The Climate Change Thread

[Retro]

This is the official thread for discussing all aspects of climate change, driven by global warming and those pesky greenhouse gasses.

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There's no doubt nowadays that the rapid climate change which we're currently seeing is man made and to try to say otherwise is unarguable now - it's like trying to argue that the earth is flat, it's just not gonna fly and will be dismissed out of hand, perhaps with contempt for something so ridiculous.

This is especially so when the evidence and vast scientific consensus all agree it's man made. Therefore, trying to argue it is a form of misinformation which is normally not allowed, but, to help the conversation flow, I'm making an exception for this discussion should you disagree with the obvious.

However, if you think that rapid climate change isn't happening, or isn't due to mankind, then you will be expected to back up your arguments with compelling data from credible sources and reasonably up to date ones at that. Something from a decade ago, say, may be out of date and no longer be valid. Failing to do so may see you mocked to within an inch of your life! Don't worry, no sanctions lol (sorry mods).

I've also created a poll with some serious and also some silly options that people can vote for just for fun if they like. I mean, who wouldn't vote for the all-powerful Illuminati messing with the weather?! Your votes are visible and you can change them, too. The poll doesn't close, either.


Here's one credible source explaining climate change and blaming mankind for it, the Met Office:

When looking at all the evidence, there is a large scientific consensus that humans are the leading cause of climate change. In their latest report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stated with over 95% certainty that human activity is the main cause of global warming.

Natural climate cycles can change the temperature of Earth, but the changes we are seeing are happening at a scale and speed that natural cycles cannot explain. These cycles affect the global temperature for years, or sometimes just months, not the 100 years that we have observed. Meanwhile, longer-term changes like Milankovitch cycles and solar irradiance take thousands and thousands of years.

There are lots of things that affect climate change, but the evidence is irrefutable. Human activity, such as burning fossil fuels and changing how we use the land, is the leading cause of climate change.

Causes of climate change

The evidence is clear: the main cause of climate change is burning fossil fuels such as oil, gas, and coal. When burnt, fossil fuels release carbon dioxide into the air, causing the planet to heat up.

www.metoffice.gov.uk

Here's another credible source explaining climate change, the European Commission. They say pretty much the same as the Met Office, but in their own words, bless.

Causes of climate change

Burning fossil fuels, cutting down forests and farming livestock are increasingly influencing the climate and the earth’s temperature.

ec.europa.eu

Finally, this is a controversial subject, so please resist the temptation to make ad hominem attacks as far as possible and try to focus on defeating the argument, instead. Discussion could get heated though with grey areas being dealt with by moderation.

 

[mikeitstop]

what if CC is being caused by hidden aliens as a precursor to an attack?

Twist: bulk of the alien attack force arrives and they turn out to be vulnerable to weapons based on anti-climate change tech.

 

[Retro]

Global warming and the moon's wobbling orbit to cause severe flooding around 2030. Just keeps getting better, doesn't it?

‘Wobbling’ moon will cause devastating worldwide flooding in 2030s, Nasa warns

The world faces an onslaught of coastal flooding starting in the mid-2030s due to a "wobble" in the moon's orbit, Nasa has warned. Numbers of floods could quadruple as the gravitational effects of the lunar cycle combine with climate change to produce "a decade of dramatic increases" in water...

uk.news.yahoo.com

 

[HEXdidnt]

What I find baffling about all of this is, in the face of such evidence, the Fossil Fuels Industry had the money, the expertise and - one would think - strong motivation to invest in renewable energy decades ago. They could have got ahead of the curve and made a positive impact on technologies and industries that directly impact climate change. They could have slowed the demand for fossil fuels, increasing the cost to directly reflect their commitment to alternatives rather than their slowly dwindling supplies.

Instead, they just poured billions into bribing politicians to tell everyone "Nah, it's fine. It's perfectly normal." and dubious 'research' to debunk genuine climate science.

Typical short-sightedness from those wanting to control both supply and demand, lining their own pockets as quickly as possible. Didn't even occur to them that being on the forefront of renewable energy might actually make them richer in the long run. Short-term gains, all the way.

 

[Retro]

Indeed Hex, I saw a video only yesterday which showed how many alternative engines had been invented over the years that were much greener than the 100+ year old internal combustion technology we’re currently stuck with. Yet, each time, those inventions were suppressed in order to keep the status quo going. It’s criminal on a massive scale.

