The Truth, Still Inconvenient

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
By the way, you're taking your information from a man that wrote this sentence

"a process called a 'chloroplast'"
What a fucking idiot

If you're going to ignore context and pick out little things like that then why don't you use that against people who eliminate the historical medieval warm period in their tree studies. Did people just pretend that it was warm back then? That was Michael Mann. How about people making predictions so wildly inaccurate as to assume New York would be underwater by the year 2000. That was James Hansen of NASA.

My point is that doubling of the CO2 can't be the end of the world since multiple times that in the past would have prevent animals from ever evolving to the level of humans now and have conversations like we are having now.
 
Even if your CO2 argument is correct (which I doubt) - would you agree that we should have some environmental controls? For instance, it is a fact that Lake Eerie was once dead due to pollution. It is a fact that certain pollutants are known to increase cancer rates. Should industry simply go on, completely unchecked?

I'm not against common sense environmental controls because we can afford some, but reducing CO2 without an alternative that can create as much energy is reckless. There are also good stories about the environment but like bad news selling it takes effort to get people to even notice. I would recommend reading The Skeptical Environmentalist by Bjorn Lomborg and the Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley for you to get where I'm coming from. None of these people want to let either extreme to takeover. The global warming movement to me is one of the most extreme environmentalist movements ever.

Is it really - in the end - all about money? If so, what a sad, sad way to look at life...

The U.N. and governments that want carbon taxes aren't thinking about money? Money is simply a means of exchange for the work we do. The blood, sweat, and tears do matter. Do you go to work for free? Don't you like it when your pay-cheque is received and you can use it for your life plans? If the government controls more of your pay-cheque don't they also control more of your resources? When you get older and unless you have a government pension, how are you going to survive when you can't keep working? If you have a pension (lucky you) just pray it doesn't get watered down.

Poo-poohing money reeks of snobbishness and hypocrisy. It doesn't fool me for a second. If you're not trying to fool me then stop fooling yourself.
 
Stop talking about taxes.

I will if the U.N. does. The tax that Republicans helped stop in Congress would have been hundreds of millions.

Inhofe Takes on Global Warming Alarmist Attempted Ambush - YouTube

Hey! Some of us conservatives want you to not get ripped off. :lol:

I hope you don't want these brainwashed kids and socialist engineers taking your money to pretend to save the world.

Don't talk about our 'species' as if you have some concern about the ecosystem we exist in. You're concerned about money. You're concerned about your amygdala and your dopamine reuptake because god forbid should you have to alter your lifestyle and act responsibly. Fuck taxes, bro. They cramp my dopamine fix

We get Dopamine when we achieve goals, have sex, eat food, enjoy U2:D. In a dopamine starved environment it's like depression. If we yearn for those things that make us happy we release coritsol when it's not fullfilled. I agree that dopamine addiction is bad (we can be addicted to anything we like) but the other extreme is not healthy.

There will always be new jobs to replace the vestigial ones. Were you equally as teary eyed when the music industry changed models? Did you petition for all the record executives?

Not buying music that you like is bad but that's hardly on the scale of energy starvation. If green technologies are cheap enough then there's no economic problem.

I think you're spending too much time on that site. A different reference would be nice. You pick out the one in 20 that fits with your views and claim it as fact. Do you have any anti vaccine sites I should be looking at?

I like Climate Audit, wattsupwiththat, and Climate Depot for aggregating skeptical science because if you look elsewhere they try to prevent you from seeing it. I already know what the U.N. believes and watch plenty of debates (usually involving Gavin Schmidt). Anti-vaccine argument is just like the smoking one. It doesn't work.
 
Govts tried to cover up data showing lack of global warming | The Daily Caller

“Germany called for the reference to the slowdown to be deleted, saying a time span of 10-15 years was misleading in the context of climate change, which is measured over decades and centuries.”

