Jump to content
Required Reading for any Longhorn ×

The Climate thread

Laxtonto

By Laxtonto
in Cloak Room

 Share

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 2.9k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Popular Posts

bolverk
bolverk

Now apply that way of thinking to other topics: You want me to stop treating minorities like shit when people in other countries can treat their minorities like shit? You want me to pay

CooterBrown
CooterBrown
mop
mop

what a thread.   the thread i jumped on back in like 2008 or something started with a claim that the Arctic would be ice free by the summer of 2012.  this didn't happen. in fact, while 2012

Posted Images

bolverk

bolverk 29737

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Bateshorn said:

Gotdamn you are a predictable fuck. 

 

1 hour ago, Mrs Whiggins said:

Did Bates not have a course in Children's literature? The Three Billy Goats Gruff  is a classic.

 

Yeah, just neg the troll and move the fuck on.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
bolverk

bolverk 29737

Posted
Posted

Study Projects a Surge in Coastal Flooding, Starting in 2030s

In the mid-2030s, every U.S. coast will experience rapidly increasing high-tide floods, when a lunar cycle will amplify rising sea levels caused by climate change.

High-tide floods – also called nuisance floods or sunny day floods – are already a familiar problem in many cities on the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf coasts. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported a total of more than 600 such floods in 2019. Starting in the mid-2030s, however, the alignment of rising sea levels with a lunar cycle will cause coastal cities all around the U.S. to begin a decade of dramatic increases in flood numbers, according to the first study that takes into account all known oceanic and astronomical causes for floods.

Led by the members of the NASA Sea Level Change Science Team from the University of Hawaii, the new study shows that high tides will exceed known flooding thresholds around the country more often. What’s more, the floods will sometimes occur in clusters lasting a month or longer, depending on the positions of the Moon, Earth, and the Sun. When the Moon and Earth line up in specific ways with each other and the Sun, the resulting gravitational pull and the ocean’s corresponding response may leave city dwellers coping with floods every day or two.

“Low-lying areas near sea level are increasingly at risk and suffering due to the increased flooding, and it will only get worse,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “The combination of the Moon’s gravitational pull, rising sea levels, and climate change will continue to exacerbate coastal flooding on our coastlines and across the world. NASA’s Sea Level Change Team is providing crucial information so that we can plan, protect, and prevent damage to the environment and people’s livelihoods affected by flooding.”

“It’s the accumulated effect over time that will have an impact,” said Phil Thompson, an assistant professor at the University of Hawaii and the lead author of the new study, published this month in Nature Climate Change. Thompson pointed out that because high-tide floods involve a small amount of water compared to hurricane storm surges, there’s a tendency to view them as a less significant problem overall. “But if it floods 10 or 15 times a month, a business can’t keep operating with its parking lot under water. People lose their jobs because they can’t get to work. Seeping cesspools become a public health issue.”

Why will cities on such widely separated coastlines begin to experience these higher rates of flooding at almost the same time? The main reason is a regular wobble in the Moon’s orbit that takes 18.6 years to complete. There’s nothing new or dangerous about the wobble; it was first reported in 1728. What’s new is how one of the wobble’s effects on the Moon’s gravitational pull – the main cause of Earth’s tides – will combine with rising sea levels resulting from the planet’s warming.

In half of the Moon’s 18.6-year cycle, Earth’s regular daily tides are suppressed: High tides are lower than normal, and low tides are higher than normal. In the other half of the cycle, tides are amplified: High tides get higher, and low tides get lower. Global sea level rise pushes high tides in only one direction – higher. So half of the 18.6-year lunar cycle counteracts the effect of sea level rise on high tides, and the other half increases the effect.

The Moon is in the tide-amplifying part of its cycle now. However, along most U.S. coastlines, sea levels have not risen so much that even with this lunar assist, high tides regularly top flooding thresholds. It will be a different story the next time the cycle comes around to amplify tides again, in the mid-2030s. Global sea level rise will have been at work for another decade. The higher seas, amplified by the lunar cycle, will cause a leap in flood numbers on almost all U.S. mainland coastlines, Hawaii, and Guam. Only far northern coastlines, including Alaska’s, will be spared for another decade or longer because these land areas are rising due to long-term geological processes.

