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Re: fHuman vs. natural influences on the environment



In article <4ubisq$a30_001@watstar.uwaterloo.ca>,
   DGOURLEY@CHEMICAL.uwaterloo.ca (Dana Gourley) wrote:
>In article <4u665e$6r0_005@pm3-135.hal-pc.org>,
>   charliew@hal-pc.org (charliew) wrote:
>>In article <IbFG+CAZYcByEw4p@wandana.demon.co.uk>,
>>   Jim Barr <JimBarr@wandana.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>>>In article <4u3avt$su3@condor.ic.net>, All locked up and 
>>nowhere to go

(BIG CUT)

>I feel like throwing in my two cents worth:
>The responce time of the atmosphere would be very critical 
to people trying to 
>study it. A short responce time would speed up the results, 
and there would be 
>no greenhouse debate.
>
>It seems to me the critical problem with a long response 
time is that it 
>impares theoretical modeling of the environment.  Without a 
good model, we 
>really are flying blind into uncharted territory.  That in 
my opinion is the 
>strongest argument for taking action now to curb greenhouse 
emisions(sp?).  I 
>wouldn't want to be arround if we find out 40 years from now 
that the 
>historical averages are only showing a locally stable 
position and that we 
>have provided a forcing function that drove us far enough 
away from this 
>equilibrium that the new local stability point is something 
like Venus. 
>

It seems to me that there are at least two "camps" of opinion 
here.  One group (myself included) sees nothing wrong with 
collecting the data and assuming that we will not do lasting 
harm to the environment during the time that it takes to 
understand enough about the problem to properly fix it.  The 
other group seems to be of the opinion that zero emissions, 
zero risk, zero tolerance, etc., is the goal that we should 
be setting for ourselves.  I take exception to this second 
group's opinion.  There are acceptable levels of risk, 
emissions, etc., that we can and should establish in our 
activities.  Zero risk and zero emissions are a practical 
impossibility, and will result in a lot of miserable people 
demanding things that can't be delivered.  It's time to look 
for goals that are more achievable and practical than this.


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