Quote:
|
Originally Posted by questor
is it man, or is it nature? |
Admittedly, there are always natural cycles and causes which must be taken into consideration... like the magnetic poles flipping and that sort of thing, so the answer to that question is "yes." Man is part of nature... Nature is part of man.
What always makes me a little edgy with this topic is how life (according to many currently accepted models) essentially evolved from molecules into bacteria that ate some gases and excreted others and these caused organisms to take advantage of that and here we are... humans discussing it all millions of years later.
Well, bacteria are tiny, microscopic in fact, and there are so many of them that it takes scientific notation to describe their numbers. Consider the tiny quantities (volumes) of air they process. Now, compare this to the vast volumes of air being converted similarly through our automobiles and factories and whatnot. The processes (bacteria chewing gas and excreting others, plants converting one gas to another, animals converting one gas to another), and human impacts as described above, are more or less the same, just in different volumes and measured timescales, and both have an effect/impact on the environment/ecosystem.
If a bacteria farted, would anyone notice or care? Probably not. However, if you stood in your garage with the car running and the garage door closed for more than a minute or two, or floated above a huge factory's chimney/smoke stacks for a few seconds, you'd be pretty darn sick. It just seems that the impacts which result from our actions, while only one factor to be considered in addition to natural process of nature, are changing things super quickly, especially when considered over geologic timescales.
Now consider the aggregate of all the cars and factories over the globe...
Standing in the garage with car running and the door closed may not be such a bad option after all.
Kidding aside, it is pretty sad. Even if we manage to find a way that the change doesn't hurt us directly, the base of our ecosystem and food chain may not be so lucky and the effects will reach us sooner or later.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
InfiniteNow
