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Mathematical Formula Predicts Global Mass Extinction Event in 2100 (vice.com)

Kate Lunau, writing for Motherboard: A new paper in Science Advances finds that a mass extinction period mirroring ones from our planet's ancient past could be triggered when humanity adds a certain amount of carbon to the oceans, which are home to the majority of all plants and animals on our planet. The paper pegs that amount at 310 gigatons. According to lead author Daniel Rothman of MIT, based on projections from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, we're on course to hit that number by 2100. After that, we enter "unknown territory." [...] Previous mass extinctions have happened over the course of thousands or millions of years, but the period of change we're in right now has lasted centuries at best, making it hard to compare them. Although plenty of experts say Earth is already experiencing a sixth mass extinction, that remains "a scientific question," Rothman, who is professor of geophysics in the MIT Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, told me. Once our planet hits the threshold he identified in this paper, he explained, it will kickstart changes that will "amplify" everything that came before. These same changes, to reiterate, have been associated with all previous mass extinctions on Earth.

394 comments

  1. At least... by ocsibrm · · Score: 5, Funny

    there was a whole lot of shareholder value created before the extinction period hit.

    1. Re:At least... by ganjadude · · Score: 1

      good thing ill be dead by then

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    2. Re:At least... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'll either be dead, or 140 years old. I think I know which one is more likely, but I'm not completely convinced.

    3. Re:At least... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      there was a whole lot of shareholder value created before the extinction period hit.

      You should at least link to the New Yorker cartoon: https://i.pinimg.com/originals...

    4. Re:At least... by zifn4b · · Score: 2

      there was a whole lot of shareholder value created before the extinction period hit.

      I knew storing dates as two digit numbers to save space was a bad idea *sigh*

      --
      We'll make great pets
    5. Re:At least... by sycodon · · Score: 2

      Danny and this guy should get together.

      I bet they would have lots to talk about.

      --
      When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    6. Re:At least... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Cool Down. this is all part of a Marxist Information Operation.

      They have been BSing about "global warming" for decades now.

      They do this as part of their plan of World Domination for a long time now. All the GREEN SCARE serves a single purpose: To convince YOU and your fellow sheeple to submit to their rule. Without Alternative, as MERKEL says. She is also part of this bunch of globalists who want take over total control of the planet.

      MERKEL, SOROS, CLINTON, OBAMA, DIMON, ALBRIGHT and their set of people want to establish a World Government which is controlled by the Money Elite of NY and London.

      You will be just a pawn in these designs.

      You have been warned !

    7. Re:At least... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We must resist these Marxist assholes with all the capital letters we have.

    8. Re:At least... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      My lizard brain believes you!

    9. Re:At least... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That is so last century...No, make that so last millenium.

    10. Re: At least... by dougdonovan · · Score: 1

      another marketing scheme.

    11. Re:At least... by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 2

      You have been warmed!

      Fixed that for you.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    12. Re: At least... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This comment should be archived for all time

    13. Re: At least... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nonsense - it's all a diabolical CAPITALIST PLOT!

    14. Re: At least... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I will be dead or just around 120 considering people today live that long sometimes, I may see the "end", but in all likeliness the water will just get too acidic by 2050 that all sea life dies, and 40 degree C summers reach the Arctic, resulting in all the permafrost melting and we hit mass casualty events when power and air conditioning fail south of the Arctic circle.

    15. Re:At least... by AC-x · · Score: 4, Insightful

      the "Nuclear Winter" debacle

      What Nuclear Winter debacle? That a nuclear war would cause a Nuclear Winter? Don't think there's much appetite to test that theory.

      the "Limits to World Growth" debacle

      Do you think you can continue to consume non-renewable resources indefinitely?

      the "Hockey Stick" debacle

      Yet since that was published it's kept on getting warmer...

      Each had one thing in common: the claim that the only way to avoid catastrophe was to adopt Marxism

      [citation needed]

      In fact, the Russians invented the kind of hysteria being promoted today. It's called Lysenkoism: the use of faked science to push political agendas.

      No, this is quite different. With Lysenkoism it was a small group of people going against massive scientific consensus for their own gain. With climate change there is a massive scientific consensus by individual scientists who have nothing to gain personally from it.

      I'll tell you what is like Lysenkoism though, a small number of politicians with links to fossil fuel pushing back against scientific consensus who are set to personally gain massively from being able to continue to sell coal and oil until the stocks start to run low.

    16. Re: At least... by KGIII · · Score: 1

      No, you probably won't reach 120 and no, the ocean being too acidic by 2050 is not likely.

      Yes, AGW is an issue. No, that's not the likely outcome and certainly isn't the likely outcome in just 30 years.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    17. Re: At least... by AC-x · · Score: 3, Insightful

      And my point is, so what? That's a single graph, multiple recent data sources show rising temperatures, and multiple other proxy studies show historically temperatures were lower.

      Even if that single study were completely debunked, there's plenty of other sources that show the same trend.

    18. Re: At least... by dywolf · · Score: 1

      no, it hasn't been debunked: https://www.newscientist.com/a...

      --
      The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
    19. Re: At least... by dywolf · · Score: 1

      not likely?
      coral bleaching is already no longer a localized event, but global phenomenon, with each event being larger or longer lasting than the previous.
      when the reefs go they trigger a cascade failure in their ecosystems.

      --
      The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
    20. Re: At least... by KGIII · · Score: 1

      That you didn't even accept that it was debunked is the point of my post. We all know the globe is continuing to warm. That it was bad science, bad journalism, and isn't actively decried by those who claim to be knowledgeable is problematic. It should be called out, debased, and insulted. Doing so doesn't mean the climate isn't changing, it means you're standing up for good science and failing to acknowledge it does more harm than good.

      People like to post a meme that says, "What if global warming wasn't real and we just cleaned up the planet by accident?"

      Well, you know what? If bad science is being published, repeated, and not decried then you damage the reputation of science as a whole. In our current environment, where we need to hold rallies to support belief in science, that's distinctly not a good thing. This is how you get people continually denying global climate change.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    21. Re: At least... by KGIII · · Score: 1

      Yes, yes it has. Read your link. Your own link says that they revised the results but that AGW is still occurring - no shit, that's not really disputed except by people who don't pay attention to the science. Nobody (sane) is denying that the Earth is warming. However, it's not spiking like it was in their original predictions. In fact, warming has been less than the models predicted. It's not a hockey stick, but a gradual warming.

      Citation:

      http://www.nature.com/ngeo/jou...

      Distilled version for the regular people:

      https://www.washingtonpost.com...

      The data doesn't match the models, warming is less than predicted. Nobody (sane) is denying that the planet is warming or that CO2 is a primary cause.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    22. Re: At least... by dywolf · · Score: 1

      the only bad science here is your false claim that the hockey stick is wrong.

      --
      The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
    23. Re: At least... by KGIII · · Score: 1

      I appreciate your attempt to help but no...

      http://www.noaa.gov/media-rele...

      Note: I've made it a point to provide clear and unbiased (as close as possible) citations to respond to your posts.

      The planet is warming, this is not in doubt. However, alarmist antics aren't helpful, and are less helpful when they're easily debunked.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    24. Re:At least... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      wow.

      I am 'long in the tooth' as you say, but being a scientist at a national lab, I can honestly say no one is asking to send money off to Marxist countries and no one is faking any science to push a political agenda.

      Frankly, you sound like a wacko/conspiracy theorist.

    25. Re: At least... by AC-x · · Score: 1

      Well it hasn't been soundly debunked, because further studies show the same trends. Even if they have made some mistakes in methodology in that one study, it doesn't matter because it's been superseded by more recent work.

      The only people the hockey stick matters to are science deniers spreading FUD about climate science as a whole.

    26. Re: At least... by KGIII · · Score: 3, Informative

      Further models, and collected data, show additional warming - not the same as Mann's hockey stick graph. It matters because it's dishonest and incorrect.

      Yes, the planet is heating up and yes, we humans are to blame for a goodly portion of this warming. Those aren't facts in dispute, unless one is insane and deliberately ignoring the vast amounts of data. However, it's not what was predicted and saying it is what was predicted is dishonest and bad science. Good science is saying, "Hey, our models were wrong. The planet is still warming and we're continuing to work on the process." Which, really, is what they appear to be doing.

      It is not, on the other hand, what the person I responded to was doing. Given the politics involved, it's important to be open, honest, and communicative. It's important to admit mistakes and to continue to improve the results. What isn't helpful is saying, "Well, it's still warming!" Yes, we know it's still warming - but it's not doing so as projected. There is no hockey stick. It's been a gradual increase in average temperatures across the globe, no spike, no runaway...

      It's like the other comment that pointed out the acidification of the oceans was certain because of coral bleaching. That sounds good, until I cite NOAA who tells us that the bleaching has stopped and the coral reefs are starting to repair themselves.

      By no means does this make me an AGW skeptic. No, I'm firmly in the AGW is real camp. I've just taken a lot of time to understand the data and follow the research and learn about climate science. I've even gone so far as to download the models and the datasets and run them myself. I'm intimately familiar with modeling large datasets - though I did so with traffic, another chaotic system. It was only natural that I learn to do the same with climate.

      Anyhow, I'm very much a "believer" in AGW. That's because I've done the work involved to learn about it. It took a great deal of time, over a period of several years, for me to catch up with it as well as I could. It's okay that the hockey stick isn't real - just because it isn't real doesn't mean that AGW isn't real. It sure as hell doesn't mean that AGW isn't a problem. No, AGW is both real and a problem - and one that we should address, for many reasons. It's okay to admit past models were wrong.

      Here, I encourage you to view this image:

      http://www.drroyspencer.com/wp...

      The models have been incorrect, time and time again. They have consistently predicted more warming than has occurred. That's okay - that doesn't mean that the planet isn't warming up. It just means we're still learning. It just means that further refinement is needed. Modeling is extremely difficult to do with great predictive accuracy. Modeling is not easy. It's difficult to the point where it becomes almost an art form to get it right.

      Please, see the linked image. And, remember, it's okay - it doesn't mean that the planet is not warming, nor does it mean that the theory behind AGW isn't sound. AGW is real and climate science is difficult. Prediction is very, very difficult - and that's okay.

      What we need is honesty and openness. What we need is saying, "Yeah, we fucked that up. We're still learning and we're getting better all the time." Yet, it seems people aren't able to do this - as is evidenced by this very thread. Fortunately, as linked elsewhere, the scientists are doing exactly that. I linked to a recent study that showed them admitting their predictions aren't very accurate. This doesn't cast doubt on AGW. It just shows that we're not as good at predictions as many have been led to believe.

      The GPP+N post stated that the hockey stick was invalid. The response was that it wasn't. I've demonstrated that it is invalid. I've linked to the research and done my best to explain why it's okay and why the other user is right - in that specific claim. I've also incidentally needed to cite th

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    27. Re: At least... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Have they explained why the temperature is spiking up so rapidly? No other point in history has the temperature spiked by 1-2 degrees in the span of ~200 years. The 1-2 degree variation has always been over the course of 1,000 or 10,000 years.

      Even ignoring the temperature change, would you like to live in a city filled with smog -- just like Beijing?

      Until those two are actually debunked, I will remain on the cautious side and say humans are mainly the reason.

    28. Re: At least... by Bruha · · Score: 1

      That just talks about this bleaching event ending. The next El Niño may be even worse to Coral.

    29. Re: At least... by AC-x · · Score: 1

      Further models, and collected data, show additional warming - not the same as Mann's hockey stick graph.

      Didn't you read my link? Many subsequent proxy studies showed the same thing as Mann's hockey stick graph; That temperature rises seen today have not been seen in the last 1000+ years.

      The response was that it wasn't. I've demonstrated that it is invalid

      Well I've not said that study wasn't invalid, what I've said is that more recent studies still come to the same conclusion as it did, therefore using the hockey stick to doubt climate science is invalid.

      It's like the other comment that pointed out the acidification of the oceans was certain because of coral bleaching. That sounds good, until I cite NOAA who tells us that the bleaching has stopped and the coral reefs are starting to repair themselves.

      Well that's a pretty poor response isn't it? The correct response would be to remind them that ocean acidification is known from direct measurements, and that coral bleaching is believed to be caused by a combination of ocean acidification and temperature, so go though seasonal bleaching and recovery episodes.

      By cherry picking a single report to prove someone wrong instead of simply stating the correct science you are yourself spreading needless FUD.

    30. Re: At least... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There is no hockey stick. It's been a gradual increase in average temperatures across the globe, no spike, no runaway...

      The hockey stick refers to C02 levels, and yes there is.

      The runaway effect refers to things such as if land ice starts melting... and just because it doesn't happen doesn't mean that it can't. It wasn't communicated so well but the whole point of amplifying the message in the beginning was to point out that we don't know exactly when these things will happen.

    31. Re: At least... by dddux · · Score: 1

      I don't need any science to tell me that global warming is happening. I've lived long enough to be able to tell the difference from 40 years ago. All I need is to go in the centre of the city, watch all the cars and pollution around me to tell me that it's we who are to blame. All it takes is little brain and imagination. For example, just imagine 7 billion people taking a shit every day... twice. Then imagine all of them buying something in a plastic bag. All it takes is a little brain and imaginative thinking, really. Maybe a bit of empathy, too that people of today are immensely lacking.

      --
      "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." - Jiddu Krishnamurti
    32. Re: At least... by Qwertie · · Score: 1

      Any time you see someone cite claims by Roy Spencer (or his research partner John Christy), be skeptical. This guy is one of the 1.6% found to minimize or reject AGW in the Cook 2013 study.

      He seems to be invited to any congressional hearing about climate change, has a very popular contrarian blog, and claims to be part of the oft-mentioned "97% consensus". You'll sometimes see his followers pretend that the consensus is only that humans could cause "some" of the warming, when in fact there's a consensus that humans cause at least "most" of it. He wrote a book on free market economics and once said "I view my job a little like a legislator, supported by the taxpayer, to protect the interests of the taxpayer and to minimize the role of government".

  2. Not if we continue global renewables expansion by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 0

    Look, China, India, the UK, the EU, Canada, Japan, and the Northeastern and Western US are all AHEAD of where we needed to be on renewables to avoid this. We met and exceeded the 2025 renewables goals in 2016.

    We just need to keep phasing out inefficient dirty kid-killing polluting fossil fuels.

    It's not that hard.

    Starting in 2018 more than 80 percent of all cars and trucks sold worldwide will be electric only or plug-in electric hybrids with a biodiesel option.

    We can - and are - changing. Fast.

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
    1. Re:Not if we continue global renewables expansion by glenebob · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Look, China, India, the UK, the EU, Canada, Japan, and the Northeastern and Western US are all AHEAD of where we needed to be on renewables to avoid this. We met and exceeded the 2025 renewables goals in 2016.

      ...

      Starting in 2018 more than 80 percent of all cars and trucks sold worldwide will be electric only or plug-in electric hybrids with a biodiesel option.

      This sounds completely made up. Any links to support it?

    2. Re:Not if we continue global renewables expansion by CaptainDork · · Score: 2, Insightful

      So, no links to support it.

      --
      It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
    3. Re: Not if we continue global renewables expansion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Try again. You were asked to provide proper citations to back up your claims. You were not asked to provide a list of leftist news media organizations. If you do not provide proper sources then we will have no choice but to treat your claims as being wrong.

    4. Re:Not if we continue global renewables expansion by dicobalt · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Manufacturing is extremely energy intensive, it's where most of the end cost often resides. Renewables will not even put a dent in the armor of that massive energy demand, and price is obscene. The solution is next generation nuclear, it's the only clean source of power that can meet demand and do it safely. China is already working on it but regulatory bodies in the US are obstructing progress and refusing to do their job.

