raiiiiiiiine - Page 2 - Snowmobile Forum: Your #1 Snowmobile Forum

letitsnow · 01-11-2006, 05:00 PM

i read somewhere reputable that 1 volcano eruption puts 10,000, or was it 100,000, times the polutants into the atmosphere than humans have TOTAL.

but this weather sucks, i went to ride my dirtbike cuz we have no snow and then it started to pour rain. can't do anything at all.

polarisindy · 01-11-2006, 05:28 PM

No, BRPforlife, we're ignorant to think we're not warming the Earth. Of cousre the temperature was over 50 at some time. But the killer that we're doing is a steady increase in overall temperature. Sure there are times when it is -50 out and everyone says "Global warming, theres no global warming, look at the temperature." But there is, we're too ignorant to think global warming is real.
Casesensitive- We have a large impact on the temperatures and weather. Look at what we're doing. Unveiling and burning coal that has been trapped underground for billions of years. In the last 100 years the amount of coal burned and oil burned has increades dramatically because of people taking over the Earth, too many. Thats what we depend on to live, but its also what is killing what we live on, slowly. Burning coal releases tremendous amouts of carbon, since thats what its made of. Carbon goes into the atmosphere and in turn makes it possible for the greenhouse effect to take place with all the trapped gases.
As for burning oil, we all now that we're gunna run out sometime, prob. not in our lifetimes but it will happen. It took billions of years to form and we're using it like its a renewable resource, when it actually is, but its not like we can just wait for mother nature to make more oil.

Just my 2 cents. long but still my 2 cents

illwerral · 01-11-2006, 05:45 PM

I agree. There's experts that are on both sides of the argument, but a lot more believe that global warming is not a fantasy. And even though we don't have accurate temperature data for more than a hundred years is not that important. We're pumping carbon dioxide into the sky and temperatures are on an upward trend. There's a correlation.

And we certainly are running out of fossil fuels. And some people actually suggested that if we're running out of oil, we should explore for more. Here's the key: we have to wait billions of years for geological processes to compress dead organic matter into crude oil. Not going to happen quickly. Solar and geothermal energy sources aren't practical in a lot of places, so what are we left with then? We need to be exploring nuclear energy because that's the only energy source that is both abundant and capable of meeting high power demands to get us out of this jackpot.

Pretending that there isn't a problem is not going to fix anything. It's not going to reduce the amount of pollution on the earth and its not going to find an alternative to hydrocarbons when we run out of those within the next hundred years.

And...it was around 0*C here today and there's very little snow left on the roads. It feels like March. I actually delivered my papers on my mountain bike today...

polarisindy · 01-11-2006, 05:50 PM

Nicely said illwerral!

case sensitive · 01-11-2006, 06:27 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by letitsnow
i read somewhere reputable that 1 volcano eruption puts 10,000, or was it 100,000, times the polutants into the atmosphere than humans have TOTAL.

but this weather sucks, i went to ride my dirtbike cuz we have no snow and then it started to pour rain. can't do anything at all.

1 volcano. 1 eruption. When Mt. Vesuvius (sp) blew, it pumped 10,000 times the polutants (at least) into the atmosphere. We've got nothing on mother earth. If she wants to f*ck with us, she's gonna do it.

And paleotemps were MUCH higher than anything we're experiencing now. The earth warms and cools, naturally. Human impact is negligable. Are we having an impact? Possibly, but not as much as many think.

And for the record, I'm an environmental scientist. I've done a lot of studies in this area.

illwerral · 01-11-2006, 09:17 PM

If you're an environmental scientist then you know that millions of years ago there was much more carbon dioxide in the air than now, and there was a tropical climate across much more of the globe. So we're reverting the earth back to that state. Sure it's natural, but it comes down to one very big thing: humans don't like it. We like to snowmobile. We like not roasting in 40*C weather all the time. We like having four distinct seasons. Secondly, even though a volcano can put more pollutants into the atmosphere than we have ever put, does not justify polluting the earth further and also doesn't take into the account the other ways we are polluting it. Marring the landscape, ruining ecosystems for generations.

Not to mention the fact that we are running out of fossil fuels anyway. And with the increasing rate of energy consumption due to countries like China demanding a lifestyle more similar to that of North America, we're going to be using more every day. The use of fossil fuels is one facet to the pollution problem humans have created, and it is also a facet of the energy crisis we've been aware of since the 1970's.

Global warming is a suspected effect of a much larger problem humans are facing. There's a correlation between temperature increases and the production of greenhouse gases. That means a connection may or may not exist, but it is reasonable to believe a connection does exist until there is solid evidence to the contrary.

PolarisINDY500 · 01-11-2006, 09:44 PM

gee-jus-christ...this thread is waaaaaaaaay off topic

...never a dull moment

Goldeneyes · 01-12-2006, 01:49 AM

Case sensitive,

I'm always very curious when I meet a scientist who doesn't believe in global warming caused by humans. I'd love to read your dissertation. What topic was it on?

I truly do believe that earth naturally goes through cooling and warming cycles, however I think it's ignorant to think that fossil fuels don't add to the process. Ice dating from the 1750's (when the industrial revolution began) show that the world has warmed up significantly each year since.

I will concede though that i am not an environmental scientist. I have a minor in geography, but my area of study is history. Maybe if I return to graduate school, I could focus on something like this.

case sensitive · 01-12-2006, 09:35 AM

Where did I ever say that human impact was 0? In the grand sceme of things (earths 4 billion year history), human impact isn't much. Sorry if that wasn't clear (re-reading what I wrote, it isn't). And I do belive in global warming, but not that it's all human impact that has created global warming.

illwerral, I agree with you, we shouldn't be continuing current trends. I'm going to predict that we're going to get much colder before we get much warmer. Or rather warmer -> colder -> warmer again. Like I said before, we're due for another mini ice age.

Yes, we're sort of running out of fossil fuels. In 30-100 years they could be out. Does that mean that we should continue current trends of fuel usage? Absolutely not.

Personally, I run 100% synthetic oils in my cars. 0 fossil oil goes into my cars. In my diesel VW, I burn biodiesel when I can get it. Basically, if I run my VW on bioD, I'm using 0 fossil fuels, and using 100% renewable resources. Yet the EPA has deemed my car unclean...

And my sleds are all 4-strokes.

Goldeneyes · 01-12-2006, 10:36 AM

That's awesome. I drive a 4.3L truck that i really want to replace with something smaller. I really have my eye on the I-5 Colorado. Anybody have any experience?

I'd love a 4 stroke sled too :S

illwerral · 01-12-2006, 02:14 PM

casesensitive, sounds like you're doing your part at least

I don't suppose you know of any alternatives to regular gasoline since I don't have any vehicles that run on diesel? I thought I heard something about that over the summer but I could never find anything on the net...

case sensitive · 01-12-2006, 09:30 PM

just ethanol, or CNG

letitsnow · 01-13-2006, 03:53 PM

ethanol is pretty easy to convery to, you have to reprogram richer, and if you want up the spark timing a little for a little extra power, and keep a bunch of fuel filters because the ethanol will break up the deposits in the system and clog them.