The Climate Change Thread

[Jackster]

So! Climate Change! Very important we're all gonna die if we don't do something soon etc. etc.

 

Just thought we should have one...... so..... here it is!!

 

What do you do to help prevent climate change? Do you feel it's a waste of time? Are you one of the people who disregards the belief of today's scientists and claim it's not our fault, or do you have a new theory as to what's going on? Do you think we should all be forced to save the world we live in? And what about recycling, good or bad?

 

Get talkin' folks!

[Dyson]

With the first post I'd like to say I don't give a shit about climate change. I'll go in to detail in future, maybe.

[Cube]

What do you do to help prevent climate change?

 

Please use the correct terms. The question should be:

 

What do you do to help delay climate change?

 

Preventing it would be unnatural, and also impossible.

[Ginger_Chris]

i think he means reducing the effect of human induced climate change. In which case, If I were the ruler of the planet...

 

1. Ban the sale of combustion engine cars. Its efficient but extremely polluting. We don't need it any more and car manufacture could easily comply if given 5-10 years notice.

 

2. Reduce world population. It's a necessary evil. If places like England, which is good for agriculture and natural resource, are overpopulated there are plenty of coutries out there that have far too many people for the natural resources. China realised this one, one child per couple is possible the most humain method.

 

3. Switch to hydrogen economy and total renewable energy. Its expensive but perfectly possible. England Alone has enough natural energy resource to power the county 10 times over (mainly tidal and wind are perfect for this country). Norway already has a large proportion of electricity generate by renewable sources. The hydrogen economy would be pivital to banning the combustion engine.

 

4. Plant more trees, Massively reduce deforestation.

 

5. Reduce air travel. Planes produce large quantities of pollutants, and because they ar released directly into the upper atmosphere their effect is greatly magnified compared with ground released pollutants

 

More Stringent Industry energy and pollution penalties. Residential homes should be built with a multitude of energy saving features. One such as placing wax in walls acts are a simple but effective air conditioner, reducing heating and cooling bills. All properties in subitle areas should be fitted with solar panelling, etc. Ban on all lightbulbs, LEDs in particular are much more efficient. There are more expensive but much much much more efficient alternatives,

 

There are plenty of others but these are the main ones.

 

The fact is humans have had a huge effect on this planet, and due to CO2 absorption and slow release from the ocean, only 60% has occurred. Even If we stopped producing CO2 now that other 40% would still occure no matter what we did. The problem is preventable, it just takes huge amounts of investments to secure the future. Studies have found that this investment will be cheaper than the cost of not acting, but no government is willing to massively reduce spending on everything else to fund it. They are only concerned with being re-elected. We live in a short term planning society, so it will never happen.

[Jackster]

Preventing it would be unnatural, and also impossible.

 

OK just a note maybe we should back up maybe at least some of the posts here with some evidence? I'm not saying you're wrong, it's just well...... you could be?

[Gaijin von Snikbah]

I recommend watching this movie:

 

[Cube]

total renewable energy. Its expensive but perfectly possible.

 

The problem is the reliability of the renewable energy sources. We've had all these wind farms and stuff, but I haven't heard about any power stations closing down because of them. Why? Well, because of the unreliability, the power stations they replace are kept on for when the renewable sources fail. It takes too long for the stations to start up.

 

They should get round to building that massive tidal energy island off the coast of Rhyl. Now THAT would be useful.

 

OK just a note maybe we should back up maybe at least some of the posts here with some evidence? I'm not saying you're wrong, it's just well...... you could be?

 

The climate history of the Earth is massive evidence that climate is a cycle. The Earth gets hot, and ice age is caused, ice melts, the Earth gets hot again, another ice age, etc (roughly 90,000/100,000 years). Plus smaller climate cycles within that (roughly 1,500 years) for temperature variations.

 

1, 2, 3 (book).

[BlueStar]

The problem is the reliability of the renewable energy sources.

 

At the moment. A much bigger problem in future is going to be the lack of non-renewable sources.

[Sparko]

Blame the cows.

 

Why don't eco-activists support a major cut in methane emissions from cows instead? Each molecule of methane has 21 times as much global warming potential as a molecule of CO2, and we already have cost-effective ways that farmers can cut livestock-emitted methane.

 

The cows and pigs won't care.

 

A new study in Canada found about 20 different ways to reduce methane and nitrous oxide emissions from livestock—each of them capable of cutting these emissions by one-third. North America has more than 100 million cattle, hundreds of millions of hogs and feeder pigs, and more than 2 billion chickens, together emitting billions of tons of CO2 equivalent greenhouse gasses every year.

