We are in for some Bad weather

[Church Punk]

I don’t know if this has been discussed already but I am interested in what everyone’s view on this is.

I just find it funny that so many people will not change their set ways of consuming. Yet they say we are such good Christians. Part of being the stuarts of creation is to take care of all creation on earth for God.

Thus due to our lack of care for creation it has causes many natural phenomenons such as hurricanes, tornados, floods, mud/ landslides, avalanches.

The stem of most of these is due to global warming caused by our over indulgence in green house gas emissions (unburnt hydro-carbons, NOx, CO2) not to mention the industrial impact. For instance did you know that in North American we consume so much gasoline every day that if you went to one of our Great Lakes stood on the beach and looked out at the water, as much water you would see is equal to the amount of gas burned per day!!!!

We are about to hit a brick wall at 100 mph! it will only be time until we see even worse weather.

I believe that as Catholics, it should be our responsibility to be proactive in ensuring the care of creation and the environment.

The Church seems to be busy with a million other crises on their hands, but I think that this is a reality that has heavy consequence if left unattended.

Should we be lobbying our politicians for change in policy? i.e.: the Kyoto Accord and reduced emissions, and alternative energy etc. Or should we as Catholics leave this to the "tree-hugger" type people.

I feel we have the great responsibility for this and it is as much as the "tree huggers" a lot of people do not take them seriously, but if the Church were to get involve I think they would be able to make a significant impact.

[N/A Gone]

amen...

[N/A Gone]

"day after tommorow" good movie

[Thumper]

Care of creation is an important tenant of Catholic Social Teaching. Unfortunately, I think our ecological consciousness as Catholics has been muted for some time, and we need to delve into our tradition to re-discover the great value placed upon creation, so that we can address the needs of our own time.

One other thing--not trying to be nit-picker, but just to help you in getting your good insights across. Christians are called to be good "stewards" of creation. The "Stuarts" were a royal house of Scotland and Britain--I'm not sure where they stood on care of creation.

[Jaime]

While Stuart Little didn't talk about it, his life was lived with a minimal impact on the world and environment.

[Cam42]

[quote name='hot stuff' date='Dec 7 2005, 07:48 AM']While Stuart Little didn't talk about it, his life was lived with a minimal impact on the world and environment.
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And now his mom is President.

[onathing1]

[quote name='Cam42' date='Dec 7 2005, 08:56 AM']And now his mom is President.
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and don't forget his dad is a world famous doctor now.

[jezic]

yes it could be we have some rough going ahead of us, especially if current trends continue.

[Church Punk]

Im sorry, my english/ spelling skills are somewhat lacking... Im an engineer HAHA

[dUSt]

The environment is overrated.

[Sojourner]

[quote name='Church Punk' date='Dec 7 2005, 08:23 AM']Im sorry, my english/ spelling skills are somewhat lacking... Im an engineer HAHA
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I grew up near Purdue University (great engineering program). I know lots of engineers (including my dad). I understand.

[beatty07]

It's so hard to get the science on this stuff. Everybody has armfulls of "studies" that prove their position.

Some of it's common sense. Not long ago we were in an Ice Age. Now we're not. So, yeah, the world's getting warmer.

As to whether we're accelerating it and how much...until there's a consensus it seems like the smart thing is try and make sure we're not impacting things too much. The fossil-fuel problem will improve significantly sometime probably 20-50 years from now when global oil production peaks.

Great, now I'm on record with an environmental prediction. That's a well-proven way of looking stupid!

Edited December 7, 2005 by beatty07

[beatty07]

It's 4 Farenheit in Chicago right now. I'm thinking maybe global warming is a pretty good deal. I think I'll go empty some aerosol cans into the atmosphere.

[jmj]

[quote name='beatty07' date='Dec 7 2005, 07:48 AM']Some of it's common sense.  Not long ago we were in an Ice Age.  Now we're not.  So, yeah, the world's getting warmer.

As to whether we're accelerating it and how much...until there's a consensus it seems like the smart thing is try and make sure we're not impacting things too much.
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I'm a geology student, and this comes up a lot ... but beatty, you're pretty well straight on the situation at hand. Global warming happened in the past without us. We're not the dead cause, but we're definately accelerating global warming.

