Nothing is Constant Except Change: The Global Climate Thread

[chronovore]

We are experiencing global climate change. Terrible weather is the new normal.

We have threads for politics and things which look like they might escalate into loss-of-life situations. Here's one for the danger that faces the entire planet.

Have some proof:
https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/

Here is softball-sized hail falling in August.
http://digg.com/2018/colorado-springs-hail-softball

[Nintex]

Too late now we can't do anything about it but search for a new planet and start a colony before all our crops fail. 

[chronovore]

Too late now we can't do anything about it but search for a new planet and start a colony before all our crops fail. 

Easy there, Elon…

[Great Rumbler]

Hottest summer on record in Oklahoma was 2011; the summer of 2012 ranked 10th all-time. We got a bit of reprieve since then, but this summer has been blistering again. I'm really not looking forward to summers here in 20-30 years.

[Mandark]

https://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/tabledata_v3/GLB.Ts+dSST.txt

Chart of the global monthly temperature, in 1/100th °C, as compared to the 1951-1980 average.

The NOAA data seems to be used more than the NASA data, but they're very close. The Japanese Meteorological Society has one here. The UK-compiled one is here.

[Nola]

https://www.co2.earth/daily-co2

This one is fun. You can track the nice accelerating rise in atmospheric CO2 concentration.

Wake up every day and wonder how fucked we will be when the planet’s delayed response to the changes finally catches up to the newest number.

[Mandark]

Counterpoint:

[NTR]

Too late now we can't do anything about it but search for a new planet and start a colony before all our crops fail. 

And no one will get to go except rich white people 

[Nintex]

We can't reverse this and if we do so we also meddle with nature.

Mankind would have to meddle with nature with chemicals or whatever to fix this on a global scale. impossible.
Because even though we know the temperature is rising we don't know how to bring it down. We only know how to 'slow' it down.
At least we think we know, we don't have enough reliable data yet to be sure that reducing CO2 will actually do anything at this point.
It's basically a ticking time bomb.

There have never been so many people on this planet as there are today. And they've never been as prosperous as they are today.
Africa is entering the 'dump your (industrial) waste into the river' phase now that they are finally industrializing.
As China and India are just slowly catching on to regulations. (but mostly because of the smog that would otherwise literally kill them)

Not to mention the whole thing will be sped up once Siberia gets 'warm' enough for the Russians to extract the other natural resources that are now below thick ice.
And as always the population will continue to grow causing even more problems.

Celebrities flying to climate events with planes won't solve this and our industrialized societies will never produce less waste (only more waste).

We're basically fucked unless we find a new planet.

[Mandark]

Mankind would have to meddle with nature with chemicals or whatever to fix this on a global scale.

Maybe dial back the technical jargon there, professor.

[Atramental]

Well, it was nice knowing you guys. 

[TVC15]

I’ll be dead in like ten years. You’ll take my real man plastic straws from my cold dead hands. Choke the whales. Burn the planet. Eat the children.

[Nabbis]

Meh, i like my warm summers.

[team filler]

  weather is perfect where I live


so long suckaz 

[agrajag]

where do you live 

[Atramental]

Alaska. 

[agrajag]

can he see Russia from his house?

[Assimilate]

Wise money is all trying to buy places in scandinavia.

[Trent Dole]

It's like 90 all the fucking time here right now. Temp was in the 70s for a few days near last weekend and it was super wonderful. On the plus side merely being in the 80s feels comfy now.

[curly]

yeah don't think we've had a high under 90 in 3 weeks or so

[team filler]

[Nintex]

Bernie flew planes to his millennial ralies



Bernie ain't saving shit 

[Mupepe]

In a few years skimpy clothing in a professional workplace will be the norm because it will be too hot

[Nintex]

In a few years skimpy clothing in a professional workplace will be the norm because it will be too hot

Miniskirt Monday
Thong Tuesday

[Brehvolution]

Who knew converting billions of tons of fossil fuels into gas would have such an adverse effect on the planet? 

If only we had people who spent decades researching these effect and could come up with ideas on how to combat this trend.

[ToxicAdam]

I think the hyper-focus on Co2 is overblown. It gets the focus because it's the longest-lasting GHG, but it's looking at the cart and not the horse.

Every day humans are mining, diverting, spraying trillions and trillions of liters of water into the atmosphere. Every corner of the world, 24 hours a day.  Water vapor is the greatest GHG of them all and while it only stays in the air for 10 days, if you are just continually reintroducing that water back into the atmosphere (and incrementally more every year), it never actually leaves at all. Like a juggler that always has 4 balls in the air while juggling, but you slowly introduce a new ball every few decades. As the needs/wants of people increase (due to more people) this effect just keeps growing larger.

Also, soot (black carbon) is continually being pushed out by us, because we require burning biomass to  surivive. Particulates land on ice formations and help melt them faster than they normally would, introducing even more water vapor into the air.

