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IPCC Climate Change Report Calls For Urgent Action To Phase Out Fossil Fuels (bbc.com)

The United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has issued a report that says global temperatures are heading towards 3 degrees C, and that the original goal of keeping the rise under 1.5 degrees C will require "rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society." While the window of opportunity is not yet closed, the prospect looks unlikely and hugely expensive. BBC reports: The critical 33-page Summary for Policymakers certainly bears the hallmarks of difficult negotiations between climate researchers determined to stick to what their studies have shown and political representatives more concerned with economies and living standards. Despite the inevitable compromises, there are some key messages that come through loud and and clear. "The first is that limiting warming to 1.5C brings a lot of benefits compared with limiting it to 2 degrees. It really reduces the impacts of climate change in very important ways," said Prof Jim Skea, who is a co-chair of the IPCC. "The second is the unprecedented nature of the changes that are required if we are to limit warming to 1.5C -- changes to energy systems, changes to the way we manage land, changes to the way we move around with transportation."

"Scientists might want to write in capital letters, 'ACT NOW IDIOTS,' but they need to say that with facts and numbers," said Kaisa Kosonen, from Greenpeace, who was an observer at the negotiations. "And they have." The researchers have used these facts and numbers to paint a picture of the world with a dangerous fever, caused by humans. We used to think if we could keep warming below 2 degrees this century then the changes we would experience would be manageable. Not any more. This new study says that going past 1.5C is dicing with the planet's liveability. And the 1.5C temperature "guard rail" could be exceeded in just 12 years in 2030. We can stay below it but it will require urgent, large-scale changes from governments and individuals, plus we will have to invest a massive pile of cash every year, around 2.5% of global GDP, for two decades. Even then, we will still need machines, trees and plants to capture carbon from the air that we can then store deep underground. Forever!
In order to get to 1.5C, the report says the following will be necessary: Global emissions of CO2 need to decline by 45% from 2010 levels by 2030; Renewables are estimated to provide up to 85% of global electricity by 2050; Coal is expected to reduce to close to zero; Up to 7 million sq km of land will be needed for energy crops (a bit less than the size of Australia); and Global net zero emissions by 2050. As if this wasn't demanding enough, the report says that to limit warming to 1.5C, it will involve "annual average investment needs in the energy system of around $2.4 trillion" between 2016 and 2035.

If the planet reaches 2C of warming, coral reefs would be almost entirely wiped out and global sea-levels will rise around 10 centimeters more. "There are also significant impacts on ocean temperatures and acidity, and the ability to grow crops like rice, maize and wheat," reports The Guardian.

Further reading: Major Climate Report Describes a Strong Risk of Crisis as Early as 2040.

253 of 478 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I think global warming is caused by gays by Chrisq · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm goinga build an ark

    I'd finish your wall first, Don.

  2. 3 degrees C by Rei · · Score: 3, Funny

    says global temperatures are heading towards 3 degrees C

    (Opens window and sticks hand outside)

    Yeah, sounds about right.

    --
    "Close the door! What, were you born in a barn?" -- Police chief, "Jesus Christ Supercop"
    1. Re:3 degrees C by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 2

      I guess they're right about the global warming thing because the thermometer outside my Canadian igloo is indicating 8C this morning (for the metric-impaired readers, that's 281.15 Kelvin).

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    2. Re:3 degrees C by Luckyo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      This hasn't been about oil in a long time. Biggest offender by far is coal. Coal is cheap, efficient and reliable. As long as you don't give a fuck about what happens to some people on the other side of the planet, it's great.

      Which is why many developing countries are building it up en masse. So the real question is "how many East Asians and Africans are you willing to enslave and/or massacre to get the coal power generation down?"

      Because the answer probably is "not nearly enough" if you're a person with even a shred of humanism.

    3. Re:3 degrees C by Luckyo · · Score: 1

      Why do you think I would care to defend a country that is an ocean and a continent away for me? I'm literally on the other side of a planet for them.

      What matters to me is pace of change, because status quo is fairly irrelevant when discussing global warming. What's in the atmosphere is in the atmosphere. And as anyone who works in power generation globally will tell you, US is actually on track to beat most of the European majors in reduction of things like coal power and CO2 emissions, because they have a realistic rather than ideological policy on power. They don't get stuck on "gotta remove nuclear" like Germans did, or just outsource to the highest emitters as pretty much everyone around Estonia did. They actually transition to things like natgas (same energy amount produced generates you roughly half the CO2 emissions). Notably, same direction that Great Britain took, CCGTs are now over a third of their generation base.

      So if you think I'm "trolling for US", you're so off the mark, you should reconsider the entire frame you're using for this discussion. I actually give a fuck about consequences of global warming, unlike in my experience most of the green activists do. It's not just an ideological quasi-religious thing to me, where the goal is the utopia with no emissions and everyone who objects to this utopia is just definitionally evil. When I see US popping down CCGTs and capturing shale gas to fuel them, crashing not just their CO2 emissions, but those in Mexico, I call it a great thing.

      Green movement calls it "things that make it worse by distancing us from fully renewable utopia". And that is what I object to. It's the same reason why I object to Paris agreement, which motivates China to effectively build up as much coal as it wants for near future so it can get as high of a "baseline" CO2 emission level from which it will need to eventually do CO2 reduction goals. If it actually start caring about the issue in the first place obviously, far from given at this junction of history. We need a pragmatic approach to the problem, and US is pretty much the leader on that front next to GB and to an extent France.

    4. Re: 3 degrees C by illiac_1962 · · Score: 1

      Wrong. Biggest offender is cow gas. Not joking.

    5. Re: 3 degrees C by Luckyo · · Score: 1

      I'm not going to even bother with this one, because for someone to make that claim, we may as well just claim that biggest offender is organic life and its tendency to emit CO2 and CH4.

    6. Re:3 degrees C by Ferretman · · Score: 1

      > but unfortunatly, oil companies are still very powerfull.. so it will not happen untill every drop of oil has been sold

      I don't really see any evidence of that.

      When it's cheaper to provide something else, then that's what will happen. There will always be petroleum usage due to its incorporation into various antibiotics, medicines, etc., but generally speaking it'll become a niche product for a very small and specific set of uses.

      Ferret

      --
      Sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc
    7. Re:3 degrees C by Ferretman · · Score: 1

      > Americans coal use for electricity is the highest in the world, higher even than China's.

      Not according to the actual data:

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

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

      About 1 billion short tons (us) vs. 3.45 billion short tons (China).

      Ferret

      --
      Sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc
    8. Re: 3 degrees C by Ferretman · · Score: 1

      > And after that, methyl clathrate from the sea floor.

      That was a plot element in the relaunch of the Dallas TV show I think....

      Ferret

      --
      Sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc
  3. the planet doesn't "care"... by lkcl · · Score: 4, Informative

    y'know... the planet doesn't care if humans are on it or not. if we're all dead (cooked, starved, killed in food riots), the planet will be peaceful and recover from our cancerous pathological behaviour, soon enough. Agent Smith: "you humans are like a plague. a disease. and we? we... are the cure..."

    1. Re:the planet doesn't "care"... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Ultimately correct, but don't you want to keep living?
      If not, please reduce your carbon emissions to 0, immediately...

    2. Re: the planet doesn't "care"... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I want to keep living, but I dont have to reproduce. While OP is extreme, having just one child should be enough for the majority of couples.

    3. Re: the planet doesn't "care"... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      I have 4 kids. I guess Darwin will take care of people with your 1 or 0 kids attitude within a couple of generations.

    4. Re: the planet doesn't "care"... by c6gunner · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That's great; I fully support the efforts of anyone who decides to take themselves out of the gene pool. More room for my offspring.

    5. Re: the planet doesn't "care"... by Barsteward · · Score: 1

      you'll be relying on those extra people to do things for you when you get old and more incompetent and pour you coffee in the restaurant. If the population dwindles there'll be more pensioners than workers. if people can produce kids and educate them into being responsible human beings who care for the planet then they can replace the selfish bastards who don't.

      --
      "The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
    6. Re: the planet doesn't "care"... by e3m4n · · Score: 1

      the population problem seems to be self correcting

      https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/...

    7. Re: the planet doesn't "care"... by chill · · Score: 1

      That totally sounds likea beer commercial.

      --
      Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
    8. Re:the planet doesn't "care"... by AgentSmith · · Score: 1

      I should have back pedaled on that one. Who's going to power all my stuff in the future?

      I need you ugly flesh weasels. There. I said it.

    9. Re: the planet doesn't "care"... by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      I have 4 kids. I guess Darwin will take care of people with your 1 or 0 kids attitude within a couple of generations.

      Odds are good that global pandemic will take all four of your children at this rate. With any luck, you won't live to see it.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    10. Re:the planet doesn't "care"... by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 1

      My net carbon emissions have been at 0 for 10 years now. Talk to China and India, who are burning coal like there's no tomorrow.

      --
      SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
    11. Re:the planet doesn't "care"... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      China, India and the U.S.A.

      Also, the green energy programs in China surpassed those in the U.S.A. a few years ago so at least they are in a transitioning phase.

    12. Re:the planet doesn't "care"... by tquasar · · Score: 1

      California's solution is to build more houses and freeways. "There's a housing shortage and the freeways are crowded" STOP building!! If you don't build it they won't come. Camp Pendleton and a large privately owned ranch east of San Diego California are populated with plants and animals who thrive there. The ranch has the minimum number of cattle to qualify as a working ranch. Yup, there's a certain number of cattle you must have to be a ranch.

    13. Re:the planet doesn't "care"... by dwillden · · Score: 1

      Umm, the only way to reduce my carbon emissions to zero is to stop living.

      --
      I'm too lazy to compose a creative sig.
    14. Re:the planet doesn't "care"... by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Umm, the only way to reduce my carbon emissions to zero is to stop living.

      You can reduce your net carbon emissions to zero by planting trees, or paying someone else to do it for you.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    15. Re:the planet doesn't "care"... by houghi · · Score: 1

      As the earth is not a sentinent being, I doubt it will care if we blow it up from space.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    16. Re: the planet doesn't "care"... by rogoshen1 · · Score: 1

      yeah don't worry; especially if you live in the west -- there are teeming throngs of people in asia and africa who will gladly immigrate and carry your society forward!

    17. Re:the planet doesn't "care"... by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 1

      The United States exported our air pollution to China long ago.

      --
      SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
    18. Re: the planet doesn't "care"... by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 1

      We don't use coal anymore. The last coal plant in Oregon closed last year.

      --
      SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
    19. Re:the planet doesn't "care"... by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      As many might say "if I can't commute to work in my hummer, then life isn't worth living!"

    20. Re: the planet doesn't "care"... by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

      I have 4 kids. I guess Darwin will take care of people with your 1 or 0 kids attitude within a couple of generations.

      Isn't this pretty much the opening to idiocracy? Lots of children, no intelligence.

      --
      Wanna buy a shirt?
      https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
    21. Re: the planet doesn't "care"... by c6gunner · · Score: 1

      Talk about putting all your eggs in one basket ...

    22. Re:the planet doesn't "care"... by mspohr · · Score: 1

      You can be net zero carbon emissions.
      You could Googleit but here, I've done the hard work for you:
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
      http://fortune.com/2018/10/08/...
      https://croakingcassandra.com/...
      http://science.sciencemag.org/...
      http://www.onlyzerocarbon.org/...

      You'll have to actually read these and you may have to change some habits but I know you can do it if you're at all interested.

      --
      I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
  4. all of these warnings do nothing to incite change by Kwirl · · Score: 5, Informative

    the world is run by corporations, not people. corporations are run by shareholders. a large part of the stock game is run by algorithms calculating and trading stocks for maximum efficiency. that algorithm does not care about the weather or the long term suitability of our planet.

  5. Re: Phase Out IPCC Instead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Cue obligatory XKCD on climate, in another probably vain attempt to educate the dunderheads:

    https://xkcd.com/1732/

  6. Low externality baseload Solar by MrKaos · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Solar Reserve have some great low externality base load solar power stations. The heat is stored in molten salt and is available when the sun goes down. Base load solar plant like this can be scaled up, I have no affiliation with them however I find their technology interesting.

    Coupled with domestic, industrial and commercial P.V there is enough energy in the sun to build power infrastructure. Combined with the terawatts of power available with wind and geothermal does anyone think the oil and coal industry want this technology to be developed and advanced?

    I reason that any form of massive dynamic grid will need a lot of intelligence to make the power available where it is needed, which means interesting technological avenues to explore, a massive explosion of information technology and, fortunes to be made as the economy changes. If we can overcome the economic inertia.

    None of the criticisms of these technologies ever ask what it would take to build such infrastructures and all of the technologies look like they scale well. We know we can't continue the way we are going because we will die. This is not just about the planet - Save the Humans, the planet will be just fine.

    The only rational conclusion is that the world is being run by complete anti-social psychopaths who actually want such an outcome, otherwise it would be done already. The excuses are less and less believable every day.

    --
    My ism, it's full of beliefs.
    1. Re:Low externality baseload Solar by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The only rational conclusion is that the world is being run by complete anti-social psychopaths

      Sorry, but that is just a populist opinion. The other possible rational conclusion is that things are not as simple as they appear to you. Which do you think is more likely?

      And in this case I can tell you why it is not that easy. Change costs money and shifts prosperity. Big changes do this on a large scale. Now, everyone wants what is best for this world, but everyone is also looking out for number one. That is not something to blame people for. It is inherent to human nature, driven by millions of years of evolution.
      The obvious consequence is that in the only way to resolve this peacefully, being negotiation, people are going to play a game of chicken. The one who blinks last wins. Again, just human nature.

      You may not like it, but it is hardly fair to blame people for this. And in case you think you are not part of the problem yourself: Lets discuss one aspect of this. How we are going to fund the huge upfront costs for a new energy system?
      Money can only be spent once, so which costs are we going to cut? Reduce your grandparents pension maybe? Or maybe increase your taxes? double your energy bill for the next 30 years? Outright make it illegal for you to own a gas guzzler of a car?

      Unless you will roll over and accept these measures quietly, you are just as much part of the problem as everyone else.

    2. Re:Low externality baseload Solar by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      As of today, the only clean air scalable tech that can replace coal and gas plants is nuclear.

      But unfortunately, many have decided they'd rather fight against nuclear than reduce our emissions. Thanks to those folks, we've already lost the battle.

    3. Re:Low externality baseload Solar by e3m4n · · Score: 2

      most of the oil industry has already diversified into other energy production. So they're going to make money no matter what kind of electricity you're buying. But demand keeps trying to outpace supply. We cant have any sort of limits on fossil fuel consumption as long as stupid shit like crypto mining exists. It wastes energy for the pure purpose of wasting energy. In a single day, it consumes more power globally than a small island the size of Puerto Rico could reasonably consume in a year. The massive heat that comes off these devices is unreal, its like leaving the stove running all day with its door left ajar. Eliminating wasteful energy consumption is just as important as boosting non-fossile-based power production. We need to revisit hydrogen as a means of energy transportation because some renewable energy sources are highly geographically limited.

    4. Re:Low externality baseload Solar by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 1

      Solar Reserve [solarreserve.com] have some great low externality base load solar power stations. The heat is stored in molten salt and is available when the sun goes down. Base load solar plant like this can be scaled up,

      Interesting. How much does it cost them to produce a MW continuously for 8766 hours?

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    5. Re:Low externality baseload Solar by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      The only rational conclusion is that the world is being run by complete anti-social psychopaths

      Sorry, but that is just a populist opinion. The other possible rational conclusion is that things are not as simple as they appear to you. Which do you think is more likely?

      Option three - The world is populated by psychopaths.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    6. Re:Low externality baseload Solar by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 2

      And in this case I can tell you why it is not that easy. Change costs money and shifts prosperity. Big changes do this on a large scale.

      Indeed it does. But the question is will the change caused by global warming/climate change cost you even more than doing something about it. Many people seem to think it won't but if what the climate scientists say is correct (and they get more things correct about it than wrong) the answer is no.

      What is missing from most people's mindset is that a sort of roulette is being played out. As weather patterns shift, some areas that are now verdant will become jungles or perhaps deserts. As temperate zones move north some areas that are fringe civilization will become breadbaskets.

      So good luck everyone. There will be big winners, and there will be big losers.

      Now what I have seen is that if you press the deniers really hard, you'll find out they actually like the idea of warmth. Here in the soggy Northeast of the US, my older compatriots bitch about the record rainfall, but don't complain at all about how in mid October, the trees are still green, and it barely dropped below 70 last night.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    7. Re:Low externality baseload Solar by Raenex · · Score: 2

      You mean thanks to the Americans who don't even realize they are the biggest problem and all the American trolls trying to pass the blame off to China.

      China produces more CO2 than America, by a large margin, and it's only going to increase.

