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marmar

(76,976 posts)
Fri Feb 15, 2013, 08:09 AM Feb 2013

Scientist: The Climate Change Disaster Train has left the station


Prepare for 5°C Warmer World, Former Leader of Climate Change Panel Says

Posted on Feb 14, 2013
By Alex Kirby, Climate News Network


This piece first appeared at Climate News Network.


LONDON—The world has missed the chance to keep greenhouse gas emissions below the level needed to prevent the temperature climbing above 2°C, according to the British scientist who used to chair the IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The scientist, Professor Sir Robert Watson, chaired the Panel from 1997 until 2002, when he was ousted after US pressure for his removal.

Professor Watson says there is a 50-50 chance of preventing global average temperatures rising more than 3°C above their level at the start of the industrial age, but a 5°C rise is possible. That would mean the Earth warming more than it has since the end of the last Ice Age.

He was speaking at a symposium, Preventing global non-communicable diseases through low-carbon development, held at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/ex-ipcc_leader_prepare_for_a_5c_warmer_world_20130214/



19 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Scientist: The Climate Change Disaster Train has left the station (Original Post) marmar Feb 2013 OP
Five degrees this year. no_hypocrisy Feb 2013 #1
Well d'uh! MadHound Feb 2013 #2
Good post rightsideout Feb 2013 #4
Thank you. n/t countmyvote4real Feb 2013 #5
Excellent post CanonRay Feb 2013 #6
Very good and true. oldbanjo Feb 2013 #7
You get a Valentine for that superb post. Kennah Feb 2013 #18
Consumerism is killing the planet 4dsc Feb 2013 #3
What else would we do? The2ndWheel Feb 2013 #11
population decline? greymattermom Feb 2013 #8
China. India. Third-world immigration into Europe. WinkyDink Feb 2013 #12
global population is not declining (yet) MH1 Feb 2013 #15
Be prepared to have the naysayers tell you you're wrong BlancheSplanchnik Feb 2013 #17
That train left a long time ago... Javaman Feb 2013 #9
... PETRUS Feb 2013 #10
Yes. At this point arguing with climate deniers is like arguing on the deck of the sinking Titanic KurtNYC Feb 2013 #13
Real estate in the Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut will become valuable Kennah Feb 2013 #19
You shouldn't mess with Mother Nature ramapo Feb 2013 #14
A few more big meteors might help. redqueen Feb 2013 #16
 

MadHound

(34,179 posts)
2. Well d'uh!
Fri Feb 15, 2013, 08:24 AM
Feb 2013

We really should have started in on climate change back in the seventies when this first became a known issue. But it was one of those "liberal whacko" issues that nobody in the Democratic, and especially the Republican party wanted to touch. The real issue that was pushing renewables during the Carter administration was the cost of oil, not the health of our planet.

Of course Reagan signaled early on that he was going to do anything about climate change when he ripped down the solar panels that Carter put up. During the nineties, it was the dawn of the Age of the SUV's, and whatever fuel efficiency and pollution controls were put in place were immediately overwhelmed in the quest for bigger, badder. Yeah, here and there were some token nods at climate change, but for the most part people simple didn't care, even while our planet was warming up and up.

Bush II, the oil soaked president, he wasn't going to do a thing. And the planet continued to roast, and recognition of climate change became a matter of faith instead a matter of science for many, many people who chose to disbelieve science and put their faith, and head, up their ass.

Now, frankly, we've entered the era of fatalism. Yeah, climate change is happening, we're all going to die from it, but for right now, crank up the AC, fire up the iPad, frack out some more fossil fuels, why bother with meaningful change because it is all going to go to shit anyway.

So despite the dedicated work of a relative handful of good people, despite some token adjustments in government policy, the fact is people just don't fucking care, and won't care until it is far too late. Five degree rise, hell, the rate we're going we're looking at a ten degree rise minimum.

The dinosaurs had a legit reason for going extinct, a big comet or asteroid hit, BOOM! We're stupid enough to kill our own selves out of greed and stupidity, and take the rest of the planet down with us. Tens of thousands of years from now, when aliens stop by to do an archeological study, they're going to shake their head and say, "Thank god these babbling idiots never made it out of their solar system."

Kennah

(14,115 posts)
18. You get a Valentine for that superb post.
Fri Feb 15, 2013, 04:09 PM
Feb 2013

I have this vision of a conversation between a couple of aliens.

Alien #1: Have you looked at their science fiction books and films?
Alien #2: No, why?
Alien #1: Do you know what appears to be a common fear permeating much of it?
Alien #2: No, tell me.
Alien #1: Anal probes.
Alien #2: Wait, WHAT!?
Alien #1: They were worried we'd stick anal probes in them.
Alien #2: You have GOT to be kidding me? What was wrong with them?
Alien #3: That's nothing. Read up on early 21st century American politics, specifically a group that called themselves The Tea Party.

