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Earth's Carbon Dioxide Levels Reach Highest Point In 800,000 Years (washingtonpost.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Washington Post: For the first time since humans have been monitoring, atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide have exceeded 410 parts per million averaged across an entire month (Warning: source may be paywalled; alternative source), a threshold that pushes the planet ever closer to warming beyond levels that scientists and the international community have deemed "safe." The reading from the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii finds that concentrations of the climate-warming gas averaged above 410 parts per million throughout April. The first time readings crossed 410 at all occurred on April 18, 2017, or just about a year ago. Carbon dioxide concentrations -- whose "greenhouse gas effect" traps heat and drives climate change -- were around 280 parts per million circa 1880, at the dawn of the industrial revolution. They're now 46 percent higher. According to Scripps Institute of Oceanography, this amount is the highest in at least the past 800,000 years. "We keep burning fossil fuels. Carbon dioxide keeps building up in the air," said Scripps scientist Ralph Keeling, who maintains the longest continuous record of atmospheric carbon dioxide on Earth. "It's essentially as simple as that."

433 comments

  1. Getting out of hand by AlanObject · · Score: 2, Funny

    These Chinese hoaxers are going too far.

    1. Re:Getting out of hand by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Global warming has several positif consequences for plant life/biocycle :
      - increasing temperatures
      - increasing CO2 levels
      - increasing air moisture/rain
      All helping photosynthesis/plant growth.

      Local negatif variations of those factors are easily curbed by technololgy existing since decades (irrigation, desalinisation, fertilisation, ...).
      That's why Israel is a food exporting country.
      Any country in the Middle-East/Afrika could do that, if they stopped killing each other.

    2. Re:Getting out of hand by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We already use more irrigation and fertilisation than we should reasonably expect to get away with. Global warming does help plant life in some places, but hinders it in others. The farming belt shifts further towards the poles, meaning less overall useable area for farming, not more. Unless you're Russian, I guess.

      Let me know when existing technology is able to stop hurricanes and floodwater decimating entire cities at a reasonable cost. That's what the eastern seaboard of the US has to look forward to - much bigger, much more frequent hurricanes, every year. Multiple US cities destroyed. Every year.

    3. Re:Getting out of hand by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      That may be great for you, but what are we higher lifeforms that aren't capable of photosynthesis supposed to do?

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    4. Re:Getting out of hand by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Eat the things that use photosynthesis. Duh.

    5. Re:Getting out of hand by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That gave me a good chuckle. Thank you.

    6. Re:Getting out of hand by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Haha yeah. This is slashdot. Your 'global warming' scam has no power here. We're a bunch of sad neckbeard armchair blowhard cunts who don't believe anything unless we like it.

    7. Re:Getting out of hand by Lab+Rat+Jason · · Score: 1

      I prefer to eat the things that eat the things that use photosynthesis.

      --
      Which has more power: the hammer, or the anvil?
    8. Re:Getting out of hand by jd · · Score: 1

      Very true. Also, it's worth noting that an American company operating in India or Africa can't claim its pollution is from a BRICS country and therefore somehow not the responsibility of the American company. Equally, a consumer in America or Europe buying from a polluting company doesn't get to blame the country the company is in. It's the consumer who is buying the product.

      Well, ok, there's one consideration with country. Pollution doesn't spread infinitely fast. It spreads across an atmospheric cell faster than between cells. Over any longer timeframes, the pollution will cover the globe, that's very true, but shorter-term effects migrate.

      --
      It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
    9. Re:Getting out of hand by Methadras · · Score: 1

      So CO2 was higher 800k years ago when the population of Neanderthals was less than 20k around the world? Hmm...

    10. Re:Getting out of hand by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh, I know. I'm SO relieved that global warming is only a Chinese hoax. :P

    11. Re:Getting out of hand by datavirtue · · Score: 1

      No...we were industrialized and have since been wiped out and reborn into another industrialized civilization. All evidence except for a few fragments have been wiped out by the drastic weather resulting from our last spell of industrialized pollution. Last time the pollution caused a bunch of asteroids to impact earth.

      --
      I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
    12. Re:Getting out of hand by datavirtue · · Score: 1

      But those things fart and contribute to the problem.

      --
      I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
    13. Re:Getting out of hand by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Did you learn this getting your associatres degree in microsoft engineering?

  2. Let me know by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    when it reaches the levels it was at about 25 million years ago when it was double what it is today.

    1. Re:Let me know by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      At 400ppm 2 million years ago, the Arctic was more than 10C warmer than now. 400ppm means the loss of Arctic ice, and flooding. It also means CO2 outgassing from the tundra, and higher levels than 400ppm.

    2. Re: Let me know by raind · · Score: 0

      Source? Let us know. Thanks.

      --
      Get up!
    3. Re:Let me know by religionofpeas · · Score: 4, Informative

      Ice core data shows a several-hundred-year lag between rising temperatures and higher CO2.

      Rising temperature and higher CO2 form a mutual causal relationship. The path from CO2 to temperature is a lot quicker (few decades max), so you don't recognize it in the graphs.

    4. Re:Let me know by riverat1 · · Score: 2

      Ice core data shows a several-hundred-year lag between rising temperatures and higher CO2.

      So where in the historical record is the spike in temperatures that is causing CO2 to rise to level not seen in over 800,000 years? If temperatures were hot enough to cause this exceptional rise in CO2 you'd think we would have noticed.

      And more to the point how is it possible that human emissions which are more than twice the year to year increase in atmospheric CO2 levels are not the cause of the increase?

    5. Re:Let me know by mbkennel · · Score: 1

      "Ice core data shows a several-hundred-year lag between rising temperatures and higher CO2. "

      Firstly, it's not clear the lead-lag relationship is clearly determinable from the observed paleoclimate indirect data.

      Today, with instruments measuring all this directly we know for sure that CO2 and greenhouse gases lead temperature rise, as every element of known physics says they do.

      And in prehistoric times, of course the CO2 did not come from fossil fuel sources, they were safely encased in rock. That means they came from reaction to the environment---carbon in chemical and biological sources closer to the surface than fossil fuels was emitted because of warming (which then, not now, came from astronomical changes). One may be oceans.

      The logical conclusion is of course that there are natural sources of CO2 emission under higher temperatures which will soon whack the fuck out of us, adding to the enormous emissions from coal and petroleum.

      By the way, half of the carbon we're emitting now is going into the oceans and not contributing to greenhouse gases. As the oceans get warmer, they will stop doing that as much, and even more of the burnt fuel will go into the atmosphere, so even if we stabilize emissions, the increase in CO2 will continue to accelerate. And all of that is additive on prior emissions and greenhouse forcing is related to the total amount.

      So, if you think about it, the paleoclimate observations are really bad for our future.

    6. Re:Let me know by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Since your entire argument is "it was like this before, therefore we have nothing to worry about", you don't really need to worry about it until the Earth becomes a molten ball of lava like it was in the very early days.

    7. Re:Let me know by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Have you noticed how even the people who believe that mankind causes global warming can argue viciously over the most minute points? ...and you wonder why others doubt this theory?

      To quote a previous /.

      My suspicion starts from the fact that the agenda is pushed by the same people who have always had the same agenda--reduce the scope of freedom in the private sector, and increase the role of government in the economy. Whatever their issue, their solution is always the same.

    8. Re:Let me know by skoskav · · Score: 1

      Ice core data shows a several-hundred-year lag between rising temperatures and higher CO2.

      This seems to mainly apply to the Vostok cores. When core samples from multiple sites are combined, the CO2 is shown to rise well before the warming. A short video by the University of Queensland attempts to clarify the evidence and a logical fallacy surrounding it (skip to 2:39 if you're impatient).

    9. Re:Let me know by skoskav · · Score: 1

      Ice core data shows a several-hundred-year lag between rising temperatures and higher CO2.

      This seems to mainly apply to the Vostok cores. When core samples from multiple sites are combined, the CO2 is shown to rise well before the warming. A short video by the University of Queensland attempts to clarify the evidence and a logical fallacy surrounding it (skip to 2:39 if you're impatient).

    10. Re:Let me know by skoskav · · Score: 1

      Sorry for the confusion, religionofpeas - I responded to the wrong post. I still think you're pretty cool though.

    11. Re:Let me know by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What you are saying makes no sense. If 2 million years ago the CO2 level was 400ppm, which it is today, then exactly what caused the temperature to be 10C warmer than now? If CO2 is the driver of temperature increases then shouldn't the same level of CO2 today give us the same temperature it did 2 million years ago instead of being 10C cooler?

      Based on your own statements, it seems that perhaps CO2 isn't the engine of heat or perhaps 2 million years ago something else was pumping additional heat into our climate that isn't occurring today, which would again point to CO2 not being the primary cause of increasing temperatures.

      So which is it?

    12. Re:Let me know by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1

      Haha! The John Cook "Denial 101" series?

      That is your "evidence"?

      Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!

    13. Re:Let me know by skoskav · · Score: 1

      Geez, you resurrect my old post just to throw in an ad hominem?

      My "evidence" is the argument the presenter made, along with her data.

  3. Doctor Who Says... by Topwiz · · Score: 0

    Well You Say That As If It's A Bad Thing. But Honestly It's The Best Thing There Is.

  4. Could these readings be skewed? by dwywit · · Score: 1, Insightful

    There's an ongoing eruption event in the region. Could it have been pouring lots of CO2 into the air recently?

    I'm sure the research scientists know what they're doing, but IIRC volcanic events are responsible for a lot of CO2. I'd like to see some data from samples collected elsewhere.

    --
    They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
    1. Re:Could these readings be skewed? by alienghic · · Score: 5, Informative

      Prevailing winds bring in fresh, well mixed, air from the oceans and pushes the locally generated CO2 away, whether from cities or volcanoes away from the observatory. This link has more details, and included results from other measuring stations. https://skepticalscience.com/M...

    2. Re:Could these readings be skewed? by Cyberax · · Score: 3, Informative

      Volcanic eruptions are less than 2% of emitted CO2. That's how big the fossil fuel impact is.

      It's possible that the eruption hastened this particular record, but only by the matter of days or months - you can see the graph in the linked article, it's been pretty smooth for decades.

    3. Re:Could these readings be skewed? by dwywit · · Score: 1

      Aha. Thanks.

      --
      They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
    4. Re:Could these readings be skewed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is most of that fossil fuel pollution coming from first, second, or third world countries?

    5. Re: Could these readings be skewed? by phantomfive · · Score: 3, Informative

      There are also measuring stations in antarctica to give it backup. The one in Hawaii is the oldest (and is considered very reliable) so it is the most famous.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    6. Re:Could these readings be skewed? by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 1

      Do you really want to know?

      --
      Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
    7. Re:Could these readings be skewed? by Dare+nMc · · Score: 4, Informative

      While it doesn't address what CO2 comes from volcano's, but we can also tell what percent of CO2 is natural vs from burned fossil fuels using carbon isotope ratio from the atmosphere:

      http://www.realclimate.org/ind...

    8. Re:Could these readings be skewed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Here is a chart.

    9. Re: Could these readings be skewed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Have they checked whether Rosie Oâ(TM)Donnell was in the vicinity of Hawaii during the eruption? A few of the pictures looked like she might have had a very wet hurricane-force diarrheal fart.

    10. Re:Could these readings be skewed? by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      CO2 from a volcano would be completely depleted of C14, and would look like CO2 from fossil fuel.

    11. Re:Could these readings be skewed? by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 4, Informative

      but IIRC volcanic events are responsible for a lot of CO2.
      No they don't, and that is easy to google: https://www.scientificamerican...

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    12. Re:Could these readings be skewed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mostly from third world countries such as China and USA

    13. Re:Could these readings be skewed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But CO2 from a volcano will be accompanied with other gasses. Plus it is really hard to miss a volcano erupting and so you can discount the one less than a mile away.

    14. Re:Could these readings be skewed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you're going to write volcano's, why don't you also write fuel's?

    15. Re:Could these readings be skewed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Interesting - the top 3 are from 2nd World, 1st World and 3rd World in that order.

      So the best answer to the question "Is most of that fossil fuel pollution coming from first, second, or third world countries?" would simply be "Yes".

    16. Re:Could these readings be skewed? by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      You do know that we have only one atmosphere, not separate ones for first, second and third world countries, yes?

      And emissions don't give a damn about the artificial borders humans draw on the ground.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    17. Re:Could these readings be skewed? by jd · · Score: 1

      Correct, but there will be radioisotopes and other isotopes that are present in volcanic pollution and absent in fossil fuels, owing to the fact that they come from very very different sources. The reverse will also be true for the same reasons. Therefore we can determine percentages. And, indeed, we already do.

      --
      It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
    18. Re:Could these readings be skewed? by RockDoctor · · Score: 1
      ... which is why you look at stable carbon isotopes - 13-C and 12-C - to assess the relative contributions of biogenic carbon (which has been through the biology of something) versus primordial carbon (which hasn't been through biological activity). Please note that this is a population measure - of billions of atoms - not a property of one atom, whose individual history is untraceable.

      Biological activity follows similar laws to the physics of separating 235-U from 238-U : the mass difference means they move slightly differently, and that does have a slight effect on the chemical reactions of carbon. Which means specifically that the reaction of atmospheric (or aqueous) CO2 into organic carbon molecules in the inverse-Krebs cycle has a small preference for 12-C over 13-C. That shifts the isotope ratio for going through that "carbon cycle" by about -12 ppt compared to the standard. If the carbon goes through the cycle multiple times, the isotope shift can be greater.

      and would look like CO2 from fossil fuel.

      The presence of 14-C depleted atmospheric CO2 due to fossil fuel burning will, indeed, fuck up *future* attempts at performing 14-C dating on objects grown since the mid-1950s (atmospheric nuclear testing also produces 14-N, which rapidly changes to 14-C, also fucking up the measurement. There is actually a noticeable effect in archaeology where people eating a lot of oceanic fish (who take their carbon from thousands-of-years-old deep ocean water, depleted in 14-C) appear older than their artefacts (grown with atmospheric levels of 14-C). I've worked out schemes for faking artefacts based on isotopically old biological products grown in greenhouses fed by fossil fuel produced CO2 - if I produced a fake Turin Shroud, I'd make sure it had an isotopic age that would be perfect for ... Pharaoh Tutankhamun. Coz I iz evilzz!

      But the fossil-fuel derived CO2 still carries it's "organic" levels of stable carbon isotopes.

      Geologically, we actually monitor the oil well's gas isotope ratios, because that is an indicator of whether the gas has been through the carbon cycle once, twice, or more ; it's a subtle indicator, but it can be an indicator that your'e approaching a reservoir which is leaking organic molecules into the overlying rock - what we call a "gas chimney" - where it then gets biologically processed again and given another -12ppt isotopic shift. When this service started, over 20 years ago, we had to capture sample of the gas (in "IsoTubes"TM), airfreight them to a lab ashore

      airfreight? For samples known to contain flammable gases, and known (or suspected) to contain toxic gases? Can you imagine the Imperial shitton of IATA paperwork that accompanies that? No passengers on that plane, for a start! I don't need to imagine - I remember!

      and the results would come back a couple of months later. The last 8 years, the analytical equipment has come out to the wellsite but runs at (a fist full of) thousands of dollars a day. But has much less paperwork. I fucking love it! Best - some specialist ashore delivers his interpretation of the isotope ratios after several days thinking about it - I just have to QC the gas sampling system and collate the bulk composition data to send in with the arcana from the IsoGas equipment rack and specialist (Hi, Claudio, Rozhan, Lucio!) and witness the calibration verification runs.

      Sorry - you mentioned isotope geochemistry. Pet subject. Your statements are not badly incorrect, but are not relevant to the question being posed.

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
    19. Re:Could these readings be skewed? by doccus · · Score: 1

      yup. and methane and a whole lot of very nasty other chemicals that cause global Coolng!

  5. U.S. Emissions Down, European Emissions Up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    http://reason.com/blog/2018/05/04/us-carbon-dioxide-emissions-down-europea

    "Global energy-related CO2 emissions grew by 1.4% in 2017, reaching a historic high of 32.5 gigatonnes (Gt), a resumption of growth after three years of global emissions remaining flat. The increase in CO2 emissions, however, was not universal. While most major economies saw a rise, some others experienced declines, including the United States, United Kingdom, Mexico and Japan. The biggest decline came from the United States, mainly because of higher deployment of renewables."

    1. Re:U.S. Emissions Down, European Emissions Up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mainly because of fracking releasing incredible amounts of now-much-cheaper natural gas, with greater energy efficiency for electricity generation.

    2. Re:U.S. Emissions Down, European Emissions Up by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 2

      The question is what is the impact of the associated methane leaks. Those 2% of CO2 reduction can easily be outweighed by methane leaks, which are a non-CO2 contribution to GHG emissions.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    3. Re: U.S. Emissions Down, European Emissions Up by phantomfive · · Score: 2

      Methane degrades fairly quickly in the environment whereas co2 sticks around for a long time. That's why the worry focus is on co2.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    4. Re: U.S. Emissions Down, European Emissions Up by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 2

      Yes, but it apparently doesn't degrade quickly enough, to the extent that above, I think, 2% of leaks, it get worse than coal for a few decades or so.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    5. Re:U.S. Emissions Down, European Emissions Up by mvdwege · · Score: 1

      This just in: serial killer wants to be called a good person because he only killed 1 person this week instead of 2.

      --
      "I know I will be modded down for this": where's the option '-1, Asking for it'?
    6. Re: U.S. Emissions Down, European Emissions Up by q_e_t · · Score: 1

      It degrades to CO2, mostly.

    7. Re: U.S. Emissions Down, European Emissions Up by jbengt · · Score: 2

      Yeah, but it degrades into water and carbon dioxide.

    8. Re:U.S. Emissions Down, European Emissions Up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      lol Reason, those guys do nothing but sit there all day and smell their own farts

  6. What happened 800,000+ years ago? by mveloso · · Score: 0, Redundant

    So obviously, what happened 800,000 years ago when the average CO2 levels were presumably higher than they are now?

  7. And before that? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    So what you're saying is, they were higher 800,000 years ago.

    1. Re:And before that? by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 5, Informative

      No, they're saying we don't have direct measurements from before the oldest ice core bores. 800kya is not the year they were higher.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    2. Re:And before that? by serviscope_minor · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yes?

      What's with all the anti-science ACs JAQing off in this thread.

      Yes CO2 has been higher in the past, no all lfe didn't die then and no humans did't have a population of 7 billion wiht hundreds of trillions of dollars of infrastructure with a few meters of sea level.

      Life will go on, but it won't be comfortable.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    3. Re:And before that? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Although there's no question that climate change in itself won't end all human life, it does lead to food stress and resource shortages leading to more mass migration, famine and war. It only takes one nuclear war triggering event to say no, human life won't go on. A more likely question is - will human civilisation survive? Maybe not a bad outcome for the planet, but not a good one for us.

    4. Re:And before that? by BoogieChile · · Score: 2

      >Yes CO2 has been higher in the past, no all lfe didn't die then

      Yeah...about that...

  8. We are burning fuel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    We are burning fuel, transforming materials, and using energy, all at a rate that has never before been done in the planet's history. Naturally there is a proportionate spike.

    1. Re: We are burning fuel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How do you know dinosaurs didn't have fighter jets?

    2. Re: We are burning fuel by glenebob · · Score: 1

      Everybody knows you can't build a fighter jet without opposable thumbs, much less fly one.

    3. Re: We are burning fuel by crimson+tsunami · · Score: 1

      Everyone also knows it's only the telekinetic dinosaurs who did the manual labour.

    4. Re: We are burning fuel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Point of order - by using telekinesis, it did not count as manual labour, rather it was considered a white-collar job. Of course, dinosaurs had a hell of a job with collars due to their large ears.

    5. Re: We are burning fuel by houghi · · Score: 1

      I never knew fighter jets had opposable thumbs. That is amazing. No wonder they are so expensive.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    6. Re: We are burning fuel by crimson+tsunami · · Score: 1

      It's likely dinosaurs didn't have big ears.
      Of course, they knew it wasn't manual. But those [far right / far left] dinosaurs got to write the dictionary and that was the common usage at the time.
      Now I can't stop imagining a t-rex trying to put it's collar on with its iddy biddy Trump hands.

  9. Re:What happened 800,000+ years ago? by Citizen+of+Earth · · Score: 4, Funny

    Obviously, the climate ran away and killed all life on Earth.

  10. Re:Taxes and control by belthize · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I assume you breath via some mechanical assistance since I suspect you're not intelligent enough to do it on your own.

  11. Bad news among good news by JoshuaZ · · Score: 5, Informative

    This is bad news among good news. In general, CO2 output levels have been flat or going down in both the US and some other countries for a few years. 2018 is actually the first year in the last 4 where the total CO2 production of the US are going up, while they declined for the previous few years https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-natgas-eia-steo/update-1-u-s-carbon-emissions-seen-at-25-year-low-in-2017-idUSL1N1J311B. But we need to do a lot more. So what can you do to help?