    8. Re:Low externality baseload Solar by blindseer · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Solar Reserve have some great low externality base load solar power stations.

      It won't work. It can't work. I say this because it uses the same materials for the salt and piping as molten salt nuclear reactors and I've been told the salt will simply eat through the pipes and all you will have is an expensive mess.

      Let's assume this solar salt thermal storage technology does work, then molten salt nuclear reactors will work. Research in one molten salt technology is directly applicable to the other. If these solar thermal plants gain any traction and prove the technology on molten salts then molten salt nuclear reactors will soon follow.

      There's a big difference though between these molten salt technologies, nuclear power doesn't need sunny skies to provide power. The claims of being able to provide power through the night is not what I'm talking about, I mean that the nuclear reactor can run where it cannot ever see the sun. This can be above the Arctic Circle. This can be underground. This can be under the sea. On the moon. On Mars. These solar power collectors need land, and lots of it, for collecting the sun while nuclear does not. I've heard people claim these collectors can be on rooftops or the land underneath can be used for other purposes. I won't dispute this. I only say that the same applies to nuclear power, it can be put underneath anything. It can be under an airport, a military base, or a bunch of solar collectors. Land use is effectively zero for both but the power output per area is very low for solar but nearly unlimited for nuclear.

      The only rational conclusion is that the world is being run by complete anti-social psychopaths who actually want such an outcome, otherwise it would be done already. The excuses are less and less believable every day.

      That's not the only rational conclusion. Another is that the politicians that keep talking of our impending doom unless we do something don't believe their own words. If the powers that be in government believed that if CO2 output from human activity was not reduced dramatically now then they'd be pulling out all the stops on low CO2 energy regardless of the form it took.

      Here's an example, the US Navy wanted some new nuclear powered warships. The Navy already has nuclear powered submarines and aircraft carriers but the use of nuclear powered destroyers and cruisers ended in the 1990s. The Navy wanted new nuclear powered cruisers because they offer advantages beyond simply not burning oil and contributing to the CO2 in the air, such as increased range and the ability to keep fighting without have to take on fuel from a much less battle capable oiler. Congress denied this as a matter of costs. Another example the US Coast Guard wants... that's not right, NEEDS new ice breakers to service scientific missions in Antarctica and to keep shipping lanes open for communities in Alaska, communities including military bases and their families. Congress won't replace the aging and continually in disrepair oil fired ice breakers with nuclear powered versions. Military bases domestically and around the world need reliable power that is not subject to the whims of foreign supplies of oil. Past administrations put up fragile solar collectors and windmills that interfere with radar used to detect incoming missiles and aircraft.

      If these people were serious about solving the problems of reducing CO2 output, providing for energy independence, and assuring the military is effective in defending our national interests, then they'd be building nuclear powered ships and putting nuclear power plants on military bases, airports, seaports, and other vital facilities.

      Perhaps I'm merely arguing the powers that be are a different kind of sociopath, they don't want to solve the problems but merely appear to be working towards those ends. This means a series of half-assed "solutions" that on the surface appear to be a means to make things better but in the

      --
      I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
    9. Re:Low externality baseload Solar by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      You know what country is the #2 factory? The US. So I guess they should be allowed to produce more CO2 according to your logic. Amazing how that works.

    10. Re:Low externality baseload Solar by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      No one is patting themselves on the back. My point is being the "worlds factory" is not an excuse. Try to pay attention.

    11. Re:Low externality baseload Solar by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      No. That idea was great 10 years ago.
      Now that PV have come down in price, solar thermal makes little sense.
      Worse, solar thermal is a determent to the environment.

      However, the use of the heated salts esp. combined with say a nuke power plant, actually makes sense.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    12. Re:Low externality baseload Solar by philmarcracken · · Score: 2

      Collected solar towers do need land and to be able to see the sun but they also don't produce nuclear waste.

    13. Re:Low externality baseload Solar by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

      We need to revisit hydrogen as a means of energy transportation because some renewable energy sources are highly geographically limited.

      Fast battery charging means that we should not be commercializing hydrogen yet, given its poor system efficiency today. Unfortunately the automakers have decided that they have to wring some profits out of their hydrogen research now. There's plenty of low-hanging fruit before we need to mess with hydrogen, and it can get better in the interim. Guess it doesn't matter what I think, though. Hydrogen cars are here (where "here" is defined as California, for now) already and they will probably continue to be around for some time.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    14. Re:Low externality baseload Solar by raind · · Score: 1

      "Prevention is also always cheaper than reaction."
      A good point even if from a AC
      Mid eighties tomorrow in the midwest.

      --
      Get up!
    15. Re:Low externality baseload Solar by e3m4n · · Score: 1

      well the nice thing about hydrogen, so ive been told, is that any car can actually be converted relatively inexpensively. That might be a low hanging fruit of its own. How to make the hydrogen without consuming fossil fuels is another matter entirely. However, even if they were consuming fossil fuels to produce the hydrogen, a fixed plant has more options for scrubbing co2 than a small vehicle.

    16. Re:Low externality baseload Solar by e3m4n · · Score: 1

      also wanted to point out that using solar/wind/etc to produce power and some of that is used to make hydrogen, then the hydrogen can be exported elsewhere to generate electricity where wind and solar are not feasible, such as Anchorage or Juno.

    17. Re:Low externality baseload Solar by Agripa · · Score: 1

      It won't work. It can't work. I say this because it uses the same materials for the salt and piping as molten salt nuclear reactors and I've been told the salt will simply eat through the pipes and all you will have is an expensive mess.

      Let's assume this solar salt thermal storage technology does work, then molten salt nuclear reactors will work. Research in one molten salt technology is directly applicable to the other. If these solar thermal plants gain any traction and prove the technology on molten salts then molten salt nuclear reactors will soon follow.

      The materials used in molten salt nuclear reactors have to withstand both radiation, especially neutron radiation which causes embrittlement of iron and nickel based alloys, and chemically active decay products.

      The milder conditions for thermal storage make the salts much easier to contain.

    18. Re:Low externality baseload Solar by philmarcracken · · Score: 1

      These aren't solar panels dimwit.

    19. Re:Low externality baseload Solar by Areyoukiddingme · · Score: 1

      It won't work. It can't work. I say this because it uses the same materials for the salt and piping as molten salt nuclear reactors and I've been told the salt will simply eat through the pipes and all you will have is an expensive mess.

      Only for extremely high temperature use. Liquid fluoride salts may be useful for storage systems that operate between 700 and 800 degrees C. However that's not necessary to make an operational system. It's entirely possible to build one that operates below 600 degrees C, and in fact this is the most common because that's the operating temperature regime of steam turbines. Between 600 and 700 degrees, gas turbines are used.

      Commercial molten salt storage is in operation today, using sodium nitrate, potassium nitrate, or calcium nitrate, running at an operating temperature on the hot side of 566 degrees C. No fluoride salt storage is in operation precisely because of the difficulties and dangers involved. Whereas fluoride salt is optional for solar-driven molten salt storage technology, it is not optional for fission reactors, which depend on the properties of liquid fluoride to chemically bind with uranium and its fission byproducts.

      I only say that the same applies to nuclear power, it can be put underneath anything. It can be under an airport, a military base, or a bunch of solar collectors. Land use is effectively zero for both but the power output per area is very low for solar but nearly unlimited for nuclear.

      Neither is true.

      First, nuclear power density has very hard upper limits. Exceeding them is called a nuclear bomb.

      Second, nuclear power requires some sort of cold side, the same as coal or gas, or indeed solar thermal molten salt power systems. For the vast majority of nuclear power plants, this is a large body of water. For those few built without a ready source of water, a very large amount of atmospheric cooling is required. This cooling tower is the most visible, most iconic part of nuclear power plant design, and it isn't optional when building high efficiency power generation facilities. People who propose containerized nuclear reactors always hand-wave away the cooling tower, though they all mention it in the fine print as being a necessary part of an installation. Even naval reactors still use ocean water for coolant, and sacrifice efficiency because they don't have room for a cooling tower, making up for some of it by being mobile.

      Therefore I conclude that they don't believe CO2 emissions are any real threat to humanity or national security.

      Correct. No government in the world believes CO2 emissions are any real threat. Some governments believe they can get free money from unfounded panic about CO2 emissions. Since those same governments have already gotten and continue to get free money because there might be Communists (with a capital C) under the bed, they are probably correct.

    20. Re:Low externality baseload Solar by Pentium100 · · Score: 1

      But the question is will the change caused by global warming/climate change cost you even more than doing something about it.

      As long as high frequency trading is a thing, it won't matter. After all, what matters is the stock price in the next millisecond, maybe the next second. Well, if you are real careful and planning, you would look a whole minute in advance.

      Also, if the really big climate problems are 30 years away, then an 80 year old billionaire doesn't care. If the huge problems are 100 years away, then even I don't care. Also, I'd bet that when those huge problems do appear, they won't affect the wealthy.

      Is that good? Probably not. But people avoid doing cheaper things to prevent more expensive problems all the time. How many people don't change the oil in their cars as often as they need? After all, if you don't change the oil, nothing bad happens immediately. The problem may come up 10 years later, maybe you'll have a different car by then...

    21. Re:Low externality baseload Solar by MrKaos · · Score: 1
      First, it depends on the salt you use. Second, if salt leaks from a solar plant it leaks salt into the environment, which is not a big deal. If a MSR leaks salt it also leaks the radio-active isotopes the salt is carrying into the environment, which is a big deal. Radio-active effluents in the environment are a massive externality. Carbon externality in the environment is a solvable problem, radio-isotope externality in the environment is not.

      Let's assume this solar salt thermal storage technology does work, then molten salt nuclear reactors will work. Research in one molten salt technology is directly applicable to the other. If these solar thermal plants gain any traction and prove the technology on molten salts then molten salt nuclear reactors will soon follow.

      There is no need to assume anything, one is not applicable to the other. When steel is bombarded with neutrons it becomes brittle and creates leaks. This is the main factor why Nuclear Reactors have limits on their service life and require new materials technologies.

      This doesn't occur with solar technology which is why your assumption is wrong.

      There's a big difference though between these molten salt technologies, nuclear power doesn't need sunny skies to provide power.

      Solar does not produce nuclear waste.

      This can be underground.

      This was a primary safety improvement recommended to the Nuclear industry by a panel assembled from the Nuclear Industry at the request of the NRC. The improvement was rejected by the Nuclear Industry along with another nineteen recommendations for safety improvements. EPR has four of the improvements and AP1000 has none of those improvements. So all of your theoretical use cases are moot points.

      Though I think using Nuclear in space is a good idea though - as long as it never comes back here because it will be as hot, radioactive speaking.

      Land use is effectively zero for both but the power output per area is very low for solar but nearly unlimited for nuclear.

      Utilization for solar is very high and very low for nuclear.

      --
      My ism, it's full of beliefs.
    22. Re:Low externality baseload Solar by dywolf · · Score: 1

      (you cant hide it with your sock puppets)

      that is blatantly false.
      solar has already shown itself capable of powering entire nations.

      a solar grid ~140 miles on a side could power the globe.
      not useful in a literal sense, but gives a starting point of the amount of surface area required.
      as it is, every residential roof in the US alone would provide that much area.
      add in commercial buildings, which are less likely to have suboptimal roof lines and angles (being typically flat), and the rest of the world, and you've taken into account the need for more than that minimum area (cause the earth spins you know).

      and while a "smart grid" would help greatly in distribution, it's not required.

      meaning the problem is solvable.
      today.
      with current technology.
      and without all the downsides of nuclear.

      the only thing lacking is the political and human will to make it happen.

      --
      The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
  7. Great, why just now? by Mathinker · · Score: 1

    But, but, then how will we fuel our self-driving flying cars?

    Murphy strikes yet again!

  8. States could step in. by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 4, Interesting

    While the US federal government has a distinct lack of political will change pollution, it is still possible for states to take action that will have a wide effect.

    For example, a state could require an environmental tax on all products (including imports) that are equivalent to the cost the remove the pollution expelled in the production (or use) of the product. They could then use that money to fun CO2 capture systems. Naturally, you would want to ramp this up over a few years as to reduce the economic impact. While the demands of a single state would have a small impact, it would provide the political cover for other states to join in.

    This would soon bankrupt coal power plants and quickly point power companies toward ramping up environmentally friendly power sources lest competition take their profits. So if some state politicians can just grow a pair and do this then we'll be on our way to environmental recovery.

    Good progress is made by the brave, not the cowards who only think of themselves.

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    1. Re:States could step in. by swb · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I think the states are handcuffed by Congress' ability to regulate interstate commerce. States can't charge tariffs on imports from other states.

      I honestly don't know how California was ever able to get away with its own emissions standards in the 1970s when up against the Big 3 automakers other than the obvious smog problems in LA making it clear something had to be done.

      States have pretty good options for regulating pollution outputs but they're also often up against the economic realities of the cost of energy as a major factor in their local business economics, and the fact that a lot of power plants are owned by national companies. Force closed a big coal plant without anything to replace its baseload? Sure, but now you've tripled the cost of electricity and it won't be long before local businesses close or relocate because they aren't profitable at the new rates.

      I never know how much of the "solar/wind is growing!!!11" hype to actually believe, but it's probably likely that the economics of it really are starting to make sense and the only way change will really happen is when the economics of it work.

    2. Re:States could step in. by atrex · · Score: 1

      IIRC California's emissions standards exemption was the result of critical levels of air pollution in it's cities. The city air was so polluted that they had to do something to get it under control, and they managed to wring an exemption from the federal congress so that they could enforce their own standards. Of course, the current administration is now trying to do away with that exemption lock, stock, and barrel along with freezing the emissions standards at their currently levels.

      I think the states could get away with an emissions registration sticker as part of a vehicle's annual inspection. The more a vehicle pollutes the higher the sticker cost. Thus, it doesn't interfere with "interstate commerce", but it does put the burden on the consumer. You want to buy a gas guzzling air polluting car? You're going to pay for the privilege each and every year you own it. That should shift consumer attention and demand to smaller more fuel efficient and cleaner vehicles instead of giant honking SUVs.

    3. Re:States could step in. by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      I honestly don't know how California was ever able to get away with its own emissions standards in the 1970s when up against the Big 3 automakers other than the obvious smog problems in LA making it clear something had to be done.

      California just did it. At the time, the feds weren't even regulating half the stuff that California decided to regulate. Further proof that it's better to just go forth and fix problems, and ask permission later.

      I know it's folly to hope for California to secede from the union, but it really would be the best thing for us. The USA would be pathetic without California. I mean, even more pathetic.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    4. Re:States could step in. by Ichijo · · Score: 2

      The red states could not afford to allow the blue states to secede, so they will probably not let it happen no matter how many liberal judges and politicians California and the other blue states be promise to take with them.

      --
      Any sufficiently unpopular but cohesive argument is indistinguishable from trolling.
    5. Re:States could step in. by blindseer · · Score: 1

      While the US federal government has a distinct lack of political will change pollution, it is still possible for states to take action that will have a wide effect.

      I agree. I believe that the states have the authority to address the CO2 output of the nation without needing permission or any action from the federal government. What I'm thinking of is the building of nuclear power plants. The federal government has no constitutional authority that I can see to have a monopoly on the licensing of nuclear power plants, the manufacture and use of radioactive materials, and so much else needed for a state to construct a nuclear power industry within their borders independently from federal government approval.

      What the federal government has done in such cases is to argue that if any part of an economic transaction involves something that crossed state lines that constitutes "interstate commerce". This was used to get the FBI involved in a case of assault involving someone having their hair cut because the scissors used came from outside the state. If that's what constitutes "interstate commerce" then any transaction that one party in the transaction is wearing running shoes made in China while making that transaction is "interstate commerce".

      The states need to dial back this nonsense of what it means to conduct "interstate commerce" and put the federal government in it's place. Then they need to grow a pair and tell the federal government to get serious on reducing CO2 with nuclear power and start issuing build permits or the states will simply issue permits of their own. Every state in the union has their own nuclear power oversight agency. Some of these states have more people, more money, and just as large of a government for oversight, as many nations with nuclear power of their own. If Iran is capable of running a nuclear power industry in their borders then so can any of a number of states in the USA.

      Where you fail in your argument on states acting independently is the taxation of imports, this is explicitly forbidden by the US Constitution. The states cannot tax imports and I expect that the federal government, as well as many states, would put an end to this really quick. What I propose does not require anything crossing state lines other than items of multiple possible uses. The federal government can't come in to stop the construction of a nuclear power plant based on the fact that the foundations were dug with a John Deere dozer made in Iowa, and burning diesel fuel refined in Texas. Once that crosses the border the government cannot dictate how something is used, claiming this violates some kind of "interstate commerce" law. If they want to stop uranium from crossing borders then that might be within their power but that is of little concern since uranium is everywhere.

