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We're Creating a Perfect Storm of Unprecedented Global Warming (popsci.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: If we do nothing to reduce our carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, by the end of this century the Earth will be as hot as it was 50 million years ago in the early Eocene, according to a new study out today in the journal Nature Communications. This period -- roughly 15 million years after dinosaurs went extinct and 49.8 million years before modern humans appeared on the scene -- was 16F to 25F warmer than the modern norm. [...] During the Eocene, it took more atmospheric CO2 to influence temperatures than it does today. In fact, if we don't change our behavior, 2100 will be as hot as the Eocene with much less atmospheric CO2 than was present at the time. A hotter sun means we get more bang for our CO2 buck. "Climate change denialists often mention that CO2 was high in the past, that it was warm in the past, so this means there's nothing to worry about," said lead study author Gavin Foster, a researcher in isotope geochemistry and paleoceanography at the United Kingdom's University of Southampton. "It's certainly true, that the CO2 was high in the past and that it was warm in the past. But because the sun was dimmer, the climate wasn't being forced as much [as it will be] in the future if we carry on as we are."

620 comments

  1. Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    The kids and grand kids are on their own. Best of luck to them.

    1. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      YOLO! Therefore, fuck it.

    2. Re:Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by cayenne8 · · Score: 0
      Yep.....no one that far away will even know my name to curse me.

      I"ll be taking a dirt nap, so, likely as not, I'll not be terribly discomforted or inconvenienced in year 2100 by this....

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    3. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by Layzej · · Score: 3, Informative

      YOLO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      But 9-14C is way outside of the consensus view. They need to have strong evidence of this fantastic claim.

    4. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > They need to have strong evidence of this fantastic claim.

      Maybe, but once it happens I am for a lot of retrroactive punishment (*):

      - revoking of voting rights of those who voted wrong;
      - seizing of wealth based on contributing to warming and charging descendants the costs cause by ancestors;
      - other things I will come up (I'm inviting suggestions).

      (*) Life is a venture, you can make profits or have to endure the losses arising from bad behavior. Deal with it. And, no, the Mexicans won't pay: you will.

    5. Re:Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by interkin3tic · · Score: 1

      Not sure whether to mod you "+1 Informative" or "+1 funny" or "-1 troll" or "+20 more self-awareness and honesty than the vast majority of the boomer generation."

      Oh, that last one isn't an option.

      Oh, I'm commenting so never mind anyway.

    6. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, a speedy trial would look like:

      We have identified your ancestor's postings to Slashdot on dates from 3/1/2003 to 8/25/2027 in which they refused to accept the evidence for Global Warming, and in fact worked to diffuse, deny and eliminate popular support for those ideas.
      As a result, you and all of SuperKendall's descendants are now cast into the wastelands.
      May Gaia take you gently

    7. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by Layzej · · Score: 1

      Maybe, but once it happens I am for a lot of retrroactive punishment

      Yikes! If we overreact to the threat we would end up incurring cost to our ancestors as well. Should the "what, me worry?" folks then demand that we be stripped of our assets and voting rights?

      How about instead we work towards a sensible response based on the consensus science rather than basing our approach on one study or another showing the best or worst case?

    8. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence"

      Your predictions for 2011 not so good how about you give us a call when you get 1 correct until then keep hoping for the worst.

    9. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by sexconker · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      YOLO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      But 9-14C is way outside of the consensus view. They need to have strong evidence of this fantastic claim.

      They would need strong evidence of such a fantastic claim regardless of whether it was inside the "consensus view".

      Science doesn't happen by consensus. It happens by rigorous proof and verifiable, repeatable testing of a (hopefully null) hypothesis.
      Climate "science" is a joke, and it has been for decades. Not a single accurate model. Not a single null hypothesis actually tested. No rigor in measurement or data collection. Instead we're looking at a short time period with inconsistent measurements (and still throwing out or "adjusting" data to fit the predetermined conclusions) and engaging in statistical wankery to predict doom and gloom. Unless, of course, we spend lots of money to support the policies and programs of the people funding the research.

      Go ahead and mod me troll/flamebait and call me a "denier". The Earth's climate is changing, and the greenhouse gas effect is real. However, it's been hotter before, and hotter eras supported more biomass and biodiversity. The planet isn't going to die from a few extra Kelvin or from a bit more CO2, and none of the proposed policies of filching tax dollars will secure your standard of living or save some species that can't adapt. I'm also against polluting in general, as I live here and enjoy clean air and water. But it doesn't take a genius (or maybe it does, in today's society) to realize that all the climate change doom and gloom is political bullshit and not science.

    10. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      According to that logic, all those who have made global warming predictions that have been proven false by time should be shot.

    11. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by shilly · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Ooh, can you do me a favour? Can you just quickly remind me of the last time that it was much hotter than this and there were 7bn humans on the planet and a civilisation I'm really quite attached to? Cos I really couldn't give two fucks if dinosaurs or voles or tree ferns or sharks can survive, or if humans can survive but only in apocalyptic conditions. I'd like our civilisation to survive too.

    12. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by Layzej · · Score: 1

      Science doesn't happen by consensus. It happens by rigorous proof and verifiable, repeatable testing of a (hopefully null) hypothesis.

      Which is what informs the consensus.

    13. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      like this idea, royalty fucked over my ancestors, so I suggest we strip them of all their assets to pay for it..

    14. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When you can only join the club of climate scientists by being in full agreement with the establishment, science becomes inbred and not rigorous. That's the problem with politicizing it. No professor will take in a PhD candidate to study under them that hasn't fully drunk the kool-aid. Consensus is reached not by scientific method, but by limiting the field to a single mindset.

    15. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by religionofpeas · · Score: 2

      Science doesn't happen by consensus

      Science itself has nothing to do with consensus, but policy does.

      and still throwing out or "adjusting" data to fit the predetermined conclusions

      If data is not adjusted, people rightfully complain about urban heat islands, and changes in thermometer technology/placement. If data is adjusted, people scream manipulation. So, what is it ? And if there's something wrong about the methods that are used, why don't deniers grab the raw data and run their own analysis ?

    16. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I bet you also drive your subaru to the mountains because you love nature. And want everyone to travel to experience other cultures. And have a job that requires flying sometimes. Etc etc. But don't worry - you voted right.

    17. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by Layzej · · Score: 1

      Nonsense. If things are really as bad as this study suggests then the consensus will adjust according to the data. But it takes more than one alarming study to overthrow 150 years of climate science.

    18. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by MrSome · · Score: 1

      No, he can't. And that's the problem with people like that. Yes the earth will survive... just without humans. I'm kinda/sorta not okay with that.

    19. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Humans are the most adaptable large animal that has ever existed on Earth. There isn't really any form of incremental change that is going to wipe us out. We'll just move out into space if things get too bad. Or underground.

    20. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1, Troll

      You are not a denier but an idiot.
      And you are nt worth down modding, what would be the point?
      We rather mod the posts up that are good, informative, insightfull etc. instead of wasting mod points on idiots like you.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    21. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by NaCh0 · · Score: 1

      > They need to have strong evidence of this fantastic claim.

      You must be new to climate science.

    22. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by Ferretman · · Score: 1

      That's an interesting if misguided position to take....

      Define "wrong".

      Ferret

      --
      Sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc
    23. Re:Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by Ferretman · · Score: 1

      Interesting....you're making a value on people you don't even know (who mostly haven't even been born yet) and calling them "worthless"?

      Seems like you're having your own issues to deal with first.

      Ferret

      --
      Sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc
    24. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by tbannist · · Score: 1

      Science doesn't happen by consensus. It happens by rigorous proof and verifiable, repeatable testing of a (hopefully null) hypothesis. Climate "science" is a joke, and it has been for decades. Not a single accurate model. Not a single null hypothesis actually tested. No rigor in measurement or data collection. Instead we're looking at a short time period with inconsistent measurements (and still throwing out or "adjusting" data to fit the predetermined conclusions) and engaging in statistical wankery to predict doom and gloom. Unless, of course, we spend lots of money to support the policies and programs of the people funding the research.

      What a desperate load of bunk, who are you trying to convince? Yourself?

      --
      Fanatically anti-fanatical
    25. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by shilly · · Score: 1

      Again, it's not just about survival. It's about our civilisation surviving. It's about holding on to the precious gains humanity has made, in terms of lives free from death, disease and dismemberment.

    26. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by Altrag · · Score: 2

      No, it takes a moron to think that all the climate change doom and gloom is bullshit -- a moron or someone with a vested interest in keeping the status quo.

      And, as I'm sure you've ignored before: The problem isn't about the absolute temperature we're likely to reach. The problem is about the rate that the temperature is changing. In particular, its changing faster than many forms of life (especially plant life that isn't very mobile) can adapt.

      Will all life on earth go extinct? Probably not. Will humans go extinct? Possibly but we're pretty clever so we might make it once the droughts and famines have killed off enough of us that we're able to reach a new equilibrium with the climate. Will millions of other species go extinct? Almost certainly.

      Also, no science is absolutely not done by rigorous verifiable proof. You're thinking of math. Science is done by matching data to hypothesis to form a theory. Theories are tested as best we can but there's always the possibility that a new piece of data could come in tomorrow that breaks your theory.

      But you know what? You adjust your theory to compensate. Its a very rare day when a highly accepted theory is shown to be entirely wrong and has to be completely scrapped. Even most of the ones we have entirely replaced can usually be rewritten as limits in the new theories (Newton's gravity=>General Relativity.. Classic=>quantum mechanics.. both of those=>string theory, providing we ever find evidence to support it.)

    27. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by cyber-vandal · · Score: 1

      That is true, but will it still support us. That's what we should be asking, not saying stupid shit like "the Earth used to be hotter so it's fine". It isn't fine, in fact no one knows what the impact will be, but I doubt it'll be anything good.

    28. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by fatboy · · Score: 1

      Some of the skeptics have. Forrest Mims III http://www.mysanantonio.com/li...

      From 2011-2012 he was an Expert Reviewer for First and Second Order Drafts of Assessment Report 5 (2013) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

      --
      --fatboy
    29. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by riverat1 · · Score: 2

      Science doesn't happen by consensus. It happens by rigorous proof and verifiable, repeatable testing of a (hopefully null) hypothesis.

      But consensus does happen by science. Consensus in science is an organic thing that happens when most of the scientists in a field accept a concept and move on to arguing the details. The over 90% consensus in climate science that global warming is caused primarily by the increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and that the increase is mainly anthropogenic in origin is not based on models but on basic physics.

      The Earth isn't going to "die" from global warming but it may well cause the collapse of our civilization and even if it doesn't it's going to be very expensive to adapt to it. Many civilizations in the past have died from lesser climate change than we see coming at us.

    30. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      So what does Texas have to do with the whole Earth? The answer is 0.14% of the surface area.

    31. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by PoopJuggler · · Score: 2

      So you'd rather destroy the entire planet's ecology and live underground than chip in a little bit to preserve this veritable paradise that we have?

    32. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by david_thornley · · Score: 2

      Science doesn't happen by consensus.

      Science happens by consensus. How else do you tell if the science is good? We look for a lot of smart people who have studied the subject. When most of them agree, we're pretty confident in the science. Of course, someone can always come along and upset the applecart, but that doesn't happen all that often, and so far nobody's done it in climate science.

      Unless, of course, we spend lots of money to support the policies and programs of the people funding the research.

      Which people are those? Do you think that all scientific research, worldwide, is controlled by a cabal for political purposes? Heck, Exxon was convinced of AGW a long time ago, although their interests dictated that they not tell anyone.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    33. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Humans will survive. We're pretty darn good at surviving. Of course, some of us would like to have things like civilization without massive wars and famines to go along with our survival.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    34. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by Ichijo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      throwing out or "adjusting" data to fit the predetermined conclusions

      That's a very serious accusation. Do you have any evidence to support it? Climategate tried but failed to find any scientific misconduct, but if you know something the investigators didn't, please speak up.

      Unless, of course, we spend lots of money to support the policies and programs of the people funding the research...all the climate change doom and gloom is political bullshit and not science.

      If claims of "doom and gloom" are all it takes to convince you that something is false, then please be aware that you are an easily manipulated person. You should learn to become more skeptical.

      --
      Any sufficiently unpopular but cohesive argument is indistinguishable from trolling.
    35. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by WrongMonkey · · Score: 1

      You don't tell if "science is good" by asking smart people. You test a scientific theory by using that theory to make a prediction. If the prediction is wrong, then the theory is wrong. If the prediction is correct, then the theory MIGHT be right.

    36. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > Should the "what, me worry?" folks then demand that we be stripped of our assets and voting rights?

      I'm fine with it. Never quite liked the "what, me worry?" lot.

      These people (the deniers) have a lot to gain in the remote close-to-zero chance that the world somehow gets automatically fixed by some unknown mechanism.

      OTOH, they don't lose any more that others if the most probable scenario happens, since we're going to share the weather. That seems unfair to me. Let the externalities hit they where it hurts: their bank accounts. Actually, these guys are the "me worry?" dudes: they don't give a fsck if the world explodes if there's money to be made from it.

    37. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Smart people who actually care about the environment will buy a Subaru w/ PZEV. Subaru actually does the right things like cut production waste, decent mpg and no pollution (less carbon) if you want a car that's as green as cars get, get a Subaru. All this electric stuff is just feel good BS. Lithium Cobalt Coal

    38. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If white people had never come to America...

    39. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by bane2571 · · Score: 0

      Can you do me a favour and tell me what about a 4 degrees celsius rise in temperature would pose any threat to humanity? It's facetious to say it but no mass extinction occurs every summer.

    40. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Climate change denialist"
      Stfu dumbaas tree hugger.

      No one is denying climate change. It's normal. It's natural.

      Global warming on the other hand is caused by humans.

    41. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The average global temperature does not change 4 degrees every summer.

    42. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Whilst periods of higher temperature have indeed supported higher diversity periods of rapid change have normally been associated with extinctions and reductions in biodiversity. That biodiversity may be higher in a couple of million years is little consolation over the next few hundred years.

      In terms of climate models, they've been very good on a global scale, maybe a little conservative. Regional resolution hasn't been so good as it requires a lot of computing power which simply wasn't available even a decade ago.

    43. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by Bongo · · Score: 1

      Science doesn't happen by consensus. It happens by rigorous proof and verifiable, repeatable testing of a (hopefully null) hypothesis.

      I think a lot of the replies are missing your point. Ok, first, the problems science tries to study are too big for any individual to crack on his or her own. So modern science is largely collaborative. And that collaboration is organised around a meritocracy of knowledge and achievement. So there is a hierarchy and expertise is key to that hierarchy. And that's just how it is, so yes, science DOES happen by consensus, starting with the student who learns from the teacher, and the teacher who learns from their teacher, on up to the masters who have the most skill and ingenuity and who are driving the science forward.

      But that's not your point, and I think many people get stuck on this first truth, that science is a collaborative meritocracy, that it does operate by consensus.

      But operating by consensus does not necessarily mean the results and theories are correct, that they are, in actual fact, true in the real world. That's the big difference.

      So science has to operate by collaborative meritocracy (because the project is so big) but that does not mean that the results are actually true.

      Now, given science's generally stunning success in many fields, we can generally assume that science gets it right. We have microchips and CT scanners and jet engines and so on. And that is a general point, we generally know science generally works.

      But climate change/global warming is a specific field, a specific theory, run by a specific set of people.

      And it is a lot like how the police force in general, operate on the principles of justice and service and protection, and generally we all rely on the police to help protect society, but that does not mean that any specific group of cops in a specific precinct don't have any, for example, institutional racism.

      So here's the thing. When people counter, "there is a consensus" that really misses the point. For if there is reason to be sceptical of the claims of a particular field, the only way forward is to research those issues. It does not help to say, well there is a consensus, because consensus is merely an automatic aspect of the social practice of science in a meritocracy of collaboration, it does not answer whether or not the theory is correct.

      Consensus because we got it right? or consensus because of an unnoticed systematic bias which happens when research goes down one path, and alternative hypothesis are starved of air and funding and interest, simply because they didn't look promising early on? and everyone has to compete for funds?

      In that sense, consensus is not science (if by science you mean, is the theory actually correct in reality?)

      Put it this way, "the police are a force that serves justice, therefore there is no racism in the police" -- that's just circular reasoning, and if someone answers that in reply to, "hey, is this police unit showing signs of racism?", and all you hear is, "there's no racism because the police are here to protect", then you'd likely conclude that that is just an evasive answer.

      Science is run as a collaborative meritocracy, where consensus decisions are made, and that has nothing to say about whether a specific theory produced by particular scientists is correct or not in reality.

      The other aspect to this is that laypeople are supposed to trust the science. Well, here we have the other issue that we are all human, and humans all have a psychology that is highly prone to bias and selfish needs. If you are a human being, that's you and that's me. There is something called "expert bias" where people can't see their own bias because they know themselves to be experts and therefore, less likely to be biased or swayed by anything non-rational.

      And besides, science is done by human beings who need funding and prestige and need to build their reputations. And as humans, we all have principles, we all wan

    44. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by PoopJuggler · · Score: 1

      It will fuck up the oceans and move us closer to a runaway greenhouse effect. Either of those alone would devastate the planet.

    45. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Have you ever been in a greenhouse? They're full of life. How will the planet be "devastated?"

    46. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 2

      As I said you are idiot. Even to dumb to check my posting history.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    47. Re:Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by Talderas · · Score: 1

      It applies well enough to most of the current living population so I don't know why you're singling out boomers. They're specifically talking about "by 2100". Anyone alive now would have to reach an age of at least 83 in order to even see that year. Anyone currently old enough to even influence policy decisions, we'll say 18 so you can vote, would need to reach the age of 101 to see 2100. The average age of the current crop of lawmakers is about 56, which means they would need to reach the ripe old age of 139 to see 2100. All boomers and GenXers should be dead by 2100. Most millennials should be dead by 2100. The post-millennial generation will be in its retirement years. The people that will have to deal with it aren't even born yet.

      --
      "Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
    48. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 1

      There is a consensus view? For all the talk of one, I've yet to see anybody put down hard numbers that were still true three years from the prediction.

      --
      SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
    49. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by Layzej · · Score: 1

      Any prediction three years hence is weather forecasting. Nothing to do with climate change. For the consensus view look to the IPCC reports. They've been remarkably accurate, which illustrates why going with the consensus is better than selecting one study or another at the extremes.

    50. Re:Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      there is no way of knowing whether they will or won't be on their own, there is a lot of debate on the issue by many people.

    51. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > Define "wrong".

      In that context ("voting wrong"), I meant a poor choice leading to damaging consequences. That encompasses a lot of "wrongs" be them related to Freedom, Politics and effects on Global Pollution (including thermal pollution).

      I don't mean necessarily that the other option would be better. But a poor choice can also come from a gamed system which offers only poor options for people to choose. Then it might be impossible to vote right.

      It was also a figure of speech ("voting rights" vs "voting wrong"). This is supposed to be witty, but I'll admit my standards are low.

      Finally, a grown human should be able (if not impaired in some sense) to grasp what is wrong by intuition solely. That is easier demonstrated than explained.

    52. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by shilly · · Score: 2

      Well, I *could* do you that favour, but if you've managed to get to the stage in your life where:
      1. you're able to string a coherent sentence together
      2. you haven't already seen information on the devastating effects of a 4degree rise that you consider credible
      3. you consider that a point about summer/winter temperature to be facetious-yet-worth-making-anyway
      it's pretty clear you're a lost cause and not worth the effort.

    53. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by shilly · · Score: 1

      Despite my fond wishes that this might be a joke, my guess is it's probably meant sincerely. After all, you don't know where to put a question mark relative to speech marks. So it's clearly unreasonable to expect you to understand the differences between a greenhouse and a global runaway greenhouse effect.

    54. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      There are, though, theories that are generally accepted, at least in broad strokes. We are confident that complex life developed through evolution involving natural selection, for example, although there's still lots of argument on the details. How are we to know what theories are generally accepted?

      A theory, once proposed, is likely to be controversial. Smart people look at the theory and made predictions, and publish these in journals. Other smart people (or the same ones) make observations and publish those. These journal papers are reviewed by smart people. Smart people read these papers, once published, and come up with problems in the paper or other possible testable hypotheses. If the theory is good, then eventually smart people will notice that the experimental evidence is in accord with the theory and its predictions, and conflicts with the other theories people have thought up.

      If the theory is correct, we see very few smart people actively trying to prove it is wrong, because the theory is correct to within the limits of experimental or observational error, and the other ones do not accord with the evidence. We see other smart people assuming it and building on it. In short, we find a consensus of scientists on the theory. If there are rival theories, we see a lot of scientists arguing over it. If the theory is the best proposed but unsatisfactory, people will continue trying to disprove it. (One example would be the luminiferous aether, since physicists had a great deal of difficulty with an incredibly rigid substance pervading all space without affecting the movement of objects.)

      From the outside, I may be able to come up with arguments against a generally accepted theory, although the odds are that some smart person who has dedicated themself to the topic has already thought of it, and it's been discounted. I can't know that it is in accord with the evidence, since I can't possibly study that much without joining the field. I can take a meta-scientific approach, and observe that a theory that is generally accepted by the field has been extensively verified and found to be in accordance with the evidence by lots of smart people who know the subject, and therefore it's good science.

      Obviously, any theory, no matter how well accepted, can suddenly become inconsistent with new evidence. We can't say any given theory is true. When we do want to act on something, we can look for generally accepted science, because we won't have anything else nearly as good.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    55. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by WrongMonkey · · Score: 1

      If the theory is correct, we see very few smart people actively trying to prove it is wrong,

      To the contrary, I can't think of any major theory that ISN'T being constantly tested and revised. Quantum mechanics and relativity are generally accepted theories, but there are constant experiments that test and validate different applications of theories under specific circumstances. The is no such thing as a "the theory is correct to within the limits of experimental or observational error", because we are always pushing new limits to experiment. In a sense, every time we do a new experiment, we are re-testing all of previous theories that experiment is based on.

    56. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      The Michelson-Morley experiment has been performed with increasing degrees of precision, to give an example. Relativity explains the outcome to within all experimental error in that experiment (and, in my firm opinion, will continue to do so). People keep coming up with new ways to test general relativity, and, as far as I can tell from a distance, usually wind up confirming that "Yes, it works that way." We build a gravitational-wave detector that's much more sensitive than any preceding one, and we get observations that are in agreement with what we thought would happen, depending on events.

      I see your point, but physicists aren't generally trying to disprove relativity or quantum mechanics. They're testing consequences as they can get the observations or experiments. It's possible that something would come up that would invalidate a previous theory (the 19th Century wave theory of light was superseded by a combination of specific observations, such as black-body radiation and the photoelectric effect), but I don't know that many physicists were trying to disprove it so much as fill in the details (which didn't fit in a big way).

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    57. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 1

      The predictions in the IPCC reports change every six months to reflect incoming data. It's pretty easy to be "remarkably accurate" when you keep revising your estimates.

      --
      SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
    58. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by Layzej · · Score: 1

      Why say things that are demonstrably false? The IPCC reports are released every 5 years, not every 6 months, and they change very little on key findings between reports. Insofar as they change as new evidence becomes available - that's a feature, not a bug. It's a bit surprising that you'd think otherwise..

    59. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 1

      Their website inputs change every six months. As far as predictability is concerned, that changes their output- which changes their predictions- which then more closely mirror reality. It's slight-of-hand "See how well we predicted the climate" when in reality, it's more observation of the past than prediction.

      All complex mathematical models are bullshit. They have zero actual predictive value. The best thing you can know about the future is that it is unknowable, that there will ALWAYS be additional data you didn't consider in your plans, that there will always be events you didn't control for.

      --
      SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
    60. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by Layzej · · Score: 1

      Here's the fifth IPCC report. It was published in 2013 and hasn't changed since - let alone every six months. The next report is due in 2022 (> 2013+6 months). You are talking nonsense.

    61. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 1

      And you would know how? Did you keep a copy of the report as it was previously published on their site?

      Such a trusting soul, no skepticism in you.....and no science either.

      --
      SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
    62. Re: Not our problem. We'll be dead by then. by Layzej · · Score: 1

      And you would know how? Did you keep a copy of the report as it was previously published on their site?

      Yes.

      Such a trusting soul, no skepticism in you.....and no science either.

      But you're supposing it's changing every six months based on... fantasy?

  2. Which century? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If we keep going and exhaust our supplies of fossil fuels like gas and coal, the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere could rise to 2000 ppm by 2250

    AFAIK it's not the 23rd century just yet.

    1. Re:Which century? by TapeCutter · · Score: 0

      And yet we can (and do) plan a century or two ahead when it comes to something like the leaning tower of pizza, a hydro dam, a leve bank,... But you don't have to wait that long, levels will reach 550 ppm in 30-40 years. The geological record indicates 550 ppm is the trigger point for the "clathrate gun". In 30yrs my first born will be 70, how old will you be? Have you met your grandkids yet?

      --
      And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
    2. Re: Which century? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In time honoured fashion...

    3. Re: Which century? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Homer Simpson: "leaning tower of pizza..... Drool..."

    4. Re:Which century? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And yet we can (and do) plan a century or two ahead when it comes to something like the leaning tower of pizza

      Is it free if they don't deliver within a century?

    5. Re:Which century? by amicusNYCL · · Score: 1

      That's not even the worst part. Based on my own graph, if trends continue like they have over the past year then in the year 2250 I'm going to have 234 wives. I need to start planning for that now.

      --
      "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
    6. Re:Which century? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Global warming is occurring and if nothing is done the people in the future will have to deal with it. Today people seem to think that just acknowledging global warming will magically solve the problem. Like most divisive and hotly contested issues the people on both sides of the argument put more effort into winning the argument than they do coming up with solutions that actually address the issue they are arguing about. People are so caught up in their adversarial rhetoric they lose site of the problem they are arguing over. Exaggerations, lies of omission, and outright falsehoods are accepted on every side of the argument because each side is 100% confident that they are "right" and anyone's who doesn't agree is "wrong". And when you are 100% right it becomes OK to do or say anything to make sure everyone is set on the path of righteousness. And the Internet is just the ultimate tool for spreading the gospel. After everyone jumps on board you can always go back and correct any misstatements and just explain they were a necessary evil but everything worked out in the end.

      Even the most fierce global warming advocates are unwilling to pay the necessary price to solve the problem. Things like halting the production of any vehicle that uses fossil fuel. Charging a special tax on all existing fossil fuel vehicles to speed up their replacement. Review and phase out the production of petroleum based products and providing non-petroleum alternatives regardless of cost. Require any global pact on global warming to include measures that put a hard limit on population growth.

      Or we can just hope for a big damn asteroid to hit the planet and hope the next civilization does a better job.

    7. Re:Which century? by aussie_a · · Score: 1

      Remember in the 60s or 70s when Global Cooling was a concern? Or how in the 80s and 90s we were going to have major cities around the globe "within the next 30 years".

      I'm quite doubtful that the clathrate gun is going to suddenly destroy the world in 30 years time. And I actually believe in global warming. What hope do you have for getting through to climate denialists?

    8. Re: Which century? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Global cooling was not a concern in the 1960s and 1970s, global warming was, as evidenced by scientific papers of the time. Global cooling was a scare based on some erroneous math by two researchers, and a misunderstanding by journalists of Milankovitch cycles. It did make scientists more aware of the need to engage with the public and journalists on understanding science.

  3. Re:I also performed a study. by DickBreath · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Some people say the sun rises in the East.
    Other people say the sun rises in the West.
    Which is right?
    Or maybe the truth lies somewhere in between?
    Teach the controversy!

    --

    I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
  4. Re:I also performed a study. by Gaxx · · Score: 2, Informative

    At a guess?

    The one backed by considerably more than 90% of the academic experts in the field.

    But who knows. Maybe unqualified Anonymous Coward #7687123 is correct...

    --
    -- Gaxx
  5. Sky is Falling! by wirehead_rick · · Score: 0

    Really. Isn't this getting old and tired.

    Yes the climate is changing.
    Yes it's caused by Humans.
    No it can't be fixed.

    It is impossible to change or reverse. Sorry - we can't stop murdering each other as it is. How can we stop global warming? Answer. We can't.

    Just plan for the inevitable and stop screaming the sky is falling. O.L.D. F.*.C.K.I.N.G. N.E.W.S.

    Ughh

    --
    -- Mean People Suck
    1. Re:Sky is Falling! by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 0

      In other news... The Sun will expand into a red giant, burning the inner planets to a crisp, and Jupiter will become the new Mercury in four billion years. That's also when the Andromeda galaxy will start merging with Milky Way galaxy. Fun times on a galactic scale!

    2. Re:Sky is Falling! by DickBreath · · Score: 1

      The Sky is Warming. Not Falling.

      --

      I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
    3. Re:Sky is Falling! by Freischutz · · Score: 5, Informative

      Really. Isn't this getting old and tired.

      Yes the climate is changing. Yes it's caused by Humans. No it can't be fixed.

      It is impossible to change or reverse. Sorry - we can't stop murdering each other as it is. How can we stop global warming? Answer. We can't.

      Just plan for the inevitable and stop screaming the sky is falling. O.L.D. F.*.C.K.I.N.G. N.E.W.S.

      Ughh

      There is a difference between "It can't be fixed" and "The #rightwingnuts refuse to fix it".

    4. Re:Sky is Falling! by mark-t · · Score: 0

      No....it can't be fixed. Believing otherwise is just setting yourself up for disappointment.

    5. Re:Sky is Falling! by DickBreath · · Score: 4, Interesting

      We should deal with crisis in the order that they each threaten our extinction. Climate change is the first on the list in terms of immediacy. Later we can deal with other problems that are further out in time.

      After climate change the next extinction level problem is the Y10K problem. When four digit years need to be expanded to five digit years. In about the year 9997, everyone will start talking about this problem. But I'll get a jump on this. In the year 9995 I will seriously start learning COBOL which is a skill that will offer many consulting opportunities for the Y10K problem.

      --

      I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
    6. Re:Sky is Falling! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bullshit. It can be physically fixed, it just won't be because of massive political and economic forces.

      Solutions -

      1) Ban all internal combustion engines
      2) Highly aggressive carbon tax
      3) Subsidies/charities/environmental groups and government acts of massive carbon sequestration - direct carbon dioxide ground injection, massive tree planting, chemical processes to pull CO2/methane/whatever greenhouse gases out of the air, those passive air purifying tower things
      4) Thermonuclear war - no more humans means that that there wouldn't be any more people around to complain about climate change

      There are almost always engineering solutions to problems. It's just that the 'solutions' vary wildly in scope, effectiveness, cost and side effects.

