U.N. Says Globe Drying Up at Fast Pace UN Says Globe Drying Up At Face Pace

[wdlove]

UNITED NATIONS - The world is turning to dust, with lands the size of Rhode Island becoming desert wasteland every year and the problem threatening to send millions of people fleeing to greener countries, the United Nations (news - web sites) says.

One-third of the Earth's surface is at risk, driving people into cities and destroying agriculture in vast swaths of Africa. Thirty-one percent of Spain is threatened, while China has lost 36,000 square miles to desert — an area the size of Indiana — since the 1950s.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040615/ap_on_sc/going_dry

 

[Frohickey]

UNITED NATIONS - The world is turning to dust, with lands the size of Rhode Island becoming desert wasteland every year and the problem threatening to send millions of people fleeing to greener countries, the United Nations (news - web sites) says.

One-third of the Earth's surface is at risk, driving people into cities and destroying agriculture in vast swaths of Africa. Thirty-one percent of Spain is threatened, while China has lost 36,000 square miles to desert — an area the size of Indiana — since the 1950s.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040615/ap_on_sc/going_dry

Haven't geologists already conclude that Africa used to be a lush green jungle in prehistoric times, and its gotten steadily dryer and dryer as time has progressed?

 

[LethalWolfe]

I'm not saying there isn't a problem, but the Earth's climate has been changing since day 1. Why are people surprised that it is still going on?


Lethal

 

[Fukui]

I'm not saying there isn't a problem, but the Earth's climate has been changing since day 1. Why are people surprised that it is still going on?

Not surprised, maybe concerned.

 

[PowerMacMan]

Hey, have any of you seen The Day After Tomorrow?

 

[MongoTheGeek]

Haven't geologists already conclude that Africa used to be a lush green jungle in prehistoric times, and its gotten steadily dryer and dryer as time has progressed?

Theory is the sahara happened over the past 10,000 years and egypt had serious rain during the reign of the Pharaohs. There seems to be erosion damage on the sphynx.

That being said, I knew a guy once who was a master at greening former deserts and wastelands. I saw photos of pilot projects and studies back in the late '80s. He grew green grass on mine tailings! He was doing wonders in Lesotho

 

[Mac_Max]

The Sahara gains about 50 miles of area every year. Global warming & graising are ruining the ecosystems of that area.

 

[yoda13]

Hey, have any of you seen The Day After Tomorrow?

Yeah, it was a good flick. Don't know about the liberties that they took with the science, but it made for an entertaining movie. Having said that, the earth is warming, whatever you believe the cause to be, and anything that gets a few more people talking about it isn't a totally bad thing The movie is good, IMO, if you like that sort of movie, whether the science bothers you or not.

 

[LethalWolfe]

Yeah, it was a good flick. Don't know about the liberties that they took with the science...

Well considering it was made by the same guy who did "Independence Day" I don't think you should worry too much about what you saw. Unless, of course, you feel that a coordianted alien invasion of the entire world is eminent<sp?>.


Lethal

 

[Frohickey]

I'm not saying there isn't a problem, but the Earth's climate has been changing since day 1. Why are people surprised that it is still going on?

At day 1, the Earth's climate and atmosphere was toxic to oxygen-breathing animals and plants. Good thing there weren't any of those at the beginning.

I don't think that people are suprised that the climate is changing. They are just acting concerned in order to deflect any argument as to why they seek to control other people's behavior. And if other people do not want to be controlled, these 'surprised/concerned' people are going to do it anyway, if need be, at the point of a gun.

Or court action.
Or via protests.
Or via trespassing into your property.
Or via arson and vandalism.


On the other hand, if these people to to use money and sex, I might be persuaded to change voluntarilly.

 

[Counterfit]

the size of Rhode Island

WHY MUST EVERYONE COMPARE THE SIZE OF **** IN NATURE TO RHODE ISLAND?!?!?! :MAD: Why not Delaware?!

 

[Abstract]

Ever seen Waynes World?

"Delaware!! Hmm......Delaware....mmm........?? *shrugs shoulders*"


Isn't there a water cycle? Water can't just disappear, can it? We drink it, it goes back into the lake, river, ocean eventually. If it evaporates, it'll eventually come back down as rain, right?

And wait until we're producing water when we're emitting water from our cars instead of exhaust. This world will be properly f***ed.

 

[big]

any one interested in doing the math for how much water is in a person.. so I wonder, given the population today, vs the population at the time of the pharoes, how much water is up and walking around? Its seems silly, but really to think about it, not only do are we made up of a lot of water (how many billions of people) but we keep, hold, and store vast quantities as well. Not only for drinking water, but manufacturing etc. Think about development, how much water is just sitting in the pipes out in front of your street, ready to be used?

this could be an interesting math problem.... could we have literally used up the water making new people?

 

[Zeke]

Ever seen Waynes World?

"Delaware!! Hmm......Delaware....mmm........?? *shrugs shoulders*"


Isn't there a water cycle? Water can't just disappear, can it? We drink it, it goes back into the lake, river, ocean eventually. If it evaporates, it'll eventually come back down as rain, right?

And wait until we're producing water when we're emitting water from our cars instead of exhaust. This world will be properly f***ed.

Just so you know, water is already a huge component of exhaust. The more efficient sources of energy (fuel cell) will actually produce less water because it requires less fuel to obtain the same amount of power output.

