The New York Times: The nations of the world agreed years ago to try to limit global warming to a level they hoped would prove somewhat tolerable. But leading climate scientists warned on Tuesday that permitting a warming of that magnitude would actually be quite dangerous.
The likely consequences would include killer storms stronger than any in modern times, the disintegration of large parts of the polar ice sheets and a rise of the sea sufficient to begin drowning the world’s coastal cities before the end of this century, the scientists declared.
“We’re in danger of handing young people a situation that’s out of their control,” said James E. Hansen, the retired NASA climate scientist who led the new research. The findings were released Tuesday morning by a European science journal, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.
A draft version of the paper was released last year, and it provoked a roiling debate among climate scientists. The main conclusions have not changed, and that debate seems likely to be replayed in the coming weeks. (read more)
13 comments:
1967 was the great year for James Hansen. 22 years old, safely deferred in college far from any threat of Viet-Nam. Hippie chicks all half stoned and talking about free love and he felt so virile that he could do his girlfriend two-maybe three times in a night. The sun was so wonderful that summer shining on their skinny dipping bodies, the wind smelled so good and felt so refreshing, like the wind was his friend. James Hansen laid back on the grass with a slight buzz and looked up at the sky and loved the world.
But slowly (oh so very slowly) everything changed, out of college and having to work. Grinding jobs doing work that was not much fun. Failed relationships, failed marriages, women he met seemed bitchy and he could not score the young tail anymore. Even the sun now seemed harsh and he needed sunglasses even to drive. The winters were colder and the wind was not his friend and made him want a sweater.
But looking back it was such a perfect summer in ’67. “What had changed?” James Hansen asked himself.
Time, time marches on, with or without you.
According to past predictions, we should all be dead now.
The sea comes right up to the coastline with no gaps or anything.
It's one of the marvels of physics.
Scientists are funny. Sounds like we need less climate scientists and more engineers. The science is done. Let's get moving on those coastal cities. What? You don't believe your own predictions?
So when it becomes undeniable that we're tipping into another ice age will the response be..."Oops, nevermind?"
Science is over, indeed. We are doomed and Americans must pay for all of it, while Hillary and Al Gore continue to expand their wealth.
I don't believe them. The fancy pants scientists have been wrong on all sorts of things over my lifetime and have had to back track and do a "my bad" over multiple issues.
Plus the big news that the climate changes is not big news. The climate changes all the time and has done so for billions of years. The area where I am now sitting was once the bottom of a lake formed by glacial run off. Long before that time it was at the bottom of a warm shallow inland sea that was disconnected from the Pacific ocean for quite some time.
Shit happens. Deal with it.
When Michael Mann tells you that you should dial it down a notch, maybe you've gone a bit too far with the doom and gloom.
The science of climate change has improved markedly. The scientists have learned not to make any predictions closer than twenty years out. Earlier they made a number of specific predictions that didn't pan out and their science thus lost credibility. The climate scientists have learned to push back the horizon on their catastrophes. I can confidently predict that no one will remember what they predicted twenty years from now. The science on this is settled.
All the leading Roman intellectuals predicted the fall of the Roman Empire some four of five hunded years before it actually happened. That's how prescient they were.......My study of history and science leads me to believe that the world will end someday.
When you mix science with politics, you get politics.
100% of all people born will die. The horror of it all.
Mumpsimus said...
When you mix science with politics, you get politics.
When you mix vanilla and chocolate, you still get chocolate.
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