Global Warming

I've never seen Cowspiracy. Should I feel more smug than I do for not eating meat?

The smugness is always awesome :)

Cowspiracy starts from a factual basis but there are exaggerations: they take the high-end of the estimates in many cases. Also I've not seen it but what they should also emphasise is the antibiotic resistance that develops from routine feeding to animals, and is as much an existential threat to modern life as climate change.
 
I've never seen Cowspiracy. Should I feel more smug than I do for not eating meat?
You can only feel smug about these things if you change as a result of watching a documentary - like I got angry with Seaworld after Blackfish.
 
Mind. Blown. The whole Brexit/Trump/Daily Mail/conspiracy theory conflation is amazing. The idiots are literally taking over the asylum. How did it happen?!?

There's also a remarkable consistency between the supporters of the idea of contrails in the contrail thread and Brexit voters in that thread.
 
There's also a remarkable consistency between the supporters of the idea of contrails in the contrail thread and Brexit voters in that thread.

It's a bit mad really. I always filed internet conspiracy theory loons as an insignificant tiny minority with too much time/ganja on their hands. But now it feels like they're taking over the world. What the hell, like?
 
It's a bit mad really. I always filed internet conspiracy theory loons as an insignificant tiny minority with too much time/ganja on their hands. But now it feels like they're taking over the world. What the hell, like?

Blame the internet and social media sadly.

So many people are desperate to think that they "know" something the rest of us don't and cannot be so easily fooled. The "elite" is a great great term for them to throw around.
 
Blame the internet and social media sadly.

So many people are desperate to think that they "know" something the rest of us don't and cannot be so easily fooled. The "elite" is a great great term for them to throw around.

I do! I do! I even started a thread about it, before the whole of America lost its mind. The extent of the craziness still horrifies me, though. Strange times.
 
I do! I do! I even started a thread about it, before the whole of America lost its mind. The extent of the craziness still horrifies me, though. Strange times.
As the aliens descend onto the barren dust bowl of earth, realising what doomed another civilisation. "Fecking twitter, again!"
 
As the aliens descend onto the barren dust bowl of earth, realising what doomed another civilisation. "Fecking twitter, again!"

Maybe they're all watching us somewhere, amused. "Bloody hell, the 'don't elect a populist maniac in the most important country challenge' is supposed to be the easy one!"
 
Maybe they're all watching us somewhere, amused. "Bloody hell, the 'don't elect a populist maniac in the most important country challenge' is supposed to be the easy one!"
"What's up next again?"
"Flying spiders."
"Heh."
 
"What's up next again?"
"Flying spiders."
"Heh."

If we accelerate climate change fast enough maybe we can kill off all spiders before they get to that stage...
 
If we accelerate climate change fast enough maybe we can kill off all spiders before they get to that stage...
Hadn't thought about that...

Although they like hot places don't they? That's why I can't go to places like Australia the middle bit.
 
Hadn't thought about that...

Although they like hot places don't they? That's why I can't go to places like Australia the middle bit.

Yeah, in the UK they always seem to stalk the corners of houses far more often when the weather is warm. So...climate change will not only kill us all and will lead to mass extinction, but will lead to more spiders. Great...
 
Maybe we should put a comet (or several comets) in orbital resonance between earth and Jupiter, and use that to progressively change the orbit of the earth around the sun.

Fig7-GreatMajorComets-3-e1426728371596.jpg


http://www.aerith.net/comet/future-n.html

That should (theoratically) stave off warming related extinctions. And, as a precedent: we already have trojan satellites (eg. 2016 HO3):



So adding a few more shouldn't hurt.

http://www.nss.org/settlement/asteroids/capture.html
 
I read something about methane plumes coming from melting ice having a devastating effect. Can anyone give e bit if detail ?
 
I read something about methane plumes coming from melting ice having a devastating effect. Can anyone give e bit if detail ?
It's not really the melting ice that releases methane, it's more the permafrost that makes up the vast majority of the arctic circle. The permafrost contains vast amounts of methane underground (as well as prehistoric viruses) and if this methane is released then it will lead to unprecedented levels of greenhouse gases which will send the earth's atmosphere into a steep downward spiral of temperature rises that will be impossible to reverse.

I'll edit in a link in a bit as I'm at work right now.
https://www.edf.org/methane-other-important-greenhouse-gas

http://www.planetextinction.com/planet_extinction_permafrost.htm
 
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It's not really the melting ice that releases methane, it's more the permafrost that makes up the vast majority of the arctic circle. The permafrost contains vast amounts of methane underground (as well as prehistoric viruses) and if this methane is released then it will lead to unprecedented levels of greenhouse gases which will send the earth's atmosphere into a steep downward spiral of temperature rises that will be impossible to reverse.

I'll edit in a link in a bit as I'm at work right now.
Apparently the book A Farewell to Ice covers this very well. Have you read it, if so, is it very technical ?
 
It's a bit mad really. I always filed internet conspiracy theory loons as an insignificant tiny minority with too much time/ganja on their hands. But now it feels like they're taking over the world. What the hell, like?
Wasn't climate change considered a conspiracy for, like, ages? :wenger:
 
I know my priorities and I'm typing this using my iPhone.

Well done. I'm glad that in your priorities, a potential typo in that article (which wasn't a typo, by the way, as someone else pointed out) is more important than an enormous lake of toxic waste that is the hidden cost of developing renewable technology.
 
Well done. I'm glad that in your priorities, a potential typo in that article (which wasn't a typo, by the way, as someone else pointed out) is more important than an enormous lake of toxic waste that is the hidden cost of developing renewable technology.

It's depressing as hell but if it's a binary choice, a toxic lake in Mongolia is a price worth paying for anything that slows down Global Warming.
 
It's depressing as hell but if it's a binary choice, a toxic lake in Mongolia is a price worth paying for anything that slows down Global Warming.

All I can say on that point is the climate change scientist I teach was shocked to the core by that article and is sharing it with her colleagues.

Edit: the lake is also radioactive :)
 


Holy shit. 2016 has so much to answer for.

What year is the positive outlier? Is there any reason to think that these stories are gaining traction because of post-Trump panic, and are 'just' people highlighting the worst facts to push their agenda that climate change can't be ignored and leaving the Paris treaty would be disastrous*, or is this truly building evidence that 2016 is the worst year of modern history, and we are now passed the point of no return?

*Not that there's anything wrong with that. / Seinfeld