The future of our planet

1st I would like to say this is an interesting conversation. I think everyone was being respectful until post #20 by americanelmer with the “eurowennie” comment. How about being respectful of other people’s opinions.

So this question is for the people that do not believe that global warming is caused by people. What do we do to mitigate the effects of global warming? As an example it is predicted that you will be able to boat across Florida in my lifetime. Do we do something about it or just let it happen?
 
coh said:
judicialwatch.org, yeah that's an unbiased source! You know, I did some searching and found this story all over the conservative web sites but it was later debunked...of course none of them mentioned that. Wonder why...

All fundamentalists are a problem, whether they be Muslim or Christian.
Click to expand...
That's odd I have never known a fundamentalist Christian to exert the kind of behavior a Muslim fundamentalist is known for. I have been a fundamentalist Christian for more than thirty years and I have never harmed anyone, I have pissed off a lot of people but never harmed a single one.
 
Dan92119 said:
1st I would like to say this is an interesting conversation. I think everyone was being respectful until post #20 by americanelmer with the “eurowennie” comment. How about being respectful of other people’s opinions.

So this question is for the people that do not believe that global warming is caused by people. What do we do to mitigate the effects of global warming? As an example it is predicted that you will be able to boat across Florida in my lifetime. Do we do something about it or just let it happen?
Click to expand...
How do you stop those things that you cannot control?
 
Vance Wood said:
A hypothetical based on a faulty premiss versus a fact you can see being played out almost daily.
Click to expand...

What you mean nobody bombed Iraq in 2003 removed the government and police leading to a power vacuum and letting ISIS become a reality. Over 100000 civilians weren't killed and none of their families want revenge? But they hate our freedom right.

Anyway this is off topic so I'll drop it now.
 
Joe Dupre' said:
The one thing that Zach posted that should give everyone some pause for thought........

"That's why weather forecasts are never very accurate more than about 10 days out. If you can't make a computer model that's completely accurate a year from now, why would you think you could make one that's accurate 100 years from now?"

Zach and I live close to the Gulf Coast. Hurricanes are part of the deal. Ever looked at a map of the potential hurricane paths when a hurricane gets into or around the Gulf? The predicted land fall points can vary over 200 miles. And that's over a period of just a couple of days!

As far as good ole Mother Earth....... we mere humans will never "destroy" the planet. A million years from now, humans may have run their course and the Earth will have swallowed up all traces of us.
Click to expand...

Not really, weather != climate, please don't conflate the two. I'm not sure if this is from a misunderstanding or a willful attempt to be disingenuous.

Sure the Earth will still be here and humans will adapt or not...the Earth won't care but the rest of life on the planet might.
 
Vance Wood said:
How do you stop those things that you cannot control?
Click to expand...

How do we find out whether we can control them or not?

How do we help people survive what we can't (or choose not to) control?

Regardless of whether you believe that humans are responsible for climate change, it seems cruel to ignore the effects that rising sea levels will have on millions if not billions of people.

In this thread I've seen reference to acid rain and y2k as evidence of a "chicken little" mentality. But the thing is that warnings about those threats spurred action to mitigate them. I'm a software engineer, I interned at a company that devoted thousands of hours to Y2k preparations so that our code wouldn't break. And this was a small shop.

Same with acid rain. It was a relatively localized (though cross-border) problem, with identifiable sources, and while it took some diplomacy, international agreements were made and technical fixes deployed.

What is so different about climate change that we can't look at the problem the same way?
 
sparklemotion said:
What is so different about climate change
Click to expand...
Because people have been told it's a hoax.
By the same people who call the news fake.
They believe,truly believe that it isn't either occurring or else if it is occurring that humans and emissions and human pollution didn't cause it.
The same people who think deregulating coal and other fossil fuels will make America great again.
The same people who think opening up a copper mine in Bristol Bay Alaska won't hurt the enviornment.
The same people who think it's OK to kill elephants,gorillas,lions and other endangered species,because God gave man dominion overall the animals and they were going to go extinct anyways.
The same people who vote a guy into office even if he's accused of sexually assaulting women and underage girls they would rather see one of them in public office than a liberal. Because they themselves are guilty of the same.
The very same people who will hurl personal insults at other people because they aren't smart enough to think of anything else.
People who think they need a pat on the back everytime they accomplish something. After they demand a thank you.
 
M. Frary said:
Because people have been told it's a hoax.
Click to expand...

For my part, I remain curious as to why people believe that this is a hoax.

There are people who believe that no humans have landed on the moon. But they are on the fringes. Same with the flat-earthers and the chem-trail people.

But why does this climate change denial have so much traction in particular? (to be clear, I have my guesses, but I'd rather learn why skeptics think they know what they know).
 
sparklemotion said:
But why does this climate change denial have so much traction in particular
Click to expand...
It's all about money and politics.
The politicians get money from lobbyists/special interest groups to keep their pollution going. They pay a couple of scientists to disagree with all other scientists across the globe and now they have their proof.
Their proof from the couple of scientists is all the proof they need to argue it isnt true. Now they can go around and say the other 99% of the world needs proof again to prove them wrong.
Record drought and heat out west,record hurricanes in the south,record tornados across the midwest,record snow fall on the eastern seaboard,fish gone,record outbreaks of Lyme disease, zika spreading north are all attributed to climate change but it still isn't real for them.
 
