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Climate Change in a Nutshell: The Gathering Storm [pdf]

columbia.edu

21–30 of 149 posts

Re: Climate Change in a Nutshell: The Gathering Storm [pdf]

#21

I'm in my thirties. I don't have kids, but want them. I don't want to admit to them that I did nothing about global warming when it counted. The thing is that I don't know what I should do; it seems so big, so intractable. Articles like these stir me to action, but what action? Where's the mass movement on this? Where's the group, the party, the leadership?

The most powerful thing you could probably do is vote for politicians who have made it a goal to fight climate change.

Re: Climate Change in a Nutshell: The Gathering Storm [pdf]

#22
post #2

Skimmed through this, but I can't make it all the way. It's so jarring and too depressing. I lump climate change deniers into the same category as flat-earthers. Although I have more respect for the latter, as at least they aren't blindly swallowing self-serving nonsense spewed by ignorant politicians and certain news outlets.

I don't think there are scientists who deny past or present climate change. Do you mean to disparage the many scientists who research the causes of past climate change, and who hypothesize that the current changes are, like all past changes, caused by other factors than the man-made, industrial-age rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide?

> the many scientists ... caused by other factors than the man-made

How many of those are in climate related sciences?

"many"? The consensus amongst scientists in the relevant fields is quite compelling.

Re: Climate Change in a Nutshell: The Gathering Storm [pdf]

#23
post #10

I'm in my thirties. I don't have kids, but want them. I don't want to admit to them that I did nothing about global warming when it counted. The thing is that I don't know what I should do; it seems so big, so intractable. Articles like these stir me to action, but what action? Where's the mass movement on this? Where's the group, the party, the leadership?

Ignore the doom-and-gloom headlines. Climate change is still a solvable problem. We have all the tools we need. 1. Learn about the best ways to get carbon out of the atmosphere [0] 2. Help build the political will for carbon pricing, ideally via Fee & Dividend. The vast majority of economists agree that once GHG pollution costs are internalized, the problem will solve itself quickly. The most effective organization i…

This is incredibly misleading. Even if we stopped all CO2 Emissions tomorrow the amount currently in the air would cause significant warming and acidification to the ocean. Without Carbon Sequestration on a massive scale we are in for serious problems worldwide.

In fact the link you yourself added lays this out quite clearly: "A report by United Nations' scientific panel on climate change released this month expects the atmosphere-on our current trajectory-to warm up by 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2040. Even the effects of a 0.5 degrees increase will have far-reaching consequences. This research indicates that we are already past the tipping point; even if we significantly reduced emissions, climate change would continue (Source IPCC summary C3 section)."

""Phase 1" of climate change is reversible by reducing emissions, but we are no longer in "Phase 1." We're now in "Phase 2" and stopping climate change requires both emission reduction and removing CO2 from the atmosphere. "Phase 2" is occurring faster and hotter than we thought. If we don't act soon, we'll end up in "Phase 3" and be too late for both of these strategies to work."

http://carbon.ycombinator.com/

Not only that but we clearly don't "have all the tools we need." Carbon Sequestration technology is in it's infancy at best.

Re: Climate Change in a Nutshell: The Gathering Storm [pdf]

#24

I'm in my thirties. I don't have kids, but want them. I don't want to admit to them that I did nothing about global warming when it counted. The thing is that I don't know what I should do; it seems so big, so intractable. Articles like these stir me to action, but what action? Where's the mass movement on this? Where's the group, the party, the leadership?

That's my main question. There are many many people. But no larger scale influence so far. In Europe there's the shift project, and shifters (associations related to that project) who tries hard to review regulations and educate people on weekends.

Re: Climate Change in a Nutshell: The Gathering Storm [pdf]

#25
post #2

Skimmed through this, but I can't make it all the way. It's so jarring and too depressing. I lump climate change deniers into the same category as flat-earthers. Although I have more respect for the latter, as at least they aren't blindly swallowing self-serving nonsense spewed by ignorant politicians and certain news outlets.