 

[Retro]

It just keeps getting worse and it’s not gonna stop.

'We are hitting climate tipping points,' scientists warn – DW – 07/28/2021

Around 13,000 researchers have called for urgent action to slow down the climate emergency as extreme weather patterns shock the world. They listed three core measures.

dw.com

 

[Retro]

Our moderate British weather is becoming a thing of the past due to man made climate change.

Extreme weather will be the norm and UK is not prepared, scientists warn

Last year was first to be in top 10 for heat, rain and sunshine, as scientists say UK’s mild climate is at an end

www.theguardian.com

UK already undergoing disruptive climate change.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-57988023

 

[Retro]

Yup, we did it and we’re in big trouble because of it.

What happened to that mini ice age we were supposed to be be heading for? This means that the problem is even worse and more extreme.

Climate change: IPCC report is 'code red for humanity'.

Climate change: IPCC report is 'code red for humanity'

Heating from humans has caused irreparable damage to the Earth that may get worse in coming decades.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Retro]

EDIT: this is the original post for the duplicate thread which has now been merged into the original one.

---

This is the official climate change thread. Please post all climate related discussion here.

Climate change is happening all around us and is noticeable now, something I didn't think would happen in my lifetime just a few years ago. To add to this crisis, hurricanes are becoming more destructive and in more cities as explained in the article below.

Climate change will bring more hurricanes to New York, other midlatitude cities, study finds

A new study projects that more hurricanes will be coming to midlatitude regions, which include major population centers such as New York, Boston and Shanghai, because of climate change.

uk.news.yahoo.com

 

[FF]

I'm not sure if this is really climate change related

Tonga remains cut off after a massive eruption and tsunami. Here's what we know | CNN

The eruption of an underwater volcano near Tonga on Saturday was likely the biggest recorded anywhere on the planet in more than 30 years, according to experts.

www.cnn.com

 

[Retro]

Yes, I think it goes here, because events like this do affect the climate and can interact with the overall trend.

 

[Retro]

Maximum severity "red", risk to life, weather warnings are a rarity in the UK which typically has a fairly temperate climate, if unsettled.

Stuff like this is surely due to climate change and I reckon we're gonna get more of these over the next year. We'll soon see.

Storm Eunice: Record wind gust amid disruption

Thousands are left without power, travel networks are disrupted and hundreds of schools are closed.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Retro]

I'm watching Sky News reporting about Storm Eunice. What I don't get, is why do they make their reporters stand out in it?! Seems silly, but I see other stations do the same thing. Dramatic effect?

 

[Retro]

Climate change news just keeps getting worse and worse - and the biggest reason is flat out corruption by the fossil fuel companies secretly investing in fossil fuel use expansion as it earns them vast profits in the billions, as this first article reveals.

The core problem is that the world doesn't have a viable infrastructure for alternative sources of energy and our energy demands keep going up relentlessly, so what do we do? I'm just glad that I don't have to make the decisions as this is a horrible dilemma. One way is to build thorium nuclear reactors asap, but these take significant time and can only fix part of the problem.

Alas, I think the world will crash and burn in the decades to come. That comfortable high tech sci-fi future that we see in movies? Nah, welcome to dystopian hell instead. The era we're living in right now with its high technology and comfortable life (for the first world only) might be the high point in humanity's sorry history.

Revealed: the ‘carbon bombs’ set to trigger catastrophic climate breakdown

Exclusive: Oil and gas majors are planning scores of vast projects that threaten to shatter the 1.5C climate goal. If governments do not act, these firms will continue to cash in as the world burns

www.theguardian.com

And the UK isn't doing too well either as we approach an environmental tipping point.

Environment tipping points fast approaching in UK, says watchdog

From fisheries collapse to dead rivers, official body urges government to urgently turn ambition into action

www.theguardian.com

 

[Tiffany]

To be an earthly steward, takes a world wide commitment, indeed. I read, your tipping point article and I'm glad the UK/OEP (Office of Environmental Protection) is taking some dedicated measures to address key areas that cause significant damage to the environment through their Environment Act. America, has the Environmental Protection Agency. My mom worked for the EPA for many years, now retired and was responsible for the clean up of waste sites in Oklahoma and I think one more state. The EPA has good intentions, but it's also a bureaucracy. So many layers of management to make a difference. Her job description required the management of waste sites, cost management, lots of reports and interestingly, also required town meetings where the public, in towns where waste clean up was going to occur, could come and listen to how the EPA was going to commence the cleanup and answering questions. The sad part of a lot of these waste areas were in Indigenous people/tribal lands.