 

4dsc

(5,787 posts)
3. Consumerism is killing the planet
Fri Feb 15, 2013, 08:28 AM
Feb 2013

We just cannot stop the madness so we will suffer its effects.

The2ndWheel

(7,947 posts)
11. What else would we do?
Fri Feb 15, 2013, 10:06 AM
Feb 2013

Civilization is a resource concentration process. That we would consume the resources that we concentrate into the hands of a small percentage of life shouldn't be a shock. That's what we accuse the 1% of doing.

Civilized humanity is basically the 1% of the planet. We attempt to privatize the planet for a single species, while socializing the costs to the rest of life. We're a global corporation that tries to write the rules which govern us.

greymattermom

(5,751 posts)
8. population decline?
Fri Feb 15, 2013, 09:38 AM
Feb 2013

There was another thread on population decline in developed countries, especially Japan, but including the US and Western Europe. Won't that affect climate change? Has anyone put those two calculations together?

MH1

(17,537 posts)
15. global population is not declining (yet)
Fri Feb 15, 2013, 11:49 AM
Feb 2013

when it happens it will either be gradual by drop off in birth rates, or cataclysmic by some event such as nuclear war.

We sure hope it will happen by gradual drop off. Eventually that will factor into climate change, but it will take awhile, due to how long CO2 etc stays in the atmosphere and continues to effect climate.

When birth rates fall, there will be a 'demographic problem' that there are fewer young people to support the elderly. If meanwhile life spans increase, but working age expectation doesn't increase, then there will be fewer young resources to support increasing numbers of "elderly" resources. (but if lifespans are increasing, doesn't it seem reasonable that the working age can be extended?) so on the surface this appears to support raising eligibility age for certain social programs. But, not so fast. Especially in the case of Medicare, because it is more efficient to provide single-payer health care, so we should be lowering that age instead of raising it, regardless of demographics. (But the problem is we think of it as an elder-care program. We need to stop thinking like that.)

BlancheSplanchnik

(20,219 posts)
17. Be prepared to have the naysayers tell you you're wrong
Fri Feb 15, 2013, 01:37 PM
Feb 2013

That US population is at zero and it's immigration now.....

The problem is global...we are too damn fertile. If "someone" "designed" us this way, it wasn't very intelligent of them.

As National Geographic once said, humans are an exterminator species.

The root cause for most of the problems we face is overpopulation, but we stubbornly refuse to take measures as simple as encouraging "none or one".

I've always thought tax rewards for those having no children, and removing tax breaks for those having more than one would help reverse the trend.

It doesn't matter how careful we are, people live their lives and just by doing so, impact the environment. The fewer of us, the less stress on everything around us.

Javaman

(62,435 posts)
9. That train left a long time ago...
Fri Feb 15, 2013, 09:52 AM
Feb 2013

It was 30 years ago when it was only cruising down the tracks at a moderate pace where we could have still put on the breaks well before we all realized the bridge was out.

Now the breaks have long since rusted and are completely in operable.

PETRUS

(3,678 posts)
10. ...
Fri Feb 15, 2013, 09:57 AM
Feb 2013
The weekly New Scientist reported that the year before, shortly after the inauguration as US president of George W Bush, an ExxonMobil executive wrote to the White House asking: “Can Watson be replaced now at the request of the US?”

KurtNYC

(14,549 posts)
13. Yes. At this point arguing with climate deniers is like arguing on the deck of the sinking Titanic
Fri Feb 15, 2013, 10:11 AM
Feb 2013

Time to get in the lifeboats:

- move to cooler climates which are not hurricane prone,
- buy or grow locally produced food to strengthen the infrastructure which will be needed in the near future
- stop rebuilding in areas that will be under sea water or else build floating homes like the Dutch

Kennah

(14,115 posts)
19. Real estate in the Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut will become valuable
Fri Feb 15, 2013, 04:14 PM
Feb 2013

I expect we'll be growing citrus in addition to apples in Washington State within 20 years.

ramapo

(4,585 posts)
14. You shouldn't mess with Mother Nature
Fri Feb 15, 2013, 11:27 AM
Feb 2013

There is no doubt that we've messed with the mechanisms that control our climate and living conditions. However, the Earth is constantly changing and evolving. CO2 levels have been very high in the past and the Earth was just fine. Oxygen levels have changed dramatically over millennium also. The problem is humans just might not be able to adapt as quickly as necessary to changing conditions.

Oh well. We take ourselves so seriously. Humans are but a tiny blip in the history of our beloved Earth. Earth has been through amazingly dramatic changes. Incredible varieties of lifeforms have come and gone. Earth will be here for a long, long time after we are all gone. Then one day. Earth will be gone too.

We just borrow our molecules from Nature. She is the ultimate recycler.

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