Earth at risk of becoming 'hothouse' if tipping point reached, report warns • Hacker News Board

Re: Earth at risk of becoming 'hothouse' if tipping point reached, report warns

#81

Post by SmellyGeekBoy » Tue, Aug 07, 2018, 3:27 PM UTC

mywittyname wrote: post #75

Shoh3pif wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I, as a concerned citizen can do nothing against the corporations ruling our society Defenestrations, torches and pitchforks have been traditional solutions to rulers not acting in the interest of the populace. Of course more peaceful means are preferable but the option needs to be kept on the table to remember why we have and want democratic solutions in the first place.

This will happen. It's actually already happening in developing countries. The disruption of food supplies has been causing annual riots all over the world. The US has remained insulated from these effects by virtue of being relatively rich and relying on over-priced, highly processed foods that have enough margin to buffer against price shocks. But this is clearly an untenable situation. Shit goes south really fast…

Trouble is the government will make sure that the police and military remain well fed, and they have even bigger guns.

Re: Earth at risk of becoming 'hothouse' if tipping point reached, report warns

#82

Post by bruinjoe » Tue, Aug 07, 2018, 3:27 PM UTC

mark-r wrote: post #68

akuji1993 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You realize what the current development looks like on a chart right? https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/

The chart is for carbon dioxide, not temperature. What's your point?

Google Venus atmosphere. Nature has already given us a model to use.

Re: Earth at risk of becoming 'hothouse' if tipping point reached, report warns

#83

Post by rwallace » Tue, Aug 07, 2018, 3:27 PM UTC

akuji1993 wrote: post #2

I'm absolutely certain with governments moving this slow right now, making small goals for 2050, getting courted by lobbies to not push through massive restrictions, probably most of these very dark predictions will come true. I, as a concerned citizen can do nothing against the corporations ruling our society, overruling politicians or outright controlling them directly. We are probably beyond any point of return. T…

It's about economics. Climate change keeps being presented as something we need to make huge sacrifices to do something about, and this does not work. The unwillingness to make such sacrifices, we may find reprehensible when it comes from the rich who could easily afford it, and more sympathetic when it comes from people who are barely keeping their heads above water as it stands, and reasonably suspect they would end up in a pauper's grave and never see the future they were supposed to be defending, but whether we agree with it or not, that is people's revealed preference.

So the narrative needs to stop being about sacrifice, and start being about jobs. The immense task of converting the world to renewable energy, has the potential to create millions upon millions of badly-needed jobs. It needs to start being sold that way.

Re: Earth at risk of becoming 'hothouse' if tipping point reached, report warns

#84

Post by usaar333 » Tue, Aug 07, 2018, 3:27 PM UTC

_Codemonkeyism wrote: post #25

_juu5 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Education would be a good start. Guess who can decide about what we are taught? Governments.

People know their personal largest impact is cars and meat. But personal convenience has always beaten doing the right thing.

That is probably not even true for the crowd here. Flying and cars likely dominate.

Re: Earth at risk of becoming 'hothouse' if tipping point reached, report warns

#85

Post by refurb » Tue, Aug 07, 2018, 3:28 PM UTC

rement wrote: post #63

thegrasshopper wrote: post #4

[dupe] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17705018

Interesting how the more sensational title has garnered more attention

The media has known this for a long time.

Re: Earth at risk of becoming 'hothouse' if tipping point reached, report warns

#86

Post by falcolas » Tue, Aug 07, 2018, 3:28 PM UTC

mark-r wrote: post #68

akuji1993 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You realize what the current development looks like on a chart right? https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/

The chart is for carbon dioxide, not temperature. What's your point?

How's this one?

https://xkcd.com/1732/

Re: Earth at risk of becoming 'hothouse' if tipping point reached, report warns

#87

Post by SmellyGeekBoy » Tue, Aug 07, 2018, 3:28 PM UTC

Shoh3pif wrote: post #19

_oeas wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Current leading governments are too corrupt to be able to change anything by peaceful talks

Even the chinese government recognized that at least doing something about the coal smog is something in their own interest. My understanding is that the risk of civil unrest is what drives them.

The driver seems to be the economic incentive of becoming the world leader in renewables by getting a head start while the rest of the world drags its feet. Say what you will about authoritarian governments but they can certainly get shit done.

Re: Earth at risk of becoming 'hothouse' if tipping point reached, report warns

#88

Post by gonzo41 » Tue, Aug 07, 2018, 3:31 PM UTC

jihadjihad wrote: post #38

I really wish the more popular phrase were "global climate change" rather than "global warming." The delta in the mean might not appear to be huge (a few degrees C over a span of a century or two, perhaps), but the key concept is the variance or volatility of climate patterns. As man-made climate change progresses, the average recorded temperature will likely continue to climb, sure--but the change in variance is far…

You make a really good point. I keep seeing once in a hundred year weather events happening every other year now.

Re: Earth at risk of becoming 'hothouse' if tipping point reached, report warns

#89

Post by refurb » Tue, Aug 07, 2018, 3:31 PM UTC

mapleoin wrote: post #18

i6mi6 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But 100-200 years is very little time for comparison isn't it? Is there any presumed data on what it was before that?

This might help: https://xkcd.com/1732/

Interesting. So there was a +4C change in average temperature even before the industrial age began? Didn't know that.

Re: Earth at risk of becoming 'hothouse' if tipping point reached, report warns

#90

Post by usaar333 » Tue, Aug 07, 2018, 3:31 PM UTC

Sharlin wrote: post #34

martythemaniak wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People blaming governments and corporations are merely using faceless scapegoats because the truth is too terrible to behold. Normal every day people don't really believe in climate change, don't really want to do anything and in fact don't have the dimmest clue as to what needs to be done, nor how to do that. I think dealing with the above fact is too much for people, so instead we simplify using familiar models and…

Eh. This is a coordination problem, probably the most difficult one humanity has encountered. Governments were basically invented to help solve coordination problems. 7.5 billion people don’t just start caring about the problem by themselves.

Yup. Sadly, we have very weak world government, so it is hard to coordinate the entire planet.