What Can Be Done About Climate Change

[emmie]

is it a natural occurrence, after all the climate has changed over billions of years - is this really what we will come to.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-46398057

[Ellipsis]

> We should be more concerned about plastic pollution and deforestation rather than listening to the obsessive nutcase Sir Attenborough

He had plenty to say on those issues too. It's doubtful that plastic pollution would be so prominent an issue without the Blue Planet episode.

What you're really saying is that when Attenborough agrees with you, that's fine. But when he doesn't, you're right and he's wrong, and an obsessive nutcase to boot.

[New Judge]

"What Can Be Done About Climate Change"

By humans? Nothing whatsoever. I heard Mr Attenborough's ramblings today and frankly they are hysterical nonsense.

[jim360]

"...astro-physicists can predict with minutes when Halley's comet will next appear above Market Harborough. There is no meteorologist who can predict with any certainty Market Harborough will be wet or dry in two months time."

The problem with this analogy, aside from the fact that the first bit is wrong, is that we're not talking about weather but *climate*, which is to say, long-term trends. In general, the longer a period over which you observe the system, the less relevant are the minor (chaotic) fluctuations, as they tend to average out.

Granted, no climate model can be perfect either, but it's actually easier to predict the climate on Earth in a century or so than it is to predict the weather in London next month.

All of this thread, though, is filled with what could best be described as a kind of rampant anti-intellectualism. Why listen to people who've studied this, or related systems, their entire careers? They're obviously biased, whereas the man in the street who first discovered the distinction between climate and weather an hour ago has a mind unhampered by facts, data, and intensive study...

[Togo]

What the "Blue Planet" failed to tell us of course(doesn't fit the Beep Beep See agenda) is that most of the plastic polluting the World's Oceans comes from African or Asian Rivers. You know the places that we send £squillions to every year to "relieve povery". It is obviously being spent on plastic bags to carry the loot home. Meanwhile here in Britain the guvameant raises taxes on plastic bags and buttie wrappings to raise more tax, to send to Africa and Asia. Pass the sick bag Alice.

[jim360]

Meanwhile, may I suggest that someone whose career and entire life has been defined by closely and carefully observing the natural world might have quite a useful understanding of its sensitivity to human activity, and might therefore be worth listening to? Certainly more so than others on here who clearly haven't the first clue what they're talking about...

[emmie]

i rather care for Sir David Attenborough, and i don;t think he is a nutcase. I am worried about the plastic that ends up in the oceans and it doesn't all come from Africa, Asia, much of it comes from mainland Europe, North America.
where waste is a way of life.

[New Judge]

The question was what can be done (presumably by humans) about climate change. I didn't notice anything (admittedly from my "anti-intellectual", ignorant observations) where Mr A came up with any constructive recommendations which would tackle the problem he perceives. Short of stopping burning things and reverting to living in dark caves, surviving on uncooked food and not travelling anywhere, I haven't heard too many sensible (practical) suggestions from anybody else either. Certainly nothing that would save us from the prospect of the Armageddon that Mr A predicts.

[Ellipsis]

> a kind of rampant anti-intellectualism

It's derr rigueur ...

[jim360]

One first has to appreciate that there's a problem -- and that we are very much responsible -- before exploring potential solutions.

Nor is it up to Sir David, who was anyway only the keynote speaker, to solve everything.

[woofgang]

good one ellipsis

[emmie]

i guess only time will tell us if he's right, of course it could be too late by then, we will have wiped out all the animals, those we don't eat and pollute the atmosphere with our fumes, cars, unless we go electric, but that comes at a cost too surely...

[New Judge]

"...unless we go electric,"

And, er... where does the electricity come from, Emmie. Unless you rely on the wind blowing or the sun shining (neither are too reliable in the UK) and atomic energy is out for philosophical reasons, that just leaves burning things.

[emmie]

which is what i said NJ it comes at a cost too...

[Togo]

// may I suggest that someone whose career and entire life has been defined by closely and carefully observing the natural world //

Wrong again. Mr( nice man) Attenborough spent his formative years selling newts (as a child) to University College, Leicester for 3d (3 pence) each. The newts only came from a pond 5m away from the university’s zoology department! His childhood was spent living on campus and after himself graduating he served in the Royal Navy.
He started work at the BBC in 1952 despite not having a TV set himself and went on to become the controller of the fledgling BBC2 overseeing the introduction of colour transmissions. His career as global expert on all things "naturalistic" started when he collaborated with BBC Natural History Unit to do survey on the plant and animal life on Earth. Prior to that he had shown a keen interest in prehistoric fish. All sadly extinct, but not killed by plastic bags or man made giant carbon footsteps.

[mushroom25]

//Unless you rely on the wind blowing or the sun shining //

neither could be relied upon to supply the uk's power needs on their own, because of unreliable weather, allied to the fact that electricity storage technology just isn't good enough yet. but if wind power could be stored for calm days, the country would need at least 50,000 windmills (based on a projected required output of 150Gw, assuming all transport is electrified by 2040, which won't happen because of failing Grayling's short sighted attitude to railway electrification).

[Togo]

//because of unreliable weather//

You are not allowed to say that now Mushroom. It has to be mankind driven, chaotic climate unpredictability.

[Togo]

Before the thread cools down and enters it's very own ice age. Does anyone remember that when we had a blip in temperature highs the very same rise in temperature was detected on Mars by the Mars Rover? Which incidentally was emitting zero CO2 gasses being all electric.
Plus do look out for the due to be released(no doubt redacted) historic emails of Michael "Hockey Stick" Mann. Well known global warming evidence "supplier. He has recently joined forces with the evil one World Order figurehead Soros and joined the propaganda site DeSmogblog that he funds. Just follow the money to track the liars. He is under that "umbrella releasing voluntarily some of his emails.(minus attachments)
"He’s doing it because he’s going to have to anyway. Energy and Environment Legal Institute has been trying for years to get the University of Virginia to release Mann’s old emails from the six years he spent there as a professor. That’s because E & E believes, not unreasonably, given Mann’s snout-deep involvement in the Climategate scandal, that the emails may shed light on the nefarious activities of the activist scientists at the heart of the Climate Industrial Complex."

[Togo]

Emmie, rest assured that if there were Polar Bears on Mars they would also find that the ice caps there have been reducing in size there as well...…..Due to, according to, the serious scientists...…..solar activity and the current phase of planetary motion around the sun.

[jim360]

OK, it's a bit of an exaggeration to say that Attenborough's entire life has been devoted to the study of nature, but it's quite a substantial chunk of it.

All of the effects you've talked about have been, and can be, accounted for in climate modelling. However, since effects in the motion of Earth's orbit take place on cycles measured in tens of thousands of years, they can have little or no effect when measured across a few decades.

Anti-Climate Science propaganda is pervasive and infectious, and far more damaging than you give it credit for. I'm sorry that you've swallowed it, but don't infect the rest of the site with your scientific illiteracy, please, Togo.

[tamborine]

tsunamis are not due to climate change but they did sweep a lot of infrastucture into the oceans. Same as volcanos are owt to do with climate change.