    7. Re:Sky is Falling! by mwvdlee · · Score: 1

      No it can't be fixed.

      Humans could fix it.
      Sadly, capitalists are in power.

      --
      Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
    8. Re:Sky is Falling! by mwvdlee · · Score: 1

      As the temperature rises, the volume of air increases.
      Either the air is expanding outwards and/or pressure increases.
      If the case is the latter; the sky IS falling!

      --
      Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
    9. Re:Sky is Falling! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yep, it can't be fixed.

    10. Re:Sky is Falling! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Of your list please note that #2 is not an engineering solution and ultimately does absolutely nothing to fix the problem.

    11. Re:Sky is Falling! by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      This is basically the way I feel about it now. It's pointless to worry about it or fight it; we're just fucked, and that's it. There's nothing we can do, because we're simply too stupid as a species to fix the problem in time. Some small well-managed countries full of smart people should probably work on anticipating the effects and working proactively to mitigate them, but the rest of us are screwed.

    12. Re: Sky is Falling! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Believing it can't leads to certain disaster.

      I know which I prefer.

    13. Re:Sky is Falling! by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      No, there is no difference at all. It's lunacy to think that the rightwingnuts are going anywhere any time soon, and in fact, we just elected them into power here in the US.

      We just need to get used to it, and figure out how we (some of us, not the rightwingnuts) can deal with the effects during our lifetimes.

    14. Re:Sky is Falling! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Right. A$$h0le. It's capitalism that's the problem.

      And the USSR was such a green success story. right?

    15. Re:Sky is Falling! by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 1

      There is a difference between "It can't be fixed" and "The #rightwingnuts refuse to fix it".

      Don't think it's the #rightwingnuts who are busy saying "we'd rather have coal and gas than nuclear for our baseload"....

      IOW, when the alarmists start calling for new nuclear construction, I'll start taking them seriously....

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    16. Re:Sky is Falling! by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      No, humans can't fix it. Humans elected the politicians who say it isn't a problem, and humans (even here, or should I say "especially here" as this site is a far-right-wing haven) will argue till they're blue in the face that climate change is a "hoax".

      I understand wanting to blame things on the people at the top, I really do. But this is unfair and counterproductive here. The "climate deniers" are everyday, regular people all across America, people who just elected our new President and stuffed Congress with Republicans. The problem isn't a few people at the top, it's most of the population (the non-Republican voters also deserve blame for choosing horribly).

    17. Re:Sky is Falling! by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      Yeah, really... We should all just move to Vegas...

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    18. Re:Sky is Falling! by BillCable · · Score: 1

      Yes - because socialists have an impeccable record of fixing things.

    19. Re:Sky is Falling! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What do you mean? GP offered a very realistic solution that humans are already getting ready to implement: thermonuclear war.

      Now I guess GP didn't specify global thermonuclear war. But I hope humans will go yuuuuge on this!

      I'm doing my part! Do your part to help the nuclear apocalypse come! Vote Republican!

    20. Re:Sky is Falling! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      OMG Socialism! Stalin! Mao! Pol Pot! Venezuela!

      FTFY

    21. Re:Sky is Falling! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Really. Isn't this getting old and tired.

      Yes the climate is changing.
      Yes it's caused by Humans.
      No it can't be fixed.

      It is impossible to change or reverse. Sorry - we can't stop murdering each other as it is. How can we stop global warming? Answer. We can't.

      Just plan for the inevitable and stop screaming the sky is falling. O.L.D. F.*.C.K.I.N.G. N.E.W.S.

      Ughh

      To be fair, we probably could stop it if we stepped up the murdering. Cut the population down and the carbon emissions made by a similar lifestyle also fall, plus nukes are one of the things we think could cause dust clouds significant enough to affect global climate.

      The main problem is that as no one will volunteer to be among the culled the process is likely to spiral out of control and there's no guarantee the initiators will not be among the culled or that it will stop at the pre determined target point.

    22. Re: Sky is Falling! by mark-t · · Score: 1

      not necessarily. Humanity may yet survive even this crisis. we do have a high adaptability, after all.

    23. Re:Sky is Falling! by meta-monkey · · Score: 2, Insightful

      "The #rightwingnuts refuse to fix it".

      The problem is the left wing nuts' plan is...pay lots of taxes to be redistributed to other countries while the political elite scrape trillions off the top, and we exempt China and India so the planet gets cooked anyway.

      Vote for the right wing nuts and we all die. Vote for the left wing nuts and we all die poor. Tough choice.

      --
      We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
    24. Re:Sky is Falling! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I'm so happy for you to have found your villain so you can sleep at night. I've been arguing with the real purveyors of doom for over 30 years that the way to 'fix' the problem was obvious on its face, that building out nuclear power to replace the massive amounts of polluting base load we use daily was the only reasonable option until such time as technology allowed us to harness the sun more efficiently & cost effectively (I never, even said nuclear was the end-goal). It wasn't 'rightwingnuts' refusing this option & killing it at every turn. But hey, you don't actually want to fix the problem, you want to blame the problem on some nebulous group of people that don't want to be controlled by you, call them names & insist that they are the ones that stopped your 'insert favorite but inefficient green energy technology here'.

      So, before you go to sleep tonight, look in the mirror and ask yourself if you actually want to fix the problem or just want it fixed YOUR way, if its the latter than your the villain. I hope you can sleep at night knowing you help kill >50K people yearly in the US alone.

    25. Re:Sky is Falling! by GameboyRMH · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Strongly disagree. We have the technology, money, and the bit of willpower needed to fix it. I don't like to believe "the future will solve it" but there's a chance that the prices of renewable vs. fossil energy may even fix global warming for us. The only things standing in the way of victory are denialists, their fossil fuel company puppetmasters, and defeatists like you.

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    26. Re:Sky is Falling! by meta-monkey · · Score: 1

      It's the former. The atmosphere has swelled slightly and there's more drag on objects in low earth orbit. Good news is it might help clean out some space junk faster via orbital decay.

      --
      We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
    27. Re:Sky is Falling! by meta-monkey · · Score: 1

      IOW, when the alarmists start calling for new nuclear construction, I'll start taking them seriously....

      Also an end to 3rd world immigration into the first world (increasing the migrants' carbon footprints) and an end to subsidizing the population boom in Africa.

      If the alarmists switched their screed to "the Earth is dying, build nukes and fuck foreigners!" an awful lot of their opposition would dry up overnight.

      --
      We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
    28. Re:Sky is Falling! by meta-monkey · · Score: 1

      But cap-and-trade (or cap-and-tax in the long run) while exempting India and China won't fix the problem.

      Vote Republican and we all die. Vote Democrat and we all die poor.

      --
      We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
    29. Re:Sky is Falling! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You elitist ass-hat. Does it help you sleep at night to portray people as some homogeneous set of uneducated, gun-toting villains?

      I'm libertarian, so yeah you could say I'm 'far right' but I'm as far from a 'denier' as you can get. I saw the writing on the wall over 30 years ago & have been arguing with ass-hats like you for that whole time that there is a technology TODAY that would have significantly helped address the problem but elitists like you don't want to address the issue, you want it done YOUR way. The problem with being libertarian is that I try to convince people through open discussion, logic, math as to the 'best plan', but people like you don't want to use logic you want to use emotion. I should have just decided I was a socialist & argued for government intervention in to the problem to support massive build outs of nuclear power regardless of what 'the people' wanted.

      It is NOT the 'climate deniers' that are the problem AT ALL. They are a minor blip on the radar, most people either don't care because it doesn't affect them today or actually know it is happening but hope/pray that someone will 'fix it'. When you have a choice to either feed your child by driving your gas guzzler to work or 'save the planet' which one do you think people will choose?

      So get your head out of your elitist ass for just one second and when you've done that, perhaps you'll support actual efforts to mitigate the issue rather than decide there's only 1 way, your way and that the rest of us just better toe the line.

    30. Re:Sky is Falling! by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

      Really. Isn't this getting old and tired.

      Yes the climate is changing.
      Yes it's caused by Humans.
      No it can't be fixed.

      It is impossible to change or reverse. Sorry - we can't stop murdering each other as it is. How can we stop global warming? Answer. We can't.

      Just plan for the inevitable and stop screaming the sky is falling. O.L.D. F.*.C.K.I.N.G. N.E.W.S.

      Ughh

      I don't think global warming can be stopped, at least not without doing things that are worse than global warming. However, there are some simple things that can be done to slightly lessen the impact of global warming.

      However, I do think what we need to do, is start spending on infrastructure for the side-effects of global warming. The most obvious one, is protecting coastal cities better from rising sea levels. Less obvious ones would be increasing our sewage and storm water run off capacities. In general, warmer air means more severe weather events. Things like flooding events will become more common. Cities will need better run offs or face costly damage. I wish people would put politics aside and focus on preparing our cities and not working retroactively after massive flooding.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    31. Re:Sky is Falling! by mark-t · · Score: 1

      Technology, perhaps... money, probably. Willpower? Not so much... at least from those with the ability to change it. The necessary combined willpower and ability that it would take from a significant number of people to fix global warming simply does not exist... the people that care the most about this are virtually powerless to change it, and those that might have the ability don't care enough, and you can't make them care by simply repeating the same stuff they've already heard or showing them more science that proves what is going to happen eventually... they simply don't care, or will believe that the science is wrong. It's clear to me that the only way they will learn is by experiencing the hard consequences of being wrong. By that time, of course, it really *will* be far too late.

    32. Re:Sky is Falling! by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      There is a difference between "It can't be fixed" and "The #rightwingnuts refuse to fix it".

      The real question is, "How much extra are you willing to pay in taxes (etc) to stop it?"
      If you're a typical person, the answer is "not enough." #rightwingnuts are just willing to admit it.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    33. Re:Sky is Falling! by Walter+White · · Score: 1

      Yeah, really... We should all just move to Vegas...

      I'll go with Colorado. (Or were you not referring to "The Stand?"

    34. Re:Sky is Falling! by Moof123 · · Score: 1

      You can't stop ALL car crashes, so we should get rid of seat belts? You can't stop all birth defects, so lets stop funding pre-natal care too. Your argument is asinine.

      We can cut our emissions a lot with already known technologies. Many of these are already starting to flourish despite decades of being beaten down, and it will take time to build them out. If we simply stopped all the petroleum subsidies (including foreign adventures to secure them, which is still a subsidy in my book) and shoved that same amount into energy storage, solar, and wind we could put a big dent in CO2 emissions. Put an extra carbon tax on gasoline and use that to keep and increase electric car subsidies would help too.

      Our suburban societies need to be made more compact to allow walking and biking like you find in Europe (where CO2 emissions are half that of the US). Currently new construction in most places is very car-centric, and it creates a hostile biking/walking environment. Many new schools are not designed with sidewalks leading to them, and kids are not allowed to walk to/from school. Once built these awful situations will live on with high carbon use for decades. Dense city centers make for low carbon use, and those savings last for decades as well.

      In the end we could greatly bend the curve if we actually focused on improving carbon emissions rather than throwing out hand up, buying us many further decades to continue to innovate.

    35. Re:Sky is Falling! by Dorianny · · Score: 1

      There is a difference between "It can't be fixed" and "The #rightwingnuts refuse to fix it".

      There is blame on both sides. The #rightwingnuts that refuse to acknowledge there is a problem and the #leftwingnuts that not only refuse to understand that Nuclear ang Natural Gas have to be part of a resonable solution but activly work to against them even as it is largely replaced with dirty alternatives aka Germany and Japan.

    36. Re: Sky is Falling! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you're not off the deep end left wing these days you are De facto right wing for some reason.

    37. Re:Sky is Falling! by amicusNYCL · · Score: 1

      Are we already on the fourth stage of climate change denial? That's unfortunate, because the last stage isn't a very good one if it's true.

      Believing otherwise is just setting yourself up for disappointment.

      Yeah, and believing that we can't fix it guarantees disappointment when the consequences come.

      --
      "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
    38. Re:Sky is Falling! by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      You're a moron. There aren't any actual efforts to mitigate the issue. In case you haven't noticed, we just elected to decrease regulations on coal and build more coal-fired plants, not nuclear.

    39. Re:Sky is Falling! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, there is no difference at all. It's lunacy to think that the rightwingnuts are going anywhere any time soon, and in fact, we just elected them into power here in the US.

      We just need to get used to it, and figure out how we (some of us, not the rightwingnuts) can deal with the effects during our lifetimes.

      Look, you should have been clued in on this during the seceret meetings, but you know how you kill snails by putting a saucer of beer in the garden and let the dumb fucks drown in it? That's what we're doing with the right-wingers. If operation 'candy coated rifle barrel' goes as planned they should be basically extinct in 2.6 more election cycles.

      You probably want to drop by the meeting pace and redeem your survival kit though. We expect things to get ... messy before the end, but breaking eggs and omelets and all that.

    40. Re:Sky is Falling! by Altrag · · Score: 1

      China and India are working on cleaning up their shit. Sure they've got a long way to go still, but its the US that's currently the ones saying "fuck it lets cook the planet." By the time Trump finishes his second term, it'll be China telling us to get with the program.

    41. Re:Sky is Falling! by vyvepe · · Score: 1

      We should deal with crisis in the order that they each threaten our extinction. Climate change is the first on the list in terms of immediacy. Later we can deal with other problems that are further out in time.

      Are you kidding? What about nuclear weapons and starting wars here and there willy-nilly.

    42. Re:Sky is Falling! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hypocrisy is the problem.

      Liberals claim the Conservatives should change first, because they have the wrong "belief".

      True leadership means all Liberals should immediately stop using all gas powered cars, all paper and plastic, and electricity to save the planet. And then from their righteous soapbox and perfectly demand others comply as well.

      Until then, Liberals are hypocrites to be ignored.

    43. Re: Sky is Falling! by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      As a species homo sapiens may well survive but that doesn't mean shit to a lot of individuals who won't survive.

    44. Re:Sky is Falling! by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      Sometime in the next 200-500 years there will be no way to protect coastal cities. The last time CO2 was over 400 ppm sea level was over 70 feet higher than it is now. It may just be a matter of how fast the polar ice caps melt. Are you going to build 100 foot high levees around the whole coast?

    45. Re:Sky is Falling! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, one is a reality that a sane person merely accepts. The other is equivalent to a witch hunt. You don't persecute "rightwingnuts" because you really care, you just need someone to shit on to feel better about your pathetic life.

    46. Re:Sky is Falling! by Areyoukiddingme · · Score: 1

      After climate change the next extinction level problem is the Y10K problem. When four digit years need to be expanded to five digit years.

      Nah. The next extinction level problem is the 2038 problem. It actually strongly resembles the Y2K problem in that there are oodles and oodles of bits of embedded electronics that people have forgotten exist that count time with a 32 bit time_t. Tons of 20 and 30 and 40 year old industrial processes are controlled by embedded systems that are going to lose their tiny minds. These are boards that no one dares to replace because they're not entirely sure what they do anymore. The developer is dead, the documentation is lost, and it Just Works. And replacing it requires hiring both an expensive electrical engineer and an expensive software engineer, to design and build and test and install a fix for something that.. isn't broken? Yeah, it'll be a great time to be an electronics consultant. In 2035.

    47. Re:Sky is Falling! by mark-t · · Score: 1

      Sort of, yes... although it's less a matter of physical impossibility than a practical one.... the problem is less about fixing global warming than changing the minds of people who either do not care or simply do not believe in the facts behind global warming. You cannot change another person's mind by hoping they will see your point of view and when they've already shown resistance to change when presented with enough facts to ordinarily convince someone who had retained a healthy dose of scientific skepticism, it's evident that the only thing that will ever convince them (if anything) is first hand experience of the consequences of their indecision.

      Of course, none of the people alive today are going to live long enough for that to really happen, so by the time it actually might be enough to convince them that they should have listened, it *WILL* be too late.

      And it's pretty hard to be disappointed when you are already expecting the worst.

      So maybe we should be trying to prepare ourselves for that.

    48. Re:Sky is Falling! by mark-t · · Score: 1

      I didn't say we should stop what we are doing... I said that what we are doing isn't going to stop it, and preaching more of the same stuff isn't going to change the minds of those that it might need to.

      You see, most people believe whatever the hell they want to believe, or whatever makes them the most comfortable. Facts and science won't make an iota of difference to this.... only the cold, hard, first-hand experience of the consequences of failure will do that, and because nobody who is alive today will live long enough to really see that to any great degree, and by the time we are looking at enough changes to actually change people's minds, it *really* will be too late to physically change it.

    49. Re:Sky is Falling! by rally2xs · · Score: 1

      We _DON'T_ have the tech.

      We _CAN'T_ leave the fossil fuel in the ground. The transportation sector sees to that. There is no "renewable" fuel that will put an 18 wheeler across the country, a ship across the ocean, or an airliner across the sky at a price that WE CAN AFFORD. It has to be affordable or we can't do it. The Navy has been flying some jets on bio-diesel, which we may or may not have enough farmable land to eliminate fossil fuels entirely, but at $6 a gallon. We can't afford that, and we're not going to be able to afford that. Meanwhile, there's been armies of scientists attempting to find battery chemistry significantly better than lithium and they're getting nowhere. Having a Tesla at its going price does the guy working for $50K a year absolutely no good, and yes, he HAS to have auto transportation. That's how our society runs. We need cars, we need trucks, we need those ships and planes. There's nothing we can do about until and unless we find the "magic" battery. The magic battery is cheap and high capacity and cheap and rugged enough for automotive use and cheap and recharges efficiently and maybe quickly (if it doesn't, we'll exchange it for a charged one) and cheap and light enough for automotive use and cheap and small enough for automotive use. And cheap. We don't have that battery. We many never have that battery because it may not be possible to build it.

      One thing's for damned certain, this is going to be solved in a laboratory or not at all. It won't be solved by some government making fossil fuels expensive. That will not make the magic battery magically materialize, it will only pauperize the citizenry and cast more and more people into poverty, killing millions. What's more dangerous than smoking? Living in poverty is more dangerous than smoking. Smoking will take 7 years off your life. Living in poverty is worth 10 fewer years due to things like not being able to afford the best medicine, not being able to live in a house and dying of exposure or criminal activity while living on the street, not being able to afford enough food, etc. Politicians can force us to live on the street, but they can't solve using fossil fuels with any law. We have to burn them just to survive.

      Those that are scared silly for the future have 1 option, and it isn't marching up and down Pennsylvania Avenue with a sign, sandals, and long hair. It is to get their PHD in electrochemistry and maybe one in materials science, get their butts into a lab somewhere, and invent for us the magic battery. THEN we can use all those wonderful solar and wind electric plants to do trucks, ships, and airplanes as well as cars. Again, the magic battery may be impossible. If so, we're going to have to get good at geo-engineering, something that also is not going to be solved by some tax or law or anything, but in a laboratory.

    50. Re:Sky is Falling! by rally2xs · · Score: 1

      "1) Ban all internal combustion engines"

      That one right there will kill 90% of the population of the USA, because we all need IC engines to live. We have to get to work, grow and transport food, etc. and IC engines are the only way we have to do it. Without them, 90% would starve, with the only survivors being those that are OK with cannibalism.

    51. Re:Sky is Falling! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Vote Republican and we all die. Vote Democrat and we all die poor.

      Another piece of evidence that it is the Democrats, not the Republicans, that stay true to the Christian message.

      Remember what Jesus said that it's harder for a rich man to go through the gates of heaven than a camel through the eye of a needle.

      The Dems, who don't care about everybody dying poor as long as they did "the right thing", are surely a lot closer to God.

      This, btw, is also why Democrats and the left almost always have the moral high ground. They have God on the their side. Or rather, Gods. The Dems aren't just for the Christian God, but also Allah, the state (the God of Communism), women (the Gods of Feminism), the God of History (they're on the right side, you're on the wrong side), etc.

      I know some Conservatives try very hard to fight for the moral high ground, but their attempts fail to convince as their morals are based on logic. Logically, you can make cases that taxes are theft, abortion is murder, and Communism is murder in millions, etc. But those are logical arguments. Logically, there's nothing stopping people from eating their pets after they died. Most people would still find that deplorable.

    52. Re:Sky is Falling! by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

      It's impossible to predict what CO2 levels will be in 200-500 years or what technologies will be available. I've not heard any legitimate source predicting 70ft sea level rises this century. I don't think worrying what will happen in 500 years time is worthwhile right now considering it's pie-in-the-sky.

      500 years ago, European's had just started training with China. I don't think they could have predicted the relative near short-term future where they'd be forced to import Opium, let alone, Apple, Android, the tech revlolution, or that they'd be supplying Walmart with everything on their shelves 500 years later.

      We have a decent guess for the next 50 years- we know the challenges we face in the short-medium term. We should focus on that.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    53. Re:Sky is Falling! by sonicmerlin · · Score: 1

      Do you have any idea how many coal plants China is nixing plans on building? Or how many nuclear plants they're building? They're pushing extremely hard for renewables, given their budget is a tenth of ours.

    54. Re:Sky is Falling! by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      No there won't be 70 feet of sea level rise this century. Most likely it will be between 3 and 5 feet this century but it could be more if there is a catastrophic collapse of some of the ice sheets on Antarctica or Greenland, maybe 10 feet. Even 3 feet will cause its problems particularly in southern Florida and along the Gulf Coast.

      But like I said the last time CO2 was over 400 ppm sea level was over 70 feet higher and that may be unstoppable in the long run.

    55. Re:Sky is Falling! by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

      Whereas, I agree, stopping "70"ft sea rises with levees or any current known/predicted technology would be impossible, I still think we should be preparing for the one+ meters we can safely say will probably hit in the next 50 or so years.

      If it ever got as bad as 70ft- let the people in the future decide what to do about that, we can't, and we can't accurately say it will be that bad. If it ever reached even a fraction of 70ft whole cities would have to be migrated (assuming we don't have some super amazing technology that holds the sea back with magnetic walls ).

      We can protect major population centers from the immediate future if we start now. Problem is, certain politicians make it a political point to say global warming isn't happening, so they don't make moves to protect what we can protect.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    56. Re:Sky is Falling! by Gussington · · Score: 1

      No, there is no difference at all. It's lunacy to think that the rightwingnuts are going anywhere any time soon, and in fact, we just elected them into power here in the US.

      This could actually be the death rattle though. Prior to the election, when Trump looked like losing the Republicans were all asking themselves how they ended up in such bad shape. Just because they won, doesn't make the organisation any healthier, if anything it promotes the nutbags which will send the ship to the bottom faster than any Democrat strategy could.

  6. Re:I also performed a study. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Probably the one with real scientists and actual data. Please provide a link to the scientific journal where your peer-reviewed study is published so we can compare.

  7. "by the end of this century" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'll be dead by then, so guess what?

    I don't give A FUCK.

    1. Re: "by the end of this century" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My children do, asshole.

    2. Re: "by the end of this century" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      your children will be fine don't freak out. I drive a big gas guzzling monster truck. do you drive a prius?

  8. Here we go again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A few years back they were saying the average temperature has nothing to do with the output of the sun. I found that strange. Now they are saying that things will be hotter than predicted because the sun is hotter?

    1. Re:Here we go again by sjames · · Score: 3, Informative

      No, they said the INCREASE in average temperature had nothing to do with increased output from the sun. (Smacks AC with sandal).

    2. Re: Here we go again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I was thinking exactly the same thing, if I recall correctly, the assertion was that the variation in the sun cycle had effectively no impact on climate change. Hope someone catalogs this article for future reference. When it is shown to be wrong, the explanations are always a fun read.

    3. Re:Here we go again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You agree with me and then hit me with a sandal. Uncool you filthy hippy.

    4. Re:Here we go again by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      The sun isn't hotter compared to a few decades ago. The sun is hotter compared to millions of years ago. There's no contradiction.

    5. Re:Here we go again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070228-mars-warming.html

    6. Re:Here we go again by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      Why would anyone look at Mars to see if the Sun is getting hotter, when you can directly look at the Sun ?

    7. Re:Here we go again by WaffleMonster · · Score: 3, Informative

      A few years back they were saying the average temperature has nothing to do with the output of the sun. I found that strange. Now they are saying that things will be hotter than predicted because the sun is hotter?

      Suns output increases by about 10% per billion years while it remains close to the main sequence.

      50,000,000 years ago is 5% of 1 billion

      Industrial revolution started about 300 years ago.
      300 is 0.000003% of 1 billion.

      Change in solar output since 50 million years ago is a small but substantial 0.5% percent. Change during the period of concerted human meddling is less than a rounding error at 0.0000003%

      To put all of this into perspective an increased solar output of only 10% of todays output is sufficient to trigger irreversible moist earth runaway leading to surface temperatures measured in thousands of degrees.

    8. Re:Here we go again by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

      Why would anyone look at Mars to see if the Sun is getting hotter, when you can directly look at the Sun ?

      Teacher told me to never look directly at the sun.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    9. Re:Here we go again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But momma, that's where the fun is.

    10. Re:Here we go again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But mama, that's where the fun is.

    11. Re:Here we go again by Stephan+Schulz · · Score: 1
      --

      Stephan

  9. Bet it happens before 2100 by Lumpy · · Score: 5, Funny

    Trump is hell bent on making it happen by 2020.

    This is the best global warming in the world. It's fantastic global warming.

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    1. Re:Bet it happens before 2100 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Like net neutrality, global warming is one of those things Slashdotters will roll their eyes and tell people to stop whining about solely because the God Emperor Trump told them so.

    2. Re:Bet it happens before 2100 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In fact, it is! It's warming so global that it's gone universal! From the summary, not even the article itself: "It's certainly true, that the CO2 was high in the past and that it was warm in the past. But because the sun was dimmer, the climate wasn't being forced as much [as it will be] in the future if we carry on as we are."

      We've warmed up the SUN!!! Fuck, we're good at this!
      But not to worry, just as we managed to warm it up, we can probably cool it, and the earth, down. Just as soon as we find the damn AC's remote!

    3. Re:Bet it happens before 2100 by Lead+Butthead · · Score: 1

      Trump is hell bent on making it happen by 2020.

      This is the best global warming in the world. It's fantastic global warming.

      And Mar-a-lago will be under salt water, probably a lot sooner.

      --
      ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
    4. Re:Bet it happens before 2100 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He doesn't give a flying fuck what happens to this planet as long as Daddy Vladdy doesn't get his home movie trending.

      But man oh man, have you heard about Podesta and pizza? Buttery males?

    5. Re:Bet it happens before 2100 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do you people actually believe this shit, or are you being paid by Shareblue?

    6. Re:Bet it happens before 2100 by Mashiki · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Hey now, let's be fair. These same flappy heads were claiming that Manhattan Island and Florida would be under water by 2000(when I was a kid in the 1980's), and again by 2010, then 2012, and the latest ones screaming it'll be by 2025, and then there's the ones saying 2060 and then there's the others saying by 2100 too. You also can't forget the other alarmist stuff, like acid rain will destroy all the trees by 1995. The ozone hole will make it so you can't go outside except at night. The world will run out of oil by 1985. And my personal favorite? The world will starve by 1976.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    7. Re:Bet it happens before 2100 by Mashiki · · Score: 1

      Do you people actually believe this shit, or are you being paid by Shareblue?

      They probably get paid for it. They have to find some way to distract from the fact that Susan Rice has likely committed multiple felonies and mass constitutional violations.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    8. Re:Bet it happens before 2100 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yea, I was wondering about that too. Isn't 50 million years for the sun basically nothing? How hotter is it now than 50 million year ago?

    9. Re:Bet it happens before 2100 by freeze128 · · Score: 1

      ...And it's CLEAN global warming!

    10. Re:Bet it happens before 2100 by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      "This is the best global warming in the world. It's fantastic global warming! I know warming better than the Sun. Let me tell you, the Sun asks me for advice on heat, even; and the Sun is Yuuuuge on heat. Everyone knows that, I don't have to tell you that. Democrats only talk to black holes and did NOTHING for 8 years. Nothing! Low energy people, really low energy."

    11. Re:Bet it happens before 2100 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This really underscores the real issue. Our media only "advertise" the most alarmist predictions because it gets them the most ratings. All of the headlines you point out were the clickbait of their times. If clickbait didn't work, it wouldn't be used.

    12. Re:Bet it happens before 2100 by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      They have to find some way to distract from the fact that Susan Rice has likely committed multiple felonies and mass constitutional violations.

      I overhead some old white guys gloating about that on the bus yesterday. However, Susan Rice have done nothing wrong. Whenever someone calls the Russian Embassy, every conversation gets recorded by the intelligence community. Too many Trump advisers are talking to the Russians.

    13. Re:Bet it happens before 2100 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Found spicys /. account. Want some gum buddy?

    14. Re:Bet it happens before 2100 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Trump^H^H^H^H^HChina and Russia

    15. Re:Bet it happens before 2100 by Mashiki · · Score: 1

      Oh that's a good one. So which is it? She didn't know that she turned around and did it(after she claimed she didn't do it). Or that it was perfectly fine(but outside of the scope of her job)? Or should we move onto the part where these were conversations that had nothing to do with Russia. Or the part where you seem to have a serious race and agism problem?

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    16. Re:Bet it happens before 2100 by interkin3tic · · Score: 1

      Russia certainly has a long-term interest in climate change. They have few resources aside from fossil fuels, and climate change might produce more arable land there.

      If the liberal side had half the brains and attention span the conservative side does, they'd be looking into whether Trump and co are buying up current arctic land that will be more useful if the worst-case climate change scenarios are true.

    17. Re:Bet it happens before 2100 by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      Oh that's a good one. So which is it?

      That Obama didn't personally order a wiretap on Trump, as Trump has repeatedly alleged to distract from the fact that his advisers are in bed with the Russians. They got recorded as a matter of routine in the intelligence community.

      Or the part where you seem to have a serious race and agism problem?

      As white male I can't criticize other white males? That's like the black community criticizing Obama for talking about black males not being good fathers to their children. As younger person (47-years-old), it's not my place to tell my elders that they're wrong.

    18. Re:Bet it happens before 2100 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why is this even news?

      Why is this being commentated to the average schmo who honestly cant do anything much about this?

      Why are you not convincing the people who profit from pumping out CO2 of this so that they might stop it?

      Play us a new record.

    19. Re:Bet it happens before 2100 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Trump is hell bent on making it happen by 2020.

      This is the best global warming in the world. It's fantastic global warming.

      And Mar-a-lago will be under salt water, probably a lot sooner.

