The end of the world - and why it doesn't matter

[Guest]

wow..... you really are a true American cock!

[LonelyPilgrim]

Quoting from 10:11, 3rd Dec 2007
wow..... you really are a true American cock!

As an American I resent that! Unless of course you are congratulating us on our abundant physical endowments and testaments to our manly virility.

As for global warming, after years of railing against it, I've decided I'm all for it. The resulting drought, famine, coastal flooding and political and social chaos ought to drastically reduce the human population. Since I don't like my neighbours particularly well, I'm looking forward to the eventually necessity of having to kill and eat them to survive. It'll be fun, and provide justice for all the loud parties at 3am that make my weekends miserable from time to time, such as tonight.

Until then I'll just keep polishing the silver flatware and dreaming...

[hr]

Arma virumque cano...

[hippie fryer]

Quoting LonelyPilgrim from 07:59, 9th Dec 2007
As for global warming, after years of railing against it, I've decided I'm all for it. The resulting drought, famine, coastal flooding and political and social chaos ought to drastically reduce the human population. Since I don't like my neighbours particularly well, I'm looking forward to the eventually necessity of having to kill and eat them to survive. It'll be fun, and provide justice for all the loud parties at 3am that make my weekends miserable from time to time, such as tonight.

Two things.

1) Why don't you get yourself over to the party/ies instead of sitting in your room on the sinner on a weeknight? I mean, really? Most carefree four years of your life and you're at home on a weekend? Come on.

2) With you on the global warming thing. But then, we could accomplish much the same with the American Republic's 10,000-odd nuclear weapons.

[LonelyPilgrim]

Quoting hippie fryer from 22:54, 10th Dec 2007
Two things.

1) Why don't you get yourself over to the party/ies instead of sitting in your room on the sinner on a weeknight? I mean, really? Most carefree four years of your life and you're at home on a weekend? Come on.

2) With you on the global warming thing. But then, we could accomplish much the same with the American Republic's 10,000-odd nuclear weapons.

Two responses:

1) I'm not in St Andrews anymore, but back in the States and my neighbours are everything you've ever seen on SNL about redneck hicks. I have about as much desire to socialise with them as I do to catch the whooping cough.

2) I was rather hoping that mankind would survive the cataclysm to some degree or another so that I could be the Supreme Leader of the remnant. Nuclear war would likely be less idyllic in its aftermath.

[hr]

Arma virumque cano...

[MaverickMenzies]

In this argument there is a hidden assumption about climate change. He initially states that he does not consider the source of the climate change thereby including all the possible theories (man-made, natural cycles, influence of the sun, etc, etc..).

However, he also assumes that no matter the mechanism of the climate change it can be suppressed/altered/reversed by human action. This is because, he states that human action or inaction lead to completely different outcomes.

If the mechanism driving climate change is anything other than man-made then it is hard to see how human action could make any difference. Hence, the argument implicitly assumes that we accept that the driving factor behind is man-made.

It is then hard to see how this argument could convince people who support different theories of the underlying cause of climate change.

[exnihilo]

Surely his argument is that the underlying cause is an irrelevance. I don't want to re-open this whole debate, and I'm no green nut, but to not pump chemicals into the atmosphere, to recycle rather than simply sending to a landfill, to reduce the amount of packaging, etc. These things all seem like something only the most boneheaded moron would argue against.