Tokyo Is Preparing for Floods ‘Beyond Anything We’ve Seen’ • Hacker News Board

Re: Tokyo Is Preparing for Floods ‘Beyond Anything We’ve Seen’

#221

Post by pizza » Thu, Oct 12, 2017, 1:02 AM UTC

dmix wrote: post #165

btown wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See, for instance, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clathrate_gun_hypothesis

What kind of time scales does this suggest? > A study based on a coupled climate–carbon cycle model (GCM) assessed a 1000-fold (from 6 °C within 80 years Am I reading this right that it would take 80yrs to get to +6c, so it would still be a gradual increase? Is it an exponential increase? Anyone recommend a documentary about this?

For what it's worth, +1.5c is deemed bad and +2c is deemed abominably abhorrent; if the midpoint is +3c in 40y, that's bad, but if the majority of the temp growth is in the latter half (ie it's monotone but convex), that would be a damn crunch imo

Re: Tokyo Is Preparing for Floods ‘Beyond Anything We’ve Seen’

#222

Post by ctdonath » Thu, Oct 12, 2017, 6:47 PM UTC

spraak wrote: post #105

ctdonath wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yet everyone there still drives everywhere spewing carbon into their own air with every trip This. Every single person who claims they believe global climate change is a very serious, and man-made, problem absolutely should be taking personal steps now to address it. Telecommuting is a thing. Home-solar is a thing. Electric cars are a thing. Quit telling _others_ to solve the problems, and start doing it personally,…

This reminds me of the whole "take shorter showers" thing. The amount of water consumed taking showers is minuscule compared to how much water is used for industrial agriculture. It's not going to make a difference to take a 5 minute shower vs. 10 minutes. So it overall feels very defeating as an individual to try to make a change.

But if you're pushing for "take shorter showers" legislation imposed on all, I expect you to take shorter showers now.

Re: Tokyo Is Preparing for Floods ‘Beyond Anything We’ve Seen’

#223

Post by ctdonath » Thu, Oct 12, 2017, 6:55 PM UTC

mikeash wrote: post #108

ctdonath wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yet everyone there still drives everywhere spewing carbon into their own air with every trip This. Every single person who claims they believe global climate change is a very serious, and man-made, problem absolutely should be taking personal steps now to address it. Telecommuting is a thing. Home-solar is a thing. Electric cars are a thing. Quit telling _others_ to solve the problems, and start doing it personally,…

To me, this sounds like “if you’re not down in steerage baling water out of the sinking Titanic, you’re not seriously concerned about it sinking.” It won’t make any detectable difference if I go 100% solar and vegetarian, or if I spend all my disposable income on gasoline that I burn in amusing ways. Collective action is the only thing that matters for this. If you go all-in on a low carbon lifestyle for yourself, an…

But if you can't show that "100% solar & vegetarian" is a viable & desirable choice, you're not going to convince others to. Imposition under threat of police action will only invoke shifting bad choices, strain economy, and inspire malice.

As I recall from the time, the rise of the SUV came from imposition of emissions limits on cars, which didn't cover trucks so the spacious & fumes-spewing "enclosed car-styled truck" was inspired. Did that help emissions in the long run? Here in the southern USA, 2/3rds of vehicles aren't emissions-efficient sedans.