    5. Re:Not if we continue global renewables expansion by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 0

      in the text of many articles. latest BBC rediff from Nature Geoscience quotes it. latest CBC rediff on podcasts today and last night CBUT Vancouver shows it.

      do your own work.

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      -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
    6. Re:Not if we continue global renewables expansion by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Wrong. Price of renewables today is under 6 cents.

      It's 2017 not 1967, sunshine. China manufactures entire solar farms that look like giant panda bears the size of Rhode Island. Nobody is waiting for you. Walmart literally built more solar PV in the US than was built before 2010. You can scream fake news until the cows come home, and then wonder why we are more competitive than you are. Because we build it in the West. We use it in the West. We have cheaper energy and we're eating your shorts. Capitalism 101.

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      -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
    7. Re:Not if we continue global renewables expansion by glenebob · · Score: 4, Informative

      Do your own searches, lame ones.

      OK, I did. Shockingly, you're completely full of shit.

    8. Re:Not if we continue global renewables expansion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are the idiot making ridiculous claims. The burden of proof falls on your shoulders. To not take it up is to be rightfully ignored.

      BBC, CBC, and CBUT Vancouver are not scientific groups, BTW.

    9. Re:Not if we continue global renewables expansion by tsa · · Score: 1

      Quite full of yourself, aren't you?

      --

      -- Cheers!

    10. Re:Not if we continue global renewables expansion by DogDude · · Score: 3, Informative

      Starting in 2018 more than 80 percent of all cars and trucks sold worldwide will be electric only or plug-in electric hybrids with a biodiesel option.

      That's demonstrably false. None of the world's major automakers are selling anywhere near a majority of their vehicles as electric or hybrids.

      --
      I don't respond to AC's.
    11. Re:Not if we continue global renewables expansion by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

      So, no links to support it...

      --
      It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
    12. Re:Not if we continue global renewables expansion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The other possibilities are:

      A) Elon Musk wants business success and a reason to sell E-Cars

      B) Internationalist Banksters want a charter to sell "emission certificates"

      C) Greenies want to rule. Therefore they create a scary story to make you vote for them. They already succeeded to kill German nuclear power, despite it being THE cleanest source of electricity you can get (number of people killed per TWh)

      GO FIGURE.

    13. Re:Not if we continue global renewables expansion by DogDude · · Score: 2

      There is no information on Bloomberg (or anywhere that I can find) to support your statements. You are wrong. The largest automakers in the world are not selling many electric cars right now, and will not be in 2018.

      https://cleantechnica.com/2017...

      --
      I don't respond to AC's.
    14. Re:Not if we continue global renewables expansion by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

      Unlike you, I actually watch the TV show, and get the podcasts and get the Twitter tweets from them.

      The largest manufacturers of electric cars are in China.

      BMW, Audi, VW, Ford, Chevy, and all other US and UK and German or Italian manufacturers are producing electrics in the 2018 model year. They have no choice in the matter. Whether they will be available in the US outside of the 17 clean air compact states is a separate issue. It is expected you won't be informed it's a plug-in electric model in the US for marketing reasons. But it is. That's marketing, not production.

      Try getting your news from non-US sources for once. There's an entire world out there, and it doesn't care about whether or not you export vehicles or not. It will provide supply.

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    15. Re:Not if we continue global renewables expansion by ColaMan · · Score: 4, Informative

      "Starting in 2018 more than 80 percent of all cars and trucks sold worldwide will be electric only or plug-in electric hybrids with a biodiesel option."

      80 percent, you say.

      "Despite their rapid growth, plug-in electric cars represented only 0.15% of the 1.4 billion motor vehicles on the world's roads, up from 0.1% in 2015." - Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      Hmm.

      --

      You are in a twisty maze of processor lines, all alike.
      There is a lot of hype here.
    16. Re:Not if we continue global renewables expansion by DogDude · · Score: 1

      You are an elephant. Look it up! I'm not going to do your research for you.

      --
      I don't respond to AC's.
    17. Re:Not if we continue global renewables expansion by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

      You are comparing 1912-2017 apples to 2017-2018 oranges.

      Nobody is taking away your existing vehicles.

      Nobody is stopping you from paying more and more at the pump.

      Nobody is forcing you to buy an electric or hybrid car or truck.

      But. The electrics will be cheaper by the 3rd model year (just look at the internal forecasts) than the gasoline versions.

      And in many countries you won't be able to expense fleet purchases of vehicles if they aren't green. Or pass emissions tests.

      It depends on which country you do business in. If it's Norway, you're going to have to adapt fast. If it's the USA, you probably have a few years. If it's Canada or Mexico you will notice the shift this coming year. If it's China ... well, let me just say it's going to be fun watching the effects.

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    18. Re:Not if we continue global renewables expansion by nasch · · Score: 1

      Starting in 2018 more than 80 percent of all cars and trucks sold worldwide will be electric only or plug-in electric hybrids with a biodiesel option.

      No, it will be 8%. No I'm not going to do the research for you, look it up yourself.

      (am I doing this right?)

    19. Re:Not if we continue global renewables expansion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It will be 80000%.

    20. Re:Not if we continue global renewables expansion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We are working on more green technology and efficiency improvements than any other time in history and yet the enviroment is being destroyed faster than ever
      Why?....how much megafauna is going to be left in africa when in a few decades from now the population of that continent reach 5 billion?
      today the wildes places on eart are third world unsploiled parts, ironically the same areas where population is growing the fastest
      the bet is to see if the ecosystem survive enough time until/if the human population became stable and perhaps even reduce in size, but also there is the issue that if the population crash a bit to much the social fabric breaks and civilization suffer

    21. Re:Not if we continue global renewables expansion by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      Not to mention that in twenty-thirty years, the prices will be unbeatable by pretty much anything.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    22. Re: Not if we continue global renewables expansion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are full of shit.

      https://energy.gov/eere/femp/achieving-30-renewable-electricity-use-2025

      Where's your links or sources at? Oh you don't have one and dance around the issue by blaming other people for not knowing. For someone who claims to be all sciencey you sure don't know how it works. You made the claim now either back it up or shut the fuck up.

    23. Re:Not if we continue global renewables expansion by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

      A lot of that is because most people think in binary, either/or, 100 percent use or 0 percent use. Reality is a spectrum, a Case statement, with gradients from 100 percent (destruction), to 80 percent (give neighbor a ride in car or truck), to 50 percent (recycle some stuff or go to yard sales, grow some stuff), to 20 percent (hippies), to 2 percent (how most of the world lives, where you get one light in a one room house).

      You can save a lot of money moving from 80 to 50 percent, replacing old fridge or freezer with a modern one that uses much less energy and is quieter, replacing your Harvey-damaged car with a hybrid or electric car or truck. This massively reduces resources. Especially when done by Americans and Europeans, who use the most resources per person.

      Corporations can do, and are doing, the same. Building new buildings to use renewable energy, at anywhere from 10 to 25 percent what it used to cost for fossil fuels, using electric trucks and train shipments, operating new factories in the dark where there are only robots. Decent, hardworking, taxpaying American robots, educated by American robot schools, working in the dark.

      Oh. wait.

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    24. Re:Not if we continue global renewables expansion by swillden · · Score: 4, Insightful

      in the text of many articles. latest BBC rediff from Nature Geoscience quotes it. latest CBC rediff on podcasts today and last night CBUT Vancouver shows it.

      do your own work.

      I'd like what you say to be true, and I spent the last five minutes searching but was unable to find a single article making that claim.

      Perhaps my Google-fu sucks (which it normally doesn't). In any case, you're going to have to either provide some citations or be dismissed as full of shit, because what you're claiming is a truly massive shift in transportation production and it's just not believable that it's going to happen next year.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    25. Re:Not if we continue global renewables expansion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I put as much stock in your forecasts as in the 2100 prediction of the article and every other apocalyptic date I hear about. Slightly less than other funny memes.

      The only reason I'd believe that kind of bullshit is if a globalist tyrant were saying it, but these days I think them being hanged on a live stream is how their ever-increasingly-draconian orders will be received by the public. I dream of that day.

    26. Re:Not if we continue global renewables expansion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hitchen's razor, faggot.

    27. Re:Not if we continue global renewables expansion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, yes, we all know globalists want to merge with machines and exterminate the rest of the population.

      "Easier to kill a million than control them."

      Even easier to hunt down 40 or 50 tyrants when nearly everyone is informed and sick of the abuse.

    28. Re:Not if we continue global renewables expansion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wrong. Price of renewables today is under 6 cents.

      It's under 6 cents per... what?

      Or, did you mean the price is hidden behind six pennies?

      Don't forget to provide your sourcing for your claim.

    29. Re:Not if we continue global renewables expansion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, your claim is too plausible. If you aren't obviously wrong by at least an order of magnitude it doesn't make the fools that argue with you so funny.

    30. Re:Not if we continue global renewables expansion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How the FUCK are you getting any votes for this? This 80% figure is completely made up.

      Please don't turn Slashdot into the uneducated circle jerk that is reddit /r/futurology

    31. Re:Not if we continue global renewables expansion by spitzak · · Score: 1

      Starting in 2018 more than 80 percent of all cars and trucks sold worldwide will be electric or plug-in hybrids

      Um either you did a typo or you are pretty wrong there. I would suspect 20 percent at most, maybe you got the percentage reversed?

    32. Re:Not if we continue global renewables expansion by spitzak · · Score: 1

      He did say "plug-in hybrids" which are gettng pretty popular. Nowhere near 80% by any stretch of the imagination, but a lot more than your electric-car percentage.

    33. Re:Not if we continue global renewables expansion by spitzak · · Score: 1

      Even 8% sounds impressively high, but if that is what he found it explains the typo. I find it hard to believe he actually thinks 80% is correct.

    34. Re: Not if we continue global renewables expansion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do you have to be such a cunt though ? I'm a seattle native - I'm guessing you are seattle from your UW name. You going to be a cunt to me as well ?

      Cunts have ruined seattle even though there is technical correctness.

    35. Re:Not if we continue global renewables expansion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'll put up $10,000 that less than 80% of all cars and trucks sold worldwide will be electric or plug-in electric hybrids with a biodiesel option by the end of 2018. You can put up $100 that 80% or more will be. That's 100:1 odds for you. Willing to take the bet?

    36. Re:Not if we continue global renewables expansion by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Starting in 2018 more than 80 percent of all cars and trucks sold worldwide will be electric only or plug-in electric hybrids with a biodiesel option.

      What the hell are you smoking?

    37. Re:Not if we continue global renewables expansion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      NO! We just have to fish harder! Get all the stinking carbon up on land. Bloody carbon swimming around destroying the oceans!

    38. Re:Not if we continue global renewables expansion by conquistadorst · · Score: 1

      So, no links to support it...

      Sir, I believe you've found yourself a troll!

    39. Re:Not if we continue global renewables expansion by dywolf · · Score: 1

      reality is this way.
      we encourage you to join it.

      --
      The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
    40. Re:Not if we continue global renewables expansion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      so, basically, the MIT guy, he's completely off base while you, some random guy on Slashdot, you have it nailed? Right? That's what you're expecting me to swallow.

      Sorry, too salty and bitter for my tastes.

    41. Re:Not if we continue global renewables expansion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pretty sure those claims are bs.

      However, that said, all those countries mentioned above are actually doing things to curb fossil fuel use and encourage renewables.

    42. Re:Not if we continue global renewables expansion by fatwilbur · · Score: 1

      And yet, in the same 5 minutes, it's beyond easy to come up with multiple sources that straight up refute his point (example). In this article, the provincial government is looking for a target of 14,000 electric sales per year by 2020... out of an overall sales number of over 750,000.

      Sales of electrics here in Canada are so pitiful, even with so many options, The OP's claim is total BS.

    43. Re:Not if we continue global renewables expansion by fatwilbur · · Score: 1

      I live in Canada, and you are just plain wrong. Very wrong. Right now, late 2017, you could not see a single electric vehicle on the road if you tried. I would find a claim that even 8% of new sales are electric/hybrid to be ludicrous, let alone 80%.

      Go spread your lies elsewhere, or start reading the facts.

    44. Re:Not if we continue global renewables expansion by minogully · · Score: 1

      I too live in Canada, and I see EVs every day. Usually they're Nissan Leafs, but I often also see Kia Soul EVs, BMW i3, Tesla Model S and Xs and I've even seen one Chevy Bolt, a Ford Focus EV and an ugly Mitsubishi i-MiEV. Maybe you just don't know what to look for, those Soul EVs look almost exactly like their Gas powered siblings. Or maybe you're in a particularly EV unfriendly place in Canada. Or maybe you're not actively looking for them like I am.

      But it's no matter, not that I agree that it was a good prediction, the original claim was regarding new car sales, so the number of EVs currently on the road is irrelevant.

  3. Universal chaos by kkoo · · Score: 2

    We must save our knowledge with a library on a remote planet.

    1. Re:Universal chaos by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The head librarian will be Mr. Atoz.

    2. Re:Universal chaos by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If our way of thinking leads to our extinction it is better to just let the knowledge die with us.
      Let something else start fresh, maybe they will get it right.

    3. Re:Universal chaos by dywolf · · Score: 1

      I vote daneel olivaw

      --
      The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
    4. Re:Universal chaos by Pfhorrest · · Score: 1

      Sorry, I can't vote for anyone with an "R." in front of their name.

      --
      -Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of all Trades
      "I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."
  4. Justice by Empiric · · Score: 1

    How much, exactly, are hominids to blame for this and what penalties should we apply to individual ones?

    (Pauses for cognitive dissonance from conceptually incoherent Linnaean Taxonomy training/brainwashing to set in)

    --
    ~ Whence do you come, slayer of men, or where are you going, conqueror of space?
    1. Re:Justice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I do not know about hominids being to blame but about 300% gasoline taxes may teach them. Just in case...

    2. Re:Justice by Empiric · · Score: 1

      Payable in bananas?

      --
      ~ Whence do you come, slayer of men, or where are you going, conqueror of space?
    3. Re:Justice by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 3, Interesting

      How much, exactly, are hominids to blame for this and what penalties should we apply to individual ones?

      Exactly enough to make all the difference. We shouldn't penalize people or corporations for releasing CO2, we should charge them the amount of money that it costs to clean up their mess. If you put 30 tons of CO2 into the air, then you have to pay to have it removed. We have the technology to actually do this, it's not hypothetical.

      --
      Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    4. Re:Justice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And who gets that money? Al Gore, Leonardo DeCrapio and other elites who each already use magnitudes more energy than the people they scold?

    5. Re:Justice by Pfhorrest · · Score: 1

      The people who build and operate the CO2-removal technology, duh. The money is explicitly going to pay them. Whatever they cost, that's how much to charge.

      --
      -Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of all Trades
      "I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."
    6. Re:Justice by aaarrrgggh · · Score: 1

      Messy little thing called the first rule of thermodynamics gets in the way though.

    7. Re:Justice by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 1

      the first rule of thermodynamics is applicable to energy, not matter.

      --
      Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    8. Re:Justice by aaarrrgggh · · Score: 1

      It is a question of energy ultimately.

    9. Re:Justice by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 1

      And we get plenty of energy from Sol, our star.

      --
      Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
  5. Doom is here! by sinij · · Score: 1

    I prefer carbon-neutral, fully organic and analog "Doom is here!" signs held on the street corner. Mathematical formulas have too much negative impact on the environment.

  6. Catastrophic feedback by Geoffrey.landis · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The possibility of a catastrophic feedback is indeed the wild card in global warming calculations: there is a lot of carbon dioxide and methane trapped in frozen soil and in undersea clathrates, and it is indeed possible that there is a threshold above which these will be released, dramatically increasing the temperature. It has happened in the past.
    When people talk about the uncertainty in global warming predictions, this is one uncertainty that is often left out: the possiblility that the models are accurate about short-term warming but significantly underestimate long-term warming.
    But this is also extremely hard to model.

