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

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

#101

Post by taylodl »

kiliantics wrote: post #80
alex_young wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the same page: Previous research identified global warming of between 1 degree to 3 degrees Celsius (1.8 to 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) as the threshold beyond which the Greenland Ice Sheet will melt irreversibly. We're already at 1.2c above pre-industrial levels. Although it will take a long period of exposure to warm air for the ice to melt, we've already been doing that for a long time. It doesn't seem reasonable…

> It doesn't seem reasonable to say we have hundreds of years to figure out a solution. We've also known about the global warming problem in great detail for well over 50 years at this point. Since then we haven't figured it out but made it worse -- most of our cumulative emissions have happened in just the last 50 years. Why do people still think we can figure this out in a matter of decades without having to drasti…

Kick the can down the road. Nothing to see here. Let our progeny figure out how to clean up the mess we created. We're doing the same thing with our debt, too.

I'm just going to put it out there - our progeny is going to hate our guts.

Then again, maybe afterward humanity will hold us up as an example for what not to do, how not to solve global problems. They'll be able to use history to quickly and effectively shut down the naysayers. Of course that's assuming they bother to learn anything from history...I mean we sure as hell haven't!

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

#102

Post by fnimick »

awb wrote: post #37
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…

Leading by example is a great place to start. Otherwise you have to make green choices a win/win or change people’s minds. EVs are a good example of a win/win. Most people weren’t willing to sacrifice range or power in their vehicles. But now that the range and power is there and electricity is cheaper than gas it’s more of a win/win. Changing minds is a lot harder.

What about not having a personal vehicle at all?

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

#103

Post by patrickdavey »

earthscienceman wrote: post #81
nostrademons wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

So, what's your plan?

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

#104

Post by earthscienceman »

patrickdavey wrote: post #103
earthscienceman wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

So, what's your plan?

This is an interesting and open question. But I need you to be slightly more specific. In my research? For my personal life? For the global economy?

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

#105

Post by runesofdoom »

From, Yes, Minister,

"Stage 1: We say nothing is going to happen.

Stage 2: We say something may be about to happen, but we should do nothing about it.

Stage 3: We say maybe we should do something about it, but there's nothing we can do.

Stage 4: We say maybe there was something, but it's too late now."

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

#106

Post by [deleted] »

gridspy wrote: post #30
Scarblac wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, once the CO2 is in the air and stays there, the warming will happen. Then hundreds of years later the threshold is passed and then even removing it from the air (something we can't do) won't help anymore. Once we've emitted enough CO2 to reach 2 degrees warming, it will almost certainly happen that all the ice melts. And there's a point where that will be certain, even if we learn how to remove all CO2 we emitt…

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

[deleted]

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

#107

Post by wing-_-nuts »

earthscienceman wrote: post #81
nostrademons wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What are you doing in your personal life? I've strongly considered moving to the great lakes region, but most likely caring for my parents will keep me in the south east.

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

#108

Post by thechao »

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?

The snowball Earth's (both of them) were caused by excess serpentine weathering. Serpentine is one of the most common minerals in the Earth's crust — like 80% of it. The serpentine is covered in limestone (and other things) which prevents warm-saline erosion of the serpentine, directly. If you look at the tailings from the coal mines in the TVA, you could "just" ship those tailings to the Gulf coast (using the old train systems) and cause a major glacial period, quite quickly, by grinding up the tailings & dumping them in a mile wide strip from Corpus Christi to Miami.

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

#109

Post by ako »

anonyfox wrote: post #93

And still here we are, and no one yet has found an effective argument that convinces people that: yes, this climate catastrophe is real, on track to happen, and within our lifetime. We, as humanity, know what causes it, why it happens, what can be done to stop it, and even a few things to revert parts of it. The knowledge is there. Scientists proved things. Engineers built stuff. The literally only thing is that we a…

Unfortunately, the only proof I see is that you’re expecting too much from humans. We’re just not very rational, and have a problem doing the right thing. We believe in unproven stories about gods, kill millions of people for temporary greed, power or believing the wrong lies, and we lie and deceive to gain power or wealth, and have a hard time sharing with those in need (actually sending fugitives back to sea knowing they’ll drown). We’ve pretty much destroyed all life on earth, and are close to destroying our ability to survive. Sometimes people surprise you in a positive way, but overall it’s pretty sad. Maybe it’s unavoidable, as these are the ‘qualities’ that made humans successful, but it seems they’ll now destroy a large part of us (not for the first time, but at an unprecedented scale).

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

#110

Post by jjbickerstaffe »

dleslie wrote: post #92
BurningFrog wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That's really not true, and we have the largest experiment on collective behaviour in history to show this. COVID lockdowns had an _enormous_ impact on carbon emissions. Everyone should fight to WFH, even if you hate it, because the benefit to reducing carbon emissions is known and significant.

IIRC Covid reduced emissions by about 7%. Then they went back up. That's big... but not as big as the 10% reductions we actually need every year
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