Climate Change

[The Unknown Poster]

http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/30/world/un-climate-report/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

 

Your forecast for the next century: Hotter, drier and hungrier, and the chance to turn down the thermostat is slipping away.

That's the latest conclusion from the United Nations, which urged governments to address the "increasingly clear" threats posed by a warming climate before some options are closed off for good. The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that taking steps to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions blamed for rising temperatures could buy more time to adjust to a warmer world.

Cutting emissions now "increases the time available for adaptation to a particular level of climate change," the report states. But it adds, "Delaying mitigation actions may reduce options for climate-resilient pathways in the future."

"In many cases, we are not prepared for the climate-related risks that we already face," Vicente Barros, the co-chaiman of the IPCC working group behind the document, said in a statement accompanying the report. "Investments in better preparation can pay dividends both for the present and for the future."

 

 

 

 

 

 

The summary for policymakers was released Monday morning in Yokohama, Japan. It's the second part of the IPCC's benchmark assessment of climate change, a document released every six years with the input of nearly 1,000 scientists. Without checks on emissions, the impacts of climate change will be more severe, more likely, and possibly irreversible, it concludes.

Monday's report underscores "that we have committed to a certain amount of warming," said Kelly Levin, an energy and climate expert at the U.S.-based World Resources Institute.

"Over the next few decades, we are going to lock ourselves into a climate change commitment that is going to paint a very different world, depending on what we choose today," Levin said. "The choices we make today are going to affect the risks we face through the rest of the century."

As a result, "Adaptation is emerging as central area in climate change research," Levin said. But adaptation -- steps such as building sea walls, conserving water and designing cities for warmer climates -- has its limits, she said.

"The report suggests some options are going to be too resource-intensive or too expensive," she said.

An increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide and other emissions have driven average temperatures up by about 0.6 degrees Celsius (1 degree Fahrenheit) since 1950, the IPCC says. The first part of its report, released in September, concluded that even a best-case scenario would result in an increase in global average temperatures of 1.6 C; the worst-case scenario estimates a rise of 3.7 degrees Celsius (6.6 Fahrenheit).

The idea that carbon emissions are changing the Earth's climate is politically controversial, but generally accepted as fact by the overwhelming majority of scientists. And as emissions continue to rise, driving up CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere, the impacts will be more severe, more likely and possibly irreversible, Monday's report states.

The summary of the full document -- which is more than 1,000 pages -- will be the premiere guide for lawmakers. It breaks down the expected impacts by continent and by categories such as marine life, agriculture and flood risks. And by diving into the specifics of the report, policymakers will be able to see what risks their specific locations face, as well as what adaptation and mitigation techniques could prove fruitful.

"The real highlight is how many impacts there are, how widespread they are and how pervasive they are around the world," said Heather McGray, who studies adaptation at WRI.

 

 

 

 

 

In most cases, climate change will exacerbate existing problems, such as the availability of fresh water in sub-Saharan Africa. The authors conclude that glaciers will continue to shrink "almost worldwide," affecting water supplies downstream.

Animals have begun shifting their habitats in response to a warming world, and key crops have been affected already, they wrote. Colder climates may see increases in crop yields from longer growing seasons and milder temperatures, but the negative effects are expected to outweigh the positive, the report states.

"In this report, the finding is the impacts of climate change are already widespread and consequential," McGray said.

The impacts won't be the same for everyone, and as usual, the world's poor are more likely to be hurt.

"Climate-related hazards affect poor people's lives directly through impacts on livelihoods, reductions in crop yields or destruction of homes and indirectly through, for example, increased food prices and food insecurity," the report states. Positive effects on the impoverished "are limited and often indirect."

For those people, the effects "will be catastrophic" unless emissions can be reduced, McGray said.

[SPuDS]

Ice is melting at unprecedented levels in Greenland 27 feet a year.. The arctic is also starting to catch up.. We are something like 5 years ahead of nasa's doomsday scenario for melting ice and higher ocean water levels..

Woohoo.

