Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Charts show how little progress has been made in limiting greenhouse emissions

nature.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 147 posts

Re: Charts show how little progress has been made in limiting greenhouse emissions

#31

Post by c0nducktr »

sarbaz wrote: post #16
currymj wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

even if we miss a target, more emissions beyond that target still make things much worse. it's not like we can just declare bankruptcy or something. ultimately we have to reduce emissions as much as possible while preparing for their impact -- and I am not an expert, but I suspect reducing emissions is cheaper in the long run than dealing with the effects.

> I suspect reducing emissions is cheaper in the long run than dealing with the effects. I'm not entirely sure. People seem to be convinced that climate change will destroy all civilization, but in the distant past the earth has flourished with significantly higher temperatures than what we have today. Once our climate reaches a new equilibrium, humanity will adjust and everything will probably be OK. And we can be c…

> Once our climate reaches a new equilibrium, humanity will adjust and everything will probably be OK.

That really depends on what your definition of "OK" is, I suppose.

Re: Charts show how little progress has been made in limiting greenhouse emissions

#33

Post by reitzensteinm »

coldtea wrote: post #9
familysized wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's wrong with the line about India? It's absolutely correct - per capita emissions from India are very small. > Surely they will become an emitter at least as significant as China. Looking at a country's total emissions makes no sense because the population needs to be taken into account. India will eventually have the largest total emissions, which is fine because per capita is really low.

> India will eventually have the largest total emissions, which is fine because per capita is really low. Earth doesn't care about "emission per capita" though, it just cares about the total sum of emissions... So "India eventually [having] the largest total emissions" means a huge extra tonnage of emissions will be added to the already troubling amounts... So, the per capita number is mainly relevant in regards to f…

What the Earth doesn't care about is the arbitrary lines in the sand we declare to be this nation or that.

Re: Charts show how little progress has been made in limiting greenhouse emissions

#34

Post by adrianN »

sarbaz wrote: post #16
currymj wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

even if we miss a target, more emissions beyond that target still make things much worse. it's not like we can just declare bankruptcy or something. ultimately we have to reduce emissions as much as possible while preparing for their impact -- and I am not an expert, but I suspect reducing emissions is cheaper in the long run than dealing with the effects.

> I suspect reducing emissions is cheaper in the long run than dealing with the effects. I'm not entirely sure. People seem to be convinced that climate change will destroy all civilization, but in the distant past the earth has flourished with significantly higher temperatures than what we have today. Once our climate reaches a new equilibrium, humanity will adjust and everything will probably be OK. And we can be c…

The climate has never before changed as quickly as it is changing today. It seems likely to me that major ecosystems will collapse completely because they can't adapt quickly enough. It is doubtful whether our technological civilization will survive the intense struggle for food and water that is too come. Look what a measly million Syrian refugees did to the European political landscape. Climate change will likely lead to a hundred times more refugees.

Re: Charts show how little progress has been made in limiting greenhouse emissions

#35

Post by QuitterStrip »

kossTKR wrote: post #32

The fact that articles from Nature are getting flagged now is beyond dark. Vested interests, desperate denial or plain delusion?

It seems discussion on climate change is being discouraged on hn. An article from the BBC was also flagged. See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21042054

Re: Charts show how little progress has been made in limiting greenhouse emissions

#36

Post by exergy »

dcolkitt wrote: post #18
mattigames wrote: post #11

Is so obvious where this is all going: The wealthy -the factories owners and their close allies- the very same ones ignoring the pledges to stop contributing to climate change will be the only ones protected enough from most damages of climate change, only the wealthy will afford to live in the cities with livable temperature, to buy potable water, only the most resilient of the poor and middle-class will survive, an…

Frankly this kind of doomsaying view has no basis in reality. While it's true that unmitigated global warming will impose a very large economic cost, it's simply not the case that it's going to turn the world into some unlivable hell-scape. There's just no basis for that belief in the actual evidence. The best estimates say that global warming will lower per capita GDP by somewhere between 5-20% by 2100. That's a tra…

What a clueless comment.

It's a tragedy for reasons MUCH beyond 'unnecessarily lost wealth'. I know you are trying to argue in good faith, but you're flat out wrong in the sense that doomsday despair is EXACTLY what we should all be feeling.

A world depleted of its glaciers, lacking in drinkable water, lacking in animal diversity, lacking in arable land, lacking in coral reefs, coastal cities with all their rich history and culture buried underwater and on, and on, is EXACTLY a hellish nightmare.

Who'd want to live on such a planet? Who'd give a fuck about 290% richer?

Re: Charts show how little progress has been made in limiting greenhouse emissions

#37

Post by asaegyn »

kossTKR wrote: post #32

The fact that articles from Nature are getting flagged now is beyond dark. Vested interests, desperate denial or plain delusion?

Seems like consistent suppression of climate related news on hackernews increasing noticeably over the past few months.

Re: Charts show how little progress has been made in limiting greenhouse emissions

#39

Post by cthalupa »

sarbaz wrote: post #16
currymj wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

even if we miss a target, more emissions beyond that target still make things much worse. it's not like we can just declare bankruptcy or something. ultimately we have to reduce emissions as much as possible while preparing for their impact -- and I am not an expert, but I suspect reducing emissions is cheaper in the long run than dealing with the effects.

> I suspect reducing emissions is cheaper in the long run than dealing with the effects. I'm not entirely sure. People seem to be convinced that climate change will destroy all civilization, but in the distant past the earth has flourished with significantly higher temperatures than what we have today. Once our climate reaches a new equilibrium, humanity will adjust and everything will probably be OK. And we can be c…

It's not just higher temperatures. Ocean acidification is a major issue as well, and that threatens to completely upend the entire ocean ecosystem. Drinkable water will be reduced. Less farmland will be viable. Glaciers melting threaten to disrupt ocean currents which would completely change our weather patterns, and not likely to be for the better.

>And we can be certain that there will be a new equilibrium, otherwise life wouldn't have lasted for hundreds of millions of years.

Basically every time something this major changes, the dominant species does too. We're smarter than previous dominant species, but since 'not having to deal with all of this bullshit' is far smarter than 'scrambling to come up with solutions that may or may not work and are unlikely to be cost effective even if they do', maybe not as smart as we think.

Re: Charts show how little progress has been made in limiting greenhouse emissions

#40

Post by cthalupa »

dcolkitt wrote: post #18
mattigames wrote: post #11

Is so obvious where this is all going: The wealthy -the factories owners and their close allies- the very same ones ignoring the pledges to stop contributing to climate change will be the only ones protected enough from most damages of climate change, only the wealthy will afford to live in the cities with livable temperature, to buy potable water, only the most resilient of the poor and middle-class will survive, an…

Frankly this kind of doomsaying view has no basis in reality. While it's true that unmitigated global warming will impose a very large economic cost, it's simply not the case that it's going to turn the world into some unlivable hell-scape. There's just no basis for that belief in the actual evidence. The best estimates say that global warming will lower per capita GDP by somewhere between 5-20% by 2100. That's a tra…

There are potential tipping points that very much could result in much of the world becoming an unlivable hell-scape, at least for humans. We probably can't turn ourselves into Venus, thankfully, but we could end up raising global temperatures by 11-12 C, which would be enough to render most of the Earth unsuitable for human habitation.

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

Post reply on HN