Over on another site, there is an intresting discussion raging about Global Warming. Just thought that I would cross post my first response over here.

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Let’s just stick to facts:

Over the last century the average temperature has climbed about 1 degree Fahrenheit (0.6 of a degree Celsius) around the world.

(National Geographic.)

That’s from 2004. A lot has happened since then.

So, now we have proven, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that global warming exists, is happening, is real.

The debate seems to be over two other points – 1) Do we have a global effect? and 2) What is it going to cause?

Let’s start with the last one… and go to the most extreme real world example we have.

Look at Venus. That is the classic example of runaway global warming – and some think that is where we are headed. Are we? Who knows. I don’t. However it is possible that we could end up with a Venus on our hands.

If you look at the theory about the gasses trapped in the permafrost, add in some basic albedo calculations, factoring the loss of ice (highly reflective to heat), the Earth just might become a pressure cooker.

Will it? There is a chance. What is that chance? I dunno. Should we try and do something to stop it? I believe that we should. Should the government do it? That is an entire other question, but suffice it to say, since they are taking our taxes, I would rather see that money spend on alternative fuels/energy research then some of the other silly pork barrel projects that are running amok.

Current theories believe that Venus might have been earth like at one time, however due to several factors, dumped all of it’s Carbon and H20 into it’s atmosphere in a horrific version of global warming.

So, with that in mind, do we contribute to the effects? Yes, with out a doubt we do.

World carbon dioxide emissions continue to increase steadily in the IEO2006 reference case, from 25.0 billion metric tons in 2003 to 33.7 billion metric tons in 2015 and 43.7 billion metric tons in 2030. Carbon dioxide is one of the most prevalent greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and anthropogenic (human-caused) emissions of carbon dioxide result primarily from the combustion of fossil fuels for energy.

(US DOE report, International Energy Outlook 2006)

I ask one simple question: How can 20 – 30 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide not have some effect?

Take, for example Volcanos…

On the Big Island, we have a significant natural source of greenhouse gas. Kilauea volcano emits more than 700,000 tons of CO2 each year, less than 0.01% of the yearly global contribution by human sources

(US Geological Survey)

And, that’s in 1998. Almost 10 years later, the anthropogenic emissions have steadily risen. Do we have an effect? You bet.

Is all of this correct? Possibly: that’s why they are called theories and not laws. A theory is a working set of assumptions on how something works. When a theory breaks because of new evidence or what ever, you either change the theory or discard it and start anew. That’s what science is, folks. Science is not about faith – it’s about proof and skepticism. It is grounded in empirical reality.

The BA brought this video to my attention. Fantastic stuff.

I really believe that we are on the cusp of a transcendence. Not really in a metaphysical way, but in a social way. People have been talking about it for a long time, because they could feel what was coming. Many have tried to wrap their religion or metaphysics around it. It’s simpler then that.

I think that we are going to see a move away from the old superstitions which hold us back. As we discover more and more about the universe, how it works, and our place it in, it becomes evident that we are not the center of anything.

We, however do have a great impact on the world which we live on. If we plan on living here much longer, we need to take steps, hard steps, to insure that the world will support us. We are not here to ‘dominate’ the world, we are here as guests of the world.

It’s far past time to realize that simple fact. We are not the reason that the world is here, the world is the reason that we are here. Once we shift our thinking away from dominance towards partnership, we will be in a lot better place socially, environmentally, and economically.

Peter Gutmann wrote an interesting article about Windows Vista’s content protection protocols that really deserves a good read…

Windows Vista includes an extensive reworking of core OS elements in order to provide content protection for so-called “premium content”, typically HD data from Blu-Ray and HD-DVD sources. Providing this protection incurs considerable costs in terms of system performance, system stability, technical support overhead, and hardware and software cost. These issues affect not only users of Vista but the entire PC industry, since the effects of the protection measures extend to cover all hardware and software that will ever come into contact with Vista, even if it’s not used directly with Vista (for example hardware in a Macintosh computer or on a Linux server). This document analyses the cost involved in Vista’s content protection, and the collateral damage that this incurs throughout the computer industry.

