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Drawdown: The most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse Global Warming

drawdown.org

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Re: Drawdown: The most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse Global Warming

#81

Nit picking on one issue: Nuclear. I'm glad they at least listed it as a solution but I feel that there's way too much agenda in here that isn't based on the science. It has potential to avoid emissions, but there are many reasons for concern: deadly meltdowns, tritium releases, abandoned uranium mines, mine-tailings pollution, radioactive waste, illicit plutonium trafficking, and thefts of missile material, among th…

Coal, gas, etc increased global warming - but we are talking about timescales of Note: I'm neither a proponent or opponent of nuclear energy.

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster#National_an...

Re: Drawdown: The most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse Global Warming

#82

Nit picking on one issue: Nuclear. I'm glad they at least listed it as a solution but I feel that there's way too much agenda in here that isn't based on the science. It has potential to avoid emissions, but there are many reasons for concern: deadly meltdowns, tritium releases, abandoned uranium mines, mine-tailings pollution, radioactive waste, illicit plutonium trafficking, and thefts of missile material, among th…

Coal, gas, etc increased global warming - but we are talking about timescales of Note: I'm neither a proponent or opponent of nuclear energy. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster#National_an...

I think you're right that that's what people are concerned about. I'd mention that we have 17,000 reactor-years of commercial experience over the past 7 decades in nuclear. We understand the risks fairly well, though admittedly we are still learning. It is clear that nuclear reactors net save millions of lives over fossil-fuel alternatives. 10x Chernobyl fallout would be very bad but it would be nowhere near the global warming predictions we're seeing. Additionally, Chernobyl was a bad design without a containment running a risky experiment with safety systems turned off. The 4 reactors at Fukushima got hit with a huge earthquake and tsunami and no one died from their failure, and we know from models that no one will die from the radiation that was released. It's exceedingly unlikely that modern reactors would go Chernobyl, much less 10x Chernobyl.

Germany has turned away from clean-air nuclear energy and replaced it with brown coal and more clean-air renewables but that's costing them a lot [1]. That's expensive fear, and only feasible for the richest of nations.

Side note: Long half-life doesn't necessarily correlate with problems after an accident. It's actually the short half-life stuff that is biologically concentrated (Sr-90, I-131, Cs-137) that can cause the biggest issues. For instance, Uranium-238 has a 4.5 billion year half-life and it's not a radiological hazard (this just means the energy comes out really slowly).

[1] http://fortune.com/2017/03/14/germany-renewable-clean-energy...

Re: Drawdown: The most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse Global Warming

#83
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's see, water vapor, CO2, and methane are greenhouse gasses which means that they absorb Planck black body infrared radiation from the surface of the earth. Since we can't see those gasses, they don't absorb visible light. There is CO2 from volcanoes. Since 70+ percent of the surface of the earth is covered by water, first-cut, ballpark 70+ percent of the volcanoes and CO2 from the volcanoes are under water, commo…

Wow, I am sorry but this is the perfect example of discursive pre-modern era way of analysing nature. Frankly the only excuse is if you're a time traveller just landed from the 1780's. Nowadays we do computer models, is yours on github? I will reuse your post it's just perfect. If you want to learn: https://youtu.be/7IbyiOoVgnQ

First, you found nothing factually wrong with what I wrote. Your "pre-modern" maybe be relevant in, say, English literature but says nothing wrong with what I wrote. Besides, the 1780s knew next to nothing about the ice core data.

Second, for your video clip, it references a paper from the 1800s that claims to predict the effect of CO2 in the atmosphere on the temperature of the atmosphere and mentions that that prediction agrees with what we get from our climate models. Okay: But as I pointed out and gave a reference, the climate models predicted temperatures that now we can compare with actual tempertures and see that nearly all the predictions were way too high. I wrote this; I did that. It's silly to have to write it again simply because you didn't read it the first time.

The talk goes on, mentions greenhouse gasses, and then concludes that the greenhouses gasses are warming the atmosphere. He concludes "simple". I thoroughly debunked that claim.

Again, once again, over again, yet again, one more time, this time just for you, maybe you will actually read it this time, (1) the ice core and other historical records show NO, zip, zero, zilch, times that significant cooling was closely preceded by significantly lower CO2. So, the cooling had another cause. And the records show at most only one time when significant warming was closely preceded by significantly higher CO2, and that was as we were pulling out of the Little Ice Age.

For (2), as I showed with the modeling predictions compared with actual temperatures, the modeling failed massively.