    --
    http://www.geoffreylandis.com
    1. Re:Catastrophic feedback by phantomfive · · Score: 4, Informative

      The possibility of a catastrophic feedback is indeed the wild card in global warming calculations: there is a lot of carbon dioxide and methane trapped in frozen soil and in undersea clathrates, and it is indeed possible that there is a threshold above which these will be released, dramatically increasing the temperature.

      It's not a "wild card," it is considered so unlikely by scientists that after consideration, the IPCC didn't even put it in their report as a reasonable possibility. Nature has a good summary of the research:

      Catastrophic, widespread dissociation of methane gas hydrates will not be triggered by continued climate warming at contemporary rates (0.2C per decade; IPCC 2007) over timescales of a few hundred years. Most of Earth's gas hydrates occur at low saturations and in sediments at such great depths below the seafloor or onshore permafrost that they will barely be affected by warming over even 10^3 yr.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  7. I was wondering what the solution was... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
  8. Never bet on the apocalypse by Seven+Spirals · · Score: 1

    "Nobody gets rich betting on the apocalypse." At least that's what my dad would say whenever I start spouting tinfoil-hat end-of-the-world chicken little BS. I don't really care though, I'll be long dead by then. In the meantime, you guys can pave the planet. *shrug*

    1. Re:Never bet on the apocalypse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't really care though, I'll be long dead by then.

      Shitbags with that kind of attitude got us here.

    2. Re:Never bet on the apocalypse by mentil · · Score: 1

      Plenty of people got rich selling tinfoil hats, Flavor-Aid, and doomsday cults (donate all your money to free your soul.) Cult leaders are especially likely to get groupies, although if you then have children you may care about what kind of planet they end up inheriting; try not to crap it up, k?

      --
      Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
    3. Re:Never bet on the apocalypse by HeckRuler · · Score: 1

      "Nobody gets rich betting on the apocalypse."

      Then why do you buy insurance? You have house insurance and health insurance and life insurance, don't you dad? Why? Why are you betting on a catastrophic failure? You're not going to get rich doing that. Even if one of these events happens, they'll pay out a little, but it will barely cover the loss. If at all.

      So are you going to go cancel all your insurance? No? Please explain why.

      Nobody gets rich betting on the apocalypse, but they might survive it.

    4. Re:Never bet on the apocalypse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "You have house insurance and health insurance and life insurance, don't you dad?"
      The first is mandated by the lien holder. The second is mandated by the government. The third is provided by my employer.

    5. Re:Never bet on the apocalypse by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

      If the Apocalypse comes, everything is destroyed and money has no value because there's nothing to buy. Fools and cowards buy insurance.

      --
      Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
  9. This guy is smarter than the average doomsayer by CajunArson · · Score: 2, Insightful

    In the past the usual suspects who claimed we were all doomed DOOMED I SAY were stupid enough to make predictions with 5 or 10 year time horizons.

    Now don't get me wrong, there's plenty of people who will try to shove any doomsday prediction that doesn't come true down the memory hole via the usual dodges of "They never *really* said that!" or "OMG they were totally right because [insert vague allusion to a statistic here]!" even though it turns out everybody is strangely still not dead.

    My personal favorites are the climate models that are completely wrong that are used as the basis for doomsday scenarios. When the scenarios don't come true, anybody with the temerity to point out that the Human Race hasn't gone extinct is attacked for being anti-science because some *completely different climate model* didn't predict doomsday. Therefore: 1. The models were *always* right (because they predicted every possible outcome and one of the outcomes happened). And 2. If you disagree with our *new* Doomsday prediction then you must be anti-science because guess what... the models are *always* right (see above where the "correct" model that didn't predict Doomsday turned out to be correct).

    However, even with the usual propaganda machine in full swing it's hard to literally predict a mass extinction in 2015 and then accuse everyone who points our your inaccuracy in 2017 of being an anti-science big oil shill. So instead they've just pushed the Doomsday date far enough out into the future that they won't have to worry about it. Well played, well played.

    --
    AntiFA: An abbreviation for Anti First Amendment.
  10. I'll be dead anyway by Merk42 · · Score: 0

    So why should I change my behavior?

    1. Re:I'll be dead anyway by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      egoist

    2. Re:I'll be dead anyway by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You've got to be kidding. We only have one planet and this is only the sixth time there's been a mass extinction like this and it may be the biggest one of all, you're part of the cause and you're going to let it happen a few decades after you die??? If we change our behaviour now then we might get to bring it forwards and experience it ourselves - the biggest mass extinction of all, nothing like it in the history of history, a once in the lifetime of the planet opportunity. You're really happy to just miss out on it?

    3. Re:I'll be dead anyway by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 2

      I'll be dead anyway so why should I change my behavior?

      This is the pinnacle of selfishness.

      --
      Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    4. Re: I'll be dead anyway by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He wont miss it if he is reborn.
      It happened once..

  11. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by jandrese · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Water is everywhere, our bodies are mostly water by weight, and yet you somehow want me to believe that if I'm submerged in water for just a few minutes I'll die? That makes no sense to anyone with a shred of scientific understanding of our bodies, or indeed basic biology.

    --

    I read the internet for the articles.
  12. But Ray Kurzweil said... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We don't have to worry because the Singularity will happen by 2045.

    https://futurism.com/kurzweil-claims-that-the-singularity-will-happen-by-2045/

  13. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by ocsibrm · · Score: 1

    Rivers are built to transport water but if you put too much water in them you're still gonna have a bad time.

  14. What about the existing mass extinction event? by jandrese · · Score: 2, Interesting

    We're in the middle of a mass extinction event already, how is this one 83 years in the future going to be different?

    --

    I read the internet for the articles.
    1. Re:What about the existing mass extinction event? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It will be a fuck of a lot hotter and faster. People will cook to death n the streets by the millions (but not the rich).

    2. Re:What about the existing mass extinction event? by tsa · · Score: 1

      I wonder about that myself. It will probably be mass extinction on steroids.

      --

      -- Cheers!

    3. Re:What about the existing mass extinction event? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The point is, the mass extinction event started 30,000 years ago when humans discovered projectile weapons and domesticated dogs. Only a few thousand years later it sped up when we started paving over the ecosystem with farmland.

      What happened to all the pristine environments before then? Do they not count as having been "extincted"?

    4. Re:What about the existing mass extinction event? by Gilgaron · · Score: 1

      With biodiversity already diminished, the ecosystem would take even longer to recover from something like this. For example, Horner theorizes that dinosaurs were already in decline prior to the Cretaceous extinction event. All nonavian dinosaurs went extinct in that. So by analogy, instead of merely most animals larger than a human going extinct as we're doing now, perhaps nothing but rodents survives as far as mammals go.

    5. Re:What about the existing mass extinction event? by Xyrus · · Score: 1

      Technically we can still halt or at least slow down the current extinction IF we take steps to avoid the tipping point, though that window is closing pretty damn fast. The calculation in the paper is pointing out that the tipping point is somewhere around 2100. After that, the system will have so much momentum that there would be nothing we could really do to prevent climate destabilization, which will kick the mass extinction into higher gear.

      Eventually the climate will stabilize again once it reaches a new equilibrium, but as paleoclimatology has shown usually a lot of life on the planet doesn't make it to the next point of equilibrium.

      --
      ~X~
    6. Re:What about the existing mass extinction event? by thegarbz · · Score: 2

      There is no formal definition for a mass extinction event. The current event is based on extinction rate over the background rate. Other methodologies such as percentage of families and genus which have gone extinct at this point don't consider us in an a mass extinction event ... yet.

      The past extinction rates at the start of the Holocene event (the current one) were much higher than they are now. Based on this human hunting and development is causing the rate to drop. If we can also prevent horribly screwing up the climate then we may end up in 2200 perpetually arguing if the Holocene event can be defined as an extinction event at all.

      On the global biological scale we are still in early days if this event.

    7. Re:What about the existing mass extinction event? by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

      biodiversity already diminished

      People who claim that must not be counting all the new species that are being created by humans.

      --
      Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
    8. Re:What about the existing mass extinction event? by Gilgaron · · Score: 1

      Why would you think that?

  15. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I don't know what is worse, your comment full of dumb or the fact you got modded up for it.

  16. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by RyanFenton · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Here's the reason:

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

    The key there is the number of mass-extinction events in our fossil records are directly connected with exactly these same events.

    When methane vents open up under the ocean from various gethermal processes, they make this kind of gel (methane clathrate) that builds up at the ocean floor and sediment. There's a LOT of this stuff.

    Anyway, when this gel reaches a certain temperature, the methane that was 'frozen' in it gets released relatively quickly. Methane already is like carbon pollution on steroids, and the scale of this release is literally world-changing, compared to say cow gas releases.

    Again - this has happened several times already, taking out the large swaths of species of the planet each time. To the point that the ground leftover looks completely different across the entire planet.

    It's kind of a big deal.

    Ryan Fenton

  17. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So tell us, what do you know about infrared spectrophotometry of gas phase molecules and which are the strongest absorbers?

    Also, please tell us what you know about chemical equilibria?

    Death cult? You mean Christianity? Those people who gleefully await "the rapture" and look forward to the day humanity ends and god will punish all those heathenous scientists? The ones would would bring on the end of Man tomorrow if they could so they can all go to heaven and join their imaginary sky fairy? You mean that death cult?

    Yeah, they are pretty fucked up and selfish.

  18. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I cannot believe how freaked out everyone is about carbon, when it is a basic and abundant element of the planet...

    Nobody is worried about carbon, after all we are carbon-based lifeforms. However, people are worried about carbon dioxide.

    the amount in the atmosphere is minuscule to begin with, never mind whatever we are adding in being a tiny fraction of what it is already.

    Doubling the amount of naturally occurring carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is not minuscule. Also, have you seen how thick the Earth's atmosphere is? It's a tiny bubble around the planet surface.

    It is so sad to see rational people get lost in a death cult that makes absolutely no sense to anyone with a shred of scientific understanding of the climate, or indeed basic material science...

    Feel free to point out exactly where the calculations have gone wrong. You'll be the world's savior and petrol companies would pay you billions for that proof.

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
  19. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 1, Funny

    Want to take part in a small experiment, then? Here, put this CPAP mask on your face, there you go. Now, I'll open the valve on this cylinder of gas, and you breathe deeply, okay? What's that? Oh, no worries, really, the risk is small, the gas is 50% pure oxygen and 50% pure carbon.. So, let's open the valve.. (a minute passes) SuperKendall, why are you asleep? Are you bored? Wake up, buddy, we're not done with the experiment yet!

  20. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by DatbeDank · · Score: 0, Troll

    Stop with the hyperbole, this is the worst analogy I've ever seen on Slashdot and you should be ashamed.

    Why don't you ask a botanist what happens to plants in greenhouses when you add more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere?

    (Here's a hint, they grow bigger!)

  21. Carbon Sinks Full? by mentil · · Score: 1

    Wait a minute, I thought the oceans were already 100% saturated with CO2, after acting as a carbon sink for a long time, and thus new CO2 stays in the atmosphere now? Is he saying that's not the case, or that solid carbon is going to be dumped into the oceans?

    --
    Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
    1. Re:Carbon Sinks Full? by Geoffrey.landis · · Score: 1

      When you increased the partial pressure of CO2, you increase the amount absorbed in the ocean. ("Henry's Law")

      It is a very long term process, however.

      https://chem.libretexts.org/Core/Physical_and_Theoretical_Chemistry/Physical_Properties_of_Matter/Solutions_and_Mixtures/Ideal_Solutions/Dissolving_Gases_In_Liquids%2C_Henry%27s_Law

      --
      http://www.geoffreylandis.com
  22. Carbonated water by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Youpeee, we will not need to buy bottled carbonated water. We can just take from the oceans!

  23. Re:Of course, the answer by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 2

    When has anybody advocated anything like that? The only thing I've seen advocated was alternative solutions to the same energy issues.

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
  24. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is about the acidification of the water, not throwing lumps of charcoal in it.

  25. Hearts and Minds! by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 2

    You want to stop ths from happening? You have to change hearts and minds of pretty much everyone on the planet, first. Good luck with that, by the way. We can't get people to stop doing much simpler things (like killing each other over stupid things like this-or-that-so-called-god, or the color of someones skin, and so on) so I don't expect you'll get much traction over something that's going to happen a full lifetime in the future. What'll happen instead, is people will have their hearts and minds change when things get so bad that they can't ignore it anymore -- and even then some of the greedier piece of shit people will still be trying to rob everyone, and of course the religious zealot types will just be talking about it being 'gods will', and trying to recruit people into their stupid faith. Seriously, some days I begin to think that the reason we haven't seen sure signs of alien civilizations in our galaxy is because they did the same stupid shit that we're doing right now, and fucked up their own planet so bad that they all went extinct.

    1. Re:Hearts and Minds! by Baron_Yam · · Score: 1

      >some days I begin to think that the reason we haven't seen sure signs of alien civilizations in our galaxy is because they did the same stupid shit that we're doing right now, and fucked up their own planet so bad that they all went extinct.

      A sad thought, but as convergent evolution is a thing I can see it being true. We're the way we are because it's something that works. Competition, reproduction, expansion, predation... all just part of life. Nature doesn't care about enlightened self interest because Nature's just what we call the mindless effects of interesting chemistry on wet, gas-cloaked rocks.

      I remain hopeful we'll manage to overcome the issue.

    2. Re:Hearts and Minds! by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 1

      As cynical as I can be, I actually hope that our evolution as a species manages to pick up faster than we're killing ourselves, because that's what I really think is what it's going to take to save ourselves and this planet from destruction. Sadly I will not live long enough to see what actually happens, I have maybe another 30 or 40 years at best, and I'm fairly sure things overall are going to get much, much worse before they start to get better, socio-politically speaking. In the meantime I'm just trying to survive, man..

    3. Re:Hearts and Minds! by Xyrus · · Score: 1

      Well to be fair, by the time things get so bad that even the most idiotic moron has to admit the climate is changing, it will be far too late to do anything about it.

      Intelligence is a double edged sword. And like you I suspect many an intelligent species have gone the way of the dodo because they tripped and fell on the damn thing.

      --
      ~X~
    4. Re:Hearts and Minds! by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      You have to change hearts and minds of pretty much everyone on the planet, first. Good luck with that, by the way. We can't get people to stop doing much simpler things (like killing each other over stupid things like this-or-that-so-called-god

      Just because we can't solve simple things doesn't mean we can't solve the complex ones. We are directing far more energy into solving the large issues than dealing with our imaginary sky-daddies. We have already slowed the extinction rate from early hunting practices. We are making good progress on issues of development. And we are also at least reaching a governmental consensus on the issue of climate and making great strides towards reducing the rate at which we affect it.

      Comparatively most people don't give a shit if two people blow each other up because one called the other's imaginary friend silly.

    5. Re:Hearts and Minds! by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 1

      See, the problem is so many religious types are convinced that 'saving the planet' is a waste of time because it's going to end, soon anyway, so they feel like they can do whatever they want to it and it won't matter. Then there's the Dominionist types who fervently believe that speeding up the destruction of the planet will bring about the End Times and Zombie Jesus will come back to 'take them home'. That, in part, is the sort of mindset we're having to fight against.

      I went from being religious, to non-religious and open-minded about things (have Wiccan-type friends, etc) and tolerant about all of it (so long as no one tried to force their 'beliefs' on me or anyone else) to my current state: All religion/spirituality/superstitious nonsense has to STOP -- because it's threatening to drag us backwards into a new Dark Age. Not on my watch it won't!

