Live data from Hacker News

Ice sheet contributions to future sea-level rise from structured expert judgment

pnas.org

81–90 of 98 posts

Re: Ice sheet contributions to future sea-level rise from structured expert judgment

#81

If you're interested in getting involved in addressing climate change, here are two options for citizens to get involved: 1) The Citizens Climate Climate Lobby has been around ten years, and it currently has a bill in Congress that has bipartisan (1 Republican) support: The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act ( http://energyinnovationact.org/ ). With this plan, all the revenue from a carbon tax* is directly ret…

> Carbon pricing (which can come in the form of a tax or cap and trade) is the single most effective mechanism to address climate change. Is it? That's how France ended up with the yellow vests. It seems likely that demand for fossil fuels will prove rather inelastic, such that everyone just ends up paying more and not changing behavior in a significant enough way.

Almost all economists agree a carbon price is the most economically efficient way to cut carbon emissions. Putting economic proscriptions into political effect are of course another matter.

> It seems likely that demand for fossil fuels will prove rather inelastic

Doesn't the contrast between the US and Europe belie that? Petrol prices are double or more in much of Europe and their cars are smaller and more fuel efficient, their cities are denser, they drive less miles per capita, they invest more in public transport, use more bikes and scooters, etc.

Re: Ice sheet contributions to future sea-level rise from structured expert judgment

#82
post #36

Are humans advanced enough to engineer around sea rise and temperature changes?

Humanity should be fine. The problem is how to deal with millions of displaced people. We will probably need a few wars to figure that one out.

Humanity may be fine but we're also disrupting other life on the planet that we can't predict the impact of. Humanity may not be so fine after all..

Re: Ice sheet contributions to future sea-level rise from structured expert judgment

#83
post #79
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Scientists have been ringing the alarm since the 1970s. In the US and Canada, conservatives have gone to great lengths to censor this science and and the center-left has collaborated in the advancement of oil in spite of the increasingly overwhelming evidence that we're causing significant climate change. This study is just some climate scientists doing their jobs, and the publication date was Monday. Such things hap…

I will admit I didn't read the article, which now that I look, it's from a scientific journal. So you're right, this article doesn't apply to my statement. Anyway, thanks for the reasoned response.

As others have pointed out, the headline is trash. My takeaway is that the melting ice sheets introduce greater uncertainty to climate models. Loss of uncertainty means that our ability to reason about the climate is diminished.

In sports terms: imagine that the star players on two teams are all suddenly taken out. Suddenly it's a rookie game, and there's barely any stats to go by. Do you bet more aggressively, or more conservatively?

In this case, the "conservative" bet is to pump the brakes on the most significant anthropogenic source of climate change: greenhouse gasses such as carbon emissions. The "aggressive" bet is to continue subsidizing the profiteering oil/gas/coal industries.

Case in point, some of the most little-c conservative institutions are treating climate change as real: insurance companies, and the US military. Insurance companies because they can't survive catastrophic losses, and the military because climate change will cause global instability. Their reasoning is a result of pragmatism, not politics.

Re: Ice sheet contributions to future sea-level rise from structured expert judgment

#84

If you're interested in getting involved in addressing climate change, here are two options for citizens to get involved: 1) The Citizens Climate Climate Lobby has been around ten years, and it currently has a bill in Congress that has bipartisan (1 Republican) support: The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act ( http://energyinnovationact.org/ ). With this plan, all the revenue from a carbon tax* is directly ret…

The green new deal is absolute garbage, along with this notion of "social justice", christ.

Re: Ice sheet contributions to future sea-level rise from structured expert judgment

#85
post #57
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This includes economic and social justice issues. In other words, it’s co-opting the environment crisis to push for wealth redistribution.

Not that some wealth redistribution wouldn't be nice, but doesn't it have potential to actually increase global carbon emissions?

"Not that some wealth redistribution wouldn't be nice" == "Not that some theft wouldn't be nice"

Re: Ice sheet contributions to future sea-level rise from structured expert judgment

#86
post #33

If you're interested in getting involved in addressing climate change, here are two options for citizens to get involved: 1) The Citizens Climate Climate Lobby has been around ten years, and it currently has a bill in Congress that has bipartisan (1 Republican) support: The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act ( http://energyinnovationact.org/ ). With this plan, all the revenue from a carbon tax* is directly ret…

> Green New Deal Aren't they strongly anti-nuclear? Putting science behind ideology is not a very good position to take about climate change.