    There are three main aspects, personal, political and charitable:

    In terms of personal lifestyle differences, the biggest options are to eat less meat and to use a personal car less. If you live somewhere where public transit is an option, you can massively cut down on your carbon footprint by simply using public transit. Not everyone has that option, since you may live somewhere where public transit isn't available or may have a job or family that necessitates getting a car, in which case, if you get a new car, make sure to buy an electric or hybrid. Also in terms of personal activity, one can keep the air conditioning or heating in one's house at not as extreme temperatures or one can better insulate one's house. If one is somewhere installing solar on one's home either for electricity or just for water heating then do it. All these personal changes are also things which overall cause one to save money so there's good reason to do it..

    Political change is also important. Much of Europe is taking sensible approaches to these issues (although Germany's anti-nuclear kick isn't helping) but the US is very much not so. In general, the Democrats have a much better record on climate issues and other environmental issues than the current Republicans. This means voting for Democratic candidates and donating to them is important.

    In terms of charity, this is a really good way of effecting direct change. Two good options for solar are donating to Everybody Solar https://www.everybodysolar.org/ which gets solar panels for non-profits like museums and homeless shelters, and the Solar Electric Light Fund https://www.self.org/ who helps get solar panels for locations in the developing world. SELF's work is especially important because it helps to cut off the potential of rising carbon dioxide in the developing world even as it helps increase their economies. For wind power, I recommend donating to The New England Wind Fund https://www.massenergy.org/the-wind-fund. Also, helping buy carbon offsets is important. The most efficient way of offsetting carbon in terms of tons offset per a dollar spent is Cool Earth https://www.coolearth.org/. Every little bit helps.

    1. Re:Bad news among good news by Tjp($)pjT · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Rather than single issue vote in liberals vote with your pocketbook. If you buy things that are effectively lower or lowering in CO2 then companies will move that direction. Money votes are so much more powerful than political votes. The American process of government controlling technology has a poor record. In 1968 several cars when properly tuned met air pollution standards for the 1980 goals, without catalytic converters. But they had to start using converters by government mandate. The 1970s EPA wanted to, because it was technically possible, make room air conditioners twice as efficient, and the energy use label original spec called for a minimum 8x10 metalizied label with a mil spec permanent adhesive. Small window air conditioners couldn’t support that size label. And to make air conditioners twice as efficient while running would make them use so much more material that the refining and processing and fabrication energy costs for the additional material would never be made up in the units lifetime of running.

      So, putting the government in charge of specifications for technology, not so good. Grassroots make it in demand for “greener” tech, a good deal. The reason solar costs less is that some folks put in the money and created the demand early on. It’s only recently it has become really popular.

      California has taken the step of requiring solar on most new construction, hopefully they left open the problem homes, like deep valley homes, or homes that wind or low head hydro might be better. And hopefully they require where reasonable grid tie ins. But to mandate it in the first place is a mistake. They could just incentivize it and it would happen.

      --
      - Tjp

      I am in wallow with my inner money grubbing capitalistic pig. ... Oink!

    2. Re:Bad news among good news by crimson+tsunami · · Score: 2
      In before some troll comes along to say America is all clean and green. A quote from the above link.

      In 2018, however, carbon dioxide emissions from transportation, power plants, homes and businesses should climb about 2.2 percent, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said. That increase would be due to forecasts for a colder winter, higher economic growth and rising gas prices, the EIA said.

    3. Re:Bad news among good news by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 4, Insightful

      although Germany's anti-nuclear kick isn't helping Why?
      Germanies percentage of nuclear power was around 22%, now it is around 10%.
      Germany used to have something like 5% renewables, 30 years ago, now it is close to 40%, this year likely above 40%.

      You don't need nukes to produce CO2 free energy ...

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    4. Re:Bad news among good news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Every little bit does not help. This is feel-good nonsense. Because math.
      There are 8 billion going on 10 billion people in the world. 6-7 billion of them are dirt poor. That's changing fast, and it's causing their carbon emissions to rise. Because of this, carbon is not a 10% problem. Reducing your emissions by 10% will do _nothing_. It's not a 20% problem, or a 50% problem, or even a 90% problem. Because of all those people rising to decent standards of living, zero is the only option. Zero net carbon emissions per person, everywhere.

      You can't get to zero by eating less meat and driving less. You can't get to zero with "carbon offsets". You can't get to zero with the contradictory Democrat and Euro-trash politics of "try to emit less carbon, but close nuclear power plants" and "run California on solar, but 85% of the Mojave desert is off limits to utility-scale solar, while half of it is open to recreation (dune buggy riding)". You get to zero by using non-carbon technology to generate all the energy we use. That can be solar, nuclear, maybe wind, or some combination thereof. Solar and wind produce energy 15-30% of the time, when their random intermittent energy sources are running. So to run civilization on them, we build 2-3 times the required capacity (much of that to charge batteries for off-times), plus a lot of batteries, to get to a 24/7 grid. Or we build LFTR, travelling wave, or some other kind of advanced nuclear, mass produced for cost reduction, and ship to site. We build a carbon free grid that's functionally identical to the grid we have now, get the costs reasonable, and build it globally.

      None of the feel-good live-with-less solutions are going to work, because to make them work you'll need to convince 8 billion people to live under permanent crushing austerity, forever.

      The only way to solve this is with better technology, broad acceptance of that technology (even if it poses some risks such as proliferation), and by the way also have fewer children, that would help a LOT.

      The two worst mass movements in history, in terms of long term effects, both happened in the 1970's - the anti-nuclear movement, and the pro-life movement. Helen Cauldecot and Pope John Paul II may well end up being responsible for giga-genocidal human die-offs that make Hitler and Mao look like amateurs, if enough breadbaskets fail at some point.

    5. Re:Bad news among good news by HalfFlat · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Steady or declining CO2 emissions is only good news if we're in a steady state situation.

      We're not.

      Simply keeping anthropogenic CO2 and CH4 emissions steady is woefully insufficient. The "well below 2 degrees warming" goal of the Paris agreements is itself based on an assumption that we will be able to actively remove CO2 from the atmosphere, requiring a technology we have yet to make feasible at scale.

      We cannot afford to burn our currently known reserves of fossil fuels. We have to decarbonise our energy production as quickly as is humanly possible. That countries such as Australia are still granting fossil fuel exploration permits is, frankly, insane.

    6. Re:Bad news among good news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And of course, solar is projected to increase in cost due the CA regulations, as govt involvement always makes things more costly.

    7. Re:Bad news among good news by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

      You don't need nukes to produce CO2 free energy ...

      True, but Germany have also upped the amount of coal unfortunately. Renweables are great and all, but Germany isn't physically large enough nor has the sophisticated grid and storage infrastructure to deal with the rather variable nature of them.

      Which is a shame.

      I think technically, the wholesale switch to electric cars and genuine smart grids and smart meters will be the key, becuase that's the most likely way to actually scale things up. By genuine smart meters, I mean something more than just a digital electicity meter with an internet connection and bad security. I mean one able to respond and either buy electricity (i.e. charge your car) or sell it from your car back to the grid.

      The trouble is there's quite a lot of unsolved problems there. First, the security has to actually be sound. Like really sound. Secondly, even with that it means you could have country wide rapid changes in load and supply within seconds and the grid infrastructure itself would need some sort of anti-badmess measures in place to quell oscillations and worse.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    8. Re:Bad news among good news by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 2

      solar is projected to increase in cost due the CA regulations

      No, it's not. It's projected to decrease in price throughout the world.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    9. Re:Bad news among good news by Parker+Lewis · · Score: 1

      The only useful advice is to eat less meat. In most developed countries, mostly in Europe (when trucks carrying only 1 person are not a hit, like in USA), cars are no more the main CO2 emitters, but the cities itself (factories, all garbage produced in homes, etc). The advice to get a new car is the worst one: to produce a new car the use of natural resources (like water) and the CO2 production is a way higher then keep a less-than-10-years car for more years (as they were already produced using more tight emission rules). This applies to mobile (keep your mobile more years, as it's really expensive in terms of resources usage and CO2 production). Buy more stuff in glass (not in plastic). People is still talking about get a more modern car, but keep throwing garbage, plastic and buying new electronic devices every year.

    10. Re:Bad news among good news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So a lot of this post comes across as ways to make you feel better about your "carbon footprint" rather than actually doing something to make a substantial difference. And understand, the moment you start talking about a "carbon footprint" or a "carbon tax" anyone with half a brain is going to immediatly ignore you. These are sayings you give the sub-80 IQ club so they can trounce around chanting it. In particular, it takes a really special kind of person, a super-villan, to think a tax is going to save planet earth.

      In your personal life, make investments in cars, electronics, and architecture that reduce your energy consumption. Spend $50 extra and buy the 95% efficient power supply for your PC, buy a cheap daily driver that gets 35MPG, buy a cell phone with better battery life, buy better insulation for your home and replace the old water heater. These are investments, and they take not going on vacations or eating out as much to execute. They will also pay you back over time. You can also specialize in a career that reduces pollution, e.g. manufacturing robotics as an example.

      Politically, we need to replace hydrocarbon fuels. There's two sources of energy with the potential to replace what we have today; nuclear and solar. Everything else falls short. Liquid Thorium Salt Nuclear is the only nuclear that's safe by design, and we are not persuing it as a technology; the chinese are. For Solar we have the challenge of collecting and storing the energy and that is a slow slog that's going to take time. We are regulating energy efficiency into everything which is arguably a good idea, given we stay mindful of the amount of pollution produced by that persuit.

      Charity-wise, never donate to an institution unless its a PAC working towards your interests. Donating to a charity is a great way to turn money into feel-goodiness but does little. If you're giving someone money, make sure you can walk in, say Hi, thank them, and shake their hand. Focus on making your local area better. This can be as small as planting tree's, volunteering to clean up trash, funding a local wildlife habitat.

    11. Re:Bad news among good news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > In terms of personal lifestyle differences, the biggest options are to eat less meat and to use a personal car less.

      Also, fly less.

    12. Re:Bad news among good news by JoshuaZ · · Score: 1

      Um, I explicitly didn't advise people to get new cars. I said "If you get a new car" and then discussed how one should do that if one is going to. I'm also not sure how you think advising people to use more public transit isn't productive, or what your objection is to getting solar panels or donating to causes which buy more solar panels.

    13. Re:Bad news among good news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sorry, hippies love their bottled water.

    14. Re:Bad news among good news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      s. 2018 is actually the first year in the last 4 where the total CO2 production of the US are going up, while they declined for the previous few years

      And this is why the Paris Accord was complete bullshit.

    15. Re:Bad news among good news by Sumus+Semper+Una · · Score: 1

      Rather than single issue vote in liberals vote with your pocketbook.

      Voting with your wallet only works for those who have some extra money left in their wallets. Odd as it may seem, not everyone has extra cash lying around.

    16. Re:Bad news among good news by iggymanz · · Score: 1

      nonsense, carbon offsets are a scam, billions of euros in fraud known and the true extent of the crime unknown.

      using less fossil fuel is the only way, not trading scams.

      your donations are useful for helping people but pointless for reducing carbon output of civilization, the magnitude is a gnat's fart in a hurricane.

      real solutions, not feel good marketing hype is what's needed

    17. Re:Bad news among good news by squiggleslash · · Score: 1

      If you live somewhere where public transit is an option, you can massively cut down on your carbon footprint by simply using public transit.

      Also not only do you cut down on your carbon footprint, but you'll usually save money, reduce your stress level, and while your journey may take longer (depends though, if going into the center of a city it can reduce it) you'll be able to relax a little and take some of your life back.

      Just saying.

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    18. Re:Bad news among good news by JoshuaZ · · Score: 1

      nonsense, carbon offsets are a scam, billions of euros in fraud known and the true extent of the crime unknown. using less fossil fuel is the only way, not trading scams.

      There have been serious problems with fraudulent carbon offsets. That doesn't mean that carbon offsets themselves are scams, any more than the existence of fraudulent charities in general is an argument that charity is itself a scam. If you read the comment you are replying to, you will note that I didn't advocate carbon offsets in general, I pointed to a specific method of carbon offsets which is well-vetted.

      Since I explicitly referred to using less fossil fuels, and articulated specific ways to do so, I'm not sure what your argument there is.

      your donations are useful for helping people but pointless for reducing carbon output of civilization, the magnitude is a gnat's fart in a hurricane.

      That's true in general for any form of charity. As individuals we can do very little. Collectively, the situation is very different.

    19. Re:Bad news among good news by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      True, but Germany have also upped the amount of coal unfortunately.

      You mean the brief blip where they did a safety assessment on their reactors (2013) before beginning their orderly program of shutting down nuclear without replacing them with coal?

      Million Tonnes oil equivalent of Coal consumed in Germany:

      2012: 80.5
      2013: 82.8
      2014: 79.6
      2015: 78.5
      2016: 75.3

    20. Re:Bad news among good news by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      True, but Germany have also upped the amount of coal unfortunately.
      No it has not.
      You can not go from 5% renewables to 40% and at the same time "up the coal".
      That is mathematically impossible, considering dropping power usage/production it is even more impossible.

      I think technically, the wholesale switch to electric cars and genuine smart grids and smart meters will be the key, becuase that's the most likely way to actually scale things up. By genuine smart meters, I mean something more than just a digital electicity meter with an internet connection and bad security. I mean one able to respond and either buy electricity (i.e. charge your car) or sell it from your car back to the grid.
      We (as the germans) are working on that.
      Security is a problem as "watching the meter" will give you ideas what people at home are doing or if they are at home.
      On the other hand: watching is not that easy.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    21. Re:Bad news among good news by Uecker · · Score: 2

      Coal use is a historical low in Germany (electricity production from coal 2017: 92.6 TWh lignite 2017: 147.5 TWh, vs. ten years ago: coal 2007: 142.0 TWh, lignite 2007: 155.1 WTh, source https://www.ag-energiebilanzen...).

      Also the grid is pretty advanced and stable in the world while 33% of electricity is already produced by renewables and there is no indication of severe problems (certainly there are challenges, but no challenges which seem too hard to solve).

    22. Re:Bad news among good news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You have your facts backups, in the last 40 years look at which Presidents actually got a balanced budget?

      The adage about democrats is tax and spend which means you actually pay for the things you do unlike the Republicans who cut taxes and increase spending which also means increasing borrowing which leads to bubbles which collapse.

    23. Re:Bad news among good news by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

      I appear to have been mistaken. Thanks for the correction,

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    24. Re:Bad news among good news by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

      Correction noted, thanks!

      Security is a problem as "watching the meter" will give you ideas what people at home are doing or if they are at home.

      I meant security as in hacking the meters. If you can hack a few million smart meters (as in ones that can control charge/discharge) then you could do a lot of damage or a lot of insider trading.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    25. Re:Bad news among good news by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

      I stand corrected, thanks!

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    26. Re:Bad news among good news by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      Interesting point!

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    27. Re:Bad news among good news by si618 · · Score: 2

      We have to decarbonise our energy production as quickly as is humanly possible. That countries such as Australia are still granting fossil fuel exploration permits is, frankly, insane.

      You have seen our current political leaders haven't you?

      Australia had a carbon tax. It was working. The Liberal Party removed it, now our emissions are increasing.

      --
      Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion
    28. Re:Bad news among good news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In terms of personal lifestyle differences, the biggest options are to eat less meat and to use a personal car less.

      Using the airplane less results in a smaller carbon footprint, than those two. Also, eating less meat but replacing it with avocados and grapes grown half a world away and shipped by airplane is a disaster as well. Basically, live a more local lifestyle and your impact will be reduced. Anything else makes no difference (also, have less kids, but most people are not prepared to do that).

    29. Re:Bad news among good news by JoshuaZ · · Score: 1

      The part about meat v. eating local is false. The vast majority of CO2 production from food occurs in production, not transport, so not eating meat has a much bigger impact than eating local food. See https://insteading.com/blog/which-is-better-for-the-environment-local-or-vegetarian/.

    30. Re:Bad news among good news by iggymanz · · Score: 1

      it DOES mean they're scams when at least a third of the dollar amount is either fraud or ventures by speculative investors that don't pan out

      the collective total of those "green" charities is utterly negligible compared to global carbon emissions. the only good they do is for helping people, not reducing atmospheric carbon. they don't matter for that case

      I'm thinking math is hard for you.

  12. Re:What happened 800,000+ years ago? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Capitalist dinosaurs of course.

  13. "The dawn of the industrial revolution"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    1880 was pretty much the end of the industrial revolution. Its "dawn" is variously put at between 1780 (takeoff of large-scale mechanisation) and 1830 (opening of the first intercity railway), though some historians like to date it right back to 1760 (first industrial uses of steam power).

  14. There are two sides by plumwhite23091 · · Score: 0

    One side says that it is nothing called 'Climate change', it is just a frequent period of millions of years ago. But the other side thinks this phenomenon really serious. And I prefer the second thought.

    --
    WilliamReview.com
    1. Re:There are two sides by Travelsonic · · Score: 5, Insightful

      False dichotomy - there are people who outright think it doesn't exist, and people who think it is the impending apocalypse, then there are people who think it is serious, but are optimistic and think we are capable, and able, to find solutions, and have time to do it, as well as those who might believe climate change is real, but wonders about the nitty gritty, how those details are garnered, or conclusions are drawn - I.E ask questions in a reasonable manner, and many people who fall into choices other than those I mentioned.

      --
      If you believe in privacy, and believe you have "nothing to hide" at the same time, you're a goddammed idiot
    2. Re:There are two sides by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is very diplomatic. I prefer to think about looking at people's actions. There are people that try to make responsible decisions because they think it is serious. And then there are an awful lot that could give a flip about anyone beyond themselves and are lining up to buy giant cars (among other things). E.g., look at the mix of cars on the road in the U.S.

  15. Re:What happened 800,000+ years ago? by alienghic · · Score: 5, Informative

    Global warming isn't going to kill all life on earth. The tardigrades aren't even going to notice, given they can live in deep sea hydro-thermal vents and deep space.

    Global warming is likely to cause severe water and food stress for humans, some regions are likely to become too hot & humid for humans to survive going outside. https://www.ucsusa.org/our-wor...

  16. Re:What happened 800,000+ years ago? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    800,000 years is as far back as it's possible to make any kind of plausible estimate. We don't know what the level was before then, although the pattern throughout the 800,000 years we do know about fluctuates between about 180 ppm (in ice ages) and 300 ppm. There is no strong indication that it was significantly higher before then.

  17. Re:What happened 800,000+ years ago? by Tablizer · · Score: 2

    Capitalist dinosaurs of course.

    That's a mean way to describe Republicans. You apologize now!

  18. Re:What happened 800,000+ years ago? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Rumor has it the ocean was +100 feet and the global average surface temperature +10 deg F

  19. Re: Duh by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Usually the changes have been gradual such that life had time to adjust. Humans especially may be sucker-punched by relatively rapid change.

  20. 0.04 percent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    CO2 doesn't cause warming since there is almost nothing of it in the air. Plants are CO2 limited.

    1. Re: 0.04 percent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And the sun doesn't help plants grow because it is so far away. Night comes when the sun blows out at night and dawn is when jeebis relights it.
      #maga

    2. Re:0.04 percent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is why poison can't kill you - most of your body isn't poison.

  21. Re: Taxes and control by belthize · · Score: 0

    Sure, let me try again. Let's see, ad hominem? got it. You're a fucking idiot.

  22. Re:Verification? by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    So you want your own chemistry set? I think that ship has sailed in the US. :-p

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  23. Re: Duh by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    Of course it used to be much more. It was double digits in percentage of the atmospheric mass. But it followed a declining curve after the "faint young Sun" ceased to be...you know, faint.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  24. Re:The Volcano in the Room by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    I mean ... a volcano ... couldn't skew readings.

    No, considering that we've exceeded volcanic contribution by more than an order of magnitude decades ago already. Volcanoes are almost a measurement error these days.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  25. Re:Taxes and control by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 0

    We'd be much better off if CO2 levels tripled from current levels.

    Now say that with a straight face. Yes, we'd be "much better off" if temperatures increased by a few degrees. :-p Well, I suppose we'd be "much better offed", though.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  26. Re:Proof that CO2 does not cause warming by Shikaku · · Score: 2

    http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessm...

    A bunch of graphs, data and projections say otherwise.

  27. Re: Taxes and control by youngone · · Score: 2

    You really shouldn't feed the trolls. I noticed you logged in to comment, but the A/C fuckwit making the "socialist elite" comments prefers to remain anonymous.

  28. Re:What happened 800,000+ years ago? by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 2

    There is no strong indication that it was significantly higher before then.

    No strong indication?