      As others have pointed out, there are some good points to global warming.

    20. Re:Bet it happens before 2100 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And he'll make Mexico pay for it !

    21. Re:Bet it happens before 2100 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hey now, let's be fair. These same flappy heads were claiming that Manhattan Island and Florida would be under water by 2000(when I was a kid in the 1980's), and again by 2010, then 2012, and the latest ones screaming it'll be by 2025, and then there's the ones saying 2060 and then there's the others saying by 2100 too. You also can't forget the other alarmist stuff, like acid rain will destroy all the trees by 1995. The ozone hole will make it so you can't go outside except at night. The world will run out of oil by 1985. And my personal favorite? The world will starve by 1976.

      Funny thing about the ozone hole... the reason it stopped growing is because the world came together and actually passed restrictions on CFCs along with cap-and-trade system to phase them out. It's an example of how regulations based on sound science can actually avert a predicted crises. Imagine that. Acid rain is a similar story... if there is less of it now, its largely because people reacted to the crisis and passed regulations to combat the problem.

      As for you remembered predictions Manhattan and Florida being underwater already... no... that's bullshit. Maybe you read something in a tabloid, but scientists have not said anything like that. While details often diverge, global climate models have been largely correct for many years now. If anything, they've been too conservative.

      I have subscriptions to both Nature and The Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, and follow the research pretty carefully. If you can show me actual research that back up your 'missed predictions' claim, I would love to see them.

    22. Re:Bet it happens before 2100 by Izaak · · Score: 1

      Blarg!... posted the above as AC because I didn't realize I wasn't logged in.

    23. Re:Bet it happens before 2100 by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      The article isn't a scientific article, it's not based on a study. It's full of breathless "worst-scenario" predictions, which it treats as facts.
      The article is trash. If it were an actual peer reviewed study, it would be worth reading and commenting on. But it's not, it's an alarmist article that makes science look bad because people associate it with scientists, even though the scientific process had absolutely nothing to do with the creation of this article.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    24. Re:Bet it happens before 2100 by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      These same flappy heads were claiming that Manhattan Island and Florida would be under water by 2000...[that] acid rain will destroy all the trees by 1995. The ozone hole will make it so you can't go outside...

      You have to understand that sensationalism sells. The media tends to pick up on extreme claims because those sell papers/eyeball-counts.

      If 1 expert makes an extreme claim and 9 others make mellow claims, that 1 is all you (typical reader) actually sees, NOT the other 9. People don't buy papers to read that Plane X landed normally.

      You are thus not seeing a representative sample of scientific predictions.

    25. Re:Bet it happens before 2100 by Peeet · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Acid Rain and Ozone Depletion have been avoided SPECIFICALLY BECAUSE the flappy heads were flapping and we listened to their flapping and made changes to negate the damage we were doing. As opposed to these days...

      And the real problem is that the averages of what scientists are saying are longer term than people's attention span. Regular people don't think a few inches of ocean rising or a few degrees of average temperature are a big deal, but they can't comprehend that it's because of how QUICKLY the changes are happening, not how MUCH it's changing. Unfortunately, the only way to get people to pay attention to humanity-ending long-term (for humans aka short term for nature) problems is to be alarmist about them.

      And we REALLY need to stop talking about "saving the Earth". The Earth will be fine, we couldn't destroy it if we tried. It'll be spinning along around the sun way after we're gone. It's HUMANS and lots of animals / plants that will be wiped off the planet if we don't drastically change how we interact with nature.

    26. Re:Bet it happens before 2100 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's because we did something about it each time, you confounded idiot. This time, morons like you are doing the exact opposite.

      "See, we're not dead yet, so might as well go back to burning coal!"

    27. Re:Bet it happens before 2100 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He doesn't know he has an age and racism problem. My Indian boss was gleeful when they were laying off the "old" American workers at the very large company I work for. He said, "They are old, they should leave anyway" But I digress. OP, she didn't break the law by unmasking. She broke it by not safeguarding.

    28. Re:Bet it happens before 2100 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Those are the same people that read 'The Population Bomb' in the early 70's and still believe Ehrlich's many times revised bullshit.

    29. Re:Bet it happens before 2100 by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Add to that: this article wasn't the result of science, it's just a media post, designed specifically for sensationalism. It isn't based on a scientific study.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    30. Re:Bet it happens before 2100 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You missed the killer bees.

    31. Re:Bet it happens before 2100 by Lumpy · · Score: 1

      Actually the Russians did figure out a way to split it in 1/2 their super deep drilling project, if you pack the bottom if it with a lot of nuclear warheads and then detonate the 900MT ish bomb you will technically give the planet an exit would on the other side as the shockwave travels through the magma and will rupture the crust .

      so yes, we CAN do some serious damage to the planet if we really tried hard enough. And that is the problem NOBODY IS TRYING HARD ENOUGH!

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    32. Re:Bet it happens before 2100 by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 2

      You are mixing up scientists with news reporters ....

      No scientist ever claimed that enough ice will have melted till what ever year you pick from your list ....

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    33. Re:Bet it happens before 2100 by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      Well, the magazine is called "popular science" :D who had guessed that there could be actual science in it.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    34. Re:Bet it happens before 2100 by Ferretman · · Score: 1

      Having a hard time finding good numbers on this, but it looks like the sun was about 20% dimmer ~500m years ago:

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

      If that scales directly that would mean the actual brightness today vs. 50m years ago is roughly 2-3% brighter than it was, not the 20% bandied about above.

      I'd like to see some better sources on the numbers though.

      Ferret

      --
      Sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc
    35. Re:Bet it happens before 2100 by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      They have few resources aside from fossil fuels, and climate change might produce more arable land there.
      It likely would not. Just because some perma frost is melting does not make that land arable. The limiting factor for grain and potatoes is the length of the growth period, not strictly speaking the temperature.

      I suggest you visit such a perma frost area once in summer, it is blazing hot then.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    36. Re:Bet it happens before 2100 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You also can't forget the other alarmist stuff, like acid rain will destroy all the trees by 1995. The ozone hole will make it so you can't go outside except at night.

      In other words..."Scientists said a lot of really bad stuff would happen unless we fixed some environmental problems and we fixed those specific problems and the bad stuff didn't happen."

      That's a +5 justification for why scientists are all liars if I ever saw one.

    37. Re:Bet it happens before 2100 by Altrag · · Score: 1

      Not sure about your other claims but the ozone depletion and acid rain issues were only stopped because the world got together and collectively said "holy shit we need to do something about this!"

      Of course those two issues have something that climate change predictions do not: Immediacy. The then-relatively-new Doppler satellites made the ozone hole fairly obvious to the layman, and everyone could see the effects of acid rain on their crops and buildings.

      Climate change is another beast all together. We've got lots of data to show that its happening -- temperature histories, sea level histories, CO2 level histories and so on. But there's no one event or image that you can definitively point to and say "see, told ya so!" And unfortunately data, no matter how carefully collected or what it says, is easy to brush off by people who don't really want to admit there's a problem.

      As for predictions of the end of oil.. yeah those are pretty much never going to be accurate until we've explored every square mile of the planet to confirm that there's no more undiscovered reserves, and determined unequivocally that no amount of technology improvement will be able to (economically) extract the last dredges out of the known reserves. I mean such a time will come, absolutely. Its a finite resource. But whether it will be a time that anyone manages to (accurately) predict? Far less certain (and if we actually start putting serious effort into slowing or even reversing climate change, we may end up abandoning oil before we use it all.) Similar arguments of course apply to coal and natural gas and uranium and pretty much every other non-renewable resource.

    38. Re:Bet it happens before 2100 by djinn6 · · Score: 1

      Actually the Russians did figure out a way to split it in 1/2 their super deep drilling project, if you pack the bottom if it with a lot of nuclear warheads and then detonate the 900MT ish bomb you will technically give the planet an exit would on the other side as the shockwave travels through the magma and will rupture the crust .

      so yes, we CAN do some serious damage to the planet if we really tried hard enough. And that is the problem NOBODY IS TRYING HARD ENOUGH!

      Not sure if you're joking, but you're off by at least 10 orders of magnitude. The Chicxulub asteroid crashed into the Earth with the power of 100 teratons of TNT. It dug a crater 20 km deep, which is 8 km deeper than the Russian drill hole you mentioned, but it only displaced 200,000 km^3 of dirt. For comparison, the Earth is made up of 1,083,210,000,000 km^3 of dirt.

      To actually blow up the planet, you would need 2.25 x 10^32 Joules of energy, which would take 578 billion years to generate at the world's current energy generation capacity (3.89 x 10^20 Joules per year).

      Humans are puny. Even if everyone in the world tried their hardest, it's not going to make much of a difference. The surface or the living things on it? Yes, we can affect them. The body of the Earth? No.

    39. Re:Bet it happens before 2100 by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      Hey now, let's be fair. These same flappy heads were claiming that Manhattan Island and Florida would be under water by 2000(when I was a kid in the 1980's), and again by 2010, then 2012, and the latest ones screaming it'll be by 2025, and then there's the ones saying 2060 and then there's the others saying by 2100 too. You also can't forget the other alarmist stuff, like acid rain will destroy all the trees by 1995. The ozone hole will make it so you can't go outside except at night. The world will run out of oil by 1985. And my personal favorite? The world will starve by 1976.

      Maybe some flappy heads were saying that but I doubt you could find a scientist who studies sea levels who said that. In fact the reality is that sea level rise has been faster than they predicted.

      And regarding acid rain and the ozone hole we actually did something about those things to prevent them from getting out of control.

    40. Re:Bet it happens before 2100 by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      It's acknowledged to be approximately 1% of flux change in 100M years. That's about 5% of change over 500M years.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    41. Re: Bet it happens before 2100 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      CFCs were phased out globally which is why the ozone isn't a big problem anymore which it would have been.

      Acid rain emissions were legislated with cap and trade policies that fixed that problem in both power generation and cars (catalytic converters).

      Like climate change the worst problems can be mitigated by rapid action now.

      Any reputable links for scientists saying the sea levels would swamp us in 2017?

      Why is denying science cool for tech nerds? It's bizarre.

  10. Re:I also performed a study. by Lumpy · · Score: 2, Insightful

    the ones that say east are right. the ones that say west are drooling morons and need to be told so loudly and in public for all to hear.

    We need to STOP letting the low IQ spout their stupidity. Point at them yell "STUPID" and do it in public and in groups.

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  11. This will solve it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The answer- CLEARLY- is to give complete power to our government to oversee the minutiae of our interaction with our environments. Its the only way!

  12. Re:That headline seems to actively strive to piss by sjames · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    Agreed, you being pissed off is retarded and irrelevant.

  13. Re:I also performed a study. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Probably the guy with the most relevant expertise, relevant credentials, and relevant data.

    So, probably anyone who is arguing with you.

  14. Re:I also performed a study. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We need to STOP letting the low IQ spout their stupidity.

    Racist.

  15. Ummm...those were great conditions! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Those are the conditions that lead to the diversity and durability of species we have today. Everything changes. Get over it already.

  16. False. by RJBeery · · Score: 0

    See subject. There is probably no better way to damage the climate change debate than to make absolutely absurd predictions. Just shut up. Keep the hyperbolic fear-mongering out of the discussion. http://www.climatedepot.com/20...

  17. Re:I also performed a study. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Some people say the sun rises in the East.

    Other people say the sun rises in the West.

    Which is right?

    Or maybe the truth lies somewhere in between?

    Teach the controversy!

    Forget the real world.

    Because real-world results don't matter.

    What did your MODEL that hasn't successfully predicted sunrise direction for the last 15 years say?

    And why have you been ignoring more accurate satellite-based measurements of the sunrise and selectively using only ground-based measurements that have been, errr, corrected from the original data?

  18. Go ahead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    you start, we'll follow! What do you say? Oh, I thought so...

  19. Hmmm by Dishevel · · Score: 0

    Hotter sun plus normal fluctuations in the climate equal kill all humans to save the planet.
    I thought that, "All Scientists" said that the Sun had nothing to do with climate change and this is all due to humans?

    --
    Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
    1. Re:Hmmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The sun is a man-made construct by the elites to suppress the masses! REVOLUTION NOW!!!!

    2. Re:Hmmm by vittal · · Score: 4, Informative

      Then unfortunately, you thought wrong.

      http://ar5-syr.ipcc.ch/topic_o... does describe solar irradiance and even puts a figure on the estimated amount it provides to the total radiative forcing. So solar (and other natural forcings) do have something to do with climate change, its just that they are swamped by our activity.

      Feel free to use hyperbole, but because this is a site for nerds, when you do, it just makes you sound like a bit of a pillock.

    3. Re:Hmmm by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      The current climate change is an event happening since roughly 100 years, or lets make it 150.
      During that period there was no change in the sun. So: the sun has nothing to do with it.
      We have on the other hand sun spot cycles which usually are about 11 years long, with an sunspot maximum at one end and a minimum at the other end. This again has a neglectible influence on the climate. However due to xrays etc. they influence the high atmosphere and the weather.

      The temperature difference of the sun surface between a minimum and a maximum is not even 1%.

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

      http://ar5-syr.ipcc.ch/topic_o... does describe solar irradiance and even puts a figure on the estimated amount it provides to the total radiative forcing.

      The IPCC doesn't do any such thing. The IPCC Charter and IPCC Document Submission Guidelines forbid it accepting or analysing any material that shows natural climate variability. It is only allowed to accept or analyse documents that show human-induced climate change.

    5. Re:Hmmm by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      Hotter sun plus normal fluctuations in the climate equal kill all humans to save the planet.

      I thought that, "All Scientists" said that the Sun had nothing to do with climate change and this is all due to humans?

      Then you weren't paying close enough attention to what they have actually said. That is that in the ~200 years this current climate change has been going on the Sun has not changed enough to be a major factor. But maybe that's to complicated for you to grasp.

  20. Re:I also performed a study. by mwvdlee · · Score: 1

    The one backed by the vast majority of scientist trained in the subject matter.

    --
    Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
  21. "perfect storm" by sheramil · · Score: 0

    I would be more prepared to take the article seriously if the link had gone to the actual article and not just to page three of the Australian PopSci website, and if the words "perfect storm" had been replaced with, oh, anything. It smacks of laziness to jam such an over-used term into a headline. "Yeah, 'perfect storm'! That sounds cool."

    1. Re:"perfect storm" by sheramil · · Score: 1

      "Oops! Something went wrong. Please scroll down to find your content." I did. Six pages later, still didn't see it. I searched the site for "perfect storm" and "eocene"; still couldn't find it.

  22. Hotter sun by ichthus · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    A hotter sun means we get more bang for our CO2 buck.

    Wait! What the fuck did he just say? Rewind that.
    fzfzfzfbllyrpffffeeep...

    A hotter sun means we get more bang for our CO2 buck.

    PAUSE.
    You mean to say the sun is hotter and, as a result, is having an effect? You know, contrary to the bullshit all the AGW evangelistas have been spewing these many years? Ok, gotcha.

    --
    sig: sauer
    1. Re:Hotter sun by religionofpeas · · Score: 3, Informative

      You mean to say the sun is hotter and, as a result, is having an effect?

      The sun is slowly getting hotter, over millions of years, due to hydrogen slowly turning into helium, with greater density, following a standard progression for stars of this type.

      This means that for the same CO2 levels, the Earth is getting hotter now than it did before.

    2. Re:Hotter sun by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      They didn't say or even imply the sun is hotter in the last 150 years. They said it is hotter than it was in the Eocene.

    3. Re:Hotter sun by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Over the few hundred years of industrialisation, solar impact is negligible. Over the 50 million years since the Eocene, obviously less so.

      Edit: diatribe, how appropriate

    4. Re:Hotter sun by religionofpeas · · Score: 5, Informative

      The AGW experts(and media, and talking heads) have been telling us for decades, that the sun(aka solar changes) have no impact. None

      You seem to have problems understanding the difference of "decades" vs "millions of years".

    5. Re:Hotter sun by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      On the timescale of AGW, the Sun's output only shows very minor variations. While they do have some influence on the climate (as documented by the experts), they aren't nearly as big as the warming caused by CO2. And actually the Sun has been cooling a little bit since the 1980's.

    6. Re:Hotter sun by Mashiki · · Score: 1

      While they do have some influence on the climate (as documented by the experts), they aren't nearly as big as the warming caused by CO2. And actually the Sun has been cooling a little bit since the 1980's.

      Sorry. That can't be true. All those articles which use sources, and are the basis of AGW talking points say that your view is untrue. Hate to be the bearer of bad news and tell you that you're still a climate denier.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    7. Re:Hotter sun by seven+of+five · · Score: 1

      Sorry -- CO2 is still a main driving factor. I wouldn't get too excited about the influence of the change in the sun's output. The sun has been getting brighter (more luminous) over time but the percentage is small, and the change happens over billions of years. As it gets closer to running out of hydrogen, the effect will speed up.

    8. Re:Hotter sun by religionofpeas · · Score: 2

      You seem to have problems with reading. A quote from one your articles:

      Many climate scientists agree that sunspots and solar wind could be playing a role in climate change, but the vast majority view it as very minimal and attribute Earth’s warming primarily to emissions from industrial activity

      Which is exactly what I said.

    9. Re:Hotter sun by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I am sure that is why we slipped into a full blown ice age when the CO2 levels were in thousands of ppm.
      The fact is that we are in middle of a ice age right now that actually started for other reasons than this trace gas, like for example continental drift that completely changed the circulation system of this planet. No amount of increase in CO2 is going to change that unless it also changes what put us into a ice age in first place.

      On top of that our atmopshere is thinner now as well. The reason why Venus is such a hot house is not mainly because of CO2, but because of the very dense atmosphere.

    10. Re:Hotter sun by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      DOES IT? DOES IT MEAN THAT?

      We have gone 0.6 of a doubling since pre-industrial times and we have seen 0.85 degrees of warming.
      THAT IS THE EVIDENCE. That's not a model. It's the evidence. That is all that is realistic.
      So that means for one full doubling (to 560) we are going to see 1/0.6 * 0.85 = 1.4C increase.
      Which means at the second doubling (560x2) = 1,120 we will see 3C increase.
      Which means at the third doubling (1,120x2) = 2,230 we will see 4.4C increase
      At the fourth doubling (2,230x2) we will see 5.8C increase. Hit the fucking snooze button.
      We won't get to the fifth warming because we will be out of fossil fuels.

      And this is FUCKING ASSUMING IT'S ALL US. There is evidence to suggest it's only half us which means even at the maximum possible (4th doubling) we will only see 2.9C increase. Hit the fucking snooze button twice.

    11. Re:Hotter sun by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The AGW experts(and media, and talking heads) have been telling us for decades, that the sun(aka solar changes) have no impact. None.

      And more information comes in, and the physical reality is better understood, the models are updated. Science.

    12. Re:Hotter sun by Mashiki · · Score: 1

      Which is exactly what I said.

      Sure, but you're continuing to miss the point. You figure it out yet or no?

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    13. Re:Hotter sun by Black.Shuck · · Score: 2

      Which is exactly what I said.

      Sure, but you're continuing to miss the point. You figure it out yet or no?

      Gentlemen please, this can be settled with simple science.

      All we need to be absolutely sure of AGW is a duplicate Earth, but without the humans. We implement a second Earth as it was 200 years ago, remove the humans, and run the clock out.

      To increase the fidelity of the test, we simply create more Earths.

    14. Re:Hotter sun by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes the sun is getting hotter. It is also losing mass. By converting it into energy and solar wind. This causes the plants' orbit to slowly move away from the sun. This effect and the increased output of the sun actually have balance out in the past, such the solar gain on earth has remained relatively constant over the last few billion years. When the sun becomes a red giant, it would consume the earth, if it remained in it's current orbit, but the orbit of the earth will far enough out by then (+1 billion years) that it won't consumed by the sun - granted the planet won't be hospitable to life that relies on solar radiation and liquid water.

    15. Re:Hotter sun by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      The sun is not cooling since the 1980ths, but since roughly 1998.

      No idea why you want to spread your idiotic world view with links like that ....

      You should read the articles, and try to comprehend them. Hint: the word "myth" in the title of your first linked article should be a give away. (*facepalm*)

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    16. Re:Hotter sun by CustomSolvers2 · · Score: 1

      without the humans

      Nonsense! The humans aren't the problem, but their machines. We have to let humans evolve up to pre-industrial-revolution-times and don't let them get any further than that (by killing anyone becoming intelligent enough?).

      We also need other earths with parallel low-CO2 industrial revolutions to model the perfect conditions under which our industrialisation stage might have been reached.

      Other than that, your idea seems promising! Why hasn't anyone started to work on it yet?

      --
      Custom Solvers 2.0 = Alvaro Carballo Garcia = varocarbas.
    17. Re:Hotter sun by Black.Shuck · · Score: 1

      without the humans

      Nonsense! The humans aren't the problem, but their machines.

      Good call! And yes, this is exactly why we need many duplicate Earths with many different conditions, against which we can separate the signal from the noise. Earth is a complex system, and the more we have the more chance we have of really determining cause and effect on a large scale.

    18. Re:Hotter sun by CustomSolvers2 · · Score: 1

      If you need anything else like a part-time god (or devil) for one of the earths, just let me know; but bear in mind that I will be an avenging one (not negotiable).

      Serious now. I have seen something quite weird with Slashdot today which never saw before: you wrote your reply hours ago, but I didn't get the warning in my RHS panel until some minutes ago?! Additionally, I have been seeing the same funny message in the lower bar during the whole day (curiously, something related to earth)?! Other than that, the site has been working fine. It was just with my account or have you also seen something like that?

      --
      Custom Solvers 2.0 = Alvaro Carballo Garcia = varocarbas.
    19. Re:Hotter sun by Black.Shuck · · Score: 1

      I've seen delayed email notifications before, but not really noticed the "stuck" message at the bottom of the page.

      It currently says "Programmers do it bit by bit"...

    20. Re:Hotter sun by CustomSolvers2 · · Score: 1

      Yes, I see the same now. Note that I haven't ever seen that weird behaviour before (using Slashdot since over 2 years ago?). Anyway, I guess that it was just a curious output triggered by a kind of buggy sub-part under very specific conditions.

      --
      Custom Solvers 2.0 = Alvaro Carballo Garcia = varocarbas.
  23. Re:An Industrial Revolution 50 million years ago?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I think the focus needs to shift away from climate "change" and focus on climate control. It's refreshing to hear the climate alarmist actually admitting that the sun has something to do with warming. However regardless of who is to blame for climate conditions, we humans should focus on analyzing all of the data and factors and see what we can do to control conditions. If we are heading into an ice age do what we can to keep temps up. If heading into warming, do what we can to cool it down. Instead of picking a political agenda and only supporting the facts that contribute to that agenda.

  24. Re:An Industrial Revolution 50 million years ago?! by mean+pun · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yeah, yeah. Red herring 4, straight out of the deniers handbook. Ok, my turn to debunk.

    Nobody disputes that nature could cause this kind of global warming or the later cooling. What science rejects is that for this particular global warming there is any other plausible explanation than human activity. Especially because of the remarkable speed with which it happens, the synchronicity with the industrial revolution, and just plain simple physics.

  25. The global warming hysterics are getting smarter by SensitiveMale · · Score: 0

    They used point twenty years into the future for irreparable damage to the planet. After forty years of no global annihilation, they are pointing to over eighty years away for the "no return tipping point."

  26. Re:Republicans DESERVE to go extinct. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    haters like you make life worse for everyone

  27. It's spring by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Time to be bombarded by more global warming hysteria by that ever ready spreader of fake news and liberal mouthpiece, slashdot!. Or was it climate change? I'm confused. Thanks for loosening pollution regulations President Trump. It will give our economy a chance to grow after a decade of being strangled by the liberals.

  28. Re:An Industrial Revolution 50 million years ago?! by itsdapead · · Score: 1, Troll

    Can anybody tell me more about the humans and their Industrial Revolution that happened 50 million years ago to cause this earlier global warming incident?

    Well, we could point you at the Wikipedia pages that explain all this, but you'll only accuse it of being warmist fake science and cherry-pick this for any uncertainties or unknowns which you can claim disprove the whole thing... While also missing the point that these were changes that took place over tens of millions of years and could have been driven by things like continental drift and very slow variations in orbit or solar output... rather than a few billion stupid apes digging up and burning every scrap of fossil carbon they could find over the course of a mere century.... or the concept that a small initial change in temperature could trigger the release of huge amounts of otherwise sequestered methane...

    From TFS: Climate change denialists often mention that CO2 was high in the past, that it was warm in the past, so this means there's nothing to worry about,

    Of course, in the past, the locations of many of our major cities or key agricultural lands were in the middle of parched deserts or under oceans which would be... inconvenient if it happened again.

    --
    In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
  29. CO2 / Logarithmic Effect by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    From what I have read, CO2's warming is logarithmic. Most of the warming effect occurs in the first 40-60ppm. We're somewhere around 300-400ppm right now, depending on what study you're looking at.

    So, whatever warming is going on is very unlikely to be strongly linked to CO2. Something else is going on. Focusing on CO2, and only CO2, is like trying to complete a puzzle with just one piece.

  30. Let's prepare for the hotness by dcornewell · · Score: 1

    So, we can agree that it's getting hotter right? Everyone says either we need to lower CO2 more than possible or that it's getting hotter because of outside forces. Either way, it's getting hotter. To say that it's nothing to worry about silly though. Sure the rock we live on survived past heating and cooling. You know, cause it's a rock. We should prepare for changes in climate the same way we prepare for increases in volcanic activity, hurricanes, or other changes in the weather AKA climate changes. Improve food production in harsh environments. Build dwellings that are energy efficient and safe from the elements. When you say we need to prepare for various destructive weather patterns people are chill and support you. You say climate change and they argue about coal.

  31. Ugh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Utter and complete tosh. I've read better science on public lavatory walls.

  32. and that would be a bad thing... because? by ooloorie · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If we do nothing to reduce our carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions,

    Short of completely wrecking the global economy or starting a major nuclear war, no government policy is going to have an appreciable effect on climate.

    by the end of this century the Earth will be as hot as it was 50 million years ago in the early Eocene

    Good climate for primates and mammals, and generally life on the planet. Milder, wetter conditions everywhere. More arable land, fewer deserts. We should be so lucky. Unfortunately, that's not going to happen, if not for any other reason, than that it will take a couple of thousand years for the polar ice caps to melt.

    according to a new study out today in the journal Nature Communications. This period -- roughly 15 million years after dinosaurs went extinct and 49.8 million years before modern humans appeared on the scene -- was 16F to 25F warmer than the modern norm

    Yes, before the earth plunged into the current cycle of glaciation periods, which makes large parts of the northern hemisphere uninhabitable for more than half of every 100000 years. (Not so) great times!

    If we keep going and exhaust our supplies of fossil fuels like gas and coal, the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere could rise to 2000 ppm by 2250 [...] And because the sun was much dimmer then

    Ah, the joys of science based on "alternative facts".

    1. Re:and that would be a bad thing... because? by mean+pun · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If we do nothing to reduce our carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions,

      Short of completely wrecking the global economy or starting a major nuclear war, no government policy is going to have an appreciable effect on climate.

      I find it interesting that many pooh-poohers have suddenly switched from no, not true, not happening to nothing can be done. I mean, this is something like the fourth or fifth one in this thread, whereas even a week ago this was an unusual response. Was there a focus group somewhere that said this is more effective? Didn't your marketing people think this message is a bit too dark for the average mark?

    2. Re:and that would be a bad thing... because? by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      if you're starting to notice that there are issues beyond (1) and (2)

      For those that are denying (1) or (2), there are no issues beyond.

    3. Re:and that would be a bad thing... because? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've been saying this for years. It was obvious decades ago China and India don't give a damn.

    4. Re:and that would be a bad thing... because? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      There is nothing "sudden" about it; the view that government is incapable of having meaningful, long-term positive impact on the economy has been the primary message of free market economists since Adam Smith.

      Have you read Adam Smith, because that's not what he says...

    5. Re:and that would be a bad thing... because? by ooloorie · · Score: 1

      For those that are denying (1) or (2), there are no issues beyond.

      And those who understand that science has little to say about (3-5) also understand that (1) and (2) are irrelevant.

    6. Re:and that would be a bad thing... because? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I find it interesting that you shrill "OMG we get science and you guys don't" people DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE FUCKING SCIENCE.

      It's a FUCKING DOUBLING of C02 that causes each unit of warming.

      That doesn't mean 10X the warming for 3000 ppm it means 3X the warming.

      400->800 is one unit of warming
      800->1600 is two units of warming
      1600->3200 is three units of warming
      3200->6400 is oh wait THERE'S NO MORE FUCKING OIL LEFT NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.

    7. Re:and that would be a bad thing... because? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      There is nothing "sudden" about it; the view that government is incapable of having meaningful, long-term positive impact on the economy has been the primary message of free market economists since Adam Smith.

      What is sudden is this belief. Adam Smith, all modern economists and all economists in between those two see an absolutely massive long-term meaningful positive impact of government on the free market....they're kind of the only entity out there that is capable of freeing markets and creating a playing field that a market can thrive on. Without a solid governmental foundation, all markets become non-free or in best case massively shrink. Adam Smith spends huge chunks of his page counts about the need for a government in order to create free markets....he just then cautions that too much meddling in the economy is very bad. But he sees a major role of governments in allowing and encouraging accumulation, and investment in capital, as well as enforcing contracts, providing for safety of markets and goods, weeding out counterfeit goods, and in general setting the rules of the economic game. Without proper government intervention in the economy, he explicitly states that the markets would fail. He was liberal-democratic for the time, and definitely not libertarian or laissez-faire.

    8. Re:and that would be a bad thing... because? by oh_my_080980980 · · Score: 1

      Interesting because it doesn't stop corporations from using government to have a long-term positive impact on the economy...

    9. Re:and that would be a bad thing... because? by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      Without (1) and (2), there would be no (3-5), so very relevant.

    10. Re:and that would be a bad thing... because? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I find it interesting that many pooh-poohers have suddenly switched from no, not true, not happening to nothing can be done.

      You are like the people who say, "I find it interesting that they switched from calling it global warming to climate change." No, people have been saying, "not true and nothing can be done" for decades now, you weren't paying attention. The problem you are mentioning is you, not other people.

      More precisely, they've been saying that the steps we as a human race are willing to take (the Kyoto agreement, the Copenhagen agreement, etc) are not going to have any appreciable effect. Making a huge push for everyone in the world to switch to nuclear will have a big effect, but that isn't something people are willing to do, partly because it would be very expensive, and partly because a good portion of the electorate hates the idea.

