Jimmy Higgins
Contributor
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2001
- Messages
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- Basic Beliefs
- Calvinistic Atheist
As human beings continue to substitute sustainability for cost savings and convenience, I ponder whether it is time for the UN to stop trying to limit climate change. China is kind of giving up already. I mean, they are going to address it, but it'll take a while.
The trouble we have at the moment is that if we stopped adding any CO2 into the atmosphere today, it'll likely take several years for the atmosphere to reach an equilibrium, and then several more to see if "nature" manages the CO2 itself and starts cutting it back. So these high temps... are going to get a bit higher, and then stay, unless nature does claw it back. But the problem is this... we aren't stopping CO2 emissions. CO2 emissions are going to go up. We might be looking at a cold fusion sort of time scale of perpetually never getting to our target.
So that leads us to the next thing. The climate has already changed, and will continue to get warmer. Who knows whether any planetary thresholds are surpassed that really mess things up. But let's just assume it isn't the worst, and instead the Middle East is becoming borderline unlivable, the historic infrastructure developed for one type of climate in areas is no longer able to manage the changing climate (leading to more CO2 emissions just to manage it), catastrophic flooding from 500 / 1000 year storm/flood events become more like 100 year events locally and nationally multiple times a year events, the Gulf of Mexico becomes an even larger hurricane microwave?
We need to address where is the money coming from to deal with all that. We'll need new flood models. Determine the adequacy of flood protection systems. We'll need to adapt hurricane models because they are still underpredicting wind speed development in the Gulf. Then we'll have the issue of food production and the impact climate will likely have on that.
While some consider "climate change" some sort of political sabre, the reality is, climate change is now historical, as in, it has already happened. Instead of the UN trying to pretend we have a chance at managing the temperature increase and its impact on our weather due to the solubility of water in 2.1 x 1020 cubic feet of air in the Troposphere, we need to be seriously looking at the consequences that are occurring now and will likely occur as we heat up the ocean, kill off part of the ecosystem (coral reefs and supporting life), flood the heck out of towns and cities, and brew up stronger hurricanes.
The globe's fight against climate change was much like a Cleveland Browns' season. Even when it is good, it sucks. It is time to accept defeat and deal with managing the consequences instead of dwelling in delusions that nations will back down on economic growth in order to make life on Earth not as sucky.
It appears the last two years of high temperatures were tempered by La Nina... which isn't good as China, the US, and Europe are teasing all-time records or breaking them in just July during this "super" El Nino.article said:China would pursue its commitments “unswervingly,” but the pace of such efforts “should and must be” determined without outside interference, Xi said late Tuesday. It was a long way from the 2015 Paris climate accord when a Chinese-U.S. agreement paved the way for the international goal of keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels.
The trouble we have at the moment is that if we stopped adding any CO2 into the atmosphere today, it'll likely take several years for the atmosphere to reach an equilibrium, and then several more to see if "nature" manages the CO2 itself and starts cutting it back. So these high temps... are going to get a bit higher, and then stay, unless nature does claw it back. But the problem is this... we aren't stopping CO2 emissions. CO2 emissions are going to go up. We might be looking at a cold fusion sort of time scale of perpetually never getting to our target.
So that leads us to the next thing. The climate has already changed, and will continue to get warmer. Who knows whether any planetary thresholds are surpassed that really mess things up. But let's just assume it isn't the worst, and instead the Middle East is becoming borderline unlivable, the historic infrastructure developed for one type of climate in areas is no longer able to manage the changing climate (leading to more CO2 emissions just to manage it), catastrophic flooding from 500 / 1000 year storm/flood events become more like 100 year events locally and nationally multiple times a year events, the Gulf of Mexico becomes an even larger hurricane microwave?
We need to address where is the money coming from to deal with all that. We'll need new flood models. Determine the adequacy of flood protection systems. We'll need to adapt hurricane models because they are still underpredicting wind speed development in the Gulf. Then we'll have the issue of food production and the impact climate will likely have on that.
While some consider "climate change" some sort of political sabre, the reality is, climate change is now historical, as in, it has already happened. Instead of the UN trying to pretend we have a chance at managing the temperature increase and its impact on our weather due to the solubility of water in 2.1 x 1020 cubic feet of air in the Troposphere, we need to be seriously looking at the consequences that are occurring now and will likely occur as we heat up the ocean, kill off part of the ecosystem (coral reefs and supporting life), flood the heck out of towns and cities, and brew up stronger hurricanes.
The globe's fight against climate change was much like a Cleveland Browns' season. Even when it is good, it sucks. It is time to accept defeat and deal with managing the consequences instead of dwelling in delusions that nations will back down on economic growth in order to make life on Earth not as sucky.