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World Emissions of Carbon Dioxide Outpace Worst-Case Scenario

Layzej writes "The global output of heat-trapping carbon dioxide jumped by the biggest amount on record in 2010, the U.S. Department of Energy calculated. A chart accompanying the study shows the breakdown by country. The new figures mean that levels of greenhouse gases are higher than the worst case scenario outlined by climate experts just four years ago. It is a 'monster' increase that is unheard of, said Gregg Marland, a professor of geology at Appalachian State University, who has helped calculate Department of Energy figures in the past. The question now among scientists is whether the future is the IPCC's worst case scenario or something more extreme."

569 of 760 comments (clear)

  1. Phew... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Thank goodness that "global warming" is bullshit.

    1. Re:Phew... by JoeMerchant · · Score: 5, Informative

      Note that the US, who in principle did not sign the Kyoto protocol, actually reduced emissions significantly (not just reduction in growth, but actual reduction) since 2007 due to the economic recession.

      So, we don't want to reduce carbon emissions because it will hurt our economy - but hurt the economy and emissions automatically reduce. Sounds like a vicious cycle that needs a technological exit strategy to me.

    2. Re:Phew... by Tsingi · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Note that the US, who in principle did not sign the Kyoto protocol, actually reduced emissions significantly (not just reduction in growth, but actual reduction) since 2007 due to the economic recession.

      So, we don't want to reduce carbon emissions because it will hurt our economy - but hurt the economy and emissions automatically reduce. Sounds like a vicious cycle that needs a technological exit strategy to me.

      But that reduction you have there is production somewhere where there are no emission controls. And likely, no economy either.

    3. Re:Phew... by Kagura · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Note that the US, who in principle did not sign the Kyoto protocol, actually reduced emissions significantly (not just reduction in growth, but actual reduction) since 2007 due to the economic recession.

      So, we don't want to reduce carbon emissions because it will hurt our economy - but hurt the economy and emissions automatically reduce. Sounds like a vicious cycle that needs a technological exit strategy to me.

      I already know what will happen. Policy measures will be introduced to barely limit emissions worldwide. Eventually this will become a looming problem, and a reasonably sized international body will decide that we will use active measures to counteract the climate change problems.

      Nobody wants to cut back on emissions in any meaningful way because it will mean literal death for large numbers of people unable to be supported by non-oil-based agricultural methods, and it will also mean a reduction in the standard of living for everyone else. You know as well as I do that we won't do anything until the last minute, which will be active climate measures.

    4. Re:Phew... by JoeMerchant · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Note that the US, who in principle did not sign the Kyoto protocol, actually reduced emissions significantly (not just reduction in growth, but actual reduction) since 2007 due to the economic recession.

      So, we don't want to reduce carbon emissions because it will hurt our economy - but hurt the economy and emissions automatically reduce. Sounds like a vicious cycle that needs a technological exit strategy to me.

      I already know what will happen. Policy measures will be introduced to barely limit emissions worldwide. Eventually this will become a looming problem, and a reasonably sized international body will decide that we will use active measures to counteract the climate change problems.

      Nobody wants to cut back on emissions in any meaningful way because it will mean literal death for large numbers of people unable to be supported by non-oil-based agricultural methods, and it will also mean a reduction in the standard of living for everyone else. You know as well as I do that we won't do anything until the last minute, which will be active climate measures.

      If we have really reached peak oil, then the cost of oil may fix the problem all by itself... now, we just need to stop digging all the coal from the ground, methane from the deep shale, and other sequestered carbon that could be replaced by nuclear, solar, wind, hamsters on wheels, and all that other green jazz.

    5. Re:Phew... by superwiz · · Score: 1

      It's not? The chart says nothing about global warming itself. It only shows which countries release more CO2. China surpassed US both in absolute amount and in relative amount, by the way. US and the rest of the world has expanded their use proportionately. Chinese use has increased VERY rapidly. Just look at the chart. If you insist that the biggest "offender" has to cut the most, you'll have to try getting China to curtail their growth. Otherwise, you are just asking US to voluntarily increase prices on fossil fuels domestically so that China could use more of them.

      --
      Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
    6. Re:Phew... by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2

      The chart says nothing about global warming itself. It only shows which countries release more CO2. China surpassed US both in absolute amount and in relative amount, by the way. US and the rest of the world has expanded their use proportionately. Chinese use has increased VERY rapidly. Just look at the chart. If you insist that the biggest "offender" has to cut the most, you'll have to try getting China to curtail their growth.

      Maybe if the US stopped propping up the oil industry worldwide. At the moment, we're making sure China can get all the relatively cheap oil they want so they can keep the transnational corporate machine running.

      We're digging oil out of the Dakotas to sell overseas, not to use here in the US. The dead-enders like the Koch Brothers are pumping hundreds of millions to tip our political system just to keep the whole suicide machine going a little bit longer. Fracking, shale oil... did you hear the one about how there are "billions" of barrels of oil in North Dakota just laying around for the taking? Does anyone think that the time that oil might give us will be used to seriously look for alternatives? Hell no, we'll probably see them start building Hummers again! There's no exit strategy for these people that doesn't involve a lot of suffering for people who are not them.

      I read an article in Science about how many tree species are not adapting to AGW-driven changes and how much forest land is going to become savannah or desert way ahead of previous predictions and another $100million gets spent in the public relations campaign to discredit climate science.

      Any effort to try to change our apocalyptic trajectory is met with unbelievable resistance. Does anyone doubt that things are going to have to get really really bad before anyone starts to put forward solutions?

      After all, Al Gore is so fat and he's got a high electric bill at his house so clearly global warming is a fraud.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    7. Re:Phew... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 2

      Does "active climate measures" mean dusting off the zany-but-endearing-in-a-slightly-creepy-way techno-utopianism of good old Project Plowshare?

      There must be a way to obtain carbon offset credits by using nuclear explosives to propel dust into the upper atmosphere and cause global cooling...

    8. Re:Phew... by riverat1 · · Score: 2

      At the rate the cost of solar photovoltaic cells are dropping it will soon be cheapest way to produce electricity. Then all we need is a way to store enough energy to get us through the intermittent nature of solar power.
       

    9. Re:Phew... by riverat1 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Put a price on carbon including the carbon that goes into producing and delivering imports. Then the high carbon/low regulation producers don't have an advantage over domestic producers.

    10. Re:Phew... by Cyberllama · · Score: 1

      If we run out of oil, I'd imagine we'd just start running our cars on liquefied coal.

    11. Re:Phew... by mspohr · · Score: 2
      Ah, I see what you're doing there... blame it on the government.

      These reactors are not "forbidden by the government". They are only theoretical designs and not expected to be ready for construction until at least 2030. If anyone can overcome the hurdles of cost, design of new technology, safety, etc., the government will license it for use. The problem is that no one wants to make the large investment in new nuclear technology when the old technology is so problematic and the payback so uncertain.

      Only the government is stupid enough to make this long shot bet and I don't think they are going to take the hook on this one at this time. Much better to spend billions on geothermal, solar and wind which are proven technologies with a very short construction time. The private sector is getting to the point where they don't even need govt. subsidies to invest in renewables.

      --
      I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
    12. Re:Phew... by presidenteloco · · Score: 2

      Grid-scale storage will be very helpful, yes, but super-conducting very-long-distance transmission could also be used (if it can be developed), to shunt power from sunny to cloudy or dark regions of a (super) continent or from windy to calm regions.

      --

      Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
    13. Re:Phew... by bhcompy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Sorry, nuclear is no longer "green". The public won't accept it. Instead, solar sails beaming microwaves to the ground.

    14. Re:Phew... by Jeremi · · Score: 2

      it could be replaced by nuclear, solar, wind, hamsters on wheels, and all that other green jazz.

      I look forward to the day we can all start complaining about how patents to would-be miracle inventions are being bought up and squirreled away by Big Hamster.

      --


      I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
    15. Re:Phew... by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      You are right but I was also thinking in terms of overnight for the solar power. If you follow battery technology much you know there are some potential developments that would improve them immensely.

    16. Re:Phew... by Muros · · Score: 5, Insightful

      China surpassed US both in absolute amount and in relative amount, by the way.

      What do you mean by relative amount? That graph shows China 15-20% above US. China has a population ~4.3 times the size of the US. Relatively speaking, that puts the US at about 360% of China's CO2 production.

    17. Re:Phew... by catchblue22 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Nobody wants to cut back on emissions in any meaningful way because it will mean literal death for large numbers of people unable to be supported by non-oil-based agricultural methods

      Your argument displays at least two logical fallacies. Firstly you imply that reductions in carbon emissions must necessarily involve an abandonment of fossil fuel use in agriculture. Emissions can be substantially reduced by living closer to where we work, by using more efficient transportation, and by designing our buildings more efficiently. This is an example of an all or nothing fallacy. Secondly, you implicitly misrepresent the views of more reasonable environmentalists, which is the strawman fallacy.

      --
      This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when first he appears as a protector - Plato (423 to 327 BC)
    18. Re:Phew... by rve · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I read an article in Science about how many tree species are not adapting to AGW-driven changes and how much forest land is going to become savannah or desert way ahead of previous predictions

      I don't know what tree species that was referring to, but an increase in temperature doesn't necessarily lead to desertification. People in temperate zones (especially those in Cs climates, which are rare outside California and southern Europe) may associate 'hot weather' with 'dry', but in the tropics, summer tends to be the rain season. During the exceptionally warm 90's and early 2000's, the deserts actually receded in Northern Africa. Now after a cooler than usual summer, drought is causing crops to fail again.

      By very far the major reason for the disappearance of forest land is the growing population cutting or burning it down to make farm land.

    19. Re:Phew... by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2

      I don't know what tree species that was referring to, but an increase in temperature doesn't necessarily lead to desertification.

      From what I recall, it wasn't just the increase in temperature, but the drought and insect infestations that the higher temperatures bring that was causing certain species, specifically types of pines and poplars. Now, other species are replacing some of the ones that are not doing so well, but there's also a lot of areas that are becoming grassland or desert sooner than expected.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    20. Re:Phew... by Electricity+Likes+Me · · Score: 5, Insightful

      He also misrepresents the entire process of modern agriculture - namely, none of the inputs are implicitly dependent on the active production of more CO2. All of them could be done more efficiently, or utilizing alternative power sources. Of course, he's also not covering the rather considerable issue that high-energy-driven intensive farming is doing a lot of long term damage to arable lands all over the world, and actively reducing their productive capacity. Changes to more sustainable farming methods would reduce the dependence of fertilizers and follow effects on marine ecosystems from run-off.

      But there's no sense letting any of that get in the way of trying to co-opt global hunger as a perverse argument *against* doing anything about climate change.

    21. Re:Phew... by rve · · Score: 3, Informative

      I don't know what tree species that was referring to, but an increase in temperature doesn't necessarily lead to desertification.

      From what I recall, it wasn't just the increase in temperature, but the drought and insect infestations that the higher temperatures bring that was causing certain species, specifically types of pines and poplars. Now, other species are replacing some of the ones that are not doing so well, but there's also a lot of areas that are becoming grassland or desert sooner than expected.

      In what part of the world? In North America pines are dying of a pest accidentally introduced from the old world. Something similar happened or is happening to chestnuts, elms and a number of other tree species and families. This is related to the columbian exchange, not to climate change.

    22. Re:Phew... by Electricity+Likes+Me · · Score: 1

      Well, if you separate large generating areas by 12 hours, then it's always daytime at one of them (and in practice, if you were building a super-conducting transmission line, it would make more sense to put solar plants along as much of it as you could).

    23. Re:Phew... by rally2xs · · Score: 2

      Show me nuclear, wind, hamsters,. etc. that will power a car down the road...

    24. Re:Phew... by rally2xs · · Score: 1

      No, there's one more thing beside storage. It is making cars run on it.

    25. Re:Phew... by Kagura · · Score: 1

      He also misrepresents the entire process of modern agriculture - namely, none of the inputs are implicitly dependent on the active production of more CO2. All of them could be done more efficiently, or utilizing alternative power sources. Of course, he's also not covering the rather considerable issue that high-energy-driven intensive farming is doing a lot of long term damage to arable lands all over the world, and actively reducing their productive capacity. Changes to more sustainable farming methods would reduce the dependence of fertilizers and follow effects on marine ecosystems from run-off.

      But there's no sense letting any of that get in the way of trying to co-opt global hunger as a perverse argument *against* doing anything about climate change.

      Hi. My argument isn't that we shouldn't do something about climate change. It's that we won't, at least not until preventative measures are useless. We'll be left to do something more exciting, like increasing the earth's albedo.

    26. Re:Phew... by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      True, but the transmission lines would have to be intercontinental to help the America's. At best they're around 6 or 7 hours across.

    27. Re:Phew... by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      See my reply to presidenteloco. It's likely that within a decade or so we'll have battery powered vehicles with ranges of 500 miles or more due to improvements in battery technology.

    28. Re:Phew... by rally2xs · · Score: 1

      I anxiously await the magic battery, but these global warming religeon people want to stop using fossil fuels right now. That's my point.

      I say we work like crazy to invent the magic battery. After that, the CO2 emissions will take care of themselves, with the help of clean-burning natural gas. That'll be the best we can do until someone really does a credible cold fusion.

    29. Re:Phew... by Arancaytar · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That feels far safer, indeed. :P

    30. Re:Phew... by riverat1 · · Score: 2

      I'm probably what you would call one of "these global warming religion people." I and the people I "worship" with know that it's going to take 20-30-40 years to wean ourselves from fossil fuels. It's going to take that long just to replace all of that fossil fuel infrastructure. Anyone with a lick of sense can figure that out. The point is to get serious about it. You should do a little research on leading edge battery research.

    31. Re:Phew... by Warwick+Allison · · Score: 1

      Interesting active climate measures are explored in Containment .

    32. Re:Phew... by Howitzer86 · · Score: 2

      Extreme weather created by greenhouse gasses should at some point hurt our economy too, reducing our output even more, so you could say "Earth will fight back." Considering the drought we're experiencing now, perhaps it's already started.

    33. Re:Phew... by dadioflex · · Score: 2

      Have you heard of batteries?

      Batteries.

    34. Re:Phew... by arose · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Of course, he's also not covering the rather considerable issue that high-energy-driven intensive farming is doing a lot of long term damage to arable lands all over the world, and actively reducing their productive capacity.

      No worries, a good chunk of that land won't be arable once the climate shift really gets going!

      --
      Analogies don't equal equalities, they are merely somewhat analogous.
    35. Re:Phew... by Patch86 · · Score: 1

      We're never going to run out of oil, in the simple sense. It's just that some oil reserves are relatively easy to access (stick a big metal straw into the ground and start sucking), while others are hellishly difficult (such as tar sands, which take colossally more money and huge amounts more energy to extract). When you deplete all the easy sources, the cost of oil products will go up to match the new extraction methods, and the greenhouse gas problem gets worse (due to the more intense energy usage of your extraction methods).

      The upshot is that the world becomes a much less pleasant place- but there will still always be petrol for your Ferrari for those who can afford it.

    36. Re:Phew... by Joce640k · · Score: 1

      Note that the US, who in principle did not sign the Kyoto protocol, actually reduced emissions significantly

      This word "significantly"....I don't think it means what you think it means.

      --
      No sig today...
    37. Re:Phew... by Anne+Thwacks · · Score: 1
      increasing the earth's albedo.

      Or decreasing its Libido!

      --
      Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
    38. Re:Phew... by Anne+Thwacks · · Score: 1
      It's likely that within a decade or so we'll have battery powered vehicles with ranges of 500 miles or more due to improvements in battery technology

      The 1880's called: They want their speculation back!

      --
      Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
    39. Re:Phew... by DigiShaman · · Score: 1

      Actually, it's pretty safe for people and other forms of life. What I'm worried about is the idea of becoming too dependent on this type of space based technology. All it takes is an act of war or a few nasty solar storms to knock out power generation. Satellites, while can be hardened, are still extremely vulnerable pieces of equipment.

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
    40. Re:Phew... by rally2xs · · Score: 1

      I've seen the lab announcements, the supposed "breakthrus" in battery tech, but the stuff is still not on the market. I think its still 10 - 20 years away from being found in an electric car that we can recharge in 3 - 5 minutes, or replace spent batteries with charged batteries in that timeframe, so that we can take it cross country and make decent time. I mean, I'm driving to Las Vegas from Virginia in March, and wouldn't buy an electric car that wouldn't be able to do the same thing. So, I have to be able to go about 300 miles and recharge or replace the battery in about 3 minutes. Yes, that's not going to happen any time soon, even with a battery breakthru, 'cuz getting that kind of electrical power to "refueling" stations would involve a serious electrical power construction project. And, certain "green" approaches like wind and solar would still probably make that too expensive.

      Our real way to beat the supposed problem, which I'm still not convinced is a problem, would be geo-engineering, which, unlike clensing the atmosphere of CO2, is doable both financially and practically. And at least one geo-engineering approach DOES clense the atmosphere:

      http://www.physorg.com/news199005915.html

      but you don't hear about that, either. The "worshippers" don't seem to want any geo-engineering solution, which makes the rest of us non-worshippers suspect that they are not sincere in their goals, and that they have hidden goals. Not all of them, but the leadership, the drum-beaters that I suspect have as a goal of bringing "the west" down in financial ruin. Its hard to conclude anything else when the worshippers are only interested in the most expensive solution, and just a few years ago were talking of spending $50T over the next 40 years to achieve it. Yeah, that was a global figure, but you know who would end up footing most of that bill... the USA, that's who. China / India won't even agree to cooperate, let alone do what the Europeans did - sign a treaty like Kyoto and then fail to live up to it. China / India won't even go thru the motions.

      So, anyway, since we all know that its going to take 20 - 30 - 40 years to replace the petroleum infrastructure with something clean, how about stopping the opposition to petroleum, so we can have a chance at prosperity again, and with that prosperity use a portion of it for the research to either solve the problem, or show once and for all that it is not really a problem?

    41. Re:Phew... by amck · · Score: 2

      Show me nuclear, wind, hamsters,. etc. that will power a car down the road...

      You may have missed the stories of electric cars .... the whole point of which is to consume nuclear, wind, ... energy.
      Similarly the move to trains all across Europe - specifically Electrc trains.

      --
      Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist
    42. Re:Phew... by rts008 · · Score: 1

      ...it's going to take 20-30-40 years to wean ourselves from fossil fuels. It's going to take that long just to replace all of that fossil fuel infrastructure. [...]The point is to get serious about it. (emphasis, mine)

      While I basically agree with your comment, I do not make the assumption that we will do any of this until it is too late/insufficient to work.

      "May you live long, and prosper.", could be misconstrued by a 'self proclaimed pessimist/cynic' as hopeless, 'feelgood',hippy, ideological BS, but it is a prophetic curse to the human species for those who realise the 'curse of the Human Species':

      1. Murphy's Law Rules!
      2. Humans are remarkably adaptable(+: It"s absolutely AMAZING what we have/can adapt to and thrive!)
      3. Deplorable how adaptable humans have become. (see #2, above)
      4. NEVER forget rule #1!

      There is more to my rant, but I will forgo that now. :-)

      I'm probably what you would call one of "these global warming religion people."

      Well, I don't consider myself part of/apart from your crowd...somewhere in the middle, maybe?
      I think we are having some effect on our environment, and need to 'factor that into the equation', I have questions on how much...
      IMHO, we need to get away from fossil fuels, and develop and switch over to sustainable, renewable, environmental-friendly, and practical solutions ASAP.
      *sigh* see rules #1 and #3, above...

      Tomorrows headlines: "Next Quarter Profits: Can humans finally beat evolution?"
       

      --
      Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
    43. Re:Phew... by rally2xs · · Score: 2

      I didn't miss the stories, just the cars. That is, there are none that will do what my Subaru WRX will do. Until there are, I'm not buying any, at least not as a "primary" car. I need something that will go 300 miles and "refuel" in about 3 minutes. I'm driving to Las Vegas from Virginia in March, and there are no electric cars that will do that in the timeframe my WRX will. The Chevy Volt will do it, but not on electricity.

      We need to keep and even expand our petroleum infrastructure until there _is_ such an electric car. Otherwise, we just sabotage our economy by making oil too expensive.

      Trains are fine, but they aren't cars, we drive cars, and its too expensive to erect catenary overhead wires for the distances our trains would be traversing, if indeed we could get ridership to pay for them which is highly unlikely. Europe has population density to support trains, but we don't.

    44. Re:Phew... by Chrisq · · Score: 4, Informative

      Note that the US, who in principle did not sign the Kyoto protocol, actually reduced emissions significantly (not just reduction in growth, but actual reduction) since 2007 due to the economic recession.

      So, we don't want to reduce carbon emissions because it will hurt our economy - but hurt the economy and emissions automatically reduce. Sounds like a vicious cycle that needs a technological exit strategy to me.

      Either you are wrong or the article's graph sourced from the US department of energy is. It shows no significant reduction, only a slight dip before a continued upward trend.

    45. Re:Phew... by Chrisq · · Score: 1

      I anxiously await the magic battery.

      I'll skip it and wait for the flux capacitor.

    46. Re:Phew... by Candyban · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Nobody wants to cut back on emissions in any meaningful way because it will mean literal death for large numbers of people unable to be supported by non-oil-based agricultural methods, and it will also mean a reduction in the standard of living for everyone else.

      That is bullshit. Insulating your house increases your living standard and reduces costs (less heating/cooling required). How does that "kill" the economy? It should even allow for cheaper oil (less demand). If you can save money and get better comfort, how is this bad?

      Look at BMW and Mercedes. You think they compromised on power or comfort with their new line of fuel efficient cars? When you don't lose as much time at the gas station and reduce toxins how is this bad?

      Household appliances use less power. This means I can now use both the washer and dryer simultaneously on the same circuit without losing the circuit breaker. When you can do more with less. How is this bad?

      CPUs and other electronics use less power for the same amount of processing capacity in each generation. Higher efficiency means longer battery life, smaller/lighter components as less cooling is required, ...
      You think we would have smartphones and iPads if components were as energy efficient as they were in the 60s? 70s? 80s? 90s? 2000s (P4 anyone?)? When you can have things which could not exist before, how is this bad?

      I am not saying this is true for all branches of the economy, but get your head out of the sand.
      Recycling (= renewable resources) is an increasing branch in our economy and we could no longer live without as we simply do not have access to cheap resources and the same will be true for energy.
      A lot of our devices and habits are VERY inefficient. Every house wastes energy for generating heat (heating, cooking) and cooling (airco, fridge) at the same time. Increasing the efficiency means cutting back on costs and emissions while standards of living increases for everyone. Did you hear about passive houses? They use residual heat from appliances to heat the house.
      How great would it be if each building was self sufficient and would have "the grid" only as a fall-back option? How cool would it be if you could drive to the store on the cooking grease of the previous meal? How much better would it be if you did not need to drive to work at all (work from home)?

      We are now using resources which took millions of years to form. You think we can keep this pace for another 500 years? 300 years? 100 years (this may be in the lifetime of my daughter which is 3 years old now)? 50 years (this may still be in my lifetime)? Who are we to use up all the resources for our enjoyment now and leave nothing for future generations? Our current habits are UNSUSTAINABLE and HAVE to change.
      Either we make changes ourselves or something cataclysmic will happen before 2150. We are at a crossroad between the responsible and the irresponsible way. Changing habits (responsible) takes effort but could preserve prosperity. The irresponsible road leads to destruction.
      You remember the days when we had acid rain?
      You remember the days when the hole in the ozone layer was growing?
      You remember the days when nuclear waste was dumped in the oceans?

      Economies and standards of living today dependent too much on cheap energy and cheap credit. Both will crumble eventually. Better prepare yourself or get wiped out and as we saw with the credit crunch (credit went away briefly), it can happen VERY fast and incur irreparable damage.
      Energy efficiency (aka reduction in emissions) is essential to our way of life (short term < 70 years) and even survival (long term > 300 years).

    47. Re:Phew... by hairyfeet · · Score: 2

      Molten salt solar I think would be the better path, also has the advantage of just needing mirrors and a salt tower instead of solar cells that have to be replaced. At night there is enough heat in the salt to use it as a battery.

      Of course they'll have to be built in the deserts but it isn't like we don't have plenty of desert land right? I bet with some work one could use salt as a battery for the solar cells as well, but I don't know how much would be lost in the conversion.

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    48. Re:Phew... by amck · · Score: 2

      Expand the petroleum infrastructure: In the US (and Europe) car ownership per capita peaked in 2004. Absolute car numbers have been in decline since 2008 in the US. Not only can you move away from the car, its already happening.

      Plan for it. Zone so that town and city centers are dense enough to undo the need for most car journeys. This has been happening in (parts of ) Europe for decades now.

      Do public investment for the trains. Train systems pay off over decades, which is far too long for private investment, but not a problem for public investment. Countries become rich over centuries of infrastructure buildup.

      --
      Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist
    49. Re:Phew... by MaskedSlacker · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I'm driving to Las Vegas from Virginia in March, and there are no electric cars that will do that in the timeframe my WRX will.

      Waaaa. Waaaa. I'm entitled to luxuries that no one in the entire history of humanity had outside of the last 70 years. Waaaa.

      The reality is our lifestyles are going to radically change over the next few decades. You might not like it, but, the physical realities of oil production and vehicle design being what they are, you'll just have to suck it up.

      More trains over land, more ship travel over sea, less personal automotive and passenger flight. That's the reality we're heading towards. Get over yourself.

    50. Re:Phew... by wisty · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Right, because simple neo-liberal economics *always* works when once-in-a-century events happen. If the market was really free, OPEC members would be allowed to massively cut production to keep oil in the ground (and would be run by long-term thinkers, not populists trying to please the both US overlords, and the mobs with AKs).

      The danger is, there can be a long lead time on "nuclear, solar, wind, hamsters on wheels, and all that other green jazz". Trying to change the whole world's fuel source in a short time period could be catastrophic. Maybe not for everyone, but if energy prices double then food prices in poor countries will go through the roof.

      People *are* looking into alternatives, but there's no serious funding. Everyone knows that the groundbreaking discoveries will go down in the history books, but not make a mint. Someone will then copy the technology, sidestep IP rights (through work-arounds, or lawyering, or some emergency degree annulling energy patents), find a way to make it 1/2 the price, and roll it out everywhere.

      There's no point doing research, if commercial applications won't be there for decades. The patents will expire, and the technological advantage will fade. Industry needs price signals, which are being suppressed by governments who want to burn up as much of our finite resources as possible before they have to run for re-election.

    51. Re:Phew... by Arlet · · Score: 1

      there will still always be petrol for your Ferrari for those who can afford it.

      No, because when there's not enough oil, civilization as we know it will collapse, including all the infrastructure needed to get the oil from the ground into your Ferrari.

    52. Re:Phew... by pjabardo · · Score: 1

      Brilliant! "Clean-burning natural gas" will help limit CO2 emissions??? You do realize that Natural Gas is a fossil fuel? What do you think natural gas is? When people say that natural gas is "clean" they are NOT talking about CO2 but of other pollutants that have local effects such as smog or even global effects such as acid rain. A fuel that releases only CO2 and water is called clean.

    53. Re:Phew... by Maury+Markowitz · · Score: 2

      > large numbers of people unable to be supported by non-oil-based agricultural methods

      Looking over the numbers, this does not appear to be an issue.

      The practical way to fix problems is to start with the biggest ones. The biggest ones in this case, as clearly shown on the graph, are "liquid" and "solid", namely fuels for transport and coal for electricity. Both of these are solvable, now. Unfortunately the solution to the first, PEH's and hybrid semis, *may* require more base load depending on where you live. And that means the second will likely require a massive nuclear buildout, but we don't really have that much uranium, and the hurdles to building remain huge.

      So instead we'll keep doing what we're doing now, continue a buildout of low-impact systems like wind and solar, and use the slow buildout as an excuse not to demand radical action on closing plants or demanding widespread adoption of PEHs.

    54. Re:Phew... by rally2xs · · Score: 1

      Yep, natural gas is a fossil fuel, but emits far less than other fossil fuels. Its the best we can do. We CANNOT aboandon fossil fuel unless we want to allow nuclear, can pay for nuclear, and get cars to run on electricity. There's no reason to build that sort of capacity until we get the cars running on electric, either, and nobody's invented the practical magic battery yet.

      Want to do something? Think geo-engineering. I've already posted this link once:

      http://www.physorg.com/news199005915.html

      Perfect that, and then solve the next problem of where you're going to stack all that elemental carbon you suck out of the atmosphere. But that would solve the problem, and yield a new, inexhaustible fuel source that could be transported easier than building electric lines that envirowackos oppose at every turn, we'd just truck it to electrical power stations and use it in place of coal, and that would result in no pollution EXCEPT CO2, and so all we have to do is haul CO2 out of the atmosphere faster than we burn it, and of course find someplace to stack it. Energy problem solved, pollution problem solved. But the AGW worshippers don't seem interested in anything that is not hideously expensive and would bankrupt the gov't. It is still to be suspected that all the AGW people really want is to sabotage the "evil" western gov'ts, and I've already taken an oath to defend the Constitution from enemies both foreign AND DOMESTIC, and will continue to do so until I die. I see that the AGW worshippers as enemies of this country.

    55. Re:Phew... by Skreems · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You've succeeded in a country rich in infrastructure and a well educated populace, both supported by public tax dollars. You can afford the fossil fuels necessary for such a trip in part because they are subsidized by further tax dollars, both in the form of direct subsidies and in military spending to guarantee us access to said resources. And you plan to take this drive on a public highway system which was built as part of one of the largest socialist economic stimulus projects in the history of the world. Congratulations. You're an asshole libertarian in the middle of a collective, and you've accomplished nothing on your own except being a giant self-deluded tool.

      --
      Slashdot needs a "-1, Wrong" moderation option.
      The Urban Hippie
    56. Re:Phew... by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      I anxiously await the magic battery, but these global warming religeon people want to stop using fossil fuels right now. That's my point.

      No, they want to start stopping using fossil fuels now, rather than waiting for them to be prohibitively expensive to do anything with and then have a mad dash to switch an entire planet's infrastructure over. Those crazy people.

      Current electric vehicle ranges are more than adequate for a large percentage of the population. The UK has the longest average commute in Europe, and it's 8.5 miles each way. Something with a 50 mile range on a single overnight charge would be enough for all except holiday travel for any of these people, and they could always rent something with a longer range for big trips.

      I say we work like crazy to invent the magic battery. After that, the CO2 emissions will take care of themselves, with the help of clean-burning natural gas

      No, because replacing the cars is not the only thing that you need to do. You also need to build the charging infrastructure. If you can get people using EVs for short regular commutes now, then that encourages people to start rolling out charging stations across cities and installing them at home. That makes the next generation of EV more attractive.

      Oh, and what makes you think that people aren't working on the next generation of batteries? That's a huge research area! Lithium-Sulphur batteries have come a long way in the last few years, and even NiMH cells have about three times the energy density that they did a decade ago and cost a fraction of what they did.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    57. Re:Phew... by pjabardo · · Score: 1

      It does not emit far less than other fossil fuels for same output energy. Since burning a gas is usually easier than burning a liquid, efficiency of natural gas engines is marginally better than gasoline for instance but nowhere close to "emit far less". Since natural gas is mostly methane (and that varies a lot from field to field), it might be simpler to use in fuel cells but most fuel cells use hydrogen anyway.

    58. Re:Phew... by mmcuh · · Score: 1

      Apparently Siberia has the population density to support it as well.

    59. Re:Phew... by rally2xs · · Score: 1

      Funny you mention the military spending as a subsidy for oil, when it is the lack of committment to drilling in this country that makes it necessary to look overseas for our oil. Were we to exploit all our oil, everywhere there is a drop of it under an American flag, we wouldn't have to do that. And, there would be NO military subsidy necessary and there would be NO petroleum subsidy necessary.

      Highways are the business of the public monies, as are schools (although some argue that the latter should not be, but I disagree.) What we do NOT need is Federal money in the schools. The more we spend in the DOE, the worse the kids do. Its time to shut down the DOE and let the local and state school boards have at it, and build a better mousetrap. My generation was educated that way, which is why we have roads built buy engineers educated that way, and had a manned moon program built by engineers that were educated that way. Some things become counterproductive when the Feds get involved, and education is one of them.

      I think that the highways could do without Fed money, too, but that would be harder than education. Either way, we have to stop the spending.

    60. Re:Phew... by JoeMerchant · · Score: 1

      Any power density interesting enough to bother building a satellite to "beam down" is not going to be healthy for anything that walks, flies, or swims through the beam. Not saying that it's not preferable to a nuke plant, but the potential for military (ab)use is even greater and more obvious.

    61. Re:Phew... by JoeMerchant · · Score: 1

      Your WRX is the end-product of roughly 100 years of R&D with billions per year invested in a worldwide competition to build better-cheaper-safer-more appealing vehicles.

      I'd guess that electric power is at about 1 to 2% of the total investment of petrol power at this point.

      It's like Bill Gates' excuse as to why a pen and notebook is so much more useful than a tablet PC.

