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Canadian permafrost thaws 70 years earlier than predicted

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171–180 of 251 posts

Re: Canadian permafrost thaws 70 years earlier than predicted

#171

It's already too late. It's unfortunate that we didn't understand what was happening 100 years ago, if we did we might have been able to do something about it, but as it stands right now, we can't even slow down what's already been set into motion. The earth is now changing, it's not just the climate, and the earth changes will drive the climate, the feedback loop has started. Unless someone can invent a technology i…

We did understand a 100 years ago. Graham Bell was one of those who warned us.

Re: Canadian permafrost thaws 70 years earlier than predicted

#172
post #27

Global warming is the single scariest existential threat our species has ever faced, and we aren't doing nearly enough to tackle it. Our future descendants will heap scorn and curses on our generation, and we deserve every bit of it. Every politician that refuses to do what is necessary or finds it convenient to play stupid language games about 'settled science' is doing incalculable harm. As citizens, I encourage ev…

> Our future descendants will heap scorn and curses on our generation, and we deserve every bit of it.

They won't. They'll be dead.

Re: Canadian permafrost thaws 70 years earlier than predicted

#173
post #27

Global warming is the single scariest existential threat our species has ever faced, and we aren't doing nearly enough to tackle it. Our future descendants will heap scorn and curses on our generation, and we deserve every bit of it. Every politician that refuses to do what is necessary or finds it convenient to play stupid language games about 'settled science' is doing incalculable harm. As citizens, I encourage ev…

> voting exclusively on how credible a politician is on tackling global warming This is really the only important thing that we can do. Except maybe not flying in an airplane, there is little the average person can do in their daily life to inhibit climate change. Whether due to preventive policies or due to resource shortages our lives will change in the near future. Expecting individuals to shame themselves when th…

> there is little the average person can do in their daily life to inhibit climate change.

Don't have children.

Re: Canadian permafrost thaws 70 years earlier than predicted

#174

I was up at Camp Muir on Mt. Rainier for the first time in 29 years last weekend. It's located at 10,000 feet and is surrounded by glaciers. The temperature was around 60F in the sun. We're getting temps in May/June that were rarely seen in August in previous decades. The impressive thing is how quickly the glaciers are receding. The Nisqually glacier, which used to be down near 4000 feet in the 1970s is about a mile…

Considering climate lag (see below) it's almost certain most glaciers on Earth will be gone in 30 years.

There is a delay of a couple of decades between emissions and effects on the climate. This means we are now seeing the effects from the emissions from the 70s and early 80s.

The problem is that we have emitted more GHG in the last 40 years than the previous 150 years since the industrial revolution started. We have a huge climate bill to pay even if we magically stopped all emissions today.

Re: Canadian permafrost thaws 70 years earlier than predicted

#175
post #142
post #27

Global warming is the single scariest existential threat our species has ever faced, and we aren't doing nearly enough to tackle it. Our future descendants will heap scorn and curses on our generation, and we deserve every bit of it. Every politician that refuses to do what is necessary or finds it convenient to play stupid language games about 'settled science' is doing incalculable harm. As citizens, I encourage ev…

As someone who agrees with your suggestion as to how serious climate change is, I've come to think asking individuals to change their behavior to fix the problem is actually counter productive. People generally want to do the right thing and they want to matter whereas in my experience the average person is not a great systems thinker. So people are very receptive to calls to "be better" because it let's them fight f…

> I've come to think asking individuals to change their behavior to fix the problem is actually counter productive.

Don't worry, there are people saying this all over every climate discussion on HN. And then a huge distracting discussion about whether that's a good idea or not.

