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Scientists have signed the largest-ever warning about Earth’s destruction

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Re: Scientists have signed the largest-ever warning about Earth’s destruction

#41
post #18

If you are serious about fighting climate change, what is the single most effective place to spend money? My guess is: education for girls in Africa. Why? Carbon emmissions per year come down to (energy use per person per year) (carbon emitted per unit energy) (number of people). In developed nations, all of these terms are stable or declining. In many developing nations, and Africa in particular, population growth i…

"Don't mind us, those over there are much worse!"

Even if your assumption is true, it doesn't negate the fact that [some people] in the western world need to stop spewing/believing inane lies about global warming, so we can all start doing our part, as a society and as a system.

Re: Scientists have signed the largest-ever warning about Earth’s destruction

#42
Best way to fight climate change, eliminate all vaccines. The human population will plummet thus ensuring we have reduced the amount of waste. Human remains can help bring nutrients back to the soil. Other species will be able to repopulate naturally.

This won't happen, because we want to live forever or that very least certain technological elites are trying to make that happen. We want to have all the latest technology regardless of the transportation costs (shipping containers). Be able to eat that latest restaurant. I could go on.

Climate change is real. How much is man-made? I don't know and I don't really care. On a personal level I attempt to keep my carbon footprint low, though I drive to work and eat meat daily - I bought half a cow and whole pig and store them in a deep freezer. At the same time I have had the same flip-phone for 3 years, and the prior to that I didn't have one. Have one TV in my house and a record player.

Reduce your consumption to your needs and a few wants, rib-eye steaks. Earth will prosper long after we are gone.

Re: Scientists have signed the largest-ever warning about Earth’s destruction

#43
This is great. Their link to the 15000 signatures is broken. Hard to verify what type of "scientists" these are.

"Supplementary data are available at BIOSCI online including supplemental file 1 and supplemental file 2 (full list of all 15,364 signatories)." https://academic.oup.com/biosci/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/b...

Re: Scientists have signed the largest-ever warning about Earth’s destruction

#44
post #4

If the scientists don't convince people, I hope the massive droughts in some places, flooding in others, superstorms, and other massive weather pattern shifts will. In the US, there's still a large group of people (or maybe just a vocal group) that cover their ears and won't listen to anything climate-change related, even in the highest places of our government. I hope a healthy dose of "this is what climate change l…

Yet if your house gets flooded or blown away by a hurricane, the insurance company won't blame global warming- instead they literally claim that it is an "act of god" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Act_of_God It's interesting how a lack of accountability over the weather is so deeply ingrained into our culture like this.

To be fair to our ancestors, anthropogenic climate change wasn’t nearly as big of an issue when that legal idea came into being.

Re: Scientists have signed the largest-ever warning about Earth’s destruction

#45
post #5

If the scientists don't convince people, I hope the massive droughts in some places, flooding in others, superstorms, and other massive weather pattern shifts will. In the US, there's still a large group of people (or maybe just a vocal group) that cover their ears and won't listen to anything climate-change related, even in the highest places of our government. I hope a healthy dose of "this is what climate change l…

I don't think that is necessarily true. I think the 'large group of people' do not deny that climate change exists. I find they come to a conclusion somewhere in the ballpark of: Sure, natural climate change exists, but manmade climate change is an insignificant factor in this, and/or humans have little ability to overpower natural climate change and turn it around (cooling it, even if we're in a naturally warming st…

That’s great, and I feel like I’m a purple unicorn. But no matter how either of us try to rationalize things, it doesn’t change what’s true.

Re: Scientists have signed the largest-ever warning about Earth’s destruction

#46

If the scientists don't convince people, I hope the massive droughts in some places, flooding in others, superstorms, and other massive weather pattern shifts will. In the US, there's still a large group of people (or maybe just a vocal group) that cover their ears and won't listen to anything climate-change related, even in the highest places of our government. I hope a healthy dose of "this is what climate change l…

Convincing people this is real is only the tiniest first step. Even amongst über-liberals who fully acknowledge climate change is real—and that we're causing it—they're still eating their steak dinners, driving their cars, drinking bottled water, and flying to vacation in far-away lands. Until we each do our tiny parts of reducing our consumption, Earth's temperature will continue its steady march upward. Getting pol…

Who’s more at fault: me for eating a steak or the entire meat industry for destroying millions of acres of forest and farmland to raise cattle? I didn’t make the decision to ruin the environment, some CEO and board did.

Re: Scientists have signed the largest-ever warning about Earth’s destruction

#48
This will again go without noticeable action.

Why? Because nobody cares enough (or believes deeply enough) to make radical lifestyle changes.

Al Gore still have several huge houses. Leanardo DiCaprio still takes solo jet trips across the ocean. The richest people (of all political persuasions) continue to live lives that don't reflect an austere lifestyle at all.

Why should anyone make sacrifices if nobody else does?

Re: Scientists have signed the largest-ever warning about Earth’s destruction

#49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want to be correct, its more like "we've looked at your model and talked to the people that created it, and everyone that worked on it agrees that the debate is being driven by politics rather than science. We've found that emissions of the sun are responsible for 98% of the current climate change, that carbon is the smallest factor in the other 2%, and you are being set up for a global taxation system that is…

That's a (much) better argument than the "God wouldn't let this happen" straw-man often argued against by climate change activists. The "Climategate" emails make it particularly compelling. The air of corruption and decay around academia and academic publishing in particular have legitimately eroded trust in those institutions, and thanks to the nature of climate change the data is highly indirect and difficult to in…

In theory, rational skeptics should be convinced by reading things like the IPCC AR5 (https://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar5/syr/SYR_AR5_FI... - pdf), or the even more recent NCA (https://science2017.globalchange.gov).

Alas, many skeptics, even on HN, prefer to make general armchair-physics arguments despite the information already out there, condensed and edited, and backed by peer review and hundreds of citations into the literature.

Annoyingly, sometimes these skeptics even then complain that there is not enough information to really be sure, as if they have looked.

Re: Scientists have signed the largest-ever warning about Earth’s destruction

#50
post #18

If you are serious about fighting climate change, what is the single most effective place to spend money? My guess is: education for girls in Africa. Why? Carbon emmissions per year come down to (energy use per person per year) (carbon emitted per unit energy) (number of people). In developed nations, all of these terms are stable or declining. In many developing nations, and Africa in particular, population growth i…

> If you are serious about fighting climate change, what is the single most effective place to spend money?

No where, to fight climate change the single best thing to do is curb your consumption and save money. Don't buy new gadgets every year, don't go on holidays far away, don't buy expensive meat, take public transport if possible, don't buy a huge house, don't use air-con. Do all that and you've prevented more carbon emissions than a small African village will ever produce and you'll save money.

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