Nitrate in natural waterways!!

[Backfromthedead]

Embrace the stink gentleman.

Whenever i consider such problems I always take a lot of solace in the fact that we are at the mercy of our planet rather than the other way around. Weve had to adapt to this place...it wont show us the same courtesy in the next extinction event.

 

[jjohnwm]

Embrace the stink gentleman.

Whenever i consider such problems I always take a lot of solace in the fact that we are at the mercy of our planet rather than the other way around. Weve had to adapt to this place...it wont show us the same courtesy in the next extinction event.

Hmmmm....yes and no...

We are insignificant blips on the face of the planet that can and likely will be extinguished by even small changes in global climate and conditions...true...

...but we can and do have significant effects upon those conditions. The significance of the changes we bring about seems magnified to us due to our own insignificance. If we manage to accelerate changes in pollution, weather, etc. it won't take a huge alteration for us to feel the effects. It doesn't take some dramatic zombie apocalypse or vampire plague to wipe us out; something as seemingly minor as the extinction of honey bees, or a pandemic of some destructive plant disease would do nicely. Anybody remember the old horror film "No Blade Of Grass"?

But even if we manage to nuke every last person on earth along with most of the other existing lifeforms...the planet just shrugs and carries on with the process of evolving new stuff that is suited to the new conditions. Bring on the next contender.

By the way, Backfromthedead , I am officially stealing "Embrace the stink!" as one of life's perfect mottos.

 

[Backfromthedead]

Hmmmm....yes and no...

We are insignificant blips on the face of the planet that can and likely will be extinguished by even small changes in global climate and conditions...true...

...but we can and do have significant effects upon those conditions. The significance of the changes we bring about seems magnified to us due to our own insignificance. If we manage to accelerate changes in pollution, weather, etc. it won't take a huge alteration for us to feel the effects. It doesn't take some dramatic zombie apocalypse or vampire plague to wipe us out; something as seemingly minor as the extinction of honey bees, or a pandemic of some destructive plant disease would do nicely. Anybody remember the old horror film "No Blade Of Grass"?

But even if we manage to nuke every last person on earth along with most of the other existing lifeforms...the planet just shrugs and carries on with the process of evolving new stuff that is suited to the new conditions. Bring on the next contender.

By the way, Backfromthedead , I am officially stealing "Embrace the stink!" as one of life's perfect mottos.

Ha yeah pretty sure its some old military mantra "embrace the suck" i just tweaked it to fit our nitrate discussion.

Idk im still not convinced we make much a difference at all on our environment in the long run. I think its our hubris that makes us believe so, a sense of being too important. Meanwhile a volcano in iceland erupts and ejects more "greenhouse gases" into the atmosphere than every machine in history ever made put together. We dam a river and drive several species into extinction...meanwhile dozens more are evolving and differentiating to live more happily in the new river we built.

I think we will off ourselves over energy before the forces of nature ever get a good swing at us.

 

[jjohnwm]

Ha yeah pretty sure its some old military mantra "embrace the suck" i just tweaked it to fit our nitrate discussion.

Idk im still not convinced we make much a difference at all on our environment in the long run. I think its our hubris that makes us believe so, a sense of being too important. Meanwhile a volcano in iceland erupts and ejects more "greenhouse gases" into the atmosphere than every machine in history ever made put together. We dam a river and drive several species into extinction...meanwhile dozens more are evolving and differentiating to live more happily in the new river we built.

I think we will off ourselves over energy before the forces of nature ever get a good swing at us.

Lol, yeah, I wonder about that as well...not much, but I do wonder...

I find it hilarious to read about the "devastating" effects that all the flatulent cattle we raise are having on the atmosphere...but then those same hand-wringing alarmists will take us to task for all the animals that we have driven to near-extinction from their formerly high populations. I guess all the bison that once "darkened the plains" of North America never farted...?