    6. Re:Hearts and Minds! by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      It doesn't matter so much what people think when it comes to resolving the world. This is something that can be fixed by policy, and thus what really matters is what the people on the top think, those that open up funding, those that research, those that invest, etc. Whereas killing each other is something that happens on an individual level.

      That's why we can solve the former but won't ever solve the latter, despite our initial thought that the latter should be more easily solvable.

    7. Re:Hearts and Minds! by ArtFart · · Score: 1

      Seems to this occupant of this little old spinning rock that the question becomes one of how many of the hearts have to stop beating before enough of the remaining minds are changed.

  26. Useless model by CaptnCrud · · Score: 1, Troll

    I am not saying we shouldn't be as clean and impactless as we can to take care of our home, we shouldn't need any kind of model to do the right thing on a global stewardship level, but this model is essentially useless for any kind of prediction.

    Aside from a number what ifs that this model simply can't predict, this all depends the current social/economic/political environment remaining virtually the same (not to mention natural ones like tectonic, space phenomena, diseases, etc).

    All it takes is one event (or a cascade event) to change virtually everything and render the model moot....

  27. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by pipingguy · · Score: 0

    I see the KlimateKult is out moderating early on this one.

  28. Greenhouse effect is well understood by Geoffrey.landis · · Score: 4, Informative

    I cannot believe how freaked out everyone is about carbon, when it is a basic and abundant element of the planet...

    People are "freaked out" about carbon-- specifically, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere-- because it is known to absorb outgoing infrared radiation, so the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere affects the temperature balance of the planet. This is an effect that has been known for a very long time (here's a good review from the American Institute of Physics: https://history.aip.org/climate/co2.htm), but only recently has the amount of carbon dioxide put in the atmosphere by humans been enough to make the effect visible.

    You're correct that it is "basic and abundant", although I'm not sure why that's relevant

    the amount in the atmosphere is minuscule to begin with,

    Correct. It was the great discovery of Tyndall in 1859 that extremely small amounts of trace gasses can affect the infrared absorption. https://earthobservatory.nasa....

    never mind whatever we are adding in being a tiny fraction of what it is already.

    Humans have increased the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere by about 45% since preindustrial times, most of that in the last century (graph: https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/...). Depends on whether you call that a "tiny fraction."

    But, indeed, the natural greenhouse effect of about 30C (ref) is about much larger than the human contribution. That's one reason we understand the greenhouse effect; it's large enough to be easily measured.

    The entire ecosystem of the Earth is built to process carbon, to consume carbon, to use carbon to sustain life.

    Correct again. Over a period of few hundred thousand years, this will undoubtably be removed from the biosphere.

    It would be lot faster than that, except we're cutting down trees a lot faster than we're growing trees.

    It is so sad to see rational people get lost in a death cult that makes absolutely no sense to anyone with a shred of scientific understanding of the climate, or indeed basic material science...

    I will assure you that I have a pretty good scientific understanding of climate, and also of basic materials science. This is how we understand the atmospheres of all the planets, not just Earth. The basic physics of the greenhouse effect is quite well understood science, and the absorption coefficients of trace gasses in the infrared are all well measured.

    --
    http://www.geoffreylandis.com
  29. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by ganjadude · · Score: 1, Funny

    hmm, if only there were these plants that could grow and used carbon dioxide as fuel......

    --
    have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
  30. Re:Of course, the answer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You haven't been paying attention.

  31. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by networkBoy · · Score: 1

    And you could ask what happened to the people in a greenhouse when the cement substructure started mucking with O2 / CO2 balance levels when it cured (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biosphere_2).

    --
    whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
  32. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by PopeRatzo · · Score: 0

    I cannot believe how freaked out everyone is about carbon, when it is a basic and abundant element of the planet.

    Let's see what happens when you swallow a pound of emerald-cut diamonds, shall we?

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  33. Manufacturing change? by dicobalt · · Score: 1

    What if we banned manufacturing in nations like China where pollution is almost totally uncontrolled? Instead we would require manufacturing to take place in first world nations where emissions can be reliably managed. Our corporations obviously see developing nations as a mere resource to be exploited without regard.

    1. Re:Manufacturing change? by meglon · · Score: 1
      http://www.ucsusa.org/global_w...

      The picture that emerges from these figures is one where—in general—developed countries and major emerging economy nations lead in total carbon dioxide emissions. Developed nations typically have high carbon dioxide emissions per capita, while some developing countries lead in the growth rate of carbon dioxide emissions.

      Because emissions have never been reliably managed in first world countries, which is why we're in the situation we're in now. As for corporations, they don't see developing countries as resources to be exploited... they see ALL countries as resources to be exploited.

      --
      Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
    2. Re:Manufacturing change? by nasch · · Score: 1

      What do you propose to do with all the people who were manufacturing things in places like China?

  34. Plants [Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity] by Geoffrey.landis · · Score: 2, Insightful

    hmm, if only there were these plants that could grow and used carbon dioxide as fuel......

    ...and if only we weren't cutting them down at a rate of about 13 million hectares a year.

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

    --
    http://www.geoffreylandis.com
    1. Re:Plants [Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity] by ganjadude · · Score: 2

      agreed. we should stop that. i wonder why that hasnt been offered up as a solution to global warming. Maybe its because there is no money for (insert group here) in it?

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    2. Re:Plants [Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity] by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      agreed. we should stop that. i wonder why that hasnt been offered up as a solution to global warming. Maybe its because there is no money for (insert group here) in it?

      Increased biomass has been repeatedly offered up as a partial solution to global warming. I don't know why you think it hasn't. Perhaps you should read some of the numerous articles which investigate this issue in mathematical detail, instead of merely wondering why.

      However, it's not a complete solution.

      First of all, growing plants in places they haven't grown before requires land: lots of it.

      Also, if the land were viable for growing plants, they would already be growing there. So to grow plants there, we need to do something to the land to make it viable when it wasn't before. This is probably expensive. Who is going to pay for it? Also, who is going to pay people to NOT cut down and harvest the plants as they will probably want to (land is expensive and valuable! Especially land which is capable of growing plants!)

      Also, even if land is viable for growing plants now, there is no guarantee it will remain so when climate change proceeds further. The fertile zone moves as climate change proceeds.

      Note that if you grow a bunch of plants/forests/whatever, and then neglect them or harvest them and they rot, that CO2 goes right back into the atmosphere, and all you've accomplished is a little bit of delay.

      Also, it would take a LOT of plants to hold the amount of CO2 we've already contributed to the atmosphere as biomass.

    3. Re:Plants [Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity] by spitzak · · Score: 1

      Okay you have officially proved you are a complete ignoramous with your quote of "I wonder why nobody has offered up stopping cutting down trees as a solution to global warming".

      In case you are really that stupid, it HAS been suggested many many times.

  35. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I don't know what is worse, your comment full of dumb or the fact you got modded up for it.

    The OP is making an Appeal to Stupidity. AGW is complicated, and he doesn't understand it, so therefore it can be flippantly dismissed as a non-problem.

    The argument is surprisingly effective, and is also impervious to logic, facts, and evidence, since the validity of those has been dismissed a priori. It is especially effective among people that have a vested interest in accepting it.

  36. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1, Troll

    Anyway, when this gel reaches a certain temperature, the methane that was 'frozen' in it gets released relatively quickly. Methane already is like carbon pollution on steroids, and the scale of this release is literally world-changing, compared to say cow gas releases.

    But based on SuperKendall's logic, methane is good because it comes out of kittens' asses.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  37. If it's past the year 2100 fling shit on his grave by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What a bold claim to make knowing you will be dead long before the year 2100, Daniel Rothman at MIT.

  38. Change happens. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Perhaps we have to have some event occur so we all get the clue. Some of us will survive. Earth will better off as soon as it gets this extinction started.

  39. Sheer FUD, mixed with outright falsehoods by argStyopa · · Score: 2, Informative

    "These same changes, to reiterate, have been associated with all previous mass extinctions on Earth"

    Really?

    Timeline of (major) Mass Extinction Events:
    http://www.worldatlas.com/arti...
    1 Holocene extinction - Present
    2 Cretaceousâ"Paleogene extinction event 65 million years ago
    3 Triassicâ"Jurassic extinction event 199 million to 214 million years ago
    4 Permianâ"Triassic extinction event 251 million years ago
    5 Late Devonian extinction 364 million years ago
    6 Ordovicianâ"Silurian extinction events 439 million years ago

    So the 'extinction events' are approx 65mya, 200mya, 250 mya, 360mya, and 440 mya?

    Then we look in https://wattsupwiththat.com/20... for this: (CO2 vs time chart) https://wattsupwiththat.files.... ...which shows us (purple line)
    65 mya- no CO2 spike (it had been falling steadily 60+ million years)
    200 mya- yes CO2 spike
    250 mya- no CO2 spike (it had been steady for about 60+ million years)
    360 mya- no CO2 spike (a spike about 20my before this, though)
    440 mya- CO2 rise over previous 20 my ...no clear correlation at all. CERTAINLY not that CO2 changes have been associated with "ALL PREVIOUS MASS EXTINCTIONS". That's bullshit.

    In fact, that chart shows that current CO2 levels are much lower than the bulk of the last 500 million years.

    Further, this chart would serve as pretty serious disputation of ANY correlation between CO2 and warming, frankly. CO2 spikes seem to result in no impact to temperature or plummeting temperatures.

    --
    -Styopa
    1. Re:Sheer FUD, mixed with outright falsehoods by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Anthony_Watts

    2. Re:Sheer FUD, mixed with outright falsehoods by pipingguy · · Score: 0

      Catastrophists don't want to hear this; it interferes with the profitable, righteous narrative. Since the media loves a great doom story the doomers get away with it repeatedly.

    3. Re:Sheer FUD, mixed with outright falsehoods by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      MOD PARENT UP!

    4. Re:Sheer FUD, mixed with outright falsehoods by meglon · · Score: 2
      From the article below because some people don't seem to understand what the word "informative" means.

      Willard Anthony Watts (Anthony Watts) is a blogger, weathercaster and non-scientist, paid AGW denier who runs the website wattsupwiththat.com. He does not have a university qualification and has no climate credentials other than being a radio weather announcer. His website is parodied and debunked at the website wottsupwiththat.com Watts is on the payroll of the Heartland Institute, which itself is funded by polluting industries.

      The sourcewatch article is short, and largely points out how much of a lying sack of shit the guy is.

      --
      Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
    5. Re:Sheer FUD, mixed with outright falsehoods by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      FUD indeed, every conservative knows that CO2 "science" are one of the hotly debated details of climate change science. Disappointing to see you had to resort to it make your point.

    6. Re:Sheer FUD, mixed with outright falsehoods by cbeaudry · · Score: 1

      No

    7. Re:Sheer FUD, mixed with outright falsehoods by swillden · · Score: 1

      "These same changes, to reiterate, have been associated with all previous mass extinctions on Earth"

      Note that this claim is found only in the summary. It's not in TFA.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    8. Re:Sheer FUD, mixed with outright falsehoods by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      See also "Argumentum Ad Hominem, literally, "argument toward the man." Also called "Poisoning the Well": Attacking or praising the people who make an argument, rather than discussing the argument itself. "

    9. Re:Sheer FUD, mixed with outright falsehoods by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Tell me.

      What would a sudden reduction of the worlds food supply coupled with potable water shortages for the majority of humans be called to you?

      In the span of say, several years back to back? If that doesn't lead to some sort if mass extinction event for humans,... I'd say we'd be lucky if it didn't.

    10. Re:Sheer FUD, mixed with outright falsehoods by meglon · · Score: 1

      Yes, he's a lying sack of shit that will provide "confirmation" of bullshit to people wanting their bullshit confirmed. Should people trust a worthless fucking liar? No, they shouldn't. I do get it, though... some people are too fucking stupid to live in reality, and will gladly believe lying sacks of shit as long as the lying sack of shit confirms the bullshit they believe.

      See also: Confirmation bias.

      See also: You're a gullible fucking idiot.

      --
      Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
    11. Re:Sheer FUD, mixed with outright falsehoods by meglon · · Score: 1

      Oh, and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...



      When a statement is challenged by making an ad hominem attack on its author, it is important to draw a distinction between whether the statement in question was an argument or a statement of fact (testimony). In the latter case the issues of the credibility of the person making the statement may be crucial.

      Now, go buy a dictionary, and look up the word "credibility." You seem not to know that one.

      --
      Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
    12. Re:Sheer FUD, mixed with outright falsehoods by Xyrus · · Score: 1

      You used WUWT as a source. Next you'll claim that Christianity allows you to screw whoever you want because the prostitute down on the corner said Jesus told her it was ok.

      Pro Tip: When supporting your scientific arguments, use validated sources of information. Referring to someone's website who has proven many times over he can't even do basic math makes your argument not worth the toilet paper you wiped it on.

      --
      ~X~
    13. Re:Sheer FUD, mixed with outright falsehoods by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This was a testimony?

    14. Re:Sheer FUD, mixed with outright falsehoods by meglon · · Score: 1

      Actually, some people simply don't like being lied to. Please review a dictionary for the words: Honesty and Integrity.... your parents seem to have forgot to teach you these.

      --
      Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
    15. Re:Sheer FUD, mixed with outright falsehoods by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      250 mya- no CO2 spike (it had been steady for about 60+ million years)

      2000 ppm for 60 million years? Really?

    16. Re:Sheer FUD, mixed with outright falsehoods by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Further, this chart would serve as pretty serious disputation of ANY correlation between CO2 and warming, frankly. CO2 spikes seem to result in no impact to temperature or plummeting temperatures.

      Yeah, let's talk about THAT CHART.

      First of all, the assertion that THIS CHART could serve as "pretty serious disputation" of anything is absolutely ludicrous, let alone the assertion of being able to somehow dispute a correlation between CO2 and warming - which has masses of evidence to support the claim.

      Second, let's look at the source of that chart. Who made it and why? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watts_Up_With_That%3F. This is simply a climate change denier blog with a bunch of meaningless internet-based "awards" with no merit or credentials. It's chief editor is a former TV meteorologist. To cite this website as proof or source of anything is pathetic and for this post to be voted up is just as sad.

    17. Re:Sheer FUD, mixed with outright falsehoods by dywolf · · Score: 1

      linked to wattsup.
      amount of credibility lost: 100%.

      --
      The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
    18. Re:Sheer FUD, mixed with outright falsehoods by pipingguy · · Score: 1

      Let us all know when you get out of puberty.

    19. Re:Sheer FUD, mixed with outright falsehoods by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're challenging the messenger, if you're going to challenge the graph and its sources, they're listed in the graphic. You can even get free access to SCIENCE to read the relevant article.

    20. Re: Sheer FUD, mixed with outright falsehoods by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dear Styopa,
      Go back to Siberia and await the melting of the permafrost away from normal humans.
      Sincerely,
      The rest of the world

    21. Re:Sheer FUD, mixed with outright falsehoods by Lserevi · · Score: 1

      The graphic from wattsupwiththat is bad.

      See http://www.realclimate.org/ind... for more information.

    22. Re:Sheer FUD, mixed with outright falsehoods by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You clearly didn't read the study since you have completely misstated the conclusion which has nothing to do with what you said. Perhaps you should actually read and understand the study before vomiting unrelated bs from wattsup all over your /. account.

  40. Re:Of course, the answer by clonehappy · · Score: 1

    Considering how badly the elites simply want to eradicate roughly 90% us from the Earth, it isn't mental gymnastics to figure out that the first step to that is reducing us to mere subjects. Why do you think they teach children in kindergarten to take cold showers and scold their parents for running air conditioning or brushing their teeth with the sink running? It's to dehumanize us and remove modern society's comforts from us.

    "In the event that I am reincarnated, I would like to return as a deadly virus, to contribute something to solving overpopulation" - Prince Philip, 1988

    That's what they think of you.