    62. Re:Phew... by dpilot · · Score: 2

      Here's the real issue. The "easy energy" is gone. If there were to be a collapse, regaining a technological society after would be incredibly difficult, because it's no longer possible to "suck oil out of the ground from a straw," to paraphrase someone else. One easing factor of regaining a technological society would be the presence of nearly-refined stuff in landfills - the strip-mines of the future. Energy will be the tough part.

      --
      The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
    63. Re:Phew... by JoeMerchant · · Score: 1

      Let's just hope that all the "Day after tomorrow" whiplash reaction from the Earth predictions are wrong.

    64. Re:Phew... by JoeMerchant · · Score: 1

      Note that the US, who in principle did not sign the Kyoto protocol, actually reduced emissions significantly

      This word "significantly"....I don't think it means what you think it means.

      Read the article, I don't care enough to do the math or research, but what I read suggests that actual US reductions in emissions surpassed any target reductions that were being negotiated by the treaty, at least for the timeframe of 2007-2011.

    65. Re:Phew... by gtall · · Score: 1

      Yeah, cause hoisting stuff into space is cheap, right?

    66. Re:Phew... by JoeMerchant · · Score: 1

      Note that the US, who in principle did not sign the Kyoto protocol, actually reduced emissions significantly (not just reduction in growth, but actual reduction) since 2007 due to the economic recession.

      So, we don't want to reduce carbon emissions because it will hurt our economy - but hurt the economy and emissions automatically reduce. Sounds like a vicious cycle that needs a technological exit strategy to me.

      Either you are wrong or the article's graph sourced from the US department of energy is. It shows no significant reduction, only a slight dip before a continued upward trend.

      That graph is on a 100 year timeframe starting in 1902 and non-specific about when it stops after 2000... I was referring to the numbers quoted in the text for 2007 and beyond. Economically, I hope I don't continue to live in a 2007->2008 trend, but if it continued, we would be significantly reducing emissions year over year. Too lazy to go and re-read, I think the article was predicting a return to 2007 level emissions in 2011, i.e. flat for the last 4 years.

      Sure, we need reduction, not flat, but good luck even getting flat emissions out of China without extensive use of nuclear power...

    67. Re:Phew... by Eunuchswear · · Score: 1

      Were we to exploit all our oil, everywhere there is a drop of it under an American flag, we wouldn't have to do that

      So, where are these mythical reserves of yours?

      --
      Watch this Heartland Institute video
    68. Re:Phew... by Beyond_GoodandEvil · · Score: 1

      In 20 years it will not be affordable to drive gas-powered cars over any significant distance.
      Then you'd best plan on living on a farm, otherwise your ass will starve.

      --
      I laughed at the weak who considered themselves good because they lacked claws.
    69. Re:Phew... by gorzek · · Score: 2

      You seem to be ignoring the fact that we're already drilling the vast majority of the cheap oil available to us. Other extraction methods, like tar sands and liquefying coal, will still result in higher prices. Long-term, the prices are going up, period. By definition, that's going to price a lot of people out of driving anywhere, and anyone who isn't fabulously wealthy is going to feel the pinch. No one is trying to take anything away from you, it's simply reality catching up with us. You can't exponentially increase your consumption of a finite resource without eventually hitting a brick wall.

      The rest of your post is really beside the point as it has nothing to do with the economic viability of a system that depends so heavily on cheap fossil fuels.

    70. Re:Phew... by JoeMerchant · · Score: 1

      sarcasm

      Yes, but I live in Florida, and we have this HUGE phosphate strip mining industry that's eating a giant hole in the middle of the state while simultaneously creating huge piles of radon emitting slag next to the port. Without worldwide agricultural dependence on our phosphate production, we'd lose a couple of hundred blue collar jobs amounting maybe 0.1% of the economic impact of tourism. The strip mining would stop, the industrial port traffic would be reduced, all those clouds of sulphuric acid coming from the refineries would stop. Oh, please, please don't stop using our phosphates!
       
      /sarcasm

    71. Re:Phew... by SteveFoerster · · Score: 2

      I'm driving to Las Vegas from Virginia in March, and there are no electric cars that will do that in the timeframe my WRX will.

      That's true. But a model where people drive electric cars for day to day needs and rent carbonmobiles for trips like you describe would still take most gasoline powered cars off the road. (I'm not advocating a mandatory switch to that, just saying it might fit your use case.)

      --
      Space game using normal deck of cards: http://BattleCards.org
    72. Re:Phew... by olau · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Nobody wants to cut back on emissions in any meaningful way ...

      In Denmark, we do. I think it's the same for several other European countries. Denmark supported wind power way back and as a result have the world's largest wind turbine company despite a population of only 5.5 mio. As I gather, their percent-wise market share has been dwindling over the last years, perhaps because the former government (2001-2011) killed most of publicly-supported home-market initiative out of what was probably ideological (libertarian) reasons.

      EU has a goal of 30% of the energy usage from renewable sources in 2020 I think.

    73. Re:Phew... by Arlet · · Score: 1

      Exactly. We only discovered crude oil in the first place, because it was seeping out of the ground. All those places are gone.

      If the next civilization comes along 10,000 years from now, they're not going to drill 3 miles deep, 200 miles off-shore, to pump out some of the remaining oil.

    74. Re:Phew... by tbannist · · Score: 1

      NO! A THOUSAND TIMES NO!!! Plan your own life, leave mine alone. If I want to live 20 miles out of town, that is my business and you have no business making it more difficult or expensive. Crowding causes stress and breeds crime. We have enough of both already. Crowding is "living low", and this SHOULD be the land of plenty, and would be if we did taxes right, but that is a whole 'nother country of discussion.

      So rather than make your life more difficult they should make other people's lives more difficult?

      NO. NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!!!!! Haven't you been paying attention? We are BROKE! We have to stop the spending now. We have to do things that are CHEAPER, not find new ways for the gov't to go broke more quickly. We need to balance the budget. If its REALLY a good idea, it will attract enough ridership to be profitable. IF it doesn't, then we don't need it. And, people don't want to ride trains, or they'd be doing it.

      Lots of people ride trains. For instance, in New York city alone, there are over 1.6 billion train rides a year.

      --
      Fanatically anti-fanatical
    75. Re:Phew... by AJH16 · · Score: 2

      Your lack of faith in technology is somewhat disturbing. Fuel cells are incredibly capable sources of power generation that can be run from renewable resources. The main problem is safely sequestering the hydrogen in the event of a crash. Materials have been made that can do this and still provide the needed energy density, but currently the costs are too expensive to produce for general use and we lack the distribution network for hydrogen. As the cost of oil continues to rise and materials science continues to advance though, these obstacles will be overcome. Fuel cell (or some other technology) will come up and be commercially viable that will replace the oil producing car at some point based on rising costs and people will still be able to make that long trip in their personal vehicle. We have no immediate lack of options to produce power, we simply lack the desire as a people to spend more than we believe we need to. The fact is that "green" options require risks and investments that lack support. Nuclear specifically could provide all our power needs for quite some time until something better came along and faced with the prospect of losing what we have today, people would insist that it be used if no alternative was available.

      --
      AJ Henderson
    76. Re:Phew... by omnichad · · Score: 1

      Relative amount by land mass? I don't know where that came from.

    77. Re:Phew... by bhcompy · · Score: 1

      Indeed, many a Sim City 2000 disaster was caused by microwave mishaps

    78. Re:Phew... by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      How can it be that you say: So, we don't want to reduce carbon emissions because it will hurt our economy -
      When the european economies easily can reduce CO2 production *and* strive?

      The current economicaly crisis is not an economical one per se, but a financial one.

      (Hint: by investing into greener thechnology, the industry producing that green technology is growing and creating economical growth)

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    79. Re:Phew... by ravenshrike · · Score: 1

      If by colossally more energy you mean $80-100 per barrel then sure.

    80. Re:Phew... by radaghast · · Score: 1

      the greenhouse gas problem gets worse (due to the more intense energy usage of your extraction methods).

      Whoa whoa not likely, this would require them to actually ramp up production of fossil fuel in the face of lowering demand and increasing price. assuming we are making the assumption that the extraction equipment is powered by oil. it might take more oil to get at the oil in the ground, but the worldwide rate of oil production/consumption will not increase!

    81. Re:Phew... by operagost · · Score: 1

      I believe the debate was over the impact of carbon dioxide on the global mean temperature and whether any temperature increases were caused by man-- not whether carbon dioxide levels were increasing. But thanks for trolling.

      --

      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
    82. Re:Phew... by operagost · · Score: 1

      Fewer expensive two-hour jaunts by the President to stump for other Democrats on election day, paid for by the taxpayers... nah, that won't happen.

      --

      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
    83. Re:Phew... by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

      Aw come on it should be fine if we can just get a robot to believe that it has a religious duty to aim the beam properly...

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    84. Re:Phew... by operagost · · Score: 2

      The interstate system was created post-war for defense an technological reasons: not for a "stimulus". The earlier U.S. highway system was created in the middle of the 1920s economic boom: again, not a "stimulus". Good government does things like these to make the country stronger, not to enrich the pockets of cronies in the name of "stimulus".

      --

      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
    85. Re:Phew... by operagost · · Score: 1

      North Dakota.

      --

      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
    86. Re:Phew... by Pope · · Score: 1

      Bill Gates has billions, let him buy a new reactor or two?

      --
      It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
    87. Re:Phew... by operagost · · Score: 1

      Does anyone think that the time that oil might give us will be used to seriously look for alternatives? Hell no, we'll probably see them start building Hummers again!

      "Them" must refer to GM, which is now owned by the federal government, so blame Obama if that happens. OK, so GM starts building Obummers. Who's going to buy them? People with alzheimers? Oh, I forgot. You're one of those elitist Marxists who thinks you're more brilliant than the great unwashed. Ironic.

      --

      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
    88. Re:Phew... by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

      In about 10 years you can have your electric WRX (of course it will weigh even more, because SAFETY dammit, SAFETY!)

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    89. Re:Phew... by JazzLad · · Score: 1
      --
      "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear." - Every fascist, ever
    90. Re:Phew... by GodInHell · · Score: 1

      Skyhooks. Mmm.. sci-fi solutions to our problems.

      Or we could seriously commit to harnessing wind, solar, waves, geothermal and human produced power (I mean ride your bike to work and take the stairs to decrease power consumption). We should also start putting policies in places that make it harder to be sub-urban. Cities are much more efficient at using energy than the far flung sprawl.

      -GiH

    91. Re:Phew... by JoeMerchant · · Score: 2

      How can it be that you say: So, we don't want to reduce carbon emissions because it will hurt our economy -
      When the european economies easily can reduce CO2 production *and* strive?

      The current economicaly crisis is not an economical one per se, but a financial one.

      (Hint: by investing into greener thechnology, the industry producing that green technology is growing and creating economical growth)

      Yes, yes, yes, but what you fail to realize is that the established industries (coal, oil, natural gas, etc.) are the ones with the deep connections to the politicians. Anything that hurts them hurts our "democratically elected representatives." How will we ever get out of this without killing them all and starting over?

    92. Re:Phew... by rally2xs · · Score: 1

      WRX is ALREADY one of the best-crashing cars on the road.

      And I am really, really hoping for the magic battery. That will solve TONS of problems.

    93. Re:Phew... by ganjadude · · Score: 1

      well, not oil, but the environmentalists are in the process of trying to block natural gas extraction in NY state right now. under the US, there is more energy in thermal/oil/natural gas for us to be fine without saudi or outside influence, we just need to be able to get it without NIMBY issues

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    94. Re:Phew... by ganjadude · · Score: 1

      and who the hell are you to decide what should be legal or illegal? when did we declare you the decider? was there a vote or something? hey slashdot, you forgot to inform me of the vote to make this guy the decider!!!

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    95. Re:Phew... by MacDork · · Score: 1

      He also misrepresents the entire process of modern agriculture - namely, none of the inputs are implicitly dependent on the active production of more CO2

      I think you forgot about tillage.

      But there's no sense letting any of that get in the way of trying to co-opt global hunger as a perverse argument *against* doing anything about climate change.

      Global hunger has been a direct result of some of the ridiculous schemes to reduce CO2.

    96. Re:Phew... by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

      Nothing magic about it, it's just the same reason you now have cheap and tiny RC aircraft that were unimaginable a decade ago, and why you don't need to stick 12 AA batteries into your iPhone4 to make it run for a day.

      Yes the WRX is already one of the safest but the soccer moms will want MORE and MORE. There's no end to the safety arms race - at least not until you can walk away from a head-on collision at highway speeds with no injuries, and even then you better hope nobody starts it up again by producing a new SUV-like penis compensator that's bigger than everything else on the road.

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    97. Re:Phew... by ganjadude · · Score: 1

      sure, we could all live closer to where we work...but you know what could cut emissions even more??? if we all just lived where we work! it would be great, we wouldnt need to leave, we could all just do some work and others at our job could do other work, and we could just trade with each other right?? its the next logical step after moving closer to work right?

      heres a clue, not all of us like to be in cities, not all of us like to be on top of other people, I enjoy living on a few acres out in the middle of nowhere, and it takes me 25 minutes to get to work. i wouldnt have it any other way

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    98. Re:Phew... by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

      It could make a nice fish farm ;-P

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    99. Re:Phew... by ganjadude · · Score: 1

      that may be true in the EU, in america, the travel time to work is much larger

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    100. Re:Phew... by GameboyRMH · · Score: 2

      Well first you have to realize you're part of a tiny minority with extreme range driving requirements, so electric cars will be practical for most people long before they will be for you specifically.

      Next, the reason a lot of environmentalists are wary of geo-engineering is because it's more risky, no ulterior motives necessary. We've increased the atmospheric CO2 so the safest way to reverse it is to stop releasing fossil CO2 and eventually start putting some atmospheric CO2 back into the ground. Personally I don't think geo-engineering should be ruled out, the way I see it we're already drastically messing with the atmosphere with no real goal, so why not drastically mess with it with the aim of doing something positive? That said, continuing to release CO2 while compensating with some other geo-engineering technique obviously isn't sustainable in the long term. Many environmentalists are worried that this is what will happen if geo-engineering is allowed, and that we'll just end up putting ourselves into a bigger shit sandwich by over-using a quick fix.

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    101. Re:Phew... by Eunuchswear · · Score: 1

      Bullshit.

      Somewhere between 2 to 24 billion barrels recoverable.

      US consumption is around 7 billion barrels a year.

      So it'd last between 3 months and 3 years.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakken_formation

      --
      Watch this Heartland Institute video
    102. Re:Phew... by JoeMerchant · · Score: 1

      Skyhooks. Mmm.. sci-fi solutions to our problems.

      Or we could seriously commit to harnessing wind, solar, waves, geothermal and human produced power (I mean ride your bike to work and take the stairs to decrease power consumption). We should also start putting policies in places that make it harder to be sub-urban. Cities are much more efficient at using energy than the far flung sprawl.

      -GiH

      Hey, I like living in my sprawl! I woudn't mind having decent mass transit to ride, but decent - economically viable - mass transit - and sprawl don't seem to all work together, yet.

      Tell you what, let me use 200 square feet of my 2400 square foot house as a "virtual office" and teleconference to my colleagues as needed, hell, leave the connection open 9 hours a day, instead of making me drive 20 miles a day to share an 80 square foot office with another guy and bitch about how the AC is always too cold.

    103. Re:Phew... by idbedead · · Score: 1

      Actually efficiency is the fallacy. Because of the huge latency involved in CO2 emissions (what we put up now will be there for ~100 years), the burn rate doesn't matter that much. If we use all of the fossil fuels available it will be the end of the planet as we know it. Whether we draw it out over another 50 years because of increased efficiency doesn't really matter. Increases in efficiency combined with transition away from fossil fuels is the only way to go.

    104. Re:Phew... by Raenex · · Score: 2

      environmentalists are in the process of trying to block natural gas extraction in NY state right now

      Those crazy environmentalists, who are concerned about the drinking water for millions of people. I'm all for drilling, as long as it's responsible, but the industry has not show itself to be and the politicians are too corrupt to make them be.

    105. Re:Phew... by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      You have got to admit that NYC is an edge case.

      Highest population density in N. America IIRC. Trains are profitable there. Making your opponents argument for him.

      Basing national policy on New York City makes as much sense as basing in on a rancher in BFE. New Yorkers don't need tough old 4x4 pickups. Ranchers don't need subways. We don't need national policies. Cities and States can handle this just fine. Amtrack should shut down it's grossly unprofitable routes. We ARE broke.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    106. Re:Phew... by NeutronCowboy · · Score: 2

      Yes, the pine borer. It used to be restricted to the southern and eastern parts of the US, because the larvae can't survive a good frost. Now they're migrating west and north, even over the rockies. Since they're so temperature sensitive, and since tree populations haven't changed significantly in the last 20-30 years, the conclusion that everyone is coming to is that the warmer weather allows them to survive in areas that they previous weren't able to.

      So yes, the pine borer migration is a direct result of global warming, and a very nice indicator of how it's progressing.

      --
      Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
    107. Re:Phew... by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      People adjust to price shifts all the time. GP is already driving a four banger. (admittedly a turbo charged fire breathing four banger). More then I'll do.

      If the market shifts and poor people are riding buses that's the beauty of roads (as opposed to rails), you can add buses and bus routes with ease.

      Give carbon fiber another decade or two and cars will be much lighter. Give batteries another decade or two and electric cars might not generally suck. In before the inevitable Tesla roadster defense. Production of the Lotus Elise is stopping. Hence the roadster is stopping as well. It isn't viable, even at it's price, without a gas powered partner to share the chassis. Were I contemplating a Tesla Roadster I think I would buy a nice used airplane instead.

      Nobody is saying _Never_. We are saying that we will fight to keep additional taxes off our toys (some will go further then others). The fuel taxes we pay (which support your buses and trains in addition to paying for all the roads) are high enough.

      We've had about enough of hipsters sneering at our collection of V8s. Your not paying for them, we are subsidizing your bus as we blow past you.

      I have yet to see any convincing study that shows gasoline is subsidized. A good look at the claims of those that say it is show 'subsidies' like business deducting normal expenses. TAXES ON GASOLINE that are used to pay for roads are treated as as subsidy on gasoline (hutzpa).

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    108. Re:Phew... by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      This means I can now use both the washer and dryer simultaneously on the same circuit without losing the circuit breaker.

      Citation needed. I've never seen a 240V washer or a 120V dryer; these two are ALWAYS on separate circuits because they don't even operate at the same voltage. (Note, this assumes you're in the USA.)

      CPUs and other electronics use less power for the same amount of processing capacity in each generation. Higher efficiency means longer battery life, smaller/lighter components as less cooling is required, ...

      Computers use far more power than they did 20+ years ago. They do a lot more with that power, yes, but my old 286 computer didn't need a CPU fan, and I'm quite sure the overall power consumption was lower than my current system (definitely, if you exclude monitors; not sure if you include them, since my dual 24" monitors now have LED backlighting and only use about 25W each, whereas my old 14" CRT probably used 75W or more). We had laptops even back in 1990, even though the battery technology then was crap; again, the laptops now use much more power.

      A modern BMW produces far more HP per gallon gasoline than an old VW Beetle, but the Beetle still gets better fuel economy per distance traveled. Same thing with computers.

      Economies and standards of living today dependent too much on cheap energy and cheap credit. Both will crumble eventually. Better prepare yourself or get wiped out and as we saw with the credit crunch (credit went away briefly), it can happen VERY fast and incur irreparable damage.
      Energy efficiency (aka reduction in emissions) is essential to our way of life (short term 300 years).

      I'm not very hopeful. With some things, when you get past a certain point, then everything just collapses like a house of cards. I don't have much hope that humans are going to make the necessary changes before we get to the point where it's simply too late.

    109. Re:Phew... by sycodon · · Score: 1

      solar sails beaming microwaves to the ground.

      What?

      There may actually be a legitimate need for tin foil hats in that case.

      So let me see how this goes:

      "The public won't accept it" (Nuclear power) so we should stop all research and development and shit can the existing plants.

      But the public expresses doubt about AGW or at least the proposed solutions and, let me guess, they need education and persuasion; must be convinced for all our sakes.

      Why do people always look for pie in the sky solutions that won't be ready for ten years and would never be able to provide the generation capacity to meet base load requirements? Nuclear is here now, works and when managed correctly is perfectly safe. It also has great potential for technological advancement and even greater safety.

      --
      When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    110. Re:Phew... by V+for+Vendetta · · Score: 1

      China surpassed US both in absolute amount and in relative amount, by the way. US and the rest of the world has expanded their use proportionately.

      And now put those numbers into perspective and look at the per capita numbers. Looking that way, we (=the western world) are still the worst polluters - by a large margin. And we've been so for a long time. Now even with our very tiny decreases in emissions pointing fingers to other countries and demanding them to stop their grows while we can't be bothered to use our advanced technology to get rid off our own mess before, is hypocritical.

    111. Re:Phew... by genner · · Score: 1

      and who the hell are you to decide what should be legal or illegal? when did we declare you the decider? was there a vote or something? hey slashdot, you forgot to inform me of the vote to make this guy the decider!!!

      You can't decide he's not he decider!

    112. Re:Phew... by h4rr4r · · Score: 1

      The power density will be plenty low enough, the beam width will just huge.

    113. Re:Phew... by doggo · · Score: 2

      Subsidize rent & mortgage payments for workers who move within walking distance of their jobs.

    114. Re:Phew... by atamido · · Score: 1

      Yeah, cause hoisting stuff into space is cheap, right?

      No, but I think the idea is to ensure that you don't lift too much mass into space. The transmitter is a relatively small size/mass. The real issue is if they can find a way to make the solar collection/panels small enough. You could create a giant solar sail to reflect light to a much smaller solar panel, but that would likely result in heat issues. If they could develop a paper thin solar panel, that is light enough, then it might be practical to ship it into space.

      When you consider the military spends some $400/gallon for gas in places like Afghanistan, because it costs so much to move it in guarded convoys, things start looking up. A collection site for microwaves is basically a bunch of wires strung back and forth, which should be pretty easy to set up and much easier to repair than a large set of generators.

    115. Re:Phew... by mspohr · · Score: 1
      The politics of energy subsidies follow those with money to bribe politicians. I think we can count on continued subsidies to oil, coal, nuclear. They want to kill renewables which are a threat to their business revenue.

      The deficit problem is due to the recession, tax breaks to the rich and a few wars. Take care of these distortions and the deficit goes away (like under Clinton).

      --
      I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
    116. Re:Phew... by pitkataistelu · · Score: 1

      You're overlooking the fact that greater efficiency drives up demand. As Chris Goodall suggests in his book, when people install cleaner energy/heating for their houses they will start to use more of it--so if you insulate your house, you will feel justified to heat it to a higher level, to some extent cancelling out initial benefits. Similarly, the efficient computer chips you mention mean that we now feel we need to carry at least two full-fledged computers with us in our pockets wherever we go, meaning the total environmental degradation goes up, not down.

    117. Re:Phew... by StikyPad · · Score: 1

      Are people really moving away from cars as the primary mode of transportation, or are they just giving up the 2rd/3nd vehicle in order to make their mortgage payments?

    118. Re:Phew... by ganjadude · · Score: 1

      drinking water wont be affected by anything, the one case where they tried to claim flames were coming out of the sink turned out to have nothing to do with it.

      im not saying that they should just dig a big hole and ruin everything but we NEED these things, and me, living in the "kill zone" of indian point have no issue with it being there, and from the facts that we have gotten i see no reason fraking cant be done safely

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    119. Re:Phew... by JoeMerchant · · Score: 1

      Might as well just accept solar power as it falls naturally. 100% pure natural sunlight already turns caucasian skin all kinds of painful purple and red in less than an hour, blisters within 2 or 3. Increase that power density by a factor of 100 and see what happens, even if you shift the wavelengths.

    120. Re:Phew... by rve · · Score: 1

      The pine bark beetle is native to the Americas. It occurs high up in the smoky mountains, Canada, Alaska. It can take a good frost. Its spread in recent decades probably has more to do with people moving wood all over the country. The eggs sometimes survive in logs and planks for construction.

      The pest I was referring to are various species of Adelgids, introduced from Asia. In some places, entire mountain sides resemble bone yards, with all the dead pines.

    121. Re:Phew... by scot4875 · · Score: 1

      In what part of the world?

      My part of the world. The pests you refer to were there before, but milder winters have allowed their populations to stay much higher and to move much further north. There are large parts of Montana's forests that are just red now. Driving down highway 95 I see big patches of red dying trees that simply weren't there 10 years ago.

      --Jeremy

      --
      Jesus was a liberal
    122. Re:Phew... by Raenex · · Score: 1

      drinking water wont be affected by anything

      Try reading this article:

      http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=drill-for-natural-gas-pollute-water

      One of the biggest problems is these people refuse to provide the chemicals they are using in their operations. How are we supposed to monitor for spills, or emergency crews respond, when they won't even give you that information?

      You should know that the industry cares more about money than people, and will engage in propaganda, bribes, and secret settlements to make money.

      You think it can be done safely? Fine, but take every damn precaution, monitor it religiously, and prove it out. No bullshit secrets. Also force them to hold back a percentage of profits for funds in case something goes wrong, as it inevitably does despite claims of safety.

    123. Re:Phew... by Anguirel · · Score: 1

      Your old 286 had less computational ability than a smart phone, and last I checked, my smartphone doesn't have a CPU fan, and runs on a hell of a lot less power than a 286 required.

      I'm not a car person, so I'm less sure ont his one -- if you ran the modern BMW and the old VW Beetle at the same speeds and with using the same non-essential extras (e.g. A/C, sound, GPS, etc...), would that fuel economy picture still favor the Beetle? I know there's a lot of neat engineering in the old Beetle, so it wouldn't really surprise me either way, but if you can get more HP per gallon, I don't see how that could fail to translate into better fuel economy for travelling, unless the BMW is somehow really poorly designed for aerodynamics, or if it is draining off power for some other use than locomotion. Is it a weight difference?

      --
      ~Anguirel (lit. Living Star-Iron)
      QA: The art of telling someone that their baby is ugly without getting punched.
    124. Re:Phew... by h4rr4r · · Score: 1

      Go google UV light and then get back to me.

      Wavelength matters.

    125. Re:Phew... by Saroful · · Score: 1

      Either you are wrong or the article's graph sourced from the US department of energy is. It shows no significant reduction, only a slight dip before a continued upward trend.

      Why would you try to introduce facts into a discussion about climate change?

    126. Re:Phew... by triffid_98 · · Score: 1

      Fuel cells are incredibly capable sources of power generation that can be run from renewable resources. The main problem is safely sequestering the hydrogen in the event of a crash.

      Really? I thought the main problem was the rather large amount of platinum you need to make one.

      Add in the fact that producing large quantities of hydrogen involves using a boat-load of electricity, which probably comes from the same coal fired power plant that is currently charging your electric car.

      Sticking a fuel cell in the center of a car = safely sequestering it in the event of a crash. Problem solved. See how easy that was?

    127. Re:Phew... by Anguirel · · Score: 1

      10 years ago, I was reading about break-throughs on thermal depolymerization to recover oil from waste products. It appears at least some of those plants have come online and are producing what I would consider "green" oil. Sure, it's still oil, but it's renewable (after a fashion), and it's using up waste products that would otherwise end up in landfills or incinerated.

      I hadn't heard of an effective alternative to plants for photosynthesis, such as the methodology of your link, though I also wouldn't consider it geo-engineering, at least not directly. It's just a shortcut to a renewable cycle, cutting out the whole growing-plants middle bit that most require. Anyone interested in creating a renewable energy system would welcome that type of technology, though even then, electric technology is more efficient than internal combustion engines in cars, and the pollution issues in cities is more about air quality, so even with that being used to reclaim some emissions into fuel, you'd still want to convert people over to electrics for local commutes where possible.

      --
      ~Anguirel (lit. Living Star-Iron)
      QA: The art of telling someone that their baby is ugly without getting punched.
    128. Re:Phew... by YetAnotherBob · · Score: 1

      I like the Hamster wheel idea. It might just work with fewer environmental negatives than the others have. Hamster can get by on yard waste. How well do Hamsters scale?

      If it turns out that it isn't a good idea, we can always feed the hamsters to dogs and then eat the dogs like the Chinese do.

      --
      Everybody knows 3 people with my name.
    129. Re:Phew... by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      Your old 286 had less computational ability than a smart phone, and last I checked, my smartphone doesn't have a CPU fan, and runs on a hell of a lot less power than a 286 required.

      Irrelevant. No one uses smartphones to write Word documents, work on spreadsheets, etc. Very few use them as their primary means of communicating on the internet on forums like this one. Back in the 286 days, those computers were the standard for word processing, spreadsheets, and communications (though back then it was usually on BBSes, or Usenet rather than websites, but the activity is the same though the details have changed). These days, people usually use desktop PCs with Core2 CPUs to do these tasks. So, for the same tasks, they're using more electric power.

      if you ran the modern BMW and the old VW Beetle at the same speeds and with using the same non-essential extras (e.g. A/C, sound, GPS, etc...), would that fuel economy picture still favor the Beetle?

      Yes. In fact, any crappy old 80s economy car will probably beat the BMW. According to this, the old Beetle got around 25mpg. According to Edmunds, a new BMW 7-series gets 17/25. Maybe I should have picked a higher-end car, like a Bentley or Ferrari. A brand-new Bentley Brooklands Coupe gets 9 in the city and 15 on the highway. It has nothing to do with engineering, it's all about basic physics: the Beetle weighted little more than a bicycle (hyperbole), had a tiny engine with little horsepower, so it got good fuel economy. Even the Model T got better fuel economy than that Bentley. The Bentley, OTOH, weighs as much as a tank and has a giant, powerful engine.

    130. Re:Phew... by YetAnotherBob · · Score: 1

      Cost is still too expensive, though the cost has come down an order of magnitude or two.

      But yes, getting the pollution off planet is a good long term idea. After all, on the Moon, there is no ecology to damage. There is even less in orbit than on the moon. We don't want to hurt the rocks feelings, now, do we?

      One problem though, the fuel supply for this orbital solar thing is only good for around 5 Billion Years. It may already be hitting it's Hubbart peak. After all, according to Astronomers and other Respected Scientists, it's already half used up. There also seems to be an idea of Solar Warming floating around out there.

      Any ideas? Shouldn't we already be looking for another star?

      --
      Everybody knows 3 people with my name.
    131. Re:Phew... by AJH16 · · Score: 1

      The platinum requirement is what makes them expensive (and there is work going on in developing a platinum free fuel cell), but the main safety concern is storage of the hydrogen in a safe manner. Even storing it in the center of the car is not a sure fire method of protection as stresses in a crash could cause a rupture and subsequent explosion. There are however designs being worked on that would render it safe by limiting the rate at which hydrogen could escape from the storage tank, even if it was structurally compromised. Electric cars that run on batteries are simply not viable for long distance travel and there will have to be a long distance travel option for people in the future. A stop gap possibility would be electric vehicles for commuting with car rental places carrying the more expensive fuel cell vehicles that would allow for personal long distance transit.

      As for the comment about where the power comes from, I wasn't making any claim that they don't require lots of power, simply making the claim that they (or something like them) will be a viable solution to avoid the loss of technological availability that MaskedSlacker seemed to be indicating he thought would be necessary. My point was that technologies already exist that could continue the same convenience we have now if we developed good sources of clean power production.

      --
      AJ Henderson
    132. Re:Phew... by spyfrog · · Score: 1

      Yes, and you use these wind turbines by buying German coal and Swedish water and nuclear power when the wind doesn't blow. So you are in no way self reliant - you have outsourced our energy problems to you neighbors.

    133. Re:Phew... by bziman · · Score: 1

      More trains over land, more ship travel over sea, less personal automotive and passenger flight. That's the reality we're heading towards. Get over yourself.

      I'd like to point out that passenger ships get about 37 miles per passenger per gallon at about 20 knots, while a Boeing 747 gets nearly 70 miles per passenger per gallon at over 500 knots. So unless you plan on sailing across the ocean, airplanes are still more efficient.

      Sources

      Ship

      Airplane

    134. Re:Phew... by iUseMyBrain · · Score: 1

      Just a couple things: - The government is actually pouring money into "alternative energy". Wind for example, but ask anyone in the business and they'll tell you that its not a viable option at all, but they'll still take the gov's money cause hey, its free $$. (this is personal knowledge, not just some made up bs) - There is enough oil in the Dakota's alone to last the US over 2,000 years using oil at the rate we do right now, that's pretty long term if you ask me.

    135. Re:Phew... by YetAnotherBob · · Score: 1

      Hamsters work, if you have enough of them, and if you are not addicted to speed.

      Imagine the look of a 10,000 Hamster roadster! That would be impressive!

      I wonder how many miles per ton of seed you would get? You could probably fertilize the entire neighborhood before you even got all the way down the block!

      On a completely different topic, there is a group that is trying to get permission to build a Thorium powered sports car. It gets supposedly around 150,000 KMPKG (Km/Kg of fuel), and only needs a modest particle accelerator. They are projecting a cost of around $5,000.00 for the 200 KW power plant when it reaches mass production. Just add an electric vehicle. The thing is not much more radioactive than a standard university Nuclear Howitzer (a source of Alpha particles for experiments, not a weapon). It is steel encased, with a lead shield. Weighs around a Ton, only a little heavier than an old V8 twin four barrel muscle car engine (think Mach II Mustang). It should be able to go into immediate production, right after they get NRC approval. There is supposed to be almost no radioactive by-products. So write your Congresscritter.