    11. Re:and that would be a bad thing... because? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Good climate for primates and mammals, and generally life on the planet. Milder, wetter conditions everywhere. [wikipedia.org] More arable land, fewer deserts. We should be so lucky. Unfortunately, that's not going to happen, if not for any other reason, than that it will take a couple of thousand years for the polar ice caps to melt.

      ... and a good climate for arthopods and disease.

      Yes, before the earth plunged into the current cycle of glaciation periods, which makes large parts of the northern hemisphere uninhabitable for more than half of every 100000 years. (Not so) great times!

      ... yet somehow, as inhospitable as it's apparently been, there's been life in the northern hemisphere for several thousand years.

      Keep apologizing for and cheering on climate change. Moron.

    12. Re:and that would be a bad thing... because? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Short of completely wrecking the global economy or starting a major nuclear war, no government policy is going to have an appreciable effect on climate.

      Ah, the joys of posting bullshit on the internet based on "alternative facts"

      FTFY

    13. Re:and that would be a bad thing... because? by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      So why were 1) and 2) first non-existent and then irrelevant? That sounds very much like neither their existence or their relevance is the real issue for the deniers. A sane person, upon finding out to be wrong (for example about 1)'s and 2)'s purported nonexistence), would simply recognize his error and that would be it. Instead you get this shifting line of defense of something completely else. Finding out what that completely else agenda is is what ought to focus on.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    14. Re:and that would be a bad thing... because? by ooloorie · · Score: 1

      Interesting because it doesn't stop corporations from using government to have a long-term positive impact on the economy...

      Free market economists, conservatives, and libertarians believe that any "use of government" by corporations has a long-term negative impact on the economy.

      Of course, progressives don't understand this, which is why they favor cronyism and corruption.

    15. Re:and that would be a bad thing... because? by ooloorie · · Score: 0

      That sounds very much like neither their existence or their relevance is the real issue for the deniers.

      Like any little fascist, you divide the world into "us" vs "them", "true people" and "deniers". And like any little fascist, you are incapable of nuance or understanding. It's impossible to have a rational debate with people like you, so I'll just tell you to go to hell. Clear enough?

    16. Re:and that would be a bad thing... because? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What I said is "has been the primary message of free market economists since Adam Smith", not that Adam Smith said it.

    17. Re:and that would be a bad thing... because? by ooloorie · · Score: 0

      Without a solid governmental foundation, all markets become non-free or in best case massively shrink.

      Ah, a misconception and lie straight out of Das Kapital and Mein Kampf.

      But he sees a major role of governments in allowing and encouraging accumulation, and investment in capital, as well as enforcing contracts, providing for safety of markets and goods, weeding out counterfeit goods, and in general setting the rules of the economic game. Without proper government intervention in the economy, he explicitly states that the markets would fail.

      In a free market, government at most enforces contracts and provides physical safety, that's all. The rest is social market economy crap that is contrary to free markets; in reality, it is motivated by political considerations, not economic outcomes.

      He was liberal-democratic for the time, and definitely not libertarian or laissez-faire.

      I said "free market economists since Adam Smith", not "Adam Smith". Adam Smith was the first to formulate free market economics as an ideas, but he wasn't a full free market economists.

      As for "liberal-democratic", you are playing word games. Adam Smith was leaning towards classical liberalism, a philosophical movement that is almost diametrically opposed to what is called "liberal" or "democratic" in the US today.

    18. Re:and that would be a bad thing... because? by lars_stefan_axelsson · · Score: 1

      I find it interesting that many pooh-poohers have suddenly switched from no, not true, not happening to nothing can be done. I mean, this is something like the fourth or fifth one in this thread, whereas even a week ago this was an unusual response. Was there a focus group somewhere that said this is more effective? Didn't your marketing people think this message is a bit too dark for the average mark?

      No, its simply that everyone is following more or less the same script. But as they're not coordinated completely, they're slightly out of sync.

      It's straight from the playbook of the tobacco lobby. Seem like you're having a debate, but it's just a carefully scripted set of talking points designed to give as little ground as possible and only when you have to, while wearing your opponent out. Much like a military "defence in depth" is. It's the same principle.

      --
      Stefan Axelsson
    19. Re:and that would be a bad thing... because? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    20. Re:and that would be a bad thing... because? by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      That's an awful lot of projecting there. ;)

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    21. Re:and that would be a bad thing... because? by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      the view that government is incapable of having meaningful, long-term positive impact on the economy has been the primary message of free market economists since Adam Smith.

      And it's nonsense. The free market cannot exist without some method of enforcing deals and suppressing crime, and in groups too large to have effective reputation deterrents and social coercion that means a government. Government is also useful in internalizing economic externalities, such as pollution. Without government intervention, the economy would suffer from more sick workers, and it would take more money to achieve the same subjective quality of life.

      In this case, a revenue-neutral fossil carbon tax would slant the economy against producing CO2. Since this would work as a market incentive, it would do so efficiently rather than requiring clumsy government regulation. (The free market is extremely effective at some things, and fails completely at others.)

      As far as the issues go: 1) We're warming up. The evidence for this is direct and unmistakable. 2) More CO2 in the air is expected to produce global warming, all other things being equal, and the isotopic composition of CO2 in the atmosphere shows that we put it there (fossil carbon is C-12 without C-14, while carbon in the usual cycle has some C-14). Nobody has found an alternative explanation for (1) that agrees with the observations, and nobody has found a reason why our CO2 production wouldn't affect the climate that agrees with the observations.

      3) Exactly how much we'll warm up and how fast is partly a matter of speculation because climate is tricky, and partly because it depends on what we do. Simple thermodynamics predicts more temperature rise, at a rate that's incredibly fast on a geological scale, and nobody's come up with a reason why it wouldn't. 4) There are policies we can adopt to reduce fossil fuel use, and hence reduce future warming. There are also possible ways to reduce the amount of sunlight reaching the Earth, although those may have other consequences. I've seen speculation on taking CO2 out of the air and sequestering it, but that would require more non-fossil-fuel power. 5) Warming will have numerous effects. Some are going to be beneficial. Winters where I live are less stressful on humans than winters when I was young, since extreme cold is much less common. Winters where I live are also going to have different effects on plants which may be harmful. The IPCC report has a list of effects and how confident the IPCC is about them. Overall, it's going to be bad. For example, plants have evolved and been bred to grow well in the areas they are in now, and warming and precipitation changes are going to disrupt them. Since plants depend on other things, like day length, just moving agriculture around isn't going to make up for that.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    22. Re:and that would be a bad thing... because? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've been saying that for at least a decade.

      Further, I don't know anyone who denies that climate changes. People joke about"warming" although that's not denial, it is ironic humor when we see winters getting colder. Almost everyone in my circle is skeptical or critical of the "climate change" bandwagon - but while some are skeptical of warming, I know NOBODY who denies climate change. Everyone learned in grade school that the climate changes. I live in an area that was once covered with ice age glaciers, and evidence of climate change and catastrophy is all around us. We grew up with it. Its obvious. Nobody denies it.

      You seem to think there is some propaganda machine at work, that we are regurgitating "talking points" or that some ringleader has altered their story. Here's a giant clue: neither I, not my fellow skeptics, pay any attention to supposed climate denier leaders. I don't even know who that would be. I voted Trump not because he tells me what to think, but because he agrees with what I already think.

      I am a skeptic, yes, but not a skeptic of climate change. As I said that is obvious.

      I am a skeptic that (1) human activity controls the climate, that (2) climate change is a bad thing, and that (3) the hockey stick is accurate or a useful predictor.

      Of course human activity has SOME effect on climate. The American dust bowl showed that two generations ago. Yes we add carbon dioxide, that surely has some effect. But do our factories and cars outweigh volcanism and cow farts? Is CO2 the whole story? Is it more important than Solar cycles, or precession, and so forth? Frankly I doubt it.

      Is climate change a bad thing? If the Sahara was green, if Siberia was fertile, if Antarctica were inhabitable.... that is a BAD thing? More CO2 means more forests. People complain we are overcrowded... maybe that's because we live on half-ruined planet, still recovering from freezing and desertification. An ice age is far more terrifying than warming. So what if the sea level rises 30 ft? It has already risen 300 ft. Me I'm in for the ride. We have adapted in the past, we will do so in the future.

      No, I am not in favor of big policy efforts to halt climate change. The climate is GOING to change, we can't stop it. I see no reason to lose my job over it, or may more taxes. Its a huge waste. The government needs the populace to unify against an "enemy" in order to increase control an ensure cooperation; if no enemy exists they'll manufacture one. That's what climate change, and identity politics, and BLM is all about. Manufacturing a crisis, to justify their jobs and budgets. There may be a conspiracy, but no conspiracy is needed; individual politicians benefit from these things just fine, which is why they seize on the bandwagons and fan the flames. It is irresponsible, ignorant, and self-serving. It's not an organized conspiracy, it's chaotic mob rule, only the wild eyed mob leaders all use the same useful tools... because they work.

      Wake up and think for yourself.

    23. Re:and that would be a bad thing... because? by Agripa · · Score: 1

      My position was always that anthropomorphic caused global warming is real but politics and rent seeking will prevent significant amelioration even within single countries. This quote from Quatermass and the Pit sums it up nicely:

      Professor Bernard Quatermass - The will to survive is an odd phenomenon. Roney, if we found out our own world was doomed, say by climatic changes, what would we do about it?
      Dr. Mathew Roney - Nothing, just go on squabbling like usual.

    24. Re:and that would be a bad thing... because? by werepants · · Score: 1

      Apparently the groupthink among denialists has graduated to Stage 4.

      1. Deny the Problem Exists
      2. Deny We're the Cause
      3. Deny It's a Problem
      4. Deny We Can Solve It
      5. It's Too Late

      Now the question is how long till the next stage?

    25. Re:and that would be a bad thing... because? by ooloorie · · Score: 1

      ... and a good climate for arthopods and disease.

      Cherry-picked speculations.

      ... yet somehow, as inhospitable as it's apparently been, there's been life in the northern hemisphere for several thousand years.

      Yes, we have been during a warm period for about 20000 years. That's the way glaciation cycles work.

      Keep apologizing for and cheering on climate change. Moron.

      Keep demonstrating your ignorance of basic science.

    26. Re:and that would be a bad thing... because? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Ah, a misconception and lie straight out of Das Kapital and Mein Kampf."

      And who says conservatives don't engage in identity politics? /s

      "In a free market, government at most enforces contracts and provides physical safety, that's all."

      So then you were fine with the Great Depression happening, the Great Recession, and you think that Russia is a bastion of free markets?

      Also, what the fuck is physical safety? I would argue that free market is absolute anarchy, and everything else is some version of socialism - including the bullshit that you think is 'free market'. Also, enforces contracts, how?

      What we do now isn't good contractual reinforcement, because we still have phone call spam and email spam, both of which CLEARLY break Terms of Service contracts. How much are you willing to pay for the government to enforce contracts on behalf of private enterprises? What about copyright infringement? Should YouTube be taken down because of the flagrant abuses of the copyright system?

      Oh, and if you have businesses pay the government proportionately to the actual cost of providing security, well, congratulations, you've just reinvented government sponsored insurance.

      Oh, and good fucking luck trying to get your version of 'free market' government to work with the Constitution. Voting rights would be gone, because voters would frequently vote in laws that would bastardize the government from your 'vision' of 'free market government'. In effect, you'd be a tyrant because you'd be unwilling to compromise on anything meaningful, like, for example, your only two rules - enforce contract law and provide physical safety. At most, you say.

      Put it to you this way - if you got your way, you'd take a shit on Constitutional rights and be a tyrant, or you'd be a schmuck like the rest of us 'libtards' and frankly, someone would kill you and probably me for being talkative and argumentative assholes.

      If you didn't get your way, well, you'd be as miserable and ignorant as you are now, lustfully wanting a world that conforms to your every contradictory libertarian retarded whim.

    27. Re:and that would be a bad thing... because? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your talking about a non issue here. If you would please remove head from ass long enough to read some advances in many fields you will find that while you were attempting to banter me about how you life a better life for the earth the US Navy basically handed the oil industry its walking papers.

      I would link one of dozens of articles on the matter, but I will refrain, just look Navy Saltwater Jet fuel. and you will find that we can already produce any carbon based fuels with nothing but electricity and seawater. the cost is about $3-$6 per Gal, and basically makes your "carbon footprint" equal 0 if you can produce that electricity in a none carbon way. which the Navy will do with small nukes. as for civilians we can create more efficient electricity with a new style LFTR nuclear power plant.

      So yes you are vindicated something can be done, but it won't change the underlying problem here. CO2 has done almost nothing, the major driver of weather on this pale blue dot is the sun, and its getting brighter.

    28. Re:and that would be a bad thing... because? by Gussington · · Score: 1

      Short of completely wrecking the global economy or starting a major nuclear war, no government policy is going to have an appreciable effect on climate.

      Wrecking the economy? That is what the fossil fuel industry would have you believe, becausr they have the most to lose. But every great economic advancement was kicked off by some new technological discovery, so it follows that if government policy was to invest in new technology to lmit the impact of climate change, it would actually stimulate the economy. It would be a net gain (as we're already seeing with some energy segments, there is much more job creation in new energy than old).
      And if you don't believe is new energy, then invest in climate control technology, or technology that can make arid land more usable. There are solutions, and they all involve R&D, and some of them will require and government incentives. Simply throwing your hands in the air isn't a solution.

    29. Re:and that would be a bad thing... because? by ooloorie · · Score: 1

      Wrecking the economy? That is what the fossil fuel industry would have you believe, becausr they have the most to lose.

      No, that's what I believe based on looking at the data. Oh, and the fossil fuel industry doesn't care; when the government starts pouring billions into "new energy", they simply become "new energy companies", like "BP = Beyond Petrol".

      But every great economic advancement was kicked off by some new technological discovery, so it follows that if government policy was to invest in new technology to lmit the impact of climate change, it would actually stimulate the economy.

      There are a couple logical errors there.

      First, you are saying that a new technological discovery is necessary for great economic advancement; let's assume for the sake of argument that that were correct (actually, it is not; many great economic advancements have been triggered by social, cultural, or economic changes). When D is necessary for A, it doesn't follow that D is sufficient for A. That is, there are many technological discoveries that don't trigger economic advancements.

      Then you assume that government investment in technology results in faster technological advancement. Where is the evidence that it does that for alternative energy? In fact, if you look at the cost of wind and solar, they show simple, long-term trends over the last 40 years, the result of lots of little advances.

      It would be a net gain (as we're already seeing with some energy segments, there is much more job creation in new energy than old).

      That kind of "job creation" isn't a net gain to the economy, because it suggests that you are replacing a highly automated and efficient energy source with one that requires much more labor. In fact, you really can't "create jobs" in any meaningful sense: almost all people who can be working in an economy are working (even if it is as "homemaker"). All government can do is subsidize people to move from one occupation to another, and since you're subsidizing them, the outcome is less rational and less efficient.

      And if you don't believe is new energy, then invest in climate control technology, or technology that can make arid land more usable.

      I do believe in new energy and I do believe in investing in it. What I don't believe is in government taking my and everybody else's money and then subsidizing research and companies with it.

      See, the market already has very strong incentives to move to new energy sources, to come up with solutions to extreme weather events and coastal erosion, etc. Investors have strong incentives to invest their money accordingly, in companies that show promise, act honestly, and live up to their commitments. Politicians and administrators don't have such incentives; they don't have to care whether the money they spend on subsidies ("invest") yields something useful down the road: their own money is not on the line, and politically, it makes no difference. So, they don't subsidize based on economically and scientifically rational criteria, they subsidize based on political criteria: placating environmental activists, getting good press for flashy projects, "creating jobs", and giving money to companies owned by big donors.

      There are solutions, and they all involve R&D, and some of them will require and government incentives.

      No, they don't "require government incentives". To the contrary, government spending targeting particular R&D areas may even hurt them. Government R&D subsidies are short-term and unpredictable. Researchers don't want to build long term careers and companies don't want to build long term businesses based on funding that can go away with a simple change of administration in Washington. In addition, government funding tends to attract people and companies that substitute political connections for competence, creating a further disincentive for people with skills and competence to stay in that area.

    30. Re:and that would be a bad thing... because? by Gussington · · Score: 1

      No, that's what I believe based on looking at the data. Oh, and the fossil fuel industry doesn't care; when the government starts pouring billions into "new energy", they simply become "new energy companies", like "BP = Beyond Petrol".

      Oh that explains why the Forbes 100 has been completely static for the last 200 years. Oh wait...

    31. Re:and that would be a bad thing... because? by ooloorie · · Score: 1

      Oh that explains why the Forbes 100 has been completely static for the last 200 years. Oh wait...

      Forbes Magazine has only existed for 100 years. And companies make and drop off that list for all sorts of reasons.

      In any case, use your head: companies constantly reinvent themselves in response to technological changes. It's the norm, not the exception.

      And you are living under a rock if you haven't seen the stories about fossil fuel companies exploring alternative energy sources:

      https://www.bloomberg.com/news...

      https://www.theguardian.com/bu...

      http://www.reuters.com/article...

      Etc.

    32. Re:and that would be a bad thing... because? by Gussington · · Score: 1

      In any case, use your head: companies constantly reinvent themselves in response to technological changes. It's the norm, not the exception.

      Exactly my point. Some succeed, some fail, others replace them, and all this activity stimulates the economy, rather than wrecking it.

    33. Re:and that would be a bad thing... because? by ooloorie · · Score: 1

      Exactly my point. Some succeed, some fail, others replace them, and all this activity stimulates the economy, rather than wrecking it.

      You're confusing cause and effect. A productive, active economy often creates corporate turnover and high employment. It doesn't follow that creating high corporate turnover and high employment is good for the economy. I know: it's a common mistake made by devotees of left and right wing politics.

    34. Re:and that would be a bad thing... because? by Gussington · · Score: 1

      You're confusing cause and effect.

      No I'm not.

      A productive, active economy often creates corporate turnover and high employment.

      Not wrong...

      It doesn't follow that creating high corporate turnover and high employment is good for the economy.

      No because I wasn't reaching that conclusion from that assumption.
      The claim is that any government policy to reduce carbon emission will wreck the economy. But we already have examples of that not being the case I'm struggling to think of any examples of increased employment and new emerging industries being bad for the economy? Maybe you could help me out?

      I know: it's a common mistake made by devotees of left and right wing politics.

      Only those that proceed on false assumptions.

    35. Re:and that would be a bad thing... because? by ooloorie · · Score: 0

      The claim is that any government policy to reduce carbon emission will wreck the economy.

      No, the claim is that any effective government policy that reduces carbon emissions meaningfully and beyond what the market will do by itself will wreck the economy. The minor amount of tinkering the US and Europe have engaged in are not enough to wreck the economy, but they also don't meaningfully reduce carbon emissions. And what has reduced carbon emissions over the last decade is not government policy, but natural developments in the energy sector, mostly a switch to shale gas.

      But we already have examples of that not being the case [eesi.org] I'm struggling to think of any examples of increased employment and new emerging industries being bad for the economy? Maybe you could help me out?

      Sure, I can help you out. You can achieve "increased employment and new emerging industries" by any kind of natural disaster or widespread destruction or putting people to work on useless tasks. That increases economic indicators, but it makes peoples' lives miserable. Socialists, progressives, and fascists love that approach to "fixing the economy", whether it's Mussolini, Hitler, FDR, Stalin, or Krugman ("An Alien Invasion Could Fix the Economy").

      Of course, in the article you cite, there isn't even evidence that new jobs are being created. That article says how many workers are supported by "clean energy". But labor is a scarce resource, and those workers would be more productively employed in other parts of the economy. Climate activists actually even tout this as an advantage.

      It's like saying that we should return to pre-assembly line car manufacturing because it employs more people; indeed, it does, but it also makes cars cost a lot more. Or, it's like reducing unemployment by mandating that everybody homeowner employ a topiary specialist and shape at least three bushes like the heads of Clinton, Gore, and Obama; sure, it would create "increased employment and new emerging industries", but it would also leave home owners a lot poorer and take labor from productive parts of the economy and redirect them to a useless vanity project.

      Only those that proceed on false assumptions.

      As you are doing. Your false assumption is that "creating more jobs" or "employing more people" to produce the same amount or less energy is a good thing, when, in fact, it is a bad thing.

    36. Re:and that would be a bad thing... because? by Gussington · · Score: 1

      Your false assumption is that "creating more jobs" or "employing more people" to produce the same amount or less energy is a good thing, when, in fact, it is a bad thing.

      Only if you don't understand the economics, which you've made abundantly clear.

    37. Re:and that would be a bad thing... because? by ooloorie · · Score: 0

      If you actually understood the economics, you would be able to make an argument for why employing more labor to produce the same amount of economic output is a good thing. But you're just a typical l peddler of broken fascist economic ideas,

    38. Re:and that would be a bad thing... because? by Gussington · · Score: 1

      If you actually understood the economics, you would be able to make an argument for why employing more labor to produce the same amount of economic output is a good thing. But you're just a typical l peddler of broken fascist economic ideas,

      Right. Fascism/Hitler. It's always Fascism or Hitler with you isn't it?
      Why is that? Do you ever find that when you're typing in the word Hitler or Fascism something doesn't go off in you head that says " I've used these words a little bit too much lately, maybe I should change it up a bit"?

      If you are genuinely interested in the economics Google it. I have no time for children whose every response is Hitler!

    39. Re:and that would be a bad thing... because? by ooloorie · · Score: 1

      Right. Fascism/Hitler. It's always Fascism or Hitler with you isn't it? Why is that?

      You keep hearing that from me because it accurately describes the economic ideas that you (and, in general, American and European progressives) advocate.

      Do you ever find that when you're typing in the word Hitler or Fascism something doesn't go off in you head that says " I've used these words a little bit too much lately, maybe I should change it up a bit"?

      Actually, something goes off in my head that says "I have had to use these words a little bit too much lately; how is it possible that these failed ideologies are making such a comeback in 21st century America and Europe?"

      If you are genuinely interested in the economics Google it.

      I don't need to "Google it" because I actually read plenty of books on it. You should try reading actual books and following arguments and analyses that are longer than a web page and written by people with a bit more understanding than a Slate reporter or a Wikipedia editor. Here are some books to get you started:

      https://www.amazon.com/Road-Se...

      https://www.amazon.com/Sociali...

      https://www.amazon.com/Three-N...

      https://www.amazon.com/Intelle...

  33. Your plan? by s.petry · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The US and many western countries have been curbing CO2 emissions. China, India, Russia, and others have been increasing. The US can control it's own policies, but not those of foreign States. Hell, we can't stop the DPRK from developing nuclear weapons and missile technology, which has a far bigger impact on the environment than global warming. We can't stop China from creating man made islands in the South China Sea, which again has far bigger impact on the climate (loss of ocean habitat, destruction of ecosystems, etc..)

    So what is _your_ magic plan exactly? Tell China to give some entity money so that they can ignore your request? Tell Russia to stop industrial work so that they can laugh at you? How about having some invisible entity with no plans either selling you "Carbon Credits" so that you simply lose money yourself?

    In case you haven't noticed, the latter question is the only one that has been proposed. Al Gore, supra genius, flying around in his private jet with his entourage renting massive bullet proof SUVs is proof that people in power don't give a rats behind about fixing any Climate problems. They want power, which includes your money and livelihood.

    Until you come up with a solution, there is no possible way to deal with this issue with any immediacy. You are on par with demanding world peace and harmony, in that it sounds good but won't work because "human nature".

    --

    -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

    1. Re:Your plan? by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Carbon cap and tax. No trade. That is the answer. If you want to emit more carbon than the cap, you have to fix carbon. And the cap should be small.

      Carbon trading is a scam which should never have been permitted to become a thing. Cap and trade is not really capping. But cap and tax is completely viable. If a business can't survive under such a scheme they should get out of the way so that someone more efficient can get the job done.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    2. Re:Your plan? by Mashiki · · Score: 2, Informative

      No business can survive a tax of $300/tonne. Which is what Trudeau wants to push here in Canada, it would crash our economy overnight.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    3. Re:Your plan? by BillCable · · Score: 1

      No carbon cap plan caps CO2 enough to make anything but a negligible impact. It'll cost a trillion dollars to curb .1 of a degree. I read somewhere that if we stopped all fossil fuel extraction TODAY and just burned what we already had on-hand, we'd still not reduce CO2 enough to make an impact. No plan is viable to the task at hand.

      Our only option is to adapt to the inevitable change.

    4. Re:Your plan? by MightyMartian · · Score: 0, Troll

      Good. Some businesses shouldn't survive at all.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    5. Re:Your plan? by blackomegax · · Score: 1

      It's brilliant, really. Economies allow your government to enslave you (via debt and consumerist treadmills of dopamine loops). Crash it, and you become free.

    6. Re:Your plan? by khallow · · Score: 1

      And the cap should be small.

      Because nothing is more important than climate change. Not even the factors like overpopulation that make climate change a problem in the first place.

    7. Re:Your plan? by Mashiki · · Score: 1

      Good. Some businesses shouldn't survive at all.

      Well you're american. I'm sure you could handle having 40m people flooding in from Canada looking to survive right?

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    8. Re:Your plan? by Mashiki · · Score: 2

      It's brilliant, really. Economies allow your government to enslave you (via debt and consumerist treadmills of dopamine loops). Crash it, and you become free.

      Well that's one way to look at it if you're a malthusian, or have a pro-antipopulation agenda or something. Or just want people to die because they can no longer afford anything.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    9. Re:Your plan? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      *shrug* annh at least they will be polite aboot it all. :)

    10. Re:Your plan? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If Mexico can pay for the southern wall, Canada can pay for the Northern one.

    11. Re: Your plan? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Isn't there an oven somewhere you should be in?

    12. Re:Your plan? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hopefully you'll go first, you should feel more at home there.

    13. Re:Your plan? by meta-monkey · · Score: 1

      Crash it, and you become free^H^H^H^H fodder for post-apocalyptic desert warlords.

      FTFY.

      --
      We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
    14. Re:Your plan? by meta-monkey · · Score: 0

      Because nothing is more important than climate change. Not even the factors like overpopulation that make climate change a problem in the first place.

      Climate change sounds like a pretty good reason to 1) stop all 3rd world immigration into the 1st world, because moving someone from low carbon footprint Somalia to high carbon footprint Minnesota is bad for the planet and 2) stop subsidizing the population boom in Africa. Shouldn't we take these steps before killing our own industries with onerous regulations? Plus these steps don't really on cooperation with the Chinese.

      --
      We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
    15. Re:Your plan? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Chinese apparently do active work on the CO2 pollution. That is after all related to the particle pollution levels which in the cities already threaten to cause civil unrest, or at least make the people question the government.

    16. Re:Your plan? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There's enough resources on the planet for everyone to "survive" quite comfortably, perpetually. The problem isn't resources, it's greed and corruption and humans' desire for shiny crap and television.

    17. Re:Your plan? by PoopJuggler · · Score: 1

      How exactly does overpopulation make climate change a problem that wouldn't exist if not for overpopulation?

    18. Re:Your plan? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Thank you for saying this - you are expressing my thoughts pretty much exactly. I feel like anything I would is no more than a useless symbolic gesture, like shaking my fist at the storm. Even if every single consumer in the US were to suddenly to do the "right" things like drive EVs, use LED bulbs, recycle, ban CFCs, use solar panels, use sustainable farming practices, stop burning coal, and every other trending "green" thing, the Climate Change Train has already left the terminal. By the way what we do as consumers is completely undone by industries. For example, there's a cement manufacturer in my city that regularly pollutes our air and they just pay the EPA fines because it's cheaper than complying with the actual law. So even if our entire city were to go 100% green, these jerkwads would just shit all over it.

      Which leads me to take a frustrated stance of "why even try?". I'm no activist but I do my part, however in the end I don't think it matters, at all. It's a depressing state we're in.

    19. Re:Your plan? by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 3, Interesting

      So what is _your_ magic plan exactly?

      Sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

      And we had it too - a nuclear reactor that used up spent fuel from the old reactors and was easy to scale without weapons proliferation concerns. The US Labs had one running very well for a couple years ("thanks GHWB?" omg) until the project was attacked, defunded, then cancelled by the hit squad of: Hazel O'Leary, John Kerry, and Senate President ... Al Gore.

      We should have had 1100 of these things running by now but we're talking about "bringing back coal" because politicians fuck everything up. Oh, but they want more money and power to "save us" from global warming.

      If you want to stop AGW you either need to believe that this time Lucy will hold the ball for the field kick, or examine the empirical evidence and accept that as long as politicians are in charge, this problem will not be solved. The AGW crowd is chock-full of history deniers, unfortunately.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    20. Re:Your plan? by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 2

      Canadians are mostly white. I'm sure the white Canadians will be welcomed by those trying to curb immigration in the US.

      I'm an immigrant, but because I look white, I don't get much ire directed at me. I'm sure you Canadians will be equally welcomed.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    21. Re:Your plan? by allcoolnameswheretak · · Score: 5, Informative

      The US and many western countries have been curbing CO2 emissions. China, India, Russia, and others have been increasing

      At the moment it is actually Europe, China and India who are seeing the need for climate control and pushing for renewable energy sources, whereas it's the US trump administration who is singing the praises of fossil fuels and degrading environmental policy to a footnote.

    22. Re:Your plan? by Mashiki · · Score: 2

      Canadians are mostly white. I'm sure the white Canadians will be welcomed by those trying to curb illegal immigration in the US.

      I fixed that for you. Just a FYI, Canadians feel the same way for the most part about illegal immigration as Americans do. But if you travel into one of the cesspools like Toronto, you'd find it's more like San Fransisco in it's view. And even your average Canadian is getting tired of it.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    23. Re:Your plan? by pipingguy · · Score: 2

      I've found that engaging with the climate-obsessed true believers is pointless. They're like teenagers who are absolutely convinced that they're absolutely right because "Science! (Oh, and by the way, I need an increase in my allowance!)"

      The whole climate change debacle is a power and money game, with more power going to centralized government and more money being collected and redistributed by said government.

      Now cue the shrieking teenagers and downmods.

    24. Re:Your plan? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Except that the U.S. has been the leader in cutting CO2 emissions, thanks to fracking replacing coal with natural gas: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2016/04/16/how_fracking_has_reduced_greenhouse_gases_130303.html

    25. Re:Your plan? by cellocgw · · Score: 1

      How exactly does overpopulation make climate change a problem that wouldn't exist if not for overpopulation?