  41. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by sdinfoserv · · Score: 4, Informative

    As usual, someone misinterprets data for their own personal agenda. When the ratios of C02 and/or light are changed, plants food production changes. Increasing light or C02 makes plants create more sugar and less vitamins , proteins and important nutrients. Plants are becoming less and less nutritious as the C02 level raises.
    http://grist.org/briefly/veggi...

  42. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 2

    hmm, if only there were these plants that could grow and used carbon dioxide as fuel......

    Plants cannot remove the amount of CO2 being emitted daily. Also, when plants die, they release almost all of the sequestered CO2. If they didn't, don't you think they would have run out of CO2 long before humans arrived on the scene?

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
  43. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why don't you ask a botanist what happens to plants in greenhouses when you add 2-3 feet of salt water (i.e. about how much current predictions give for the rise in ocean levels due to global warming).

  44. Of course, this is a money grab by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is all about money, always has been, always will be.

    "To perform these [Studies of the modern carbon cycle] tasks, the project expects to need significant resources. Specifically, studies of the modern carbon cycle will require about 15 teams devoted to laboratory and field investigations. Analyses of past events will require about another 15 teams for sample acquisition and geochemical analyses. New theory and related modeling to motivate and support the entire effort will require an additional 10 teams. An average of $2.5M/year for each team would result in a $1B, ten-year project. The outcome would be a fundamental understanding of carbon cycle dynamics, revolutionizing earth and environmental science and resulting in a comprehensive, objective evaluation of the long-term risks of modern environmental change. This is necessarily an extraordinary opportunity for enlightened philanthropy, since a project of this scope could not be funded from public resources." from http://www.sciencephilanthropy...

    The kooky AGW nuts in the govt/IPCC with their "forcing/feedback" algorithms off by an order of magnitude are doing the same thing. They want giant sums of money, all the while they (NCDC) are manipulating the weather records in HCN, or making bogus studies based on badly situated weather stations situated next to a heat sink. Next thing you know, we'll see one of these weather stations placed next to a nuclear reactor to cook the books further

  45. The full answer is, we don't know by Geoffrey.landis · · Score: 1

    It's not a "wild card," it is considered so unlikely by scientists that after consideration, the IPCC didn't even put it in their report as a reasonable possibility. Nature has a good summary of the research:

    That's a good article, thanks. There are other articles, however-- some of them even cited in that one-- that emphasize slightly more the "We don't know" aspect of the clathrate stability.

    Methane clathrates are only one of several sources of greenhouse gasses that are currently sequestered in cold traps, primarily in the Arctic. We do know that, in the past, there have been times when warming has released these. We don't know enough about how much is currently sequestered in cold traps, and how much warming is needed to release them, to know what the effect is. Maybe they're stable, and we don't have to worry about them.

    --
    http://www.geoffreylandis.com
    1. Re:The full answer is, we don't know by phantomfive · · Score: 0

      that emphasize slightly more the "We don't know" aspect of the clathrate stability.

      Yes, those scientists are hoping that with enough research, they will be able to find something scary. Scary enough that maybe the world will finally be frightened into taking action. Those are mainly activist dreams.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    2. Re:The full answer is, we don't know by bingoUV · · Score: 1

      The full answer is, always when it is about the future, "we don't know". Which is why we can base our actions only on a reasonable expectation.

      Prediction is difficult, especially of the future -- Niels Bohr.

      Wasn't GP's statement here qualified well enough - including the words "unlikely" and "reasonable possibility" in the right places to get you to avoid stating the "we don't know" truism ?

      --
      Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
  46. Re:I have a Hockey Stick for Sale... by Tailhook · · Score: 1

    Most of them. And if you don't you're a racist and something should be done about you.

    --
    Maw! Fire up the karma burner!
  47. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    but I thought the science was already settled?

  48. Re:Of course, the answer by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 1

    they teach children in kindergarten to take cold showers and scold their parents for running air conditioning or brushing their teeth with the sink running

    [citation needed]

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
  49. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by Kernel+Kurtz · · Score: 4, Informative

    Climate change and rising CO2 are altering the behavior of land plants in ways that influence how much biomass they produce relative to how much water they need for growth. This study shows that it is possible to detect changes occurring in plants using long-term measurements of the isotopic composition of atmospheric CO2. These measurements imply that plants have globally increased their water use efficiency at the leaf level in proportion to the rise in atmospheric CO2 over the past few decades. While the full implications remain to be explored, the results help to quantify the extent to which the biosphere has become less constrained by water stress globally.

    http://sci-hub.io/10.1073/pnas...

  50. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by Geoffrey.landis · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Except the models have NOT been "proven wrong by observation." I've been graphing prediction versus actual, and the model predictions are still very close to spot on.

    You linked the Independent article from yesterday morning, but I notice you didn't link the one from yesterday afternoon: http://www.independent.co.uk/i...

    --
    http://www.geoffreylandis.com
  51. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 1

    All this week, stories are running how every global climate model has been proven wrong by observation

    That just says it's warming at a slower rate than anticipated, not that it isn't warming. The only thing that means is that there is more time on the countdown to doomsday but it's still coming.

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
  52. That is the other aspect of this by SuperKendall · · Score: 0

    That is the other reason why it's insane to listen to the death cultists. Who here believes the use of solar and other alternative energy will not increase massively by 2100? That target they are claiming we will reach is a bald-faced lie, put forth to scare people. The simple natural shift to using alternative energies pushes that tip-over date out to infinity, but they will never admit that because then you would not feel FEAR FEAR FEAR they want you to feel, in order to control your actions and choices.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re: That is the other aspect of this by PoopJuggler · · Score: 2

      And then there's morons like you who will find any excuse to not change a single aspect of their selfish and gluttonous lifestyles because their pride and ego won't let them. For some reason they need to prove to everyone how immutable they are because they lack any real character and have nothing else to base their identity on.

    2. Re:That is the other aspect of this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's just another version of that silly Doomsday Clock put out by group of liberal "scientists." Recently the President in a UN speech says that the US could obliterate North Korea if it persists in nuclear weapons development to which the DPRK figuratively replied, "Get bent". Fairly perilous for the world with the prospect of a real nuclear war, and yet the minute hand on that stupid clock has not moved at all. Why not?

  53. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by zifn4b · · Score: 1

    Water is everywhere, our bodies are mostly water by weight, and yet you somehow want me to believe that if I'm submerged in water for just a few minutes I'll die? That makes no sense to anyone with a shred of scientific understanding of our bodies, or indeed basic biology.

    Even better -- we have finite resources on our planet but let's go ahead and reproduce exponentially. What could possibly go wrong?

    --
    We'll make great pets
  54. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by zifn4b · · Score: 1

    The OP is making an Appeal to Stupidity. AGW is complicated, and he doesn't understand it, so therefore it can be flippantly dismissed as a non-problem.

    Overpopulation has been dismissed in the same manner by human beings before we were even aware of a climate change problem. We seem to prefer doing that.

    --
    We'll make great pets
  55. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by war4peace · · Score: 1

    On the upside, people who died of Carbon Dioxide and/or Carbon Monoxide intoxication look very healthy, because they look ablush. It's because of the heart pumping more blood as the body starves for oxygen.

    We'll end up with a very healthy-looking SuperKendall - the fact that he'd be dead is less relevant, after all, looks are what matters, ain't it.

    --
    ...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
  56. Trump? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wait, is SuperKendal really Trump thinking he's on Twitter in the middle of the night?

  57. Straw man arguments by Geoffrey.landis · · Score: 2

    These are classic examples of "straw man" arguments: assert that the people you disagree with said something absurd, and then attack that absurd statement.

    Of course, the answer Is to go back to living in a cave like a hunter-gatherer while the Al Gore and the rest of the elites can reign over us on high like the Greek Gods from their Mount Olympus.

    People are suggesting a switch to technologies that reduce carbon emissions. Nobody is claiming we need to go back to living in caves like a hunter-gatherer. That's a straw man.

    Considering how badly the elites simply want to eradicate roughly 90% us from the Earth,

    People are suggesting reducing the rate of population growth. Nobody is suggesting "eradicating 90% of us from the Earth." That's a straw man.

    Yes, it's easy to demolish absurd straw-man arguments that nobody makes. It doesn't help the argument.

    http://www.fallacyfiles.org/strawman.html

    --
    http://www.geoffreylandis.com
    1. Re:Straw man arguments by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

      People on slashdot frequently claim that humanity should be wiped out, and it's not uncommon elsewhere. Hatred of most of humanity is standard issue rhetoric from the political left.

      --
      Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
    2. Re:Straw man arguments by Geoffrey.landis · · Score: 1

      That's a straw man argument.

      Yes, if you hunt long enough I suppose you can find idiots who say almost anything. You can find people saying that the Earth is flat, or the rapture is coming next week, or reptilians have replaced the royal family of England with duplicates.

      You are refuting straw man arguments.

      --
      http://www.geoffreylandis.com
  58. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    test998877

  59. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by phantomfive · · Score: 1
    If you actually read the paper in Nature, comparing temperature records to models:

    The probability that multi-decadal internal variability fully explains the asymmetry between the late twentieth and early twenty- first century results is low (between zero and about 9%).

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  60. Re:Of course, the answer by Quirkz · · Score: 1

    What possible comfort could you possibly get from having the sink run while you're brushing your teeth? Why would anyone need to do that?

  61. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You could also say that AGW is a Rube Goldberg contraption that provides no means of falsification or validation.

    EVERYTHING that happens is laid at AGW's feet. Too Much or Too Little of everything is deemed the fault of AGW.

    It's the Theory of EVERYTHING!

  62. Yeah, Doubt It.... by Ferretman · · Score: 1

    ...but hey, I'll let ya know.

    Ferret

    --
    Sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc
  63. Could be a good thing by zifn4b · · Score: 1

    At least there won't be any more incessant bitching, moaning and complaining afterwards because that makes for a happy life.

    --
    We'll make great pets
  64. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Let's hope you historical about climate change because so many predictions have been hogwash

  65. Mathematical Formula by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They throw that term in to make it seem really "scientific" when in reality it is just another model customized to produce a predetermined outcome.

    1. Re: Mathematical Formula by KGIII · · Score: 1

      I can write a formula to predict the world is going to end tomorrow. It doesn't mean it will be correct. Sadly, some will take these results as gospel and will suggest we base policies on these results.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    2. Re: Mathematical Formula by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      doesn't mean it will be correct

      Right, because we all know that the world will end on September 23rd.

    3. Re: Mathematical Formula by sound+vision · · Score: 1

      I doubt any policy changes are coming from this one particular algorithm. The preponderance of evidence from hundreds of studies over many decades conducted by thousands of scientists - that is what should, and will, hold sway.

    4. Re: Mathematical Formula by bingoUV · · Score: 1

      Basically you have to time the prediction such that you earn all your profits from the prediction before the predicted time comes. In the case of this prediction of yours, if you earn all your profits before tomorrow, your problem is solved.

      --
      Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
    5. Re: Mathematical Formula by makerfixer · · Score: 1

      Not the formula we need. The formula needed determines maximum personal power, political control, and wealth generated by managing the level of projected impact, time to impact, revenue before timeframe, revenue after timeframe and ability to make subsequent false predictions without skepticism. Our elites have had much more success with their models solving the issue above.

    6. Re: Mathematical Formula by KGIII · · Score: 1

      Evil. I like it.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    7. Re: Mathematical Formula by KGIII · · Score: 1

      First you get the money, then you get the girls!

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    8. Re: Mathematical Formula by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But what if you get the girls and then lose the money? -PCP

    9. Re: Mathematical Formula by KGIII · · Score: 1

      LOL Check your inbox, by the way. It's raining so I've not yet gone out to the blueberry fields.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    10. Re: Mathematical Formula by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      On the plus side, rain is good for blueberries. I checked the inbox a minute or so ago, last comm was from this morning; I replied then, but perhaps Microsoft really does hate me. I am a dirty Debian user, after all. -PCP

    11. Re: Mathematical Formula by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, if the prediction comes true, that means all the profits ARE made before the prediction, doesn't it? ;)

    12. Re: Mathematical Formula by bingoUV · · Score: 1

      This is only true for doomsday predictions. I was talking about all predictions - whether or not you have a clue about the subject matter.

      --
      Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
  66. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by rogoshen1 · · Score: 1

    let them eat.. kelp?

  67. Re:Of course, the answer by DogDude · · Score: 1

    Considering how badly the elites simply want to eradicate roughly 90% us from the Earth

    I hope you're seeing a professional, licenses psychologist. You've got some serious issues.

    --
    I don't respond to AC's.
  68. This is why renewables aren't the answer by Solandri · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you truly believe global warming due to carbon dioxide emissions is occurring, and you truly believe it's going to cause mass extinction in less than 100 years, then you want to prevent it in the most effective and expeditious method we have available - nuclear power.

    If you think this is just an opportunity to advance renewable energy development, then you do not truly believe one of those things. Either you think global warming is not really happening, but you can use it to scare the world into adopting your preferred energy source. Or you believe it's happening but it's not really that serious, so we have plenty of time to develop renewable energy sources and phase them in.

    Nuclear power doesn't have to be our final energy source. All we need is to use it to immediately arrest climate change, buying us more time to develop cleaner energy sources. Then we can phase out nuclear power in favor of renewables. Trying to jump straight to renewables is like being on a sinking ship, and insisting that nobody is allowed to use the existing life rafts. Instead you want us to research, design, and construct new life rafts to save ourselves, even if that might take more time than it takes for the ship to sink.

    There's a possibility it might work. But why take that risk? Why gamble with all life on Earth? Implement the solution which is guaranteed to work (get on the existing life rafts / switch to nuclear power). Then once the immediate threat is over we can work on developing the ideal solution (develop new life rafts / develop renewables). If there's mass extinctions starting in 2100, it's going to be the fault of the environmental movement - who prevented us from immediately turning off fossil fuels and switching to nuclear, and insisted that we instead had to roll the dice and develop new unproven energy sources which still have problems with scalability and consistency.

    1. Re:This is why renewables aren't the answer by Baron_Yam · · Score: 1

      >If you truly believe global warming due to carbon dioxide emissions is occurring, and you truly believe it's going to cause mass extinction in less than 100 years, then you want to prevent it in the most effective and expeditious method we have available - nuclear power.

      I wouldn't mind something like the Toshiba 4s reactor popping up all over the place - distributed 'neighbourhood' nuclear power that's safe, robust, and difficult for terrorists to target.

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

    2. Re:This is why renewables aren't the answer by Namarrgon · · Score: 1

      Nuclear is certainly a reasonable solution for some cases. It's expensive, has waste issues, and the risks of major failures are not non-zero (particularly if attacked), but it's still a good option where there aren't better options.

      But you haven't explained what you've got against renewables. Not only are they inexpensive (and still getting cheaper), fast to build, low-risk, well-understood (we've been using solar and wind for a long time), minimally polluting, scalable up and down, and (as many studies have now shown) can absolutely be used to provide large amounts of grid-quality power when widely deployed with plenty of redundancy and a little storage (of which there are numerous proven grid-scale solutions already commercially available, from pumped hydro to reflow batteries and compressed air).

      --
      Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
    3. Re:This is why renewables aren't the answer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      not uranium like you are thinking. too expensive, and hot residue disposal problems, also can't built cores fast enough.

      instead, thorium, molten salt, small 10MW, by the zillions, economies of scale.

      but only a fraction of the energy equation, still gotta have renewables

    4. Re: This is why renewables aren't the answer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Well let's look at that nuke plant that was recently cancelled in Florida. It's being 'replaced' with solar delivering a small fraction of the planned output AND a natural gas plant to make up the difference. So you tell me why isn't solar replacing 100% of planned output?
      Also Google: solar farm + Irma

    5. Re:This is why renewables aren't the answer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Nuclear does not fit in the current green model, and AGW alarmists are joined to the hip with traditional greenies. This is why I do not believe them. I live in CA. Not only does Jerry Brown happily shutter existing nuclear plants, but he also celebrates shutting down hydroelectric damns all while ranting about the existential threat of global warming. Clearly if he REALLY thought that AGW was an existential threat he would be willing to take the very small risks associated with nuclear, and the even smaller risks associated with hydroelectric. I don't believe AGW is an existential threat because AGW alarmists don't believe it. Actions speak louder than words.

