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World running out of time to tackle climate crisis: U.N.

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By Robin MILLARD

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Ok, posters, how has your life been affected by climate change so far? :)

-10 ( +9 / -19 )

Higher energy bills, more freak weather, loss of harvests due to drought (the root cause of the Syrian Civil War), wild fires, more disease as more areas become tropical breeding grounds, coastal erosion, shall I go on?

4 ( +12 / -8 )

Higher rates of illness and death from atmospheric pollution, increased rates of skin cancer from ozone erosion, .....

1 ( +10 / -9 )

Ok, posters, how has your life been affected by climate change so far? :

Summer days in the high thirties instead of the high twenties to low thirties of when I first arrived in Japan. We’re set to not 26 degrees today, in April.

Flooding a regular annual event, as opposed to the very rare (in my part of the country) occasional, noteworthy event it used to be.

Bigger, stronger, more erratic typhoons - note the doozy just formed in the south, when we’re still in April.

I’ll say that again.

IN APRIL.

2 ( +10 / -8 )

Covid has sidetracked climate change mitigation and eaten the budget for it.

3 ( +6 / -3 )

Who is to blame?

-7 ( +6 / -13 )

@CoffeeDeluxe

Denying it won't help anyone.

Sigh..

2 ( +10 / -8 )

Climate change is natural. May I remind you all of what was called the: Ice Age?

-1 ( +11 / -12 )

I think George Carlin put it best.

https://youtu.be/BB0aFPXr4n4

10 ( +10 / -0 )

Ok, posters, how has your life been affected by climate change so far? :)

The part of the ski season on Honshu with good snow is about a month shorter than it was twenty years ago. With yearly variations of course.

I built my house without air conditioning in 2007, but had to get it fitted in upstairs in 2020. I think the problem is higher overnight temps, which stop the house cooling down. I also rigged up some shade cloths outside last year without ever feeling the need to do it before. In winter, we burn less firewood, despite being older and feeling the cold more.

4 ( +9 / -5 )

I used to look in the mirror and see all the new wrinkles of old age and wish I could be young. Now I look in the mirror and think, I had a great life and only doom awaits young people.

4 ( +9 / -5 )

It is already too late to prevent the massive out gassing of CO2 from the arctic tundra. From an article in Scientific American magazine, the first parts of the world to become uninhabitable will be in Iran. Where are the millions of people living there now going to go? Will Russia welcome them to Siberia? I can't imagine Putin or Xi welcoming an Islamic state in their backyard.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Rainy season used to start here in South Cal at around Halloween. Now, such as it is, it does not start until mid or late December, and the fire season lasts well into what used to be the rainy season.

While communicating with relatives in Europe, they tell me that they now get A/C in their cars, where they never felt the need for it 40 years ago.

In the next hundred years, and continuing after that, we (as a species, not us specifically) will see a damaging rise in sea levels. Since so many major cities are port cities, the damage will be severe. A few hundred years down the road will see some parts of California's Central Valley flooded with seawater. It will go from being America's bread basket to being a swamp.

3 ( +6 / -3 )

Climate change is natural. May I remind you all of what was called the: Ice Age?

Be afraid. Be terrified. Don’t ask questions. Be compliant, Go along with the crowd and throw out common sense. Ignore the fact that the Arctic ice cap still exists eight years after it was predicted to disappear. Ignore the fact that the average global temperature has only increased 1 degree since the industrial revolution - which happened to coincide with the end of the Little Ice Age. Ignore the fact that CO2 is not a pollutant but is essential for life. Ignore the fact that CO2 is a trace gas and is not even the most abundant greenhouse gas or the most powerful. Ignore the fact that scientists are unable to create a warming model that comports with reality except in retrospect.

Do not take a moderate view of the situation. Do not notice that predictions based on “the science” is proven inaccurate time after time. Do not ask what the ideal average global temperature is. Do not think for yourself and do what you are told. And most of all, do not live your own life without forcing your climate religion on others.

