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Climate Change Will Have Dire Consequences For US, Federal Report Concludes (cnn.com)
A new US government report delivers a dire warning about climate change and its devastating impacts on the health and economy of the country. From a report: The federally mandated study was released by the Trump administration on Friday, at a time when many Americans are on a long holiday weekend, distracted by family and shopping. Coming from the US Global Change Research Program, a team of 13 federal agencies, the Fourth National Climate Assessment was put together with the help of 1,000 people, including 300 leading scientists. It's the second of two volumes. The first, released in November 2017, concluded that there is "no convincing alternative explanation" for the changing climate other than "human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse gases."
The report's findings run counter to President Donald Trump's consistent message that climate change is a hoax. On Wednesday, Trump tweeted, "Whatever happened to Global Warming?" as some Americans faced the coldest Thanksgiving in over a century. But the science explained in these and other federal government reports is clear: Climate change is not disproved by the extreme weather of one day or a week; it's demonstrated by long-term trends. Humans are living with the warmest temperatures in modern history. Even if the best-case scenario were to happen and greenhouse gas emissions were to drop to nothing, the world is on track to warm 1.1 degrees Fahrenheit. As of now, not a single G20 country is meeting climate targets, research shows.
The costs of climate change could reach hundreds of billions of dollars annually, according to the report. The Southeast alone will probably lose over a half a billion labor hours by 2100 due to extreme heat. Farmers will face extremely tough times. The quality and quantity of their crops will decline across the country due to higher temperatures, drought and flooding. In parts of the Midwest, farms will be able to produce less than 75% of the corn they produce today, and the southern part of the region could lose more than 25% of its soybean yield. Heat stress could cause average dairy production to fall between 0.60% and 1.35% over the next 12 years -- having already cost the industry $1.2 billion from heat stress in 2010. Further reading: Climate Change Will Cost US Economy Hundreds of Billions of Dollars, Government Says in Sweeping Report (Reuters); Climate Change 'Will Inflict Substantial Damages on US Lives' (The Guardian); Climate Change Is Already Hurting U.S. Communities, Federal Report Says (NPR); Major Trump Administration Climate Report Says Damages Are 'Intensifying Across the Country' (The Washington Post); and Climate Impacts Grow, But U.S. Can Adapt, Says New Report (National Geographic).
The report's findings run counter to President Donald Trump's consistent message that climate change is a hoax. On Wednesday, Trump tweeted, "Whatever happened to Global Warming?" as some Americans faced the coldest Thanksgiving in over a century. But the science explained in these and other federal government reports is clear: Climate change is not disproved by the extreme weather of one day or a week; it's demonstrated by long-term trends. Humans are living with the warmest temperatures in modern history. Even if the best-case scenario were to happen and greenhouse gas emissions were to drop to nothing, the world is on track to warm 1.1 degrees Fahrenheit. As of now, not a single G20 country is meeting climate targets, research shows.
The costs of climate change could reach hundreds of billions of dollars annually, according to the report. The Southeast alone will probably lose over a half a billion labor hours by 2100 due to extreme heat. Farmers will face extremely tough times. The quality and quantity of their crops will decline across the country due to higher temperatures, drought and flooding. In parts of the Midwest, farms will be able to produce less than 75% of the corn they produce today, and the southern part of the region could lose more than 25% of its soybean yield. Heat stress could cause average dairy production to fall between 0.60% and 1.35% over the next 12 years -- having already cost the industry $1.2 billion from heat stress in 2010. Further reading: Climate Change Will Cost US Economy Hundreds of Billions of Dollars, Government Says in Sweeping Report (Reuters); Climate Change 'Will Inflict Substantial Damages on US Lives' (The Guardian); Climate Change Is Already Hurting U.S. Communities, Federal Report Says (NPR); Major Trump Administration Climate Report Says Damages Are 'Intensifying Across the Country' (The Washington Post); and Climate Impacts Grow, But U.S. Can Adapt, Says New Report (National Geographic).
yet property values are going sky high! It's almost like liberals don't believe their own hype since they all seem willing to pay millions for property on the coast. If people really believed global warming then property at sea level wouldn't be more expensive than ever.
— Shamans in Tasmania, about 12000 years ago.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Of course the climate is changing. Has been for millions of year. The argument is over how much human activity influences it and whether restricting human activity would make any significant difference when compared to natural events like forest fires or volcanic eruptions. Climate models also need to take into account long term natural cycles of solar activity that cause warming and cooling. Many put forward as 'evidence' only look at very recent history of 20 or 40 years which is meaningless on an geo-cosmic timescale.