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  29. Re: Taxes and control by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Great, now I have 2 of you going off like angry teens with nothing to say.

    I am very amused that you think being ac is any different than some made up online alias and being ac makes what I have to say any less intelligent or your anonymous but named account more so because of it.

    Again. You fail. But two of you now.

  30. Re:What happened 800,000+ years ago? by WaffleMonster · · Score: 4, Informative

    So obviously, what happened 800,000 years ago when the average CO2 levels were presumably higher than they are now?

    800k is just the end of easy continuous direct CO2 observation from ice cores in their dataset.

    You would have to go back a couple million years or more.

  31. Re:800,000 years is short by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 4, Informative

    Ice ages happen on a timescale of tens of millions of years.

    Actually we have had four glacial periods in the last million years.

  32. idgaf by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If the f*cks I don't give were money, I'd be retired.

    1. Re:idgaf by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And you wonder why people don't care about you any more...

  33. Re:Taxes and control by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We'd be much better off if CO2 levels tripled from current levels

    At 1200 ppm, except for the constant sensation of stuffiness, headaches, drowsiness, etc., we'll all be fine.

  34. Re:Taxes and control by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 0

    Doubling the CO2 will add about 1.6 deg K to our temperature; will that be a disaster?

    --
    Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
  35. Re:Proof that CO2 does not cause warming by Tjp($)pjT · · Score: 1

    They choose the date carefully. Trees are essentially CO2 starved and have adapted to the current low CO2 values compared to their early evolution. Also, even though temperatures may raise in northern latitudes the temperature rise at the equator is not the same, the net effect is broader zones of arable land. Expect the worst, lush forests from northern Greenland to the equator. But that’s really unlikely considering the entrants to the 50 year long solar minimum cycle.

    --
    - Tjp

    I am in wallow with my inner money grubbing capitalistic pig. ... Oink!

  36. Re:Proof that CO2 does not cause warming by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    CO2 levels are as high as they have every been... yet warming continues to be very minor. How much more does CO2 have to rise before you accept the truth that CO2 has almost nothing to do with global warming? Twice again the current level?

    If you take the chart of CO2 concentrations over the last 800k years and overlay it with temperature proxies derived from oxygen isotopes over the same period you'll see the two are irrefutably linked.

    System is a bit laggy. There is quite a lot of being buffered by deep ocean currents.

    Fuck atmospheric temperatures. Pay attention to ocean temperatures. That's what really matters and what is warming far more than what was widely predicted.

    Ocean temps are what's going to affect sea life billions of people depend on for food. It's what's going to melt ice sheets on the poles and Greenland and cause problems for the vast majority humanity living near the coasts.

    At least the plants are happy, even if some of humanity (well, the easily misled portion) is dour.

    No doubt, climate change is good business for some.

  37. Re:Proof that CO2 does not cause warming by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 0, Troll

    Those graphs all over-estimate climate sensitivity by a factor of 2 or 3; recent peer-reviewed data points to 1.3 to 1.6 deg K for doubling of CO2, not the 3+ deg K as used by all the IPCC models. Perhaps that's why the models don't match the data, and run quite a bit hotter than actual data.

    --
    Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
  38. Re: Taxes and control by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    1) no, it wouldn't
    2) no, it would not be if it did.

  39. Re: Taxes and control by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Zero correlation between CO2 and temperature

    You've dropped your posting notes. The argument is that there is zero _causation_ between CO2 and temperature. You've lost the argument on correlation, so you need to switch to causation. Then you get to link to pirates vs sea levels to try to discredit the correlation while playing 'I'm just asking', blowfish about minor details or any one of the other logical fallacies that are pretty common in threads like this.

    it is a historical fact that human do much better in somewhat warmer temperatures than colder

    bzzzt. Mixing local with global. Try again.

    unfortunately, it won't warm the planet much.

    bzzzt. Assertion from first sentence. No proof there, either. Not even an argument.

    I'm sorry, you'll have to bask in the warm glow of a semi-successful trolling without being able to really spank the monkey like when you get a solid hook.

  40. Re: Taxes and control by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 3, Informative

    Zero correlation between CO2 and temperature.

    Like in this graph?

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  41. Re: Duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Climate change: drought, flood, sea level changes? Things a micro climate in an office doesn't need to worry about.

  42. This is fantastic news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Plants will be growing like gangbusters. So good!

  43. *cough*bologna!*cough* by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is 100% pure unadulterated lies.

    Slashdot: Lies for Nerds- Fantasy that Matters

  44. 1880 is the Dawn of the Industrial Revolution? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I would venture that 1760 is the Dawn of the Industrial Revolution, which is when the first steam engines started becoming commercially available, used in mining coal (to power more steam engines), pumps, manufacturing clothing and machining parts.
    First steam engines started traveling across the UK in 1810, and around Europe by the 1830s.

    Electricity starts becoming a part of the equation in 1880 for use with motors and lights. This isn't the Dawn, this is like mid-day.

    Mass production cars and the first airplanes show up in the 1903-1910s.

    I'd say the Information Age starts with the first world wide web usage explosion in the 1990s, which took about fifteen years from when the first consumer computers started showing up.

  45. Re: Duh by glenebob · · Score: 1

    Not humans especially, that's silly. Humans have a rather unique ability to adapt to environmental changes - obviously, since we cover nearly the entire surface of the Earth.

    Maybe what you meant is modern society. We tend to get very upset when our houses blow away and our cities flood, even though we're in no real mortal danger. The "sucker-punch" will be largely economic.

  46. Quit being obese by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Seriously. Stop overconsuming and stop preaching. We know. We all know. Very few of us are willing to make personal changes. Im talking to you, dumpy fucks. Your car hauls around an extra 100lbs of lard that you consume to support. You buy everything new because ew second hand is icky. This is your damned mess, not mine.

  47. Re: Duh by Tablizer · · Score: 1

    Perhaps true, but not necessarily via a pleasant journey. Why ignore the Boy Scout motto: "be prepared"?

  48. Re: Taxes and control by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So you think at 1200 parts per million you'll have headaches and feel tired?

    A typical greenhouse runs at 1500 ppm, yet we don't see greenhouse owners passing out, catching on fire, crushed by falling sky or any other effects other than very healthy fast growing plants.

    Sigh... there's no point.

  49. Durned Geology! by Hylandr · · Score: 0

    We better stop those damned volcanoes from erupting!

    --
    ~ People that think they are better than anyone else for any reason are the cause of all the strife in the world.
    1. Re:Durned Geology! by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

      We better stop those damned volcanoes from erupting!

      Human activity emits far, far more CO2 than volcanoes.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
  50. Re: Duh by religionofpeas · · Score: 1, Informative

    Data from the past 34 million years (which we have due to trapped atmosphere in bubbles formed on ice sheets)

    34 million years, that's funny when oldest ice core is 2.7 million years.

    http://www.sciencemag.org/news...

    And the CO2 was still low: " the ice revealed atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels that did not exceed 300 parts per million, well below today’s levels"

  51. Re:Taxes and control by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

    Closer to 3 degrees according to latest insights.

  52. Re: Duh by crimson+tsunami · · Score: 2, Funny

    You solved it Lynwood, well done. We can just turn the whole atmosphere into a giant outdoor office or classroom.
    But where will we get all the desks? I suppose we could just cut down all the trees as well...

  53. Re:Verification? by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

    With governments pushing for carbon taxes ...

    What government is pushing for carbon taxes?

  54. Re:Verification? by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

    So you want your own chemistry set?

    You don't even need a chemistry set. You can get a pretty good measurement of CO2 with an IR LED and a phototransistor.

  55. Re:Proof that CO2 does not cause warming by religionofpeas · · Score: 3, Informative

    recent peer-reviewed data points to 1.3 to 1.6 deg K for doubling of CO2,

    The study you linked to gives a 95% confidence range of 1.1 to 4.45. That is in line with other estimates. See also this overview: http://www.realclimate.org/ind...

  56. Re:The Volcano in the Room by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Informative

    Volcanoes are almost a measurement error these days.

    I think he is referring to Kilauea, which is only 20 miles from Mauna Loa, where these CO2 measurements were taken.

    But Kilauea wasn't erupting much in April. The new vents are not in Kilauea's main caldera, but are another 20 miles east in Pahoa, and the prevailing winds blow from NE to SW, which is out to sea, not up the slopes of Mauna Loa, which towers more than 9000 feet above the summit of Kilauea.

  57. Re: Taxes and control by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So you think at 1200 parts per million you'll have headaches and feel tired?

    No but It'll make you stupid. A number of studies have found significant evidence of reduced "brainpower" associated with this level of CO2.

    A typical greenhouse runs at 1500 ppm, yet we don't see greenhouse owners passing out, catching on fire, crushed by falling sky or any other effects other than very healthy fast growing plants.

    Way too low. People get acclimated to mild effects and they go away on their own. Except for the acid piss I never got used to that.

  58. Re:Other influencers locally by religionofpeas · · Score: 3, Informative

    Look at the longer trend, and you'll see no evidence of volcanic eruptions interfering with the data.

    https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/...

    https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/...

  59. Re:Proof that CO2 does not cause warming by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Actually it is the opposite way around.
    The correlation factor is greatly underestimated, that is why current trends are always at the upper edge of the spectrum the IPCC is publishing.

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  60. A liberal hoax by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We can live off Trump's farts.

  61. Re:What happened 800,000+ years ago? by mbkennel · · Score: 1


    most likely nothing, the reliable ice core measurements ran out.

  62. Fake News People by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Trump says so.

  63. Germany is building new coal plants and mines by mbkennel · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'd wish it were a joke but it is not.

    That's the effect of denuclearization: more coal. If they're using more coal, they are doing it wrong. It's foolish to compete nuclear vs renewables until the last coal plant and mine is eliminated permanently.

    1. Re:Germany is building new coal plants and mines by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Actually, the coal consumption in Germany is pretty leveled by now. The real bad thing is that it didn't significantly decrease yet (which would had been possible had the nukes been kept operating for as long as possible).

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    2. Re:Germany is building new coal plants and mines by thegarbz · · Score: 2

      That's the effect of denuclearization: more coal.

      And where is that basis? Fukushima was in 2011, late 2011 Germany announced the denuclearisation. In 2012 they actually started the process. Here's the yearly coal consumption numbers for Germany starting 2012 in millions of tonnes oil equivalent:
      2012: 80.5
      2013: 82.8
      2014: 79.6
      2015: 78.5
      2016: 75.3

      So what has denuclearisation done again? Germany's coal consumption is at its lowest level since the end of its major industrialisation.

    3. Re:Germany is building new coal plants and mines by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Actually, the coal consumption in Germany is pretty leveled by now.

      No it's not. It's dropped 4% y/y since 2013, after a slightly 2.8% uptick caused by the sudden shutdown and safety assessments of their nuclear reactors in 2012.

      To say Germany's coal consumption is leveled is completely understating their efforts given the dramatic cut in baseload from their nuclear reduction.

    4. Re:Germany is building new coal plants and mines by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Germany is one of the worst in EU about greenhouse gaz:

      - CO2 emissions
      - CO2 emissions per capita.

      More than 80% is based on fossil fuel in Germany. Renewable replaced essentially nuclear power: definitely not an improvement for greenhouse gaz.

    5. Re:Germany is building new coal plants and mines by JoshuaZ · · Score: 1

      They didn't say that total coal use increased. They said that they are building new coal plants.

    6. Re:Germany is building new coal plants and mines by Uecker · · Score: 1

      It helps to look at actual numbers (energy production in TWh / per year):

      coal: 143.1 (2000) -> 117.0 (2010) -> 92.6 (2017)
      lignite: 148.3 (2000) -> 145.9 (2010) -> 147.5 (2017)

      So coal is dropping and lignite is stable (there was some brief increase after Fukushima though). I agree it could be better, but the overall idea that Germany is using more coal is clearly nonsense.

      Source: https://www.ag-energiebilanzen...

    7. Re:Germany is building new coal plants and mines by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      You are an idiot.
      Why don't you simply google how much coal Germany uses per year?
      Moron?

      It's foolish to compete nuclear vs renewables
      And why is that so? Ever lived close to a nuclear plant that is 70 years old? I did ... and I don't like it. No one here likes it.

      It is much quicker and magnitudes of Euros cheaper to simply build new renewable power plants than build a new nuclear plant. Where actually in Germany would you build one? All those we have are illegally build on seismic zones!

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  64. Re:Verification? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What government is not pushing for carbon taxes ?

  65. Re:Taxes and control by q_e_t · · Score: 1, Troll

    Been said a million times before: CO2 is not a pollutant. It's needed for plants to grow. The current CO2 levels are so low it's amazing plants survive at all. We'd be much better off if CO2 levels tripled from current levels.

    All this sky is falling bullshit is about raising taxes and the socialist elite controlling the rest of us.

    If you're not socialist elite and worried about CO2 levels, you're just one of their sheep.

    Plants need water to grow, therefore plants cannot be overwatered.

  66. Re: Taxes and control by q_e_t · · Score: 2

    The Little Ice Age was not global.

  67. Re: Taxes and control by q_e_t · · Score: 2

    So you think at 1200 parts per million you'll have headaches and feel tired?

    Yes. In particular it is why there is a lot of ongoing effort on air circulation in schools, with a target in most nations closer to 600 or below, as higher levels affect learning.

  68. Re:Verification? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland and UK already has it but it has been pushed pretty much everywhere

    The US appears to be the only large industrialized nation opposed to the idea.

  69. Re: Duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    No, ice cores go back about a million years. Sedimentation (chemical rock formation in water) goes far back. There is a big discrepancy in resolution with rock vs ice cores. Ice cores show us small changes over short periods (years in some cases). Sedimentation shows larger trends over large time scales (thousands of years).

    But you are right, in geologic time CO2 is at a low in the past 800ky. Also note, that historically CO2 follows Temps.... i.e. empirically, CO2 isn't a climate driver.

    I have a degree in geology, but the climate is not my field. I do think people should be paying more attention to historical geology and atmospheric physics than to climate models. Current climatology is plagued with the mantra of modeling. These models cannot describe past climate changes, which means they are of little use for predicting the future. Why do they stick to them? Because they have nothing else.

  70. Uhh by easyTree · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Maybe someone should stop cutting down the Amazon rainforest?

    It's just a suggestion; feel free to put profit above everything else.

    1. Re:Uhh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Most CO2 use and )2 production is done in the oceans with phytoplankton (amongst other things).

      We should save the rainforest because that's the right thing to do.

  71. Re:Verification? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What government is not pushing for carbon taxes ?

    Trumpistan.

  72. The sky is falling! The sky is falling! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It hit me on the head!

    DOOM!

    DOOOM!

    DOOOOOM!

    At this point, if there's nothing that can be done about it, fuck off.

    Come up with an actual engineering solution for carbon sequestration that can be implemented and would be EFFECTIVE.

    Then come crying to us about how "We's all gonna die!"

  73. Re: Duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Funny, this is exactly what the models actually do: Pretend the earth is a bell jar with everything but human CO2 emissions a constant. Garbage in, garbage out.

  74. Re: Duh by Type44Q · · Score: 0

    unusually

    "...I do not think it means what you think it means."

  75. Re: 800,000 years is short by Type44Q · · Score: 1

    Most of the time

    Make sure you average-in data from time periods when Earth was younger and at complete different stages than it has been for millions of years... you know, just to be accurate. ;)

  76. Re:Taxes and control by Peter+P+Peters · · Score: 1

    Doubling the CO2 will add about 1.6 deg K to our temperature; will that be a disaster?

    Dunno, what did Fox News tell you to think?

  77. Re: Duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Funny, that isn't what the models do. You can go download a copy of the GISS model yourself and check.

  78. Re:What happened 800,000+ years ago? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    He should apologise to the dinosaurs.

  79. Bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    " United States, mainly because of higher deployment of renewables"

    I bet it was from transferring US steel, aluminum production to China. Stupid Whitey thinks that is progress.

  80. Carbon taxing is worthless by WindBourne · · Score: 0
    According to wiki,:

    Many large users of carbon resources in electricity generation, such as the United States,[12][13] Russia, and China, are resisting carbon taxation. And carbon taxation as implemented in most nations is worthless. Why? Because consumers are not the deciders of the vast majority of Co2 emissions. The single largest source of Co2 remains electricity, and that is not something the average consumers can choose from the grid. The third largest is actually transportation. Yeah, at the moment, America fleet mpg appears to be going down (and co2 up from ), but that is about to change. EVs are coming in a big way over the next couple of years mostly with commercial trucks. The real problem remains that coal plants continue to be added esp in China. Until adfitional coal plants ( not replacement ) is stooped, co2 will continue its massive growth.

    --
    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    1. Re:Carbon taxing is worthless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Funny how you mix quotes from different sources together and didn't link to where they came from...
      You literally took the first sentence from wikipedia here. And then everything after is just made up by you.
      Why are you trying to fraudulently pass off your own pet theories as someone elses facts?

      According to the Carbon Tax Center,[186] the United States is one of the few large and industrialized nations on Earth that does not implement a Carbon tax. One simple solution being considered is to implement a federal carbon emissions tax, instead of relying on states to enforce their own. According to economists a tax would be the simplest and the easiest way to reduce emissions since, primarily, it seems like a plan both parties can get behind since it would not impose strict regulations on business, instead allowing the industries to self regulate, while also a showing that the government is taking steps to protect the environment. Furthermore, a tax would lead both producers and consumers to adjust their respective habits accordingly, and in ways that may become more efficient.

      China
      The Chinese Government Ministry of Finance had proposed to introduce a carbon tax from 2012 or 2013, based on carbon dioxide output from hydrocarbon fuel sources such as oil and coal.[62][63] The introduction of a carbon tax in China might affect severely the internal market, as well as many other laws and regulations of the country, but given the size of Chinese economy also contribute importantly to the mitigation of climate change

    2. Re:Carbon taxing is worthless by CaffeinatedBacon · · Score: 2

      A carbon tax on electricity is just about the best way known to push business and consumers to transition over to cleaner energy. Far from worthless.

      Is that the same China that reached peak coal back in 2013? That China? Or the one in your imagination that you keep talking about?

    3. Re: Carbon taxing is worthless by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      Yeah, the issue is on a android, no pre-edit. Just posting. And if you look at html, you will see end quote tag right after the wiki.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    4. Re: Carbon taxing is worthless by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      We lose porker esp since you lie to others. China is back to growing coal

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    5. Re:Carbon taxing is worthless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The state is always the problem. Rail is the way to go, but the trucking and hauling industry smashed them. Bought and paid for congress decimated the railways in US. Us has rails equivalent to what, Chile? Compared to Europe or China or Japan...US railway is a joke.

    6. Re: Carbon taxing is worthless by CaffeinatedBacon · · Score: 1
      Why do you persist with the lies Windy? This isn't the first time you have been shown facts and evidence

      Despite continued reductions of coal use in buildings and industry, the growth in the power sector pushed up coal demand in China by 0.3%, after three years of declining demand. Despite this rebound, coal use in China remains below its 2013 peak.

    7. Re: Carbon taxing is worthless by WindBourne · · Score: 0

      China is building 700 new coal plants. Not a lie by me, but a lie by you to deny it. Chinese coal use went down when.their economy went down for 2015, but crawl back upwards for 2016 and 2017. China's 2017 co2 increase was the largest of any nation. And yet, you lie and deny everything, while trying to push worthless metrics.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    8. Re: Carbon taxing is worthless by CaffeinatedBacon · · Score: 3, Informative

      Another of your favourite lies Windy, I'm not surprised. Heaps of those were cancelled, like you already know.
      Chinses coal has been going down, (slowly) I just showed you facts to show a very slight increase, after 3 years of decreases, yet you lie and say it's at record highs and rising over 5%.

    9. Re: Carbon taxing is worthless by CaffeinatedBacon · · Score: 2
      How about your favourite coal tracking site?

      Select region East asia
      Select map China
      Just look at Announced, pre-permit, permitted and construction.(even though a lot of them will be cancelled)
      Notice that the total is way less than 700.(zoom all the way out to make it clearer)
      Click on shelved, notice most of the map turned blue.
      Click on retired, notice how there is a lot more green than red yellow as well.
      Finally click on cancelled, and see how tiny the little red and yellow bits are that you keep getting your panties in a twist about.

      No doubt whatsoever you will continue the lie that China is building 700 coal plants and not shutting down or replacing old ones.

      Even less doubt you are too stupid to understand it's the amount of coal burned at the pants and not the total number of plants anyway that makes the CO2.

      (If you want to, add in the brown and realise China has a fuck ton of coal plants, which is bad. But it's getting better. Like I already showed before coal peaked years ago in China) The point is not to claim China is clean, it's not, but to show Windy is a lying sack of shit, and he knows he is.

