Civilization (Humans)

by David Turell , Saturday, November 08, 2008, 01:11 (5858 days ago) @ Carl

His points on DDT are a little startling. It wasn't killing the birds outright. It was making the eggshells so thin and fragile that they weren't viable. Several species of endangered carnivorous birds had a dramatic rebound in population when DDT was banned. His point is either ignorant or deceptive.
> The rest is standard anti-global warming diatribe, persuasive to those who already persuaded. Nothing new there. - Not startling to me if you take the time to follow the science. It only hurt bird eggs because so much was overused. Would it surprise you to know that WHO said in 2006 DDT can be used indoors in proper amounts safely? - As for global warming, the temperature satellites in the trophosphere have dropped back several degrees in the past year or so, Alaskan glaciers are again growing, Arctic Sea ice is more extensive at the end of this summer than in past summers, Antarctic Ice is thickening, and the sun has no spots for one year which means it is in a cooling cycle. The warmest year in the 20th Century was 1931, second was 1998, and it has cooled since then. One of the problems is the fact that many 'official' temperature sites are in big cities which are 'heat islands'. The USA has the best temperature on land records going back to about 1850. But the measurements are still in the same spots as the cities grow and throw off heat. The satellites are the best guide, but only since the 1970's. We only came out of "The Little Ice Age" in the 1850's. It lasted from about 1450 till then. We have warmed since then but are 2 degrees lower than Greenland was 1,000 years ago. There were crops planted there at that time, the reason for the name. - In science until something is absolutely settled, there are two good sides to the arguments. An open mind is better than any other approach. Michael Crichton was a brilliant man with a scientific background as I pointed out purposely. I suggest you rethink your comments about him.