The researchers uncovered these tipping points in flood numbers by studying 89 tide gauge locations in every coastal U.S. state and territory but Alaska. They created a new statistical framework that mapped NOAA’s widely used sea level rise scenarios and flooding thresholds, the number of times those thresholds have been exceeded annually, astronomical cycles, and statistical representations of other processes, such as El Niño events, that are known to affect tides. They projected results to 2080.

Ben Hamlington of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California is a co-author of the paper and also the leader of NASA’s Sea Level Change Team. He notes that the findings of the new study are a vital resource for coastal urban planners, who may be focused on preparing for extreme events rather than more high-tide floods.

“From a planning perspective, it’s important to know when we’ll see an increase,” Hamlington said. “Understanding that all your events are clustered in a particular month, or you might have more severe flooding in the second half of a year than the first – that’s useful information.” A high-tide flood tool developed by Thompson already exists on the NASA team’s sea level portal, a resource for decision-makers and the general public. The flood tool will be updated in the near future with the findings from this study.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
bolverk

bolverk 29737

Posted
Posted

Democrats to Propose a Border Tax Based on Countries’ Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Senators will introduce a plan on Monday to tax iron, steel and other imports from countries without ambitious climate laws.

WASHINGTON — Democratic lawmakers on Monday will make public a plan to raise as much as $16 billion annually by imposing a tax on imports from China and other countries that are not significantly reducing the planet-warming pollution that they produce.

The tax would be levied regardless of whether Congress passed new laws to reduce emissions created by the United States. It would be designed to be approximately equivalent to the costs faced by American companies under state and federal environmental regulations.

Experts said a border carbon tax would almost certainly provoke America’s trading partners and could create serious diplomatic challenges ahead of United Nations climate negotiations set for November in Glasgow.

But Senator Chris Coons of Delaware and Representative Scott Peters of California, Democrats who intend to announce the plan on Monday, said American companies deserved protection as the Biden administration moved forward with aggressive policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions caused by burning fossil fuels.

“We must ensure that U.S. workers and manufacturers aren’t left behind and that we have tools to assess global progress on climate commitments,” Mr. Coons said.

Spoiler

The plan comes a week after the European Union proposed its own carbon border tax on imports from countries with lax pollution controls.

The proposal from Democrats, which Senate aides said was developed with input from the Department of the Treasury, the Office of the United States Trade Representative and other parts of the Biden administration, is expected to be attached to a $3.5 trillion budget resolution.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment on the legislation or say whether the administration endorsed it. But President Biden and administration officials have said they support a carbon border tax as a tool to advance climate goals.

Democrats hope to pass their budget package later this year and use it as a way to expand social, educational and health care programs as well as fund a transition to clean energy transition and cut greenhouse gas emissions. The decision to package the proposals in a budget reconciliation bill would allow Democrats in the sharply divided Congress to pass the measure without any Republican votes.

A handful of Republican lawmakers have explored a carbon border tariff as a way to counter China and protect U.S. industries.

But Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, the top Republican on the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, called the $3.5 trillion blueprint a “freight train to socialism” and said Democrats’ plan for a border tariff would start a trade war.

“They’re proposing a border tax because they know punishing regulations and taxes will drive U.S. businesses overseas,” Mr. Barrasso said in a statement. He said the United States should instead work on making energy “cleaner and more affordable.”

Mr. Barrasso’s state is a major producer of coal, natural gas and crude oil, the burning of which produces the carbon emissions that scientists say are driving climate change.

A border tax is typically designed to even out the burden for a nation that has imposed a tax or price on carbon dioxide emissions. Companies abroad that want to sell iron, steel, aluminum or other commodities to the United States would be required to pay a price for each ton of carbon dioxide they emit in making their products, which would erase any competitive advantage. The hope is that it will encourage other countries to also price carbon and drive down emissions.

It also is considered a way to prevent American companies whose manufacturing processes emit heavy amounts of carbon pollution from relocating to countries with looser environmental rules, a phenomenon known as leakage.

Under the Democratic proposal, a tariff starting in 2024 would apply to roughly 12 percent of imports coming into the United States. It would cover petroleum, natural gas and coal as well as products that have a large carbon footprint like aluminum, steel, iron and cement. The list of covered goods could expand as the United States improves methods of calculating the carbon intensity of different products.

It is estimated that it will raise between $5 billion and $16 billion annually, aides to the lawmakers said.

