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We Have Four Years to Save Ourselves from Climate Change, Harvard Scientist Says

forbes.com

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Re: We Have Four Years to Save Ourselves from Climate Change, Harvard Scientist Says

#31

Post by artimaeis »

_red wrote: post #26
jefflombardjr wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Polar ice caps melting is hyperbole? Care to elaborate?

Because the vast majority of the earths history has been without ice on the poles. Obviously this will force changes on humans no doubt. However, trying to shoehorn this natural fact into a political / carbon-credit trading scheme is deeply cynical that is apparent to most >100 IQ people.

The majority of Earth's history made it a completely uninhabitable place for humans. Seems like it would be in our combined best interest to prevent it from becoming that way again.

Re: We Have Four Years to Save Ourselves from Climate Change, Harvard Scientist Says

#34

Post by agentultra » 

    "I don't understand how these people sit down to dinner with their kids," Anderson said, "because they're not stupid people."
I have a hard enough time teaching my kids about the seasons and polar bears when many of these things won't exist by the time they're teenagers.

Re: We Have Four Years to Save Ourselves from Climate Change, Harvard Scientist Says

#35

Post by chapium »

assblaster wrote: post #20
norswap wrote: post #10

Does "no more permanent ice" means there is a period of the year where there is no ice at all at the poles? That seems hardly believable. I was also under the impression that melting ice would push the level of the oceans by multiple meters. If 75-80% of ice has already melted, wouldn't we have seen significant elevation already? Just some facts that I found surprising, coming from someone who doesn't know much on th…

The problem with predictions like this is that this prediction will look silly in 4 years when the Earth has not ended, similar to how wild predictions in the past have not borne fruit. I understand their desire to sensationalize, but people like AOC make the same predictions, and she is not seen as smart by a large portion of the public. I think if we just stick with the experimental science research, the general pu…

> and she is not seen as smart by a large portion of the public.

Seems like there is a lot of that going around.

Re: We Have Four Years to Save Ourselves from Climate Change, Harvard Scientist Says

#36

Post by _red »

artimaeis wrote: post #31
_red wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the vast majority of the earths history has been without ice on the poles. Obviously this will force changes on humans no doubt. However, trying to shoehorn this natural fact into a political / carbon-credit trading scheme is deeply cynical that is apparent to most >100 IQ people.

The majority of Earth's history made it a completely uninhabitable place for humans. Seems like it would be in our combined best interest to prevent it from becoming that way again.

+2.5C increase will render earth uninhabitable? Or will it upset insurance coverage of high dollar coast lines?

Re: We Have Four Years to Save Ourselves from Climate Change, Harvard Scientist Says

#37

Post by seren »

_red wrote: post #26
jefflombardjr wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Polar ice caps melting is hyperbole? Care to elaborate?

Because the vast majority of the earths history has been without ice on the poles. Obviously this will force changes on humans no doubt. However, trying to shoehorn this natural fact into a political / carbon-credit trading scheme is deeply cynical that is apparent to most >100 IQ people.

I think talking about Earth history is misleading or trying to distract from the problem.

Sure Earth climate was worst 4,5 billions years ago, however Earth capacity to support the life of billions human is and will be severely impacted, and this is was matter for us, mere mortals.

Re: We Have Four Years to Save Ourselves from Climate Change, Harvard Scientist Says

#38

Post by snarf21 »

makerofspoons wrote: post #19

The loss of sea ice is stoking US heat waves: https://phys.org/news/2019-06-loss-arctic-sea-ice-stokes.htm... Intense heat is also predicted for Europe this summer: https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/accuweather-2019... James Anderson, the scientist from the article, also has linked ozone depletion with climate change: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-ozone-prob...

I think his four years is too fast but I also don't think we can totally destroy the planet (aside from nuclear destruction). We know too much and have too much technology. Some (small?) fragment of civilization will survive while the earth recovers. For example, methane has a half life of seven years so it will take some time.

The more immediate threat seems to be around food and water. The Ogallala Aquifer is drying up quickly and we will have a new Dust Bowl.[https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2016/08/vanishin...] Considering how much food for the US and the world comes from here there is going to be massive starvation. It just seems like this planet can only infinitely support around 4B people. We have too many now but population is slowly starting to tilt back.

We also need to understand that constant growth is toxic. Both for our planet in population and as a driver for business and profits. I think this planet will be quite different as automation continues to accelerate and as we start using all of our resources in a sustainable and non-destructive way. I am very curious to see how this plays out over my lifetime.

Re: We Have Four Years to Save Ourselves from Climate Change, Harvard Scientist Says

#39

Post by gerbilly »

_red wrote: post #26
jefflombardjr wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Polar ice caps melting is hyperbole? Care to elaborate?

Because the vast majority of the earths history has been without ice on the poles. Obviously this will force changes on humans no doubt. However, trying to shoehorn this natural fact into a political / carbon-credit trading scheme is deeply cynical that is apparent to most >100 IQ people.

> Because the vast majority of the earths history has been without ice on the poles.

Yeah but the majority of human history has been with ice on the poles.

We might have to reorganize a lot of things (agricultural practices, national borders, location of cities, ...) if that changes.

Re: We Have Four Years to Save Ourselves from Climate Change, Harvard Scientist Says

#40

Post by sasasassy »

Another wild prediction. This person's wild claim is that if go on with the current path the ocean's will rise 7 meters and there will be worse storms. You can visit http://www.floodmap.net/ and see how 7 meters is nothing, even discounting that we can adapt and protect against flooding. Worse storms are bad, but if the alternative is "World War II-style transformation of industry", what alternative is that? How can the world say to 5 billion people "sorry, you have to stop your industrialisation now, there may be storms in the US".
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