Friday, February 09, 2007

Climate Change "only one symptom of a stressed Planet Earth" says IGBP





"Global environmental change, which includes climate change, threatens to irreversibly alter our planet," says Kevin Noone, Executive Director of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP).Global studies by International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) show that human-driven environmental changes are affecting many parts of the Earth's system, in addition to its climate. For example, half of Earth's land surface is now domesticated for direct human use, 75 percent of the world’s fisheries are fully or over-exploited, and the composition of today's atmosphere is well outside the range of natural variability the Earth has maintained over the last 650,000 years. The report concludes that Earth is now in the midst of its sixth great extinction event.


"May you live in interesting times." I forget: was that intended as a blessing or a curse?

5 comments:

Katie said...

"May you live in interesting times." I forget: was that intended as a blessing or a curse?

Frankly, I'd go with curse.

Justin said...

Pish posh! The hyper-intelligent roachoids that will populate the galaxy a couple hundred thousand years after mankind has left the stage will thank us for this evolutionary bottleneck.

It's all about scale, people. No one lives forever. Unless you're some sort of dirty transhumanist.

Of course, if things really are screwed, and it's only going to get worse, why keep up the pretense of your modern life at all? *Do* something about it. For real.

What was that other asian-esque quotable. I think I saw it in the film Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai. It was something about a swordsman being able to carry out one final blow, even after he'd been mortally wounded.

Mac said...

Frankly, I'd go with curse.

I don't blame you.

Typhon Vortex said...

It's a curse.

Justin said...

Sounds like everyone has their minds made up about the situation, then? Maybe you should re-read that Kim Stanley Robinson interview more closely.