Mr. Coons said he intended the tariff to act as a “complement” to the new climate policies that Democrats intend to pass in the budget package, like a mandate to require as much as 80 percent of U.S. electricity to come from low or zero-carbon energy sources.

“We have a historic opportunity to demonstrate that climate policy goes hand-in-hand with providing economic opportunities as U.S. innovators develop and scale clean energy technologies,” he said.

Mr. Biden has pledged to cut U.S. emissions roughly in half by 2030 and reach net-zero emissions by 2050. The United States, however, does not tax industries for the carbon they produce. Political analysts say it is unlikely the Congress will enact a carbon tax for domestic manufacturers and utilities in the near future.

Instead, the plan calls for federal agencies to calculate the environmental cost incurred from complying with “any federal, state, regional or local law, regulation, policy or program” designed to reduce emissions.

That could refer to things like the regional cap-and-trade systems that 13 states have adopted; state renewable fuel or electricity standards that promote clean energy use; or even the burden of complying with federal regulations under the Clean Air Act.

“I’ve never seen a border adjustment that adjusts for regulatory costs,” said David Weisbach, a professor at the University of Chicago Law School and an expert in carbon border tariffs. “That’s going to be hard to do.”

Another complication is that while the poorest countries would be exempt from paying the tariff, it would be up to U.S. agencies to determine whether trading partners are enforcing climate change laws “that are at least as ambitious as federal laws and regulations” to cut carbon.

Under the 2015 Paris Agreement the nearly 200 nations involved agreed to cut emissions — but in different ways. Some, like the United States and the European Union, vowed to cut emissions across their economies. Others, like Saudi Arabia, said they would reduce the expected growth of future emissions. China pledged to peak emissions “around” 2030. India said it would reduce the greenhouse gas intensity per unit of gross domestic product produced.

“There will be different views on how you do this,” said Michael Mehling, deputy director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who was consulted on the proposal by Mr. Coons’s staff.

But, he said: “It’s really good that they’re doing this. I think this conversation needs to be started about leakage. There’s no way we cannot deal with this topic.”

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Gap03

Gap03 3339

Posted
Posted
On 7/17/2021 at 10:01 PM, Willfully Horn said:

Arctic Circle is already recording 118 F degree days (and summer is just heating up)
 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.livescience.com/amp/arctic-circle-siberia-hot-day-2021.html

 

This sounds unusual, and bad. Is this bad?

Definitely bad, but not as bad this hack of a writer made it seem in the title:

Quote

On the summer solstice (June 20 — the longest day of the year) two European Union satellites recorded a scorching temperature of 118 degrees Fahrenheit (48 degrees Celsius ) on the ground in Arctic Siberia.

This isn't quite a new heat record; as a post on the EU's Copernicus satellite website noted, this egg-boiling temperature was detected only on the ground in Siberia's Sakha Republic, while the region's air temperature (the temperature people would actually feel while walking around) was a toasty 86 F (30 C).

The facts are startling enough (100 F air temp same day last year) - I don't know why they have to go "Fox News chyron"-style bullshit in their stories. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Bullneck

Bullneck 19217

Posted
Posted
On 7/17/2021 at 11:01 PM, Willfully Horn said:

Arctic Circle is already recording 118 F degree days (and summer is just heating up)
 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.livescience.com/amp/arctic-circle-siberia-hot-day-2021.html

 

This sounds unusual, and bad. Is this bad?

Here's the bad part:

 

Quote

However, that's still an anomalously high temperature for the Arctic Circle — and one that could exacerbate the region's melting permafrost, which is the only thing preventing ancient caches of greenhouse gases from reentering Earth's atmosphere, according to Gizmodo.

 

  • Rage+1 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...
WhatTheBuck

WhatTheBuck 28811

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, hookem2010 said:

We suck...

We do suck. And we sort of suck here at home. Deforestation of the Amazon is bad. But the deforestation of America was also bad but that happened before we had the technology to take photos from satellites for before and after pics. Maybe we should be teaching critical environmental theory in our schools. Just speaking about the history of Ohio, settlers were encouraged to cut down trees and grow crops. They built mills, and canals to make it easier to move their produce to the coast to be shipped back to England. It was very profitable for everyone involved.

