SnitchSeeker.com - View Single Post - Global Warming, Terraforming, and Greenhouse Gases (Flamsteed and Myers)

sweetpinkpixie · 07-09-2017, 12:43 AM

No matter how many times he spoke in front of a crowd - which was quite often as Astronomer Royal really - Airey Flamsteed was always anxious and always concerned for any sort of performance issues. That was until he actually opened his mouth and began speaking. Always the man of contradictions, once he nestled into his niche he was unapologetically full steam ahead. Pebbles had naturally accompanied him - although she was currently nestled on top of his briefcase on the chair beside him while he drummed his hands on his thighs waiting for Paul to finish with the introduction of things before he dove into the real meat of it all.

The former Astronomy professor’s forget-me-not blues briefly flicked out into the crowd where he found himself sincerely hoping was more full of the younger generation than of his own. Or Paul’s. While applicable to all, the change would need to come from them and, unfortunately, be burdened with the attempt to remedy the mistakes of their ancestors.

Dry speaker? Certainly not and the astronomer managed a polite chuckle on cue. Only thing dry about this presentation was...well...they would all see soon enough. That Mr. Airey Flamsteed though. Why did he suddenly feel like an awkward palm tree at that name?

Rubbing the back of his neck haphazardly for a moment, the former Gryffindor glanced over at his pet rock for that little boost of moral support before approaching the podium to take over.

“To reiterate. Prior to our arrival the conditions of our ‘hostile environment’ were quite bleak,” he began, even trying out some of his cool-dad tricks and administering air quotes in the appropriate place. “Nitrogen enriched. Nitrogen depleted. Lacking carbon. Suffice to say the majority of the soil had been rendered unusable due to humanity’s influence on its surrounding environment. I regret to inform you that four years later, the conditions have hardly improved.” And it was with a flick of his wand that an image appeared behind him as the backdrop for the remainder of his presentation. Until he elected to animate it to reflect some other key elements that is. “You may take note of the spares greenery in the distance and in the cosmic scale of matters a four year timeline is hardly a sufficient sampling of time in which to gauge much, but specialists you revisited the site prior to this conference have confirmed that, despite our efforts, the area remains primarily uninhabitable.” He paused here and allowed the thought to sink in, especially any former students in the audience that may find such tidings a disappointment.

“If we no longer need to debate whether the Earth is flat, then we no longer need to entertain the possibility that man is not making an unsustainable impact on the planet. This piece of land we, as educators, attempted to restore is just another one of the countless forms of evidence that we’re abusing the Earth. The proof, the facts, are everywhere and if we were to look back at statistics we would see without a shadow of a doubt that the Earth is getting warming faster than it has ever gotten before. It's not that the world hasn't had more carbon dioxide, it's not the world hasn't been warmer. The problem is the speed at which things are changing. The problem is that we as a human race have the tendency to reject responsibility, but in fact we are on the brink of inducing a sixth mass extinction event somewhat by accident. While our students may not have been able to rehabilitate the ground with which we worked, their efforts were not entirely in vain as instead a lesson has been taught. Another fact confirmed. The Earth is suffering, getting warmer, because of human activity and it is our duty now, as an older generation, to ensure we raise a future generation who are brought up WITH an awareness of climate change. Not doing so, ladies and gentlemen and those who identify as neither, is just a formula for disaster. Ever since humanity knew it could reach the stars and particularly since the realization began sinking in that our planet was dying, we have fantasized of creating a new Earth - whether through actual science or through Science Fiction. During one of my lessons we discussed,” he continued without pause as his wand waved behind him to conjure a chart listing the points his students had brought up. “...whether or not efforts should be made to continue the attempts to terraform Mars and as you can see here the opinions were varied. Should we, humanity, use our resources to terraform another planet or to use those resources to fix our own planet? Why can't we marshal the enthusiasm we have for exploring Mars to solve problems on planet Earth? THIS planet is perfectly suitable to us."

With another flick of his wand the image of the land the students had worked on currently switched out with side by side present day images in rotation of various environments on Earth in contrast to images of the surface of Mars. "Humans are natural explorers starting from our very origins and expanding outwards across the globe, it seems a natural progression to therefore expand to Mars and all the potential discoveries there that have captured our imaginations. I am not of the mind that we should cease exploring Mars and our continual expansion to seek out new life ~~and new civilization~~ elsewhere in the universe - an entirely different discussion for another time. Establishing a base on Mars as we do in Antarctica for continued research and understanding makes sense, but we have work here to do HERE, on Earth. More work than two Hogwarts professors and their students can remedy. As one of my favorite astrophysicist once said, ‘If you had the power of geoengineering to terraform Mars into Earth, then you have the power of geoengineering to turn Earth back into Earth’ and i think we can all agree that moving from one house to another is stressful enough, let alone entirely relocating to an entirely different planet in some unforeseen future.”

Sweet solstice his throat was dry. Time for chugging that glass of water that had been resting on the podium in front of him.