(Courtesy of ViCE news)

[The Unknown Poster]

Its funny how the mainstream media's idea of balanced and fair reporting make the non climate-change alarmists look like wing nuts.

 

And they always seem to insinuate that warming temps are ONLY man-made, have NEVER happened before and are IRREVERSABLE.  Like come on...  Temps have been rising since the 50's?  Weird about that Ice Age scare in the 70's & 80's eh?

[MOBomberFan]

Ice is melting at unprecedented levels in Greenland 27 feet a year.. The arctic is also starting to catch up.. We are something like 5 years ahead of nasa's doomsday scenario for melting ice and higher ocean water levels..

Woohoo.

(Courtesy of ViCE news)

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpEPyhqjRGg

 

15 minutes long. Despite how scary the prospect of sea levels rising is, this footage is breathtaking. Ever seen an apartment building sized chunk of ice fall hundreds of feet into the ocean? You can here.

 

Below, this picture is modern day Venice... every day, from now on, for as long as anyone posting here today will be alive. But hey, these guys are smiling, so why worry? It's not like the island nation of Kiribati is now completely under water or the island of Papa New Guinea has been split in two by rising sea levels. Someone else will surely come up with a solution to all our make-believe problems.

 

[Mr Dee]

Here's a Winnipeg video with a take-off on the song "The Sounds of Silence" by Simon and Garfunkel.

A tribute to the frustration Winnipegers must be going through after the winter you've just had.

 

Written by Bartley Kives

Recorded by Kris Ulrich

Edited by Tyler Walsh

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=MoYrxmxFnio

[17to85]

 

Below, this picture is modern day Venice... every day, from now on, for as long as anyone posting here today will be alive. But hey, these guys are smiling, so why worry? It's not like the island nation of Kiribati is now completely under water or the island of Papa New Guinea has been split in two by rising sea levels. Someone else will surely come up with a solution to all our make-believe problems.

the problem is people who believe the earth has ever been or ever will be static. Climate has been changing since the Earth began, it is a dynamic system and it is always changing. It just happens so slowly we tend not to notice it until it's happened. 

[Mark H.]

And the way humans exist has been changing ever since we arrived on planet.  The last big change (the growth of civilization) was spurred by agriculture, maybe the next one will be spurred by climate change.

 

[MOBomberFan]

 

 

Below, this picture is modern day Venice... every day, from now on, for as long as anyone posting here today will be alive. But hey, these guys are smiling, so why worry? It's not like the island nation of Kiribati is now completely under water or the island of Papa New Guinea has been split in two by rising sea levels. Someone else will surely come up with a solution to all our make-believe problems.

the problem is people who believe the earth has ever been or ever will be static. Climate has been changing since the Earth began, it is a dynamic system and it is always changing. It just happens so slowly we tend not to notice it until it's happened. 

 

I fully accept that the world has experienced climate change long before man existed. I don't accept that man-made CO2 emissions have nothing to do with accelerating or exacerbating climate change.

[kelownabomberfan]

I fully accept that the world has experienced climate change long before man existed. I don't accept that man-made CO2 emissions have nothing to do with accelerating or exacerbating climate change.

And I think one of the biggest lies perpetuated on us by the media and the government (US mostly thanks to Obama's gang of climate change nuts) is that our climate right now is being exacerbated by CO2. The world hasn't warmed in over 17 years. Severe storm numbers are declining, not increasing. But yet everyone walks around convinced that "the weather is getting weirder and worser every day". Total nonsense.

[The Unknown Poster]

So venice is flooded?  So?  Guess what, the ice caps will melt.  One day, there will be an ice age.  And maybe one day we will have the technology to do something about it.  If I come to Manitoba during an unseasonable warm and dry summer and I build a house on the banks of the red river, who do I blame when the naturally occuring water level rises and floods my house?

 

Im all for being good to the environment.  I believe man has contributed to current CO2 levels.  I dont believe man triggered Global Warming.  I dont believe man can trigger an ice age.  We should all be responsible.  We should not let crazies like David Suzuki dictate our lives.  And Canadians should not be held responsible to sacrifice so that NOTHING changes while China polutes with impunity. 

