Are There Benefits To Global Warming?

Discussion in 'World Events' started by Buffalo Roam, May 19, 2008.

  1. Buffalo Roam Registered Senior Member

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    In Greenland, where the ice is melting, fishermen are thrilled by the return of cod and farmers are reporting higher yields.

    Higher yealds of soybeans on farms in Argentina. Many researchers say if the world warms up, the sweet spots for growing crops will migrate toward the poles.

    The gross domestic product of Russia and much of northern Europe would likely increase along with the temperatures.

    Global Warming Benefits -- You may well like it!

    WARMER WINTERS ARE HEALTHIER: From a purely evolutionary point of view, warm periods have always benefited plants and animals. The world has thrived during the warming periods between the ice ages. Cold periods have always caused serious survival problems for all organisms including mankind. Scientific studies show that there will be 40,000 fewer deaths each year in the U.S. In Britain alone, scientists estimate that about 30,000 deaths a year are related to cold winter weather. Warmer temperatures in the U.S. will reduce medical costs by about $20 billion every year.

    WARMER WINTERS ARE SAFER: With most streets free from ice and snow, driving will be a lot safer; No need to shovel snow reducing the stress induced heart attacks; Heating bills will be drastically lower; No need to waste money on all of that cold weather gear. Rail, road and air transportation would be positively impacted by a general warming since weather-related delays and accidents would be greatly reduced. Department of Energy studies show that consumer energy bills would be reduced by over $12 billion each year.

    Global warming will have no real effect, positive or negative, on economic activities such as manufacturing, retailing, wholesaling, banking, education and the majority of other businesses that are unrelated to cold weather. Of course cold weather activities, such as snow-sports, would be negatively affected.

    WARMER WEATHER WILL OPEN THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE: As rising temperatures melt glaciers in the Arctic and particularly in Alaska, a new, faster trade route will soon open up. The Bering Strait, a legendarily difficult passage for ships, could become an oceanic super-highway between the hemispheres as ice sheets disappear. The seldom-used strait is set to become the Panama Canal of the north, cutting down travel time between Europe, America and Asia by as much as one-third. Experts predict the Northwest Passage will be open for year-round travel within a decade. This would be of particular importance for supertankers which are too big to fit through the Panama Canal and currently are forced to go around the tip of South America. This reduction of sea lane ice in the Arctic will be a dramatic boon to the shipping industry carrying cargo between the continents.

    WARMER WEATHER MEANS MORE USABLE LAND: As the ice retreats to the poles, more arable land will become available for both residential and agricultural purposes. Large land-masses in the northern hemisphere, just south of the Canadian/U.S. border, have some very extreme climates that can be quite inhospitable for human habitation. Most Canadians live in a belt running along its southern border with the United States. But once global warming is factored in, vast northern regions will become arable and comfortably habitable. All of Canada will welcome an agricultural boon field with long growing seasons. Heretofore uninhabitable land will not only become inhabitable, but even temperate.



    The process of converting northern US and Canadian forests and grasses to cropland will have a positive cooling effect, because agricultural crops reflect more sunlight and release more moisture into the air. This expanded agriculture will counteract global warming by as much as fifty-percent across parts of North America, Canada, Europe, and Asia. The old boreal forests of both Canada and Russia add to global warming since these pine and waxy leafed trees are darker, thereby absorbing more heat, and, because of their leaf structure, do not evaporate cooling water into the surrounding air. The replacement of boreal forests with more tropical trees will dramatically aid in balancing and diminishing the negative affects of global warming.

    WARMER WEATHER MEANS MORE CROPS: Satellite measurements now show that our planet has become greener than it was prior to the onset of global warming. The rising carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere dramatically increases overall global food production. The presence of carbon dioxide has a fertilizing effect on the growth of plant life. The warmer weather means a longer growing season, and thus greater output. This, combined with fewer frosts and more precipitation, among other factors, will greatly benefit all of the agricultural economic sectors, plus the positive impacts on forestry and recreation. In addition to the dramatic increase of actual land available for cultivation, natural resources would be much easier to extract. The overall economic impact of global warming on the U.S. economy will actually be positive, creating a measurable increase in Gross Domestic Product
     
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  3. Enmos Valued Senior Member

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    Wtf ?
    Can you be anymore ignorant and close-minded ?
     
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  5. Michael 歌舞伎 Valued Senior Member

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    I wonder just how hot the countries along the equator will become?
     
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  7. Zephyr Humans are ONE Registered Senior Member

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    More proof of the Eskimo conspiracy against the world!
     
