Member postings for File Handle

There is little point worrying because as individuals, even as the UK, there is little we can do about it that will make any difference. If raised CO2 is a problem then it would need a world wide agreement and solution. however, parts of the World are too busy arguing over who owns / should own pieces of land.
i might feel better if I plant more trees in the garden, but apart from proving cool shady areas at the moment, they will make no effective difference to CO2 levels.

I was once told to ignore any graph with false origins as they greatly distort the picture.

Which bit do you disagree with? Our technologies do protect us from some selection pressures, but not all!
For example there is evidence that older people and those with a darker skin have worse COVID outcomes in our climate. both these groups have poor Vit D synthesis. Vit D is one of the factors needed for a proper functioning immune system. Others are likely to have a faulty immune system due to genetic changes or a better immune system. In this case COVID provided the selection pressure.
Although the role of vitamin D is not fully understood, and low levels have not been scientically shown to be a factor, i did start to supplement my intake at the start of the pandemic. Trials are looking at its role. But we are far from controlling evolution, any new selection pressure shows that up.
The reason I mentioned the rate possibly increasing is that there are areas of modern human evolution were the rate is faster than expected, but this might just be down to increased mutagens.
I do wonder if our preventing evolution (death) makes things better, or worse. i.e. more people = more pollution = worse conditions.

A change will appear as soon as the mutation occurs, and if it is beneficial those having it are more likely to survive. It only needs one generation for this to happen, but will take longer to spread through a population.
There will be a multitude of biological differences between us and the builders of Stonehenge. despite modern technology protecting us from selection pressure we continue to evolve, perhaps even at a faster rate now than previously. You only need to look at our ability to survive COVID to see the variation in our immune response.

It doesn't take that long for change. Variation happens constantly due to mutations, if the selection pressure is there those organisms with beneficial mutations will survive and bring about change. it is noticable in our garden that some plants are better adapted to the present conditions than others.
There have been at least 5 previous major extinction events were a large number of species didn't survive, but life soon recovered.

They do fix CO2 so will have some benefit to us. However, I doubt that they will be the only form of life to survive climate change, many others will be able do as well, or will evolve to do so. Just as we have evolved to live in cooler, or warmer climates as humans.

But your own argument is also too simplistic, there are more people living on the planet than it can support. Normally this would not be a problem as nature would reduce the population, lack of food, increase in predators, increase in disease etc. However, we have learnt to overcome these constraints. This has had disasterous consequences for our environment and the other organisms that we share the planet with. ignoring overpopulation ignores the cause of problems.

The Sun's energy doesn't drive all food webs. Life existed before photosynthesis evolved. Although. we are mainly familiar with food webs that rely on photoautotrophs as producers, others rely on chemoautotrophs.

Photoautotrophs use light energy to synthesise organic chemicals, chemoautotrophs use chemical energy to do it.

Edited By Keith Wyles on 13/08/2022 12:25:33

Isn't one of the problems that people care about themselves and not the planet. the 2 are interlinked. The planet, our environment and life in general has always been in a state of flux. Probably the best thing that we could do for the continuation of our species would be to rapidly reduce our numbers, but this is not going to happen. There may be an end in sight for us that no one has seen so far. I doubt that our ancestor cousins foresaw that we would outbreed them, although they to a large extent still exist in our DNA. Possibly in the future our species won't exist, but our DNA, or much of it, might. It is what DNA does, survive.
saying that our planet will survive any rise in temperature is being factual, not pedantic. Although maybe its future isn't as long as we might imagine, we don't really know. But the one thing that we can be sure of is that it will change.

Isn't one of the problems that people care about themselves and not the planet. the 2 are interlinked. The planet, our environment and life in general has always been in a state of flux. Probably the best thing that we could do for the continuation of our species would be to rapidly reduce our numbers, but this is not going to happen. There may be an end in sight for us that no one has seen so far. I doubt that our ancestor cousins foresaw that we would outbreed them, although they to a large extent still exist in our DNA. Possibly in the future our species won't exist, but our DNA, or much of it, might. It is what DNA does, survive.
saying that our planet will survive any rise in temperature is being factual, not pedantic. Although maybe its future isn't as long as we might imagine, we don't really know. But the one thing that we can be sure of is that it will change.

Speaking as a biochemist who doesn't need to use google for this, yes if they think that CO2 will "destroy" the planet they are wrong. the planet has changed since its initial creation, as has the life. Life on the planet will change, which might mean the end of human life, but life will continue to evolve and survive as it always has done. The planet will continue to exist..

Raised CO2 levels and rising temperatures will not destroy the planet. Historically the atmosphere was very different. The evolution of photosynthetic organisms resulted in a huge rise in the oxygen content of the atmosphere. As a result those organisms had to protect themselves from the toxic oxygen. They either evolved to survive in an oxic atmosphere, occupied anoxic niches or died out. Life and the planet will survive, but many organisms will die out.
It really annoys me everytime I hear / see someone say that raising CO2 levels will destroy the planet - I am amused by their lack of understanding.

You need something like this, designed for the job:
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=tank+fittings+brass#imgrc=XrvZ0LLtVbdhMM
Different designs are available.

Water is a polar molecule, you can attract / repel a gentle stream of water from a tap with an electrically charged rod. These charges create hydrogen (weak) bonds between molecules. These explain why ice floats and why water is a liquid rather than a gas, which you might expect at room temp. .
These hydrogen bonds in water make life possible.

Also impressed at receiving my new license after 5 days from an online application, 2 of the days wear a weekend. I was surprised that it was so quick.

Years ago I was able to buy and sell a branded product with our name on instead for 1/10 of the branded price. Sometimes you are paying for the brand name.

To keep things square I made a metal marking gauge similar to the woodworking version.

Thanks for sharing Martin

Happy Christmas to everyone on here.

Years ago, I removed the handle from one and mounted it. gets used as a mini anvil. Old fashioned flat irons, mounted upside down also make good small anvils.