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The World is Transitioning to a "Hothouse" state
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2018-08-07 at 9:53 PM UTChttps://science.slashdot.org/story/18/08/07/0030237/planet-at-risk-of-heading-towards-irreversible-hothouse-earth-state
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_and_icehouse_Earth
The world has two stable states - an icy state, characterised by regular ice ages, and a hot state, characterised by high temperatures and abundant atmospheric CO2.
The world transitioned to an icy state about 36 million years ago, and left the last ice age about 10,000 years ago. The icy world spends only about 20% of its time out of ice ages - like we are now.
XKCD has a pretty good chart:
https://xkcd.com/1732/
It's pretty exciting being alive at a time like this. The world is going to change completely in our lifetimes. There is no way that we will stop burning fossil fuels, ever.
It's pathetic to see all the political bickering that occurs about carbon emission reductions. It's just an excuse not to do anything. For instance the EU are happy to sign international treaties to reduce CO2 emissions only because they know full well that the US and China have no intention of honouring their word.
But the EU gets to look all holy and shit, and that's what matters.
Try telling a hippy environmentalist that their backpacking trip to Asia is cancelled because planes consume around a gallon a second of fuel, and see how you get on. -
2018-08-07 at 10:46 PM UTCI dunno I think people like to be doom and gloom. Okay so it's getting warmer and the Polar Bear will go extinct, that sucks
I give us a big pat on the back. Homes are being built tighter and much better insulated. Furnaces, water heaters, boilers, air-conditioners, refrigerators, and just electric motors in general have seen incredible increases in efficiency. The progression of lighting from incandescent , to fluorescent and then to better fluorescent , and to LED. Transformers are more efficient, including power supplies in consumer electronics. Energy saving modes, and intelligent building controls helping decrease waste.
Tail pipe emissions decreasing or vanishing, even while making more powerful and reliable motors. Greatly increased fuel mileage, that queer musk made an electric car that people want to buy. Self-driving cars are becoming reality and can achieve what public transport never could.
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2018-08-07 at 10:50 PM UTCLive your life, I will live mine. If I want to drive a monster truck at 10 gallons per mile so be it; I have to pay for it.
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2018-08-07 at 11:05 PM UTCNO , my unborn great grandchildrens has to pay for it and for that you have to pay for it and for that your grandkids owes mine reparations but you can start paying now to lessen the lode if you want to do whats right thats fine. if not that is not fine and we will make a deal accordingly
sincerely yoursThe following users say it would be alright if the author of this post didn't die in a fire! -
2018-08-07 at 11:07 PM UTCIf we were serious about stopping climate change we'd turn off the oil wells and close the coal mines.
No one wants to see that happen.
Instead we create drama about gas mileage and lightbulbs.The following users say it would be alright if the author of this post didn't die in a fire! -
2018-08-07 at 11:09 PM UTC
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2018-08-07 at 11:11 PM UTC
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2018-08-07 at 11:15 PM UTC
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2018-08-07 at 11:30 PM UTCBut what will Big Oil do if we find an alternative ?
Well shit, I doubt they will let us. -
2018-08-07 at 11:45 PM UTC
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2018-08-07 at 11:46 PM UTC
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2018-08-07 at 11:49 PM UTC
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2018-08-07 at 11:52 PM UTCBring back Tesla's DNA.
He could tell us an alternative. -
2018-08-08 at 12:06 AM UTC
Originally posted by Rock_N_Rollover Bring back Tesla's DNA.
He could tell us an alternative.
Cloning geniuses is so obviously a good idea it's not even funny.
Or eugenics programs. Attractive nerds fucking and shitting out babies.
It was conventional wisdom in the pre-WW2 world that eugenics was a good thing, and something any sane society would enact.
Today it's evil, but even those who call it evil can't explain why. They're just like "you think eugenics is a good idea? I sincerely hope you're joking".
The reason it's not done today is a weird combination of the anglos and jedis using made up stories about the Nazis (who did very little eugenics) to portray it as evil in newspapers and in popular fiction post WW2.
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2018-08-08 at 2:11 AM UTCMan made climate change isn't real.The following users say it would be alright if the author of this post didn't die in a fire!
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2018-08-08 at 2:19 AM UTC
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2018-08-08 at 2:23 AM UTC
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2018-08-08 at 2:24 AM UTCYou guys literally have no reason to explain why mass deforestation, mass irrigation, plus digging up almost all of a planet's carbon deposits, sequestered over a billion years, and burning them in the span of a single generation, wouldn't change the planet's climate.
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2018-08-08 at 2:38 AM UTC
Originally posted by Cootehill You guys literally have no reason to explain why mass deforestation, mass irrigation, plus digging up almost all of a planet's carbon deposits, sequestered over a billion years, and burning them in the span of a single generation, wouldn't change the planet's climate.
Exactly right, oil is a gift from God. It is what fuels the economy of the WORLD! It has made life better for the entire planet! For some shmuck (Al Gore) to come along and say we need to get off oil is to deny the world of this gift. And I shudder to think what would happen if we didn't remove the oil from the earth...Oil volcanic explosions perhaps? -
2018-08-08 at 2:44 AM UTC
Originally posted by Bologna Nacho Exactly right, oil is a gift from God. It is what fuels the economy of the WORLD! It has made life better for the entire planet! For some shmuck (Al Gore) to come along and say we need to get off oil is to deny the world of this gift. And I shudder to think what would happen if we didn't remove the oil from the earth…Oil volcanic explosions perhaps?
Correct. And my OP was explaining why I thought climate change was a good thing.
It also explained why we would no longer cycle through ice ages and dry stages, as we were entering a different period in Earth's history.
And it doesn't matter if you drive your monster truck or not. You can buy all the oil you cam afford, and burn it in a big pit in the ground, and I can recycle all the plastic bottles I want, but it won't matter.
We're in a new phase in the planet's climate. It might take 100 years to be obvious, but it is.