Some of the details in the article are down right scary, for example

Once a weakness is found in a particular driver or device, that driver will have its signature revoked by Microsoft, which means that it will cease to function (details on this are a bit vague here, presumably some minimum functionality like generic 640×480 VGA support will still be available in order for the system to boot). This means that a report of a compromise of a particular driver or device will cause all support for that device worldwide to be turned off until a fix can be found.

Read that last sentence again. This cannot be true, can it?

Yes, it is. According to Microsoft’s White Paper, Driver Package Integrity during Plug and Play Device Installations in Windows Vista

If users want to play next-generation premium content on Windows Vista, such as HD DVD and other formats that are licensed under the Advanced Access Content System (AACS) specification, all kernel-mode components on their system must be signed. That means that, if an administrative user chooses to install an unsigned or altered driver, the system is not allowed to play premium content

Wow.

Choose anything but Vista. Run as fast as you can from it. Microsoft of Borg is coming, and they think they own your hardware.

Oh yeah, and Merry Christmas!

Update

I was thinking more about this. I wanted to take a second and explain it more directly.

1) I buy a high end sound card, who’s manufacturer has not payed the Microsoft tax, so their driver is not signed by Microsoft.

2) I buy some Microsoft designated ‘premium content’ – say Jose and the Pussycats on Blue-ray.

3) I play my new Blue-ray disc on my computer with the OS that I bought.

No sound.

Microsoft has not blessed the folks who built my sound card with a certificate, so Microsoft decides that I cannot play the movie that I bought on the computer that I bought, using the OS that I payed good money for.

Uh. No. Sorry – I will not play that game. If I buy a freaking movie, I want to watch it on the hardware that I choose.

-Ken Miller

I really think that the evidence is mounting which shows that Evolution is the theory that best explains our origins. We are reaching the point where to believe in Intelligent Design or Creationism is hard to justify.

There are those who scoff at the school boy, calling him frivolous and shallow. Yet it was the
school boy who said, Faith is believing what you know ain’t so.

-Mark Twain in Following the Equator, Pudd’nhead Wilson’s Calendar

I understand how hard it can be to release concepts that one is attached to. As we ‘build our faith’ in something, we allow it to become almost part of us. We are bound to it, and when it is challenged, it can actually cause us harm. Even Christianity talks about this. ‘Let go, let God‘ comes to mind.

To state ‘This is what I believe’ is a wonderful thing. To then never budge from that belief when presented with evidence, empirical or logical, which refutes that belief is closed minded. Our paradigm or world view is colored by all of our experiences. It is safe to say that we are not the same person that we were a day ago, or even 5 minutes ago. Each experience that we have changes our core being in ways that we cannot fathom. To say ‘This I Believe now and forever’ is to stay a caterpillar, never transcending into the next state of being.

The Buddhist texts refer to four strands of grasping (upaadaana): grasping of sense pleasures (kaamupaadaana), of views (di.t.thuupaadaana), of rule and custom (siilabbatupaadaana), of doctrines of self (attavaadupaadaana). All of these can also be described as forms of raaga or desire. To destroy their power over the human psyche, attachment to them must be transformed into non-attachment. Non-attachment or non-grasping would therefore flow from the awareness that no possession, no relationship, no achievement is permanent or able to give lasting satisfaction; from the discovery that there is no self which needs to be protected, promoted, or defended; and from the realization that searching for selfish sensual gratification is pointless, since it leads only to craving and obsession.

-Elizabeth J. Harris

(emphasis mine)

I think that it is like having a rope tied to yourself and a big horse. That horse is traveling away from you at a steady, but slow rate. When you are ‘grasping’, you firmly plant you’re feet and refuse to budge. This will be fine for a time, but when the pressure builds, it starts to become painful. As the rope tightens, your fists start to get crushed, and your torso squeezed.

Would it not be much better to simply give in to the change, and walk with the horse?