Global warming. what do you think we should do?

If we are experiencing global warming and we spend billions of dollars cutting the carbon, how long is going to be before we reverse the problem if we can ??? In the mean time, sell all your cool growing orchids and put in the tropicals.

 

Why don't you take this serious?

 

Nuclear certainly does not produce much CO2 but it produces a waste that no one wants in their back yard. So, it's mostly being stored onsite at all the Nucs in the US. As far as I know the work on disposal sites has ceased and it would be years before they are ready. I worked in this industry for 35 years and it has become VERY expensive to even think of building more. There are many on the table now but I have my doubts they will ever be built. If they start today it would most likely be 10-15 years before the first came on line.

If we solve the waste storage problem, I'm all for it. Without a resolution to that I think not.

 

You haven't answered my question, how long will it take to correct global warning???
Serious, yes it is, are we totally responsible, NO, partially, YES.
Climate change has been happening since the Earth formed, its in all the history books and on Geological records from all parts of the world.
Egypt went from a lush tropical forrested land to, in the majority desert, because of climate change. I don't think their industrial empire contributed much to it or from any other part of the world.
Just to add, the world has had 2 "ice ages" as well with major droughts and high temps in between and either side.
Its a great topic to create one track thinking and research forgotten and a chance to jump on a "band wagon"

 

Roy, this 'band wagon' has been around for more than 30 years. If we had tackled the problem a long time ago it would have cost a lot less. We don't mind spending billions on oil exploration each year. Yes, it's private industry that does that but we pay for it and we offer tax incentives to those that do. Lets do the same for alternatives.

 

Roy - The problem is not if we are totally responsible or not. The problem is that the air gets polluted and that the temperature is rising more quickly than during usual "ice ages". To compare with the Egypt's is a bit lame, of course it was not any industrial empire that contributed to that. They did not have any engines!
And we CAN and we SHOULD do something about it. It is only ostriches that do like you, and put their head in the sand! Take the bike to work instead of the car, we only have 18°C in our house during winter, no AC during summer etc. We buy electricity that comes from wind or water power, and as soon as the electric car is out on the market, we will have one!
And of course recycle, recycle and a bit more recycle. Drink tap water, eat food produced in your area.

We live on this planet, therefor we are responsible in treating it with care. We are to many people on this planet as it is, and therefor everyone need to drastically decrease the amount of CO2 we release.

 

The win-win about cutting back on power use etc. is that it saves money, too. By not using our dryer alone, we're saving at least $30 per month on our electric bill. Woohoo.

 

I am a climate change scientist. I'm reading this thread with interest.

 

Well, to start with I haven't disagreed with you that something needs to change to help the environment, I am not an Ostrich you fool but I am not someone who, like you & many other have tunnel vision and or have their head stuck a particular orifice. I, like the people in the USA, Canada, Russia don't live in a country you could put in your pocket. This country as for the others I mentioned couldn't survive with out using some of the present methods of fuel for transport, industry, heating and cooling, food production.
We are also in the midst of major public debate over where to establish wind farms & solar panel farms to generate power, decell plants for water. Everytime a project of these type or similar want to started, there is an all might cry, NOT IN MY BACKYARD. To refer to the Egypt note as lame indicates your lack of knowledge completely of the earth and nature, go back to school. The way its heading, people in this frenzy over whole issue will have us back into the stone age and not really given any practical help to anything. We'll have to start all over again.

 

This is a discussion. There is no room here for ad hominem and name calling.

 

