If think THIS is the scariest thing I've read in ages

[Twiglett]

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7006640.stm

yep. bloody terrifying. See who cares though.

"We're on strong spiral of decline; some would say a death spiral. I wouldn't go that far but we're certainly on a fast track. We know there is natural variability but the magnitude of change is too great to be caused by natural variability alone."

Very scary indeed.

It's OK. I have just finished State of Fear by Michael Crichton. We have nothing to worry about apparently.

It is terrifying. If I remember correctly, Stephen Hawking thinks that if we don't start to significantly cut our carbon emissions now Earth will end up like Venus in 50 to 100 years.

The most depressing thing of all is how little people care.

The weather has had me scared for the last few years.....

I care.

Thom Hartman was right it seems.

"The figure shatters all previous satellite surveys, including the previous record low of 5.32 million sq km measured in 2005."

I think you have to ask yourself the question how long have they been doing "satellite" surveys? The media love all the end is nigh stuff, but if the surveys have been by satellite, they could only have records going back, at a maximum 50 years. In the scale of things, this is not a very long time at all.

Most of the doom and gloom surveys are mathematical models - extrapolating from previously collected data. How accurate is this? We don't really know yet. The climate does change over time, it gets hot, it gets cold. I think we have to wait and see.

On the other hand, all this carbon release can't be a good thing.

It's not good is it? and can our beloved governments agree on anything to replace Kyoto, sigh.....I fear those with the money will be genitically engeneering/modifying themselves to live in the future, whilst the rest of us suffer/dieout......

All these disasters! I'm looking to see what will happen after 2012.
As by then its supposed to be the end of the Mayan calendar and the "Fifth sun", end of the world basically.
Or the magnetic poles are going to shift so that North is South and vice versa Or that by 2012 we'll either be boiled alive or that we've all got it TERRIBLY wrong and that we are going into a major ice age.
Just google 2012 and its amazing what crap comes out!
Just hope some Eco terrorist don't try and get the world to have a nuclear war as the only thing that will save this planet is less people or everybody go back to pre-industrial times.
In the last 50yrs everyone was scared of a Nuclear Armageddon, now they've just found something new to terrorise the population with.
AB

I seem to remember that Nostradamus predicted the world would end in 1996 or something. Didn't happen.

But yes carbon emissions are worrying. Part of me wonders though if global warming would hapen anyway though. Its maybe just a natural cycle. I mean look at how much the climate has changed since The Ice Age - and that wasn't because of too many cheap flights to the Algarve.

Dd is only 9 and is worried to bits about global warming. She seems to have really picked up on the message and talks about it all quite knowledgably.

There have been several ice ages and several periods of the earth being very warm indeed!

Hot house
Ice house
Hot house
Ice house

see a pattern?

The ice caps have melted before.

And they'll melt again.

We are contributing, that is clear, and we should do what we can to avoid accelerating things, but there is also a natural force at work. Again.

oh gawd. Possibly the top scientists all across the world [bar about 1%] know a bit more about it than joe bloggs, and they say yes, it is a natural cycle but we are tipping it over the edge into irreversability

mytwopenceworth- I agree - and as humans we are certainly contributing to the changes.

But this world will survive as it always has done. Whether the human race will survive along with it is a different matter.

I was watching the David Attenborough programme 'Can planet Earth be saved' and it gave the 2005 stats, it had footage of huge chunks of ice falling into the sea, it was shocking and worrying. Your discussions are interesting by the way It seems that 'we' are doing our bit and the industries are going on as before, with very little thought to 'being green' if it costs too much Finally though, green issues are widespread and most people recycle and switch off when not in use etc.

It's terrifying. I've been scared rigid since reading this.

We do as much as we can but it seems so daunting when no one else seems to care. Until something really awful happens and thousands of people die on our own doorstep, nothing is going to change. Even more terrifying once you've had children, somehow.

Big chunks of ice probably always fall into the sea in summer time - the media is always on hand to make us feel really scared.

Back in the 70s, the scientists said we were approaching the next ice age - now they have different ideas.

I am sure that releasing carbon the way we are is a bad thing, but I don't think that there is consensus about whether this is definitely causing global warming.

I don't understand why they are teaching global warming to our children as if it was 100% fact - it is even in the school text books. I think it is a bit irresponsible. The children worry about it, when there is absolutely nothing they can do about it. It is the govts way of washing their hands of it - we are educating the next generation - let them deal with it. Which if it is true, they will probably have to because without oil, we would all starve.

No worries - your God's on your side

(and if you haven't got one, you'll just have to join in with all the others).

LOL at 'big chunks of ice probably always fall into the sea at summertime' LOL and

figroll, the 'experts' are still saying we're on our way to the next ice age (or huge change whatever that may be) I suppose there's no point in being scared about it, if it's going to happen, it's going to happen. It;s sad though