Dire warming report too soft, scientists say

[Lotus49]

Narz, there's only one thing to do... you're going to have to cut back. Let's say, one shower every 6 months. Wash you clothes only when it rains, and dry them in the sun. Only eat potatoes grown in your garden, and just get rid of the toilet... relieve yourself in the woods. As for transportation, get a scooter (unpowered, of course).

Also, unplug all electronics immediately... This is URGENT! We've all GOT to do our part! I'm logging off right now. Plus, I've gotta go to the... woods.

 

[DBear]

In before global warming deniers:

*Cue unrelated evidence about mars warming*

*cue quip about Al Gore and Carbon Offsets*

*Cue "evidence" in the form of a corporate funded research effort*

How about it snowing in DALLAS, TEXAS on Easter?
Keep on drinking that global warming koolaid.

 

[CCA]

Yes, because Global Warming means that temperatues will rise EVERYWHERE.(sarcasm)

Look up the FACTS behind Global Waming and get the Day-After-Tommorow-Style image out of your head.

Really the fact that it is snowing in Dallas,Texas on Easter is a sign that the climate is changing.

That's why people refer to it now as Climate Change.

 

[Elrohir]

* Cue claim they don't need to act, because China and India will be a problem later

* Cue claim that Global Warming will make their local environment more pleasant and then don't understand the global economic harm

*Cue strawman lists

*Cue "You'll be sorry when we all drown!" hysteria

*Etc....

 

[CCA]

*Cue strawman lists

*Cue "You'll be sorry when we all drown!" hysteria

*Etc....

Do you think that my
*cue something*

will catch on and become a forum fad?

 

[Narz]

Narz, there's only one thing to do... you're going to have to cut back. Let's say, one shower every 6 months. Wash you clothes only when it rains, and dry them in the sun. Only eat potatoes grown in your garden, and just get rid of the toilet... relieve yourself in the woods. As for transportation, get a scooter (unpowered, of course).

Also, unplug all electronics immediately... This is URGENT! We've all GOT to do our part! I'm logging off right now. Plus, I've gotta go to the... woods.

I plan to do most of that (to some degree) : grow my own food, get a composting toilet at some point, install a rainwater harvesting system (especially important in drier climates). Obviously I still want to shower at least tri-weekly and have a vehicle (ideally electric, powered at home by solar panels) but those are worthy goals. Being as self-sufficient as possible is fun.

 

[Lotus49]

I plan to do most of that (to some degree) : grow my own food, get a composting toilet at some point, install a rainwater harvesting system (especially important in drier climates). Obviously I still want to shower at least tri-weekly and have a vehicle (ideally electric, powered at home by solar panels) but those are worthy goals. Being as self-sufficient as possible is fun.

Actually, I was going to start a thread, but let's begin here:

What would it take / and to what extent could you achieve being as independent & self-sufficient as possible? I'm not talking about living in a log cabin in the woods, either.

So... let's say you have 200k in funds, what could you do? Buy or build a decent house in the SW, use solar power (and make money by selling the excess to the power company). Then what's left? Food - you'll have some land, and could farm a bit.

I dunno - I was toying with this idea. Here I am, working and consuming, but I'm just treading water. What I just described above - I could literally go do. I just want to know what all is possible... just how self-sufficient could I be? Ideally, I wouldn't even need employment, outside of whatever I wanted to do in the community, that just happened to make some money on the side.

Then I'd actually have a life that would be my own, and I could get by independently. -Not to mention, I'd be 'doing my part'.

 

[Pontiuth Pilate]

*cue pointing to an isolated weather phenomenon to make a point about long-scale climate change, thus showing you know little about eith-

DAMMIT! DBear beat me to it again

 

[CCA]

Isolated action will not really do anything.
Just because you tried to save mother earth doesn't eman she will spare you.

Actions need to be taken at a massive level in order to produce any discernable effects.

 

[emzie]

How about it snowing in DALLAS, TEXAS on Easter?
Keep on drinking that global warming koolaid.

That's no more valid than me pointing out the string 15C days in January. An extremely unseasonable day or string of days proves nothing.

 

[Narz]

Actually, I was going to start a thread, but let's begin here:

You still should!

What would it take / and to what extent could you achieve being as independent & self-sufficient as possible? I'm not talking about living in a log cabin in the woods, either.

So... let's say you have 200k in funds, what could you do? Buy or build a decent house in the SW, use solar power (and make money by selling the excess to the power company). Then what's left? Food - you'll have some land, and could farm a bit.

I dunno - I was toying with this idea. Here I am, working and consuming, but I'm just treading water. What I just described above - I could literally go do. I just want to know what all is possible... just how self-sufficient could I be? Ideally, I wouldn't even need employment, outside of whatever I wanted to do in the community, that just happened to make some money on the side.