0 ( +10 / -10 )

I will start to believe the alarmists when THEY start living like they believe their own rhetoric. When Barack Obama, for example, decides NOT to live in a 17 million dollar mansion on the seashore. When Al Gore sells a few of his homes and donates the money to climate research. When climate hypocrites like DeCaprio and the Ginger formerly known as Prince Harry stop taking private jets.

And most importantly when people begin to learn the difference between weather and climate.

5 ( +11 / -6 )

I will also take it seriously when this smug toad Gutteres takes some personal action. That does not include travelling to: Bahamas, Denmark, Turkey, China, Japan, Tuvalu, New Zealand, Saint Lucia, Argentina, Qatar, Thailand, the USA, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Germany, the Holy See, and many more places in the past 2 years.

4 ( +8 / -4 )

He has also never held a real job in his life. He entered politics when he was 25 and has stayed slurping at the trough ever since.

2 ( +6 / -4 )

I remember all the "experts" going ape over global cooling back in the 70's.

Something about the "ozone hole" too.

Now, it's global warming.

Cooling and warming patterns aren't even a blink of an eye as far as the planet is concerned.

Besides, who said that mankind needed to be around forever?

2 ( +8 / -6 )

Attilathehungry

And most importantly when people begin to learn the difference between weather and climate.

Agreed. Climate is about long term changes, while weather is day to day changes. Unfortunately the future climate is very grim.

The climate crisis is man-made, due to excess CO2 and will cause sea-level rise, ice caps melting by as soon as 2035, and adverse weather. It is imperative that we all work to reverse climate change before it is too late.

0 ( +7 / -7 )

I remember all the "experts" going ape over global cooling back in the 70's.

No, you didn’t. This wasn’t the view of the consensus of scientists at the time.

-4 ( +5 / -9 )

Attila- add when the climate guy, John Kerry, stops flying around the world in private jets.

Frauds, all of them. Looking to get rich(er) off of fake climate change.

-1 ( +6 / -7 )

Be afraid. Be terrified. Don’t ask questions. Be compliant, Go along with the crowd and throw out common sense. 

Caravans? BLM? 5G network towers?

 When Barack Obama, for example, decides NOT to live in a 17 million dollar mansion on the seashore. When Al Gore sells a few of his homes and donates the money to climate research. When climate hypocrites like DeCaprio and the Ginger formerly known as Prince Harry stop taking private jets.

Like Trump living in his Mar-A-Lago resort funded by his Chinese-made clothing empire and Russian oligarch loans, being served by illegal immigrant housekeepers?

-1 ( +5 / -6 )

Wolfpack

What you say is correct, however, you mistake the implications are benign. You couldn't be more wrong.

Ignore the fact that CO2 is not a pollutant but is essential for life.

So is H2O, but a small excess in your lungs is fatal.

Ignore the fact that CO2 is a trace gas

True, but no conclusions should be drawn from this. O2 is only 21% of the atmosphere, but essential for life.

and is not even the most abundant greenhouse gas or the most powerful.

Yes, but it's the fact that once introduced into the atmosphere it will stay for 300 to 1,000 years that makes it problematic.

1 ( +6 / -5 )

No, you didn’t. This wasn’t the view of the consensus of scientists at the time

They did, they just weren’t as radical, again, NOT AS radical.

-2 ( +7 / -9 )

Despite all the fear mongering, we’re still waiting to see the science...

0 ( +7 / -7 )

Happy Day

Despite all the fear mongering, we’re still waiting to see the science...

No you aren't. The science has been settled for decades and widely published.

0 ( +6 / -6 )

.No, you didn’t. This wasn’t the view of the consensus of scientists at the time.

1970 Washington Post reported that "Colder Winters Held Dawn of New Ice Age".

1972 and 1974 National Science Board

1975 National Academy of Sciences report

1974 Time magazine article

1975 Newsweek article

No one said anything about a "consensus".

