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There is unequivocal evidence that Earth is warming (2024)

science.nasa.gov

151–160 of 311 posts

Re: There is unequivocal evidence that Earth is warming (2024)

#151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Even the crotchetiest and most out-of-touch people I know basically accept that the Earth is warming now My family is fundamentalist protestant, very midwestern, and I think about half of them believe that the earth is warming. Not trying to "win", just trying to say that a lot of this depends on the crowd you interact with. I don't know the percentage, but certainly there are still way too many people that don't e…

My father in law was a massive climate change denier until some trees started dying on his property. He called out an arborist, and the arborist clearly explained that there wasn't enough rain anymore to support the number of trees on his land, and that the forest was slowly receding as the older/bigger trees took all the water from the other trees. It finally dawned on him that a place where trees used to happily li…

> But it's a good reminder that a lot of denialists are waiting for a personal, practical reason to care.

Four out of five denialists agree!

Re: There is unequivocal evidence that Earth is warming (2024)

#152
post #55

I’ve given up. I’ve long assumed for a year now we are heading for warming that is even worse than the worst projections and it’s all over. This has given me some peace, like accepting you’re going to die.

Same, sadly. I’ve done far more than my part, and even my direct family hasn’t, let alone the rest of the country, the world. I only hope I can have a decent life until it ends, and I hope it takes slightly longer than I think it will.

[dead]

Re: There is unequivocal evidence that Earth is warming (2024)

#153
post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it though? For developing countries, having a large supply of fossil fuels has always been a huge accelerator for industrialization and overall economic growth even if that fuel has to be imported. There really is no substitute, especially when you consider that it's not used only for transportation and power generation but also for manufacturing as an industrial heat source and chemical feed stock.

fossil fuels were a proxy for energy. China continues to show the world that energy independence can come via electricity that you generate within your borders, and that it can be cheaper than importing foreign oil.

China is in no way energy independent. Their fossil fuel imports are extremely high and not decreasing.

Re: There is unequivocal evidence that Earth is warming (2024)

#154
post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Even the crotchetiest and most out-of-touch people I know basically accept that the Earth is warming now. POTUS tweeted "WHATEVER HAPPENED TO GLOBAL WARMING???" a few weeks ago when a record cold wave came in. I suppose you were talking about people you personally know, but it seems like there's a good chance many who voted for him would say it too. Anyway, I guess there is a growing collective admission that the c…

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> The issue seemed to completely drop from public discourse during the Biden presidency

Biden signed into law the largest investment in clean energy in US history, dwarfing everything that came before. Half the economy was trying to get their hands on some of that stimmy.

Re: There is unequivocal evidence that Earth is warming (2024)

#155

Even the crotchetiest and most out-of-touch people I know basically accept that the Earth is warming now. They just either disagree on the cause or proportion. Some people just naturally resist hyperbole or sensationalist rhetoric, and I find it very helpful to reframe the argument from doom and gloom and fire and brimstone to something more realistic and grounded: "The longer we put off doing something, the harder a…

> Even the crotchetiest and most out-of-touch people I know basically accept that the Earth is warming now Same. Empirical evidence is just too hard to ignore. It's quite amazing watching the "climate change isn't real" folks transition to "climate change is no big deal", then to "climate change is too hard/expensive to deal with".

Reminds me a bit of the Narcissist's Prayer:

That didn't happen. And if it did, it wasn't that bad. And if it was, that's not a big deal. And if it is, that's not my fault. And if it was, I didn't mean it. And if I did, you deserved it.

Re: There is unequivocal evidence that Earth is warming (2024)

#156

Even the crotchetiest and most out-of-touch people I know basically accept that the Earth is warming now. They just either disagree on the cause or proportion. Some people just naturally resist hyperbole or sensationalist rhetoric, and I find it very helpful to reframe the argument from doom and gloom and fire and brimstone to something more realistic and grounded: "The longer we put off doing something, the harder a…

> Even the crotchetiest and most out-of-touch people I know basically accept that the Earth is warming now Same. Empirical evidence is just too hard to ignore. It's quite amazing watching the "climate change isn't real" folks transition to "climate change is no big deal", then to "climate change is too hard/expensive to deal with".

> It's quite amazing watching the "climate change isn't real" folks transition to "climate change is no big deal", then to "climate change is too hard/expensive to deal with".

At the top level (of government and corporate entities) those people always knew it was real, the messaging just changed as it became harder to keep a straight face while parroting the previous message in the face of overwhelming empirical evidence.

Exxon's (internal) research in the 1970s has been very accurate to the observed reality since then.

They just didn't care that it was real because they valued profits/power/etc in the moment over some difficult to quantify (but certainly not good) future calamity.

You would think they would care at least in the cases where they had children and grandchildren who will someday have to really reckon with the outcome, but you'd be wrong, they (still) don't give a shit.

Re: There is unequivocal evidence that Earth is warming (2024)

#157
post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Luckily the effect is much larger in the opposite direction: weaning oneself off of foreign oil is a huge advantage both economically and militarily.

Is it though? For developing countries, having a large supply of fossil fuels has always been a huge accelerator for industrialization and overall economic growth even if that fuel has to be imported. There really is no substitute, especially when you consider that it's not used only for transportation and power generation but also for manufacturing as an industrial heat source and chemical feed stock.

Solar energy is cheaper than oil right now. On average. Too bad it's highly variable but if you can cope with extreme variability you can get extremely cheap energy.

Re: There is unequivocal evidence that Earth is warming (2024)

#158
post #3

>There is unequivocal evidence that Earth is warming at an unprecedented rate. Human activity is the principal cause. This document was last updated in October 2024, but I am a little surprised to see this still available on a .gov site.

Idiocy and incompetency tend to share the same bed.

Re: There is unequivocal evidence that Earth is warming (2024)

#159

Even the crotchetiest and most out-of-touch people I know basically accept that the Earth is warming now. They just either disagree on the cause or proportion. Some people just naturally resist hyperbole or sensationalist rhetoric, and I find it very helpful to reframe the argument from doom and gloom and fire and brimstone to something more realistic and grounded: "The longer we put off doing something, the harder a…

> Even the crotchetiest and most out-of-touch people I know basically accept that the Earth is warming now Same. Empirical evidence is just too hard to ignore. It's quite amazing watching the "climate change isn't real" folks transition to "climate change is no big deal", then to "climate change is too hard/expensive to deal with".

> Empirical evidence is just too hard to ignore.

Except it's the opposite - empirical evidence is very easy to ignore. Between herding, the replication crisis, and the overall insularity of academia, trust in "studies" has never been lower.

But people still respond very well to demonstrative or pragmatic evidence. Empirically there's nothing special about a keto diet. But demonstratively the effects are very convincing.

Re: There is unequivocal evidence that Earth is warming (2024)

#160
post #49

Reposting a previous comment... What is generally not understood is that our current icehouse phase is rare. 'A "greenhouse Earth" is a period during which no continental glaciers exist anywhere on the planet... Earth has been in a greenhouse state for about 85% of its history. 'Earth is now in an icehouse state, and ice sheets are present in both poles simultaneously... Earth's current icehouse state is known as the…

Finally a human with a context window larger than a few hundred years.

Now do the average rate of change.
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