[extropy-chat] Climate skepticism patterns

[Martin Striz]

On 6/8/06, spike <spike66 at comcast.net> wrote:

> These models tend to assume a nearly uniform increase in temperature, but I
> am more ambitious than that.  What if we could warm the poles and cool the
> tropics.  Would not that be a good thing?  How about making the deserts
> wetter and the soggy areas dryer?  What if we had to sacrifice the polar
> bears and the penguins to do it?  But if we gave up those two species, and
> made new habitat for a hundred new ones, wouldn't that be a good deal?  Or
> by expanding current habitats we were to save a hundred existing species?

*blinks*

You wouldn't just lose two species.  Ecosystems are interwoven.  You
would lose thousands.  The the species that you would gain back would
take millions of years to evolve... if we completely eliminate the
practices that are currently producing the largest rate of extinction
in earth's history.

Martin