    10. Re:Carbon taxing is worthless by crimson+tsunami · · Score: 1

      Even if they cant choose to use solar or gas to heat water or cook. (they usually can)
      They still get to decide how much electricity to use. Rich people levels or be a little less wasteful.

    11. Re: Carbon taxing is worthless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How convenient, you didn't notice you were being deceitful until some else pointed it out. With your track record it's easy to see why people would be suspicious.
      You were happy for people to think the above was all a quote until called out for it.

    12. Re: Carbon taxing is worthless by Alamandorious · · Score: 1

      Carbon taxation will be passed onto consumers, period. Poor people, whom are already struggling, will find it even harder to survive.

    13. Re: Carbon taxing is worthless by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      CHina's growth continues due to building of new coal plants. In spite of your BS posting, here we speak about last year where CHina increased coal use by 5% (and that is from Chinese gov): But China’s National Development and Reform Commission released detailed data this week showing that the country’s electricity consumption jumped 6.6 percent last year. Wind and solar energy grew quickly, but not nearly enough to meet the extra demand. Electricity generation from the burning of fossil fuels, almost entirely coal, rose 5.2 percent in China last year.
      Wait until CHina REALLY starts moving towards EVs. That is going to drive their CO2 way up. As to the future, CHina IS doing 700 new coal plants, with more 350 in CHina alone. The rest are around the globe, but still pushed, financed, and built by CHina.

      Shows what a constant liar you are, either as porky or as red tide.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    14. Re: Carbon taxing is worthless by WindBourne · · Score: 1
      Porky, you are a constant liar and manipulator. I have said all along that China is building 700 new coal plants with 350 inside of CHina.
      Here is the headlines from 1 KNOWLEDGEABLE company.
      Chinese companies to build 700 coal plants in and outside China

      Overall, 1,600 coal plants are planned or under construction in 62 countries, said Urgewald, which uses data from the Global Coal Plant Tracker portal. The new plants would expand the world's coal-fired power capacity by 43 per cent.

      43%, with CHina accounting for close to 1/2 of all new power plants being built. Oh, and America is building NONE OF THEM, though to be fair, Europe is also build a number of these in other nations.
      This says it all.

      The fleet of new coal plants would make it virtually impossible to meet the goals set in the Paris climate accord. Electricity generated from fossil fuels such as coal is the biggest single contributor globally to the rise in carbon emissions, which scientists agree is causing the earth's temperatures to rise.

      It is time for you to tell your bosses to quit destroying this planet. America built coal plants when we did NOT know. Now that we know, we are NOT building them,but instead shutting them down.
      Be a man, grow a pair and start being against coal and that fact that your nation is primarly responsible for the destruction of mankind.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    15. Re: Carbon taxing is worthless by CaffeinatedBacon · · Score: 1

      Hey look, you're using outdated data from the same source I already mentioned...How can you claim that they are more knowledgeable when they are just using old data from the same site I showed you?

      What's the bet you still stick to your lies though and claim 700?

      What's the bet you refuse to understand replacing an old coal plant with a newer one is still better than just using the old one?

      What's the bet you still claim China coal is on a runaway tear when everyone credible says it peaked in 2013?

      Why don't you 'be a man' and admit Chinese coal isn't the runaway problem you claim, and that America is a far bigger polluter per person, and therefore much more responsible for the 'destruction of mankind'.

      1. I don't have Chinese bosses. 2. If I did tell them that they would laugh at me, as Chinese bosses they would be smarter than you and know who the real polluters are. 3. Even if you were right (you're not), and I worked for them (I don't), It's fucking CHINA you idiot, they have an Emperor For Life, he wouldn't listen to me...

    16. Re: Carbon taxing is worthless by CaffeinatedBacon · · Score: 1

      Check the dates Windy...
      Just in this thread alone you mentioned it twice.

      Only after I called out your lie did you change your tune to be closer to the truth, (still wrong).

      Maybe my 'Chinese bosses' will give me an extra bowl of rice for forcing you closer to the truth.
      If you actually admit the truth, I get a pony.

    17. Re: Carbon taxing is worthless by CaffeinatedBacon · · Score: 1

      True, I didn't say it was fair. It's not, it's highly regressive. So places that implement one usually offset it with other payment/taxes to account for this.

      Of course it will be passed on to consumers. That is the entire point! Consumers won't want to pay more than they have to and will switch to cleaner options, use less electricity, demand changes from businesses and governments.
      Now polluting is free, so why not build the dirtiest coal plant you can. If consumers had to pay for that CO2, no one would want coal powered electricity, and businesses wouldn't build them any more, problem solved.

    18. Re: Carbon taxing is worthless by CaffeinatedBacon · · Score: 1
      You really don't understand this at all. Electricity isn't the only use for coal. All the other uses were down.
      China did not increase coal use by 5% in 2017. Stop with the lie.
      Even though coal use for electricity was up(nowhere near 5%), it was up less than other things. And coal's percentage went down. China is getting cleaner. Nat gas for example was up over 10%

      China’s National Statistics Bureau said in January that the country’s total energy consumption in 2017 was up around 2.9% compared to a year ago, but coal’s share in total energy mix was down by 1.7%.

      You are taking electricity's fossil fuel increase of 5.2 total , pretending it's all coal. And ignoring all the other coal uses that have fallen.

      Around 15% of the increase in China’s electricity demand was due to higher demand for cooling, driven by a particularly hot summer. (This topic will be the focus of a forthcoming IEA report on how the projected growth in air conditioning usage around the world will affect global electricity demand). Despite continued reductions of coal use in buildings and industry, the growth in the power sector pushed up coal demand in China by 0.3%, after three years of declining demand. Despite this rebound, coal use in China remains below its 2013 peak.

      So it's not a 5% increase for coal, it's only 0.3%. Why do you continue to post your lies?

      It's not all doom and gloom like you think.
      https://greenerideal.com/news/...

      The report said that while China was outstripping every nation in sight, investment in renewable projects in the UK, Germany and the US tailed off. The US saw renewable investment withdraw by 6 percent to $40.5 billion, and with the Trump administration adding a new solar panel tariff, jobs lost to the sector in 2018 will amount to 23,000. On the flip side, China was responsible for 45 percent of the $279.8 billion spent on all renewables, and more than half of all new global solar capacity.

      AN INCREDIBLE wave of solar energy peaking in China has helped to put renewable energy ahead of fossil fuels use for the first time. A total 98 gigawatts of solar energy technology – with 53 gigawatts installed in China – outstripped combined coal, gas and nuclear energies.

      https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/2...

      China maintained its position as a wind energy powerhouse, installing 19.7 GW, while the European Union added 15.6 GW of capacity, its best ever year. The U.S. installed a little over 7 GW of capacity.

    19. Re:Carbon taxing is worthless by BoogieChile · · Score: 1

      > Yeah, at the moment
      > Until adfitional coal plants is stooped

      Which wiki did you copy this from again? You very helpfully failed to include your source.

    20. Re: Carbon taxing is worthless by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      Since when is less than 12 months old, old, while you continue to push 6-12 y.o. data?
      Andrew Topf | Oct. 8, 2017, 4:35 PM |

      Quit lying.
      U have ALWAYS been a liar. And I suspect that it the case for everything that you do.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    21. Re: Carbon taxing is worthless by CaffeinatedBacon · · Score: 1

      Nice twist Windy. But the dates I was talking about were your posting dates...
      You posted your lies of 700 at least twice in this very thread before being called out on it. And only after did you try to pretend you said outside China all along (another lie).
      Go back and look, I'll wait.

      Even your twist move is still a lie !!
      Your data is October 2017. Mine was Jan 2018 from the site your site used for their data. https://endcoal.org/tracker/ Also just to show how even more wrong you numbers are, 180 of those plants are either announced or pre-permit.

      Announced: Proposed plants that have been described in corporate or government plans but have not yet taken concrete steps such as applying for permits or acquiring land.
      Pre-permit development: Plants that are seeking environmental approvals and pursuing other developmental steps such as securing land and water rights.

      So 180 of those plants aren't even approved, and you know from previous facts that China is making it much much harder to get approval...most (all?) of them won't be approved and you know it.

      As always Windy is full of shit.

      PS: Still waiting for you to show any actual lie I said anywhere in any thread...

    22. Re: Carbon taxing is worthless by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      once again, you are lying. I have said that China is building 700 coal plants. 350 of them are in china and 300 outside. That is what your nation is doing. You can continue to lie, but all my posts have said that all along. OTOH, YOU have posted lie after lie after lie. Even while posting Crimson Tsunami (or red tide) or under this moniker of porky.
      Quit lying. You are a piece of trash that is responsible for this growing nightmare.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    23. Re: Carbon taxing is worthless by Alamandorious · · Score: 1

      You're forgetting just how this will work. So, you're right, power rates will go up...but that's not the only thing.

      Fuel costs will also go up. This results in every single good and service going up in price from transport costs alone. Stores that already have raised prices on all goods because their power rates have gone up now also increase their prices even more because shipping costs have increased. And that's not counting goods crossing the ocean via cargo ship.

      The price of manufacturing goods goes up, because of power rates and the cost of getting raw materials. Store prices will go up even more because the goods they buy to sell to use are being sold to them at an higher price than before.

      It's more than just one thing...carbon taxation will lead to people who can't absorb the extra cost starving, and everyone else being knocked down a rung on the economic ladder...except for the politicians, big business, and the extremely wealthy.

    24. Re: Carbon taxing is worthless by CaffeinatedBacon · · Score: 1

      First off, I'd like to thank Google for helping me find Windy's lies and put the pattern together.

      Here is the most recent two times you claimed 700 with no mention of outside China. Only a couple of days ago. Just before I told you to pull your head out of your ass.

      But your lies go back further...
      Here in April you mention

      China's 700 new plants

      In the same post you already highlighted

      When China halted plans for more than 100 new coal-fired power plants this year

      You already knew it was false.

      But wait back in February...
      You claimed this

      China's adding 750+ GW of new coal plants over the next 11 years. And that is just CHINA.

      With no evidence shown at all.

      China is adding another 650 GW of just coal plants while shutting down a fraction of that

      You did walk that claim back, a little further in the thread. Still with no evidence shown.

      10 days before that...
      You were at it again

      China is building out 700 GW of new coal plants, while the entire west has less than 700 GW

      Still no evidence shown. (a pattern forming?)

      Back in December...
      You responded to being told that hundreds were already, and are being cancelled. And that person gave a link.

      that was from may which is 7 months ago. Their are still over 700 plants being built as of Nov 2017 which is 1 month ago. And note that these are being BUILT, not just planned.

      Now you don't even include planned, you specifically exclude them. Still no evidence from you.

      Before that in November...
      You said

      IOW, it was only for part of the nation, not for all. There is a reason why China will build so many. Over all, 1,600 coal plants are planned or under construction in 62 countries, according to Urgewald’s tally, which uses data from the Global Coal Plant Tracker portal. The new plants would expand the world’s coal-fired power capacity by 43 percent.
      And this is JUST China's building of new plants, of which 4/5 of these will be in CHINA.

      This must be your biggest lie of all.
      You did provide a link this time...but it didn't support your lie. Maybe that's why you stopped providing them?

      So we can see you have been lying about this for a long time...
      As time goes on, your lies get a little bit closer to the truth every time people point them out.

      Come on Windy, just admit the truth.
      It's my daughters birthday soon and I really need that pony.
      :)

  81. Re:Taxes and control by religionofpeas · · Score: 4, Informative

    Did you ever stop long enough to think that just maybe the rise in CO2 levels were part of a natural feedback

    We know that the extra CO2 comes from burning fossil fuels. You can verify this for yourself by taking the published numbers for amounts of fossil fuels (coal, gas, oil) produced over the last century, and figuring out how much CO2 each produces, and then adding it all up. You'll get a number that's roughly twice the amount of extra CO2 in the atmosphere over the same time.

    If you think it's a "natural feedback", then explain where this CO2 is actually coming from, and what happened to all the fossil CO2 we've produced.

  82. Re: Taxes and control by WindBourne · · Score: 3, Informative

    Ugh no. The rise in co2 is not due to the plants. Well, not living ones. It is known how much co2 is USED by plants, and given off. In general, plants use Much more co2, than they give off. If not, then they would not have energy storage ( carbon converted to sugars ). Forest fires, volcanoes, etc give off co2, but known quantity. The problem is burning of fossil fuels esp from coal plants. Coal plants are #1 source of our burning fossil fuels and creating Co2. And as long as nations continue to build these out, it will continue to grow faster.

    --
    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  83. Re:Verification? by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 2

    I guess that in that case, I have to build that thing! Is this somehow about differential transmittance?

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  84. Good news for Carbon based life forms by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Carbon based life will last longer, now a depleted nutrient is being replenished slightly. Our job is to prevent asteroid extinction events and prevail.

    Greenhouse gas theory ignores entropy and convection in the troposphere.

  85. Re:Taxes and control by serviscope_minor · · Score: 2

    Doubling the CO2 will add about 1.6 deg K to our temperature; will that be a disaster?

    Basically, yes. This is because the change will be fast and because we've set up most of our entire global society (think the location of cities and of the most productive farming) to work well with temperatures (and sea level which is closely connected) as they currently are.

    --
    SJW n. One who posts facts.
  86. Thats a good thing. Right. by szeredaiakos · · Score: 1

    Plants are going crazy. Carbon has no business being in the ground. Though it would be nice if it whould happen a bit slower, i agree on that.

  87. Re:The sky is falling! The sky is falling! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Come up with an actual engineering solution for carbon sequestration that can be implemented and would be EFFECTIVE.

    Then come crying to us about how "We's all gonna die!"

    You are making no sense. If that happened, nobody would be saying that. It follows that because we don't have access to fantasy/sci-fi technology, many will.

  88. just keep cutting forests then.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hey, maybe they should look at what amount of carbon sequestering has/is being destroyed for industrial profits as well.

    STOP SHOVING GUILT UPON THE NORMAL PEOPLE WHO GOT NOTHING TO DO WITH IT IN THE FIRST PLACE.

    Grab those who made it this way, the rich and scruples...

    Nothing but onesided visions for what purpose really ? shove more taxes our way maybe ??? Great manipulation of the masses there.

  89. Re: Duh by phantomfive · · Score: 1

    Usually the changes have been gradual such that life had time to adjust.

    Not really, temperature reconstruction is a bit of black magic. The error bars are so huge that it's hard to determine a lot. See for example, the Greenland ice core series, there are multiple periods where the temperature fluctuated very rapidly. Here is another selection of various reconstructions to give you an idea of the difficulty of coming up with an accurate picture. Which temperature record is the most accurate? Here's another one that is older, but shows temperature changes coming on very quickly. (An interesting thing about that graph is that CO2 changes follow temperature changes).

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  90. Re: Duh by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

    Here's another one that is older, but shows temperature changes coming on very quickly [wikimedia.org].

    The scale on that graph is too small to support your argument.

  91. Re: Duh by phantomfive · · Score: 1

    The scale on that graph is too small to support your argument.

    A 12 degree jump in temperature isn't enough for you?

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  92. Re: Duh by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

    Depends. A 12 degree jump in how much time exactly ?

  93. Re:Proof that CO2 does not cause warming by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's just more propaganda and social engineering for the ignorant, and a cause for the irrelevant, delivered through an article.
    Any forest would be cut down to make room for argo-industrial coglomerates.

  94. Re: Duh by riverat1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Also note, that historically CO2 follows Temps.... i.e. empirically, CO2 isn't a climate driver.

    Except we know the current source of CO2 increases and it isn't temperatures. It's mostly due to human activities, burning fossil fuels, making cement, clearing land. There is no known temperature excursion in history that would account for an increase in CO2 to a level greater than it has been in at least 800,000 years and likely several millions of years.

  95. Re: Duh by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

    Also note, that historically CO2 follows Temps.... i.e. empirically, CO2 isn't a climate driver.

    It goes two ways. Rising temperature causes higher CO2, and higher CO2 increases the temperature. During recent ice ages, the temperature changed first (and then got reinforced by the increase in CO2). Right now, the changes start with higher CO2.

  96. Re: The Volcano in the Room by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Also the sun is in its hyperactive phase which is what is making the temperature seem hotter. This is all natural stuff blown out of the proportions by scientists who are environazis and want all humans to die.

  97. Re: Taxes and control by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's all fossil fuels, not just coal. In the US both oil and natural gas produce more CO2 than coal. As long as countries like the US continue to use more and more oil and gas for transportation it will continue to grow faster. Americans driving is one of the largest contributors to CO2. Get some public transport or get of your fat asses and walk.

  98. Re:Proof that CO2 does not cause warming by q_e_t · · Score: 1

    Well, the real arbiter isn't Curry, who seems to be at odds with most research, but the planet, and temperatures at the upper end of projections under RCP 8.5 (the emissions scenario we seem to be following), which tends to suggest the current models are broadly correct, unless we are about to be hit by significant negative feedbacks.

  99. Re:800,000 years is short by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The plant can and has been way warmer than currently. Yes. But during none of these times human tried to survive on it, that's gonna be a new one.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  100. Re:Verification? by riverat1 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Gonna need more proof on this one. With governments pushing for carbon taxes how do we know this is legit?

    Sorry I cant sign off on this bullshit.

    More proof on the levels of CO2 in the atmosphere? It's something that has been measured for over 100 years and been measured continuously for over 50 years. It's currently being measured in dozens of places around the world and they're all pretty much in agreement. It's not that difficult to measure so if there were any shenanigans going on it would be quickly called out.

    As far as carbon taxes go you can pay now to help mitigate the effects of global warming and the climate change it causes or you can pay later for the massive amount of adaption that will have to take place for adjusting to the effects. It's possible the effects could get bad enough to cause the collapse of our global civilization. How much would that cost you?

  101. Re:Other influencers locally by q_e_t · · Score: 1

    Yes, it is a shame figures are based on sampling in just one location... hold on, they aren't.

  102. Re:Taxes and control by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    Been said a million times before: CO2 is not a pollutant. It's needed for plants to grow. The current CO2 levels are so low it's amazing plants survive at all. We'd be much better off if CO2 levels tripled from current levels.

    That's fine and dandy for you and your fellow plants, but we higher life forms are dependent on high oxygen and low carbon dioxide levels to survive.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  103. Re: Taxes and control by CaffeinatedBacon · · Score: 1

    How about a carbon tax then? Surely that will help those remaining countries who aren't already transitioning away from coal. Assuming there are still any holdouts left.

    The 'real problem' is that as people get richer, they start to consume and pollute more like rich people do. We can't have those other people polluting as much as we do in the West. We need a way to keep the poor people poor so that they don't waste carbon like the rich people are allowed to do. /sarcasm

  104. Re:The Volcano in the Room by riverat1 · · Score: 1

    And the CO2 reading couldn't have anything to do with current events. I mean ... a volcano ... couldn't skew readings. Right? And climatologists have never used skewed findings to fit their hypothesis - so we should never question them.

    Considering that CO2 levels are being measured from dozens of places around the world, most of them not close to a volcano and all of them pretty much in agreement when you adjust for latitude I don't think it's an issue. Measuring the level of CO2 in the atmosphere is a relatively trivial process so if the measurements were being skewed the climate science deniers would be all over it.

  105. Re: Taxes and control by WindBourne · · Score: 1

    Nice thing is America continues to drop our co2. Because we are shutting off coal plants and replacing with wind and nat gas. And as we s Move to EVs, our co2 should drop quickly.

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

    The west, except for Germany, south korea and Japan, continue to drop our co2. Kind of shoots that down.

    --
    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  107. Re:What happened 800,000+ years ago? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So obviously, what happened 800,000 years ago when the average CO2 levels were presumably higher than they are now?

    What happened was that people didn't live in any of the places we have coastal cities now.

    Monetary damage aside, relocating the billion humans who live less than 30 feet above water is going to cause trouble if the oceans were to rise that far.
    There is ice enough to bring it up 200 feet.

    Even if you aren't among those who has to move because of the water you will still be impacted by it.
    People do what they need to survive and if humanitarian aid isn't given to those in need things will get really ugle really fast.

  108. Re:Proof that CO2 does not cause warming by riverat1 · · Score: 1

    Perhaps that's why the models don't match the data, and run quite a bit hotter than actual data.

    Actually climate models match the observations pretty well. Dr. Spencer needs to update his graph. Also, I'm curious how the model runs and the observations can all start from the same zero point in 1983. At the very least there should be a discrepancy between the HADCRUT and UAH starting points. So he shifted everything to start at the zero point in 1983 which is a pretty unscientific thing to do.

    Climate model projections compared to observations

  109. Re: Duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes 1 molecule out of 2500 molecules of air that absorbs at most 8% of the reflected IR is responsible for all that temperature increase.

  110. Re:The Volcano in the Room by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Readings may be being taken across the world, but the article only says

    The reading from the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii finds that concentrations of the climate-warming gas averaged above 410 parts per million throughout April. The first time readings crossed 410 at all occurred on April 18, 2017, or just about a year ago.