As for global warming, this is what I get to deal with, as of 7:35ish tihs morning:
[img]http://static.flickr.com/35/71188371_c939252c42_o.jpg[/img]

Hurrah for thermals!

Also, as for global oil production peaking, it's coming. I spent this summer on oil and gas rigs, and some of them were producing, but there were a LOT of busters and dusters. Some areas are mad monies, but the majority are barely worth drilling for.

And don't get me started on the enviornmental impact of rigs. I never want to go back, some of the things I saw.

I think that we definately need to realize what we're doing to the enviornment. We need to take care of it, before we really find ourselves in a jam.

[Dreamweaver]

I think exploring alternative sources of power would be awesome. Here in North Dakota, we have huge plains and lots of wind! A neighboring city in Minnesota has experimented with wind power, but there's nothing in ND that I know of that works with wind power on a larger scale.

I'm not too keen on dams (haha, I first spelled it with an "n" in it!), since they wreak havoc on rivers. Aswan dam in Egypt anyone?

Biodiesel and ethanol are other cool energy sources that have great promise. But, why does the price of E85 fuel increase just as much as gasoline? THere was a lot of controversy about that during the hurricane season.

[Church Punk]

[quote]I'm a geology student, and this comes up a lot ... but beatty, you're pretty well straight on the situation at hand. Global warming happened in the past without us. We're not the dead cause, but we're definately accelerating global warming[/quote].

I agree it happened in the past however this happened due to natural reasons. I.E. volcanoes erupted, meteroites hitting the earth ect. However due to the fact that we have physically altered the atmosphere so far beyond what is considered normal, it will surly open up the door to alot of unwanted weather and events.

Global warming is happening, the extreme cold and extreme hot we are experiancing are results from this. All of the worlds glaciers are melting. These thing will all contribute to some messed up weather.

Places where it is normally cold, i.e. the poles will be getting warmer, and places with it is normally hot will be getting colded. This will wake havoc on our crops, cause more evapuration of fresh water sorces and also cause the oceans to rise resulting is coast line flooding.

We are already have an international crisis of world hungry especially in Africa. Can you imagine what will happen when we in N. American begin to have droughts and our growing seasons all messed up? There will be no where else to get the food we need. We are the #1 growing area in the world we have so much right now and in reality we are supporting most of the world already.

[morostheos]

This is certainly an important issue for Catholics, and should definitely not be left to tree-huggers. It is vital that as Catholics we promote a consistent ethic of stewardship for ALL of creation (humans included!). Catholic spirituality has many unique things to contribute to the environmental movement, but little has been said/done about it thus far. Our view of sacramentality redeems all of creation in a way few people (Catholic or non-Catholic) are aware of.

[Church Punk]

St. Fransis Assisi, Pray for us!

[Aloysius]

I know a few science professors around here who have said that it's just a natural cycle of the earth, and that we're having very little or no impact on it at all.

the hurricane season was a rough one for many reasons, namely a shift in tectonic plates in a specific part of the ocean that heated up the water and altered it that way. I'd like to see you explain how we caused that one (unless it was the Japense scientists' revenge for Hiroshima)

it's kind of like the hole in the ozone... we weren't observing the ozone, the first time we observed the ozone there was a whole in it, there's absolutely no way to tell if we caused it.

anyway, I've heard some pretty smart sciency guys talk about how we have little to no impact on this natural cycle of the earth's climate, and I trust them.

[jezic]

[quote name='Dreamweaver' date='Dec 7 2005, 09:43 AM']I think exploring alternative sources of power would be awesome. Here in North Dakota, we have huge plains and lots of wind! A neighboring city in Minnesota has experimented with wind power, but there's nothing in ND that I know of that works with wind power on a larger scale.

I'm not too keen on dams (haha, I first spelled it with an "n" in it!), since they wreak havoc on rivers. Aswan dam in Egypt anyone?

Biodiesel and ethanol are other cool energy sources that have great promise. But, why does the price of E85 fuel increase just as much as gasoline? THere was a lot of controversy about that during the hurricane season.
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Actually there is stuff in ND that does.

There is a big plant near Rugby and then a pair of plants near Edgeley and Kulm. All are doing fairly well. THere are many minor stations aroudn as well. (south of Minot there are 3 generators and a few at other places.)

Development is picking up here.