      See more about this at any of the following:

      http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2011/09/19/us-company-developing-radioactive-steam-powered-car-engine/
      http://wardsauto.com/ar/thorium_power_car_110811/
      http://techblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2011/08/inventor-working-on-thorium-po.html

      Or, you could just let Google do the walking.

      I love the line that "The car will wear out before you need to refuel." I think Yugo tried that a some years ago, but it didn't work out too well for them.

      I have also seen a wind powered car that can go over 70 MPH in a good stiff breeze. It was on the road in Michigan in the mid 1970's. It was cool. It looked like a three wheeled glider with no wings or elevators, and a big eight foot tall arch where the wings should be. It did best in a crosswind, which that part of Michigan always has, so your dreams can still live.

      See, all of these are possible. Except for a people carrying Hamstermobile, all of these are being worked on, or have already been done. And, I have seen concept hamtermobiles, though they could only carry a couple of ounces of cargo/riders, as they only used a single hamster.

      The Hamster concept still needs scaling up.

      --
      Everybody knows 3 people with my name.
    136. Re:Phew... by Anguirel · · Score: 1

      But people do use low-heat Laptops for that, and purchase low-power sub-$500 PCs with highly efficient chips (and the same sub-300 Watt Power Supplies) for those tasks. So similar power consumption, albeit possibly reduced somewhat by being more effective (less time spent crunching numbers when a large spreadsheet calculation is started), and less time need to scroll (higher resolution). Along with the advances in lighting and displays, which you've already noted partially in reference to monitors.

      I will grant that many more people are using computers than were using them in the 286 era, moving over from typewriters and manual book keeping, but I'd argue that the reduction in paper manufacturing and transportation costs associated with it counter those effects.

      According to Edmunds, a new BMW 7-series gets 17/25.

      And, from the same source, the 5 series gets 20 cty/30 hwy mpg, and the Z4 gets 22 cty/34 hwy mpg. You know, the fuel-efficient ones, that were specified by the post you replied to. And look, they are apparently more efficient than the Beetle.

      --
      ~Anguirel (lit. Living Star-Iron)
      QA: The art of telling someone that their baby is ugly without getting punched.
    137. Re:Phew... by YetAnotherBob · · Score: 1

      The infrastructure isn't there yet. But, with electrified roads, and a Google type autodriver, you could just get in and let the car drive you to your destination. I would want to schedule 3 or 4 stops along the way.

      there are several ways to electrify the roads. The simplest would be to have a rail trolley like the trains in France use. Then, just run a power line along one lane of any freeway. You car will draw power directly from the power line. You will literally NEVER have to stop for gas. A system like this could be installed within 3 years, coast to coast and north to south. The biggest problem is getting the cars to have the trolley system. That would take the addition of a lift. but, trains in europe have been using the same system for over 30 years now. It works.

      Perhaps less costly would be to electrify the rail lines, and just load your car onto a flatbed, then either stay in the car, or get in a passenger car on the train.

      Oh, you are wrong about the cost of catanary lines for railroad tracks. There are already poles and signal lines up all along the tracks. It's really just the cost of stringing the wire. It would take less than a year and probably less than $10 Billion to make the switch. More expensive would be retrofitting the locomotives to fully electric. However, for the true high speed rail they are using in Europe and Asia, our tracks aren't built for the speed. We use trains that go less than half the speed. (70 verses 150 MPH). Whole rail lines would have to have all the curves relaid. Different slopes, different bracing, perhaps different spacing, different radii, there is a need for a lot of engineering there.

      Compared to the cost of changing the track, the cost of overhead lines is minor. We have of course changed out the tracks and relaid the curves before. A couple of times in fact. it takes about a decade to do it. We went from light gage rails to heavy gage rails, then from narrow track to wide track. For the track, this is just one more change.

      The real problem is to convince the railroads to do it. We can't right now. Federal rules are designed to promote trucks and discourage trains for cargo. That is union driven. The Teamsters are already mad as wet hens about the cost advantages of rail over road travel as it is. If the railroads thought they could recapture a bunch of the passenger travel from the Airlines, and if they could take back more of the cargo traffic from the truckers, they would do it. As I said, it would take around a decade, and it would be a pay as you go type system.

      The Government would have to support an increase in the power grid to add the additional load. 3 or 4 large reactors should do it.

      So, how about it. If you could go from Las Vegas to Virgina in half the time that it will take you to drive, and for half the cost, would you?

      Flying would still take half the time, but that is less and less important as the distances are lessened.

      And, you are correct, this will be much more successful in higher density areas. Along the east coast from Virginia to Maine is a no brainer. Same with California from San Diego up to Sacramento, and over to Las Vegas.

      Perhaps a New York to Albany to Chicago by way of Pittsburgh and Detroit line.

      Those will probably be the initial big money routes.

      Similar routes from LA to Las Vegas and from Phoenix to Tucson, then pushing west to LA have been proposed for a couple of decades now. Nevada almost paid for a LA to LV line twenty years ago, but backed out at the last minute. They wanted to make it easier to gamble in Vegas than in the California Indian casinos.

      So far, no group has been willing or able to put up a couple of Billion to do it. Arizona almost did the Phoenix-Tucson tie five years ago, but the budget crash happened and killed that. A half hour between downtown to downtown would mean that a lot more people would be able to live along that corridor and work at either end. It would pay for itself over a ten year period. But, not this decade. There

      --
      Everybody knows 3 people with my name.
    138. Re:Phew... by YetAnotherBob · · Score: 1

      No, the overall Earth ecosystem doesn't care about per capita. It only matters what the totals are. The totals are that China burns more stuff than the US does. Also, the US grows more carbon containing stuff than China does. (That is not included in the graphs, trees and such.) This is a function of arable land area. Population doesn't even enter into it. That means we put less in the air, and take more out of it. Of stuff we don't seem to want in it ( CO2), that is.

      Canada also burns less than China does, and also grows more trees and bushes and other plant matter than china does too.

      Why can't supposed Geeks understand simple addition and multiplication? I realize he is preaching his religion, but it's not coming across as anything but brain dead.

      --
      Everybody knows 3 people with my name.
    139. Re:Phew... by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

      They are only theoretical designs and not expected to be ready for construction until at least 2030.

      No, there was a running Integral Fast Reactor operating in the early 90's. Clinton's team defunded it immediately and shut it down in subsequent years.

      It solves the nuclear waste cleanup problem as well as the energy source problem. In my opinion, leaving massive quantities of nuclear waste for future generations to deal with is irresponsible.

      http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/reaction/interviews/till.html

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    140. Re:Phew... by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

      Hmm...where would we be now if the $1 trillion stimulus was spent on perfecting and implementing a IFR design instead of paying back Obama's cronies?

      Out of the Middle East wars, so it's not gonna happen. IFR is bad for the Empire.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    141. Re:Phew... by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      The heck with recharging in 3-5 minutes. They need to design the cars to take a standard modular battery that can be swapped out in 5 minutes so if you need more range you just pull into a "filling" station and trade batteries.

      Geoengineering without reducing CO2 does nothing to help the ocean acidification issue. Geoengineering that reduces sunlight reduces the yield of our food crops. Unless you're pretty sure about the secondary effects geoengineering could be dangerous.

      I think your $50T figure is way off base. That may be the total cost but how much will we spend if we don't go the renewable route? It could be that we spend $45T on "normal" infrastructure and only and additional $5T on renewables. I've seen a number of economic studies that say it would cost us 1-2% of GDP to go the renewable route.

    142. Re:Phew... by catchblue22 · · Score: 1

      reasonable environmentalists

      Last spotting hanging with Elvis and Bigfoot at Shangri-La

      In truth, it is those who believe that humanity can continue to consume its resources without limit, who believe the scarcity of those resources should be the only arbiter of whether they are consumed, who are truly irrational. If we allow "the market" to decide the limits of consumption, the result will be a world where the quality of life for all of us will be reduced. Sustainability is the only long term option, if we care about the lives of our children.

      --
      This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when first he appears as a protector - Plato (423 to 327 BC)
    143. Re:Phew... by mpe · · Score: 1

      He also misrepresents the entire process of modern agriculture - namely, none of the inputs are implicitly dependent on the active production of more CO2.

      The current amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is below optimal for plants. For some plant species, including those grown in agriculture, it's considerably below optimal. To the extent that there are commercial products specifically designed to increase the CO2 levels in greenhouses. These would appear to qualify as "active production of more CO2".

    144. Re:Phew... by demonrob · · Score: 1

      You are doing ONE drive of only 300 miles in 5 months time and that's your excuse for wasting petrol? That's barely a commute here in Aus. And yes, we would love to replace petrol usage for these trips, that's where the investment should be happening. And yeah, you sound like an Aussie WRX driver too, WRX is short for wanker (does that translate?)

    145. Re:Phew... by Candyban · · Score: 1

      I've never seen a 240V washer or a 120V dryer ... (Note, this assumes you're in the USA.)

      You assumed wrong. I live in a developed country. ;)

      Computers use far more power than they did 20+ years ago.

      Never said they didn't, but it may very well be true. I am quite sure my Atom laptop or ARM netbook uses less power than anything remotely comparable from that era.

      They do a lot more with that power

      Exactly what I said: "use less power for the same amount of processing capacity"

      my dual 24" monitors now have LED backlighting and only use about 25W each, whereas my old 14" CRT probably used 75W or more

      So what is your point? You now have a higher resolution and bigger screen using less power and probably cheaper than your old 14"? I guess you missed my point. My point was that lower power usage does not mean loss of jobs, nor does it mean we have to compromise on "standards of living" or even on price as the parent suggested. Look at the quote I replied to.

      but the Beetle still gets better fuel economy per distance traveled

      This is bullshit. I could ask for a citation too. What I found on the net is that a Beetle had an average consumption of 13 L/100km. As you took a small car, I will compare it to the BMW 1 series which has an advertised consumption of 5.8 L/100 km. In tests it shows "real" usage is about 6.8 L/100 km and when you "play" with it on the track you get about 11.8 L/100 km. So even on the tracks, in "sports" mode using the airco and soundsystem you still consume less than normal use of a Beetle. Have you ever looked at the numbers for today's cars?

      I'm not very hopeful. With some things, when you get past a certain point, then everything just collapses like a house of cards ... where it's simply too late

      Exactly. Fortunately for you most European and some Asian countries are doing the right things and leading the future. It is quite sad to see the US is even unable to ratify the Kyoto protocol. It shows how the US economy is no longer leading innovation, but is rusted in their old ways.

    146. Re:Phew... by Candyban · · Score: 1

      You're overlooking the fact that greater efficiency drives up demand.

      True, but it means higher standard of living. At current efficiency the whole world can not enjoy the same mobility we (West) have enjoyed for so long.
      Why would someone in Africa or Asia not be allowed the same privileges as us? Demand will come eventually and if there is not enough to go around someone will get the short end. Ever noticed how commodities are becoming more expensive? It is the Chinese buying up resources (including food).

      when people install cleaner energy/heating for their houses they will start to use more of it--so if you insulate your house, you will feel justified to heat it to a higher level, to some extent cancelling out initial benefits.

      False. It is not because your house is properly insulated that you will not put it on a comfortable 21ÂC but at a blistering 40ÂC. It is not because your car is 13 times as efficient that you will drive 13 times as much.

      Similarly, the efficient computer chips you mention mean that we now feel we need to carry at least two full-fledged computers with us in our pockets wherever we go, meaning the total environmental degradation goes up, not down.

      We are not there yet. It is better to have 100 devices each consuming 1W than 1 device that consumes 400W. Off course 100 devices consuming 1W is worse than no device at all ... but I don't feel like going back to the stone age.

    147. Re:Phew... by rally2xs · · Score: 1

      Its 5800 miles, Eintstein.

    148. Re:Phew... by rally2xs · · Score: 1

      I’ve suggested electrifying the roads and been told we don’t even have enough resources to manufacture enough wire to do that. Dunno, they might be right.

      As for putting cars on railcars, I invented a rail switch that would allow a railcar with an automobile to be plucked from the center of a train at speed, without slowing the train. Talked to a lot of people that said it would be too expensive to build that infrastructure, and they’re probably right. What is railway, $10M / mi when you’re providing power to a railcar with electric motors to move itself? That’s probably the price out in the country, let alone ripping up cities. You have to build it new for several reasons, one of which is that most current railway isn’t good for 100+ mph.

      I don’t think the unions have anything to do with people choosing trucks to ship things, trucks are just a lot faster, that’s all. There are rail unions, too.

      I think it’s going to take a lot more than 3 or 4 large reactors to power the USA. Doing some math, the Chevy Volt goes 40 miles on 8 KwH. Cars alone travel nearly 2 trillion miles a year in the USA. That’s 2 X 10^12. Divide that by 40 and multiply that by 8 and you get 400 billion KwH, or 400 X 10^9 KwH. With 24 X 365 hours in the year, that’s 8760 hours, leaving 45,662,100 Kw generating capacity requirement, or 45,662.1 Megawatts. Some of the largest reactors in the world are around 1,300 megawatts. We’d need 35 of them to power Chevy Volt sized cars, probably twice that many to power average sized cars, double it to account for needing peak power when people are using their cars during certain times of the day rather than being evenly distributed over the 24 hours of a day and 7 days of the week, and then probably double it again to include the trucks. We’d probably need close to 300 new nuclear power plants to run all our transportation that moves on highways with electricity.

      As for the power source, it’d be better to build solar power stations. They can be built with molten salt as a storage medium so that they work at night and during the day, solving the storage problem. The big poblem with that would be that our solar resources are mostly in the southwest, so we would need very high voltage DC power distribution to get it around the USA, and a whale of a lot of copper even then. How to build power lines at millions of volts so that the current required is small and therefore the I*R loss is small? Plus of course there are the NIMBYs to fight to build the power wires. Or, killing 2 birds with one stone, get this:

      http://www.physorg.com/news199005915.html

      to work, capture the elemental carbon in the atmosphere, and truck / rail it to ordinary coal-fired power plants around the country, and make the power plants squeaky clean in emissions, while all you need to do is haul more carbon out of the atmosphere than you burn in the power plants to solve the CO2 in the atmosphere “problem” if you believe in that. If you don’t, it still shouldn’t hurt anything to do it.

    149. Re:Phew... by CheerfulMacFanboy · · Score: 1

      Does "active climate measures" mean dusting off the zany-but-endearing-in-a-slightly-creepy-way techno-utopianism of good old Project Plowshare? There must be a way to obtain carbon offset credits by using nuclear explosives to propel dust into the upper atmosphere and cause global cooling...

      Nothing solves Global Warming like cutting off sunlight from all the plants. Did you even think this through for a second?

      --
      Fandroids hate facts.
    150. Re:Phew... by CheerfulMacFanboy · · Score: 1

      No, there's one more thing beside storage. It is making cars run on it.

      If only someone invented an electric car...

      --
      Fandroids hate facts.
    151. Re:Phew... by CheerfulMacFanboy · · Score: 1

      I don't know what tree species that was referring to, but an increase in temperature doesn't necessarily lead to desertification.

      From what I recall, it wasn't just the increase in temperature, but the drought and insect infestations that the higher temperatures bring that was causing certain species, specifically types of pines and poplars. Now, other species are replacing some of the ones that are not doing so well, but there's also a lot of areas that are becoming grassland or desert sooner than expected.

      In what part of the world? In North America pines are dying of a pest accidentally introduced from the old world. Something similar happened or is happening to chestnuts, elms and a number of other tree species and families. This is related to the columbian exchange, not to climate change.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_pine_beetle - native, kills trees when it's warm, "The current outbreak of mountain pine beetles is ten times larger than previous outbreaks."

      Any more questions?

      --
      Fandroids hate facts.
    152. Re:Phew... by JimFive · · Score: 1

      we don't want to reduce carbon emissions because it will hurt our economy

      I've never understood this part of the argument. Reducing carbon emissions is going to require a huge amount of research and manufacturing to accomplish. When it is reported that this will cost "$X billion" this neglects to say that that money is economic activity.

      Before someone points it out, the broken window fallacy says "breaking windows does not improve the economy" It does not say, "don't fix your windows when they are already broken".
      --
      JimFive

      --
      Please stop using the word theory when you mean hypothesis.
    153. Re:Phew... by JoeMerchant · · Score: 1

      "breaking windows does not improve the economy"

      Problem with the current system is that the glass manufacturing and installation lobby likely outweigh the common good in terms of control of the legislative process, so in that sense, breaking glass does improve their economy.

      Citation: insurance requirements in the state of Florida requiring all insurance companies to provide red-carpet windshield replacement service at no (additional) cost to policy holders. It's amazingly good service, you get a crack in your windshield, call them up, they refer you to a number where they provide a list of service providers, all of whom will drive to your work to replace your windshield the next day before lunch. 5 minutes effort on my part and the windshield was more or less magically replaced the next day. Every single legally insured vehicle in Florida is eligible for this "free" service. More things in life should be like this... but I wouldn't necessarily have chosen windshield replacement as the first one to implement.

    154. Re:Phew... by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      Exactly what I said: "use less power for the same amount of processing capacity"

      Yes, but most of those cycles aren't being used for productive work, they're being used for fancy graphics and the like. If you're only using a computer to write a document, it was perfectly possible to do it on a 286 with WordPerfect with less power than a modern Core2 running Word 2011 or whatever the latest is.

      I am quite sure my Atom laptop or ARM netbook uses less power than anything remotely comparable from that era.

      Your ARM netbook is not comparable to a desktop computer. No office worker in a cubicle uses an ARM netbook or an Atom laptop.

      As for the Beetle, maybe I picked some bad examples; how about the old Geo Metro and a modern Prius? The Metro is not a hybrid, yet it gets better fuel economy than the hybrid Prius (and in fact better fuel economy than any car sold today).

      Exactly. Fortunately for you most European and some Asian countries are doing the right things and leading the future. It shows how the US economy is no longer leading innovation, but is rusted in their old ways.

      Honestly, I'm not seeing a whole lot of leadership coming out of the European countries, though I am seeing a lot of severe financial difficulties over the shared currency because of countries like Greece. Where's the innovation in Europe? Where's the major new technologies? Yes, the US is going down in this area, but I don't see anyone picking up the slack. Another place the Europeans are failing utterly: space exploration. Humanity needs to do better in this area, and start exploiting resources off-world instead of just outsourcing all its nasty mining operations to third-world countries (as the Europeans do now). The US has clearly dropped the ball here, but what have the Europeans done? Aside from launching a probe or two (which is still lame compared to all the probes that NASA has launched in the last 10 years, even when we were under Bush), nothing! Even the Chinese are doing far, far more in space than the Europeans ever have; they just successfully docked two spacecraft in orbit, and they've launched humans into orbit, which is more than the Europeans can claim.

    155. Re:Phew... by PoopCat · · Score: 1

      Wouldn't that be hamstered away?

    156. Re:Phew... by Electricity+Likes+Me · · Score: 1

      Except it's only true of some plant species, every plant species has a different optimum, and it's entirely dependent on CO2 being a limiting factor (or lack of CO2 making some other process a limiting factor). And then it would be dependent on drastic climate change not making some other input a limiting factor - for example your plants grow a few % faster, which is great news except your farmland has turned into desert!

      Of course it's probably pretty cheap to build regional scale greenhouses, hence why everyone's doing it already...

    157. Re:Phew... by Electricity+Likes+Me · · Score: 1

      He also misrepresents the entire process of modern agriculture - namely, none of the inputs are implicitly dependent on the active production of more CO2

      I think you forgot about tillage.

      What about that is implicitly dependent on CO2 producing means?

      That's practically the easiest part to fix, since biofuel-substitute diesel is easy to make, and the quantity of tractors in the world is low compared to other types of vehicles (to address the comment you make on the use of biofuels as a general purpose fuel).

    158. Re:Phew... by Electricity+Likes+Me · · Score: 1

      True, but we run international communications cables. It's certainly feasible to run cables between say, the US and Europe (which I guess you'd want to terminate in northern Africa) or the US and Australia.

      Granted, you couldn't want to do so without using superconductors, but given the temperatures at the bottom of the Atlantic/Pacific ocean the thermal load on any refrigeration system would actually be lower. Of course, there is the strategic issue of being dependent on electrical power from foreign countries.

    159. Re:Phew... by GodInHell · · Score: 1

      I'll let you do whatever you want. But I think we should shift subsidies away from suburban education and transportation systems -- not to mention funding high-speed internet to your home -- and put that money into better, faster, safer urban life. I don't want to discourage your way of life, I want to encourage you to consider another by making that other way of life more attractive. It's already more cost effective on society, society should therefore try to make it more cost effective for you.

      As for work at home -- I don't have the articles at my fingertips, but I believe the societal costs of telecommuting (including all the extra lights, heat/ac, phone systems, internet access etc.) supposedly far exceed the damage caused by your commute. I'd google it if you have any genuine interest.

      -GiH

    160. Re:Phew... by JoeMerchant · · Score: 1

      But I think we should shift subsidies away from suburban education and transportation systems -- not to mention funding high-speed internet to your home

      Transportation I'll grant, tax vehicles and fuel enough to actually pay for the roads - if you don't want to pay the tax, move to the core where you don't need a car.

      But, as long as we have kids living out in the sprawl, at least for elementary years, the schools should be small and local. Our county is "saving money" by cramming 8 and 900 kids in a single school, with lunch starting at 9:45 running until 1:30 so they can hotseat the lunchroom to maximum efficiency, crowded library time, etc. etc. etc. Keep the elementary schools to 3-400 max, and place them close to where the kids live, they are already paid for from property taxes.

      As for work at home -- I don't have the articles at my fingertips, but I believe the societal costs of telecommuting (including all the extra lights, heat/ac, phone systems, internet access etc.) supposedly far exceed the damage caused by your commute. I'd google it if you have any genuine interest.

      -GiH

      I don't doubt that the articles don't exist, but I call B.S. - my house is air-conditioned all day while I'm gone because of the wife and kids, and I'd bet most people leave it on even when it's empty because they're too lazy to know that they could save money by doing otherwise. On the other end, if the office doesn't need to accomodate me, less space can be built and leased, there's major savings in air conditioning, etc.

      My house will have internet access regardless, I've had broadband since it was first available and would probably give up running water for 6 hours a day in preference to giving up internet access for the same period. And, as to total societal cost, one fiber in the ground has to be cheaper to install and maintain than a single lane of asphalt. Not to mention the costs saved in jet travel when people finally get accustomed to not having to do "real face time."

    161. Re:Phew... by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      Yep. The easiest place to run a line would be across the Bering Straight but then it'd still be a long distance to the sources of solar power.

    162. Re:Phew... by rally2xs · · Score: 1

      Oil shale out west, in the Colorado and Wyoming areas, has 3X the proven reserves of the Saudis.

    163. Re:Phew... by fatphil · · Score: 1

      But they're very different fractions. Ships run off the densest muck and planes off the vapours. I would guess the former is more readily extractable. However, it is good to point out that typical prejudices do not apply.

      --
      Also FatPhil on SoylentNews, id 863
    164. Re:Phew... by fatphil · · Score: 1

      If you're worried about CO2 emissions, then burn the fuel that leaves the most soot behind, as that's clearly not turned all the carbon in to carbon dioxide.

      --
      Also FatPhil on SoylentNews, id 863
    165. Re:Phew... by pjabardo · · Score: 1

      If fuel that leaves the most soot behind is used, that means the the combustion process is inefficient so to get the same useful energy output (that's what we want, isn't it?) you would need to burn more fuel under less than optimal efficiency so in the end you would produce more CO2 to accomplish the same thing. Oh,other pollutants such as NOx, SOx, CO and the soot itself (and many others) are really harmful - just checkout the air in any large city, or better yet, checkout the air in Beijing.

    166. Re:Phew... by fatphil · · Score: 1

      Sounds like you need to put a dab of oil on the pivot of your irony meter.

      --
      Also FatPhil on SoylentNews, id 863
    167. Re:Phew... by MacDork · · Score: 1

      He also misrepresents the entire process of modern agriculture - namely, none of the inputs are implicitly dependent on the active production of more CO2

      I think you forgot about tillage.

      What about that is implicitly dependent on CO2 producing means?

      It doesn't matter what fuel the tractors burn. Tillage produces CO2 because it oxidizes the organic matter in the soil. It's basically burning coal millions of years before it becomes a rock. FYI: Soil oxidation and erosion generates 12-15 times more CO2 annually than the burning of all fossil fuels combined.

      As a result, clearing fallow land in the name of corn based biofuels has increased CO2 and increased world hunger and starvation. Ethanol is all about increasing the price of corn for midwestern US farms. If you believe anything else, you're deluding yourself.

      But don't listen to a thing I say, because I'm skeptical of the IPCC and their conclusions. <sarcasm>Obviously I am receiving funds from some oil company with no scientific basis for my opinions.</sarcasm>

    168. Re:Phew... by pjabardo · · Score: 1

      I thought about it but it wouldn't be the first time I heard such nonsense at /. being taken seriously, even more considering that you posted well after all the story came out and few people would be able to "get it". But I stand corrected.

  2. Models are always right! by gatzke · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Hansen predicted doom unless we cut back on CO2 years ago:

    http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/1988_hansen20.gif

    What happened? No significant cuts yet 20 years later we are still well under his best case models.

    Do they really know what is going on? Shouldn't models somewhat capture trends of the data?

    1. Re:Models are always right! by Afforess · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The models are off because up until 2009/2010-ish were actually experiencing a natural cooling trend, which masked our artificial warming trend and came out as a wash. Now that the cooling trend has subsided, warming is expected to spike in the coming decade.

      http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/03/AR2009090302199.html

      Or we could just jump to convenient conclusions given a tiny dataset.

      --
      If our elected representatives no longer represent us, do we still live in a Democracy?
    2. Re:Models are always right! by White+Flame · · Score: 2

      Stop throwing all these other confusing details at me; I'm still cowering in fear of global cooling!

    3. Re:Models are always right! by ThePackager · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Fear the data, denier: * every year since 1992 has been warmer than 1992; * the ten hottest years on record occurred in the last 15; * every year since 1976 has been warmer than 1976; * the 20 hottest years on record occurred in the last 25; * every year since 1956 has been warmer than 1956; and * every year since 1917 has been warmer than 1917. The two most reputable globally and seasonally averaged temperature trend analyses are the NASA GISS direct surface temperature analysis and the CRU direct surface temperature analysis. Both trends are definitely and significantly up.

      --
      Please have respect for people with different abilities, especially children.
    4. Re:Models are always right! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The models are off because up until 2009/2010-ish were actually experiencing a natural cooling trend, which masked our artificial warming trend and came out as a wash. Now that the cooling trend has subsided, warming is expected to spike in the coming decade.

      http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/03/AR2009090302199.html

        Or we could just jump to convenient conclusions given a tiny dataset.

      There is a warming/dry trend alternating with a cooling/wet trend every 7-10 years or so. It's called El Nino/La Nina.

      No one talks about it much anymore, but my personal experiences over the last 20 years support that cycle very well. Right now we're in a La Nina phase, meaning more cool & more precipitation (hey would you look at that, unprecedented snow in October in the U.S. this year).

      One thing that everyone needs to keep in mind is WEATHER IS NOT CLIMATE. In fact, one of the most agreed upon results of climate change is more VIOLENT weather, not merely "hotter" weather.

      When the climate balance is upset, all hell breaks loose in the weather, it doesn't just "get hotter." As a result you see things like that massive snow in Washington D.C. a year or two ago, snow in Texas a year or three ago, while simultaneously having the hottest summers on record.

      It's not rocket science.

    5. Re:Models are always right! by samkass · · Score: 3, Informative

      And the last 10 days actually warmed, so CO2 must not be heating the atmosphere at all! Great argument!

      Your "10 years" number is actually a couple years out of date and no longer true. About 12 years ago there was one extremely hot year, so in 2009 you could use the "10 years" argument and show a flat average line. Of course, even then 12 years or 8 years would both show warming. But now here we are in 2011 and warming has continued, so the trend line for the last 10 years actually shows significant warming.

      --
      E pluribus unum
    6. Re:Models are always right! by Hellsbells · · Score: 1, Troll

      You're using predictions from 1988, with temperature data from back in 2006.

      Surely there's newer predictions and temperature data than that? We're almost up to 2012 now (25 years later).

      You are dodgy and purposely trying to mislead.

    7. Re:Models are always right! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Speaking of datasets:
      Since 1960, CO2 levels have increased 22%, while average temperature has risen 0.2% (I don't know how they teased that signal out of the noise).

      Given the purported positive feedbacks related to AGW, shouldn't we have observed a somewhat larger response by now?

      It doesn't seem like global temperature is all that sensitive to CO2 at all. Ocean weather patterns, El Ninos, Pacific decadal oscillations, indian ocean oscillations, the gulf stream, cloud cover all have markedly greater influence over temperature.

      This is because the temperature response to Co2 is LOGARITHMIC. It's a case of diminishing returns: it takes ever increasing amounts of Co2 to elicit a temperature increase.
      Co2 only absorbs significantly at specific wavelengths, when 90% of the available IR light at that wavelength is already absorbed, adding more gas has little effect.
      It asymptotes toward zero.

      Hysteria, spin, doomsaying, and reliance on flawed models

    8. Re:Models are always right! by Quartus.net · · Score: 2

      The data is here. You can see that 2009 and 2010 are extrapolations, not actual data.

      See here for actual CO2 levels in the atmosphere, up 1 or 2 parts-per-million per year for the last 5 years, as actually measured.

    9. Re:Models are always right! by riverat1 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Hansen's 1988 projections used a climate sensitivity of 4.2 C which wasn't an unreasonable value to use at the time. Current estimates put the value from 2 - 4.5 C with the value most likely around 3 C. Using a sensitivity of 3 C in Hansen's 1988 model would put his projections, particularly using Scenario B, more in line with what actually happened. At the bottom of this post they discuss Hansen's 1988 model in light of the data up to 2010 and here they give a more detailed discussion of Hansen's model specifically.

    10. Re:Models are always right! by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      If you knew anything about what climate scientists actually do you would know they are doing all of those things.

    11. Re:Models are always right! by kaffiene · · Score: 1

      Wow. 99% of climate scientists are going to be so burned when they realise that you smacked them down.

    12. Re:Models are always right! by Demonantis · · Score: 2

      You aren't suppose to extrapolate. Good engineering understands that your model is only good in the set of data you collected. Even then you make the assumption that the change between the points is not significantly more then it has to be. All these models are extrapolating at some point. We simply don't know how the world is going to react to how it is changing. There could easily be some mediating factor that isn't seen in the model that is now becoming more significant.

    13. Re:Models are always right! by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      That's right, if you can't fight the message with facts then mod it down.

    14. Re:Models are always right! by pitchpipe · · Score: 1

      wattsupwiththat fucking .gif that doesn't move?

      --
      Look where all this talking got us, baby.
    15. Re:Models are always right! by NatasRevol · · Score: 1

      Since 1960, CO2 levels have increased 22%, while average temperature has risen 0.2% (I don't know how they teased that signal out of the noise).

      Given the purported positive feedbacks related to AGW, shouldn't we have observed a somewhat larger response by now?

      Uhhh, not if it's a 10:1 ratio.

      This is because the temperature response to Co2 is LOGARITHMIC.

      Yeah, right. The whole atmosphere is a simple logarithmic equation.

      --
      There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
    16. Re:Models are always right! by duracelllll · · Score: 1

      Take a look at this gif.

    17. Re:Models are always right! by BlueParrot · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's not rocket science.

      Climate science is considerably more complex than rocket engines, ballistics, and even the fluid dynamics of re-entry. So I guess you are correct, it's not rocket science.

    18. Re:Models are always right! by mosb1000 · · Score: 1

      Well, you wouldn't expect temperatures from current models to disagree with the temperature today, would you?

    19. Re:Models are always right! by Jeremy+Erwin · · Score: 4, Informative

      CO2(ppm) Warming
      340 1K
      430 2K
      540 3K
      670 4K
      840 5K
      1000 6K
      2000 9K

      Note that there are massive error bars associated with the concentrations, and the scenarios are merely likely. It may take hundred of years to equilibrate to the new higher global average.
      Source

    20. Re:Models are always right! by Dunbal · · Score: 1

      And yet the world has failed to end, the south pole has failed to melt and flood coastal areas, etc etc etc.

      But look on the bright side - we're at peak oil now. At some point our pollution will reduce as the oil runs out - we simply won't have a choice. Some point soon, because there is less than 40 years' worth of oil left in the entire world at today's consumption rates. 40 years is not long. Gaia will forgive us in a couple hundred years or so.

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    21. Re:Models are always right! by mug+funky · · Score: 1

      CO2 causes ocean acidification, not atmospheric. you're thinking of SO2, which actually has a cooling effect.

      not being political, i just don't like wrong facts on any side.

