unome
Posts: 985
Joined: 5/7/2013
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For the record: There is a massive amount of evidence that more CO2 in the atmosphere generally raises the mean temperature. No one really disputes that. No one also disputes that the CO2 levels have gone up since the Industrial Age started. And no one with a clue disputes that there are certainly areas of concern with raising temperatures. We all know them. Raising sea levels, ocean acidification, habitat change, larger severe weather events. What does bother me is: 1. Some global warming alarmists say or imply that global warming could wipe out the human species. This is laughably false and this is what I was trying to respond to original Hoiseth's post. If the oceans rise 60 feet, we have more hurricanes and the ocean gets more acidic, there will be pretty serious challenges to overcome, but the species as a whole will still exist and will be doing well. Look back to the warmest period is recent history, the PETM. Temperatures were 12 degress warmer on average than they are right now. So, the Earth must have been a terrible place, you would think. But this was the period where the rise of mammels really took off. Plants and animals thrived in the warmer temps, which is what we still see on Earth today. These warmer temps were almost certainly caused by a big spike in CO2 in the atmosphere that happened at the same time. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-37647049#:~:text=A%20comet%20impact%2055%20million,new%20evidence%20for%20the%20theory. 2. It also bothers me that you never hear the positives of global warming. In fact, my writing "positives of global warming" is so opposite to the groupthink of what we are fed that it may sound disjointed. However, more CO2 is a wonderful thing if you are a plant. And the world is literally getting greener because of more CO2. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/carbon-dioxide-fertilization-greening-earth 3. You also never hear about how a warming world may permanently put off a much bigger problem: continental glaciation. "In the journal Nature Geoscience, they write that the next Ice Age would begin within 1,500 years - but (CO2) emissions have been so high that it will not. "At current levels of CO2, even if emissions stopped now we'd probably have a long interglacial duration determined by whatever long-term processes could kick in and bring [atmospheric] CO2 down," said Luke Skinner from Cambridge University. Dr Skinner's group - which also included scientists from University College London, the University of Florida and Norway's Bergen University - calculates that the atmospheric concentration of CO2 would have to fall below about 240 parts per million (ppm) before the glaciation could begin." https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-16439807 So we were on pace to have another Ice Age in around 1,500 years, which is mere minutes in geological time and man-made CO2 emissions have likely put this on the back burner indefinitely. Not concerned about the Ice Age? Minnesota was under a mile of ice 20,000 and that would kill property values. http://www.kgs.ku.edu/Publications/PIC/28figures/fig1.jpg So, there are some real concerns with global warming, but there may be some real benefits as well. I know, I know, you probably never heard that before. But, people want things to be black and white, good or bad. And it is not that simple.
< Message edited by unome -- 8/10/2020 5:45:47 PM >
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