So, net, from this data, we have to reject the claim that CO2 has a significant effect on temperature and, instead, conclude that so far it appears that CO2 has no significant effect on atmospheric temperature. That's what the ice core and other historical data says, and the failed models don't change that.

Here's one more: In your video clip, he shows ice core data for the last 400,000 years. There can see temperature and CO2 going up and down roughly together. But, as has been observed and explained many times, the CO2 went up about 800 years AFTER the temperature went up, and, as I mentioned, not even once was significantly higher temperature closely preceded by significantly higher CO2. So, no way can we conclude from that data that higher CO2 caused higher temperatures. Instead, from that data, higher temperatures caused higher CO2 800 years later. Moreover, as I mentioned, not once in that data were lower temperatures closely preceded by significantly lower CO2. So, lower CO2 didn't cause the cooling. Indeed, the higher CO2 from the warming didn't stop the cooling!

From that data, we have to conclude that CO2 has essentially no significant effect on temperature at all and that the temperature changes have causes other than CO2..

The video has the guy looking right at the data that contradicts his claims, and he still makes his claims. Maybe he is an idiot, is getting paid, is in some quasi-religious quest, or some such. But his lecture content is junk.

His video clip is long, but already we know that he has made some debilitating mistakes.

Your video clip should get you to read, pay attention to, understand, and accept what I wrote.

Read it again.

Re: Drawdown: The most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse Global Warming

#84
post #68
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am curious: Can you define a set of measurements and a year which, hypothetically, if measured, would convince you that global warming is happening? I.e., if we were to make a bet that both you and an IPCC-groupie like me would be convinced of winning, what would that bet look like? Or would any measurement that shows warming by definition come from a conspiracy?

Let's see, water vapor, CO2, and methane are greenhouse gasses which means that they absorb Planck black body infrared radiation from the surface of the earth. Since we can't see those gasses, they don't absorb visible light. There is CO2 from volcanoes. Since 70+ percent of the surface of the earth is covered by water, first-cut, ballpark 70+ percent of the volcanoes and CO2 from the volcanoes are under water, commo…

Thanks for the thorough explanation. Do you have sources? I want to read papers, I don't want to read your unsourced statements. Can you post links to any peer-reviewed papers supporting your claims? Or, if there is a big conspiracy not to publish such research, at least pre-prints written by actual researchers where publishing was refused? (and which really analyses data, and which doesn't read like anti-vaxx or flat-earth rants)

Following the money works both ways, you can find climate sceptics funded by the oil industry (Heartland institute for instance). So yes I do want to follow the science.

Re: Drawdown: The most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse Global Warming

#85
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, I am sorry but this is the perfect example of discursive pre-modern era way of analysing nature. Frankly the only excuse is if you're a time traveller just landed from the 1780's. Nowadays we do computer models, is yours on github? I will reuse your post it's just perfect. If you want to learn: https://youtu.be/7IbyiOoVgnQ

First, you found nothing factually wrong with what I wrote. Your "pre-modern" maybe be relevant in, say, English literature but says nothing wrong with what I wrote. Besides, the 1780s knew next to nothing about the ice core data. Second, for your video clip, it references a paper from the 1800s that claims to predict the effect of CO2 in the atmosphere on the temperature of the atmosphere and mentions that that pred…

I think the reference to "pre-modern" is referring to your (over-)confidence in having realized something very simple, simple enough that a 10 paragraph post on HackerNews can possibly put things straight, and then the arrogance in assuming that hundreds if not thousands of climate researchers are, consciously or unconsciously, overlooking these very simple things.

If a question of research can indeed be settled in a 10 paragraph post on HackerNews, then that question is, in a sense, pre-modern, out of its simplicity alone.

In the modern world: For each of your paragraphs, I can be almost sure to find a long trail of researchers having carefully evaluated it. The story is never as simple as you make it out to be. If anything, your over-confidence sets off my anti-vaxxer flat-earther alarm. But show me sources and I'll read them (then for each of those I can go and find the 10 papers proving those wrong, then the 10 papers proving those papers wrong again; and so on...). In the modern world, the story is never as simple as you make it out to be.

PS: Your concrete arguments is the least interesting part of what you write. The interesting part is that you think something is simple enough that you should be able to convince us about it in a HackerNews post, yet IPCC is either consciously or subsconsciously overlooking it. You must be aware that this is basically a conspiracy theory (that doesn't make it false of course, it is possible for a conspiracy theory to be correct).

I bring you the Wikipedia page for Heartland institute to show how oil is funding the sceptics; also it is deeply human to want to believe there is no disaster coming. Do you on your side have anything concrete for why so many climate researchers today are sacrificing their integrity?