    22. Re:Models are always right! by geoffrobinson · · Score: 2

      But CO2 is great for plants.

      Honestly, it's time to admit that we don't have a handle on all the variables. And guess what? That's OK.

      --
      Except for ending slavery, the Nazis, communism, & securing American independence, war has never solved anything.
    23. Re:Models are always right! by Hellsbells · · Score: 1

      Well, you wouldn't expect temperatures from current models to disagree with the temperature today, would you?

      In 1988 the 386 processor (33MHz) had just been released.

      I would definitely expect climate models from 1988 to be very basic compared with any predictions from recent years.

    24. Re:Models are always right! by greenbird · · Score: 1

      The models are off

      Wait...so you're saying the models are wrong? So are they still wrong or are they right now?

      because up until 2009/2010-ish were actually experiencing a natural cooling trend

      So let me see if I understand this...ummm...so the models don't include " natural " trends? So it's a model of human effect on the natural planetary climate that doesn't include " natural " trends.

      Hell, might make more sense to just jump to convenient conclusions given a tiny dataset.

      --
      Who is John Galt?
    25. Re:Models are always right! by mosb1000 · · Score: 1

      Sure, but that doesn't mean it'll be any more accurate. The only way to know that is to wait another decade or two. And, of course, by then they will have newer models as well.

    26. Re:Models are always right! by Arlet · · Score: 1

      Models cannot include unpredictable changes, such as volcanic eruptions, strength of the solar cycle, or El-Nino timing. It's unfortunate, but that's just the reality.

      However, these natural events are fairly short lived. If you look at a 20+ year period, the effect of these natural changes is mostly averaged out, and you can start to see the underlying warming trend caused by CO2.

      You can, however, re-run old model runs with updated inputs about El-Nino, the sun, and volcanic eruption for verification.

    27. Re:Models are always right! by Sique · · Score: 1

      Scientist: A political activist that also tries to take credit for advances actually developed by engineers, entrepreneurs and lay inventors.

      Political Activist: a person who really believes that calling other people names somehow changes reality.

      --
      .sig: Sique *sigh*
    28. Re:Models are always right! by Hellsbells · · Score: 1

      You're seriously claiming that you don't believe that models done on a few MHz processor are any different to those on a processor hundreds of thousands times faster? Try telling that to anyone who has tried to model drug or molecule interactions.

      You don't have to wait a decade or two. Just do a comparison with models from five years ago. You would have years of temperature data to compare against instead of cherry picking a model that is almost three decades old.

    29. Re:Models are always right! by mosb1000 · · Score: 1

      They can be different, but that doesn't necessarily make them more accurate. That depends on the model. That's all I'm saying.

    30. Re:Models are always right! by arose · · Score: 2

      I can't believe personal attacks on Al Gore count as "arguments" with some mods.

      --
      Analogies don't equal equalities, they are merely somewhat analogous.
    31. Re:Models are always right! by Splab · · Score: 2

      Well at least it's not brain surgery

    32. Re:Models are always right! by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 3, Insightful


      There is a warming/dry trend alternating with a cooling/wet trend every 7-10 years or so. It's called El Nino/La Nina.

      No one talks about it much anymore, but my personal experiences over the last 20 years support that cycle very well.

      So 3 observations make it a cycle?

      Sorry, you are mistaken. Neither El Nino nor El Nina are truely cycles. The used to be pretty 'random' events occuring roughly every 15 to 20 years, sometimes even more rarely. The slight temperature increase over the last 30 years however makes especially the El Nino events more common.

      So global warming is causing more El Nino events than we had lets say 100 years ago and less El Nina events. Both don't realy come alternating. You can have several El Ninos in a row intermixed with "normal" phases.

      Your analysis regarding violent weather versus hotter is correct. "Global warming" results in the first place in _more energy_ in the air/atmosphere, hence more wind.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    33. Re:Models are always right! by hjrnunes · · Score: 2

      What OP means, is that it is quite obvious that something is changing. I remember seasons being a lot more regular than they are now. And my grandparents even more so. Spring (weather) started March 21, give or take a day or two. Now, it's give or take two months, perhaps even more random in other places.

      You can argue that it's natural, that it's some sort of natural cycle. Other people argue that it's god punishing us. The fact remains that the climate is changing, and therefore so is the weather, becoming more and more unpredictable and with more and more extreme phenomena happening all around the world. It doesn't take rocket science, ballistics or fluid dynamics to figure out the consequences to agriculture worldwide.

      Not that I have a problem with your jocose pedantry, but OP is the one that should have 5, Insightful.

    34. Re:Models are always right! by gatzke · · Score: 1

      So the consensus view now is that:

      -it is ok to fudge models after the fact as long as it still shows the trend you want, but we can certainly trust your models now

      -it is ok to blame natural trends in the data as long as it supports your agenda, but there are no other natural trends to worry about

      -it is ok to blame weather on climate change, but only the violent weather. Like hurricane predictions that never came through.

      I especially like the way even the data gets massaged to show a warming trend. Look at GISS from 1999 vs GISS in 2011. That is supposedly "pure" data, not modeled data.

      http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/11/05/ncdc-data-shows-that-the-contiguous-usa-has-not-warmed-in-the-past-decade-summers-are-cooler-winters-are-getting-colder/

    35. Re:Models are always right! by Lumpy · · Score: 1

      "It's not rocket science."

      Correct, because it's significantly more difficult than Rocket science.

      Only recently have we been able to model weather patterns with some semblance of accuracy. The math involved makes building and launching a rocket a 8th grade science project.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    36. Re:Models are always right! by hitmark · · Score: 1

      So the issue is that the end points of peaks and troughs are shifting, indicating that there are more energy in the system? That is, the highs of high pressure and the lows of low pressure are becoming more pronounced?

      --
      comment first, facts later. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
    37. Re:Models are always right! by tyrione · · Score: 1

      It's not rocket science.

      Climate science is considerably more complex than rocket engines, ballistics, and even the fluid dynamics of re-entry. So I guess you are correct, it's not rocket science.

      Modeling the non-linear dynamics of the systems is a very difficult problem. The possible outcomes in reference to how they impact humanity and the rest of the planet is very predictable.

    38. Re:Models are always right! by DMiax · · Score: 1

      Do you really see no problem in trying to find a warming trend by comparing only the warmest years? Do you also measure the average human height by looking at NBA players?

      The statistically significant information from that table is that the last 11 years are all in the top 15.

    39. Re:Models are always right! by Dunbal · · Score: 1

      No, I just bought a 3TB one. Tell me are you going to blame the Japanese earthquake and tsunami on climate change too? It's easy to point at a natural disaster to prove a point - they happen regularly. But flooding is not a new phenomenon at all. In fact I predict that "because of Dr. Murray's conviction" there will be a catastrophic flood somewhere in the world within the next 10 months. Mark my words!

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    40. Re:Models are always right! by Arlet · · Score: 1

      Depends on when the model run started. If you take a model, and start it at 1900, while providing it with all the external influences until now, it may certainly disagree with today's temperature.

      Of course, any errors in the model could used to figure out what parts of the model could be improved. Together with faster computers and better data, it's reasonable to assume the next generation model will have smaller errors.

    41. Re:Models are always right! by necro81 · · Score: 1

      Temperatures lag behind CO2 concentration, for this simple reason: CO2 keeps more energy here on Earth, and that energy goes into warming the Earth, but because the Earth has enormous heat capacity, it can absorb a whole lot of energy before showing significant changes in temperature. Temperature lags behind heat flow just as surely as a capacitor's voltage lags current: these are basic principles of physics, available to any backyard tinkerer

      For an analogy, consider an electric oven. Turn the power on for, say, 2 minutes, while recording the temperature for the next hour. The temperature won't show an appreciable change right away, and won't reach peak temperature for several minutesafter you turn the power off. This is because it takes time for the heat to conduct out from the heat element, and the heat capacity of the oven itself acts with a sort of inertia: it resists warming up as well as cooling down.

      The unfortunate corollary is that, even if we stopped all CO2 emissions tomorrow, temperatures will continue to rise for a long while: decades at least. This is because the "inertia" of the Earth's heat capacity is enormous, and because the CO2 already in the atmosphere will persist for decades to centuries.

    42. Re:Models are always right! by Dunbal · · Score: 1

      The Japanese earthquake and tsunami has nothing to do with the flood in Thailand, however it is a natural disaster that presumably is unrelated to climate change. I see that a tsunami involves water, so you probably believe that I was comparing water in Japan with water in Bangkok, but I was not. I could just as easily have mentioned an avalanche in the Swiss Alps or a hurricane in the Caribbean, but those are probably more weather driven. Jesus please try to understand the stuff you read.

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    43. Re:Models are always right! by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      my personal experiences over the last 20 years

      This is the mistake many people make. Climate is not the same thing as the weather or your personal experience of it over a few decades.

      Also don't forget that climate change isn't the only reason to go "green". Plenty of other stuff comes out the exhaust of a petrol engine and oil is getting harder and harder to access, as well as often being located in parts of the world we have a poor relationship with. Even if climate change is entirely natural we still need to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. Electricity is much cheaper anyway.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    44. Re:Models are always right! by Catiline · · Score: 1

      1/15th of the total historical measurement period is certainly statistically significant. However, as we entered the 1990s (as we approached these peak temperatures), the IPCC "consensus" predicted a 0.3 degree change per decade. The latest report (2007) predicts a similar minimum (stated as 2-6 degrees per century), so my question is: how long would we need to deviate from these predictions before it becomes statistically significant? 1/10th the predictive period (10 years) or 1/15th (another 5)?

    45. Re:Models are always right! by Eunuchswear · · Score: 1

      This is great news and lets us know that with the last 10 years of NO temperature increase it is likely the CO2 idea is decoupling from any possible warming....great news.

      You gotta love the way deniers have decided that HADCRUT is the most reliable temperature record just because it gives them their cherries Hiding the rise?

      --
      Watch this Heartland Institute video
    46. Re:Models are always right! by tbannist · · Score: 1

      What happened? No significant cuts yet 20 years later we are still well under his best case models.

      Actually, there was a significant reduction in the growth of CO2 in some parts of the world due to a little event in 2008... However, Hansen's predictions in 1988 used a higher CO2 sensitivity (4.2 degrees for a doubling rather then the more commonly accepted figure of 3.0 degrees) and expected more solar output than we've received.

      Do they really know what is going on? Shouldn't models somewhat capture trends of the data?

      That's the way science works, you know. Scientists make hypothesis and then test them. Scientists are usually wrong, but they strive to make the mistakes smaller and smaller over the course of their study. The eventual goal is to make the mistakes so small that they no longer matter at all.

      One thing you might note is that the temperature is still trending upwards, so Hansen's prediction were off by a bit on magnitude but he still had the direction right. So you can be happy in knowing that "doom" will be delayed by a few years.

      --
      Fanatically anti-fanatical
    47. Re:Models are always right! by Arlet · · Score: 1

      The GISTEMP graph has an upward trend in your graph.

      The HADCRUT data doesn't cover the Arctic, which is the area of the earth that has shown the most warming in recent years. Arguably, the HADCRUT data underestimates the global temperature.

    48. Re:Models are always right! by tbannist · · Score: 1

      Congratulations, that's science:

      Hypothesis, Test, Observe and Recalibrate. Repeat.

      What do you think Scientists do?

      --
      Fanatically anti-fanatical
    49. Re:Models are always right! by Daetrin · · Score: 1

      Uh, i'm confused, in the very next section after the one you linked, "Warmest Decades", it lists 1990-1999 as being 0.313 degrees over the mean, while 2000-2009 is 0.513 degrees over the mean. So it looks like we're about 0.1 degrees behind the predicted rate of increase, but that doesn't seem like a great reasons to celebrate to me, especially given that we've only got a single data point on the scale they were talking about.

      --
      This Space Intentionally Left Blank
    50. Re:Models are always right! by mrchaotica · · Score: 1

      Real cultists drink Flavor Aid, poser!

      --

      "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

    51. Re:Models are always right! by tbannist · · Score: 1

      One of the expected results of global warming is more extreme flooding in areas that regularly get flooded because the warmer air absorbs and carries more water. Global warming probably didn't cause the flood, however, global warming probably magnified the effect so that Thailand's flood control measures could no longer deal with it.

      --
      Fanatically anti-fanatical
    52. Re:Models are always right! by chispito · · Score: 1

      It's not rocket science.

      Climate science is considerably more complex than rocket engines, ballistics, and even the fluid dynamics of re-entry. So I guess you are correct, it's not rocket science.

      So what you're saying is there's a good chance nobody has it right yet?

      --
      The Daddy casts sleep on the Baby. The Baby resists!
    53. Re:Models are always right! by sycodon · · Score: 1

      AC Fight!

      --
      When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    54. Re:Models are always right! by geekoid · · Score: 1

      gee, science changes conclusion based on new data? I can't imagine how horrid that must be for people as simple as you.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    55. Re:Models are always right! by geekoid · · Score: 1

      "the south pole has failed to melt and flood coastal areas, etc etc etc."

      aand? what you though it was tomorrow? I know this is diffocult for people like you but they are talkign aboutn 50+ years. And the iimpacts then. Well, it was 50+ years, since it is gfetting worse faster the expected, its more like 20+ years

      "because there is less than 40 years' worth of oil left in the entire world at today's consumptio
      false

      "Gaia will forgive us in a couple hundred years or so."
      Don't anthropomorphize the earth, it hates it.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    56. Re:Models are always right! by Crashmarik · · Score: 1

      LOL

      Nahh, I think they will be laughing like maniacs at the green movement. I mean you people make Jim Jones's people's temple look like a skeptics convention.

    57. Re:Models are always right! by kenboldt · · Score: 1

      ocean acidification is a brutal misnomer. If anything it is dealkylation. The oceans are plenty basic, and will be for quite some time. They can also survive far wider swings in pH over the course of a single day than has been predicted by even the worst fearmongering stories, and come out unscathed.

    58. Re:Models are always right! by kenboldt · · Score: 1

      Is it just me, or have climate "scientists" completely missed that whole recalibrate step when observations haven't met their hypotheses? Instead they just assume that they are still right, but there is some poor excuse like "missing heat" and continue merrily on their way.

    59. Re:Models are always right! by kenboldt · · Score: 1

      warmer air absorbs and carries more water.

      I suggest that you do some reading on partial pressures.

    60. Re:Models are always right! by tbannist · · Score: 1

      It's not just you, there's a whole cottage industry of people dedicate to convincing you it isn't happening. In reality, they regularly go through that phase, "missing heat" was one of those recalibrations. That problem, in particular, was that using satellites they could measure energy coming into the Earth and energy leaving it. Those values didn't match up against surface, air and ocean measurements. Too much energy was coming in and not enough leaving for the temperatures we were actually experiencing. So where was the energy (heat)? Scientists looked into whether the satellite data was faulty (it was by a little bit) and a number of other potential issues as part of that process.

      By the way, they found the missing heat, it's in the deep ocean. The 700m to 2km depth water has been absorbing the "missing heat". There's a whole area of research now into why the deep ocean appears to be warming faster than the levels closer to the surface, whether it's actually happening, and what the consequences of this heating are likely to be.

      --
      Fanatically anti-fanatical
    61. Re:Models are always right! by tbannist · · Score: 1

      A gross simplification but seems accurate to me. Warmer air traveling across an ocean will carry more moisture with it, when it hits land and cools it will release more moisture.

      --
      Fanatically anti-fanatical
    62. Re:Models are always right! by mosb1000 · · Score: 1

      Actually, I do have experience with computer modeling. Furthermore, I have not offered any critique of these models. All I have said is that you have no way of knowing how accurate they will be until you can compare them to real world data. It's a simple fact.

    63. Re:Models are always right! by farble1670 · · Score: 1

      i don't think we should base any conclusions on what you remember, or what your grandparents remember. no offense, but we have real data.

    64. Re:Models are always right! by arose · · Score: 2

      Either way, the post isn't about Al gore, its about the way the green movement is uncritical of its own beliefs.

      It's nothing but a giant strawman built on him. It's cute how you pretend to dislike the kind of emotional argumentation that you use as an attack vector.

      --
      Analogies don't equal equalities, they are merely somewhat analogous.
    65. Re:Models are always right! by Crashmarik · · Score: 1

      Either way, the post isn't about Al gore, its about the way the green movement is uncritical of its own beliefs.

      It's nothing but a giant strawman built on him. It's cute how you pretend to dislike the kind of emotional argumentation that you use as an attack vector.

      " Strawman ? Sorry the greens have a long long history of being wrong and ignoring it. The funny thing is they can't see their laughable resemblance to doomsday cults that just get the dates off by a little bit. Take your pick Malthus, the club of rome, earth first, climatologists claiming we were going to enter another period of glaciation in the 70s, to the current crop doom criers.

      But keep going maybe you will come up with something that resembles a reasoned case for the green cause

    66. Re:Models are always right! by hjrnunes · · Score: 1

      You think right.

    67. Re:Models are always right! by farble1670 · · Score: 1

      i think you poor grammar.

    68. Re:Models are always right! by greenbird · · Score: 1

      gee, science changes conclusion based on new data?

      Science is supposed to make conclusions based on testable hypothesis and then test the results. Making conclusions based on something so complex that one has only a VERY rudimentary understanding of it is called religion.

      I can't imagine how horrid that must be for people as simple as you.

      Huh. I'm the one who thinks some things are too complex to make rational conclusions about them while your telling me doing that is science. I'm the simpleton?

      --
      Who is John Galt?
    69. Re:Models are always right! by YetAnotherBob · · Score: 1

      Models are really just guesses. To have any validity, they need to be checked against what really happens. If they don't give results to match, then they need to be reworked. Often with different assumptions.

      It is possible to map any possible set of points to a graph with any of a nearly unliimited set of models. Having the model then successfully predict a future set of points is what makes the model valid. Predicting the past is easy. Predicting the future is hard.

      Many of the climate models are so complex that the modelers are not even aware of what the all the model variables are. Some of the models are only correct after various adjustments are made on every new data point. In physics, this is referred to as having a 'fudge factor' in the model. A fudge factor is the different between what the model predicted and what you observed. when added to the model output, it corrects the model to account for the new data point. Most models require a new fudge factor for each new data point.

      It's not new, it has been with us in science for as long as we have had science. It only really means that the modelers don't understand the process that is being modeled. That means that only a fool would believe the outputs.

      I hope that you aren't basing your national policy on the output of these models. The good results are usually not any better than the bad ones.

      But, you shouldn't worry a whole lot, according to the models run in the 1970's we all froze to death ten years ago anyway.

      --
      Everybody knows 3 people with my name.
    70. Re:Models are always right! by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      Hansen's model was perhaps as right as it could be for the time. It is rather primitive compared to today's models as it didn't even include atmosphere-ocean coupling. The climate sensitivity is a parameter you input into a model, not something inherent built into the model. And to quote George Box: "All models are wrong, but some are useful." We'll never have a climate model that is able to compute things down to the molecule level but that doesn't mean they don't provide useful information and insight into what's happening.

    71. Re:Models are always right! by Hellsbells · · Score: 1

      It sounds to me like the arguments that a lot of anti-climate science people make boil down to "someone got something wrong several decades ago" (in this case 25 years ago, in the case of global cooling there was a paper published in the 1970s that was singled out).

      These are very similar to the arguments that the anti-evolution crowd makes: "Darwin himself admitted that he didn't understand how the eye evolved"

    72. Re:Models are always right! by Catiline · · Score: 1

      The problem with those averages is that it divided on a completely arbitrary line (every year ending in a 0). Either single very large spikes in either direction, or events occurring on 7 or 14 year cycles, could pull the "average" numbers used for each 10 year span. A quick analysis appears to show some sort of ~30 year period cycles occurring (1880-1919 cluster around a small range, as do 1930-1979), and both longer or shorter cycles are practically guaranteed. What I do not see adequately discussed is the prospect of very long, multi-century cycles longer than our temperature records: a cycle of (say) volcanic activity which extends for 800-1000 years could easily fit the "small" deviations in the Holocene paleoclimate records, and would coincide with the current warming period. (Even closer historically, the "little ice age" - the last big dip in the thick black line on that chart - occurs right at the start of our temperature records. Even cycles of a small as 300 years would be completely occluded by the brevity of our direct records.)

    73. Re:Models are always right! by CheerfulMacFanboy · · Score: 1

      Do you actually believe that a trend is measured by the difference between maximum and minimum?

      --
      Fandroids hate facts.
    74. Re:Models are always right! by kaffiene · · Score: 1

      I am not part of the 'green movement'. I merely respect science and scientific consensus, which clearly, you do not.

    75. Re:Models are always right! by phlinn · · Score: 1

      It's worse than that. It may not be possible to get a handle on the variables. There was a slashdot article recently where someone took a perfect model (it generated the data) then tried to determine the variables given the data. Despite a perfect functional form, and data with 0 errors in measurement, he found that several alternate sets of variables fit the existing data well enough, but would have diverged from the actual model significantly.

      --
      "Pulling together is the aim of despotism and tyranny! Free men pull in all sorts of directions" -- Havelock Vetinari
    76. Re:Models are always right! by phlinn · · Score: 1

      The data is not as clean as you might think. Consider, as an example, the set of USHCN annual averages for all stations. The adjustments they make to the temperature are very close to a quadratic fit for reasons unknown, but the low point of the quadratic is in exactly the right spot to reduce the temperature spike in the 30's below the one in the 90's instead of being slightly higher. It's a very smooth curve of adjustments, almost entirely due to the time of observation bias adjustment. If I understand correctly, the time of observation adjustment is determined mathematically by comparisons to before and after data as well as comparisons to nearby stations. My personal suspicion is that their methods are subject to a form of positive feedback such that the observed trends effects are magnified.

      Also of note: the average linear trend for adjusted data is over 3 times the linear trend of Raw data in the last century.

      --
      "Pulling together is the aim of despotism and tyranny! Free men pull in all sorts of directions" -- Havelock Vetinari
  3. Hooray! by wsxyz · · Score: 1

    No more 3 hour drives to the coast! I'll be enjoying my beachfront property and palm trees right here at home before too long!

    1. Re:Hooray! by JoeMerchant · · Score: 1

      Yeah, my older relatives are in the waterfront property, I invested inland at 25 feet above current sea level.

    2. Re:Hooray! by the+eric+conspiracy · · Score: 1

      Where do you live? Central Maine?

    3. Re:Hooray! by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      And what evidence do you have for that? Why would you assume it will continue at that rate forever? After all there is certainly evidence for much different rates of SLR in the past. But at 25 feet above the current sea level he's got well over 100 years before it's a problem unless something extraordinary happens.

  4. Yeah uh... by jhoegl · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    It takes a while for climates to change
    But here is another factor/point that I believe gets lost in translation.
    People actually have health problems and lung issues which can be directly linked to pollution.
    Why dont they mention that as well?

    The cost to treating a child with lung illness greatly increases the cost on society at the luxury of the polluting business. Why is this not a conclusion that people do not see or do not report about?
    It is not isolated, it is everywhere. Just seems odd.

    1. Re:Yeah uh... by wsxyz · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yeah every time I get too much carbon dioxide in my lungs, I start to feel like my chest is going to explode.

      Then I exhale.

    2. Re:Yeah uh... by wsxyz · · Score: 1

      "The global output of heat-trapping carbon dioxide jumped by the biggest amount on record in 2010, the U.S. Department of Energy calculated.

      No other pollutant is being discussed.

    3. Re:Yeah uh... by fnj · · Score: 1

      Nor is carbon dioxide itself a pollutant. Carbon dioxide is food for plants.

    4. Re:Yeah uh... by Cyberllama · · Score: 1

      So is shit, but try dumping a few hundred tons of that a year in your local river and see if they call it pollution.

    5. Re:Yeah uh... by Taty'sEyes · · Score: 2

      As a child, I would go to Mammoth Mountain with my family to camp and fish. I loved the trees there. One year, as an adult, I took my girl friend to see how beautiful it was. I took her to heart lake and all around I saw that the trees were dead. I asked a park ranger, "wtf?" He told me that the volcano was producing so much carbon dioxide that it was killing the trees. I said, "wtf? CO2 is food for trees". He said, "you're right. But in this case it's too much of a good thing."

      I'm not on board with the whole "man-made climate change" guys and I post this simply to educate. I personally believe if there is warming, it's because we're at the end of an ice age (thanks for the mod down).

      But here's a link to the issues at Mammoth Mountain. http://pubs.usgs.gov/dds/dds-81/Intro/facts-sheet/GasKillingTrees.html

      --
      We show geeks how to get their dream girl at EyesOfOdessa.com
    6. Re:Yeah uh... by fnj · · Score: 1

      Interesting. For what it's worth, it is alleged that CO2 in the soil is what is harming the trees, not CO2 in the air.

    7. Re:Yeah uh... by fatboy · · Score: 1

      Because most of the anti-pollution systems are designed to change harmful pollutants into harmless, non-toxic carbon dioxide emissions.

      --
      --fatboy
    8. Re:Yeah uh... by fnj · · Score: 1

      Yes, but at the same time nitrates are essential fertilizing agents as well as allegedly harmful pollutants, just as CO2 is essential to the ecosystem.

    9. Re:Yeah uh... by causality · · Score: 2

      "The global output of heat-trapping carbon dioxide jumped by the biggest amount on record in 2010, the U.S. Department of Energy calculated.

      No other pollutant is being discussed.

      Oh god dammit. CO2 = released by burning shit (imagine a coal-fired electrical power plant). Some other pollutants with more immediate health effects = also released by burning shit. GP was asking why focus on just one. That no other pollutant was being discussed was precisely what he was questioning and it's foolish to point it out as if he didn't realize it.

      Now I could answer that question in a variety of ways, such as pointing out that studying just this one thing in isolation (levels of CO2 vs. predicted levels) is probably complex enough without incorporating other concerns into the study, etc, but that's not my point.

      My point is ... This kind of legalistic "tee hee I'm just going to be dense and give you a hard time by never, ever inferring anything on my own" bullshit is why we can't have nice things. It's a douchebag thing to do. I know you don't mean it, but still. Most of the time the thing this mentality complains about is also the most certain indication that it misunderstood the post (something GP tried to tell you incidentally).

      Can we all just quit patting ourselves on the back for a second and realize that this single mistake keeps getting repeated over and over, that it's really a veil for the belief that you're so smart and the other guy is so stupid, and I don't know, maybe we can see how optional it really is? Is that too much to ask?

      --
      It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
    10. Re:Yeah uh... by Cyberllama · · Score: 2

      Allegedly? There are quite fisherman out of work because of of the algae blooms they cause. What's great for some parts of nature is very bad for other parts. How about we just agree to classify pollutants in economics terms: Any emission which creates a negative externality for another person is a pollutant. If someone ELSE has to bare the cost for YOUR actions, then you are polluting.

      Your raw sewage leaks into the river, lowering downstream property values? Well you just polluted there, buddy.
      Fisherman are struggling because of nitrates that run off of farms? Well then those nitrates are a pollutant.
      Sulfur Dioxide from coal burning reduces crop yields for local farmers by way of acid rain? Well then its a pollutant.

      I think a pretty solid case can be made for carbon dioxide emissions creating some financial losses around the world. Of course, we are all emitters to one degree or another, but clearly some more than others. So those who emit MORE than their fair share are polluters.

      I just don't see what's unreasonable about asking people to bare the burden for their OWN actions. d

    11. Re:Yeah uh... by Dunbal · · Score: 1

      It takes a while for climates to change

      Takes a while for Jesus to come back, too. At what point do you just give up and say it was all a sham?

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    12. Re:Yeah uh... by wsxyz · · Score: 1

      You made me feel bad.
      I'm leaving Slashdot and never coming back.

      At least I'm leaving with excellent karma.

    13. Re:Yeah uh... by MillionthMonkey · · Score: 1

      And FLUORINE is essential for your teeth! You should try bubbling a few hundred tons of that a year into your local river!

    14. Re:Yeah uh... by Crashmarik · · Score: 1

      That is Flouride in water not Flourine. To be precise its a compound with an F- ion. Usually Sodium Flouride or Fluorosilicic Acid. Also depending on where your city is located and its waste treatment system bubbling a few hundred tonnes/year may be exactly what is happening. Oh btw it also occurs naturally in groundwater

    15. Re:Yeah uh... by Sique · · Score: 1

      You are still not groking one of the oldest ideas about toxins.

      Let me quote Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus of Hohenheim, called Paracelsus (1493 - 1541):

      "All things are poison, and nothing is without poison; only the dose permits something not to be poisonous." (commonly shortened to "The dose makes the poison.")

      --
      .sig: Sique *sigh*
    16. Re:Yeah uh... by Joce640k · · Score: 1

      Did you know that the hottest months are July/August but the day with most sunlight is in June!

      --
      No sig today...
    17. Re:Yeah uh... by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      Erm,
      so you know how to transmute mercury or cadmium into CO2? And you don't have a noble prize yet?

      *facepalm*

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    18. Re:Yeah uh... by tbannist · · Score: 1

      Apparently, over 2000 years.

      Of course, the difference is that we actually can see the climate changes already occurring and there's no sign of the J-man.

      The changes start small and grow over time. We're seeing persistent year-over-year declines in glacial mass in the Arctic and Antarctic, we seeing northward migrations in animals, plants and diseases. We're seeing increased ocean acidification. The U.N. estimated that Climate Change has reduced the optimum global food production by around 5% from what it would have been without climate change.

      These changes don't happen overnight like they did in "The Day After Tomorrow", but they are already happening. You're apparently a doctor, so you should understand that it's best to deal with a disease while the symptoms are minor rather than when the patient is nearly dead.

      --
      Fanatically anti-fanatical
    19. Re:Yeah uh... by MillionthMonkey · · Score: 1

      Bonehead,

      You aren't going to get one over on me with your highschool chem. Fluoride salts form transient HF covalent bonds in water that interfere with biochemical electron transport mechanisms.

    20. Re:Yeah uh... by Crashmarik · · Score: 1

      What does that have to do with your initial wrong and irrelevant comment ?

  5. You know, by Gideon+Wells · · Score: 1

    You know, something seems wrong if the worst case scenario is is this greatly surpassed. Four years ago? It looks like all the countries are at the same rate of increase as they were back then (for the most part) if you go by that Reuter's chart. I'm reading this wrong somehow, right? Status quo increase can't be worse than the "worst case scenario"?

    --
    by Anonymous Coward: I, for one, welcome the shift from car analogies to pizza analogies. um.. overlords?
    1. Re:You know, by WrecklessSandwich · · Score: 1

      That's assuming that the "worst case scenario" predictions were correct.

    2. Re:You know, by Sir_Sri · · Score: 3, Funny

      The IPCC figured people someone would actually listen to them and start to make cuts, when they made their worst case predictions. They were wrong.

    3. Re:You know, by Thexare+Blademoon · · Score: 2

      But the assumption that people will do something about it shouldn't be made for a "worst case" scenario. I'm a little more okay with it being a matter of missing data, but to use the phrase "worst case scenario" implies that you're throwing out any remaining naivete and, you know, expecting the worst. To do otherwise is both misleading and incompetent.

      Is it weird that I want phrases to consistently mean something?

    4. Re:You know, by hedwards · · Score: 1

      Or, you know more data came in to give more accurate models. People like you spouting off about this is hardly going to help find a solution, it just gives cover to the nutters out there that deny climate change.

    5. Re:You know, by presidenteloco · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The scientists, even in their worst imaginings, weren't expecting the stunning level of willful ignorance of consequences, and the sheer magntitude of selfish @ssh0lishness which we collectively have displayed in our consumption increase pattern.

      Also, they had to tone it down because their political masters wanted a cover-up of the scale of the problem, so the editorial committee of IPCC low-balled the severity in their reporting.

      --

      Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
    6. Re:You know, by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1

      Remember, Murphy was an optimist.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    7. Re:You know, by Greystripe · · Score: 2

      So you're saying the IPCC changed their report to please their political masters? And you expect us to trust any of these people?

    8. Re:You know, by tbannist · · Score: 1

      They under-estimated the worst case scenario. No one predicted that China would double the number of fully-operational coal plants in China in less than 5 years (it took 22 years for the previous doubling). On the upside all those coal plants have darkened the earth's atmosphere so it's not a warm as it would have been, the downside is the cooling effect lasts about 5 years or so and the CO2 warming effect lasts between 100 and 1000 years.

      --
      Fanatically anti-fanatical
    9. Re:You know, by Sir_Sri · · Score: 1

      Actually I think it should. I mean, the worst case scenario for climate change is global thermonuclear war. That doesn't really add meaningfully to the discussion. The 'worst case' scenario is basically you keep doing what you were doing when you commissioned this report, because you cannot reasonably predict what other crazy thing people will come up with to do that will destroy the environment. And you expect that at least some of the people will probably do something in the general direction of what you advised, or they wouldn't have asked for the report in the first place.

    10. Re:You know, by TheSync · · Score: 1

      Unfortunately China is backing away from Nuclear:

      "The government wants to address public concern over the safety of nuclear development," Li Yongjiang, vice president of the China Nuclear Energy Association, said in an interview in Hong Kong, where he is attending an industry conference. "Capacity will fall somewhere between 60 and 70 gigawatts, as some planned projects have to be scaled back or canceled."

