TED Talks - Climate Change - James Hansen

[byQ]

I believe this scientist. He'll be giving a talk at the wood stove challenge in November. The earth as we knew it 20 years ago is now different and continues changing. He really has me rethinking about the use of fossil fuels.

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[begreen]

The energy equivalent of 400,000 A-bombs per day, 365 days a year .

 

[Seasoned Oak]

My take is, we are already way past the point of no return. All we can do is damage control at this point, and dont invest in any beachfront property or low lying flood prone property either.

 

[rowerwet]

the earth has been colder, the earth has been warmer, life didn't end.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

the earth has been colder, the earth has been warmer, life didn't end.

99% of Life ended a few times in earths history. It basically had to start over each time. Humans
probably would not have fared much better than the dinosaurs did if we were around at the time.

 

[semipro]

the earth has been colder, the earth has been warmer, life didn't end.

I don't think anyone is talking about the end of life; just some big changes that humans, among others, may not like.

 

[woodgeek]

I think manmade climate change is totally real and a big deal (good science), but I don't believe in tipping points (science not settled).

Take away.....we still can and must make a difference. And right now the US is leading from behind.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

That picture of the life like the jetsons 100 years into the future was way off. More like a hot,crowded planet plagued with famine,pestilence, poverty and political unrest. Kind of like it its now only worse.

 

[woodgeek]

The jetsons were a vision from 50 years ago about life 50 years from now. Flying cars aside, I think we are about halfway there on the rest of it. I push buttons (ok, keyboard keys) to make a good living. We have an array of automatic labor saving devices, can shop for anything we need with a few keystrokes on our coach, with (amazon/netflix) robot advisors and it gets delivered to our (jetson-sized) TV screen or doorstep instantly or the next day or two. 1900 house we ain't.

Of course, the reason all those jetson's apartments were up in the air was because of all the pollution, global warming and flooding down below.
Alternatively, they are above the array of wind turbines they paved the planet with to run all that stuff, cuz they didn't want to look at them.

Joking aside, the world has always been a mess, I have no idea when that is going to change. But my studied opinion is that we **can** as a species avoid energy/resource shortages, pollution and the worst global waming catastrophes and live a good life in the future. How good a life, and how many get to live it, on how warm/damaged a planet, will depend on the politics and policy of the next decade or two.

 

[begreen]

the earth has been colder, the earth has been warmer, life didn't end.

Actually a lot of species died off, as they are now. However, the ocean die off due to excess acidity may be a much larger die off than we are prepared for. Regardless, major temperature changes sure did cause for a lot of discomfort and moving around the planet. Maybe MA will be the new home to Miamians?

 

[woodgeek]

Indeed, the biggest of all the extinctions, the Permian-Triassic, is believed to be related to a rapid, massive release of CO2 252M years ago, to about 2000 ppm, and associated 8°C warming. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permian–Triassic_extinction_event

96% of marine species were wiped out, and 'only' 70% of those on land.

 

[begreen]

We may be less than a century away from ocean deserts again.
http://www.hawaii.edu/news/article.php?aId=6053