I hate the deforestation of the Amazon and think we should do whatever we can to stop it. But I also think we should acknowledge our own transgressions and try to do something to repair the mistakes of our past. We should plant more trees. When I die, I’d like to be cremated, have someone dig a hole, dump my ashes into it, and plant a tree there. That would make me happy.

  • Hook 'Em 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
elfenix

elfenix 34339

Posted
Posted
On 7/19/2021 at 12:48 PM, bolverk said:

Democrats to Propose a Border Tax Based on Countries’ Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Senators will introduce a plan on Monday to tax iron, steel and other imports from countries without ambitious climate laws.

WASHINGTON — Democratic lawmakers on Monday will make public a plan to raise as much as $16 billion annually by imposing a tax on imports from China and other countries that are not significantly reducing the planet-warming pollution that they produce.

The tax would be levied regardless of whether Congress passed new laws to reduce emissions created by the United States. It would be designed to be approximately equivalent to the costs faced by American companies under state and federal environmental regulations.

Experts said a border carbon tax would almost certainly provoke America’s trading partners and could create serious diplomatic challenges ahead of United Nations climate negotiations set for November in Glasgow.

But Senator Chris Coons of Delaware and Representative Scott Peters of California, Democrats who intend to announce the plan on Monday, said American companies deserved protection as the Biden administration moved forward with aggressive policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions caused by burning fossil fuels.

“We must ensure that U.S. workers and manufacturers aren’t left behind and that we have tools to assess global progress on climate commitments,” Mr. Coons said.

  Hide contents

The plan comes a week after the European Union proposed its own carbon border tax on imports from countries with lax pollution controls.

The proposal from Democrats, which Senate aides said was developed with input from the Department of the Treasury, the Office of the United States Trade Representative and other parts of the Biden administration, is expected to be attached to a $3.5 trillion budget resolution.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment on the legislation or say whether the administration endorsed it. But President Biden and administration officials have said they support a carbon border tax as a tool to advance climate goals.

Democrats hope to pass their budget package later this year and use it as a way to expand social, educational and health care programs as well as fund a transition to clean energy transition and cut greenhouse gas emissions. The decision to package the proposals in a budget reconciliation bill would allow Democrats in the sharply divided Congress to pass the measure without any Republican votes.

A handful of Republican lawmakers have explored a carbon border tariff as a way to counter China and protect U.S. industries.

But Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, the top Republican on the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, called the $3.5 trillion blueprint a “freight train to socialism” and said Democrats’ plan for a border tariff would start a trade war.

“They’re proposing a border tax because they know punishing regulations and taxes will drive U.S. businesses overseas,” Mr. Barrasso said in a statement. He said the United States should instead work on making energy “cleaner and more affordable.”

Mr. Barrasso’s state is a major producer of coal, natural gas and crude oil, the burning of which produces the carbon emissions that scientists say are driving climate change.

A border tax is typically designed to even out the burden for a nation that has imposed a tax or price on carbon dioxide emissions. Companies abroad that want to sell iron, steel, aluminum or other commodities to the United States would be required to pay a price for each ton of carbon dioxide they emit in making their products, which would erase any competitive advantage. The hope is that it will encourage other countries to also price carbon and drive down emissions.

It also is considered a way to prevent American companies whose manufacturing processes emit heavy amounts of carbon pollution from relocating to countries with looser environmental rules, a phenomenon known as leakage.

Under the Democratic proposal, a tariff starting in 2024 would apply to roughly 12 percent of imports coming into the United States. It would cover petroleum, natural gas and coal as well as products that have a large carbon footprint like aluminum, steel, iron and cement. The list of covered goods could expand as the United States improves methods of calculating the carbon intensity of different products.

It is estimated that it will raise between $5 billion and $16 billion annually, aides to the lawmakers said.

Mr. Coons said he intended the tariff to act as a “complement” to the new climate policies that Democrats intend to pass in the budget package, like a mandate to require as much as 80 percent of U.S. electricity to come from low or zero-carbon energy sources.

“We have a historic opportunity to demonstrate that climate policy goes hand-in-hand with providing economic opportunities as U.S. innovators develop and scale clean energy technologies,” he said.

Mr. Biden has pledged to cut U.S. emissions roughly in half by 2030 and reach net-zero emissions by 2050. The United States, however, does not tax industries for the carbon they produce. Political analysts say it is unlikely the Congress will enact a carbon tax for domestic manufacturers and utilities in the near future.

