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What’s the hottest the Earth’s ever been?

climate.gov

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Re: What’s the hottest the Earth’s ever been?

#51

Post by ngokevin »

thatguy0900 wrote: post #29
dav_Oz wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Update after 2 years of 'crisis management': The social fabric of the western societies had been severely damaged. Trust in science is at an all time low. The absurdly rich are absurdly richer. Not few people are now flirting openly with the idea to simply abandon those bulky civil liberties of the 20th century (2nd half) in order to save the world in the long run. So, in order to satisfy 2. ("green washing") and 3.…

I don't know how fair it is to bring the last two years up. Our society was no closer in 2018 to solving climate change.

I think the point is, we are even further. In terms of progress, time, support, and aptitude. We've witnessed that even in a more immediate and clearer emergency (i.e., millions of people dying), large swaths of society rejects facts or are not willing/capable to think long-term or at a global level

Re: What’s the hottest the Earth’s ever been?

#52

Post by Helmut10001 »

egberts1 wrote: post #48
Helmut10001 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could cite individual observations and reports, but the field is difficult to summarize in a single HN comment. There are many factors that we cannot completely oversee, primarily tipping points (disappearing reflective polar caps) and feedback loops (melt of permafrost with methane release). More concretely, have a look at the latest IPCC report [1], page SPM-16. Three of the five scenarios include temperature ris…

so CO2 isn’t increasing our global temperature as much as we had previously projected.

Can you explain how you reached this conclusion?

Re: What’s the hottest the Earth’s ever been?

#53

Post by Helmut10001 »

ahevia wrote: post #50
moralestapia wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is that, for businesses and governments, complying with the 1.5ºC goals/projections is already a monumental task. If it does happen, even though it won't be enough, we should at least get an A for effort ... too bad nature is not forgiving. Anyway, what is still nice is that it should be easier to adapt to 3-5ºC once we're all doing something for 1.5ºC than if we were doing nothing at all, i.e. static frict…

Youre right about the difficulty of the task, but should we even be considering 3 degrees of warming as acceptable? That’s a nightmare scenario for most of the global south 5 degrees is a nightmare scenario for the whole world. Albeit I think it’s far more likely if we have to finally admit we’re on the pathway to 3 degrees, many countries might independently deploy solar geoengineering projects to save their skin (e…

I agree, actions (what and to which degree needs to be done) will differ if you plan for 1.5 °C or 3 °C.

Re: What’s the hottest the Earth’s ever been?

#54

Post by egberts1 »

ftrobro wrote: post #17
egberts1 wrote: post #6

I often wonder about terraforming (on places like Mars planet). Earth obviously had the leg up on water accumulation during its accretation stage (Hadean period). Perhaps we can start generating oxygen early over there on Mars using a one-step CO2->O2+C catalyst. This comes to mind: https://www.pnas.org/content/109/39/15606

First we would need to create a huge magnetic field protecting Mars from the solar wind that has blown away the atmosphere Mars previously had. https://www.sciencefocus.com/space/how-did-mars-lose-its-atm... https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/news/how-to-give-mars-an-atmos...

how do we know that the magnetic field is a product not just the iron core of the Earth but perhaps large quantity of selected molecule in the atmosphere? Nitrogen or oxygen?

Re: What’s the hottest the Earth’s ever been?

#55

Post by egberts1 »

Helmut10001 wrote: post #52
egberts1 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

so CO2 isn’t increasing our global temperature as much as we had previously projected.

Can you explain how you reached this conclusion?

Perhaps it’s the science.

