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If global warming were caused by aliens….

A humorous cartoon:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_b5hcKABPlGI/TD-5AacMQtI/AAAAAAAAhPg/xt5nbzQeOiI/s1600/7-1009c.jpg

In my DOE days, getting media coverage for clean energy innovations was so hard, we used to joke that maybe we should start a rumor that it was all based on alien technology a la the X-Files….

33 Responses to If global warming were caused by aliens….

  1. Prokaryotes says:

    A small UFO arrived earth orbit during the 50′s. When special units arrived at the shipwreck later, the passengers been long gone.

    The mission objective is to infiltrate human society to propagate the heavy use of fossil energy – to create a state of catastrophic climate change.

    This would put earth into a several thousand years lasting climate shift – resetting earth.

    About 5.000-100.000 years later (depending on terraforming – geo-engineering capabilities) huge ships will arrive with the alien species to colonize earth.

  2. Raul M. says:

    Yes, we need some of that alien technology.
    Aerosols that benignly pull some of the excess
    moisture from the air. Thereby, reducing the
    greenhouse effect by reducing moisture and
    letting co2 attach to the falling rain?

  3. Prokaryotes says:

    Stephen Hawking: Alien Contact Could Be Risky
    In Discovery Documentary, British Astrophysicist Warns Alien Life Could be Hostile
    http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Space/stephen-hawking-alien-contact-risky/story?id=10478157

  4. David Smith says:

    Actually, Alien influence of a small group of powerful humans to destabilize earth civilization for future conquest might strike a nerve with a segment of the voting public. Repeating this in as many ways possible into the media. Intellectually it is on par with a lot of the conservative rhetoric. The appeal to fear and the repetition technique has worked fairly well to spread dis-information. It identifies a class of people as not us and so can be villainized properly. It smooths over one of the biggest issues, that we Americans are quilty of creating the problem in the first place. Fight fire with fire…

    It could work.

  5. Prokaryotes says:

    The core question was how to interpret the data

    The tales of American paranormal intelligence operations are no longer confined to whispered leaks of secret government programs. In 1994, at the behest of Congress, the CIA took over the Department of Defense program known as STAR GATE, and revealed the existence of a twenty-year effort on ABC News Nightline.

    Based upon the best evidence available — which includes declassified STAR GATE files, and “on background” information supplied by persons who once were involved in America’s paranormal investigation — the UFO CORE STORY was closely aligned with odd phenomena documented by the intelligence community paranormal effort.

    Over the years, several American astronauts have come forward concerning their belief in an extraterrestrial presence.

    Perhaps someday the Chinese will be the first to declare, “We are not alone.”
    http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/169717

  6. Prokaryotes says:

    Do we have an alien-contact contingency plan?
    http://www.slate.com/id/2260628/

  7. Jake Harper says:

    Re: Stephen Hawking: Alien Contact Could Be Risky

    If they are that advanced, to travel light-years over many hundreds of years in a self contained vessel that is *made for war*, they’re advanced enough to find us anyway. Our analog broadcasts are still heading out there in a circle. Hitler and Howdy Doody are some of our earlier beacons to the stars.

    As Hawking gets older, he’s made a lot of bad wagers — really, read his two books for the public, including Universe In A Nutshell. He describes his fun wagers with other scientists and how he lost.

  8. Raul says:

    Yes when big britches comes to say that a tin hat
    is just fine and we don’t need a fabric hat that
    reflects infrared, invite to tea.

  9. jcwinnie says:

    Joe, that was vicious. Sarah P does not look that bad when when she faces the mirror first thing in the morning.

  10. Prokaryotes says:

    Jack Harper, 7# “If they are that advanced, to travel light-years over many hundreds of years in a self contained vessel that is *made for war*, they’re advanced enough to find us anyway.”

    We could as well have had already self-sustained spaceships with their own biosphere and science lab on board. People always assume that aliens are so much advanced, maybe they just have a better engine designed – who knows.

  11. Chris Winter says:

    Joe wrote: “In my DOE days, getting media coverage for clean energy innovations was so hard, we used to joke that maybe we should start a rumor that it was all based on alien technology a la the X-Files….”

    Actually there was a movie about this. A giant corporation fronting for the aliens was building what it said were power stations at various places. They really were terraforming stations making Earth warmer to suit the aliens.

    Most of the action took place down in Mexico, where a radio astronomer who had figured out what was really going on broke into one of their facilities and eventually got some evidence to convince people at NASA.

    If this description sounds sketchy, it’s because I never saw the complete movie and don’t know its title.

  12. Prokaryotes says:

    Chris, do you mean this movie?
    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115571/

  13. Marc Hudson says:

    It’s not a particularly good film, but “The Arrival” covers this. Ron Silver is part of the vanguard of alien terraformers who are here to make the Earth much much hotter (and presumably then sell it to the highest reptilian bidder). Charlie Sheen (!) confronts him, having uncovered the plot. Silver says “we’re not doing anything immoral, merely accelerating a process you apes started, are aware of,and are unwilling to stop.”
    Made in the late 90s, directed by David Twohy.

  14. david g swanger says:

    A story by Theodore Sturgeon called “Occam’s Scalpel” also dealt with this possibility. I also believe, but would have to check to be sure, that Roger Zelazny used it in his novel “Bridge of Ashes”.

  15. Prokaryotes says:

    David, i think you mean “Case and the Dreamer”? – which seems to be a love story? http://bit.ly/b5uUKZ
    This would be pretty cool if Sturgeon would have written about greenhouse gasses in the 70′s. Though according to an interview he was all for renewable energy.

  16. Prokaryotes says:

    Marc i just watched the movie and i found it pretty entertaining.