Land use is another huge issue. We've paved over millions of square miles, we've eradicated millions of square miles of swamp land, we've dammed up rivers and made lakes. In just 200 years we've made an incredible, drastic change on the hydrosphere of this planet.

It's magical thinking (and a waste of resources) to suppose that if we eliminate Co2 emissions that somehow we will "lock"  global temperature in at a comfortable range.  Our effect on the hydrosphere, our ever growing needs to change land and our constant pollution of particulates (soot) is still going to continue unabated.

[Himu]

how you can contribute to helping in your own way:

Eating less meat.
Using the bus more if possible.
Hope and pray that we find a solution to this.

Conservatives far too often mock climate change, saying these issues are contemporary bad science. It’s like they don’t give a shit at the expense of the planet.

[I'm a Puppy!]

I am very pessimistic on the whole climate change thing.
For example: The 15 largest cargo ships put out more noxious gasses than all the cars in the world combined. 15.
Sure, we can try to make cars more efficient, but you'd have to affect every car in the world and you'd still not touch these 15. Yet, we get a bunch of actions on cars instead of cargo ships? Why? Because money of course.  And there's tons of stuff like this where it's like "Sure, you could eat less meat." But everyone would have to do that to move that needle. Or we could be smarter about our biggest polluters. But we won't because they have money and power.

[Mandark]

I am very pessimistic on the whole climate change thing.
For example: The 15 largest cargo ships put out more noxious gasses than all the cars in the world combined. 15.

That may be true for certain types of non-GHG pollutants (a quick google suggests sulfuric gases), but in terms of global climate change cars have a much larger impact.

https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/fast-facts-transportation-greenhouse-gas-emissions

[Purrp Skirrp]

[I'm a Puppy!]

I am very pessimistic on the whole climate change thing.
For example: The 15 largest cargo ships put out more noxious gasses than all the cars in the world combined. 15.

That may be true for certain types of non-GHG pollutants (a quick google suggests sulfuric gases), but in terms of global climate change cars have a much larger impact.

https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/fast-facts-transportation-greenhouse-gas-emissions

Oh true. But the point stands. If you go after companies you'll make a bigger impact than trying to get millions/billions to change their ways. But we're approaching it in the most inefficient way, trying to get everyone to change their consumption while leaving the biggest polluters to largely do as they will.

[Nintex]

I completely agree.
"Hey Nintex, please separate the plastic clips from the packaging when you throw it away. Otherwise we can't offset the effects daily airstrikes in Yemen have on the planet."


We can hardly get these sort of things arranged on a continental basis. It will never work globally and thus it will never be solved.
So should we stop trying? No, because less pollution has other effects on our immediate environment.
However we should also seriously consider investing in plan B knowing that plan A will never work.

[Corporal]

As a German, saying that is lunacy given the sheer amount of jobs connected to them - but I really hope the big traditional car makers get their comeuppance for being utterly shitty greedy fucks.

Dieselgate really gets me down whenever I think about this stuff, since it's the most blatant and obvious fuckery in the face of willful, direct, large-scale, endangerment of human life. (Not even considering that they were fucking with our planet on an even grander scale, that's just the cherry on top.) This is as cut-and-dry and high-profile as a case can be, really.

And yet... a buncha fancy-sounding fines that bothered them none, a couple of well-paid peeps had to go earn their money elsewhere, there was some public outrage for a few weeks - and after the news cycle had switched over to whatever was next, no one cared anymore. The cars didn't magically become less designed to spew out noxious fumes, still continue to kill people every day in cities around the world. It's not like they went poof once the fines were handed out, and the fixes the industry proposed are mostly just cost-effective PR stunts. This is a direct threat to thousands, and it was designed that way.

If I meticulously planned out and then at great cost implemented a plan to viciously choke-murder a couple of people every day worldwide, I'd get locked away in the slammer for the rest of my life and probably get shanked by my inmates for being a vile monster. Purposefully breaking the rules on that scale, with demonstrable immediate effects and at-best-unknown-but-certainly-not-good long term consequences should be an existential threat to companies, not this kinda hand slappy business.


And yes, worldwide connected industries, global economic downturn, livelihood of millions affected, yadda yadda. Am aware. Still annoyed as fuck my leftie "fat government" fantasy didn't play out. 

I still believe we need a bat signal of sorts. Some sort of global catastrophe that shakes peeps deeply enough to actually make them press for change, and inconvenient enough to keep that pressure going for a while. I had hoped this one would've been it, but eh.

[Rufus]

I still believe we need a bat signal of sorts. Some sort of global catastrophe that shakes peeps deeply enough to actually make them press for change, and inconvenient enough to keep that pressure going for a while. I had hoped this one would've been it, but eh.

