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We Have Four Years to Save Ourselves from Climate Change, Harvard Scientist Says

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41–50 of 152 posts

Re: We Have Four Years to Save Ourselves from Climate Change, Harvard Scientist Says

#41

...the Maldives are under water, and half of Florida doesn't exist any more. Oh, wait, that's not the case. Assuming that assertion is true, though, 4 or 5 years is not enough time for anything to realistically be done. I assert that in 20 years we'll still not see the supposed effects though.

Melting polar ice caps (not antarctic, polar) does not affect sea levels because it's floating ice.

Re: We Have Four Years to Save Ourselves from Climate Change, Harvard Scientist Says

#42
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with predictions like this is that this prediction will look silly in 4 years when the Earth has not ended, similar to how wild predictions in the past have not borne fruit. I understand their desire to sensationalize, but people like AOC make the same predictions, and she is not seen as smart by a large portion of the public. I think if we just stick with the experimental science research, the general pu…

Citations on wild predictions in past not being correct?

I'm not GP, but there are plenty of examples of doomsday prophets predicting the tribulation, or the rapture, or some other form of the end of the world.

Re: We Have Four Years to Save Ourselves from Climate Change, Harvard Scientist Says

#44

> "People at this point haven't come to grips with the irreversibility of this sea-level rise problem," Anderson said, displaying a map that shows the site of Harvard's new $10 billion Allston campus inundated after 3 meters of sea-level rise. The Harvard scientist wants to save his new research center from climate change. Also, submission should say "Five", instead of "Four".

Also, I would wonder how smart Harvard scientists are, really. After all, they built a $10 billion campus that has an effective lifespan of 5 years?

Re: We Have Four Years to Save Ourselves from Climate Change, Harvard Scientist Says

#45
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the vast majority of the earths history has been without ice on the poles. Obviously this will force changes on humans no doubt. However, trying to shoehorn this natural fact into a political / carbon-credit trading scheme is deeply cynical that is apparent to most >100 IQ people.

> Because the vast majority of the earths history has been without ice on the poles. Yeah but the majority of human history has been with ice on the poles. We might have to reorganize a lot of things (agricultural practices, national borders, location of cities, ...) if that changes.

Totally agree that it will be a hardship. However the following things are all true: (a) There is a chance that "carbon taxes" will lead to just as much practical hardship on the poor, (b) There is no guarantee that these carbon taxes will work, (c) There is no guarantee that the poles will even melt.

The layers of uncertainty are piled so high, that a rational response is "wait and see". I do recognize however this approach is negative to grant funding, so these 'scientist' lapse into apocalyptic fire-and-brimstone talk to rouse the faithful.

Re: We Have Four Years to Save Ourselves from Climate Change, Harvard Scientist Says

#46
post #3

I remember Al Gore saying we got 10 years in 2006. In fact this type of rhetoric has been going on for centuries. [1] [1] https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/10/08/the-ever-receding-cli...

We kinda had 10 years back in the 80s. Just saying.

Re: We Have Four Years to Save Ourselves from Climate Change, Harvard Scientist Says

#47
Interesting, is it possible to use hight levels of carbon dioxide detected during exoplanets spectroscopy in order to decide where to point big radio telescopes, so that there could be radio signals of intelligent life from other dying worlds?

Re: We Have Four Years to Save Ourselves from Climate Change, Harvard Scientist Says

#48
post #10

Does "no more permanent ice" means there is a period of the year where there is no ice at all at the poles? That seems hardly believable. I was also under the impression that melting ice would push the level of the oceans by multiple meters. If 75-80% of ice has already melted, wouldn't we have seen significant elevation already? Just some facts that I found surprising, coming from someone who doesn't know much on th…

> If 75-80% of ice has already melted, wouldn't we have seen significant elevation already?

FTA:

> Another is the pending collapse of the Greenland ice sheet, which Anderson said will raise sea level by 7 meters (about 23 feet).

The Greenland ice sheet is on land.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenland_ice_sheet

Most of the ice that has melted so far was probably already in the water.

The ice that is already floating in the water does not change the sea level when it melts.

> as long as objects are floating (i.e. they don't rest on the bottom) they displace enough water to support their mass [...] The water level remains the same when the ice cube melts.

https://www.physlink.com/education/askexperts/ae389.cfm

This link talks about cubes of ice in a glass of water but I think it should apply to ice floating in the sea as well.

Re: We Have Four Years to Save Ourselves from Climate Change, Harvard Scientist Says

#49

There's little chance of transitioning our energy system in time, so let's start considering how to cool our planet. Can we block or reflect sunlight? That seems the brightest future, cooling the planet artificially while decarbonizing and capturing the carbon already released.

I don't know if anyone is researching this, but couldn't we manufacture stupidly large floating reflective tarps and start deploying them anywhere sea ice is melting? Seems like this would be a high benefit for relatively low cost.

Re: We Have Four Years to Save Ourselves from Climate Change, Harvard Scientist Says

#50

There's little chance of transitioning our energy system in time, so let's start considering how to cool our planet. Can we block or reflect sunlight? That seems the brightest future, cooling the planet artificially while decarbonizing and capturing the carbon already released.

I don't know if anyone is researching this, but couldn't we manufacture stupidly large floating reflective tarps and start deploying them anywhere sea ice is melting? Seems like this would be a high benefit for relatively low cost.

I'd think they'd work better at the equator to reflect the most heat.
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