      On the off-chance you're not trolling, **anthropogenic** climate change exists only because of overpopulation. If the world population were, say, 250 million, we could all heat our houses with soft coal, drive 5 mpg cars, eat Kobe beefsteak every night, and the human-generated component of CO2 (and methane, etc) would be insignificant.
      Plus we could fly on 747s outfitted with a total of 50 seats, each of which is a la-z-boy recliner with a minifrig.

      --
      https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
    26. Re:Your plan? by Shark · · Score: 1

      Isn't the US a net CO2 *sink*? A far more sensible policy would be for the US to demand payment from the rest of the world for all the CO2 it takes out of the atmosphere. Way more in line with the general attitude too!

      --
      Mind the frickin' laser...
    27. Re:Your plan? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      China claimed its national CO2 emission had reduced 20% between 2010-2015, while an EU study says the CO2 emission from China increased about 17% in the same period.

      Which number do you trust?

    28. Re:Your plan? by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      .Isn't the US a net CO2 *sink*?

      Lol, no.

    29. Re:Your plan? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      moving someone from low carbon footprint Somalia to high carbon footprint Minnesota is bad for the planet

      "high carbon footprint Minnesota"

      Yeah, when I look out the window here in Minnesota I definitely see a high carbon footprint. It's all locked into the trees in the northern half of the state. WTF are you on about?

    30. Re:Your plan? by l0n3s0m3phr34k · · Score: 1

      This is pretty much what FDR would do. Too bad the idea of "Progressive Republican" is dead.

    31. Re: Your plan? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Television is actually probably one of the best ways to sedate the population into polluting the least, no?

    32. Re:Your plan? by WrongMonkey · · Score: 1
      Molecules in the atmosphere don't care about policy positions. Despite any strong policy changes, US greenhouse gas emissions are declining. Total emissions have declined 7%since 2005, largely as a result of conversion to natural gas. Emissions per capita and emissions per GDP have even more sharply declined.

      https://www.epa.gov/climate-in...

    33. Re: Your plan? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or perhaps it's because white immigrants are generally legal. I have a very big problem with illegal immigration. I'm very pro increasing immigration limits . I have emigrated twice. Not respecting the most basic laws of the country I'm moving to is unfathomable to me. And wanting people that would do that in your country ?

    34. Re:Your plan? by Ichijo · · Score: 2

      No business can survive a tax of $300/tonne.

      Not even if those businesses put up solar panels or buy their electricity from carbon-free sources?

      Not even if that $300/tonne were used to eliminate the need for a minimum wage or otherwise reduce the cost of doing business?

      Faced with a $300/tonne tax, wouldn't new businesses sprout up that help other businesses find ways to avoid that tax?

      I think you underestimate the ability of people to innovate.

      --
      Any sufficiently unpopular but cohesive argument is indistinguishable from trolling.
    35. Re:Your plan? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No petrol business can survive that I agree. Everything else will be fine, which is the plan.

    36. Re:Your plan? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Good. Some businesses shouldn't survive at all.

      Well you're american. I'm sure you could handle having 40m people flooding in from Canada looking to survive right?

      I would love to see a law that put 100% of an entire country out of work. It would have to be so incredibly awesome and well crafted.

    37. Re:Your plan? by Altrag · · Score: 1

      we can't stop the DPRK from developing nuclear weapons and missile technology

      Sure we can. It just hasn't been worth the risk of pissing off China. Now that China is backing off of their support of North Korea, doing something about them is already coming into our sights. Especially with ISIS looking less than healthy in recent weeks and the US potentially needing a new reason to keep up their military spending.

      which has a far bigger impact on the environment than global warming

      Not even close. Nukes have a bigger impact on the local environment around ground zero for a few decades, but on a global scale they're a piss in the ocean. It would take hundreds if not thousands of nukes to have significant long-term effects on the entire earth's climate.

      man made islands in the South China Sea, which again has far bigger impact on the climate (loss of ocean habitat, destruction of ecosystems, etc..)

      Again, these are local effects. Even if they were building islands right in the middle of a major ocean current's path, it would take again hundreds or thousands of them to add up to a big enough effect to matter outside of the local area.

      I don't have a solution to the CO2 problem -- at least not one the world would accept (possibly not even myself if it kills my quality of life too much!) But I can guarantee you that throwing around straw men.. especially ones that aren't even remotely accurate.. won't solve anything.

    38. Re:Your plan? by tbannist · · Score: 2

      No business can survive a tax of $300/tonne. Which is what Trudeau wants to push here in Canada, it would crash our economy overnight.

      It's $50/tonne by 2022. Which is 1/6th of what you claim.

      --
      Fanatically anti-fanatical
    39. Re:Your plan? by s.petry · · Score: 1

      photosynthesis
      fdsinTHss/
      noun
      the process by which green plants and some other organisms use sunlight to synthesize foods from carbon dioxide and water. Photosynthesis in plants generally involves the green pigment chlorophyll and generates oxygen as a byproduct.

      Producing CO2 is not inherently bad, sorry. Arguing about producing CO2 is quite frankly stupid. It is the other pollutants not discussed in AGW theory which are the problem. Want to fix CO2 issues? Grow plants!

      Now compare that to thousands of miles of Ocean habitat being destroyed, including all of the pollutants which go into creating and manning military Islands. Compare that to the DPRK actually using a nuke against South Korea or Japan, and the war(s) that would follow.

      Sorry, you are following the propaganda instead of using your noggin.

      --

      -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

    40. Re:Your plan? by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 2

      You must have a very strange idea what a "tonne" is.

      $300 tax on CO2 per tonne, that is nothing.

      Suppose you have car that uses 10l diesel on 100km, that would be 2.6kg CO2. You can make nearly 400 (384) 100km far travels with a car to produce one tonne of CO2. That would mean each travel would roughly be $1 more expensive. Or in other words: to pay $300 in CO2 tax for your car you need to travel something like close to 40,000km (and need a car with a relatively high diesel consumption)

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    41. Re:Your plan? by tbannist · · Score: 1

      Oh, no. No it's not. Not even close. The U.S. produces 14% of the world's CO2 emissions with 4% of the world's population.

      --
      Fanatically anti-fanatical
    42. Re:Your plan? by tbannist · · Score: 1

      Neither, because you failed to cite sources for either number.

      --
      Fanatically anti-fanatical
    43. Re:Your plan? by Altrag · · Score: 1

      More people = more pollution = more climate change.

      The theory is sound. The solution is not really one most of us would like to stomach though since it amounts to "kill off a couple billion people," either directly or by leaving them to starve or die of disease.

      Reducing the per capita CO2 is much more palatable, so we may as well look that direction as long as its still a possibility. If we can reduce our energy demands (without reducing quality of life) and switch our energy production to cleaner sources, the goal is to reduce that Minnesotan's carbon footprint to something much closer to the Somalian's rather than just killing off the Somalian to remove his (relatively smaller) footprint from the equation.

    44. Re:Your plan? by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      On the off-chance you're not trolling, **anthropogenic** climate change exists only because of overpopulation.
      No it does not.
      25 -35% % of the planets population is creating 90% of the CO2.

      The rest is not using as much energy, has better ways to create energy.

      If the world population were, say, 250 million, we could all heat our houses with soft coal, drive 5 mpg cars, eat Kobe beefsteak every nigh
      NO WE COULD NOT. It only would take longer to get the atmosphere into a "critical" state. It would not change the fundamental problem in any way!

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    45. Re:Your plan? by Altrag · · Score: 1

      And if we removed the politicians, who would take up the torch? Giant multinationals who answer to nothing but the bottom line?

      Yes politicians fuck everything up. But so does everybody else. At least politicians can be voted out when their term expires.

    46. Re:Your plan? by Altrag · · Score: 1

      No. Unless of course you're willing to cherry pick data to suit your needs rather than encompassing the entire picture.

    47. Re:Your plan? by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      So, how much money is actually spent in the US for climate research?

      Sorry, but phrases like this: Oh, but they want more money and power to "save us" from global warming. are just bollocks.

      If I was a climate scientist, I would work on something else than global warming if it was not a hot topic. There actually are plenty of climate scientists that don't work on global warming. To say that someone goes into university to make a "fake PhD" to get "grants" to do "fake science" is not only an insult to those people spending 15 years of their life to get into a research position: it is idiotic!

      People go to an university because they want to learn. Most people after wards _work_ in a normal "industry" job or are lawyers/teachers/programmers etc. Only a minority "stays in the system" and become researchers and/or professors.

      If all climate science would be canceled tomorrow, you would not even see a single tax dollar saved. It just would go into something else. So fuck off with your stupid attitude that "scientists want grants", moron.

      Where would you be if there was not once a scientist who got funding for: internet, smartphone, microwave, antibiotics "insert your toy"

      You are just an idiot ...

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    48. Re:Your plan? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      BC has had a carbon tax for almost ten years. It was set at a reasonable amount (currently $30/tonne) and so far, the economy has outperformed the rest of Canada. Still waiting for the crash...

    49. Re:Your plan? by khallow · · Score: 1

      How exactly does overpopulation make climate change a problem that wouldn't exist if not for overpopulation?

      An order of magnitude fewer people with the same CO2 emissions per capita generate an order of magnitude less CO2 collectively.

    50. Re:Your plan? by khallow · · Score: 1

      The solution is not really one most of us would like to stomach though since it amounts to "kill off a couple billion people," either directly or by leaving them to starve or die of disease.

      There is another solution. Wealthy societies are low fertility societies. Current mitigation efforts run counter to generating wealth (particularly, generating higher energy costs and moving wealth around ineffectively).

      My view is that in the long term, moving the standard of living of the Somalian to the standard of living of the Minnesotan is a better strategy even from the point of view of climate change than implementing policies that degrade the standard of the Minnesotan while doing nothing positive for the Somalian.

      Wealthier societies can more easily adapt to the modest climate change than poor societies can adapt to no change at all. And it is better to have better control of overpopulation than to have continued population growth and thus need for harsher and harsher control over environment impact of humanity.

    51. Re:Your plan? by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      Producing CO2 is not inherently bad, sorry. Arguing about producing CO2 is quite frankly stupid. It is the other pollutants not discussed in AGW theory which are the problem. Want to fix CO2 issues? Grow plants!

      Considering that we are burning thousands of years of plant accumulation daily thinking that growing plants will help the problem is like thinking that pissing on a 5 alarm fire will put it out.

    52. Re:Your plan? by s.petry · · Score: 1

      So deforestation of the rain forests is not an issue? Massive destruction of ocean habitat where ocean plants turn CO2 into O2? Pollution which destroys habitats and plants (great Pacific/Indian/Atlantic garbage dump, Dubai and China island building) have no impact? You are attacking a side effect much more than the actual cause. Thanks for playing "I believe propaganda"!

      --

      -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

    53. Re:Your plan? by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      I'm not saying that. Of course those are issues and they have impacts. I'm just saying that we can't grow plants fast enough to keep up with the CO2 we are producing by burning ancient plant residue. Even if we reforest the rain forests and take care of those other things you mentioned it would just barely put a dent in the problem.

    54. Re:Your plan? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Let's be clear, people are trying to curb immigration in the US, not just illegal immigration. You see it all the time with the sneering at H1Bs, which is a perfectly legal form of immigration that Slashdot frequently rails against.

      Also, really not convinced that Canadians feel the same way about illegal immigration as Americans do. And if you're calling Toronto a cesspool, which is where all the immigrants go anyway (Vancouver too to be fair), then the opinion pretty much doesn't matter.

    55. Re:Your plan? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Carbon sinks. Grow lots of Bamboo or something. Plants are like 99% carbon by mass.

    56. Re:Your plan? by s.petry · · Score: 1

      In other words, you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. Measure the increases in CO2 in the atmosphere and compare that to the amount of deforestation and ecosystem destruction across the globe. Why not do some basic correlation to show the proportion of increases to deforestation? Oh, because the propagandists won't discuss real fixes to real issues.

      Now go ahead and try to put some of that ecosystem destruction back, let us see how far you get.

      As I said in a different post in this thread, I'm a realist. If you want to propose a solution go ahead, but it has to be a real solution. Not "give entity money" where entity has no plans on doing anything outside of taking your money.

      Sadly too many people buy the propaganda hook line and sinker, generally falling for very simple fallacies.

      --

      -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

    57. Re:Your plan? by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      The only solution to AGW that has a chance of working in the long run is to stop increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. We could make all those ecosystems pristine and it wouldn't stop the increase, just slow it down a little.

    58. Re: Your plan? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If the Somalian had half the carbon footprint of the Minnesota resident it would be a significant net increase in CO2 emissions unless the Minnesota resident halved their emissions and all that would do, in terms of emissions in the short term is maintain the status quo, which is not sustainable.

      Whilst moving Somalians to a better standard of living is a good thing, birth rates take a while to reduce, and so even keeping CO2 emissions flat is going to be challenging.

      Half the per capita emissions in Minnesota probably means 2/3 the per capita emissions compared to Europe, so that target would be challenging but not necessarily impossible over a decade or two. Emissions within the USA and Europe have reduced over the last decade, although if you take into account emissions embedded in imports, not so much, so reductions in the use of coal in China would reduce the effective footprint in Minnesota, so would be a good thing.

    59. Re: Your plan? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Studies on the effects of deforestation and aforestation (and effects on crops, etc.) are being done all the time and just about every climate science research group has researchers working on this continually.

      To offset current emissions with aforestation would mean running out of planets to plant trees on in a very few decades. The only strategy that might work would be to use fast growth techniques, wood to biogas to replace some significant proportion of fossil fuels and sequestration via biochar, but this has only been trialled in small scale. It might be useful in terms of offsetting loss of carbon (a contribution to warming) from temperate zone soils as they warm, which may be a significant positive feedback.

    60. Re:Your plan? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Stop kidding yourself, China has agreed to implement the Paris agreement, Trump is talking about scrapping it. China has said it will implement it regardless of whether the US scraps it.

      You no longer get to pretend other countries are the climate enemies and to hence use them as a convenient excuse for your own abuse, the US is climate enemy number 1 right now by being both the biggest producer of CO2, the biggest producer of fossil fuels, and the biggest denier of it being a problem.

    61. Re:Your plan? by rally2xs · · Score: 1

      Our option is geo-engineering.

    62. Re:Your plan? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Carbon sinks. Grow lots of Bamboo or something. Plants are like 99% carbon by mass.

      Bamboo and algae. If you could plant all the land area on the planet with bamboo twice you'd fix the excess atmospheric carbon. You can't, but that brings the scale into focus. It's not something that is physically impossible.

      Stage one, start by using technology already developed at Sandia NREL in the 1980s to capture up to 80% of the carbon output of all CO2-producing power plants by making algae, use the algae to make biodiesel and use the waste material from that process (all the non-lipids in the algae) to make butanol. This lets us effectively use [most of] the carbon produced by power plants a second time and also produces cleaner fuels for automobiles which are otherwise carbon-neutral, assuming the energy used in the process is renewable. Stop all production of carbon-releasing power generation. Critically, stop throwing away shit. Process it for methane and also to produce soil. Carbon tax, no trade, but you can emit more if you fix more. More restrictions on GHGs.
      Stage two, plant everywhere with whatever will grow there, especially bamboo - then use the bamboo as a building material, sequestering carbon. Needs water, but it can be dirty since we're not eating it. Successions of bamboo grow in only five years. Massive production of energy storage systems and "alternative" power production systems, both solar and the type that dates back to the ancient romans (wind). Stop building internal combustion vehicles and curtail their use. Ratchet back allowable carbon emissions, and all carbon emissions must be fixed. Still more GHG restrictions, e.g. allowable water vapor emissions.
      Stage three, geo-engineering, fill in the blanks. Pick up the slack by forcibly de-acidifying the ocean, replacing plastics with ones that fix carbon, etc etc. Fringey, semi-future technology requiring development of things so far only seen in the lab. No ICEs permitted except in the back of beyond, no two-strokes. All GHGs must be compensated for somehow actively.

      Stage two might be enough if we stop punching ourselves in the nuts long enough to actually get there.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    63. Re:Your plan? by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

      You're right, it is two different issues. There is one group who is purely after curbing illegal immigration and that's really their only concern. Then there is another group who tag along with curbing illegal immigration, but their real motivation is keeping out people of different culture, religion or skin colour.

      Being opposed to illegal immigration doesn't necessarily make one part of the second group. But everyone part of that second group is also part of that first group. That second group isn't negligible either. I hear comments on an almost daily basis from people bashing the Mexicans (and all Hispanics are Mexican to them) demanding that they go back home, and other such comments.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    64. Re:Your plan? by Namarrgon · · Score: 1

      You must really hate it when teenagers keep proving you wrong with science.

      --
      Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
    65. Re:Your plan? by pipingguy · · Score: 1

      You forgot the exclamation mark. Toss in a hashtag as well and I might turn into a True Believer.

      And don't forget to support the 'science' march, I hear the organizers will be handing out white SciencePerson lab coats (or maybe vagina costumes):

      "Prepare for impassioned speeches from a bunch of extremely scientific spokesdudes and spokesmodels on how Trump hates water and air, and how spending $ Trillions with a T to cool the earth by 0.1C in fifty years is a scientifically brilliant plan supported by 97% of all true moral noble and upstanding humanoids everywhere."

    66. Re:Your plan? by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      Coincidentally there is a new paper in Nature that found an increase in photosynthesis of 31% +/- 5% in the 20th century (and I presume into the 21st).

      Here are press releases from the institutions of two of the researchers:

      From the University of California at Merced

      From Carnegie Science

      The Carnegie Science press release has the following paragraph which supports my contention that we can't grow enough plants fast enough to fix the problem:

      “It may be tempting to interpret these results as evidence that Earth’s dynamics are responding in a way that will naturally stabilize CO2 concentrations and climate,” Berry added. “But the real message is that the increase in photosynthesis has not been large enough to compensate for the burning of fossil fuels. Nature’s brakes are not up to the job. So now it’s up to us to figure out how to reduce the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere.”

    67. Re:Your plan? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just think about how expensive all our gadgets, cars and homes would become..

    68. Re:Your plan? by khallow · · Score: 1

      25 -35% % of the planets population is creating 90% of the CO2.

      That's still 2 billion or more people.

      NO WE COULD NOT. It only would take longer to get the atmosphere into a "critical" state. It would not change the fundamental problem in any way!

      Even delaying by several centuries would change the problem (for example, the non-human part of the world would adapt more readily with a slower pace of change). And the Earth's ecosystem sinks carbon so producing less means a more than proportionate drop in how much builds up in the environment.

      And there's other huge benefits. There's less habitat destruction, there's less normal pollution, and there's less use and consumption of natural resources. Those would play a role in mitigating or adapting to the harm of climate change.

    69. Re:Your plan? by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      There are a few flaws, e.g. there is no carbon sink that is relevant on that scale.

      And to have those benefits you mention, you have to kill all of the western civilization and leave upstarts like India and China alone ...

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    70. Re:Your plan? by khallow · · Score: 1

      There are a few flaws, e.g. there is no carbon sink that is relevant on that scale.

      A large portion of human-produced CO2 is no longer in the air. I've heard about half. That sounds quite relevant to me.

      And to have those benefits you mention, you have to kill all of the western civilization and leave upstarts like India and China alone ...

      For a 90% drop in population, you can't leave a third of the population alone. Even if we killed off the people with the smallest carbon footprint first, we'd still substantially reduce the amount of CO2 emitted (by half). 90% is a huge drop in CO2 emissions no matter how you do it.

      But I think it was obvious that I was speaking of a proportionate drop in population for all not a kill the Western World first which would be much greater drop than 90%.

    71. Re:Your plan? by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      You seem to be bad in math :)
      If you kill 90% of the 'lowest carbon dioxid' producers, then CO2 production is not dropping by 50%.
      Because: they don't produce that much carbon. A big deal of the population of the planet has no need to produce particular high amounts of CO2, because they live in places where you don't need more than a car or the amount of cars is rather low.
      CO2 is not only produced by individuals, but also industry and offices. Keep the shops closed at night and you need less energy than a shop in country that is supposed to be oppen 24/7 (even if it is not frequented).
      My point is: the nations and individuals that produce the most CO2 have to reduce at most and the quickest.
      The populatin size is irrelevant, it is about to plateau anyway during our lifetime.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    72. Re:Your plan? by khallow · · Score: 1

      If you kill 90% of the 'lowest carbon dioxid' producers, then CO2 production is not dropping by 50%.

      Read the title of the link.

      World's richest 10% produce half of global carbon emissions, says Oxfam

      Why do you assert things that aren't true? Could it be that some other things you asserted in this thread without a thread of support aren't true either?

    73. Re:Your plan? by Gussington · · Score: 1

      We can't stop China from creating man made islands in the South China Sea, which again has far bigger impact on the climate (loss of ocean habitat, destruction of ecosystems, etc..)

      A lot of the ocean is not much use to living things, too much sand, not enough light etc. But things like shipwrecks and man made islands, and even dumped cars actually promote more undersea life but creating a surface to find a home in.

    74. Re:Your plan? by Gussington · · Score: 1

      It's brilliant, really. Economies allow your government to enslave you (via debt and consumerist treadmills of dopamine loops). Crash it, and you become free.

      Not sure what your definition of free is, but we have examples of 'crashed' governments right now eg Syria and Iraq. Given the choice, I think being 'enslaved' in Canada beats being free in Syria. How about you? If you love government-less freedom, why haven't you voted with your feet and moved to Iraq?

  34. I wish I could trust "academic experts". by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I wish I could trust "academic experts". I really do. But all my experiences with academia and academics have been very disappointing.

    The first problem can be summed up with the old saying, "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach. Those who can't teach, research.". That's exactly what we see in academia: those who couldn't cut it outside of academia with their bachelor's degree end up back in academic circles, often for the rest of their lives. Academia provides a safe playpen for those who were below the standards of the real world.

    The second problem, which is somewhat related to the first, is that many academics are completely out of touch with reality, and full of, for a lack of a better term, total bullshit. My background is in computer systems design. When I hear industrial practitioners discuss this subject, what they have to say is relevant and interesting. But when academics discuss this subject, it's clear that they're off in a world of their own. For example, just look at all of the colleges that still teach UML, despite industry having tried it and rejected it almost two decades ago now.

    The third problem is related to the second. There are entire academic fields that are nothing but bullshit from top to bottom. This should not surprise us. If you take many useless academics and collect them together you will obviously end up with entire fields that are useless. Most of the social "sciences", which have absolutely nothing to do with anything remotely like the scientific method, fall into this category.

    The fourth problem is when you take all of the above and add money into the mix. That's when everything really goes to hell. This is a sure-fire way for even the sciences, which are generally among the least-inept of the academic subjects, to become highly politicized. It's no longer just about inept people doing inept research. Now it's about inept people doing inept research but always finding the "correct" results for politicians who need to legitimize otherwise illegitimate practices like carbon taxes and excessive and costly regulation.

    So when such a flawed system provides results or information for my consideration, I have to take what they're saying with a very, very, very big spoonful of salt grains. None of it can be trusted, from the individual level all the way through to entire fields of study.

    1. Re:I wish I could trust "academic experts". by Grishnakh · · Score: 3, Insightful

      For example, just look at all of the colleges that still teach UML, despite industry having tried it and rejected it almost two decades ago now.

      Two points:

      The defense industry actually uses UML. Of course, the defense industry has paid $400 billion for a crappy fighter jet that can't dogfight...

      "Industry" came up with the Windows 8/10 "Metro" UI, and the current flat-UI fad, with frameworks upon frameworks and web pages that take forever to load because they're loading many megabytes of crap so they can display a little bit of text. The computer industry these days is a complete disaster on the software side.

    2. Re:I wish I could trust "academic experts". by TapeCutter · · Score: 1

      "To bake a cake you first have to understand terms such as flour, butter, milk" - Einstein (paraphrased)

      --
      And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
    3. Re:I wish I could trust "academic experts". by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      " But all my experiences with academia and academics have been very disappointing. " Yeah, you're a climate change denialist, so that makes perfect sense that you'd have no academic success.

    4. Re:I wish I could trust "academic experts". by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      "But to make it from scratch you have to create the universe" - Lincoln

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    5. Re:I wish I could trust "academic experts". by rainmouse · · Score: 1

      Genuine research doesn't make headlines. Just the pipe-dream stuff that shows a minor correlation in one study that aligns with wishful thinking. Thus we get lots of headlines indicating wine, chocolate, pizza and are all good for you..... according to science.

      Unless you go around reading scientific journals, I'll bet science journalism is the only exposure to academic research you actually get exposure to. Journalists don't report scientifically or arguably even much of what's true; They report what sells.
      When was the last time you saw a paper headline reporting a negative correlation on something? It's little wonder people don't trust experts. It's likely they have almost never actually heard from one.

    6. Re:I wish I could trust "academic experts". by tsqr · · Score: 2

      There's very little real competition in academia.

      On the contrary, there's a lot of fierce competition in academia. The problem is that it's all about grant money or politics, and has little to do with academic excellence.

    7. Re:I wish I could trust "academic experts". by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

      "To bake a cake you first have to understand terms such as flour, butter, milk" - Einstein (paraphrased)

      He's wrong, you could bake a cake without understanding those terms, you just couldn't follow a recipe without understanding those terms. A child with no concept of language could watch her parent make a cake and duplicate the steps without knowing what "flour" meant.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    8. Re:I wish I could trust "academic experts". by starless · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The first problem can be summed up with the old saying, "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach. Those who can't teach, research.".

      That's not the old saying. You just made it up.

    9. Re:I wish I could trust "academic experts". by archer,+the · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Really? We're going to mark an evidence-less rant against researchers as +5, Interesting?

      Look around your life. How many people do you know? How many of them would stab you in the back for a buck? I hope that number would be very small. If it isn't, you're in the wrong place.

      I went to a school focused on science. Of the number of folks I hung out with, extremely few (less than 10%) struck me as idiots, cheats, or liars. The rest I'd trust with my life. I find it extremely hard to believe I went to the only university where the majority of students were honest, dependable folks.

      I'm sure as heck not going to trust the trillion dollar fossil fuel industry whose entire existence is on the line.

    10. Re:I wish I could trust "academic experts". by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Depressingly true.

      HOWEVER - it's not all bullshit. Wisdom is knowing what's BS and what's accurately describing the physical reality.

    11. Re:I wish I could trust "academic experts". by bondsbw · · Score: 1

      The computer industry these days is a complete disaster on the software side.

      The market would indicate otherwise. You need to show how being adequate enough for billions of people constitutes a "complete disaster".

      "Industry" came up with the Windows 8/10 "Metro" UI, and the current flat-UI fad

      Despite competition, these have been successful. Industry provided something most people like even if they didn't ask for it.

      --
      All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
    12. Re:I wish I could trust "academic experts". by archer,+the · · Score: 1

      More thoughts. Would a dishonest researcher stay at a university for the low wage? Or would he go work someplace that actually wanted to publish false research, and would pay top dollar for the lack of conscience?

    13. Re:I wish I could trust "academic experts". by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      "I'm lactose intolerant you insensitive clod." - Habicht (paraphrased)

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    14. Re:I wish I could trust "academic experts". by Moof123 · · Score: 1

      Have you ever had a kid? Mine is not quite reading, and if he was left to bake a cake (something he HAS helped with several times) you are likely to get a cup of salt and a teaspoon of sugar, both being nearly identical looking white grainy substances. You might also get corn starch or baking soda instead of flour. The frosting might get made with unsweetened chocolate instead of semi-sweet.

    15. Re:I wish I could trust "academic experts". by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      I don't normally make it a point of replying to ACs, but .... "horseshit".

      That is all. You provided nothing more than an unintelligent anti-academia rant with nothing to back up your assertions. Hell your post is worthy of a front page article on Infowars.

    16. Re: I wish I could trust "academic experts". by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You expect around five to ten applications for each grant. If you apply unsuccessfully for too many grants you are generally prevented for applying for more grants for a period of time. If you don't publish sufficient high-quality publications within a certain period of time (which you need grants to fund) you tend to be out on your ear.

      It's very competitive.

    17. Re:I wish I could trust "academic experts". by Barsteward · · Score: 2

      "When was the last time you saw a paper headline reporting a negative correlation on something?" - negativity sells papers, doesn't have to be true

      --
      "The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
    18. Re:I wish I could trust "academic experts". by Verdatum · · Score: 1
      Well, this reply got too long. Sorry about that. Anyway, might as well post it:

      In my experience, Academia teaches undergrads only enough UML to be able to express concepts to them via diagrams. They go on to explain that it tends to be useful only when you need extremely formalized explicit design. They acknowledge that's frequently not the situation in the commercial world. However, it's useful for the sake of writing and understanding academic papers, and for mission-critical designs.

      The Scientific method is a wonderful way to do science. But it's not the only way. I used to disagree with this, but I've slowly come around. For one thing, knowledge can be gained via rationalism and not just empirical measurement. General and special relativity was worked out on a chalkboard, not by taking measurements. Social sciences make testable explanations and predictions about their field. They cannot use strict scientific method because they are observing a dynamic system. It's not a realm like physics or chemistry where variables can be controlled and experiments can be repeatable. Social sciences attempt to take this into account, they acknowledge it's frequently an important consideration, but that doesn't mean they are prevented from making explanations and predictions. And when those explanations or predictions are falsified, they try and learn from it. They're forced to deal with more uncertainty, but science allows for that. Most of the stuff that perturbs you about social science conclusions, you may find, actually has more to do with popular-media interpretations of those conclusions. The academics themselves try to qualify their claims as much as possible, or the community does not consider the paper to be reputable. These fields are not useless. Sociology drives political campaigns. Psychology drives everything from marketing to gauging demand for new drug treatments. Economics drives...the economy. Linguistics predicts language change, and unlocks or verifies history. Human geography allows better predictions of the impact of significant changes on local, national and global scales. Even fields brought forth from now falsified theories have had massive benefits. Learning about the miasma theory, aka the "bad smells" theory of disease, inspired Ben Franklin who wrote something that inspired Alessandro Volta to investigate swamp-gas, discover methane, and this contributed to kicking off the organic chemistry revolution. Is it so impossible that the fields you consider "useless" are fields that you either don't fully appreciate, or are fields for which you experience a negativity bias, causing you to give undue weight to the failures of that particular field, thus dismissing the successes?