Re: Drawdown: The most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse Global Warming

#86
post #84
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's see, water vapor, CO2, and methane are greenhouse gasses which means that they absorb Planck black body infrared radiation from the surface of the earth. Since we can't see those gasses, they don't absorb visible light. There is CO2 from volcanoes. Since 70+ percent of the surface of the earth is covered by water, first-cut, ballpark 70+ percent of the volcanoes and CO2 from the volcanoes are under water, commo…

Thanks for the thorough explanation. Do you have sources? I want to read papers, I don't want to read your unsourced statements. Can you post links to any peer-reviewed papers supporting your claims? Or, if there is a big conspiracy not to publish such research, at least pre-prints written by actual researchers where publishing was refused? (and which really analyses data, and which doesn't read like anti-vaxx or fla…

The reasoning in my post is nearly self contained.

For more, mostly all you need are just two boxes of common data:

First, you need the historical data, especially the ice core data. No doubt you can find that data via many sources on the Internet. See also the video clip I mention below. For the rest of the data, just look up the Medieval Warm period, the Little Ice Age, and the cooling from 1940 to 1970. That's enough for what I wrote from the data and its analysis.

Second, you need the results of the models, and I gave a reference that showed the predictions and compared them with the actual measured temperatures. You are welcome to chase down the detailed predictions of the models, one model at a time for some dozens of models. I confess, I didn't do that chasing down.

For the explanation in terms of sun spots, that the sun spot data fits the temperature data and the explanation in terms of cosmic rays, see the video

The Great Global Warming Swindle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52Mx0_8YEtg

As I recall, that video also explains the 800 year lag in the ice core data and the Medieval Warm period.

If you want to argue with the video, fine with me. My main objective is to debunk the claim that CO2 is a threat, and I did that without mentioning the video.

The video argues the sun spot explanation, and so far it appears to be the best, e.g., at least it appears to the only at all reasonable explanation that even begins to fit the darned data, but otherwise is tough to check -- e.g., how cosmic rays create water droplets that result in clouds to have a significant cooling effect.

So, if you don't like the sun spot explanation, then fine: The CO2 argument is still solidly debunked and refuted just by my little post.

Oil company money? My interest in this subject is only as a responsible citizen. I'm being paid by no one for this interest. And I seek and expect no payment, fame, or anything else but just to contribute as a citizen. Here I'm taking time from my startup to be a good public citizen.

The idea that CO2 is a threat of significant global warming stands on nothing solid and is easy to debunk and refute, and I did that quite solidly and thoroughly just in my post. All that is needed to pull down the claims is JUST my little post. The argument, the subject, really is just that simple. No peer-reviewed papers are needed to say that jumping off a tall building is dangerous or that the claims of a threat of CO2 are nonsense.

The claims that CO2 is a threat are a flim-flam, fraud, scam driven by money -- the video clip explains a lot about that.

Really, as I wrote, it's better just to follow the money.

Re: Drawdown: The most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse Global Warming

#87
post #85
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First, you found nothing factually wrong with what I wrote. Your "pre-modern" maybe be relevant in, say, English literature but says nothing wrong with what I wrote. Besides, the 1780s knew next to nothing about the ice core data. Second, for your video clip, it references a paper from the 1800s that claims to predict the effect of CO2 in the atmosphere on the temperature of the atmosphere and mentions that that pred…

I think the reference to "pre-modern" is referring to your (over-)confidence in having realized something very simple, simple enough that a 10 paragraph post on HackerNews can possibly put things straight, and then the arrogance in assuming that hundreds if not thousands of climate researchers are, consciously or unconsciously, overlooking these very simple things. If a question of research can indeed be settled in a…

To debunk the global warming claims needs only my little post here.

The IPCC, Al Gore, Paris Accords, etc. are all just that stupid.

You found nothing wrong with what I wrote. The debunking is easy, needs only very simple arguments, and I gave some.

Re: Drawdown: The most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse Global Warming

#88

Nit picking on one issue: Nuclear. I'm glad they at least listed it as a solution but I feel that there's way too much agenda in here that isn't based on the science. It has potential to avoid emissions, but there are many reasons for concern: deadly meltdowns, tritium releases, abandoned uranium mines, mine-tailings pollution, radioactive waste, illicit plutonium trafficking, and thefts of missile material, among th…

I notice a contradiction in two of your points that happened to fall together: Apparently nuclear displacing other generation saves many lives, yet Fukushima, which shut down Japan's Nuclear didn't cost any lives. It seems like your trying to have it both ways.

