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Atmospheric CO2 levels accelerate upwards

nationalobserver.com

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Re: Atmospheric CO2 levels accelerate upwards

#41
post #26
post #13

Howdy! I work in cleantech, and I guess it's that time again for a what-are-we-going-to-do-about-it post :) To start, here's my favorite climate change joke: "They say we won't act until it's too late... Luckily, it's too late!" ==So what can you do about it?== The biggest thing this article doesn't say that is most relevant to the HN audience is that you can work at a new energy technology company! Our industries ar…

Do you have any recommendations for major metro/tech hubs to avoid settling down (i.e. planning to spend the next 10-20 years) in due to significant threats from climate change? And/or any recommendations for regions in the US that are expected to fare better?

There's also this adjustable map of sea level rise effects: http://geology.com/sea-level-rise/, though a bit simplistic.

Re: Atmospheric CO2 levels accelerate upwards

#42
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really resonate with this comment. The best way to 'deal' with climate change on an individual level is to always vote for folks who are trying to rein it in, to live your life with a minimal carbon footprint, and to create plans for larger, more intense weather events.

Even the high end of predictions aren't expecting an increase in intense weather events bigger than what you might get if you were a bit unlucky over the next century.

Any citations for that?

Why would insurance companies like Munich Re be studying and preparing for climate change then [1]?

[1] https://www.munichre.com/en/group/focus/climate-change/index...

Re: Atmospheric CO2 levels accelerate upwards

#43
Can someone explain:

- since CO2 has a logarithmic effect on warming

- the catastrophic climate prediction models have not proven effective at predicting climate

- we should expect moderate increases in warming, which can be beneficial (livable climate, crops etc)

- the unquestionable benefits of hydro carbon energy to bring people out of poverty and into modern prosperity (food, healthcare, modern technology)

..what's all the sensationalism about? Shouldn't we be happy that the alarmists were wrong and the threat has been overblown?

An alternative viewpoint:

https://youtu.be/500MmY5rB1w

https://youtu.be/EaNPBZ6BZZ8

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/08/10/the-diminishing-influ...

Re: Atmospheric CO2 levels accelerate upwards

#44
post #43

Can someone explain: - since CO2 has a logarithmic effect on warming - the catastrophic climate prediction models have not proven effective at predicting climate - we should expect moderate increases in warming, which can be beneficial (livable climate, crops etc) - the unquestionable benefits of hydro carbon energy to bring people out of poverty and into modern prosperity (food, healthcare, modern technology) ..what…

Citations needed

Re: Atmospheric CO2 levels accelerate upwards

#45
post #28
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi, I don't see anything in your list about carbon sequestration. Can you point me to any companies investing in advanced robotics to assist in silicate mineral crushing & spreading, as it's the only sensible, achievable sequestration technique? Thanks. For readers interested in carbon sequestration, please check out the following paper: "Enhanced chemical weathering as a geoengineering strategy to reduce atmospheric…

Carbon sequestration does not produce immediate benefits, like being a cheap way in making bricks (extreme example). It is like the insulin injections to a person that got already type-2 diabetes.

We have the disease; we need to explore all care options...

Re: Atmospheric CO2 levels accelerate upwards

#47
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Be constructive, be creative. Ok, solution time. Let's immediately ban everyone who denies that climate change is human made from all positions of power. That implies stripping them of both titles and wealth.

I vote we kill you first. You breathe out CO2, right? EDIT: Nice silent edit there. Let me just quote what you just deleted from your comment "Since they won't probably give in voluntarily and since many of them are already in power, this further implies a violent uprising."

Breathing is turning carbon that was already in the cycle into CO2. You don't eat coal, or drink crude oil, do you?

Re: Atmospheric CO2 levels accelerate upwards

#48
post #37

I don't like sensationalism as it clouds the mind with short-lived buzzes. Instead of always trying to alarm people of the big invisible terror lurking in the dark, we should educate people on how to handle the situation. What are the scenarios? What can we do ourselves for those scenarios (not to prevent, but to prepare)? Which cities and countries will be lost at what point in time? How do we protect ourselves? Be…

>Be constructive, be creative. Ok, solution time. Let's immediately ban everyone who denies that climate change is human made from all positions of power. That implies stripping them of both titles and wealth.

Doing this within democratic structures may be a hard problem, but that doesn't make it unsolvable.

(I'm not sure where you get the authority to ban people from authority from. That was a fun sentence!)

Re: Atmospheric CO2 levels accelerate upwards

#49
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really resonate with this comment. The best way to 'deal' with climate change on an individual level is to always vote for folks who are trying to rein it in, to live your life with a minimal carbon footprint, and to create plans for larger, more intense weather events.

Even the high end of predictions aren't expecting an increase in intense weather events bigger than what you might get if you were a bit unlucky over the next century.

Love that spin. The low end of predictions is that the most stable of ecosystems will regularly experience the extreme weather previously reserved for "once-in-a-century" events in the most volatile regions.

On the "high-end" is a drastic change in the Earth's shape due to gravity with a meter+ of sea level rise around the equator, runaway exponential heating feedback loops triggered in Siberia and like half the ocean floor, and the depletion of almost all potable fresh water currently supplying a population of over 7 billion.

But yeah, if "unlucky over the next century" means the sun will go supernova, we're f-ing peachy!

Re: Atmospheric CO2 levels accelerate upwards

#50
post #43

Can someone explain: - since CO2 has a logarithmic effect on warming - the catastrophic climate prediction models have not proven effective at predicting climate - we should expect moderate increases in warming, which can be beneficial (livable climate, crops etc) - the unquestionable benefits of hydro carbon energy to bring people out of poverty and into modern prosperity (food, healthcare, modern technology) ..what…

The problem is non-linearity. Moderate increases in temperatures can have catastrophic effects. While warming can be moderate at the planetary level, changes can be dramatic locally. Droughts and failing crops lead to massive migration (which we're already witnessing). Changing climate has brought tropical diseases to temperate climates.
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