    So what is the average of the readings from all over the world versus the one at Mauna Loa?

  111. Re:Proof that CO2 does not cause warming by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Correlation does not equal causation you stupid libtard.

  112. Re:Other influencers locally by riverat1 · · Score: 1

    To bad we're not measuring CO2 in other places where volcanoes won't affect them. Oh wait... we are. You can find a list of them here.

  113. NO by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    NO! We are not going to pay you a carbon tax, get it into your heads.

  114. Re: The Volcano in the Room by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Nope. The Sun has been pretty consistent. And even the Sun spots don't follow the temperatures on Earth.

    https://astronomynow.com/2015/08/08/corrected-sunspot-history-suggests-climate-change-not-due-to-natural-solar-trends/

    http://www.sws.bom.gov.au/Solar/1/6

  115. Re: Duh by riverat1 · · Score: 1

    From 2000 to 2010 they ran an experiment measuring the effect of CO2 on temperature forcing from the surface. They found that the increase in CO2 levels of 22 ppm during that time caused and increase in forcing of 0.2 W/m^2 per decade (+/- 0.07 per decade).

    Observational determination of surface radiative forcing by CO2 from 2000 to 2010

    Other greenhouse gases such as methane have been increasing too. Then because of the warming caused by non-condensing greenhouse gases the level of water vapor has also increased (it increases about 7% per degree C of warming).

    All of that together is responsible for the warming but CO2 is the biggest part of it.

  116. Re: Duh by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

    Yes 1 molecule out of 2500 molecules of air

    The ratio between CO2 and the rest of the atmosphere (mostly O2 and N2) is irrelevant. What matter is the absolute amount of CO2 between the Earth's surface and outer space.

    Try going outside and looking at the sun directly. Now look through a sheet of paper. On the path from the sun to your eyes, what's the ratio of molecules between paper and air ?

  117. 1880 is 800,000 years ago by biggaijin · · Score: 1

    In a new report, scientists report higher CO2 levels now than ever since they were first measured in 1880. They further report that these are the highest levels for at least the past 800,000 years. QED: 1880 was actually over 800,000 years ago. I learn something new every day!

  118. Re:Verification? by ThosLives · · Score: 1

    As far as carbon taxes go you can pay now to help mitigate the effects of global warming and the climate change it causes or you can pay later for the massive amount of adaption that will have to take place for adjusting to the effects. It's possible the effects could get bad enough to cause the collapse of our global civilization. How much would that cost you?

    This is the core of the debate on global warming I think. Nobody knows exactly how much it will cost in the future, as it is a probabilistic cost. The costs today are real costs.

    It also doesn't help that countries are all blaming each other instead of working together. Telling someone they are the problem generally causes them to stonewall. Give people good incentive - concrete incentive - to change, not threats or belittling comments... that's a better approach.

    --
    "There are a dozen opinions on a matter until you know the truth. Then there is only one." - CS Lewis (paraprhase)
  119. Re: Duh by jbengt · · Score: 2

    "Typical"* indoor ventilation is supposed to be designed to hold the indoor CO2 levels below 1,000 ppm, or, in more recent codes, designed to be no more than 700 ppm above the outdoor CO2 concentration.
    But the CO2 measurement is just a surrogate for measurement of other indoor pollutants, and really only measures how much outdoor air you're providing compared to how much respiration is going on in the space.

    *"Typical" in quotes, because most ventilation systems don't measure CO2 concentration, but are based on certain prescribed airflows, and also because some well-ventilated offices & classrooms will be well below 1,000 ppm and others will be well above.

  120. THEY ADMIT IT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wow, the headline admits that the global climate is cyclical by pointing out that long before humans had any impact on the Earth, the Earth had been just as polluted as it is today.

  121. Re: Duh by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

    34 million years, that's funny when oldest ice core is 2.7 million years.

    Out of curiosity, does anyone know id there is a maximum depth of ice that we can have on earth?

    Since Ice will melt under pressure (seriously, put an ice cube in a vice and turn the handle) it would seem to put a limit on how much ice could be stacked before it turns into liquid

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  122. Re: Taxes and control by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Not fast enough to make any meaningful difference.

  123. Re:Verification? by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

    So you want your own chemistry set? I think that ship has sailed in the US. :-p

    Safety culture is introducing legislation to ban all chemical reactions.

    My big old chemistry set was about as much fun as I ever had. Had a little out building in the back yard too use it in to boot. Want to get more people interested in STEM? maybe we shouldn't act like anything stronger than a vinegar/baking soda is too dangerous.

    Our present path is allowing people to have different laws of physics based on political affiliation.

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  124. Re: Duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Try going outside and looking at the sun directly.

    No, please don't do that!

  125. Re: Duh by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

    Ice doesn't melt under pressure when temperature is below -25 C or so, but it will start to flow (think glaciers), which comes down to the same problem.

    According to the article, there's a chance that some pockets of blue ice have older samples, but there's no easy method of finding them, because it all depends on the exact flow patterns.

  126. Re: Taxes and control by CaffeinatedBacon · · Score: 1

    That does nothing of the sort Windy. You aren't even remotely credible. Care to site a single source that says poor people produce more CO2 than Rich. Or even the same amount?

    Because there are plenty that show I'm right. It's just common sense really.
    More money more consumption.

  127. Re: Taxes and control by CaffeinatedBacon · · Score: 1

    Dropping from extremely high levels down to just very high levels isn't anything to be proud of. You are still way way higher than the average with a long long way to go. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

  128. So What? by sdinfoserv · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If the general population in the United States actually cared and felt this was an important issue - then the Senate, House and Oval office wouldn't be run by people who adamantly scream this is a liberal hoax.
    They are busy appointing judges who will rule in favor of the corporate oligarchy doing exactly what we're seeing: disincentivizing renewable energy, disemboweling clean air/water laws, doling out tax breaks to polluters, attacking scientific processes and thought, defunding education to eliminate critical thinking skills... and they are winning. Only 1/2 of Americans believe global warming is real. http://news.gallup.com/poll/20...
    And other BS/disproven ideas are on rise - like Immunizations cause autism and the growth of flat earthers... Till we value and fund education and critical thinking, we're lost.

    1. Re:So What? by Gilgaron · · Score: 1

      I have found some success in discussing with people who may not follow climate change as an issue in and of itself, by pointing out that taking all of those hydrocarbons and simply burning them is a waste akin to taking some fine walnut boards and using them to heat your home. While plastic pollution is an issue, still far better that we use these chemicals to make things instead.

    2. Re:So What? by CrashNBrn · · Score: 1

      Less than a third of the US even watch the News - it may even be closer to 10% than a third. The top cable news shows are Hannity and Rachel Maddow with ~3 Million viewers.

  129. Re: Taxes and control by jbengt · · Score: 1

    Target levels are typically 700 ppm above the outdoor air CO2 levels. I'm looking at an old edition of ASHRAE 62.1, so they may have increased some of the requirements somewhat since then, but getting from 1100 ppm indoors (400 ppm outdoors + 700 ppm) to 600 ppm indoors would essentially more than triple the amount of outside air required. For most HVAC systems, that amount of outside air would significantly exceed 100% of the system design supply air. There's no way that would be practical in the heating or cooling seasons.

  130. Re:Proof that CO2 does not cause warming by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

    Because we're told time-and-again that it is the last 30 years that matter; thus if you're doing a report in 2013, you use the previous 30 years. From the publishing of that data the divergence has only continued. Most IPCC models use a 3.3 deg K sensitivity for CO2, but the actual data suggests about half that.

    --
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  131. Re: Duh by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 0

    "Typical"* indoor ventilation is supposed to be designed to hold the indoor CO2 levels below 1,000 ppm, or, in more recent codes, designed to be no more than 700 ppm above the outdoor CO2 concentration.

    So then we agree that it's OK to 1000 to 1100 PPM CO2? At least, that's what the codes allow... So I'm trying to understand why going from 400 to 410 is a "sucker punch".

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  132. Fake news fake news fake news!. Aaaagh! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I am tired of you reporting false non-scientific data!

  133. Re: Taxes and control by WindBourne · · Score: 1

    Rich Vs poor us not the issue. The issue is what businesses and gov choose.

    --
    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  134. Re: Duh by religionofpeas · · Score: 2

    So I'm trying to understand why going from 400 to 410 is a "sucker punch".

    You must not be trying very hard if you're confusing respiratory effects with climate change.

  135. Re: Taxes and control by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is why it is important to LABEL YOUR AXIS!!!!

  136. Re:Proof that CO2 does not cause warming by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

    IN FACT, your OWN link proves you are flat-out wrong - look at the first graph, it confirms exact this. It shows the Curry model as covering ~1 to ~2.5 - much different than you claim (1.1 to 4.45). Furthermore, reading the summary at Curry's site, you'll see that Curry estimates ~1.8 deg K sensitivity if we allow for unknown heat entrapment in the ocean by a mechanism that we don't understand. Using actual Argo (buoy) data and models which we do know, the sensitivity is ~1.6 deg K.

    Now, you want to know how "Real Climate" is lying to you? They claim the models use values around 1 to 2.5 (from their misleading graph and supporting text); yet the IPCC itself says:

    The current generation of GCMs[5] covers a range of equilibrium climate sensitivity from 2.1C to 4.4C (with a mean value of 3.2C; see Table 8.2 and Box 10.2)... The equilibrium climate sensitivity estimates from the latest model version used by modelling groups have increased

    Yes, the IPCC says the range of 2.1 to 4.4 deg K is too low and needs to be higher! Clearly "real climate" is simply shilling and effectively lying to cover the facts. I linked straight to the IPCC itself - it in no way says what "real climate" says. And the IPCC models simply do not correlate with actual real-world data.

    So at the end of the day, what do you trust? Data or models?

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  137. Non-anthropogenic. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Data clearly shows shows climate change is non-anthropogenic so why all the fuss?

    I'm speaking of the real data, not the data manipulated and altered by NOAA, NASA and AMOS.

  138. Re:Proof that CO2 does not cause warming by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

    Huh? The IPCC says the range of 2.1 to 4.4 deg K is too low, yet the data (as empirically calculated by Curry and others) shows the sensitivity to be less than half of that. And the actual models all run hot as confirmed with actual data (see the earlier link to Spencer et al). Current trends are well below what the IPCC models estimated.

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  139. Re:Proof that CO2 does not cause warming by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

    So you trust the models, rather than the data? Show a dataset (one that is not "adjusted" every year, and still leaves the actual heat peak back in the 1930s) that correlates with the models. You won't find one, unless it is so massaged that the big peak back in the 1930s is gone. And note my signature quote - that's from Phil Jones, no AGW skeptic himself. If the dataset you're using doesn't show those two periods as basically the same - it's been massaged and tweaked to yield a pre-determined answer, rather than stand on its own in opposition to the desired models...

    --
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  140. I only did as I was told by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I had a old diesel car that was highly fuel efficient and had relatively low CO2 output but have switched to a 'highly efficient' petrol car that is not efficient at all compared to my diesel one (It gets 380 miles out of a 40 litre tank vs the 600 miles the diesel got out of 35 litres) and also produces about 50% more CO2.

    Why?

    Because my diesel car was Euro 3 and subject to a crippling daily charge to be in the zone where I live.

    They need to figure out what the hell they want to happen instead of flip-flopping between one and another. We can't all afford to go out and buy gigantic short range electric cars at the drop of a hat, or have the infrastructure to store and charge them at our homes.

  141. Re: Duh by Kernel+Kurtz · · Score: 1

    Usually the changes have been gradual such that life had time to adjust.

    Well except for the fact that the 1.2C rise in the last ~150 years has just happened to coincide with the greatest global improvements in life expectancies and standards of living the world has ever seen.

    When those metrics start declining I'll worry. I doubt that will be anytime soon, doomsayers notwithstanding.

  142. Re:Proof that CO2 does not cause warming by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

    You are mixing up the numbers for TCR and ECS.

    The numbers I mentioned (1.1 to 4.45) are Curry et al's ECS (table 1, top row), just like the 2.1 to 4.4 range from IPCC. Not that much different, except Curry's have a bit wider error bar at the bottom end of the range.

  143. OMG!!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We're all dead now.

  144. Re:Proof that CO2 does not cause warming by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

    Show a dataset (one that is not "adjusted" every year, and still leaves the actual heat peak back in the 1930s)

    The 1930's peak was local to the US. We're talking about global temperatures.

  145. Re:What happened 800,000+ years ago? by slack_justyb · · Score: 1

    So obviously, what happened 800,000 years ago when the average CO2 levels were presumably higher than they are now?

    Actually, that's just the end point of the dataset they used. So CO2 levels are higher than what their entire dataset tells them. No particular event, just ran out of data that they had at the ready. So I guess a more accurate headline might be, "CO2 levels higher than all 800,000 years of data that a group of scientist have access to." It's a bit wordy though.

  146. And why not? by mbkennel · · Score: 1

    Everything else is staying the same. (and the attribution of the temperature increase is more complex than this: there are greenhouse gases even less common than CO2 which have a much larger effect per molecule).

    Going from 2.9K to 290K isn't mostly due to greenhouse gases, but delta changes on 290K are, and the human-level effects of even small changes in climate (on physics Kelvin scale) are big.

    And finally, a sort of WAG guess based on 1 of 2500 molecules is rather ignorant and useless compared to the computations and experiments scientists have done over literally a century on this specific problem, using everything known about electromagnetism, chemistry and quantum mechanics.

  147. Re:Proof that CO2 does not cause warming by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

    The 1930's peak was local to the US.

    Even more accurate: the heatwaves in the 1930's were mostly limited to the month of July, and only really severe in a small portion of the US.

    You can experiment with global maps here: https://data.giss.nasa.gov/gis...

    Pick a range of years and months, and make a map.

  148. Re: Duh by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

    When those metrics start declining I'll worry

    https://edition.cnn.com/2017/1...

  149. Re:800,000 years is short by slack_justyb · · Score: 1

    Well it's not just a matter of temperature. A more pressing matter about the measurements and the recent change is the temperature in relation to time. Typically a shift in global temperature average is on a scale of thousands of years. However, the most recent event of warming is occurring at a pace of only a few hundred years. In the slower process, living creatures have time to adapt to the change. It is feared that if the change is too rapid, living creatures will not be able to adapt fast enough via natural processes.

  150. Re:Proof that CO2 does not cause warming by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

    One data set hasn't completely smoothed it away, and still shows the spike during the 30s for the Northern and Southern hemispheres... That would be global, yes?

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  151. Re: Taxes and control by CaffeinatedBacon · · Score: 1

    Forgive me if I go with common sense and facts backed up by evidence, rather than your gut feelings.

    Let's just say you don't have the best track record...

  152. Re: Taxes and control by Uecker · · Score: 1
  153. Re:Proof that CO2 does not cause warming by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

    No, I'm not mixing them up, RealClimate claims the Curry states ~1 to ~2.5, so in that case they must be referencing TCR - which is thus what I talked about. If you want to talk about ECS, the IPCC (as I linked above) believes it is much higher than than 2.1 to 4.4 per their own words. Yet no data supports such a conclusion...

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  154. Re: Duh by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

    What happens when we went from 400 to 410? The GP - way back, about 5 posts ago - said it was a "sucker punch". So what did the increase from 400 to 410 sucker punch humanity, if in fact we usually live at levels quite a ways above that?

    --
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  155. Re:Proof that CO2 does not cause warming by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

    Which data set specifically ? I opened all the graphs on that page, but didn't see anything where 30's would be higher than modern times.

    The global surface temp anomaly peaked at 0.21C in 1944, and peaked at 0.99C in 2016.

  156. Re: Taxes and control by crimson+tsunami · · Score: 1

    I agree with you WindBourne, China's businesses and government are both better than America's ;)

    If I'm following you right and that's why America is far dirtier... not because they are richer and consume/waste more...

  157. Re:Proof that CO2 does not cause warming by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

    RealClimate claims the Curry states ~1 to ~2.5, so in that case they must be referencing TCR

    Yes, they clearly explain that in the article. It's even written under the diagram.

    Yet no data supports such a conclusion...

    See Curry et al, table 1, top row. Range of 1.1 to 4.45 for ECS.

  158. Re:Proof that CO2 does not cause warming by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

    Most data models smooth the peak in 1930s; I wasn't claiming it was higher than today, just that it happened in the 30s, then we had significant cooling until the mid 70s, then heat again. A lot of models and data smooth out - eliminate that peak in the 1930s. Look at the hemispherical data from GISS, you'll see a peak - worldwide - up to ~1941, then a drop until ~1975.

    --
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  159. Re: Duh by Kulahan · · Score: 0

    "hurr durr it never rains in my office and I haven't died so why would it matter if it never rains outside? I'm a moron durr hurr"

  160. Re: Duh by crimson+tsunami · · Score: 1

    So I'm trying to understand

    You win Lynwood, your joke is much funnier than mine.

  161. Re:Proof that CO2 does not cause warming by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

    The cooling period between 1940-1970 was most likely due to increased pollution from sulphur and nitrous oxides. Then we started using low-sulphur fuels, installing catalytic converters on cars, and scrubbers on power plants to clean all that up. All those regulations helped clean the air, but also allowed more sunlight to hit the planet.

  162. Re:The Volcano in the Room by laie_techie · · Score: 1

    Volcanoes are almost a measurement error these days.

    I think he is referring to Kilauea, which is only 20 miles from Mauna Loa, where these CO2 measurements were taken.

    But Kilauea wasn't erupting much in April. The new vents are not in Kilauea's main caldera, but are another 20 miles east in Pahoa, and the prevailing winds blow from NE to SW, which is out to sea, not up the slopes of Mauna Loa, which towers more than 9000 feet above the summit of Kilauea.

    Kilauea has been erupting since 1983, just not constant gorgeous fountains. I grew up on O`ahu and still remember warnings about acid rain and vog.

  163. Re: Duh by reanjr · · Score: 1

    I'm not sure that's true. Our data resolution becomes worse the farther back you go. We're more likely to miss large, temporary shifts. It stands to reason that might also lead to trouble detecting how sharp a shift is the farther back you go.

    Just because Mr. Science Man says we have never seen this type of shift in the record, does not mean he is saying the record shows there has never been such a shift.

  164. Re:Proof that CO2 does not cause warming by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    All current trends are at the upper edge of the corridor the IPCC is publishing, since decades.

    No idea what you want to claim here. The IPCC is downplaying the warming problem since decades.

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

    I would like to point out that the geologists says that CO2 followed temperature in the past, it didn't lead temperature changes, but followed.

    Obviously we are in uncharted territory, where we have CO2 LEADING temperature in our models.... Which, as the gemologist concludes, means our models are not necessarily wrong, but are also not provably right.

    Which begs the question... If what we are projecting is based on unproven models, how much confidence can we actually have about what the projections say? I wish I knew the answer to that... What's obvious to me though is that ANYBODY who thinks they know for sure, is making claims w/o the proof necessary.

    --
    "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
  166. Re: Duh by Kernel+Kurtz · · Score: 1

    Apart from the fact America is not global, I don't see the connection to climate change.

    I suppose it is possible that some people are so worried about it they become heroin addicts.

  167. Re:Proof that CO2 does not cause warming by q_e_t · · Score: 1

    So you trust the models, rather than the data? Show a dataset (one that is not "adjusted" every year, and still leaves the actual heat peak back in the 1930s) that correlates with the models. You won't find one, unless it is so massaged that the big peak back in the 1930s is gone. And note my signature quote - that's from Phil Jones, no AGW skeptic himself. If the dataset you're using doesn't show those two periods as basically the same - it's been massaged and tweaked to yield a pre-determined answer, rather than stand on its own in opposition to the desired models...

    I trust the data. I know people who are climate scientists, and understand the data. I know the USA isn't the whole world.

  168. Re: Taxes and control by CaffeinatedBacon · · Score: 1

    Let's check some more...
    https://knoema.com/atlas/China...
    And as China got richer the CO2 goes up...
    Notice also that America, richer and higher than Germany, which is higher and richer than China, also higher and richer than India.
    It's like there is some obvious pattern that Windy just refuses to see.
    https://knoema.com/atlas/India...
    India also goes up as it gets richer...still much lower though, because it's still much poorer

    It's almost as if developing countries increase their CO2 levels up towards rich country levels, as their economies develop and the people become richer.
    Can't have those poor people being like you though can we. It's bad for the environment.

  169. Re: Duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Re: Duh (+1)

    Tablizer
      Why ignore the Boy Scout motto: "be prepared"?

    Because the Boy Scouts are (were) sexist misogynist patriarchal toxic manhood you insensitive clod!