  17. Prokaryotes says:

    The Arrival was filmed in 1996 and starts like “Contact” which was made in 1997. TA discusses polar melt, heatwaves and greenhouse gases(even methane). Though the ending doesn’t show how the greenhouse gas uptake of “700%” is playing out for the humans :)

  18. Raul says:

    Well, its off topic because the aliens in the cartoon don’t
    don’t do individual intervention. They just destroy the planet.
    There is no mention of the minions, etc. So to develop the plot
    to current events the question becomes at what point does the
    one actor who is disturbed with the aliens’ actions have the
    other actors attention to the situation beyond the one actor
    trying to get his attention. Then what is typically said by the
    one actor that convince the other actor that he cant have the
    one actor talking to him if he is going to actually escape.
    Still no development of the other actor being one of the
    aliens minions though.
    ????

  19. Prokaryotes says:

    Raul, the question would be how aliens would interact. In the plots mentioned it is highly unlikely that aliens run around interacting directly with humans (major movie flaw). Actually aliens would just need a communication device and some kind of money to have influence.
    Actually aliens do not even have to be on the planet to have some sort of influence.

  20. Raul says:

    Of course they would have to pass a law about proper
    alien behavior in D.C.
    Might take years of contemplation of lost revenews
    for the loss of natural resources.
    Then fact finding about was it really destroying the
    planet or just changing it somehow.
    While all that was being decided though their kids
    snook up and blasted the aliens ship with slingshots
    and waterguns. Well the aliens had to evacuate planet
    earth so fast. The kids didn’t like their sandbox to
    be so big. Then actors one and two started to think
    how they could turn such a large sandbox back into
    what it had been before the aliens had come for a visit.

  21. Raul says:

    Just kidding the Sahara is still growing.

  22. Raul M. says:

    In listening to the lectures on the waste heat
    generated by large cities and the amount of such,
    it adds another factor into the heat island idea
    for me as I had been thinking only of the city
    absorbing incoming heat.
    Seems we are more aliens than not in the USA.
    Still seems that forcing by depressions will
    be the most active change-over to more sustainable
    ways.

  23. Raul M. says:

    The lectures also point out the effects of particulate
    matter as regards multiple scattering of incoming light.
    Because of the effects, solar and wind energy generation
    places the generators more in line with human not alien,
    because of the lack of particulate generation.

  24. Raul M. says:

    The daily SST readings for the Gulf of Pollution
    show distinctly that changes have made it far to the
    Texas border.

  25. Raul M. says:

    Geez, will UF institute of oceanography be able
    to get it’s entire outstanding student graduates
    employed by the aliens now that beyond pollution
    is funding grants.

  26. Raul M. says:

    Henry James used to write about the logistic
    dysfunctions of the late 1800′s. He did so in a
    personal manner with romantic tones.
    He was very successful in showing that contemporary
    situations would cause people in mass or those in
    power to make choices and what those choices were
    and what those choices led to.

  27. Raul M. says:

    I still think personalizing and romanticizing the
    situation and the move to positive actions shows the
    great capabilities and potentials for positive change.
    That a eloquent writer could change it from a scary
    story to one of hope and humanity depends not on
    fighting off the villains but rather showing the
    challenges each faces and the move to lasting progress.

  28. Raul M. says:

    He saved his money not completely mind you,
    but save it he did, and one day he was able to
    find a seller on the internet to supply the first
    large solar panel. He bought that panel at a fine
    price and continued to think of how it could go
    well with more panels. Slowly, he saved and bought
    more until he had enough to power the vacuum cleaner.
    Finally the floor was cleaned again! Yes, it was a
    great topic of talk, how he did that. Well, others
    wanted to clean their floors and there was a way
    to do so, and so independently. After the floor
    was cleaned he invited some friends over to enjoy
    the evening and was able to light the evening with
    a fine light of his own.
    Happily ever after.

  29. Raul M. says:

    Great news everyone,
    the house sparrows flew yesterday. Second group this year.
    The potted plant was starting to wilt, and even being careful
    not to pour water on the nest, it was too much for the birdies.
    Four young ones flew so fast every which way. Mom bird was
    worried and called a long tine even after she had them back
    together.

  30. Glenn Magus Harvey says:

    If global warming were caused by aliens, we humans would be FAR more united in dealing with the problem.

  31. Prokaryotes says:

    If you deflect human treatment of each other – aliens could use same treatment. What happens if we manage to transition to a clean energy future, and given that we manage to stabilize the climate – the next step is space colonization. Which in turn means exponential growth of our species throughout our solar system and beyond. Carbon-water life supporting planets are rare and booting a planet with triggering runaway climate change could be a way for hostile aliens to conquer.

    There are fundamentals about the evolution of thriving species. First you use fire and how hard the next step in energy evolution is, we see today. So every planet supporting advanced (intelligence) life-forms will burn fossil energy and alter the climate – many irreversible.

    Further reading see fermi paradox.

    Given we face a far advanced entity – i.e. autonomous self replicated machine robotic-species which swarm the universe in search to just destroy – maybe just from a malfunction could use many ways to control up thriving species in the universe. Of course most of this is science fiction, nevertheless it is a possibility and likewise happens somewhere in the universe. Just think about a solar system with two life inhabiting planets – could be quiet common.

  32. Prokaryotes says:

    Finding frugal aliens
    For 50 years, humans have scanned the skies with radio telescopes for distant electronic signals indicating the existence of intelligent alien life. The search — centered at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif. — has tapped into our collective fascination with the concept that we may not be alone in the universe. http://www.uci.edu/features/2010/07/feature_beacons_100719.php