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| Tuesday, July 10, 2007
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| Of Global Warming & Its Merits
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Let's ask some questions today. I would blame Dr. Sharon Moalem (author of the book "Survival of the Sickest") for this post.
1. Is Global Warming real?
2. Is Global Warming really bad?  
Global Warming in the everyday sense is the drastic increase in temperatures caused mainly by human activity (release of harmful gases by burning various carbon compounds).
Haven't drastic temperature changes happened before? Didn't we evolve even in those changes? Dr. Moalem says yes.
He argues that diabetes (Type I) was an evolutionary reaction to sudden changes in temperature that happened 11000 years ago. It is called the Young Dryas period. During this period, evidence shows that temperatures fell by about 7 degrees in just a couple of decades (that's like a geo-wink). And high levels of blood sugar help preventing freezing of body tissue!!
To summarise, during the Young Dryas period, many died. Some moved south. Some got diabetes. The sad part is that the diabetics suffered in their 40s. The happy part is that the diabetics lived to be 40 and reproduced. By the way, diabetes' full name is diabetes mellitus which literally means "passing sweet urine". I don't want to know how they figured it out!
Now, we all agree that:
1. Drastic changes in temperature happen even without human activity.
2. Humans have gone through sudden changes of climate and survived.
3. Ahem.. (I still don't want to know.)
Now, even if we consider that this time around the change in climate is happening because humans are screwing it, is that necessarily bad? I say, we better be in control rather than depend on randomness or an angry god. It is like inflation or exchange rates now. If you know it is going to be ex-why-zee by 2010, you'll be prepared. Ready and hedged. If they change like Nehra's fitness levels you have a problem. Same here.
This debate on global warming may be futile or we may all be making huge irreversible blunders that will kill all of us someday. We may never know.
Go figure that out!Labels: global warming |
posted by VinChi @
6:51 AM
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