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Discussion in 'All Things Boats & Boating' started by ImaginaryNumber, Oct 8, 2015.

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  1. ImaginaryNumber
    Joined: May 2009
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    ImaginaryNumber Imaginary Member

    High CO2 levels cause plants to thicken their leaves, could worsen climate change effects | EurekAlert

    When levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere rise, most plants thicken their leaves.

    Plants with thicker leaves may exacerbate the effects of climate change because they would be less efficient in sequestering atmospheric carbon.

    A paper, published in the journal Global Biogeochemical Cycles, calculated that the global "carbon sink" contributed by plants would be less productive -- leaving about 5.8 extra petagrams, or 6.39 billion tons, of carbon in the atmosphere per year. Those levels are similar to the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere each year due to human-generated fossil fuel emissions -- 8 petagrams, or 8.8 billion tons.
     
  2. SamSam
    Joined: Feb 2005
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    Location: Coastal Georgia

    SamSam Senior Member

    .

    This was a good TV show. Here, watch this, read the two links and read the comments. Good luck to you and yours.
     
    Last edited: Oct 7, 2018
  3. ImaginaryNumber
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    ImaginaryNumber Imaginary Member

    The world has barely 10 years to get climate change under control, U.N. scientists say | Washington Post

    The world stands on the brink of failure when it comes to holding global warming to moderate levels, and nations will need to take “unprecedented” actions to cut their carbon emissions over the next decade, according to a landmark report by the top scientific body studying climate change.

    “There is no documented historic precedent” for the sweeping change to energy, transportation and other systems required to reach 1.5 degrees Celsius.

    The report says the world will need to develop large-scale “negative emissions” programs to remove significant volumes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

    The report clearly documents that a warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius would be very damaging and that 2 degrees — which used to be considered a reasonable goal — could approach intolerable in parts of the world.

    By 2050, the report calls for a total or near-total phaseout of the burning of coal.

    The world is projected to have more than 2 billion additional people by 2050.
     
  4. ImaginaryNumber
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    ImaginaryNumber Imaginary Member

    Why Half a Degree of Global Warming Is a Big Deal | New York Times

    The Earth has already warmed 1 degree Celsius since the 19th century. What are the consequences of jumping to 1.5 or 2 degrees Celsius?

    1.5°C - Arctic sea ice will remain during most summers
    2°C - Ice-free summers are 10 times more likely

    1.5°C - Extreme heat will affect 14% of world population
    2°C - Extreme heat will affect 37% of world population

    1.5°C - +350 million people worldwide affected by severe drought
    2°C - +411 million people worldwide affected by severe drought

    1.5°C - “Very frequent mass mortalities” of coral reefs
    2°C - Coral reefs “mostly disappear”

    1.5°C - 31 to 69 million people worldwide exposed to sea level rise
    2°C - 32 to 80 million people worldwide exposed to sea level rise

     
  5. ImaginaryNumber
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    ImaginaryNumber Imaginary Member

    How will 9 billion or 10 billion people eat without destroying the environment? | Washington Post

    The human population has reached 7.6 billion and could number 9 billion or 10 billion by midcentury.

    About 3 billion people are malnourished today and 1 billion of them suffer from food scarcity.

    About a third of the food produced eventually gets discarded.

    A sustainable food system that doesn’t ravage the environment is going to require dramatic reforms.

    Growing food specifically to feed to livestock is an environmentally inefficient way to generate calories for human consumption.

    Moreover, ruminants such as cows are prodigious producers of methane as they digest food, and methane is a potent greenhouse gas.

    For most people eating a typical Western diet, eating less meat will generally mean better health.

    The study was published in the journal Nature.
     
  6. ImaginaryNumber
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    ImaginaryNumber Imaginary Member

    One of the most worrisome predictions about climate change may be coming true | Washington Post

    Two years ago a hypothesis was proposed in which gigantic pulses of fresh water from melting glaciers could upend the circulation of the oceans, leading to fast-rising seas.

    New research shows that melting Antarctic glaciers are indeed freshening the ocean around them.

    When cold surface water no longer sinks into the depths, a deeper layer of warm ocean water can travel across the continental shelf and reach the bases of glaciers, melting the glaciers and the ice shelves connected to them.

    This can create a feedback loop, in which that melting, through its effect on the oceans, triggers still more melting.
     
  7. ImaginaryNumber
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    ImaginaryNumber Imaginary Member

    What the new report on climate change expects from you | CNN

    A stark new report from the global scientific authority on climate change calls on individuals, as well as governments, to take action to avoid disastrous levels of global warming.

    Here's what consumers can do

    Transportation:
    People will need to travel less, and use car sharing, hybrid and electric cars.

    Buildings: In homes we need to be using smart thermostats and more efficient air conditioners.

    Diets: It would be best if people consumed 30% less animal products.
     
  8. BlueBell
    Joined: May 2017
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    Location: Victoria BC Canada

    BlueBell . . . _ _ _ . . . _ _ _

    I think you mean positive feedback loop, no?
     
  9. ImaginaryNumber
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    ImaginaryNumber Imaginary Member

    Indeed!
     
  10. ImaginaryNumber
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    ImaginaryNumber Imaginary Member

    Evangelical Declaration on Global Warming | Cornwall Alliance

    PREAMBLE
    ....

