Toasty!

[Deleted]

If it's not the economy, IS/Daesh, or climate change, we still have North Korea to boost the chances of our annihilation. Oh what larks.

Any views on whether Lovelock's "Less than 100 years to go" was truly prophetic?

[nobody]

Mar 14, 2016 5:25:38 GMT lala said:

But, you know, Greenland used to be green, and the Vikings didn't drive 4x4s, did they?

And now Amazonian farmers want a 4x4.

[flatandy]

Mar 14, 2016 5:25:38 GMT lala said:

But, you know, Greenland used to be green, and the Vikings didn't drive 4x4s, did they?

I know. It was thousands and thousands of square kilometers of verdant meadows and pastures! Millions of vikings flocked there every summer to sit on the beaches, drink pina coladas and then help with the mango and coconut harvest.

[flatandy]

Mar 14, 2016 8:17:23 GMT @oneofthelessergods said:

If it's not the economy, IS/Daesh, or climate change, we still have North Korea to boost the chances of our annihilation. Oh what larks.

Any views on whether Lovelock's "Less than 100 years to go" was truly prophetic?

Meh.

The economy is not in great shape, but actually almost every country's GDP per capita is greater than it was 1, 2, 5, 10 and 20 years ago. We're richer than ever. It's hardly end-of-the-world stuff.

And ISIS is even less of an existential threat than a screwed economy for those of us who are lucky enough to not be Syrian or Iraqi. More people die from falling over in the bathtub than from ISIS attacks in the West.

North Korea might go crazy and is more of a threat, but fortunately they seem to be unable to build a bomb small enough to stick on a missile, so unless you're in Seoul you're probably OK.

If Lovelock's right, it'll either be climate change or something we don't yet know about that bring the collapse of society. And even climate change won't kill us all. It'll f**k us over much more than the other three, but I can't see a complete societal collapse as a result. Some high population countries - Indonesia and Bangladesh in particular - could end up as disaster areas, and millions might die. But society as a whole will probably get through.

[Deleted]

Maybe the current panic-mongering's simply down to the internet and an increase in general knowledge. Maybe just as many people died of [cancer] in the Middle Ages but no-one knew it was [cancer]. Maybe we had El Ninos but no-one knew about El Nino at the time, especially as their radius of operation and knowledge was just a few miles. Ease of communication brings about its own problems.

[voice]

well they can check these things using ice core samples and tree rings and other things that give a reasonable picture of climate in the past, so we have a pretty good idea, as we know many of the cancers we see today probably wouldn't killed you in the middle ages in quite the same numbers cos the life expectancy was around the mid 40's and a lot of these cancers don't occur till later in life.

[flatandy]

Yeah. We know fewer people had cancer because cancer is an illness that's directly correlated with age.

We also know we had El Ninos for a very long time. And we know that we almost never had back-to-back El Ninos. And we definitely know that average global temperatures were not as high as they currently are at any point in the historical record (and probably in human history, although the further back you go, the less exact the proxy measurements will be).

[lala]

Looks like the hottest February EVAH:

Our planet went through a dramatic change last month. Climate experts revealed that February was the warmest month in recorded history, surpassing the previous global monthly record – set in December. An unprecedented heating of our world is now under way.

With the current El Niño weather event only now beginning to tail off, meteorologists believe that this year is destined to be the hottest on record, warmer even than 2015.

Nor is this jump in global temperature a freak triggered by an unusually severe El Niño, say researchers. “It is the opposite,” said Professor David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey. “This is a catch-up of a recent hiatus that has occurred in rising global temperatures. We are returning to normality: rising temperatures. This is an absolute warning of the dangers that lie ahead.”

n.b. EVAH = on record.

[nobody]

On record = 150 years?


So "Evah" is pretty meaningless

[lala]

More or less. What's your point?

[nobody]

Earths weather cycle could be ten times that.

[lala]

So?

[flatandy]

Mar 20, 2016 4:50:26 GMT lala said:

“This is a catch-up of a recent hiatus that has occurred in rising global temperatures...

Ha! So there was a pause! There was no warming from 1998 to 2015! And if the earth stopped warming for 2 decades while so-called "greenhouse" gases were being pumped into the atmosphere, it clearly follows that "greenhouse" gases don't cause warming. If they did, as the ecoloonies at places like NASA and Cambridge University and Caltech insist, the earth would have continued to warm.

The Daily Mail and Nigel Lawson were right, as you'd expect from such fine, sharp scientific minds!

[nobody]

Hardly worth the panic

[lala]

You think a warming planet is not worth worrying about?

[nobody]

Nope

[lala]

Even putting aside the Very Strong Scientific Evidence that human activity is driving climate change, and pretending that the last 45 years of pretty consistent warming can be attributed to natural factors, you don't think there is any reason to plan ahead for more frequent bigger floods, stronger storms, hotter summers and the population of Bangladesh looking for somewhere else to live?

[nobody]

The climate is changing, always has, always will, get used to it, deal with it.

All riding bikes, living in a cave without central heating will make little difference, a year or so maybe.

If everyone is so concerned about co2 levels, all turn off your heating, shower in cold water, the by-product of burning gas is ,,,,,,,,,co2

Or use something else.

[flatandy]

Perhaps you don't understand the difference between what an individual can do and what the collective power of the world's governments can do?

[lala]

Mar 20, 2016 18:07:55 GMT nobody said:

The climate is changing, always has, always will, get used to it, deal with it.

All riding bikes, living in a cave without central heating will make little difference, a year or so maybe.

You are avoiding my question.

Even putting aside the Very Strong Scientific Evidence that human activity is driving climate change, and pretending that the last 45 years of pretty consistent warming can be attributed to natural factors, you don't think there is any reason to plan ahead for more frequent bigger floods, stronger storms, hotter summers and the population of Bangladesh looking for somewhere else to live?