    11. Re:You know, by fatphil · · Score: 1

      Thanks for the link (and for quoting the pith of the article too). It seems a touch bizarre, given that it seems that most years the Chinese kill more people in coal mines than the rest of the world put together.

      --
      Also FatPhil on SoylentNews, id 863
  6. Re:That means... by JoeMerchant · · Score: 1

    More food for plants right?

    Yeah, are you a vegetable?

  7. Worst case scenario = greenhouse cliff by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    In short, the scenario outlined by Ben Bova's near-future Grand Tour series of books.

    Think of a pile of thermite, and how it's basically harmless even when red hot... until some part finally gets past the tipping point, and suddenly you've got a river of artificial lava sputtering out drops of molten iron. An example scenario would be the "sudden" shutdown of the Atlantic part of the oceanic conveyor current. In the longer term, ongoing ocean acidification will kick the bottom out from under the entire oceanic food chain.

    I hope you've found the act of shitting in the same place you sleep profitable, humans.

    1. Re:Worst case scenario = greenhouse cliff by x6060 · · Score: 1

      Wasnt that the crappy plot to "The day after tomorrow" that essentially every climate, weather, and marine scientist said was completely bullshit?

    2. Re:Worst case scenario = greenhouse cliff by farble1670 · · Score: 1

      everyone thinks burning thermite is cool, but i don't think it can be used to model the earth's ecosystem.

    3. Re:Worst case scenario = greenhouse cliff by gzuckier · · Score: 1

      you can't housebreak primates. we're lucky humans can be toilet trained. that's what comes from evolving in trees instead of dens where the crap builds up.

      --
      Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
  8. Re:Where's the beef? by jbolden · · Score: 3, Informative

    The models indicate there is supposed to be a lag. But so far for previous rises the heat did show up.

  9. Re:Where's the beef? by mevets · · Score: 4, Funny

    Last summer some dolt tried to convince me it was 40C outside. I pointed to my drink, which was sitting on the table at a lovely 4C, as evidence it couldn't be that warm, or my drink would be warm too. He got all huffy and mumbled about ice-cubes moderating the temperature, but it was obvious he was just making that shit up.

    I finished my drink 5 minutes later, and it was cool and refreshing to the last drop.

  10. Re:Where's the beef? by Phleg · · Score: 5, Informative

    CO2 outpaces worst-case scenarios yet the heat doesn't show up.

    I can't tell if you're trolling, or if you're actually that fucking ignorant.

    Perhaps the computer models were wrong*. [* actually, computer models give you whatever result you want if you tweak them the right way, so they technically, they gave the 'right' results]

    Likewise, climate models are designed to simulate the physicsof the global ecosystem, and not just perform statistical regressions.

    Perhaps next time you might consider having the slightest fucking clue of what you're talking about before joining a discussion with adults?

    --
    No comment.
  11. Re:Where's the beef? by RichMan · · Score: 5, Informative

    > CO2 outpaces worst-case scenarios yet the heat doesn't show up.

    Heat lags CO2. Just like the middle of winter is not Dec 21 and the middle of summer is not June 21.
    The earth is warming up a little more each year. Please learn a little before making wrong headed statements.

    Adding heat to the oceans takes a long time. Think boiling water. Adding 1 or 2 degrees to the entire oceans takes an awful lot of energy accumulation. The heat we have added so far has just started to turn over the ocean currents.

  12. THATS IT! by tibbar · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'm leaving ...

    1. Re:THATS IT! by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      Would that stop you from posting AC?

  13. Re:Where's the beef? by jbolden · · Score: 4, Informative

    Actually that's not necessarily true. I don't know whether you remember your introductory differential equations class where you did basic modeling, but essentially a model starts with a few observations being converted into hypothesis. Not all facits of a model are explicitly known prior to generating the result data.

  14. Re:Where's the beef? by mbkennel · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "The people creating those models can be biased in their beliefs and in analysis of the data the models are based on."

    It's biased by things like the heat capacity of the ocean, for example.

    "The models don't indicate that there is supposed to be lag, the models were /programmed/ to /assume/ that there will be lag, that's how computer models work."

    The models are not arbitrary statistical models, they are models of known physics and observed facts of the world.

  15. I give up. by TiggertheMad · · Score: 1

    You know, perhaps the only thing to do is just start a anti-idiot revolution. We could get a pack of nerds together and start executing anyone who couldn't explain that correlation != causality or find the roots of a quadratic equation. The best part is nobody would try to stop us, because who would willing join a mob of 'idiots' to put down the packs of wheezy db programmers intent on idioticide...

    --

    HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
    1. Re:I give up. by Beeftopia · · Score: 1

      You know, perhaps the only thing to do is just start a anti-idiot revolution. We could get a pack of nerds together and start executing anyone who couldn't explain that correlation != causality [...]

      Here's the limitation of statistics: It can only tell you about correlation. Statistics cannot ever tell you if one thing causes another. All you can ever get is a correlation coefficient which can only tell you how closely certain variables are correlated. That's it. Either something is perfectly not correlated (-1), correlated somewhere in between, or perfectly correlated(1), based on how that coefficient is calculated.

      That's it.

      From there, you must put together a case about whether something does in fact cause another. "A lit stove burner leads to energy transfer to pot leads to energy transfer to water, leads to water boiling."

    2. Re:I give up. by kaffiene · · Score: 1

      And yet despite that, Bayesian networks do a remarkable job of predicting the future on the basis of statistical observation of the past.

      It may not be logically valid but it still has predictive power.

    3. Re:I give up. by cplusplus · · Score: 1

      "find the roots of a quadratic equation." Crap, I never could remember that whole "completing the square" thing. I'm doomed.

      --
      "False hope is why we'll never run out of natural resources!" - Lewis Black
    4. Re:I give up. by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      Something like "CO2 absorbs radiant energy in the infrared band which leads to heating of the environment it is in."?

    5. Re:I give up. by Neil+Boekend · · Score: 1

      Correlation is no proof for causation, but without correlation causation can not exist.
      To scream causation simply requires some proof than a simple correlation. Since we haven't got a spare ecosystem to test on we have to rely on models, which are inherrently simplified and thus wrong to some level.

      While the knowledge correlation != causation is cruicial to evaluating almost anything, the math skillz you'd require are almost useless to, for example, a road worker. The road worker simply needs to know he doesn't understand everything.
      I'd join the idiots to stop ya, because you are an idiot in your own private way (as am I. All humans are idiots outside their field since we started specialising in the stone age.)

      --
      Well, I might have a way, but it only works on a semi spherical planet in a vacuum.
  16. Re:Where's the beef? by jbolden · · Score: 1

    Actually we have seen a sharp increase in temperature globally. global running 5 year ave.

  17. Re:That means... by JoeMerchant · · Score: 1

    If I were taking him seriously, I would have asked if he could photosynthesize. Increased atmospheric CO2 is a little more complex than just making the grass greener. The one that bugs me more than most is increased ocean acidity, kill the corals, and possibly increase sinkhole formation activity - living in Florida is bad enough now with the idiots pumping water for strawberries so hard that they put holes all over the place, including in roads (I-4 had a big one), under houses, etc. But, more sinkholes would fall into the known unknown category, along with heat trapping, etc. The really scary ones are the unknown unknowns.

  18. Re:That means... by amRadioHed · · Score: 1

    Umm, no. CO2 is harmful before 5,000PPM. By the time it reaches 50,000PPM it's beyond harmful and downright lethal.

    Of course this is only talking about the direct affect of respiration of high CO2 concentrations, a far fetched danger that no one has ever used as an argument to reduce CO2 emissions.

    --
    We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace
  19. Re:Where's the beef? by sermo-rationis · · Score: 5, Informative
    From the article, which was written in July 2010:

    Currently 1998 is the hottest year on record. Two combined land and sea surface temperature records from Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) and the US National Climatic Data Centre (NCDC) both calculate that the first six months of 2010 were the hottest on record. According to GISS, four of the six months also individually showed record highs.

    At the time the article was written, the first six months of 2010 were hotter than the corresponding months in 1998. Unfortunately that trend continued, and this year NOAA announced that 2010 had tied with 2005 for the hottest year on record. (2005 was hotter than 1998; the guardian got that fact wrong).

    Source: http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2011/20110112_globalstats.html

  20. Re:Where's the beef? by Phleg · · Score: 4, Funny

    maybe you should get a fucking clue, the article you link explicitly states that 1998 was the hottest year on record.

    It looks like you're in a discussion related to the climate. Would you like help?

    --
    No comment.
  21. Actual data here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Here's actual data for CO2 levels in the atmosphere.

    http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/global.html

    1. Re:Actual data here by Daetrin · · Score: 1

      Ahhh, that's a nice simple, easy to understand graph, thanks!

      It looks like the amount is going up by about 2 ppm per year. Let's assume for the moment that that continues forever, we don't run out of oil, we don't increase or decrease our use of oil, and neither us nor any new natural process develops a way to handle the higher concentrations of CO2. (Yeah, totally not going to happen, especially on the time scales i'm about to use, but just in theory.)

      According to Wikipedia's section on carbon dioxide toxicity In about 300 years about 20% of the human race will start feeling drowsy and just generally crappy. In 800 years pretty much everyone will feel crappy all the time, and a lot of people will have constant nausea and headaches. In 2,300 years we'll exceed the US federal regulations for an eight hour work day. In 10,000 years it will be strong enough to act as a narcotic, so we'll all be high all the time, and suffer from high blood pressure and "temporary" hearing loss. In 15,000 years we'll exceed the federal regulations for ten minutes of exposure. In 20,000 years we'll reach the point where it is "immediately dangerous to life and health". At 25,000 years, "it causes stimulation of the respiratory center, dizziness, confusion and difficulty in breathing accompanied by headache and shortness of breath. Panic attacks may also occur at this concentration." Finally at 40,000 years, "it causes headache, sweating, dim vision, tremor and loss of consciousness after exposure for between five and ten minutes."

      Obviously we'd start seeing negative long terms effects very early on in that process. But if we somehow kept on as we are going, no more and no less, then in 40,000 years the air would be completely toxic. If suddenly exposed to it you'd pass out after 5-10 minutes and presuming no help was forthcoming you would never wake up again, and i doubt humans are unique in that regard. That level of CO2 would almost certainly kill off most animal life on the planet. Of course i expect we'd actually kill off everything a lot sooner than that, but i don't know if there's been any studies of the toxic effects of long term exposure to high levels of CO2

      40,000 years may seem like a long time to us, but from a geological and evolutionary perspective that's nothing. Being human we'll change what we're doing one way or another long before that, but it's an interesting way to put the current rate of change in perspective.

      --
      This Space Intentionally Left Blank
  22. What worst case? by Hentes · · Score: 1

    There is a finite amount of fossile fuels underground, the worst case scenario is that we develop a way to extract and burn most of it, wich would raise global temperatures by about 6 degrees, regardless of speed.

    1. Re:What worst case? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      There is a finite amount of fossile fuels underground, the worst case scenario is that we develop a way to extract and burn most of it, wich would raise global temperatures by about 6 degrees, regardless of speed.

      At 6 degrees we are all dead.

    2. Re:What worst case? by blackfrancis75 · · Score: 2

      erm... source?

    3. Re:What worst case? by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      Probably not. Humans are resourceful and as long as we can find sufficient food, water, shelter and breathable air there will be some of us left. After all humans have found ways to live both in the Kalahari desert and on Beaufort Island in the arctic. That doesn't mean the population won't be greatly reduced though.

    4. Re:What worst case? by Hentes · · Score: 1

      What source do you need? That fossile fuel is not renewable?

    5. Re:What worst case? by Sabriel · · Score: 1

      No, the source for your worst case scenario of a 6 degree rise.

    6. Re:What worst case? by marcosdumay · · Score: 1

      First, by fossile you meant fossil or fissile?

      Now, about the actual content... You are ignoring the different severity between kinds of emissions, different half-life, natural sinks and sources, and plenty of things that I also don't know about, and thus can't point to you. Also, I second the "citation needed" for that 6 degrees celcius part.

    7. Re:What worst case? by farble1670 · · Score: 1

      it's not the 6 degrees, it's the complete collapse of society and the global war that ensues. there are a least a handful of world governments that aren't going to go down in any way other than kicking and screaming and letting their nukes fly.

    8. Re:What worst case? by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      Yes, the temperature alone will not kill that many people. But changes to the climate in agricultural areas and ocean acidification could make it impossible to feed everyone and when people get hungry they get desperate. If civilization collapses that leaves a lot of people struggling to survive and things could get ugly.

    9. Re:What worst case? by gzuckier · · Score: 1

      We have one lousy late October storm and literally millions of people are left in the dark and cold (let alone no contact with the outside world by internet, tv, or phone) here in the resourceful and wealthy Northeast, some of them still without power; on top of which all the gas stations are dead without electricity so that even when people can get through the tree-blocked streets they're lucky if they can get refueled before they run out of gas. I hope future generations enjoy scratching the dirt to get some cabbages to feed the family.

      --
      Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
    10. Re:What worst case? by sapgau · · Score: 1

      There is a limit of what high temperatures most living organisms can tolerate... mostly anything above 60C (140F).
      Some deserts on earth will soon reach those temperatures if the global trends continue (in years or decades?)... There will be true inhospitable places on Earth, our own Martian landscapes if you will...

    11. Re:What worst case? by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      Yep, and they have to resources of the unaffected parts of the country to call on so they will get back to normal in a while. If everyone is affected then you get a new normal.

  23. Re:Where's the beef? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    So...

    Why is this year and last year a cool year, and the last 10 years showing a cooling trend according to BEST?

  24. Re:Nice clear direct scientific measurements. by Ironchew · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Skeptics welcome scientific evidence. It is the obstructionist pseudoskeptics (deniers) that will never be convinced until their ulterior motive is fulfilled.

  25. Just like you never stop spreading FUD by SuperKendall · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Still won't shut up skeptics.

    Yes, you'd love to silence all debate, wouldn't you?

    Real science welcomes skeptics, thanks for letting us know you'd rather side with a cult that brooks no disbelief, just waiting for the noodly tentacles of the Great Warming Spaghetti Monster to wrap us all in a suffocating layer of warmth.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:Just like you never stop spreading FUD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      thanks for letting us know you'd rather side with a cult that brooks no disbelief

      Stop projecting.

    2. Re:Just like you never stop spreading FUD by BasilBrush · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Real science welcomes skeptics

      Real science welcomes scientists. Intelligence, honesty, integrity, inquisitiveness, rigour, domain knowledge, logic are among the desirable aspects of scientists in addition to and more significant than scepticism. The so called global warming "sceptics" typically don't have any of those attributes.

      Define yourself by your "scepticism", and you're not a scientist, you're a fuckwit.

    3. Re:Just like you never stop spreading FUD by bussdriver · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Do not fall into the popular myth that all opinions (or skepticism) are equal. All opinions are not equal (nor are they facts as more American college students seem to think...)

      Real scientists have work to do and don't need to be wasting our time with every asshat armchair skeptic who believes whatever propaganda and conspiracy theory they happen to be listening (passively) to.

      Belief that the world's experts in a particular field of study; a "science" if you will, is not the same as believing in God or a Spaghetti Monster.

  26. What some people don't get by Dasher42 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Is that scientists, on average, are not crazed alarmists. They work in a field full of cut-throat peer review where the one who truly, verifiably disproves the most long-standing stuff gets the recognition and the spoils. Their language is conservative, a wide range of speculation must be admitted for consideration but they're going to err on the side of caution.

    There's nothing in nature short of a major mass extinction event to match what we're creating. I can't fathom why anyone's having kids. The kids we have already are truly screwed.

    1. Re:What some people don't get by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Eh, not really. Even if we completely melted the ice caps (which would require a lot more CO2 than we're currently venting, but hey, we're pretty good at increasing our rate of output, we can do it!) it's not like we'd wipe out humanity. I mean, a few billion people would starve, but even if civilization completely collapsed we'd only be set back about twenty thousand years. We've got, what, five billion years until the Sun goes red giant and engulfs the earth? We've got time to fuck up and rebuild hundreds of times!

      The next round will be trickier, though, because they'll need to go straight from burning wood to nuclear fission as we'll have used all the fossil fuels.

    2. Re:What some people don't get by Pyzaros · · Score: 5, Funny

      Is that scientists, on average, are not crazed alarmists. They work in a field full of cut-throat peer review where the one who truly, verifiably disproves the most long-standing stuff gets the recognition and the spoils. Their language is conservative, a wide range of speculation must be admitted for consideration but they're going to err on the side of caution.

      There's nothing in nature short of a major mass extinction event to match what we're creating. I can't fathom why anyone's having kids. The kids we have already are truly screwed.

      I'm guessing you're no scientist.

    3. Re:What some people don't get by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I work in science, and this is something of a misconception. Cut-throat peer review is anything but exempt from personal politics, as are those who dole out grants, etc. The livelihood of scientists is entirely dependent upon outside money that is often there in hopes that the scientists in question provide a specific answer. And yes, I am certain that global warming falls entirely within this domain. I have yet to meet a well funded scientist that is looking at the data the other way. If at this point you're thinking that it's bad science to be only looking at a problem from one side, you are correct. It's just that sometimes looking from that other side is a poor career choice.

    4. Re:What some people don't get by shadowofwind · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I can't fathom why anyone's having kids.

      Because we value life and intelligence, and if some of us don't have kids, there will be no more human life?

      The thought that intelligent, responsible people should know better than to reproduce implies that only unintelligent, irresponsible people should create the next generation. That's not exactly a recipe for success.

      There have always crisis in history, wars, famines, plagues, collapses of empires, but people continue on.

      A population collapse would add to the problems. The fact that some parts of the world are having more than enough kids doesn't offset the problem in more developed parts of the world. The US, as an example, would have a declining population without immigration. A wealthy, educated population can incorporate poor, uneducated immigrants, but can't well replace itself that way entirely.

      Yes, its kind of crazy that it took hundreds of millions of years for oil to accumulate in the earth, and people are set on burning it in a couple of hundred. A foolishness that people will suffer for, and unfortunately the people who suffer the most won't be the ones who contributed the most to the problem. But how rational is the thought that we should all just throw up our hands and commit suicide?

      Yes humanity is screwed up, and there's no excuse for it, to the extent that we're intelligent to know better. But if you think that humanity invented selfishness and misery, perhaps you should get out and study nature more.

    5. Re:What some people don't get by Xoltri · · Score: 1

      I didn't know that Harold Camping posted on Slashdot! What's your prediction for the end of the world this time? Surely with such bold predictions you must have a ballpark date range for all of our children to die.

      --
      -Xoltri
    6. Re:What some people don't get by dudpixel · · Score: 1, Insightful

      I can't fathom why anyone's having kids. The kids we have already are truly screwed.

      Um, your logic doesn't work. Not having kids is 100% guaranteed to make the human race die out, and in just 100 years or so.
      You need to think up a better solution, because that one, well, isn't one at all...

      --
      This seemed like a reasonable sig at the time.
    7. Re:What some people don't get by Dasher42 · · Score: 3, Informative

      You misunderstand. I feel it's an obligation to hand the world to our children at least as good as we found it, and presently, we're failing abysmally. No really, how can you have a child knowing full well you'd have to explain to them why your generation ran their world off the edge with the foot literally on the gas?

    8. Re:What some people don't get by riverat1 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Another guy who doesn't understand the difference between weather and climate. Weather is chaotic in nature but it varies within a range. For instance the highest temperature ever recorded on the Earth was 134 F in Death Valley and the lowest was -128.6 F at Vostok Station. Those records may be broken sometime but not likely by much. Climate defines the range that weather is chaotic in. If the climate shifts the range for the weather shifts right along with it.

    9. Re:What some people don't get by rally2xs · · Score: 1

      Nobody is screwed if the global warming fraudsters are ignored and we use geo-engineering to attack the problem. That is, as soon as we can actually measure a problem...

    10. Re:What some people don't get by Patch86 · · Score: 1

      I can't fathom why anyone's having kids. The kids we have already are truly screwed.

      I mean, a few billion people would starve, but even if civilization completely collapsed we'd only be set back about twenty thousand years.

      Oh good. Our kids will enjoy that.

    11. Re:What some people don't get by khallow · · Score: 1

      There's nothing in nature short of a major mass extinction event to match what we're creating.

      A technological civilization is nothing like a mass extinction event. I find it deeply ironic that the title of this thread comes from someone so deeply clueless.

      I can't fathom why anyone's having kids. The kids we have already are truly screwed.

      I imagine they figure there's a future. Looks to me like they're right too.

    12. Re:What some people don't get by DarkOx · · Score: 1

      Except that oil vilified as it is now the only thing disrupting the carbon cycle. The burning of wood for fuel and related deforestation either for fuel or agricultural reasons is a major major contributor.

      Many third worlders have a carbon foot print bigger than westerners if you factor the hill sides they burned to plant crop on soil that really can't support them anyway. On the flip side the amount of forested land in the USA has increased over the past 100 years! Poverty not affluence is what creates environmental crisis.

      --
      Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
    13. Re:What some people don't get by argStyopa · · Score: 1

      "...scientists, on average, are not crazed alarmists. ...Their language is conservative, a wide range of speculation must be admitted for consideration but they're going to err on the side of caution."
      Really? http://news.iskcon.com/node/509
      "In late 2006, the Texas Academy of Science chose to honor one Professor Eric R. Pianka, an eminent ecologist who studies desert ecologies, with its 2006 Distinguished Texas Scientist award. Professor Pianka used the occasion to champion the notion, apparently without sanction of the Academy, that the Earth can only be saved if ninety percent of the human beings alive today are purged from the planet. He championed airborne Ebola as the most efficient virus to accomplish this..."
      This is a distinguished, honored scientist.

      "I can't fathom why anyone's having kids."
      We're all actually perfectly fine with you not having any. Clearly Darwin favors optimists.

      --
      -Styopa
    14. Re:What some people don't get by wytcld · · Score: 1

      Peer review at the best journals is blind. Neither the reviewers nor the authors know who the others are. So where do personal politics come in? Unlike perhaps the AC who "works in science," I've been a peer reviewer. My response to a flawed submission is to forward back through the journal editor suggestions on how the author might strengthen their case, especially when the case is opposed to the stands I'm known for in my field. I like a good dispute. Good disputes create further publication opportunities for all involved, and invitations to speak at conferences, which are along with journals the lifeblood of academic science. If anything most areas accentuate disputes rather than cohere on consensus simply because there's more career opportunity involved in it.

      So the consensus by 97% of climate scientists stands out as notably unusual. You won't find anything like that in neuroscience, or astrophysics, or economics ... it is extraordinarily rare. Most of science is like big time wrestling or politics. We accentuate the conflict because it makes for a happier audience. When scientists come down so consistently on the same side of a set of questions as they do in climate science, this is a most unusual circumstance. One we should take seriously. They're going against the normal pattern of scientists; we usually love to accentuate our disputes.

      --
      "with their freedom lost all virtue lose" - Milton
    15. Re:What some people don't get by fredrated · · Score: 1

      " However, again this isn't going to cause the extinction of humanity"

      Wow, your certainty is so heart warming I think I'll just quit worrying about the whole issue!

    16. Re:What some people don't get by thejaq · · Score: 1

      "The scientific consensus is that if current rates of species extinction continue the fraction of species lost will be comparable to that of the five major extenction events in Earth's geological past" ~1996
      http://goo.gl/z3IKs
      Please correct me if if the thinking has changed.

    17. Re:What some people don't get by janimal · · Score: 1

      ... It's just that sometimes looking from that other side is a poor career choice.

      Not to mention outright dangerous, given the absolute fanaticism about how bad global warming is for us. I happen to think that World War III will be far more damaging to our natural environment and the human population than any amount of fumes that our cows will fart out.

    18. Re:What some people don't get by Raenex · · Score: 1

      When scientists come down so consistently on the same side of a set of questions as they do in climate science, this is a most unusual circumstance. One we should take seriously. They're going against the normal pattern of scientists; we usually love to accentuate our disputes.

      There are two ways to argue this. One, the scientists are really sure about this and there is no dispute. Two, climate science has become highly politicized and group think has taken over.

      There's also a third way, that your "97%" figure is bogus.

    19. Re:What some people don't get by tbannist · · Score: 2

      Interesting, you are getting your news from a religious organization which claims a scientist made wild and crazy claims (the claims come round-about from the Heartland Institute). Of course, the episode is also written up on Wikipedia and the account there is slightly different.

      The scientists didn't applaud him for advocating genocide they applauded him for warning that under our current conditions it's only a matter of time before a lethal plague sweeps the earth. Given the poor track record the Heartland Institute has with honesty, and the fact that a standing ovation for a man advocating genocide is not terribly plausible, I'm inclined to believe that the Heartland Institute is misusing the speech to drive it's anti-science and fund raising agendas.

      --
      Fanatically anti-fanatical
    20. Re:What some people don't get by InsertCleverUsername · · Score: 1

      I work in science, and this is something of a misconception.

      Really? Do you have a degree in science? From an anonymous university perhaps?

      --
      Ask me about my sig!
    21. Re:What some people don't get by khallow · · Score: 1

      And there's more going on than just that.

    22. Re:What some people don't get by Thomas+Miconi · · Score: 1

      The livelihood of scientists is entirely dependent upon...

      .... nothing. Almost all prominent climate scientists have tenure or nearly-equivalent job security.

        But thanks for the fact-free FUD, dear Mr. AC who supposedly "works in science".

    23. Re:What some people don't get by StikyPad · · Score: 1

      Because, as he just said, the alternative is to doom the next generation(s) by allowing only foolish people (by your own definition) to have kids.

      Besides, entire populations making stupid decisions is not exactly a new phenomenon in human history. So people, be they our children or ourselves, can waste time and energy blaming previous generations, or they can get to work solving the problem(s).

    24. Re:What some people don't get by zbobet2012 · · Score: 1
      Got to love nature:

      Extinction from habitat loss is the signature conservation problem of the twenty-first century. Despite its importance, estimating extinction rates is still highly uncertain because no proven direct methods or reliable data exist for verifying extinctions. The most widely used indirect method is to estimate extinction rates by reversing the species–area accumulation curve, extrapolating backwards to smaller areas to calculate expected species loss. Estimates of extinction rates based on this method are almost always much higher than those actually observed. This discrepancy gave rise to the concept of an ‘extinction debt’, referring to species ‘committed to extinction’ owing to habitat loss and reduced population size but not yet extinct during a non-equilibrium period. Here we show that the extinction debt as currently defined is largely a sampling artefact due to an unrecognized difference between the underlying sampling problems when constructing a species–area relationship (SAR) and when extrapolating species extinction from habitat loss..

      http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v473/n7347/full/nature09985.html

    25. Re:What some people don't get by JTsyo · · Score: 1

      Don't worry, it'll build character when they have to grow in tough situations. Look at those they grew up during the Great Depression, they became the Greatest Generation.

    26. Re:What some people don't get by JTsyo · · Score: 1

      hmm then I should bury bags of coal in booby-trapped temples around the world with cryptic clues on how to find them. It'll make for good material in future movies.

    27. Re:What some people don't get by argStyopa · · Score: 1

      The reaction to Pianka's speech was extreme, certainly.
      The determined effort at post-speech spin was almost as extreme.

      The best site I could find that reviewed what he said was http://www.pearceyreport.com/archives/2006/04/transcript_dr_d.php
      - this wasn't a transcript released later once he'd realized the reaction - on this site, they transcribe what he said from audio taken at the time.

      Let me give you some excerpts:
      "We could not have reached six and a half billion if it werenâ(TM)t for fossil fuels, to do agriculture and feed the hordes of humans around the earth. And the fossil fuels are running out. So I think we might have to cut back to, say, two billion, which would be about one-third as many people."

      "...So this is what we need. We need to sterilize everybody on the Earth [laughter] and make the antidote freely available to anybody whoâ(TM)s willing to work for it.

      Immediately you'd get responsible parenthood. No more juvenile delinquents, unwanted kids. You have a kid, you had to work, and you had only a few seconds to do it in. [Extended laughter] ..."

      So - considering that whoever was recording that didn't start until after they'd heard something pretty shocking, I don't find his comments inconsistent with the idea that he was talking hypothetically and positively about the death of 90% of humanity. Does he say it in that transcript? Nope, he doesn't, not specifically.

      Put it this way - if you heard something about what George Bush said, something extreme, and there was a huge reaction? Would you trust the transcript put out later?

      And no, it's pretty clear that Wiki is a shitty source for anything controversial.

      --
      -Styopa
    28. Re:What some people don't get by argStyopa · · Score: 1

      Further, if he's so grossly mischaracterized, let's see Pianka sue Mims in court for libel.

      If this is as obvious as claimed, it should be a slam-dunk.

      It's amusing that this is being referred to as the 'Swiftboating' of Pianka...as far as I could tell, the factual assertions against John Kerry's record were never actually contested - the complaint was about how much publicity they got and how it negatively impacted (then-candidate) Kerry.

      It makes me wonder if "Swiftboating" is perhaps perfectly descriptive here too - it's more about the crocodile tears of the people objecting to the revelation, than any actual inaccuracy about the facts revealed.

      --
      -Styopa
    29. Re:What some people don't get by tbannist · · Score: 1

      "...So this is what we need. We need to sterilize everybody on the Earth [laughter] and make the antidote freely available to anybody whoâ(TM)s willing to work for it.

      That's some out of context quoting there, which leads me to believe you are anything but impartial. That's a partial quote of an answer to a hypothetical question which wasn't transcribed. Judging from the answer the question was about how you something like: How could we make China's one child per couple policy work on a global level? Context does matter.

      If I heard Bush had said something controversial from the Democratic National Council and no one else? I'd take the information with a giant grain of salt. The controversy over this speech was stirred up by the Heartland Institute. Frankly, I don't trust then at all, they have a history of pushing lies and deception to further their political agenda. Frankly, I think this is a classic attempt at manufacturing controversy. Having read the transcript, it's already clear to me that they lied on several points already. So no, I think Wikipedia is a much more trustworthy source than the Heartland Institute.

      --
      Fanatically anti-fanatical
    30. Re:What some people don't get by gzuckier · · Score: 1

      It explains Fermi's Paradox.

      --
      Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
    31. Re:What some people don't get by Dasher42 · · Score: 1

      A technological civilization is nothing like a mass extinction event. I find it deeply ironic that the title of this thread comes from someone so deeply clueless.

      If a civilization pollutes its environment and destroys all the habitat that a multitude of species needs for survival, and does this worldwide, yes, it is absolutely causing a mass extinction event, with the additional curse of its sustained and delusional effort as opposed to a natural accident.

      Your idea of clueless is interesting. There are so many examples of the unnatural extinctions of vital ecosystems in the present world that you have to be wilfully ignorant to make that statement. Will you people not get a clue until you can't get tuna on your plate, or will the mercury and lead levels prevent that too?

  27. So... by afabbro · · Score: 1

    It is a 'monster' increase that is unheard of

    Which monster increases have you heard of?

    --
    Advice: on VPS providers
  28. Hypocapnia means 'not enough CO2' by nido · · Score: 2

    Hypocapnia is when you don't have enough CO2 in your blood.

    I have a bookmark for a .co.uk medical gas supplier on another computer. They have PDFs of their products' Material Safety Data Sheets. As I recally, they have Oxygen, Oxygen +5% CO2, Plain Air + 5% CO2, straight CO2 (for anesthesia), etc.

    But I did find a printout of this page: Hyperoxia-Induced Hypocapnia. The practical implication of this piece is that every old person who has been prescribed oxygen by their doctor is also being poisoned. This creates more things to treat, so it's good for the medical system, but not so good for the patient.

    If you're going to be on oxygen, 5% CO2 should always be blended in...

    --
    Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
    www.teslabox.com
    1. Re:Hypocapnia means 'not enough CO2' by tibit · · Score: 1

      Thank you, this was quite informative. I have known about O2 causing blindness in infants, but did not appreciate that it has risks that continue throughout one's life.

      --
      A successful API design takes a mixture of software design and pedagogy.
    2. Re:Hypocapnia means 'not enough CO2' by Dunbal · · Score: 4, Informative

      The practical implication of this piece is that every old person who has been prescribed oxygen by their doctor is also being poisoned.

      Since I'm a doctor I just had to chime in. Physicians are well aware of the toxicity of oxygen. Usually a young person can handle 100% pure oxygen with no problems for up to 24 hours, but after 24 hours the damage from free radicals starts, and it doesn't take much more than 24 hours before even a healthy person dies - ironically from asphyxiation - while breathing 100% oxygen.

      In the elderly it's a different story. Most elderly have a certain amount of lung damage - especially ex-smokers with COPD. While they have learned to live with this damage and their bodies have compensated (CO2 dissolves in blood to form bicarbonate, and not only the lung can dissipate CO2 but also the kidney can get rid of excess bicarbonate, making another CO2 "sink") for their poor lung function. As part of this compensation, the breathing regulatory mechanism is altered. There are two basic stimuli that tell the brain it's time to draw another breath - one receptor measures blood CO2 and another measures blood O2. The CO2 receptor is the most sensitive one and normal people are using this receptor all the time to work out when it's time to take the next breath. However in the elderly or other people with chronic lung problems, these people have gotten accustomed to high CO2 levels. The CO2 receptor no longer works - it's suppressed by the brain to prevent hyperventilation. So these people are dependent on the O2 receptor to tell them when O2 levels are getting low - then it's time to take another breath.

