Posts Tagged ‘extreme’

We mainly write about extreme sports, whats going on, where, who has done what and when. But what has concerned us recently may ultimately bring an end to all extreme sports. We wrote the other day about the possibility of an extreme landslide on La Palma in the Canary Islands which would cause an extreme tsunami wave the like of which the world would have never seen before and, as was suggested in the research, would cause such devastation, death and destruction to the eastern seaboard of the United States that no-one could afford to ignore the threat.

We thought at the time the idea of a 200 foot wave racing across the Atlantic Ocean at 500 mph sounded pretty far fetched and not surprisingly we received a lot of feed back – some pooh poohing the idea and saying it was a load of poppycock whilst others took a more open minded view and agreed that this possibility was something that could not be discounted.

Well whatever your view, and we thank you for them all, what we write about today is, we feel, even more worrying. It seems to us that mankind is heading for an extreme catastrophe.

We read about there being no more Arctic summer ice cap by 2015 – yes thats right – 2015 – we calculate that is just 6 years away and we didn’t need to be a rocket scientist to work that one out. And talking of scientists we heard that the chief scientific adviser to the White House, one John Holdren, in an interview earlier this month with the Associated Press, openly discussed geo-engineering.

The concept of using technology to purposely cool the climate is called geo-engineering. One option raised by Holdren and proposed by a Nobel Prize-winning scientist includes shooting pollution particles into the upper atmosphere to reflect the sun’s rays.

His concern is that the United States and other nations won’t slow global warming fast enough and that several “tipping points” could be fast approaching. Once such milestones are reached, such as complete loss of summer sea ice in the Arctic, it increases chances of “really intolerable consequences,” he said.

He and many experts believe that warming of a few degrees more would lead to disastrous drought conditions and food shortages in some regions, rising seas and more powerful coastal storms in others.

Shooting sulfur particles (like those produced by power plants and volcanoes, for example) into the upper atmosphere is an idea that gained steam when it was proposed by Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen in 2006. It would be “basically mimicking the effect of volcanoes in screening out the incoming sunlight,” Holdren said.

But he said there could be grave side effects. Studies suggest that might include eating away a large chunk of the ozone layer above the poles and causing the Mediterranean and the Mideast to be much drier.

And those are just the predicted problems. Scientists say they worry about side effects that they don’t anticipate.

Just how crazy is this and when you watch the shocking video below from rexsherman the quotation that we picked up is that ‘we are going to have to change our ways’.

So, so pertinent we feel – did you know there are companies selling genetically modified seeds to impoverished Indian farmers who have to borrow money to buy these vastly more expensive seeds because they will produce ten times the weight of crop – but what they are not told is that a drought will render the crop useless, that they will need fertilizers to feed the crop. The result is that you have an Indian farmer with debts and his family to support and when the drought comes the bank still needs to be paid – is it any wonder that the suicide rate amongst Indian farmers is at a record high.

Last summer we talked about the haze of fog over Beijing during the Olympic Games there – part of that cause is due to desertification – and that desertification can be attributable in part to the increase in the number of goats on the steppes of Mongolia as a result of western demand for cashmere. Of course the answer to the Mongolian farmer is to have more goats – more goats eat more grass leaving the steppes bare and so the great dust storms grow.

And now we come to plastic – OMG – what awful stuff it is – what wonderful stuff it is. Is that a paradox? We think so but look what it is doing to the Pacific Ocean.

So there you have our rant and what is the solution……………mmmmmm not so easy. Are we ever going to have a political leader in a democratic form of government saying we have to change the way we live – nay – regulating that we have to live differently. Do you think that person – he or she – is going to be elected for a second term. Oh no sir, not a chance – we are all far too selfish.

So what is the conclusion, what are the consequences – more drought, more deserts, more food shortages – to us that equals war – a war that will wipe out more than the 2 or 3 million on the eastern seaboard of the US – perhaps a billion or two – lets get the numbers down we hear you shout.

