Always,
Rosy
Hey Megan and Rosy,
You just happened to pick one of my favourite controversial issues for this podcast,and because of that, for me, ten minutes is not nearly enough time to completely dissect the issue.
I know Megan brought this up, and you were completely right is saying that the earth contributes to global warming. The earth naturally goes through cycles in which the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere fluctuate. But on the whole, everything stays at equilibrium. The potentially disastrous effects of global warming would happen, even without human intervention. It has happened before, or at least we think so. Some scientists believe that when the asteroid that was responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs impacted with the earth, it triggered a chain reaction of volcanic eruptions along the ring of fire in the pacific ocean. Now, a single volcanic eruption emits about 150 times the amount of greenhouse gases than humans do in a year (roughly), and the ring of fire contains about 1500 volcanoes. When all these volcanoes went off, the sun literally was blotted out. Short-wavelenth rays such as UV and gamma rays could penetrate the atmostphere, but the necessary rays for photosynthesis could not. Therefore the earth could not adapt to this sudden change in conditions fast enough which led to the dinosaurs extinction. Over time the earth recovered, but it took a while. The fact that such an event has already happened means that it can very well happen again whether by freak circumstances, or our own stupidity. Mother Nature is an amazing thing as she has the ability to handle a lot of domestic abuse by her children. The carbon emissions that our civilization puts out can be dealt with by the earth easily. The immense forests, and the massive oceans are all tools that the earth uses to balance out the carbon equation. The forests use photosynthesis to use up carbon and spew out oxygen while the oceans actually dissolve so much carbon that I can't find a suitable analogy for it. The bid issue is, however, that our civilization is obsessed with screwing with the forests. We are harvesting the forests so much that the earth now can't balance out the carbon equation as well as it should be able to. Now these harmful gases react with the atmosphere and BAM! skin cancer.
You also mentioned the Oil and Gas industry as being a huge contributor to our global warming problems, and I couldn't agree more. The plants and refineries spew out toxic gases 24/7 and nobody wants to tell them that its wrong. Except maybe the hippies, but no one listens to them. And besides, when the world's economy is based off of oil and gas, who are we to stop it? Sure they will slow down on their emissions, but they won't stop it. That would just cost too damn much. And anyways, the only way to completely stop the emission of carbon is to stop that industry all together. And right now there is no money in a carbon free world! Where else could a country mine its own oil, refine its own oil, and BUY OIL FROM THE SAUDI'S?!? WTF?
....okay I got a little carried away...
Oh, and Rosy, David Suzuki is not just "one really smart scientist", he is a friggin genious, okay? In a world corrupted by money and "new and improved" ways of solving the most menial tasks with the most complicated methods, he preaches basic "get your head out of your ass" logic. Do the small things, make a difference. That's what he says. Walk, don't drive two blocks down the street. Recycle. Use city transit. Put on a sweater instead of cranking up the heat. Easy, right? Wrong. As simple as that sounds, the majority of people will not do that. They don't want to exercise their muscles and walk. They don't want to be bothered to bring ther cans to the depot. They don't want to be associated with the disgusting masses using public transit. And anyways, pushing a button is MUCH easier than pulling on a sweater! Thats where it is hard to make a difference. People in general find it insanely hard to give up a few small things just to make a huge difference for the environment. Not everybody thinks the same way.
Now, its Fake-Fact time. 1% of the greenhouse gases come from cows. Okay. So. That one is way off. Cows are actually known to produce a shitload (literally) of methane gas, which is one of the greenhouse gases. I had to look some of these numbers up, and here they are: cows, as a whole, contribute about 14% of the greenhouse gas emissions. You were close with the 0.0001%... kinda. The average cow expels anywhere from 100-500 litres of methane per day. And you thought us guys had bad gas! Compared to humanity that's really not too much, but the percentage of gas compared to its population size, that's impressive. But realistically we shouldn't be putting the blame on our bovine friends. Those gas-bags can't help it, unlike us.
And that's about it for my two cents...or maybe five dollars.
Keep up the good work! Jordan
Oh and PS. Megan I thought you'd like to know that Sara Palin was responsible for Manny Legace ( a goalie for the St. Louis Blues) hurting his hip flexor. He slipped on the carpet they layed out for her when she was going to drop the puck at the game. Just thought you'd like to know. and PPS check out this New Zealand ad. Government taxing Livestock flatulence?