      I agree with some of your points. Yeah, academia frequently has an ivory-tower problem that causes them to grow out of touch with applied-science. They do work that only serves as a benefit to other academics in what feels like a perpetuating cycle. The justifications of this sort of research can be tricky to understand, but that doesn't mean it fails to serve a benefit. So yeah, things are developed that serve no foreseeable benefit, and realistically, sometimes things do ultimately serve no benefit. Dead-ends happen, oh well. Other times, the benefits just happen to be very indirect. A paper influences a paper that influences a paper and so on until one actually does serve a practical benefit. It's often slow and painful, but that's often the nature of science.

      Career academicians might sometimes not have a clue how things are in the commercial world. But at times, that can be a major benefit. All that "you can't do that because 5 years ago, we didn't have the ability to do this thing, so we did a work around with this ugly thing, but now we're forced to maintain support for this ugly thing because it breaks this other thing" problems are certainly important, but it's useful to explore realms without those problems. It can let you accomplish things so useful that people look at it and unde

    19. Re:I wish I could trust "academic experts". by Moof123 · · Score: 1

      Frankly there is TOO much competition in academia. Writing grant proposals in themselves does nothing for the scientific community, but takes a huge amount of time. As it has gotten harder to keep things funded, the ratio of grant writing to actual science has become ever more lopsided, so much of the grant money gets used to pay a researcher while he shops around for yet another round of funding.

      In part we need to have more well paid lecturer positions, taking good teachers out off the research treadmill to concentrate on students. I have a couple of my best professors fail to get tenure and leave teaching, while one I saw as a poor teacher managed to stretch his BS repetitive atmospheric measurements into dozen of papers (written by grad students) and a department head position.

      The skills needed to inspire students and really do a good job teaching the undergrad level stuff is undervalued, and often at odds with the skills needed to really focus on research. Being a full time lecturer is usually a poorly paid crap job that is poison on your resume, even though that is what I believe generates the most academic value at most mid level universities.

    20. Re:I wish I could trust "academic experts". by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's a genius argument there, I love how you rebutted his position with a lot of facts. I see facts all over your post.

    21. Re:I wish I could trust "academic experts". by habig · · Score: 1

      I wish I could trust "academic experts". I really do. But all my experiences with academia and academics have been very disappointing.

      The first problem can be summed up with the old saying, "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach. Those who can't teach, research.". That's exactly what we see in academia: those who couldn't cut it outside of academia with their bachelor's degree end up back in academic circles, often for the rest of their lives. Academia provides a safe playpen for those who were below the standards of the real world.

      Wait.... you're saying you can work in academic research with a Bachelor's? Or you mean that people who can't hack it in the real world go to grad school?

      Speaking as someone who a) serves on graduate admissions committees; and b) advises many graduating bachelor's recipients, it's usually exactly the opposite. It takes a great student to get into grad school, and so the less-great students go get a job somewhere. That's a generalization, of course: great students can go get a job too: but a bad student certainly isn't getting into grad school. Caveat - this is physics. Other fields may differ, but all the sciences I'm familiar with operate in similar fashion. Get further from physical science, get different results. But wait, climate science is pretty closely tied to several physical science, and that's what triggered your post, right? Not sociology.

      The fourth problem is when you take all of the above and add money into the mix. That's when everything really goes to hell. This is a sure-fire way for even the sciences, which are generally among the least-inept of the academic subjects, to become highly politicized. It's no longer just about inept people doing inept research. Now it's about inept people doing inept research but always finding the "correct" results for politicians who need to legitimize otherwise illegitimate practices like carbon taxes and excessive and costly regulation.

      Huh. I review many proposals and papers and have served on funding panels, and can honestly say that I've never seen this in action. You have seen this in action, then.... how and where? I've been pretty impressed with how well funding in my field works, for the most part.

      So when such a flawed system provides results or information for my consideration, I have to take what they're saying with a very, very, very big spoonful of salt grains. None of it can be trusted, from the individual level all the way through to entire fields of study.

      Then there's an awful lot of the physics I teach and research that you apparently don't trust: from F=ma through E=mc^2 to quarks and neutrinos. Which begs the question: what the heck DO you trust?

    22. Re:I wish I could trust "academic experts". by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...

      I went to a school focused on science...

      I'm sure as heck not going to trust the trillion dollar fossil fuel industry whose entire existence is on the line.

      If you think "the fossil fuel industry" wouldn't just take over [wind | solar | unicorn farts] the instant the [oil | coal | baby seal blood] runs out, you aren't as smart as you think you are.

    23. Re:I wish I could trust "academic experts". by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      For example, just look at all of the colleges that still teach UML, despite industry having tried it and rejected it almost two decades ago now.

      I would suggest to google how many affordable UML tools are out there now and then check the stock prices of the vendors and/or their sales.

      Basically every company I worked for during the last 20 years uses UML or one of its predecessors.

      What else would you use to document or forward engineer or use as base for MDA/MDSD?

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    24. Re:I wish I could trust "academic experts". by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      Which begs the question: what the heck DO you trust?
      I guess he trusts his bank account the numbers he sees on his computer screen via the internet.
      Ah, well might be he lives in the USA where plenty of people don't do online banking.

      On the other hand: you are not allowed to say "beg the question" on /. the crowd will punish you with replies that this is an incorrect usage of the phrase as it is a rhetorical "technique" ... just kidding ... ;D

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    25. Re:I wish I could trust "academic experts". by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      What "competition"? There aren't any OSes out there that are 100% compatible with Windows for application software and networking while offering an alternative GUI. Industry provided something people use because they don't have a choice on that one point, it's a take-it-or-leave-it affair, with leaving it meaning changing your entire computing infrastructure.

    26. Re:I wish I could trust "academic experts". by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      I went to a school focused on science. Of the number of folks I hung out with, extremely few (less than 10%) struck me as idiots, cheats, or liars. The rest I'd trust with my life. I find it extremely hard to believe I went to the only university where the majority of students were honest, dependable folks.

      Maybe you're just overly trusting, and/or a poor judge of character.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    27. Re:I wish I could trust "academic experts". by bondsbw · · Score: 1

      Metro started on phone, and the prevailing competition (iOS and Android) both adopted flat user interfaces. The web in general, available on desktop and then on phone, tends to use flat design.

      Even so, Android tends to be customized by OEM and websites are customized by each site. There is an absurd amount of room for choice. People are largely choosing flat UIs, otherwise there wouldn't be many flat UIs.

      --
      All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
    28. Re:I wish I could trust "academic experts". by heathenistics · · Score: 0

      I'm sure as heck not going to trust the trillion dollar fossil fuel industry whose entire existence is on the line.

      There is no proof of any threat to the "fossil" fuel industry (that is running into oil, not out of it) seeing as how that trillion dollar "fossil" fuel industry started the central banks who control the monetary system that is "secured" by our taxes that are being spent to engineer climate change alarmism as a pretext for carbon emissions taxes that will further the banking oiligarchy's grip on the benefits of monetary manipulation. This is an insidious Hegelian dialectic problem-reaction-solution scam that will result in taxes and penalties on life itself that will dwarf the fuel industry if climate change pseudoscience is canonized in academia and blindly adopted by the [can't-be-bothered-to-validate-"expert"-research-for-themselves] laymen. NONE of the pseudoscience that would validate claims of AGW climate change is repeatable or reproducible, meaning some black box of information must exist to prove these claims but most likely does not.

    29. Re:I wish I could trust "academic experts". by Stephan+Schulz · · Score: 1

      I wish I could trust "academic experts". I really do. But all my experiences with academia and academics have been very disappointing.

      Failed too many exams?

      The first problem can be summed up with the old saying, "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach. Those who can't teach, research.". That's exactly what we see in academia: those who couldn't cut it outside of academia with their bachelor's degree end up back in academic circles, often for the rest of their lives. Academia provides a safe playpen for those who were below the standards of the real world.

      LOL. Any given tenure track position has typically 30-100 applicants - and all of these are, of course, already PhDs. Grant applications have 5-30% acceptance rates, depending on the agency and program. There are few fields that are as competitive as academia.

      The second problem, which is somewhat related to the first, is that many academics are completely out of touch with reality, and full of, for a lack of a better term, total bullshit. My background is in computer systems design.

      Then you may have heard about, e.g. BSD Unix, RISC, SUN-1, X11, TCP/IP - all products of "useless academics".

      [...]

      The fourth problem is when you take all of the above and add money into the mix. That's when everything really goes to hell. This is a sure-fire way for even the sciences, which are generally among the least-inept of the academic subjects, to become highly politicized. It's no longer just about inept people doing inept research. Now it's about inept people doing inept research but always finding the "correct" results for politicians who need to legitimize otherwise illegitimate practices like carbon taxes and excessive and costly regulation.

      So when such a flawed system provides results or information for my consideration, I have to take what they're saying with a very, very, very big spoonful of salt grains. None of it can be trusted, from the individual level all the way through to entire fields of study.

      Pray tell us, what is your secret source of wisdom? How do you "know" these things about academia? Why do you trust these sources and what is their motivation? Who paid Fourier for nefariously discovering the greenhouse effect in 1824, or Arrhenius, who first quantified its effect on the atmospheric temperature in 1896 (and got close to current estimates on the climate sensitivity, but completely underestimated our release of CO2)?

      --

      Stephan

    30. Re:I wish I could trust "academic experts". by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      Wrong. Designers are choosing flat UIs, because they're lazy, talentless hacks. People don't choose these devices based on the UI, they choose what's available in the market, which usually amounts to 1-3 choices tops. Apple doesn't poll people to see what they like; they have a long, long history of making design decisions and forcing them on users (who usually seem to be happy to go along like lemmings). MS tried forcing Metro on their phones and it was a complete disaster; no one bought them. So they brought it to the desktop and people didn't have a choice. And websites? Are you serious? Who refuses to visit a website because of the shitty UI?

      Flat design exists because it's a fad pushed by the shitty UI/UX designers.

    31. Re:I wish I could trust "academic experts". by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." It doesn't matter what the child thinks as long as they use the correct white powdery stuff to make their cake.

    32. Re:I wish I could trust "academic experts". by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Those who can't research, make it up.

    33. Re:I wish I could trust "academic experts". by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not all researchers are created equal. What OP is trying to convey is that gender and ethnic studies, sociology don't really pass as science. And what climateirs are currently doing is ruining reputation of their field.

    34. Re:I wish I could trust "academic experts". by bondsbw · · Score: 1

      MS tried forcing Metro on their phones and it was a complete disaster

      Correlation != causation. Windows Phone was mismanaged and offered little functionality to entice users to switch from existing strong platforms.

      Even so, the fact that iOS and Android then adopted a flat UI would suggest the opposite of your conclusion. People liked flat/minimalist UI. Google and Apple both ditched their outdated shiny UIs in order to compete.

      Who refuses to visit a website because of the shitty UI?

      So UI is not important? That seems to contradict your previously stated opinions. (Not to mention that it's totally wrong; Google search and Facebook both offered a relatively minimalist UI as compared with competitors, and that is credited as one of the driving factors for the growth of the two largest web companies that exist.)

      --
      All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
    35. Re:I wish I could trust "academic experts". by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      NONE of the pseudoscience that would validate claims of AGW climate change is repeatable or reproducible, meaning some black box of information must exist to prove these claims but most likely does not.

      Really? The basics of AGW are that some gases in the atmosphere are opaque to infrared radiation at certain frequencies, easily shown in a lab. And that the increase in greenhouse gases, primarily CO2, is due to anthropogenic sources or feedbacks from that (water vapor). Again, easily shown by the amount of fossil fuels we burn compared to the increase in atmospheric quantities and by the change in isotopic ratios of carbon in the atmosphere. Once you get beyond that your just getting into the details.

    36. Re: I wish I could trust "academic experts". by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Running into oil? Discoveries peaked in the 60s.

    37. Re:I wish I could trust "academic experts". by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

      I have three kids- and two of mine would need written directions or need to know the concept of flour and sugar and the other wouldn't. My eldest and youngest are extremely book smart. Lazy as crap- but really booksmart. They can read a book quickly and memorise a substantial portion of it. They do great in school (for now) because reading and learning from books comes naturally.

      My middle child does OK, but only because she has the work effort of both my other kids combined * 3. She has trouble reading- but has a great "picture" memory. However, she does something with her hands once- she remembers it for life. We can drive down a street she's only been on once and that was years ago, and she can tell you in detail what houses we are going to pass and when, and describe features about them. Her visual and spatial memory is incredible even if she can't learn well from books.

        If she bakes a cake once, she'll remember how to do it. If she reads a recipe she'll get confused and screw it up. However "doing" the act of baking and she'll remember it for life.

      The other two, no way they will remember anything about baking, they will need the recipe, and although they might read and remember the recipe short term in a split second- but they'll give up before it's time to add the sugar because it's "taking too much time" and it's "too much work"- they also won't remember how to do it by the next day.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    38. Re:I wish I could trust "academic experts". by heathenistics · · Score: 0

      The basics of AGW

      The earth has been proven to be warming the closer it gets to the sun in its orbit.

      AGW is not a proven condition in the real world. Selectively run experiments in isolated labs that claim AGW to be a real thing aren't legitimate for claims of open air, AGW-created global warming/climate change/[insert next scary moniker needed to continue this scam]. "Scientists" who claim the climate is changing and doing so because of AGW need to prove the climate is indeed changing in the real world and need to prove that AGW is the cause in the real world to the exclusion of all other factors.

      Carbon dioxide fluctuates within a minuscule range, but it hovers at about 0.04% of the atmosphere; that does not translate to the claimed AGW "greenhouse" causes for NOAA/IPCC/HadCRUT claimed increases in global temperatures or cataclysmic weather events.

      The dishonest climate change scam's scientists and sheepish laymen alike have another problem to sort out: "NOAA’s GHCN systematically eliminated 75% of the world’s stations with a clear bias towards removing higher latitude, high altitude and rural locations, all of which had a tendency to be cooler. The thermometers in a sense marched towards the tropics, the sea and to airport tarmacs." After sorting this out, they will still need to prove climate change, AGW and that climate change is caused by AGW

      We are not to be ruled, especially not by arbitrary science nor its credentialed adjutants who refuse to actually exhibit their craft and the claims that are supposedly a product of that craft. Science should be transparent, repeatable, and reproducible - nothing in the climate change problem-reaction-solution scam is any of those things. Honest scientists require challenges of their findings to perfect their craft; embargoing inconvenient challenges is not science - it is totalitarianism.

    39. Re:I wish I could trust "academic experts". by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      AGW is not a proven condition in the real world. Selectively run experiments in isolated labs that claim AGW to be a real thing aren't legitimate for claims of open air,

      A study from 2000 to 2010 measured the changing forcing of CO2 using spectrometers from the ground in the open air. Here is the abstract:

      The climatic impact of CO2 and other greenhouse gases is usually quantified in terms of radiative forcing, calculated as the difference between estimates of the Earth’s radiation field from pre-industrial and present day concentrations of these gases. Radiative transfer models calculate that the increase in CO2 since 1750 corresponds to a global annual mean radiative forcing at the tropopause of 1.82 +/- 0.19 W/m^2. However, despite widespread scientific discussion and modelling of the climate impacts of well-mixed greenhouse gases, there is little direct observational evidence of the radiative impact of increasing atmospheric CO2. Here we present observationally based evidence of clear-sky CO2 surface radiative forcing that is directly attributable to the increase, between 2000 and 2010, of 22 parts per million atmospheric CO2. The time series of this forcing at the two locations—the Southern Great Plains and the North Slope of Alaska—are derived from Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer spectra together with ancillary measurements and thoroughly corroborated radiative transfer calculations. The time series both show statistically significant trends of 0.2 W/m^2 per decade (with respective uncertainties of +/- 0.06 W/m^2 per decade and +/- 0.07W/m^2 per decade) and have seasonal ranges of 0.1–0.2 W/m^2. This is approximately ten per cent of the trend in downwelling longwave radiation. These results confirm theoretical predictions of the atmospheric greenhouse effect due to anthropogenic emissions, and provide empirical evidence of how rising CO2 levels, mediated by temporal variations due to photosynthesis and respiration, are affecting the surface energy balance.

      And here is the PDF of the whole paper for your edification: Observational determination of surface radiative forcing by CO2 from 2000 to 2010

      The dishonest climate change scam's scientists and sheepish laymen alike have another problem to sort out: "NOAA’s GHCN systematically eliminated 75% of the world’s stations with a clear bias towards removing higher latitude, high altitude and rural locations, all of which had a tendency to be cooler. The thermometers in a sense marched towards the tropics, the sea and to airport tarmacs."

      There's a temperature record from BEST. Maybe you've heard of them. They use every single temperature record they can get their hands on, that's over 39,000 temperature stations. They don't exclude anything with usable data. And yet their findings are substantially the same as NOAA's GHCN. Even if you did the opposite of what you accuse NOAA of doing you still wouldn't find much difference as long as you picked a statistically valid selection of stations.

  35. Re:Don't be stupid... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    We live in a society where we are expected to provide for ourselves, exception being libtards, millennials, and Hitlery voters.

    The same self-sufficient people who don't know that Social Society and Medicare are government programs that Republicans would love to eliminate and may get a chance to do so under Trump.

    [...] and start working on environmentally friendly alternatives to fuel and coal.

    Wind and solar? Oh, wait. That was a priority under Obama. Coal mining jobs are a priority for the Trump Administration, looking backward and not forward.

    We can't walk 40 miles to work every day.

    I and 40 other people take the express bus to travel 50+ miles per day.

  36. Re: I also performed a study. by Sperbels · · Score: 0

    Science can only predict things insofar as they don't challenge powerful establishments.

  37. Re:I also performed a study. by Lord+Kano · · Score: 1

    What if someone's standing on the North Pole?

    --
    "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
  38. Everyone go buy a brushless vacuum cleaner by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    because Dyson says: no carbon brushes means no carbon emissions:
    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MBEkP_zKKcg

  39. Re:Republicans DESERVE to go extinct. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You're a cowardly example of evolution not taken.

  40. clickbait? by roc97007 · · Score: 2

    Warning; turn scripts off before following the link

    --
    Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
  41. Re:The global warming hysterics are getting smarte by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Before the sun as a factor was the idea of tinfoil deniers, now it has always been an important contributing factor, in 15 years everyone will deny saying otherwise.

  42. The relativity of wrong by TapeCutter · · Score: 5, Informative
    --
    And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
    1. Re:The relativity of wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I know people hate on Big Bang Theory but here's a scene that sums it up nicely

      Sheldon: Wrong is an absolute state not subject to gradation.
      Stewart: Of course it is. It's a little wrong to say a tomato is a vegetable. It's very wrong to say it's a suspension bridge.

  43. Re:I also performed a study. by Grishnakh · · Score: 4, Funny

    the ones that say east are right. the ones that say west are drooling morons and need to be told so loudly and in public for all to hear.

    You sound like an elitist. The opinions of those who say west is just as valid. Who are you to tell them they're wrong?

  44. Re:I also performed a study. by ganjadude · · Score: 1

    If we do nothing to reduce our carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions,

    but.... we HAVE been doing things to reduce our CO2 emissions. so.... fear mongering??

    --
    have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
  45. HURRY! Enriching cronies is the ONLY solution! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hurry! Enact huge government programs which will enrich a bunch of cronies (and hurt everyone else) to save the planet. That's the ONLY solution! HURRY!

    Al Gore is waiting for his billions! HURRY! NOW!

  46. Re:I also performed a study. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Now add the fact that if you promote the idea of a global warming crisis you are assured as much grant money as you can but if you take a critical position you won't even get peer reviewed and thus cannot publish, and what does tell you about science and academia?

  47. Re:The global warming hysterics are getting smarte by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Keep moving that goal post back and you can keep raking in the profits, because nothing is quite as lucrative as fear.

  48. Re:Republicans DESERVE to go extinct. by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    haters like you make life worse for everyone

    As a moderate conservative, I can reassure you that the Republican Party is already extinct. Just like the political dinosaurs before them, it'll take a while for the memo to circulate.

  49. Re:I also performed a study. by bondsbw · · Score: 2

    Then the answer is still correct but is less meaningful to that person.

    --
    All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
  50. Not a plan by s.petry · · Score: 1

    And your plan as I said has no impact on what other people will do, or have been doing. China does not give a shit about your position, they care about economic power and growth (as well as protecting that power with Military). The same can be said of India, Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, Poland, etc.. etc.. Are you going to stop purchasing cheaply made goods from China and India to support your plan? Are you going to demand companies in the US stop all foreign trade with carbon producing countries like China and India?

    Your plan is no different than carbon credits and tax. Try thinking one through a bit, and do me a favor. Use the Socratic method to get at least 1 level deep into your plan.

    --

    -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

    1. Re:Not a plan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Please. I don't know what planet you are on but China has pledged significantly more for global warming preparedness. Hell, their leaders even believe global warming is TRUE(gasp!!).

      Our leaders don't believe it is real, they literally think it is some kind of conspiracy to hurt the economy. They want to do everything the exact opposite of what global warming scientists say to do, simply to hurt their "plan".

      No doubt about it, you can control what you do and not what others do. (I understand china is emitting shit tons right now, but at least their ENTIRE population believes in global warming. In America, only 50% of people will believe in something scientifically proven).

    2. Re:Not a plan by Altrag · · Score: 1

      So instead of standing up and trying to lead the way, your plan is to just say fuck it lets race to the bottom and see who loses first? That sounds great!

      Also, China is already working on environmental regulations. They're well aware of what the past few decades have done to their country but now that their growth is plateauing, they're also looking at ways to clean up the mess they've made. The Chinese aren't any happier about breathing thick smog and drinking heavy metal laden water than we are. They (well, "they") have just accepted it as a cost that will have to be paid in the future and realize that the future is starting to bear down on them.

      They're definitely not anywhere close to Western regulations at this point of course, but the wheels are turning at least. In particular, of the three biggest polluters signed onto the Paris Agreement (China, India, US,) only one is threatening to pull out at this point, and its not China or India.

      Heck, I'll even give you a link for once! https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/china-takes-the-climate-spotlight-as-u-s-heads-for-exit/.

    3. Re:Not a plan by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      I actually own nothing made in China ... I really wonder how much China is exporting to the USA and what kinds of goods americans buy from China. From my point of view it looks like a internet myth.
      However, my iPhone 4 is _assembled_ in China.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    4. Re:Not a plan by s.petry · · Score: 1

      Willful ignorance eh? Most parts for your iPhone are made in China, it is not just the assembly. The same could be said for most computers in general. Most cars have numerous parts created in China, and virtually everything from your clothing to house wares is potentially created in China. How about cleaning supplies, appliances, tools... etc...

      I'm not saying all your stuff is made in China, but a whole lot more than you want to claim. Willful ignorance != myth.

      --

      -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

    5. Re:Not a plan by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      I live in Germany.

      The amount of stuff we get from China is neglectible,

      And most certainly not "cleaning stuff for the kitchen" ... or a part for my car.

      90% of the stuff I have is made in Europe, and the remaining 10% are not from China but all over the world.

      The iPhone in question is _assembled_ in China. You can google who is making the parts. Hint: China is not famous for semi conductor factories.

      Willful ignorance != myth.
      Yeah, so: you failed to give me an example about what the USA are importing from China.
      We import food.

      Cloth we import from elsewhere, partly in Asia, partly not ... easy to google. Definitely not China. Because: again, China is not famous for its clothing exports.

      Regarding to this page: http://www.worldstopexports.co... China is exporting about 3.5% of its "trade" in cloth.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    6. Re:Not a plan by s.petry · · Score: 1

      So instead of standing up and trying to lead the way, your plan is to just say fuck it lets race to the bottom and see who loses first? That sounds great!

      I'm responsible for my own actions and can influence my Government accordingly. I do not have any false hope of doing the same with China, India, Russia, or any other country. The US similarly has no authority over those same Governments. Having realistic views of "what" I can do does not mean I want a race to the bottom. Having realistic expectations means I don't have false hope of false solutions, like Carbon Tax/Credits having any impact. I also have an understanding that those false solutions do have an impact on me and the society I live in. I'm not sure you have the same amount of realism.

      Also, China is already working on environmental regulations. They're well aware of what the past few decades have done to their country but now that their growth is plateauing, they're also looking at ways to clean up the mess they've made. The Chinese aren't any happier about breathing thick smog and drinking heavy metal laden water than we are. They (well, "they") have just accepted it as a cost that will have to be paid in the future and realize that the future is starting to bear down on them.

      If you rely on Chinese media to get your information they are of course doing great. In fact, according to them they are an open Democracy where all citizens have a voice. Then we look at reality. So far you are 0 for 2.

      They're definitely not anywhere close to Western regulations at this point of course, but the wheels are turning at least. In particular, of the three biggest polluters signed onto the Paris Agreement (China, India, US,) only one is threatening to pull out at this point, and its not China or India.

      Heck, I'll even give you a link for once! https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/china-takes-the-climate-spotlight-as-u-s-heads-for-exit/.

      Well, you started good but then link to articles which consider and evaluate what China says, not what levels of pollution show. Actions speak much louder than words. China has continued to have increases in air pollution, increased days where you are warned not to be out in public breathing without protection, and of course the same massive amounts of corruption and pollution. But hey, they say it's better so it must be true right? I believe you just struck out.

      Why not

      --

      -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

    7. Re:Not a plan by s.petry · · Score: 1

      10% of Germany's imported goods are from China. I'm sure it's much more than your "iPhone assembly", but I don't have insight into exactly what is being imported. I doubt the iPhone assembly is ~10Billion source Much more than you are letting on at any rate.

      Now in your defense, Germany is one of few countries with a net export benefit. The US trade deficit with China is considerably different. Our main export to China tends to be refuse, and we import all kinds of goods. Come to the US and look at a store, virtually any store. It is extremely difficult in the US not to purchase something made in China.

      --

      -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

    8. Re:Not a plan by Stephan+Schulz · · Score: 1

      And your plan as I said has no impact on what other people will do, or have been doing. China does not give a shit about your position, they care about economic power and growth (as well as protecting that power with Military).

      China coal consumption declines for third straight year, and solar capacity grew 81.6 per cent, wind capacity grew 13.2 per cent in 2016 compared to 2015. The China excuse has lost its lustre.

      --

      Stephan

    9. Re:Not a plan by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      I'm responsible for my own actions and can influence my Government accordingly.

      Really? How many millions of dollars are you prepared to spend lobbying this year? How about next year? The year after that?

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    10. Re:Not a plan by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      China has continued to have increases in air pollution, increased days where you are warned not to be out in public breathing without protection, and of course the same massive amounts of corruption and pollution.

      China is starting to actually care about these issues, because they make them look weak and because more of the population is moving up in social class. With that comes certain expectations about how one will live. China is pushing EVs harder than anyone, and buying mostly home-grown EVs. One of the arguments in favor of EVs has always been that you centralize pollution and are then in a position to do something about it. As China moves towards doing something about it, their adoption of EVs becomes more encouraging.

      As for corruption, I think it's become clear that we have plenty of that here, especially what with the current administration actually finding so many ways to increase it.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  51. Re:I also performed a study. by amiga3D · · Score: 1

    Considering the way truly insane places like Iran and North Korea are building Nukes and ICBMs I predict that by 2100 we'll have a nuclear winter that will solve the global warming crisis.

  52. Sigh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We're Creating a Perfect Storm of Unprecedented Global Warming

    For some reason this makes me think of a teenage boy getting on a rooftop and yelling "I love her. I LOVE HER"

  53. Re:I also performed a study. by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    I predict that by 2100 we'll have a nuclear winter that will solve the global warming crisis.

    That would solve the population problem as nuclear winter will present a different set of problems.

  54. Re: I also performed a study. by reanjr · · Score: 1

    In what way is that answer still correct? The sun rises in the South at the North Pole.

  55. Re:An Industrial Revolution 50 million years ago?! by MightyMartian · · Score: 0, Troll

    Since when did anyone say the sun didn't have anything to do with warming. For fuck's sake, you fucking retard, it's the fact that CO2 absorbs solar radiation that IS THE FUCKING PROBLEM.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  56. add generating news for slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    slashdot does this to get everyone into a tizzy and drum up more ad revenue. Nothing new here.

  57. Re:Don't be stupid... by BillCable · · Score: 1

    His point was that the government need not be the primary driver in this change. If solar/wind are viable, then private industry, driven by concerned environmentalists, are absolutely free to go out and change the way we generate power. Our electric companies aren't owned and run by the government.

  58. they will lynch Rick Scott by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ask the people in Miami beach about sunny day flooding.

    That's not cheap real estate there, either.
    Gonna be fun next time they get sideswiped by a hurricane.

    1. Re:they will lynch Rick Scott by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There is nothing wrong with Miami Beach that a few good hurricanes wouldn't cure.

    2. Re:they will lynch Rick Scott by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >Build huge buildings on the sand
      >Be surprised when there is subsidence

  59. Re: I also performed a study. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    90% of the people of Germany, and 90% of the scientists studying the phenomenon worldwide are not the same thing.

    Hitler did not have the support of very many non-Germans.

  60. Great news for Chicago... by seven+of+five · · Score: 2

    But the Middle East is completely screwed.

    1. Re:Great news for Chicago... by interkin3tic · · Score: 1

      Hotter weather is associated with more violence. This is particularly true in Chicago, shootings go way up in summer. So kind of a mixed bag. A surprising number of chicagoans think the city is actually dangerous. It's not by any reasonable metric but if enough people start thinking it actually is dangerous outside of the south side, I suspect people would start leaving.

    2. Re:Great news for Chicago... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes but that has nothing to do with the weather it's because Mohammad said they could marry their first cousin.

  61. Re: Don't be stupid... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Trade policies were garbage, Obamacare was a joke and a drain on the working class, environmental policy was not realistic.

    Sure he helped the poor with free stuff but he also sent millions of working Americans in to poverty.

    The election result proves it.

    You can go back in your mom's basement now.

  62. Re:An Industrial Revolution 50 million years ago?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    read your wiki page.

    Nice, if you understand what it really means, then basically they just guess and then reverse fill to make it plausable. (temperature from proxies that have multiple interlinked variables = I guessed the temperature).

    All the rest of the bullshit is just pretend that we know what we are talking about, so you should believe our guess.

  63. Re:I also performed a study. by MiniMike · · Score: 1

    If they took a step or two backward from the North Pole then the Sun would then appear to be rising in the West. So the ones who believe things like this are the ones who are a little backwards.