      The basics of building and operating a nuclear reactor has been public domain for decades. Given that and some smart people from any given university in the USA I can assume a state can figure out the details, especially since there's 100 nuclear reactors in the USA to draw experience from.

      The states do have authority to act on their own to reduce CO2 output. We will not have a modern economy without nuclear power. The states need to take the lead on this since the federal government has been dragging their feet for decades on building new nuclear power.

      --
      I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
    6. Re:States could step in. by MachineShedFred · · Score: 1

      California does have the ability to regulate vehicle registrations and licensing. Don't have the required emissions equipment? Then you don't pass the registration inspection, and you cannot get plates for the vehicle.

      --
      Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
    7. Re:States could step in. by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      Every two years you bolt it back on.

      No problem.

      Reminds me, I've got to get my CARB parts back, loaned them to a friend for his smog check.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    8. Re:States could step in. by hawkfish · · Score: 1

      While the US federal government has a distinct lack of political will change pollution, it is still possible for states to take action that will have a wide effect.

      For example, a state could require an environmental tax on all products (including imports) that are equivalent to the cost the remove the pollution expelled in the production (or use) of the product. They could then use that money to fun CO2 capture systems. Naturally, you would want to ramp this up over a few years as to reduce the economic impact. While the demands of a single state would have a small impact, it would provide the political cover for other states to join in.

      This would soon bankrupt coal power plants and quickly point power companies toward ramping up environmentally friendly power sources lest competition take their profits. So if some state politicians can just grow a pair and do this then we'll be on our way to environmental recovery.

      Good progress is made by the brave, not the cowards who only think of themselves.

      This is effectively what Washington's I-1631 on the ballot next month intends to do. You are correct that the interstate commerce clause makes it pretty much impossible to apply border tariffs on carbon pollution, but there is still a lot that can be done. In Washington, our grid is already pretty decarbonised thanks to a large amount of hydro, and our last coal plant is set to shut down in the next couple of years, so we can start looking at the non-grid problems (mostly transportation).

      States as the "laboratories of democracy" can start running these experiments to solve parts of the problem right now. Have a look at the initiative's construction to see the kinds of issue that come up making this sort of policy (e.g. what do you do about the state's aluminum smelter?) This is our third attempt at pricing carbon externalities (2016's I-732 and a bill in the last session of the legislature) and we have worked out a lot of the niggly details. Even if we fail, the next state can learn from our mistakes and eventually we will get there.

      --
      You will not drink with us, but you would taste our steel? - Walter Matthau, The Pirates
  9. Ironic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So they recommend people to use trains, fly less and use video conferencing. When they all flew to South Korea for their conference..

    "All animals are equal, and some animals are more equal than the others."

    1. Re:Ironic by SqueakyMouse · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It would certainly have set a better example had they made a point of video conferencing rather than flying however we must be mindful of the 'tu quoque' fallacy.

    2. Re:Ironic by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 1

      When they all flew to South Korea for their conference..

      Insightful, really? "These" people come from around the world, they have to meet ; would it be in SK or in the US, that'd be the same. They don't travel for leisure, they meet to talk important matters.

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      Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
    3. Re:Ironic by DigressivePoser · · Score: 1

      When they all flew to South Korea for their conference..

      Insightful, really? "These" people come from around the world, they have to meet ; would it be in SK or in the US, that'd be the same. They don't travel for leisure, they meet to talk important matters.

      Yes it's all very important for them to meet in person, stay in nice hotels, go to luncheons, hobnob with their colleagues, have a great time. Teleconferencing the whole shindig, while difficult, would be a big statement. They want the rest of us to sacrifice, so how about they set an example.

    4. Re:Ironic by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 1

      It's already hard enough to get these people agreeing on something when they meet physically ...

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    5. Re:Ironic by hawkfish · · Score: 1

      It would certainly have set a better example had they made a point of video conferencing rather than flying however we must be mindful of the 'tu quoque' fallacy.

      Videoconferencing is a terrible way for humans to communicate. We simply don't notice people who are flat and don't breath - unless we make a continuous effort. And that effort undermines our ability to concentrate on the problem at hand. Given the severity of the problem, I'd rather take the carbon hit.

      --
      You will not drink with us, but you would taste our steel? - Walter Matthau, The Pirates
  10. If only 10C rise could happen quicker. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Speaking as a Canadian, a 10C increase would be quite nice(even tolerable in summer)... If we could hold back the climate refugees ;p

    1. Re:If only 10C rise could happen quicker. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I'd put money that your opinion of "tolerable in summer" would be heinously challenged by the half a billion people stampeding into Canada from the US and Central America. That's nearly 14 foreigners per Canoodian bearing 393 million firearms.

    2. Re:If only 10C rise could happen quicker. by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      FYI 1 degree C temp increase is equal to moving about (world wide average) 145 km south or 500 ft lower in altitude.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  11. WRONG. Do it with Cost and Money, not just facts. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Simply put, if you don't put this in terms of monetary impact to those involved (politicians, government) then you're going to get ignored.

    There's nothing better than saying: If you do nothing, then your land with factory/plant X is going to be full of water and unusable - this means your businesses in that area (which probably lobby you) won't exist, and it'll cost this much to move them if you do nothing. Over time, this will multiply and become hugely expensive, certainly more expensive than doing something about it and limiting emissions (etc other stuff in report to mitigate warming)

    Facts mean little to politicians. I thought people knew this already?

  12. If only there were a dealmaker in the house by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 2

    If such a person existed, he/she could organize a grand climate Panmunjom.

    The right would have to admit that the greenhouse mechanism is plausible and that current data shows warming. There may be disagreement about exactly how much there is and at what point 'weather' becomes 'climate,' but it's out there, and growing.

    The left would have to allow us to use all carbon-free technologies in addressing the problem, rather than just the ones that are tiny and cute. In the real world, we still need energy-usinh big cities and heavy industries.

    1. Re:If only there were a dealmaker in the house by rogoshen1 · · Score: 1

      Exactly this. the left/environmentalists need to come up with solutions that don't involve telling/shaming/forcing people to live their lives in a politically correct manner.

      Reducing another person's standard of living is in all places, all times, and all universes an abject non-starter. And this is exactly where modern environmentalism has lost the plot. I can't think of a 'nosier' political movement..

      Instead, come up with creative ways to sequester carbon, or incentivize waste reduction (aside from the tax-cudgel) -- and you'll see far less resistance to conservation.

  13. Idiots by Framboise · · Score: 2

    "ACT NOW IDIOTS" is indeed the most appropriate language for the stupids.

     

    1. Re:Idiots by Framboise · · Score: 1, Insightful

      So you mean the stupids have taken control, so neither the rational nor the emotional discourse are working. Conclusion: we are doomed. My hope is that within Trump's supporters there are still some that will listen by either kinds of arguments, such that the rational discourse finally prevails.

    2. Re:Idiots by 110010001000 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      What does this have to do with Trump? The EU increased their carbon output in 2017 (and is doing worse in 2018). Are they Trump supporters? https://www.reuters.com/articl...

    3. Re:Idiots by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Kavanaugh was elected because he was a highly qualified justice, and the claims against him had zero corroboration - and in fact, the claimants (all of them) consistently changed their stories. The only idiots were the ones who chose to continue to believe the claims in such case.

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    4. Re:Idiots by atrex · · Score: 2

      Apparently Brazil is most likely about to elect their own version of climate change denying Trumpist too. Fifth largest nation in the world. I think you called it right, we are doomed thanks to the stupids.

    5. Re:Idiots by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 1

      "ACT NOW IDIOTS" is indeed the most appropriate language for the stupids.

      The "by 2030" from TFS does give the wrong idea that they could still wait some more.

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      Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
    6. Re:Idiots by rickb928 · · Score: 1

      We're not doomed.

      Coastal flooding already forces humans to either build differently or move to higher ground.

      Species such as coral are proving somewhat more resilient than expected, but even if they are not it isn't evident that the demise of coral will destroy the biome.

      Conifers are surprisingly resilient also, though having sugar maples further north will mostly change the farms' locations. Conifers are overrated anyways...

      And more 'fresh' water in the oceans?

      Why is it that change is so bad, when our planet has experience more massive changes in the past? You expected all this to last forever?

      --
      deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
    7. Re:Idiots by drinkypoo · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Kavanaugh was elected because he was a highly qualified justice,

      Highly qualified to suck corporate cock, anyway.

      and the claims against him had zero corroboration

      Fail, fail.

      and in fact, the claimants (all of them) consistently changed their stories.

      False.

      The only idiots were the ones who chose to continue to believe the claims in such case.

      Yeah, you're not an idiot, you're just morally bankrupt.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    8. Re:Idiots by Framboise · · Score: 1

      Did you consider that perhaps there are more than a single stupid president?
      Apparently the level of logical thinking is flying low these days.

    9. Re: Idiots by houghi · · Score: 1

      The Europeans didn'tvote for Hillary or sanders, sooo ....

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    10. Re:Idiots by blindseer · · Score: 2

      Brett Kavanaugh is on the Supreme Court right now because the Democrats couldn't be bothered to properly handle a criminal accusation. This wasn't a question of his character, although that was certainly part of it, or a matter of his political slant. He was accused of a crime. The Democrats sat on this criminal accusation for weeks, maybe even months or years, rather than hand that off to the proper law enforcement agencies. They could have handed it off to the FBI but they would likely have simply handed it off to the local police, since the crime did not occur within the jurisdiction of the FBI they cannot investigate any such crime themselves. The proper investigation authority was not the FBI, and the senators should have known this or found someone that knew this.

      Congress has subpoena powers to compel testimony and to secure relevant documents. They failed to subpoena witnesses and, with the exception of Grassley demanding records from the accusers, called for nothing to corroborate that a crime had occurred. If Ford wanted to keep Kavanaugh from SCOTUS then she should have provided the documents requested before the committee even asked for them. Ford should also have written letters or made a phone call to Grassley or some other senator when her claims of Kavanaugh's misconduct was not brought up earlier in the confirmation process.

      The Democrats delayed in bringing the accusations to light when they first heard of it. They failed to forward the accusations to the law enforcement agencies with jurisdiction. They failed to subpoena witnesses. They failed to perform a proper interview of the accused and the accuser when they had the opportunity. They failed to find corroborating witnesses, in a crime that supposedly had several witnesses. Ford failed to provide times, dates, places, and names, to allow for a proper investigation.

      We have Justice Kavanaugh today because the Democrats failed to make their case when there was still time to do a proper investigation. Don't get mad at the Republicans over this, of course they are going to pick one of their own. Blame the Democrats. Kavanaugh was a judge for 15 years up to today, so it's not like there wasn't time to bring up accusations of sexual assault before now.

      Yeah, you're not an idiot, you're just morally bankrupt.

      The Senate Democrats charged with making their case against Kavanaugh being appointed to SCOTUS are idiots for not following the proper process to investigate this crime and keep Kavanaugh off the court, and morally bankrupt for making this a circus of politics than an investigation of a crime. The Democrats in the Senate screwed up on this big time, and now they have to live with their mistakes.

      --
      I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
    11. Re:Idiots by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

      Your link says nothing about corroboration. The witnesses put forward by Dr. Ford, in fact, either did not recall the incident or outright denied it. There was zero support for her charges - and, in fact, due to the denials of the event, there was actual support for Justice Kavanaugh. So is there any corroboration or proof it ever happened? Any at all?

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    12. Re:Idiots by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

      PS: Interested in your take on admitted groper Corey Booker, or accused woman-beater Keith Ellison...

      --
      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
  14. Re:WRONG. Do it with Cost and Money, not just fact by ledow · · Score: 3, Interesting

    But... is it?

    Is it ACTUALLY more expensive to not do anything? Certainly, morally, but in terms of actual solutions and their efficacy and the knock-on effects and the cost of implementations - the data is actually thin on the ground.

    The Paris agreement is an example. Even if we all stuck to it, these same research bodies are now saying it's not enough.

    If the cost of not-drowing-in-Waterworld is to actually make many modern conveniences so expensive and unobtainable, have we "won"? Is that "better"? Is people aren't being flooded out of the coastal regions, but nobody can afford their electricity bill, or medicines and oils and products and shipping is suddenly twice as expensive?

    Everyone's done the "cost analysis" of not doing something. Nobody has (realistically) done the cost analysis of actually doing something that might work - or even really suggested what that is.

    It's a huge bugbear to me. The solutions are half-assed casual suggestions ("release less CO2", "stop burning oil"), etc. but the COST of doing so is not just a number on a balance sheet. More old people will die in winter, more things we take for granted won't be practical, and the associated error-bars are HUGE because we just don't know what's going to happen.

    I'm perfectly happy to trust in science and saying yes, this is happening, it's bad, it's caused by us. Let's take that as an "assumption" to work from even if you don't personally believe it.

    Now what? What do we do that fixes it? We stop burning coal. Okay, what would that affect? To my knowledge only one country in the world is coal-free on any regular basis (Germany?), and that's still one of the countries most reliant on coal overall. It's ALWAYS fossil fuels. Then nuclear. Then biomass (trees!). Then all the other "renewable" sources.

    So just a simple statement as "don't burn coal" drastically affects the economy and energy production of every country on the planet. That's going to knock into heating, cooling and industry before anything else. Which is going to kill people (even if only the elderly) and make everything more expensive.

    And that's just one item. Taken together, do the effects of "let's just burn everything, ramp up energy and use that resource to find a better solution" actually kill less or more people over the next 100 years? We don't know. Few ever study the "other side" of the coin.

    The problem with this kind of thing, which I wholeheartedly believe is conveying a necessary message, is that the message boils down to "DO THIS OR DIE!" and then someone in the crowd says "But... if we do that... do we not die anyway? Just in a different way, while destroying industry and society and causing more damage long-term?" And nobody has even the decency to look sheepish or say "Well, no, actually we looked and it wouldn't hurt at all if we did X instead".

    The research into that side might exist, but it's certainly not being advertised and not being made popular and almost certainly not being done as rigorously or as seriously as the scaremongering.

    I'd honestly like to know - if we do EVERYTHING - if we all get unanimous worldwide co-operation and overnight we all become vegans who wash their clothes on rocks, solar-power the entire world, never burn so much as a match again, pump all our energy resources into reversing the CO2 increase, recycle every plastic bag in every landfill in the planet, etc. etc. etc. - whatever loony ideas we can come up with - will that *actually* make it better than the alternative? Because I see drastically little evidence that way. I know we all say "it's there, it's what the scientists say"... but as I consider myself a scientist, I can't honestly look and say "I must recommend this path, or indeed ANY path, out of this mess, because it will be better than the thing we think might happen if we don't".

    Everyone acknowledges the problem. The solution eludes us. And the cost-benefit analysis of any dream we can imagine is really "Er... dunno... probably not" at best.

  15. stop flying by bigtreeman · · Score: 2

    Stop flying around the world for stupid fucking holidays

    --
    Go well
    1. Re:stop flying by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 1

      Or fly electric

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  16. Attitude of those in Power--I'll be dead (shrug) by decaffeinated · · Score: 2
    The current generation of leaders is going to leave an absolute garbage dump of a planet to the next generation--the Millennials.

    Think I'm exaggerating? Australia just recently gave up on its effort to meet its Paris climate agreement carbon reduction targets.

    Lots of folks gonna' be packing up and moving to escape rising seas and suffocating heat (e.g., S. Arizona).

  17. Re:I think global warming is caused by gays by Barsteward · · Score: 2

    i wouldn't want to be in an ark in a hurricane

    --
    "The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
  18. Re:all of these warnings do nothing to incite chan by AmiMoJo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    That's a very US-centric view. In the EU, for example, we have considerably more control over corporations. See our environmental and privacy protections, for example. We also tend to have more limits on the funding of political parties and the amount they can spend, which really helps keep things from getting as bad as the US.

    Having said that, even in the US the corporations don't have total control. Look at emission limits on cars, surely if big oil and car manufacturers were running things those wouldn't exist.

    --
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    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  19. You're not wrong by Viol8 · · Score: 3, Funny

    I have a cousin who works as an enviromental consultant - helps small companies reduce their carbon footprint. But every year she takes at least 2 long haul holidays with her bf, usually to the far east. But wait, thats ok according to her - because once they get their they don't hire a car but cycle around! No, I'm not making this shit up. And yes, she's a millenial.

    1. Re:You're not wrong by DigiShaman · · Score: 1

      It's called hypocrisy. It's why I give exactly not one fuck to what asshats like those say or do. They're just gnats, and with pleasure, swatted away.

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
    2. Re:You're not wrong by Bongo · · Score: 2

      Has anyone seen the UK TV mini series Utopia?
      The episode where the guy is chatting to a mom with a kid at a bus station, and she says she is taking the bus because of the environment. and then he launches into a stone cold monologue regards, so then why did you have the kid?

      And does anyone remember how this all used to be about population growth? Films like ZPG, made in 1972?