It was the talk of the town back then.

So, don't put words in my mouth.

3 ( +8 / -5 )

If you want to see how much of a "crisis" this is, just look at what your "leaders" DO, rather than what they SAY.

Obama is so worried about "rising sea levels"...that he bought a sea-side mansion! (Just like he's so worried about "racism" that the island where the first-"black" president chooses to live on is...99,97% rich and white??)

The UN chief could do ALL his meetings online, but no, he prefers to FLY his entire horde from country to country in order to...not shake anyone's hands in person! Keeping it real!

"How Dare You!", Greta Thurnberg, for living with your small family in a giant 6 bedroom, five bath mansion! I heard you got some rich guy to "sail" you to your climate change meet, but while you made headlines with your virtue signalling gesture, you forced the crew to FLY to the starting destination of your sail? lol.

Al Gore has never met a private plane he didn't like. He's got more air conditioning in his half dozen-plus homes than the average large university campus. How's that "hockey stick" prediction looking now, Al? Turned out to be...alarmist, did it? Al doesn't care!

Nothing says "I really care about the environment" quite like Leo DiCaprio FLYING, alone, on a private jet...to receive his latest "environmental protection" award.

The DAVOS Men are so alarmed, they've continued to fly annually to Switzerland each year, with scores of their supporting minion servants in tow, to continue publicly fretting about "our" future in triple-first-class luxury, all the while planning out the meager future existence you lesser mortals will be forced to adapt.

And anyone who screams we've got, what, 11 more years before we all DIE? Then...go on to give birth to additional children of their own...yeah, they're really, really worried about "our" future!

"All animals are EQUAL!...But SOME animals are MORE EQUAL than others!" lol. Who first coined that quote, what kind of behaviour was he describing and why?

-1 ( +6 / -7 )

No one said anything about a "consensus".

You went further and said ‘all the experts’.

It was not ‘all the experts’. Nowhere near it.

This right wing talking point discredits the thoughtful people on the right who care about being honest and accurate.

-2 ( +5 / -7 )

I remember all the "experts" going ape over global cooling back in the 70's.

Scientists with credibility.

Scientists with little or no credibility.

Pseudo-scientists.

Folk who say they know this or that about climate change.

The "experts", to be put loosely.

They were all over the place back then.

Get it?

0 ( +6 / -6 )

No one said anything about a "consensus".

You went further and said ‘all the experts’.

It was not ‘all the experts’. Nowhere near it.

This right wing talking point discredits the thoughtful people on the right who care about being honest and accurate.

Honest and accurate or just splitting hairs? Proving a point?

Now that you've thumped your chest, are you feeling any better?

LOL

-2 ( +4 / -6 )

World stunned as right-wing chumps lap up big oil's propaganda like the easily deluded apelets they are.

0 ( +6 / -6 )

World running out of time to tackle climate crisis: U.N.

Dont count on him to ever say we have run out of time and can stop now. Nope, the show must go on.

Wish I had 100 yen for all the false claims about when we would "run out of time" over the years.

-2 ( +6 / -8 )

Jimizo

No, you didn’t. This wasn’t the view of the consensus of scientists at the time.

It was totally the consensus in the media, and the media were less activist then than now.

Do you have any reference for any poll about a "consensus of scientists", or did you just pull that out of thin air?

-3 ( +5 / -8 )

Honest and accurate or just splitting hairs? Proving a point?

Honest and accurate, I’d say.

It’s just that the right often bring up the misleading talking point that global cooling was a scientific consensus in the 1970s. Predictably, Bass did it here. This is not a minor point nor splitting hairs.

We both agree this talking point is false. No problem. We agree.

1 ( +7 / -6 )

I am told everyday and on all channels that I have to abide to a life with corona viruses as they cannot be extinguished, although they not even try it once. So I tell you back you also have to abide or get used to a life with climate change as it just also can’t be helped. That’s fair, isn’t it?

