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Freaky weather at the coldest, driest place on earth
huffingtonpost.com — There's been a lot of freaky things happening in the Antarctic lately.
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- SickMonkey, on 07/16/2008, -1/+3Giant ice shelves that took thousands of years to form are disappearing before our eyes. Penguins are freezing to death because it is raining in the middle of winter in Antarctica. And, now never before seen blizzards are happening in the driest place on earth.
Move along, folks, nothing to see here. - Tumblingweed, on 07/17/2008, -0/+2"Goodbye from the world's largest polluter" GWB
- joeanon, on 07/19/2008, -0/+1Good time to move closer to the equator or perhaps UP in altitude.
The world has had strange weather since long before coal power plants and automobiles.
We should always fear the earth's climate... not just because we are polluting it, but because it's a force of destructive power that we constantly underrate.
From simple climate change to huge masses of ice or earth collapsing into the ocean.. and all the way up to 3 mile wide meteors hitting the planet.
We are a people.. living on a rock.. spinning around a fireball of nearly unimaginable proportions.
To think we are safe is ridiculous.
That's likely why Steven Hawkins keeps pushing for a human colony both off world and ideally out of the solar system since some cosmic events can destroy entire solar systems or galaxies for that matter.
However, we may never leave the galaxy, I think leaving the solar system is possible. A mars colony is definitely possible. I think a moon colony could be a waste, but maybe not. Low gravity might make it a good launch base for rockets and such and it does officially have water.... somewhere.
However, Mars' gravity is much more ideal for any long term stay, though still dangerous if you plan to come back to Earth. 1/3 gravity on Mars is going to have a major detrimental effect just not as bad a 1/10 gravity or less on the moon.
I think America should consider that a worldwide disaster is bound to wipe out most civilizations at some point.
The best way to conqurer the world is to just wait for this event and be the only nation ready for it. Sounds mean... but preparing for surface level disaster would be like a superpower when it comes to rebuilt. You could have functioning underground industry and perhaps even a small city... ready to seed the newly destroyed surface.
Most civilization would be thrown back to the dark ages or beyond while civilizations with deep underground infrastructure could spring back to life in relatively much less time.
Just something like one large underground city would make the US invulnerable in comparison to other nations.
It might be a waste of money for that first 500 years... because you never know when a meteor is going to hit.. but one thing is for sure... we have ABSOLUTELY no way of deflecting or destroying a 3 mile wide object headed toward earth.
We can hide underground, burn coal or nuclear, grow food and herd animals under artificial LED lighting. Millions of people could live like that while the surface of the earth literally burned.
The prospects of long term national security are huge... but not merely a bunker.. but factories and power plants and everything you'd need to last out decades or potentially longer.
Unlike terraforming Mars... it's actually quite practical and could protect against even gamma ray bursts or huge meteor strikes which have low prediction times and absolutely no counter measures.
Mars is nice, but even a blown up burnt down earth is far far better. All the money you spend getting to Mars.. you could probably build an entire metropolis deep underground. AND.. it would progress a more practical science than space exploration, which personally I think we are not technologically ready for.
Until we can travel faster and have better energy sources... space exploration is just mostly for sheer scientific interest with no economic return. A underground city would, once setup, would function as any city and with likely reduced energy needs since it's naturally geothermally cooled and heated.
The hardest aspect might be to supply water.
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