      What happens when you put one of these people on 100% oxygen is that the O2 receptor never fires because there is plenty of oxygen dissolved in the blood all the time, so they never get the signal to take another breath and they simply stop breathing. At this point CO2 levels build up to toxic levels faster than the O2 levels deplete because CO2 was almost at toxic levels anyway, and they go into a coma and die - suddenly and quietly. This is why a doctor always has to be careful when there are inexperienced nurses near elderly patients. A well intentioned nurse who sees an old man struggling for breath is likely to turn up the oxygen flow to "help him out", and in fact she ends up killing him. True story - and it has happened even in my hospital.

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    3. Re:Hypocapnia means 'not enough CO2' by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      Usually a young person can handle 100% pure oxygen with no problems for up to 24 hours

      I find this hard to believe. Everything I've read indicates that pure oxygen begins to cause brain damage within a few minutes. A quick search led me to this link, which is more recent that the 1998 study that I had previously read (which suggested that 4 minutes was just about safe and anything beyond that could cause brain damage). After 24 hours, I'd expect to see permanent brain damage in any animal.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    4. Re:Hypocapnia means 'not enough CO2' by Dunbal · · Score: 1

      Everything I've read indicates that pure oxygen begins to cause brain damage within a few minutes.

      Just because I have nothing to do today:

      "CNS oxygen toxicity does not occur when the partial pressure of inspired oxygen is less than 2 atmospheres (203 kPa); its occurrence is thus limited to a small number of hyperbaric applications" Goodman and Gilman's "The Pharmacological basis of Therapeutics", 9th edition, page 353. Yeah my edition is a little old, but I've been a doctor for a while. Although everyone makes mistakes, usually when I wear my "doctor hat" I make sure what I say is accurate if it involves medicine. I certainly trust my medical texts more than any website, especially on something absolutely not cutting edge at all like this. The patient will die from pulmonary edema long before you see CNS toxicity. Except of course if you're cheating in a lab and doing things to tissue in a petri dish.

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    5. Re:Hypocapnia means 'not enough CO2' by nido · · Score: 1

      Interesting, thanks for the details.

      CO2 is protective too - I wonder why it's not used more frequently.

      --
      Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
      www.teslabox.com
    6. Re:Hypocapnia means 'not enough CO2' by sycodon · · Score: 1

      House would be impressed.

      --
      When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
  29. Re:Where's the beef? by cwebster · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They were all talking about differential equations, just some of you don't know it. Global circulation models are a collection of coupled atmosphere, ocean, etc models. Each of these models contain a core set of differential equations, which are either discretized to be integrated forward in time in physical space, or decomposed into spectral space, which has certain benefits for non-linear terms in the Navier-Stokes equation. There are a number of parameterizations to handle sub grid-scale processes so their effects taken into account at the resolved grid scale*. In essence you have a bunch of differential equations and a closure to give yourself a closed system for each component of the GCM, which you then use to force other components, and you integrate it all forward in time.

    And the gp was right about observations. If you recall your ODE/PDE class, you'll be interested to know this is a boundary-value problem and you need to specify initial and boundary conditions. Initial conditions are your observations, or whatever your assumptions about the current state are. Often the GCM models are initialized in the year 1800 or 1900, giving them 100+ years of simulation time to equilibrate and match known observations before they are really forecasting the future. As for boundary conditions, the model is global, so the boundaries wrap around and you dont need to worry about them.

    * An example of this is convection. When moist air rises and condensation occurs (to form cloud drops, rain, ice, etc), energy is released into the surrounding system (enthalpy of vaporization, deposition, fusion, etc). This translates into warming of the surrounding air, and helps drive convection and represents a transport of warming from the surface to the middle and upper atmosphere. The condensation process happens on a much smaller scale than a GCM can resolve, so the equations being integrated cannot represent this process. The process does however have an effect on temperature at the resolved scale. To handle this, parameterizations are employed that make certain assumptions about these processes and then make adjustments to the resolved scale. It would be better to just resolve these effects directly, but when you try to work at the molecular scale globally, realtime moves faster than the model does.

  30. Re:Where's the beef? by Phleg · · Score: 2

    Appeal to authority works in the other direction too, you know. Especially when the source in question was just reporting on the release as published by NASA.

    Yeah, whatever. NASA's just part of the leftist lamestream media, amirite?

    --
    No comment.
  31. Worst Case, Indeed by jasnw · · Score: 1

    What's really sad is that if the IPCC groups tried to put in a REAL worst case scenario the politicians would have a hissy-fit. From what I have heard from colleagues in the field of climate modeling, the IPCC had to work hard to get a consensus on what would be deemed a politically-acceptable worst case scenario. I look at the official "worst case" setups and assume that they represent our realistic best hope.

  32. Canadian numbers don't look too bad by msobkow · · Score: 1

    The Canadian numbers don't look too bad, despite the bleating about the oilsands.

    That, of course, is what I care about the most: whether we're doing our part as a nation. Not much we can do about the rest of the world, especially China and the US.

    --
    I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
    1. Re:Canadian numbers don't look too bad by Nerdfest · · Score: 2

      We as a nation are outsourcing production to China, etc. We can do our part by only outsourcing to places that actually have some semblance of environmental controls in place.

    2. Re:Canadian numbers don't look too bad by msobkow · · Score: 1

      But on the flip side, we're taking the hit for the oilsands extraction process -- that's a heavy CO2 contributor.

      But I agree with the sentiment.

      --
      I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
    3. Re:Canadian numbers don't look too bad by Prune · · Score: 1

      There was a study showing that Canada overall would benefit from a 3-4 degree rise in temperature (mainly due to receding of the permafrost making for more arable land).

      --
      "Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason."
    4. Re:Canadian numbers don't look too bad by tbannist · · Score: 1

      That's hard to do, a better solution would be to implement a carbon tax and apply it to imports from countries that haven't implemented a similar level of carbon tax.

      --
      Fanatically anti-fanatical
  33. Re:Where's the beef? by cwebster · · Score: 5, Informative

    > The models don't indicate that there is supposed to be lag, the models were /programmed/ to /assume/ that there will be lag

    What the models are programmed with are basic PDE's describing what we know about fluid motion, thermodynamics, mass continuity, etc. In this case there will also be code modeling the known interactions of the CO2 molecule with solar and terrestrial radiation. What the programmers are assuming (not programmers really, but the guys running the model) is how much CO2 there is in the atmosphere. The model equations will handle how a number concentration of CO2 ends up being a warming (radiative transfer would be a good class to have had for this), and the rest of your equation set will move that warming around the system.

    You should download some model code (lots of it is open source!) and look at it sometime. Convince yourself its just an iterative march to grind on some PDE's and not a collection of "if CO2, wait 2 years, then T+=4K" type things.

  34. Doing it wrong. by Harkin · · Score: 1

    Global warming does NOT DIRECTLY EQUAL TO IMMEDIATE INCREASE IN TEMPERATURE. Here is basically why, in a overly simplified and mostly incorrect example. The weather. ocean, biological cycles, etc. are heat engine processes. What happens when you press on the gas in your car? Does it get significantly hotter? No. It just goes faster (unless you have a pos). Ya, it does get a bit hotter but no where near equal to the added energy. True, to have a heat engine you need a differential, which we have, the mass of the crust/ocean/atmosphere itself is a heat sink. Eventually, unlike you car, the average temperature will increase but it will do it very very slowly. For example, if you reduced the cooling to a thermal engine (car depends on intake temperature) the average engine temp would increase and the output would decrease as the system stabilizes at a higher temperature. Our climate will end up doing the same thing and calm back down (sorta), However, in the meantime you can expect bigger storms, more hurricanes, chaotic weather patterns, and generally bigger, stronger, faster weather. A better term is not Global Warming, but Global Climate Change. Forget the concept that its going to get warmer, NONE OF YOU WILL LIVE TO SEE THAT. However, you WILL get to see bigger thunderstorms. And I gotta admit, I do love me a good T-storm.

  35. Medical Gas Data Sheets for CO2 by nido · · Score: 1

    Medical Gas Data Sheets (MGDS) has links to them all.

    Both the Air + 5% CO2 and Oxygen +5% CO2 sheets say that breathing this gas "increases the rate and depth of breathing".

    --
    Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
    www.teslabox.com
    1. Re:Medical Gas Data Sheets for CO2 by ColdWetDog · · Score: 3, Informative

      If you are breathing supplemental oxygen for medical purposes you aren't breathing pure oxygen. Lifetime smoker types who need a bit more oxygen than available in garden variety air (aprox 20% O2) are given nasal cannula (prongs) that add 4 - 8% more oxygen for a whopping total of less than 30%. Plenty of room for CO2 to be 'blended in' by room air.

      There are conditions where even relatively low concentrations of added oxygen are problematic, that's what your link talks about it. It isn't true of everyone, basically people with smoking induced lung damage.

      Just pulling out citations from the literature without understanding them doesn't get you far.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    2. Re:Medical Gas Data Sheets for CO2 by nido · · Score: 1

      There is very little CO2 in room air. The link says 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 1% argon, with traces of xenon, neon, and krypton. Another page says room air has 0.038% CO2. Even an extra 5% oxygen will wipe out a body's co2 levels.

      I know you're a doctor, as I've seen your posts here before. Why don't you experiment? Get some air+co2 (or oxygen+co2) for patients who you might otherwise be tempted to put on oxygen prongs, and see what happens.

        I have better links, but guard them jealously from people who wouldn't appreciate them anyways. ;^)

      --
      Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
      www.teslabox.com
  36. Re:Where's the beef? by norpy · · Score: 1

    Over 50 years on the x axis and the minimum values have not been below the previous maximums since 1990.

    Just because 1 degree doesn't sound like much to you doesn't mean it isn't significant to weather patterns.
    That graph can be taken out a lot further into the past if you include the geological record into it, and the uptick looks much more significant when you see how steady the temperature has been for the last 1000 years.

  37. It's Chtorr! by Snaller · · Score: 2

    They are chtorrforming our planet to make it more suitable for their form of life!

    --
    If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
    1. Re:It's Chtorr! by meglon · · Score: 1

      The rampant speculation about bus sized worms eating entire towns is wholesale propaganda. Please go back to your fine dining and dancing, and let this nonsense pass from your head.

      Uncle Ira

      --
      Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
  38. And it will continue to do so by WindBourne · · Score: 3, Informative

    The problem is that EU wants to do the RIGHT thing, America does not want to get burned, and China wants to trash the west at any and all costs.

    If America was smart, we would drop the cap-n-trade and put a tax on ALL GOODS based on where the final assembly and the primary sub component come from. In addition, it would be done as a percentage based on CO2 emissions per sq km. That way, it can be easily checked from the sky via sat. In addition, by doing it this way, it discourages nations from allowing high growth rates, as well as does not punish the vast majority of 3rd world nations.

    Best of all, it tells EVERY NATION that they must partake. If they emit a load of CO2 per sq km, then they will have a tax put on their goods. If the lower it, and then later when succesful (see China), then they will have a larger tax put on them. This has a nice feedback to prevent successful nations from skipping the CO2 controls.

    In addition, this same approach should be used for pollution controls. One nation in particular emits more than 1/2 of all mercury that man has ever emitted. That has to be stopped.

    --
    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    1. Re:And it will continue to do so by Solandri · · Score: 2

      The problem is that EU wants to do the RIGHT thing, America does not want to get burned, and China wants to trash the west at any and all costs.

      Assuming the chart in TFA is accurate (admittedly from the US DOE), doesn't this refute the EU stance on the Kyoto Protocol, and validate the U.S. stance that any meaningful reduction treaty had to include developing nations? Looking at those lines, it seems even if Kyoto had been ratified by everyone and everyone had hit their 1990-level reduction targets, it would have been rendered almost completely meaningless by the massive increase in emissions from China and India.

    2. Re:And it will continue to do so by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      Ok. So, you do not believe an esteemed scientist like Dr. Hansen. Not a problem. The scientist and neo-cons that USED to lead the charge against the facts would be Dr. Muller and the Koch Brothers. They have since changed their minds So, if you are going to follow your fuhrers, then you should continue on this one as well. They have come out saying that GW is not just occurring, but also caused by man.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    3. Re:And it will continue to do so by roman_mir · · Score: 1

      The problem is that EU wants to do the RIGHT thing, America does not want to get burned, and China wants to trash the west at any and all costs.

      - this is a bunch of nonsense.

      Who are these three individuals: EU, America and China? Who are these three discrete individuals, one wanting the right thing, another doing a CYA move and the third just 'trashing' them all?

      This is not just generalizing everything, but it's also wrong on all points.

    4. Re:And it will continue to do so by pijokela · · Score: 1

      Of course the US stance is correct in the sense that eventually everyone must be on board to curb the CO2 emissions. That said, I do think that it is our duty in rich western countries to lead the way - even if it means more unemployment and lower wages. When we are already committed to lowering CO2 emissions we can start to pressure other nations to do the same, but as long as the US does nothing, we are completely unable to pressure China in this matter.

      So I think the US position is correct if what we want is to make sure we get to pollute as much as everyone else. If we want to actually achieve change, I think the US position is completely wrong.

      (Yeah, I'm from EU.)

    5. Re:And it will continue to do so by Christian+Smith · · Score: 2

      The problem is that EU wants to do the RIGHT thing, America does not want to get burned, and China wants to trash the west at any and all costs.

      Assuming the chart in TFA is accurate (admittedly from the US DOE), doesn't this refute the EU stance on the Kyoto Protocol, and validate the U.S. stance that any meaningful reduction treaty had to include developing nations? Looking at those lines, it seems even if Kyoto had been ratified by everyone and everyone had hit their 1990-level reduction targets, it would have been rendered almost completely meaningless by the massive increase in emissions from China and India.

      What have absolute levels got to do with anything? How about per-capita levels? The US has, what, about 1/4 of the population of China, yet China has only just overtaken the US?

      No-one in the west can get on their high horse about increases in emissions from China and India.

      Developed nations have caused most of the problem so far, so should take the brunt of the remedial measures. Developing nations, once reaching the so called developed nations in per-capita emissions, should then take the same remedial measures.

    6. Re:And it will continue to do so by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1


      doesn't this refute the EU stance on the Kyoto Protocol, and validate the U.S. stance that any meaningful reduction treaty had to include developing nations? Looking at those lines, it seems even if Kyoto had been ratified by everyone and everyone had hit their 1990-level reduction targets, it would have been rendered almost completely meaningless by the massive increase in emissions from China and India.

      The stand of the USA was not to include the developing nations (ofc they should be included but not FORCED - how would you force them anyway? to participate) ... the stand of the USA was: we don't reduce our output unless developing nations do the same. I mean a US citizen prodices roughly 10 times the CO2 a Chinese does, but is not reducing his fotprint unless the Chinese does the same? How lame is that?

      Also your math-foo seems not very far developed. The EU already has reduced its production of CO2 significantly. If it had not the news we are hearing now would be much worse! How can you call such a huge reduction meaningless?

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    7. Re:And it will continue to do so by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      Exactly. That is why America needs to put the tax on this. It forces every nation that we trade with to either lower their emissions or keep it low. Only a few nations will escape that due to low population/large land mass: canada, russia, and Australia. However, both Canada and Australia are working on dropping their emissions.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    8. Re:And it will continue to do so by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      The approach that you speak of works in a communist nation, or one in which EVERYBODY accepts responsibility IFF you have a single issue AND a single problem. It fails miserably when your emissions are from multiple sources. By moving this to using capitalism and increasing the taxes on goods from nations that pollute heavily, then we can see multiple solutions for the multiple emissions.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    9. Re:And it will continue to do so by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      Much of the oil goes into plastic, drugs, etc. In addition, if we tax our own items, who will raise the taxes in other nations? China will not. They have cheated at everything that they do. 3rd world nations will have a strong incentive to cheat ALA China. So, by western nations, hopefully all nations, applying a tax to ALL goods (local and imported), it solves these issues. Basically, it does not allow nations to cheat.

      Add in OCO2 and have it measure CO2 that flows INTO a nation, as well as out, and you now have the means to not worry about where the CO2 comes from, but allow the local gov/economy to solve it.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    10. Re:And it will continue to do so by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      It is NOT an import tax. I never said that. I said it is a tax applied to ALL GOODS. THat means local and imported. And it needs to be before going to retailers. Likewise, for items coming in from outside via the net, they need to buy a stamp for the right amount. If they do not have a stamp, then it does not come in. If we see a lot of cheating from business from certain nations, we just stop all shipments.

      Now, you will note that I spoke of final assembly as well as primary subcomponent. I suspect that will work fine for smaller items. Large items like cars may need to look at % of content and where they are from.

      The real issue is to get this stared and have nations realize that the tax will rise. That will give them a strong incentive to take actions to drop their emissions.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    11. Re:And it will continue to do so by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      I ran some numbers. What I found is that only 3 large nations have that advantage: Russia, Canada, and Australia. Both Canada and Australia are hard at work at dropping their emissions. More importantly, both will have incentives to drop theirs to avoid ANY taxes. And Russia's IS increasing. In particular, messy oil/natural gas drilling and pumping dumps loads of CO2. I was amazed, but that much of the OPEC nations are actually high up there for emissions per sq km. My suspicion is that once we quit guessing about CO2 emissions and can actually measure Co2 in and out of a nation via OCO2, then we will see that Canada and Russia emission counts will rise WELL above other nations. In fact, I expect that USA and most of EU to remain where the numbers are. We will likely see China and a number of 3rd world nations rise in their emissions. The reason for China's rise is because they prohibit most information from getting out about it. Well, a simple scan over their nation by OCO2 will confirm it.

      Interestingly, OCO2 will also give us other useful information.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    12. Re:And it will continue to do so by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      This will not kill anybody. In fact, it is the exact opposite. The reason is that the tax is applied SLOWLY and over time. Basically, it should grow at a % each year. In addition, the % that is applied to goods is based on the CO2 that the good/largest subcomponent come from.

      Who it will hurt are the largest developed nations that trade with each who more importantly are the biggest emitters. That will mean China, most of EU, UK, USA, South Korea, Japan, Singapore and all of the OPEC nations. So, when the good comes to America, then it is taxed based on CO2 emissions from that nation. So, goods from say Haiti would have ZERO tax. OTH, our own local goods would be taxed much higher than would haiti. Of course, since the maximum tax rate starts low and grows over time, it gives nations time to adjust and change. In fact, when I ran these numbers, one of the things that stood out was that the more undeveloped the nation, the less CO2/sq km. It was the developed nations with smaller land that has relied soley on coal and gas that will have issues.

      So, you made numerous accusations, with NOTHING to back your statements up. In fact, you do not even bother to show how a tax in America, on goods that are produced for consumption here or elsewhere, would increase the rate elsewhere? Taking this further, just looking through some of your statements, they looks similar to the other ACs that were posting here. Why not provide an alternative idea that will solve our CO2 and pollution issues, while helping these other nations? My guess is that you really have nothing innovative to say, and have no ability to back up your accusations.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    13. Re:And it will continue to do so by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      BTW coward, Here is something for you to look at. This is the coal use by nations. It is already incorrect. China's usage is increasing, while America's is decreasing. Over the next 4-5 years, America's total amount of coal use is expected to drop about 10-30%. Keep in mind that America is already at 46% and dropping. China is over 70% for Coal and racing to 80-85% of their energy by 2016.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  39. Re:Where's the beef? by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, Funny

    Look pal, pseudo-skepticism only works if you blindly repeat Heartland Institute talking points. There is absolutely no room for actually knowing a fucking thing about AGW.

    Now get back in your Ferrari, you cock-smoking teabagging super-rich scientist with your big house and your ten 18 year old girlfriends and your seven digit bank account, and leave those poor wittle oil companies alone.

    Fucking climatological bully.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  40. Re:Models are always right! -- No they are not by Snaller · · Score: 1

    Troll.

    --
    If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
  41. Re:Its not carbon, it's people. by WindBourne · · Score: 2

    It is NOT people. It is the economy. If it was ppl then those areas with large amounts of ppl would have some of the highest emissions. That is not the case. It is the developed economies that emit the most.

    --
    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  42. Re:it's the end of the world by White+Flame · · Score: 1

    Just as we know it. But I feel fine.

  43. NOAA: Past Decade Warmest on Record According to S by javaman235 · · Score: 4, Informative

    source:
    http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2010/20100728_stateoftheclimate.html
    What's your source on say there has been no temperature increase in the last 10 years?

    --
    -The art of programming is the pursuit of absolute simplicity.
  44. The situation is worse than you think by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Check the short post and graphics here (http://www.grinzo.com/energy/2011/11/07/more-on-those-record-carbon-emissions/) including one in the comments.

    Bottom line: We're way over our carbon budget and sprinting in the wrong direction. It's the worst possible form of deficit spending, one that our kids, grandkids, etc. will have to deal with for generations to come.

  45. Funny thing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

    The people who think (due to myopia) that their economic interests will be harmed by anti-warming measures rush to insist the apparent warming may not be man's fault, and as such balk at any attempt to do anything about it. I would like to point something out, and you're all free to repeat this message. Take it and run with it. The right-wingers in this country (US) insistence that we shouldn't be so hasty to stop global warming (fearing it will hurt their portfolios) because it may or may not be our fault are like people clutching fire-extinguishers inside a burning building, claiming that until it can be proven beyond all doubt that the fire in the building is NOT due to natural causes, they are not going to let anyone force them to incur the expense of recharging or replacing the fire extinguishers by USING THEM TO PUT THE FIRE OUT. A really moronic position to hold, when you think about it. WHO CARES WHO STARTED THE DAMNED FIRE?!? LET'S PUT IT OUT BEFORE THE BUILDING GOES UP AND WE GO UP WITH IT!!!

    *(You may feel free to use a boat with no life-rafts, etc., in shark-infested waters as a metaphor instead of a building... just as bad, but with even less of anywhere to go once you have no more boat... a good analogy for our planet.)

    I'd like to add that if you don't all want to have to switch to Soylent Green, you might want to give a bit more thought to the environment. Most people don't realize we are not APPROACHING the carrying capacity of this planet, we have been, by definition, living AT the carrying capacity since times immemorial. As our population increases, we either edge out competing consumers (other animals, etc.,) or we adjust the carrying capacity by finding new ways to farm, however... the limit, (in the policy sense and in the geophysical sense,) of how many mouths can be fed is based on the rule of 10 (or 100 if you like meat) and the number of watts of light the sun sheds upon the Earth. We exceed that, get ready for some yummy Soylent Green! Either that, or watch ever increasing numbers of people starve... watch biodiversity plummet and all THAT entails, (think domino effect or chain-reaction crash) and if you think people are ready at the drop of a hat to fight to the death over their disagreeing with each other over what name to call their 'god'(s) or how many times a day to praise him/her/it/them, just wait until there is less food available than needed to give every person (on average) his/her daily needs even in the so-called 1st world countries... then you'll see some REAL fighting. People fight easily over trivialities like their made-up gods, but when you're holding a piece of chicken, and chickens are near extinction... they'll kill you, eat the chicken, THEN YOU.

    We really must tend our garden, as they say. We're precariously perched in a place where we have enough food, plus surplus, but what happens if we have a few years really bad weather, or a tanker truck spills something contaminating an aquifer, in turn contaminating hundreds or thousands of miles of farmland, destroying the crops growing there.

    Anyway, have fun.

    1. Re:Funny thing... by cbeaudry · · Score: 1

      Oh my god.

      Do people like you realize how bat shit crazy you sound?

  46. Re:Where's the beef? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    When I was a kid in the mid 80s, the predictions were for 5+C by 2010. The current increase isn't even 1C. And you cannot "take the graph" to the past, because we don't have the science to build a graph with sufficient resolution and precision.

  47. Re:Where's the beef? by tibit · · Score: 1

    One small post for martian, one big win for sarcasm. This made my day!

    --
    A successful API design takes a mixture of software design and pedagogy.
  48. Active methods and atmospheric vortex engines. by bd580slashdot · · Score: 1

    I've been thinking. I haven't done any math yet. Hurricanes move a lot of heat. Could atmospheric vortex engines (maybe with some kind of enhancement to help more moisture go up) placed in the oceans, maybe at the gyres, move enough energy to help cool the earth while increasing the droplets of water in the atmosphere to help with cooling? Maybe the water would move enough to allow cheap filtering of the micro plastics.

  49. Its one of them 'Nash Equilibrium' thingies. by javaman235 · · Score: 2

    The influence of the US is bound to the strength of its economy, the strength of its economy is bound (currently) to its use of fossil fuels. So if the US acts preemptively, it loses its power to influence others to do the same, it drives up costs for itself while driving down fossil fuel costs for others, so their economy and thus influence increases. Yet, if (in the terms of A Beautiful Mind) "If everybody goes for the blond, nobody gets laid", which is to say if consumption can't be curbed, everybody is doomed.

    But the problem, when you said: "tells EVERY NATION that they must partake" You have to ask "who does that?" The bottom line is the US doesn't have an enforcement capability in China, Russia or the rest. They are sovereign nations. In fact there is no world power which can make FORCE every country to do things, especially when their is so much benefit in them defecting.

    So the politics actually look incredibly grim. The best hope here is something that can fundamentally alter the equation above, so that there is positive rewards for nations going green. That something would necessarily come from the best and brightest of science and business. An example would be an efficient fossil fuel combustion process that turns an engine while sequestering carbon into a valuable industrial product like carbon fiber... Something like that is more profitable to use than not use, making the transition natural.

    I guess my point is, I think its a really good time for techies to start thinking way outside the box on this problem...

    --
    -The art of programming is the pursuit of absolute simplicity.
    1. Re:Its one of them 'Nash Equilibrium' thingies. by WindBourne · · Score: 2

      Actually, no. America makes less use of fossil fuel than many other nations. In particular, when it comes to emissions on a per sq km, it is actually in the lower half. In addition, it is one of the few nations in which it is dropping. OTH, China has moved to being in the top 10% for emissions on a per sq km basis, as well as the largest emitter!

      Now, as to forcing all nations to participate, again, you are wrong. In particular, China, Russia, Brazil, India, etc. depend heavily on exports esp. to the west. Now Russia is in the bottom 10 in terms of emissions per sq km, while China is in top 10%, and moving quickly to top 1%. However, if China starts losing their exports to say USA due to a slowly increasing tax being applied to their goods due to their CO2 and pollution, you can bet that China will change their attitude. In fact, I dare say that if USA does this, then much of the west would join in. And that would include Japan and Germany. With the 3 of us, that is over 1/3 of China's exports. Think that China will change their attitude? I do. Russia is not the problem. While they are not a large polluter, emitter, in terms of per sq km, Russua, Canada, and Australia are at the bottom. IOW, do not focus on them, except to get them to keep their emissions down.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    2. Re:Its one of them 'Nash Equilibrium' thingies. by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      Actually, no. America makes less use of fossil fuel than many other nations. In particular, when it comes to emissions on a per sq km
      do you mean square km?
      That is not an interesting metric.
      Interesting is CO2 emissions per head. And there the USA is leading by far.
      The USA are the top poluter of this planet, or have been so until may, when China took over. Nevertheless the USA is still top poluter per inhabitant.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    3. Re:Its one of them 'Nash Equilibrium' thingies. by orgenegro · · Score: 1

      We're measuring by per square kilometer? And the U.S. still just barely get in the lower half with our population density? Have you ever driven through a place like Colorado? There are abandoned gas stations that are listed on the maps as towns.

    4. Re:Its one of them 'Nash Equilibrium' thingies. by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      Doing an emissions per capita is a waste. The reason is that more than 1/2 of citizens live in 3rd world nations, and emit little. It is the economy that is the best measure. The reason is because most of CO2 emissions is tied to economic output. HOWEVER, economy, like ppl, is difficult to measure. Instead, land is a FIXED amount. By fixing it and saying that all nations have to get to the lower amounts, then they can deal with the issues of ppl vs. economy.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    5. Re:Its one of them 'Nash Equilibrium' thingies. by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      First off, doing per capita, USA is NOT leading. We are something like 10-12. However, per capitia makes zero sense. It is not even interesting or fair. It rewards nations that continue to grow their population. Instead, by doing it to a fixed item, such as land, it then makes the gov. have to deal with the issue of ppl (which is a SMALL issue) vs. the economic output (which is the major issue).

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    6. Re:Its one of them 'Nash Equilibrium' thingies. by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      I LIVE in Colorado. What is your point?

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    7. Re:Its one of them 'Nash Equilibrium' thingies. by ThatsMyNick · · Score: 1

      America makes more use of fossil fuel than many other nations. In particular, when it comes to per capita emissions. China is nowhere close when compared to the US.

      FTFY

    8. Re:Its one of them 'Nash Equilibrium' thingies. by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      Actually, I think that you actually put 'Fucked that for you'. America uses more ENERGY than any other nation. We are also the worlds largest user of Nuclear energy. China just surpassed on intstalled capability, but china's production is very low relative to most other nations because they do not have good areas to place it in.. We are one of the largest of the hydro. We are the largest of geo-thermal electricity.

      http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/ene_coa_con-energy-coal-consumption"> Now, as to coal, CHINA uses 30% more in 2008. Since that time, America's use has dropped, while China's has grown at the rate of 1-2 new coal plants EACH WEEK. At this time, they are approaching DOUBLE what America uses in coal. Worst, they run zero pollution controls and have some of the worlds dirtiest coal.
      So, that leaves oil and gas.
      Oil is used in transportation, but it is also used in chemical production, roads, etc. In 2009, America used about double in oil of China. But again, our oil use has dropped, while China's rises at ~10% or more a year (economy has been growing 8-12% for some time and then you add the fact that China is becoming a very rich nation; slop factor into this). China is already approaching America's oil use.

      Finally in the end, simply look at the energy usage. In 2008, China and USA used almost the same amonut of energy. However, China's growth in all fossil fuels have jumped tremendously. America is basically flat, with much of the growth coming by moving to AE, as well as moving Coal to Natural gas. OTH, more than 90% of China's growth is in fossil fuels.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    9. Re:Its one of them 'Nash Equilibrium' thingies. by ThatsMyNick · · Score: 1

      What part of "per capita" did you not understand. From the last wiki link you had posted, the 2008 figures for US is 87216 kWh/capita, and China is 18608 kWh/capita. Over the 1998-2008 decade china's consumption had gone up by 111%, even if you extrapolate it exponentially, the current US per capita consumption would be way higher than china.
       
      I can post similar figures for all the stats you had posted (and I am pretty sure about it, since china has very high population compared to US).

    10. Re:Its one of them 'Nash Equilibrium' thingies. by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      Which part of Per capita is worthless do you not understand. The reality is that it is not ppl that make the impact. It is economy that does. Per capita has as much usefulness as national energy use per squirrel.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    11. Re:Its one of them 'Nash Equilibrium' thingies. by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      Sorry,

      your metric might make sense fo you, but not for me. The more land a nation has the mroe CO2 it can produce? The less people it has the more CO2 it may produce per person? Where is the sense in that?

      Population growth is not the problem either. WTF I don't really get how people come to such brain dead ideas. The USA are indeed "only" on place 10 or 11. However they are also only topped by completely irrelevant nations like Kuwait and Quatar.

      Perhaps you should start to look at the actual numbers to get a clue:

      USA: ~20 tonnes per capita
      China: ~2 tonnes per capita

      The USA could easily reduce their CO2 emissions to 10 tonnes per capita, but they lack the will to do that. So, you want the chineese to reduce their 2 tonnes footprint? HOW? Do you want them not to develop their country? Why? On what basis of "justice" do you want to argue?

      Pfft .... You know the old saying: who has to do the difficult things? Then answer simply is: the one who can do it!

      Countries like the USA can reduce their CO2 footprint now. Undevelopt countries have no meaningfull CO2 output. However you demand from those who have no means to conduct any reduction that they do it or stop their industrial growth ...

      You how this is called? Imperialism and Colonialism ... continue to exploit the undeveloped nations and the next war won't be a world war but a true global war.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    12. Re:Its one of them 'Nash Equilibrium' thingies. by ToddInSF · · Score: 1

      People have attempted to explain to you why per capita is less relevant. Go back and re-read their comments. Also, keep in mind the US is not a tiny country geographically, like say, Germany, and has to deal with greater temperature extremes than Germany does. Then, you can pull your head out of your fat "everybody can continue to develop EXCEPT the US" ass.

    13. Re:Its one of them 'Nash Equilibrium' thingies. by ThatsMyNick · · Score: 1

      Why do you believe per capita is worthless, while per square km is really useful? Its the same shit.

    14. Re:Its one of them 'Nash Equilibrium' thingies. by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      Sorry, no one has explained why "per capita" is the wrong metric.

      There are only a few people "claiming" that without any convincing or sensible argument.

      E.g. (the USA) has to deal with greater temperature extremes than Germany does

      That has nothing to do with the USAs CO2 output. It only shows that you don't know what insulation is, and don't know how to build energy efficient houses. E.g. zero energy houses are completely doable in the USA ... but they don't want to do it.

