firetree

The reason toxic gases are allowed to pour into the ONLY ATMOSPHERE we breathe because the human lifetime is about 80 years. In the history of mankind we have separated ourselves from nature by the simple fact that we do what we can for self preservation while we are here, at the expense of factors that won't matter once we are dead. The more we see ourselves as a force of nature the intricate balance will not be such a burden. The whole climate change issue will become another political, money-making issue for these reasons. Carbon trading for example is a joke. Say your body is the earth. Every night you get drunk and this is definately not good for your body. Every day you excercise and drink lots of water and this is good for your body. So the two cancel each other out, right? It would be good if this were the case, but this is what businesses propose. If I emit CO2 into the atmosphere, I just plant trees to uptake that CO2 to offset the emissions. Though it's a good start, we really need to take a good look in the mirror and see we are a part of this environment and not the controllers. It's not what we don't know that will harm us. It's what we do know that just ain't so......Mark Twain

Antarctica consists of huge glaciers atop bedrock.The Western Antarctic shelf is a floating ice sheet that is on the coast of antarctica. This shelf acts as a dam for any run off or movement of land based ice.If the western antarctic shelf melts or if there is a slight rise in sea level to dettach the antarctic shelf from the edge of the bedrock,the sheer weight of the land based glacier could slide into the water, dramatically raising sea levels.This is similar to stacking ice cubes in a glass of water so that the bottom ice cube touches the bottom of the glassand the top ice cubes are not floating on the water.When the ice above the water melts it displaces the water causing the water to overflow the glass.