      We ran out of time when the Earth's carrying capacity was exceeded by cheating humans, around 12,000 years ago when we invented agriculture.
      Agriculture rapes ecosystems and forces them into unnatural monocultures, which inevitably deplete the soil.

      There's even an argument that civilisations fell whenever, after a few centuries or about a thousand years, they depleted their soils and crashed their food production, because agriculture takes away from the soil and doesn't put anything back.
      Of course, we cheat by using fossil based fertilisers.

      These sorts of arguments just add up to a picture that, the Earth's carrying capacity for humans is exactly how many humans were living as hunter gatherers 50,000 years ago, when our numbers were kept in check by natural availability of animals and berries.

      That's it. Everything after that was a cheat. Defining stable climate as pre-industrial levels is also a cheat. Try instead, using pre-agricultural levels.
      That would actually be realistic.

      Our current "crop" (pun intended) of experts are corporate driven people who still think big agribusiness is the way to feed the world. It isn't.
      Rice, bread, and carrots are not sustainable anymore than SUVs are sustainable. It is all a cheat.

      Ask the Egyptians of old. Ask the people of the "fertile crescent" which ain't so fertile anymore. Ask anyone who relied on agriculture in the face of changing environmental conditions like soil depletion.

      There is a reason we were, for almost our entire history, living as nomadic hunters and gatherers.

      The ecology view just doesn't run deep enough. We are royally screwed but for whatever reason, we cheated our way to a population of ten billion, as projected, once Africa gets going, and we did it using technology.

      Why do we think they keep extending this so-called "must act now" deadline? Because it isn't real. The real deadline was 12,000 years ago when we invented agriculture as a way to cheat environmental restraints.

      It is when the European turned up in that land and shot all the natives who were living on bison and berries in harmony and balance with the environment.

      Now this same technological culture thinks it can get some experts to figure out the right way to CONTINUE this cheat exercise. Well maybe we just cut back a bit on this here stuff and do some more of that other stuff. More grains and less meat, more solar and wind and less oil. That's ludicrous. We never existed in nature that way. For two million years humans lived and died as hunter gatherers and the children lived and learned in that environment.

      Now we think about "saving the environment" by plonking solar panels on the roof and trying to recycle plastics which inevitably end up in the environment anyway, if not on the first recycle then on the tenth or twentieth, all the while generating more industrial processing side-effects.

      It ain't natural. Don't have kids. That's about the only thing you can do, and then maybe you can say with a straight face, "yes I am saving the environment."

      END_POLEMIC

    3. Re:You're not wrong by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 1

      I have a cousin who works as an enviromental consultant - helps small companies reduce their carbon footprint. But every year she takes at least 2 long haul holidays with her bf, usually to the far east. But wait, thats ok according to her - because once they get their they don't hire a car but cycle around! No, I'm not making this shit up. And yes, she's a millenial.

      As long as they post the vacay pics on FB to show the rest of us how sad our lives are by comparison, it's all OK.

      Because they care ...

    4. Re:You're not wrong by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

      If she's not a hypocrite and is just very poorly informed, she could carbon offset her flights. It's not that expensive. Send her these links:

      http://www.abc.net.au/news/sci...

      https://co2.myclimate.org/en/f...

      https://www.terrapass.com/prod...

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    5. Re:You're not wrong by Bongo · · Score: 1

      This Luddite screed brought to you by a poster using the most advanced technology on earth.

      Oh I love our technology, but human technology is nothing compared to the technology of biological life. We take our rudimentary primitive tech and try to use to manipulate nature, and find we screw up nature's systems. WE are the luddites, who act as if our human-invented tech is better than nature. We are the ones who deny nature's natural systems, and impose our own. How many stupid consequences have we created with our "advanced" human technology? Humans are the arrogant luddites. And agriculture is a prime example. We come to rely on simple crops for most of the world's food, and the wheat and rice and so on, it depletes the soil. Yeah, real smart technology you got there. The luddites pretend that their own primitive ways are better than the sophisticated systems of life itself. Forty percent of the world's arable soil is depleted. But yeah, keep believing your technology is so sophisticated.

    6. Re:You're not wrong by Bongo · · Score: 1

      If that worked then why despite many efforts has the planet continued to desertify? Crop rotation just delays things a little.

    7. Re:You're not wrong by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

      Maybe with a calculator like the one in the preceding link?

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    8. Re:You're not wrong by Bongo · · Score: 1

      Well if Native Americans/Original Peoples were doing that, that's just as bad. In context I'm talking about the invention of agriculture, 12,000 years ago. So I guess that applies to everyone.

      Look, there are very few things these days which seem to me to be actual global threats. Most stuff that is sold as "catastrophe" is just something to solve with technology and more brainpower. Which is why I was shocked, shocked I say, to hear about soil depletion. And the fault is agriculture itself.

      This is the one which, to me, is really scary. And hence my rant. But I guess that like me, most people haven't heard about it. And many environmentally conscious people think that, focussing on climate change and CO2 reduction, will somehow fix all the big environmental problems.

      But this one ain't one of them. This one cuts to the very core of our food production. At a time when we are all being told to eat more vegetables because that is what is "sustainable". So, ranty ranty post. And one can just start to search a bit. For example, in the first few random hits:

      Steadily and alarmingly, humans have been depleting Earth’s soil resources faster than the nutrients can be replenished. If this trajectory does not change, soil erosion, combined with the effects of climate change, will present a huge risk to global food security over the next century, warns a review paper authored by some of the top soil scientists in the country.

      Scientists warn that humans have been depleting soil nutrients at rates that are orders of magnitude greater than our current ability to replenish the soil. Fixing this imbalance is critical to global food security over the next century.

      The paper singles out farming, which accelerates erosion and nutrient removal, as the primary game changer in soil health.

      “Ever since humans developed agriculture, we’ve been transforming the planet and throwing the soil’s nutrient cycle out of balance,” said the paper’s lead author, Ronald Amundson, a UC Berkeley professor of environmental science, policy and management. “Because the changes happen slowly, often taking two to three generations to be noticed, people are not cognizant of the geological transformation taking place.”

      Human security at risk as depletion of soil accelerates, scientists warn

      Apart from continuously trying to add the stuff back into the soil in an artificial way, and I do say "trying" as in Yoda, "there is no try", there is no answer. It happens slowly over generations and all the while it looks like there is food on the table. Then one day there isn't.

  20. Re:all of these warnings do nothing to incite chan by totallyarb · · Score: 1

    "that algorithm does not care about the weather or the long term suitability of our planet"

    Are you sure about that? Exactly how much of a profit do you think the algorithm calculates anyone making if everyone is dead? I'm sorry, this is just intellectual laziness on display here. We get it - you don't like corporations - but can you at least try to stop that from leading you into spouting nonsense?

    --
    -- Note to Mods: There is a good reason there's no "-1 Disagree" option. --
  21. Re:What is the correct temperature by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    STFU.

  22. mr burns nuclear will help you change coal to nuke by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    mr burns nuclear will help you change coal to nuke

  23. Re:WRONG. Do it with Cost and Money, not just fact by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

    Not doing anything is not a long term option, because the fossil fuels will run out, or become too expensive to exploit.

    The question is not if we should move away from fossil fuels, but when.

  24. How about we just make some shade by Pinky's+Brain · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Spin a giant fresnel lens (or simply a diffuser) at L1 to shade the earth, like was already suggested in 2004 by Gregory Benford. He said you could use plastic, but I have my doubts that would survive very long. Aluminium oxide maybe? L1 delta v isn't much higher than LEO, so with SpaceX costs this should be doable for 10s of billions in lift cost.

    A fraction of the opportunity cost of destroying the global economy and triggering WW3.

    1. Re:How about we just make some shade by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      Ocean acidification is still a problem, though. Potentially more serious than global warming.

    2. Re:How about we just make some shade by atrex · · Score: 1

      I think it's more likely that the rich and powerful will fund outer space development until they can leave the planet behind to live in a luxury space station. Alternatively, they'll build biodomes here on the earth's surface that won't be as susceptible to climate chaos. In the end, they'll continue to exploit the labor class while living privileged and pampered lives while the rest of humanity dies in the dirt.

      Granted, there are also other potential outcomes. If a massive worldwide epidemic wipes out half the human population, that will drastically lower emission levels. Not sure our current societies can survive that level of collapse, but, maybe. I wouldn't even put it past some governments to be engineering such an epidemic right now...

    3. Re:How about we just make some shade by Jfetjunky · · Score: 1

      Drop a giant ice cube mined from an asteroid into the ocean? Anyone?

  25. Re:Who cares by nevermindme · · Score: 1

    Heard this all before. People at the top of society telling the unwashed masses what to do.

    They Say -- Stop building urban centers immediately and move out to the farm and regain the roots of your civilization.

    They Say -- The intellectuals dont like it, cast them into reeducation camps until they get understand our logic is better than their logic. They Say -- Destroy the competitive assets in your economy and place your faith in government.

    They Say -- There was a less impactful way to generate power but it generated a minuscule amount of waste that can be made into a glass and rendered inert until harnless.

    They Politic things like solar and wind power that are price competitive in some unique locations, but make everyone believe they need solar roots and banks of batteries.

    They Say -- Ask why we cannot all be like the good folks who can power their tiny house, no kids, no AC mind you, with an overactive hamster and a birthday candle. They do not mind washing their pot funk clothes they wear on a rock next to the river.

    Sorry have seen this all before.

    Or We as individuals could use the most cost efficent solutiion at the time seeing that Solar and Wind will cut this generations carbon footprint by 40% and be cheaper. Put a resonable amount of research dollars towards safter fission lifecycle and make it a priorty to not to fly when a teleconfrence and a powerpoint could do for a work meeting.

    Not one of these groups comes out...ever... and says the human race as a collective has done a preaty good job going from the steam age, the age of steel to the age of data networks. The VPN and the laptop have save more carbon emmissions and traffic jams than any other technology deployed in the first world. No more is a middle manager driving a 3 ton car into the urban center so you can answer a phone in a cube.

    As robots take over transportation and delivering food to our pieholes the overall need for velocity of mass of products will slow and the enegy expended drops.

    Nobody who wants power can come out and say a resonably good society is forming without much goverment input on a lot of fronts.

  26. Re:all of these warnings do nothing to incite chan by SqueakyMouse · · Score: 1

    You're correct that typically trading algorithms do not explicitly factor in climate change. Liquidity provision algorithms or short term statistical arbitrage algorithms are largely indifferent. However if there is a large enough financial penalty for impacting the environment or climate change, then this data feeds into fundamentals models, and would be traded on. Trend models would then pick up on this as should discretionary traders.

  27. Re: No Problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Thank god the world greatest environmentalist al gore is paying for carbon offsets for his 24000 sq ft home. That will help.

  28. Re:What is the correct temperature by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Is this temperature graph showing the temperature data before or after NOAA's retroactive 'corrections' to the temperature record? It's curious that all the corrections make historical temperatures colder and recent temperatures warmer. Almost as if they needed to fudge the data so that the 'global warming crisis' wouldn't fizzle out in the face of lack of evidence.

  29. Re:WRONG. Do it with Cost and Money, not just fact by LubosD · · Score: 4, Informative

    To my knowledge only one country in the world is coal-free on any regular basis (Germany?)

    LOL, Germany? You mean the country that shut down its nuclear power plants for "safety" reasons only to have them replaced with coal power plants?

  30. Re:I think global warming is caused by gays by ls671 · · Score: 1

    You only need to stay in the middle of the hurricane, there is plenty of room there. The eye of the hurricane is pretty comfy!

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

    --
    Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
  31. Did you even look at the numbers ? by aepervius · · Score: 5, Informative

    Long haul flight is basically around 2 kg fuel per seat for every 100km. For a long haul like , say, 8000 km that is about 160 Kg fuel time 2 for return that's 320 Kg fuel or 640 Kg per two persons. Compare that for average fuel consumption car is 9 kg per 100 Km. Let us say 10. So the distance corresponding is 6400 km of car, or about 8000 miles. Somebody doing 8 mils of commuting every day will have done that in 4 month. That is also by the way the same consumption as somebody doing their holiday in car, so barring you going only 20 miles away for holiday, you'll consume as much. And in the grand scheme of thing, that will probably be nothing compared to the carbon footprint reduction for most company. So you can take your millennial joke , and shove it (I am much older than a millennial but I can't appreciate people which use that as a cheap shot).

    --
    C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
    visit randi.org
    1. Re:Did you even look at the numbers ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Wow, 640 kg is a lot. So you think that it's acceptable to fill two bathtubs with jet fuel and setting them on fire for entertainment?

      The guy commuting by car is bad too and he needs to use a different transport or live closer to work even if this means living in a smaller space. You can't justify a bad activity by comparing to another bad activity.

    2. Re:Did you even look at the numbers ? by Viol8 · · Score: 1

      You're assuming the plane would still fly if no one showed up. The airline would cancel unless it really needed it at the destination.

    3. Re:Did you even look at the numbers ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You can buy a CO2 emission certificate in Europe for 1000kg of emissions for around 15€. Then presumably your flight would be green, well on paper at least.

  32. Re:WRONG. Do it with Cost and Money, not just fact by magzteel · · Score: 1

    Not doing anything is not a long term option, because the fossil fuels will run out, or become too expensive to exploit.

    The question is not if we should move away from fossil fuels, but when.

    That's easy. Society will move away from fossil fuels when there is a better option.

    "Better" means cheaper, more efficient, readily available, suitable for purpose, etc.

  33. 4000 miles not 8000 by aepervius · · Score: 1

    Typo in doing the division.

    --
    C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
    visit randi.org
  34. Re:WRONG. Do it with Cost and Money, not just fact by guruevi · · Score: 1

    They've been saying stuff like that for years and it never comes true. We humans are a genious bunch when it comes to survival. What scientist need to do is find an economic solution to the problem. What really is an affordable, acceptable solution? So far all we've heard is either limit reproduction severely (a la China's one child policy - that worked out great) or kill people en masse/let yourself be killed. The other alternatives are mass production of inobtainium and going back to a pre-industrial era - that was a great time too and plays right into the "let's all die en masse".

    --
    Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
  35. Re:WRONG. Do it with Cost and Money, not just fact by Shaitan · · Score: 1

    That and every potential solutions or effort gets attacked by eco warriors pointing out it will hurt this or that. I pointed out a mass scale sequestoring solution and someone argued it would impact high altitude species by lowering the temperatures at high altitude. Was someone under the impression there were answers to this that don't break some eggs? We might just have to come to terms with bigger snow caps on mountains it certainly impacts less than destroying the oceans.

  36. Re:WRONG. Do it with Cost and Money, not just fact by ledow · · Score: 1

    I agree 100%.

    So what do you suggest? That we tax fossil fuel use to oblivion or stop it entirely.

    Let's assume that we can go *snap* and all the fossil fuels are locked away from us and can't be touched for 100 years.

    Now what? What do we do? What's the impact of that? How many people die of starvation or hypothermia while we sort it out? How long will the plans take to implement? What's the most practical replacement (NUCLEAR, don't argue otherwise)? How much do we need to ramp that up (double, maybe triple current usage)? How long will that take? What suffers in the meantime? How long will that last us? How much MORE / LESS CO2 will that generate than coal? Because... if it doesn't make bills much, much more expensive (fuel poverty deaths) then it may make them much, much cheaper (hell, let's just leave the air-con / heating on 24/7, we can afford it!)?

    So... where's the analysis of that situation? Where's the suggestion? What's the timescale (it'll take longer than 30 years to replace every coal plant on the planet with nuclear and in some places we may not even allow that to happen politically!)? How many suffer because of that plan (a non-zero number)? And what impact will that have on actually stopping/reversing/undoing the CO2 emissions as they stand (because those three are VERY different things)?

    What if doing that, worldwide, instantly, costs trillions, double energy prices, makes plastics unaffordable, holds off CO2 rises for 10 years, and then the levels continue to increase anyway? Was it worth doing? Honestly can we say that with any certainty?

  37. Permian–Triassic extinction event by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    No, that would be a Permian–Triassic extinction event, which was 8 degrees higher.

    Literally the CO2 in the sea, chokes everything in the sea, it dies, decays,, sulphur fills the air, land animals die, 98% species wipeout. Everyone dead.

  38. Re:WRONG. Do it with Cost and Money, not just fact by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

    That's easy. Society will move away from fossil fuels when there is a better option.

    I wouldn't be so sure. Switching will take huge investments, not just in money but also in energy. If you wait until fossil fuels are more expensive, then switching also becomes more expensive.

    It is entirely possible for a society to wait so long that they can no longer afford to switch.

  39. Re:WRONG. Do it with Cost and Money, not just fact by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

    If the cost of not-drowing-in-Waterworld is to actually make many modern conveniences so expensive and unobtainable

    It's not.