> I lump climate change deniers into the same category as flat-earthers

> there are no inconsistencies in my testimonies against the government, against the fossil fuel industry

I lump climate change blamers into the same category. The moment you start talking about individual country (or any specific body) per capita and cumulative, you're making a political statements that someone is responsible and needs to be accountable because of their history (back to the 1750s in this one). ie These people are bad because there's metrics that fit my message and all other people are good because they have different metrics.

Seriously, how is the regional political accounting relevant to the objective analysis of what the correlation, causation and projections are?

I guess the idea is something like: "you're historically the worst (even if you're not the worst today) and you have resources, so it's up to you to try to fix it but we're not gonna even suggest how, but just sayin'". It reads like a lack of confidence in their own conclusions.

Re: Climate Change in a Nutshell: The Gathering Storm [pdf]

#26
post #2

Skimmed through this, but I can't make it all the way. It's so jarring and too depressing. I lump climate change deniers into the same category as flat-earthers. Although I have more respect for the latter, as at least they aren't blindly swallowing self-serving nonsense spewed by ignorant politicians and certain news outlets.

I don't think there are scientists who deny past or present climate change. Do you mean to disparage the many scientists who research the causes of past climate change, and who hypothesize that the current changes are, like all past changes, caused by other factors than the man-made, industrial-age rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide?

I agree, but I think you know the answer to the question you asked. It's a little sad to me for "the side of science" to fall into such religious belief.

Especially when the "side of science" has become so extremely tied to the idea that the only real solution is taxes that one political side has come up with and of course voting for them. And if you question the tax side of things, you're a filthy denier.

Re: Climate Change in a Nutshell: The Gathering Storm [pdf]

#27
post #6

I'm in my thirties. I don't have kids, but want them. I don't want to admit to them that I did nothing about global warming when it counted. The thing is that I don't know what I should do; it seems so big, so intractable. Articles like these stir me to action, but what action? Where's the mass movement on this? Where's the group, the party, the leadership?

Since you mention it, the best thing you can do for future generations is not have kids. The evidence is crystal clear in that regard.

Don't be so cynical, any kid could be the next great innovator of progress, re-mediation, solution. And you don't know what the "average" kid of this generation will achieve.

Re: Climate Change in a Nutshell: The Gathering Storm [pdf]

#28
post #2

Skimmed through this, but I can't make it all the way. It's so jarring and too depressing. I lump climate change deniers into the same category as flat-earthers. Although I have more respect for the latter, as at least they aren't blindly swallowing self-serving nonsense spewed by ignorant politicians and certain news outlets.

> I lump climate change deniers into the same category as flat-earthers > there are no inconsistencies in my testimonies against the government, against the fossil fuel industry I lump climate change blamers into the same category. The moment you start talking about individual country (or any specific body) per capita and cumulative, you're making a political statements that someone is responsible and needs to be acc…

I'm going to save this. Very much agree.

>so it's up to you to try to fix it but we're not gonna even suggest how,

That's the thing though, they are saying how. And it's to give money to the rest of the world and curb your production to allow them to pollute in your place which is "fair".

Re: Climate Change in a Nutshell: The Gathering Storm [pdf]

#29

I'm in my thirties. I don't have kids, but want them. I don't want to admit to them that I did nothing about global warming when it counted. The thing is that I don't know what I should do; it seems so big, so intractable. Articles like these stir me to action, but what action? Where's the mass movement on this? Where's the group, the party, the leadership?

When half the leaders of the US don't think this is even a problem what do you expect to happen? Let's not even get started on China and India or the countless developing countries that simply cannot afford clean energy when their people are desperate for power. Europe has been the leader but with the fuel riots in France it seems that even there there is no appetite for lessening living standards to fight the problem.

Buy property in NZ and hope for the best because it is going to get very bad.

Re: Climate Change in a Nutshell: The Gathering Storm [pdf]

#30

I'm in my thirties. I don't have kids, but want them. I don't want to admit to them that I did nothing about global warming when it counted. The thing is that I don't know what I should do; it seems so big, so intractable. Articles like these stir me to action, but what action? Where's the mass movement on this? Where's the group, the party, the leadership?

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