I Am Now a Global Warming Believer
The Guardian and some NASA scientists tip me over the edge:
Aliens may destroy humanity to protect other civilisations, say scientists
Rising greenhouse emissions may tip off aliens that we are a rapidly expanding threat, warns a report for Nasa
It may not rank as the most compelling reason to curb greenhouse gases, but reducing our emissions might just save humanity from a pre-emptive alien attack, scientists claim.
Watching from afar, extraterrestrial beings might view changes in Earth's atmosphere as symptomatic of a civilisation growing out of control – and take drastic action to keep us from becoming a more serious threat, the researchers explain.
Well that does it. I guess the science of climate change really is settled. Sea levels may not be rising, storms aren't increasing--heck, even the atmospheric warming forecast by alarmists isn't occurring--but we cannot absolutely rule out the possibility that an interstellar Greenpeace armed with planet-busting antimatter weapons won't preempt us oil addicts from one day harming Pandora's Na'avi.
This is obviously one risk we cannot afford to take.
The authors warn that extraterrestrials may be wary of civilisations that expand very rapidly, as these may be prone to destroy other life as they grow, just as humans have pushed species to extinction on Earth. In the most extreme scenario, aliens might choose to destroy humanity to protect other civilisations.
"A preemptive strike would be particularly likely in the early phases of our expansion because a civilisation may become increasingly difficult to destroy as it continues to expand. Humanity may just now be entering the period in which its rapid civilisational expansion could be detected by an ETI because our expansion is changing the composition of the Earth's atmosphere, via greenhouse gas emissions," the report states.
"Green" aliens might object to the environmental damage humans have caused on Earth and wipe us out to save the planet. "These scenarios give us reason to limit our growth and reduce our impact on global ecosystems. It would be particularly important for us to limit our emissions of greenhouse gases, since atmospheric composition can be observed from other planets," the authors write.
Even if we never make contact with extraterrestrials, the report argues that considering the potential scenarios may help to plot the future path of human civilisation, avoid collapse and achieve long-term survival.
Well there is little risk of being judged a rapidly expanding civilization while Barack Obama is in office, so we can breathe easily for the next sixteen months. However, I find it strange that amidst the many scenarios considered for alien encounters in the Acta Astronautica peer-reviewed Rorschach test, I missed the one exploring the possibility of liberty-loving aliens wiping us out to prevent the spread of socialist utopianism, which, once established, could destroy the galaxy by its kudzu-like growth even in the face of universal evidence of its comprehensive failure. Next issue, no doubt.
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May '10
Re: I Am Now a Global Warming Believer
Did these guys just write a scientific report on The Day the Earth Stood Still (the envirowacko remake, of course)?
I'm sure next month's issue will include an analysis of the risk of being wiped out by opportunistic aliens who take economic stagnation as a sign of weakness. I wonder if there is any precedent for that kind of behavior in the animal kingdom, or perhaps even in human history?
Could an alien race with such a totalitarian left-progressive environmental policy even succeed at developing the military technology conduct a global genocide? Let alone build flying machines, then space machines, then leave their own planetary orbit, then travel lightyears across deep space to another solar system?
Oct '10
Re: I Am Now a Global Warming Believer
My favorite comment underneath this article on the guardian site is:
Husq
18 August 2011 7:30PM
If I were an alien reading this article I would not effing bother attacking.
May '10
Re: I Am Now a Global Warming Believer
Eh, beam up some tribbles; that'll take care of'm.
Okay, rally the science fiction fans: Has there ever been a published sci fi plot remotely like this?
Aug '11
Re: I Am Now a Global Warming Believer
Yeah, that's the ticket. That's how you recover from a series of embarrassing exposures of the lack of integrity in the entire science of climatology... come out publicly, and effectively admit that you're so absolutely devoted to your bias that it's truly taking you to the limits of sanity. And they say the religious ones are crazy.
How about NASA just keeps to recording and compiling data for a while, and reporting the data, and keeping the crazy to itself, instead of keeping the data to itself and reporting the crazy?
Edited on Aug 18, 2011 at 11:46pmDec '10
Re: I Am Now a Global Warming Believer
Ah, science. None of that superstitious mumbo-jumbo.
May '10
Re: I Am Now a Global Warming Believer
Don Tillman: Eh, beam up some tribbles; that'll take care of'm.
