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Thread: The [more terrifying than ever] Global Warming Thread

  1. #1
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    The [more terrifying than ever] Global Warming Thread

    If the earth sees a six degree rise, we will probably all die. This is what the new studies are predicting.

    Rolling Stone recently published an article that will probably give me nightmares.

    "Which is exactly why this new number, 2,795 gigatons, is such a big deal. Think of two degrees Celsius as the legal drinking limit – equivalent to the 0.08 blood-alcohol level below which you might get away with driving home. The 565 gigatons is how many drinks you could have and still stay below that limit – the six beers, say, you might consume in an evening. And the 2,795 gigatons? That's the three 12-packs the fossil-fuel industry has on the table, already opened and ready to pour.

    We have five times as much oil and coal and gas on the books as climate scientists think is safe to burn. We'd have to keep 80 percent of those reserves locked away underground to avoid that fate. Before we knew those numbers, our fate had been likely. Now, barring some massive intervention, it seems certain.

    Yes, this coal and gas and oil is still technically in the soil. But it's already economically aboveground – it's figured into share prices, companies are borrowing money against it, nations are basing their budgets on the presumed returns from their patrimony. It explains why the big fossil-fuel companies have fought so hard to prevent the regulation of carbon dioxide – those reserves are their primary asset, the holding that gives their companies their value. It's why they've worked so hard these past years to figure out how to unlock the oil in Canada's tar sands, or how to drill miles beneath the sea, or how to frack the Appalachians."

    Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics...#ixzz23k07txrw

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    Yeah its been feeling more relevant than ever. What with the huuuge drought, the crazy hot weather.

    Pretty depressing. Humanity is definitely not about to save its own skin either.

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    It's funny how people are willing to accept the cold, hard truth of global warming only when faced with empirical evidence. Record high temperatures in summer? Must be global warming! Record snowfall across New England? Must be global warming!

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    It's not called "global warming," anymore; it's called "climate change."

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change

    http://www.pnas.org/content/early/20....full.pdf+html
    Last edited by allegro; 08-19-2012 at 10:53 AM.

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    So when are they gonna stop making Humvees? Or better yet 12.5oz bottles of coca-cola?

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    Two things:
    1) GM stopped production of the Hummer two years ago.
    2) I have no idea what correlation you're trying to make between climate change and Coca-Cola.

    But hey, you want to know what the biggest reason is for climate change? Factory farming.

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    I apologize if I come off sounding like a dick, but it's the year 2012 and we still have those who refuse to give groups of people their basic human rights. Does anyone here really think mankind could pull together to save a planet?

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    The planet's going to be safe no matter what (Gaia will redress the balance); we're the ones that are fucked.

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    Quote Originally Posted by icklekitty View Post
    The planet's going to be safe no matter what (Gaia will redress the balance); we're the ones that are fucked.
    Maybe that's for the best.

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    What i meant about the coke bottles is that do we need an extra .5oz container in a plastic (oil based product) bottle to add to all the other plastic bottles? It shows the mass ignorance of how wasteful we are. Same with individually wrapped hotdogs all the way up to hummers. Like I said in the last thread on this its this continuing apparent need to make shit purposefully that is going to be garbage in 6 months. I'm sure everyone recycles their cell batteries right? All this may seem rather elementary but again i think it shows the ignorance of seemingly everyone.

    It's like this steel factory owner i saw talking about how he makes those giant windmills, and though they may a green form of energy he very much uses coal to melt all that steel that they then use to make those turbines. I think i now see what Gore was doing, trying to sell those carbon offset thingy's, he tried to bring some kind of profit base to the environmental cause, because until someone finds a way to make money of rectifying this mess, companies will continue to pay whatever fines they may have to pay for pollution assuming they are in a country that at least trys to enforce such laws. And to again echo what i said last time, we are most likely fucked, but yes, Gia will make it right once were all dead.

    It's been fun, sort of... I think the saddest thing about all this is the seeming lack of interest in any of it. I mean shit censor the internets and we all join together, (while they sneak in a law that makes US citizens officially qualified for indefinite containment, though the patriot act did that already) but when it comes to saving the fucking planet we live on all you can get out of most people is a real life version of those internet memes stating, "....I give no fucks." Not to mention they now say they have found even more oil out west (ND) and that most of the state has oil they can leak out of the rocks. I don't see this trend stopping any time soon.
    Last edited by Pillfred; 08-21-2012 at 10:01 PM. Reason: too much booze

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    Yes plastics are a huge deal actually. Some large portion ends up in the ocean no matter what we do and the consequences are prettu deep. There was an entire exhibit about it at a museum ibdid some work for. Theres actually a texas sized island made exclusively of trash collecting out in the pacific.

    The county recently passed laws banning plastic cups and bags, and taxijg people who dont hring their own shopping bag... its a start but doesnt deal with all the bottles, straws, etc.