 

[pooky]

any one interested in doing the math for how much water is in a person.. so I wonder, given the population today, vs the population at the time of the pharoes, how much water is up and walking around? Its seems silly, but really to think about it, not only do are we made up of a lot of water (how many billions of people) but we keep, hold, and store vast quantities as well. Not only for drinking water, but manufacturing etc. Think about development, how much water is just sitting in the pipes out in front of your street, ready to be used?

this could be an interesting math problem.... could we have literally used up the water making new people?

LOL, not even close. Although I don't know the average volume of a human, we can use 85 L as a standard (that's a fairly good-sized man, so it's probably a high estimate).

Water content is around 75%, but what the heck, let's just assume everyone's a little person-sized water container, carrying 85 L of water. At roughly 6 billion people on earth, that's roughly 500,000,000 liters of water. The water supply on earth is roughly 100,000,000,000,000,000,000 L (that's 100 quintillion!). You'd need over a quadrillion people even to make a dent this way.

To put it another way, every person on earth would fit, lying down, inside the grand canyon. All the water on earth would cover the U.S. to a depth of 150 km.

 

[pooky]

Isn't there a water cycle? Water can't just disappear, can it? We drink it, it goes back into the lake, river, ocean eventually. If it evaporates, it'll eventually come back down as rain, right?

That's the basic idea, but it doesn't really happen so simply. If the globe heats up, the air can hold more water, so less of what evaporates goes up as rain. At the same time, we're cutting down forests like mad, so there's less evaporation. Less evaporation + increased water capacity of the air = a drier surface.

Furthermore, expect monstrous changes in air and oceanic circulation as a result of climate change. The Day After Tomorrow was actually pretty close to right on with that aspect, at least. This can cause a redistribution of existing precipitation, so that some areas get drier at the expense of other areas getting wetter. Some models, for example, predict increases in the southwestern and western U.S, while Africa and Europe and the U.S. midwest get much drier.

All in all, expect things to get messy as huge amounts of people have to move, or fight over water rights, or starve. Whether humans caused the changes or not, we'll still have to deal with them, and it could get nasty.

 

[big]

>pooky

I know.. it just sounded like a great crazy idea to kind of dream about. Maybe it'd be a decent sci fi short story

 

[MongoTheGeek]

That's the basic idea, but it doesn't really happen so simply. If the globe heats up, the air can hold more water, so less of what evaporates goes up as rain. At the same time, we're cutting down forests like mad, so there's less evaporation. Less evaporation + increased water capacity of the air = a drier surface.

umm... when water evaporates where does it come from? and if there is less evaporation wouldn't there be more where it came from?

that being said though trees increase the amount of water because they cool the area down increasing the amount of water that falls.

Furthermore, expect monstrous changes in air and oceanic circulation as a result of climate change. The Day After Tomorrow was actually pretty close to right on with that aspect, at least. This can cause a redistribution of existing precipitation, so that some areas get drier at the expense of other areas getting wetter. Some models, for example, predict increases in the southwestern and western U.S, while Africa and Europe and the U.S. midwest get much drier.

Models are cantankerous beasts. At best they tell you what you already know. At worst they only tell you what you want to hear. There was a Dilbert many years ago where he spent a huge amount of money on a computer model that simulated the whole world. It predicted the world domination by mole men 5 years down the road.

That being said rain falls where it does due to prevailing patterns and that some of these patterns change and when they do rain falls in different places but in roughly the same amounts, conservation of mass and all that jazz. Look at the el nino years where there are droughts in some places and floods in others. Its all due to a pacific upwelling.

All in all, expect things to get messy as huge amounts of people have to move, or fight over water rights, or starve. Whether humans caused the changes or not, we'll still have to deal with them, and it could get nasty.

The thing to do is plan the changes. Besides climate is easy to outrun. The day after tomorrow would take at least a century, most likely over 1000 years.

 

[Frohickey]

The thing to do is plan the changes. Besides climate is easy to outrun. The day after tomorrow would take at least a century, most likely over 1000 years.

You know... one thing that has been yelling at me at the back of my mind, with all of these doomsday sayers all over the place... water woes, environmental, global warming, etc.

Since when did parents and nursery/kindergarden teachers stop telling the story about Chicken Little?

 

[MongoTheGeek]

You know... one thing that has been yelling at me at the back of my mind, with all of these doomsday sayers all over the place... water woes, environmental, global warming, etc.

Since when did parents and nursery/kindergarden teachers stop telling the story about Chicken Little?

I don't know. Probably the same time everyone started seeing Mr Snuffleuppagus.

I would love to see CNN or MSNBC chyron "Chicken Little" as a title for some of the more extreme cassandras out there. There are some people who have a good point and they should be listened to but when all the person has is ad homium and invective then they deserve it. Likewise label with "Ostrich" (with a nice graphic of the head in the sand) anyone who doesn't listen to sensible warnings.

 

[Sparky's]

So, at some time well after I'm gone all the suitable farm land will turn to dust there will be mass starvation and anarchy, not to mention rioting and martial law. Everyone goes to the movies and sees all these Sci-Fi prediction type movies that spell doom for mankind, and we all leave the theater thinking "cool flick, but it'll never happen..." I truly hope there is some kind of life after so I can sit back and watch this planet go into the toilet, in say the next 100-200 years. I've been here for 53 already and as far as I can see its gonna happen.