Once again...for me it all comes down to being proactive or reactive. If we wait until we know for sure that the predictions are true, it will be too late to act. As for models, they are just numerical approximations of the atmosphere/earth system, they will never be "perfect" and we will never have perfect input data. So at some point you have to make a decision based on what you know (and think you know). The idea of limiting carbon emissions, along with a host of other related measures (moving toward renewable energy, reducing pollution/deforestation/over-fishing, etc) are all beneficial to our continued existence even if our "understanding" of AGW turns out to be incorrect (and keep in mind that we could be wrong in either direction, so our estimated impacts could be less than what will actually occur).

Pretty much the entire world is in agreement on this, how often does that happen? And yet the relatively few skeptics here think they know better than everyone else.

Happy Thanksgiving.

P.S. Contrary to what some of you might believe, many scientists...including atmospheric scientists (and myself)...have some degree of skepticism about AGW. It's not that they don't believe that humans can impact climate, but they understand the limitations of both historical datasets and model predictions. But, it all comes down to weight of evidence, and the realization that if we don't act soon, it'll be too late.
 
"... and the realization that if we don't act soon, it'll be too late."

Act soon doing what? Too late for what?

These statements are what are called Platitudes and by themselves mean nothing.
Definition from of all places Wikipedia:

A platitude is a trite, meaningless, or prosaic statement, generally directed at quelling social, emotional, or cognitive unease. Platitudes are geared towards presenting a shallow, unifying wisdom over a difficult topic. However, they are too general and overused to be anything more than undirected statements with ultimately little meaningful contribution towards a solution.
... Platitudes are generally a form of thought-terminating cliché.

Well there you go.

A_E

 
M. Frary said:
It's all about money and politics.
The politicians get money from lobbyists/special interest groups to keep their pollution going. They pay a couple of scientists to disagree with all other scientists across the globe and now they have their proof.
Their proof from the couple of scientists is all the proof they need to argue it isnt true. Now they can go around and say the other 99% of the world needs proof again to prove them wrong.
Record drought and heat out west,record hurricanes in the south,record tornados across the midwest,record snow fall on the eastern seaboard,fish gone,record outbreaks of Lyme disease, zika spreading north are all attributed to climate change but it still isn't real for them.
Click to expand...

We're all going to die is a truism, but when, where and how are are only known after the fact.
Unless you are in the know like Frary thinks he is.

A_E
 
Frary types:
"...record snow fall on the eastern seaboard..."

Is this caused by global warming?
I know it is now called climate change, How convenient.

A_E
 
Hello, hello, hello anybody there?

Where are the answers to my questions posted earlier.
You guys are so knowledgable - Oh wait guess not.
I thought I would have been answered immediately and shown how wrong and impudent I was for asking.

Still waiting.

A_E
 
americanelmer said:
Act soon doing what? Too late for what?
Click to expand...

How about getting global anthropogenic carbon emissions under 40 gigatonnes by 2030?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Agreement

How about implementing carbon (and other pollutant) cap-and-trade systems in developed countries to encourage entrepreneurial, market-based, solutions to help, at least the developed nations get there?

How about doing that before it's too late to restore the polar ice caps? Or save Florida from mass flooding? Or prevent famines across the global south?

These are just a few examples of specific steps that could be taken, but end up blocked by the political pressure from people who benefit from polluting and/or will be dead of old age before the worst of the crisis hits.
 
americanelmer said:
Where are the answers to my questions posted earlier.
Click to expand...

Maybe because some think it's just a waste of time.

In a nutshell, the earth is much larger than what you can see in your immediate environment.

Take for example the ice-caps melting because of global warming, whether global warming is nature-made, god-made, or man-made.

Huge chunks from the ice-cap, or glaziers (hundreds of acres) are released into the sea, so the sea gets colder. It not only changes the environment for the whole chain of living things, but it has consequences on the climate, like cooler seas in places while other places are hotter. Hence, more hurricanes, droughts, unusual freezing temps in other places. Etc.

Simplistic answers like "CFCs" are heavier are no response.

And anyway, if ever global warming and the rise in greenhouse gases were "natural", would that prevent us from seeking reasonable, sensitive, solutions to a real problem?

OK, for some, the answer is simple, like for all disasters: "Let's pray". You can, no harm done. But that's not enough.

We've got a saying: "Aide-toi, le ciel t'aidera". I think in English it's "God helps those that help themselves".
 
americanelmer said:
Hello, hello, hello anybody there?

Where are the answers to my questions posted earlier.
You guys are so knowledgable - Oh wait guess not.
I thought I would have been answered immediately and shown how wrong and impudent I was for asking.

Still waiting.

A_E
Click to expand...


Jesus.....Its Thanksgiving. Give people a freaking break already.
Coh is probably spending the rest of the day with his family and is probably not sitting on the computer waiting to respond to you.

As to your question about his degree, he stated somewhere else in this thread that he is an atmospheric scientist.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom