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Oceans Could Soon Not Have Enough Oxygen To Support Marine Life (iflscience.com)

An anonymous reader writes: As the climate continues to change in response to the increasing amount of carbon humans pump into the atmosphere, the oceans are being particularly hard hit from melting Arctic sea ice, acidification, and warming surface temperatures. Yet those are not the only difficulties that marine life has to deal with, as a new study reports that the oceans are also losing oxygen. As the majority of marine life relies on the oxygen dissolved in the oceans, it is worrying that noticeable differences have been observed in the gas concentrations in the world's waters. The reduction in oxygen will have profound effects on ocean biodiversity, though as the study published in Global Biogeochemical Cycles shows, not all regions will be affected in the same way or over the same period of time."Loss of oxygen in the ocean is one of the serious side effects of a warming atmosphere, and a major threat to marine life," said lead author Matthew Long of the National Center for Atmospheric Research. "Since oxygen concentrations in the ocean naturally vary depending on variations in winds and temperature at the surface, it's been challenging to attribute any deoxygenation to climate change. This new study tells us when we can expect the impact from climate change to overwhelm the natural variability."

177 of 268 comments (clear)

  1. Giant Bubbler by dfn5 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I propose the installation of a giant aquarium bubbler at the bottom of the ocean.

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    1. Re:Giant Bubbler by denis-The-menace · · Score: 1

      It sounds silly but we might not have any choice.

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      Obama's legacy: (N)othing (S)ecure (A)nywhere and (T)error (S)imulation (A)dministration
    2. Re:Giant Bubbler by shadowrat · · Score: 4, Funny

      I propose the installation of a giant aquarium bubbler at the bottom of the ocean.

      the treasure chest that opens to release a torrent of built up bubbles is a classic, but i've always been partial to the skeleton at the helm with his head bobbing in the air stream.

    3. Re: Giant Bubbler by WarJolt · · Score: 2

      Really? Clearly you don't understand how big the ocean is. Might as well get a toddler to blow into a straw because that's about as effective this would be globally. Maybe you could support local populations of certain species. Basically an aquarium in the ocean.

    4. Re:Giant Bubbler by pr0fessor · · Score: 1

      You can already buy windmill aerators for your pond... you could fit a few thousand of the really large ones to floating platforms and have them floating on the ocean.

    5. Re:Giant Bubbler by CanadianMacFan · · Score: 2

      And a turbine just above it so the bubbles will turn the blades to generate electricity that run the pump that creates the bubbles that turn the blades to ...

    6. Re:Giant Bubbler by twotacocombo · · Score: 1

      I propose the installation of a giant aquarium bubbler at the bottom of the ocean.

      Though clearly a joke, aquarium bubblers don't actually add oxygen to the water. They're meant to break the surface tension and give it a little churn to allow natural gas exchange to work more efficiently. A hang-on-back filter, or pack of feeding piranhas, will achieve the same effect in a tank. Water temperature also plays a role in oxygen availability. The warmer it is, the less it's able to provide to its residents.

    7. Re: Giant Bubbler by CanadianMacFan · · Score: 4, Funny

      How about getting Trump and a couple of other politicians to blow into that straw? Only problem might be raising the ocean temperature with all of that hot air.

    8. Re:Giant Bubbler by cellocgw · · Score: 2

      ... and we'll make the fish pay for it! Make America's oceans great again!

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    9. Re: Giant Bubbler by plover · · Score: 3, Funny

      I just want to see how big the plastic treasure chest is that lets that many bubbles out!

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      John
    10. Re: Giant Bubbler by jimbob6 · · Score: 1

      No, not really.

    11. Re:Giant Bubbler by OrangeTide · · Score: 2

      All the plastic bags in the ocean will plug it up.

      --
      “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
    12. Re: Giant Bubbler by stub667 · · Score: 1

      Its well established that El Nino events are closely tied to the US election cycle. This hot air sequestration technology sounds like our only hope.

  2. Yikes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    I wouldn't want to be a dolphin right now.

    1. Re:Yikes by prefec2 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I would have rated that funny, but I am not sure whether the author knows dolphins are mammals which would make this a humorous remark or the author is normal internet idiot, which would make this a face palm post.

    2. Re:Yikes by kenj123 · · Score: 2

      Problem is the dolphins won't have anything to eat. Ecosystems have a lot of interdependencies.

    3. Re:Yikes by Thanshin · · Score: 1

      I would have rated that funny, but I am not sure whether the author knows dolphins are mammals which would make this a humorous remark or the author is normal internet idiot, which would make this a face palm post.

      However well they can breathe they are still carnivores and their food needs either oxygen dissolved in water or food which needs oxygen dissolved in water.

      But, as far as we know, the OP could just be completely off topic commenting that he's posting on Slashdot while competing on a rally race. Which would make it really inconvenient for him to be a dolphin at this very moment.

    4. Re:Yikes by Maritz · · Score: 1

      Probably just a straight up troll. Probably wanted a few dozen replies along the lines of "OMFG Dolphin iz a mammal u dumb fuck". Might still get 'em.

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    5. Re:Yikes by tnk1 · · Score: 2

      Well, I guess they're finally going to have get off their lazy asses and learn to walk on land like the rest of us. Don't even get me started about those whales.

    6. Re:Yikes by invid · · Score: 1

      Problem is the dolphins won't have anything to eat. Ecosystems have a lot of interdependencies.

      They'll eat smaller dolphins, who in turn will eat smaller dolphins, who in turn will eat the seaweed thriving from all that CO2.

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    7. Re:Yikes by AgNO3 · · Score: 1

      Who will intern all be eaten by vicious killer Orcas.

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    8. Re:Yikes by bmk67 · · Score: 1

      So it's dolphins all the way down, eh?

    9. Re:Yikes by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 1

      Problem is the dolphins won't have anything to eat. Ecosystems have a lot of inter-dependencies.

      No, the dolphins will just all leave

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    10. Re:Yikes by HiThere · · Score: 1

      Well, the bigger problem they've been having is that people have been taking all their food, and occasionally them.

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      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
    11. Re:Yikes by hey! · · Score: 1

      My wife hates house spiders; it's the one animal she kills without any shadow of compunction. I once pointed out to her that since animals are heterotrophs, those house spiders had to be living on something else. This she vehemently denied. "They eat each other," she insisted.

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  3. Think outside the box by Tokolosh · · Score: 1

    Reducing carbon emissions, is that the most singleminded meme ever?

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    1. Re:Think outside the box by Tokolosh · · Score: 1

      To be clear, I am not a denier. But I do think science is needed unless we find the cure is worse than the disease.

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    2. Re:Think outside the box by Maritz · · Score: 1

      Yeah. Most of the deniers seem to be railing against 'the cure' as they perceive it. I think most of them perceive the 'cure' to be commyinism. Most reasonable people are thinking new technology and incentives to use it (e.g. make it both better, and cheaper, and cleaner).

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    3. Re:Think outside the box by Tokolosh · · Score: 1

      The trouble is that all this new technology comes down to reducing carbon. No alternatives are conceivable. All the incentives mandate means, not the end.

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    4. Re: Think outside the box by pixelpusher220 · · Score: 1

      So you can't say they're wrong either. Come up with your own science to explain everything we're seeing and we can talk.

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    5. Re:Think outside the box by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

      But the cure isn't. Many of the technologies exist, but because oil is heavily subsidized and is essentially a protected industry and energy source, they can't get a leg up. Pricing carbon would give the free market a better opportunity to refine alternative technologies.

      And just ponder a collapse of marine ecoysystems for a moment. How many millions rely directly or indirectly on those ecosystems. Are you saying curbing CO2 emissions is worse than mass starvation?

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    6. Re:Think outside the box by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

      Clearly you are so much smarter than the climatologists. Since you have this killer argument, why don't you publish. Clearly you are a statistical wunderkind, so get to it, publish and destroy AGW...

      Unless of course you're talking absolute bullshit, and repeating some talking point you heard somewhere which, with your limited knowledge, you thought "Hey, that's a killer argument." If that's the case, then you're just a witless moron.

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      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    7. Re:Think outside the box by NatasRevol · · Score: 1

      1) While a temp change of 2C might not sound like the 'sky is falling' to you, it is to most living species.
      2) Most people concerned about the climate would see nuclear as a viable option. A few loud squawkers do not speak for everyone. Also, politicians listen to the squawkers.
      3) Most people do. You just don't hear about it because a lot of small things add up to real savings. Also, your extreme positions are not the only valid solutions towards working to an answer. A higher efficiency car, insulation, heat, house, local food, etc all do add up a little bit. When you multiply it by 300,000,000 means something real.

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    8. Re:Think outside the box by CanadianMacFan · · Score: 1

      The problem is that the impact of the cure happens now while the impact of doing nothing mostly happens in a few generations and people in general are not very good at making decisions where one has to suffer in the present even if it means a much improved future.

      We have to stop selling things in terms of climate change. For example electric cars. Most people are not going to buy them because they can be better for the environment (depends on the source of the electricity). But if you focus on the fact that they are less expensive to operate and that they will clean up the polluted air in cities now then you have a better chance. It's known that people living close to major roads and highways have health problems due to the pollution given off from vehicles. Electric cars and trucks could solve this problem. Tackling climate change in the long term is a freebie thrown in. But almost everyone concentrates on climate change which won't motivate the majority of people to buy electric vehicles.

    9. Re: Think outside the box by GLMDesigns · · Score: 1

      I'm not saying that they're wrong. I'm simply saying that the supporters are using bull$h!t to bolster their claims and it's the use of this bull$h!t that makes me go hmmm.

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    10. Re:Think outside the box by GLMDesigns · · Score: 1

      No. I look at the facts and nothing but the facts. And the evidence being brought forward is not convincing. Anyone that compares the slope of the curve of a twenty year period ( say from 1970 to 1990) and says that it is unprecedented in history is lying (or exaggerating to the point of being dishonest).

      Why? Because our data points are accurate to +/-4000 years.

      Why exaggerate?

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    11. Re: Think outside the box by Tokolosh · · Score: 1

      How about some other cures that do not involve higher electricity prices? Have you considered any? Think outside the box.

      The trope that our environment is worse than it was a century ago, really needs to die. Sheesh.

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      Prove anything by multiplying Huge Number times Tiny Number
    12. Re: Think outside the box by silentcoder · · Score: 1

      Carbon is the problem. There are no solutions that do not involve cutting it. Not even outside the box.
      You however should please remain firmly inside the box. Out of the box is for smart people. When dumb people try it they end up crazy people.

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    13. Re: Think outside the box by Tokolosh · · Score: 1

      "There are no solutions that do not involve cutting it."

      How do you know this?

      "You however should please remain firmly inside the box."

      The very definition of narrowmindedness.

      Calling me dumb for wanting to be creative, innovative and rigorous means that I shall not bother to respond to your posts in future.

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    14. Re:Think outside the box by GLMDesigns · · Score: 1

      I'm more concerned about dioxins and PCBs being dumped; the loss of natural habitat to agribusiness and timber companies; and the over harvesting of the oceans than I am about rising CO2 levels.

      I don't see rising CO2 levels and changing coastlines being an issue. Over population is an issue. Polluting our environment is an issue.

      I'm persuaded by facts not by rhetoric and certainly not by being cursed at. It looks as if you ignored my points? Why is that?

      Why would anyone say that the temperature of the last 100 years is anyway representative of the "correct" temperature. And what is the "correct" temperature anyway? Haven't there been numerous periods of global warming over the last 2 million years (22 or so)?

      And did you notice that this period of global warming and glaciation is more prominent over the last 2 million years than over the previous 200 million? Why is that? Continental drift maybe?

      How about the scare tactic that CO2 levels are at historic highs. Oops. Let's look at the geological record. It's not.

      Why, if proponents of global warming have all the facts on their side do they pollute their argument by using bad science. Example comparing low points with high points? Isn't the first thing you learn in stats 101 (or is it in high school) to compare like points?

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    15. Re: Think outside the box by pixelpusher220 · · Score: 1

      If the global scientific consensus is bullshit...it should be very easy to disprove. And yet no one has. How many majot global changes have to be documented before you see there is a serious problem? Deniers originally claimed there was no change going on...and were wrong and now fall back to hey it's always changing! Ignoring the fact that the oceans are changing rapidly....when the ocean food web collapes will that be enough for you?

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    16. Re: Think outside the box by GLMDesigns · · Score: 1

      I'm not saying that at all. I'm saying that some of the arguments brought forth doesn't make sense. Do they make sense to you? Would you take the delta in temperature from March 1, 2015 to March 1, 2001 and say the slope of the curve is greater than that of 1,000,000 years ago (when the data points back then are accurate to +/- 4000 years)?

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    17. Re: Think outside the box by pixelpusher220 · · Score: 1

      Re 4000 years. We ice and sediment cores going back hundreds of thousands of years. What's the source of your 4000 ?

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    18. Re:Think outside the box by Gadget_Guy · · Score: 1

      You are a perfect example of the problem.

      No, you are the problem. You are fixated with not reducing carbon emissions. You mention alternatives 3, 4 and 5, but give no indication of what these alternatives might be other than to keep repeating the phrase "think outside the box". So why don't you try thinking about it creatively and come up with some ideas. If you want to claim that there is something inherently wrong with reducing carbon emissions, then why not throw some alternative ideas around and we can start looking at them.

      I'll give you an alternative to start with: Carbon sequestration. The trouble with that is that 1) it isn't practical (so far), and 2) scientists have already been studying this and there are some large scale projects trying it - which means your claim that the scientific community is fixated on reducing emissions is completely wrong.

      I guess that might be why you haven't provided any ideas of your own. You would either have to say something that is already being considered (invalidating your own argument), or you would have to choose something that is in the realm of fantasy like using magic or making a large hat to cover the Earth and block the sun. But hey, don't let that stop you from making claims that those trying to reduce CO2 emissions are narrow-minded and not creative.

    19. Re:Think outside the box by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

      I like "climate conspiracy theorists." It avoids the denier/denialist label that they dislike so much, and it's accurate since their beliefs all rely on the Evil Liberal Science Conspiracy.

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    20. Re: Think outside the box by GLMDesigns · · Score: 1

      When I look at (and I'm so not an expert and don't pretend to be) geological temperature data points I often see that the data points are accurate to +/- 4000 years.

      So, for example, take a look at a chart like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... I often see such charts with a +/- 4000 years for each of the data points. (This chart does not state anything).

      I am not saying do nothing about climate change. I'm certainly not saying that we shouldn't study and get data and postulate theories. I am saying there is something wrong from someone compares the slope of the curve between (say) March 1, 2010 and December 1, 2002. I wonder - why those two dates (are you playing with things as Al Gore did) and secondly how can you compare that delta with that of 100,000s of years ago when we don't have precise data points from that period. We have a good general idea from ice cores, etc ... but it is accurate to what. 100 years, 1000 years, 10,000 years? If that's the case we can't compare the slope of the curve from a current period with that of 500,000 years ago.

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    21. Re:Think outside the box by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

      Sounds like you've got this all figured out buddy, global warming must be a big hoax because some of the people who think it's real are blowhards and/or poorly informed. There's none of that on the other side!

      But more seriously, the "correct" temperature is what works well for our currently established civilization, which is directly at or very slightly above pre-industrial levels. This is also why it should be no comfort that CO2 levels were higher when dinosaurs roamed the earth.

      And yes, this means that in the far future we may have to counteract natural climate change to stay at the "correct" temperature.

      --
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    22. Re: Think outside the box by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

      He's right though, carbon is the problem, and while there are non-carbon-reduction workarounds for some of the problems that carbon causes, there are no workarounds for all of them, most prominently ocean acidification. Those workarounds also all carry downsides that addressing the actual problem doesn't, so it's not a free lunch. If you think of the different options as geo-engineering efforts, reducing carbon emissions carries the least risk, since we're just going back to where we've been before instead of blazing a new trail with a new method.

      Addressing carbon emissions isn't an especially expensive or difficult approach either. So why are you so set on only treating the symptoms when treating the cause is a comprehensive, safe, affordable solution?

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    23. Re:Think outside the box by pipingguy · · Score: 1

      And here come the 'yeah, but-ers' regurgitating helpfully-provided and memorized talking points trying to make themselves sound virtuous, concerned and oh-so much more aware of the pending catastrophe that WE ALL MUST BELIEVE IN. Oh - and by the way, keep those government grants and subsidies coming.

      " If you put tomfoolery into a computer, nothing comes out but tomfoolery. But this tomfoolery, having passed through a very expensive machine, is somehow ennobled and no-one dares criticize it. " - Pierre Gallois

    24. Re: Think outside the box by Namarrgon · · Score: 1

      Such blinkered bullshit. Claiming to worry about a handful of people who might not find a way to pay their heating bill, and completely ignoring the tens of thousands of people dying prematurely every year from coal emissions.

      --
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    25. Re: Think outside the box by pixelpusher220 · · Score: 1

      Isn't that backwards though? We have recorded changes in a very short period; I.e. modern observations that have good accuracy. We have less accurate historical records that don't show anything close to the speed of modern observed change. Even if your dates are off by a few thousand years the fact that the staryt and end conditions don't show the modern change says it's faster now than it was even if the historical records are less precise.

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    26. Re:Think outside the box by GLMDesigns · · Score: 1

      I didn't say I did. I said there were things that made me suspicious and things that are total bullsh!t. The bullsh!t may come from ignorant reporters but these reporters are not being corrected by the researchers. Interesting you seem to have completely avoided commenting on the point that 150 years is an irrelevant blip in geologic time.

      Please comment on that. Re the CO2 you needn't go back to the Jurassic period to find much higher CO2 levels. My concern is the survival of our species - which requires the survival of our biosphere. I am very concerned about the amount of pollution we create, the rate of change of the salinity of the oceans, etc... We need to be far better stewards of our planet then we have been. A change in coast lines, whatever. Some inhabited islands and cities cease to exist. Whatever. It's a pain but there it is.

      Killing off species due to habitat encroachment is, in my opinion, far worse. Dumping dioxins, PCBs, myriad manufacturing wastes are, IMHO, far, far, far worse.

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    27. Re: Think outside the box by Tokolosh · · Score: 1

      Thanks for the lucid reply. I only wish that I could agree with your last sentence, and that your three adjectives were all accurate. Global warming has been studied to death, but these have not received enough attention.

      Playing devil's advocate here, who is to say that doing nothing is not the best alternative? Probably not, but there is not enough science to say for sure.

      There there are those that say that even if emissions are eliminated, that it is already to late. What then?

      --
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    28. Re: Think outside the box by Namarrgon · · Score: 1

      Got any magical ideas to fix things at no cost?

      Solar and wind produce power almost for free, but of course building them isn't. Changing our energy infrastructure to reduce harmful emissions will always have a price tag, but the benefits are enormous and widespread, and studies repeatedly show they easily outweigh the costs.

      Yet we're still dragging our heels, because people insist on ignoring the huge external damage from fossil fuels (hundreds of billions in health costs annually just from coal emissions in the US alone) while being terrified that their power bill might go up a few percent.

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    29. Re: Think outside the box by GLMDesigns · · Score: 1

      We can't because we don't know the variation within those years. What fluctuation happened? How many wild swings were there that we don't know of? We have averages of (say) 5000 years and we are comparing them with daily/yearly data points. The two do not even up.

      Take a look a stocks chart on a minute, by minute basis and then look at the same stock on a 14 day moving average and then on a 30 day moving average. Each time you go out the chart becomes flatter and the gyrations become less prominent. The same thing holds true with temperature and CO2 levels.

      Case in point - temperatures have risen and fallen over the last two million years (22 ice ages and the intervening global warming periods) without any human cause. CO2 levels have also risen and fallen.

      I'm not saying don't pay attention to the environment. I'm just saying that there is a lot of bullsh!t when Al Gore and reporters pick things up and ignore basic methodology (such as comparing temperatures from peak to peak to peak of a repeating wave as opposed to cherry picking troughs and peaks.

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    30. Re:Think outside the box by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

      150 years is a blip in geologic time, but it's a decent chunk of time for our civilization and represents most of the post-industrial era. So the fact that it's a blip by geologic standards is hardly relevant to the discussion of anthropogenic climate change and its effects on our civilization. It's certainly not too short a period in which to measure climate change.

      If you're only concerned with avoiding mankind's total extinction then I'll admit, you should perhaps not worry about climate change at all. The only effects of climate change that could even threaten total human extinction are ocean acidification and now perhaps ocean deoxygenation, and we'd likely suffer a population crash that would drastically cut CO2 release before causing an oceanic mass extinction. If you want to keep our civilization running about as well as it is right now though, you should be very worried about climate change. Changes in coast lines can cause massive property destruction, mass migrations, and unrest. Changing weather patterns can cause crop loss leading to famine, mass migrations, and unrest (see how the Syrian civil war started).

      The ocean can kill off species due to habitat encroachment. Whole coastal and island habitats radically changed. It can drive further human habitat encroachment due to those mass migrations from changing coast lines/rainfall patterns and flooded cities, and human habitat encroachment drives animal habitat encroachment.

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    31. Re:Think outside the box by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      In the long run there really is no practical alternative to reducing carbon emissions. The other option is to let things happen and see if we can successfully adapt.

    32. Re: Think outside the box by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

      I'd say there is plenty enough science to say that doing nothing is about the worst alternative for the environment, short of actively destructive options like switching the planet to 100% coal power (or possibly chopping up trees and burning them for power, but we're already doing that!). This is basic stuff as climate science goes.

      The best alternative for the environment would very clearly be to cease all CO2 release right this second and put all resources toward sequestering CO2 to bring it close to pre-industrial levels, but that's not remotely practical.

      The tricky part comes in balancing what's best for the environment with what's practical for our civilization. Doing nothing (let's say locking power sources at what they are today, because renewable power and electrics would naturally become the cheapest options in under a century otherwise) will certainly hasten the demise of civilization and cause many medium-term and long-term problems so that can't be the best, we can afford to do better. The cost of suffering through those problems will be far greater than whatever we can spend to avoid them in the short term, the only question is what we can afford to spend now and how deep into the diminishing returns we should go.

      The "too late" argument relates to milestones like +2C where certain consequences can't be avoided, it certainly doesn't mean that there's no point preventing warming over +2C. It still gets worse with more warming, it's a sliding scale that we've just put artificial markers on. There's no point where we "might as well give up 'cuz it's already broke."

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    33. Re: Think outside the box by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      Things with annual banding like ice cores and tree rings can be dated quite accurately, sometimes less than +/- 10 years but certainly better than +/- 100 years. If there were any wild swing in temperatures for a few decades it would certainly show up in those. They can already pinpoint years when a major volcanic eruption caused tree growth to be stunted or put down a layer of ash on an ice sheet.

      The cycle of glacial and interglacial periods in the current ice age appear to be largely driven by Milankovitch Cycles aided by feedbacks. The current rise in temperatures is way too fast for Milankovitch Cycles to be driving it. Just simple physics tells us that increasing the level of a greenhouse gas in the atmosphere will lead to warming. It's trivial to show the increase in CO2 is due to human emissions. Ice cores tell us the current CO2 level is way above any experienced in the last 800,000 years. So what do you think is driving the current warming spike?

    34. Re: Think outside the box by GLMDesigns · · Score: 1

      It's interesting that you're saying that records are accurate to 10-100 years. Is that true for ice cores from 500,000 years ago,. I understand that tree rings are accurate but that only goes back a few thousand years at most..

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    35. Re: Think outside the box by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      The trope that our environment is worse than it was a century ago, really needs to die. Sheesh.

      By any measurement you may care to make our environment is is worse shape now than it was a century ago, due in large part to the explosion in human population. Yes, there were a few places like Pittsburgh where it was pretty bad but they were mostly pretty local.exceptions.

    36. Re:Think outside the box by GLMDesigns · · Score: 1

      I don't attribute the Syrian civil war to global warming.. Was environmental degradation a part of the problem? Yes. But Turkey has been diverting river water for decades. Soviet style economies (Syria) are not very responsive to change or efficiencies. Desalination of the oceans, if they occur, would be a major upheaval. But would they be any worse than all 22 changes in the previous 2 million years? The only way to know that is to know if the rate of change over the last 100 yars (and next 100 years) is much (much) greater than it was earlier.

      I don't see answers to that.

      I saw people comparing the present to 1700 (a mini-ice age). That raised my bullshit meter. Then the present was compared to 1300 (oops that was the beginning of the medieval cold period; then Al Gore compared the top of the sine wave with a bottom. (Hello? Isn't this a High School mistake?)

      My point is based on this -- If I am making a point, and I'm sure of it, I don't need to bullshit, or massage my data. The data speaks for itself. So? Why the bullshit? Is it all, simply, reporter error? And if it's all reporter error why aren't these reporters being corrected?

      --
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      Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
    37. Re: Think outside the box by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      Tree rings can go back close to 10,000 years under the right conditions. Older trees may have died but not decomposed to any great degree if the conditions are right and if they overlap with other more recent data they can be correlated and used.

      As far as ice cores I found this article on ice core basics. Obviously as you go further back in time the the time scale gets a bit more muddled but it's not unusable. I found this reply from the author, Bethan Davies to a comment that pretty much supports my assertion:

      Bethan Davies on 05/01/2016 at 9:00 am said:

      In the upper parts of the ice core (last few hundred years), annual laminations in the ice allow us to derive annual CO2 and isotopic variations. As the ice is compressed deeper in the core, the annual layers are lost so several (not 1000s) of years may be amalgamated.

    38. Re: Think outside the box by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      There there are those that say that even if emissions are eliminated, that it is already to late. What then?

      It's never too late to make the end results less bad than they would otherwise be.

    39. Re: Think outside the box by silentcoder · · Score: 1

      >How do you know this?

      Because you can't cure a disease if you don't cure the cause. You could treat symptoms, but it won't be a cure. Thinking outside the box is all well and good - IF you have the understanding to know which of the infinite variety of ideas outside the box are sane and which are not. In this case - you are so ignorant you don't even know where the box IS.
      Carbon reduction is not "inside the box" - it's the cause of the disease, out-of-the-box thinking means coming up with ways of reducing carbon you have not actually considered before. There are LOTS of people doing that. Some of them are still crazy, some are workable but not really practical, some are good ideas and are developing well.
      If you want to argue that "outside the box" means "suggest ways to treat the symptoms while the disease rages on" then you're on a road that leads nowhere. Especially as we keep making the disease worse - which means even if you find a way to treat the symptoms you'll at best buy time - because the symptoms will keep coming back *worse*.

      --
      Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
    40. Re: Think outside the box by GLMDesigns · · Score: 1

      Thank you. I went there and read the article. :-)

      Howz that for a slashdotter?

      First ice cores go back to 800,000 years. That's a good span of time in but still a short period geologically speaking. (For instance it appears that the 22 ice ages we've had over the last 2 million years exist due to continental drift altering ocean and wind currents.)

      I'm not seeing (I am going through the links) any information on the frequency of the data points. Ideally we would be able to say that at 4:35 in the afternoon on May 4, -802,016 at latitude/longitude x/y the temperature was 72F. /smile :-)

      Obviously we don't need things to be that accurate to determine climate change.

      Interesting, if we look at the chart provided by the article we see that temperatures were higher at least 4 times over the last 450,000 years.

      http://cdn.antarcticglaciers.o...

      --
      If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
      Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
    41. Re:Think outside the box by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      In the long, long run, there isn't any choice about it. There's only so much coal and oil and natural gas in the crust, and at some point the energy cost of extracting coal will make it uneconomical. (Oil has other desirable properties, so it would be still worth extracting even at an energy deficit.)

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    42. Re:Think outside the box by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

      Ocean desalination? I assume you mean acidification or deoxygenation.

      Here's some info for acidification:

      http://www.eea.europa.eu/data-...

      The current pH is lower than the last 2 million years, and looking at the graph, the rate of change appears to be the fastest on record.

      I couldn't find any historical data for ocean oxygenation. There are records for temperature going back to 1880 that could be helpful in estimating oxygen exchange rates, but that's about it.

      Again, I can't do anything about the fact that there are people who think that climate change is real who are blowhards, know-nothings, and even bullshitters out to make a buck. If that fact turns you off, you REALLY won't like the denialists...

      Reporters who make elementary mistakes get corrected on science blogs instead of the mainstream sites where they posted the mistake. Reporters screwing up on science stories is hardly new or restricted to climate science.

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    43. Re:Think outside the box by GLMDesigns · · Score: 1

      I'll look at that. Thanks for the link.

      Re desalination - I hear a concern that the melting of the ice caps will add so much fresh water to the oceans that it will greatly lower the oceans salt levels causing all sorts of problems. It may be true. But wouldn't all the previous ice ages have removed fresh water (thus increasing the ocean salinity) and then these ice ages were followed by periods of global warming which would then decrease ocean salinity?

      All the events occurred naturally.

      --
      If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
      Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
    44. Re:Think outside the box by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

      That's right, melting ice caps can alter ocean salinity, which could alter ocean currents, leading to further climate changes:

      https://www.llnl.gov/news/atmo...

      Natural climate changes could affect salinity in the same way. It doesn't pose much of a risk to marine life compared to other effects of global warming.

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    45. Re: Think outside the box by pixelpusher220 · · Score: 1

      Then by all means show some data to back up your claims. Oh wait you can't.

      https://www.skepticalscience.c...

      --
      People in cars cause accidents....accidents in cars cause people :-D
    46. Re: Think outside the box by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      Interesting, if we look at the chart provided by the article we see that temperatures were higher at least 4 times over the last 450,000 years.

      I'd be a little careful about that statement. Ice core values don't continue right up to the present but stop at the point where the ice isn't consolidated enough yet to give good values. Depending on the nature of the snowfall in the region and probably other factors that's probably something like 50-100 years before the present. I doubt the chart shows temperature values after the early 20th Century.

      Chances are the Eemian interglacial 125,000 years ago was a bit warmer than now due to a slightly different configuration of Milankovitch Cycles compared to today but the other interglacials probably weren't warmer than today. At no time did the level of CO2 rise above 300 ppm during those times compared to over 400 ppm today.

  4. Re:Polar ice caps might all melt away too... by drpimp · · Score: 1

    Something is always happening, whether someone is predicting specifically what's happening is another story.

    --
    -- Brought to you by Carl's JR
  5. Some perspective here... by Hussman32 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    -The ocean is alkaline, which means that stronger base electrolytes (as compared to the weak carbonic acid) still dominate the charge balance.
    -This is an El Nino year, the higher surface temperature will release more oxygen from the ocean because gas solubility decreases with increasing temperature.
    -Most of the world's oxygen comes from the phytoplankton, and their population dynamics are remarkably challenging to model. However, if they are not dying en masse, then the oxygen production will remain about the same; some may be redistributed.
    -The sky indeed is remaining above us, and not falling.

    --
    "Who are you?" "No one of consequence." "I must know." "Get used to disappointment."
    1. Re:Some perspective here... by Brett+Buck · · Score: 1

      Expect more over-the-top hysterical claims in the months to come, as the window finally begins closing on this monstrous social scam.

    2. Re:Some perspective here... by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 1

      The sky is falling,

      Boy who cried wolf.

      We have lots of cautionary tales from our youth that nobody seems to listen to. Because OH MY GAWD WE ALL GONNA DIE! makes great headlines.

      --
      Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
    3. Re:Some perspective here... by Maritz · · Score: 1

      lol. Don't hold your breath on that closing window, mate.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    4. Re:Some perspective here... by rochrist · · Score: 1

      Yes, none of the scientists who make it their life's work to study issues such as this ever considered this possibility, SuperGenius.

    5. Re:Some perspective here... by cats-paw · · Score: 5, Insightful

      -The ocean is alkaline, which means that stronger base electrolytes (as compared to the weak carbonic acid) still dominate the charge balance.

      however the ocean is becoming more acidic, and that trend will continue. saying it's still basic is not reassuring in the least.

      -This is an El Nino year, the higher surface temperature will release more oxygen from the ocean because gas solubility decreases with increasing temperature.

      chances are good that El Nino year's will become more common, in part because the oceans' average temperatures will contiune to rise. so we can expect the ocean to continue to lose more oxygen.

      -Most of the world's oxygen comes from the phytoplankton [earthsky.org], and their population dynamics are remarkably challenging to model. However, if they are not dying en masse, then the oxygen production will remain about the same; some may be redistributed.

      what is en masse ? do you think we could detect a population drop of 5% or 10% ? is that en masse ? would it affect ocean oxygen levels ? yes, yes it would.

      -The sky indeed is remaining above us, and not falling.

      oh it absolutely is falling. slowly perhaps, maybe it will take 1 or 2 centuries. maybe a lot less.
      And your point is that I shouldn't listen to the warnings from scientists, because they're all hysterical, but i should listen you ?
      so we should do nothing until we're sure we're all going to die or something ?

      --
      Absolute statements are never true
    6. Re:Some perspective here... by cellocgw · · Score: 1

      The sky is falling,

      Boy who cried wolf.

      We have lots of cautionary tales from our youth that nobody seems to listen to. Because OH MY GAWD WE ALL GONNA DIE! makes great headlines.

      What point are you trying to make here? The sky was absolutely not falling. The boy ended up being eaten by wolves. Pick one or the other.

      --
      https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
    7. Re:Some perspective here... by Hussman32 · · Score: 1

      And your point is that I shouldn't listen to the warnings from scientists, because they're all hysterical, but i should listen you ?
      so we should do nothing until we're sure we're all going to die or something ?

      Your statement assumes I'm not a scientist. The funny thing is if you read the opinions of some very well-informed papers in climate science, as others have, you'll see the climate scientists still believe in the scientific method and there are many uncertainties that need continued exploration. Journalists, however, not so much.

      --
      "Who are you?" "No one of consequence." "I must know." "Get used to disappointment."
    8. Re:Some perspective here... by dywolf · · Score: 4, Informative

      odd that you missed the point even though you specifically stated it:water holds less dissolved oxygen as it gets warmer.
      the ocean is getting warmer. O2 content is measurably going down, even without the effects if El Nino. phytoplankton oxygen production is completely irrelevant to that discussion.

      and yes the ocean is currently alkaline, but that doesn't mean it's not acidifying. acidifying != acidic. to be acidic pH needs to be below 7, but to be acidifying it merely needs to be moving from a higher pH to a lower pH, which it is measurably doing.

      your post is meaningless deflection, and certainly not insightful.

      --
      The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
    9. Re:Some perspective here... by CaptainLard · · Score: 1

      This is an El Nino year, the higher surface temperature will release more oxygen from the ocean because gas solubility decreases with increasing temperature.

      So this is just a preview of what we can expect as global temperatures continue to rise. Got it

      -Most of the world's oxygen comes from the phytoplankton, and their population dynamics are remarkably challenging to model. However, if they are not dying en masse, then the oxygen production will remain about the same; some may be redistributed.

      Nice use of a tautology to brush off a potential catastrophe. Paraphrasing "If no major disaster is happening to plankton things are pretty much the same...otherwise we're fucked cause our biggest source of oxygen is gone"

      Your perspective is quite alarming!

    10. Re:Some perspective here... by Alomex · · Score: 1

      oh it absolutely is falling. slowly perhaps, maybe it will take 1 or 2 centuries. maybe a lot less.

      You got it exactly backwards. By 2100 world population will be falling rather rapidly, and the problem will mostly take care of itself. So in the long run we are ok. The real problem is what will happen between now and then.

    11. Re: Some perspective here... by erapert · · Score: 1

      You think you're the only one who can do some math?
      Show us your numbers.

    12. Re:Some perspective here... by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 1

      Repeating something over and over again, just causes undue panic. In the case of Sky is falling, (false report of something that did happen) caused undue panic. While nothing bad happened except to the chicken who was mistaken (AGW except Al Gore still makes a ton of money promoting it). In the case of the Boy who cried wolf, eventually everyone stops listening to them, and the worst possible outcome happens, a valid warning is ignored and disaster happens.

      You can pick the ending you want, from either of these two things. Dissolved Carbon Dioxide is good for Algae, and promotes growth (and O2 output) creating more Carbon based foods for animals up the food chain. My guess is the people claiming this is "Bad" don't understand the feedback loop protections in a complex system such as the whole ecosystem presents. They are ONLY looking at one point, and making wrong assumptions because it suits the narrative they want to promote. Chicken Little and Boy Who Cried Wolf are aspects of this story. The false conclusion (Chicken Little) and the repeated claims of danger (Boy Who Cried Wolf) are happening, regardless of how you feel about the subject. Meanwhile, I'll take the Greening of Africa as a good sign. ;)

      --
      Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
    13. Re: Some perspective here... by Namarrgon · · Score: 1

      The ocean is alkaline, but the pH has been dropping for decades. This is already causing an observable negative effect on shelled marine life, which is increasing.

      The sky hasn't fallen, but these concerns about oxygen levels are an additional risk on top of an increasingly dangerous situation for the marine food web.

      --
      Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
    14. Re:Some perspective here... by riverat1 · · Score: 2

      -Most of the world's oxygen comes from the phytoplankton [earthsky.org], and their population dynamics are remarkably challenging to model. However, if they are not dying en masse, then the oxygen production will remain about the same; some may be redistributed.

      A report published in 2010 says "Phytoplankton Population Drops 40 Percent Since 1950". I wonder how much that has to do with the drop in oxygen in the oceans.

  6. Soon? by Layzej · · Score: 1

    But only for very large values of 'soon'. TFA says we can expect the impact from climate change to overwhelm the natural variability by 2030 or 2040. This would make deoxygenation clearly attributable to climate change at that point. No date is given for when the ocean would become unlivable for marine life. (not that we should wait to find out).

    1. Re:Soon? by Layzej · · Score: 1

      at this point the theory of climate change is like...

      Physics. It's physics. Attention grabbing headlines don't help, but that has nothing to do with the science.

    2. Re:Soon? by Maritz · · Score: 1

      "theory of climate change". lol. Such a show off.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    3. Re:Soon? by Khashishi · · Score: 1

      On geological scales, 14 years isn't soon. 14 years is now.

    4. Re:Soon? by Layzej · · Score: 2

      On geological scales, 14 years isn't soon. 14 years is now.

      14 years for detection. No timeline for when this becomes a threat to marine life. The editor wanted an attention grabbing headline that is not supported by the paper or even the article.

  7. Counter Perspective (Sorta) by SenatorPerry · · Score: 2

    Abstract: "ABSTRACT: Cyanobacteria make significant contributions to global carbon and nitrogen cycling, particularly in the oligotrophic subtropical and tropical gyres. The present study examined short-term (days) physiological and acclimation responses of natural cyanobacterial populations to changes in pH/pCO2 spanning the last glacial minimum, ~8.4/~150 ppm, to projected year 2100 values of ~7.8/~800 ppm. Fe- and P-replete colonies of Trichodesmium increased N2-fixation rates (nmol N colony1 h1) at pH 7.8 by 54% (range 6 to 156%) over ambient pH/pCO2 conditions, while N2-fixation at pH/pCO2 8.4 was 21% (range 6 to 65%) lower than at ambient pH/pCO2; a similar pattern was observed when the rates were normalized to colony C. C-fixation rates were on average 13% (range 72 to 112%) greater at low pH than at ambient pH and 37% (53 to 23%) greater than at high pH. Whole community assemblages dominated by Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus (47 to 95% of autotrophic biomass), whether nutrient-replete or P-limited, did not show a clear response of C-fixation rates to changes in pH/pCO2. Comparison of initial and final C-fixation responses across pH/pCO2 treatments suggests rapid acclimation of cellular physiology to new pH/pCO2 conditions. Changes in cell size and pigment content for Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus were minor and did not vary in a consistent manner with changes in pH/pCO2. These results for natural populations of all 3 cyanobacteria concur with previous research and suggest that one important response to changes in ocean pH and pCO2 might be an increase in N2 and C fixation by Trichodesmium under nutrient-replete conditions. The response of single-cell cyanobacteria to changes in pH/pCO2 will likely be indirect and controlled by the response to other variables, such as nutrients."

    Source: http://www.int-res.com/article...

  8. The oceans are DYING!!!!! by Thud457 · · Score: 1

    Soylent Oceanographic Survey Report, 2015 to 2019

    Right on schedule, bitches.


    Your grandchildren are going to think I'm lying when I tell them I used to eat bananas.

    --

    the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

  9. No more snow in UK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Wut? Written in the year 2000, global warmists claimed that snowfall is history in Britain:

    Idiots.

    1. Re:No more snow in UK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      And in 1972 it was predicted that there would be .6 degrees of warming by the year 2000. That proved to be extremely accurate.

      In 1896 Arrhenius predicted that a doubling of carbonic acid in the atmosphere would produce global warming and stratospheric cooling, and that the effects would be most pronounced at the poles. His work was based off of Tyndall's experiments with the absorption of IR by various gases. His prediction of the exact climate sensitivity is on the high side of current estimates, but the theory overall has been shown to be accurate.

      It's like you people think that you don't need any sort of empirical evidence to do science. Some people make bad predictions; predicting the future is known to be difficult. The laws of physics do not allow for AGW to be false; increased atmospheric carbon dioxide will raise the equilibrium temperature of Earth. How much it is raised and how quickly are matters of debate and study, but we can establish a firm lower bound for the temperature rise, and in the last few decades we have got a pretty good baseline on how quickly things are changing. Science doesn't allow us to have arbitrarily precise predictions; you're always going to be able to cherry-pick bad ones. However, in order to disprove something, it is not sufficient to show that it is inaccurate, because again, all of science is inaccurate. Empirical error is inherent to measurement. In order to disprove something, you need contradictory evidence. You don't need to talk about Al Gore. You don't need to blame Obama. You just need one single fact.

  10. Re:Cue the Tired Old White Men... by DesertNomad · · Score: 1

    As a tired old white man here in Arizona, I look forward to having beachfront property to sell to displaced coastal Californians. Profit!

  11. Re:Polar ice caps might all melt away too... by prefec2 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The polar caps are melting. They are melting even faster than anticipated. However, if you do not trust scientists you can just measure the CO2 levels of your ocean next to you. It is not really difficult. You can google how to build a proper probe. Beside that you could trust the scientists, as they would all keep their jobs in case of no global warming, because we would still want to know how the atmosphere works, how the see works etc.

  12. Re:Polar ice caps melting faster than expected by Layzej · · Score: 4, Informative

    They were wrong about the ice caps melting,

    The arctic ice cap is melting much faster than predicted: http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicen...

  13. The oceans died eighteen years ago by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    As predicted by Ted Danson. But it doesn't matter now because the rest of the planet was destroyed earlier this year, just as Al Gore predicted.

  14. Doom and Gloom by BitZtream · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Before we talk about how we're going to destroy 'biodiversity' can we remember that iron ... pulling oxygen OUT of the oceans is theorized to be one of the events for the way life evolved on this planet?

    You gotta stop with the doom and gloom crap, we already know the path between the beginning of time and this point in time had points that were FAR fucking worse than ANY prediction about global warming ... and yet ... here we are.

    Now I'm certainly not saying that humans will do well or survive the changes to come, we most certainly won't survive forever, thats just one of the more depressing facts about the universe as we know it.

    But the 'threat' of 'climate change' doesn't sound nearly as big bad ass scary when you look around and say 'no ... this isn't really anything new, we just haven't actually been here for the previous times its been like this'

    Human civilization 10,000 years old
    Earth: 4,500,000,000 years old

    Get some perspective.

    If you want people to listen, you're story has to be one that isn't obviously an attention grab. You can make the attention grab, you just gotta be a little more subtle about it.

    If you were working on Wall Street, the same version of your story would be 'Amazon from running the smaller businesses and competition out of the market .. we'll have another great depression!!@#~!@$~!$@~'

    And people respond with 'yea, okay, well thats not really that big of a deal and we've been there done that, we'll enjoy the benefits until then and deal with the bad parts at that point, and then we'll move on and life will be good again'.

    Do you understand the problem with your delivery now maybe?

    --
    Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
    1. Re:Doom and Gloom by dywolf · · Score: 2

      just like the way to make racism go away is to pretend it doesn't exist and never talk about it?
      Yeah...no...that's foolish and ignorant.

      --
      The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
    2. Re:Doom and Gloom by galenanorth · · Score: 1

      Why is this modded +5 insightful while the anonymous coward was modded down? Anyone who knows the slightest bit what they were talking about would know that iron STOPPING pulling the oxygen out of the oceans was one of the events for the way life evolved on the planet. There are these rocks called Banded Iron Formations, made from a mineral siderite (FeCO3) which can only form in the absence of oxygen, and hematite (Fe2O3), covering wide swathes of areas like the American Midwest and western Australia.

      The reason they're banded is because the iron exposed to the ocean water would use up all the oxygen in the sea as it was converted, and then after a while enough oxygen would reach the area again from oxygen-producing microbes for it to precipitate. This didn't progress at the same rate worldwide; areas with lower circulation would have been the last to have any free iron to convert.

      In contrast, due to increased dissolved CO2, nutrient runoff, and rising average ocean temperatures, algae blooms are increasing, leading to increased occurrence of deoxygenated zones. Due to the increased abundance of algae, things have been happening like a population explosion of algae-feeding sea urchins, and then a huge crash as they became crowded enough to be more prone to disease. In addition to coral bleaching from the temperature itself, the algae smothers coral reefs.

      Aside from their importance in the food web, coral reefs are an important for maintaining the state of the environment itself: you have powerful waves smashing up against the coral, and mixing of ocean water increases the dissolved oxygen. In areas serving as bellwethers, areas where coral reefs were healthy but had a history to suggest some other factors could disrupt them (i.e. increase in sediment blocking out light), coral reefs are reverting to the more primitive algal state and becoming devoid of much other sea life.

      "You gotta stop with the doom and gloom crap, we already know the path between the beginning of time and this point in time had points that were FAR fucking worse than ANY prediction about global warming ... and yet ... here we are."

      "But the 'threat' of 'climate change' doesn't sound nearly as big bad ass scary when you look around and say 'no ... this isn't really anything new, we just haven't actually been here for the previous times its been like this'"

      such as the Permian extinction. It involved outgassing of CO2 with flood basalts from the Siberian Traps, +10C change and massive drops in dissolved oxygen, which wiped out some 99% of marine species. We don't know how quickly that happened because the accuracy on dating that far back is +/- 10,000 years. Certainly there have been times with higher CO2, but it has never been rising this quickly: http://news.nationalgeographic...

      So, your post has highlighted that yes, it isn't anything new, because there are obvious comparisons with major extinction events and our understanding of the development of complex life, running backward.

      "If you were working on Wall Street, the same version of your story would be 'Amazon from running the smaller businesses and competition out of the market .. we'll have another great depression!!@#~!@$~!$@~'"

      To suggest that the viewpoint of a climatologist and a Wall Street executive are just morally relative because climatologists want to keep their jobs is to speak against the value of scientific expertise altogether. Climatologists are concerned with facts, not delivery. People here like to speak about celebrities that have spoken out against global warming, but that doesn't make it true any more than if I trolled here by accusing people here advocating evolution of believing it just because Bill Nye does.

      My perspective is that I'm glad I only got a bachelor's in geology, because it means there's still time to go into something else and actually make money instead of making less wanting to help the world and being accused of lying for it.

    3. Re:Doom and Gloom by hey! · · Score: 1

      Actually you have the perspective exactly backward. Yes it's true that on geological time scales the kind of climate change we're talking about is minor. However none of us live on geological time scales; and as you point out human civilization hasn't even existed on geological time scales.

      It's the increase in suffering and impoverishment of people already born that's the problem, not whatever is inhabiting the Earth millions of years from now.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    4. Re:Doom and Gloom by Cyberax · · Score: 1

      Before we talk about how we're going to destroy 'biodiversity' can we remember that iron ... pulling oxygen OUT of the oceans is theorized to be one of the events for the way life evolved on this planet?

      Yeah, that was during the period when the most advanced organisms were bacteria that have just invented photosynthesis. We totally want to go back to that period!

    5. Re:Doom and Gloom by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      I really don't think we, as a species, will be destroyed by climate change. I don't think it will even be the end of civilization. Humans are very resourceful, after all, and we can deal with die-offs in the hundreds of millions and costs of several trillion dollars a year.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  15. Re:Polar ice caps might all melt away too... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    No they weren't. The caps are melting.

    The problem is that the insane Conservatives took all of our chances on nothing happening, because they're conspiracy nuts who are so superstitious that they think a sky-fairy is protecting them. It wasn't their environment to take a chance on, it was all of ours.

  16. Crazed alarmism DOESN'T HELP! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This over-the-top alarmism over climate change doesn't help - because credibility is permanently lost when the crazed predictions fail to come true.

    The average temperature of the Earth in geological terms has been about 25C, or a helluva lot warmer than now - and life did fine.

    1. Re:Crazed alarmism DOESN'T HELP! by galenanorth · · Score: 1

      The rate is also a factor; extinction results from the failure of a species to adapt quickly enough to its environment. Notice that the narrowest trough coincides with the second major extinction event.

  17. Re:Polar ice caps might all melt away too... by oh_my_080980980 · · Score: 2

    Actually they're not. You might want to look up dead zones sometime.

  18. Re: Survival of the fittest by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I'm with this guy. They were going to die anyway. So are we. So in the end it really doesn't matter.

    Oh...future generations? Let's ask them. That's what I thought... You don't hear the unborn bitching about it either.

  19. Fixed this already by Virtucon · · Score: 3, Informative

    Get Billy Mays to use his stuff, it'll fix it. You may also get your clothes cleaned at the same time.

    --
    Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
  20. That doesn't make sense by Solandri · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Our current CO2 concentrations are about the lowest they've been in Earth's history. Granted, industrialization has increased it from a low of about 180 ppm to over 400 ppm in an alarmingly short span of time. But over the last few hundred million years, it's averaged a couple thousand ppm, with an estimated high around 7000 ppm. Temperatures are also currently some of the coldest they've ever been (we are just coming off an ice age after all). Throughout much of Earth's history, it's been about 6-8 C hotter than our current climate.

    If CO2 levels a little higher than the current 400 ppm and elevated temperatures were enough to wipe out higher forms of marine life, we would've seen it in the fossil record. Unless they're hypothesizing that it's the rapidness of the current change which causes the problem, not the high CO2 concentrations and higher temperatures themselves. (This doesn't diminish the danger of global warming, since sea levels were also much higher during those times. High enough to be catastrophic to our current civilization. But a hypothesis that rising temperatures alone will wipe out marine life is an extraordinary claim.)

    1. Re:That doesn't make sense by sittingnut · · Score: 1

      unfortunately you will voted down here for being factual and rational.

      alarmists want only irrational fear-mongering fantasy. oh /.!

    2. Re:That doesn't make sense by dywolf · · Score: 2

      not so extraordinary once you consider that water holds less dissolved oxygen the warmer it gets.
      there are multiple die offs in the fossil record of marine life likely tied to oxygen depletion of the oceans.

      why do folks always ignore that the life that exists now is not the same as the life that existed then?
      with several hundred million years in between life adapts for -current- conditions.
      and when those conditions change, they die and get replaced by life adapted for the changed conditions.

      the assumption that because its colder now, or Co2 is lower now, that current life wont go extinct or be threatened by an increase in temperature is simply not valid. the whole of your point is essentially a variation on the "it was warmer before" argument.

      --
      The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
    3. Re:That doesn't make sense by Bartles · · Score: 1

      Doesn't the vast majority of sea life utilize photosysthesis? Give them more CO2, warmer temperatures, and more sunlight, and they should produce more O2.

    4. Re:That doesn't make sense by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      Granted, industrialization has increased it from a low of about 180 ppm to over 400 ppm in an alarmingly short span of time.

      No, industrialization has increased CO concentrations from 280 ppm to over 400 ppm. The rise from 180 ppm to 280 ppm was a result of feedbacks from the warming caused by Milankovitch Cycles.

  21. The use of "could" invalidates the entire post by mi · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Oceans Could Soon Not Have Enough Oxygen To Support Marine Life

    The use of "could" makes the entire statement unfalsifiable and therefor non-scientific. We get these in popular press — /. included — about weekly.

    For several decades now such doom-sayers have been predicting disasters "soon" without a single one of them getting anywhere close. When the predicted time passes and anyone still has the attention span to ask: "Hey, was that wrong?" — the answer, if any, is: "We never said, it will happen, only that it could."

    Basing public policy on these "predictions" is completely bogus. Geico's "promise" of "15 minutes could save you 15%" is as reliable — and more fun too.

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
    1. Re:The use of "could" invalidates the entire post by Khashishi · · Score: 1

      No amount of evidence will convince people who have already made up their minds. Do you disagree? What level of evidence would cause you to change your mind?

    2. Re:The use of "could" invalidates the entire post by onemorechip · · Score: 1

      Thanks for the link! It's very informative with this definition: "A scientific statement is one that could possibly be proven wrong."

      Oh, wait! Use of "could" makes the entire statement unfalsifiable and therefor [sic] non-scientific. D'oh!

      I think the "could" in the headline indicates a situation that is potentially avoidable (whether through intervention or through chance). It could be falsified under this scenario: That future circumstances match those of the model making the prediction, but the prediction fails to materialize.

      --
      But, I wanted socialized health insurance!
    3. Re:The use of "could" invalidates the entire post by riverat1 · · Score: 3, Informative

      mi is still arguing like a lawyer. A year or so ago I gave him a link to an article that compared temperature and sea level rise to model projections and showed the models were mostly right on temperature and lagging on sea level rise. Here's a different one that does the same comparison of observations in 2007 to the projections from the IPCC 2001 (AR3) report which started its projections in 1990. But instead of taking in the information mi will reject it because it's not in his cherished format. If mi had any gumption he'd look up the projections from the AR3 report and the observations from 2007 to have his cherished 2 sources and see if what the paper said is true. Instead he's unwilling to meet anyone halfway and wants it all handed to him on a silver platter. Like I said, he argues like a lawyer.

    4. Re:The use of "could" invalidates the entire post by mi · · Score: 1

      mi is still arguing like a lawyer.

      And riverat1 still can not satisfy the very simple rules of the challenge. Sad...

      --
      In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
  22. Re:Polar ice caps might all melt away too... by Maritz · · Score: 1

    I get the feeling you'd be saying that if you were treading water.

    --
    I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
  23. No. Might in 2030 have detectable decrease by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Look at the paper. It doesn't say that oxygen is decreasing to dangerous levels. It says that computers think that by 2030 it might be possible to measure a certain decrease in oxygen in certain places. The change is too small to measure at present, if that change is happening.

    1. Re:No. Might in 2030 have detectable decrease by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      Oh. *puts down his pitchfork*

  24. Re:Polar ice caps melting faster than expected by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Al Gore's prediction was the ice would be gone in 2014. That doesn't square with "much faster."

    Isn't it about time to throw Al Gore and his movie under the bus on behalf of ..... umm ..... less easily refuted alarmism?

  25. Re:Polar ice caps might all melt away too... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Yes, you're right, the deniers were wrong about the ice caps not melting. They are melting. We're making the a mess out of our planet and you'll take your chances on just moving forward down the same path and think nothing will happen.

    Please get educated and hopefully a little tiny bit of intelligence. Maybe then you'll actually open your eyes and ears and look and listen instead of burying your head in the sand.

  26. I'm having a hard time keeping track by dasgoober · · Score: 1

    Can we just get a hierarchical list of what's wrong with the oceans. in priority order?

      "as water heats up, it expands, becoming lighter than the water below it and less likely to sink"
    How is this an issue? Heat dissipates through water quickly.

    1. Re:I'm having a hard time keeping track by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Can we just get a hierarchical list of what's wrong with the oceans. in priority order?