    In fact it's probably cheaper overall, it's just that there are a lot of powerful people opposed to the re-balancing because they lose out.

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  40. Re: It's getting hotter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    How fast do you think glaciers move?

  41. Re:WRONG. Do it with Cost and Money, not just fact by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

    So what do you suggest? That we tax fossil fuel use to oblivion or stop it entirely.

    I suggest that we gradually phase out fossil fuels, starting in 1980. Take 30 years to do first half, and then another 30 years to do the second half. Increasing taxation sounds like a reasonable plan to make the market do the work in an efficient manner.

    Let's assume that we can go *snap* and all the fossil fuels are locked away from us and can't be touched for 100 years.

    That's the current plan. Keep using fossil fuels until they are too expensive, and then go *snap*. Where's your analysis of that situation ?

  42. Re:EU Money by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

    The stupid EU keeps emitting more and more carbon. They aren't doing anything, but pointing fingers: https://www.reuters.com/articl...

  43. Re:all of these warnings do nothing to incite chan by Mashiki · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yeah, and you also suppress speech, political parties, and imprison people for saying mean words, and ignore criminality committed by particular racial/ethnic groups. It's sure working out well. But let's be realistic, because those limits on the funding of political parties work out about as well as nothing. See the most recent bit where several left wing parties, in various EU countries which held power loosened fundraising rules in order to get more money from corporate donors, then re-tightened the rules after public outcry...and the fact they were about to lose the election.

    Look at emission limits on cars, surely if big oil and car manufacturers were running things those wouldn't exist.

    Possibly, but that hasn't happened. Yet we can see the "allowances" given to cities and businesses because they allow a financial trade off into the government coffers. Like dumping fresh water out of reservoirs during a drought, or allowing cities to dump raw sewage into rivers(by paying a fine) but causing downstream cities to halt intake because they can't treat it, or allow companies to overfish as long as they pay a fine on each catch in treaty violation. Looking at you EU, and your abuse of fishing treaties. Something that even China is doing a better job on.

    --
    Om, nomnomnom...
  44. Cost benefit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    And the cost-benefit analysis of any dream we can imagine is really "Er... dunno... probably not" at best.

    That depends on who is doing it. Some don't mind dramatic climate change where our way of life is completely changed or destroyed. They'll be on Elysium or something protected by their private military and private farms by their private potable water sources.

    Others have examined their values and realize that they are just not compatible with a sustainable world. And most of my values were really programmed into me at a very early age; thrust upon me by marketers whose sole mission in life is to get me to consume mostly things that are completely unnecessary for my well-being or happiness.

    And the changes that would be required of me personally, I have already done to the best of my ability. Unfortunately, I do not have the resources to build my own public transportation system and living in a Waffle House state, public transportation is considered "Socialist" or something and don't want to pay the taxes - but have no problem devoting a significant part of their disposable income on their car (paying higher taxes for public transport and dumping the car would actually leave more money in their pockets.)

    In a nutshell, doing what we need to do to combat global warming is only a win. Aside from some adjusting to our lives, there is no downside.

  45. Re:WRONG. Do it with Cost and Money, not just fact by magzteel · · Score: 1

    That's easy. Society will move away from fossil fuels when there is a better option.

    I wouldn't be so sure. Switching will take huge investments, not just in money but also in energy.

    A better option takes migration issues into account. Few would buy LED light bulbs if they required new fixtures.

    To a consumer electricity from a nuclear plant is identical to electricity from a coal plant.

    But if other options cost twice as much and performed worse they wouldn't be 'Better'.

  46. Re:Attitude of those in Power--I'll be dead (shrug by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

    And the EU keeps increasing their carbon output, so I agree: https://www.reuters.com/articl...

  47. Re:all of these warnings do nothing to incite chan by GameboyRMH · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Sadly the possibility of everyone being dead years from now is not considered by these algorithms. HFT bots don't consider what's going to happen beyond the next few seconds. Most companies don't look beyond the next few quarters - usually not beyond 1 quarter. Some industries like insurance look further ahead and are already taking global warming into account, but most don't.

    Humanity is strapped to a machine that is indifferent to human suffering or ecological collapse and is dragging us toward catastrophe for our species and most of the life in the known universe.

    --
    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  48. Re:WRONG. Do it with Cost and Money, not just fact by DigiShaman · · Score: 1

    Harsh reality time - The "goal" is is to reduce the human population (by design) to well under 500 million. All done with the support of the indoctrinated electorate.

    Yes, the elite still need a permanent underclass to support their way of life.

    You really didn't think it was about YOU did you? Perhaps you shouldn't have taken the Red Pill after all. Sorry if it caused discomfort.

    --
    Life is not for the lazy.
  49. Re:all of these warnings do nothing to incite chan by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Hardly, and depending on context "the EU" isn't even one single entity. But none the less, there are things that the EU does better than the US, and vice versa. Discussing them and learning from each other is a good thing, no?

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  50. Re:all of these warnings do nothing to incite chan by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2

    Because you looked at one year's data and ignored a decades long trend to make your point, that's why.

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  51. Re:all of these warnings do nothing to incite chan by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 2

    the world is run by corporations, not people. corporations are run by shareholders.

    And shareholders are people. So you're saying that:

    the world is not run by people

    AND

    the world is run by people

    For what it's worth, if you have a 401k, it is very likely that YOU are a shareholder. It's utterly certain that I am a shareholder, in about a dozen companies, not counting 401k, IRA, and similar items that own shares....

    --

    "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
  52. Well, this is it, the Big Common Threat. by GameboyRMH · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This is the massive threat to humanity we've seen in sci-fi movies, usually represented by an invading alien species or some massive natural(ish) disaster, but in real life it was our own pollution that first posed a huge threat to us all.

    And now we see how we react as a species to that threat. We didn't temporarily put aside our differences to work toward a common goal as fiction has often speculated. Instead most people kind of brushed the problem off and went back to focusing on the small-scale problems in their own lives, and a few people convinced themselves that the threat was made up and we'd all be fine. When we already had a good idea of how dangerous this threat was, those people elected a raging moron who shared their collectively suicidal beliefs to what was at the time the most powerful political office in the world.

    The biggest threat to humanity is ourselves. Working to optimize our societies into what is effectively a perfect breeding ground for psychopaths over the last few hundred years (and especially over the last few decades) has been biting us in the ass the entire time and is about to finally rip out our throats.

    I think our only hope is a millennial-driven political revolution - vote out every conservative everywhere across the globe, and put something between social democrats and democratic socialists in power so we can refocus our societies on benefiting as much of humanity as possible and defeat the incredibly short-sighted and largely detrimental business interests driving us to collective ruin.

    --
    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    1. Re:Well, this is it, the Big Common Threat. by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      This is the massive threat to humanity we've seen in sci-fi movies, usually represented by an invading alien species or some massive natural(ish) disaster, but in real life it was our own pollution that first posed a huge threat to us all.

      Maybe it's both. ;)

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    2. Re:Well, this is it, the Big Common Threat. by hawkfish · · Score: 1

      This is the massive threat to humanity we've seen in sci-fi movies, usually represented by an invading alien species or some massive natural(ish) disaster, but in real life it was our own pollution that first posed a huge threat to us all.

      Maybe it's both. ;)

      I was thinking more like Well, we've practically terraformed it for them.

      --
      You will not drink with us, but you would taste our steel? - Walter Matthau, The Pirates
  53. Re:all of these warnings do nothing to incite chan by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

    Humanity is strapped to a machine that is indifferent to human suffering or ecological collapse and is dragging us toward catastrophe for our species and most of the life in the known universe.

    A few years back I was at a meeting with an insurance company mahatma.

    The figures are stunning, and if an insurance company is going to survive, they have to take the effects of AGW into account.

    Or even if they don't believe in it - they have to take into account whatever is mimicking Sea Level Rise.

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  54. Rationalization ..... by King_TJ · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Actually, your story is a great example of why most people aren't really making an effort to change behaviors over climate change concerns.
    At the end of the day, we need to use a lot of energy to accomplish the things in life we want to do. Everything from taking those trips to visit family or friends to the daily work commute needed to earn a paycheck .... These things are relatively non-negotiable. Most of us only have so much income we can spend on things, and making more requires MORE energy usage. Maybe you start a service business as a side job or second job? Well, now you're traveling around to client sites in your spare time and running errands for needed supplies to do the work. With the high cost of such propositions as switching your vehicles to electric cars, it's out of financial reach for many people still.

    The biggest changes will only come about as the primary energy sources are converted over from burning fossil fuels. The power generation plants are actually doing this, but it's a very slow process that's (perhaps ironically) slowed down quite a bit by all the legal requirements for things like "environmental impact studies" - foisted upon the utility companies by the likes of Greenpeace. The main solution will probably be nuclear power - which is the toughest one to put online without a lot of resistance from environmental groups.

    Honestly, I feel like I've almost over-extended myself already, financially, investing in some of these "Green" solutions. I put as many PV solar panels on my roof as the company could fit, using the most efficient ones per square foot available at the time. I traded in a Jeep and a sports car to get a used Tesla S. And I just took out a loan to do some home repairs that included ripping down the old siding and material behind it and replacing it with better insulated, modern materials. So hopefully, that cuts down on my winter heating bill and energy usage. So I'm going to sleep well at night that I've done my share. But realistically, all of this is a tiny drop in the bucket in the big picture -- even if it's a huge chunk of my total income.

    1. Re:Rationalization ..... by blindseer · · Score: 1

      The biggest changes will only come about as the primary energy sources are converted over from burning fossil fuels.

      I'll take these steps of converting from fossil fuels when I see the federal government do the same. We have had a federal government talking big on reducing CO2 but doing little. I'll give some examples.

      The US Coast Guard has been begging for new ice breakers for a long time. They have three big ice breakers now but one is not sea worthy and the other two are constantly being put up for repairs. They are big but they are also old. Given that the USA has interests in keeping a scientific station open in Antarctica, the Coast Guard needs ice breakers capable of crossing the equator. This means getting ships with considerable range, a range that is well suited for nuclear power. This this would be a perfect opportunity to demonstrate an effort to reduce CO2 output, as well as support the efforts to investigate global warming at both poles, by getting some nuclear powered ice breakers.

      The US Navy has also been calling for more nuclear powered ships. They have submarines and aircraft carriers but the nuclear powered cruisers we had up until the 1990s were replaced with oil burning versions. Why? Because nuclear powered ships cost too much. The same Congress that demands we stop burning fossil fuels at all costs because of the damage CO2 does to the environment was not willing to dig just a little deeper in their pockets to give the Navy nuclear powered cruisers.

      If Congress is not taking their own demands seriously to switch away from burning fossil fuels to low carbon alternatives, even when that would mean a more capable Coast Guard and Navy, then I have to wonder if they even believe their own claims of doom if we don't stop burning fossil fuels. Would building perhaps a dozen nuclear powered ships really make all that much difference in the long run on CO2 output? No, not likely. It would however demonstrate to the voting public that the government is taking the problem seriously to spend our tax dollars wisely on measures to reduce CO2 when and where they can.

      Another thing that bothers me, the US Navy has been working on a process to synthesize liquid hydrocarbons for use as fuel for aircraft. This is something that needs massive funding, lots of publicity, and a technology that should be offered to private interests for their own development to markets. This technology takes CO2 from the air, and water from the ocean, breaks it down into the constituent elements, then builds them up to make fuel. This closes the carbon loop and means no new CO2 added to the air in the production of transportation fuel. I've seen nothing from Congress to show they even know this exists in spite of their continued calls for alternatives to drilling for oil. Well, here's an alternative that requires no new vehicles on the road or new planes in the air, we simply make new fuel like the old but without adding carbon to the air.

      Congress can't be bothered to take the CO2 emissions problem seriously so I have to wonder if in fact there is a problem.

      --
      I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
    2. Re:Rationalization ..... by jemmyw · · Score: 1

      The problem is that we've set up our economic and social lives around a level of technology and energy consumption. If the aeroplane had never been invented then the problem wouldn't exist, people wouldn't miss going on holiday to far off destinations. Now we can't see a way to roll it back.

      Of course there is a way to roll it back. Gradually increase taxes such that those activities cost slightly more against income each year, and adjust the tax base to bring down inequality. But both are politically difficult and probably would have needed to have been in place years ago to have the required effect.

      Now we're looking at radical changes to get to where is needed. And that won't happen.

      I agree about nuclear though, we should have been building that out, either as a permanent solution or a long term bridge gap to replace coal/gas.

  55. Re:What is the correct temperature by riverat1 · · Score: 2

    But that aside I'm going to ask the same question I continue to ask - what is the correct temperature and who gets to decide?

    It's a meaningless question. There is no "correct temperature". The real question is what temperatures are compatible with maintaining a complex global civilization? We've built this civilization on a certain temperature regime and changing temperatures are going to cause costly adaptation to the new regime. It's not clear yet just how costly that adaptation will be but chances are it's going to be a lot more than you seem to think.

    CO2 cannot be responsible for the presented temperature increase because 1 molecule out of 2500 can't increase ambient temperature by that much,

    Not that crap again. When a CO2 (or other GHG molecule) absorbs an infrared photon that added energy is quickly transferred to other non-GHG molecules in the atmosphere 99+% of the time. Eventually another infrared photon is emitted in a random direction so approximately half of them head back to the surface further warming it. Here's a quote I saved that explains it in more detail:

    It is first necessary to understand that molecules are made up of atoms (with mass) are held together by bonds, much like two balls linked by springs, and therefore have ways of vibrating at specific frequencies.

    The bonds between two atoms in a molecule are particularly strong, and can only vibrate at very high frequencies (emphasize frequencies over energies) well above the frequency of infrared or the solar radiation spectrum.

    However, molecules with 3 or more atoms can vibrate by changing the angles between the three atoms, and they can vibrate at additional (lower) frequencies. Molecules like CO2 and H2O have vibrational frequencies within the infrared range. In these vibrations, the strong bonds between Carbon and Oxygen may still have very high vibrational frequencies, but the two Oxygen atoms can vibrate toward or away from each other at this lower frequency.

    Molecules with more than 3 atoms can vibrate in even more ways (which means more and more frequencies). Examples are CH4, CFCs, etc.

    When upward radiation close to the right frequency hits a CO2 molecule, it can excite the vibrational mode at that frequency. The outward radiation is reduced by the amount of energy that goes into the vibration. We see the reduced amount of outward radiation in the spectra observed by downward looking satellites.

    [The observant student then might ask why the energy that goes into the vibration does not just get sent back out to space by emitting a photon – after all, if the same molecule gets hit over and over with photons won’t the vibrational energy increase and increase? There are two answers: the simple part is that yes, the energy can be re-emitted, but the direction of the emitted photons does not have to have the same upward angle. In fact, the extra energy will as likely go down as up. On average, only half of the incoming energy continues on an upward path, half heads back toward Earth to participate in the answer to question 3.

    The second answer comes from equipartion of energy. Temperature is a measure of the kinetic energy of the molecules. This kinetic energy is made up of not only the vibrational energy, but also the rotational energy and the classical kinetic energy of moving molecules.

    When one molecule with high vibrational energy bumps into another molecule (even one without a vibrational mode) some of that vibration can go into kicking the other molecule into faster motion or higher rotation. So energy gets lost from the vibrational mode and transferred into the general temperature of the surrounding gas. The CO2 molecule has a unique way to absorb energy at a particular frequency, but that energy gets transferred very quickly to its neighboring molecules, most of which have no way to emit radiation at that frequency.

    First, I view

  56. The UN and then there is the real world by thunderclees · · Score: 1

    The easy part is saying we need to do it, whatever IT is.
    The largest polluters in the world are still ramping up as their economies rise and their governments have no real interest in this except as an economic weapon.
    Then there is getting it down to the street.
    Sure, the average person on the street would like to save the planet but is not willing to give up comforts like a large screen TV, large house with oil or gas heating,
    The solutions put forward all have their gotcha's, solar and wind have heavy environmental impacts with the disposal of obsolete panels and blades.
    Hybrid and electric cars have expensive and hard to dispose of batteries.
    What to do?

    1. Re:The UN and then there is the real world by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

      Solar panels and wind turbine blades don't really get "obsolete," they get handed down to where they can continue to reduce fossil energy use, if less efficiently. They do sometimes get damaged and they're not rocket science to recycle. Neither are EV/hybrid batteries. New large TVs are quite power efficient and a grid-powered heat pump on a house can make it just as warm as oil heating while allowing for centralized power cleanup. When Trump gets dumped we'll have adults for all the important world leaders again and they can complete and strengthen the Paris accord.

      HTH.

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    2. Re:The UN and then there is the real world by PPH · · Score: 1

      The largest polluters in the world are still ramping up as their economies rise and their governments have no real interest in this except as an economic weapon.