-2 ( +4 / -6 )

The nice thing about science is that you can change your hypothesis if you get more data that does not support your original one. There were some in the 70s that talked about global cooling.

But now we have 50 years of data to show that the planet is warming, has been warming for the last 300 years and that the warming is highly correlated to increased carbon emissions.

The overwhelming view of climatologists, the people that actually know what they are talking about, is that the planet is on the path to catastrophic (for us anyway) warming and that we have very little time to take drastic action if we are going to blunt the worst effects.

0 ( +5 / -5 )

Who is to blame? I got downvotes several time for asking that. Why? How should they pay? Be specific.

0 ( +6 / -6 )

@GdTokyo

Wait... scientists can change their views from the 70's but now they can't...?

0 ( +6 / -6 )

Wait... scientists can change their views from the 70's but now they can't...?

That's right, because now we have a "scientific consensus-sensus-sensus...."; can't question it.

1 ( +6 / -5 )

That's right, because now we have a "scientific consensus-sensus-sensus...."; can't question it.

Without enough data of proper quality no, that is how something become part of the consensus, by defeating with evidence other explanations of what is happening in the world.

If you don't have evidence to prove a difference in opinion then it is just that, an opinion, and one that can be proved wrong.

-3 ( +3 / -6 )

António Guterres is definitely wearing the "Step Right Up" expression.

If he had a seersucker jacket to match, the image would be complete.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

CoffeeDeluxeToday  07:25 am JST

Ok, posters, how has your life been affected by climate change so far? :)

Had a great ski season this year!

0 ( +4 / -4 )

@Gooch

"Had a great ski season this year!"

How D A R E you!! (`ヘ´)

-2 ( +4 / -6 )

@virusrex

"Without enough data of proper quality no, that is how something become part of the consensus, by defeating with evidence other explanations of what is happening in the world."

Plenty of "proper" data suggests there's no causal linkage between CO2 and global temperature. Climate alarmists are becoming more desperate. Junk science is probably the biggest intellectual fraud in the history of science.

-4 ( +5 / -9 )

Plenty of "proper" data suggests there's no causal linkage between CO2 and global temperature.

This is wrong, actually.

-1 ( +4 / -5 )

CoffeeDeluxeToday  04:23 pm JST

@Gooch

"Had a great ski season this year!"

How D A R E you!! (`ヘ´)

Oh Greta! I've been wringing my hands with guilt ever since. Defying global warming AND the virus. What's the punishment?

-2 ( +4 / -6 )

CoffeeDeluxe

Plenty of "proper" data suggests there's no causal linkage between CO2 and global temperature. Climate alarmists are becoming more desperate. Junk science is probably the biggest intellectual fraud in the history of science.

That is absolutely incorrect. The link between greenhouse gasses (including CO2) and temperature is fundamental and has been known for many decades. (Why do you think Venus is hotter than Mercury, even though mercury is closer to the sun?) No scientist denies this fact.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Ignore the fact that the Arctic ice cap still exists eight years after it was predicted to disappear. 

No, not true at all. Where do you come up with these lies?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Ignore the fact that CO2 is not a pollutant but is essential for life. Ignore the fact that CO2 is a trace gas and is not even the most abundant greenhouse gas or the most powerful. Ignore the fact that scientists are unable to create a warming model that comports with reality except in retrospect.

Again both false and deliberately so. Sunshine is a manifestation of solar radiation and when it is absorbed by the surface of the Earth, the surface heats up and emits a different kind of radiation, known as infrared radiation. Carbon dioxide is a special chemical in that it is transparent to solar radiation and yet it absorbs infrared radiation. Thus, the presence of carbon dioxode in our atmosphere allows sunshine to penetrate to the surface but inhibits the emission of infrared radiation to space. The consequence of the absorption of infrared radiation by carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is that Earth is much warmer than it has any right to expect based upon its distance from the Sun. In 1958, the atmosphere contained 315 carbon dioxide molecules for every million molecules of gaseous atmosphere. April 2014 was the first month in 56 years in which the monthly average carbon dioxide fraction topped 400 molecules per million (it was 401.33). The continual increase in this carbon dioxide fraction is considered to be the main contributor to the global temperature increase known as global warming. Such values are a first in human history and likely represent the highest carbon dioxide fraction in our atmosphere in at least the last 800,000 years. It is high time that we had a sober, data-driven discussion about the hazards presented by this dangerous trend. Analytical, skeptical science has to be central to this discussion.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

