General News Greenhouse gas levels at highest point in 800,000 years

It annoys me how ignorant some people actually are 97% of climate science papers agree that climate change is man made yet everyone seems to listen to the 3%.

 

Don't Panic: The Ozone Hole's Holding Steady

 

The reason why everyone listens to those 3% is because it's easier for them. No one wants to think that they will be the reason why our planet won't be able to support life soon and nobody will ever want to say to their children that we're the reason why polar bears are extinct. Better to just push the problems aside with money, I guess.

 

Well, at least Olaf will be happy it's summer. ALL THE TIME!

 

This info (whether true or not) doesn't conflict with the original post so it's not really relevant.

 

Well this just makes me feel twice as strongly that when I purchase my next vehicle I'm looking for the absolute most efficient, clean vehicle possible. I don't think I'll be able to afford an electric car but I can get something more efficient and possibly a hybrid. I feel like that's probably my biggest personal change I can make in my life to help out.

 

I will have to be honest here, we are fucked. We are going to continue sucking on the Earth's teat until the black gold stops rolling out. That is just a fact.

There is only one way I can conceive of to avoid this, and unfortunately the people leading the charge (scientists and liberals) are the two worst groups to head the charge. Scientists are too committed to accuracy and truth, and liberals are always under the delusion that if they can just educate everyone then people will magically start to care about the issues.

No, the only way things are going to change is if every single ill educated individual is scared absolutely shitless of global warming. This is hard to do when the danger is so far out into the future, and most of the people making the decisions today and voting will be long dead by the time we actually have to deal with the problem. This means we kinda have to lie a little bit (or a lot--if necessary), and engage in an outright propaganda campaign. This is an anathema to both scientists and liberals--the poor softhearted folks who are too good for this unfair world.

If Grandma in Oklahoma is not terrified every time the breeze blows, believing that it is the global warming coming to get her then we are doing something wrong. We need her toothless ass on television telling the world, "Global warming dun come ta da Happy Oak Trailer Park an dun took mah house!" Instead of a scientist on television telling the world, "Well, the truth of the matter is we cannot say that any particular storm, such as this tornado, is linked to global climate change. According to the research..." No, no, tell the scientist to shut the fuck up, we need toothless grandma telling everyone that global warming caused the tornado that picked up her fucking rickety old trailer and hurled it across the trailer park. We need footage of her digging through the wreckage of her life, as she accuses politicians of not doing anything to stop the disaster, just as she finds a picture of her and her late husband and begins to cry to endear herself to a sympathetic audience.

We need people so afraid that they are running out to buy fake "Global Climate Change Preparedness Kits"--as if the disaster was right around the corner--and they need to drill the kids on what to do when the big storms come to get them all.

Then once everyone is fucking panicked, they will look to political leaders, who will then have to respond to a population that is fucking losing its mind about something that is never going to truly impact most of them because by the time we see the worst of it they will all be long dead.

This is the challenge that faces us today.

 

Why even bother about this?

As long as there is technology and humans, and corrupt businesses.........there will be damage done to the earth and the sky.

For any REAL differences to have any REAL effects on nature, at least 2 million people would have to stop buying a product from a corrupt business that damages the earth and/or atmosphere.........all at the same time for at least 6 months to a year.

Thats never gonna happen.


People are too lazy. As long as people want it "now" and want it "often" and want it "cheap", the damages will keep increasing every year.

Just because a few minor things might be corrected, doesnt mean they wont fail again.
But as a whole...........it just doesn't have any effect in the long run.

 

But this is the thing.. People are unlikely to show much interest in global warming unless there is a clear and present danger. People know that any immediate or life-changing impacts as a result of global warming are many years into the future. People are complacent, and won't change until it is too late, and their livelihoods are threatened.

 

This is terrifying.

 

This really made me think twice about what my children and their children's children will have to experience. I'm hoping that in 30-40 years, or even sooner, we can push for more alternatives. Let's find alternatives and start using them now before we actually are doomed :S.

 

Is using renewable energy or trying to create more of it really more difficult than drinking oil out of big gulps?

 

When the oil companies are the ones in charge, yes. Forget politicians; they are the ones governing the US at least, and most likely other parts of the world.

 

Quite possibly the most beautiful thing I've read ever.

But really.
I don't think the issue nowadays is as much about people not 'believing in' global warming, but more that it's not the 'hot topic' of discussion anymore. It was getting a lot of light a few years ago but everyone has stopped talking about it so people have forgotten to care.

 

Yes, and what are we going to do about it? Complain that green measures prevent growth. Anything that is currently done is wholly insufficient, and always will be until we understand one simple thing; we cannot maintain our current lifestyle.

 

I think there are several groups of people.

Group 1: Highly Educated on the issue and care about it. They are freaked the fuck out, and cannot understand why other people do not care as much as they do about Climate Change.

Group 2: Moderately Educated on the issue. They care about it, but they are apathetic because it is something that does not have direct impact on their lives at the moment.

Group 3: Poorly Educated on the issue. They may or may not believe in the existence of Climate Change, but in either case see no reason to take any action at all or are actively opposed to all real solutions.

Group 1 is already highly motivated and does not really need to be engaged. If we engage them then we are just preaching to the choir. The problem is Group 2 and 3--we need to engage them by scaring the hell out of them. The more they panic, the more they are going to turn to politicians looking for answers.

The thing is, something does not have to be an immediate or even a realistic threat for people to absolutely lose their shit. Humans are wholly irrational creatures that are largely driven by emotions and immediate concerns. The problem with Climate Change is that the dangers are so far out into the future that more pressing concerns will always occupy the front seat, and in order to prevent the worst of Climate Change we have to act now and not later. We are essentially asking humans to go against their nature.

The other problem we face with Climate Change is that the solutions that actually address the problem are drastic. They involve a lot of money and some fundamental changes to how society works. This means there will be economic disruptions as a result--some people will lose jobs, some businesses will fail.

So, basically, what we are asking people to do is take on some form of hardship and embrace change, all the while fully knowing that the problems we are trying to solve will never impact them directly because they will be long dead by the time all the really bad things happen.

Unfortunately, this is just against human nature. In order to have real solutions, we have to get people afraid, and make the threat feel immediate and existential. If people believe that the threat is immediate and serious, then they are willing to accept the hardships as a necessary evil to protect themselves, and they will demand immediate action because they will perceive the threat as immediate.

Sadly, the only way we achieve this is through lying and propaganda. Telling the truth in this case is counterproductive to the intended goal, and the scientists themselves cannot lie because it will undermine their credibility which is already under attack. This means we have to turn to people in Group 1 and encourage them to actively lie and propagandize people for the greater good. The problem with people in Group 1 is that most of them are liberals, and view doing such things as distasteful. Doing what is necessary for the greater good is morally wrong in their eyes, and so they are all caught up in the morality of it... meanwhile... we do nothing, and are steadily speeding toward getting completely fucked.

 

There is a fourth group, Aldrick, that has not been mentioned.

Highly educated people who care about the issue, who are recognized experts in climate science and climate modeling and who are still not convinced that the dire warnings are justified.

For a perspective on the value of critical thinking, here is a tonic from none other than Bertrand Russell against the arousal of fear or desperately resorting to lies:

 

Great Whale -

All ten of those liberal "commandments" speak to my heart, but not to my head. I would love to live in a world where rational argument could persuade people, and that the only problem that we face is a lack of education. In this world, if only more people were educated and we made better arguments, suddenly people will come around to our way of thinking. We do not live in that world.

We live in this world.

To quote from the article (more at the above link--absolutely essential reading for this topic):

Sadly, this maps directly to my personal experiences.

 

where was this research done?