      China is doing a pretty good job ramping up renewable/alternative energy sources to slow down and eventually replace their coal consumption. But they are doing so only to the extent that they don't screw over their economy in the process.

      Meanwhile, here in the USA, we are doing our best to decommission some of our greenest power sources: hydro electric dams. Because of 'Muh fish'. When the dams aren't even the major factor in depleted salmon runs. Pinnipeds are. Shoot the seals.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
    3. Re:The UN and then there is the real world by thunderclees · · Score: 1

      The PRC is not a good example.
      Never mind the environmental disaster that was the Three Gorges Dam, in the PRC they have orange air, the highest particulate counts in the world and this:
      Rare-earth mining in China comes at a heavy cost for local villages

  57. Re:I think global warming is caused by gays by sfcat · · Score: 1

    You only need to stay in the middle of the hurricane, there is plenty of room there. The eye of the hurricane is pretty comfy!

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

    That works until the eye moves over land, which never happens right?

    --
    "Those that start by burning books, will end by burning men."
  58. Re:all of these warnings do nothing to incite chan by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

    Here are the official stats: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/...

    As you can see, there is a consistent downward trend. In the last couple of years things have stalled a little as parts of Europe start high levels of growth after the financial crash. So really it was artificially low post 2010, and this is something of a correction. But still, the overall trend is down.

    We are on track to meet our Paris commitments as long as we keep working at it. We need to go even further than Paris of course.

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  59. Re:all of these warnings do nothing to incite chan by Mashiki · · Score: 1

    The EU has more control over the rights of people, and government of signatory states then the Federal government of the US, or Canada has on the control of states or provinces. Pretending that the EU by design isn't meant to force signatories into a "single state" is the reason why there has been such a big backlash against it.

    --
    Om, nomnomnom...
  60. Re:all of these warnings do nothing to incite chan by aquacrayfish · · Score: 2

    As an observer of this conversation, pointing out someone's snobbishness with, a highly-snobbish tone digs into the point you're trying to make.

  61. Re:WRONG. Do it with Cost and Money, not just fact by atrex · · Score: 1

    Ok, so how about we stop subsidizing fossil fuel production and new fossil fuel sites and then let the market take it's course? Renewable energy sources would already be cost competitive if there wasn't such a giant imbalance in government subsidies.

  62. Re: all of these warnings do nothing to incite cha by locketine · · Score: 1

    The financial penalty for combating climate change is more immediate than the cost of letting it happen. So I suspect the algorithm will give people a pretty negative view on acting on climate change. Combating climate change is also very disruptive to existing markets which makes it hard to account for in existing financial models.

    --
    Think globally but act within local variable scope.
  63. Re: It's getting hotter by Enigma2175 · · Score: 4, Informative

    "My fear is if North Korea nukes us, Trump gonna get us into a war" - Maxine Waters

    You realize she never said that, right? She said nothing even close - it's not an honest mistake or a misquote but just pure fabrication. I know it doesn't matter in this post-truth world but there are plenty of other cringe-worthy quotes available, so why go for a fake one?

    --

    Enigma

  64. Re: What is the correct temperature by JoeRobe · · Score: 2

    Please, please keep educating yourself about this:

    https://www.carbonbrief.org/ex...

    The first link you have up there is for the US southeast which is a noisy outlier in temperature trends compared to the global climate. Southeast US trends are not representative of the world.

    Those temperature adjustments made by NOAA are tiny compared to the scale of the temperature rise over the past 40 years (see link above). And they result in *less* cooling since 1900 instead of more.

    --
    The best way to predict the future is to invent it.
  65. Re:WRONG. Do it with Cost and Money, not just fact by Raenex · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Everyone acknowledges the problem. The solution eludes us.

    Marine cloud brightening.

    And the cost-benefit analysis of any dream we can imagine is really "Er... dunno... probably not" at best.

    Ocean rise is currently the biggest economic impact, since so many people live on the coast. So keeping track of ocean levels is key.

  66. Re:all of these warnings do nothing to incite chan by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

    You definitely make the best SJW type: a member of a formerly bloodthirsty colonizers who raped the planet for centuries, started two global wars, and now sits back on your ill gotten gains and judges others

    You blame me for the sins of my forefathers and make sweeping generalizations, lumping me in with a group of 500,000,000 other people. And you accuse me of being an "SJW", a person who you define as unfairly apportioning blame and generalizing.

    Let's just remind ourselves that you are going apeshit over a 1.8% increase one year compared to an overall 22% decrease since 1990. An increase that is not yet bucking the trend, or an indication that the trend will end, and at a time when most EU countries are pushing ahead with reducing emissions. And there is a good explanation as to why this is a temporary issue.

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  67. Oh thats ok then. by Viol8 · · Score: 1

    Yeah, sure, whats the problem with someone using the same amount of fuel in 10 hours for recreation purposes that a driver would use in 4 months to commute to work? Pah, fuss about nothing, right?

    Jesus, with people like you around no wonder we have a problem.

  68. Re:Average minimum wage Joe by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

    Stick to used cars, preferably ones that get good MPGs. Seriously. A huge fraction of a car's lifetime CO2 emissions comes from manufacturing the car, and newer cars don't emit a whole lot less CO2. Then get a used electric car with a good/new pack when that old car bites the dust.

    --
    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  69. Re:all of these warnings do nothing to incite chan by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    the world is run by corporations, not people.

    Okay.

    corporations are run by shareholders.

    HahaHahahaha no. Corporations are run by crusty old white guys who have figured out how to game the system with golden parachutes, who are emplaced and protected by people who have figured out how to game the system by profiting from the failure of corporations rather than their success.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  70. Background noise by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The IPCC's constant litany of Doom and Gloom, Last Chance, End of the World As We Know It, proclamations have come with such regularity that they are now simply background noise in the larger fight between those who believe in Complete Government Control and those who believe in Individual Freedom.

    Their, "empirical" data isn't empirical at all, having been adjusted and interpolated time and again.

    Their doomsday deadlines keep getting pushed back as each one passes without the world ending (much like any other Doomsday Cult).

    Lastly, some scientists have actually admitted that the hyperbole is necessary so that they are heard.

    1. Re:Background noise by MightyYar · · Score: 5, Insightful

      now simply background noise

      Their doom and gloom warnings have always been about the distant future, and they continue to be. This isn't about people proclaiming the end of the world is near, and then the date passes with nothing happening. The claims they have made about the near-time have actually come to pass - actual observed global warming is well within the predictions made by their models. There is no reason to doubt that they will get less accurate with time and refinement.

      having been adjusted and interpolated time and again

      Of course it's been adjusted and interpolated - how else to you normalize inputs from more than one source? They don't have perfect data; it's all observational science. They don't have lots of earths to experiment on, or the ability to jump back in time with proper instrumentation.

      each one passes without the world ending

      Provide even a single example of this.

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    2. Re:Background noise by Darinbob · · Score: 4, Insightful

      in the larger fight between those who believe in Complete Government Control and those who believe in Individual Freedom.

      Is there no one in between those two world views? Why is politics always a fight between extremists with voices of reason being excluded from the contest? Climate change should have nothing to do with politics, except that so money have placed their political fortunes on denying climate change.

    3. Re:Background noise by MightyYar · · Score: 2

      Worse, better... these are usually compared against the averages. In reality, everything - temperature estimates, predictions, ocean levels - have pretty large error ranges. For the most part, actual measurements are falling within the error bars of the predictions.

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    4. Re: Background noise by MightyYar · · Score: 2

      I don't know what point you are trying to make.

      Also, no one wipes my ass - I force the servants to lick it clean.

      What? WHY ARE YOU STARING AT ME?

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    5. Re: Background noise by illiac_1962 · · Score: 1

      I hear they are having a large gathering in ten years where they will be serving kool-aid.

  71. Humans can not scale. by bussdriver · · Score: 1

    Is anybody else sick of "the real world" and how most the time people using it are claiming their narrow perspective somehow has the definitive insight to the reality the masses do not? Sure, that is sometimes the case, especially with scientists and the educated because they actually have insight the ignorant masses do not.

    POLITICS is an imaginary thing existing in human minds. It manifests into real world problems; but it is not real on the same level of the laws of physics; it's just emergent behavior. Like other animals; and like them, instinctive urges controls most of it.

    The UN is a combination of reasoned highly educated thinking and politics. Quite often the political "realities" are better known and they try despite those; because one is real and the other is human social behavior.

    The world could solve many problems extremely quickly if we were not a bunch of apes limited by our primitive nature; which we arrogantly and ironically dispel to protect our fragile egos.

  72. Why??? by acoustix · · Score: 1

    Who gets to decided what the best temperature is? Or what the best rate of warming/cooling is?

    --
    "A plan fiendishly clever in its intricacies"- Homer Simpson
    1. Re:Why??? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Who gets to decided what the best temperature is? Or what the best rate of warming/cooling is?

      Congratulations, you just won the "dumb bumpkin" award. How dare those educated elites share the benefits of their education with you? It must be a conspiracy!

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    2. Re: Why??? by acoustix · · Score: 1

      So you dont know either? Ok.

      --
      "A plan fiendishly clever in its intricacies"- Homer Simpson
    3. Re:Why??? by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      Who gets to decided what the best temperature is? Or what the best rate of warming/cooling is?

      Wrong question. The world will go on regardless of the temperature. The right question is how much is it going to cost us (monetarily and non-monetarily) to adapt to a temperature regime well outside of the one we've built our global civilization on? I'm afraid you probably won't like the answer.

  73. Re: What is the correct temperature by JoeRobe · · Score: 1

    Good description of the CO2 GHG effect. One molecule in 2500 can make a big difference. If folks want their mind blown they should consider that the ozone hole was caused by molecules with concentrations of a few in a trillion.

    Just to support the IPCC predictions you mentioned:

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

    They've actually been pretty quantitatively accurate since 1990 (in addition to qualitative).

    --
    The best way to predict the future is to invent it.
  74. Re:all of these warnings do nothing to incite chan by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 1

    And in the mean time, while you're both squabbling, yesterday China and India put out more carbon than the EU and the United States will in a year combined.
    That is what was wrong with the Paris Accords.

    --
    SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
  75. Re:all of these warnings do nothing to incite chan by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

    Apparently you aren't very good at reading. I'm not being a snob at all. I am pointing out the fallacy of blaming and lecturing others from your rich perch. Europeans shouldn't be lecturing anyone on appropriate behavior.

  76. Re: all of these warnings do nothing to incite cha by SqueakyMouse · · Score: 1

    My point is there needs to be a sufficient financial penalty imposed on corporations who contribute disproportionately to climate change if we want to change their behaviour. If screwing mother earth is profitable, and a viable option for investors, then of course that's what they'll do. It's no good, giving them this option and then acting disappointed if they exercise it. Lawmakers need to understand the beasts they are governing and how to influence them to get the results they want. Appeal to their wallets, not their morals. That is more in line with how they measure their performance.

  77. Re:all of these warnings do nothing to incite chan by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

    Are you really trying to justify your position by saying "you are just as bad"? Ignoring the debate over if Europeans or whatever subset "Eurosnobs" refers to, is that really your intended justification.

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  78. mod parent up by bussdriver · · Score: 1

    YES! How many generations now has this been a tired theme of fiction? Not just sci-fi... it's human nature; told by lies (fiction/art) to raise truths to consciousness. In modern times, we have an educated elite class of people instead of some random old wise man or mystical being. It's EASIER to relate and yet we are still just apes; because consciousness is fleeting and we just go back to autopilot with the next distraction. sad.

    The REAL problem is psychology. Some idiot like Hitler (he wasn't taken seriously at first) can team up with a psychology nerd (Goebbels) and today event less talent is required; only money to apply the always improving science of training human animals. As a student in psychology, I think we've past the ability to self govern. A ruling elite can keep ahead of the curve if they properly manage their sheep... only a minority will realize they are being fleeced; the challenge is keeping those inline to prevent the herd from being spooked. Oh and have plenty of sheep dogs (kind of like wolves in sheep's clothing...to mix in more metaphors...)

    Take Trump, he got the cows to leave the farmer who sacrificed a few and spooked them to run over to the butcher's feed lot. Many will be happy right up to the point where their head is strapped in and they realize the bolt gun is next... very few want to get out of line after seeing what happens at the end of it (this is for real how it goes BTW.)

  79. Re: all of these warnings do nothing to incite cha by SqueakyMouse · · Score: 1

    I don't see how this post relates to mine. Morals have nothing to do with systematic trading. I'm certainly not denying lives are at risk either. My post was to summarise to what extent policy could influence algorithms employed by quant funds.

    If you want to discuss this from a moral perspective, then of course it's selfish for current generations to ignore these problems and leave future generations to suffer.

  80. Re:What is the correct temperature by rickb928 · · Score: 1

    Please, stop that. It just feeds the trolls, and forces them to trot out their excuses.

    --
    deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
  81. Re:Average minimum wage Joe by DigressivePoser · · Score: 1

    Your average minimum wage Joe cannot afford any of the new high-tech cars. Now what's the solution for them?

    To be on the receiving end of some sort of eugenics program. Lightly snuffed while being carbon neutral at the same time. I think the engineering details will be on the agenda of IPCC's next gala.

  82. Re:all of these warnings do nothing to incite chan by dunkelfalke · · Score: 2

    Funny thing about imprisoning people. Do you know which country has both the highest incarceration rate and the largest prison population (the latter actually higher than in the Soviet GULAGs)?

    --
    "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
  83. nothing will improve because of politics by WindBourne · · Score: 1

    All of the nations are trying to blame each other. China continues their MASSIVE expansion on coal plants. Not just replacement of old plants, but building all over the globe for their belt-trade idea. In addition, the MAJORITY of new coal plants in China are not replacements, but additions.
    Then we have Europe, in which eastern Europe continues to say that they are exempt and continue to add. Germany kills off nukes and is replacing with coal.
    Then we have America. America was headed in the right direction for the last 9 years. But now, we have trump.
    Trump has been pushing coal, but thankfully, that has gone NOWHERE, other than increased sales to China ( who then resells to other nations in their belt/trade ).
    And to be fair, his cutting the MPG on our fleet will actually HELP kill off new ICE sales. The reason is that EVs are cheaper to own than ICE.
    Probably his one action that will make things worse in America is his allowing oil companies to ignore methane emissions from oil wells. I fear this action WILL increase America's methane emissions.

    But, until all nations accept that NO MORE BUILDING ADDITIONAL FOSSIL FUEL PLANTS (and any replacement has to be by one that emits less CO2), then things will only get worse.

    --
    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  84. Re:WRONG. Do it with Cost and Money, not just fact by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    If the cost of not-drowing-in-Waterworld is to actually make many modern conveniences so expensive and unobtainable, have we "won"? Is that "better"?

    Let's just say that it was. It isn't, we can simply pursue greater efficiency that's being let fall by the wayside because it's not the most profitable path, but just for the sake of argument let's say it is. How expensive do you think drowning-in-waterworld is going to be? I mean, let's just say that humanity is willing to move into a combination of underwater and floating cities. How much do you imagine that will cost? What will we have to give up to make that happen? Either we have to give up billions of people's lives because it will make it much cheaper to do that, or we will have to give up even more than we would to avoid that situation. The energy costs alone of building all of that infrastructure would dwarf our current consumption.

    I'd honestly like to know - if we do EVERYTHING - if we all get unanimous worldwide co-operation and overnight we all become vegans who wash their clothes on rocks, solar-power the entire world, never burn so much as a match again, pump all our energy resources into reversing the CO2 increase, recycle every plastic bag in every landfill in the planet, etc. etc. etc. - whatever loony ideas we can come up with - will that *actually* make it better than the alternative?

    We don't know, because it may well be too late. But if we don't address the problem, it will surely be bad, and "doing nothing" will cost us more than doing it now. It will cost us lifestyle, and/or it will cost us many lives.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  85. Re:Who cares by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    Heard this all before. People at the top of society telling the unwashed masses what to do.

    The people at the top of society, those who actually call the shots, are not spreading the message you claim they are spreading. Scientists are far from the top of society. They are not making the decisions. If they were, the world would be a very different place, probably a better one.

    They Say -- Stop building urban centers immediately and move out to the farm and regain the roots of your civilization.

    Who's saying that? It's actually more efficient for most people to live in cities, if the cities are designed such that the workers can live in them. Then they don't have to commute.

    They Say -- The intellectuals dont like it, cast them into reeducation camps until they get understand our logic is better than their logic.

    No, that's FUD you're spreading, not what the scientists are saying. The scientists are calling for rules and regulations that will lead to a change of behavior. On the other hand, the anti-science brigade (like the Trumpanistas) are actually, literally putting humans into camps. Children, no less.

    They Say -- There was a less impactful way to generate power but it generated a minuscule amount of waste that can be made into a glass and rendered inert until harnless.