    WHAT WE BELIEVE
    1. We believe Earth and its ecosystems—created by God’s intelligent design and infinite power and sustained by His faithful providence —are robust, resilient, self-regulating, and self-correcting, admirably suited for human flourishing, and displaying His glory. Earth’s climate system is no exception. Recent global warming is one of many natural cycles of warming and cooling in geologic history.
    2. We believe abundant, affordable energy is indispensable to human flourishing, particularly to societies which are rising out of abject poverty and the high rates of disease and premature death that accompany it. With present technologies, fossil and nuclear fuels are indispensable if energy is to be abundant and affordable.
    3. We believe mandatory reductions in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions, achievable mainly by greatly reduced use of fossil fuels, will greatly increase the price of energy and harm economies.
    4. We believe such policies will harm the poor more than others because the poor spend a higher percentage of their income on energy and desperately need economic growth to rise out of poverty and overcome its miseries.
    WHAT WE DENY
    1. We deny that Earth and its ecosystems are the fragile and unstable products of chance, and particularly that Earth’s climate system is vulnerable to dangerous alteration because of minuscule changes in atmospheric chemistry. Recent warming was neither abnormally large nor abnormally rapid. There is no convincing scientific evidence that human contribution to greenhouse gases is causing dangerous global warming.
    2. We deny that alternative, renewable fuels can, with present or near-term technology, replace fossil and nuclear fuels, either wholly or in significant part, to provide the abundant, affordable energy necessary to sustain prosperous economies or overcome poverty.
    3. We deny that carbon dioxide—essential to all plant growth—is a pollutant. Reducing greenhouse gases cannot achieve significant reductions in future global temperatures, and the costs of the policies would far exceed the benefits.
    4. We deny that such policies, which amount to a regressive tax, comply with the Biblical requirement of protecting the poor from harm and oppression.
    A CALL TO ACTION
    ....

    ENDORSEMENT
    ...
     
  11. ImaginaryNumber
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    ImaginaryNumber Imaginary Member

    ‘Hyperalarming’ study shows massive insect loss | Washington Post

    Long-term studies are showing dramatic declines in invertebrate populations, and in a pristine national forest in Puerto Rico the forest’s insect-eating animals have gone missing, too.

    The rain forest crash is being attributed to climate change. Temperatures have increased by 4F. Temperatures in the tropics stick to a narrow band. The invertebrates that live there, likewise, are adapted to these temperatures and fare poorly outside them.

    A study last year showed a 76 percent decrease in flying insects in the past few decades in German nature preserves.

    The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
     
  12. ImaginaryNumber
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    ImaginaryNumber Imaginary Member

    Ecosystems across Australia are collapsing under climate change | The Conversation

    The Great Barrier Reef is not the only Australian ecosystem on the brink of collapse.
    • kelp forests shifting to seaweed turfs following a single marine heatwave in 2011;

    • the destruction of Gondwanan refugia by wildfire ignited by lightning storms in 2016;

    • dieback of floodplain forests along the Murray River following the millennial drought in 2001–2009;

    • large-scale conversion of alpine forest to shrubland due to repeated fires from 2003–2014;

    • community-level boom and bust in the arid zone following extreme rainfall in 2011–2012, and

    • mangrove dieback across a 1,000km stretch of the Gulf of Carpentaria after a weak monsoon in 2015-2016.
    Of these six case studies, only the Murray River forest had previously experienced substantial human disturbance. The others have had negligible exposure to stressors, highlighting that undisturbed systems are not necessarily more resilient to climate change.

    The research was published in Nature Climate Change.
     
  13. ImaginaryNumber
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    ImaginaryNumber Imaginary Member

    The 2018 economics Nobel shows we can’t discuss economics without considering climate change | Quartz

    William Nordhaus won the Nobel prize in economics this year for his pioneering work integrating climate change into models of economic growth.

    The Nobel committee acknowledged that we can no longer discuss our economic future without considering the enormous costs of climate change.

    Nordhaus was an early advocate of policies that require climate polluters to pay the cost that they impose on all of us.

    A carbon tax with an appropriate mechanism to ensure pollution reductions can achieve that; so can an emission trading system like the ones underway in Europe and California.

    The economics prize was paired with Paul Romer for his groundbreaking work on understanding innovation and technological change. Romer said “Once we start to try to reduce carbon emissions, we’ll be surprised that it wasn’t as hard as anticipated.”
     
  14. ImaginaryNumber
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    ImaginaryNumber Imaginary Member

    George R.R. Martin Explains the Real Political Message of Game of Thrones | Esquire

    According to Mr. Martin:

    The people in Westeros are fighting their individual battles over power and status and wealth. And those are so distracting them that they’re ignoring the threat of “winter is coming,” which has the potential to destroy all of them and to destroy their world. And there is a great parallel there to, I think, what I see this planet doing here, where we’re fighting our own battles. We’re fighting over issues, important issues, mind you — foreign policy, domestic policy, civil rights, social responsibility, social justice. All of these things are important. But while we’re tearing ourselves apart over this and expending so much energy, there exists this threat of climate change, which, to my mind, is conclusively proved by most of the data and 99.9 percent of the scientific community. And it really has the potential to destroy our world. And we’re ignoring that while we worry about the next election and issues that people are concerned about, like jobs. Jobs are a very important issue, of course. All of these things are important issues. But none of them are important if, like, we’re dead and our cities are under the ocean. So really, climate change should be the number one priority for any politician who is capable of looking past the next election. But unfortunately, there are only a handful of those. We spend 10 times as much energy and thought and debate in the media discussing whether or not N.F.L. players should stand for the national anthem than this threat that’s going to destroy our world.
     

  15. rwatson
    Joined: Aug 2007
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    rwatson Senior Member

    For some reason, the LIKE button doesn't appear on these posts, so I'll just say "Right on" to the dystopian sentiment in the last post.
     
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