Funny! But this points to a very serious truth that many people fail to grasp. Climate change is not just about things getting a few degrees warmer and maybe losing a few feet of coastline. We honestly have only a vague notion of where it could eventually lead.
One of the main problems is that the rain patterns will change significantly so some of the present forests and farm lands could become deserts while deserts could become arable or start to convert to forests. Unfortunately, the conversion from a desert through a grassland to bosky dells and finally forests and jungles takes centuries and the monkeys can’t wait. Even though it may take only a few decades to move farming from the former areas to the new ones, people can’t do without food for that long so there’ll probably be a fair amount of starvation, too.
Fifty million years ago, during the Eocene Epoch , the world had a very different climate, with temperatures much higher than today’s, especially at the poles. This hothouse climate was caused mainly by CO2 levels that were twice as high, or more, than now. On our current emissions trajectory, we could recreate the chemistry of the hothouse atmosphere before the end of this century, with potentially drastic consequences for our climate.
The Hothouse . . .
For fans of Climate Denial Crock of the Week Peter has a new video up addressing the extreme drought conditions seen this past year in Texas. The video includes clips from climate scientists, Jerry Meehl of UCAR, John Nielsen-Gammon from Texas A&M and the Texas State Climatologist, Ben Santer of Lawrence Livermore, and Noah Diffenbaugh of Stanford University…
You know when you pay attention to the details it really is an extremely coherent picture. However, it’s been chopped up into a thousand piece puzzle and too many play too many dishonest games with it.
What do you think of that? You bunch of global warming haters.
I think the guy is an idiot or he’s being paid off by energy companies. He is ignoring reality.
The world is losing tropical rain forests at an alarming rate, and as Occam pointed out deserts will not turn into rainforest overnight. And he ends his essay with a straw man depiction of environmentalists wanting to tear down our civilization, as if building a sustainable society requires everyone travel by horse or sailboat.
This essay is part of the denialist machine, and I have a profound contempt for people who spread such crap.
I think the guy is an idiot or he’s being paid off by energy companies. He is ignoring reality.
The world is losing tropical rain forests at an alarming rate, and as Occam pointed out deserts will not turn into rainforest overnight. And he ends his essay with a straw man depiction of environmentalists wanting to tear down our civilization, as if building a sustainable society requires everyone travel by horse or sailboat.
This essay is part of the denialist machine, and I have a profound contempt for people who spread such crap.
So sandy. I have a profound contempt for people who blindly dismiss those who disagree with them.
So go ahead and hold me in contempt. I’m not the one lying to confuse people. About one hour of Google Scholar research will show you how bad climate change is and how mankind is cutting down rainforests for crops and energy. We’re screwing the pooch, and the essay you linked is part of the problem preventing us from doing anything about it. I do not hold people in contempt for disagreeing with me, I hold them in contempt for knowing the truth and spreading lies in the name of profits. I also have little respect for people who dismiss professional climate scientists and believe what makes them feel good when someone outside the field tells them things are alright.
Man. I need to find something to soapbox over. (I feel left out!) Nobody likes it when I do so over the glories of North Korea. They even boo my rendition of Excellent Horse-Like Lady.
Hey DM, you can always go to either the 911 conspiracy threads or the free will/determinism ones to soapbox over. You can soapbox on them and be sure you won’t be ignored (although the answers may not make much sense. Damn, where are those smileys when you need them? ).
Even if the CO2 effect on rain forests is correct aren’t the rain forests being destroyed by people via other means faster than the CO2 will make them grow?
What do you think of that? You bunch of global warming haters.
We could always put this to the test, although it would probably work out a lot better if the rain forests and jungles were being planted instead of cut down. It won’t grow if it’s not there in the first place.
Of course it is true that one of the outcomes of increased GHGs in our atmosphere is that it increases the atmosphere’s holding capacity for H2O vapor/moisture, creating bigger clouds and mightier storms. And no doubt after our global climate finishes its transition to a higher energy regime, there will be new rain forests established, along with expanded desert areas. Temperate climates are probably most threatened, but they’ll migrate north, though they won’t resemble temperate zones as we’ve come to appreciate them these past centuries - simply by virtue that the weather patterns, and storm systems will be unlike any humanity has experienced these past eight, nine-hundred centuries.
But, let’s be real, this settling back into a semblance of predictable weather rhythms, and re-establishment stable eco-zones like deserts and rainforests will take centuries to millennia.
Talk about humanity walking right into Faust’s mistake. . . go figure. . .
I hat to be a wet blanket here but those monkeys had better be wearing fur lined parkas in the future because most climatologists agree that the global warming we’re now experiencing will ultimately lead to the next ice age, which BTW is overdo. Natural cooling is being prevented by man. And that’s the real problem we will face. You can’t grow corn on a glacier.
I hat to be a wet blanket here but those monkeys had better be wearing fur lined parkas in the future because most climatologists agree that the global warming we’re now experiencing will ultimately lead to the next ice age, which BTW is overdo. Natural cooling is being prevented by man. And that’s the real problem we will face. You can’t grow corn on a glacier. http://www.opednews.com/hartmann0104_global_warming_could_lead_to_ice_age.htm
But, than again if we warm enough to release methane hydrates en mass {which is quite possible considering we’ve done not a damned thing to throttle back}, it would put such huge amounts of a superduper GHG into our atmosphere that the next Ice Age will see yet another postponement… http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/briefs/schmidt_02/
Either way it’s going to be one wild ride on this here little planet.
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