  170. Re:Proof that CO2 does not cause warming by q_e_t · · Score: 1

    They might smooth it maybe because it was local and temporary, not an annual average. If it was hotter in the 1930s, why is Arctic melting such an issue now, but wasn't in the 30s, or is Gore secretly using a space laser to melt it, working with Musk, I presume?

  171. Re: Duh by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

    The quote was "Usually the changes have been gradual such that life had time to adjust. Humans especially may be sucker-punched by relatively rapid change"

    The sucker punch will be the change in global climate (the word "may" indicates were talking about a future event), caused by rapid increase from 280 to 410 ppm, and showing no signs of slowing down.

    What happens when we went from 400 to 410?

    Who cares ? You brought that up.

  172. Re: Taxes and control by q_e_t · · Score: 1

    Norway. Richer and lower. Australia. Poorer and higher.

  173. Re: Duh by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

    I don't see the connection to climate change.

    Right. Neither did the increase in life expectancy. So, it's kinda puzzling why you were waiting for the numbers to turn around.

  174. The Hawaii Measuring Station by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Has been in service for a very long time, more than 50 years IIRC. It's there precisely to keep local emission sources from skewing the results.

    When they say that the CO2 levels are the highest ever, that's not one isolated reading made yesterday! That's just the latest of more than 50 years of measurements. And those measurements have been ticking upwards like a metronome for more than 50 years.

    There is no sudden "burst" of CO2. The local volcanic eruption has does not "back date" 50 years of measurement history. Trying to put any blame on the recent volcanism is a complete misunderstanding of what is going on here. The announcements made in this case are solid. In fact the trend line is so well-established, they could have made this announcement back in the 1970's, and simply extrapolated the 2018 CO2 level using a ruler.

  175. Re: Taxes and control by q_e_t · · Score: 1

    You are right. I was misrembering relative as absolute.

  176. Donald? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is that you Donald?

  177. Re: Duh by mesterha · · Score: 2

    Obviously we are in uncharted territory, where we have CO2 LEADING temperature in our models.... Which, as the gemologist concludes, means our models are not necessarily wrong, but are also not provably right.

    No model is provably right. However the behavior has a solid scientific explanation based on feedback loops and is not controversial. https://skepticalscience.com/c...

    --

    Chris Mesterharm
  178. Re: Duh by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 0

    What has happened since the increase from 280 to 410? Specifics, please. What has been the sucker punch?

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  179. Re:Proof that CO2 does not cause warming by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

    Data shows it was global and nearly a decade in duration.

    --
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  180. Re:What happened 800,000+ years ago? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Born and raised in the southeast U.S. mean you don't know what hot is. 136 degrees even when it is dry is too hot. Hell, here in the Southwest our signs actually melt because it gets so hot.

  181. de novo synthesis mega ark by epine · · Score: 1

    Just about every protein unique (or largely confined) to the human species is presently at its highest level in the last 800,000 years; and probably another 10 million industrial compounds, of which maybe 100,000 were intentional, and the other 99% being random and undesired by products around the margins of the defined process (even the smallest amounts discarded instead of destroyed would lead to record-setting environmental levels over a billion-year historical time scale).

    What makes CO2 special is that we worked a little harder to crack this nut.

    Current cumulative industrial emissions of CO2 is presently on the order of 33,000 million metric tonnes (Global Carbon Dioxide Emissions, 1850–2030). That's 33 petagrams in base metric units, once you collect all the distributed zeros together.

    How many chemicals exist on planet earth in excess of 30 Pg?

    The entire earth's biosphere clocks in at 1–4 Eg. We can start by eliminating any biological chemical that accounts for less than 1% of the entire biosphere.

    Goodbye, glucose, at 3–8 g per human body. ATP? Nope. Glycogen? Closer, but still no cigar. Cellulose stands a chance, if we're generous about counting molecular D-glucose units, rather than actual molecules. Perhaps one lipid, the most common chain length of all fats?

    And what if earth had blessed us with ten (or one hundred) Middle East oil fields, where gasoline practically gushes out in finished form? The newly acidic oceans would be halfway sterile of yummy megafauna, but fertilizer for use in terrestrial agriculture would have been practically free.

    Not better, not worse; just different.

    But cross your fingers God keeps his promise about not sending a second flood, because Noah 2.0's ocean pantry would be exceedingly slim pickings. Yes, a merciful God wipes the slate clean before you waltz off the boat, procreate vigorously, and then discover mass geological reserves of buried hydrocarbons to rival the entirety of God's respiring endowment.

    How much is too much? 3 Pg? 30 Pg? 300 Pg? 3 Eg? 30 Eg? Do stop me when your anthropogenic spidey sense reaches its in-built marble ark threat-detection threshold.

  182. Re: Duh by bobbied · · Score: 1

    Obviously we are in uncharted territory, where we have CO2 LEADING temperature in our models.... Which, as the gemologist concludes, means our models are not necessarily wrong, but are also not provably right.

    No model is provably right.

    You might want to rephrase that. There ARE provable models, where we understand the math and conditions well enough to predict the future with in a known level of error. We have a lot of experimentally proven models which we can rely on for things like lift/drag for an aircraft wings using fluid dynamics, precipitation run off volumes from urban developments, short term weather forecasting, aircraft fuel consumption and more.

    Perhaps you mean "No climate model that has a provable amount of error used for climate change studies"? I'll agree with that.

    --
    "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
  183. WE are responsible! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We let volcanos release 600 million tons of CO2 every year, we even let the CO2 release rates increase greatly in last few decades.
    https://www.livescience.com/40451-volcanic-co2-levels-are-staggering.html
    Who knew Trump was causing it decades ago?

  184. Re: Duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Iâ(TM)m sure the species will be fine. But civilisation has proven to be delicate, and theyâ(TM)ve collapsed in the past due to natural climate changes.

  185. OH No! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    OH No!
    Weâ(TM)re gonna die unless we make Al Gore a billionaire and Bill Gates a Trillionaire

  186. Re:Proof that CO2 does not cause warming by q_e_t · · Score: 1

    Citation?

  187. Re: Duh by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

    What has been the sucker punch?

    The sentence "Humans especially may be sucker-punched by relatively rapid change" does not refer to something that has already happened.

    You need to work on your reading comprehension.

  188. Re: Duh by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

    Yes, I know that life expectancy has gone up. The puzzling bit is why you are bringing it up in a discussion about CO2.

  189. Re:Proof that CO2 does not cause warming by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

    Here you go - same as I linked above. Look at the "Annual mean temperature change for hemispheres". You'll see it shows up in both hemispheres. Much like the Little Ice Age, and the Medieval Warm Period - worldwide phenomenon.

    --
    Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
  190. Re: Duh by baristabrian · · Score: 0

    Time to adjust and adapt? Ha. Like the dinosaurs and millions of other species? Wiped out?

    --
    -- "I'm not in a hurry; I'm in Hawaii." The Homeless Guy
  191. Re: Duh by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 0

    What will be the sucker punch, then? If the rise form 280 to 410 has been a nothingburger - what about the rise from 410 to 540?

    --
    Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
  192. Re:Taxes and control by BlueStrat · · Score: 0

    Did you ever stop long enough to think that just maybe the rise in CO2 levels were part of a natural feedback

    We know that the extra CO2 comes from burning fossil fuels.

    The natural systems don't care where the CO2 came from. It just increases vegetation growth whether the CO2 came from a '71 Ford Pinto exploding and burning or from a new herd of moose exhaling CO2.

    Human CO2 production from industrialization simply accelerates the natural cycle to produce the resources for increased population just as industrialization itself promotes an acceleration in population growth.

    Of course, I can see why authoritarian governments would want food to become even more scarce by preventing the otherwise naturally-occurring changes that would bring about a more-plentiful food supply. Starving populations are much easier to control.

    Strat

    --
    Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
  193. BFD, 800,000 years is a blink in the lifespan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    of this planet. Move along, nothing to see here but BeauHD in the daily bid to push the agenda.

  194. Re: The Volcano in the Room by baristabrian · · Score: 0

    You need to get out more. Anybody who lives in Hawaii knows you are wrong. Trade winds blow more or less, NE to SW, as you said. Now, look at a map. Embarrassed yet? You should be.

    --
    -- "I'm not in a hurry; I'm in Hawaii." The Homeless Guy
  195. Re: Duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Assuming noon on equator (shortest path)... 50,000:1 ?
    * 1cm2 column of air has a mass of 1.03Kg, with 29g/mol for 'air' = 35.5 mol
    * A4 paper ((21cm X 29.7cm) 623cm2) is between 5 and 10g, and cellulose is 162g/mol = 0.3 to 0.6 mol for the sheet of paper
    * 623 cm2 of air = 22,116 mol
    So between 74,000:1 and and 37,000:1

  196. Re:Proof that CO2 does not cause warming by q_e_t · · Score: 1

    That's a GISTEMP graph by month for 1880 to prsent, not a hemispheric breakdown. If you download the CSV, though, it quite clearly shows the 1930s were cooler than present, e.g. July +1 to +1.3 over annual average baseline then, +1.7 to 2.0 now.

  197. Re:Proof that CO2 does not cause warming by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

    CLICK ON THE LINKS BELOW THE GRAPH! The one labeled "Annual mean temperature change for hemispheres" and you'll see exactly what happened. EXACTLY. Then read back up above what I stated (which is NOTHING like you are talking about, today being hotter or cooler than back then). Please!

    --
    Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
  198. Re: Duh by riverat1 · · Score: 1

    Climate models are generally successful in that observations are within the range of uncertainty.

    Climate model projections compared to observations

  199. Mona Loa..hmm.. there's volcanic activity going on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Measurements could be tainted because there's been a lot of volcanic activity in Hawaii.

  200. Re: Duh by Kernel+Kurtz · · Score: 1

    Just pointing out that CO2 has not been a significant detriment to the welfare of the human species up until today, May 7.

    Call me when it is.

  201. Re:The Volcano in the Room by riverat1 · · Score: 1

    I don't know what the average around the world would be but it's probably a little lower than 410. The further south you go the lower the level of CO2. At the South Pole levels are about 3-4 ppm lower than Mauna Loa so not a huge difference. Even though those other places they're taking the readings from may be a bit different than Mauna Loa they're all changing at about the same rate.

  202. Re:Proof that CO2 does not cause warming by riverat1 · · Score: 1

    I understand why they used a 30 year time frame. But shifting all of model projections so they all start at the same point is misleading. What if a projection actually showed a temperature below what the UAH showed in 1983? The graph may show how they've changed relative to each other since 1983 but it hides how close to each other the findings might be.

    Even if the climate sensitivity is as low as you hope it is the world is still warming, just a little slower.

  203. Re: Taxes and control by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    Oops, for some reason, the PNG version displayed readably to me in Firefox. The axes are labeled, it's just not clearly visible. Is the SVG version better at least?

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  204. Re: Duh by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 1

    Only to those idiots living below 300 feet in elevation, I'm pretty sure.

    What, you didn't foresee the inability to combat climate change and choose the location of your house based on elevation above sea level?

    --
    SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
  205. Re: Duh by mesterha · · Score: 1

    You might want to rephrase that. There ARE provable models, where we understand the math and conditions well enough to predict the future with in a known level of error. We have a lot of experimentally proven models which we can rely on for things like lift/drag for an aircraft wings using fluid dynamics, precipitation run off volumes from urban developments, short term weather forecasting, aircraft fuel consumption and more.

    I guess I'm OK with that definition of provable. My instinct is to reserve provable for math, and your original statement didn't give a lot of context...

    Perhaps you mean "No climate model that has a provable amount of error used for climate change studies"? I'll agree with that.

    That's not what I meant, but it's a reasonable point. Should we throw out all science that doesn't fit your definition of provable? For such a strong reaction, one would need to give a much more precise definition of provable. Do we need to do "controlled" experiments? How often do they need to be repeated? Is evolution provable? Is astrophysics provable? How about science that deals with the human brain? I'm guessing good, useful, and honest science can be done without reaching your standard of provable by combining a range of evidence. I would say that this includes current research into climate.

    --

    Chris Mesterharm
  206. Hey at least it isn't like 12,000 years ago. by brucekeller · · Score: 1

    When ice covered most of North America and starving was a fact of life. :)

  207. Re:What happened 800,000+ years ago? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Global warming is likely to cause severe water and food stress for humans, some regions are likely to become too hot & humid for humans to survive going outside.

    And likely, some areas are going to become nicer/more habitable.

    Which're those places?

    There're bound to be winners and losers.

    If you only ever hear about the losers... I smell something

  208. Falsifiability by hsthompson69 · · Score: 1

    In order to play the science game, we need the necessary and sufficient falsifiable hypothesis to start off with. To wit,

    1) a list of observations, which if observed, mean a hypothesis is false;

    2) a logical argument that the lack of those falsifications means that a hypothesis must be favored over all others (including the null).

    While playing with models while dressing in white lab coats may look "sciencey", it doesn't become scientific until it starts following the scientific method - and that means having a necessary and sufficient falsifiable hypothesis statement.

    Now, there are those that would suggest that we can avoid the need for the scientific method, and simply use Bayesian analysis to reach the truth, but any statistical method that avoids the cornerstone of falsifiability opens up the world to making astrology scientific, simply based on probability distributions. There's a great opportunity for interesting discovery with Bayesian methods, but a lot more risk of false positives. In fact, given enough creativity, the false positive can be actively mined for.

    1. Re:Falsifiability by mesterha · · Score: 1

      1) a list of observations, which if observed, mean a hypothesis is false; 2) a logical argument that the lack of those falsifications means that a hypothesis must be favored over all others (including the null).

      This is a big topic, perhaps you can ground things with climate science.

      --

      Chris Mesterharm
    2. Re:Falsifiability by hsthompson69 · · Score: 1

      So, for example, if I were going to make some sort of falsifiable hypothesis on AGW (specifically through CO2 emissions), I'd start off with something like this:

      1) assume the 5-day on/2-day off work week is singularly anthropogenic (no other natural cycle has the rhythm of 5 days up, two days down)
      2) assume that CO2 is mostly a well mixed gas (OCO-2 shows some really interesting points against that, but you could still apply this hypothesis to that data)

      Observations which would prove our AGW via CO2 emissions false (of any given asserted proportion) - the absence of any discernible 5/2 cycle in CO2 levels, or a 5/2 cycle in CO2 levels which is small enough to be incapable of attributing CO2 fluctuations primarily to human emissions.

      The logical argument - 5/2 cycles are anthropogenic by definition, and we can observe the CO2 cycle on a local level in cities on the 5/2 cycle - extrapolate that out to the rest of the globe, and we should see some sort of 5/2 cycle. Whatever we observe represents the upper limit of human contribution to CO2.

      Other attributions to a "human fingerprint" often don't actually exclude non-humans - for example, the C13/14 ratio asserted to show anthropogenic origins happens during natural seasonal cycles as well (notable in the sinusoidal keeling curve). If it shows up during these natural cycles, it can hardly be asserted as uniquely human. The "work-week AGW" hypothesis, thus far, isn't explainable by any other factor than humans - unless someone can show me that there's some sort of 5/2 wobble generated in the earth by the moon or something :)

    3. Re:Falsifiability by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      When it comes to human CO2 emissions how about the fact that annual human emissions are more than twice the year to year increase in CO2 in the atmosphere. If humans aren't responsible for the increase in CO2 where do all the emissions we produce go?

    4. Re:Falsifiability by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Obviously, some of the CO2 is being absorbed by some process or another. Unfortunately, that process isn't twice as effective. It can also lead to bad effects: a lot of CO2 has been absorbed by the ocean, altering its pH.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    5. Re:Falsifiability by hsthompson69 · · Score: 1

      I think it's obvious - we don't understand the system well enough to tell how it is moderated.

      In the most simple form, of a bathtub with a drain, our predictions are failing - we throw in variable amounts of water into this bathtub, and the water level isn't rising as predicted - water is going missing, and not at a predictable rate.

      So what we have is way smarter than a bathtub. Something reactive. Something dynamic.

      My proposed necessary and sufficient falsifiable hypothesis statement for AGW hopes to identify a uniquely human fingerprint (rather than one that could be shared by other natural variations). But you are right to point out that if we have a smart bathtub, it could be smart enough to wash away the fingerprint while still being primarily affected by that fingerprinted source...but I'd count that as a pretty low probability, since I can't think of any natural phenomena that can perfectly counteract something, but still be stated as primarily affected by that thing. Open to examples though :)

    6. Re:Falsifiability by mesterha · · Score: 1

      In hindsight, I should have been more specific and asked what you think about AGW that is not science.

      However, to keep things interesting, some might claim that climate models predicting 50 years into the future are not scientific. While they are somewhat falsifiable, the empirical results will be limited in generalizability and statistically weak.

      While I don't know much about climate science, on principle, I would disagree. One can make meaningful predictions based on combining well verified components and using independent historical evidence to justify the models. Of course this has problems, but so does all science. One can disagree and focus on a philosophical definition of science, but real "science" is about making a convincing argument using the many tools at our disposal.

      I assume you are fine with that, and you seem to be focused on a convincing argument to connect increases in CO2 to human activity. I already think there's enough evidence for that claim, but it's fine to strength the claim. Good luck.

      --

      Chris Mesterharm
    7. Re:Falsifiability by hsthompson69 · · Score: 1

      While they are somewhat falsifiable, the empirical results will be limited in generalizability and statistically weak.

      Well, the model may be falsifiable, but the model itself is not a necessary and sufficient hypothesis. That is, even if a model is not falsified, it simply does not exclude the null hypothesis. Heck, the *exact* same model, given even slightly different inputs, contradicts itself - a feature of the stochastic nature of weather and climate.

      Again, it looks "sciencey" but it isn't following the scientific method.

      One can make meaningful predictions based on combining well verified components and using independent historical evidence to justify the models.

      The problem is that any model of sufficient complexity can be tuned to match a curve - the critical question to ask is "what observations would falsify the very foundations of this model, in toto"? Not just "our central conceit is always taken to be true, and unassailable, because any falsification can be met with an ad hoc adjustment to fit the new curve".

      This is the difference between astronomy and astrology - both of which use statistics, data, measurements, evidence, and convincing arguments. The trick is that astronomy includes the feature of falsifiability, whereas astrology can always come up with an ad hoc special pleading for failed models.

      One can disagree and focus on a philosophical definition of science, but real "science" is about making a convincing argument using the many tools at our disposal.

      Maybe if we used terms in the same way it would be easier :)

      Convincing arguments using many tools is persuasion. Empirical evidence shows that there are lots of religions that are prima facie non-scientific, but very persuasive.

      "Science" is really something we have to agree on before we can have a scientific discussion, though. Karl Popper and his work on falsifiability and the demarcation problem represents an important bit of common ground - and without that common ground, it's *really* hard to be persuasive to someone who understands the scientific method from a first principles philosophical point of view :)

      The whole point of the scientific method was, as Feynman put it, "a belief in the ignorance of experts". Whereas before, the only people allowed to comment on the world were the hallowed authorities, the scientific method, and the process of falsifiability, democratized the pursuit of knowledge by setting a table of rules that had to be *more* than simply persuasive. In the scientific method, you are supposed to challenge your own ideas - and in fact, challenge them with incredible fervor to demonstrate their strength. This is the polar opposite of looking for corroborating evidence, and our inherent human tendency to confirmation bias.

      So, once someone understands the scientific method, thoroughly from first principles, every "convincing argument" of AGW simply doesn't seem quite as persuasive. Correlation is not causation, and until AGW can be stated as a necessary and sufficient falsifiable hypothesis, it's literally not science. I'm completely open to being convinced by the rules of the science game, but despite years of debate and study with some of the smartest people in the climate science field, I have never seen the following:

      1) a list of observations, which if observed, mean AGW is false;

      2) a logical argument that the lack of those falsifications means that AGW must be favored over all others (including the null).

      So, I'm actually eating my own dogfood here - if anyone ever observes a necessary and sufficient falsifiable hypothesis statement for AGW, my hypothesis is wrong :)

      Here's a fun challenge for you - find *any* climate science paper that explicitly states what observations would falsify their hypothesis. Cite and quote here if you can :)

    8. Re:Falsifiability by mesterha · · Score: 1

      Well, the model may be falsifiable, but the model itself is not a necessary and sufficient hypothesis. That is, even if a model is not falsified, it simply does not exclude the null hypothesis.

      I'm not quite following your terminology. Are you trying to ground things in statistics where AGW can't do repeated experiments.

      Heck, the *exact* same model, given even slightly different inputs, contradicts itself - a feature of the stochastic nature of weather and climate.

      Stochastic does not mean everything is unpredictable. It's colder every winter for as long as I can remember :)

      Again, it looks "sciencey" but it isn't following the scientific method.

      The scientific method does not define science. I would claim it's a convenient tool to do science. If someone argues your hypothesis is wrong, you can explain how you tried to follow the scientific method to justify some of your arguments.