You can choose to believe in some mythical all-destructive force that always seems just around the corner but never arrives - or you can choose to live a life not lived in fear, making choices that are truly good for the environment and not made out of fear, but love.
To me the constant Global Warming Boogeyman is the lefts version of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, supposedly pulling strings related to any bad weather phenomenon and projecting phantasms of possible horrible futures.
An especially clear example of this is todays NYT feature on Scary Global Warming, How much hotter is your hometown.
In my cases since 1960 the number of days of temperatures over 90 degrees has risen by exactly one - from six to seven. The graph shows a wildly wandering line just to get there.
Then as you scroll down you see projected temperatures, and by 2100 I'm supposed to see a total of *22* days over 90. The graph wanders along on a crazy course but basically a straight line, until magically rocketing up starting in a. year or two.
Come on. We were supposed to see that exponential growth in heating many years ago, maybe even a decade at at this point. At what point does everyone take a step back and re-adjust to the very obvious fact that we will not see exponential warming occur?
I would LOVE to see a serious discussion on climate at some point. But this government report is not doing that, it will be just another hammer used to bludgeon the populace until they comply.
So until then, I choose to live a happy life - not a life of fear. I choose to look at trends that are actually occurring and think how to adapt to them, not taking wildly different future predictions as gospel just because some authority claims they know the future even though the've always been wrong in the past.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
If we refuse to believe in it, it will just magically fade away.
I don't care anymore. I trust the data NASA has been putting out, I just don't trust nearly any of the doomsday predictions that follow. A 2C rise in temperatures means nothing. Our planet will still be largely a freezing one which has far more downside than being slightly warmer.
I don't think it's a conspiracy either, just a prime example of groupthink and herd mentality even in scientist circles. Look no further than the polar bear example of how even clear evidence that doomsday predictions are wrong "aren't allowed" in the community and are shot down.
Yes, AC, we can all see that you're a completely natural being on this planet, literally just like all the other animals -- and like those animals, you haven't got a fucking clue about anything beyond putting food in your belly, eliminating your wastes, and reproductive activity. And just just like so many species that came before you, you can naturally go extinct. I'd recommend, for your own comfort, that you arrange to go personally extinct as soon as possible. It's better for the planet if you do.
amirite
No, you are not right.
The caravan is a political stunt, nothing more. A useful tool for everyone of any "side".
SJW's are destroying only their own subset of culture really. What has truly changed as a result of them? Not much.
Antifa are the Lost Boys for the modern age, doing what they think is right with the misguided energy of youth and inexperience, sadly some greatly messing up what were otherwise promising lives.
I'm interested in how you decide which mythical all-destructive forces to believe?
I believe in things that are real. I believe in logic, in reason, in science, in not being OF a party but being above all parties.
I voted for both Democrats, Republicans, and Libertarians in the last election. Can you say the same? Or are you still being led by forces you do not understand and have no say in?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Maybe it's not happening in your particular neighborhood
Perhaps you need to read my post again?
In my case it was also going up, which I said.
I am just saying it's not going to be going up at the rapid rise they predict, such predictions always starting in a year or two from now, then in two more years new predictions are that NOW in two years or so it's really going to climb.
Climate will indeed continue to change, and currently the trend is warmer. But warmth alone is nothing to fear, and indeed something to embrace over the alternative climate historically has had to offer - which is ice and far greater regions of lifeless existence in the world. Antartica was a tropical paradise once... in your rush to embrace fear you have forgotten how to look all all things that may be, instead of seeing only the future you have been told to see.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
When it comes to climate change, both liberals and conservatives are equally clueless. Conservatives don't think it exists (or choose to ignore it).
You can only hear THE SKY IS FALLING!! so many times before calling BS. In 90s liberals said New York and LA would be underwater by 2015. It didn’t happen.
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
Yeah, but not world wide. ... at least during the last glacier periods at the equator the temperature was more or less the same as right now. So except inside of Africa, I doubt those areas will get much warmer. However: again the question is changing rain patterns. Phillippines and Indonesia had a drought last year and partly this year and heavy floodings several times this year (I don't remember last year). Thailand is unusually dry to, at least in the north west.
Far north and far south you still will have tempered regions, question however is what kind of weather (aka storms) you have and what and how much you can grow.
Around the equator it mostly will depend on your distance to the sea
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.