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West Antarctica Begins to Destabilize with ‘Intense Unbalanced Melting’

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Re: West Antarctica Begins to Destabilize with ‘Intense Unbalanced Melting’

#131

Post by yongjik »

hash-set wrote: post #77
M_Grey wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't feed the troll, it will just encourage more of the same behavior.

I'm tired of the "climate change is settled science" bit, okay--for centuries, people believed the sun revolved around the earth and nobody was allowed to question that. The answer to speech you don't like is more speech, not censorship. And I'm with the poster who talked about "bullshitting" because climate change has a lot of the smells of that very thing.

Well, it turned out that, when the planet moves around the sun, their apparent motion as seen from Earth still closely matches the prediction of the latest geocentric models. So, geocentrists were wrong, but not "Oh no tomorrow Mars will totally reverse course and we'll never understand why" wrong.

So, if you're betting on another Galileo moment, you're wrong. You're wrong now, and even in the unlikely case of a Copernican climate science revolution, you will remain wrong. Nature has this nasty habit of being consistent.

Re: West Antarctica Begins to Destabilize with ‘Intense Unbalanced Melting’

#132

Post by woodandsteel »

Florin_Andrei wrote: post #111
cicero wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Bible gives no good reason to deny climate change. The leaders of the two largest Christian groups, the Catholic Popes (specifically Benedict XVI and Francis) and the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople, have long been supporters of green policies.

I know. It's largely the literalists that go off the really deep end.

A good example is Jim Inhofe, the Republican chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. According to him, the Bible tells us that GCC is impossible because the atmosphere is under the control of God, and God would never allow anything harmful to humans like that to happen.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Inhofe

Re: West Antarctica Begins to Destabilize with ‘Intense Unbalanced Melting’

#133

Post by JamesBarney »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #78
hash-set wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be stupid to crash our economy and then find out that the "solutions" didn't work. Or that we come up with technological fix to the problem. Or that that whole thing was just a ploy by leftists to seize power. Anyhow, if you expect 7 billion people to do anything in regards to climate change, don't hold your breath.

> Anyhow, if you expect 7 billion people to do anything in regards to climate change, don't hold your breath. Except that China is halting construction on 20+ coal plants. And deploying renewables faster than any other country. And putting in place heavy subsidies for electric vehicles. Chinese citizens overwhelmingly support renewables and the cost associated with it: https://cleantechnica.com/2016/09/29/china-citie…

Fracking has actually been beneficial in reducing climate change because the carbon footprint of natural gas is far lower than coal. Most O&G companies are currently pushing for a carbon tax.

Re: West Antarctica Begins to Destabilize with ‘Intense Unbalanced Melting’

#134

Post by Florin_Andrei »

presidentender wrote: post #123
Florin_Andrei wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technically true, except those who claim to stick to a literal interpretation of the book are much more likely to perform a selective reading of it, keep what they like, discard what they don't. Ends up being just another bullshit name.

So what you're saying is "there are religious people and I don't like them"?

No, what I'm saying is - bullshit is everywhere, and religion does not have a special exemption from it.

Re: West Antarctica Begins to Destabilize with ‘Intense Unbalanced Melting’

#135

Post by presidentender »

Florin_Andrei wrote: post #134
presidentender wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what you're saying is "there are religious people and I don't like them"?

No, what I'm saying is - bullshit is everywhere, and religion does not have a special exemption from it.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12798868

Re: West Antarctica Begins to Destabilize with ‘Intense Unbalanced Melting’

#136

Post by pmyjavec »

stale2002 wrote: post #118
pmyjavec wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Won't a lot of this coastal flood protection infrastructure just add emissions to the atmosphere, thus grossly exacerbating the problem? Seems like way to little, way to late. Trying to just "build a wall" around cities just doesn't sound like it's going to work, I even saw designs where buildings in Manhattan will have to be built on stilts, but how much environmental environmental damage will all this new construct…

You are overestimating the effects of climate change. Sea levels will rise by a meter over the next hundred years. That's really not very much in the scheme of things.

Have a read of these:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/04/science/flooding-of-coast-...

http://uk.businessinsider.com/cities-exposed-to-rising-sea-l...

I'm going to say you're underestimating the affects of climate change if you think a one meter rise in sea level globally isn't a big deal. Not to mention a selfish point of view, considering some peoples homes are already being inundated and the catastrophic effects it will have on coral reef systems.

Re: West Antarctica Begins to Destabilize with ‘Intense Unbalanced Melting’

#137

Post by yread »

mzw_mzw wrote: post #89
toomuchtodo wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And their renewables deployment is so fast, overcapacity is a concern. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/chinas-growth-in-renewable-... EDIT: I'm not ready to call climate change solved yet, but at the deployment trajectory China is on, the rest of the world will have no choice but to follow, as China is pushing renewable generation costs very low (which undercuts nuclear and fossil fuels, pushing their prices higher…

And as we all know, if there's any nation whose official economic statistics are completely trustworthy, it's China. Why, even if China's famously open and transparent government did feel the urge to mess with the statistics, their dynamic free press, unfettered by government controls, would be all over it.

Well, you don't have to trust just statistics, go visit one of these: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dams_and_reservoirs_in...

Re: West Antarctica Begins to Destabilize with ‘Intense Unbalanced Melting’

#138

Post by lowgman »

JamesBarney wrote: post #133
toomuchtodo wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Anyhow, if you expect 7 billion people to do anything in regards to climate change, don't hold your breath. Except that China is halting construction on 20+ coal plants. And deploying renewables faster than any other country. And putting in place heavy subsidies for electric vehicles. Chinese citizens overwhelmingly support renewables and the cost associated with it: https://cleantechnica.com/2016/09/29/china-citie…

Fracking has actually been beneficial in reducing climate change because the carbon footprint of natural gas is far lower than coal. Most O&G companies are currently pushing for a carbon tax.

That is like saying a ball peen hammer is beneficial in reducing damage to the skull compared to a sledge hammer.

Re: West Antarctica Begins to Destabilize with ‘Intense Unbalanced Melting’

#139

Post by mzw_mzw »

yread wrote: post #137
mzw_mzw wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And as we all know, if there's any nation whose official economic statistics are completely trustworthy, it's China. Why, even if China's famously open and transparent government did feel the urge to mess with the statistics, their dynamic free press, unfettered by government controls, would be all over it.

Well, you don't have to trust just statistics, go visit one of these: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dams_and_reservoirs_in...

I don't think you can just gaze at a dam from the visitors' center and accurately deduce how much renewable energy is being produced by hydroelectric power across one of the largest countries in the world. Why, even buying a souvenir T-shirt in the gift shop might not be enough to gain that information.

Re: West Antarctica Begins to Destabilize with ‘Intense Unbalanced Melting’

#140

Post by JamesBarney »

lowgman wrote: post #138
JamesBarney wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fracking has actually been beneficial in reducing climate change because the carbon footprint of natural gas is far lower than coal. Most O&G companies are currently pushing for a carbon tax.

That is like saying a ball peen hammer is beneficial in reducing damage to the skull compared to a sledge hammer.

And one saying which is relevant is "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good."
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