Neuromancer
Member
Nothing is static, everything is evolving, everything is falling apart.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Climate Change: Are We Cornholed?
- Thread starter RawPower
- Start date
- Status
Pretty sure he suffered third degree burns during the Gulf Oil Disaster. Thanks to Wheeler, we're now screwed.
He already had an evil doppelganger... =/
ElectricBlue187
Member
Despite what most of the scientists are saying? That is rather optimistic
edible_candle
Member
Good, the sooner we leave this ice age behind the better. Bring on the climate of the Mesozoic. I'm buying beach side property on Antarctica as we speak. My great-great-great grandchildren will be the lords of the newly tropical south pole.
THIS JUST IN: CO2 emitted by human activity no long a greenhouse gas. Solar radiation is on the record as being "very confused".
Randolph Freelander
Member
Wyndstryker
Member
Thats pretty similar to how I plan my Martian space pioneering legacy lol.
evil solrac v3.0
Member
.....and the man made too.
edible_candle
Member
Err, correct in the sense that the atmosphere heats up naturally when there is more CO2, but not correct when determining the source of the greenhouse gases.
The volcanic eruptions during the end Permian were unlike anything ever seen in all of human history (and pre-history). Massive basalt flows which covered an area roughly the size of Europe. This alone wouldn't have raised the global CO2 levels by nearly enough to cause the amount of global warming necessary - they also ignited massive coal beds. And even then, it seems that the real kicker might have been the melting of frozen methane on the sea floor. Which melted due to the raised temperatures caused by the release of CO2. Plus some nonsense about the formation of the supercontinent Pangaea and poor deep ocean circulatory systems and loss of shallow seas and boom! mass extinction to end all mass extinctions.
So in short, additional CO2 bad. Anthropogenic CO2 emissions will bite us in the ass.
Personally I'd prefer humanity dying off via natural causes then killing themselves to extinction
Pfft. He already raptured 'em. About 600 years ago. There were 4 total, and I don't think anyone else really noticed their absence.
Brawndo Addict
Banned
During my time in university I had the opportunity to take some classes with an atmospheric scientist who had served on multiple international groups devoted to climate change such as the IPCC. His outlook was decidedly negative, but he was not a doomsday theorist. He fully believed that global society has the tools necessary to combat it, and that given the right preconditions it would be possible to launch a massive effort to help reverse it. He was worried that we will soon reach the point of no return however.
He also discussed some partially classified work he did with the Pentagon as part of climate change disaster planning. The gist is that even if the world government's do not come together to address the actual issue of overproduction of CO2 that someone will geoengineer a very crude "solution". This could be as simple as merely shooting sulfur-type stuff into the atmosphere using capital ships (he estimated the cost at around $30-50 billion a year, easily done by any country with the requisite naval capabilities) or as complex as shooting nano-machine type materials into the upper atmosphere near space that would reflect sunlight before it had a chance to enter.
The idea is that we can't stop the physical dynamics of the greenhouse system once sunlight enters, so if we stop enough sunlight from entering at all, that could balance it out and stop potential temperature increases. None of this would fix problems with CO2 concentration itself though, like ocean acidification.
ED: Oh yeah, he was def. more worried about methane from the arctic than anything else as having the potential to truly end it.
He also discussed some partially classified work he did with the Pentagon as part of climate change disaster planning. The gist is that even if the world government's do not come together to address the actual issue of overproduction of CO2 that someone will geoengineer a very crude "solution". This could be as simple as merely shooting sulfur-type stuff into the atmosphere using capital ships (he estimated the cost at around $30-50 billion a year, easily done by any country with the requisite naval capabilities) or as complex as shooting nano-machine type materials into the upper atmosphere near space that would reflect sunlight before it had a chance to enter.
The idea is that we can't stop the physical dynamics of the greenhouse system once sunlight enters, so if we stop enough sunlight from entering at all, that could balance it out and stop potential temperature increases. None of this would fix problems with CO2 concentration itself though, like ocean acidification.
ED: Oh yeah, he was def. more worried about methane from the arctic than anything else as having the potential to truly end it.
u r dum go away
jesus loves me this i know because the bible tells me so~
Insane Metal
Member
There's no doubt we're using natural resources to a point it will become unviable, and CO2 level are ridiculously high. But I think nothing really alarming will happen in the next few decades.
But the next hundred years or so will be very interesting, might be a time of hard decisions for mankind.