[17to85]

 

 

 

Below, this picture is modern day Venice... every day, from now on, for as long as anyone posting here today will be alive. But hey, these guys are smiling, so why worry? It's not like the island nation of Kiribati is now completely under water or the island of Papa New Guinea has been split in two by rising sea levels. Someone else will surely come up with a solution to all our make-believe problems.

the problem is people who believe the earth has ever been or ever will be static. Climate has been changing since the Earth began, it is a dynamic system and it is always changing. It just happens so slowly we tend not to notice it until it's happened. 

 

I fully accept that the world has experienced climate change long before man existed. I don't accept that man-made CO2 emissions have nothing to do with accelerating or exacerbating climate change.

 

The point here is that rather than trying to worry about what caused the climate to change we should just accept that it has always and always will change and focus on adapting rather than wishing we could go back to a time that we can't go back to. This planet we live on always throws curves at us and as a species we always have to adapt. Right now we have been in a situation where developments in argiculture and industry and medicine have allowed the population to grow at a huge rate, with a bigger population comes more pollution of all types, especially as we keep trying to improve our quality of life. Eventually it was always going to catch up with us. We are an adaptive species though, we can adapt, people just might have to relocate themselves. 

[SPuDS]

Below, this picture is modern day Venice... every day, from now on, for as long as anyone posting here today will be alive. But hey, these guys are smiling, so why worry? It's not like the island nation of Kiribati is now completely under water or the island of Papa New Guinea has been split in two by rising sea levels. Someone else will surely come up with a solution to all our make-believe problems.

the problem is people who believe the earth has ever been or ever will be static. Climate has been changing since the Earth began, it is a dynamic system and it is always changing. It just happens so slowly we tend not to notice it until it's happened.

I fully accept that the world has experienced climate change long before man existed. I don't accept that man-made CO2 emissions have nothing to do with accelerating or exacerbating climate change.

the simple fact that smog, ash and pollution is actively landing on ALL the ice shelves on the planet, creating a dark blanket of sun focusing nastiness as opposed to clear, reflective glass is a testiment to our mark being left on our planet and not in a good way..

[SPuDS]

I fully accept that the world has experienced climate change long before man existed. I don't accept that man-made CO2 emissions have nothing to do with accelerating or exacerbating climate change.

And I think one of the biggest lies perpetuated on us by the media and the government (US mostly thanks to Obama's gang of climate change nuts) is that our climate right now is being exacerbated by CO2. The world hasn't warmed in over 17 years. Severe storm numbers are declining, not increasing. But yet everyone walks around convinced that "the weather is getting weirder and worser every day". Total nonsense.

*looks outside* yup, yer totally right. Smh. Tell that to the people in the midwest USA or texas and egypt who got more snow then ever before..

The weather has been getting more and more.sketchy in the last 5 years.. Now i realize weather patterns are cyclical in nature but where the hell are my crazy hot summers, mild winters and mellow spring and fall? 5 years later, im still.waiting lol.

[The Unknown Poster]

Read The Coming Global Superstorm.  it's a good book about climate change leading to a new ice age.  It was entertaining.

 

Oh and Young says Canada has the "dirtiest oil on the planet", eh?  We should shut down our oil production and make deals with Iran.  Im sure they will have our backs.

[Mark H.]

I assume every one is aware that there is hardly any snow south of North Dakota?  That's why they're not forecasting a flood for this year.

 

[kelownabomberfan]

So venice is flooded?

That was a picture from February when there was some flooding in Europe. Yup. Floods happen sometimes. Trying to represent that that picture is what Venice "looks like" on an everyday basis now due to man-made climate change is just plain fraudulent. And that's one of my biggest beefs with the man-made climate change movement, if the science is so solid and so strong that no one is allowed to even question it, then why all the lies all of the time? Why the hysterical hand-wringing and nonsensical statements of Armageddon after every storm nowadays? It's because of politics and money. The US spends $22 billion a year on "climate change" when it used to spend that money on stuff like helping the poor and space travel and innovation. Billions are being funneled into this crap due almost entirely to fear-mongering and lies. Is man-made climate change real? Ok, maybe so. Should the US government be spending $22 billion a year of money it doesn't have on it? Of course not. It's a racket, plain and simple.