Aha! Excellent observation! However, I said that no one died or will die from radiation released at Fukushima, which I stand by. But people did die during the mandated evacuation (many people ironically evacuated to places with naturally higher radiation than they would have gotten had they stayed), and yes, people will die from increased air pollution that results from shutting down the nukes.

So people died because they were afraid of radiation, not because of the radiation itself [1]. This is why I feel we need to push back against fear-driven outcry against nuclear and try to keep it based on things we can measure.

To be fair, during Fukushima the policymakers didn't know how dangerous the radiation was going to be so calling the evacuation was tough. So building reactors with proper safety systems for their environment is also a total necessity moving forward. The high-water line in the area was known to be closer to 20m than the 10m seawall that they had built there.

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/22/science/when-radiation-is...

Re: Drawdown: The most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse Global Warming

#89
post #86
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the thorough explanation. Do you have sources? I want to read papers, I don't want to read your unsourced statements. Can you post links to any peer-reviewed papers supporting your claims? Or, if there is a big conspiracy not to publish such research, at least pre-prints written by actual researchers where publishing was refused? (and which really analyses data, and which doesn't read like anti-vaxx or fla…

The reasoning in my post is nearly self contained. For more, mostly all you need are just two boxes of common data: First, you need the historical data, especially the ice core data. No doubt you can find that data via many sources on the Internet. See also the video clip I mention below. For the rest of the data, just look up the Medieval Warm period, the Little Ice Age, and the cooling from 1940 to 1970. That's eno…

"The argument, the subject, really is just that simple."

I almost lack words at this point. I hope you never come in a decision where you need to judge a scientific inquiry in a way that has consequences for others. At least not about anything more complex than, indeed, whether it is dangerous to jump off a tall building.

At the point where you have to declare that the others are just idiots you KNOW that you have taken a wrong turn somewhere. At the very least, you need to spend some time looking into the counter-arguments.

No, I certainly should not just find the ice core data on the internet. To do anything useful with that data I would need to understand how it was gathered, the physical processes that lead to the gases being absorbed, whether gases move within the ice after freezing, what the uncertainty in mapping centimeters to years, and a thousand questions like that which I can't even know that I should ask. At the very minimum, I should look through the data through a statistical model including uncertainties.

Since I don't have a year to study the science of ice core data fulltime, I need to rely on papers written up and conclusions made by those who know the data better. Ideally both papers written by climate change supporters and sceptics. Ideally peer-reviewed, but if there's a conspiracy going on I can always read rejected papers...

But just downloading and looking and drawing consequences from that myself -- or worse, look at some simplified plot made by some conspiracy theorist and draw conclusions from that -- if I do that I might as well make myself a nice tin-foil-hat and become a member of flat earth society.

I've almost completed a PhD in astrophysics right now, and I know that if someone were to just download the images taken of the cosmic microwave background and conclude anything at all from them, without knowing the full details of the assumed physical models, instrumental effects, and the data analysis pipeline, the results would be ludicrous. That doesn't mean our results are ludicrous though, because we've spent years understanding the data.

All data needs to be deeply understood before drawing any conclusions. I certainly don't understand ice core data, and since you're not giving me any papers I bet you don't understand ice core data either. You are simply repeating arguments made by others who, hopefully do -- hence I asked for references. Your assurances and explanations here are worthless; that doesn't mean one shouldn't discuss science in social media, but when one does, it can only be as summaries of what people who do know the data well are saying (but if you got it from the documentary I guess I can pick up the trail from there).

Scientists screw it up all the time. That I can support. But the issue just being "too simple" for scientists to understand, and everyone just being stupid, and the matter really being very simple -- then I know you have taken a wrong turn somewhere. If you end up being right in the end, and global warming is wrong, then it is not because you are brilliant, it is because you lucked out in seeing the right documentary first.

Re: Drawdown: The most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse Global Warming

#90
post #86
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the thorough explanation. Do you have sources? I want to read papers, I don't want to read your unsourced statements. Can you post links to any peer-reviewed papers supporting your claims? Or, if there is a big conspiracy not to publish such research, at least pre-prints written by actual researchers where publishing was refused? (and which really analyses data, and which doesn't read like anti-vaxx or fla…

The reasoning in my post is nearly self contained. For more, mostly all you need are just two boxes of common data: First, you need the historical data, especially the ice core data. No doubt you can find that data via many sources on the Internet. See also the video clip I mention below. For the rest of the data, just look up the Medieval Warm period, the Little Ice Age, and the cooling from 1940 to 1970. That's eno…

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