just dug this up

[Heather]

You're right Ross, the Earth has been changing for as long as it has been here - but then, there weren't always seven billion people living on it, there wasn't always the mechanisation or the know how for taking, taking, taking at the rate we do now. It depends on whether we want future populations to enjoy the same comforts and privileges that we do as to how we go about contributing to that change.

Heather

[Glenny Palmer]

- see the absolute incosequence of our actions in an infinate universe

'A butterfly flaps its wings in Brazil--a hurricane descends on China' xx

[r.magnay]

You are right Heather, there once was no people here...who do we blame for what happened before us?....dinosaurs perhaps...

Matt has pretty much nailed it I think, we are all too fond of what we have to change. I don't doubt for a second that we have an influence on the direction the planet is heading, and Heather's observation about the 7 billion people also carries more weight than we like to admit. The simplest way to repair the problem is to remove a goodly percentage of the population and the animals that we rely on for sustenance....any body got any ideas about how we do that....I bet nature has...

“Global Warming”
© Ross Magnay 7/11/06

Bloody politicians, they’re a mob of bloody twits,
there’s not a good one in there, they all give me the……..gripes.
I bet it’s bloody Howards fault the world is getting hot,
it’s his fault we are having droughts he caused the bloody lot!

I think I’ll make some signs and march, I’ll tell him how I think,
and then we’ll all go down the pub and have a nice cold drink.
Then we can fix the problems that those politicians cause,
I’ll tell you all my good ideas and you can tell me yours.

I’m sure we need more holidays, four weeks is not enough,
and only fourteen public ones that’s pretty bloody tough.
We should get paid to watch the cup it’s only bloody fair,
and do the same with AFL and rugby while you’re there.

The warming thing is no big deal I heard some greenie say,
just sign that bloody “Koto” thing and then it goes away.
No need to scrap me V8 ute or shut me beer fridge down,
no reason why a man should walk when I can drive to town,
no need to turn the telly off or have a shorter shower,
I told you it’s John Howards fault……. He makes the bloody power!

We also need to get rid of all the bloody butterflies in Brazil!...

[Heather]

Ross I understand that the earth was evolving even before man set foot on it and the difference is that those changes didn't affect humans - and possibly resulted in the earth being habitable by humans. I was more thinking of a time when there were people, just not a many of them, without modern technology which has meant we can take more from the earth more rapidly. Dinosaurs didn't mine for coal or fly planes or drive cars! People put demands on the earth. Technology means we can do it at a rapid rate than might otherwise have been possible. Imagine if we still had to mine coal with pick and shovel or spend 6mths sailing to England.

I saw a show on tv on Bangladesh the other night about a program to educate people about the use and advantages of contraception and smaller families. Now that the life expectancy of children has increased in that country due to better medicine, people are wanting to have less children so that they are better able to give more (food, education etc) to the ones they do have. The children in school are being taught that less children means more food on the table for the children that are born. (It did seem a bit like brain washing to me). They are also encouraging marriage at a later age - once again it means less children are born.

Heather

[Bob Pacey]

The human mind cannot understand infinity ?

Bob