Humans headed for extinction? Nothing done about global warming...

[FormerRepublican]

...seems like the environmental damage will inevitable conclude in an uninhabitable Earth. And since those in power in the world only worship $$$, and cleaning up the environment and controlling global warming would cost huge $$$, I just don't see the looming disaster being averted. And even if the money were spent, would it create an economic disaster just as devastating as an environmental collapse?

The latest:

"Study reveals Earth's fast-rising oceans

Washington - Ocean and so-called greenhouse gas levels are rising faster than they have for thousands of years, according to two reports published on Thursday that are likely to fuel debate on global warming.

One study found the Earth's ocean levels have risen twice as fast in the past 150 years, signalling the impact of human activity on temperatures worldwide, researchers said in the journal Science.

Sea levels were rising by about 1 millimetre every year about 200 years ago and as far back as 5 000 years, geologists found from deep sediment samples from the New Jersey coastline. Since then, levels have risen by about 2 millimetres a year.

While the planet has been in a warmer period, driving cars and other activities that create carbon dioxide are having a clear impact, the Rutgers University-led team said.

"Half of the current rise ... was going on anyway. But that means half of what's going on is not background. It's human induced," said Kenneth Miller, a geology professor at the New Jersey-based school who led the 15-year effort."

http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=31&art_id=qw1132806423734B252

I can see it coming, but the result seems inevitable. How long do you think it will be before we've polluted the world beyond habitability?

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Guess Kurt Vonnegut is right. We are a destructive virus on this planet

and Mother Earth is doing her best to rid herself of us.

[MasonJar]

2. Study found more carbon dioxide in our atmosphere than any-

time in the last 650,000 years.

[nosmokes]

3. the demise of humanity is possibly the BEST thing that

could happen to this planet.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

5. NO SHIT. Agreed 100%. nt.

[aquart]

7. That's what my geology professors kept saying.

I found it disheartening.

[Spinzonner]

8. That presumes that there is some absolute standard

for what a planet 'ought' to be.

The egocentric one is, of course, the one that is reasonably friendly to human habitation. There is nothing in nature that says we need to exist or be comfortable for the earth to go on. It was there when we came in and will be there after we're gone. Hardly makes it BEST or WORST. Just rather irrelevant from any concept of a moral sense.

There merely is an environment or perhaps multiple somewhat stable environments that are possible. Venus has one. We probably wouldn't be too happy there.

[mikehiggins]

4. Soylent Green is people, people

It is possible that the warming earth will not be able to support the numbers of human beings on the planet today, but those are the breaks. The masses of people are concerned with surviving from day to day. The "elite", those in a position to make a difference, are concerned with making more and more profits every day. That leaves damn little room for hope, wouldn't you think?

We live in interesting times.

[electron_blue]

6. At some point, great amts of $ will be made in cleaning up this mess

Stay tuned.

[ladjf]

9. Homo sepiens have been on Earth for less than 500,000 years.

Compare that to turtles and whales who have been around for over 2 million years. When we succeed in wiping ourselves out, we will have broken the all time record for "shortgevity". (new word)