Hans Peter Niesward, from the Department of Gravitationsphysik at the ISA in Munich, says we can stop global warming in one fell swoop — or, more accurately, in one big jump.It's hard to tell, reading the ABC News story quoted above, who's in on the joke and who isn't. For instance, according to reporter Alexandra Leo, there was organized opposition. Apparently, they weren't in on the joke:
The slightly disheveled professor states his case on WorldJumpDay.org, an Internet site created to recruit 600,000,000 people to jump simultaneously on July 20 at 11:39:13 GMT in an effort to shift Earth's position.
Niesward claims that on this day "Earth occupies one of the most fragile positions in its orbits for the last 100 years." According to the site, the shift in orbit will "stop global warming, extend daytime hours and create a more homogeneous climate."
Members of the online environmental site treehugger.com have been debating not only the physical possibility of the jump's promise but the morality of its outcome.If you visit the World Jump Day site, you can buy commemorative T-shirts (but does doing that mean you're in on the joke or you're not?) and upload your jump pictures or videos. The organizers say they're "calculating the results," and promise to report back soon.
Some believe it's risky to alter Earth's orbit, while others fear the jump will make the Gregorian calendar obsolete because of the length of Earth's new orbit. Others doubt the ability of the world's population to synchronize an event like this.
The folks at madphysics.com have constructed an anti-World Jump Day manifesto, complete with equations drawn up to dispute the validity of Niesward's — or Lauschmann's — theories.
"Science commits suicide when it adopts a creed." Thomas Henry Huxley
Well, I'm reluctant to tarnish such wonderful silliness as World Jump Day
with serious discussion, but...
I know that business rejects global climate change out of hand because it
would impact severely on the fossil fuels industry, but that is what makes
it the side with the creed.
Sorry, I can't take seriously someone who personifies "business" as if it
were a single consciousness that has creeds, commandments, wants, etc.