Unbelievable....you're right, humans have nothing to do with anything, it's just what the earth does... it doesn't matter what we dump into it, it doesnt matter that we cut the forests to the ground, it doesn't matter the things that we spill into the ocean. humans don't have the power to do anything to nature.
As far as red tide is concerned, yes, humans have some involvement in that as well, go talk to your local aquarium, not the store, I mean like the Atlanta Aquarium, or the Mote Aquarium, or Epcot Center aquarium. It has a lot to do with the pesticides and fertilizers that enter our oceans through run-off. Again though, run-off is natures thing, so not our fault, it's just nature.
What, exactly, would pesticides contribute to red tide? The general purpose of pesticides is for killing populations, not for stimulating growth. Regardless of what you may hear at the big aquariums, there has been no conclusive data showing a correlation between fertilizer runoff and redtide population explosions. Mote has been working on this issue for quite some time and their research has yet to show any definitive correlation.
When the earth is poisened by nuclear waste from a nuclear plant meltdown, it's again, not our fault, it's just the way nature works... what could we possibly do that might cause any damage on such a huge planet???
WTF? When was the last time we’ve had a nuclear plant meltdown? There’s never been a meltdown at a US nuclear power facility. Nuclear power is cheap, and we need more of it (and I leave within 15 miles of a major facility – Turkey Point, FL). In fact, there is a large population of American Crocodiles that uses the cooling water effluent as home. It’s probably the largest such population left in the world.
So we DON'T know exactly why the earth is warming up, but there are some really good theories on either side. Well, IMPO, shouldn't we be on the safe side and do everything we can as if we ARE what's causing it, because we DON'T know?
No. It would be foolhardy to put in place regulations that would have a major negative effect on our nation’s economy based on bullshit pseudo-science. The earth has warmed up slightly (less than 1.5 degrees over the last 30 years), but based on our current global climatic record this is hardly a large enough data set to be jumping to conclusions about anthropogenic climate change.
What if we are all wrong, and it IS something the human population is doing causing global warming, it's much easier to change what we do now, than to watch everything on our planet die, including the oceans that our beautiful hobby comes from.
I'm not preaching, I'm just saying what if..... I would rather be safe than sorry. Please, just for one moment, stop saying "it's not my fault" and think "what if it is us, what could we do to help correct it". In fact, I am begging you to ask yourself that. Because what IF you are wrong. Please, you know how delicate your tank is, how not having the right temperature, or lighting, or salinity, or anything else can whipe out the entire tank, or maybe just part of it, such as your coral. PLEASE, just stop for a second and ask yourself what you may be able to do to help stop the POSSIBLE onslaught of our planet.
Your children will die someday, it's nature, but that doesn't mean you don't take care of them and protect them. Please think about that, please.
There’s a difference between wanting to promote conservation and sustainable living through science based research, and the near hysteric babble that comes out of the modern environmentalist movement. Ophiura’s original post in this thread was great. It pretty much sums up my feelings 110%, so I won’t bother to rehash them all. Suffice it to say that Research is a competitive field that relies on generating grant money for long-term success and promotion. This fear mongering by the hard core environmentalists isn’t based on sound science. Making wholesale changes to world wide environmental policy on unfounded opinions is not the answer.
What matters is where we're going. Period. We have no control whatsoever on where we came from, or what happened in the past. It's the future we have total control over and should be what we focus entirely on. Things that happened in the past to others can teach us and guide us in our paths moving forward. Dinosaurs and cave men don't do anything for us in this manner.