  64. Re:I also performed a study. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    It tells us that you don't have a fucking clue what you're talking about. There are entire industries (Coal mining, petroleum, automotive) chomping at the bit to throw gigadollars at one-- just ONE-- reputable study that indicates that global climate change isn't actually occurring, yet these huge, apocalyptically powerful industries are stymied by the peer review process? Are you fucking retarded, or is it autism?

  65. Re: I also performed a study. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    +5, Insightful

  66. Re:Republicans DESERVE to go extinct. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Majority of state legislatures, and governorships, majority in congress, presidency, and soon to be judical branches.I think not. The republican party is just getting started.

  67. Re:Don't be stupid... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    His point was that the government need not be the primary driver in this change.

    Who else is going to pay for this change? Industry will not if they can get away with doing business as usual. For example, the civilian electrical grid is vulnerable to EMP attacks. A well-known problem that no one industry wants to fix much less pay for.

    If solar/wind are viable, then private industry, driven by concerned environmentalists, are absolutely free to go out and change the way we generate power.

    Has the oil industry given up their tax subsidies?

    Our electric companies aren't owned and run by the government.

    No, but they're regulated by the government. If the government says, "coal bad, natural gas good," as it has been for decades, the industry will move towards liquid gas generators. One of the reason why coal is dying as an industry, and will continue to do so not matter what the Trump Administration does, is that natural gas is inexpensive and natural gas plants are replacing coal plants.

  68. Re: I also performed a study. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Geez. I thought you were going to slap him to death with your hanky.

  69. U da pooh pooher by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Bunch of ghouls waiting for bad news to happen or the next El Nino, which ever comes first.

    Cheer up, maybe a typhoon will make landfall in Asia this year. Then you can roll your eyes at your neighbor who drives an SUV and feel smugly superior while contributing nothing of value.

  70. Re: An Industrial Revolution 50 million years ago? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    You might consider reducing CO2 emissions by keeping your big mouth shut.

  71. Re:Republicans DESERVE to go extinct. by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    Majority of state legislatures, and governorships, majority in congress, presidency, and soon to be judical branches.I think not.

    Not for long. Democrats dropped the ball and will correct their mistakes. The tide will change.

    The republican party is just getting started.

    If they can negotiate among themselves on a common agenda. The "repeal and replace" health bill failed because the Republicans spent seven years on "repeal" without giving any thoughts to "replace." As the recent health bill fiasco had shown, they don't have their shit together. Tax reform will be the same story.

  72. Sunrise: east or west? Comparing prediction by XXongo · · Score: 3, Informative

    Forget the real world. >Because real-world results don't matter. What did your MODEL that hasn't successfully predicted sunrise direction for the last 15 years say?

    If you are snarking about climate models, in fact the climate models have been remarkably accurate over the last fifty years. Here's the Berkeley Earth comparison between models and measurements: http://static.berkeleyearth.or... (See also: https://www.skepticalscience.c... https://www.theguardian.com/en... )

    And why have you been ignoring more accurate satellite-based measurements of the sunrise and selectively using only ground-based measurements that have been, errr, corrected from the original data?

    You ARE aware that satellite measurements are heavily corrected, right? The satellites see a line-of-sight average of microwave emissions, and there is a rather long and controversial process to turn microwave emission intensity into middle troposphere temperatures. One researcher (John Christy) has a correction method that produces an output that says that global warming is real, but it's on the low end of the predicted values. http://www.realclimate.org/ind... Other researchers using the same data, however, come up with other answers.

    The ground measurements, on the other hand, have had relatively minor corrections to account for changes of the type of thermometer, the corrections being well-documented, and (an important thing to note) the change due to corrections making no significant difference to the final conclusion.

  73. Acid rain by TapeCutter · · Score: 5, Informative

    If you don't remember acid rain it's because of the very successful cap and trade treaty that won international agreement in the 1980's. Oddly the treaty was the brainchild of the conservative heros Thatcher and Reagan. (Thatcher read chemistry at Oxford and was also the first "world leader" to accept AGW was a serious problem). If mankind is convinced it is a common threat, it will be fixed, but not before we lose some nice stuff like; the Arctic ice cap, coral reefs, Bangladesh, Miami, Seychelle Islands, ... (ok, Miami is not really a "nice thing" but some people like it)

    I do however agree it's "old news".

    --
    And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
  74. Godwin sez [Re: I also performed a study.] by XXongo · · Score: 1

    Hitler was backed by over 90% of the people.

    No, in fact he was not.

  75. Re: I also performed a study. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Neither. Just an hopeful brainwashed idiot.

  76. Re:An Industrial Revolution 50 million years ago?! by EvilSS · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yeah, yeah. Red herring 4, straight out of the deniers handbook. Ok, my turn to debunk.

    Nobody disputes that nature could cause this kind of global warming or the later cooling. What science rejects is that for this particular global warming there is any other plausible explanation than human activity. Especially because of the remarkable speed with which it happens, the synchronicity with the industrial revolution, and just plain simple physics.

    I never understood this argument (the one you are replying to, not yours). Even if it is natural, do they think that it is somehow not going to affect us? I mean, we know it's happening. The cause won't make a difference to people in a hundred years or so who are having to deal with the fallout of it if it keeps on the course we are on now. We (well future humans, not most of us) are fucked if it's natural or man made. At least if it's man-made we have some options to prevent it. If it's natural, then maybe we can at least slow it down or reduce the effects somewhat by curbing our own contributions to it. So either way, isn't it kind of a good idea to go that route? I realize it comes at a cost but isn't it worth it either way?

    --
    I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
  77. Re: Don't be stupid... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    Trade policies are garbage, Trumpcare was a joke and a drain on the working class, environmental policy ...what environmental policy?

    FTFY — Obama is no longer president.

    Sure he helped the poor with free stuff but he also sent millions of working Americans in to poverty.

    I'm still waiting to get my free iPhone from the government. The funny thing is Republicans talk about this all the time but no one can tell where I can sign up.

    The election result proves it.

    Winning 46% of the vote doesn't make for a mandate.

  78. Re:I also performed a study. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You assume the universe has an end.

    Which is crazier? The climate, or the big bang denialist?

    And if we're gonna tackle all this 'fake news', we should go after the weatherman. Funny that we don't see them predicting the rising ocean levels.

  79. Re: I also performed a study. by fred6666 · · Score: 2

    Hitler was backed by over 90% of the people.

    No, he wasn't. He only won 44% of the vote in his election in 1933, and less in previous elections.

  80. Re:I also performed a study. by fred6666 · · Score: 1

    You are being conservative, it's closer to 97%.

  81. Please stop the articles on climate change... by BlueCoder · · Score: 0

    Same old shit; different day.

    I am one of the deniers. I deny that the shit is going to get better. Stop preaching. Pretty please.

    My house is on fire and all the exits are blocked. Stop telling me my house is on fire!

    If your so high and mighty then you need to actually go profit on your superior knowledge and leave me alone.

    Correct or not I don't want to join your doomsday religion.

    1. Re:Please stop the articles on climate change... by OrangeTide · · Score: 2

      Thank you for your input. Your concerns have been noted. But at this time we're unlikely to suspend scientific inquiry for a site that proclaims to be "News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters"

      People usually won't stop shouting that your house is on fire when you're sitting in your easy chair shaking your head "no it's not". That's just human nature, even if it is tedious and annoying.

      There are plenty of other doomsday religions that are way more popular than this one. Perhaps we could convert to one of those.

      --
      “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
  82. Re: I also performed a study. by Muros · · Score: 4, Informative

    Hitler was backed by over 90% of the people

    To which election do you refer? The 1932 Presidential one, where he got 30.1% and 36.8% in the first and second rounds respectively, or the 1933 Federal election, where NSDAP (the NAZI party) got 43.91%?

  83. Re:An Industrial Revolution 50 million years ago?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    this is based off the debunked hockey stick graph so your argument is invalid.

  84. Marine cloud brightening by Raenex · · Score: 1

    Ok, if the problem is so serious, then why not solve it with climate engineering? It's apparent that solving it by reducing carbon footprint is economically disadvantageous and politically untenable.

    1. Re:Marine cloud brightening by OrangeTide · · Score: 1

      It's not serious enough for anyone to agree that we should raise taxes to pay for a project to address the problem, let alone change our behavior.

      The free market can only react and doesn't do well at predicting the future, so it moves along until something about climate change disrupts the market, then either adapts or collapses (recession or depression).

      --
      “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
    2. Re:Marine cloud brightening by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because any solution that doesn't involve a socialist world government with the power to enforce fossil fuel production and consumption curbs is unacceptable to the communists, I mean environmentalists, who are driving the climate change agenda. This is also why nuclear isn't on the table. They don't actually want to stop burning fossil fuels, they just want the power to say who can and who can't burn them. Once they have the ability to pick winners and losers at the global scale they'll pick themselves and all their friends as winners, pick their enemies as losers and forget about climate change.

    3. Re:Marine cloud brightening by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because climate engineering will cost many times more in the long haul than simply stopping our current pollution and remediating some of our past pollution. Imagine you have 50 gallons of toxic waste, you can take care of that waste now by simply shipping the barrel to a storage/cleaning facility, its going to cost you a chunk of change but its going to permanently deal with the problem. Or you can dump it into a creek, it can leach into the soil/water, some time later (days to years) someone will find out what you've done requiring backhoes to dig up the soil and truck it to a landfill, filter wells to be placed to strain out the toxins and a decade of monitoring. Which do you think would be cheaper? And that's even before you get into the unintended consequences of such Geo-engineering systems (changing weather patterns, effecting the food chain).

    4. Re:Marine cloud brightening by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      I'm not sure that climate change mitigation is the only benefit of reducing carbon footprint, or more broadly, of transition to newer resources than coal or oil. For example, air quality in densely populated areas is not going to be improved by what you're proposing.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
  85. Re:I also performed a study. by MightyMartian · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    They're both absurd anti-science denier groups. Both absurd, both unwilling or emotionally incapable of looking at the evidence, and both fundamentally pathetic.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  86. Re:An Industrial Revolution 50 million years ago?! by PoopJuggler · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It's just an argument that deniers make up to justify their selfishness and so they don't have to change a single thing about their lifestyle or lift a single fucking finger to help the planet, which in their arrogance and ego they think they are entitled to do with as they please because they're "human", like they somehow earned that status themselves.

  87. Dude, we're already IN an Ice Age. . . by Salgak1 · · Score: 2

    . . . .and merely between continental glacial advances. Another of which is due Real Soon Now*

    (* Real Soon Now in Geologic terms, meaning some time in the next ~10,000 years. . . .)

  88. According to Al Gore by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    According to Al Gore I'm currently living under water. The water will moderate the temperature nicely.

    1. Re:According to Al Gore by OrangeTide · · Score: 2

      The unusually tough drought in Syria contributed to the civil war there.

      --
      “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
  89. Re: An Industrial Revolution 50 million years ago? by MightyMartian · · Score: 0

    Aw, poor little delicate snowflake. "I don't wanna hear bad news, 'cause it makes me sad!"

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  90. Re:I also performed a study. by Salgak1 · · Score: 1

    I have some excellent ideas for reducing CO2 emissions. . . . Now, if you'll just step on to the moving sidewalks, passing pastoral paintings into the rotating knives. . . .

  91. Re:An Industrial Revolution 50 million years ago?! by Rob+Y. · · Score: 1

    So what if one of the things we can do to 'cool it down' is to prevent some of the warming by burning less fossil fuels? How is it then a 'political agenda' to suggest doing just that. Only in today's polarized, corporate-funded political environment is such a thing 'political' - and only then if a large willfully ignorant cohort decides to 'choose a side' and accept nonsense as valid arguments against.

    --
    Posted from my Android phone. Oh, I can change this? There, that's better...
  92. Not switched at all by SuperKendall · · Score: 1, Troll

    I find it interesting that many pooh-poohers have suddenly switched from no, not true, not happening to nothing can be done.

    Non-one has switched anything. Warming on the scale it was supposed to happen, is not happening.

    However you and other Warming Cultists like you are either too stupid or to stubborn to admit this based on evidence, common in the case of so many religions.

    Thus, many of us try to make you feel better by pointing out that even if the warming you are claiming will happen, happens, it would actually be a good thing... this message seems to be able to get through a little better to some of the less addled.

    Sadly we as a species are not that lucky, and once the faked data grows ever wider from reality the truth that the Earth is on the cusp of descending into a cooling period again will hit home. Then the real, and meaningful worrying can begin.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:Not switched at all by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Warming on the scale it was supposed to happen, is not happening.

      Somehow you manage to be wrong 100% of the time about pretty much everything. Don't you think it's time for you to start learning about world events from sources other than Breitbart, Infowars or The Blaze?

    2. Re:Not switched at all by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

      I don't read any of those sites, I read across the spectrum and then use my actual scientific understanding of the world instead of blind panic to inform my worldview.

      Facts and rationality; you should try using them as a basis for understanding the world sometime. Among the many benefits is being able to make predictions that actually come true...

      --
      "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    3. Re:Not switched at all by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Where are all the hurricanes we were supposed to be dying from?

      When your model makes a prediction (especially a binary one like "more and more powerful hurricanes"), and they fail to materialize, and in fact go the exact opposite direction, as a scientist, you should examine your theory, because something is WRONG.

      Scientists need to abandon their egos and stop trying to make "virtuous lies" to force people to take action. This is how you lose all credibility.

    4. Re:Not switched at all by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      It would appear that you read across the spectrum from science to propaganda. The Warming Cultists, as you call us, believe in things like thermometer readings. We also notice things like summer Arctic ice extent. I'm curious what people like you believe in, since it sure isn't evidence.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  93. Re: I also performed a study. by war4peace · · Score: 1

    It does neither rise, nor set.
    It moves in a circle, either above or below the horizon. Not a perfect circle, obviously... might want to call it an oval.

    --
    ...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
  94. Hotter Sun? by tsqr · · Score: 1

    This article on the evolution of the Sun says, "The energy output of the Sun has not fluctuated by more than perhaps 0.1% to 0.2% in human history – not bad for a nuclear reactor that has no regulatory committee, no engineers, and hasn't had a safety check in nearly five billion years." Granted, human history doesn't stretch back 50 million years, but 50 million years is an eye-blink compared to the billions of years ago when the Sun is theorized to have been 70% dimmer than today.

    I wish TFA had cited a source for that claim rather than just stating it as if it was something "everybody knows".

    1. Re:Hotter Sun? by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      Have you read the Wikipedia page? It's not "70% dimmer", it's "70% as bright" - that is, 30% dimmer. (That's obviously more than enough to push temperature by many degrees anyway.)

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
  95. Chicken Little by jlgreer1 · · Score: 0

    The sky is falling. The sky is falling. ... Get a life.....

  96. Re:The global warming hysterics are getting smarte by SCVonSteroids · · Score: 1

    Basically, anyone who says something is "absolute" when it comes to this subject, should probably be ignored.
    Truth is nobody really knows what's going to happen. All we have is data, not time machines.

    --
    I tend to rant.
  97. How the did denialism mixed up with Republicans? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I understand how pro-life people gravitated towards the Republican party. After all, it is a religious debate. But climate change has nothing to do with religion. How did we get to this point where climate change denial became a major point defended by the Republican Party?

  98. Re:I also performed a study. by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

    If they're standing at the Magnetic North Pole it would still rise in the East.

    --
    "That's the way to do it" - Punch
  99. Re:I also performed a study. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So, I guess you believe in a god. The big bang still depends on a lot of unproven assumptions, a 'leap of faith' as it were.

  100. Re: I also performed a study. by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 2

    Wow, so he was an authoritarian fascist who won the election without winning the popular vote!

    --
    "That's the way to do it" - Punch
  101. Re:I also performed a study. by MightyMartian · · Score: 0

    Nope, don't believe in God (but neither do I believe my atheism is scientific, though I do believe it is rational). And all the Big Bang ultimately says is "the universe was once very dense and very hot, and then began to expand." Perhaps you know as little about Big Bang cosmology as you do about AGW. Questions about what (if anything) started the Big Bang, if that is even a sensible question, are not meant to be answered by Big Bang and inflationary cosmology.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  102. Re:Don't be stupid... by RobinH · · Score: 1

    That completely ignores the tragedy of the commons. Ten people live around a lake. One guy dumps toxic pollution in the lake and kills all the fish. It doesn't matter how hard the other 9 try to clean up the lake, they'll never keep up with the one guy spewing toxic waste. I suppose they could pay him to not do it, but I don't see why he actually has a right to dump toxic waste in the lake in the first place. Likely they'll just gang up on him and make him stop. Same with carbon emissions... assuming everyone has a right to breath in oxygen and breath out carbon dioxide, the total amount being put into the atmosphere is much more than that basic allowance. What gives a few people/companies/nations the right to dump far more than their allotment into the atmosphere? Why should others pay them not to do it? It's a common resource, and has to be managed by agreement, and if we disagree too much, there will be violence to settle it. It's the same as if someone took all the food and didn't leave any for anyone else.

    --
    "I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." - Mark Twain
  103. Mitigation by ThosLives · · Score: 1

    I say we forget trying to sequester carbon. Instead, we should create artificial hurricanes. This will have two effects: more transfer of heat from the surface to the upper atmosphere where it can be radiated to space, and since hurricanes are massive heat engines, we can just use them as power plants.

    Win-win!

    I'm only half-joking.

    --
    "There are a dozen opinions on a matter until you know the truth. Then there is only one." - CS Lewis (paraprhase)
    1. Re:Mitigation by Areyoukiddingme · · Score: 1

      I say we forget trying to sequester carbon. Instead, we should create artificial hurricanes. This will have two effects: more transfer of heat from the surface to the upper atmosphere where it can be radiated to space, and since hurricanes are massive heat engines, we can just use them as power plants.

      You think you're being facetious, but the Vortex Engine people are quite serious, and even have funding now. Artificial tornadoes, rather than hurricanes, but very much the same idea.

      Of course, as proposed, it's supposed to work as an adjunct to an existing power plant, and what these lunatics forget is how loud a tornado is. Even though the local coal power plant is outside the metro area, it's not so far outside that a funnel cloud beside it wouldn't be both visible and audible from everywhere in the city. So not happening....

    2. Re:Mitigation by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Of course, as proposed, it's supposed to work as an adjunct to an existing power plant, and what these lunatics forget is how loud a tornado is. Even though the local coal power plant is outside the metro area, it's not so far outside that a funnel cloud beside it wouldn't be both visible and audible from everywhere in the city.

      Has this been the plot of a Final Fantasy game yet? Because holy shin-ra.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  104. Re: I also performed a study. by bondsbw · · Score: 2

    The number of Hitler supporters was undoubtedly inflated by fear and the social inability to form adequate resistance.

    The number of doctors who believed in bloodletting was inflated by the lack of technology which now allows for advanced research and instantaneous communication.

    Both of these are improved in our culture today.

    --
    All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
  105. Re:I also performed a study. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Fallacy of argument by trusting in "authority".

    If you can't regurgitate the science yourself, stop shrilly screaming at others that they don't get it.

    Here's a hint: we do get it. Your extrapolations from the "science" are FUCKING WRONG.

  106. Re:Don't be stupid... by BillCable · · Score: 1

    One of the reason why coal is dying as an industry, and will continue to do so not matter what the Trump Administration does, is that natural gas is inexpensive and natural gas plants are replacing coal plants.

    Look at that - free-market forces doing good for the environment! Fracking is probably the most environmentally beneficial advancement of the last 50 years, and it was entirely driven by private forces. Used to be the natural gas trapped in shale was too expensive to harvest to be viable. Then fracking was perfected. Now it's a boon of unparalleled cleaner energy.

    Private industry will do the same for solar and wind, if solar and wind can be developed in such a way that it's cost effective. The government needs not lift a finger, especially with the way it's proven to be almost entirely corrupt when it does.

  107. Re:Don't be stupid... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Because let's face it. We can't walk 40 miles to work every day.

    I was assured your generation in fact did so in the snow up-hill both ways every day.

    So quit whining and get walking like the rest of us or STFU.

    - a milenial

  108. Re:I also performed a study. by Calydor · · Score: 1

    So what you're saying is that people of a darker skin tone have lower IQ?

    --
    -=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
  109. Re: I also performed a study. by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

    As long as it doesn't move in an irregular decagon pattern, we should be alright.

    --
    #DeleteFacebook
  110. Re: I also performed a study. by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 0

    I'm sorry, when did the topic switch to elections in the U.S.A.?

    --
    #DeleteFacebook
  111. Re: I also performed a study. by marklark · · Score: 1

    Perhaps a better way to phrase it:

    Q: If you are stationary at the South Pole, in what direction does the Sun appear (when visible) to move?
    A: From the East to the West.

    (It's easier to get to the South Pole.)

  112. Par for the course by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is the same writer that claimed mental illness is a result of climate change. She is "all in" so to speak. She tries to debate points with "the sun is hotter!" which I guess she missed this being the explanation that the so called "Climate deniers!" have use to explain the, again, so called "warming trend" that the climate change community has claimed. Problem is that all the climate change sites I have seen claim that the sun has actually been cooling since 1978 and that the earth has warmed during that time because there is too much man made CO2. So right out the gate she is trying to claim something that ignores previous debates to solve another debate. That's not science. Then is goes in to "silicate weathering" and saying that rock turning to soil is the natural way that CO2 is removed from the atmosphere. Gee, and here I thought PLANTS removed it pretty naturally (they are part of nature right?) by photosynthesis turning it in to oxygen? Like I said, I will pass on the opinion of a people that thinks mental illness is a result of climate change.

  113. Re: I also performed a study. by sexconker · · Score: 1

    From their perspective there's still a rising and setting motion, there's just no crossing of the horizon.

    You lose. Pedant Lord Kano wins. Flawless Victory!

  114. Re:I also performed a study. by thegarbz · · Score: 1

    Some people say the sun rises in the East.

    Other people say the sun rises in the West.

    Well one of them is wrong, but the other definitely isn't right either. In many places in the world the sun rises and sets in the North or the South.

  115. Earth Use To Be Molten Rock by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Climate change denialists often mention that CO2 was high in the past, that it was warm in the past, so this means there's nothing to worry about,"

    The earth also used to be a ball of molten rock. But I'll bet that none of those people would voluntarily jump into an active volcano claiming "the earth used to be all molten, so I have nothing to worry about".

  116. Re:I also performed a study. by Barsteward · · Score: 1

    you need to look up that word in a dictionary

    --
    "The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
  117. Re:I also performed a study. by sexconker · · Score: 1

    It's "champing at the bit". You're the one who doesn't know shit.

    How many Slashdot articles have we had in the last year where the peer review process is exposed as a complete farce, even for the "reputable" journals? (Hint: A lot.)

  118. Re:Don't be stupid... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    Look at that - free-market forces doing good for the environment

    What free market? Fracking was made possible by the tax subsidies that the industry. Take away the tax subsidy and see what the free market does. For example, milk would be $10 per gallon without tax subsidies.

    Fracking is probably the most environmentally beneficial advancement of the last 50 years[...]

    Never mind the earthquakes in places that never had earthquakes and poisoned waste water filtering back into the water table.

  119. Re:Don't be stupid... by BillCable · · Score: 1

    Well, when the 10th person is China, who has no inclination to stop spewing CO2 no matter what, what option is there other than adapt? Nuke China?

    The USA is doing admirably in reducing CO2 emissions (thanks in good part to fracking). Any government-induced suffering to reduce it further, when we know for a fact that said efforts will pale in comparison to the increases of other global actors, is idiotic.

  120. Re: I also performed a study. by Barsteward · · Score: 1

    Donald, is that you?

    --
    "The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
  121. Re:An Industrial Revolution 50 million years ago?! by sexconker · · Score: 1

    CO2 is a weak greenhouse gas and the rise in CO2 cannot account for the rise in temperature, even when you rejigger the timelines however you want.

    MightyMartian wrong again!

  122. It's only going to get worse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    It's only going to get worse as long as the liberal approach is to shut down carbon-free nuclear power and replace it with carbon-producing natural gas (which by the way pays someone to frack it), heavily subsidizing solar panels and then declaring it cheaper than carbon power. Yeah, stop the free money and disconnect from the evil carbon grid and we'll see just how a fair comparison works out. (ps, also look up the meaning of sustainable and see if it involves free money from a magic source) Or imagine if there were organized efforts to make solar installations as painful and expensive as possible through any means (lawsuits, unnecessary processes, etc) possible.

    How about a tax on solar panels to pay for new nuclear plants. After all, renewables are great at supplying peak/variable loads, but nuclear is required for the base load. We could also require China build a whole bunch of nuclear plants (built to French standards, of course, they really know how to do nuclear right) and that's half the problem right there.

    And before someone squawks about how dangerous nuclear is, well compared to what, coal mining? But yeah of course BWR type reactors are dangerous, and so are reactors on fault lines, we should replace them with new safe reactors ASAP. The current approach of resisting safe new reactors and forcing the more dangerous old ones to keep running is really poor thinking. Imagine if Ralph Nader had proven how unsafe 1950's cars were, and shut down production of any new safer cars and forced unsafe old cars to be repaired and kept on the roads.

    1. Re:It's only going to get worse by Izaak · · Score: 1

      It's only going to get worse as long as the liberal approach is to shut down carbon-free nuclear power and replace it with carbon-producing natural gas (which by the way pays someone to frack it), heavily subsidizing solar panels and then declaring it cheaper than carbon power. Yeah, stop the free money and disconnect from the evil carbon grid and we'll see just how a fair comparison works out. (ps, also look up the meaning of sustainable and see if it involves free money from a magic source) Or imagine if there were organized efforts to make solar installations as painful and expensive as possible through any means (lawsuits, unnecessary processes, etc) possible.

      How about a tax on solar panels to pay for new nuclear plants.

      ... snip ....

      Your data seems to be out of date. Solar has reached and even passed grid parity in many markets, which explains why its deployment has rapidly increased even where there are no subsidies. I agree we should invest more in next gen nuclear, but it makes no sense to penalize solar to do it. Instead, we should have a carbon tax and divert the funds to low carbon alternatives (like nuclear) and, heck, give rebates to taxpayers just to make it politically popular. We could start with a tax that is very low and gradually increase it to allow for smooth transition. It's the fair thing to do, as we are all paying the externalized costs that fossil fuels create in the form of pollution. Oil, gas, and coal companies essentially get a subsidy compared to cleaner energy sources by not paying the societal cost of pollution. A carbon tax would level the playing field.

    2. Re:It's only going to get worse by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      The lack of building nuclear power plants has as much to do with economics as it does with opposition to nuclear power. I'm not against nuclear power but I am against paying more for my power because of nuclear power when there are less expensive options. Ask the people in Georgia and South Carolina who are already paying higher electric bills to help pay for the nuclear plants they are building.

    3. Re:It's only going to get worse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, there's currently (2017) an economics problem with nuclear, hence the reference "imagine if there were organized efforts to make solar installations as painful and expensive as possible through any means (lawsuits, unnecessary processes, etc) possible." which is why nuclear isn't still drastically cheaper, but that's not really the cost of nuclear, that's actually the cost of anti-nuclear-politics. And liberals are gleefully (talking about you California!) replacing nuclear with small amounts of solar and large amounts of natural gas, which is why carbon is still going to get worse. They should be replacing coal and natural gas with solar, wind, and nuclear, and old nuclear with new nuclear.

      As for the earlier comment about solar reaching grid parity: BS. Show me an average household on solar&wind-only. Hooked up to the electric company to run the meter forwards at night? Yeah, that's cheating to not include billions of dollars of infrastructure to back it up (ps, and somehow solar people don't think they should pay for that infrastructure even though they use it). Not counting the cost of all those house batteries? Yeah, that's cheating too. Rural farm or in the mountains of Montana and don't have electricity at night or only powers single cellphone? that's not average household.

  123. Re: Republicans DESERVE to go extinct. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    the democrats would need to move more center and not this extreme leftism to do that. I don't see them doing that. all the conservative and center democrats pretty much voted right this time around. the dems will need to drastically change there platform if they want to win the country.

  124. Let's blame US and EU (Some CO2 emission figures) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Fetched from "CO2 time series 1990-2015 per region/country" Emission Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR)

    In 2010, top 3 nation/region for CO2 emission
    China 8986 megaton
    US 5519 megaton
    EU 3883 megaton

    in 2015, top 3 nation/region
    China 10641 megaton
    US 5172 megaton
    EU 3469 megaton

    Together, US and EU reduced about 800 megaton from 2010 to 2015. Meanwhile, China increased about 1600 megaton.

    Of course US and EU should be blamed because they are not working hard enough to bring down the total emission.

  125. Re:Don't be stupid... by sexconker · · Score: 1

    Tell me more about Social Society, please.

  126. Re:I also performed a study. by Barsteward · · Score: 1

    why would a weatherman report rising sea levels when he/she is just giving predictions for the new few days? When they are on documentaries when climate change discussed then they do discuss possible rising sea levels

    --
    "The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
  127. Re: Republicans DESERVE to go extinct. by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    the democrats would need to move more center and not this extreme leftism to do that.

    The Democrats have been right of center under Clinton and Obama. With Trump in office, I expect the Democrats to go left of center.

  128. Re:I also performed a study. by SCVonSteroids · · Score: 1

    That sort of non-sense is exactly what you shouldn't do.
    Put those people down, sure. Then what? They go home with their tails between their legs, thinking about a way to get revenge on those "smarty pants".
    Your bullying tactics only ends up creating a bunch of criminals. Good job. You get a free asshole badge!

    If you can't treat stupidity with reasoning, you ignore it and move on. That's that.

    --
    I tend to rant.
  129. Re:I also performed a study. by WrongMonkey · · Score: 1
    While you may be right, your methods of persuasion are ineffectual and counterproductive. Literally no person in the history of the world has ever changed their mind because someone shouted at them and called them "STUPID".

    Take a break from atmospheric studies and learn a little bit about human psychology.

  130. Re:Don't be stupid... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    Tell me more about Social Society, please.

    A 1950's Supreme Court decision ruled that Social Security is a government program, Congress can cancel the program at any time, and keep the money.

  131. If it's going to happen, it's already too late by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Years ago the great scientist philosopher Algore told us al that if we didn't reduce emissions by 2014, then we'd be past the tipping point.

    Well, it's past 2014.

    On the other hand the models are all rubbish. As is the Algore, the man who can emit more carbon dioxide in one day than 100 people can do in one year.

  132. Re:How the did denialism mixed up with Republicans by Deadstick · · Score: 1

    But climate change has nothing to do with religion

    You underestimate Biblical literalists. All they have to do is count the Noachian flood as climate change, and quote Genesis 9:11.