  8. Vkothii Banned Banned

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    "Benefits" is a loaded concept. Benefits for who or what?

    Would the planet benefit from fewer human beings competing for resources and depleting them? Perhaps. Would we humans benefit from being able to exploit a "new" kind of energy resource? Perhaps, but not if it meant more of us competing for diminishing food resources ...maybe?
    Or what?
     
  9. EmmZ It's an animal thing Registered Senior Member

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  10. Michael 歌舞伎 Valued Senior Member

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    "Benefits" of 99% human genocide.

    Less water run off killing us animals like frogs and fish.
    No more genetically modified Monkeys made with Huntington's disease.
    No more wild game hunters shooting us for fun.
    No more air pollution killing us birds.

    etc... etc... etc....
     
  11. Buffalo Roam Registered Senior Member

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    Yes, we can see who has the closed mind/minds.

    Your mind is so closed to the thought that you can't even concieve that there just might be benifits to global warming.

    The maximum extent of glacial ice in the north polar area during Pleistocene time.

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    Yes, lets go for global cooling, and a new ice age.
     
  12. toltec Registered Senior Member

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    119
    Great summers in northern Europe vs skin cancer killing a few Australians.

    What a dillemma!
     
  13. Buffalo Roam Registered Senior Member

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    The Next Ice Age | Global Warming | DISCOVER Magazine
    "As it turns out, there are probably at least 10 places in the North Atlantic that can give you pretty good core evidence of mini-ice-age cooling," he says. ...
    http://discovermagazine.com/2002/sep/cover

    Failing Ocean Current Raises Fears of Mini Ice Age FRED PEARCE ...
    Mini Ice Age. FRED PEARCE / New Scientist 30nov2005 ... NASA image/map of Gulf Stream current -- Failing Ocean Current Raises Fears of ...
    http://www.mindfully.org/Water/2005/Mini-Ice-Age30nov05.htm
     
  14. Kadark Banned Banned

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    Of course there are benefits to global warming. Who doesn't like warm weather?
     
  15. Michael 歌舞伎 Valued Senior Member

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    A lot of species are going to go extinct in the tropics.
     
  16. Repo Man Valued Senior Member

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    Why would global warming affect skin cancer rates?
     
  17. Repo Man Valued Senior Member

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    We live in a world where billions are living on coastal plains. Many of them are the poorest of the poor, and realistically have nowhere to go. Making these areas more prone to catastrophic flooding and tidal surges from tsunamis and cyclones will likely result in millions of deaths. Since I have no grudge against these people, I'd consider that a net negative.

    I'm unaware of any projections, no matter how optimistic, where the positives outweigh the negatives.
     
  18. superstring01 Moderator

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    12,110
    Yeah, a lot of lesser creatures will finally have their chance at evolving into the same destructive creatures that humans have become.

    My pick: octopods. Smart. Dexterous. It's only a matter of a few million years before one or two of them start crawling onto the land to do something-or-other. Somewhere in there one of its descendent's will develop the ability to take oxygen from the air. It's large brains at its disposal, it'll probably go on to conquer the world and will, maybe, get to the point where it can sit around pondering the ruinous effects it's having on the globe.

    ~String
     
  19. Buffalo Roam Registered Senior Member

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    Yah, we have to keep those pods in their place, usurping our right to be at the top of the food chain.
     
  20. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    Sure there is a benefit, just like suffering was created by God to give us the benefit of overcoming it! I'm going to build a summer house in the Antarctic, plenty of ice left for martinis.
     
  21. Michael 歌舞伎 Valued Senior Member

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    If sea levels rise Billions of people will be displaced. I wonder if BR would be happy for people of Island nations to come live in the USA as their lands disappear. How about all the people in Bangladesh. Where are they going to live?
     
  22. superstring01 Moderator

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    Most are going to die. There is no force on earth (in the event of a rising ocean) that could prevent that. Few nations would allow or afford for so many millions to enter.

    ~String
     
  23. iceaura Valued Senior Member

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    Just warming the winter air over the boreal forests of Canada might do a lot for forest fires and pest insects, but it won't do squat for crops. That dirt won't grow corn for three thousand years.

    Meanwhile, vapor pressure deficits and evaporation turn Iowa into Mexico.

    And with a bit of misfortune, we could have it all - the Atlantic Conveyor shutdown turning northern Europe into an icebox, and the higher temps of the midlatitude nights making steppe and desert out of corn belt country worldwide.
     

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