    That was a lie. Nuclear fuel means strip mining and strip mining means contamination of water systems. They also said that it would be "too cheap to meter" and that was why it was worth producing the pollution, but that was also a lie. You can't justify nuclear power without lies.

    They Say -- Ask why we cannot all be like the good folks who can power their tiny house, no kids, no AC mind you, with an overactive hamster and a birthday candle. They do not mind washing their pot funk clothes they wear on a rock next to the river.

    If they have a river, sooner or later they implement hydro power. Lots of them have kids. Absent global warming, there are many places on this planet where you can live quite happily without AC. That number is dwindling, though, not just because temperatures are rising on average but because weather is becoming more chaotic as energy is added to what is already a chaotic system. That means more hot days in places where you didn't used to need AC.

    Not one of these groups comes out...ever... and says the human race as a collective has done a preaty good job going from the steam age, the age of steel to the age of data networks.

    By whose measurement? I think humanity has done a shit job of that. Every time we make a significant step forward in technology we have massive upset that we haven't bothered to try to mitigate because that would reduce profits for the already wealthy. Even the rate of technology could have been much faster, if not for rich pricks running corporations holding it back. For example, it is often estimated that Microsoft held computing back literally a decade with their anticompetitive business practices. How much further ahead could we be technologically if we didn't permit corporate interests to retard progress in order to protect their own profits? By any reasonable measurement, we are meandering fools.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  86. Re:WRONG. Do it with Cost and Money, not just fact by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    So far all we've heard is either limit reproduction severely (a la China's one child policy - that worked out great) or kill people en masse/let yourself be killed.

    That's bullshit. We've also heard "implement meritocracy", where those who have the best ideas are permitted to implement them instead of being stopped by wealthy interests who care only about how many yachts they will be able to buy this year and not about whether we get to continue as a species. We've also heard "improve education" since intelligent people naturally have less children. Stop this helplessness act at once and act like an adult, if you can manage it.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  87. Nothing will be done by Mes · · Score: 1

    Nothing will ever be done to seriously combat global warming. Those in power are only concerned with the short term. If any politician goes in for the long term, then short term interests will attack them as being wasteful, costing us too much, jobs, etc etc. As seen from Dumpf et al, the masses are easy to fool with this rhetoric.

    Two, those that contribute the most to warming are also those that have the money and resources to mostly comfortably ride things out, at least in the mid term before things get too bad.

    Three, most people forget what the weather was like ten years ago, so have little basis on which to judge the climate. Also does anyone remember that the sky is supposed to be completely blue? I would say everyone under forty maybe has lived their whole life with the horizons in a brown haze. Change is so slow, people dont know how things are supposed to be anymore.

    Four, global warming does strange things, like exacerbate the polar vortex causing big winter snow storms. Narrow small brained politicians like to trot this out every year, forgetting that it is a global average, not local weather. There will always be dumb arguments available.

    Five, it will cost a lot and require a lot of working together to solve things from politicians to business to populations. I think that is more than we can handle as a species. It is far better to come up with good plans for solar, wind, nuclear power options, electrical transportation, etc, now and when there is time to implement rather than the mad dash to the exits once the shit hits the fan. Im sure so little will be done, that in fifty years all hell will break loose once the last denial and excuse has been used up.

    Collectively we are grasshoppers, not ants.

  88. Re:Average minimum wage Joe by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    Stick to used cars, preferably ones that get good MPGs. Seriously. A huge fraction of a car's lifetime CO2 emissions comes from manufacturing the car, and newer cars don't emit a whole lot less CO2.

    No, only about 25-33% of the car's lifetime energy consumption (where the CO2 production comes from) is in its manufacture. The vast majority of it comes from fueling it, and burning that fuel. In the bargain, burning that fuel comes with other emissions like CO, NOx, HCs, and soot. More of that stuff is trapped when it's produced in a centralized location, or at least it can be. I knew a guy who used to climb smokestacks for the EPA. He told me that we can find plants out of compliance as fast as we can pay people to check on them. But that doesn't invalidate the concept of centralized generation making it easier to clean up pollution, it only indicts our current system for doing so. We have never given the EPA sufficient authority nor funding to actually address the problem.

    Replacing an ICE with a slightly more efficient ICE may well be a waste of time, but replacing an ICE with an EV is not. Even in our current system, you get substantial emissions reduction from doing so. For one thing, power plants don't run on gasoline. The least-efficient fuel they are run on is diesel. Diesel takes about 40% as much energy to produce as gasoline. Simply not refining crude into gasoline saves a massive amount of energy, and thus reduces CO2 production dramatically.

    On the other hand, old ICE-based cars have problems, and you can't expect people to be able to afford to maintain them given that they are not designed to be cheaply maintained any more. You used to be able to do pretty much anything to a car with just a pair of ramps and a floor jack, and the usual set of mechanics' tools. Today, there are tons of automotive repair jobs which cannot reasonably be done without a lift. Cars are designed to have the front subframe with the engine and transmission dropped as a group for major maintenance. People can't do this at home, and they can't afford to go to the dealer to have it done either. But they can afford to buy a newer car, because they can do it on credit.

    It makes zero sense for most humans to dick around with most used cars. It doesn't help that the only ones that are easy to work on are sports cars, and those get used up in racing. The Nissan 240SX was wonderful to work on, but just try finding a cheap one any more.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  89. None like it hot! by SqueakyMouse · · Score: 1

    Move the planet further from the sun and celebrate the extra week as 'robot party week'?

  90. Meanwhile, Trump ignores all of it as 'fake news' by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 1

    Between Trump himself and the NHTSA report, nothing is going to get done about this, and when corporations only care about next quarters' profits, and governments stick their fingers in their ears and ignore it, and the average person says "Why should I care? That's some other generations' problem, not mine", we're probably well on our way to a slow extiction-level event for the human species -- and maybe everything else. Depressing.

  91. Re:all of these warnings do nothing to incite chan by jwhyche · · Score: 2

    Let's just remind ourselves that you are going apeshit

    Hey Hey, lets not blow this out of portion. Seems to me he is just going a little batshit, but not at the apeshit level. Lets not ratchet this up THAT level if we can help it. :)

    --
    I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
  92. Re:What is the correct temperature by Mspangler · · Score: 1

    That is a very good question. A look here shows we are still not as warm as it was 6000- 8000 years ago during a what they call an OPTIMUM. Inother words, we are sub-optimum right now, and we need more heat.

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

    And if you go back further to the Pliocene, "The global average temperature in the mid-Pliocene (3.3 Ma–3 Ma) was 2–3 C higher than today, global sea level 25m higher, and the northern hemisphere ice sheet was ephemeral before the onset of extensive glaciation over Greenland that occurred in the late Pliocene around 3 Ma."

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

    and
    https://www.scientificamerican...

    So you might want to tell the kids to buy a house at least 25 meters above current sea level, (and if you live on the west coast this is already a good idea due to the Cascadia subduction system) but other than that, life if not going to end if we get back to the Pliocene conditions.

  93. Re:all of these warnings do nothing to incite chan by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

    Haha, the EU has low emissions? What a joke. You Euronuts really take the cake.

  94. Re:all of these warnings do nothing to incite chan by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

    Yeah, my mistake. I guess I shouldn't point out that the EU is increasing their carbon output, instead of decreasing it. It is amazing how angry the Euro types get when I point out facts. I didn't mean to go "crazy" and start pointing out facts.

    https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/european-renewables-are-up-so-are-carbon-emissions

  95. Re: all of these warnings do nothing to incite cha by MachineShedFred · · Score: 1

    That is a concept that many around here have been arguing for some time. The classical argument against renewable energy sources is that "they are more expensive" - which is only true if non-renewable (read: coal, gas, oil) are allowed to externalize waste disposal (read: stack emissions).

    If the incumbent fossil fuel energy generation was required to factor those costs into per-kWh generation costs, I'd bet that technologies that don't put any of that crap into the air would be far more favorable, if not outright winners without subsidy.

    --
    Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
  96. Re: No Problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Ah, the old "Gore is a hypocrite therefore the science is wrong" argument. What next - Feynmann could be an ass therefore quantum mechanics is bunk?

  97. what is new? by mapkinase · · Score: 1

    What is really new in this study? How does it compare to previous studies? Are previous studies wrong? Did they discover new facts?

    --
    I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
  98. Re:Seems kinda partisan to me. by MachineShedFred · · Score: 1

    His point is that there are a whole lot of people that prattle on about what "we" need to do to stave off global disaster, but can't be fucked to do the same themselves.

    The rant about Millennials is a distraction - there are plenty of hypocrites from each and every generation from the millenials to the octogenarians roaming the halls of Congress. No generation has a lock on hypocrisy, and never has.

    --
    Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
  99. Re:all of these warnings do nothing to incite chan by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

    Doesn't match real immigration numbers.

    People still vote 'USA' with their feet.

    I have dual citizenship, fuck the EU.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  100. Re:all of these warnings do nothing to incite chan by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 1

    However, the EU is what, 3% of the Earth's population? China and India put out more carbon in a day than the EU and the United States put together do in a year!

    --
    SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
  101. Re: I think global warming is caused by gays by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 1

    Yep. The goal posts move so fast, it's hard to keep up.

    --
    SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
  102. Re: I think global warming is caused by gays by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 1

    Very much so. "Catastrophic climate change" has been predicted as a waterworld since before the Kevin Costner movie. Even this one says that the poles will entirely melt by 2030- something that hasn't happened in well over 3 billion years. There was ice in the poles at carbon levels 10x what they currently are.

    --
    SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
  103. Re: Phase Out IPCC Instead by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 1

    An equally useful indicator to me is how many of these scientists who are so alarmed, have switched to zero carbon housing, locally produced green electricity, and never traveling anywhere.

    That last one is important, because the IPCC should have long ago switched to telepresence technology to cut the carbon footprint of their conferences.

    --
    SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
  104. Re:all of these warnings do nothing to incite chan by liquid_schwartz · · Score: 1

    the world is run by corporations, not people. corporations are run by shareholders. a large part of the stock game is run by algorithms calculating and trading stocks for maximum efficiency. that algorithm does not care about the weather or the long term suitability of our planet.

    Really the world is run by billionaires. If you established a pact that if [bad thing happens] happens a given number of billionaires and their heirs would die then you would see change. If they thought that they would be hunted down bin Laden style change would happen in a hurry. Until then they figure that they can always buy a safe place no matter what and are thus immune.

  105. Re:I think global warming is caused by gays by Darinbob · · Score: 1

    That's why you put the ark on wheels!

  106. Re:Phase Out IPCC Instead by Darinbob · · Score: 1

    This years Nobel Prize for unfounded scientific reasoning goes to... Anonymous Coward!

  107. Re: Phase Out IPCC Instead by novakyu · · Score: 1

    Yap. Also, if you are a climate alarmist and you haven't gone vegan already, you have proven yourself a hypocrite not worth listening to.

  108. Crimson Tsunami/Caffinated Bacon lying again by WindBourne · · Score: 1

    You always lie. China was just coming out of a massive economic downturn that they were trying to hide. Coal usage increased. Now, they are back in another one due to Trumps saying enough of your shit.
    You are a constant liar while getting paid by your chinese bosses.

    --
    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  109. Re:WRONG. Do it with Cost and Money, not just fact by guruevi · · Score: 1

    Meritocracy is not democracy. What metric would you even use to gauge who will be in power?

    The best ideas are found out by scientific inquiry and commercialization of those results in a competitive (capitalist) market where success naturally bubbles up. Improving education is also a direct result of capitalism, in a capitalist society nobody remains on top, you educate yourself to get on top, you implement the best ideas to stay on top but the rich 1% of today are not the same 1% of yesterday or tomorrow - there is a lot of flux and capacity.

    If you take away the driver of our current society and put the "smartest" based on their ideas regardless of their contributions you end up with something akin to socialism and as we know, if in socialist societies results cannot be obtained by vote, you get communism where your results are obtained by force.

    --
    Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
  110. Re: all of these warnings do nothing to incite cha by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

    And if you preselected technology isn't the winner, you just raise the externality cost on the competition until it is?

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  111. Re:all of these warnings do nothing to incite chan by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

    I'll recalibrate my crapometer.

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  112. Re:Average minimum wage Joe by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

    'Engine out the bottom' is OLD.

    I've change a bug motor (with 2 others) in 20 minutes. That's slow, nowhere near a record.

    You don't need a lift, just jacks. Not even a cherry picker.

    Cars are easier to fix today vs computer cars before OBD2.

    Sports cars can be huge bitch. Take the motor off the mounts to access the plugs. Remove the motor to change a belt. Big motor, small engine compartment.

    Car models get old, they become uncommon. It's not like front engine rear drive is an uncommon configuration. 240SX's time has just passed as a cheap chassis for a 'kit car'. They're putting V8s in Miatas now, works great, as long as you're stubby enough to fit.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  113. Re: all of these warnings do nothing to incite cha by locketine · · Score: 1

    My point is there needs to be a sufficient financial penalty imposed on corporations who contribute disproportionately to climate change if we want to change their behaviour. If screwing mother earth is profitable, and a viable option for investors, then of course that's what they'll do. It's no good, giving them this option and then acting disappointed if they exercise it. Lawmakers need to understand the beasts they are governing and how to influence them to get the results they want. Appeal to their wallets, not their morals. That is more in line with how they measure their performance.

    I agree 100% with you here. I was just pointing out that we can't rely on the algorithms themselves; we or our government needs to increase the immediate expenses of greenhouse gas pollution.

    We can impact the financial calculations through boycotts and negative publicity. Eventually, companies that aren't even in our sights will lower their emissions to get good publicity.

    --
    Think globally but act within local variable scope.
  114. Re:What is the correct temperature by riverat1 · · Score: 1

    Blackbody radiation absorption for CO2 is at less than 11%. Absorption in the lower atmosphere is saturated so can only be absorbed in the troposphere, where CO2 is much less common, and yet no measurements have found a "hot spot" that high up.

    No, the absorption of infrared is not saturated in the lower atmosphere. Here are a couple of posts about that:

    A saturated gassy argument

  115. Re:What is the correct temperature by riverat1 · · Score: 1

    Oops, here is part ii.

    A saturated gassy argument-part ii

  116. Re:WRONG. Do it with Cost and Money, not just fact by blindseer · · Score: 2

    Everyone acknowledges the problem. The solution eludes us.

    The solution does not elude us. I've listened to many experts on energy and they all agree on several key points.

    First key point, more nuclear power. Nuclear power is safe, costs are less than wind and solar, reliable, and has lower CO2 emissions than any other energy source we have. The nuclear power plants we have now are getting old and will need to be replaced. We will need to start building nuclear power reactors now so when it's time to retire these old reactors we have something to take their place.

    Second key point, more natural gas. While this might seem counter productive this is vital as a means to transition from energy sources in current use of higher CO2 contributions, specifically coal and oil. To make vehicles move requires a fuel that is energy dense, plentiful, inexpensive, and easily converted to motive force. While natural gas isn't as energy dense as gasoline or diesel fuel it is close enough that conversion should be of little cost with the benefit of an immediate reduction of CO2 produced per mile by 30% or more. Much of the reductions in CO2 in the USA has been from switching electricity production from coal to natural gas. We can do better with nuclear power but in the time it will take to build those nuclear power plants we can burn natural gas for electricity and work to switch transportation to natural gas.

    Third key point, stop the subsidies. Subsidizing energy sources prevents the competition needed to drive lesser products and technologies from the market. There's enough solar and wind companies now that there can be real competition based on who can provide energy at the lowest price. What's happening now is that the winners are those with the best lobbyists than the best technology. Stop subsidizing bad windmills, solar collectors, electric cars, and so on, so natural market forces allow the best to come to market. Maybe there was a time when these subsidies were needed but that time has passed.

    This is not a fourth key point really but more an addendum to the point above, stop with pushing so much solar power! This keeps getting brought up again and again. Solar power is bad for the grid because it provides lots of power in the day and nothing at night, and does so nationwide all at the same time. At least with wind it's randomized a bit, there's some at night, and without the drop off in the evening when energy is needed most. Solar is also quite expensive, produces waste that's difficult to recycle, and takes a lot of area for the energy produced. Putting the collectors on rooftops only adds to the cost, even if it allows for preserving use of the land under it, and also adds to the risk of injuries and death to those installing and maintaining them. We need more wind and nuclear before we need to resort to expensive and generally problematic solar.

    We have solutions but also a federal government seemingly unwilling or unable to implement them.

    --
    I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
  117. Re:all of these warnings do nothing to incite chan by hawkfish · · Score: 1

    However, the EU is what, 3% of the Earth's population? China and India put out more carbon in a day than the EU and the United States put together do in a year!

    This is simply not true. As of 2015, China was about 3x the EU and India was about 2/3. Nothing like 365:1.