      Maybe if we used terms in the same way it would be easier :)

      Sure, I would claim science is the study of how the universe works.

      Convincing arguments using many tools is persuasion. Empirical evidence shows that there are lots of religions that are prima facie non-scientific, but very persuasive.

      It seems you are trying to do guilt by association. Science involves coming up with arguments to show your hypothesis is right. Society has a long history of evaluating these arguments to determine if they are true. Even for something as solid as math (which is not science), old results have been discredited because people found flaws in the arguments. Just because people use tricks to argue for things that aren't true doesn't mean all arguing/persuasion is "unscientific".

      "Science" is really something we have to agree on before we can have a scientific discussion, though. Karl Popper and his work on falsifiability and the demarcation problem represents an important bit of common ground - and without that common ground, it's *really* hard to be persuasive to someone who understands the scientific method from a first principles philosophical point of view :)

      I understand the philosophy a bit and spent some time looking into that perspective, but I didn't find much utility...

      The whole point of the scientific method was, as Feynman put it, "a belief in the ignorance of experts". Whereas before, the only people allowed to comment on the world were the hallowed authorities, the scientific method, and the process of falsifiability, democratized the pursuit of knowledge by setting a table of rules that had to be *more* than simply persuasive. In the scientific method, you are supposed to challenge your own ideas - and in fact, challenge them with incredible fervor to demonstrate their strength. This is the polar opposite of looking for corroborating evidence, and our inherent human tendency to confirmation bias.

      Another way to interpret (some of this) is to say that the scientific method is a simple way to make a convincing scientific argument. It's a useful template or pattern that simplifies evaluation. That's great, but that doesn't mean it works for every problem in the universe. Perhaps one needs a different template or even an ad-hoc argument for some issues.

      So, once someone understands the scientific method, thoroughly from first principles, every "convincing argument" of AGW simply doesn't seem quite as persuasive. Correlation is not causation, and until AGW can be stated as a necessary and sufficient falsifiable hypothesis, it's literally not science.

      Just because it doesn't fit your definition of science doesn't mean it doesn't have value.

      Here's a fun challenge

      --

      Chris Mesterharm
    9. Re:Falsifiability by hsthompson69 · · Score: 1

      Are you trying to ground things in statistics where AGW can't do repeated experiments.

      No, the "repeated experiments" trope isn't actually the key to the scientific method. The phrase starts off with "testable", which gets interpreted to "test by experiment", which gets extrapolated to "test by repeated experiments".

      The key to the scientific method is "testable", which should be understood as "can be falsified by a specific set of observations". Anything that can explain every conceivable observation isn't scientific - it must be able to be "put to the test", and have a risk of being shown wrong.

      More importantly, you need to make the logical argument that the lack of these falsification criteria exclude other hypotheses, including the null. If five hundred different hypotheses could still be valid with the specified falsification criteria unfound, you haven't made a convincing argument that your hypothesis is correct. To do that, you want to show that not only is your hypothesis as of yet unfalsified (after trying really hard to falsify it), you want to show that other competing hypotheses are excluded.

      Stochastic does not mean everything is unpredictable. It's colder every winter for as long as I can remember :)

      Stochastic means that small variations in the input can have huge impacts on the output. The butterfly effect creating hurricanes and that sort of thing.

      The problem with modeling stochastic phenomena is that unless you have perfect input (which we never do), you will *never* accurately predict the future in any sort of way, even if your model has every physical property of matter set correctly. A single grain of sand in the wrong place, a mismatch five thousand digits after the decimal point in an input parameter, can cause your simulation to diverge from reality.

      The scientific method does not define science. I would claim it's a convenient tool to do science.

      Rather than complain about what I see as a blatant contradiction here, let me ask you - what is your definition of "science" that excludes alchemy and astrology?

      Sure, I would claim science is the study of how the universe works.

      Astrology is the study of how the universe works. Yet, I think we would agree that it isn't science. What criteria would you use to exclude astrology from the realm of "science"?

      Just because people use tricks to argue for things that aren't true doesn't mean all arguing/persuasion is "unscientific".

      Of course not - there is a demarcation, which Karl Popper worked out - falsifiability. If you include that in your argument/persuasion, you're playing the science game. If you don't include that in your argument/persuasion, you may be making really cool arguments, and you might be very persuasive, but you're not playing the science game.

      Biff the climate scientist gives a physical model that is based on current data and current understanding of the physics of the system. He runs his system on some super computers and comes up with a distribution of possible results. He claims that his model captures the dominate features of this physical system in terms of effects of variables of interest. He says that if in 20 years the system falls outside a predicted range then his model is probably wrong and doesn't capture some dominate features of the system. (Perhaps he forgot to model the asteroid that pulverized the planet.)

      This in my book is "sciency" but not scientific. The scientific method is best understood at excluding explanations, making the area where truth exists smaller and smaller. The problems with Biff's exercise:

      1) statistically, could give a wide enough range to capture all possible futures - explaining everything - without actually being accurate;
      2) statistically, could give a narro

    10. Re:Falsifiability by mesterha · · Score: 1
      Well, I'm having fun with this so I'll go another round. (Warning at some point slashdot locks down the comment system.)

      More importantly, you need to make the logical argument that the lack of these falsification criteria exclude other hypotheses, including the null.

      I guess your talk of null hypothesis and other terminology makes me think of statistics. And there is an argument to be made about repeatability in science...

      If five hundred different hypotheses could still be valid with the specified falsification criteria unfound, you haven't made a convincing argument that your hypothesis is correct. To do that, you want to show that not only is your hypothesis as of yet unfalsified (after trying really hard to falsify it), you want to show that other competing hypotheses are excluded.

      Not to quibble, but I assume you mean you want to show your hypothesis is "better" than the competing hypotheses.

      Stochastic means that small variations in the input can have huge impacts on the output. The butterfly effect creating hurricanes and that sort of thing.

      I think you mean chaotic. The word stochastic is an adjective that describes something that was randomly determined. One of the interesting things about chaos theory is that traditionally deals with deterministic systems. While I'm not a mathematician, I'm sure there are connections between chaos and randomness. I guess a pseudo random number is a chaotic system that is used to model a stochastic system...

      The problem with modeling stochastic phenomena is that unless you have perfect input (which we never do), you will *never* accurately predict the future in any sort of way, even if your model has every physical property of matter set correctly. A single grain of sand in the wrong place, a mismatch five thousand digits after the decimal point in an input parameter, can cause your simulation to diverge from reality.

      This gets into the whole weather versus climate. While this is one reason it is difficult to predict the weather, I can still say with high confidence that it will be colder in NYC on Dec 25 2100 then Jun 25 2100. (What confidence means in this context is something you could question.)

      As for a chaotic system being predictable, it can be qualitatively predictable. There are things like attractors, and I presume one could build systems with inputs to move in the phase space from attractor to attractor. (Not sure why an engineer would want to do this.) There are very credible models that the brain is a chaotic system which is a sophisticated machine that can be controlled by at least the owner. (Think about that :))

      Astrology is the study of how the universe works. Yet, I think we would agree that it isn't science. What criteria would you use to exclude astrology from the realm of "science"?

      I'm not quite sure I would 100% agree that Astrology involves studying how the universe works, but I wouldn't fight someone over the claim. I would just claim it's bad science. Science is on a quality spectrum.

      Now I don't want to harp on semantics. You kind of asked for my definition of science, and I gave it. I think it's a pretty standard definition, but of course like most words, science has many definitions. You want to define it in terms of a precise meaning of the scientific method. That's fine, but you also seem to want to imply things that don't fit your definition have little value. No, you need to argue the specifics of why they have little value.

      Of course not - there is a demarcation, which Karl Popper worked out - falsifiability. If you include that in your argument/persuasion, you're playing the science game. If you don't include that in your argument/persuasion, you may be making really cool arguments, and you might be very persuasive, but yo

      --

      Chris Mesterharm
    11. Re:Falsifiability by hsthompson69 · · Score: 1

      Not to quibble, but I assume you mean you want to show your hypothesis is "better" than the competing hypotheses.

      Seems like a loaded word. What you want to do is start off with a huge universe of hypotheses, and winnow things down from there. The better we are at excluding things, the smaller the area in which the truth can survive exists. So, let's say we start with a billion possible hypotheses, but we find the falsification criteria for all of them except for half a dozen. Assuming the last six hypotheses don't share the same falsification criteria, it is an open question as to which one is "better" - it could be that we can never narrow things down any further than those six hypotheses, for either practical or theoretical reasons.

      None of those hypotheses is really "better" except perhaps aesthetically.

      I think you mean chaotic. The word stochastic is an adjective that describes something that was randomly determined.

      Yeah, I'm mixing metaphors here - although, fun fact, you can get random sets from deterministic processes. Heck, you can argue that all random values are in fact deterministic, but simply unpredictable a priori :)

      I can still say with high confidence that it will be colder in NYC on Dec 25 2100 then Jun 25 2100. (What confidence means in this context is something you could question.)

      We can also say with high confidence that it will be colder in NYC on Dec 25 3:00AM than it will be at 3:00PM. The fact that we can make these predictions based on the wide variation between day and night, and summer and winter, doesn't imply that we have any predictive capacity year to year, or decade to decade, or century to century.

      This is mostly a factor of what kind of swings we're talking about - we get massive swings of temperature due to seasons and day/night. The observed 1.0C/century since about 1850 simply isn't anywhere near significant enough for us to be very confident.

      Worse than that, our typical "confidence" when it comes to "climate" tends to revolve around the average global temperature - something nobody actually experiences. Because our spatial resolution of our "climate" predictions aren't functionally useful, it's difficult to divine the impacts - you can have +2.0C global average temperature, and different distributions of that could mean that humans experience +10.0C, or even -10.0C. I.e., global average temperature cannot possibly give you actionable information because distributions count.

      That's fine, but you also seem to want to imply things that don't fit your definition have little value. No, you need to argue the specifics of why they have little value.

      Well, specifically they have little value because without the scientific method, and falsifiability, we simply cannot reach the truth. We may be inspired to think of new things, and imagine new possibilities, and yes, imagination is incredibly valuable to the scientific method, but it is not sufficient to produce scientific results.

      Put another way, my lungs are incredibly important, and I hold them in high regard, but I can't actually speak out loud unless those lungs are combined with vocal chords, a nervous system, and the rest of the biological superstructure of a human. Lungs on their own might be able to make some noise, as they decay, but while they can be a *part* of a human, they are not *sufficient* to be a full human.

      Science is bigger than statistics and persuasive arguments :)

      However, even if one doesn't play his science game doesn't mean one's work doesn't have value.

      I'm agreeing with you as hard as I can. There is great value to imagination, and the statistics that can inspire it. It is a stepping stone to the truth, but to get all the way there, you need to move past those seeds and create a necessary and suffici

    12. Re:Falsifiability by mesterha · · Score: 1

      Seems like a loaded word. What you want to do is start off with a huge universe of hypotheses, and winnow things down from there. The better we are at excluding things, the smaller the area in which the truth can survive exists. So, let's say we start with a billion possible hypotheses, but we find the falsification criteria for all of them except for half a dozen. Assuming the last six hypotheses don't share the same falsification criteria, it is an open question as to which one is "better" - it could be that we can never narrow things down any further than those six hypotheses, for either practical or theoretical reasons.

      The phase better is a substitution for the word correct. It's highly unlikely that any of those final six are correct. They are just better than the ones that we know are wrong.

      Also it is not trivial to select a huge universe of hypotheses to winnow. There are always an infinite number of hypotheses that will fit any data. What makes science amazing is that we somehow pick hypotheses that not only fit current data but also predict new surprising results. Special relativity was strongly motivated by Maxwell's equations implying that light has a constant speed.

      Yeah, I'm mixing metaphors here - although, fun fact, you can get random sets from deterministic processes. Heck, you can argue that all random values are in fact deterministic, but simply unpredictable a priori :)

      Right, many people believe quantum mechanics really does describe a random universe, but who knows. Personally I find it hard to believe that all the information in the universe was deterministically contained at the start. Randomness easily solve this problem.

      The fact that we can make these predictions based on the wide variation between day and night, and summer and winter, doesn't imply that we have any predictive capacity year to year, or decade to decade, or century to century.

      I said 2100 which is around a century in the future. We have predictive capacity on climate from century to century and we have historical records going back millions of years to back it up.

      This is mostly a factor of what kind of swings we're talking about - we get massive swings of temperature due to seasons and day/night. The observed 1.0C/century since about 1850 simply isn't anywhere near significant enough for us to be very confident.

      I can have two random variables that have very similar means and huge variances. A few measurements of these variables are going to be all over the place. However, with enough measurements I can say with high confidence that their means are significantly different.

      The statistics are clear (assuming you believe the measurements.) Temperatures are rising. Why and what impact it will have I can't really say except by appealing to experts.

      Worse than that, our typical "confidence" when it comes to "climate" tends to revolve around the average global temperature - something nobody actually experiences. Because our spatial resolution of our "climate" predictions aren't functionally useful, it's difficult to divine the impacts - you can have +2.0C global average temperature, and different distributions of that could mean that humans experience +10.0C, or even -10.0C. I.e., global average temperature cannot possibly give you actionable information because distributions count.

      That's an interesting point. I don't know much about the models, so I can't say if they can be improved in this sense. However, stability is a good thing. Hotter or colder is different and will cause problems for things like farming. Also more energy in a system will probably cause more violent weather which again causes problems, and average temperatures will effect sea level...

      Well, specifically they have little value because without th

      --

      Chris Mesterharm
    13. Re:Falsifiability by hsthompson69 · · Score: 1

      What makes science amazing is that we somehow pick hypotheses that not only fit current data but also predict new surprising results.

      I am agreeing with you as hard as I can :)

      Personally I find it hard to believe that all the information in the universe was deterministically contained at the start. Randomness easily solve this problem.

      I'll suggest to you Wolfram's cellular automata work - it's amazing how simple rules can create completely random distributions given enough steps :)

      http://mathworld.wolfram.com/E...

      We have predictive capacity on climate from century to century and we have historical records going back millions of years to back it up.

      I wouldn't be so sure of that. If you went back to 1918, looking for predictions of global average temperature in 2018, I think you'd find the vast majority of those models weren't even close - even the ones with the same central conceits as those that may have gotten it right simply by chance.

      This is *especially* true if you believe climate is driven by humans - nobody in 1918 could possibly have predicted the growth in humanity and technology we have had over the past 100 years.

      Now, if you wanted to assert that you can predict century to century climate with our historical records, you run into the problem that we don't have that kind of resolution - there are literally centuries upon centuries between data points in our historical proxies - it would be like trying to use a sundial to time a 100m sprint :)

      I can perfectly model the behavior of some closed system. Let's say I can model it 1000 times faster than real time.

      Sadly, the only way we can model reality faster than real time is by imperfectly modeling behavior :)

      This isn't to say that there aren't some models that are close enough for various purposes, but I just can't start a hypothetical with "perfectly model" :)

      Unfortunately, most of the time we need to assume the scientists are doing a good job. Even without the statistical issues, people do not have the time to be experts in everything. We need to appeal to experts to help us make decisions. Generally the scientists do a good job of policing themselves.

      Let's unpack that a bit.

      Yes, most of the time we need to assume scientists are doing a good job. But we should also simultaneously assume that their good job is not perfect, and that they're humans, just like us. Either through honest error, unconscious bias, or conscious bias, they can be wrong - which is where the scientific method comes in, and the concept of a necessary and sufficient falsifiable hypothesis keeps them in check.

      As for appealing to the experts to help us make decisions, avoiding this was the entire *reason* for the scientific method :). Put another way, why would we assume that we're all experts at picking out the people who are experts in fields we're not experts in? Why should I believe that I'm capable of discerning which nutritional expert is the right one, if I know nothing about nutrition?

      For policing themselves, I'm afraid I'm not nearly as optimistic as you are - especially since much of science has been utterly unscientific for a long time. The incestuous peer review system that has its own internal biases and incentive structures has led to things like the reproducibility crisis in psychology, nutrition, and other fields as well. One could argue, of course, that psychology, by its very nature, is a "soft" science, not really falsifiable, but interesting and "sciencey", but the track record of scientists, especially those playing the academia game of "publish or perish", really isn't that good on the policing side

    14. Re:Falsifiability by mesterha · · Score: 1

      I wouldn't be so sure of that. If you went back to 1918, looking for predictions of global average temperature in 2018, I think you'd find the vast majority of those models weren't even close - even the ones with the same central conceit s as those that may have gotten it right simply by chance.

      I was just trying to say that just because weather is chaotic there are still things one can predict such as a temperature difference between winter and summer going back hundreds of years. This just shows that the claim that weather is chaotic is not sufficient to show that "climate" is impossible to predict.

      Yes, most of the time we need to assume scientists are doing a good job. But we should also simultaneously assume that their good job is not perfect, and that they're humans, just like us. Either through honest error, unconscious bias, or conscious bias, they can be wrong - which is where the scientific method comes in, and the concept of a necessary and sufficient falsifiable hypothesis keeps them in check.

      Most people will not even be able to understand the hypothesis, let alone evaluate it. Math is an area I know more about, and there are many mathematical theorems, where I have trouble understanding the statement let alone the proof. Von Neumann once said that it would be easy for someone to create a math test he would fail, and this was around 100 years ago, and he was one of the top mathematicians of his generation, and he had a photographic memory. Unfortunately, in many areas, we need the experts to police each other.

      As for appealing to the experts to help us make decisions, avoiding this was the entire *reason* for the scientific method :). Put another way, why would we assume that we're all experts at picking out the people who are experts in fields we're not experts in? Why should I believe that I'm capable of discerning which nutritional expert is the right one, if I know nothing about nutrition?

      I think that this is the interesting question? How do people choose the right experts especially given all the questionable science that is out there. If people are given bad and contradictory information about nutrition, it's natural for them to think this applies to all science. This can be exploited by people who want to twist issues to their advantage.

      For policing themselves, I'm afraid I'm not nearly as optimistic as you are - especially since much of science has been utterly unscientific for a long time. The incestuous peer review system that has its own internal biases and incentive structures has led to things like the reproducibility crisis in psychology, nutrition, and other fields as well. One could argue, of course, that psychology, by its very nature, is a "soft" science, not really falsifiable, but interesting and "sciencey", but the track record of scientists, especially those playing the academia game of "publish or perish", really isn't that good on the policing side. Which is why data and code transparency, and falsifiability, mean more than peer review and being published in a prestigious journal :)

      Good science does get a bad name by being lumped with everything people call science. And it becomes hard for non-experts to tell what is good versus bad. In principle, perhaps the scientific method helps by making it easier to repeat these experiments, but in practice there is not enough money and the experiments themselves have too many uncontrolled variables causing confounding factors.

      And that's the problem with sufficiently complex computer models - when they fail, we cannot tell why. With a multitude of tunable parameters, you simply cannot discern the difference between a data problem, or a problem with any specific parameter of the model.

      I have to say it's probably the opposite problem. When the model works

      --

      Chris Mesterharm
    15. Re:Falsifiability by hsthompson69 · · Score: 1

      I was just trying to say that just because weather is chaotic there are still things one can predict such as a temperature difference between winter and summer going back hundreds of years. This just shows that the claim that weather is chaotic is not sufficient to show that "climate" is impossible to predict.

      But let's be specific - the predictability is proportional to the usual variability and predictability of the cycle. That is to say, we can predict day/night cycles, or seasonal cycles, because they are on the order of magnitude of 30C, and are highly regular. We're not so good at predicting AMO or ENSO, on top of the fact that the order of magnitude is less than the more predictable ones.

      To be clear, the expectation that we can accurately predict global average temperature a century out, when it only varies by 1.0C, is *really* exceptional. We're looking at fourth and fifth order terms here, rather than the very impactful first and second order terms.

      Unfortunately, in many areas, we need the experts to police each other.

      I am agreeing with you as hard as I can - and this speaks to culture. Our scientific culture should not be one of activism, it should be one of ruthless skepticism and policing.

      How do people choose the right experts especially given all the questionable science that is out there.

      My heuristic is simple - ask them for a necessary and sufficient falsifiable hypothesis statement :). Those that can provide it (regardless if I can personally understand it), get past the first BS detector test :)

      And it becomes hard for non-experts to tell what is good versus bad.

      Again, agreeing with you as hard as I can. Bastiat once wrote about the internal inconsistency of big government democracy - the masses were assumed to have perfect judgement in deciding who their leaders should be, but once that leader was in place, the masses were assumed to have terrible judgement about their own lives and needed these perfectly chosen legislators to make laws to restrain them and mould them to perfection :)

      At the same time they will look at what happened to the model, and look in a principled way to see what could be added to better match reality based on the existing laws of physics.

      The problem here is that nowhere in this procedure do they challenge their own basic assumptions, or whether or not their macro application of micro laws of physics is appropriate. *That* is the key here - not to add enough things to buttress your central conceit, but to have a way to prove, or disprove, your central conceit, whatever it may be.