“The U.S. also urged the authors to include the ‘leading hypothesis’ that the reduction in warming is linked to more heat being transferred to the deep ocean,” the AP noted. “Belgium objected to using 1998 as a starting year for any statistics. …Using 1999 or 2000 as a starting year would yield a more upward-pointing curve. Hungary worried the report would provide ammunition for skeptics.”

What does this have to do with science?
 
Can't argue logic with a conspiracy theorist (or an Albertan (I assume?) who's arguing for the oil companies :wink: ). So I'm doing what I did with the gent on facebook that tried to argue lung cancer isn't caused by cigarettes, but is rather some sort of Big Pharma money making scheme (complete with links to websites, too).... I'm walking away
 
Can't argue logic with a conspiracy theorist (or an Albertan (I assume?) who's arguing for the oil companies :wink: ). So I'm doing what I did with the gent on facebook that tried to argue lung cancer isn't caused by cigarettes, but is rather some sort of Big Pharma money making scheme (complete with links to websites, too).... I'm walking away

This is just your appeal to authority you eugenicistic leftist :madwife:
 
Talk about an inaccurate article title. But it's Fox "News" so that's about par for the course.
 
Still doubting?

Solar Energy Has Blown Past Grid Parity

The cost of solar power is moving lower, while the cost of generating electricity from traditional sources typically rises 1%-3% each year. With solar already past grid parity in Chile, on California roofs, and on most utility scale projects, the sky is the limit for the industry.

Grid parity marks the point where solar demand should explode worldwide, and it's blowing through that point faster than most people think.
 
Sounds great! Don't need the U.N. and worldwide cap and trade. Let solar and nuclear and wind compete. Unless a new technology is cheap enough it won't make it.
 
I read the article, but I enjoyed reading
the many comments even better.

Here's one I liked:

'Why is this article in a sceptical website? The one thing it entirely denies is any idea of scepticism."

Don't waste your time. It's all about trolling. None of these people are interested in living without cheap energy and they enjoy plane trips and using cars. They love air-conditioning and heating fuel.

7 Ways to Be a Troll - wikiHow

Find a good audience. This is a common trolling method, in which you lead your audience to believe that you honestly think something that you don’t. Pulling off this troll means finding a space where people usually express their opinions. I mean, you can shout about how you’re sure Obama is an alien bent on stealing the world’s supply of classic Transformers action figures while you’re in the middle of a grocery store, but you’re unlikely to get very much attention. Unless it’s from police.

Common targets are political or religious forums. Or anything to do with politics and religion. Man, people really cannot keep it together when it comes to these topics. These are the easiest trolling targets and a great way to cut your teeth.

I've wasted hours and it doesn't matter. This website is mainly about U2. I've ignored PMs from other posters that figured this out years ago. It's nice to reclaim some hours back. :D
 
They were going to the location on a fossil powered boat to check on
climate change and then three rescue attempts by fossil powered boats
and a helicopter.

The media carefully avoided the climate change part of the misadventure.

Frozen Out: 98% of Stories Ignore That Ice-bound Ship Was On Global Warming Mission | NewsBusters

I predict this "debate" about climate change won't last more than a few more years. Alternative energy is rapidly on its way to becoming cheaper and more abundant than fossil fuels - this will naturally result in a more sustainable future.

The focus will then shift to cleaning up the mess we've already caused...
 
I predict this "debate" about climate change won't last more than a few more years. Alternative energy is rapidly on its way to becoming cheaper and more abundant than fossil fuels - this will naturally result in a more sustainable future.

The focus will then shift to cleaning up the mess we've already caused...



i really, really, really hope you're right.
 
i really, really, really hope you're right.

The trend is already set...

Already Deutsche Bank, in a recent report, wrote "The cost of unsubsidized solar power is about the same as the cost of electricity from the grid in India and Italy. By 2014 even more countries will achieve solar 'grid parity.'"

The total number of watts of electricity produced by solar energy is growing exponentially, doubling every two years. It is now less than seven doublings from 100%.

In other words, solar will soon be the cheapest energy source on the planet.

