We might just have crossed the “tipping point” threshold two years ago!
Can’t say I’m surprised by this.
Climate tipping is like cow tipping. When the climate wakes up, it will get back on its feet and start… climaxing again. Not to worry, the humans are just adolescent country bumpkins having a little fun.
When the climate wakes up, doesn’t that mean…oh…I don’t know…“ice age”?
I once thought I knew exactly what was happening with respect to global warming, what caused it and what could be done about it. That feeling lasted just long enough for me to put the DVD of “Inconvenient Truth” back in its Netflix envelope.
New and conflicting information is coming out every day about just how badly we have or have not raped the planet and whether there is anything we can do to salvage our climate, or even whether we need to. Honestly, I don’t think the experts really know, and they certainly don’t agree.
I do what I can every day to diminish my carbon footprint. That’s all I can do. Beyond that, I just don’t have time to worry about it.
“Something unknown is doing we don’t know what.” Arthur Eddington
Whether it’s our fault or not…does it really matter? The planet was here long before we were, and it will be long after we’re forgotten. Earth has ice ages, pole flips, ET object impacts–it’s a busy place. Given that global catastrphe is sort of “business as usual” on this rock, it’s a little like crying because the sun is rising as a result of our waking up. Whether it’s our fault or not shouldn’t our efforts be focused more on preparing our technology to help us adapt vs. shutting everything down and hoping Earth forgets to freeze again?
I don’t consider myself a skeptic on this issue, but neither am I convinced that what we are being told is what’s actually going to happen; because the experts do not agree on almost any part of it.
Over here in Australia, the best suggestion the experts have to save all our lives from this global environmental disaster, is to replace our light bulbs with more energy efficient ones.
What a load of bollocks.
We hear so many different ideas on what is happening, and when it will be happening, and whose fault it is, and if we can prevent it. In the end, we either survive or don’t, be it a natural event or our own fault.
It is what it is, and that’s that.
We’re screwed anyway - because even if we haven’t reached the tipping point, even if there was something we could do before reaching it, we won’t do it if it seems easier not to bother.
On Monday, I read a letter from my grandfather to his mother and he mentioned that the temperature of the water in the Gulf of Suez was 91 degrees, and this was in December and the captain of the ship had never seen the water so warm at that time of year. This was 100 years ago.
That settles it! Global Warming is a myth!
I suspect that all politics aside, we reached the tipping point on this before we even knew we had a problem. It is hard to imagine that deciding it was a problem in (say) 1960 could have averted major problems.
I know this has been debated to death in other fora here (Pit and GD), with me assiduously avoiding most such threads, but most of the “experts” who pooh pooh the theory are typically paid shills for the current administration or big business.
I agree, I think the forces of greed/politics plus people’s laziness makes it inevitable. I hope I’m wrong, but that’s my impression.
Hey come on we’re not boned, just our offspring!
Our kids will be fine, it’s our great grandkids who’ll have to face the Thunderdome
No. It means it is absolutely true. Just that we have been ignoring it for longer than we thought.
Hey, if it’s too late to do anything, then we don’t have to do anything. Fire up the Hummer!
And get to work on those space colonies!
Now would be a good time to invest heavily in Siberian real estate.
But honestly, what is “tipping point” supposed to mean? It’s not like there was some amount of atmospheric CO2 that would have no effect, and if we go over that amount we have an ecological catastrophe.
The tipping point meme is silly and counterproductive.