Firstly, before I get to the real business, I thought I should mention the details around why there hasn’t been much content around here for a while. Firstly, I have been very busy studying Engineering, and secondly, I have been using Tumblr (http://trisreed.tumblr.com/), however I am now in process of integrating the two.

And on that note, it is a post by my good friend James on Tumblr that has prompted me to make a post. As someone who is well known for being left leaning, when it comes to the environment, I am not necessarily. You can view James’ post at the following URL: The James Blog, which discusses how humans are “slowly and surely we are destroying our planet”. Make sure you keep following his blog, it is awesome!

Most of it is manmade destruction like the Gulf Oil Spill or the wars we have been involved in.

Now we can’t deny the damage the oil spill has done to the environment, however it can be compared to a volcano erupting. Engineers did not know that the well was going to burst, and after the burst the surroundings were covered by a thick and dangerous liquid, much like what happens when a volcano explodes. Sure, the catalyst for constructing this well was man-made, for his need for oil, however is was not man made destruction as it was not the neglience of an Engineer or other worker that caused said well to explode.

North Korea announced that it will go to Nuclear War with the USA and South Korea very quickly if they try to mess with the North Korean navy.

I have seen this being discussed on ABC News 24. What we fail to remember is the comparitive size of the arsenals of both the USA/South Korea “coalition” and North Korea. Most people would assume that the cold war mantra of “mutually assured destruction” would prevail, but put simply, North Korea has too much to lose. A first strike by North Korea would cause them to be obliterated by the “coalition”, would have diplomatic and non-nuclear weapon methods to counter. We can consider the wellbeing of North Korean citizens, but in a country where 25% of government spending is on defence, they are well prepared.

To put this simply, even if in the least probable case where the crisis escalates, the effect on the Earth and its citizens would be localised to a very small area. There is no way that this conflit would grow into World War III, involving the entire world. Having friend in South Korea, I know that these threats do happen often, with the relationship between the North and the South always tense. It is probably no more than another empty threat, no matter how frightening and scare-mongering it is.

There is one area where I do agree, however:

It’s sad to think that peoples egos will destroy this earth.

Now, this is true, however not via the environment, rather inaction on other important social issues that will lead to a change in the status quo of which many people live in. Finally, to finish off:

Global Warming is real as well, none of this bullcrap about it being a government conspiracy.

Sadly, no one can be sure either way. The science is iffy at best, especially when we look at graphs like the following:

Carbon Dioxide concentration in Antartic ice core.

Carbon Dioxide concentration in Antartic ice core. From Wikipedia under CC-BY-SA.

To be sure though, I guess it is best to act. As once famously said “it’s better to be safe than sorry”.

Summing up, I’m not saying you are wrong. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, however it should be pointed out that in many areas, the science is very iffy – hence logical arguments either way are valid. However it should be pointed out how iffy this science is. This post isn’t a personal attack, either, so don’t get that idea.