[News] Is Global Warming Unstoppable?

[Moontanman]

Is Global Warming Unstoppable?

ScienceDaily (Nov. 24, 2009) — In a provocative new study, a University of Utah scientist argues that rising carbon dioxide emissions -- the major cause of global warming -- cannot be stabilized unless the world's economy collapses or society builds the equivalent of one new nuclear power plant each day.

 

Is global warming unstoppable?

[Essay]

Yes, but he's only looking at cutting emissions.

 

If he'd look at enhancing biosequestration in the pedosphere - effectively reducing the "half-life" of GHG's in the air - then maybe he could see a different future. The capacity of that labile carbon pool is a hundred times what we emit in a year.

 

As he mentions, energy usage is what the qualities of "growth" result in.

 

But what about "development" in his analogy of a child growing. They don't grow forever. Children stop growing and begin a development process, refining what has grown previously. Maybe as a civilization we have matured to that point; where we could try focusing on development, instead of growth?

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But I do like his analogy of civilization as a "heat engine." Like life, civilization is just another of nature's ways to maximize entropy.

~ :shrug:

[BrianG]

The climate is a big system, the atmosphere is the biggest thing on Earth. When you add in the oceans and all the ice, that's the physical climate system. I understand that modern teachers define the climate as an average of weather, but I think there is a better definition. I like to say that the climate is the system that moves heat from the equator, where sunlight always strikes full on, to the poles, where sunlight always glances past.

 

We can't change weather, stop or steer storms, so I don't think we have any chance of mitigating climate change. That's just an opinion, but I've never found an empirical test that would prove it wrong.

[Essay]

We can't change weather, stop or steer storms, so I don't think we have any chance of mitigating climate change. That's just an opinion, but I've never found an empirical test that would prove it wrong.

We've been mitigating climate change for centuries; it's just that we were doing it inadvertently. The problem is now that we are "over-mitigating" the climate and we need to start acting intentionally, with a purpose.

 

The climate is a big system, the atmosphere is the biggest thing on Earth. When you add in the oceans and all the ice, that's the physical climate system. I understand that modern teachers define the climate as an average of weather, but I think there is a better definition. I like to say that the climate is the system that moves heat from the equator, where sunlight always strikes full on, to the poles, where sunlight always glances past.

Science has shown that the soil (and entire biosphere) is also a part of the climate system (with some other factors too). That was my point above; that it's not as simple (or set) as you, or the author above, suggest.

 

But you've got the right idea about the climate being a "heat engine" or a heat-dissipation system. Again, the system is more complex than simply being run by the sunlight differential between the equator and poles -though you are keying in on one of the main factors- but the "evolution" of that system (in response to many parameters such as the position of the continents, biogeochemical reactions, and the basic thermodynamics of sunlight distribution you described) has had a fascinating effect on Earth's climate history.

 

It is the realizaton that we are rapidly adding an increasing source of instability to our powerful and rapidly-running heat engine, that makes scientists worry so much about the future.

[BrianG]

I believe we've been mitigating climate for millenniums, almost a million years since the discovery of fire. Man, fire, CO2 and climate are old friends in a deep embrace. When we emit CO2, it's like whispering, "I love you." to all life on Earth. Fossil carbon has been trapped in a dungeon and we merely free it to return to the sun and share it's wealth with every living thing.

 

We are carbon.

[Essay]

I believe we've been mitigating climate for millenniums, almost a million years since the discovery of fire. Man, fire, CO2 and climate are old friends in a deep embrace. When we emit CO2, it's like whispering, "I love you." to all life on Earth.

 

We are carbon.

It sounds as if you "get it" about man's influence throughout history. The point is that now with 6 (going on 9) billion people ramping up the heat engine....

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I think you confuse "love" with the lusty breath of profligate consumption.

Don't just focus on the freedom and expiration of carbon, but on the utility and inspiration also; y'know, balance out the cycle.

 

It is when we conscientiously manage the carbon cycle - taking dominion over the lands, seas, and creatures - that we honor the Creation, and are ...as you say "...like whispering, 'I love you.' to all life on Earth."