      Perhaps you should pull your head out the ass as you seem very uninformed.

      Development for the USA is: CO2 reduction, clean/green energy, better cars that use less fuel, better education (for that matter) there is plenty of possible development in the USA. However they prefer to degrade year by year.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    15. Re:Its one of them 'Nash Equilibrium' thingies. by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      Totally different. Per capita does NOTHING to take account of economy, Ag, etc. In addition, capita is a constantly changing value that counts on a nation to report it correctly. Heck, most nations do not know if they suffer illegals or if a war/famine is nearby. In addition, it rewards those nations that will not control their populations. That needs to be stopped. Instead, by doing per sq km, it says that you know exactly how much you have to work with. You get the amount of emissions down to the same level all over this planet. Once you have it down there, then if you go lower, your export has less taxes.
      But no doubt about it, per capita is the WORST measure that you can do. Hell, it is the same as saying emissions per squirrel.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    16. Re:Its one of them 'Nash Equilibrium' thingies. by ThatsMyNick · · Score: 1

      Totally different. Per capita does NOTHING to take account of economy, Ag, etc.

      So does per square km measures. I infact tried to search for GDP per sq km, it so insane no bothered to compose stats using it. Just imagine a tiny wealthy country and compare its energy usage, fossil fuel usage, GDP, all of them in per km measures, and see if they make any sense at all. (Singapore vs USA is suitable one, in case you are really planning on comparing the figures)

    17. Re:Its one of them 'Nash Equilibrium' thingies. by toddestan · · Score: 1

      If you think about it, the number of people correlates better with the size of an economy than the size landmass that the people live on. Hence per capita, despite a few flaws, is much a better measure. Or are you going to argue that Wyoming has a larger economy and should be allowed to pollute more than, say, Delaware?

    18. Re:Its one of them 'Nash Equilibrium' thingies. by fatphil · · Score: 1

      Economies are not measures in square kilometres.

      Area is certainly useless as a factor when it comes to consumption. Squirrels do not consume our generated energy, and therefore are irrelevant. Humans do consume our generated energy, and therefore are relevant. Your equating of humans to squirrels shows the absurdity of your stance.

      Area is relevant when it comes to capability for production, as its through natural resources that the energy is produced. However, it's consumption that's being argued about, not potential production.

      --
      Also FatPhil on SoylentNews, id 863
  50. But emissions decreased in 2009... by ProfessorPillage · · Score: 1

    ...by about 1.3% due to the recession. Over the last 3 years, they increased on average 2.2% per year, which is a bit less than both the average in recent times and the IPCC prediction. So all this really says is that in terms of how much stuff we burn, the world has mostly "recovered" from the recession. 6% is a big increase for one year, but it's an increase from a point below the trend. And climate trends are meant to be measured over decades, not years.

    Of course any increase is large compared to what should be happening...

  51. A 23 year old model? by SuperBanana · · Score: 1

    Did you just cite one person's 23-year-old model as proof that current climate science and measurements are suspect?

    1. Re:A 23 year old model? by arose · · Score: 1

      Physics as a somewhat rigorous scientific field is how much older than GR now? Not that it's a valid argument to begin with, but at least have some historical perspective.

      The only one screaming about "the end of the world" and "everyone dying" is YOU.

      --
      Analogies don't equal equalities, they are merely somewhat analogous.
    2. Re:A 23 year old model? by Catiline · · Score: 1

      Yes, I would cite a 23-year-old model, when it only makes 20 to 30 year predictions. After all, wouldn't it be intellectually dishonest to keep changing the "accurate" model [the one needing to be challenged] before any of your predictions can be tested?

    3. Re:A 23 year old model? by gutnor · · Score: 1

      Climate science is akin to reverse engineer google ranking system by running 1 query a year on a different subject each time and have a few historical data of what some user remember to have run some time in the past. That is a true science, with model that only reflect the quality of the data we currently have, i.e. with lot of interpretation.

      Would you need a structural science model and impact study before you stop your kid digging under the house when you start seeing cracks in the wall or feel the vibration ? Would you have an open debate and reason the denier before taking actions ? Apparently, as a species, we need a political circus to decide on common sense.

    4. Re:A 23 year old model? by V+for+Vendetta · · Score: 1

      Einstein's general theory of relativity is about 95 years old.

      Yes ... and it is full of errors, as better measurement methods have shown over the past decades. ("Errors" as in "actual measurement doesn't match expected result from formula"). So, what's your point?

      But of course, just like Newtonian physics, the calculated results are so good that they can be used "IRL" safely.

      Adjusting theories when better methods allow to do so - isn't that the whole point of science? And the amount of time it needs for adjustment doesn't tell anything about the quality of a "scientific" theory ... otherwise the Flat Earth as promoted for a long time should be regarded as a very respectable scientific theory, because it lasted undisputed for centuries.

  52. Re:Where's the beef? by cosm · · Score: 1

    As for boundary conditions, the model is global, so the boundaries wrap around and you dont need to worry about them.

    I don't believe that is correct. Say you are working with a two dimensional x-y plane, like a circular drum head. If the edges of the drum head are kept at 0, then you have a 'wraparound' boundary condition that you can represent in the polar plane as a regular linear boundary condition from -pi to pi on 0 to the radius (visualized as rectangular boundary conditions on the theta vs. r plot). In this situation your boundary is a closed, bounded surface without interruption, and yet it can still be modeled with separable boundary conditions and then solved using separation of variables to the laplacian operating on the circular plane.

    If you jump up to higher dimensions, the same logic still applies. You still have to worry about the spherical boundary conditions, they don't just disappear. Removing the boundary conditions would alter the solution technique and the family of equations that satisfy the partial differential equation your using in your model. BCs are everything.

    --
    'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
  53. I don't know the reality but... by Beeftopia · · Score: 1

    I have realized that any article predicting doom and destruction gets a lot of attention. Be it financial, climate, health, diet or otherwise.

    Just a data point, unrelated to the accuracy of any particular article.

  54. Re:Where's the beef? by Lehk228 · · Score: 1

    There is little point arguing with AGW deniers, the science is in, refusing to believe it at this point is a matter of not wanting to feel guilty about personal consumption and/or about sticking it to the 'libs'. It is impossible to reason someone out of a position which the did not use reason to get themselves to.

    --
    Snowden and Manning are heroes.
  55. Good by Snaller · · Score: 1

    Its blood cold!

    --
    If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
  56. FWIW... by SuperCharlie · · Score: 1

    Australia just passed "cap and trade" here comes the money.

    1. Re:FWIW... by tbannist · · Score: 1

      Actually they passed a carbon tax ($23 a tonne), which is different from "cap and trade".

      --
      Fanatically anti-fanatical
  57. We are so fucked by wisebabo · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I can say that on Slashdot can't I? I mean I may (will?) be modded down because of my content but swearing isn't automatically penalized right?

    Anyway, years ago my brother gave me Michael Chrichton's anti-global warming book to show me what HE (and my brother) thought about global warming. I didn't get into a big argument because I (unfortunately) knew that the effects would be visible in our lifetime. And if I was wrong, I'd be more than happy to buy a new SUX 6000 with 9mpg (except that would mean I'm buying oil from countries that finance terrorism and hate our guts; but that's another story).

    So now it appears as if we really are headed to disaster; if global warming was a myth then how come the projections keep getting WORSE not better? If it was all a short term blip or fabrication we should be seeing things going back to normal shouldn't we?

    Of course not, because man-made global warming is real. So i expect the Republicans amongst us will change:

    Global Warming isn't real - TO - Man Made Global Warming isn't real. -THEN - There isn't anything we can do about it anyway

    which will go along with:

    Evolution is just a theory (against 95% of biologists) - AND - The constitution really doesnt state the separation of Church and Govt. (against 99% of historians) - TO - Stimulus spending doesn't boost the GDP (against 85% of economists.)*

    When did the Republican party become the party of ignorance? Why do people like Rupert Murdoch keep at it even when someone like Steve Jobs (I know, I know) warns him to be mindful of his legacy? I mean when future generations look back upon what this group of people did to our country and planet, you've got to wonder what they're going to write in the history books. Do they not care?

    So yes, we are so fucked

    *By the way, do Republicans believe that vaccines cause autism?

    1. Re:We are so fucked by Arlet · · Score: 1

      Weather is not climate. It's perfectly possible to have a higher global temperature, and still freeze in your back yard.

      For instance, last winter, cold arctic air moved out of the area, causing temperatures to drop in US and Europe. Of course, what a lot of people didn't realize is that this did not create a vacuum around the North Pole. Instead, warmer air from more moderate zones moved in to replace the cold air, and causing the arctic to get exceptionally warm.

      Since you presumably don't live in the Arctic, you may have missed that.

      NYC just had its earliest snowfall ever in recorded history

      Snowfall is also interesting, since it's not only determined by the temperature, but also by the humidity. Higher temperatures promote evaporation, and whatever evaporates has to come down as precipitation. As long as the temperatures stay below freezing, that results in more snowfall. Of course, regional changes may vary.

    2. Re:We are so fucked by judoguy · · Score: 1

      By the way, do Republicans believe that vaccines cause autism?

      I know plenty of hard core Obama voting, alternative health care folks that fanatically believe the same. It ain't just Republicians. There is a huge subset of unicorn loving Socialists that are anti science.

      --
      Peace is easy to achieve, just surrender. Liberty is much harder get/keep.
    3. Re:We are so fucked by Pope · · Score: 1

      except that would mean I'm buying oil from countries that finance terrorism and hate our guts; but that's another story

      You mean Canada?

      --
      It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
    4. Re:We are so fucked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Most of your post is right on. One part is not.

      Stimulus spending raises GDP; of course this is the case. The problem is it does NOT do so productively. All gov't can do is redistribution: take from some people, give to others. There is no entrepreneurship, no business formation, no inherent growth (except when you jack up the defecit spending the next year).

      It leads to our current debt-based Ponzi scheme. We can't get out of it, because now more than half of our citizenship receives money net-net from the government per year. Obama has executed the Cloward-Piven strategy beautifully, and we'll all live to regret it.

    5. Re:We are so fucked by Anonymous+Heros · · Score: 1

      So exactly why did the atmosphere during the dinosaur times have huge amounts of co2? I'll take two excerpts from a site that discusses this: "There has historically been much more CO2 in our atmosphere than exists today. For example, during the Jurassic Period (200 mya), average CO2 concentrations were about 1800 ppm or about 4.7 times higher than today. The highest concentrations of CO2 during all of the Paleozoic Era occurred during the Cambrian Period, nearly 7000 ppm -- about 18 times higher than today. The Carboniferous Period and the Ordovician Period were the only geological periods during the Paleozoic Era when global temperatures were as low as they are today. To the consternation of global warming proponents, the Late Ordovician Period was also an Ice Age while at the same time CO2 concentrations then were nearly 12 times higher than today-- 4400 ppm. According to greenhouse theory, Earth should have been exceedingly hot. Instead, global temperatures were no warmer than today. Clearly, other factors besides atmospheric carbon influence earth temperatures and global warming." So why do we even care?

    6. Re:We are so fucked by tbannist · · Score: 1

      Actually, according to BEST there's no evidence to indicate that the trend has changed. Or more accurately, 10 years is too short a time to separate climate signal from weather noise. Here's a graph that shows why the trend is not cooling.

      --
      Fanatically anti-fanatical
    7. Re:We are so fucked by tbannist · · Score: 1

      if it were getting warmer

      It is.

      would we see more ice or less?

      Less overall, though some places will see more ice.

      How about, snow in New Orleans?

      That depends on the prevailing winds. Air blowing over bodies of water will pick up more moisture and deposit it when it cools, so when the wind blows off the ocean there should be more snow, and when it blows out of a desert it should pick up more moisture. Since there probably aren't any deserts near New Orleans, it will probably get more rain and more snow.

      I am all for global warming if it would bring down my heating bill in the winter.

      You probably wouldn't notice the amount it's going down. It's on the order of 0.01-0.03 degrees per year. That does mean less gas burned each year. Also, of note, the continental United States has actually been warming more slowly than Europe and Asia (so far).

      --
      Fanatically anti-fanatical
    8. Re:We are so fucked by ULTRAJOE · · Score: 1
      with you for most of this, but

      (except that would mean I'm buying oil from countries that finance terrorism and hate our guts; but that's another story).

      most of US oil imports are from your fellow Americans: ftp://ftp.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/company_level_imports/current/import.html

      I guess the "hate our guts" is up for discussion ^_~

      UJ

    9. Re:We are so fucked by Bemopolis · · Score: 1

      Wait, so Michelle Bachmann is a liberal now? Jesus fuck, the Republicans must have really gone far right then.

      --
      "I guess the moral of the story is, don't paint your airship with rocket fuel." -- Addison Bain
  58. Re:Where's the beef? by kaffiene · · Score: 1

    Your counter-argument lacks any argument.

  59. Re:Where's the beef? by kaffiene · · Score: 1

    There's little point arguing a topic with someone who's tribal identity relies on shared ignorance of that topic.

    Religion and climate change denial are identical in this regard.

  60. Re:Where's the beef? by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1

    Of course, since 1998 was the hottest year on record,

    Try to keep up with the rest of us here. The data keeps coming in, you might want to include it in your deliberations.

    It might even change your mind.

    --
    Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  61. Re:Where's the beef? by riverat1 · · Score: 1

    Modern atmosphere-ocean coupled models don't assume anything like that. The lag is part of the interaction between the atmosphere and oceans as the oceans are the source of nearly all of the lag.

  62. Re:Where's the beef? by cwebster · · Score: 3, Interesting

    You are correct that i am simplifying the matter. In truth, the east/west boundaries would be considered periodic, so that essentially the grid points on opposite edges of the domain are actually the same point. The north/south boundary gets interesting :). For spectral models, which require periodicity in the wave solution, the 'wraparound' zonally provides this, guaranteeing periodicity around a latitude circle. My personal modeling experience is cloud scale and regional modeling (CM1 and WRF, primarily), so I dont deal with global grids in physical or spectral space, or climate models for that matter.

    Also there is still a need for upper and lower BC's, which in a very simple model might employ a no slip condition on the bottom and a radiative boundary at the top with a sponge layer to minimize energy reflecting off the top. Tthe lower boundaries will also have forcings from ocean and vegetation models/parameterizations (for moisture fluxes, sensible heat fluxes, roughness lengths, albedo, etc).

  63. Re:Where's the beef? by riverat1 · · Score: 1

    I don't know where your 5 C by 2010 came from in the mid 1980's but it certainly wasn't from climate scientists at the time.

  64. Re:Where's the beef? by cosm · · Score: 1

    And the simplifications definitely do make sense. With mesoscale there is just no way to solve the PDEs, even computationally, accounting for every single BC (especially if the BCs are variably periodic). In the end it seems the systems are chaotic once you extend the time-lines long out far enough. Plus Navier-Stokes is a bitch once you start dealing with that kind of fluid-flow on the global scale. (it becoming 3+ dimensional non-linear problem with non-homogenous BCs IIRC).

    Not to mention things like tidal forces changing the dimensions of the earth, with the surface bulges changing the average sea-level pressure and temperature gradients as the equinoxes come and go, this-in-itself alters the local wind patterns in a non-negligible way such that the global system is even more chaotic due to the periodic tidal bulge from lunar orbital locking.

    I spend most my time in Hilbert space and manifolds, but modelling is a fantastic area to work in (since you modelers actually have tangible data to work with usually :) and not just what us theorist can conjure up :P

    --
    'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
  65. Re:Where's the beef? by riverat1 · · Score: 1

    To be fair 1998 is still the hottest year on record in the Hadley/CRU record. It makes sense that a British publication would use that. Of course the CRU record is from the group that the vilified Phil Jones heads up so I don't know how much anyone wants to trust it but then again of the major temperature record groups the CRU shows the least warming. What is a "skeptic" to do?

  66. Re:I call B*llsh*t... by iONiUM · · Score: 3, Informative

    I suspect you're a troll, but some idiots will end up agreeing with you if they ever read your post, so we'll just refute the idiocy right now.

    "Volcanoes release more than humans" = wrong. Volcanic activity releases on average 65-319 mln tonnes/year, fossil fuels release 29 bln tonnes/year (EIA 2007).

    "Humans breathe more".. well there's a ton of sites just doing the simple math, but in my lazy search I found this. It indicates human emissions via respiratory system is 1-2 bln tonnes/year. 2 / 29 = ~7% of all fossil fuel burned, so that is also not correct.

    Honestly, I don't really feel like continuing anymore than this. I really hope you were a troll, and that you don't procreate.

  67. Re:I call B*llsh*t... by presidenteloco · · Score: 1

    You have the arrogance to think you even remotely know what you're talking about and have the right to be able to call b*llsh*t.
    After you've published your first paper in a climate-science related discipline I'll reconsider my opinion, you insufferably pretentious poser.

    --

    Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
  68. Re:Where's the beef? by riverat1 · · Score: 2

    1998 is the hottest year in the CRU record. Both the GISS and NOAA records have 2010 and 2005 tied for the hottest year. Of course the CRU group is headed up by Phil Jones so how can you trust it?

    A recent paper by Ben Santer et. al. found it takes at least 17 year of data to be sure the climate signal has overridden the noise of weather so you need to go back to at least1993.

  69. Re:Where's the beef? by riverat1 · · Score: 1

    Good observation. Now all you have to do is show scientifically why CO2 can't be a leading indicator as well.

  70. We can't measure carbon dioxide output by jdege · · Score: 2

    Just something to keep in mind -

    We can't measure carbon dioxide output.

    We can measure carbon dioxide levels, in the atmosphere. We cannot measure how much carbon dioxide is being released into the atmosphere, or being extracted from it.

    These numbers are estimates, based on thousands of different point measurements, processed according to whatever number-mangling process that the folks who wrote the report have decided best accumulates the totals.

    So in my mind, before anyone even starts to discuss these numbers as if they were real, they should have access to 1. the raw data, and 2., the specific programs used to process the raw data into the reported estimates. And not only for this year, but for the prior years that the report is comparing with.

    Absent complete disclosure, this should not be treated as a scientific report.

    --
    When cryptography is outlawed, bayl bhgynjf jvyy unir cevinpl.
    1. Re:We can't measure carbon dioxide output by Arlet · · Score: 2

      Not only should they have access to the raw data, they must also have access to the way this raw data was collected.

      In fact, that's not even enough. Anybody wishing to discuss this issue must personally collect all raw data themselves, using instruments they personally created. This is too important to rely on 3rd party data.

      In the mean time, we must choose to err on the side of caution, and keep the party going.

    2. Re:We can't measure carbon dioxide output by smagruder · · Score: 1

      Did you have access to the scientific reports associated with the sugar substitute you just put into your coffee before putting it into your coffee?

      You don't trust peer review and the scientific process?

      --
      Steve Magruder, Metro Foodist
    3. Re:We can't measure carbon dioxide output by jdege · · Score: 1

      You don't trust peer review and the scientific process?

      In climate change and public health, no, I don't trust peer review. Or rather, I don't think that reviews done by reading the paper, rather than by examining the data and the process, have much meaning.

      The standards of peer review differ, from one field to another. In most fields, a paper wouldn't be accepted for review, let alone published, without making the raw data and the data processing methods publicly available. It's because climate change journals do not require that that I don't trust peer review in this field.

      --
      When cryptography is outlawed, bayl bhgynjf jvyy unir cevinpl.
  71. Re:Where's the beef? by riverat1 · · Score: 2

    Sorry but that is wrong. From the 2001 AR3 report, specifically WG1 Chapter 9: Projections of Future Climate Change. "The temperature change for the 30-year average 2021 to 2050 compared with 1961 to 1990 is +1.3C with a range of +0.8 to +1.7C...". That is a far cry from 2.5 degrees (C or F?) in 2010-2015.

  72. John Stossel will be on any minute by companydroid · · Score: 1

    to tell you you're full of it. None of this global-warming environmentalist crap. USA! USA! USA!

  73. Re:That means... by Dunbal · · Score: 1

    And like I said elsewhere - the supply of fossil fuel is very limited and at our current rate we will run out soon. Very soon in fact. My kids will live to see the end of oil. Coal won't be too far behind once the oil is gone.

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  74. There is one human extinction scenario by Geof · · Score: 3, Interesting
    It's called a Canfield Ocean. It involves a loss of oxygen from the oceans, which emit hydrogen sulfide gas. The sea literally turns purple while the air is toxic and green. Scientists have theorized that such a transformation has been responsible for mass extinctions to it the past. Here's what Gwynne Dyer says about it in his book Climate Wars:

    The evidence is still unclear on whether we run a substantial chance of triggering a Canfield ocean and a greenhouse extinction if we let global warming get out of hand. As with many aspects of this issue, we would only find out for sure when it was too late to do anything about it. But itâ(TM)s the only outcome of the current climate crisis that might convert a massive dieback of the human population into an actual extinction.

    Apparently it's also explained in detail in Peter Ward's Under a Green Sky.

    1. Re:There is one human extinction scenario by zbobet2012 · · Score: 1

      This is a complete misunderstanding of what the canfield ocean was, or what the paper describing it was about. A more complete description of the paper can be found here. This is one of those things taken completely, completely out of context by a bunch of panic mongers. The actual paper is here.

  75. Re:That means... by Dunbal · · Score: 1

    In order to increase to 300PPM from the baseline we have had to burn approximately half of all the fossil fuel in the world. How much more fuel do you think there is left? So what if we get to 600PPM (I'll be generous), at one point there will be no more fuel left to burn and we will be cycling CO2 into fuel crops to burn back into CO2. The question is, rather, what will the world look like with 600PPM CO2. As you said, it certainly won't be lethal for us humans.

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  76. Re:Where's the beef? by Dunbal · · Score: 1

    And these models are taking into account the solubility of bicarbonate in a slightly warmer ocean and its equilibrium with atmospheric CO2, right? The hotter the water, the less soluble the bicarb. I wonder what happens to it. Oh wait...

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  77. There are 2 options by bryan1945 · · Score: 1

    Stop farting or stick your head in the sand.
    (Ripped off of South Park)

    --
    Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
  78. Re:Where's the beef? by riverat1 · · Score: 1

    In you previous post (assuming you are the same AC) you said the IPCC prediction from 2001. That would be the AR3 report. That's what I referenced and linked to in my reply. The link you provided is for the IPCC AR1 report in 1990. I wouldn't expect to see the same chapter with the same title in two different reports. I looked at the AR1 report you linked and couldn't find anything that said 2.5 degrees in 2010-2015. Would you kindly point out where in there you got your information from? Thanks.

  79. Re:Where's the beef? by jbolden · · Score: 1

    That's just wrong. There was no prediction of even 2.5C by 2100 in 2001.

  80. Re:Where's the beef? by jbolden · · Score: 1

    None of what you said has anything to do with differential equations

    I said 2 sentences both about stuff most people did in their intro to ODE class. That is where students have traditionally done models for themselves and what you are saying about these models wasn't true even for those simple models.

  81. Global Warming is not a Threat by NicknamesAreStupid · · Score: 2

    If the earth starts to warm, for any reason, to the point that it threatens the civilized world, countries will rise up and nuke each other out of frustration, which will cause a nuclear winter. Did I mention that billions will die, too? Problem solved. I'm not kidding.

    1. Re:Global Warming is not a Threat by Arlet · · Score: 2

      I guess, with that attitude, there wouldn't be anything that would qualify as a threat.

    2. Re:Global Warming is not a Threat by iUseMyBrain · · Score: 1

      I dare humanity to try to destroy the earth, seriously, I dare you. (spoiler: you can't.)

  82. Re:Coal by Frans+Faase · · Score: 1

    Indeed, now that oil is running out, the world's developing countries, and later the western countries as well, are turning to coal. And we still have coal for many years to go. The problem with coal is that the amouth of energy you can get from it compared to the amouth of CO_2 is produced, is worse than oil and gas, meaning that to produce the same amouth of energy, more CO_2 will be produced. It would surprise me, if in the near future oil is going to be used to produce oil, an highly inefficient process with respect to CO_2 and energy produced.

    The fact is that humankind is simply not smart enough to deal with it own success. The nature of 'aninmal' life is to always use all available resources. Fossile fuels will be burnt up very quickly, and it is doubtfull whether enough (and efficient) alternative energy recources will become available, because if so, they would have been competitive by now. They are not competitive right now because the return on investment (the amouth of energy they produce compared to the amouth of energy that needs to be invested) is still very low. Most solar cells nowadays are like bad battaries: you have to invest a lot of energy to produce and it will take years before they will return that energy, let alone multiply it by a factor of ten. And then those solar cells produce a form of energy that is difficult to store, and often needs to be converted in some other form of energy further reducing its profit. And then the economic crisis that will be caused by the downfall of cheap energy, which is nothing with what we have seen in the past decades, will further stop development of alternatives. It is not unthinkable that many nations will star wars over energy resources the coming century, thus only making things worse.

  83. Re:Where's the beef? by Arlet · · Score: 1

    Until now, oceans have been a net sink of CO2, not a source. The increased concentration in the atmosphere has moved the equilibrium point more than the increased water temperature.

  84. Re:Where's the beef? by Dunbal · · Score: 1

    Well considering that some biologists argue that the pH of the oceans was around 7.4 when life began (which is why pretty much every living organism struggles to maintain this pH at least on an intracellular level), we still have a ways to go I'd say.

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  85. Re:That means... by Reservoir+Penguin · · Score: 1

    CO2, it's what plants crave.

    --
    US-UK-Israel: The real Axis of Evil
  86. Proud to be an Australian today. by ihaveamo · · Score: 2

    Today, Australia's government implemented a "Carbon Tax". Funnily enough, the ultra-right-wing opposition fearmongerers have been explaining the devistation to australia if we implement such a tax. (Coal companies will lose profits! Gasp!)

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-11-08/carbon-tax-passes-senate/3652438/?site=newcastle

    1. Re:Proud to be an Australian today. by Warwick+Allison · · Score: 1

      And it's the toughest of any country's ... and has to be since we're the biggest per-capita polluters and so have a lot of ground to cover. We'll get there, so long as we don't heed the ultra-conservatives' lies.

    2. Re:Proud to be an Australian today. by rally2xs · · Score: 1

      Coal companies aren't going to lose profits, they're going to raise prices until the people, the poorer ones, can't heat and cool their homes. Such a pleasant eventuality makes me glad I'm not there. The rest of everyone else will have their standard of living impacted by the skyrocketing electric prices until they get to the point that it makes sense to build a billion windmills to generate expensive electricity. Welcome to a future of universal poverty.

  87. Re:Where's the beef? by buglista · · Score: 1

    The one that carries the Bad Science column about poor experimental design and statistics? If you've found an error, point it out but don't expect anyone to be impressed by name-calling.

  88. Re:Where's the beef? by Arlet · · Score: 1

    When life began, there was also no free oxygen, so I agree we still have a ways to go.

    That doesn't make any difference for the CO2/AGW discussion though. Oceans are still taking up about half the CO2 we humans produce. And for the modern era, there's no need to model CO2 concentration, when you can just measure it, and plug it straight into the climate model.

  89. Re:Where's the beef? by NeoTron · · Score: 1

    Heat lags CO2.

    Er, no it doesn't. CO2 lags temperature by 800 years; http://joannenova.com.au/global-warming/ice-core-graph/

  90. Re:Where's the beef? by Neil+Boekend · · Score: 1

    That may make a vicious circle. Historically the heat rises from some source (increased solar activity for example) thus the oceans heat up. As the oceans heat up their CO2 absorption rate lowers (thus the CO2 levels rise).
    Now we have started by elevating the CO2 levels and, assuming the models are correct in this, thus the temperature will rise. As the temperatures rise the oceans will release CO2. There will be an equilibrium ofcourse, but will we be able to live in it?

    --
    Well, I might have a way, but it only works on a semi spherical planet in a vacuum.
  91. Why do we even argue global warming? by Jartan · · Score: 1

    Pumping increasing tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere is going to do something heinously bad. There's no point trying to convince people the planet is going to overheat.

    Just look at China's carbon emissions on the chart and then imagine that happening with every third world country.

    Start discussing the situation as "those dirty poor people ruining it for the rest of us" and all the nay sayers will suddenly understand the problem.

    1. Re:Why do we even argue global warming? by felipekk · · Score: 1

      The US has been emitting CO2 frenetically for decades now and the first year China surpasses the US it becomes "China and the rest of the third world countries" fault?

      Are you kidding me?

    2. Re:Why do we even argue global warming? by smagruder · · Score: 1

      Well, it's _becoming_ their fault. It would be foolhardy to say that only the United States needs to be held responsible here, unless you want to deny the state of CO2 pollution in the future. We can't stop the future, so all countries responsible have to deal with this issue.

      --
      Steve Magruder, Metro Foodist
    3. Re:Why do we even argue global warming? by Jartan · · Score: 1

      Kidding you? Who cares who's fault it is? We need a solution no matter who takes the blame. Pointing at the dangerous poor people is just the best way to make the conservative rich understand the problem.

  92. Re:Where's the beef? by Arlet · · Score: 1

    Both things happen at the same time.

    Wow, crazy, huh ?

    This time, however, heat lags CO2, as you can clearly see that CO2 concentrations have increased by huge amounts in an extremely short time. In about a century, we've increased the CO2 from a normal level to a level that the earth hasn't seen in at least half a million years.

  93. A third option? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    "The question now among scientists is whether the future is the IPCC's worst case scenario or something more extreme."

    Or neither, but we're not allowed to pose that option, are we?

  94. Re:NOAA: Past Decade Warmest on Record According t by Arlet · · Score: 2

    Here's the graph of the Berkeley data you're talking about:

    https://tamino.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/berk4.jpg

    Blue line is a linear interpolation of pre-1998 data.
    Green line is an extrapolation of that same line.
    Red line is interpolation of post-1998 data.

    I don't see any evidence the trend has stopped. Do you ?

  95. Re:Where's the beef? by f()rK()_Bomb · · Score: 1

    Because weather is not climate.

    --
    "The space elevator will be built about 50 years after everyone stops laughing." - Arthur C. Clarke ~1980
  96. Obligatory XKCD by abednegoyulo · · Score: 1
    1. Re:Obligatory XKCD by MiniMike · · Score: 1
  97. colors by mestar · · Score: 1

    But why did they draw China and US in the same color? Why?

    1. Re:colors by Arlet · · Score: 1

      The US graph is the one that's highest until a couple of years ago, when it got overtaken by China.

      The colors are not the same, by the way. China is blue and the US is purple.

  98. Re:Where's the beef? by felipekk · · Score: 2

    Yeah, middle of winter is probably earlier than June 21st and middle of summer is definitely after December 21st...

    (What? Some of us do live below the equator!)

  99. Re:Where's the beef? by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    CO2 outpaces worst-case scenarios yet the heat doesn't show up.
    This is even more wrong than you describe.
    Actually the heat is here :D
    That moron thinks just because we have a new output record we also would already have a doomsday heat record. You are right and the temperature is trailing a bit behind CO2 levels.
    I'm not sure but I believe during previous years we actually achieved a global reduction in output: note OUTPUT that is not concentration, that is the increase of the concentration.
    The main article is not about growing CO2 concentration (which causes warming) but about the growing output, in other words the increase of CO2 is accelerating, despite the fact that the Kyoto treaty tried to slow the increse down.

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  100. Re:Why are they surprised? by f()rK()_Bomb · · Score: 1

    Some of us do try, it's mostly America that won't bother and this results in other people only making a half hearted effort. And that is because politics got in the way, I mostly blame al gore for turning it into a polictical war. Australia and Europe are at least trying, China shouldn't have to try hard yet cause they are new

    --
    "The space elevator will be built about 50 years after everyone stops laughing." - Arthur C. Clarke ~1980
  101. Applying Science to Outdated Socioeconomic Systems by bridgey655 · · Score: 1

    We know the problems, we have the solutions. The issue with getting these scientific solutions out there for mass consideration is that the media is mostly owned by the same small group of "1%", the richest among the population that do not represent the rest of us. If solutions are devised, which they have been, and these solutions undermine and replace the cancerous capitalism and market systems, then those upholding the status quo would actively ignore these solutions, and propagate false reports and propaganda to deter people from looking away from the current systems. After all, they own the media, they own the politicians, they can and do whatever they like to THEIR advantage, not ours. The systems in use today were built to benefit the 1% and turn the rest of us into wage and debt slaves. The capitalist system is modern slavery. I urge you, yes you reading this right now, to research fractional reserve banking, watch Zeitgeist Addendum and Zeitgeist Moving Forward free online, and look up The Venus Project and a RESOURCE BASED ECONOMY. www.zeitgeistmovie.com www.thevenusproject.com www.thezeitgeistmovement.com

  102. Re:NOAA: Past Decade Warmest on Record According t by Catiline · · Score: 1

    What's your source on say there has been no temperature increase in the last 10 years?

    Would you believe... NOAA?

