BP Oil Spill

[returner]

We couldn't kill all of us.

I don't think we now have the capacity to kill each other completely anymore. A few hundred thousand could survive a nuclear war, and no it would probably be nothing like Fallout because we really underestimate plant and animal life's capacity to adapt.

If it came down to it and we knew for sure bad stuff was going down with global warning to the point where it posed an immediate and imminent threat (solid evidence that changes would take place within the current generation's life time; which we don't yet have.) I am absolutely sure we could muster up some type of adaptation to it. If it came down to it I think give us 50 years and we could make a viable push to space. We already know how to grow food and completely recycle water. I say 50 years because the growing food part is still in it's infancy (soil-less plant growing) and our current technologies accommodate a small crew, and are not made for extended stays of large populations. Perhaps a more viable method though, is underground. And we don't really need ALL that many people to restore our population.

You're right, re: the urgency of technology. Scientists have discussed it before - they're disappointed that space funding is cut because there is no problem right NOW with the earth, but there is every chance that something COULD happen.

To support your argument re: 50 years, the greatest advances in technology in human history have strangely been during World War 1 and World War 2.. the helicopter (I think) came out of Vietnam.

[gejyspa]

To support your argument re: 50 years, the greatest advances in technology in human history have strangely been during World War 1 and World War 2.. the helicopter (I think) came out of Vietnam.

Umm.. in a word, NO!!! There were military helicopters in WWII, and civilian helicopters first started being experimented within 3 years of the Wright Brothers' flight at Kitty Hawk in 1903.

[Ryaga]

Military affairs are often what brings something from 'on paper' to 'the real deal'. I'm sure that Kitty Hawk flight was amazing, but what really gave polish to aircraft in the end was the need for reliable military vehicles. I'm not saying I like this, or support this, but that's it factually the way it is.

[Surly]

Life does go on. The earth will live on after we've extinguished ourselves - it's the same with global warming. Humans are one of the species likely to die out as the planet warms, there'll be plenty of other life that thrives.

That's pretty unlikely. Humans are one of the most adaptable species and it will take more than a little global warming to let us go extinct. Humans will survive, but life might not be as comfortable as it is now.

Humans aren't actually that adaptable. What we do is change our environment around us, and if the world does warm up tropical diseases will start to hit countries with no infrastructure to deal with them.

[Piscator]

So? Even if we lose 99.9% of the current population there would still be enough people left to not let the species as a whole go extinct. But seriously, all I expect climate change to achieve is that the global population will stagnate sooner and on a lower level. Humans manage to survive in the arctic as well as at the equator, a few degrees more or less will not suddenly make earth uninhabitable for humans. Our species has survived climate change in the past and will likely continue to do so.

[Ryaga]

So? Even if we lose 99.9% of the current population there would still be enough people left to not let the species as a whole go extinct. But seriously, all I expect climate change to achieve is that the global population will stagnate sooner and on a lower level. Humans manage to survive in the arctic as well as at the equator, a few degrees more or less will not suddenly make earth uninhabitable for humans. Our species has survived climate change in the past and will likely continue to do so.

Exactly, I was not trying to say that everyone would survive, the opposite actually probably only the most physically strong and resilient would survive. But if we made it through an ice age, the same in the opposite direction shouldn't wipe us out.