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Top scientists warn of 'ghastly future of mass extinction' and climate disruptio

theguardian.com

11–20 of 49 posts

Re: Top scientists warn of 'ghastly future of mass extinction' and climate disruptio

#11

> The report comes months after the world failed to meet a single UN Aichi biodiversity target, created to stem the destruction of the natural world, the second consecutive time governments have failed to meet their 10-year biodiversity goals. This week a coalition of more than 50 countries pledged to protect almost a third of the planet by 2030. Hm. How serious should we take this pledge now?

As another empty promise. That isn't to say nothing will happen, and no good will be done, but it certainly remains to be seen and this "pledge" is empty. I am getting really tired of the regurgitated weasel words of world leaders in the headlines. It's like watching a big company meeting full to tue brim with Synergy, Roadmaps, Directions and Initiatives. Less talk, more action. We are on a tight timeline here!

Re: Top scientists warn of 'ghastly future of mass extinction' and climate disruptio

#12
post #5

Over the last 20 years and having traveled back and forth all over the world, I have not noticed any changes in temperature at all. In fact, local temperature records over several decades seems to be flat in pretty much every place I've looked up. On the other hand, I have observed widespread deception within professional environments and scientific communities... I was a climate believer for a long time, but these d…

> In fact, local temperature records over several decades seems to be flat in pretty much every place I've looked up. The first place I looked up was England - the Met Office graph seems to indicate a rise. [1] Have you got any examples of flat graphs? [1] https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadcet/

Examples (I just picked two random places and dates for temperature records for the month of December at least 20 years apart):

Miami Florida December 2000 (peak day-average is 77.08): https://www.wunderground.com/history/monthly/us/fl/miami/KMI...

Miami Florida December 2020 (peak day-average is 76.69): https://www.wunderground.com/history/monthly/us/fl/miami/KMI...

---

Honolulu, Hawaii December 1995 (peak day-average is 79.92): https://www.wunderground.com/history/monthly/us/hi/honolulu/...

Honolulu, Hawaii December 2020 (peak day-average is 79.54): https://www.wunderground.com/history/monthly/us/hi/honolulu/...

---

You can use that site to look up the same month 20+ years apart in any place and it clearly shows that there is no significant change at all. You can browse the surrounding years to get a better feeling because there can be random 2 to 3 degree fluctuations but my point is that these fluctuations can go either way and there is no correlation with time.

TBH, I'm surprised that, given that there is an incentive for meteorologists to fake the data (since global warming is their bread and butter) that it's still possible to see proper data which certainly matches my personal observations. IMO it's a matter of time before they start faking historical data. Good we have waybackmachine https://archive.org/web/

Re: Top scientists warn of 'ghastly future of mass extinction' and climate disruptio

#13
post #3

> “ghastly future of mass extinction, declining health and climate-disruption upheavals” that threaten human survival because of ignorance and inaction The pandemic has taught me that humans will roundly ignore even the most glaring evidence to avoid accepting bad things are happening. I can't see how we're ever going to be able to avert climate disaster when we can't even get everyone to take basic precautions again…

Are you saying that the ones who take this pandemic serious also take the "ghastly future of mass extinction" serious? I oppose this 100%, I take the "ghastly future of mass extinction" very serious and my solution would be to introduce a close to zero birthrate of the extremely overpopulated species of Homo Sapiens. I do not however take this pandemic serious at all and it is NOTHING compared to what is and will hap…

Similarly one could take “election fraud” seriously but not the pandemic or climate change.

Re: Top scientists warn of 'ghastly future of mass extinction' and climate disruptio

#14
I don't know how effective scare stories are. At some point people just stop caring. Instead of worrying, you should focus on the things that can be done because there is an endless supply of people who refuse to do things but those who want to do even a little still should know what to do.