Harry, this is one of the most sensible things I've read so far, THANK YOU.
The reason we haven't achieved anything in correcting these emissions is that the OIL companies are pulling the strings PLUS the revenue Governments reaps from the taxes WILL NOT BE passed up. Our petrol price here is around the $1.20 per litre. Half +/- of that goes to the Government in taxes and levies.
If the Governments were genuine in combatting carbon emission excess and put funds into alternative energy sources AND the population was made to accept that they have to have a solar plant or wind farm near by OR used our taxes to install solar panel on EVERY home in the country, even if we, the consumer paid off the installation expense over a number of years, it would work out very well. I have enough roof space to install solar panels to power my house and probably 2 others. The Government had cost incentives to help people install them BUT they found that so many people took up the offer they couldn't afford it to continue so the cancelled it. GREAT.
The biggest news here at the moment is the apparent failure of the Copenhagen conference, this will send Lika to a psychiatrist, it has achieved nothing. Reading from it is the total lack of guts by any country there to do anything because it all comes down to MONEY. As reported here, the Developed Countries verses the developing/under developed countries can't agree on anything. The big issue I see is that the developing/ under developed countries are in such disaray with corrupt Governments, wars internally and externally, starving people, no infrastructure.. How could any clear thing person really believe that any funding given to these countries will be used for the benefit of the populus... they couldn't in all honesty.
As I noted in another post, Australia, USA, Canada are huge countries where unlike in Europe or Scandinavia, our population is not centered in a tiny area. transport is by car, truck, train, aircraft. To suggest a bike is utterly crazy and clearly lacks thought. We, like the USA, can grow all food crops in various parts of the country to be available at any time of the year but it has to get to where every quickly so it doesn't spoil, can't do that on a bike.
Trains are a good option but it would then mean atleast doubling the amount of trucks in the urban areas to clear the freight from the trains thus adding to the pollution in the cities let alone the traffic jams.
Unlike Lika who seems to be blessed with everything great, my wife is disabled & I am a full time carer for her. She needs the home temperature to be kept as constant as possible, summer or winter, this is not easy or cheap. ( back to the solar panel issue) We live 25 kms from the nearest hospital, shops, trains, no public transport here, she needs special meals prepared etc.
To the great Australian expression for those of us who are blessed to live in one of the best countries " Everything is Just Up The Road " but that could range from 5kms to 2000kms.
Thanks Harry.

 

I agree Chris but over the whole issue it turns to this when one party is so narrow minded they can't accept an honest debate or conflicting comment.

 

http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/2009/20091216_TemperatureOfScience.pdf

 

Can we just get a quick overview, Chris? I don't want to spend the time to read 8 pages.

 

It's a great overview by one of the most renowned temperature data analysts in the world as to why the "temperature data are fraud" skeptics are morons.

 

Chris, regardsless of comments about me in another post agree fully the the temps are rising. Having it in printed form looks impressive and useful. Without record keeping I can remember back to when I was a child and school days in winter with frosts every day for weeks on end, stories of winters experienced by my grand parents about the snow that fell in areas that hasn't had snow for 40+ years now.
Again I wish to ask you, as a simple question that was genuine when I asked it the first time. " If we cut the carbon emissions we emit now to recommended levels, how long will it take to know if we are making any difference ????

 

Roy, I'm certainly no scientist although I do like beer. My gut feeling is that if we all agreed today that this is a problem that needs to be fixed and started putting real money into alternatives to fossil fuels it would not be 'fixed' in our lifetime. I doubt it would be fixed in 100 years. But, we would at least be moving toward a more sustainable energy solution which needs to happen anyway. If you believe that the industrial revolution started us down this road then it may take the same amount of time to achieve our goals. But, just because it's a long term goal it still needs to happen IMHO.

Chris, thank you for the link. It's not often you get to read such a reasoned approach to anything. I think one of our main problems in society today is that we do not value the work of scientist. We spend way to much time getting our information from talking heads on both sides of the political spectrum who use whatever data is there to make money or political points which in turn makes money. It makes me shudder to think they we have kooks in this world that want to kill members of the scientific community. But, it's nothing new and has been the case for centuries.

 

Chris: I have not have time to read the The Temperature of Science.pdf by
James Hansen BUT I have had time to look at his handling of references.

The ONLY one that is not his own work is from 1978! This is not considered as good Science. I see it as ; Hey, I care shit of all others, I am the only one that have a say in this!

I will read it! Maybe I will change my opinion.

 

Magnus, I have not read the things he references but this person clearly does not think his is the only opinion or his data is the only correct data. I noticed the references were almost all his also but I really did not see this as a scientific paper either. You should read it before making judgments about it's content. That's what is wrong with this debate in the first place. Nobody wants to bother with the content only the anomalies surrounding it.

 

I believe North Africa became a desert because the earth changed it's pivot point. Presently it is something like 22 degrees off due north, before it was something like 15. And that was years -eons- before the Egyptians. Egypt was already a desert when the Egyptians showed up.

[/QUOTE]Just to add, the world has had 2 "ice ages" as well with major droughts and high temps in between and either side.[/QUOTE]

More like three or four ice ages.

[/QUOTE]Its a great topic to create one track thinking and research forgotten and a chance to jump on a "band wagon"[/QUOTE]

And, I assume your thinking isn't one track?