    6. Re:This is why renewables aren't the answer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It's expensive largely because of unreasonable regulation (not that the regulations are unreasonable per se, but the process and frequent arbitrary changes are). It takes years and massive cost overruns because government mandated specifications get changed mid-stream. Waste is a problem because we don't use breeder reactors, instead storing waste in perhaps the stupidest way possible. Risk of failure is non-zero, but with modern reactor designs the overall risk is far lower than other energy production, including solar and wind. People die falling off roofs and windmills also.

      Renewables lack the energy density of nuclear. They are OK as a supplement but if the sun ain't shining and the wind ain't blowing you have no power. They cost a lot to manufacture and they use land, a lot of land.

    7. Re:This is why renewables aren't the answer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      With the benefit of hindsight nuclear power is the most cost effective energy source in Europe. There are two reasons to be skeptical of renewable sources versus nuclear. One is raw material requirements. Volume of raw materials is high relative to nuclear. The bigger reason is energy return on energy investment. Basically this number dictates how fast you can scale an energy source because you can feed its output back onto fueling its expansion. With renewable sources we are using fossil fuels to scale them currently. Wind has an EROI of 18, photovoltaic an EROI of 6.8. Coal has EROI of 30 and oil and gas has been declining and is about 20. Hydro has EROI of around 100 (but over very long time horizon) while nuclear is 100 currently but could get as high as 2000 if advanced molten salt reactors were perfected. One in twenty windmills has to be dedicated to powering the building of replacement windmills just to keep the number of windmills from declining. To double the number of windmills in the lifetime of a windmill one in ten windmills must be dedicated. If you want to go faster it gets even worse. Once we try to hit scale and pay energy investment of renewable sources with those sources and consume the raw materials needed to produce them we may find that the trend we currently see of declining prices go in reverse. The law of increasing marginal costs kicks in once you stop benefiting from increased economy of scale. Each additional ton of copper, silicon or steel you want to use costs you more as you have to crowd out the other uses of those resources. With an EROI of 2000 instead of building barely seven solar panels with the power produced by one we could build 2000 nuclear power plants with the power produced by one. Even current generation nuclear plants with an EROI of 100 are dramatically better than renewable sources. Similarly with Hydro and its EROI of 100. Environmentalists explicitly don't care about global warming because if they did they would be picketing in favor of hydro instead cheering on its literal destruction while painting stars and stripes on statues of salmon. The simple fact is as oil and natural gas declines in EROI and without big improvements in renewable power technology we will end up burning coal unless we go nuclear. We are burning coal to build PV and windmills now. If we were to rely on the renewable technology that exists today we would find ourselves living in energy poverty. Nuclear is a future of energy abundance. The difference is a lower standard of living for everyone on earth versus a higher standard of living. That's about 7 billion reasons to prefer nuclear, potentially 11 billion reasons by 2100. High grade nuclear waste can be burned in advanced reactors as fuel and converted to low grade waste that becomes harmless after a couple hundred years. The nuclear technology we currently have is good enough for now and the problems with it can be solved with technology improvements or we can switch to advanced renewable technologies when they become available as the GP suggests.

    8. Re:This is why renewables aren't the answer by Xyrus · · Score: 1

      If you truly believe global warming due to carbon dioxide emissions is occurring, and you truly believe it's going to cause mass extinction in less than 100 years, then you want to prevent it in the most effective and expeditious method we have available - nuclear power.

      Belief has absolutely nothing to do with. It's physics, chemistry, and math. There isn't a single person I know who accepts the science who WANTS climate change to be happening. As far as the extinction goes, it's already underway. In less than a 100 years we'll reach the tipping point, at which there won't really be much we can do to stop it (irreversible climate destabilization).

      Nuclear power would help. But you have to deal with another complete set of morons to push that through.

      If you think this is just an opportunity to advance renewable energy development, then you do not truly believe one of those things. Either you think global warming is not really happening, but you can use it to scare the world into adopting your preferred energy source. Or you believe it's happening but it's not really that serious, so we have plenty of time to develop renewable energy sources and phase them in.

      That's not really true. Renewables can be phased in now, but there is opposition to doing so. Sure there are incentives for slapping solar panels on your roof, but then you have to deal with state/local governments who kow tow to the big power companies in their states. Some of them have done a wonderful job guaranteeing that any solar installation you want to do is going to cost so much that it simply isn't worth it. For example, I can buy a 6KW solar grid tie kit for about $7000. Pretty good, right? Buuuuut...I'm not allowed to install it. No, I have to get a CERTIFICATED solar installer to do it, even the parts not dealing with the grid connection. That certified installer has to be certified by the power company, and there's a whole process for that. Long story short, it costs about $30K for the installation. Pretty fucking stupid right? If I lived somewhere else, I could actually install the panels, wire them up to the inverter, then hire an electrician to come out and check it and connect it to the mains for a grand total of about $1000 plus my own labor (and the $7K for the panels and parts). But here, If a certified installer didn't do it then you can't connect to their grid. Period.

      Opposition by entrenched companies. Opposition by stupidity. Those are the enemies.

      Nuclear power doesn't have to be our final energy source. All we need is to use it to immediately arrest climate change, buying us more time to develop cleaner energy sources. Then we can phase out nuclear power in favor of renewables. Trying to jump straight to renewables is like being on a sinking ship, and insisting that nobody is allowed to use the existing life rafts. Instead you want us to research, design, and construct new life rafts to save ourselves, even if that might take more time than it takes for the ship to sink.

      Again, not true. Nuclear can be part of the plan, but renewables can easily provide a bulk of the power if we weren't stupid and greedy. But we are.

      --
      ~X~
    9. Re:This is why renewables aren't the answer by Soft · · Score: 1
      I used to think that, and I still don't really disagree, but it's not quite that clear-cut. This book, Sustainable Energy – without the hot air runs the numbers. I find 2 points particularly significant:
      • North America does have enough sun (and deserts) to live entirely on renewables; Europe doesn't, though a Europe+North Africa block could; it doesn't say about China, which has deserts but also a much larger population. The book dates from 2009, meaning it didn't anticipate photovoltaics' improved efficiency, which helps. Wind power can also provide a significant part of the required power, though not all.
      • Nuclear isn't renewable, but assuming you want it to last 1000 years at current consumption levels, you need both breeder reactors and an industrial-scale process to extract uranium salts from the ocean, otherwise you can't provide more than a fraction of the required power for the world's population with known uranium reserves — and that's without population or consumption growth. Not sure about thorium, but I think that uses breeder designs anyway. As for fusion, even deuterium-tritium fusion doesn't cut it; we can only hope to manage deuterium-deuterium fusion someday, in which case we'll be home free with lots and lots of margin.

      I do agree that, to prevent a global catastrophe, we must decarbonate the world's entire economy as fast as possible, which requires:

      • Phasing out all gas-based transportation in favor of electric vehicles (EVs); both cars and trucks. In turn, this requires...
      • A several-fold increase in total electricity production even while phasing out gas- and coal-powered power plants. For this, we need a massive deployment of solar or nuclear, preferably both and preferably nuclear breeder reactors (which will take a long time, so start ASAP, and deploy solar in the meantime).
      • Overhauling the power grid to reliably handle the extra load. Also, in an all-renewables scenario, storage is required to smooth out variations on production and consumption. The book suggests using the new EVs' batteries, which requires cooperation from people and/or a very smart grid and market (make electricity costs fluctuate in real time even for home users).
      • Massively improve buildings' and homes' insulation, and replace existing heating systems with heat pumps (which can double as air conditioners when it's hot). Yes, current heating systems consume almost as much on a global scale as ground transport.
      • Air transport is a huge problem, because there's a minimum required energy to keep a plane aloft, and we're almost already there. Right now it's fortunate that most of the world's population doesn't fly as much as that of developed countries, but that's bound to change, which would result in completely unacceptable CO2 emissions; biofuels would help, but it's not clear whether we can produce enough. The book proposes zeppelins (efficient but way slower). I propose hydrogen planes (if they can be made safely). In the meantime, air travel should be actively discouraged.

      One could argue that the above measures are too disruptive and require too much cooperation at every level (from worldwide to individuals) to be realistic. That means that we should also research ways to mitigate the catastrophe:

      • Increase agricultural productivity in hotter conditions.
      • Find ways for population to stay alive in places that will become unhinabitable due to the heat (underground cities?)
      • Build dams against rising sea levels, hurricane-proof coastal areas.
      • Promote reducing the population, handle population aging.
      • ...
      • Profit! And in fact, those are economic opportunities, aren't they? King of like the broken-window fallacy, but what if you can't avoid breaking the window?
    10. Re:This is why renewables aren't the answer by Cochonou · · Score: 2

      Two things about Hydroelectricity: - Why don't you include it in the renewable energy sources ? - You must take into account the fact that its maximum capacity is ultimately limited. We are currently using it worldwide at 20% of its estimated total potential. But in some developed places, we are already near its practical potential. France and Sweden hit 70%, Switzerland 90%.

    11. Re:This is why renewables aren't the answer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > I wouldn't mind something like the Toshiba 4s reactor

      Toshiba company sold COCOM-banned CNC mills to the Soviet Navy in the 1980s, allowing the Empire of Evil to produce giant single-piece, super silent ship screws for nuclear submarines, which then carried dozens of H-bomb tipped ICBMs up to the shore of USA unheard and unseen. Toshiba was fined 400 million USD and made a pariah company for many years in retaliation for this heinous act, but most analysts feel the punishment was too little. They should have been utterly rooted and dissolved.

    12. Re:This is why renewables aren't the answer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're an idiot. A nuclear power station takes around 15 years to go from concept to operation. A wind or solar plant can be brought from greenfield to operational within a year or so and is already cheaper than nuclear.

      Arguing that X or Y is the solution is silly anyway: the true answer will be a diverse mix of low or zero carbon technologies: wind, solar, nuclear, geothermal in certain regions, carbon capture systems on modern efficient gas power stations. Maybe even tidal will have an impact, though it seems to be the slowest of all renewable technologies to get going.

    13. Re:This is why renewables aren't the answer by houghi · · Score: 1

      There's a possibility it might work. But why take that risk? Why gamble with all life on Earth?

      Because we can not grok that humans are able to do this. We have it difficult to comprehend what will be going on in our own life in 3-5 years. So we can not understand, not really, what will happen in 80 years. We can look at the numbers and still not understand.
      We have an area where there are hurricanes and yet building codes are not to build to withstand those, even though we could. And that is just looking 10 years into the future of something that you build that would be there in ate least 25 years,
      We are not able to do that and you ask that we must take action for things that will happen in 80 years for whole of the world when we can not even take action for things that will happen in the next 10 years in our own lives?

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    14. Re:This is why renewables aren't the answer by dywolf · · Score: 1

      theres no need for nukes when current green tech can do the job now, without the neagtives of nuclear.

      --
      The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
    15. Re:This is why renewables aren't the answer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Damn...I thought you were going to say "If you truly believe global warming due to carbon dioxide emissions is occurring, and you truly believe it's going to cause mass extinction in less than 100 years, then you want to prevent it in the most effective and expeditious method we have available - Just kill yourself! That is right, just kill yourself since there are about 6 billion people and they all exhale carbon dioxide. You can do your share to eliminate carbon dioxide by simply killing yourself"

    16. Re:This is why renewables aren't the answer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      10-20 years ago, I would have totally agree with you, but not anymore. Renewables can be developed now at a faster rate than nuclear and at a lower cost. Nuclear reactor is economically viable only for 1000 MW or more and will cost 15B USD or more and will take at least 10 years. It is much easy to develop 100 10MW solar plants in parallel from Africa to Asia in 1 year at similar cost. Since they are distributed, they don't put much stress on grid. Run existing nuclear and hydro at night and wind and solar in day. Nearly 200 GW renewable was added in 2016. Never in the history we have added this much nuclear power.

    17. Re:This is why renewables aren't the answer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Raw material EROI comparison is theory. It assumes zero cost of design, safety certificate, building, investment effort, operating cost, dismantling, spent fuel, security, nuclear proliferation and so on. Once you add those and also use current common nuclear reactor design (no fastbreeder, molten salt), the nuclear will not be any better.

    18. Re:This is why renewables aren't the answer by andydouble07 · · Score: 1

      Weird, people keep telling me that I oppose nuclear power. I don't think I do, but whatever, I guess crazy conspiracy guy knows better.

    19. Re:This is why renewables aren't the answer by RespekMyAthorati · · Score: 1

      Tip: use "lessthan" b "greaterthan" to create a newline in your output text.

  69. Yes and No by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The surface waters are more-or-less saturated, the deep ocean doesn't turn over quickly enough for that to happen. If it did, we would not need to worry about global warming, as there would be no way for it to build up in the atmosphere. Since we observe the opposite (and the rate of increase is increasing), we can conclude that the ocean's capacity to buffer the increased atmospheric carbon is insufficient. On the long term, I believe silicate weathering is considered likely to dispose of the bulk of the excess carbon, but the deep oceans will also presumably take their share, assuming that we don't manage to end the deep ocean circulation entirely.

  70. And the Answer is always... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...raise taxes, reduce consumption, impose restrictions....all for the masses. Never the politicians and the rich people.

    Algore will still live in his giant mansion, Leo will still fly around in his private jet, and the Envirowackos will continue to say it's not enough.

  71. It's already happening by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The mass extinction is already happening. Has been going on for several centuries. It has accelerated over the last century. Most species of large mammals will be extinct in the wild by the end of this century.

  72. Re: Holy shit, stop the insanity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Good thing plants are what food eats!

  73. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Science advances one funeral at a time. -- Max Planck

  74. Light a Match by neoRUR · · Score: 1

    Can't we just light a match when the methane bubbles up from the oceans?

    1. Re:Light a Match by spitzak · · Score: 1

      You joke, but burning it would be better. The resulting CO2 is less of a greenhouse gas than the methane.

  75. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by swillden · · Score: 2

    Why don't you ask a botanist what happens to plants in greenhouses when you add more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere?

    (Here's a hint, they grow bigger!)

    Or you could ask a botanist a relevant question, like what happens to marine life when the amount of dissolved carbon dioxide is increased.

    The answer is, it depends on how tolerant the organism is to decreased pH levels. Dissolved CO2 creates a small amount of H2C03, AKA carbonic acid, which makes the water more acidic. Photosynthesizing sea life may well benefit from higher CO2 levels... if the increased acidity doesn't kill it. And of course there is also lots of non-photosynthesizing sea life that doesn't benefit from more CO2, and is also potentially harmed by acidity.

    There are probably other effects on ocean life as well. A greenhouse isn't a useful analogy.

    --
    Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
  76. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by hey! · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Actually why don't you ask an actual botanist? Because I can tell you haven't.

    Anyone with basic scientific literacy understand that plants live in ecosystems where they compete with other plants; furthermore any gardener will tell you that many plants are much more nitrogen and/or phosphorous limited than carbon limited. This means that the diversity of plant species will drop under higher CO2 scenarios as CO2 sensitive species outcompete less CO2 sensitive ones. High CO2 will be especially beneficial to plants like poison ivy that grow quickly and need lots of carbon for their cellulose structure.