Your carbon bomb's article, I have to read again and process the threat details. It's very informative, but very deep. I need a quiet house . In an aside note, their graphics where great though out the article as you scrolled down the page. I know, not the point, I can't help it. I see everything in their geographical shape and I'm especially fascinated by movement graphic work as used in this article.

 

[Tiffany]

Ha, just noticed your first article on this thread about the hurricanes. Meteorology is my nerd area. I'll be BACK for a reply.

 

[Retro]

Ha, just noticed your first article on this thread about the hurricanes. Meteorology is my nerd area. I'll be BACK for a reply.

Oh no, I await with trepidation!

 

[Tiffany]

K, the trepidation wait is finally over......I'm here to set the record straight on the climate. Our seas/sea surface temperate (SST's), air pollution, clean air (yes, cleaner air is allowing more hurricanes to form in the Atlantic), warm fronts, cold fronts, stationary fronts, humid air colliding with a warm or cold front, El Nino, La Nina in the Pacific Ocean, Arctic Air/Vortex, the Sun/sun spots, Full moons, and sand storms from the Sahara desert spreading across the Atlantic Ocean, as well as the constant movement in tectonic plates, volcano disturbances all play a role in how our environment will react in terms of temperature and weather. We've had multiple ice ages, including a mini ice age starting back in the 13th century and working itself out by the 19the century. The earth, on it's axis, on it's tilt spins daily, seasonally and through decades to centuries will have multiple anomalies that will vary like your Aunts chicken soup recipe and Campbell's soup recipe. Both recipes are for chicken soup, but were put together differently with different ingredients and measurements. The weather, the climate, is just a recipe. We have cycles of weather that can last from 8 month's to 15 months and then change. Do we have "climate change", why yes, the climate is always changing but it's affected by a gazillion different measurements in the atmosphere, sea temperatures, the whole thing. The climate waxes and wains....does man affect it somewhat, well yes, should we be better earth stewards, yes. Should we tax people carbon taxes, extra taxes for gas, extra taxes period? There lies my hot spot with the "climate change" premise. I also get irritated with the people that are "do as I say, but not as I do", those people that fly everywhere, but tell us to ride our bikes. My bad, if I went too far, I really believe in taking care of the earth and preserving for future generations, but I'm not sure we can really control it, not unless the whole planet and every country is on the same page. Now cloud seeding, there lies another topic.

 

[Retro]

Yes, one can certainly think of all the environmental factors as a recipe (a recipe for disaster the way we're going). We were supposed to be sliding into another mini ice age now, making all this fast warming so much worse. Just how bad would it have been if global warming had been part of the natural cycle? It may have made large parts of the planet uninhabitable. It really puts petty wars like Putin's invasion outrage into perspective. It's beyond idiotic when we should globally be looking after each other instead.

I wholeheartedly agree that climate change is being used to impose unnecessary and restrictive practices on us, such as the anti-car obsession with the British government, local councils and pressure groups all trying to force us out of our cars and travel so restrictively in cattle class on buses and trains all in the name of "green travel plans". It doesn't have to be this way to tackle climate change. The hypocrisy on this one is breathtaking. It's nothing more than a class war.

Nah, you didn't go too far, your opinions are always welcome here and the nerdier the better! Mankind should stop raping and pillaging this planet for short term greed as if it was an infinite resource. It's gonna bite us hard and likely sooner than later.

To clarify, the planet won't care at all about climate change. It's just a giant inanimate ball of rock. It's all the life on it that will suffer and I'm including animal life here as it's so often forgotten and hardly ever gets any support from humans. They're the hardest hit of all.

 

[Tiffany]

Greed, that about sums up the root of all of the evils of everything. Also agreed, that the animal life on the earth gets very little attention, care and preservation stewardship programs.

Britain government is pushing the whole sardine in a can mass transit experience rather then using your own car for transportation? How many of the US and UK government officials use mass transit for their travel....ummmm....none. Just like in the US, we have one party that is anti-gun anti-walls/borders, but yet always has full body guard entourage, fences and walls built around their homes and security detail everywhere they go.