But the next hundred years or so will be very interesting, might be a time of hard decisions for mankind.
Omegasquash
Member
This is what bothers me. We're so focused on short term things, like our economy, that we're not able to see that we're fucking ourselves, and our children, later on.
Winnie the Pimp
Member
To everyone that says "fuck it i'll be dead by then anyways" consider this:
What IF, after death there is no "afterlife" and no eternal nothingness but you are simply being REBORN, a new mind in some new body with no recollection of what was before!
Very plausible as far as i am concerned, and you will STILL be stuck with the same problem then, only it got worse cos you didn't do anything about it previously
I say we need to get on to fixing this before the shit hits the fan!
What IF, after death there is no "afterlife" and no eternal nothingness but you are simply being REBORN, a new mind in some new body with no recollection of what was before!
Very plausible as far as i am concerned, and you will STILL be stuck with the same problem then, only it got worse cos you didn't do anything about it previously
I say we need to get on to fixing this before the shit hits the fan!
LegendofJoe
Member
This attitude enrages me, I dearly hope I'm not alone in this either.
fierrotlepou
Member
Nothing is fucked here, Dude
The more it gets a little warmer, the more people think "Hey, I like it a little warmer"
Until they all burn.
We'll all burn.
Well I believe the Earth was much warmer a couple of thousand years ago and the Earth's climate fluctuated quite a bit in the last hundreds of years (before the Industrial revolution). I am also not convinced that the temperature will just keep on climbing in the future. So I think we'll be fine. The biggest problem will be to deal with the economic impact that a large change in climate will cause. It could destroy complete industries in certain countries yet produce new ones in others.
yeah, we're fucked while we remain carbon positive (adding carbon to the atmosphere) or even carbon neutral (we produce no carbon).
but there's still hope. we need to become carbon negative. how? we use our carbon neutral energy sources for not only powering our energy needs, but also sucking carbon out of the air and literally storing it as blocks of carbon (maybe even use the carbon for building materials or something). what i like about that idea is that we are starting to proactively terraform our planet to suit our needs.
anything less than that... yeah, we're done as a species.
but there's still hope. we need to become carbon negative. how? we use our carbon neutral energy sources for not only powering our energy needs, but also sucking carbon out of the air and literally storing it as blocks of carbon (maybe even use the carbon for building materials or something). what i like about that idea is that we are starting to proactively terraform our planet to suit our needs.
anything less than that... yeah, we're done as a species.
And this is something the alarmists never address - the assumption is that change is necessarily bad and not just different and something we will adapt to.
Beer Monkey
Member
Do you believe in the tooth fairy?
The earth is hotter than it has been in 2000 years. We KNOW this. Science is real.
LegendofJoe
Member
I hope you're not forgetting that plants and animals aren't able to adapt as quickly as we are able to. Free markets won't do a damn thing to address that problem because the flora and fauna killed off have no value attached to them.
KennyLinder
Member
Synth_floyd
Banned
WRONG. I am a conservative and global warming is not true because I don't want it to be true.
LegendofJoe
Member
Fixed, we need to stop turning climate change into a political issue. It is an issue of survival and should be treated as such.
CitizenCope
Member
Pink Floyd says Mother Nature in 12 rounds.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcXyAJfQ0m8
"I take all that I can take, I push her to the limit to see if she will break"
"Now I have seen the warnings screaming from all sides, and it's easy to ignore them, God knows I've tried."
"She will take it back some day"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcXyAJfQ0m8
"I take all that I can take, I push her to the limit to see if she will break"
"Now I have seen the warnings screaming from all sides, and it's easy to ignore them, God knows I've tried."
"She will take it back some day"
PoweredBySoy
Banned
I want to punch you in the eye.
Disgusting mentality.
I'm reserving my moonbase apartment as I type this.
The worst grandfather.
http://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/coast_sea/sea-surface-temperature
I would not buy any property in Florida. Meteorologists can theorize the impact this will have on weather, there will be some good and some bad.
Scottish vineyards? Virginia oranges? Who knows. I would say, short term, we will not see that much of a difference. Maybe countries like Mexico and Turkey will lose the ability to grow corn or wheat in marginal agricultural areas. The main worry is "what is the tipping point?", ie at what point does the increasing warmth cause a big change in air circulation on the earth? That change in air circulation will determine how much discomfort humans will have in the future.
- Status