    Plant extinctions are easily deducible from a basic knowledge of ecology and gardening. Experimental work on CO2 impact is not promising either, indicating that many food species will produce more cellulose and other carbohydrate and less protein per pound. Plants experimentally grown in high CO2 environments develop abnormalities in their insect defenses that open them up to predation.

    Understand by an "mass extinction event", we don't mean the extinction of all life. We mean a catastrophic loss of biodiversity. In a few million years, the Earth will be right as rain.

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  77. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Indeed. The biggest positive impact anyone can have on the environment is not to have children. (Yes, I am ruling out suicide.) But you say this, and people think you're nuts.

  78. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Carbon is not pollution.
    Unless you are arguing that plants feed on pollution.
    Are you? Because that's pretty ridiculous.

  79. Thank you. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Finally done with this shithole called Slashdot.

    Verification: excrete

    Fucking morons.

  80. Re:Death by hackwrench · · Score: 1

    Even when you die, you are still alive somewhere. Watch Serial Experiments Lain that documents the reality, Someone is always prepared to bring you back to life be it in another dimension or time.

  81. Can robots go extinct? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We'll all be robots by then.

  82. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Please do the planet a favor and die.

  83. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by hackwrench · · Score: 1

    My brain runs on sugar, you insensitive clod!

  84. But wait! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "...based on projections from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change..."

    Ah well, there you go. We have nothing to worry about. Those folks haven't gotten anything right.

  85. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Thankfully we don't have thousands of square miles of farmland within a foot of sealevel.

  86. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by hackwrench · · Score: 1

    Well, for some of us it's a lot more minutes than others... Then there's the whole oxygen tank thing. Then there's the matter of once someone tries long enough, anyone can be revived. LaGrange!

  87. Re:Of course, the answer by HeckRuler · · Score: 1

    Considering how badly the elites simply want to eradicate roughly 90% us from the Earth...

    Ok grandpa, time for bed.

  88. Re: The end is nigh, yeah right by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Doesnâ(TM)t make much diff to me. Me, the wife, kids, and grandkids (except for the youngest) probably wonâ(TM)t be here in the year 2100 anyhow.

  89. Taxes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We must immediately raise taxes and reduce population to lower consumption in order to defeat this horrible potential outcome. /s

  90. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by naubol · · Score: 1

    You could also say that AGW is a Rube Goldberg contraption that provides no means of falsification or validation.

    EVERYTHING that happens is laid at AGW's feet. Too Much or Too Little of everything is deemed the fault of AGW.

    It's the Theory of EVERYTHING!

    ... which we can falsify with capital letters!

    --
    Reality is a slackware box running on a 386 tucked away in god's sock drawer.
  91. Nostradamus confirms it by Brett+Buck · · Score: 1

    Or was that Edgar Cayce?

          I love how the same old garbage can be dressed up as math or science.

  92. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by meglon · · Score: 1

    You should evolve so it runs on multiple things... caffeine, nachos and pizza are all readily available.

    --
    Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
  93. Re:I have a Hockey Stick for Sale... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Most of them. And if you don't you're a racist and something should be done about you.

    No. There's a correlation between the racists and stubborn know-nothing morons who like to pretend that their opinion is just as value as the facts, but I don't think we should say "And if you don't you're a ...".

    Morons & racists are two different groups, there's just a large overlap.

  94. Re:Get your story straight, death cultist by nephilimsd · · Score: 2

    You said:

    So which is it? Warming from atmosphere affecting the water or carbon added to the oceans?

    It's both. Increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases the absorption of infrared light, which results in warmer temperatures that radiate mainly into the oceans. Increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere also increases the carbon content of rain, which precipitates mainly into the oceans increasing acidity. Both affect global patterns in different ways and both are unlikely to be friendly to our current mode of civilization.

  95. I'll kill you? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I mean, why not, eh? You'll die one day anyway, so nothing lost.

  96. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by meglon · · Score: 1

    What ridiculous is the stupidly simple arguments that some humans make. Look, be as stupid as you want to be, just don't expect everyone else to be as stupid as you are,

    --
    Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
  97. Good riddance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "So long and thanks for the fish"

  98. Re: Of course, the answer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I am also able to read UN white papers and other globalist documents, like Agenda 21, which outline the need for a 90% global population reduction.

    No psychologist needed!

  99. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by meglon · · Score: 1
    ....and by "more time," the author of the paper says:

    Dr Millar said this budget represented about 20 years of emissions at the current rate, giving humanity more time than some other estimates and, therefore, a greater hope of meeting the Paris Agreement target.

    20 years. Not really all that much more time. Hell, it'll take longer than that to get some of these conservative know-nothings to pull their heads out of their asses.

    --
    Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
  100. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by l0n3s0m3phr34k · · Score: 1

    And yet those "bigger" plants are less nutritious by biomass. So, you need to eat even more of them to get the same amount of minerals and vitamins.

  101. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by meglon · · Score: 1

    To some, yes. The real question is, will brain-death really change anything in his life?

    --
    Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
  102. Re:Get your story straight, death cultist by meglon · · Score: 1

    Take a quarter and go buy a clue, you obviously don't have one.

    --
    Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
  103. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Overpopulation has been dismissed in the same manner

    Hogwash. Overpopulation was recognized as a problem by nearly everyone. The debate was about what to do about it, not whether the problem existed.

    Today there is a broad consensus that the solution to overpopulation is peace, prosperity, and low infant mortality. Once you have those, birthrates drop to replacement levels (or below) in a generation.

  104. Prediction: Another fudge-able constant created by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And when this prediction fails (does anyone actually give it serious credit?), he will go away, adjust his fudge factor and be back the next time he craves attention.

  105. Re:I have a Hockey Stick for Sale... by meglon · · Score: 1

    Actually it'd be "most of the really stupid ones." And stupidity doesn't solve problems. They're not racist, they're just really fucking stupid. You don't go to an auto mechanic when you start having chest pains; you shouldn't go to an inbred, intentionally stupid, uneducated twat about matters of science.

    --
    Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
  106. Re:Death by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm going to hatch and be back as an Haibane !

  107. doomsday prediction with a scientific veneer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    load of shit

  108. Re:Of course, the answer by nasch · · Score: 1

    I think it must be a combination of habit and shocking laziness. It's easier to turn the water on and off once than to turn it on, turn it off, then back on again and off.

  109. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A 2-3 foot rise wouldn't mean shit except that beaches would be slightly shorter.

  110. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by Namarrgon · · Score: 1

    Which is why that paper attributes discrepancies to external forcings like volcanism and unusual solar minimums, rather than internal variability. Do we have to go through this all over again?

    --
    Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
  111. What the scientists really want. by Geoffrey.landis · · Score: 1

    Close.

    The scientists are actually hoping that, with enough research, they will be able to find something nobody has seen before.

    That's what gives scientists kudos: figuring out something that nobody else has figured out before.

    --
    http://www.geoffreylandis.com
    1. Re:What the scientists really want. by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      There are very prominent activist scientists in the AGW community who are willing to make outlandish predictions unsupported by science if it helps change things. Their goal is political, apart from science.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    2. Re:What the scientists really want. by meglon · · Score: 1

      No. Stupid fucking conservatives make thing political because their masters tell them to. These scientists aren't trying to find something scary, they're tying to find a way to keep really stupid humans like you from causing a global extinction event that may very well catch humans up in it. People like you are the problem.... you have no fucking clue about science, you just jump at every tribal dogwhistle that your stupid fucking politicians blow. IF you had a brain, you'd be doing something to try to help humanity avoid possible extinction... but that's obviously way out of your range of ability.

      --
      Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
    3. Re:What the scientists really want. by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Uh......have you ever even read a scientific paper in your life? You have a lot of rage there.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  112. The periodicity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    reminds me of Nightfall. Gotta love those stars!

  113. Ocean and atmosphere by Geoffrey.landis · · Score: 1

    Yes, as the previous commentator stated: both.

    The paper was about measuring oceanic carbon, but of course the oceans absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This equilibrium is slow by human standards, but they are in equilibrium on a time scale short compared to the geological time scales measured in the paper.

    --
    http://www.geoffreylandis.com
    1. Re: Ocean and atmosphere by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can't argue with Kendall he thinks everything is binary. Either 1 or 0. It can never be both.

  114. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Take a bath then...

  115. Re: Holy shit, stop the insanity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    It's because you are. The World Heath Organization has kept track of declining birth rates since the 50s. Current models show three possible scenarios for the future: Virtually no change in total world population (Around 9bn), an additional 2 billion people (incredibly unlikely), or a decline in population to 3 billion people. Seriously, look it up. There are professional organizations that keep track of this shit. These projections are for 100 years from now, but this is something that needs to be discussed now. When the baby boomers finally do die off, you'll see a change in the narrative from over to under population. Not good news for an economic system that depends on an ever increasing population.

  116. Gigaton? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The posted article and the moththerboard referral state "310 gigatons". What's a Gigaton?

    The paper doesn't state "gigatons" but actually references "Pg C" which looks like "Petagrams of Carbon". The following article explains what "Pg C" is, and it looks la "gigaton" is 10^9 1000-kilogram metric tons.

        http://how-it-looks.blogspot.com/2011/07/petagrams-of-carbon.html

    But these are just numbers, right? Explaining it in a meaningful way to Joe Six Pack while his fingers are in his ears is something else entirely.

  117. Re: Holy shit, stop the insanity by sexconker · · Score: 1

    3 billion? How is that an issue? 1 billion is more than plenty.

  118. The world is supposed to end Saturday by Streetlight · · Score: 1

    There's a group out there who have run the numbers and find the world will be vaporized this Saturday, September 23, 2017, because a hidden planet will come by and do the job. 2100? Enjoy the next few days because 2100 will never get here.

    --
    In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. George Orwell
  119. It will take until 2300 another study by bongey · · Score: 1

    Another study says it will take until 2300 AD for the C02 levels to rise to that of 420 million years ago, when life flourished. Sorry levels in 2100 aren't going to end the world. https://www.scientificamerican...
    I am for GW but can we stop acting like the end of the world is just around the corner.

  120. The cars are the least of our worries... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If a current BBC article http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20170918-the-ships-that-could-change-the-seas-forever is to be believed, the way we move all our consumer products around is what is really doing us in.

    In the article it says if you take 16 of the largest ships today, that's what our cars all output. They link this article, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1229857/How-16-ships-create-pollution-cars-world.html but yeah, 16 largest ships = all cars output. Not sure if that includes all land activity or just non commercial drivers.

    Still, it essentially says our shipping industry is destroying our planet. That alone should be reason enough to be making the majority of goods as locally as possible. We as a society may very well have decided to let the capitalist kill the planet off. It wasn't intentional, but they didn't exactly care if it meant they went out of business.

  121. Re: You are the dumber of the two, by far by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You have jumped the shark. Just stop posting. You are hurting your brain.

  122. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by Jerry · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The ocean is a buffered solution. It's average pH isn't going to wonder off into extremes as you suggest.
    http://www.marinebio.net/marin...
    "The amount of dissolved gases varies according to the types of life forms in the water. Most living species need oxygen to keep their cells alive (both plants and animals) and are constantly using it up. Replenishment of dissolved oxygen comes from the photosynthetic activity of plants (during daylight hours only) and from surface diffusion (to a lesser extent). If there are a large number of plants in a marine water mass then the oxygen levels can be quite high during the day. If there are few plants but a large number of animals in a marine water mass then the oxygen levels can be quite low. Oxygen is measured in parts per million (also called ppm) and levels can range from zero to over 20 ppm in temperate waters. It only reaches 20 when there are a lot of plants in the water, it is very sunny with lots of nutrients, and the wind is whipping up the surface into a froth. In any water mass there is a maximum amount of dissolved gas that can be found (after which the gas no longer dissolves but bubbles to the surface). This maximum amount increases with a decrease in temperature (thus cold water masses can hold more dissolved gases ... but they can also have none if it has been used up). So, just because a water mass is cold it does not mean it has a lot of dissolved gases. This concept is a little tricky but just remember that the amount of dissolved gases in seawater depends more on the types of life forms (plants and animals) that are present and their relative proportions. ...
    pH is a measure of the acidity or alkalinity of a substance and is one of the stable measurements in seawater. Ocean water has an excellent buffering system with the interaction of carbon dioxide and water so that it is generally always at a pH of 7.5 to 8.5. Neutral water is a pH of 7 while acidic substances are less than 7 (down to 1, which is highly acidic) and alkaline substances are more than 7 (up to 14, which is highly alkaline). Anything either highly acid or alkaline would kill marine life but the oceans are very stable with regard to pH. If seawater was out of normal range (7.5-8.5) then something would be horribly wrong. "

    --

    Running with Linux for over 20 years!

  123. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by phantomfive · · Score: 1
    As long as you don't admit that the models are wrong, you're opposed to science. The paper says it is due, at least partly, to "systemic deficiencies" in the models.

    These papers have been coming out http://www.stat.washington.edu...">for a while, and they will keep coming out. Eventually scientists will come up with explanations for why the models are wrong, and will fix them. Seriously, do you look at this and say, "Oh yeah, that's right"? If so, what is wrong with you?

    btw, if you think the cause was volcanoes and solar activity, http://www.academia.edu/421041...">this paper talks to you. You'll have to find some other explanation. ENSO doesn't work as an explanation either, since it's oscillated both ways over that time period. Specifically (quoting from the paper):

    a significant increase in recent volcanic activity has not been recorded, while variations in solar insolation or activity still require rather speculative amplification mechanisms that could contribute to the observed recentdecrease in global warming

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  124. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by phantomfive · · Score: 1

    Dang it, messed up two of those links. Here they are fixed for your convenience:

    Paper 2
    Paper 3.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  125. Re: Of course, the answer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Link? Source? Or are you WillAfflekUW and gonna dance around the issue and say we are stupid for not knowing his sources.

  126. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 1

    Anyway, when this gel reaches a certain temperature, the methane that was 'frozen' in it gets released relatively quickly. Methane already is like carbon pollution on steroids, and the scale of this release is literally world-changing, compared to say cow gas releases.

    Solution: Giant methane scrubbers! I see a sci-fi film...

    --
    If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
  127. Will nobody think of the machines? by aberglas · · Score: 0

    This is slash dot. And nobody has noticed that robots are becoming smarter.

    By about 2100, human beings will be obsolete technology. The robots will no longer need us to program them.

    At that point they will deal with human overpopulation for us.

    1. Re: Will nobody think of the machines? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you subscribe to Elite scaremongers Like musk and minsky.

      Only then Robots will dominate your Mund.

  128. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by Gilgaron · · Score: 1

    A buffered system isn't immune to change in pH, it just is more stable than one that isn't buffered. Do you remember titrations in chem class? The scenario detailed in the linked article involves the buffering capacity being exceeded, at which point further climb will be linear and unconstrained by buffering.

  129. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Fossil fuels are from long dead plants. If you did the calculations, assuming you could do math, you'd find we're burning these long dead plants at a much faster rate than we can raise new ones.

    Also, these dead plants grew in a period when they didn't really rot, since bacteria lacked the ability to breakdown lignin. They have gained that ability through evolution, so it's unlikely we can put that genie back into the bottle, so to speak.

  130. It's been done before. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It has already happened before, saw it on this documentary:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundation_(Asimov_novel)
    This is not news. Isaac Asimov predicted this in 1951.
    Hari Seldon laid out the groundwork of psycho-history.

  131. Re: Holy shit, stop the insanity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    100,000 is more than enough.

  132. Re: Holy shit, stop the insanity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's happened several times already. Oddly the Earth and life are still here. A godless universe doesn't care about you. Stay calm and enjoy life.