    Just one chunk of the bigger picture.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Wretchedest View Post
    Theres actually a texas sized island made exclusively of trash collecting out in the pacific.
    Eh, not really. I kind of hate the way this thing has been characterized. A little pet peeve. It's certainly taken the American imagination by storm, but I don't see that this has been very effective in motivating more people to be careful and aware consumers that wouldn't be otherwise.

    And the Pacific isn't the only one. Each of the five major oceanic gyres hosts its own collection of plastic debris.

    Quote Originally Posted by Wikipedia
    The Patch is characterized by exceptionally high concentrations of pelagic plastics, chemical sludge, and other debris that have been trapped by the currents of the North Pacific Gyre.[2] Despite its size and density, the patch is not visible from satellite photography, since it consists primarily of suspended particulates in the upper water column. Since plastics break down to even smaller polymers, concentrations of submerged particles are not visible from space, nor do they appear as a continuous debris field. Instead, the patch is defined as an area in which the mass of plastic debris in the upper water column is significantly higher than average.
    Quote Originally Posted by U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
    The “garbage patch,” as referred to in the media, is an area of marine debris concentration in the North Pacific Ocean. The name “garbage patch” has led many to believe that this area is a large and continuous patch of easily visible marine debris items such as bottles and other litter—akin to a literal blanket of trash that should be visible with satellite or aerial photographs. This is simply not true. While litter items can be found in this area, along with other debris such as derelict fishing nets, much of the debris mentioned in the media these days refers to small bits of floatable plastic debris. These plastic pieces are quite small and not immediately evident to the naked eye.
    Quote Originally Posted by oceanconservancy.org
    Myth: The Pacific Garbage Patch is twice the size of Texas.
    Fact: It is impossible to measure the exact size of a gyre because it is a fluid system that moves constantly. But the fact remains that huge amounts of man-made debris accumulate there.

    Myth: The Pacific Garbage Patch is like a big island of floating trash.
    Fact: No vast island or blanket of garbage is visible in the North Pacific in aerial photographs or satellite images; the accumulation of trash here is like a chunky soup rather than a solid island of garbage you could walk across. Varying concentrations of debris occur in different places at different times; there are at least three separate spots in the North Pacific where currents cause large accumulations of trash. While rubber rain boots, toothbrushes, and food containers can be seen, much of the debris has been broken down by wind, sun, and wave action into tiny pieces that are harder to see, many of them plastic. Scientists skimming the water with fine mesh nets have discovered that in some parts of the Garbage Patch, while tiny marine life called plankton is still more abundant than plastic fragments in terms of numbers, plastic outweighs plankton six to one.
    Last edited by Corvus T. Cosmonaut; 08-22-2012 at 04:44 AM.

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    Right, i realize that its not EXACTLY island like, nonetheless a giant floating mass of trash and crap is pretty disturbing.

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    Wired just ran an interesting article on their front cover called, Apocalypse Not, which basically runs through some of the major end of the world/pandemic scares we've gone through in recent years. It's a less alarmist approach to all the problems we're facing, and I thought it might generate some interesting debate. It's also not totally global warming (only a little, in fact), but it's chock full of end of the world scenarios.

    So, should we worry or not about the warming climate? It is far too binary a question. The lesson of failed past predictions of ecological apocalypse is not that nothing was happening but that the middle-ground possibilities were too frequently excluded from consideration. In the climate debate, we hear a lot from those who think disaster is inexorable if not inevitable, and a lot from those who think it is all a hoax. We hardly ever allow the moderate “lukewarmers” a voice: those who suspect that the net positive feedbacks from water vapor in the atmosphere are low, so that we face only 1 to 2 degrees Celsius of warming this century; that the Greenland ice sheet may melt but no faster than its current rate of less than 1 percent per century; that net increases in rainfall (and carbon dioxide concentration) may improve agricultural productivity; that ecosystems have survived sudden temperature lurches before; and that adaptation to gradual change may be both cheaper and less ecologically damaging than a rapid and brutal decision to give up fossil fuels cold turkey.

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    Necromancy because it's fucking wild out there people.



    The air here near Portland is terrible, I can't even imagine what it's like in California.

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    Lake Michigan-Huron (they're really one big lake) is at a record high. It's totally nuts. We have had to spend MANY thousands in our area to fortify our houses against flooding over the last 10 years, and it's gotten worse and worse.

    Everyone in my area has been battling flooding for decades. We have spent thousands on methods of flood abatement. Every time we get rainstorms, I get terrible anxiety. Every plumbing and sewer business is constantly inundated with calls and business.

    An emergency flood team was created by our city, working with FEMA, in an attempt to address these issues; we have TWO rivers the run through our city, which constantly overflow, plus our entire area is based on heavy clay. While I am nowhere near these rivers, these rivers totally overwhelm our storm system. Also, we have a totally insufficient response to our flooding; our city should install storm drains on each property. They refuse, due to lack of funding. 65% of our tax dollars go to the school system. There isn't enough money to fund flood response.