  133. A few things to consider. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The sun is in a dimming phase, likely entering a solar minimum. While at the solar systems birth the sun was indeed 30% dimmer and will be 67% brighter (that's evil full spectrum energy output brightness not going from a 60 watt light bulb to a 100watt one) and the earth will be stripped to a small iron core or evaporated, that is a ways off. Over human's presence the solar output has only varied .1-.2% ... doesn't seem like much but the Marauder Minimum had deep snow in London with the Thames river frozen. And a bit more and we have ice ages with glacial advancement over a huge part of North America. So before you worry to much about solar increases helping less CO2 heat things to unprecedented levels beyond climate disaster proponents on the warming side, maybe look at some of the science pointing to global cooling. It was all the rage in the seventies and only the politics have changed. Go Retro. But a sweater.

  134. So what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's far more likely that in the next 100 years a nuclear holocaust will reverse global warming than US measures on CO_2 emissions will do so. Please stop throwing those deck chairs off the Titanic in hopes it will stop the sinking.

  135. yeah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I am pretty sure that gigantic ball of burning gas at the center of our solar system has more to do with global warming that humans do. Now if you were to say we need to clean up our act in general, I could accept that. This penchant to blame the change in our environment on humans when we have very little data is laughable. The data we have is like recording one second on a movie then claiming you know how it is going to end based on what you heard in that one second.

  136. Re:An Industrial Revolution 50 million years ago?! by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

    CO2 is a weak greenhouse gas and the rise in CO2 cannot account for the rise in temperature, even when you rejigger the timelines however you want.

    If order to draw that conclusion, you'd have to use an accurate model. But you don't believe accurate models exist.

  137. Re: I also performed a study. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    He could've been saying lighter skin color. You added darker all on your own.

  138. Anyone ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...blaiming cars for the CO2 output is welcome to develop battery technology to make it a lot cheaper and have more capacity and make sure current cars can be easily and cheaply retrofitted with electric drive. I can abandon the V8 for the sake of the earth, but i won't abandon the whole car.

  139. Re:An Industrial Revolution 50 million years ago?! by MrSome · · Score: 1

    https://skepticalscience.com/argument.php

    I think you're looking for numbers 12, 30, 46, and 50.

  140. The usual doom and gloom by Crashmarik · · Score: 1

    At least this time it's post retirement and post death.
    No real surprise seeing as short term predictions kept coming up wrong.

    50 million climate refugees and entire countries gone by 2010 (UN)
    http://www.spiegel.de/internat...

    West Side Highway under water by 2010 (James Hansen)
    http://www.salon.com/2001/10/2...

  141. The "Perfect Storm" is a shit idea by mveloso · · Score: 1

    The idea of a "Perfect Storm" is a shit idea popularized by that dumb-ass book.

    Anything that happens in life can be seen as a random confluence of multiple, independent events. A car accident? 5 seconds would have prevented it. Getting killed by a falling tree limb? Just imagine all the things that have to happen for the branch to fall on someone walking under it.

    Those "perfect storm" events happen all the time, every day, in multiple contexts.

  142. Re:I also performed a study. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's funny you say that, but it is something that would be up for debate for a society that recently emerged from an underground cave and is now experiencing its first day ever. You can say "oh, it's so obvious", but we really simply don't have the data to make a judgement. As such, to us evil nonbelievers, we really feel like the idea that we need to sacrifice 10,000,000 brown children to the climate gods to keep that sun rising every day might not be the best course. Because it is they, the most vulnerable, who will suffer when we forcibly reduce carbon usage. They are barely making it now, but if you triple the price of their food, they are going to die.

  143. Can't Forecast _Anything_ More Than 2 Years Out! by littlewink · · Score: 1

    I agree with Dilbert's creator, Scott Adams:

    The Non-Expert Problem and Climate Change Science

  144. Re:I also performed a study. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    He's too black to know how to do that.

  145. Re:I also performed a study. by tbannist · · Score: 1

    What if someone's standing on the North Pole?

    Then the sun rises in the spring and sets in the fall.

    --
    Fanatically anti-fanatical
  146. Re:I also performed a study. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ^^ STUPID!!!

  147. Re:I also performed a study. by tbannist · · Score: 1

    Fallacy of argument by trusting in "authority".

    Appeals to authority are not generally a fallacy. Thye are only fallacious if the authority is not an expert on the topic being considered. So, for example, referring to consensus view of practising climate scientists on global warming is not fallacious, but referring to the views of a retired mining middle manager on global warming would be a fallacious appeal to authority.

    --
    Fanatically anti-fanatical
  148. Re:I also performed a study. by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    I don't get your argument.
    Regardless of which side of the equator you are: the sun always rises in the east.
    East is defined by the place/side where the sun is rising.

    http://www.etymonline.com/inde...

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  149. Re:I also performed a study. by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    That is wrong. As long as you are not standing precisely on the pole the sun will always rise in the east.
    If you are standing precisely on the pole you could argue that the rising point is south, however: http://www.etymonline.com/inde...

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  150. Not really such a joke, consider: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Our descendants will have far better technology to deal with any side effects than we have today - it'll be cheaper and easier for them than for us.

    We run the planet with a mix of mostly fossil fuels and some renewables and some nuclear - the tech we have and in ratios practical for us.

    People a century or more from now will probably be running on a mix of renewables and nuclear fusion - if they get the fusion thing right, they'll have limitless nearly free energy and that will make thinks like recycling and waste cleanup cheap and simple.

    If people over a century from now cannot build better flood controls and boats and cities and bridges etc better than we can and for less money then they'll be a bunch of losers and it'll suck to be them. If on the other hand they just do like most previous generations and make reasonable technological gains, then they'll be better off than us. We need not sacrifice the middle- and lower-classes of the current world (concrete victims of our choices) on the alter of the theory that such sacrifices will help future people we do not know in future circumstances that are uncertain (theoretical victims of our choices).

  151. Re:I also performed a study. by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    In many places in the world the sun rises and sets in the North or the South.
    I don't know why you want to nitpick about bollocks like this.

    Those places are not "many". There are exactly two places. And if you want you can make them a bit bigger by drawing a 1km circle around them.

    Outside of those circles the sun rises in the east. Because: that is the definition of east.

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  152. Re:An Industrial Revolution 50 million years ago?! by amicusNYCL · · Score: 2

    In all fairness, there's nothing wrong with the planet. The planet is going to be fine. Give it another couple million years and it will once again be full of all kinds of diverse life in every corner, with hardly any indication that we were ever here beyond a thin little geographic layer containing traces of plastic and other things. The planet is going to be fine. We aren't, but the planet is under no threat. The push to solve climate change is a push to help people, not the planet. We're trying to avoid the next great extinction event which causes the conditions to change so much that we can't live any more, but the planet will survive that event and life in general will make a full recovery within a few million or tens of millions of years, we just won't be part of it.

    --
    "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
  153. Re: I also performed a study. by corando · · Score: 1
    Obviously both!

    Preferably added together
    ... and with a little extra for good measure.

  154. Nothing we can't fix by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    by throwing taxes and government money at it!

    Let's start with China kicking in some cash for Al Gore.

  155. Re: I also performed a study. by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    Hitler was backed by over 90% of the people.
    He wasn't. He was a dictator with an apparatus to suppress its citizens. Just like Stalin, Mussolini and plenty of other "rulers" on all sides during that time period.

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  156. Self correcting problem, no? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    virus eats host. host dies. virus dies. host miraculously didn't really die and lives on. woot!

  157. Re:I also performed a study. by Grishnakh · · Score: 2

    I don't care about your "facts" and "definitions". I have alternative facts that show the sun rises in the west!! You sound just like one of those know-it-all academics.

    Next you'll probably try to convince me that homeopathy isn't real and that it's just water, and that all the people who believe otherwise are wrong.

  158. Re:I also performed a study. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We can't educate these people Just look at how many voted for trump, we tried, so loudly warning others that they are in fact stupid is the only recourse...
    I would go as far as a forehead tattoo so others will know right away.

  159. Re: Republicans DESERVE to go extinct. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ha that's laughable . Obama was as left as it gets. son was everyone that voted for him.

  160. This report is bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Anthropogenic climate change is a scam.

    If it wasn't, we could see the raw climate data. Too bad so much of that has been destroyed after "adjustments" were published.

  161. Re: Republicans DESERVE to go extinct. by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    ha that's laughable . Obama was as left as it gets. son was everyone that voted for him.

    I'm serious. Clinton and Obama coopted the Republican agenda, claimed it as their and implemented those policies. The Republicans are out of ideas.

  162. Loud and clear what's gonna happen by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You all are explaining the Fermi Paradox to me, and clearly at that. Human selfishness will get us every time.

  163. Re:An Industrial Revolution 50 million years ago?! by soc_cost_priv_gains · · Score: 1

    It becomes a political agenda when the solution is implementing a carbon tax or a cap and trade program.

  164. Re: I also performed a study. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    1938 Vote of Confidence in Adolf Hitler and the NSDAP, from the world's first airborne polling place, the Zepplin Hindenburg, 100 souls aboard. The ballots had been helpfully pre-marked with 'Ja' answers, but not pre-treated to readily store fingerprints, an error that got two election monitoring individuals punished.

    Somehow two people had the effrontery (and, due to the lack of fingerprints, couldn't be tracked down) to erase the 'Ja' answer and wrote in 'Nein'. Those ballots were dutifully changed back to 'Ja', and marked as spoiled, and replaced with two new clean ballots, both marked 'Ja'. However the "spoiled" ones still got counted.

    The polling place radioed in its results, "Ja, 102, Nein, 0". From an airship with 100 people on board. Hmmm.....

    Hitler won that one with 102% of the vote.

    AC

  165. Re:An Industrial Revolution 50 million years ago?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Thanks George, how are you these days anyway Mr. Carlin?

  166. Re:I also performed a study. by riverat1 · · Score: 1

    My study indicates we'll be in another ice age by the end of the century.

    Which one of us is right?

    I call bullshit on your study. It's not thermodynamically possible to be in another ice age in only 83 years.

  167. Re: I also performed a study. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In the same way morons argue grammar online instead of doing something productive with their lives.

  168. They are tricking ALL of you! CHANGE THE SUBJECT! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You are being tricked by FUD. This whole 'debate' is FUD.
    Fear
    Uncertainty
    Doubt

    It is a classic way to manipulate people. Tobacco used it. The Klan used it. Now 'big business ' is using it.
    You want to know why? Because now you are NOT talking about poison.
    No talk of formaldehyde, Benzine, lead, mercury, and yes, uranium ash into our air.
    https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/coal-ash-is-more-radioactive-than-nuclear-waste/

    When I was little 'give a hoot, don't pollute' was the catchphrase, and it was a hard one to argue or ignore.
    No one wanted their water, air, or wildlife poisoned.
    City people worried about the air the children needed to breath, country folk worried that the fish they caught that morning would make their kids sick.

    No one was saying "Yes, we are putting billions of tons of poison in the air, but there is no proof that poison is bad for you." Why? Because it is such utter bullshit that no one would buy it.

    It was impossible to have a 'conversation' with industry that included the premise that 'well, some poison is fine' they would be shouted out, boycotted, etc.

    So, what were the marketing departments to do? They changed the subject!
    A subject that never mentions benzene, lead, or mercury.
    A subject that many can't understand and has subtle and long term changes.
    Now they get to spread:
    Fear: that your job, car, way of life will be taken form you
    Uncertainty: that anything is happening, that anything bad will happen, that we can do anything
    Doubt: that the scientist are right, that data is real, that carbon is bad.

    But you know what EVERYONE agrees with? Poison is bad, and less poison in the environment is better than more poison.
    All of the things that we would do to limit the amount of known poison emissions are also the same fucking things that reduce CO2 and other green house gasses.

    If you care about the environment CHANGE THE SUBJECT!
    Change it back to pollution!
    Hammer and hammer on about poison. If you get people to understand that we need to stop criminal poisoning of our kids you can also stop the greenhouse gasses at the same time without the stupid arguments with high school drop-outs who fuck their pickup trucks tailpipe every night and sleep with a mopar catalog under their pillow.

    Just stop playing their game.

  169. Re:An Industrial Revolution 50 million years ago?! by david_thornley · · Score: 1

    Everybody in the field pays attention to the Sun. We know when Solar output varies. Currently, it isn't varying significantly, so the temperature increases are from some other cause or causes. So far, the only one to account for them is the increase of CO2 in the atmosphere from burning fossil fuel.

    --
    "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  170. Re:I also performed a study. by riverat1 · · Score: 1

    You should break down what fields those were found in. There's a lot of BS in social sciences but not so much in physical sciences.

  171. Gaia's a bit of a perv by fyngyrz · · Score: 1

    May Gaia take you gently

    Now, which pineapple do you choose?

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
  172. Bin, roundfile, trashcan, etc. Garbage. by fyngyrz · · Score: 1

    Just like to step in and add Apple's trashcan Mac Pro design to your "industry came up with complete disaster" list.

    Thanks.

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
  173. haha fake-news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sorry but CO2 is less dangerous than the "technologies" we use to mitigate green peace's Man made global warming. From bird chopping windmills to windmills that dont turn when its a hot day or when its between 1am and 4:50am on average. But in the Social Justice Warrior world we live in, facts dont matter.

    What about desil? /. isnt talking about how desil kills humans, was sold by green peace as a harmless gas (swapping benzyne description for CO2 indeed!) and now everyone is paying for it wiht their lives and those who invested in it, with their wallets: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3256467/theresa-may-orders-ministers-not-to-punish-millions-of-diesel-drivers-with-toxin-tax-in-a-first-big-victory-for-the-sun/ One would wonder what makes a SJW feel shame nowadays.

    Also it seems like a really long bow being pulled to find an example of CO2 being dangerous that doesnt revolve around a story of a volcanoe, a lake, co2 buildup like these ones: http://www.slate.com/blogs/atlas_obscura/2013/07/26/lake_nyos_killed_1746_when_it_released_a_huge_pocket_of_co2.html

    The inability of people to think makes it easy to just ignore this crap!

  174. Usual fear-mongering by Namarrgon · · Score: 2

    We had a carbon tax in Australia, back in 2012. Started out at A$23/tonne and increased slowly, with initially-large (90%) waivers for major polluters that were also set to phase out over time. Proceeds from the tax were largely returned directly to the population via tax cuts to offset the small projected price bump, with the rest invested in carbon-neutral energy alternatives and climate mitigation.

    The (right-wing) opposition, egged on by our big coal sector, swore up & down that it would lead to spiraling inflation and collapse small businesses, and blamed it for large electricity price hikes. In reality of course, the economic impact was hardly noticeable. Most prices barely changed, the average tax cut easily covered the electricity rises (which had started before the tax and were almost entirely due to long-overdue grid upgrades), "green power" plans became more popular, and CO2 emissions dropped slightly. A year went by, the carbon price increased to $24.15, and these trends continued as projected.

    But the right-wing scare campaign intensified, terms like "wrecking ball", "python squeeze", and "axe the tax" were thrown about, and the carbon tax became a major political issue - enough to tip the scales at the next election, despite polling consistently showing that ~60% of Australians wanted climate action. The tax was quickly repealed, and CO2 emissions started climbing again.

    But the biggest casualties were the politicians themselves, with both parties dissolving into chaos and every single prime minister in the last ten years getting replaced before they could even sit out a full term. Right now we have a centre-right guy who internally replaced an unpopular hard-liner PM just before election - reversing the leadership spill from 2009 where he was ousted by the hard-liner - while a near-identical leadership reverse happened to the centre-left party while they were in power, over this same issue. Result: Australian trust of politicians, poor at the best of times, hits a two-decade low.

    --
    Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
  175. Re:I also performed a study. by aussie_a · · Score: 1

    Wasn't that Clinton's strategy against the deplorables? Those deplorables sure are good at striking back when insulted too much. Might want to be careful there or you might get a couple of decades of climate deniers in the whitehouse.

  176. Re:An Industrial Revolution 50 million years ago?! by riverat1 · · Score: 1

    Which hockey stick graph are you talking about? Here is a list of over 40 hockey stick graphs. Are you saying they're all debunked or just Mann's original one?

  177. Re:I also performed a study. by aussie_a · · Score: 1

    Is it fear mongering when Trump has been hard at work undoing everything that was done to reduce CO2 emissions?

  178. This is a cute subject but don't cross our line. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There is no climate change and we will shoot anyone who tells us how often we may breathe.

  179. Re:An Industrial Revolution 50 million years ago?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It is rare I have read a post that shows just how much the global warming propaganda has become a new religion.

    It's really quite sad. You have no possibility of ever understanding any of the complex, arguments that global warming as a phenomenon exists. All you can do is listen to so-called scientists preach this new gospel, and believe them as thoroughly as any religious person believes a priest or similar leader.

  180. Re:Don't be stupid... by riverat1 · · Score: 1

    A 1950's Supreme Court decision ruled that Social Security is a government program, Congress can cancel the program at any time, and keep the money.

    Of course if they did that they wouldn't keep their jobs come the next election.

  181. Re:The global warming hysterics are getting smarte by riverat1 · · Score: 1

    Sheesh! They never said that it couldn't be a factor, just that the current solar variation wasn't enough to be a major factor.

  182. Not my problem. I care zero. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Climate change isn't manmade anyway.

  183. next ice age by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    i wonder if we can actually beat the next ice age this way . would be perfect !

  184. Re:Don't be stupid... by aussie_a · · Score: 1

    Sure. Once Coal and Big Oil stop getting subsidies from the government: https://www.desmogblog.com/201...

    Then why don't we go right ahead and give renewable energy the same amount in subsidied that coal and big oil have gotten for the last umpteen years and let them build their infrastructure before finally pulling them off the US government's teat.

    After all, fair's fair. Right? We're all about capitalism and letting companies stand on their own two feet.

  185. I guess you are incapable of learning by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Because... You are clearly perfect. Never even slightly wrong and just love letting those less perfect than you that they are subhuman or whatever

  186. Re:An Industrial Revolution 50 million years ago?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What have you done to help the planet?

  187. chicken little by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Oh no, the sky is falling! The sky is falling! Help, help, the SKY IS FALLING!!!1!!

  188. So... peak hotness? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We lived through peak food and peak oil, bring on the heat.

  189. You should better learn basic laws of physics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Really? I thought water vapors called simply as clouds mostly influence greenhouse effect. It's physics, ignorant pal! If the Earth gets more hot, more water evaporates. As a gas water wapor has a convection and thus radiates all the excessive energy back to our supercold Universe, shrouding the warm Earth. Anyone who believes that 25,000 terawatyears energy that the Earth gets from our star Sun annually, can be even slightly affected by humanity's output of 25 terawatyears annually (burning oil, coal and nuclear fuel), has not properly studied mathematics, biology and physics. CO2 is only a byproduct of the mother Nature processes, it's a food for plants, humans breath it in and out for millions of years. Scaremongering of fears in order to do multibillion trading with CO2 quotas, buying for cheap from poor nations and selling to rich ones, using common weakness of rulers in politics eager for becoming heroes saving the Earth from evil polluters, is the global scam that drives up the energy prices and ruins economies for banal greed. Folow the money, all those multi-Bn funds investing into CO2 quotas trading, The web of greed and corruption goes to the "climate scientists" in the United Nations panels, being sponsored by "alternative energy" quotas speculants. Btw, I am a physicist, laughing at "climate models" calculating our future climate based on the basic assumption that the Earth is a round ball with several mirror surfaces reflecting light and making the flawed conclusion that energy will flow from colder (clouds) to warmer surface (ground) and thus the Earth will overheat. These "climate scientists" ignore rules of physics and the very basic fact that the Earth is a thermodynamic system with all gasses and fluids in constant motion exchanging heet energy and quickly emitting all 25,000 terawats energy back into the very cold Cosmos around our planet. Global warming happens, no doubt about that, like global cooling. Every day and night. By some 15-20 degrees of Celsium. Where are climate fear-mongers explaining how that is possible? We should stop Global Fearmongering designed to trade quotas of ordinary air packaged as the product of "guilt", making dirty money for few bastard billioniers based on humanity's fears from the Nature. This is evil and amoral business buying politicians and "climate scientists".

    1. Re:You should better learn basic laws of physics by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      I thought water vapors called simply as clouds mostly influence greenhouse effect.

      Anyone who believes that 25,000 terawatyears energy that the Earth gets from our star Sun annually, can be even slightly affected by humanity's output of 25 terawatyears annually (burning oil, coal and nuclear fuel), has not properly studied mathematics, biology and physics.

      Of course the amount of heat produced by humans as you note is of practically no consequence. No one is claiming that. It's water vapor and CO2 and other greenhouse gases slowing down the loss of infrared radiation emitted by the Earth after it absorbs energy from the visible light from the Sun that is causing the heating.

      It becomes clear that your climate science denialism is driven by your fear of possible economic consequences from responding to the problem more than any understanding of science. You also ought to consider the possible economic consequences if the climate scientists are right.

      Global warming happens, no doubt about that, like global cooling. Every day and night. By some 15-20 degrees of Celsium. Where are climate fear-mongers explaining how that is possible?

      Cute. The obvious answer is the Sun heats the day side of the planet and on the night side energy is being lost to the black sky. But that is a cycle that's been going on for the whole 4.5 billion years of the planet's existence and has never been a cause of climate change. For individual places on Earth it varies seasonally but repeats year after year and on a long term basis (tens of thousands of years) it varies due to the Milankovitch cycles but when you're talking about a climatologically significant period (30 years) it has essentially no effect.

    2. Re:You should better learn basic laws of physics by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      (Previous post with the quoting fixed up and missing text added.)

      I thought water vapors called simply as clouds mostly influence greenhouse effect.

      Water vapor and clouds are two different things when it comes to climate effects. You have to consider them separately. There is of course a relationship between water vapor and clouds as either one can become the other as atmospheric conditions change but their effects are not the same.

      Anyone who believes that 25,000 terawatyears energy that the Earth gets from our star Sun annually, can be even slightly affected by humanity's output of 25 terawatyears annually (burning oil, coal and nuclear fuel), has not properly studied mathematics, biology and physics.

      Of course the amount of heat produced by humans as you note is of practically no consequence. No one is claiming that. It's water vapor and CO2 and other greenhouse gases slowing down the loss of infrared radiation emitted by the Earth after it absorbs energy from the visible light from the Sun that is causing the heating.

      It becomes clear that your climate science denialism is driven by your fear of possible economic consequences from responding to the problem more than any understanding of science. You also ought to consider the possible economic consequences if the climate scientists are right.

      Global warming happens, no doubt about that, like global cooling. Every day and night. By some 15-20 degrees of Celsium. Where are climate fear-mongers explaining how that is possible?

      Cute. The obvious answer is the Sun heats the day side of the planet and on the night side energy is being lost to the black sky. The energy flux is net positive on the day side and net negative on the night side. But that is a cycle that's been going on for the whole 4.5 billion years of the planet's existence and has never been a cause of climate change. For individual places on Earth it varies seasonally but repeats year after year and on a long term basis (tens of thousands of years) it varies due to the Milankovitch cycles but when you're talking about a climatologically significant period (30 years) it has essentially no effect.

  190. Re:An Industrial Revolution 50 million years ago?! by SCVonSteroids · · Score: 1

    I'm not a denier, or a believer, or whatever you want to call me, but it's not the arrogance and ego (yes I'm sure there's a few who feel butthurt when you challenge their beliefs, fuck them). It's the immediate sense of survival. Most people don't have global warming on their priority list of things to do to stay alive because it's not naturally obvious to them that something bad is happening.

    On top of that, how many times have we been told as a people "Oh this is going to be really bad, you just watch." then, nothing. Not to say its the case with this, but people don't care about the subject so much as they care about how it makes them feel. "Great, they're talking doomsday again, fuck this shit I have groceries to do so I can feed my kids." See where I'm going with this?

    Even when it comes knocking on their doorsteps in the form of a massive hurricane, global warming will be the last thing on their minds. Its all about survival. If your survival isn't immediately threatened, you aren't naturally inclined to react. Generally, of course. We're all different.

    At this point, it almost looks as though a fair amount of folks just see this as a scam to increase government/corporate power. Is it a conspiracy? Meh. Sounds like daily business to me. Whether it's true or not, there's a certain story about a dam breaking and people not moving, even when breakage is imminent. Cognitive dissonance is it? I forget.. too early. Coffee time!

    --
    I tend to rant.
  191. Re:The global warming hysterics are getting smarte by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    The biosphere as we know it has already been irreparably damaged. But if you lead with that, people will just throw up their hands even more than they are now. You have to give people hope that they can save their lifestyle, even though they can't because it's much too late now. But they might be able to save the lives of their miserable offspring if they get cracking.

    I say they because I have no offspring, and plan to continue that. It won't be me that has to deal with the worst of it. It'll be their kids.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  192. PC pressure.. by thesupraman · · Score: 1

    You are dead right, we are all so much more well informed and make quality critically thought choices always!

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotherham_child_sexual_exploitation_scandal

    For those who cannot be bothered: an estimated 1400 child molestations since the 90s, covered over and allowed by the local law and council, because they basically didnt want to create a fuss that could perhaps have 'given oxygen to racism' by saying the perps were Pakistani.
    Instead, like good little PC sheep, the people in charge turned their back on the child victims, and let it continue for over 20 years.

    Thank god our culture has improved so much!

    1. Re: PC pressure.. by bondsbw · · Score: 1

      You may not realize it, but having a few in power who are corrupt or complicit has little to do with the topic of majority approval.

      --
      All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
  193. how good is good enough? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How accurate do you need the models to be? Bloomberg's, not typically known for being a bastion of liberalism, did a presentation of all the natural and human causes do a good job at breaking them down: https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-whats-warming-the-world/ Also, since you apparently agree that greenhouse gas effects are real and that you in general against polluting, are you willing to agree that humans have an impact as well? and if humans have an impact that we have the ability to clean up the messes were are making? As for the doom and gloom, I guess it all depends on what you value and if you see species mass extinction as a bad thing, or loosing your home to sea level rise or sever storms. I'm assuming that you do not live on a tiny island in the pacific island, or on a low coastal area.

  194. Re:I also performed a study. by ganjadude · · Score: 1

    just because he removed a regulation doesnt mean the people still cant buy the better products.... we dont need a babysitter

    --
    have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
  195. Re:An Industrial Revolution 50 million years ago?! by Rob+Y. · · Score: 1

    In other words, it becomes a political agenda when anything is suggested that might actually work to reduce carbon emissions? I assume you would also agree that it 'becomes a political agenda' when the solution is increasing vehicle mileage standards - or tax rebates for solar installations - or...

    --
    Posted from my Android phone. Oh, I can change this? There, that's better...
  196. Re:An Industrial Revolution 50 million years ago?! by strikethree · · Score: 1

    It's just an argument that deniers make up to justify their selfishness and so they don't have to change a single thing about their lifestyle or lift a single fucking finger to help the planet, which in their arrogance and ego they think they are entitled to do with as they please because they're "human", like they somehow earned that status themselves.

    Pray tell, what do you expect the average human to do? They already live as close to "work" as they can afford. Nobody likes to spend time sitting in traffic. Even if all average individuals lowered their lifestyle to walking to work (16 miles each way!), not use refrigerators (one of the most wasteful ways we use energy), etc, the overall impact would be close to zero.

    Manufacturing, industry, and transportation are the lion's share of CO2 emissions. Long story short, it is the governments of the planet that might have any chance at dealing with this. Every time I have voted, the results are opposite of what I voted for.

    So go ahead and sneer at me for being lazy, self-indulgent, and greedy. If it makes you feel better beating on the average individual, then go for it. It will not matter but will engender bad feelings. Good job making the world unpleasant on top of being fucked climatically. Good luck on fixing it. :)

    Should I grab the popcorn now?

    --
    "Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen
  197. Re: I also performed a study. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Racist !!!!

  198. Three things to consider by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

    1. US and EU emissions are way down. Especially in the job-creating Blue cities as we build warehouses and plants with solar and wind, more efficient and cheaper than the 18th century inefficient ones in the Red areas. Adapt or die.

    2. China is converting 80 percent of all their coal plants to cogeneration. It was my idea, I know people. Getting rid of all coal plants that can't be converted (which were the worst polluters). Installing scrubbers (80s tech, actually) in areas with water and other things to cut emissions. Twice the energy output. India is doing the same, but not quite as fast.

    3. You too can stop giving Big Government your money for electricity and heating and cooling and take control of the levers of production. When replacing your roof or building a home (almost anything built since 2004 is compatible) install a full solar roof. They even work in Northern BC and Alberta. Yes it works when cloudy. My electric bills are tiny. The main cost is labor and permits, so do the whole thing.

    Actions. Not mealy mouthed excuses by people who want us to be slaves to fossil fuel mavens in Russia and Saudi Arabia.

    This is what will make the difference. It's not hard. It's cheaper. It literally saves $.

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  199. Climate Change by ftolar69 · · Score: 0

    I live in Massachusetts, and we've got a pretty large area of methane bubbling up from the sea floor. The smart money says in a few years we'll be a second Venus. Of course that means everything dies. I'm not sorry that we are finished on this planet, but the rest of the life that will die I am sorry for. We did the damage but everybody else will suffer our fate.

  200. Wrong Headline by MooseMiester · · Score: 1

    Should read "Last ditch attempt to get funding by making fantastical claims fails, only appears on slashdot"

    One would think the people doing Climate Science would have figured out that making fantastic dire predictions is one of the reasons they have lost credibility, and that they are doing far more damage to the planet than all the factories put together. Your anger should be directed at them, but it never is. If you care about the planet call for a new approach to research that doesn't promote collective group think.

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    Murphy was an optimist
  201. Re: I also performed a study. by aussie_a · · Score: 1

    Let's get rid of the police then. All they do is babysit society and we don't need that.

  202. Re:I also performed a study. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It only rises in the east one day a year. The rest of the year it's rises either in the NE or SE. So they're both wrong at least 364 days a year!

  203. Common man by NewYork · · Score: 1

    Common man can plant more trees

  204. Re:I also performed a study. by SCVonSteroids · · Score: 1

    You also don't understand sarcasm, apparently.

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    I tend to rant.
  205. Re: I also performed a study. by reanjr · · Score: 1

    The concept of East and West doesn't map to the poles. All directions are some combination of North/South and up/down. At the South Pole, the sun rises and sets in the North, and moves clockwise; at the North Pole, the sun rises and sets in the South, and moves counter-clockwise.