Why climate change is good for the world - Matt Ridley article

[merkhet]

The core of the disagreement is whether the landslide is "definitely going to happen."

 

Many people are incredibly convinced. I think that dynamical systems are very complex, so I am less convinced of certainty.

 

Even in the sandpile example, adding a lot of additional grains of sand does not make it a certainty that a landslide will occur.

[jeffmori7]

The core of the disagreement is whether the landslide is "definitely going to happen."

 

Many people are incredibly convinced. I think that dynamical systems are very complex, so I am less convinced of certainty.

 

Even in the sandpile example, adding a lot of additional grains of sand does not make it a certainty that a landslide will occur.

 

I rather not take the chance, as we have other options

[merkhet]

Neither would I.

 

That said, when people start saying that there's a 90% chance of a climate catastrophe or something along those lines, I can't help but chuckle to myself.

[west]

I don't have a position on this either way, but years ago I had a good friend who's father was a mining geologist.  The father's point of view was that climate change was a given, in that the earth goes through warming and cooling cycles.  To deny that was to deny history.

 

Cycles...

 

Well, if you believe geologists, the planet used to be pretty hot, with no polar cap.  It was hot because there was a lot of carbon dioxide (and other gases) in the atmosphere.  Because of the lack of polar caps (and a few other issues) there was no circulation in the ocean.  Because there was no circulation, when things at the top died (mostly plankton) they fell to the bottom and stayed there.  This created massive oxygen-depleted dead zones in the ocean with lots of decayed, use-to-be-living carbon matter at the bottom.

 

Over time, two things happened.  First, there were geological movements and this carbon got trapped under rocks, where it got compressed and became the oil and gas we have today.  Second, all this trapped carbon allowed the surface to cool down and for ice caps to form, which allowed carbon at the bottom of the ocean to cycle up to the top.  Because of this cycling, we've been living in a relatively stable level of carbon world since our species has been in it.

 

My fear is if we release all that trapped carbon, the world will get a lot hotter like it used to (before we, or most other species that exist today, were around), and we'll lose our ice caps.  Then we'll get ocean stratification and dead zones in the ocean like we had in the past.

 

*Eventually* the carbon *will* recollect at the bottom and get trapped again.  History repeats itself. However, this will probably take longer than our species will be around.

 

I do agree with your friend's father that the world does go through cycles of warming and cooling.  However, I'm afraid the recent (and future) increases in temperature are due to more than just a shorter-term cycle effect.

 

This all being said, I look at and in invest in oil and gas companies!  And I don't think they're inherently "evil."  So I'm just as much of a "problem" as anyone else in the first world, unfortunately.

 

I really hope someone (someone better and smarter than me) comes up with a solution to our current carbon expenditures soon...

[tengen]

I don't believe climate change is good for humanity, but it may be very good for jellyfish:

 

http://qz.com/290657/jellyfish-are-stepping-up-their-ocean-invasions-and-humans-are-helping-them/

[cobafdek]

So I posted this to a Facebook group put together for students from my graduate school, and people threw a shit fit. You'd think I was reading Thus Spake Zarathustra in a church.

 

Another suggestion to forward to merkhet's Facebook group, which will further endear him to them:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Moral-Case-Fossil-Fuels/dp/1591847443/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1416152459&sr=1-1&keywords=the+moral+case+for+fossil+fuels