Climate Change: What Do We Know and When Did We Know It?

Fabio · **Joined:** Sat Sep 04, 2010 4:28 pm **Posts:** 278

If only we knew what would happen in such a case (+5), and what would cause it?
Wait... we actually do. It was caused by a massive amount of CO2 (similar trend as today) and it wasn't pretty:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/ ... unzig-text

smkettner wrote:

Honestly I would worry about a sudden drop of 5 degrees more than an increase of the same amount. JMHO.

Yodrak · **Joined:** Thu Jun 17, 2010 7:01 am **Posts:** 456

I guess it depends on how you define "humans".

Our species, H. Sapiens, did arrive on the earth ~250,000 years ago. All the other species of the genus Homo, older than our species, have NOT survived.

smkettner wrote:

There was a question on how long humans had survived the natural fluctuations in temperature as if we were popped on the earth 250,000 years ago.

"we"? I suspect that if "humans" continue to exist 250,000 years from now, and if they are "very different" from us, they will not be "we". They will be a new species that has evolved from us, and our species will have gone the way of the Cro-Magnons, the Neanderthals, etc.

smkettner wrote:

I believe humans continue to evolve. In 250,000 more years we could be very different.

AndyH · **Posted:** Mon Oct 31, 2011 1:14 pm

Intro to Climate Models

Fabio · **Joined:** Sat Sep 04, 2010 4:28 pm **Posts:** 278

(from the National Geographic article)
"Matt Huber, a climate modeler at Purdue University who has spent most of his career trying to understand the PETM, has also tried to forecast what might happen if humans choose to burn off all the fossil fuel deposits. Huber uses a climate model, developed by the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, that is one of the least sensitive to carbon dioxide. The results he gets are still infernal. In what he calls his "reasonable best guess at a bad scenario" (his worst case is the "global-burn scenario"), regions where half the human population now lives become almost unbearable. In much of China, India, southern Europe, and the United States, summer temperatures would average well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, night and day, year after year.

Climate scientists don't often talk about such grim long-term forecasts, Huber says, in part because skeptics, exaggerating scientific uncertainties, are always accusing them of alarmism. "We've basically been trying to edit ourselves," Huber says. "Whenever we see something really bad, we tend to hold off. The middle ground is actually much worse than people think."

AndyH wrote:

Intro to Climate Models[...]

highcountryrider · **Posted:** Tue Nov 01, 2011 11:00 am

FWIW:
APNewsbreak: Panel says wild weather worsens

AndyH · **Posted:** Wed Nov 02, 2011 3:57 pm

Is the press finally understanding?

Or has it all been about the language barrier?

Attachment:

words1.jpg

src: http://climatecrocks.com/2011/10/19/chart-of-the-day-words-that-divide-scientists-and-citizens/

edatoakrun · **Posted:** Fri Nov 04, 2011 5:52 am

And the band played on...

Quote:

The global output of heat-trapping carbon dioxide has jumped by a record amount, according to the US department of energy, a sign of how feeble the world's efforts are at slowing man-made global warming.

The figures for 2010 mean that levels of greenhouse gases are higher than the worst case scenario outlined by climate experts just four years ago.

"The more we talk about the need to control emissions, the more they are growing," said John Reilly, the co-director of MIT's Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change.

The world pumped about 564m more tons (512m metric tons) of carbon into the air in 2010 than it did in 2009, an increase of 6%. That amount of extra pollution eclipses the individual emissions of all but three countries, China, the US and India, the world's top producers of greenhouse gases.

It is a "monster" increase that is unheard of, said Gregg Marland, a professor of geology at Appalachian State University, who has helped calculate department of energy figures in the past...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/nov/04/greenhouse-gases-rise-record-levels

Fabio · **Joined:** Sat Sep 04, 2010 4:28 pm **Posts:** 278

... and on:
Massive iceberg forming in Antarctica: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45138155/ns/us_news-environment/#.TrRmo7LDDSk

drees · **Posted:** Fri Nov 04, 2011 4:33 pm

Fabio wrote:

... and on:
Massive iceberg forming in Antarctica: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45138155/ns/us_news-environment/#.TrRmo7LDDSk

That's not related to global warming - it's a normal event.

palmermd · **Posted:** Fri Nov 04, 2011 6:37 pm

I'm sure you've seen this before, but I thought it was a good video examination....

My Nissan Leaf Forum

The forum for all aspects of the Nissan Leaf

Climate Change: What Do We Know and When Did We Know It?