CNN article
 
Now that the three-fourths of the United States has been deep chilled by the dreaded Polar Vortex. A term the news and weather people started using a few days before it hit. They always have used the term artic blast.

But I do remember this from The Rocky Horror Picture Show
where everybody in the audience shouts, “Oh no, not the hydromagnetic polar vortex!” before Frank N. Furter throws the switch.

That sounds even scarier that just Polar Vortex! :ohmy:
 
One storm, season, or year does nothing to either side of the climate change "debate."

Just curious, Iron Horse, as a Christian - wouldn't you rather we keep the planet as pollution-free as possible? Even if global warming was a gimmick, certainly you can agree that less pollution is better.
 
One storm, season, or year does nothing to either side of the climate change "debate."

Just curious, Iron Horse, as a Christian - wouldn't you rather we keep the planet as pollution-free as possible? Even if global warming was a gimmick, certainly you can agree that less pollution is better.

Good question AEON, thanks.

Yes, I would. I am in full support of the progress made here in the U.S. I can remember as a kid hearing about smog in major cities and polluted streams and rivers. The sides of the roads were cluttered with trash. Things are much better now, but like in many things, there's always room for improvement.

We try to buy as many food/drink items in glass containers. Glass can be recycled forever. It's hard to avoid all plastic, but we do what we can. We take all our household waste to a local recycling depot.

Here on our small farm we try to grow as much food as we can. Although we can go (and often do) days or weeks without meat, we also fish and hunt to supplement our diet.
 
very sad.

OVER the next two weeks, hundreds of millions of people will watch Americans like Ted Ligety and Mikaela Shiffrin ski for gold on the downhill alpine course. Television crews will pan across epic vistas of the rugged Caucasus Mountains, draped with brilliant white ski slopes. What viewers might not see is the 16 million cubic feet of snow that was stored under insulated blankets last year to make sure those slopes remained white, or the hundreds of snow-making guns that have been running around the clock to keep them that way.

Officials canceled two Olympic test events last February in Sochi after several days of temperatures above 60 degrees Fahrenheit and a lack of snowfall had left ski trails bare and brown in spots. That situation led the climatologist Daniel Scott, a professor of global change and tourism at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, to analyze potential venues for future Winter Games. His thought was that with a rise in the average global temperature of more than 7 degrees Fahrenheit possible by 2100, there might not be that many snowy regions left in which to hold the Games. He concluded that of the 19 cities that have hosted the Winter Olympics, as few as 10 might be cold enough by midcentury to host them again. By 2100, that number shrinks to 6.

The planet has warmed 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit since the 1800s, and as a result, snow is melting. In the last 47 years, a million square miles of spring snow cover has disappeared from the Northern Hemisphere. Europe has lost half of its Alpine glacial ice since the 1850s, and if climate change is not reined in, two-thirds of European ski resorts will be likely to close by 2100.

The same could happen in the United States, where in the Northeast, more than half of the 103 ski resorts may no longer be viable in 30 years because of warmer winters. As far for the Western part of the country, it will lose an estimated 25 to 100 percent of its snowpack by 2100 if greenhouse gas emissions are not curtailed — reducing the snowpack in Park City, Utah, to zero and relegating skiing to the top quarter of Ajax Mountain in Aspen.

The facts are straightforward: The planet is getting hotter. Snow melts above 32 degrees Fahrenheit. The Alps are warming two to three times faster than the worldwide average, possibly because of global circulation patterns. Since 1970, the rate of winter warming per decade in the United States has been triple the rate of the previous 75 years, with the strongest trends in the Northern regions of the country. Nine of the 10 hottest years on record have occurred since 2000, and this winter is already looking to be one of the driest on record — with California at just 12 percent of its average snowpack in January, and the Pacific Northwest at around 50 percent.

To a skier, snowboarder or anyone who has spent time in the mountains, the idea of brown peaks in midwinter is surreal. Poets write of the grace and beauty by which snowflakes descend and transform a landscape. Powder hounds follow the 100-odd storms that track across the United States every winter, then drive for hours to float down a mountainside in the waist-deep “cold smoke” that the storms leave behind.

