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IEA Warns of Irreversible Climate Change In 5 Years
iONiUM writes "As a follow up to the previous slashdot story, there has been a new release by the International Energy Agency indicating that within 5 years we will have irreversible climate change. According to the IEA, 'There are few signs that the urgently needed change in direction in global energy trends is under way. Although the recovery in the world economy since 2009 has been uneven, and future economic prospects remain uncertain, global primary energy demand rebounded by a remarkable 5% in 2010, pushing CO2 emissions to a new high. Subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption of fossil fuels jumped to over $400bn (£250.7bn).'"
Does this mean we won't have to listen to any more bullshit about global warming after 2016?
Yeah. I didn't think so either.
I accepted the fact that on a long enough timescale, everything is temporary. Even human life itself on this planet. So I'm living it up, not giving a fuck. I'll die someday but that will be long before this planet comes to an end.
The game.
>>So again I ask: what are you going to do about it? What will you or have you changed about your lifestyle to help avert global disaster?
I plan on being a sanctimonious bastard to everyone I know, while running my AC 24/7 and flying about in a private jet, when I'm not at home in my 10,000 square foot mansion with low-efficiency windows.
I'll then form a carbon trading company in which guilty environmentalists who commute to work every day can pay to "offset" their emissions by having me stay at home and not work at all, as I can live off the offset money.
Oh, wait, sorry, I'm not Al Gore.
In all seriousness, while I do run my AC pretty heavily in the summer, my net energy consumption from the grid is minimal (I have solar on my house), and I do work out of my house, so I figure I'm in the top 99th percentile of Americans. No need to kill myself bicycling.
Even assuming that that doesn't happen, the predictable effects of a 2 degC rise are bad enough with loss of arable land, alterations to fresh water routes - and quantity, increase in storm violence and damage, worse flooding of coastal regions etc. The higher we go, the worse they get.
This is the kind of unscientific sensationalism we need to get away from. There is very little scientific evidence of this stuff. The computer models are so inaccurate below the continental scale that they are useless, and we still don't have models that can predict El Nino/Southern Oscillation.
We need to get away from this sensational crap and go back to science.....doing observations, and figuring out what actually will happen, not making random wild guesses.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."