    Wikipedia's list of hottest years is penultimately sourced from the NOAA. 2001-2010 all make that list, with a maximum difference over this span of only 0.13 degrees Celsius (2005 / 2008 are listed as hottest and coolest, respectively). In order for this to be "increasing", your measuring equipment must have a error rate below 0.13 degree Celsius. A search on their page finds that the NOAA's official equipment manuals gives an optimum [minimum] error range of 0.166 degrees Celsius [listed as 0.3 degrees Fahrenheit]. I don't challenge their numbers, but their accuracy figures says the last decade has seen — within the accuracy of the measuring equipment — no change in average temperature.

  103. Re:Where's the beef? by NeoTron · · Score: 1

    Another way of saying what you just said is "global temperatures are NOT increasing by huge amounts in an extremely short time, DESPITE
    CO2 levels increasing in an extremely short time".

    Also, could it be that, if CO2 levels lag behind temperatures by approximately 800 years, then perhaps what we are seeing now are CO2 levels increasing due to what temperatures were doing 800 years ago - a period, if I'm not very much mistaken, which we call the Medieval Warm period.

    Lastly, I object to your use of the term "normal level". Please specify what a "normal level" of CO2 is for this planet, and why you think this is so.

  104. Re:Where's the beef? by superwiz · · Score: 1

    You are right. I should watch people pretend to have a scientific debate with arguments like "next time you might consider having the slightest fucking clue" (as did the argument I was responding to) and pretend that they deserve some sort of deference. Unfortunately, I am just not that interested in humoring politicos pretending to be scientists in order to borrow the clout of trust that scientists have.

    --
    Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
  105. Re:Where's the beef? by Arlet · · Score: 1

    global temperatures are NOT increasing by huge amounts in an extremely short time, DESPITE CO2 levels increasing in an extremely short time

    Global temperatures are increasing by fairly big amounts in a short time.

    perhaps what we are seeing now are CO2 levels increasing due to what temperatures were doing 800 years ago - a period, if I'm not very much mistaken, which we call the Medieval Warm period

    No, apparently you have never looked closely at CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. Here is a picture of the last half million years:

    https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/File:Carbon_Dioxide_400kyr.png

    Note how the recent increase is much higher than before, and also goes almost vertical. Increases due to glacial cycles were much slower.

    Also, even if there was an 800 year lag, it doesn't work that way. You cannot warm up the earth, cool it down again, and then see nothing happen until exactly 800 years later. And, of course, the MWP was nothing spectacular anyway. Compared to the glacial cycles, the MWP temperature swings were tiny, so the CO2 response should be tiny too.

    And "normal" is just the long term average. Say between 200-300 ppm. You can see from the graph that's about the range that the earth has moved between in the last half million years. Based on the sharp increase in the graph, it is obvious were dealing with something unique here.

  106. Re:Where's the beef? by Arlet · · Score: 2

    then perhaps what we are seeing now are CO2 levels increasing due to what temperatures were doing 800 years ago

    Several more reasons why this couldn't be true:

    a) Ocean acidity is increasing, which indicated CO2 is absorbed, rather than released.

    b) Carbon isotopes of atmospheric CO2 indicate that there has been in increase in very old carbon, which matches the signature of carbon stored in fossil fuels.

    c) Oxygen levels in the atmosphere have decreased slightly in the last century, consistent with increase CO2 from burning.

    d) If you add up all the carbon from all the fossil fuel we've burned, the number is about twice as big as the increase of carbon in the atmosphere. So, if the atmospheric CO2 is coming from some "natural" source like the oceans, where did all the CO2 from burning fossil fuels go ?

  107. Container ships by aclarke · · Score: 2
    We could also substantially reduce our emissions by buying fewer goods from overseas. One cargo ship emits the equivalent pollution of 50 million cars (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/apr/09/shipping-pollution). Here's another way of putting it from the article:

    Just 15 of the world's biggest ships may now emit as much pollution as all the world's 760m cars.

    Making more of an effort to produce items more locally is sort of the same as "living closer to where we work", but it has benefits far beyond a shorter commute. Additionally, where most of us live we probably have stricter environmental controls, which would mean that what IS produced is produced more cleanly. This would likely drive up the costs of goods, forcing us to buy fewer items of higher quality and own them longer, which would provide further environmental (and, dare I say, social) benefits. Overall, it seems like a good plan.

    1. Re:Container ships by JoeMerchant · · Score: 1

      We could also substantially reduce our emissions by buying fewer goods from overseas. One cargo ship emits the equivalent pollution of 50 million cars (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/apr/09/shipping-pollution). Here's another way of putting it from the article:

      Just 15 of the world's biggest ships may now emit as much pollution as all the world's 760m cars.

      Making more of an effort to produce items more locally is sort of the same as "living closer to where we work", but it has benefits far beyond a shorter commute. Additionally, where most of us live we probably have stricter environmental controls, which would mean that what IS produced is produced more cleanly. This would likely drive up the costs of goods, forcing us to buy fewer items of higher quality and own them longer, which would provide further environmental (and, dare I say, social) benefits. Overall, it seems like a good plan.

      Germany has used locally produced appliances in preference to imports for a long time... they'll pay $800 for a dishwasher with 1/3 the capacity of an "American" dishwasher (made in China) that sells for $300.

      Are you suggesting that Americans start living and thinking like Germans? Not likely to happen until the WWII vets / Great Depression survivors (and most of their children) are dead.

    2. Re:Container ships by Eunuchswear · · Score: 2

      We could also substantially reduce our emissions by buying fewer goods from overseas. One cargo ship emits the equivalent pollution of 50 million cars (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/apr/09/shipping-pollution).

      Crap.

      Don't confuse CO2 with "cancer and asthma-causing chemicals "

      Read to the bottom of the article and find "Shipping is responsible for 3.5% to 4% of all climate change emissions".

      That's only 4% for the total shipping fleet.

      --
      Watch this Heartland Institute video
    3. Re:Container ships by operagost · · Score: 1

      Sounds like Big Appliance needs a windfall profits tax!

      --

      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
    4. Re:Container ships by JoeMerchant · · Score: 1

      Sounds like Big Appliance needs a windfall profits tax!

      Hey, lots of good blue collar American workers will be put out of jobs if you tax the appliance makers - oh, wait, they're already out of their jobs because 90% of production moved overseas. I guess we made oil a little too cheap, didn't we? Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

    5. Re:Container ships by aclarke · · Score: 1

      Good point. I didn't mention CO2 emissions in my post, but I can see how the two would be conflated. I said "pollution" to try to differentiate the two concepts, but then I also used the word "emissions".

      Plus, of course, it IS a discussion about CO2.

    6. Re:Container ships by Nadaka · · Score: 1

      So... We could save as much fuel by building 15 nuclear powered cargo ships as we could by replacing every car on the planet? That sounds like a pretty damn good deal.

    7. Re:Container ships by Anguirel · · Score: 1

      Possibly, though fuel usage and pollution emission are not necessarily identical. There's a good chance those ships have little to no filtering, and thus are emitting far more pollution per unit of fuel than any car on the road.

      --
      ~Anguirel (lit. Living Star-Iron)
      QA: The art of telling someone that their baby is ugly without getting punched.
  108. Re:That means... by Lumpy · · Score: 1

    " My kids will live to see the end of oil. "

    really? So the 120 years worth of oil under the United states that we are not using so that we can use up the other guys resources first will be gone instead in 50 years?

    Or are you just being dumb and making a statement based on what your friends tell you instead of actual information.

    "end of oil" is more than 1 generation away. with the newer deep drilling tech they are finding more and more large oil fields deep down. I suggest you get more eduction about oil, there is a lot more of it out there than you think, and the higher prices are slowing consumption as dumb people switch from Hummer H1 and H2's to vehicles that get 20-30 mpg. The problem is the poor cant switch, so they continue to drive the klunkers that get 12-16mpg.

    if you really wanted to save the planet, you would support a program to give all poor people a 40mpg subcompact car in exchange for their junker.

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  109. Re:Where's the beef? by NeoTron · · Score: 1

    What is a "normal" level of CO2 for the planet?

  110. Re:That means... by Dunbal · · Score: 1

    I guess the ostrich feels nice and comfortable with its head in the sand. Maybe I should just leave it there. Or you could look at the world's oil reserves of 1.2 trillion barrels, and divide that number by the nearly 90 million barrels of oil per DAY the world is using, and do the math yourself. Using these figures there's less than 40 years out there. Oh and we haven't talked about economic growth, with countries like China adding the demand of equivalent of Australia every single year. Not to mention that the last drops of oil are going to be a lot harder to get at than today. It's going to be fun going down the curve when every few years there is half as much oil supply available as there is today. But hey if long division makes your head hurt, keep it in the nice warm sand.

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  111. Re:Where's the beef? by Dunbal · · Score: 1

    I still refuse to enter panic mode, CO2 has been higher before. At some point soon we will run out of fossil fuel and an equilibrium will be reached. Of course it sucks to be a coral reef or any number of other species, but running out of fossil fuel will be much more efficient than any "carbon tax" we could dream up because then we just won't have a choice.

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  112. Re:Where's the beef? by Arlet · · Score: 1

    CO2 has been higher before.

    Correct. But the sun was also weaker before, and continents in different places. It also has been hotter, and sea levels have been higher.

    Of course, that's all very interesting, but that doesn't take away from the fact that humans are profoundly changing the planet's climate on a large scale.

    running out of fossil fuel will be much more efficient

    Agreed. It will be very efficient, and I have no doubt that's exactly what we'll do.

  113. BP Blowout's Share? by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 1

    I wonder how much of the surprise extra emissions came from BP's Macondo blowout in the Gulf of Mexico in Summer 2010. The volatiles from the oil and all the gas have partially dissolved in the Gulf, but probably much more eventually evaporated into the air. Where it can all be counted, unlike at the wellhead itself where BP's lawyers, engineers and politicians can hide it.

    And not just Macondo. But also all the extra blowouts and other leaks that aren't reported at the wells. How about all the new gas drilling, all the fracking? Natgas adds about 17x the Greenhouse Effect of the equivalent amount of CO2.

    The "mysterious" nature of the extra emissions means they're totally uncontrolled. Which means they're part of the energy industry's profit scenario (which has itself outpaced the "best-case scenario"). Which means we're doomed to do even more of it.

    Unless we replace these filthy, corrupting petrofuels with geothermal and other sustainable energy production. NOW. Before it's too late, which is now closer than ever.

    --

    --
    make install -not war

  114. Re:YOU can't, but that doesn't mean squat by jdege · · Score: 1

    You can, for example, ask Texaco, BP et al how much oil they sell. Unless people are buying it to hoard, that's gonna be turned into CO2.

    Ask the coal mining companies how much coal they sell.

    Ask the gas companies how much they sell.

    Add it all up.

    Of course, this is far too much work for you, so you'd rather believe that because you won't (or can't) think how to measure CO2 output that nobody can.

    And how much coal is China burning? Indonesia? Nigeria? How accurate are their numbers? Have their been changes in their collecting or reporting methods, over the period studied, that affected their numbers?

    How much concrete has been manufactured in the US? In China? In Brazil?

    There are thousands of sources, that are reported on in various ways, and other sources that can only be estimated. These numbers need to reconciled, converted into forms that can be added together.

    Without the raw numbers, and precise details on how they were reconciled, this isn't science - it's just politics.

    --
    When cryptography is outlawed, bayl bhgynjf jvyy unir cevinpl.
  115. But not on a per capita basis by coinreturn · · Score: 1

    Yes, China puts out more greenhouse gases, but not on a per-capita basis. We continue to be the gas belchers in that regard.

  116. Positive versus negative skepticism by wytcld · · Score: 2

    Real science comes from the love of truth. Loving truth requires asking questions. Asking questions requires not just believing the first set of answers anyone presents. That includes especially the first set of answers you think of yourself. Real science requires that you take the proposed answers, when possible, and test them. Sometimes you can test them directly. Other times the test comes indirectly, when you use them to generate more questions, and find that some of them are testable. That's where we are currently, for example, with string theory. The immediate questions it raises can't be tested. But there are questions which follow from the answers its models suggest which can be.

    Climate prediction is something like that. We don't have a lot of spare planets to test the answers on that we've come up with through our questions. The main question is: We know from physics that added carbon concentrations in an atmosphere of a planet circling a hot sun should heat the planet up. Does this answer apply in our circumstance, or do other factors negate the effect? We do need to question this. That's how science proceeds, asking more questions. And then we need to look at candidate answers and, when we cannot answer those directly, use them to generate further questions, in the hope that we can test those.

    That's all very proper science. You man call it "skepticism" if you want. What's not proper science is to say, "Oh look, there are more questions we can raise. So let's just ignore the initial question. Because the most likely candidate answer - that the planet will warm - would cause prudent people to revise their business plans. And the set of business plans we have now, we're just not smart enough to come up with anything else."

    I'm skeptical about that. Are we really so stupid, in the golden age of capitalism, just two decades after the main competing economic system fell, that our businesses can't flexibly adapt to changing circumstances and novel risks? That's a question that invites answers, which in turn invite further questions. It can itself be addressed scientifically, and "skeptically" if you will. If the people running our business believe that we can't adapt and prosper while facing fresh challenges, I'm skeptical that we have the right people running our businesses. How did we put such unimaginative people in charge? Why are they incapable of facing big questions with innovative answers, in the manner of our best scientists and engineers? What were they taught at those high-priced MBA mills? Obviously not science, nor the productive use of "skeptical" questioning to advance us farther towards both truth and the prosperity which a better grasp of truth can leverage.

    --
    "with their freedom lost all virtue lose" - Milton
  117. Re:NOAA: Past Decade Warmest on Record According t by geoffrobinson · · Score: 1

    I couldn't find the graph I saw, but I was talking about this: http://perceptionasreality.blogspot.com/2011/11/global-warming-debate-muller-vs-curry.html

    Yeah, if you shorten that period up to the last 10 years or so, their data shows a flat trend.

    --
    Except for ending slavery, the Nazis, communism, & securing American independence, war has never solved anything.
  118. Re:NOAA: Past Decade Warmest on Record According t by Catiline · · Score: 1
    The fact the "average" global temperature for each of the past 10 years top the records list does not change the temperatures over that time span. I reference that list because it is the most convenient source for the numbers, and because it shows I am not "cherry picking" favorable data. Certainly, the peak temperatures list will prove global warming is occuring, but does not by itself prove anthropogenic causes.

    The 1990 IPCC reports on climate predicted a 0.3 degree change per decade with increasing emissions. The latest report (2007) predicts a similar trend line (stated as 2-6 degrees per century), so I have to wonder: how long would we need to deviate from these predictions before it becomes significant? 10 years (as we have)? 15? 20? 50?

  119. Re:NOAA: Past Decade Warmest on Record According t by geoffrobinson · · Score: 1
    --
    Except for ending slavery, the Nazis, communism, & securing American independence, war has never solved anything.
  120. Re:NOAA: Past Decade Warmest on Record According t by Arlet · · Score: 1

    If you notice the graph, it has some very low outliers near the end. These are based on preliminary data, and have huge error bars. It's best to remove those.

    On the site below, you can select your own graphs, and post-processing. I've selected the BEST data from 1950 to 2010, plus trend lines from 1950 to 2001, and a trend line from 2001 to 2010. I've omitted 2011 because of the 2 outliers in the last two months.

    http://woodfortrees.org/plot/best/from:1950/to:2010/plot/best/from:2001/to:2010/trend/plot/best/from:1950/to:2001/trend

    As you can see, there's not much difference in trend lines. If you include 2011 as well, the trend changes to mostly flat, but that's because of the still bad quality preliminary data for the last couple of months.

    Of course, trends over 10 year are not really meaningful, let alone trends over even shorter period. Really, you should be looking at trends over 20+ years instead.

  121. Re:NOAA: Past Decade Warmest on Record According t by Arlet · · Score: 1

    So, why isn't there a decent trend line drawn into the graph ?

    Here's the same data, with trend lines, and some discussion about the error bars and statistical significance:

    http://tamino.wordpress.com/2011/10/30/judith-curry-opens-mouth-inserts-foot/

  122. Re:YOU can't, but that doesn't mean squat by Arlet · · Score: 1

    Without the raw numbers, and precise details on how they were reconciled, this isn't science - it's just politics.

    Science is built around dealing with incomplete data. Anyway, you can fairly easily verify the numbers in a little while by comparing them to the latest CO2 measurements in the atmosphere.

  123. Glad you're looking at the bright side... by tekrat · · Score: 1

    Personally, I think this way too. Nature finds a way to return to balance things out. Frankly, another scenario is that the fields shrivel up in the heat and global starvation causes us to start eating each other, or at least, shooting each other for what food remains, and then that drops populations back down to acceptable levels, which drives down industry as well, which reduces emissions.

    --
    If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
    1. Re:Glad you're looking at the bright side... by janimal · · Score: 1

      Humans are capable of bringing famine on themselves even without specific environmental conditions, like global warming: Irish famine, holodomor, Somalia. Humanity will forget about global warming as soon as things get hairy. I wouldn't get too excited about being able to do anything about CO2. Humanity is going to have about 10 more urgent and more serious problems before global warming becomes a major factor in our ability to stay alive.
      Looking through history, I see global warming as a puny problem that came to the forefront, because we were on the biggest wave of economic growth and prosperity in history and had nothing better to worry about. It will pass, as will the period of prosperity. Global warming will have little to do with it.

  124. Germany by thejaq · · Score: 3, Informative

    Let's focus on Germany. They have increased GDP and increased renewable energy (20% of German kWh in the first 6 months of 2011 were non-emitting) while shrinking their CO2 emissions for the past 20 years.

    1. Re:Germany by data2 · · Score: 1

      Germany also reached its Kyoto protocol dictated savings. But much of this was due to the economic melt-down of eastern Germany after reunification and a final massive fall thanks to the current economic crisis.
      Still, Germany and the EU have committed to cutting 30% of their CO2 emissions as well as opting for 40% if the other countries internationally agree to do the same to a certain degree. So there are countries putting out.

  125. Re:That means... by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    Coal reserves at the current rate of usage a few hundret years, oil perhaps only 20 (yeah then we still have some dirty / expensive reserves left)

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  126. Re:Where's the beef? by Phleg · · Score: 1

    So simple logic is lost on you (because dismissing a source as non-authoritative is not an appeal to authority nor is it logically equivalent to it).

    Let a equal "the Guardian". Let subject matter S equal "global temperature measurements". Let p equal "2010 was tied for the hottest year on record". From the linked page, with the logic inverted:

    Most of what authority a has to say on subject matter S is incorrect.
    a says p about S.
    Therefore, p is incorrect.

    Perhaps you'll consider attacking the claim on its own merits next time? As an added bonus, you might even want to follow links and understand their contents before attempting to counter them. Otherwise, you risk looking like a complete tool.

    But you attempted to comment on a story which showed that "variable A increased in value...

    No. I successfully replied to a comment which stated that "CO2 outpace[d] worst-case scenarios yet the heat [didn't] show up." I then demonstrated through multiple non-affiliated sources that such a claim is laughably false, and implied that the claimant has no business participating in a discussion on a topic without extending some bare minimum effort to learn the basic facts at hand.

    “You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant.”
    — Harlan Ellison

    I know this sort of discussion can be difficult to follow. I'll try to go more slowly in the future so you can keep up.

    --
    No comment.
  127. Who cares? by xyourfacekillerx · · Score: 1

    We all share in this catastrophe, but I'm sure many people will find a way to blame it on Republicans/Christians/Creationists/Big Oil/etc. Looking over this thread I see that's already happened somehow.

    But why worry about it. It's getting hot outside; I can't do a thing to stop it, neither can you... so Ima just do whatever I must do to be part of this modern world. If you say it's my fault, then please, show me how we can stop it, and stfu with all the blame. Otherwise, get on with your life and let me get on with mine... That's where I stand.

    /Bicycle user here.
    //Would use a car if mine ever worked...

    1. Re:Who cares? by geekoid · · Score: 1

      If you want a button to push with a big 'FIX' on it, then you are out of luck.

      however if you have the mental capacity to think about long term effects, then there are a number of things you can do to help lesson it.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  128. Re:Texaco would like a different answer by janimal · · Score: 1

    If that were a good argument, then large corps should have abolished labour unions by now via corporate lobby.

  129. Re:Where's the beef? by Phleg · · Score: 1

    I did not pretend to be a scientist, nor am I a politician. You also appear to have confused my snarky aside with my argument. The argument was the part where I succinctly demonstrated, using four non-affiliated sources, that there has been an obvious and trivially demonstrable warming of the climate during the time period in question.

    Personally, I remain convinced that the relationship between carbon emissions and global temperatures is a a causal one, and the origin of our warming trend is anthropogenic in nature. However, I welcome honest, continued debate and inquiry into the exact nature of their relationship. On the other hand, I do not encourage or even tolerate the vocal opinions of people who fail to accept or acknowledge the widely-reported, multiply-confirmed, and inarguable facts surrounding this or any issue. People who do so should simply shut the fuck up and listen to others until they become at least minimally informed.

    --
    No comment.
  130. Clearly, I blame FreeBSD by sl4shd0rk · · Score: 1

    The graph obviously shows China and the US are the top consumers of electricity trying to get FreeBSD compiled to run on their desktop.

    --
    Join the Slashcott! Feb 10 thru Feb 17!
  131. Re:Where's the beef? by superwiz · · Score: 1

    I know this sort of discussion can be difficult to follow. I'll try to go more slowly in the future so you can keep up.

    This is how you continue to ensure your irrelevance.

    Perhaps you'll consider attacking the claim on its own merits next time?

    There is no reason to consider sources which are not credible. Look to mirror for an example of a source which is not credible.

    This:

    Most of what authority a has to say on subject matter S is incorrect. a says p about S. Therefore, p is incorrect.

    is NOT an appeal to authority. It's an inverse of an appeal to authority. Inverses are not logically equivalent. An appeal to authority would be this:

    Most of what authority a has to say on subject matter S is correct. a says p about S. Therefore, p is correct.

    Are we done with this, dimwit? Your arrogance does not match your wits. Learn to be humble. Or learn to cope with dismissal.

    --
    Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
  132. Re:Where's the beef? by tbannist · · Score: 1

    Only ignorant (willfully or otherwise) people see a colling trend in the last 10 years. Take a look at the graph here, and you might understand how you are being misled.

    --
    Fanatically anti-fanatical
  133. Global warming not the most pressing issue by WaffleMonster · · Score: 1

    Carbon loading of the oceans is literally dissolving the shells off of the backs of poor little sea creatures, melting the snorks coral cities and pissing off sharks who now have less food to eat due to nth order effects on the food chain.

    Screwing with the oceans is serious business.

  134. Why starve, cousin? by denzacar · · Score: 1

    Electric vehicles drive the food just fine to and from trains that ship it across great distances.
    And you can use various kinds of clean and renewable electricity to power both.

    As for that farming machinery that can't (yet) operate on electricity or natural gas - there is already a solution for that in regulation of diesel fuel sales for farming.
    Usually by government subsidies and special coloring added to such fuel in order to prevent it being used for passenger vehicles.
    It's already being done around the world for fishing. So much so that filtering out the coloring and selling that diesel at market prices is a rather profitable criminal activity.

    And then... there is the option of converting city parks into orchards and vegetable gardens. Adding gardens and greenhouses on the rooftops.
    Even simply everyone planting a pot on their window/balcony makes a difference on a city-wide scale.

    Don't worry. Humans might end up eating less meat, but they will most likely not starve.

    --
    Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
  135. Re:Its not carbon, it's people. by WindBourne · · Score: 1

    wow. What a fool and an idiot you are. It is NOT ppl that do the bulk of emissions. China's water has NOT disappeared. They are pulling in more for economic reasons, not ppl. Hell, they have a slow population growth rate. The water disappearing is NOT for more ppl, but for economic reasons. In addition, they are being bitten by GW. Likewise, they have loads of water, but It is not usable. It is far too polluted.

    India still has a moderate growth , but again, their water use has more to do with industry growth, not ppl.

    The west is growing biofuels because other nations such as Venezuela, russia, and Iran are playing games with fuel.

    Now, as to the water crisis, you sounds like you want us to do CO2/capita. What that does is reward nations that allow their population to grow beyond bounds. That is stupid and foolish. Instead, by tying emissions to land, then it forces these other nations to decide on population vs industry.

    It is time that fools like you open your eyes.

    --
    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  136. Of course its happeneing by geekoid · · Score: 1

    even Koch broghers funded studies say it's happeneing:
    http://www.theblaze.com/stories/koch-funded-study-changes-prominent-global-warming-skeptic-to-a-believer/

    The sure I wanted to link to is down, they do a better description of the study and the people involved. I have never linked to that site before.

    Muller, who has been a long time skeptic, has come to the conclusion that yes, it s real. The deniers that are involved i the study have started back peddling and making excuses.

    not he Muller conclusion where actually needed, the data is pretty dam solid.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  137. Hard to buy by tensigh · · Score: 1

    I hate to say this, but it seems like a crock. All we've seen for the past 10-15 years are all types of technologies and methods that reduce so-called greenhouse gasses. Look at the Three Gorges Dam in China, all of the solar power, the fact that virtually all cars use 4 cylinder engines, etc. We've planted more trees, created hybrids, etc. How can emissions be beyond expectations? They should be getting lower and lower. Something is amiss here.

  138. Re:Where's the beef? by Phleg · · Score: 1

    is NOT an appeal to authority. It's an inverse of an appeal to authority. Inverses are not logically equivalent. An appeal to authority would be this:

    As I said, verbatim,

    Appeal to authority works in the other direction too, you know.

    The inverse is not logically equivalent, which was never asserted, but the inverse is certainly logically sound. This would have been plainly obvious had you paused for a minute to actually comprehend what was written.

    I see that once again that you couldn't be bothered to attack my claims on their own merits as I encouraged. Pity.

    Regardless, you simply cannot evade the fact that you inappropriately dismissed one of my sources out-of-hand, which I then backed up with five more sources, including the two original sources (NOAA and NASA) which confirmed the claim. This was, of course, only even one of four different lines of evidence proving my point. This whole time, you've been arguing with me (poorly, might I add), about bullshit semantics, while I have actually delivered on the goal of well-sourced evidence backing my claims.

    And yet, you still have the painful ignorance to assert that I've ensured my own irrelevance. If you'd care to check the mods on our little thread here, I think even you will be able to deduce who came off as the half-wit and who the better.

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    No comment.
  139. Climate Change Unstoppable at this point by jweller13 · · Score: 1

    I've listened to scientists on the many Earth Science programs on Nova, Frontline, National Geographic, the Science channel, the History channel, etc for many years. It seems pretty clear that we have reached the feedback loop tipping point and climate change can not be stopped at this point. All we can do now is adapt to its coming. Bummer.

  140. Re:Where's the beef? by Phleg · · Score: 1

    You are a shill.

    I missed this, somehow.

    I am not in any way affiliated with climate researchers, nor do I personally benefit in any way (well, unless you count self-satisfaction) from any opinions expressed on this topic. Perhaps you're confused about the definition of "shill", too?

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    No comment.
  141. Re:Where's the beef? by superwiz · · Score: 1

    I'd would keep this going, but at this point you have just become your own parody. I'll let your statements stand on their own.

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    Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
  142. Giant space mirrors? by Kamiza+Ikioi · · Score: 1

    Sorry, nuclear is no longer "green". The public won't accept it. Instead, solar sails beaming microwaves to the ground.

    Yeah, giant mirrors in space. Maybe we can aim them at the polar ice caps just to get it over with faster.

    I'll say it again, Thorium. It's the safest and cleanest alternative that is actually doable as a 100% energy replacement. It's not a matter of if, but when. Any extra-planetary colonization, be it on the moon or mars, will use Thorium. Nothing competes with it in terms of cost per kWh once you leave earth. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonization_of_the_Moon#Energy And it's the same with Mars, where many factors rule out fuels and solar cells. Thorium seems to be the only real constant, and we will eventually use it.

    The public doesn't accept giving up their SUVs still, nor do they accept electric vehicles, and in most of the world doesn't accept gay marriage. I could personally give fuck all what the public accepts. When they start running out of drinking water and gas is $10, they'll accept whatever is put in front of them.

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    I8-D
  143. Re:Coal by T+Murphy · · Score: 1

    Not complaining, just trying to be helpful: the word is amount, not "amouth".

  144. Global Warming - Yes Please by iUseMyBrain · · Score: 1

    The earth's temperature changes a bit, no argument there. But, there's a reason that Greenland, which is covered in ice right now, was called "green-land" hundreds of years ago. I, for one, am all for global warming, I live in MN and it gets freakin cold up here, I wouldn't mind it warming up a few degrees again.

  145. Re:Texaco would like a different answer by GerryGilmore · · Score: 1

    Well, given that union participation rates have been declining steadily for decades - and continue to do so with no end in sight - what makes you think that's not what they've been doing?

  146. Re:Where's the beef? by Phleg · · Score: 1

    Wasn't there supposed to be a "trollololol" or something to that effect? You must have left it off.

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    No comment.
  147. Canfield oceans by Geof · · Score: 1
    The first article you point to doesn't seem to say anything one way or the other - which would be unsurprising if this were, as you suggest, a complete misinterpretation. A brief perusal of the Web doesn't provide a lot of evidence beyond the two books I mentioned, which in itself suggests Dyer and Ward may have blown this out of proportion. However, I did find one scientific article by Meyer and Kump on the subject. It suggests:

    at times in Earth history, notably the Late Ordovician, Late Devonian, and Late Permian, widespread shelf and cratonic-basinal anoxia, and, at least in the latter two cases, photic-zone euxinia, have accompanied mass extinction (Wilde & Berry 1984; Wignall & Hallam 1992; Wang et al. 1993, 1996; Bond et al. 2004). Could sulfide poisoning serve as the kill mechanism in these extinctions?

    Biomarker evidence perhaps provides a more compelling link between euxinia and extinction for the Late Devonian and Late Permian (Grice et al. 2005). . . . But why would a collapse of marine productivity trigger terrestrial ecosystem disruption and extinction?

    Sulfide release from the oceans serves as a link to terrestrial biotic crisis during the end-Permian. One-dimensional atmospheric modeling by Kump et al. (2005) predicted that toxic levels of H2S could rapidly accumulate in the well-mixed troposphere once reaction of sulfide with atmospheric hydroxyl radical reduced OH to very low levels. The abrupt rise in atmospheric H2S concentrations would be accompanied by rising atmospheric methane levels and destruction of the ozone layer. Not only would terrestrial organisms be unable to escape the toxic effects of H2S, but they also would be subject to high levels of UV radiation following the predicted collapse of the ozone layer.

    This does sound very tentative. On the other hand, it corresponds with my tenuous understanding of the claims of Dyer and Ward. Can you shed any light? I don't want to be going around making false claims.

  148. And now apply Occam's Razor by PeterWone · · Score: 1

    Human activities increased normally, CO2 spiked. Logical conclusion: human activities are not the governing factor. If the doings of man are incidental, then climate change should be historically evident. Oh looky, cyclic ice ages. What a surprise. Now take your carbon tax and shove it where the sun don't shine.

    1. Re:And now apply Occam's Razor by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      Human activities increased normally, CO2 is spiking and temperatures are rising in proportion. A cap-n-trade is a tax on just the local nation, while a CO2 (and other pollutants) tax is on ALL nations that trade so as to NOT harm a single nation, but get all to participate

      FTFY

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      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    2. Re:And now apply Occam's Razor by PeterWone · · Score: 1
      • You assume from a very loose correlation between CO2 and rising temperature that levels of CO2 are the driver for temperature. You do not consider other possible drivers, and you do not consider the quite real possibility that you have it ass-backwards and it's the other way round with rising temperature causing increased CO2 levels. You also totally ignore the fact that human industral impact is modest compared to bushfires and laughable compared to a single volcanic eruption.
      • Industrial nations need vast quantities of steel. Coking coal is used to turn iron into steel. The process involves burning it, and produces vast amounts of CO2. Taxing this will have absolutely no impact on global appetite for steel; the price has already gone up 2000% (500% in real terms) over the last 20 years and demand has increased.
      • Rising temperature is a marvellous thing if you live in Siberia, where a five degree average rise would open up vast wheat belts. So do not preach to me about the good of all when you are merely trying to preserve the status quo because it serves your own self interest.
  149. Re:NOAA: Past Decade Warmest on Record According t by CheerfulMacFanboy · · Score: 1

    How about the data released by that alleged former skeptic somewhat recently? It showed no warming trend in the past decade or so.

    Well, he said absolutely nothing about the last ten years, so yeah, you could misinterpret that as "his data showed no warming trend in the past decade or so".

    Anyway: http://woodfortrees.org/plot/wti/from:1998/to:2011/plot/wti/from:1998/to:2011/trend

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    Fandroids hate facts.
  150. Gee... by DarthVain · · Score: 1

    I can't imagine why no one would agree to sign any carbon reduction treaty that doesn't include any serious restrictions to China.

    China will never sign.

    This is why we are all doomed.

    Even if one settled once and for all the climate change debate (HA!), we couldn't do anything about it due to politics.

  151. Re:Where's the beef? by rubycodez · · Score: 1

    I was only quoting his first linked article. try to keep up

  152. Re:PLEASE READ THIS, RUBY! by rubycodez · · Score: 1

    by all means, bring it on