lets be clear what we have zero doubt about...
1) We have zero doubt that the CO2 levels in the atmosphere is higher than they have been in the last million years at least.
2) We have zero doubt that the rate at which we are dumping CO2 into the atmosphere is many thousand times faster than has ever occured over any significant period of time in all of history.
3) We have zero doubt that CO2 in the atmosphere will significantly increase overall temperatures and that contribution is predictable.
#3 can be shown not just by looking at historic correlation but you can literally just test it in lab.. fill a jar with CO2 and one with air, stick them under a heat lamp and the one with CO2 will get much much hotter. We know and can calculate how much hotter it will get and can apply that to the atmosphere and get results that agree with the historically measured correlation as well.
There is no doubt of these 3 points to anyone with half a clue.
Again bullshit... We predicted what the average global temperature rise would be given a rise in CO2 and the actual abserved temperatures not just were in the range of the predictions, they were smack dab in the middle of the prediction almost perfectly.
Attached is an image of the temperature rise and CO2 predictions made in 2000 predicting to 2020 and then the actual observed values. They were spot on.
Things arent looking great, but we are only doomed if we do nothing to stop green house gases. Huge strides have been made so prediction into the future arent so bleak, it bought us some time thankfully. But if we keep converting over to a greener world, and we are already making huge strides on that, any disaster may very well be averted.
the earth is big, so any solution is going to have to be at a global scale and setup long before we are at 0 hour. So sure you might solve the solution by creating some sort of crazy high tech bacteria powered tree that scrub CO2 or whatever scifi solution. But youll still need millions of them (or any solution) around the globe. And frankly, isnt it easier to just plant some trees and use some nuclear/solar/wind/tidal energy and call it a day? Why rely on a hail mary when we already have the means to solve the problem.
For that matter, why hold on to the old polluting ways of doing things at all.. coal is so inefficient, you gotta mine the stuff, and use it in massive quantities.. switch to nuclear or solar or whatever and your talking about 1/100th the effort for the same power.. even if it wasn't cleaner there is no reason not to really.
Also lets not forget fusion is getting really close to being a thing. We are about to bring our first fusion reactor online that will produce usable energy in a year and over the course of the following decade ramp it up to full power as we tweak it. Fusion power is likely only a few decades away from being the norm. While that shouldnt stop us from going green now (as it is viable) that may very well take it to the next level.
Depends who you ask.. seems to me their timeline since the first operating tokamaks were build has been relatively predictable and on schedule. A bit of variance as science wasnt even sure if it would work at first, but were at the point where we have pretty good confidence it will and the reactor that can do it is already built and the big bugs proven out. but for almost a decade now its progression has been pretty much on schedule.
Give it a decade and you might just have a chance to use some fusion power.
Solar is already viable.. its just not great at high power, too many panels for too little energy. That wont ever change. But its perfectly viable for lower to medium energy needs.
We kinda already are.. hard to find many comemrcial rooftops or overhands without them these days
silver or no, replacing the entire infrastructure with panels is not the way to go, never way... solar panels are only intended to play part of the role, supplement a percentage of the power.. the rest comes from other types of solar (liquid sodium mirrors), wind, tidal, geothermal, and for whatever is left over, nuclear. You would never want to use just one solution, if you did you'd always have gaps.
What could possibly scare you about wind or tidal? They arent perfect and I can think of maybe some concerns with wind and killing birds, which isnt a huge problem but its not non existant... but otherwise i cant image how they would cause any major issue. Countries that use it arent seeing any problems either.
I mean sure, but putting a single building up will block more wind than a windturbine would.. We have been reducing the kinetic energy in the wind since forever and it hasnt really had much consequences.
Tidal energy it little mroe than a barrel floating on the top of the ocean, you'd never extract enough energy from that to make more than a small blip of a percentage of a difference.
@10grans makeitrain 0.01 @Coyote @icedquinn @nanook @Atlas_Khan @Genen
Thats for everyone keeping it respectful and interesting.
Thank you. :-) Someday, maybe my bullshit will cover my node rent... $5 a month droplet.. LOL! Meanwhile.. Scored a small victory today. Seems I'm, as of this very week, in a T-mobile "home internet" zone. MAYBE, just MAYBE, this week, within a few days even, I will be back able to download more than 1 PDF every 5 minutes, and be able to pick up some more side work, and turm this fucking trainwreck around with a mixed metaphore non sequitre reply...
I appreciate you, very much, as well. For being .. you.
@10grans tip 0.01 to @freemo