(07-04-2012, 08:19 AM)My Alter Ego Wrote: Haleylvr4evr, this is one of the sad consequences of a prolonged power outage (and, of course, not something that would covered by home insurance). It is unfortunate. Please let us know if there is someway that we can help.
There are other folks who are loosing homes due to fire, floods, etc. Tusk mentioned, as reasons, (sort of) tongue in cheek "global warming, Mayan apocalypse".
I work in a sponsored research office at a public higher education institution. For the past 2 years, once a month we have someone who is engaged in research (at this institution) come to a weekly staff meeting time to present their research to us. In such meetings, we've heard, more than once (actually about two times a year), about the rapid rate of the glacial icecap melt.
None of these researchers who have presented to us have ever claimed "why they think the glacial icepack is melting as quickly as it is." Because they're doing their job well/correctly, they've reported only what has taken place and its consequences -- that the glacial icecap is diminishing at rate that within less than a half century will make changes on the landscape as we currently know it.
Like it or not, there is most likely "a change is a comin." What that "change" is remains to be seen.
Not to mention all the migrating animals migrating at the wrong times and dieing because of it (the gradually increasing temperature and water levels of the oceans, among other things, mess with their sense of seasons). The 'glacial' (pardon the pun) speed of the ice melt makes it easy to not notice, but over the last few decades, the effects are becoming more apparent to those who are willing to see.
People mistake the longer, cold winters, as proof there is no 'global warming'...'global warming' is a misnomer of sorts because it also describes extreme temperatures the other way (cooling). An example is the desert. Hot right? But the nights are
extremely cold. It's about the extremes both ways that the temperatures are reaching. Also note the tornadoes and hurricanes seem to be increasing....they are affected/created by interactions of cooling and warming temperatures as well, which again lead back to the extreme temperatures of 'global warming'
There is also, the eroding of the atmosphere that protect us from the suns heat and radiation from space. The result is more heat gets through, but can't escape because the pollutants in the upper atmosphere prevent it. We cause this with our pollutants, but it also occurs naturally, by fires and other geological reasons, we just accelerate it with our 'contribution.'
I tend to think this is the natural course of things in the life of a planet, cooling periods, warming periods. Unfortunately for humans, a 'period' can last centuries, or Milena, in a lifetime of a planet. We just accelerate it with the pollutants we produce.
In my 'forced contemplation' of life and our part in existence (seriously, those catholic nuns in England did a number on me
), I sometimes wonder about the theory of the Earth as it's own living organism (Gaia theory put in simplistic terms) a self regulating organism. Seen from space, it can be witnessed, sometimes, that the Earth reacts to trauma, (fires, earthquakes, flooding) in much the same way our bodies react to repair trauma. 'Mother nature' always 'fixes' itself. I wonder, sometimes, if we, as a species, are a benign or malignant influence on her, probably the latter
......So I'm not fully convinced that humans are the reason for 'global warming' or if it's just not 'Mother Nature' or Gaia, 'adjusting' itself (to our overpopulation? When I was young, there were 5.5 billion people on the Earth, now over 7 billion.) Which brings up another indicator that 'Mother Nature' is at work/adjusting, the declining birthrate in some countries...a reaction to the relative crowding on the planet...longer life expectancy?
Remember, in the Earth's lifetime, humans have only been around for a tiny fraction, much less even than the dinosaurs...and where are they now?
shheeeshh...I can really get going....
Bad power outage indicates "Life, The Universe and Everything" are doomed!