Okay, rally the science fiction fans: Has there ever been a published sci fi plot remotely like this? · Aug 18 at 11:18pm
Didn't see my comment, Don?
Mark Wilson:
Did these guys just write a scientific report on The Day the Earth Stood Still (the envirowacko remake, of course)?
Dec '10
Re: I Am Now a Global Warming Believer
George, I am disappointed you did not spot the central logical fallacy in the article.
According to these "scientists," the "ETIs" will be on the lookout for planets with greenhouse gas emissions because such planets may be inhabited by rapidly-expanding civilizations that are dooming themselves to extinction through their expansionist ways.
And these geniuses then speculate that the ETIs will travel the vast reaches of space to destroy the civilizations... that the ETIs have determined are doomed to self-destruction.
We have to ask them: which is it, boys? Do greenhouse gas emissions lead to planetary destruction, in which case the ETIs would hardly bother to do what we are accomplishing ourselves? Or do greenhouse gas emissions signal a WILDLY SUCCESSFUL CIVILIZATION that is bound to slip the surly bonds of its home planet and seek out its manifest destiny among the stars?
This article reveals the entire purpose of the AGW fiction: to create a doomsday threat with which to bludgeon the populace into giving up essential liberties and turning their lives over to the central planning elites.
May '10
Re: I Am Now a Global Warming Believer
Mark Wilson
Don Tillman:
Okay, rally the science fiction fans: Has there ever been a published sci fi plot remotely like this? · Aug 18 at 11:18pm
Didn't see my comment, Don?
Aug 18 at 11:46pm
Oh, the *remake* of The Day the Earth Stood Still. I thought you were kidding... but no.
May '11
Re: I Am Now a Global Warming Believer
The grand irony would come when the aliens' mothership gets taken out by a random piece of human space junk orbiting the earth. Interplanetary environmental mission, undone by redneck litter.
Jul '10
Re: I Am Now a Global Warming Believer
The aliens have already been here and Venus turned out to be a false positive, so we're good. (No place in the solar system does greenhouse nearly as well as Venus. And for a little extra sizzle it rains sulfuric acid. The atmospheric pressure on the Venusian surface is 92 atmospheres, and the composition is 96% carbon dioxide. Imagine the successfulness of the civilization generating that output!)
May '10
Re: I Am Now a Global Warming Believer
False positive? How do you know their sulfuric acid rain and 92 atmospheres aren't the result of an interstellar preemptive strike in response to the Venusians' (may they rest in peace) reckless and irresponsible carbon emissions? Seems a fitting punishment for such a barbarically fossil fuel burning race.
Apr '11
Re: I Am Now a Global Warming Believer
Are you sure The Onion didn't write that article?
Jul '10
Re: I Am Now a Global Warming Believer
Show me their funding, that I might cut it.
Sep '10
Re: I Am Now a Global Warming Believer
Reports like this show how unfocused NASA has become. They need to get back to the important work of muslim outreach.
Aug '10
Re: I Am Now a Global Warming Believer
What if they land and ask: "Take me to your leader" Could be awkward!
Oct '10
Re: I Am Now a Global Warming Believer
Sounds like the Guardian and NASA are taking cues from Paul Krugman:
Paul Krugman on CNN: "we needed a massive buildup to counter the space alien threat - and really inflation and budget deficits took secondary place to that - this slump would be over in 18 months.....there was a Twilight Zone episode like this, which scientists fake an alien threat in order to achieve world peace. Well, this time we need it in order to get some fiscal stimulus."
Edited on Aug 19, 2011 at 3:53amMar '11
Re: I Am Now a Global Warming Believer
The broadcasts of Hello Larry are now detectible out to a range of 30+ light-years. If that doesn't get us attacked on a strictly aesthetic basis, we are probably safe.
Dec '10
Re: I Am Now a Global Warming Believer
One would not think that one would need to educate NASA about interstellar distances. Even if this theorized civilization were in the Milky Way, it could take 100,000 years for the light from earth to reach it. It would take millions of years for light to reach other galaxies. If the warmists are correct, we will have long expired before they could even detect this.
Re: I Am Now a Global Warming Believer
I knew Al Gore was an alien!
Re: I Am Now a Global Warming Believer
What's with the little hub-bub right in the article about the study being "for NASA" and not "from" NASA?
Plausible deniability?
Edited on Aug 19, 2011 at 6:06am