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

Greenland ice sheet is close to a melting point of no return

news.agu.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 224 posts

Re: Greenland ice sheet is close to a melting point of no return

#81

Post by earthscienceman »

nostrademons wrote: post #75
ryandrake wrote: post #11

Every time there's an article about climate change, it's always about how we're "close to the point of no return." It's felt like the Truck Almost Hitting The Pole GIF[1] for like 10 years now. Has anything actually gone past the point of no return? I'll almost be relieved when we're officially inevitably fucked... at least these "nearly there!" articles won't keep popping up. 1: https://tenor.com/view/truck-crash-te…

We already are officially inevitably fucked. If you corner a climate scientist in private and point out the real implications of their work, they might even admit it. The problem is you can't admit that we're officially inevitably fucked in public. If you did that, funding for climate science and climate mitigation would dry up, because there's nothing we can realistically do about it. Trust in governments would evap…

I am a climate scientist that studies Greenland, can confirm: we're (not-even-inevitably but currently) fucked.

Re: Greenland ice sheet is close to a melting point of no return

#82

Post by BurningFrog »

neerd wrote: post #10

Does anyone have suggestions for how an individual can feel like they’re actually doing something. I already make donations to organizations that advocate for climate activism, vote at local and national level for candidates what support climate action, and in my own live I try to be conscious about the environment impacts or my lifestyle and purchases. Despite all that I still feel like I'm changing nothing. I still…

The truth is that whatever you or I do personally has no effect at all globally on this.

That's also true of hundreds of global and international problems.

The best approach is to accept that which you cannot change.

Re: Greenland ice sheet is close to a melting point of no return

#83

Post by Nevermark »

xupybd wrote: post #36
neerd wrote: post #10

Does anyone have suggestions for how an individual can feel like they’re actually doing something. I already make donations to organizations that advocate for climate activism, vote at local and national level for candidates what support climate action, and in my own live I try to be conscious about the environment impacts or my lifestyle and purchases. Despite all that I still feel like I'm changing nothing. I still…

I strongly believe engineers will solve this not politicians.

The engineers have alternatives to more than enough cases where greenhouse gasses are produced or released.

The "political" problem is how to solve the economics problem. As long as society "subsidizes" damage to the environment, by not charging the damagers, then damage will continue to be extremely lucrative and near impossible to stop.

But the incentives for Big Energy to resist change are so huge, that I don't see a timely solution without explicitly co-opting them.

I.e. solving their economic problem to solve our environmental problem.

Get every Big Energy CFO into a room and establish what kind of incentives they would need to find hard CO2 drawdown legislation a financially attractive opportunity worth pursuing with greener alternatives en masse.

New massive subsidies for Big Energy would not be a fair use of citizen's taxes. But the alternative of continuing to "subsidize" their destruction of the environment is far more costly.

And the side benefits of greater energy security and independence, international stability, etc., would be worth a great deal too.

Re: Greenland ice sheet is close to a melting point of no return

#84

Post by wing-_-nuts »

ryandrake wrote: post #11

Every time there's an article about climate change, it's always about how we're "close to the point of no return." It's felt like the Truck Almost Hitting The Pole GIF[1] for like 10 years now. Has anything actually gone past the point of no return? I'll almost be relieved when we're officially inevitably fucked... at least these "nearly there!" articles won't keep popping up. 1: https://tenor.com/view/truck-crash-te…

That's because you're reading about different 'points of no return'. Originally, we were trying to keep the world as we knew it. There was a big push for 'absolutely no more than 350 ppm!'. That came and went. Then it was '1.5c', or a world that looks vaguely as healthy as what we have now, but every scientist who's actually done the research knows this is a pipe dream'. Year by year, we're slowly dooming ourselves to a worse and worse fate. It's still worthwhile to act, because things can always get worse. What happens when Pakistan and India are nuclear armed nations each others throats over water rights to the Indus river?

Nobody says 'game over' because that's not helpful. It can always get worse, and hope and action is the only way it ever gets better.

Re: Greenland ice sheet is close to a melting point of no return

#85

Post by JumpCrisscross »

folsom wrote: post #52
gridspy wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fortunately the CO2 does eventually leave our atmosphere, given about 50 years.

What is the process that removes CO2?

> What is the process that removes CO2?

Lots of them [1]. (No free lunch, though. Oceans absorbing carbon makes them acidic.)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_sink

Re: Greenland ice sheet is close to a melting point of no return

#86

Post by ashes-of-sol »

xupybd wrote: post #36
neerd wrote: post #10

Does anyone have suggestions for how an individual can feel like they’re actually doing something. I already make donations to organizations that advocate for climate activism, vote at local and national level for candidates what support climate action, and in my own live I try to be conscious about the environment impacts or my lifestyle and purchases. Despite all that I still feel like I'm changing nothing. I still…

I strongly believe engineers will solve this not politicians.

[dead]

Re: Greenland ice sheet is close to a melting point of no return

#87

Post by oezi »

padjo wrote: post #79

I mean whatever about the physical reality, politically the ice sheet is guaranteed to melt. There is essentially zero chance of humans coordinating a global response to climate change that achieves anything until things get much much worse

Humans have already achieved that many countries stopped growing their emissions unchecked and are trying to reverse the trend.

By means of initial subsidies renewables are now producing cheaper energy than fossil sources. This causes the normal market forces to act (economies of scale, tipping points, etc.) which make it very likely that renewables will be the predominant energy source of the 21st century.

Re: Greenland ice sheet is close to a melting point of no return

#88

Post by selimthegrim »

RC_ITR wrote: post #44
imwithstoopid wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

live like its 1880 buy stuff as if the garbage man does not exist...in 1880 they didn't have trash removal buy one set of clothes you wear pretty much every day until they fall off of you buy a few tools that will last you forever no more disposable anything, remember the trash man doesn't exist wash clothes by hand cook everything yourself, even better grow your own food sorry no biking, rubber is an industrial proc…

>live like its 1880 >sorry no biking, rubber is an industrial process Bicycles had rubber tires as early as 1870 and before that, rubber was widely available in the 18th Century. If you're going to snark, at least snark correctly.

You're guttaing his percha, but apparently he's rubber and you're glue.

Re: Greenland ice sheet is close to a melting point of no return

#89

Post by [deleted] »

nostrademons wrote: post #75
ryandrake wrote: post #11

Every time there's an article about climate change, it's always about how we're "close to the point of no return." It's felt like the Truck Almost Hitting The Pole GIF[1] for like 10 years now. Has anything actually gone past the point of no return? I'll almost be relieved when we're officially inevitably fucked... at least these "nearly there!" articles won't keep popping up. 1: https://tenor.com/view/truck-crash-te…

We already are officially inevitably fucked. If you corner a climate scientist in private and point out the real implications of their work, they might even admit it. The problem is you can't admit that we're officially inevitably fucked in public. If you did that, funding for climate science and climate mitigation would dry up, because there's nothing we can realistically do about it. Trust in governments would evap…

[deleted]

Re: Greenland ice sheet is close to a melting point of no return

#90

Post by kiliantics »

rngname22 wrote: post #12
neerd wrote: post #10

Does anyone have suggestions for how an individual can feel like they’re actually doing something. I already make donations to organizations that advocate for climate activism, vote at local and national level for candidates what support climate action, and in my own live I try to be conscious about the environment impacts or my lifestyle and purchases. Despite all that I still feel like I'm changing nothing. I still…

[flagged]

This is the best answer. Voting and consuming differently are not impactful enough. Only mass labour movements will get the wheels turning. The proof is all there in recent history.
Post reply on HN