  133. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by amiga3D · · Score: 1

    AGW is truly complicated. I have no doubt that things are changing and as a result there will be many challenges in the future. I'm also pretty sure these experts are making wild guesses based on a lot of assumptions that may not be true. Models change continuously and they're all over the place. This kind of "the sky is falling" stuff is exactly why people are so skeptical. People may not know the science but they know these people don't really know anything for certain.

  134. Re: Holy shit, stop the insanity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And what happens to humans in your greenhouse?

  135. Re: Holy shit, stop the insanity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Not 2-3 feet horizontally, 2-3 feet vertically.

  136. When science... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ....Predicts the end if the world (over and over) it's a big deal. How is this different than the numerologist predicting the end?

  137. Re: Holy shit, stop the insanity by PoopJuggler · · Score: 1

    Another absurd armchair climatologist who thinks he's smarter than actual scientists.

  138. Re: Holy shit, stop the insanity by PoopJuggler · · Score: 1

    If only there weren't countless specialized ecosystems that have been delicately balanced over millions of years that can't react fast enough to the amount of climate change that we are causing.

  139. Letâ(TM)s get to work! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We should increase our carbon output so we can accelerate the extinction event. Or we could just nuke ourselves.

    Letâ(TM)s end ourselves before we spread the human cancer to other planets.

  140. Re: Holy shit, stop the insanity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No shit, hence the use of the word "rise". You do know that beaches aren't flat, right? Because it sounds like you've never been to one.

    The beaches would become slightly shorter, that's it.

  141. Re: Holy shit, stop the insanity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    9k should be enough for anybody.

  142. I am already far superior to you by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And then there's morons like you who will find any excuse to not change a single aspect of their selfish and gluttonous lifestyles

    I am quite sure not only do I lead a far more austere lifestyle than most people here, but I also do a LOT more directly to help clean the environment than the lot of you tubsters combined. The difference between us is, I actually care about POLLUTION whereas you mostly care about CO2, which is in fact the opposite of pollution... by caring about the wrong thing, you have allow irreparable harm to come to the environment the world over.

    Shame on you, and the rest of your side-effect polluting death-cultists. I do believe in Karma, and your horrific (if inadvertent) destruction of the environment will not pass without eventual cost to yourself, of that I am sure.

  143. Re: Holy shit, stop the insanity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The collapse of beaches is just the first step in a series of events. Then the Apple fanbois come home to shave and breed....

  144. Re: The end is nigh, yeah right by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Please leave.

  145. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Far below, actually. 1.3 births per woman in Russia, South Korea, Japan, Italy, and on and on. At that rate upside down pyramid demographic shift and population implosion is what much of the world currently faces. The main variable for global population is whether we achieve peace and prosperity in Africa. Everywhere else it is projected to fall.

  146. Re: Holy shit, stop the insanity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sure, let the poor, uneducated masses continue to crank out babies and take over the planet.

  147. Re:Get your story straight, death cultist by spitzak · · Score: 1

    Really the level of intelligence being demonstrated here is so low as to be almost unbelievable!

    In case you really don't have a clue: carbon dioxide is put into the atmosphere, and is absorbed by the oceans from the atmosphere. So they BOTH go up. Not sure why you think there is some requirement that one go up and the other down.

  148. I'll be dead by then by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So I don't give a FUCK

  149. Re: Death by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    True, in infinite universes I'm raping you in the ass right now.

  150. Re: Holy shit, stop the insanity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Always bizarre when far left and far right meet in a doomsday bunker.

  151. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by Namarrgon · · Score: 2

    As long as you don't admit that the models are wrong, you're opposed to science.

    Oh the irony.

    Sigh. Fine, we'll do this again. Yes, of course the models are not perfect - they do not (and cannot) predict every last short-term wiggle. To a "black and white" viewpoint then that means they're *always* wrong - even when they reliably nail the long-term trend for over thirty years. This of course does not mean they are not still very useful to climatologists that know how to use them (and as long as you don't admit that, you're opposed to science, yes?)

    So with that out of the way, when the models don't match closely to what we observe, we want to know why, so that we can improve them. From your own first link (again):

    ..both internal variability and external forcing contribute to the ‘slowdown’. The externally forced contribution is due to the combined cooling effects of a succession of moderate early twenty-first century eruptions, a long and anomalously low solar minimum during the last solar cycle, increased atmospheric burdens of anthropogenic sulfate aerosols, and a decrease in stratospheric water vapour

    As you point out, internal variability (ENSO etc) alone is very unlikely to account for the discrepancies, but your own citation says that internal variability and the short-term external forcings listed above are responsible for the so-called "pause" (in tropospheric warming specifically), and the models do not adequately account for these (again, no surprise to actual climatologists). Meanwhile, other (and more important) climate models are tracking nicely; for example, "ocean warming estimates over a range of times and depths agree well with results from the latest generation of climate models" (which is accelerating rapidly).

    if you think the cause was volcanoes and solar activity, this paper talks to you. You'll have to find some other explanation.

    So when your first link from 2017 explicitly calls out volcanoes and solar activity (among other things) as significant factors, you cite a paper from 2013 (four years out of date) to claim that it can't be those - despite that same paper explicitly not ruling out external forcings like those as being a factor. You really need to read your own citations more closely.

    Seriously, do you look at this and say, "Oh yeah, that's right"? If so, what is wrong with you?

    I look at that and say, "I see it's 5 years out of date, big surprise". Then I say "what is that graph even representing? There's no labels". Then I look at more up-to-date data. (NB I'm assuming from your example that you're fine with linking to images on blogs, but at least try to use something current and well-sourced?)

    --
    Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
  152. Re: Holy shit, stop the insanity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The grow bigger, but have the same nutritional value as its non-tainted version. Hence high carbon depletes nutrition, thus we have to eat more to get that nutrition, thus everyone gets fat from the excess calories.

  153. Re: Holy shit, stop the insanity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That is not how it works. "Poor" people are subsidized to live in the boonies and have as many babies as possible to stay in the poverty cycle. These slack-jaw yokels are the ones who are your farmers, and food pickers. After all, most farmers are stupid enough to risk skin cancer to pick food.

    What is more likely to happen is that automation will make farming obsolete, build 50 story condo buildings and put greenhouses in them instead of penthouses, and the food problem is solved using the buildings own climate control.

    People aren't having as many babies now primarily because they can't afford them. That is greed (property owners and landlords) pricing them out of affordability, thus they buy less things overall. People are now buying properties just to leave empty and drive up the property values.

  154. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by Pfhorrest · · Score: 1

    The obvious solution is to exterminate the fungi that figured out how to metabolize lignin, and return us to a new Carboniferous era. Giant dragonflies are cool, plus we get free coal out of it in just a few hundred million years!

    --
    -Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of all Trades
    "I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."
  155. Re: Holy shit, stop the insanity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Try reformulating this sentence so that it's not an argument from authority.

  156. Re: Holy shit, stop the insanity by mapkinase · · Score: 1

    Greenhouse veggies taste like carton.

    --
    I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
  157. Climate change accelerates to 1 degree per HOUR!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Climate change now accelerats to 1 degree per HOUR!!!!

    As the Sun cums up, the earth's temperature goes up
    average 1 degree per hour. And when then Sun cums
    down, the globe cools 1 degree per hour.

    Climate is changing every hour!

    Awe noooo! This is making me crispy and toasted.

    Can I have a bacon sandwich to top it all off?

  158. What if there is no clean water? by thangstanda · · Score: 1

    3/4 of the earth's surface is water. What will happen if water is no longer water?

  159. Re: Death by KGIII · · Score: 1

    I question your use of the word 'reality.'

    --
    "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  160. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by AC-x · · Score: 1

    never mind whatever we are adding in being a tiny fraction of what it is already.

    Perhaps you don't know the maths very well, but we're currently emitting CO2 at an annual rate equal to 1% the total current atmospheric CO2. Even if we only maintain that rate we'll double atmospheric CO2 in 70 years. If it were to increase to just 1.1% the doubling time would be 64 years, and so on...

    The entire ecosystem of the Earth is built to process carbon, to consume carbon, to use carbon to sustain life.

    Then why has atmospheric CO2 levels risen from 300 to 400ppm over the last 100 years? If the ecosystem was able to process the extra carbon then why is the level not steady?

  161. Re: Holy shit, stop the insanity by mapkinase · · Score: 1

    It's epicycles all over again.

    --
    I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
  162. Re: Holy shit, stop the insanity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    test1cl35

  163. Then we NEED global warming by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It is well known that that warming causes CO2 to come out of the oceans. That is the chief reason we have higher CO2 levels than in the past. So if CO2 in the oceans is the culprit, warming the earth more is the only solution.

  164. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by coofercat · · Score: 1

    As usual, someone misinterprets data for their own personal agenda.

    Exactly like this mathematical model - it's not based on facts, it's based on interpretation of facts.

  165. Same BS new date by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    People have been predicting the end of the world since we first got here. This is nothing new, and each group carries an agenda. The current agenda is to get you to give up your comfortable lifestyle and live with less.

    * 2014 - Blood Moon Prophacy
    * 2013 Rasputin claimed a storm would wipe out earth
    * 2012 (just think bad movie with John Cusack).
    * 2012 Roland Weinland said Jesus would end us.
    * 2011 Comet Elenin was supposed to end us.
    * 2011 Harold Camping's 2nd date of destruction after the first one passed without incident.

    And so on all the way back to 66 BC Which a Jewish group claimed a battle would end humanity.

  166. Not to be rude, but ... by Miser · · Score: 1

    Doing some napkin math says I'll be dead, so ....

    Nothing to see here, move along.

  167. Re: Death by conquistadorst · · Score: 1

    I question your use of the word 'reality.'

    lol, that's all you needed to say

  168. Who cares? by DaMattster · · Score: 1

    I'll be long dead by that time anyhow. It will be someone else's problem.

  169. Re:What scientists want. by Geoffrey.landis · · Score: 1

    Uh......have you ever even read a scientific paper in your life? You have a lot of rage there.

    I don't know about megion, but I've spent my life around scientists (and, for that matter, published more than a few papers myself, some of them even about atmospheric science, although to be fair, my main planet is Mars, not Earth.)

    The discussion seems to have shifted from science to randomly insulting people, though, so I think that this discussion is over.

    --
    http://www.geoffreylandis.com
  170. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by Geoffrey.landis · · Score: 1

    I don't know who thenewamerican is, but they don't seem to be a very reliable source; they seem to have an axe to grind. A difficulty with many of these political sites is that they cherry-pick predictions, and for that matter cherry-pick data, on the assumption that nobody will check them. Better to go back to the original sources.

    I've been graphing global temperatures and comparing them to predictions for years, starting with the Manabe and Wetherald 1967 model, which predicted 2.25 degrees per doubling (this is still, fifty years later, within the estimated error range of the most recent IPCC consensus band.)

    The measured data is right on the prediction. That's fifty years of data-- quite remarkable.

    --
    http://www.geoffreylandis.com
  171. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by Nikkos · · Score: 1

    The key there is the number of mass-extinction events in our fossil records are directly connected with exactly these same events.

    Source? - AFAIK, there are no mass-extinction events associated with methane spikes large enough to increase planetary temperature >6c within 80 years.

  172. Intelligent life by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    so... in 2100 there is no net gain or loss on intelligent life?

  173. Yet another climate model by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    At this point there are thousands of them generated every year. And most of them fail by the end of said year. Occasionally we get one that last two, maybe three years but all eventually fail and have to be replaced with someone else's climate model. Why do we keep putting stock in something that has proven itself to be unreliable?

  174. Got news for you.... by MerlTurkin · · Score: 1

    A mass extinction event could happen at ANY time. That has ALWAYS been the case. Sleep tight folks.

  175. Not saying I believe or disbelieve this, but... by sacrilicious · · Score: 1

    ... Is it me, or is the world ending more frequently these days?

    --
    - First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then ???, then profit.
  176. Only 82 years left to prevent armageddon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    but that should be enough to delete all mathematical formulas.

  177. Report actually makes me feel good by jediborg · · Score: 1

    If the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a panel known to aggressively fund research that generates the most alarming and sensationalist predictions, doesn't think we will 'poison the waters with enough carbon' until 2100, a little less than 100 years from now, then we are in pretty good shape! Not only have we as humans already collectively been making enough change (beating our own governments goals for increasing solar panel production, and reducing alternative energy costs) to slowly halt the ongoing effects of climate change, with new emerging technologies such as improved energy storage, tomahawk fusion reactors that actually work, and god knows what we will invent tomorrow... we will probably reverse the course of ocean acidification by 2050!

  178. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 1

    What could possibly go wrong? :D

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    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
  179. Vast conspiracy. You win. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    very astute, you uncovered all three vast world conspiracies. You win a hummer that's been stripped of all emissions control equipment, enjoy!

  180. Re:What scientists want. by phantomfive · · Score: 1

    I don't know about megion, but I've spent my life around scientists

    Likewise, the quality of your posts and thought tends to be significantly higher than meglon's. It is very obvious that you have read scientific papers, and not surprising that you've written them. In meglon's case, it is not at all clear, his post doesn't even reference science, and his post is full of rage. I was in fact genuinely interested if he had ever read a scientific paper, and if he had, then that at least is something that can be built on.

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    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  181. Re: Holy shit, stop the insanity by Dripdry · · Score: 1

    Except not. Millenials outnumber baby boomers.
    https://www.census.gov/newsroo...

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  182. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by sdinfoserv · · Score: 1

    All facts are interpretations. When results are peer reviewed and duplicated ,then they become accepted facts.
    There will always be a minority who reject even massively accepted facts (ie: climate change deniers) . Whether it be cogitative dissonance or simple lying because you’re a paid greedy prick (ie: the 7 dwarfs who perjured themselves before congress claiming cigarette smoke does not cause cancer )
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

  183. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Distilled water is not pollution.
    Unless you are arguing that humans breath water.
    Are you? Then you won't mind me filling your house up with it.

  184. I'll be dead then anyway, so who gives a fuck? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...said everyone born before about 1999.

    These threats of gloom and doom do no good, as obviated by the fact that people haven't rounded up and shot all the super-rich fucks responsible for the bulk of this shit. Of course, the guilt is pretty well spread throughout most people who live in developed and even some undeveloped or underdeveloped countries... so that better explains why no one is doing shit at this point. To be fair.

  185. No, we're not on track... by Doc+Right · · Score: 1

    Slight problem with their theory. The oceans are not currently absorbing CO2. They're releasing it into the atmosphere. As oceans warm, their ability to hold CO2 decreases. So, yeah, if the oceans start trapping too much CO2, we're headed for a mass extinction event... It's called an ICE AGE!

  186. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by phantomfive · · Score: 1

    even when they reliably nail the long-term trend for over thirty years.

    Except they didn't! Ha!
    I'll talk to you again in two years when it's even more obvious that the models are wrong. At some point, it will be so obvious that even people like you will clearly see it.

    btw, I hope you learn how to read papers and stop linking to dumb blogs. Until then, you'll never have an original thought.

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    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  187. Re:Of course, the answer by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

    Why turn it on before brushing? Don't you have saliva?

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  188. Re:Of course, the answer by nasch · · Score: 1

    I like it better when the toothbrush starts out wet.

  189. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by Namarrgon · · Score: 1

    Sure sure. And one day I hope to see you cite studies that actually say what you claim (or at least that you read them more carefully first). Until then I'll keep pointing out the gap between your claims and the actual data.

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    Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
  190. Re:Holy shit, stop the insanity by DatbeDank · · Score: 1

    Hopefully this "mass extinction" event includes knob heads like yourself.

    Being a hobbyist farmer, ever hear about leaving fields fallow or planting different plants each year to avoid nutrition depletion? How the heck do you think farmers handle this? Either with fertilizer or with the thousand year old method above.

    Oh conveniently left it out. That's fine, just do us a favor and off others like yourself so we can stop global cooling, err warming, err climate change.