Re: Top scientists warn of 'ghastly future of mass extinction' and climate disruptio

#15
post #9
post #5

Over the last 20 years and having traveled back and forth all over the world, I have not noticed any changes in temperature at all. In fact, local temperature records over several decades seems to be flat in pretty much every place I've looked up. On the other hand, I have observed widespread deception within professional environments and scientific communities... I was a climate believer for a long time, but these d…

That's weird, because all the places I've traveled (in both US and EU) have had a clear rise in average temperature in the last 3 decades. The country I live in has had the average temperature steadily rise by a full degree over the last 30 years. Which is visible in changes in flora and fauna and extreme weather. Really makes me wonder where you get your data.

There were some unusual 'hottest on record' last year in the summer in some parts of Europe. But also there were a lot of 'coldest on record' in other places like the US and in Russia during the winter so it doesn't really mean much... This is bound to happen somewhere every year but you need to look at averages and try different years.

Re: Top scientists warn of 'ghastly future of mass extinction' and climate disruptio

#17
post #3

> “ghastly future of mass extinction, declining health and climate-disruption upheavals” that threaten human survival because of ignorance and inaction The pandemic has taught me that humans will roundly ignore even the most glaring evidence to avoid accepting bad things are happening. I can't see how we're ever going to be able to avert climate disaster when we can't even get everyone to take basic precautions again…

Some nations are handling the pandemic a lot more effectively than others. Evidently it's possible to do something right. Also, these guys are arguing that population growth and high levels of consumption in wealthy nations are the key factors. Not even everybody has to do something.

Re: Top scientists warn of 'ghastly future of mass extinction' and climate disruptio

#18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In fact, local temperature records over several decades seems to be flat in pretty much every place I've looked up. The first place I looked up was England - the Met Office graph seems to indicate a rise. [1] Have you got any examples of flat graphs? [1] https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadcet/

Examples (I just picked two random places and dates for temperature records for the month of December at least 20 years apart): Miami Florida December 2000 (peak day-average is 77.08): https://www.wunderground.com/history/monthly/us/fl/miami/KMI... Miami Florida December 2020 (peak day-average is 76.69): https://www.wunderground.com/history/monthly/us/fl/miami/KMI... --- Honolulu, Hawaii December 1995 (peak day-avera…

So you've picked a couple of locations and dates at random, and gee, there is more noise than signal in your tiny sample.

Now try doing that systematically. Take the monthly averages over 20 years from a few thousand sites. Don't forget to correct for the urban heat-island effect, which creates a false impression of warming when a city grows out around an airport.

Do that, present your results, and it might be worth taking you seriously.

Re: Top scientists warn of 'ghastly future of mass extinction' and climate disruptio

#19
post #3

> “ghastly future of mass extinction, declining health and climate-disruption upheavals” that threaten human survival because of ignorance and inaction The pandemic has taught me that humans will roundly ignore even the most glaring evidence to avoid accepting bad things are happening. I can't see how we're ever going to be able to avert climate disaster when we can't even get everyone to take basic precautions again…

It's a culture thing.

Some cultures, as it turns out, are better than others at dealing with stresses like this.

Changing culture is a big project. We can try though because we don't actually have any other option.

Re: Top scientists warn of 'ghastly future of mass extinction' and climate disruptio

#20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In fact, local temperature records over several decades seems to be flat in pretty much every place I've looked up. The first place I looked up was England - the Met Office graph seems to indicate a rise. [1] Have you got any examples of flat graphs? [1] https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadcet/

Examples (I just picked two random places and dates for temperature records for the month of December at least 20 years apart): Miami Florida December 2000 (peak day-average is 77.08): https://www.wunderground.com/history/monthly/us/fl/miami/KMI... Miami Florida December 2020 (peak day-average is 76.69): https://www.wunderground.com/history/monthly/us/fl/miami/KMI... --- Honolulu, Hawaii December 1995 (peak day-avera…

You have scientifically accurate weather records from at least the 1920's onwards. Of all the temperature measurements on record you have decided to choose two single datapoints from two semi-tropical locations with low yearly thermal amplitudes.

I genuinely cannot tell if this is ill-intent or an internal struggle to revisit your previously held opinions when faced with the body of evidence of all the data collected after the industrial revolution.

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