquitoes, who's life span is a mere 7 days. We've all seen entire weeks of rain; imagine a mosquito who's entire life is lived under rain, until the 7th day when the clouds part and the sun shines down bright upon the world - can you just imagine the apocalypse that little mosquito envisions is befalling the world?
The world changes, folks, that's just a fact of life. Nature will adapt - slime will feed off of industrial runoff and polar bears will begin eating goose eggs instead of hunting seals. At the same time, a new species of millipede "dragon" will spew cyanide and long-extinct fish will resurface in fishing nets.
We somehow recognize and accept that nature will produce new species, but when a species begins to fade into oblivion like has been happening for billions upon billions of years, we panic and scream that the apocalypse is upon us.
Change, folks, it's all just change.