Why the Sun seems to be 'dimming'

Wow, all I have to do is mention Dilbert and everyone calms down. Scott Adams must be pretty smart.
Now, how does all this relate to space flight?
In the distant future we may be able to change the Earth's orbit, but hey, get real.
In the less distant future we may be able to use space based solar power stations to replace fossil fuel power.
In the near future I could be made to believe that we could put large aluminized Mylar shades in orbit to reduce the total solar radiation hitting the Earth. After all, serious people have previously proposed putting reflectors in orbit to warm up cold regions, to do things like keep Murmansk ice free all winter. But just imagine the unpredictable weather changes that could result.
So now it is time for my bummer, down to Earth, wet blanket self to say that Rocket powered vehicles emit a lot of green house gasses. SS1's combustion products are "water vapor, carbon dioxide, hydrogen and nitrogen and some carbon monoxide". Hydrogen + LOX produces only water vapor (a powerful green house gas, although rain probably removes it just fine) but takes a lot of fossil fuel to make, at least the way we make it now. So I really don't see increased space flight helping out with global warming at all. At least not in the next 30 years.

Hey, what can we say.... Dilbert does have some credibility - we've all agreed with something Scott Adams has written about idiots some times. (& unfortunately we've all been the idiot sometimes)

Sigurd. - sorry about being a bit touchy.

DKH - I was actually missing your part in the forray. Too bad its all wound down now.

Hah! It all happened while I was sleeping ... what could I do? Made interesting reading in the morning though.

DKH

Sigurd wrote:
The netherlands is "sinking" in height every year, it has nothing to do with the sea, but with earth's tectonic plates.
In the netherlands some places are very far below sea level and they fight yearly to keep the sea away, it will be difficult in the future to keep the sea away also in belgium, we'll also have to help the netherlands with their problems and accept the people moving into our country (and also into germany etc).

I was led to believe that some of the problems that Holland have with flooding and storm surges like '53 are caused by coastal defences in England. The soft rocks of the North Yorkshire coast are what used to help build up the Dutch coast as the material was transported South along our coast by long shore drift. Much of this material movement was stopped by the construction of groynes along the coast to stem the high levels of erosion. Further coast defence schemes in East Anglia and the Thames estuary to protect London have had the effect of displacing large amounts of water from former tidal marshes, thus making the situation worse for Holland.
If any of the Dutch are displaced in the coming years by flooding, they should be accepted into England and particularly Norfolk. It used to be called little Holland for its flat landscape, flowers and windmills, I'm sure they would love it. (They might even have owned it).

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/02 ... index.html

Nice article , campbelp2002, I think the last part of this article, is ment to "alert" and "scare" some people

Actually that article seems less alarmist than the other one to me. Unfortunately I don’t think the average American will give up driving those big SUVs (and launching rockets) just because some “tree huggers” say it would help the world 20 years from now. The only thing that will probably save us is running out of oil. If it runs out soon enough. If we don’t use more coal.

Here is a hopeful development.
http://www.mindfully.org/Energy/2003/An ... 1may03.htm

Seems like it will help the environment quite a bit, except for the ozone layer. The note at the bottom of the page makes an interesting point. It will just produce more oil to burn and destroy the ozone, so how does it really help with that?

None the less, its a better use of waste and toxins than putting them in landfills...

I read that too. And here is another quote from that section
"Adding technology does not solve anything in a sustainable manner."
What a bunch of tree hugging luddites!
did I say that?

Nice one! Those Damn Yankees just cain't understand that with enough WD-40 and duct tape, you can fix anything

To keep all similar things in 1 topic..

I think those 2 articles show that Europ and US have a huge diffrent opinion in environment and responsibility.

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programm ... 351863.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4355871.stm

I'm wondering when we see even more clear evidence in a few years with a very clear impact because of human environment changes... if I and other europians could sue the US because of their guilt and ignorance.

I don't like Gambling.. especially not with everyones future... but it seems too few people in the US support groups supporting the environment..

that first story suprises and disgusts me, and i've come to expect bad stuff from good ole dubya....

I've written to senators about the arctic refuge in Alaska, doen't seem to have helped much The tropical logging is just stupid. But Bush just doesn't care about the environment at all *cough*

Well, let me think. The day before yesterday it froze during the night and yesterday during the day it was 20+ degrees. In march. I'd say that's pretty clear evidence to me. Spring is coming, but allready these temperatures?

We all know Bush didnt sign that Kyoto agreement because it would hurt the economy, problem is that the Kyoto agreement is in itself very weak. Wealthy countries can simply 'buy' it off that they are polluting so much. Thats pretty sick if you ask me.

We don't need any 'fanatic' supporters of the environment, that doesnt help either. We need to learn the kids at school what is going to happen if we don't act quickly and decently. If those kids grow up with something like that in the back of their mind, they're bound to be more carefull then the current goofs in every government.

Another problem is that the scientist are fighting over government funding, and as long as is still going on, nobody can be absolutely sure about scientific papers unless you have the knowledge to find out yourself. And just a few people have that capability.

A lot of reasons to get more quickly of this planet

George Bush is so anti environment that he is planning on changing his name to Geroge Cement.
And that joke is from when the first Bush was president.