Ramifications of thawing permafrost

[aloofman]

As for future fuels... hydrogen may be fine provided a) it is produced via renewable energy and b) we find an alternative to platinum as a catlayst for the fuel cells, cos there sure aint enough of it in the world to power all the cars we currently have!

And provided someone comes up with a tank of reasonable design for a car. And provided that someone builds the infrastructure to distribute the hydrogen.

 

[dops7107]

And provided someone comes up with a tank of reasonable design for a car. And provided that someone builds the infrastructure to distribute the hydrogen.

er, aye, that too! Biofuels sound good in theory, but then we'd need to spend loads of energy just to fertilise the fields to grow all the crops.

Mind you, governments don't help. Here in the UK, there's a small business in selling used cooking oil for use in diesel vehicles. Apparently, all you need to do is fliter it... unfortunately, the government insists on taxing it as a fuel. Crazy - what kind of incentive is that?

 

[Kmacripple]

As Mischief mentioned, its not really a matter of whether its a natural event of man made one. With the increase in temperature continuing at its current rate, we're going to be in trouble - well, our grandkids will. Over the past century there has been a sharp increase in the temperature world wide - this dramatic a change doesn't show up in any paleoclimate. Something is out of balance and denying that is only going to make things worse.

Bleh,

D

World temperature is a matter of debate. Were the thermometers a hundred years ago as accurate as they are now? Is the "heat island effect" in cities skewing temperature data, if so how much? Why are some cities actually showing a decrease in temperatures since 1900? Why are they now saying interior Antarctica's glaciers have been getting thicker over the past 50 years? Are melting glaciers on mountains caused more by deforestation or global warming? There many things science still doesn't know about the climate on earth. We can't predict weather more than 3 days ahead, why can we know with any certainty what the climate will be 100 years from now. My point is that we need to keep studying this, to think we totally understand this issue is silly. I am not some right wing nut that thinks we should ignore global warming. This issue is very complicated. Not all pollution comes from wealthy Western countries. Who wants to tell developing countries in the next 50 years not to use electricity, because of the threat global warming poses if they use more fossil fuels. I don't. These are just some questions and issues that need to be keep being studied.