The snow I learned to ski on in northern Maine was more blue than white, and usually spewed from snow-making guns instead of the sky. I didn’t like skiing at first. It was cold. And uncomfortable.

Then, when I was 12, the mystical confluence of vectors that constitute a ski turn aligned, and I was hooked. I scrubbed toilets at my father’s boatyard on Mount Desert Island in high school so I could afford a ski pass and sold season passes in college at Mad River Glen in Vermont to get a free pass for myself. After graduating, I moved to Jackson Hole, Wyo., for the skiing. Four years later, Powder magazine hired me, and I’ve been an editor there ever since.

My bosses were generous enough to send me to five continents over the last 15 years, with skis in tow. I’ve skied the lightest snow on earth on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, where icy fronts spin off the Siberian plains and dump 10 feet of powder in a matter of days. In the high peaks of Bulgaria and Morocco, I slid through snow stained pink by grains of Saharan sand that the crystals formed around.

In Baja, Mexico, I skied a sliver of hardpack snow at 10,000 feet on Picacho del Diablo, sandwiched between the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific Ocean. A few years later, a crew of skiers and I journeyed to the whipsaw Taurus Mountains in southern Turkey to ski steep couloirs alongside caves where troglodytes lived thousands of years ago.

At every range I traveled to, I noticed a brotherhood among mountain folk: Say you’re headed into the hills, and the doors open. So it has been a surprise to see the winter sports community, as one of the first populations to witness effects of climate change in its own backyard, not reacting more vigorously and swiftly to reverse the fate we are writing for ourselves.

It’s easy to blame the big oil companies and the billions of dollars they spend on influencing the media and popular opinion. But the real reason is a lack of knowledge. I know, because I, too, was ignorant until I began researching the issue for a book on the future of snow.

I was floored by how much snow had already disappeared from the planet, not to mention how much was predicted to melt in my lifetime. The ski season in parts of British Columbia is four to five weeks shorter than it was 50 years ago, and in eastern Canada, the season is predicted to drop to less than two months by midcentury. At Lake Tahoe, spring now arrives two and a half weeks earlier, and some computer models predict that the Pacific Northwest will receive 40 to 70 percent less snow by 2050. If greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise — they grew 41 percent between 1990 and 2008 — then snowfall, winter and skiing will no longer exist as we know them by the end of the century.

The effect on the ski industry has already been significant. Between 1999 and 2010, low snowfall years cost the industry $1 billion and up to 27,000 jobs. Oregon took the biggest hit out West, with 31 percent fewer skier visits during low snow years. Next was Washington at 28 percent, Utah at 14 percent and Colorado at 7.7 percent.

The winter sports industry contributes $66 billion annually to the nation’s economy, and supports more than 960,000 jobs across 38 states, according to the Outdoor Industry Association. A surprisingly large sector of the United States economy appears to be teetering on the brink.

Much of these environmental data come from a 2012 report, “Climate Impacts on the Winter Tourism Economy in the United States,” by two University of New Hampshire researchers, Elizabeth Burakowski and Matthew Magnusson. The paper was commissioned by the Natural Resources Defense Council and a start-up advocacy group called Protect Our Winters. The professional snowboarder Jeremy Jones started that group, known as POW, in 2007 when he realized that many of the slopes he had once ridden no longer held snow. It has since become the leading voice for those fighting to save winter, largely because few others are doing anything about it.

The National Ski Area Association has reacted with relatively ineffective campaigns like Sustainable Slopes and the Climate Challenge, while policies at ski resorts range from aggressively green to indifferent. Somewhere in between lie the majority of American ski areas, which are struggling to make ends meet while pushing recycling, car-pooling, carbon offsets and awareness campaigns to show they care.

Climate studies predict changes if emissions, and temperatures, continue to rise through the end of this century.

The truth is, it is too late for all of that. Greening the ski industry is commendable, but it isn’t nearly enough. Nothing besides a national policy shift on how we create and consume energy will keep our mountains white in the winter — and slow global warming to a safe level.