      Put another way, you could build a model that attributed warming trends to human H2O emissions. You could build another model that attributed warming trends to human CO2 emissions. Without a necessary and sufficient falsifiable hypothesis statement for those competing models, you can extend *either* of them infinitely with additional adjustments, and never figure out which competing central conceit was correct.

      It would be very limiting to restrict science to "small" models.

      True, and I get your point about "all science being models" - but here's my challenge: regardless of "small" or "complex", any scientific model must have a necessary and sufficient falsifiable hypothesis. It may be that creating such hypotheses for complex models is simply too much work for it to be practicable (whereas it's trivial for "small" models), but I don't think you can get a pass on the scientific method just because you've decided to use a complex model.

      Here's an interesting aside for you - there are actually some models which produce different results when run on different computers because of the underlying implementation of floating point numbers in t

  209. Re:Proof that CO2 does not cause warming by q_e_t · · Score: 1

    My mistake. I see it now. It shows NH temperatures diverging from SH in the 1930s, so still disagrees with you. SH temperatures look flat. Still lower than today. But I will concede that the NH rise was sustained. But then a rise, given industrialisation, tends to support the CC models.

  210. Re: Taxes and control by youngone · · Score: 1

    Angry Teen? I'll have you know I'm a member of the Socialist Elite actually.

  211. Re:Verification? by wyHunter · · Score: 1

    There may be one, or two, countries in the world where carbon taxes are used to 'mitigate the effects of climate change.' My guess is that almost all of them just see it as slop for the trough.

  212. Re: Duh by suutar · · Score: 1

    I thought it was more the going from 280 to 410 in like 130 years. But then again, you have a point; 400 to 410 in one year is 10 times that rate.

  213. Re:Proof that CO2 does not cause warming by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

    Wait, what? The BLUE line? You don't see -0.32 deg C for 1935, and +0.18 deg C for 1940? You don't see that big hump from 1939 to 1942?

    --
    Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
  214. Re: Duh by Tablizer · · Score: 1

    Sure, but they were prepared sexist misogynist patriarchal pigs :-)

  215. Re:What happened 800,000+ years ago? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Same thing ;-)

  216. Re:What happened 800,000+ years ago? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Tardigrades living in space, are you a star trek discovery writer? Well done on the pun, intentional or otherise.

  217. Re: Duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    i dont see nasa moving ksc due to sea level rises so even they dont consider it a risk

  218. Re: Duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    tsunami due to 9.x is 100% more likely to kill millions , esp Cal.

  219. Re: Duh by cheekyboy · · Score: 1

    bs, its been 400 since y2k, .4 py inc

    --
    Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
  220. Re: Duh by phantomfive · · Score: 1

    http://www.e-publications.org/...">Here is a better paper explaining the difficulty of temperature reconstructions and their general inaccuracy, in case you found my arguments unauthoritative.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  221. Re: Taxes and control by WindBourne · · Score: 1

    Good. Lets go with common sense and facts.
    Here we see your favorite of emissions per capita
    Your nation jumps from 1.97 in 1990 to 7.45 in 2016. IOW, you increased 400%. EU-28 is was at 9 in 1990 and went down to 6.75 in 2016. EU-28 decreased ~ 25%.
    America was ~20 in 1990, and went down to 15.5 in 2016. IOW, America decreased 25%.
    Last year, CHina went up again, while EU stayed flat and America dropped.

    When you speak of rich nations, I think that you have to include not just AMerica, but EU-28, Canada, Austrlia, and to be fair, CHina. BUT, CHina continues to grow their co2 emissions and now exceeds EU's per capita. In the next 5 years, there is a great chance that AMerica and CHina will have about the same per capita, which is NOT a good thing. We will probably cross at around 12.

    CHina's growth continues due to building of new coal plants. In spite of your BS posting, here we speak about last year where CHina increased coal use by 5% (and that is from Chinese gov): But China’s National Development and Reform Commission released detailed data this week showing that the country’s electricity consumption jumped 6.6 percent last year. Wind and solar energy grew quickly, but not nearly enough to meet the extra demand. Electricity generation from the burning of fossil fuels, almost entirely coal, rose 5.2 percent in China last year.
    Wait until CHina REALLY starts moving towards EVs. That is going to drive their CO2 way up.
    As to the future, CHina IS doing 700 new coal plants, with more 350 in CHina alone. The rest are around the globe, but still pushed, financed, and built by CHina.

    COmmon sense and these facts PROVE that CHina is on the WRONG COURSE. China is increasing CO2 in their own nation as well as others.
    In addition, most of the west continues on the RIGHT course. America and most of the west has stopped building new coal plants. Germany, continues to stay with Asia and build out new ones, but will probably be forced to drop those.
    Common sense and facts says STOP BUILDING NEW COAL PLANTS. In addition, it says to quit defending it.

    --
    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  222. Re:Verification? by riverat1 · · Score: 1

    The only carbon tax I'm aware of currently is the Province of British Columbia, Canada. It's working pretty well for them.

  223. Good news for plants by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Good news for the plants then. The higher the CO2 level - the better plants will grow.

  224. Re: Taxes and control by CaffeinatedBacon · · Score: 1

    Of course it's not directly $1 equals x increase in CO2. There will be some variation based on what the people are willing to sacrifice. Don't get worked up between the difference between 60k 70k and 80k for already developed countries. Check the countries like China at 10k India at 2k, any other developing countries you want to choose.

    Or are you really claiming Norway and Australia are developing countries?

    It's not a secret every one already knows this.
    It's the whole reason people are worried about poor countries developing and polluting like rich countries. If they didn't develop, there wouldn't be a problem. For rich countries anyway. But how to explain to the poor countries that they can't do exactly what you do? That is the problem.

  225. Re:Proof that CO2 does not cause warming by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    the IPCC (as I linked above) believes it is much higher than than 2.1 to 4.4 per their own words.

    No, they don't say that at all. Read the rest of the sentence you partially quoted (bolded for your pleasure):

    The equilibrium climate sensitivity estimates from the latest model version used by modelling groups have increased [examples], decreased [examples] or remained roughly unchanged [examples] compared to the TAR.

  226. Re: Taxes and control by q_e_t · · Score: 1

    The difference in PPP median income between, say, the UK and Australia is small, but CO2 per capita is a factor of two, so there are more factors involved than just income. India to UK, you have a point.

  227. Re:Taxes and control by BoogieChile · · Score: 1

    Somebody did, but then they looked at the isotope ratios and discovered yet another way to demonstrate that burning fossil fuels is the cause of increased CO2.

  228. Re:Proof that CO2 does not cause warming by q_e_t · · Score: 1

    I see the SH blue line flat line from 1920 to 1939, and the NH red line increase. Your contention was that warming in the 1930s was global, but your own source shows it was not. A sudden blip in the SH line in 1940 is irrelevant, as it is too short term to be climate, as opposed to a short-lived PDO. You're an intelligent enough person to be able to reasonably understand climate change, and there are a lot of good resources out there, and I could help identify some if it helps.

  229. Re: Taxes and control by CaffeinatedBacon · · Score: 1

    Totally agree Australia and the US are far more polluting than EU countries of similar income, and should do much more. Developing countries are still smaller than all of them.

  230. Re: Taxes and control by CaffeinatedBacon · · Score: 1

    Good. Lets go with common sense and facts.

    Good, lets.

    Here we see your favorite of emissions per capita Your nation jumps from 1.97 in 1990 to 7.45 in 2016. IOW, you increased 400%.

    AS IT GOT RICHER !!
    As developing countries develop, they develop into rich countries. And the pollution goes up to rich country levels. It's not rocket science Windy.

    EU-28 is was at 9 in 1990 and went down to 6.75 in 2016. EU-28 decreased ~ 25%. America was ~20 in 1990, and went down to 15.5 in 2016. IOW, America decreased 25%.

    You are right, the EU is much better than America.

    Last year, CHina went up again, while EU stayed flat and America dropped.

    And yet America is still twice China. They must have been quite bad if they have been decreasing for years, China has been increasing for years, yet they are still more than double China's level.

    When you speak of rich nations, I think that you have to include not just AMerica, but EU-28, Canada, Austrlia, and to be fair, CHina. BUT, CHina continues to grow their co2 emissions and now exceeds EU's per capita. In the next 5 years, there is a great chance that AMerica and CHina will have about the same per capita, which is NOT a good thing. We will probably cross at around 12.

    You must be just about the only person in the world who thinks Chinese are as rich as all those other countries you mention. Usually that means you are wrong...I thought you wanted common sense and facts?

    China's CO2 increases have levelled off, it's very unlikely they will reach 12. Show some facts and common sense to suggest this will be the case.

    Lets play along though, and assume they both reach 12. Why is it suddenly a problem for China to be identical to US levels? If it's good for the US to be at 12, why not China too? Oh I forgot, you are an entitled dirtbag. America is just assumed to be allowed to pollute so much more.

    Snip all you bullshit lies already addressed elsewhere

    COmmon sense and these facts PROVE that CHina is on the WRONG COURSE. China is increasing CO2 in their own nation as well as others.

    Of course they are. Malnourished people (developing countries) will eat more food (use more CO2) when they can afford it. Obese people (Americans, Australians, etc) and overweight (some EU countries) should be the last people to complain that some one else is eating too much food. Lose more weight fatty.

    In addition, most of the west continues on the RIGHT course. America and most of the west has stopped building new coal plants. Germany, continues to stay with Asia and build out new ones, but will probably be forced to drop those.

    So pick a level for CO2 you are happy for people to use. It's just about guaranteed that China will get there before America will.

    Common sense and facts says STOP BUILDING NEW COAL PLANTS. In addition, it says to quit defending it.

    It's a good thing China's coal use peaked in 2013 then isn't it.
    Common sense would notice where the actual problem was, rich peoples lifestyles, instead of focusing on coal all the time.

  231. Re:Proof that CO2 does not cause warming by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    1.3 to 1.6 deg K

    Pet peeve: There are no degrees Kelvin, only Kelvin.

    1.3 to 1.6 K

  232. Re: Duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We have seen such shifts in the record. At least twice. Both times they accompanied mass extinctions.

  233. Re: Duh by Bengie · · Score: 1

    A safer(not looking at the Sun) analogy is fog. It's only ~42ppm, yet I can't see very far through it. 420ppm of CO2 is effectively a dense fog for IR.

  234. Re: Duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    CO2 only absorbs about 8% IR so using your fog analogy we're talking about a fog with 8% opacity which is damn near invisible. I wouldn't consider that "dense".

  235. Re:What happened 800,000+ years ago? by RockDoctor · · Score: 1

    800,000 years is as far back as it's possible to make any kind of plausible estimate. We don't know what the level was before then,

    This AC's claim is false.

    Plant leaves have pockets in their surfaces called stomata, within which the actual gas exchanges take place. The concentration of stomata (count per sq.mm of surface) varies with atmospheric CO2 concentration - which has been verified in greenhouses.

    In the fossil record, you get fossil plants. You need good preservation - which is uncommon, but not unknown. From stomata counts on different genera of plants, you can estimate the level of CO2 concentration in which those plants grew.

    Yes, the error-bars are looser than for an IR or GCMS measurement of CO2 concentration on a mountain today. But we can know what the atmospheric CO2 concentration was at enough points in the past to construct curves of CO2 concentration against time.

    All of which has been well reported in the geological press for literally decades (it was new to the text books when I read it in 1980). So the AC is either disingenuous or ignorant.

    --
    Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
  236. Re: Duh by suutar · · Score: 1

    my bad. I misread "the first time it crossed 410 at all...". Thanks for the correction!

  237. Re: Duh by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 1

    Only those living below 1700 feet.
    https://geology.com/records/biggest-tsunami.shtml

    --
    SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
  238. Re: Duh by david_thornley · · Score: 1

    Hey guy, it is. The evidence is largely statistical, but it's there. It's also not enough to really bother well-off Westerners, except with refugees. The amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is increasing, and temperatures continue to go up.

    --
    "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  239. Re: Taxes and control by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    At least you're honest about being a socialist scumbag.

    Again I'm amused that my posts were downvoted to oblivion by leftist sheep while the puerile replies were not marked down for being ad hominem garbage.

    As expected. Afraid to debate. Got nothing to say. Down vote!

  240. Re: Taxes and control by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Been hearing for decades now that the sky has already fallen. Yawn. Wake me up when any of this stuff actually happens.

  241. What took so long? by circlecast · · Score: 1

    Thank god they got rid of those SUV 800,000 years ago

  242. Re:What happened 800,000+ years ago? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Whats ironic is that the recent times where its been warmer, like the MWP, the amount of food produced went up dramatically.

    And please, how come noone seriously looks at the solar cycles, which had a much greater correlation to temperatures both recent and geological, as opposed to models and predictions from the likes of the IPCC that have a >97% inaccuracy rate.

    These articles crack me up.

  243. Re:800,000 years is short by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Actually, we have. only about 900 years ago it started warming and got much warmer than it is today.

    the side effect of that warming is that agriculture, food production, went up dramatically.

  244. Re: Duh by Bengie · · Score: 1

    Take fog, multiply by 0.08, then 10.0 and you're left with.. Fog. CO2 does drop about 3% every 300 meters. After a kilometer, it would be 90% what it was at the ground. Mostly unchanged. I'm sure it's effectively opaque. I know if I was to look through several milometers of fog, I'd see nothing but fog.

  245. Windy you are full of shit by CaffeinatedBacon · · Score: 1

    You can't even keep your lies straight... Where did the other 50 go !!

    1. Re:Windy you are full of shit by WindBourne · · Score: 1
      Here we go. You say that I am the one making major use of Endcoal.org. OK. At the bottom right of that map, is the link to get data and reports from the group.
      Here is one from March 2018.
      As we look at Table 3, that is the data for Jan. 2018, we can see exactly how many gw are in pre-construction, construction, shelved, and operating.
      For china, we see that your nation has 211,003 gw under pre-construction/construction, which at 3/4 of GW per power plant would be around 300 plants, and declares that they have 936,057 GW running. .
      For America, we that we have NONE under pre-construction/construction, with 278 GW of coal running in America. According to TFA on page 12, it talks about America and Europe. America has stopped building and is dropping fast, while Europe continues to build out but in relatively small amounts (still, they have to stop; any more coal is killing us and it is why Europe has flat-lined for last 5 years ). BUT, it talks the most about China and their continued massive build-out on page 9. Yes, china has SUSPENDED some 500 GW of power plants (not stopped), BUT, they are STILL building out 211 GW currently. This is perhaps the most telling paragraph in there:

      Analyses by Greenpeace (2016a) and Carbon Tracker(2016) have found the country’s existing coal plantsalready far exceed domestic power needs, with additional coal plants representing potentially billionsof dollars of wasted capital.

      Your nation continues a massive build-up of coal, with no real reason for it. It needs to be stopped. Instead, they need to spend the money on AE along with nuclear power.
      America has stopped building coal plants and continues to drop. We are headed in the right direction, just not fast enough. We need to re-start our nuclear power industry and replace all of our coal AND Nat gas plants.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    2. Re:Windy you are full of shit by CaffeinatedBacon · · Score: 1

      Analyses by Greenpeace (2016a) and Carbon Tracker(2016) have found the country’s existing coal plantsalready far exceed domestic power needs, with additional coal plants representing potentially billionsof dollars of wasted capital.

      You stupid stupid man...
      That's what people have been telling you all along !!
      Those plants won't even be burning any coal !! If they do, they will be replacing older less efficient plants.
      Chinese coal peaked in 2013 FFS.

      Why do you think China is trying to get the locals to stop them? Why are they cancelling plants by the hundreds? China already knows this !
      Did you really just figure it out?

    3. Re:Windy you are full of shit by CaffeinatedBacon · · Score: 1

      So remind us again how the total for the whole world is 656,190 MW (342,362 China and India together) as per your table 3
      But you have been telling everyone just China by itself was 750+ GW and sometimes 700 GW or 650 GW...

    4. Re: Windy you are full of shit by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      Boy you really are stupid. As you said, emperor. Your gov can stop it when ever it wants. They don't because they WANT to grow coal. Quit thinking that the rest of us are as stupid as you. These new plants are not replacing old ones. These will be used for their EVs and to survive a war. Your gov is heading for war footage.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    5. Re: Windy you are full of shit by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      No. I never said 700 or 750 GW. Go point to where I said that. I said 700 plants, with 300+ to be built in china, and the rest around the globe. Porky, u continue to lie.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    6. Re: Windy you are full of shit by CaffeinatedBacon · · Score: 1

      More Windy lies. You are just getting tiresome now. It would be easier to point out your posts that aren't lies...

      Shows you have no idea about how China works. The local governments and their priorities don't always line up with the central government. If the local government kills the coal and forces all those people to lose their government jobs, the local government will get the blame, and get the bill for their welfare. that's why it's not an easy process for them.

      Just go back here and check for yourself.
      Or any of the dozens of links people have shown you over the last few months/years.
      They have 5 year plans that put a hard cap on the amount of coal use. Coal peaked in 2013. Coal as a % of electricity is and has been going down. Coal for other uses has been cut as well.
      There are none so blind as those who will not see hey Windy.

    7. Re: Windy you are full of shit by CaffeinatedBacon · · Score: 1

      Jesus you are thick Windy

      Surely you must realise by now that if I say something I've already got the evidence to back it up. You haven't show a single lie so far. I have credibility to lose unlike you, the little boy who cried wolf. Even if you said something factual people would have doubts now.

      I even linked to the evidence in the very post you replied to. How thick can you possibly be?
      The post pointing out some of your continuing lies about coal in China.
      The specific post where you claimed 750 plus GW.
      The exact post where you claimed 700GW and that China was doubling it coal plants !!
      Also this post full of porkies where you claim.

      China is adding another 650 GW of just coal plants while shutting down a fraction of that (less than 100 GW will be shutdown over the next 15 years).

      You are completely full of shit Windy...

    8. Re: Windy you are full of shit by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      wow. I thought that you were an adult, but you must be a kid and still learning english. You suffer from a SERIOUS reading issue.
      The links to current articles deal with China adding 200+GW of NEW coal plants and it will involve 700 plants with about 350 in China and 300 outside of china (or vs-versa; go read the mining article). These is what is happening in the NEXT 2 YEARS. Idiot.
      HOWEVER, The Chinese FEDERAL GOV plans to add 750 GW of NEW COAL PLANTS BY 2030. It will likely involve ANOTHER 500 or so plants above and beyond the 350 plants that they are allowing to go through right now.
      The only liar is yourself because you are apparently incapable of reading.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    9. Re: Windy you are full of shit by CaffeinatedBacon · · Score: 1

      These is happening

      And I'm the one learning English...

      Quit it Windy. Put up or shut up. Show a single lie.

      I've just shown many of yours...

      Where is the evidence for 750GW of new coal plants?
      Just go back and look at all your lies on just this topic, lets not get started on all your others yet.
      You must be going senile old man, you just denied you ever said 700 or 750GW. But without losing a beat claimed it again in the very next post...

    10. Re: Windy you are full of shit by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      No, you have NOT shown any lies. You constantly twist things. Go and fuck yourself porky.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    11. Re: Windy you are full of shit by CaffeinatedBacon · · Score: 1

      If only I had 50c for every time you lied Windy...
      I'd be rich.
      And entitled to pollute as much as you do.

  246. Re: Taxes and control by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The consensus is that it's probably too late, so of course people like you won't ever accept that you are wrong. Accepting that you're wrong means accepting that some time after you die there will be massive global food shortages because you kept voting for politicians who deny science in exchange for oil money.

    Yeah, you'll never accept that you're directly responsible for the doom of our entire species. We get that. Just shut the hell up and let the rest of us as least try to stop it from happening

  247. Re: What happened 800,000+ years ago? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The planet isn't some civ game, you can't just move an entire country of people halfway across the globe to the new green area

    Greenland being habitable or the American southwest getting what doesn't do anything about the billions of people living in areas that are slowly getting fucked

  248. Re: What happened 800,000+ years ago? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ugh, it's because they have looked at that and there is no correlation and you're actually just making shit up

    So you're an idiot and a liar, great combo!

  249. Re: Duh by reanjr · · Score: 1

    If you're talking about planetary events like meteor impacts, that doesn't seem super relevant.

  250. Re:Verification? by wyHunter · · Score: 1

    The EU and Australia have them too. And perhaps more.

  251. Re:Verification? by riverat1 · · Score: 1

    Australia had one but it got repealed when the ALP won the next election. It was only in force for a couple of years. I've heard of cap-and-trade being used in the EU but not a straight up carbon tax.

  252. Re:Verification? by wyHunter · · Score: 1

    Cap and trade is a carbon tax - certainly the costs of the trading are passed on to consumers.