Climate Emergencies 1966 - Oil gone in 10 years 1967 - Dire famine forecast by 1975 1968 - Overpopulation will spread worldwide 1969 - Everyone will disappear in a Cloud of Blue Steam in 1989 1970 - World will use up its natural resources by 2000 1970 - Urban citizens will require gas mask by 1985 1970 - Nitrogen buildup will make all lands unusable 1970 - Decaying pollution will kill all the fish 1970s - Killer Bees!!! 1970 - Ice Age by 2000 1970 - Americans will be subjected to water rationing by 1975 and food rationing by 1980 1971 - New Ice Age coming by 2020 or 2030 1972 - New Ice Age by 2070 1972 - Oil depleted in 20 years 1974 - Space satellites show New Ice Age coming fast 1974 - Another Ice Age? 1974 - Ozone depletion a great peril to life 1976 - Scientific consensus planet cooling; famines imminent 1977 - Department of Energy says oil will peak in 90s. 1978 - No end in sight to 30-year global cooling 1980 - Acid rain kills life in lakes 1980 - Peak oil in 2000 1988 - Regional drought (that never happened) in 90s. 1988 - Temperatures in DC will hit record high (no records broken) 1988 - Maldive Islands will be underwater by 2018 (nope) 1989 - Rising sea level will obliterate nations if nothing done by 2000. 1989 - New York City Westside Highway underwater by 2018. 1990 - Cellphones caused cancer 1996 - Peak oil in 2020 2000 - Children won’t know what snow is 2001 - WiFi causes cancer 2002 - Famines if we don’t give up eating fishes, meat, and diary 2002 - Peak oil in 2010 2004 - Britain will be Siberia by 2024 2005 - Manhattan underwater by 2015 2006 - Super Hurricanes!!! 2008 - Arctic will be ice-free by 2018 2008 - Climate genius Al Gore predict ice-free Arctic by 2013 2009 - Climate genius Prince Charles says we have 96 months to save the world 2009 UK Prime Ministers says 50 days to “save planet from catastrophe” 2009 Al Gore moves ice-free Arctic prediction from 2013 to 2014 2010 - 4G cell tower causes cancers. 2013 Arctic ice-free by 2015 2014 Only 500 days before climate chaos 2019 - Hey Greta, we really need you to convince them this time. 2020 - Australian bush fires are caused by climate change. 2020 - 5G cellular towers causes cancers. 2020 - Polar bears could be lost by 2100 2021 - Volcano caldera ready to wipe out civilization

Re: What’s the hottest the Earth’s ever been?

#56

Post by parkingrift »

jessaustin wrote: post #41
parkingrift wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blast sulfur into the stratosphere. No, I’m not joking.

Our society no longer seeks practical solutions.

I feel pretty confident we'll get to the level of desperation needed to act on this comically cheap and effective stop-gap.

Re: What’s the hottest the Earth’s ever been?

#57

Post by tim333 »

MichaelZuo wrote: post #47

On the positive side of things, northern cities of the world will likely not be buried under an ice sheet anytime soon.

That's a relief. I'm old enough to have gone through the 1970s global cooling scare stories https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_cooling

Re: What’s the hottest the Earth’s ever been?

#58

Post by moralestapia »

Helmut10001 wrote: post #53
ahevia wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Youre right about the difficulty of the task, but should we even be considering 3 degrees of warming as acceptable? That’s a nightmare scenario for most of the global south 5 degrees is a nightmare scenario for the whole world. Albeit I think it’s far more likely if we have to finally admit we’re on the pathway to 3 degrees, many countries might independently deploy solar geoengineering projects to save their skin (e…

I agree, actions (what and to which degree needs to be done) will differ if you plan for 1.5 °C or 3 °C.

The degree (no pun intended) changes, but the kind of actions you engage with are more or less the same.

This, from a business point of view, if we talk about things like "the entire city will flood in 20 years" (which is what would happen to some places on the 5ºC pathway), then there's not really much to do, honestly.

Re: What’s the hottest the Earth’s ever been?

#60

Post by Tagbert »

tamaharbor wrote: post #49

Instead of trying to stop the changes (which is probably impossible), why don’t we focus on adapting to what will inevitably become the new normals.

The efforts are to reduce the degree of change. Full on stop is not likely at point. Adaptation will be even more expensive, but we still get people complaining that efforts to head off climate change are too expensive.
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