Then I'd actually have a life that would be my own, and I could get by independently. -Not to mention, I'd be 'doing my part'.

It's an awesome dream. And one of my own actually. My answer now will be pretty uninformed and theoretical but actually this summer I am going to a little town in Utah to help this lady who's building up a parcel of land (60 acres) and is potentially going to start a little sustainable community there. She's got money to invest (probably at least 200K) as she owns a bed & breakfast and is a psychologist and has had past investments (she's 52) so money isn't too much of an issue. Not sure exactly how she plans to go about it but wherever I end up it'll be cool to help and learn the theories and skills involved. She's already got solar panels on the roof of her bed & breakfast and a few greenhouses. I'll be staying with a guy who already knows a fair amount about growing stuff and construction.

I don't imagine her vision will become even close to self-sufficient (she'll probably just have a makeshift cabin on her land by the end of the summer with the construction of whatever other buildings are to come still ahead and she's only now got about thirty fruit trees, two greenhouses and no animals) but still it'll be a start and a learning experience.

I'll probably post a thread about it at the end of the summer. After bouncing around for the last few years working jobs that were largely uninspiring this'll be a really neat experience.

 

[sonorakitch]

*cue the notion that somehow weather patterns can be accurately predicted over 50 years but not next week.

Arrggghh!

~Chris

 

[Erik Mesoy]

How about it snowing in DALLAS, TEXAS on Easter?
Keep on drinking that global warming koolaid.

Also, the second law of thermodynamics disproves evolution, right?

 

[El_Machinae]

*Cue strawman lists

*Cue "You'll be sorry when we all drown!" hysteria

*Etc....

I don't think I've ever seen a "we'll all drown!" type of post.

edit: and some of those strawmen I've actually seen on these boards.

*cue the notion that somehow weather patterns can be accurately predicted over 50 years but not next week.

Arrggghh!

~Chris

Please tell me what the Dow Index will be this Friday. If you cannot, please do not mention taxes hurting or helping the economy.

Or, in a more direct way, being able to predict short-term accuracies in a system is not related to being able to make long-term predictions. You and I both know that a breakthrough in solar technologies would boost our economies something fierce; but we still wouldn't be able to predict the Dow next week. You and I both know that reducing redtape in government would also boost the economy; but we still wouldn't be able to predict the Dow next week.

However, we both know that if either event occured, our long-term economic growth would be superior.

 

[Narz]

owned

 

[Desmond Hawkins]

How about it snowing in DALLAS, TEXAS on Easter?
Keep on drinking that global warming koolaid.

*Cue a poster's confusion between weather and climate.

 

[Ayatollah So]

Cue my bald head!

What kind of reward-and-sanctions regime could be set up to persuade foot-dragging countries to cooperate in reducing global CO2 - whether said country be the United States, China, or someone else?

El Mac's got the right intranational policy. Carbon tax will incentivize good behavior and have reasonable economic side-effects. But most of the benefits of CO2 reduction go outside of any given nation's borders.

 

[cFccFc]

EH, hydrogen power stations? Water steam is 98 % of global warming, and hydrogen releases nothing but water steam. How is that a good idea?

 

[Erik Mesoy]

EH, hydrogen power stations? Water steam is 98 % of global warming, and hydrogen releases nothing but water steam. How is that a good idea?

Where the bleep is your 98% figure from? Wiki on [wiki]Greenhouse gases[/wiki] says:

The major natural greenhouse gases are water vapour, which causes about 36-70% of the greenhouse effect on Earth (not including clouds); carbon dioxide, which causes 9-26%; methane, which causes 4-9%, and ozone, which causes 3-7%. It is not possible to state that a certain gas causes a certain percentage of the greenhouse effect, because the influences of the various gases are not additive. (The higher ends of the ranges quoted are for the gas alone; the lower ends, for the gas counting overlaps.)

The relative effect of CO₂ (ooh, nifty sub tags) is far higher than that of water vapor, regardless. I'm sure someone more knowledgeable will be along shortly.

 

[Pounder]

Talk about world governments trying to divert your attention away from the really important issues.

There has been global warming for the last 50,000 years since the last ice age.

The sun has increased in surface temperature and will continue to increase in temperature as it passes through the plain of the galaxy this will peak in 2012 (just so happens to coincide with the peak of the 11 year sun spot cycle) and then the gravitation effect on the sun (hence the increased activity on the sun) will start to wane. We will probably have about another decade of warmer than usual temperatures. As noted in a previous post Mars is also warming.

You don't hear this side of the story because all the money to be made is preaching the wrong side of the story.