Greens warn of 'species threat'

[gamma]

Humans could cease to be the "dominant species" on earth because of the environmental damage they are causing, the Green Party conference hears.

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[kj]

The other day I went to a seminar given by Professor James Curran. He was recently voted into the 100 most influential scientists.

Professor James Curran, a physicist and meteorologist, is Head of Environmental Strategy at SEPA (the Scottish Environment Protection Agency). Recently elevated to Scotland on Sunday’s 100 most influential people list, he is a member of the UK Climate Impacts Programme steering board and the UK Sustainable Development Panel. His talk will draw on the latest research to illustrate the magnitude of the threats facing mankind from anthropogenic climate change.

He said right from the start that his intention was to make us afraid just as he is of the impact on the planet from global warming and that was exactly what he did.

Topics that he discussed mainly revolved around Scotland and how climate change was affecting us but also how it was affecting the globe. He also discussed positive impact on global warming from situations such as CO2 being released from soils, as a result of the Amazon dying out and also from reduced CO2 retension in the worlds oceans.

What was clear was that everything is interconnected and it’s almost like a domino effect. You have global warming which will result in desertifaction, loss of the rain forests, ocean temperature and current changes, species becoming extinct and water shortages and flooding particularly along coastal areas.

There were a lot of facts and figures, charts and graphs on show to hammer the message home and none of them showed anything positive, it was all very gloom and the outlook does not look good at all unless people change the way they live their lives now. According to SEPA and going on trends, research and statistical analysis the globe will be putting out as much CO2 into the atmosphere, in 2050, as humans are and that is the point of no return and we have until then, probably sooner, to do something about it.

He suggested that positive influences such as locked CO2 in the peat-lands of Scotland escaping into the air through desertification could lead to increases in temperature not of 1 or 2 degrees but as much as 8 or 9 within the next few decades.

Another thing he said that within the next few decades, i forget the exact estimate he gave, 30% of the worlds species would be extinct.

I’ll post up notes and slides when / if I can get hold of them.

[Pubic Wig]

i thought viruses and bacteria were the dominant forms of life on earth?

[kj]

I think my dominant they probably meant by most influential, but even then I have my doubts also. Nematodes make up a huge part of the species on the planet and they can do some serious good and/or damage.

[Pubic Wig]

Your above post about Professor James Curran is far better than the news article on the green party conference..."yadda yadda yadda Iraq war bad blaa blaa blaaa Blair and his government are evil yawn yawn yawn, oh yeah global warming bad"

The figures given by Proff Curran are rather freaky. where was the seminar? In dundee?

[kj]

The seminar was held by my employers at work. They have monthly seminars by leading scientists from across the country but this is the first one that really grabbed my attention. I'm still waiting on the notes and slides so that i can get the references he used for his statistics. He also pretty much said that despite what America says humans have a huge say in global warming and its effects on planet earth.

[The Pumpkin]

Originally Posted by Pubic Wig

i thought viruses and bacteria were the dominant forms of life on earth?

viruses arent classed as being 'alive' as such, they have no metabolism to speak of and are only 'alive' when inside a host cell. Think of them as diseases and not life. I guess he was talking about higher life forms, although a fact i think is pretty cool is that our bodies are covered in these microorganisms whose name i cant remember the now and if say, your body was to completely vaporise and disappear leaving those microorganisms behind, they cover us so completely and densely that a complete identical 'ghost' of you would be left visible for a few minutes.

I did an environmental toxicology course in my 3rd year and it was mostly concerned with this kind of thing. The figures are quite scary.

[RiseAgainst]

Originally Posted by Pubic Wig

yadda yadda yadda Iraq war bad blaa blaa blaaa Blair and his government are evil yawn yawn yawn, oh yeah global warming bad"

classic!

[kj]

George Monbiot wrote a good article for the Guardian about disinformation being spread on global warming. The smoke is rising on climate-change deniers.

It takes quite a lot to get Britian's most august scientific body, the Royal Society, riled. But now it has had enough. It is trying to bring an end to a ten-year campaign of disinformation about the world's most important scientific issue. Throughout that period, journalists who have no background in science, and who appear to know less about the subject than the average 12-year-old, have been filling the pages of the Mail, the Telegraph and the Times with articles claiming that manmade global warming is a fraud.

[RiseAgainst]

Its not just the Mail, the Telegraph and the Times articles that have the knowledge of 12-year olds regarding this subject, most American companies seem to do the same regarding this.

Didnt the UK get praised for lowering is omissions recently or did i imagine that?

[RiseAgainst]

also has anyone seen the Al Gore film yet?

[1010011010]

Yes, it's excellent. There are a few cheesy bits where it becomes an Al Gore propaganda film, but 99% of it is clear and informative, reporting the dangers but without being alarmist.

As KJ has already alluded to however, perhaps some alarmism is required to wake people up to the realities of the situation we face.

[RiseAgainst]

Originally Posted by 1010011010

Yes, it's excellent. There are a few cheesy bits where it becomes an Al Gore propaganda film, but 99% of it is clear and informative, reporting the dangers but without being alarmist.

i quite fancied seeing it but wasnt sure if itd be full of Politics and/or American views on the world

i shall catch it at the next chance