This is no longer a scientific debate. It is scientific fact. The greatest fear of most climate scientists is continued complacency that leads to a series of natural climatic feedbacks — like the melting of the methane-rich permafrost of Arctic Canada.


Artificial snow-making now helps to cover 88 percent of American ski resorts, and has become the stopgap measure to defend against the early effects of climate change. Snow-making requires a tremendous amount of electricity and water, though, so it’s unlikely that snow guns will be our savior. In the Alps, snow-making uses more water in the winter than the entire city of Vienna, about 500,000 gallons of water per acre. Ski areas like Vail, Keystone, Breckenridge and Arapahoe Basin seed clouds with silver iodide to make it snow, but that won’t help much when it gets warmer. When it does, whatever the clouds bring will fall as rain.

With several dry winters back to back, the ski industry is waking up. Last spring, 108 ski resorts, along with 40 major companies, signed the Climate Declaration, urging federal policy makers to take action on climate change. A few weeks later, President Obama announced his Climate Action Plan, stating, “Mountain communities worry about what smaller snowpacks will mean for tourism — and then, families at the bottom of the mountains wonder what it will mean for their drinking water.”

It was a big step forward for skiers and the country. And it led people to ask me, “Why save skiing when there are more pressing consequences of climate change to worry about?” The answer is, this is not about skiing. It is about snow, a vital component of earth’s climate system and water cycle. When it disappears, what follows is a dangerous chain reaction of catastrophes like forest fires, drought, mountain pine beetle infestation, degraded river habitat, loss of hydroelectric power, dried-up aquifers and shifting weather patterns. Not to mention that more than a billion people around the world — including about 70 million in the western United States — rely on snowmelt for their fresh water supply.

I remember watching my first Winter Olympics in 1980. We were on a family ski trip at Copper Mountain in Colorado, where my brother and I skied the first powder run of our lives. It was on a gentle slope just off one of the main trails. We wiggled down the hill in chaotic rapture then skied the run again and again. The snow was soft and the turns effortless. You don’t have to be a skier to feel nostalgia for those whitewashed days — or to see the writing on the wall.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/08/opinion/sunday/the-end-of-snow.html?_r=0
 
Too bad these computer models couldn't have told the Olympic Committee to hold the Winter games in Atlanta, Georgia.

On another note; ever notice that those that trumpet the catastrophic results of "climate change" are also the loudest voices fighting the two technologies that are actually economically reducing CO2 emissions -- nuclear energy and natural gas produced by fracking. Ever notice that?
 
Too bad these computer models couldn't have told the Olympic Committee to hold the Winter games in Atlanta, Georgia.

On another note; ever notice that those that trumpet the catastrophic results of "climate change" are also the loudest voices fighting the two technologies that are actually economically reducing CO2 emissions -- nuclear energy and natural gas produced by fracking. Ever notice that?



Because both can/will cause environmental catastrophe?

I mean, just a guess and all. But what the Fukushima do I know.
 
Destroying? Many Pennsylvanians would have reasonable doubt about the validity of such a declaration.

By the way, do they teach in Pennsylvania schools how oil companies such as Pennzoil and Quaker State came by their name?
 
Destroying? Many Pennsylvanians would have reasonable doubt about the validity of such a declaration.
Only the people getting rich and the people getting their campaigns paid for.

The idea that the natural gas companies can't afford to be safer is laughable, but it's a lot cheaper to sponsor just enough politicians to totally deregulate the thing AND not have to pay a fucking cent in taxes. Those jobs wouldn't be going anywhere if they were forced to be responsible because THIS is where the natural gas is and they'd still be making plenty of money. Meanwhile, education was slashed again and again.
 
very sad.

Odd that you don't hear "Aspen," "the Alps," or "Utah" as dog-whistles for "rich white people" which you most certainly would if this article were about tax-rates, immigration or anything other than global warming.

Speaking of which, how many inches of global warming are you getting in D.C. this week?
 
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