The Climate Scare: Ever More Shrill, Ever Less Serious

[Roy]

And effect of the Vatican signing the agreement would be purely symbolic. AFAIK, They make no meaningful contributions to the problem.

AFAIK they make no meaningful contribution to anything.

[Sparko]

Yep. And pretty much the first thing it does to go about achieving that goal is it requires countries to write and publish their own detailed plan regarding how they're going to go about reducing their emissions,

So the big plan to save the world is to come up with a plan?

[One Bad Pig]

When liberals start selling off their coastal properties in droves, I'll believe they're serious about imminent catastrophic global warming.

[Cow Poke]

I think in your response here is one of the problems. This planet has been much, much hotter in the past without jeopardizing the 'survival of life on the planet'. There is little doubt that short of a nuclear holocaust with every bomb we have launched, what we are doing to the planet (e.g. in terms of warming) is not going to sterilize it. That doesn't mean it isn't a problem, or that there won't be significant consequences. But the consequences are going to be felt more my ourselves that the majority of the biosphere would be my guess. Greenland was warmer in 1000AD. 100,000 years ago there was significantly less ice on the planet, specifically in Antarctica, than now. The seas where over 10 meters higher. The quickness of the temperature rise is, as far as we know, unprecedented (I'm not sure our window into climate change in the past is sufficiently fine grained to determine that), but the amount of warming has been seen many, many times before.

But OUR coastal cities will be inundated, OUR crop production and capacity to feed ourselves affected and so on. So it IS in our best interests to do something about it. But what we are doing in terms of warming will by no means destroy the planet itself.

Jim

I think that's an important point -- it's the "Chicken Little Theater" that makes me not take these guys seriously.

[oxmixmudd]

When liberals start selling off their coastal properties in droves, I'll believe they're serious about imminent catastrophic global warming.

The time frame is not fast from a human buisiness perspective ('what will next quarter's return be!') OBP. The people on the Titanic knew the ship was going down. But it took many hours for the process to complete, which created the surreal element of having a string quartet playing to help calm peoples nerves as the ship was sinking.

The ocean rise will take decades, and who knows, maybe we can build structures to hold it back in the more developed countries - at least for while.

Jim

[Cow Poke]

CP, the evidence of the warming itself is impossible to dismiss.

And I don't contest -- or "deny" -- that something's happening.

The evidence we are the cause is nearly as strong.

That we are the MAJOR cause?

It would do you well to look it over in spite of the hyperbole used to try to scare people into caring.

Jim

Jim, some of these alarmists, in attempting to give an answer to what I should be doing, tell me things I'm already doing.

And, contrary to the outlandish lie that we believe "God has this, we can just sit back", I have believed -- LONG before environmental alarmism -- that we (I) should be good stewards of the planet as part of my Christian service.

[oxmixmudd]

Many species are much more likely to go extinct that we are, because we live in and can manipulate a wide variety of environments, and have technology and tools to lessen the impact of climate changes.

Yes - it is not trivial. I agree. But that is why excessive hyperbole should be avoided. Excessive hyperbole trivializes the problem rather than raising the alarm.

Jim

[oxmixmudd]

And I don't contest -- or "deny" -- that something's happening.

I understand.

That we are the MAJOR cause?

post 1970 - yes.

Jim, some of these alarmists, in attempting to give an answer to what I should be doing, tell me things I'm already doing.

Me too. Yet many of the voices of evangelical Christianity, especially in the US, mock such an attitude.

And, contrary to the outlandish lie that we believe "God has this, we can just sit back", I have believed -- LONG before environmental alarmism -- that we (I) should be good stewards of the planet as part of my Christian service.

Yet you are, unfortunately in many evangelical christian circles, the minority voice.


Jim

[Cow Poke]

Yet you are, unfortunately in many evangelical christian circles, the minority voice.

I'd really like to see that claim backed up, because I've been involved in quite a number of "evangelical circles" in various levels of responsibility, and I have NEVER heard that claim. I think that's an extremist right wing thing.

Got a source? I'll be happy to stand corrected.

[Sparko]

Another problem is some of the supposed cures are worse than the disease. They could completely bankrupt our societies. Like the Green New Deal.

[One Bad Pig]

I'd really like to see that claim backed up, because I've been involved in quite a number of "evangelical circles" in various levels of responsibility, and I have NEVER heard that claim. I think that's an extremist right wing thing.

Got a source? I'll be happy to stand corrected.

I don't even know that it's an extremist right wing thing, or if it's nothing more than a reducto ad absurdum based on skepticism regarding global warming.

[One Bad Pig]

The time frame is not fast from a human buisiness perspective ('what will next quarter's return be!') OBP. The people on the Titanic knew the ship was going down. But it took many hours for the process to complete, which created the surreal element of having a string quartet playing to help calm peoples nerves as the ship was sinking.

The ocean rise will take decades, and who knows, maybe we can build structures to hold it back in the more developed countries - at least for while.

Jim

Jim,

I'm talking about claims like AOC's "12 years" and predictions which have already failed to pan out like "all arctic ice will be gone by 2013" or "all glaciers will be gone in 5 years" or the like. That's not decades, and if people believe such claims, they should be getting out from under coastal properties ASAP before their property value dwindles to nothing because it's all underwater.

[Roy]

When liberals start selling off their coastal properties in droves, I'll believe they're serious about imminent catastrophic global warming.

I made sure not to buy any coastal properties in the first place. Both my houses are high enough above sea level that they won't be endangered until I'm long gone.

[Cow Poke]

I don't even know that it's an extremist right wing thing, or if it's nothing more than a reducto ad absurdum based on skepticism regarding global warming.

The only time I ever hear of it is when the global alarmists are trying to mock skeptics.

[One Bad Pig]

I made sure not to buy any coastal properties in the first place. Both my houses are high enough above sea level that they won't be endangered until I'm long gone.

Fair enough.