    After the flooding goes away, the drought starts. The lawn has been pretty much dead since July.

    NONE of this flooding is covered by insurance.

    Many (most) beaches on both sides of Lake Michigan are completely GONE. Breakwaters in the lake are nearly buried, now a danger to boaters. The "Chain O' Lakes" in Illinois is closed or "no wake" for much of the season due to flooding.
    Last edited by allegro; 09-10-2020 at 09:49 PM.

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    @allegate , I hope you aren’t in danger.

    I’m seeing Twitter friends in Oregon who are evacuating. It’s getting very scary.

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    The air is pretty bad here in Portland. Its very hazy and its getting really unhealthy.

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    "We're lying by the orange sky
    Two million miles across the land"

    Depeche Mode - Two minute warning (1983)
    Last edited by Substance242; 09-11-2020 at 03:32 AM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by allegro View Post
    @allegate, I hope you aren’t in danger.

    I’m seeing Twitter friends in Oregon who are evacuating. It’s getting very scary.
    The worst we had was a 100+ fire just to the east of us but it was mostly brush and was contained fairly quickly, probably because it's not in a hilly area and was mostly farm land. The air though. As @Dryalex12 says, the air here is terrible. I feel bad for all of the animals that are outside.

    We are supposed to go camping today for the weekend and horseback riding tomorrow. I'm like 90% sure that's not going to happen. Spoiler: (10% is my wife is stubborn about trying to do something fun/family before the weather turns and, well, the weather may not have turned yet but the air certainly did. )

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    Spoiler alert: we didn't go. Turns out that when the air quality scale runs out of numbers you really just want to stay inside. Luckily we already had a box fan here and I just happened to be at Home Depot when they were unboxing some filters so that was a break for the air inside the house.

    I found out some terrible news yesterday. But first, some back story. Every year for the past five years* I've done Killer Fang bike ride** - https://visitestacada.com/cascading-rivers-ride/ - which starts in Estacada, OR and goes all the way to Detroit, OR on a very winding road through some truly beautiful scenery. Every year has been something different, whether it's heat, rain, and even snow last year. Froze my ass off going over the hill at that elevation. Anyway, this year it was cancelled because of the pandemic, though they were open to "maybe if the world is in a better place we can do something informally" four months ago; sadly that didn't come to pass because, well, you're aware of covid and rural responses to it.

    Even more sad now though is that Detroit is basically gone and Estacada isn't faring much better. I am heartbroken by this. The event is a small one so it's very homey. You are given lunch at the halfway point on both days and meal tickets for dinner and breakfast so you get to know everyone involved. I saw a video someone posted and it was just her driving through Detroit and saying the names of the people who lived in the house she was driving by and telling/showing them it was gone. It was heartbreaking. I have several coworkers who live in the Estacada area and I haven't seen them online since last week, I can only hope that they are safely evacuated at this point.

    https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/20...dfires/616344/

    I should be able to see downtown Portland from my office window, I cannot even see the buildings on the other end of the campus.




    *Three years ago - almost exactly - it was canceled because of another time that the state of Oregon was on fire.

    **that map is only one way - from Detroit to Estacada - and that is a much easier ride as you're mostly going downhill.

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    I don't deny the human influence on global warming, but it's not to that degree. I've seen plenty of research where in some places the temperature is rising, and in some it's lowering. The climate has been changing no matter who or what dominated Earth, but what we can surely do is stop wasting food, destroying nature and get rid of cars that smoke horribly. Simple things should work

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    Quote Originally Posted by MichaelHarris1950 View Post
    I don't deny the human influence on global warming, but it's not to that degree. I've seen plenty of research where in some places the temperature is rising, and in some it's lowering. The climate has been changing no matter who or what dominated Earth, but what we can surely do is stop wasting food, destroying nature and get rid of cars that smoke horribly. Simple things should work
    The degree at which our actions are influencing, or accelerating climate change is the key to everything in regards to Earth and its climate.

    In order for dinosaurs to thrive on this planet for millions of years, I personally feel like Earth, its inhabitants and its climate had to be in state of equilibrium, and when the climate did change, it happened much slower which allowed for most species to evolve. Hell, maybe the only reason the climate changed significantly was because of major meteoroid impacts or substantial volcanos/tectonic plate changes?

    I've come to the conclusion that there's no way that 7.8 billion people can live on this planet without impacting the climate (unless of course all 7.8 billion of us consumed very little natural resources). Now, to what degree we're having on Earth's climate? Scientists have been predicting this for a while, we'll see if they were correct in a couple of decades, maybe sooner.

  26. #26
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    so, you want to get incredibly pissed at a company today?


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    Looks like he’s already resigned.

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    Quote Originally Posted by allegate View Post
    so, you want to get incredibly pissed at a company today?

    How did I miss this post until now?

    OH MY GOD!!

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    Quote Originally Posted by allegate View Post
    What a dick.

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