Video & Multimedia
Related: About this forumOld Crow
(2,212 posts)This documentary, which was made in 2005, talks about CO2 concentrations that were at about 370 ppm. We've just recently passed the 400 ppm mark.
Mr_Jefferson_24
(8,559 posts)Our collective disregard for the welfare of future generations is truly shameful.
Old Crow
(2,212 posts)I also agree with your broader sentiment there. What's even more shameful, in my view, is the deliberate lying and scheming by some of the AGW deniers on the right. Smearing the reputation of scientists like Michael Mann in order to prevent their warning messages from being heard is about as unconscionable and sleazy an act as I can imagine. If you haven't read it already, and you're interested in learning just how underhanded some of the leading deniers have been, I highly recommend Mann's book The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars (2012).
Two hundred years from now, historians are really going to have their work cut out for them. "But the scientists were warning them, day in and day out, for decades--why didn't they listen?!"
Mr_Jefferson_24
(8,559 posts)Smear, ridicule, and outright lies do seem to be the predominant tactics of the deniers.
They obviously have financial backing, but they sound so scripted most of
the time I question whether many of them actually even believe in their own rhetoric.
I think you're right about future historians -- assuming humanity has a future.
chervilant
(8,267 posts)k & r to watch later...
Mr_Jefferson_24
(8,559 posts)... be completely extinct, but I fear long before two more centuries pass
nuclear war and catastrophic climate change (now underway) will claim many millions
of lives -- perhaps a majority of the global human population.
Sure hope I'm wrong, but the evidence all around us doesn't look good.
Old Crow
(2,212 posts)Of course all anyone can do regarding that question is offer his or her guess. But I do think we'll be around. I also think that unless some effective way to address global warming is found, life will be a lot more difficult and a lot more limited than it is today.
Here's my metaphor: The ready availability of fossil fuels over the past century has led humanity to go on a binge-drinking bender--and before long, we're going to be suffering through one hell of a hangover.
There are, of course, some global warming disaster scenarios that can keep me up at night if I think about them too much, such as the clathrate gun hypothesis (you can find it on Wikipedia, if you're unfamiliar with it). But those are outlier outcomes. Rather than causing the extinction of our species, I think global warming is simply going to make life a lot more difficult than it already is for a lot of people for a really long time.
chervilant
(8,267 posts)I think if it doesn't cause our extinction, it will greatly reduce our numbers, leaving small pockets of humanity wherever crops can continue to grow.
pablo_marmol
(2,375 posts)Very motivational.......makes me want to work all the harder to get running on solar here at my place.
Mr_Jefferson_24
(8,559 posts)I'd really like to do something with solar here too.