07-09-2017, 12:43 AM	#4 (permalink)
sweetpinkpixie SSRPG Admin Gladrags Mod Quibbler Mod Minister for Magic Alley Proprietor Sea Serpent Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: The Paths Posts: 41,548 Hogwarts RPG Name: Professor Cox Ravenclaw Graduated Hogwarts RPG Name: CJ Miller Gryffindor Fourth Year Hogwarts RPG Name: Nyle Harden Hufflepuff Seventh Year Hogwarts RPG Name: Iris Harden Ravenclaw Seventh Year Hogwarts RPG Name: Jae-hyuk Anouilh Slytherin Seventh Year Ministry Department Head: Charles Hollingberry Minister's Office Ministry Department Head: Airey Flamsteed Mysteries Diagon Alley Proprietor: Victor García Massey Ollivanders x12 x12	astronomizzle ♧ gryffinDORK \| & the rest is drag ♣ #badluckDerf No matter how many times he spoke in front of a crowd - which was quite often as Astronomer Royal really - Airey Flamsteed was always anxious and always concerned for any sort of performance issues. That was until he actually opened his mouth and began speaking. Always the man of contradictions, once he nestled into his niche he was unapologetically full steam ahead. Pebbles had naturally accompanied him - although she was currently nestled on top of his briefcase on the chair beside him while he drummed his hands on his thighs waiting for Paul to finish with the introduction of things before he dove into the real meat of it all. The former Astronomy professor’s forget-me-not blues briefly flicked out into the crowd where he found himself sincerely hoping was more full of the younger generation than of his own. Or Paul’s. While applicable to all, the change would need to come from them and, unfortunately, be burdened with the attempt to remedy the mistakes of their ancestors. Dry speaker? Certainly not and the astronomer managed a polite chuckle on cue. Only thing dry about this presentation was...well...they would all see soon enough. That Mr. Airey Flamsteed though. Why did he suddenly feel like an awkward palm tree at that name? Rubbing the back of his neck haphazardly for a moment, the former Gryffindor glanced over at his pet rock for that little boost of moral support before approaching the podium to take over. “To reiterate. Prior to our arrival the conditions of our ‘hostile environment’ were quite bleak,” he began, even trying out some of his cool-dad tricks and administering air quotes in the appropriate place. “Nitrogen enriched. Nitrogen depleted. Lacking carbon. Suffice to say the majority of the soil had been rendered unusable due to humanity’s influence on its surrounding environment. I regret to inform you that four years later, the conditions have hardly improved.” And it was with a flick of his wand that an image appeared behind him as the backdrop for the remainder of his presentation. Until he elected to animate it to reflect some other key elements that is. “You may take note of the spares greenery in the distance and in the cosmic scale of matters a four year timeline is hardly a sufficient sampling of time in which to gauge much, but specialists you revisited the site prior to this conference have confirmed that, despite our efforts, the area remains primarily uninhabitable.” He paused here and allowed the thought to sink in, especially any former students in the audience that may find such tidings a disappointment. “If we no longer need to debate whether the Earth is flat, then we no longer need to entertain the possibility that man is not making an unsustainable impact on the planet. This piece of land we, as educators, attempted to restore is just another one of the countless forms of evidence that we’re abusing the Earth. The proof, the facts, are everywhere and if we were to look back at statistics we would see without a shadow of a doubt that the Earth is getting warming faster than it has ever gotten before. It's not that the world hasn't had more carbon dioxide, it's not the world hasn't been warmer. The problem is the speed at which things are changing. The problem is that we as a human race have the tendency to reject responsibility, but in fact we are on the brink of inducing a sixth mass extinction event somewhat by accident. While our students may not have been able to rehabilitate the ground with which we worked, their efforts were not entirely in vain as instead a lesson has been taught. Another fact confirmed. The Earth is suffering, getting warmer, because of human activity and it is our duty now, as an older generation, to ensure we raise a future generation who are brought up WITH an awareness of climate change. Not doing so, ladies and gentlemen and those who identify as neither, is just a formula for disaster. Ever since humanity knew it could reach the stars and particularly since the realization began sinking in that our planet was dying, we have fantasized of creating a new Earth - whether through actual science or through Science Fiction. During one of my lessons we discussed,” he continued without pause as his wand waved behind him to conjure a chart listing the points his students had brought up. “...whether or not efforts should be made to continue the attempts to terraform Mars and as you can see here the opinions were varied. Should we, humanity, use our resources to terraform another planet or to use those resources to fix our own planet? Why can't we marshal the enthusiasm we have for exploring Mars to solve problems on planet Earth? THIS planet is perfectly suitable to us." With another flick of his wand the image of the land the students had worked on currently switched out with side by side present day images in rotation of various environments on Earth in contrast to images of the surface of Mars. "Humans are natural explorers starting from our very origins and expanding outwards across the globe, it seems a natural progression to therefore expand to Mars and all the potential discoveries there that have captured our imaginations. I am not of the mind that we should cease exploring Mars and our continual expansion to seek out new life ~~and new civilization~~ elsewhere in the universe - an entirely different discussion for another time. Establishing a base on Mars as we do in Antarctica for continued research and understanding makes sense, but we have work here to do HERE, on Earth. More work than two Hogwarts professors and their students can remedy. As one of my favorite astrophysicist once said, ‘If you had the power of geoengineering to terraform Mars into Earth, then you have the power of geoengineering to turn Earth back into Earth’ and i think we can all agree that moving from one house to another is stressful enough, let alone entirely relocating to an entirely different planet in some unforeseen future.” Sweet solstice his throat was dry. Time for chugging that glass of water that had been resting on the podium in front of him. __________________ We broke into a million pieces, and we can't go back......................................... But now we're seeing all the beauty in the broken glass..................................... The scars are part of me, darkness and harmony My voice without the lies, this is what it sounds like