And this is my point. Thank you for NPR following up on my thought process from 2 days ago...

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...oryId=10221268

Merc, it is not only NPR who are shouting warnings about China (and do not forget India). I have mentioned them several times. The problem is: what can we do about it? All countries want to do business with China, so no one wants to offend them. As I said in this thread, the Olympics in 2008 will be interesting.

I have debated whether to bring this up, but now seems a good time. Do you know what really worries us? It is not just global warming, green house gases, etc. It is the impending shift in the Earth's magnetic poles. I do not know how many Cellarites have been following this story, but the magnetic poles are moving. At the moment the North Pole is somewhere in the mid far North Atlantic. We do not how far the poles need to shift before they "flop", but some researchers are predicting that we are approaching that time (others disagree and say that the rotation will be gradual, and consistent). Imagine the effect on the Earth's wildlife. We know that these events have occurred many times before, but we do not know the resultant effect on the Earth's ecology.

Wow, bluesdave--I've read a little about the magnetic pole switching, but only ever in the vein of "this is way overdue to happen, and when it does the results will be mind-blowing," never "it's actually showing signs of starting to move."

What are the ramifications for our current technology? Obviously once the flip is final compasses will be backwards, but what about plane navigation systems and such?

It will potentially effect just about everything. Not just compasses (which have not been used seriously since GPS came into being). I am far from an expert on this subject, but I have read that many of the possible effects are unpredictable. We are not sure to what extent it will confuse our wildlife - their use of the Earth's magnetic field for navigation is still being debated. We also do not know if the change will effect the Earth's weather patterns, and ocean currents. It is a huge hole in our knowledge.

We do know that the poles have swapped before, but we have no way of knowing what damage was done. The last time man was not running around with truck loads of electronics, either. :(

It also falls into the category of, it ain't our fault, and we can't do anything to prevent it. The question is how will it affect us and how can we prepare to diminish it's impact. I've seen a hundred articles on it being a possibility but never any on what the effect will be other than birds getting confused.

CRTs will go all wonky.

Hey, that's great. All our old monitors can be shipped to South America instead of filling the landfills

As I said, not much is known about the likely effects. Unlike climate change, we have little knowledge of when the event will happen - only certainty that it is on the way.

You are correct Bruce. This one is not our fault, and I did not suggest that it was. There is probably nothing that we can do to prepare for it, other than wait.

Maybe it is a good time to find that old fashioned religion? :eek:

I was really just trying to breathe a bit of life back into this thread. :sniff:

I think we should put more money into space exploration so we can find ourselves a new planet. :)

What a defeatist attitude, Aliantha.
With all the technology at our disposal, we could fuck up a new planet a hell of a lot faster.

I read you Dave, but pole swaps and Super volcanoes are just out of our control.

Probably what we should be trying to figure out is how are we going to adapt to the coming climate changes?
What are we going to have to adapt too, would probably come first?

Well the climate is going to be hotter, so women should wear less clothing, for starters. Hey, I am being serious.

We've adapted to climate change quite well in Oz. :) Cept we're always thirsty. :(

Here you go Bruce, some positive news in the fight against Global Warming:

I have been a supporter of hydrogen cells, but I accept that the cost is not reasonable, nor the length of mileage between "top-ups". Here is the full story (at least it is the press release). These guys are heading in the right direction.

Such arrogance that people think they can stop or slow climate change.
If everybody started using battery powered cars do you really think it will have an impact on the environment?
First it was the world was flat, then it was everything revolved around the earth, then it was we are alone in the universe and the latest arrogance is we are warming the globe.
We are so full of ourselves that we have entire bogus political movements based on it.

There is a difference between stopping climate change and stopping man-made climate change.

The fact you think we are changing the climate at this stage is arrogant.