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

21–30 of 224 posts

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

#21

Post by mongol »

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…

What sacrifices can you do in your own life? That is certainly the easiest and most certain way you can contribute. The impact will be limited no doubt, but the most obvious place to start.

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

#22

Post by netrus »

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…

A lot of this can be explained by our moving of the goalpost towards still attainable goals. At the moment it's the 1.5C goal, that is becoming more and more unrealistic. But of course we will aim for 2C after that, because its still better than 2.5C, etc. This communication strategy backfires to some degree, but it is not inconsistent.

This article talks about 7m of sea level rise over the next couple hundreds of years. That's pretty bad, but its easy to imagine something even worse.

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

#23

Post by airstrike »

mongol wrote: post #21
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…

What sacrifices can you do in your own life? That is certainly the easiest and most certain way you can contribute. The impact will be limited no doubt, but the most obvious place to start.

> What sacrifices can you do in your own life? That is certainly the easiest and most certain way you can contribute. The impact will be limited no doubt, but the most obvious place to start.

Respectfully, I think a better plan is to work hard to reach a position of power and/or leadership, and then make changes that affect millions. Minor changes in my household have relatively zero impact in the big picture.

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

#24

Post by imwithstoopid »

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…

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 process...you walk everywhere just like great grampa did

no need to worry about fossil fuels...you won't be using them in any capacity other than maybe a nice fire in the winter in your wood burning stove which will be the only "appliance" you own (good news - they last forever!)

etc etc

this is probably what sustainable living looks like until we get star trek matter synthesizers

you'll never get a date living like this but you'll also never again worry about 98% of the crap of modern life

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

#25

Post by scrollaway »

mbgerring wrote: post #16
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…

Quit your job and go to work full time on climate. Start here: https://climatebase.org

This is the only correct answer from all of these. The highly educated are far more likely to make a significant difference especially if they have knowledge that spans multiple fields.

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

#26

Post by [deleted] »

imwithstoopid wrote: post #24
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…

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…

[deleted]

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

#27

Post by khaki54 »

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 best thing you can do in continue to innovate and build more efficient things. We can use that technology to stop wasting resources, stop pushing negative externalities to the environment, and rapidly bring the entirety of the planet out of abject poverty where they are more concerned about where dinner is coming from than their environment, local or global.

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

#28

Post by Scarblac »

zamfi wrote: post #7

Let me preface this by saying that I believe climate change and decarbonization to be one of the critical challenges of our time. That said… This article’s title and its content are completely at odds. Here’s a critical passage: > As the ice sheet melts, its surface will be at ever-lower elevations, exposed to warmer air temperatures. Warmer air temperatures accelerate melt, making it drop and warm further. Global ai…

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 emitted from the atmosphere. Is how I read it.

The ice on this island is enough to cause about 7m of global sea level rise on its own, iirc.

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

#29

Post by gridspy »

zamfi wrote: post #7

Let me preface this by saying that I believe climate change and decarbonization to be one of the critical challenges of our time. That said… This article’s title and its content are completely at odds. Here’s a critical passage: > As the ice sheet melts, its surface will be at ever-lower elevations, exposed to warmer air temperatures. Warmer air temperatures accelerate melt, making it drop and warm further. Global ai…

No, the story is that we begin the melting by raising the earth's temperature a little. You'd think that if we reduced our carbon emissions, the ice would stop melting.

> But once the ice crosses the threshold, it would inevitably continue to melt

Bear in mind that the atmosphere retains carbon dioxide for ~50 years, that other melt events are dumping methane into the atmosphere from permafrost. It's not just one factor heating the planet.

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

#30

Post by gridspy »

Scarblac wrote: post #28
zamfi wrote: post #7

Let me preface this by saying that I believe climate change and decarbonization to be one of the critical challenges of our time. That said… This article’s title and its content are completely at odds. Here’s a critical passage: > As the ice sheet melts, its surface will be at ever-lower elevations, exposed to warmer air temperatures. Warmer air temperatures accelerate melt, making it drop and warm further. Global ai…

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.
Post reply on HN