[kelownabomberfan]

the simple fact that smog, ash and pollution is actively landing on ALL the ice shelves on the planet, creating a dark blanket of sun focusing nastiness as opposed to clear, reflective glass is a testiment to our mark being left on our planet and not in a good way..

Not sure if this is actually true, but it does bring up a valid point about actual pollution vs fake politicized pollution. Particulate pollution as you describe is actual pollution, in that it is actually affecting the health and welfare of millions of people and causing deaths due to bronchial issues. I've traveled from Egypt to Cambodia to Burma and I've seen the air pollution in the third world, and it's not hard to see that it is causing deaths. The air in a lot of population centers just isn't breathable. They burn dung and wood, as well as garbage, and the air quality is terrible. Also, everyone drives two stroke engines that burn a lot of oil and of course a lot of unfiltered diesel as well. This is all stuff that could be cured with natural gas and cleaner burning engines.

Fake pollution is CO2 - it's a joke that anyone would call a harmless gas required by all plant life to exist a pollutant. Stop actual pollution and save millions of lives, then worry about fake bullshit pollution like CO2. The man-made climate change movement is so misguided in this way, they hurt the poor with "solutions" like bio-fuel and wind power causing fuel poverty while not dealing with real issues and problems like particulate pollution in the third world. Fly into Cairo sometime, you'll see what I mean. It smells like someone poured a giant can of diesel on a massive pile of ****, and lit it on fire.

[kelownabomberfan]

The weather has been getting more and more.sketchy in the last 5 years.. .

It actually hasn't been getting sketchier. All that is happened is that the media has magnified the severity of any and every storm occurring now and presented each one as a "cause of climate change". It's just pandering to the unproven hypothesis. We're actually going through one of the slowest hurricane periods since 1900 right now. Tornado activity compared to the 1970's are way down. There are now even peer-reviewed papers supporting the hypothesis that more CO2 in the atmosphere leads to less severe weather on earth, but of course, those papers are ignored as they don't support the fear-mongering craziness that is necessary to keep the cash-eating machine of the AGW movement going.

[17to85]

 

It actually hasn't been getting sketchier. All that is happened is that the media has magnified the severity of any and every storm occurring now and presented each one as a "cause of climate change". It's just pandering to the unproven hypothesis. We're actually going through one of the slowest hurricane periods since 1900 right now. Tornado activity compared to the 1970's are way down. There are now even peer-reviewed papers supporting the hypothesis that more CO2 in the atmosphere leads to less severe weather on earth, but of course, those papers are ignored as they don't support the fear-mongering craziness that is necessary to keep the cash-eating machine of the AGW movement going.

 

So much this. Every storm, ever cold snap, every hot spell it's not weather anymore it's doom and gloom climate change!!!!11!!!! pisses me off. I also completely agree with you how greenhouse gas emissions have usurped the environmental issues so completely and totally. There are plenty of worse things we're dumping into the environment but because it's not the hot topic of the day it doesn't matter. That **** really pisses me off. The weather is always going to be unpredictable and we are always going to have severe weather pop up, that's been going on since day 1, and it's always the poor who get hit hardest that hasn't changed either. Just that there's big business in climate change too and lots of people are making money and not solving any issues. This whole idea that you can buy carbon credits and solve the problem... nonsense. It's a wealth transfer scheme nothing more. 

[Fraser]

5 years out of 6 billion could not be any less statistically significant.

[17to85]

5 years out of 6 billion could not be any less statistically significant.

4.6 billion actually, unless they've gone and changed their estimates again but pretty sure it's 4.6

[iso_55]

Neil Young can go shove it. Maybe he should have told his bus drivers to turn off their diesel engines when they were idling for hours when he had his concert here in Calgary this past January.

