Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Man-caused Climate Change? Think Again.....

more from sevenheart.....

sevenheart
Message #2 - 01/23/08 04:41 PM
GeoPete,
I never cease to be amazed at the anthropocentric attitude of intellectuals. While mankind may have dammed a few rivers, killed off the dodo bird and the passenger pigeon and made a mess of things in some places that we have yet to clean up, the belief that we somehow possess the power to "change" the climate or any other force of nature is nothing less than comical.

We have no more power to "change the climate" than we do control which way the wind blows, to stop an earthquake, still a volcanic eruption, prevent an ocean wave, stifle a tornado, direct or stop a hurricane, end a blizzard or tone down a massive thunder storm. We don't even really stop forest fires, we contain them, if we are lucky. While there may be powerful Wall Street wheeler dealers who can influence the world economy or politicians who wield certain power or despots who can murder millions of people, there is no way mankind individually or collectively can "change the climate". With the urbanization of so many people has come a misguided belief that we exude overwhelming control over nature.

I guess I've just seen too many examples of how nature dwarfs the efforts of mankind. Look at the Teton Dam break and the subsequent 300 foot high wall of water. http://www.geol.ucsb.edu/faculty/sylvester/Teton%20Dam/welcome_dam.html

Or consider an "act of nature" in the Big Thompson Flood of 1976. http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories/s688.htm
or better yet http://www.coloradoan.com/news/thompson/index.html Two friends of mine left their teenage sons to manage their farm and took a break there after the intense work of the wheat harvest. They were among the 5 people never found, Bill and Myrtle Nelson.

Or the Rapid City Flood- http://sd.water.usgs.gov/projects/1972flood/photos.html

The Easter 1964 earthquake in Alaska- http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/64quake.htm http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/states/events/1964_03_28.php- check out the three pages of damage photos

Of course everyone is still aware of the Tsunami that struck Thailand, India, etc
http://www.tsunamis.com/tsunami-pictures.html
Anthropocentric power? Doesn't even compare.

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