Instead, the plan calls for federal agencies to calculate the environmental cost incurred from complying with “any federal, state, regional or local law, regulation, policy or program” designed to reduce emissions.

That could refer to things like the regional cap-and-trade systems that 13 states have adopted; state renewable fuel or electricity standards that promote clean energy use; or even the burden of complying with federal regulations under the Clean Air Act.

“I’ve never seen a border adjustment that adjusts for regulatory costs,” said David Weisbach, a professor at the University of Chicago Law School and an expert in carbon border tariffs. “That’s going to be hard to do.”

Another complication is that while the poorest countries would be exempt from paying the tariff, it would be up to U.S. agencies to determine whether trading partners are enforcing climate change laws “that are at least as ambitious as federal laws and regulations” to cut carbon.

Under the 2015 Paris Agreement the nearly 200 nations involved agreed to cut emissions — but in different ways. Some, like the United States and the European Union, vowed to cut emissions across their economies. Others, like Saudi Arabia, said they would reduce the expected growth of future emissions. China pledged to peak emissions “around” 2030. India said it would reduce the greenhouse gas intensity per unit of gross domestic product produced.

“There will be different views on how you do this,” said Michael Mehling, deputy director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who was consulted on the proposal by Mr. Coons’s staff.

But, he said: “It’s really good that they’re doing this. I think this conversation needs to be started about leakage. There’s no way we cannot deal with this topic.”

 

the EU is doing thing, looks like:

https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/eu-proposes-worlds-first-carbon-border-tax-some-imports-2021-07-14/

Link to comment
Share on other sites
bolverk

bolverk 29737

Posted
Posted
29 minutes ago, WhatTheBuck said:

When I die, I’d like to be cremated, have someone dig a hole, dump my ashes into it, and plant a tree there. That would make me happy.

I used to think something similar, but after having read about "green burials" or "conservation burials" a few years ago, I've been thinking about requesting that option to feed the soil.

http://www.orderofthegooddeath.com/resources/natural-burial#1

https://www.us-funerals.com/green-burial-directory/#.WTXS_xiZP-Y

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Biff Tannen

Biff Tannen 45750

Posted
Posted
38 minutes ago, WhatTheBuck said:

We do suck. And we sort of suck here at home. Deforestation of the Amazon is bad. But the deforestation of America was also bad but that happened before we had the technology to take photos from satellites for before and after pics. Maybe we should be teaching critical environmental theory in our schools. Just speaking about the history of Ohio, settlers were encouraged to cut down trees and grow crops. They built mills, and canals to make it easier to move their produce to the coast to be shipped back to England. It was very profitable for everyone involved.

I hate the deforestation of the Amazon and think we should do whatever we can to stop it. But I also think we should acknowledge our own transgressions and try to do something to repair the mistakes of our past. We should plant more trees. When I die, I’d like to be cremated, have someone dig a hole, dump my ashes into it, and plant a tree there. That would make me happy.

To be fair, we have reforested a fuck ton of the clear cuts we had from the 1800s and early 1900s (thank you CCC) and also have much more sustainable forestry practices now than what is happening in Brazil. 
 

Slash and burn agriculture is a 2nd/3rd world technique that is just devastating. 

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Biff Tannen

Biff Tannen 45750

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, Willfully Horn said:

I saw a meme suggested that the only feasible option is to somehow substitute nuclear for all our power needs NOW.

We have fucked up so completely.

I’ve accepted this. Gaia is going to find a balance. I don’t think it’s fixable at this point from our end. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
WhatTheBuck

WhatTheBuck 28811

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, bolverk said:

I used to think something similar, but after having read about "green burials" or "conservation burials" a few years ago, I've been thinking about requesting that option to feed the soil.

http://www.orderofthegooddeath.com/resources/natural-burial#1

https://www.us-funerals.com/green-burial-directory/#.WTXS_xiZP-Y

I definitely want to be cremated. I think the custom of burying a body in the earth is silly and a waste of land. Does a green burial involve a permanent plot with a gravestone? I’d rather be buried at sea. There was a time in my youth when I wanted to be cremated and, instead of my ashes feeding a tree, I wanted them to be mixed with soil and have someone grow a pot plant in it. Then, after it was harvested and dried, I imagined all my friends smoking it in remembrance of me. But that’s really not practical. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
TexPx

TexPx 2325

Posted
Posted
I’ve accepted this. Gaia is going to find a balance. I don’t think it’s fixable at this point from our end. 

