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Originally Posted by shakran
Oh, horrors. We're going to reduce the rate at which we're destroying the planet...
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Do you think we (humans) can actually destroy the planet? According to scientific research this planet has withstood a heck of a lot of turmoil, and is still here. Plant and animal life comes and goes, but I doubt we could actually destroy the planet. And regarding plant and animal life, what has happened after major "events" (some "events" lasting millions of years) is that new forms of plant and animal life evolved. Some scientist think the earth is about 5 billion years old.
Here is a article describing a recent discovery of major volcanic activity that some attribute to mass extinction of marine life 260 million years ago.
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ScienceDaily (May 30, 2009) — A previously unknown giant volcanic eruption that led to global mass extinction 260 million years ago has been uncovered by scientists at the University of Leeds.
The eruption in the Emeishan province of south-west China unleashed around half a million cubic kilometres of lava, covering an area 5 times the size of Wales, and wiping out marine life around the world.
Unusually, scientists were able to pinpoint the exact timing of the eruption and directly link it to a mass extinction event in the study published in Science. This is because the eruptions occurred in a shallow sea – meaning that the lava appears today as a distinctive layer of igneous rock sandwiched between layers of sedimentary rock containing easily datable fossilised marine life.
The layer of fossilised rock directly after the eruption shows mass extinction of different life forms, clearly linking the onset of the eruptions with a major environmental catastrophe.
The global effect of the eruption is also due to the proximity of the volcano to a shallow sea. The collision of fast flowing lava with shallow sea water caused a violent explosion at the start of the eruptions – throwing huge quantities of sulphur dioxide into the stratosphere.
"When fast flowing, low viscosity magma meets shallow sea it's like throwing water into a chip pan – there's spectacular explosion producing gigantic clouds of steam," explains Professor Paul Wignall, a palaeontologist at the University of Leeds, and the lead author of the paper.
The injection of sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere would have lead to massive cloud formation spreading around the world - cooling the planet and ultimately resulting in a torrent of acid rain. Scientists estimate from the fossil record that the environmental disaster happened at the start of the eruption.
"The abrupt extinction of marine life we can clearly see in the fossil record firmly links giant volcanic eruptions with global environmental catastrophe, a correlation that has often been controversial," adds Professor Wignall.
Previous studies have linked increased carbon dioxide produced by volcanic eruptions with mass extinctions. However, because of the very long term warming effect that occurs with increased atmospheric carbon dioxide (as we see with current climate change) the causal link between global environmental changes and volcanic eruptions has been hard to confirm.
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Ancient Volcanic Eruptions Caused Global Mass Extinction
The point of all of this is that in the big scheme of things the marginal impact of this legislation is going to be virtually nil. The costs on the other hand will have a big impact on ability to compete with other nations economically.
---------- Post added at 04:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:00 PM ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by shakran
And so can any number of burdens on the middle class that the Republicans have been levying since 1980. What's your point?
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One fact many are ignoring is, for example, if it costs an oil company more money to refine oil in the US, they will import more refined oil. We will face less investment in domestic oil refineries and some closed or the production reduced. the demand will be replace with refined oil coming from places with lower costs. and the net impact on the planet will be zero. If everyone in the world is not playing by the same rules, what is the point?
This bill is not only a tax on Americans, but a job and business killer.