    --
    You will not drink with us, but you would taste our steel? - Walter Matthau, The Pirates
  118. Re: Seems kinda partisan to me. by CoolDiscoRex · · Score: 1
    The rant about Millennials is a distraction - there are plenty of hypocrites from each and every generation from the millenials to the octogenarians roaming the halls of Congress. No generation has a lock on hypocrisy, and never has.

    I respect your opinion, but the Millennials thing is a valid observation in mine. Within the last week, I've seen one news piece declaring Mellennials to be the most well-travelled generation ever, and another declaring them to be the most environmentally-concious.

    That's notable. Yes, nobody has a lock on hypocricy, but regardless, that's notable.

    Mellennials are the ones who have come of age during the Climate Change moral panic. Who have come alive during a half dozen other moral panics as well, not to mention, the critical mass of social media. Pointing out that the generation that currently makes up the majority of the 18-39 demographic that determines a nation's popular culture, are openly speaking out of both sides of their mouthes en-masse, is entirely relevant.

    Have other generations done it before? Yep. That doesn't necessarily make any given generation of observers wrong, though. If you keep calling something green when it's not green, when it finally turns green, you're finally right.

    Are you aware of another generation that has taken their parents to job interviews? Now, is this practice common among Mellenials? No. But it's fucking unheard of in every other generation.

    How many generations do you know that have needed "trigger warnings" and rooms with teddy bears and stuffed animals for grown adults?

    Face it, something is rotten in the stat of Denmark, and it's not the same week-old sushi that your parents and their parents and their parents had to smell. Oh yeah, they had a whole different set of problems, but they generally grew up and matured.

    That every generation has its hypocrites does not make any less notable the extraordinary level of open and obvious hypocricy we see today. I'm not saying that it's the fault of the Mellenials entirely, their parents have to get much of the blame, and probably certain aspects of social media and large corporate parties fanning the narcissitic flames for their own beneift, but putting blame aside, we're in somewhat uncharted territory.

    I don't think it's easy to identity a generation which has had more moral panics in a single decade, or another generation that has been openly and at times, seemingly proudly, hypocritical. Yeah, there have been conformist groupthinking generations before, but rarely have the been so while loudly proclaiming themselves to be "tolerant" and "diverse". I mean, of all words to choose ... they choose the exact opposite of what they practice, and not one person in the sphere of highly-educated people stops to say "you know, perhaps we should pick a word that accurately discribes what we strive to be?"

    Moral Panics used to be the domain of the religious right Proletariat. Now it's shifted to become the primary MO of the affluent, well-educated, Bourgeoisie.

    Until relatively recently, people from across the political spectrum could be friends and consider each other human. No longer. Now the young, creative class immediately dehumanizes and declares evil and unworthy of employment anyone who does not immediately meet their purity test. People who are convinced, quite honestly, that anyone that disagrees with them is a "troll", because it's patently unthinkable that anyone could legitimate disagree with them. We're seeing levels of cognitive dissonance on an extraordinary scale, and this time it's primary victims are people who, by a great many accounts, should know better. People with $100,000+ educations. People who learn that you can't both a) Increase the unskilled labor pool and b) expect living standards for the working-class to rise. Yet there they are, marching alternately for both of these things. People who scream "Black Lives Matter", while gentrifying every black life

  119. Re:Hypocrisy be thy name by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

    WTF?

    Find me a single instance of me being a goddamn law abider you deluded jackass.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  120. Re:Average minimum wage Joe by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    They're putting V8s in Miatas now, works great, as long as you're stubby enough to fit.

    I'm not. I miss my 240SX, especially since I have an Audi with an ABZ in it that would be perfect up in there.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  121. Problem and stopgap solution by Trogre · · Score: 1

    This isn't going to work.

    Too many economies have built themselves around oil dependence or other processes that release massive CO2, and will be openly hostile to change. These countries would sooner go to war with the rest of the world than stop polluting. They just don't care about the future.

    Therefore on the short time scale we have been given, we can't realistically change the CO2 output, but we might be able to increase the rate of CO2 input through atmospheric scrubbers like what Sweden is doing. One day. In the meantime, there's something we can do in the next five years:

    Change the solar input.

    Until we have a reliable and scalable solution to remove CO2 from the air we're going to need a big umbrella.

    One large satellite or, more realistically, a network of smaller satellites with solar umbrellas placed around the equator or at the poles, large enough to attenuate the solar irradiation to the Earth. Significant reductions in surface temperature could be achieved with just a bit of blocking without giving a noticeable drop in light levels.

    --
    "Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
  122. Re:all of these warnings do nothing to incite chan by Mashiki · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's easy to have low gulag prisoner rates when most people simply die in the gulag(dead bodies don't count, and it keeps the ledgers clean). That's coming from someone who's grandfather spent 20 years in one for refusing to give his cows to "the state" oh and they demanded he provide the same next year.

    --
    Om, nomnomnom...
  123. Re:all of these warnings do nothing to incite chan by Mashiki · · Score: 1

    Citation needed.

    Sure, try the UK, Sweden, and Germany. All of which banned political parties.

    Oh, I think I get where you're coming from. What a cute little way for a racist to call attention to the inherent criminality of "particular races"

    Oh look at the bigot. So you're arguing that the inquires that stated that the police, crown, and councils didn't cover up crimes by particular groups of people for fear of being labeled racist in the UK? Are you also arguing that the government under merkel didn't do the same to the federal german police? They did just a FYI, they still haven't caught the leaker either. Are you saying that the same thing didn't happen in Sweden and the Netherlands? It did, the one in NDL was caught and arrested they haven't found the one from Sweden.

    Are you saying that in Swedens case they didn't illegally seize a domain, servers, and infrastructure of a person who published this information in order to try and find them? Oh and it was because they'd released "unscrubbed" crime reports listing the background of the person(s) involved but scrubbed of identifiable information.

    What a little bitch you are.

    I'd rather be a bitch then a coward that's afraid of facts.

    --
    Om, nomnomnom...
  124. Re:Serious question by Mashiki · · Score: 1

    Is "he" the one doing the suppressing, or is he the one being suppressed? Logic tells me he can't be both.

    If you vote in a political party that holds in it's platform a desire to repress and control speech, you are complicit in suppressing the viewpoints of others. He, being a citizen of the UK - has stated that he agrees with speech suppression, and going further stated that said ruling class of the UK didn't "go far enough, and he desired to emigrate to another country to impose harsher rules."

    --
    Om, nomnomnom...
  125. Re:WRONG. Do it with Cost and Money, not just fact by Trogre · · Score: 1

    Yes.

    Increasing the Earth's albido slightly will at least reduce the net solar irradiation reaching the surface. And hopefully buy us some time to scrub the excessive CO2 from the atmosphere before the oceans acidify.

    My solution was to use satellites, but cloud brightening might be easier.

    --
    "Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
  126. Re: Phase Out IPCC Instead by Trogre · · Score: 1

    Whoa, there buddy. Heading off into ga-ga land a little there, aren't we?

    Can we keep bullshit fads out of this discussion?

    --
    "Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
  127. rolling back tech by King_TJ · · Score: 1

    Nope.... I'll never support suggestions that it's somehow wise to try to roll back technology by way of taxation.

    You can always play the "What if?" game, arguing why we might be better off if something or other didn't exist. But everything we create that gets traction and becomes part of our lifestyle does so because it adds immense value. The downsides need to be looked at and addressed -- but trying to tax a genie back into a bottle? I'd say politically impossible! Politically difficult to enact the tax itself, perhaps. But impossible to achieve the desired result.

    Once people are aware that a means exists to do something, they expect to be able to do it. Government might have more leverage than normal with the airplane, but only because it's always maintained a high level of control of flights. Still, if taxes became too high for people to afford to fly for vacations, they'd look for ways around it. They wouldn't go back to a blissful unawareness that a vacation overseas could be a thing.

    Our levels of energy consumption probably rise and fall too, as opposed to a linear upward trend. I don't know if there are any good stats to prove this argument? But just looking at utility prices and demand alone, I see evidence of that. I remember when the power companies were investing heavily in new power plants to meet estimated future demand, only to find out it didn't materialize. The nuclear plant near my old residence in Missouri was running at about 50% capacity for years for that reason. And even if you just look at a specific tech like computers? We went from power hungry desktop and tower systems to a vast majority of people using laptops instead. On the flip-side, you had a big surge of power usage for crypto-coin mining in recent years, which will again fade away as it becomes unprofitable and people migrate to new crypto-coins that don't necessarily demand all of that CPU power to work with them.

  128. Re:I think global warming is caused by gays by crunchygranola · · Score: 1

    The average speed of travel of Atlantic hurricanes depends on latitude (and there is considerable variance). They are slowest between 15-25 N (17.5 km/h) but accelerates as the move north (or south, but they don't cross the equator). By 35-40 N the average is 39 km/h, the one that got to 55-60 N was going 56 km/h. That last speed is pretty good clip for any boat that is not a speed boat, but a ship could maintain position in the eye all the way to landfall. But then you tie up and unload the ship real fast. Of course getting to the eye in a ship is a problem.

    The world 2 km rowing record is 18.5 km/h (the Ark can't use sails in the calm eye), but even if Noah can match a racing shell, 2 km isn't going to help much. Long distance ocean rowing records are more like 5 km/h. He'll definitely need some holy power there.

    --
    Second class citizen of the New Gilded Age
  129. Re:all of these warnings do nothing to incite chan by vikingpower · · Score: 1

    As a co-founder, shareholder and executive of an Austrian start-up, I concur. Shareholders in Europe do not "run" corporations. The executives appointed by the shareholders run corporations in the best interest of the latter.

    --
    Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
  130. Re:all of these warnings do nothing to incite chan by dunkelfalke · · Score: 1

    So people simply die in the gulag (because dead bodies don't countt, and it keeps the ledgers clean) yet youir grandfather managed to spend 20 years in one.
    Don't you see a little contradiction there?

    --
    "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
  131. Re:prop wash by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

    so overpopulation can never be charged with responsibility for climate change.

    Has any one ever tried to?

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  132. Re:all of these warnings do nothing to incite chan by stealth_finger · · Score: 2

    Soon to be two years data. Why is the EU increasing their carbon output?

    That's probably Britain burning all our bridges.

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  133. Re:all of these warnings do nothing to incite chan by stealth_finger · · Score: 2

    Apparently you aren't very good at reading. I'm not being a snob at all.

    Yes, yes you are. When you make out you are better than someone or they are somehow worthless because of some ill defined 'what they are' metric that you decide. Even using a term like eurosnob invalidates the entire point you are trying to make and if you can't see that then you are a fucking idiot to boot.

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  134. iron sulphate by nten · · Score: 1

    Combine that with iron sulphate induced blooms in deep water. You have to harvest the excess salmon to keep it from crashing the local ecosystem but then you have salmon and a lot of carbon sinking to the bottom. The algae mats also have better albedo.

    --
    refactor the law, its bloated, confusing and unmaintainable.
  135. Re: Phase Out IPCC Instead by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 1

    From climate extremism, it's not a bullshit fad. If you actually believe atmospheric carbon is dangerous, then industries involving meat, thanks to the methane produced from dung, are among the biggest polluters on the planet.

    --
    SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
  136. Re: Phase Out IPCC Instead by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 1

    My point is, hasn't quite opened PERMANENTLY, has it? After all, the last two winters the ice advanced further south than in the past 20 years.

    --
    SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
  137. Re: Phase Out IPCC Instead by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 1

    Interesting, considering I'm a pro-lifer and do care about the unborn (well, already conceived) children. Though I care about them for a different reason: I consider depopulation to be dangerous, and genius to be so rare and unpredictable that we could have already killed off the kid who would have cured cancer.

    --
    SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
  138. on where science ends by epine · · Score: 1

    I've never taken for granted that it's within the purview of peer-reviewed science to recommend economic policy actions, even at a modest scale, must less terraforming the entire human economy.

    Economic policy is not science, and scientific peer review does not apply.

    The science is the peer-reviewed part. The economic recommendations are the communist fraternity part, with no qualified peer review whatsoever.

    I'm all for a new academic discipline of economic and political risk mitigation. But please don't call these people scientists. They're not. They are academics of a completely different stripe, meta-scientists who consume technology, but digest it in a different stomach.

  139. Re: all of these warnings do nothing to incite cha by MachineShedFred · · Score: 2

    No. I'd be happy with a proper accounting of the costs, rather than not accounting for it at all for over a hundred years and letting the problems be paid for by other people.

    Isn't it the libertarian credo that the market should be able to decide? So let's make it an even market and have the polluter pay. Get rid of all subsidy, be it direct or indirect.

    --
    Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
  140. Re: No Problem by illiac_1962 · · Score: 1

    Feynman is not an ass. Sun is hot. Details at 11.

  141. Re:all of these warnings do nothing to incite chan by Mashiki · · Score: 1

    So people simply die in the gulag (because dead bodies don't countt, and it keeps the ledgers clean) yet youir grandfather managed to spend 20 years in one.

    No they don't "simply die" they're either killed because it's more expedient, a favorite of the old USSR especially with politically dangerous but unknown to the wider world. That's then labeled a "natural death" because as we all know, because hypothermia is a natural death. And the people who survived gulags did so were kept alive because of three things: Examples. They were incarcerated close enough to the fall of the USSR. Made themselves invaluable despite their "crimes" against the state.

    Don't you see a little contradiction there?

    No. He survived because, he was smart. He ran a black market(even the guards bought from him), and he made himself somewhat valuable because of the remote location and his ability for engine repair they didn't have to dispatch someone else to do repairs on equipment. That didn't stop the commisars from ordering that every finger and thumb joint be broken, or both of his wrists a week from his release date. Or the fact for his release, he was specifically sent to east germany and put in a factory where he couldn't work - he was put there as an example and a warning.

    --
    Om, nomnomnom...
  142. Nuclear Sociopaths by MrKaos · · Score: 1

    That's not the only rational conclusion. Another is that the politicians that keep talking of our impending doom unless we do something don't believe their own words.

    You must be able to see right through them. That's awesome.

    Another example the US Coast Guard wants... that's not right, NEEDS new ice breakers to service scientific missions in Antarctica

    I'm not following your reasoning of why the US Coast Guard needs to guard the coast of Antarctica. Shouldn't they be busying themselves preventing immigrants and drug dealers making it to US shores? Instead of wasting time on science is some chunk of ice. You're saying it's a horrendous waste of tax pay money being down there when those immigrant muslims are just barging into America to take jobs and bring drugs into the country. You seem ashamed about that.

    Here's an example, the US Navy wanted some new nuclear powered warships.

    Someone has to stick up for the military's right to kill people and end civilization, I bet that kind of liberalism really get's you so mad.

    If these people were serious about solving the problems of reducing CO2 output, providing for energy independence, and assuring the military is effective in defending our national interests, then they'd be building nuclear powered ships and putting nuclear power plants on military bases, airports, seaports, and other vital facilities.

    Living the dream.

    This means a series of half-assed "solutions" that on the surface appear to be a means to make things better but in the end merely push the problem off into the future so it can still be held over the head of the public to stay in power and distract from other matters they are imposing on the public.

    I see where you're going now. Basically you're saying those sociopaths have an unimaginative, incapable and unrealistic view of Nuclear power and think people are dumb enough to believe it while they produce inaction. Great insights there.

    I did use "sociopath" instead of "psychopath" as you did. That's because a psychopath is someone with violent tendencies, which these people are not doing. Maybe the foot soldiers in the form of GreenPeace are violent but the people at the top making the decisions are not.

    Ok, so what you are saying is to project a propensity for violence onto them like they are the aggressors to feel justified to be the aggressor. Clever.

    They are sociopaths, people that are acting without concern for others and in ways that are considered antisocial.

    Oh, I see. Like those sociopaths that don't really care who gets hurt by transgenic disease in the generations to come from radio-isotopes. I'm so glad that you pointed that out.

    These sociopaths demand that we take on the costs of buying new electric cars but can't be bothered to fund nuclear powered ships for the Navy and Coast Guard.

    They're forcing the US coast guard to guard the US coast because that's the only place they can refuel.

    This is not the actions of a government that is taking CO2 emissions seriously.

    If the US coast guard doesn't get nuclear powered boats *real soon* climate change will destroy humanity.

    I did use "sociopath" instead of "psychopath" as you did.

    They are some amazing insights into how a sociopaths thinks. Thank you so much.

    Therefore I conclude that they don't believe CO2 emissions are any real threat to humanity or national security.

    You must get confused why people can't see how amazing you are BS. All your BS reasoning to come to an obvious conclusion which must mean everything else is right.

    --
    My ism, it's full of beliefs.
  143. Re: Phase Out IPCC Instead by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 1

    The definition of rape has become so muddied by recent events that it is virtually useless. Everything is a rape these days. Marriage is rape by the standards of feminazis.

    Life is suffering. The sooner you understand that, the better off you'll be.

    --
    SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.