[Ginger_Chris]

Reliability can be solved with good energy stores. take wind power for example. The power output of a wind turbine is proportional to the winds velocity cubed. In high wind conditions there's way more than the energy required, in low wind there's not enough. This can be solved with a simple, highly efficient and high capacity water store. You have two lakes, one higher than the other. In times of plenty you pump water from the bottom lake to the top. (simple potential energy due to gravity = mgh). When there's little energy you let it back down, powering a turbine. Best thing, this method can be turned on, and adjusted in less than 5 minutes.

 

Also if your using lots of different renewable sources less are likely to fail at once. (or never in the case of geothermal)

[Cube]

This can be solved with a simple, highly efficient and high capacity water store. You have two lakes, one higher than the other. In times of plenty you pump water from the bottom lake to the top. (simple potential energy due to gravity = mgh). When there's little energy you let it back down, powering a turbine. Best thing, this method can be turned on, and adjusted in less than 5 minutes.

 

While the water thing does work (as proven by the one in Wales, apart from the efficiency. The total energy produced from a cycle is quite a large negative figure, but that doesn't matter too much as it uses energy from times when not much energy is needed), there's the problem of utilizing the power from high wind conditions - right now it's too much for anything to handle, to the turbines automatically turn themselves off in high wind conditions.

[conzer16]

I personally think that Climate Change is a 100% natural occurence. We are not the root cause of it and we certainly cannot stop it.

 

Let it happen.

[Pit-Jr]

Ill let elected officials and private business deal with the matter. Itll take drastic legal regulations and business reform to make any sort of impact, neither of which i have any control over.

[Ant-Shimmin]

Climate Change is a load of hoo-har...

 

However I am badly ignorant

[Gaijin von Snikbah]

Did you know that there has been at least 4 major ice ages, and that outside these periods the earth seems to have been totally ice free? It might be that the earth is supposed to be a very hot place.

 

Its not true that we cant do something about it. Maybe we wont take drastic measures as of now, but if the shit starts hitting that fan, those measures might be more likely to happen.

[Guest Jordan]

Did you know that there has been at least 4 major ice ages, and that outside these periods the earth seems to have been totally ice free? It might be that the earth is supposed to be a very hot place.

 

Its not true that we cant do something about it. Maybe we wont take drastic measures as of now, but if the shit starts hitting that fan, those measures might be more likely to happen.

 

That is true, however its more due to the acceleration at which this is happening.

[weeyellowbloke]

I remember this thread coming up before. Can't remember what the conclusion of it was though (if there was a conclusion).

 

Anyway, I find myself slightly scared by the extreme apathy so far posted. Surely it's obvious that pumping vast unnatural amounts of crap into the atmosphere is not really that great an idea and that the global climate is changing at an extremely rapid rate, strangely in line with industrialisation.

[Jackster]

Anyway, I find myself slightly scared by the extreme apathy so far posted.

 

Me too, and the problem with people who don't believe in Global Warming seem to be very stubborn.

 

Anyway, here's something which is interesting to look at between now and spontaneous combustion:

[Shino]

I grow tired of this discussions. People who "don't believe" in human induced climate change, often dismiss it with out facts, as if it's as obvious as the sky is blue.

 

But, I'll say it again. There's NOTHING to gain in doing just nothing, even if we are doomed to a complete different world, renewable energies, recycling, and and pro ambient policies will still improve the way we live and our economies.

[Jimmy3000]

Climate change is happening.. and no matter what we do we cant stop it, sure we are adding to it but its going to happen anyway, the climate is constantly changing. Its all about putting money into mitigation and therefore being able to deal with the problem when it does arrive (and no matter what we do it will come).

[Ginger_Chris]

Right, I think people are getting a tad confused with terminology.

 

Climate change is a natural process, the planet changes conditions fairly often, every 10,000 years or so.

 

Global warming is a natural process, and without it there wouldn't be much of a temperature gradient between us and space. basically life wouldn't be able to exist.

 

However when the news and reporters (who by the way know jack about science in any way, shape or form) mention global warming and climate change, they should be using the term "human induced" before them. Humans are having an effect on the planets atmosphere, that is not a natural process, and it is having an effect on our atmosphere. Its fact. And we're doing it far faster than nature could short of a massive volcanic eruption or rapid switching of ocean currents. Both those events lead to significant extinction rates.

 

I hate the media so much with their sensationalised bad science to sell their wares (see Horizon's recent "particle accelerators can create black holes" for a prime example).