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In response to "There are bacteria that eat oil, I'm sure they're having a heyday in the gulf." by Beryllium

~ it's the ciiiiiiiirrrrcle of liiiiife ~

Posted by Dr.Vermin (aka Dr.Vermin) Jul 16 '10, 14:52

Your IM sounds entirely sensible.

My only point is that sometimes we overestimate our ability to roll up our sleeves and tweak that balance at will. :)

I read a great quote in Wired once: "Asking today's scientists to 'fix' the climate is like asking a group of 18th century steam engineers to fix the space shuttle."

Responses:

So the strategy is to deny it's happening, until it's too late, and then say, well, there's nothing we can do about it? Cool. -- nm - mara Jul 16, 15:00 13
- Next time your car starts making funny noises, just pop the hood and start pulling wires and turning bolts based on your own intuition. - Dr.Vermin Jul 16, 15:12 12
  - How are we pulling wires blindly when it comes to the environment? It seems the concensus is let's try to pollute a little less - Guigue Jul 16, 15:29 6
    - I'm all for cleaner cars. I'm as annoyed by 8mpg Hummers as anyone. - Dr.Vermin Jul 16, 15:35 4
      - when did anyone in this conversation say anything about cap-and-trade or kyoto? So far as I know, the only thing close to that was taxation. -- nm - Beryllium Jul 16, 15:36 1
        
        (I said "taxation and de-incentivizing pollution" - cap and trade aims to incentivize non-pollution, which is different.) -- nm - Beryllium Jul 16, 15:37
      - so, you are happy to use intuition as a guideline. -- nm - loosilu Jul 16, 15:36 1
        
        Wrong again. -- nm - Dr.Vermin Jul 16, 15:44
    - yeah, the logical point is that we're pulling wires by polluting, not by trying to stop polluting -- nm - Beryllium Jul 16, 15:32
  - Yeah, that's an apt analogy. All our climate data is basically just intuition. -- nm - mara Jul 16, 15:14 2
    - Considering the billions of years of planetary history it fails to encompass, yes. Pretty much. -- nm - Dr.Vermin Jul 16, 15:16 1
      - climate research is a wider field then mere temperature gathering -- nm - Danedukenuuk Jul 16, 15:18
  - Your strategy is to ignore the noises and act surprised when the car breaks down. -- nm - loosilu Jul 16, 15:14 1
    - No. - Dr.Vermin Jul 16, 15:29
It depends what you mean by "balance" and "compensating." It might mean that entire ecosystems are changed forever. - loosilu Jul 16, 14:57 13
- I think it's the height of arrogance to pretend to know what's "too fast and too often". -- nm - Dr.Vermin Jul 16, 15:01 12
  - we can easily predict the mons position for the next million of years, and even all known objects in ouer own solar system - Danedukenuuk Jul 16, 15:22 1
    - Okay, I concede. If the moon starts orbiting the Earth hourly, I will agree that's 'too fast'. :) - Dr.Vermin Jul 16, 15:26
  - There are many measurable effects we can easily observe, such as negative effects (or flat out extinction) of plants and animals. -- nm - loosilu Jul 16, 15:06 5
    - What, pray tell, is the proper speed of ecosystem change? -- nm - Dr.Vermin Jul 16, 15:10 4
      - one that does not cause permanent negative effects. - loosilu Jul 16, 15:12 3
        
        You'd better inform Mother Nature that she's not playing by your rules. - Dr.Vermin Jul 16, 15:15 2
        
        countless - Danedukenuuk Jul 16, 15:24
        
        this is what I'm not gonna play. -- nm - loosilu Jul 16, 15:16
  - Well, if *we* weren't pouring dioxins and CO2 into the environment, I doubt the antelope would be. -- nm - Beryllium Jul 16, 15:02 3
    - (Hmm, on second thought, they do fart a lot.) -- nm - Beryllium Jul 16, 15:06 2
      - They fart dioxins? -- nm - loosilu Jul 16, 15:07 1
        
        well, *now* they do. -- nm - Beryllium Jul 16, 15:07
Yeah, but then again you're a complete nincompoop. -- nm - nubby Jul 16, 14:53

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