If humans are causing Global Warming, would that be considered unnatural?

Question

Are humans apart of the natural evolution of this planet? If we are not, then we need to leave. This planet is going to h**l.

Answer 1

I agree with you and you answered your own question.  The people here on this planet burn 80 million barrels of oil every 24 hours.  Can you imagine the size of this fire if all that oil were placed in a huge pit and allowed to burn for 24 hours a day, 365 days per year, and at ever increasing levels? I call it atmospheric depletion and poisoning more worse than if outer space were directly injected into our atmosphere.  All of this is unnecessary as natural means of transportation are available.  The Jet Stream has constant winds available at 150 mph beginnning at elevations of 3,000 feet.  Our present technology makes this wind available to us, we could even use the present unemployed people to construst it.  Politically though it is the end of power for our current government and the monetarily elite.  Big oil would never lose its power on us.

Answer 2

I'll agree that we do have a responsibility to our planet.But I would also like to clarify some issues.We are not the only species to have the ability to alter the environment.Consider the elephant,they are noted for changing fairly large ecosystems.There are problems with migratory waterfowl polluting Lake Michigan,and other water ways.There are many more that help and hinder.The Good with the Bad.

Answer 3

Natural and inevitable are 2 different things.  We are the only species in the history of the planet that have had sufficient capabilities to alter our environment so profoundly.  Often to our advantage, but sometimes to our demise (read about Easter Island in the book "Collapse").

So yes, humans are a part of nature, so semantically you could say everything we do is natural.  But we have the ability to think, make decisions, and alter our behavior in ways that will benefit us or harm us.

Answer 4

I think people are "part of nature," or were originally, and so by one definition, all of the "unnatural" things we do to the planet are in fact "natural."

But who cares?  What's important about global warming -- really, we should be saying "climate change," because more than warming is involved -- what's important about it is whether it's GOOD or BAD -- pretty much as we humans define it.

From our perspective, in terms of our long-term interests, I think it's pretty clearly mostly "bad" -- although as with anything, it's likely that a few good things also will come from it.

And since climate change is mostly - not entirely, but mostly -- "bad" --  (risks of bigger hurricanes, more severe droughts in some places, terrible floods in others, risks of damage to agriculture, spread of tropical diseases, etc.)  -- since it's mostly bad, we need to stop it.  

Reverse it if we can.  Or at least slow it down as much as possible.

BTW - how could most humans "leave" the Earth, as you seem to be suggesting?

Excuse me for being skeptical of the space program, but I don't think that most humans have anywhere else to go.  

If we spent hundreds of billions of dollars (or maybe trillions of dollars) in perfecting better rocket ships and space shuttles, and if we also "terraformed" the Moon and Mars and maybe some of the asteroids to make them inhabitable -- what fraction of the Earth's 6 billion + people would be able to relocate to space colonies?

Answer:  A tiny fraction, a few percent, at most.  The costs of rocket fuel, the costs of terraforming other planets and satellites and asteroids would confine most humans to stay right here on earth.

So I think the idea that we might "leave" -- either for our own sake, or for that of the other animals -- is just a pipe dream, just wishful thinking.

We have to succeed on this planet.  If we care about protecting unspoiled nature and other species from the destructive presence of humans -- we also have to do that HERE.

And we have to control GW and other ecological and social problems here.  Because we aren't going to get another Earth to play with.  This is it - we have to make it work.

Answer 5

nothin lives forever my friend.

we are natural here, everything on this planet with life is.

but eventualy the sun will die, or either swallow the earth

and you cant just tell people to leave the planet. if you want to leave, you leave

Answer 6

People are natural whether they like it or not.

Answer 7

Not necessarily.  But it's not important.

What is important is that we can take steps to slow it down:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/worl...

http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/ar4-wg3.h...

And avoid this:

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNe...

http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/ar4-wg2.h...