Archive for August, 2015

Stop killing trees!

“A new report  [http://www.cgdev.org/publication/future-forests-emissions-tropical-deforestation-carbon-price] sic  from the Center for Global Development  [http://www.cgdev.org/] sic , released Monday, warns of what will happen if world leaders don’t take stronger steps to cut down on deforestation — that is, if we follow a “business-as-usual” trajectory. By 2050, they estimate, an area of forest equal to the size of India will be lost. The researchers came to their conclusions by using published satellite data on global forest cover from 2001 to 2012 to assess current rates of deforestation around the world.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/08/24/earth-is-on-track-to-lose-an-india-sized-chunk-of-its-tropical-forests-by-mid-century/

Destroying trees is one of the most harmful activities we humans engage in.  The results fly right back in our face.  Unfortunately, the financial elite think their wealth will protect them.  That’s arrogance talking.

“At the beginning of each interglacial period as the ice receded from the land, vast numbers of trees spread north and performed a carbon sequestering service.  They also released water vapour which stimulated cloud cover that increased the albedo effectively taking the place, as far as albedo is concerned, of the miles and miles of ice that had melted. With that negative feedback firmly in place and the orbital forcing factors favouring cooling, the downward cycle of Gaia’s temperature was assured and triggered the end of the interglacial period.

As I have pointed our already, unfortunately for all, these natural feedback factors been destroyed by humans.  Millions of trees over thousands of years have been chopped to build armadas and commercial shipping, other war implements, and shelter for humans as if they were useless to anything other than to serve the greed of humans.

“Apart from he profligate burning of fossil fuels and releasing the earth’s long-term carbon and energy storage depot that has taken millions of years to lay down, deforestation has been the main contributor to the increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that has resulted in global warming.1 Energy capture and storage is absolutely essential for the survival of the planet, just as energy capture and storage is necessary for the survival of individual organisms.”  (Ho, M. W., 2008, pg. 81)

That’s why I emphasize that we are asking the wrong question perhaps too late.  How will Gaia halt the present positive feedback loop?  Could it be the halt of the Atlantic Current because of the rapid melting of northern ice?  If the Atlantic Ocean cools sufficiently to absorb enough CO2 to counteract the other positive feedbacks, then possibly global cooling will be triggered.

We have James Lovelock to thank for prompting research into how the Earth self-regulates its temperature.  How severely have we weakened Gaia’s ability to self-regulate effectively?  When and if Gaia achieves temperature stability, what kind of environment will we have to adjust to?  We simply cannot answer these two questions.  We don’t know and we don’t even know if we can ever know.  No sane gambler would play a game with such dismal odds.  Perhaps our leaders are insane.”  http://www.earthenspirituality.com/glogal-warming/