[MOBomberFan]

 

That was a picture from February when there was some flooding in Europe. Yup. Floods happen sometimes. Trying to represent that that picture is what Venice "looks like" on an everyday basis now due to man-made climate change is just plain fraudulent. 

 

 

I guess I'm just a big fat phony! LOL!

 

I don't recall saying this is happening due to man-made climate change. In fact, it's something called Acqua Alta, and it has been going on since, oh about 600 AD or so. That pictures is from St Marks square, one of the lowest lying areas of the city. Nobody is surprised that Venice floods, it always has and always will.

 

However, what used to occur only 5-6 times a year during the winter months (high sea levels has turned into an every day fact of life. What used to be temporary platforms on sidewalks are now permanent fixtures. Vendors make a killing selling rubber booties to ill-prepared tourists. If the sea levels continue to rise, Venice will experience Acqua Alta with increasing frequency and severity. The whole point is that nobody takes notice or gives a damn until it affects them in their back yard. It's pretty easy to say 'so what' when it's happening on the other side of the world.

 

Interesting piece (no, I don't get all my news from Vice, it's just a great show)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX78GPAuOik

 

I'm not a scientist {collective gasp} but it seems to my untrained hippie eyes that the industrial revolution had some sort of clearly measurable impact on global temperatures and sea levels... I can't think it's just a coincidence, or easily dismissed as anecdotal evidence.

 

edited for bitchiness

[iso_55]

Gosh look at that temp drop after 2000. Hockey stick.

[kelownabomberfan]

I guess I'm just a big fat phony! LOL!

Don't be too hard on yourself. Most AGW "believers" are phonies. Only they are doing it for the big bank involved. The best thing that ever happened to Al Gore was the man-made global warming scam, the guy has made gazillions riding off of it, not including all the bank he's made from being a director of Apple.

 

I don't recall saying this is happening due to man-made climate change. In fact, it's something called Acqua Alta, and it has been going on since, oh about 600 AD or so. That pictures is from St Marks square, one of the lowest lying areas of the city. Nobody is surprised that Venice floods, it always has and always will.

 

However, what used to occur only 5-6 times a year during the winter months (high sea levels has turned into an every day fact of life. What used to be temporary platforms on sidewalks are now permanent fixtures. Vendors make a killing selling rubber booties to ill-prepared tourists. If the sea levels continue to rise, Venice will experience Acqua Alta with increasing frequency and severity. The whole point is that nobody takes notice or gives a damn until it affects them in their back yard. It's pretty easy to say 'so what' when it's happening on the other side of the world.

Are sea levels actually rising though? What I've seen in terms of measurements on sea level rise have all been horribly biased and deliberately incorrect measurements designed purely to panic people. Back in the mid-2000's there was the whole scam about how the Maldives and other low-lying islands were going to be covered in water by now, and nothing has happened. Also - is there any credence to the theory that Venice might be sinking a bit as well? It's not always just about the sea rising, land also sinks too.

 

Interesting piece (no, I don't get all my news from Vice, it's just a great show)

I like Vice too, in fact I've enjoyed many of their reports as they get right into the places other journalists won't go like into Muslim Philippines and right in with the Taliban in Afghanistan, but their climate change stuff is complete crap. It's too bad that they've bowed to their political masters on this stuff and not gone into exposing all of the corruption in the "green" lobby. These are the prime guys to investigate Obama blowing $500 million of taxpayer cash on Solyndra, and yet none of those guys will touch it. You can bet if it had been Bush that had blown $500 million on a scam with his cronies it would be a Vice masterpiece of journalism.

 

I'm not a scientist {collective gasp} but it seems to my untrained hippie eyes that the industrial revolution had some sort of clearly measurable impact on global temperatures and sea levels... I can't think it's just a coincidence, or easily dismissed as anecdotal evidence.

And here we go with the hockey stick again and graphs showing sea level rising. The hockey stick is complete and utter bunk. The world hasn't warmed in 17 years. Even the morally bankrupt IPCC and their UN masters agree on that one.

http://a-sceptical-mind.com/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-hockey-stick

http://junkscience.com/2011/12/02/the-sea-level-scam/