This is always what it comes down to when I'm feeling cynical. Shit has to be actively on fire and falling down a cliff for people to care. On a scale that matters, that is.

[toku]

 

[Kara]

This article conspicuously doesn't mention anthropogenic climate change (though it does mention climate events), but the underlying point is still relevant.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/08/07/global-supply-chains-are-dangerously-easy-to-snap/amp/

[TVC15]

The planet is far beyond saving. Let’s fuck this bitch while we still can, raw. No vaseline. The only way it will be saved is once we’re gloriously extinct and millions of years have allowed it to heal. Aliens of the future will visit and find evidence of our glorious hedonism, living in awe of a race that said “Fuck the world” and did just that.

All hail humanity and its forthcoming self-genocide! May I live to see it truly begin!

[toku]

https://twitter.com/julian0liver/status/1026817512191782912

[Huff]

I rode in a bus once.

No thanks. Sorry planet

[team filler]

I'll be riding in a bus soon too, thanks riotous 

[CatsCatsCats]

Thank god for thread hider. Owned again libs

[Brehvolution]

Look like I'll be retiring to Iceland. Do my part in offsetting the 2:1 ratio of women to men.

[Himu]

If worse comes to worse is it possible to hold the powers that tried to doom the planet because of greed responsible and have a good old fashioned execution or public tickling?

[I'm a Puppy!]

If worse comes to worse is it possible to hold the powers that tried to doom the planet because of greed responsible and have a good old fashioned execution or public tickling?

Let's not kid ourselves. They'll be drinking champagne in their vaults as the rest of us suffocate.

[BlueTsunami]

I’ll be dead in like ten years. You’ll take my real man plastic straws from my cold dead hands. Choke the whales. Burn the planet. Eat the children.

You'll miss out on all the Mad Max hijinks though

[Atramental]

https://twitter.com/julian0liver/status/1026817512191782912

My brother and I were thinking about moving to Canada later in life.

This map may further justify that move. 

[BlueTsunami]

[Kara]

If worse comes to worse is it possible to hold the powers that tried to doom the planet because of greed responsible and have a good old fashioned execution or public tickling?

Our planet may be largely uninhabitable, but at least we stayed true to the principle of substantive due process to get there.

[seagrams hotsauce]

https://twitter.com/julian0liver/status/1026817512191782912

sucks that everyone's gonna die but there's a small comfort in knowing that eventually my lifelong dream of my hometown being consumed by the ocean will come true

[Himu]

The ocean will swallow Houston. Rip

[Kara]

I am very pessimistic on the whole climate change thing.
For example: The 15 largest cargo ships put out more noxious gasses than all the cars in the world combined. 15.
Sure, we can try to make cars more efficient, but you'd have to affect every car in the world and you'd still not touch these 15. Yet, we get a bunch of actions on cars instead of cargo ships? Why? Because money of course.  And there's tons of stuff like this where it's like "Sure, you could eat less meat." But everyone would have to do that to move that needle. Or we could be smarter about our biggest polluters. But we won't because they have money and power.

https://amp.theguardian.com/business/2018/aug/08/giant-shipload-of-soybeans-drifts-off-china-victim-of-trade-war-with-us

[TVC15]

The ocean will swallow Houston. Rip

I’ll take care of you if I’m alive. When is this going down. Like next year?

[chronovore]

The ocean will swallow Houston. Rip

We will finally see if Mother Nature can mess with Texas.

[Cerveza mas fina]

how you can contribute to helping in your own way:

Eating less meat.
Using the bus more if possible.
Hope and pray that we find a solution to this.

Conservatives far too often mock climate change, saying these issues are contemporary bad science. It’s like they don’t give a shit at the expense of the planet.

I was scrollinh through all the replies waiting for someone to finally say something that they are doing or can be done.

Respect for being the only positive one

[toku]

https://relay.nationalgeographic.com/proxy/distribution/public/amp/environment/2018/08/news-arctic-permafrost-may-thaw-faster-than-expected?__twitter_impression=true

[toku]

https://twitter.com/PaulMMCooper/status/1033041236674793472

[Kara]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/energy-environment/2018/10/03/climate-scientists-are-struggling-find-right-words-very-bad-news/

[Nabbis]

 If the space race did not go bust, we would have probably already had that sheet up there at the Lagrangian point.

I really don't believe in all this bullshit of dozens governments co-operating in massive infrastructure changes. Imo you need simple solutions and the most simple one is to just start sterilizing people. Yeah, sounds cruel bla bla bla but it's better than war, famine and ecological disasters.

[curly]

Yeah, sounds cruel bla bla bla

An even easier solution would be throwing everyone who says shit like this into a woodchipper

[Mandark]

It's not politically realistic that multiple governments would cooperate on reducing emissions. We need something politically feasible like a global sterilization regime.