Global Warming Now Irreversible

[Minzerland II]

Well, fuck.

[Scandinavian Nations]

It matters not if CO2 levels were much higher before today's levels, the issue is that it has been correlated with increasing global temperatures but remains in the atmosphere for an unacceptably long time, much slower than the rate at which humans are adding more carbon to the Earth's atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels.

Actually, any amount of time is quite acceptable, since the temperatures are only increasing to acceptable levels.

You do realize know where the CO2 from burning fossil fuel comes from, right? We're releasing the CO2 previously sequestered by the rainforests that thrive in a warmer climate.

Humans weren't around when the Earth's CO2 levels were sky high and the climate that the dinosaurs thrived in for example, might not be one in which humans could survive in.

Or it might be. The primates are about 55 myr old, straight from Earth's all-time temperature peak. Our bodies are built for Africa and Singapore, not for the icy northern lands and not even Europe's temperate compromise.

Actually, more likely, it wasn't a climate in which humans could have ever evolved in: the abundance of food and the comfortable climate didn't produce the needs for clothing, construction, complex organization, and thus intelligence, that has created a path for hominids to evolve along.


(Mind you, we're talking fantasies here; there's no evidence that even a concentrated effort by humanity to raise the temperature can bring it up to Jurassic levels.)

Much of human civilization is dependent on the status quo not being disrupted in any significant way, especially with regards to agriculture or sea level rise.

Now I see. So that's the problem the AGW community is trying to solve: "Oh no, what if the investment value of my waterfront mansions comes down because the buyers expect AGW to eventually flood it? We better change the perception that we're not doing anything about it!"

[Saiwania]

Now I see. So that's the problem the AGW community is trying to solve: "Oh no, what if the investment value of my waterfront mansions comes down because the buyers expect AGW to eventually flood it? We better change the perception that we're not doing anything about it!"

No, it is that climate change denialists are unwilling or incapable of understanding that runaway climate change driven by an excess of CO2 is as valid of a threat to the continued stability of human civilization as thermonuclear warfare is. We're already on the cusp of the middle east region of the world gradually becoming too hot to be habitable. 130+ degree Fahrenheit temperatures in Kuwait.

There will be a day of reckoning when the negative consequences of climate change become overwhelmingly obvious and present, and the people who're responsible for polluting the environment or otherwise are enabling inaction will perhaps be prosecuted and no amount of money is going to save them.

[Scandinavian Nations]

We're already on the cusp of the middle east region of the world gradually becoming too hot to be habitable.

God bless.

... runaway climate change driven by an excess of CO2 is as valid of a threat to the continued stability of human civilization as thermonuclear warfare is.

So I guess we agree then - I can also get behind this statement.


(Unless global warming gets it, and that's as unlikely as you know what, thermonuclear warfare increasingly looks like the only way to lasting peace in the middle east.)

[USS Monitor]

Can someone help me update my engines to something more eco-friendly? I feel really bad for polluting... Once I accidentally gassed my own crew.

[Big Jim P]

Can someone help me update my engines to something more eco-friendly? I feel really bad for polluting... Once I accidentally gassed my own crew.

Same here, and I am human.

[USS Monitor]

Can someone help me update my engines to something more eco-friendly? I feel really bad for polluting... Once I accidentally gassed my own crew.

Same here, and I am human.

You have a crew?

What are they? Bacteria? Parasitic worms?

[Skyviolia]

This is what happens when we let organizations lobby our governments into doing absolutely nothing. People will get hurt if we fail to take action.

[Big Jim P]

Same here, and I am human.

You have a crew?

What are they? Bacteria? Parasitic worms?

Mine are external co-workers, not internal organisms.

[Big Jim P]

This is what happens when we let organizations lobby our governments into doing absolutely nothing. People will get hurt if we fail to take action.

Bah. Even if true, humanity will adapt. It's not the end of the world after all.

[Outer Sparta]

Can someone help me update my engines to something more eco-friendly? I feel really bad for polluting... Once I accidentally gassed my own crew.

Monitor, how's about a hybrid, electric, or hydrogen-powered engines? What's your best preference?

[Big Jim P]

Can someone help me update my engines to something more eco-friendly? I feel really bad for polluting... Once I accidentally gassed my own crew.

Monitor, how's about a hybrid, electric, or hydrogen-powered engines? What's your best preference?

I vote nuclear.

[New Chilokver]

You know what they say- if you want something that's environmentally friendly and won't break the bank, go nuclear.

[Outer Sparta]

You know what they say- if you want something that's environmentally friendly and won't break the bank, go nuclear.

Fission or fusion?

[Big Jim P]

You know what they say- if you want something that's environmentally friendly and won't break the bank, go nuclear.

Fission or fusion?

Fission until fusion becomes viable.

[Transoxthraxia]

I'm gonna start up a coal burning plant tbh

The electricity produced from the coal burning will go to a bunch of automated mouse wheels

It'll be a mouse resort

And everyone will be happy

Because this is a non-issue on the "fire in a theatre" level.

[Pope Joan]

Taylor Wilson, amateur nuclear physicist, created nuclear fusion in his garage.

See this recent TED talk: http://www.npr.org/2015/08/14/431388860 ... our-garage

[Big Jim P]

I'm gonna start up a coal burning plant tbh

The electricity produced from the coal burning will go to a bunch of automated mouse wheels

It'll be a mouse resort

And everyone will be happy

Because this is a non-issue on the "fire in a theatre" level.

I prefer the boy crying wolf metaphor, but I do agree.

[Outer Sparta]

Fission or fusion?

Fission until fusion becomes viable.

We really need fusion to be available because we need a source of clean, constant energy. Uranium is also finite, which makes fusion even more important.

[Pope Joan]

Fission until fusion becomes viable.

We really need fusion to be available because we need a source of clean, constant energy. Uranium is also finite, which makes fusion even more important.

So, call up Taylor Wilson.

[Big Jim P]

Taylor Wilson, amateur nuclear physicist, created nuclear fusion in his garage.

See this recent TED talk: http://www.npr.org/2015/08/14/431388860 ... our-garage

Maybe, but the trick with fusion so far has been extracting more energy out of the system than you put in.

[Big Jim P]

Fission until fusion becomes viable.

We really need fusion to be available because we need a source of clean, constant energy. Uranium is also finite, which makes fusion even more important.

Agreed. That is why people are working on it. We aren't there yet unfortunately.

[Outer Sparta]

We really need fusion to be available because we need a source of clean, constant energy. Uranium is also finite, which makes fusion even more important.

So, call up Taylor Wilson.

Man, a 22 year old could be a pioneer of fusion someday, and even constructed one at a younger age.

[Outer Sparta]

We really need fusion to be available because we need a source of clean, constant energy. Uranium is also finite, which makes fusion even more important.

Agreed. That is why people are working on it. We aren't there yet unfortunately.

Tis a shame we haven't found the Holy Grail of clean energy.

[Minivanistan]

I prefer the boy crying wolf metaphor, but I do agree.

Carrot and stick kinda work to.
Too many carrots and they lose their taste.
Keep hitting with the stick, and you eventually dont feel it much anymore.

This could just be coincidence, but what two cheap resources do you need for a society's maximum economic mobility, a lynch pin of its liberty.
Gasoline and electricity, for now.

Interesting that these two are targeted for immediate destruction without suitable cost and operationally effective replacements in place.
Perhaps the endgame is more political than we are led to believe.