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19-square-mile ice sheet breaks loose in Canada

10 points by DocSavage 18y ago

s3graham 18y ago
Sigh. Anyone else feeling like we're all screwing around writing web frameworks when we should be focusing on things that are sort of more important?
- kirse 18y ago
  No, because my strengths are in web software development and one of my weaknesses happens to be predicting and extrapolating the effects of insanely large and complex systems over several decades (like the Earth and its weather). Web software dev - urgent and important Glacier moving at 1" per year - sorry, I'm filing this one under important but not urgent.
  - s3graham 18y ago
    "urgent and important": Really? I think the urgency is largely self-imposed, and important to whom? I don't think we should all spend our time modeling global warming, but we could at least be solving hard software problems for, say, http://www.betterplace.com/ http://www.betterplace.com/ or http://www.teslamotors.com/ http://www.teslamotors.com/.
- lutorm 18y ago
  yeah. and I don't feel like I would be any worse at doing climate change stuff than programming...
- revorad 18y ago
  If you want to help directly, one good way would be to help write and improve existing climate models. Perhaps start at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_model#Climate_models_on_the_web http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_model#Climate_models_on...
mhidalgo 18y ago
yeah definitely, the question is how to apply our technical ability to meet some of these challenges. I been asking myself this question for awhile. However I also look at guys like sergey and larry and see how there innovations in the web have enabled them to move into other fields that have a direct impact on climate change.
patrickg-zill 18y ago
"Ellesmere Island was once entirely ringed by a single enormous ice shelf that broke up in the early 1900s." Ummm... wouldn't this possibly indicate that there is some long-term warming going on? If you actually read the whole article, there are some facts, followed in each case by suppositions that are unproven.
louislouis 18y ago
The next ice age will balance everything out, don't worry :)
- pavelludiq 18y ago
  Polar Bears might not survive that long, i don't care about ice, i care about bears, and they care about ice.
  - louislouis 18y ago
    99.9% of all species of all living things on this planet are now extinct. The odds aren't looking high for the polar bear my son :)
jodrellblank 18y ago
"Canada breaks free from ice continent"
pragmatic 18y ago
Guess what. Dinosaurs used to live in Canada too. The earth is in a constant state of change. The state where I'm sitting right now used to be under a sea. It's amazing that supposed free thinkers and critical minds are in such a hurry to believe that we can do something about the climate of the planet for better or worse.

10 points by DocSavage 18y ago

Sigh. Anyone else feeling like we're all screwing around writing web frameworks when we should be focusing on things that are sort of more important?

kirse 18y ago
No, because my strengths are in web software development and one of my weaknesses happens to be predicting and extrapolating the effects of insanely large and complex systems over several decades (like the Earth and its weather). Web software dev - urgent and important Glacier moving at 1" per year - sorry, I'm filing this one under important but not urgent.
- s3graham 18y ago
  "urgent and important": Really? I think the urgency is largely self-imposed, and important to whom? I don't think we should all spend our time modeling global warming, but we could at least be solving hard software problems for, say, http://www.betterplace.com/ http://www.betterplace.com/ or http://www.teslamotors.com/ http://www.teslamotors.com/.
lutorm 18y ago
yeah. and I don't feel like I would be any worse at doing climate change stuff than programming...
revorad 18y ago
If you want to help directly, one good way would be to help write and improve existing climate models. Perhaps start at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_model#Climate_models_on_the_web http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_model#Climate_models_on...

mhidalgo 18y ago

yeah definitely, the question is how to apply our technical ability to meet some of these challenges. I been asking myself this question for awhile. However I also look at guys like sergey and larry and see how there innovations in the web have enabled them to move into other fields that have a direct impact on climate change.

patrickg-zill 18y ago

"Ellesmere Island was once entirely ringed by a single enormous ice shelf that broke up in the early 1900s." Ummm... wouldn't this possibly indicate that there is some long-term warming going on? If you actually read the whole article, there are some facts, followed in each case by suppositions that are unproven.

louislouis 18y ago

The next ice age will balance everything out, don't worry :)

pavelludiq 18y ago
Polar Bears might not survive that long, i don't care about ice, i care about bears, and they care about ice.
- louislouis 18y ago
  99.9% of all species of all living things on this planet are now extinct. The odds aren't looking high for the polar bear my son :)

jodrellblank 18y ago

"Canada breaks free from ice continent"

pragmatic 18y ago

Guess what. Dinosaurs used to live in Canada too. The earth is in a constant state of change. The state where I'm sitting right now used to be under a sea. It's amazing that supposed free thinkers and critical minds are in such a hurry to believe that we can do something about the climate of the planet for better or worse.