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Earth may be headed into a mini Ice Age within a decade

theregister.co.uk

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Re: Earth may be headed into a mini Ice Age within a decade

#61

Post by cryptoz »

run4yourlives wrote: post #42
nathanb wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't this then require us to "fart around" with the climate of the planets we colonize to make them more like Earth's?

The difference being that there is nobody living on a planet like say, Mars. Last I checked, there are a whole bunch of people with nowhere else to go on Earth as it stands.

> The difference being that there is nobody living on a planet like say, Mars.

Stop right there. You don't know that there isn't anyone living there. We've sent a couple rovers, dug down a few inches, and looked at it from telescopes. There are millions of dollars poured into the search for life on Mars every year, as there should be. But we don't know very much yet!

I am totally in favour of terraforming and colonizing Mars if we can (reasonably) prove that nothing is alive there. But we aren't anywhere near that point. The greatest crime the human race could ever commit would be the annihilation of the (perhaps only?) living ETs found, even if by "accident" as we moved in there.

Don't think that Mars is your dead playground for you to do as you wish. Treat it and its unknown past with deep respect. There's a small chance that something, somewhere, is living there, perhaps under the surface, perhaps in caves.

Don't assume we know everything about other planets just 'cause we can see them with our telescopes.

Re: Earth may be headed into a mini Ice Age within a decade

#62

Post by ugh »

scorpion032 wrote: post #18

Relevant: http://www.ted.com/talks/david_deutsch_on_our_place_in_the_c... As David makes the point (at the near end of the video), the best available science in the 1970's predicted that the climate was cooling down. The best available science of today (not the least, with the help of best marketing) would predict Global Warming. The same best scientific estimates of the day also predict that our best projections to…

Nah, a few scientists in the 70s believed that the Earth might cool, nothing like today. To compare both predictions and their supporting evidence is laughable.

Re: Earth may be headed into a mini Ice Age within a decade

#63

Post by ja30278 »

ck2 wrote: post #58

I know climate change is not directly related to the current temperature but wow it's strange to read this when it's currently 100 degrees here (no exaggeration) and setting new temperature records for the past few decades. Basically what's happened is our overly aggressive industrialization has ruined the temperature stability we used to enjoy. And sadly we aren't done yet as China rushes to catch up while we blow u…

umm...you did notice that the article was talking about temperature variations caused by the GIANT NUCLEAR EXPLOSION AT THE CENTER OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM THAT PROVIDES ALL OF OUR HEAT AND LIGHT....right? or are you suggesting that our pesky first-world lifestyles are somehow causing a decrease in sunspots.

Re: Earth may be headed into a mini Ice Age within a decade

#64

Post by wunderfool »

Tyrant505 wrote: post #9
michaelpinto wrote: post #6

Betting on sunspots to reverse a century of adding carbon to the atmosphere via fossil fuels is a bit of a long shot bet. Right now we're still in high gear contributing to global warming, but predicting sun spot activity isn't a sure thing. I'd like to think that as techies we see not just the humanitarian potential but the business potential of energy efficiency, new storage techniques and even new sources of the s…

I think what trumps a lot of your awesome points is our efforts in sustainability and forward thinking use of recycling with our products/waste.

wrong. that bottle of organic shampoo from whole food commits about 98% of the sins as a bottle of a nonorganic varity from safeway. both are put in plastic which may or may not be recycled but was certainly made from oil (like all plastics), and was driven to the store in a vehicle that emits CO2, stored in a room kept warm or cool with a device that emits CO2, and then driven back to your house in another vehicle that emits CO2, where it is stored in your closet kept warm or cool by another CO2-emitting device.

and in the end its a toss-up if it even gets recycled, even after you put it in the blue bin. but that process also emits CO2

Re: Earth may be headed into a mini Ice Age within a decade

#66

Post by dy »

danparsonson wrote: post #25
hugh3 wrote: post #10

This is exactly why I think the debate should be less about "how can we as humans stop affecting Earth's natual climate" and "how can we as humans gain control over Earth's natural climate". Climate change happens with us or without us. If we're going to protect our huge investments in climate-dependent infrastructure (i.e. cities) then we're gonna want (say) giant space mirrors to compensate for any zany things that…

Attempting to exercise control over such a chaotic system with simplistic solutions like giant space mirrors strikes me as a very bad idea indeed. Until we have a complete understanding of how the climate is regulated naturally I really don't see how we can do any good at all. Not to mention that, as you say, the politics are beyond us at the moment anyway (global consensus? yeah, right...)

You're not following Lean Climate Control practices.

Re: Earth may be headed into a mini Ice Age within a decade

#67

Post by agscala »

zheng wrote: post #4

For those who don't have time to read the article, "mini Ice Age" literally means that winter will last longer, and be more prevalent at lower altitudes/latitudes. Mildly sensational, but an interesting read.

That's a relief. I went to the comments first to see if the article was worth my time, but because of the title, I was under the idea that we were all going to die in 10 years.

Re: Earth may be headed into a mini Ice Age within a decade

#68

Post by ellyagg »

run4yourlives wrote: post #41
lftl wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's obviously easier to "fart around with" the Earth's climate considering we're doing it now to some extent. Assuming you meant the much higher bar of improving the Earth's climate (sidestepping the obvious question of what we mean by improve), I'm still not convinced colonizing another planet is easier. There's a number of theoretical plans for reducing CO2, or decreasing surface temperature by reflecting some of…

Point being that making a mess on another planet is more preferable than making a mess of the only one we have - and I have much more faith in our ability to make a mess of things than I do in our ability to "improve" the Earth's climate.

That's odd since the evidence we have so far points to humanity adapting our environment and improving our living conditions with breathtaking success.

Re: Earth may be headed into a mini Ice Age within a decade

#69

Post by scorpion032 »

ugh wrote: post #62
scorpion032 wrote: post #18

Relevant: http://www.ted.com/talks/david_deutsch_on_our_place_in_the_c... As David makes the point (at the near end of the video), the best available science in the 1970's predicted that the climate was cooling down. The best available science of today (not the least, with the help of best marketing) would predict Global Warming. The same best scientific estimates of the day also predict that our best projections to…

Nah, a few scientists in the 70s believed that the Earth might cool, nothing like today. To compare both predictions and their supporting evidence is laughable.

The evidences are not being compared by themselves but rather used to lead to the fact that "We can only do something based on what the current scientific prediction is."

Based on the current scientific prediction the best measures that we even intend to implement, The Kyoto Protocol (for all it's economic constraints), is by far pushing the effects at most by a decade. Would it not be a good idea rather to start looking at living at higher temperatures?

Re: Earth may be headed into a mini Ice Age within a decade

#70

Post by felipemnoa »

ugh wrote: post #56
randallsquared wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another way to look at (b) is "We're only being saved from a mini ice-age by CO2-induced global warming, therefore it's urgent to avoid cutting emissions and plunging into it for real". The Earth has seen warmer and colder than now, but the warm extremes have been better for life than the cold extremes.

Which life? Industrial age humans? That's who we care about. Our goal is (or at least I hope it is) to enable humans to thrive, we don't really care about other life (at least if we had to pick between humans and other life) as long as it is not instrumental to our success.

The problem is that without the other life there can be no human life. We are on the top of the food chain and as such we depend on all other animals for our survival. Hopefully it makes sense what I'm saying.
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