Oh Gaia, if that's your name,
Treat you like dirt, but I don't want to blame.
Oh Gaia, the wind heals the fire and blows the ash away.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Biff Tannen

Biff Tannen 45750

Posted
Posted
12 minutes ago, WhatTheBuck said:

I definitely want to be cremated. I think the custom of burying a body in the earth is silly and a waste of land. Does a green burial involve a permanent plot with a gravestone? I’d rather be buried at sea. There was a time in my youth when I wanted to be cremated and, instead of my ashes feeding a tree, I wanted them to be mixed with soil and have someone grow a pot plant in it. Then, after it was harvested and dried, I imagined all my friends smoking it in remembrance of me. But that’s really not practical. 

image.gif.2b0e1f539c76954e967b1306845d5e5a.gif

 

or

 

image.gif.a91689845c5d38e0b5c7503d2af9e2fd.gif

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Willfully Horn

Willfully Horn 8058

Posted
Posted

More finding out:

 

Greenland experienced 'massive' ice melt this week, scientists say

 

Spoiler

With climate change fueling high temperatures across the Arctic, Greenland lost a massive amount of ice on Wednesday with enough melting to cover the U.S. state of Florida in 2 inches (5.1 cm) of water, scientists said.


https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/greenland-experienced-massive-ice-melt-this-week-scientists-say-2021-07-30/?taid=61046151ca93a4000184e467&utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=trueanthem&utm_source=twitter

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Bookman

Bookman 4642

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, Willfully Horn said:

More finding out:

 

Greenland experienced 'massive' ice melt this week, scientists say

 

  Reveal hidden contents

With climate change fueling high temperatures across the Arctic, Greenland lost a massive amount of ice on Wednesday with enough melting to cover the U.S. state of Florida in 2 inches (5.1 cm) of water, scientists said.


https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/greenland-experienced-massive-ice-melt-this-week-scientists-say-2021-07-30/?taid=61046151ca93a4000184e467&utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=trueanthem&utm_source=twitter

Cornyn would say that's happening because it's summer.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
JohnLocke

JohnLocke 115

Posted
Posted
On 7/30/2021 at 7:52 PM, WhatTheBuck said:

I definitely want to be cremated. I think the custom of burying a body in the earth is silly and a waste of land. Does a green burial involve a permanent plot with a gravestone? I’d rather be buried at sea. There was a time in my youth when I wanted to be cremated and, instead of my ashes feeding a tree, I wanted them to be mixed with soil and have someone grow a pot plant in it. Then, after it was harvested and dried, I imagined all my friends smoking it in remembrance of me. But that’s really not practical. 

Well, that's one way to get a smoking hot body again....

Link to comment
Share on other sites
gmr548

gmr548 16617

Posted
Posted
On 7/30/2021 at 5:07 PM, Biff Tannen said:

I’ve accepted this. Gaia is going to find a balance. I don’t think it’s fixable at this point from our end. 

Which is really the scary thing. The Earth has been through meteors, volcanism, ice ages, mass extinctions... The planet will ultimately be fine.

Us? Not so much. Failure to address the climate issue ultimately comes down to human ignorance, short sightedness, and hubris.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Biff Tannen

Biff Tannen 45750

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, gmr548 said:

Which is really the scary thing. The Earth has been through meteors, volcanism, ice ages, mass extinctions... The planet will ultimately be fine.

Us? Not so much. Failure to address the climate issue ultimately comes down to human ignorance, short sightedness, and hubris.

And I believe this is our destiny. I don’t think we will be fully wiped out. At least I hope not. But I do think billions could die. Oh well. Gotta learn somehow. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Bookman

Bookman 4642

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, gmr548 said:

Which is really the scary thing. The Earth has been through meteors, volcanism, ice ages, mass extinctions... The planet will ultimately be fine.

Ultimately the planet will probably get extinguished when the sun becomes a red giant.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
elfenix

elfenix 34339

Posted
Posted
Quote

These indicators suggest that the AMOC is running out of steam, making it more susceptible to disruptions that might knock it out of equilibrium, said study author Niklas Boers, a researcher at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany.
 