Re: Canadian permafrost thaws 70 years earlier than predicted

#176
post #142
post #27

Global warming is the single scariest existential threat our species has ever faced, and we aren't doing nearly enough to tackle it. Our future descendants will heap scorn and curses on our generation, and we deserve every bit of it. Every politician that refuses to do what is necessary or finds it convenient to play stupid language games about 'settled science' is doing incalculable harm. As citizens, I encourage ev…

As someone who agrees with your suggestion as to how serious climate change is, I've come to think asking individuals to change their behavior to fix the problem is actually counter productive. People generally want to do the right thing and they want to matter whereas in my experience the average person is not a great systems thinker. So people are very receptive to calls to "be better" because it let's them fight f…

My earliest recollection of climate change/global warming was about 30 years ago, and it was understood this was a society and political issue then, and the need for a systematic approach by corporations and government was needed.

Conservatives, Democrats and Republicans, called the most docile claims about global warming/climate change as radical, lies, socialism, communism, anti-business, pro-big government, and so on. The more aggressive claims were impugned as forms of eco-terrorism. It's the same today. The climate change deniers go so far as to insist that all of this is just delusional panic over nothing.

Michael Crichton, science fiction author, was a notable climate change denier who pushed exactly that: this climate change business is nonsense and people who claim otherwise are crazy. He wrote a book on the subject "State of Fear" about how global warming was a fraud, perpetrated by a few to exploit others.

A still sitting U.S. senator, James Inhofe from Oklahoma, says global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people. And he cited "Dr. Crichton" and his book as the kind of real facts we need to pay attention to, and invited him to testify before Congress as a climate expert and scientist.

It's like humans are designed to make everything a dispute.

Re: Canadian permafrost thaws 70 years earlier than predicted

#177
I'm still firmly in the camp of people that want to start serious Geoengineering to fix this. WW2 or higher level efforts can get humanity very far if we commit ourselves. My biggest question is though, what are the goals? How many Watts do we have to remove from the planet per day to effectively cool it. How much CO² would actually need to be removed?

If the DoD would get the Job of fighting climate change, i'd wonder what they'd come up with.

Re: Canadian permafrost thaws 70 years earlier than predicted

#178
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you aren’t a denier then why are you repeating a classic, thoroughly debunked denier talking point? https://skepticalscience.com/global-warming-on-mars.htm

Great write-up, I really appreciate it. Don't worry, I won't ask any more honest questions about climate change ever again.

I don't mean this in a snarky way at all; if you are interested it is easy enough to educate yourself on the basics. "Read first, question later" is a good approach to this sort of thing, really, as it isn't asking for other peoples effort on the easy stuff.

Re: Canadian permafrost thaws 70 years earlier than predicted

#179
post #27

Global warming is the single scariest existential threat our species has ever faced, and we aren't doing nearly enough to tackle it. Our future descendants will heap scorn and curses on our generation, and we deserve every bit of it. Every politician that refuses to do what is necessary or finds it convenient to play stupid language games about 'settled science' is doing incalculable harm. As citizens, I encourage ev…

> and voting exclusively on how credible a politician is on tackling global warming.

Up until very recently I thought this was the most important thing to do. The more I watch XR videos though the more I am convinced that that's not the case. Voting doesn't matter. None of the important social changes in the last century or so were initiated by the parliament. Think about women suffrage, civil rights movement, anti war movement, gay rights. We need to get out and get our hands dirty with direct action. Or at least support people who do.

Re: Canadian permafrost thaws 70 years earlier than predicted

#180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except a single factory in China emits more CO2 than all the readers of this HN thread combined. So all you are going to do by minimizing your own carbon footprint is make your own life miserable and free up the resources for someone who doesn't give a damn. And I am sorry to say that, but I don't think that a global framework enforcing the same environmental restrictions on every country in the world, regardless of…

> Except a single factory in China emits more CO2 than all the readers of this HN thread combined This is just not true. World's richest 10% produce half of global carbon emissions [0] I would guess a fair share of HN readers are in the top 10% [0] https://www-cdn.oxfam.org/s3fs-public/file_attachments/mb-ex...

Still China outputs more than 2x the U.S. volume:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_di...

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