Comments for A Terrifying Truth at http://atlanticfreepress.com , comment 1 to 4 out of 4 comments http://atlanticfreepress.com Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:11:12 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://atlanticfreepress.com/news/1/1353-a-terrifying-truth.html#comment-1890 Recommended reading before such articles are written: 1:Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. 2:How Real is Real? Perhaps some out-of-work politician like Gore needs to make this his personal crusade - after all, it's his only job right now, but there's no reason intelligent people, as opposed to the mob, have to buy into it. - a guest Sat, 14 Apr 2007 21:42:05 +0100 http://atlanticfreepress.com/news/1/1353-a-terrifying-truth.html#comment-1886 yes the problem is huge; its cataclysmic. So what does Dave proscribe as an answer to this all-encompassing, international issue? -- legal reforms. Reforms of all shades in fact, none of which will fundamentally change the basis for the earth's evolution into a trash heap. Where does mass consumerism come from? Why do corporations flee environmental regulations and set-up shop in third world countries to continue polluting? Why will ANY environmental concern always take a distant second place to profit making? Dave has proven himself too shortsighted to give an answer to these questions, but the forthcoming events he so gloomily refers to forces a wider perspective. The for-profit construction of society has created the mess were in. Eliminating this accelerated rush to destruction requires that the masses of people retake society and produce for need instead of greed. This ideology, called socialism, was briefly dismissed as Utopian in the first sentence of the above rant. Instead, we should try to convince the tiny elite of billionaires of the world that we have a mutual interest in sustaining life on earth. This is indeed humorous, especially given that our corporate masters spend the majority of their time devising ways to kill and maim. A system constructed a short-term profit yields cannot put aside its fundamental goal and decide on an alternative course of environmental progress. Not seeing this common-sense solution to the global problem produces unrealistic answers the likes of which we read from Dave and naturally, are quickly dismissed by readers as irrelevant. - a guest Fri, 13 Apr 2007 23:09:46 +0100 http://atlanticfreepress.com/news/1/1353-a-terrifying-truth.html#comment-1880 The situation would be less hopeless if more people - a lot more people - came to their senses and realized the seriousness of the situation, as so well expounded here. Because the human psyche is shot through with a high degree of ostrich-like optimism, the prevailing common perception is that whatever is wrong, we'll find a way to fix it. The rise and fall of all previous civilizations should remind us that we have never succeeded in avoiding a collapse in the past. Those who put their faith in the capacity of human ingenuity and technology to provide the answers are likely to have a rude awakening, as Nature's systems will in all probability prove far too sensitive, subtle and powerful for us to remedy by genetic engineering or any other high-tech solution. The principal difference between previous civilizations and our own is that this time the whole human race is caught up in it, so yes, it's distinctly possible there won't be any of us around at all in another few decades (or less). - a guest Fri, 13 Apr 2007 13:08:56 +0100 http://atlanticfreepress.com/news/1/1353-a-terrifying-truth.html#comment-1875 The author, Dave Lindorff has got half of it correct: the current prescriptions for avoiding runaway global warming are too little, too late. A rapidly warming earth's carbon sinks will become carbon emitters soon big-time. Furthermore, there is trillions of dollars in fossil fuel burning infrastructure that virtually commits us to decades of massive CO2 emissions. On the other hand, it is obviously unrealistic to prescribe mankind so severely and quickly cutting their CO2 emissions that runaway global warming be avoided. Human population is rapidly rising and developing, so energy needs are dramatically rising, and the only way to address them on the horizon is to burn coal (and emit large quantites of CO2). The only solution is to remove the CO2 from the air after it has been emitted. Nature already does this (she absorbs half of mankind's CO2 emissions, but that is expected to drop 30% by 2030). I suggest improving nature's ability to remove CO2 from the air using genetic engineering-perhaps seeding a GMO into the ocean. - a guest Fri, 13 Apr 2007 07:34:07 +0100