If the circulation shuts down, it could bring extreme cold to Europe and parts of North America, raise sea levels along the U.S. East Coast and disrupt seasonal monsoons that provide water to much of the world.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/08/05/change-ocean-collapse-atlantic-meridional/

Link to comment
Share on other sites
SubliminalHorn

SubliminalHorn 6811

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Biff Tannen said:

Man.  It really does seem like we are just charging headlong into disaster.  I can't fathom getting enough people on board to stop these changes.

Oh that disaster is on the horizon. There’s no stopping it either. Humanity had a decent run. Might as well live it up. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Bateshorn

Bateshorn 9942

Posted
Posted (edited)

There have been 7 global extinction events. 1 is occurring now do to human induced land use/changes. 
 

1 was the meteor strike that donked off the dinosaurs (although there is a pretty robust debate among paleontologists about whether the dinosaurs were already in decline due to changing global climate).

5 were just straight up climate change.  There is absolutely a scenario where humanity does not make it through AGW.  Something in the CO2/N2 cycle gets out of whack and 98% of life dies within a few millennia. 
 

It would be darkly ironic if we are the first galactic species to get though Fermi’s Paradox, only to cook ourselves off our home planet. 

Edited by Bateshorn
Link to comment
Share on other sites
MC Fresh Breath

MC Fresh Breath 4074

Posted
Posted

This is never popular on a Texas board, and I'm not going to argue it.  But if you feel helpless about it all, maybe personal change is the one thing you can control.  Reduce your meat consumption, folks.  Not telling you to go vegan.  But maybe try a meatless Monday or two, and go from there.  Maybe in the long run it makes no difference.  But maybe in your life it helps you feel like you're actually doing something to help.  

  • Hook 'Em 4
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Blotto

Blotto 23585

Posted
Posted (edited)
9 minutes ago, Bateshorn said:

There have been 7 global extinction events. 1 is occurring now do to human induced land use/changes. 
 

1 was the meteor strike that donked off the dinosaurs (although there is a pretty robust debate among paleontologists about whether the dinosaurs were already in decline due to changing global climate).

5 were just straight up climate change.  There is absolutely a scenario where humanity does not make it through AGW.  Something in the CO2/N2 cycle gets out of whack and 98% of life dies within a few millennia. 

Thankfully that still leaves plenty of time to get in a few more libtard jokes. Thats whats important. fucking hippies with their climate-this and climate-that. 

Edited by Blotto
  • Rage+1 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Biff Tannen

Biff Tannen 45750

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, MC Fresh Breath said:

This is never popular on a Texas board, and I'm not going to argue it.  But if you feel helpless about it all, maybe personal change is the one thing you can control.  Reduce your meat consumption, folks.  Not telling you to go vegan.  But maybe try a meatless Monday or two, and go from there.  Maybe in the long run it makes no difference.  But maybe in your life it helps you feel like you're actually doing something to help.  

This is one of the more underrated ways to help and the amount of water, land, and yes, methane that is used and created purely for livestock is astonishing.  There were never meant to be this many cows, chickens, and pigs on this planet.

  • Hook 'Em 1
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Gap03

Gap03 3339

Posted
Posted
49 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

This is one of the more underrated ways to help and the amount of water, land, and yes, methane that is used and created purely for livestock is astonishing.  There were never meant to be this many cows, chickens, and pigs on this planet.

For that matter, I'm pretty sure there were never meant to be this humans on this planet ...

  • Hook 'Em 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
elfenix

elfenix 34339

Posted
Posted (edited)

 

Quote

 

Humans have pushed the climate into ‘unprecedented’ territory, landmark U.N. report finds

U.N. chief calls findings ‘a code red for humanity’ with worse climate impacts to come unless greenhouse gas pollution falls dramatically

 

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/08/09/ipcc-climate-report-global-warming-greenhouse-gas-effect/?itid=hp-top-table-main

Edited by elfenix
Link to comment
Share on other sites
 Share
Go to topic listing


Football ... Basketball ... Baseball ... Other Sports ... Futbol ... 🤫995🤫 ... Gambling ... Movies & TV ... Music ... Hobbies ... Lulz ... Food & Travel ... Daily Texan ... Business and Markets ... Cloak Room ... Help ... For Sale ... Board Discussion ... Subscribe!... Donate!... Advertise... COOKIE MONSTER!

×
×
  • Create New...