But such a doomsday scenario, although we don’t discount it as rubbish – is not in our nature – note what happened 10 years after the last world depression. Yes our nature believes in mankind, we believe we can stop the pollution, we believe we don’t have to live like we have for the last 100 years – the pendulum of capitalism has swung too far – did you know there was little inflation in the 19th century.

We do not have to get bigger and better every day of our lives – that is only what we have been taught by the economists – but it is not necessary. We fear the consequences of not changing our ways will be war – we have finite space, we are citizens of the world – remember that – let us share our world.

If we don’t will there be an extreme sport left to play – yes perhaps that is it – only one and that extreme sport will be war.

Excuse the rather lurid headline but hey – we got your attention and rightly so cos what you will watch below is truly extreme, truly awe inspiring and truly incredible mountain bike riding.

The best in the land test their skill in yet another Red Bull sponsored extreme event at Virgin in Utah in both freeride and downhill mountain bike riding with some huge drops. We are really impressed by the skill that these guys show – mastery over your environment, a cool nerve and great balance – and watch how in mid air they manouvre the angle of the bike frame so as to land the bike at the right angle to the hill.

Well done guys this is cool – thanks to pjmitchellontoast for the video

As you know this blog is about extreme sport – I think we have now been talking and writing and reporting about extreme sports – spelt XTREME – far cooler – (pun not intended, see below) for over a year and occasionally my co-editor or I will go off on a rant about ’something’.

Of course the cool thing about the word extreme is that it is both an adjective – there was an extreme drought – and a noun – the drought was extreme. As this site evolves, and believe me big things are happening, we will use the word extreme in its many different guises and so develop the brand. Of course the adjective will be more useful – just think of the number of extremities you could have – after sport it could be food or fashion, weather or wealth, hotels or holidays, sandstorms or suffering, poverty or philanthropy and so I could go on adnauseum, which I won’t but I trust you get the drift.

Today I revert to one of our more favoured extremes and that is climate and want to relate below some of the extremes that we are experiencing and more pertinently the effects of these extremes:

at the current rate of carbon emissions global temperatures will rise by 2 degrees centigrade by 2050 – big deal I hear you shout, then read on numbskull:

Most people reading this will live in a degree of comfort that will probably mean they just run the air conditioner for a few more hours a day but let me tell you – and its not only me in truth, far worthier individuals and organisations like the UK’s defence chiefs – also fear the consequences are mass migration. You will never have experienced starvation or thirst, nor have I, but what are you going to do if you are starving or dying of thirst. You are gonna get off your boney butt and move.

Migration of 1-3 billion people – where to – who are they? Well they will come to where there is plenty – do I need to say more and they will be ‘the poor’. (Actually they are people like you and I, they eat, drink, sleep and procreate a family but maybe they don’t have a BMW). This will cause huge tensions – it is what is hapening in Darfur, on a much smaller scale, migration as a result of water shortages. And what is Darfur – it should be called Daftwar – yes it is WAR.

OMG I get weak at the thought – come on guys, we’ve got to change, we’ve got to put pressure on our ‘world improvers’ to get off their fat comfortable asses and indeed improve the world.

Enough said for today – I leave you with a video from Darfur – thankyou rosary films.

Have you heard of this guy called Kris Holm? Have you seen what he gets up to on his unicycle? Extraordinary – Extreme and I don’t know how many other expletives you could come up with to describe what this bloke does – let’s just say it would fill the page and you would get bored – but you sure won’t if you take a look at this YouTube video which was put together by changeyunimaniak – truly Kris is the master of his art – respect.

You will just have to accept that here in Europe we don’t grow our basketball players to be 6′10″ or more and so just occasionally we need a spring board to launch ourselves to those lofty heights. So please excuse the assistance received by your European shorter brethren but do enjoy the tricks they get up to – impressive stuff from Turkey’s basketball players – enjoy.

Some people might say “Why, why do it? What do you get out of rock climbing for god’s sake?” You go up – you have to come down again, is that fun or just a waste of time?

But I think this video explains the ultimate satisfaction of this sport to those who do it. The feeling of achievement, of getting up there – although I would be tempted to suggest that the desire ‘to conquer’ is also behind the urge to get to the top.