Global warming

[Bruno]

Global warming

I would be shocked if the tilt humans have caused is at all stoppable by this point, even in theory.

[MsD]

Global warming

Even slowing it down would save many lives and untold misery, so is worth doing. And the fewer new people are brought onto the planet, the better. That's not an anti-humanist or anti-child view, quite the reverse. As Jonathan Porritt put it (and was pilloried for it) "if you want a better future for your children, have fewer of them".

[Bruno]

Global warming

Sign me up for a depopulated planet and all, but I'm thinking even slowing it down is by now impossible because of the 'feedback loop' self-reinforcing aspect, or however it's put.

[Reed John]

Global warming

There is only one long-term solution and we all know it.

"A new life awaits you on the off-world colonies."

[Janik]

Global warming

I would be shocked if the tilt humans have caused is at all stoppable by this point, even in theory.

It isn't, not even in theory. For example, the thermal expansion of the oceans in response to the temperature increase will continue for hundreds of years, if not thousands. This expansion will happen even if we could halt the temperature increase and reverse it today, which we can't. Such physical changes in a body with as much inertia as the total of the worlds oceans take a very long time to happen and a very long time to reverse. So, as the oceans are guarenteed to expand, sea level rise will happen, unavoidably and catastrophically.

Of course, by not acting now, we ensure that the catastrophy is longer and even more destructive.

[anton pulisov]

Global warming

Reed of the Valley People wrote:

There is only one long-term solution and we all know it.

"A new life awaits you on the off-world colonies."

How will we get there? On Pan-Am?

[Moonlight Shadow]

Global warming

The planet is cooling anyway, according to the sceptical "experts" across the world, we'll be fine...

[MsD]

Global warming

On the population question, some stats I've just got through from the Population Research Bureau, and the UNFPA

• At least 97% of all population growth in the next 40 years will be in developing countries. By 2050, 9 in 10 young people under 25 will live in developing countries, most in Africa and Asia.
• Africa's population has just passed 1 bn. The continent's population is growing by about 24 m per year, and will double by 2050.
• Some 48% of world population lives in poverty, on less than the equivalent of US$2 per day. Hundreds of millions of people live barely above that level.
• Pakistan's govt fears their population may double by 2024.

These are all countries very vulnerable to the effects of climate change. And we can help by supporting family planning funding initiatives (budgets have been cut in recent years, Obama has restored some funding but more is needed).
Thank you and goodnight.

[Reed John]

Global warming

How will we get there? On Pan-Am?

"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe..."

[Ginger Yellow]

Global warming

What (using computer simulations and all) was the weather like before the records? Were there no peaks and troughs?

To elaborate on Bahiryan's post, when people talk about "since records began", they usually mean since the mid 1800s, when people started systematically measuring the temperature at various points around the world. But we have fairly good ways of telling how hot or cold the climate was going back millions of years that don't just rely on computer simulations (indeed, these methods are used to calibrate simulations). Different proxies are used for different timescales. Recent history is usually estimated using tree rings or corals.
Temperatures in very recent geological times are estimated using isotope concentrations in ice or sediment cores.

Going further back, you can use things like the types and amount of fossilised pollen found, fossilised tree rings, and obviously things like the extent of ice sheets.

[Bruno]

Global warming

I just want to say how deeply humbled and not a little awestruck I am to have started the thread that will likely chronicle the end of our civilization. Will there ever be a more important, or a more poignant thread than this one?

In ten years' time, on page 223, will we be reading such posts as 'water now lapping at our front stoop, we're hoisting the sofa up the fire escape this a.m.' and 'the bottled water ruffians were out in numbers last night' and 'well city just won europe but did anyone risk arrest to watch it during the mandatory black out? christ am I thirsty.'

[Guest]

Global warming

Bruno wrote:

In ten years' time, on page 223, will we be reading such posts as 'water now lapping at our front stoop, we're hoisting the sofa up the fire escape this a.m.' and 'the bottled water ruffians were out in numbers last night' and 'well city just won europe but did anyone risk arrest to watch it during the mandatory black out? christ am I thirsty.'

Whilst sharing your enviromental concerns, the 'end of the world' could just as easily be precipitated by some rogue dipstick(s) firing off a few nuclear missiles....

[MsD]

Global warming

Some of the states that might be plunged into crisis by climate/population pressures have nuclear weapons. I'm just saying.

[MsD]

Global warming

Today:

UK Government Chief Scientist warns of ‘Perfect Storm’ from Global Population Growth

John Beddington, the UK government’s Chief Scientific Advisor, has added his voice to a chorus of recent high profile warnings about the impact of population growth linked with climate change.

Predicting an increase in competition for food, water and energy, he foresees a crisis developing over the next couple of decades – with rising food prices, rising levels of hunger and emigration from worst hit areas.