2020hindsights: What you say is correct, however, you mistake the implications are benign. You couldn't be more wrong.

Based on a cost benefit analysis yes, a minor amount of global warming is fairly benign. Increases in energy costs lead to fewer people moving out of poverty. The dramatic increase in the reduction in poverty over the past quarter century is nothing short of an astounding human achievement.

So is H2O, but a small excess in your lungs is fatal.

True but how many parts per million is that? We can definitely determine how much additional water in a human beings lungs cause death. The minuscule increase in CO2 as a part of the entire atmosphere can not be proven to lead to doomsday by X-date.

True, but no conclusions should be drawn from this.

The fact that CO2 has increased from a tiny part of the atmosphere to a tiny bit more of a tiny bit of the atmosphere over the last 140 years hasn’t stopped people from concluding the Arctic ice cap should be gone already. I conclude that the failure of past predictions of doom do not justify believing in future predictions of doom from the same people that were wrong before.

Yes, but it's the fact that once introduced into the atmosphere it will stay for 300 to 1,000 years that makes it problematic.

Yes, CO2 does last in the atmosphere for a long time. Warmer average temperatures will require adjustment. Obama’s great grand children may have to abandon their huge ocean front property for a newer one a few hundreds further inland. Every time a large volcano does off a huge amount of CO2 is ejected into the atmosphere. But a nice by product is a greening planet. People in colder parts of the world will live much less harsh lives. Things change, the world is changing all the time. Panicking about it will not make human existence easier. The reaction has been over the top and irrational. It is a manufactured crisis leveraged by despots like John Kerry and Guterres who seem to want control over the lives of everyone. It’s bizarre

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Wolfpack

The minuscule increase in CO2 as a part of the entire atmosphere can not be proven to lead to doomsday by X-date.

Yes, it can. It's increased by a third in that time. That's a lot. Also, you have to understand that CO2, the climate and warming represent a closed loop system with positive feedback. That means that a small increase will eventually tip the point to where we have runaway increases of warming with no way to reverse it.

I conclude that the failure of past predictions of doom do not justify believing in future predictions of doom from the same people that were wrong before.

Actually, most predictions have come true.

Things change, the world is changing all the time.

You grossly underestimate the severity of the problem and are defeatist in trying to fix it. It's like your house is on fire and you respond by saying "that's lucky; I won't need to spend money on heating for now..."

2 ( +3 / -1 )

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-climate-emergency-2020-in-review/

Scientific American regularly has articles on global warming. It was in their magazine, about 50 years ago, that I first read about the studies in Hawaii which indicated that CO2 levels in the atmosphere are rising every year. They also ran an article about the potential disastrous effects of a powerful hurricane hitting New Orleans.....several years before it actually happened. Congress then passed a 15 billion dollar allowance to fix the infrastructure in the area of New Orleans, but the Republican president, Bush 2, said it was too expensive, and refused to make the repairs. As we then witnessed, failure to fix the infrastructure resulted in damages far greater than the cost to prevent the damage, not to mention the loss of life.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/global-warming-may-mean-stifling-heat-for-middle-east/

"A plausible analogy of future climate for many locations in Southwest Asia is the current climate of the desert of Norther Afar on the African side of the Red Sea, a region with no permanent human settlements owing to its extreme climate."

To put it in more direct terms, areas where today hundreds of millions of people live are under the threat of becoming uninhabitable, not just because of rising sea levels, but because of rising temperatures.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

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