Forgot for a second, this was on climate change....let me see if I can get back on your thread subject....thinking....back to your first comment about another mini ice age. I'd like to read up on that a bit. The weather since 2012, at least noted here in Texas has been rather peculiar. In 2012, we went through a severe drought. It was so bad that summer, that when it finally rained, after three months of zero rain, people were actually walking around their neighborhoods and on major streets soaking wet, enjoying the welcomed rain. I know you don't have that issue in Britain, but for here, the heat was over 100 degrees most days and it was enough to make you crazy if you weren't a sane person. Then we've had some unusual hurricane's and hurricane seasons (Hurricane Harvey, 2017, in Houston was devastating because of the stationary rain). Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico was devastating, much like Hugo in 1989. Then we've had some years with a lot of rain all year, and in the past year, we are kind of in a rain drought. The past two winter's, Texas had their snow and ice storms in February of 2021 and 2022 and in 2021, Texas broke a temperature record of 0 degrees F. All very peculiar, not exactly rolling weather from season to season, but weather that spikes within a season registering an abnormal event. That's why I'm interested in reading about your new ice age. It makes sense.

 

[Retro]

Climate change is slowly wrecking Australia. The devastating effects of climate change are being felt right now, not some vague point in the future.

It makes me sad to see such a beautiful country being wrecked like this and the lives of millions of people and billions of animals ruined.

Australia election: How climate is making Australia more unliveable

Climate-driven disasters are converging with key financial decisions like never before, experts say.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Bionic_Rooster]

What everyone is forgetting is that climate change is a natural phenomenon that occurred since the world was born. It just so happens that man/woman are seeing it happen for the first time. Though I think some earlier ancestor may have witnessed the last ice age (occurred from the end of the Eemian to the end of the Younger Dryas, encompassing the period c. 115,000 – c. 11,700 years ago) which followed the last global warming. The earth releases more co2 than all the cow farts, human farts and co2 created by man. Volcano's, methane gas released from swaps, lakes and oceans for eons have released more pollution than the industrial age. Man kind could spend the next 100 years reducing "green house gas" only to have 1 volcano eruption erase all their efforts.
This whole present day issue was caused by dooms day activist and the government jumped on the band wagon because it was a cash cow for them. The won't tell you the increase in violent storms is caused by tidal forces increasing due to the moons orbit declining. Or that the increase in heat waves is due to natural sun bursts and some more potent coronal eruptions. They could justify "Citizens of the world, gives us more money so we can fix this".
Carbon Tax gas, oil etc getting people to pay for something they are already gouging industry for. And the joke of it all is there is no record anywhere of the governments spending our carbon tax money on reducing co2 green gases.
Electrify transportation. Great idea until your on this bus.

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or in China on this bus

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And they want to electrify plane travel????????? Pleaple in those buses are lucky they were not on a plan at 30k feet.
Electric companies are complaining already about power shortage and outages due to over use. How are electric car drivers going to charge their cars then? At least gas guzzlers can siphon gas from somewhere with a garden hose. Imagine having to rap your lips around a 100 volt line to siphon hydro?

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There is no hydro infrastructure currently available nor will there be in our or the next life time to handle the demand of electric transportation, nor is there a safe alternative for battery power.

 

[Bionic_Rooster]

Ridicules of the US Democratic party claim the abundance of cow farts is a major cause of global warming and therefore beef consumption needs to be reduced.
That got me to thinking (oh oh) ......... how many cows are there world wide? The USDA reported the world cattle inventory in 2021 at 1.0 billion head. Compared to human population world wide? In demographics, the term world population is often used to refer to the total number of humans currently living, and was estimated to have exceeded 7.9 billion as of November 2021.
So to conclude, with humans having a estimated 6.9 billion more than the 1.0 billion cows, human farts are the major cause of global warming.
Ok folks, to fix this problem it's a simple solution to tighten up those spinster muscles and we can all save the world.

 

[Arantor]

Well, cows produce more substantially methane than humans, both in their burping and farting, but the reality is that the human impact on the wider biosystem (including all the tree-cutting we keep doing) is the real problem.

 

[Tiffany]

I simply can not respond to the last two replies, as I'm laughing too hard to get back into some kind of nerdzone to write anything substantial to support the recent claims above.