      1. Fertilizers being dumped into the oceans are creating too much plant life, which is further exacerbated by ocean acidification, making the waters a much less hostile place for plant life to thrive
      2. The lack of plant life in the ocean means not enough oxygen for the fish and too few nutrients to sustain the enormous macro-ecosystem
      3. Overfishing means there's not enough fish to breathe all the oxygen or eat all the scarce nutrients
      4. Invisible, plastic continents swarming the ocean means that we will stop catching and eating fish because their bellies will be full of plastic
      5. The Arctic Ice that thawed out every year for the last 5 years, if it thaws out this year, will certainly raise the ocean levels several feet to wipe out coastal bastions of science and reason -- the people so super smart, they built and inhabited million dollar homes and communities at sea level.
      6. Cities that were built in swamps and mud have issues with rising water levels, suggesting there's a problem in Antarctica. Something something Emperor Penguins.

    2. Re:I'm having a hard time keeping track by CanadianMacFan · · Score: 1

      There are a number of cycles in the oceans, like the Gulf stream, which are essential for providing nutrients to the oceans. The warm waters travel along the coasts to the poles where they quickly cool down and sink travelling back down along the coast towards the equator. The water picks up nutrients along the way and at some point the stream will come across an island or other barrier and rise to the surface completing the cycle. However if the surface water is too warm then it won't cool down fast enough to sink in time and the cycle will break. Then the nutrients that are brought to the surface are left below. The same thing happens if the poles warm up too much.

    3. Re:I'm having a hard time keeping track by dywolf · · Score: 1

      Not really, no. you're thinking of the ocean as a homogenous mixture of water. It's not.

      Depth, pressure, salinity, dissolved O2 content, dissolved CO2 content, mineral content....many factors go into it, but the short of it is: it's not a homogenous mixture. its heterogeneous.

      or stated better, on the small, local scale, its homogenous.
      but globally, its heterogeneous.
      it is very stratified, and different strata of the water have different behaviors.

      the one we're most considered here with is the oxygen content: warmer water holds less of it.
      mixing helps regulate temperature (it contributes to the dissipating heat quickly that you presumed upon), which helps to average out oxygen content.
      if the water becomes more stratified, because mixing is reduced or slowed down, so does oxygen content. considering that life is more concentrated, more numerous, in the warmer depths of the water, the problem of that strata of water losing oxygen content should be readily apparent.

      oxygen content and water temperature are two limiting factors on life in the ocean. reducing either reduces the activity level (or metabolic potential) of life. right now life in the upper reaches is in a happy place, where both are fairly maximized. that layer though would shrink under the scenario posited by the article. sure, there'd still be the animals that exploit niches, like deep diving whales protected from the cold by thick thick blubber, or super slow metabolism Greenland sharks in the deep arctic ocean, but these are the outliers who figured out ways to bend the rules and get out of the box that holds 95% of the other critters.

      --
      The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
  27. Looking forward to another deadline by Tighe_L · · Score: 1, Troll

    Let's just see when this happens, Just like Al Gore's prediction.. http://dailycaller.com/2016/01...

  28. HGTTG by number6x · · Score: 4, Funny

    I just got this package delivered fedex...

    It's a kind of vase thingy with the words 'So long, and thanks for all the fish.' etched into it.

    Really pretty, but I think it means that the dolphins are going to be OK.

  29. Re:Polar ice caps might all melt away too... by Salgak1 · · Score: 1

    It was an OK book. Stephen King has written better. . .

  30. Re:Polar ice caps melting faster than expected by L.+J.+Beauregard · · Score: 4, Funny

    Al Gore

    DRINK!

    --
    Ooh, moderator points! Five more idjits go to Minus One Hell!
    Delendae sunt RIAA, MPAA et Windoze
  31. Re:Cue the Tired Old White Men... by CajunArson · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How to tell if your post is racist: Replace the politically correct racial target with a politically incorrect one making the exact same statement and wait for SJWs to attack.

    Racist much?

    --
    AntiFA: An abbreviation for Anti First Amendment.
  32. Re:Polar ice caps melting faster than expected by hrvatska · · Score: 1

    Al Gore's prediction was the ice would be gone in 2014. That doesn't square with "much faster."

    Isn't it about time to throw Al Gore and his movie under the bus on behalf of ..... umm ..... less easily refuted alarmism?

    Where did Al Gore predict that polar ice would be gone in 2014? In 'An Inconvenient Truth' he says that there were two major studies showing that the arctic ocean, which he refers to as the polar ice cap, would be ice free in the summer in 50 to 70 years. Using Google I could not find anything where Gore was predicting that the polar ice caps would be gone by 2014.

  33. Re:Polar ice caps might all melt away too... by Khashishi · · Score: 1

    The sad thing is I can't figure out if ThatBeDank is being sarcastic.

  34. Or giant solar powered paddelrs by future+assassin · · Score: 1

    like greenhouses use to break the surface tension and aerate the reservoirs.

    --
    by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
  35. Most of the Oxygen You Breath Comes From the Ocean by catchblue22 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Simple fact: Most of the oxygen you breath comes from the ocean.

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

    When this starts, we will really see fish die off around the equator first. Hopefully, when that happens, China will realize how bad this really is and stop building new coal plants and then shut down what they have. In addition, this might make the far left finally realize that China is a huge emitter and needs to stop NOW. Sadly, the far left is as anti-science as the far right.

    --
    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    1. Re: Equator first by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      Bull shit. China has burned more coal than Europe and America combined. And it does no good for the West to stop if China continues to grow it esp at the rate that they do.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  37. Where is it going? by Bengie · · Score: 1

    Side question. The Oxygen has to go somewhere. The atmosphere? Chemical reactions?

    1. Re: Where is it going? by silentcoder · · Score: 1

      Quite a lot are being turned into CO2. Remember every tonne of carbon burned removes 2 tonnes of oxygen from the atmosphere and adds 3 tonnes of CO2.

      --
      Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
    2. Re: Where is it going? by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 1

      Remember every tonne of carbon burned removes 2 tonnes of oxygen from the atmosphere and adds 3 tonnes of CO2.

      Every ton of carbon burned removes ~2.67 tons of oxygen from the atmosphere and adds ~3.67 tone of CO2. Assuming ideal conditions and all that (no imperfect burning, no particulate ash, that sort of thing), of course.

      Wherever did you get the bizarre notion that a carbon atom and an oxygen atom were the same size?

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    3. Re: Where is it going? by silentcoder · · Score: 1

      I was simplifying for the sake of internet discussion. I'm well aware that the atoms are not the same weight, that burning is not perfect and thus that those numbers are not entirely accurate. That's one reason I worked in tons - I upped the scale to reduce the impact of the rounding.

      Fermi calculations may not be how you do science, but they ARE useful for understanding a problem space, which is literally all I was attempting to achieve.

      --
      Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
  38. Re:Polar ice caps might all melt away too... by dywolf · · Score: 1

    its literally already happening.
    the ice caps -ARE- melting.
    ocean oxygen levels ARE dropping.
    ocean pH IS rising.

    --
    The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
  39. Re:Polar ice caps melting faster than expected by zerosomething · · Score: 1

    http://content.usatoday.com/co... Then he backpedalled and said "Mostly ice free"

    --
    It all starts at 0
  40. Stupid To Seek Proofs by JimSadler · · Score: 1, Informative

    Climate deniers are using the same tactics as the tobacco industry. The tobacco industry can still claim that tobacco does not cause cancer as many lifetime smokers never get cancer. So they can easily use the false logic that if tobacco causes cancer then all smokers would get cancer. Yes, stopping the ruin of our planet and keeping people alive will be somewhat painful and it will tend to smack us all in the wallet. But how many have considered what kind of living hell will fall upon them if we do not fight tooth and nail to restore our environment. And the first, and most vital step is to limit human reproduction. Pollution is a consequence of human activity. The simple truth is that lower population reduces human activities. With smaller populations we need less industry, less agriculture, less mining, less transportation and less of just about everything. And of all things, advanced technology requires a lot less human workers as well as far fewer people in our military. Yet we are so locked into our political foolishness that no politician dares even mentioning mandatory birth controls.

    1. Re: Stupid To Seek Proofs by mbeckman · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Climate change alarmists are always using false analogies to dismiss the questions of climate change skeptics. There is actually zero relationship between the questions posed by climate skeptics and the tobacco industry. And see how easily you slide into another long-belabored alarmism: population overgrowth. The whole "populution" cry has been soundly debunked ever since Stanford University Professor Paul R. Ehrlich and his wife, Anne predicted mass starvation of humans in the 1970s and 1980s. While famine exists, its root cause has been political instability, not global food shortage. Nations with democracy and a free press have virtually never suffered from extended famines. Which is why the alarmists switched their sirens to climate change: how better to sap the productivity of free people than to tax their self-generated wealth through baseless fear mongering?

  41. Re:Polar ice caps melting faster than expected by erapert · · Score: 1

    But Gore was making it sound as though he was just parroting what "real climate scientists" told him.
    So if Gore was wrong then that means that what the "real climate scientists" told him was wrong.
    Also, what you're saying smacks of no-true-scotsman.

  42. Oh, it's just a simulation by mbeckman · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Secure from battle stations, environmental joiners. Nobody has actually _measured_ a depletion trend for O2 in the Earth's oceans. It's all based on dodgy climate simulations:

    To cut through this natural variability and investigate the impact of climate change, the research team—including Curtis Deutsch of the University of Washington and Taka Ito of Georgia Tech—relied on the NCAR-based Community Earth System Model, which is funded by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy...Using the simulations to study dissolved oxygen gave the researchers guidance on how much concentrations may have varied naturally in the past. With this information, they could determine when ocean deoxygenation due to climate change is likely to become more severe than at any point in the modeled historic range.