Im very much pro science and have no strong feelings on nuclear either way but I havent quite understod the pro nuclear arguments. What are they? From the very very limited understanding about energy systems I have wind (and sometimes solar) seems to be more economic. And to complement wind and solar you need some type of power source which can be switched on and off depending on current weather and nuclear is not really suited for that. The energy simulations I’ve seen for my own country (Sweden) only shows nuclear as a small part of a future sustainable and economic energy system. But I’m really interested in the pro arguments.

Re: Ice sheet contributions to future sea-level rise from structured expert judgment

#87
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Current estimates, before this finding, are that it's rising by about 3mm/year, up from an average of 1-2mm/year for the previous century. About 55% of that is estimated to be due to continental ice melt and 30% to thermal expansion of the oceans.

> it's rising by about 3mm/year, up from an average of 1-2mm/year for the previous century That's a questionable comparison since we don't have reliable data from before 1993. If the actual sea level rise was 3mm/year recently, we should surely not expect it to rise 25mm/year on average for the next 80 years?

Yep the historical data is an estimate.

I don’t understand your last point. A 2m rise by 2100 isn’t the prediction of the article, it’s more likely under a metre. 2m is the 95th percentile outlier or something.

Even so, if carbon emissions are continuing, the rate of warming will increase. Also I’d expect to see a hysteresis effect, where the effects of warming lag the cause so it wouldn’t be surprising to me to see an acceleration of its consequences.

Finally, if the rate of sea level rise could up to triple in a few decades, why couldn’t it triple again? And again? I just don’t see the basis of your argument.

Re: Ice sheet contributions to future sea-level rise from structured expert judgment

#88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Carbon pricing (which can come in the form of a tax or cap and trade) is the single most effective mechanism to address climate change. Is it? That's how France ended up with the yellow vests. It seems likely that demand for fossil fuels will prove rather inelastic, such that everyone just ends up paying more and not changing behavior in a significant enough way.

Almost all economists agree a carbon price is the most economically efficient way to cut carbon emissions. Putting economic proscriptions into political effect are of course another matter. > It seems likely that demand for fossil fuels will prove rather inelastic Doesn't the contrast between the US and Europe belie that? Petrol prices are double or more in much of Europe and their cars are smaller and more fuel effi…

Wasn't Europe always like that though? I don't think that has to do with petrol prices.

Re: Ice sheet contributions to future sea-level rise from structured expert judgment

#89
post #83
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will admit I didn't read the article, which now that I look, it's from a scientific journal. So you're right, this article doesn't apply to my statement. Anyway, thanks for the reasoned response.

As others have pointed out, the headline is trash. My takeaway is that the melting ice sheets introduce greater uncertainty to climate models. Loss of uncertainty means that our ability to reason about the climate is diminished. In sports terms: imagine that the star players on two teams are all suddenly taken out. Suddenly it's a rookie game, and there's barely any stats to go by. Do you bet more aggressively, or mo…

A better analogy is that one of your star players (ice sheet stability) maybe isn't as good as you thought he was (turns out snow accumulation > surface melting is not the whole picture) and has some major potential weaknesses (marine ice sheet instability and marine ice cliff instability) which you probably really need to investigate or you might be losing in the big game. Also, call your bookie and adjust your bets appropriately.

Re: Ice sheet contributions to future sea-level rise from structured expert judgment

#90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand. That said, in retrospect, we seem to be well ahead of "X will happen by Year Y" predictions. I guess my point is, better safe than sorry. Because as it is, we're fast-tracking to worst case.

Can you point to any scientifically demonstrated conclusion on how much humans affect climate via CO2 emissions? It's definitely some, but how much? You won't find the answer and that should make the most critical thinkers amongst you to question how much you actually can rely on much of these predictions about the future 30-80 years out. It seems like that would be a great place to start if you want to convince peop…

You have on hackernews a study from Exxon from 1978 that correctly predicted carbon in the atmosphere and global warming because of it correctly for today. I have started taking most of the studies numbers as conservative numbers as sadly because of billions spend by the oil industry on destroying research and science reputation related to global warming and carbon the researchers publish the most conservative numbers.
Post reply on HN