White House issues new dire climate report: Scientists: Extreme weather will worsen if pollutants aren't curbed

[Peikko 1,575]

It doesn't work as you seem to imagine. A global temperature rise of that magnitude is highly significant. That does not simply mean that the temperature in your backyard is a degree above what you normally experience...oh dear...

[The_Dude 1,142]

It doesn't work as you seem to imagine. A global temperature rise of that magnitude is highly significant. That does not simply mean that the temperature in your backyard is a degree above what you normally experience...oh dear...

And 100 years is a fairly small timeframe when talking about climate.

[웃 910]

[Peikko 1,575]

The earth will survive - what is in question is what life, if any, will survive with it

[The_Dude 1,142]

The earth will survive - what is in question is what life, if any, will survive with it

Have you seen that show called Life after People or sommat like that?

[Peikko 1,575]

I can't say that I have. So, I will say, no, I have not

[The_Dude 1,142]

You should check it out. It's on the history channel and shows what the earth will be like if humans suddenly became extinct.

[Peikko 1,575]

I know one thing, the concrete jungle will rapidly be reduced to greenery. Grass is very, very strong

[The_Dude 1,142]

LoL, ever seen Kudzu? That is one wicked plant.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

That show is based on a book from a couple of years ago. Basically within a hundred years of not being maintained the urban environment will be wiped off the map.

Amazing how quickly things would fall apart.

[mawilson 2,133]

It doesn't work as you seem to imagine. A global temperature rise of that magnitude is highly significant. That does not simply mean that the temperature in your backyard is a degree above what you normally experience...oh dear...

Yes, extremely significant. Ice caps are melting, oh dear!

[NickD 203]

Still dang cold outside for this time of the year in Wisconsin.

Getting back to one gallon of gas and the modern engine that inputs 20% of the air in pure oxygen but outputs zero oxygen, the oxygen sensor makes damn sure of that. 18 pounds of oxygen is turned into Carbon dioxide and water vapor, neither is breathable by humans nor animal life. Since in the USA, we consume about 400 millions of gasoline per day, this translates to 7.2 billion pounds of ####### put into the atmosphere each day or 2.8 trillion pounds of the stuff each year.

Plant life helps to convert the CO2 back to O2, kiss a tree, but nothing really to convert back that water vapor that contributes heavily to climate change. Plus our hunger for oil leads to dictatorships and wars.

For the last 40 some years, we have had a government that protects the oil industry and it's use as been extremely inefficient mostly thanks to the EPA. Changes have got to be made.

[alienlovechild 75]

Yes, extremely significant. Ice caps are melting, oh dear!

If the ice caps have melted away so much, where did all the water go?

[Peikko 1,575]

It doesn't work as you seem to imagine. A global temperature rise of that magnitude is highly significant. That does not simply mean that the temperature in your backyard is a degree above what you normally experience...oh dear...

Yes, extremely significant. Ice caps are melting, oh dear!

Well, yes, and no. Global temperature rise have all kinds of 'interesting' consequences. Basically, it seems to be producing more severe extremes in weather phenomena than we have experienced hitherto. For example, extended and intense hurricane seasons - changes in rain fall patterns leading to more extreme flooding activity, higher mean temperatures (with the disturbing highest temperatures being borderline uninhabitable in some regions). This is leading to changes in the behaviours of our plant life, and that will lead to changes in behaviours in wildlife too.

The problem is that these changes are so rapid (in evolutionary terms) that species have no time to make the adaptations necessary to survive.

Now, there may be some areas that will improve as a result of global warming, in terms of what can and can't grow, but the problem is that vast areas, that are currently challenging currently in terms of habitability and even areas that are currently the envied areas to be living, will turn into areas that are either impossible to inhabit or extremely challenging. This will of course have spectacularly nasty effects on many populations, some closer to home than others, of course.

[nowhereman 1]

By glancing at Gary's defintions of hypothesis & theory they look valid to me. As for whether or not GW is real you have to agree to disagree on that. My personal take is that it probably is real & therefore we need to take steps to mitigate GW. If you assume its not real & you wait unti you know what hits the fan we're all screwed.

I'm not a scientist but take for example thermal inversions in large cities with high levels of pollution (and CO2 emissions)... it is a fact (not a theory) that this raises the temperature in said city. It seems logical to me that if high levels of pollution & CO2 raises the temp in a city than the same would be true on a global scale if pollution/ CO2 were also higher globally.