    Note to readers of research papers: phrases such as "relied on", "gave the researchers guidance", and "is likely to become" are all code words for "we don't have any real data."

    Let us know when you do. Otherwise, file this report in the fiction section.

  43. Garbag by Alomex · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Climate change is real, and something needs to be done about it, but this chicken little "the sky is falling" articles hurt rather than help the cause. They give specific worst case targets that are unlikely to be true just to get a headline. These can then be used by climate deniers to minimize the real impacts of climate change.

  44. Let's fix this problem now with nuclear fission by blindseer · · Score: 1

    I find it odd that there is a group of people that will both say how continued burning of fossil fuels is destroying the environment while at the same time saying it will only be X number of years until solar power, nuclear fusion, or whatever will become cheap and plentiful enough to save us.

    Either global warming is an imminent threat or it is not. If it is then we need to act now by using what technology we have now that can both reduce carbon output and compete with the price and availability of coal. That technology is nuclear fission.

    If some new technology is coming along in time to save us from ourselves then global warming is not a real threat. We can just wait for this new technology to come along. But then technological advancement is not assured, we must have people doing research and these people will need to get paid for their work.

    Here is the problem, at least in the USA, any research in nuclear power must get approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Committee. This approval usually comes with funding from its parent agency the Department of Energy but that does not have to be. The federal government does not need to spend money on projects like the Polywell Fusor, they just need to allow private entities to fund and perform the research. Since such fusion research competes with the DOE pet projects like the Tokamak the people that want to do this research must be creative in how they get finds and licensing. This usually takes the form of working under the rules of the Department of Defense which has the authority to license nuclear power research so long as it has a military application, they cannot fund pure research on nuclear physics like the DOE.

    We have the means to solve this problem but the biggest obstacle to solving it is the government agency mandated to solve our energy problems. Calling it the Department of Energy is a misnomer because there is little evidence that they have been advancing the nation's ability to reach energy independence.

    One solution I see to this problem is that the states in the USA should assert their authority to license nuclear reactors for research and power on their own. The federal government only has the authority to act where the states allow. The states made the federal government so they can modify the terms under which it operates as they wish. Since the DOE is failing to live up to its mandate then perhaps some states could encourage this research within their own borders.

    Given that few within the catastrophic man made global warming group are not scared enough of global warming to overcome their fear of nuclear fission power plants then I can only conclude that there is very little to fear from global warming. They cannot say we must do anything and everything to avert global warming but when nuclear fission is brought up they say we can't do that. If nuclear power is a greater threat to humanity than global warming then global warming is nothing to fear.

    --
    I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
    1. Re:Let's fix this problem now with nuclear fission by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      I don't find it odd at all. Burning sequestered carbon is having some very bad effects, which will become even more evident over time. We're past the point where we can avoid catastrophe, but we can still to some extent control how catastrophic. Moving to non-fossil-fuel power ASAP will reduce much of the effect. We're still screwed, but not as screwed as if we keep burning coal until we run out of economically recoverable deposits (and that's not just deposits we know of that are economically recoverable with current technology).

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  45. You're Still Short on Facts by Tenebrousedge · · Score: 1

    So have you decided what part of AGW you don't like? Besides its reporting in the popular press. Is it that CO2 doesn't absorb heat? That it doesn't build up in the atmosphere? Do you know of more than one way to transfer heat to space? You were very evasive in our last discussion.

    Also, the only one currently talking about public policy appears to be you. I understand you have a rabid aversion to being told what to do, but that does not invalidate basic physics.

    --
    Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
    1. Re:You're Still Short on Facts by mi · · Score: 1

      Please, include your citations in a follow-up under this post. Put up or shut up. Thank you!

      --
      In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
    2. Re:You're Still Short on Facts by Tenebrousedge · · Score: 1

      I gave lots of citations in our last discussion. I don't know how you imagine that you retain any sort of moral advantage by simply not reading them.

      However, that's not what I asked about. If you refuse to identify any part of the theory of AGW that you think is false, we can only conclude that you do actually think the theory is valid.

      I'll waste a few keystrokes reiterating that Sawyer (1972) predicted .6 degrees of warming by the year 2000, which turned out to be exactly correct. I don't lean on that as incontrovertible proof, however. Calculations of global temperature aren't really evidence for or against the underlying theory. So if you will be so good as to highlight where the theory is wrong, I would be more than happy to provide you with the appropriate citation.

      --
      Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
    3. Re:You're Still Short on Facts by Tenebrousedge · · Score: 1

      You gave precisely zero citations.

      Why lie?

      Why continue to avoid talking about the theory?

      --
      Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
  46. Re:Polar ice caps melting faster than expected by Foobar+of+Borg · · Score: 1

    Also, what you're saying smacks of no-true-scotsman.

    Um, Al Gore is not a climate scientist. This is not some sort of "No True Scotsman" fallacy. You're claiming someone is a Scotsman, we're pointing out he's actually Japanese, and you're crying "Ha! No True Scotsman fallacy!"

  47. Re:Polar ice caps melting faster than expected by thegarbz · · Score: 1

    Al Gore's prediction

    Oh? Which peer reviewed paper did he write again?

  48. Re:Cue the Tired Old White Men... by Charcharodon · · Score: 1

    Lol you won't have beach front property, that will be up in Ohio. Arizona just like most of the Midwest and the South West will be back where it belongs, under water. I am so looking forward to doing a wreck dive on the Arch.

  49. Re:Most of the Oxygen You Breath Comes From the Oc by Bartles · · Score: 1

    Doesn't most of the life in the ocean consume CO2 and secrete O2 as a waste product?

  50. Re:Cue the Tired Old White Men... by liquid_schwartz · · Score: 1

    I *so* wish I had mod points for you. You deserve a +11

  51. Global Warming is what God wants by ryanmc1 · · Score: 1
  52. Re: Polar ice caps melting faster than expected by Namarrgon · · Score: 1

    "Some of the models suggest that there is a 75 percent chance that the entire north polar ice cap during some of the summer months will be completely [nearly] ice-free within the next five to seven years"

    Based on work from the US Naval Postgraduate School. Not quite an iron-clad guarantee, and certainly no reason to throw out all the other science. NOAA's own work suggests 30 years is a possibility, others say by the end of the century.

    --
    Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
  53. Re: Polar ice caps might all melt away too... by Namarrgon · · Score: 1

    Following to the source:

    A new NASA study says that an increase in Antarctic snow accumulation that began 10,000 years ago is currently adding enough ice to the continent to outweigh the increased losses from its thinning glaciers.

    They go on to say this gain dropped 30% over the last few years to 83 billion tonnes, and is slowing further.

    However, a number of other studies have found that the Antarctic's ice losses slightly outweighed its gains. And Greenland alone is averaging a loss of 238 gigatonnes annually, far exceeding any gains that might be found in the Antarctic.

    --
    Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
  54. Re:Polar ice caps melting faster than expected by HiThere · · Score: 1

    Well, that's one way of being wrong.

    --

    I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
  55. Re:Polar ice caps melting faster than expected by delt0r · · Score: 1

    And how many peer reviewed papers on global warming have you read?

    --
    If information wants to be free, why does my internet connection cost so much?
  56. What if this is wrong? by Karmashock · · Score: 1

    A lot of this doomsaying turns out to be bullshit... the frequency of it is high enough that you'd think the credibility of the people making these predictions would be impaired... but in some circles it just doesn't seem to matter.

    Any prediction made... no matter how debunked... has no impact on their status.

    And to make things more annoying... that same status is used to support future predictions in the manner of "do you know who I am!?"... never mind that you do know who they are and you know they've made a lot of bogus predictions.

    Whatever...

    --
    I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
  57. Re:Polar ice caps melting faster than expected by thegarbz · · Score: 1

    None, but then a lot of the materials I read are summaries from peer reviewed papers, and aren't a trailer for a movie by some one who lost a presidential race.

  58. Re:Polar ice caps melting faster than expected by delt0r · · Score: 1
    And you really think those summaries are more accurate than a movie trailer. That's so cute. Reminds me of a good quote:

    Everything in the newspaper is true, except the things i know about.

    Seriously, try reading the actual papers, you may be surprised by what it really says.

    --
    If information wants to be free, why does my internet connection cost so much?
  59. Re:Polar ice caps melting faster than expected by thegarbz · · Score: 1

    And you really think those summaries are more accurate than a movie trailer.

    Yes. If you think otherwise maybe you should read something other than Fox News for a change.

  60. Re:Polar ice caps melting faster than expected by delt0r · · Score: 1

    Just read the fucking papers your telling everyone else to read dipshit. Those summaries aren't peer reviewed either.

    --
    If information wants to be free, why does my internet connection cost so much?
  61. Re: Polar ice caps might all melt away too... by Namarrgon · · Score: 1

    Sorry, but whoever told you that (you didn't cite a source) is incorrect. 238 Gt is indeed the average annual net loss of Greenland ice, April to April.

    See under "Total Ice Mass" on NOAA's 2015 Greenland Ice Sheet Report, where it confirms my cited figure. There's also a nice pretty graph where you can see for yourself that the cumulative mass change is more than 3000 gigatonnes over 13 years. I'm sure you can do the math from there.

    --
    Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?