The Climate Crisis, the reality, the challenges and indeed the ways forward!

[snoop1130]

The Climate Crisis, the reality, the challenges and indeed the ways forward!

by Niall O´Connor

 

 

Given the season that’s in it, let’s start with a nice tune! “Oh the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful, and since we’ve no place to go, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow, man it doesn’t show signs of stopping…..”. Indeed the weather is frightful. With over 400 climate records broken in 30 countries in 2019, and 6 of the ten hottest years on record since 2010, we are sadly now seeing the changes in the climate systems that will impact our world for generations to come. Bangkok itself, in the 1970’s once had a more pleasant climate, with an average of 20 days above 35C per year, however, recent years are averaging over 120 days a year over 35C, its real, it’s here, and it’s not going away!

 

Working through the IPCC report (Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change), the vast majority of the scientists of the world now agree that we are on course for a higher temperature that the targets agreed under the Paris Climate agreement in 2017, which aspired to maintain us below a rise of 1.5C (figure 1). Today, most scientists believe that we are destined for a minimum of +3C and maybe as much as +5C by 2100. While that seems far away from us today, trust me, the change has started and is impacting every one of us already. The weather patterns are changing, with warming greater than the global averages in many regions around the work, some already averaging above 1.5C, with extreme events becoming unfortunately less extreme and more regular! (think of the excessive fires in Australia, in California, even in 2019 in the Artic region in Sweden).

 

Global air temperatures are predicated to rise by as much as 4C by 2100, global sea surface temperatures by up to 3C, while marine heatwave days may increase tenfold (destroying all coral reefs, major fisheries and impacting global food security). The Artic, Antarctic and Greenland Ice sheet melt rates are all increasing, reaching tipping points that will see mean sea levels rise for sure by 1 meter by 2100, (but more likely and more frighteningly by as much as 7m). Think of Venice with even 1 more meter of sea water. Then think of Bangkok, Ho Chi Min city, the Mekong Delta, Yangon, and many other low lying areas of the SE Asia region, where with even a 1m sea level rise, this is what it will look like! (figure 2: Bangkok predicted Annual Flood levels in 2050). Now it gets very real. Annual flood levels in Bangkok by 2050 alone will cover the whole city region, worse than the 2011 floods that is estimated to have killed over 650 people, impacted over 13 million people and caused extensive damage to local and indeed international trade for years to come. How can a city cope with annual floods like this! Venice of the South, is not the tourist attraction you think! It is estimated that in the south east Asia region alone, up to 250 million people may have to relocate as sea levels rise. Are we ready for this? Where will they go, what infrastructure is needed to support this, and what pays for that! I’ll come back to that later!

 

On top of this, the shifting climate patterns continue to cause more natural disasters (figure 3). Asia is one of the most disaster-prone regions of the world with frequent occurrence of many types of natural hazard-based disasters: (meteorological; hydrological; climatological), leaving many parts of Asia, and its many people, experiencing increasing exposure and consequently at risk from disasters. UNESCAP estimated that in 2014, within 17 Southeast Asian cities alone, an estimated 46 million vulnerable people were exposed to extreme risk from multiple hazards, and projects that the number at extreme risk could increase to 66 million people by 2030. Sadly, this shift in risks unfortunately land on the most vulnerable in our communities, the old, the disabled, on migrants and ethnic communities, who lack the support needed to redress these growing threats.

 

In my mind, while clearly fossil fuel use is the key factor behind the climate change crisis, we also have to reflect on the increasing trends in global urbanization, which continue to consume vast amounts of concrete, a fossil fuel dependent material, and energy, also heavily reliant on fossil fuel production in this region. We expect that by 2050, over 70% of people will live in cities. To cater for this, we will triple the urban infrastructure needed to house, transport and cater for this rapid growth (to imagine this, currently we develop an area the size of Manhattan every single day!). Given the rise of urbanisation and its infrastructural and energy needs, the decisions we make today will determine our climate insecurity for the second half of the century. The infrastructural investment decisions taken in just over the next five years, will consume up to a third of remaining global carbon budget predicted to keep us below 2C. Change is not quick enough to prevent this!

 

Full Story: https://expatlifeinthailand.com/featured/the-climate-crisis-the-reality-the-challenges-and-indeed-the-ways-forward/

 

-- © Copyright Expat Life in Thailand

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[4MyEgo]

There won't be any change unless the politicians make laws to that effect, but as we all know they are controlled by the super rich.

[Vacuum]

A tip; buy stocks in AC companies.

[Antonymous]

Another tip: buy land in the north of Thailand, especially land that has a natural water source, next to the source of mountain fed rivers and/or where there's plentiful water underground within a few metres.

 

Most of the farm land that I have witnessed being snapped up in Chiang Mai province over the past 15 years and increasingly of late, in idyllic settings north of the city, has been by wealthy Bangkok residents. Prices have risen steadily and strongly year after year.

[Kurtf]

"while clearly fossil fuels are the cause of climate change". Well in my mind that is absolute hogwash. Just look back in history when there wasn't nearly as much fossil fuels being used and one can find when climate changes even greater have occurred. Years where the official recorded temps in Australia reached 45 degrees Celcius for weeks on end. How did mankind cause that climate spike? The ice caps on Mars are melting and getting smaller. No man made pollution there. How do all you climate alarmists explain that? 

     How about this for a hypothesis..... Mankind is an insignificant speck compared to mother nature and has zero to negligible impact on the weather that has gone through warming and cooling cycles for millenia. So sit back and accept that man kind is insignificant and not nearly as self important as people with inflated egos think. In my mind the climate change activists are merely globalist trying to panic people into accepting another tax so they can further control the peons. 

[BritManToo]

15 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Global air temperatures are predicated to rise by as much as 4C by 2100

That might make the Uk a bit more livable, +10c would be better though.

Edited February 12, 2020 by BritManToo

[nobodysfriend]

15 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

we are destined for a minimum of +3C and maybe as much as +5C by 2100

If that becomes true , it means the end of mankind . Even at a 4% rise there is hardly a chance to survive ...

https://www.greenfacts.org/en/impacts-global-warming/l-2/index.htm

 

The explored consequences of an increase of the global earth temperature of 4°C are indeed devastating.

Among the foreseen consequences are:

• the inundation of coastal cities;
• increasing risks for food production potentially leading to higher malnutrition rates; many dry regions becoming dryer and wet regions wetter;
• unprecedented heat waves in many regions, especially in the tropics;
• substantially exacerbated water scarcity in many regions;
• increased frequency of high-intensity tropical cyclones;
• irreversible loss of biodiversity, including coral reef systems.

The scientific evidence, is unequivocal about the fact that humans are the cause of global warming, and that major changes are already being observed: global mean temperature is now 0.8°C above pre industrial levels; oceans have warmed by 0.09°C since the 1950s and are acidifying. Sea levels rose by about 20 cm since pre-industrial times and are now rising at 3.2 cm per decade; an exceptional number of extreme heat waves occurred in the last decade; major food crop growing areas are increasingly affected by drought.

[BritManToo]

6 minutes ago, nobodysfriend said:

Sea levels rose by about 20 cm since pre-industrial times and are now rising at 3.2 cm per decade;

Sea levels haven't risen measurably since the 1860s. Tide mark is in the same place.

Food and crop production are currently at the highest levels in the history of man.

Edited February 12, 2020 by BritManToo

[nobodysfriend]

32 minutes ago, Kurtf said:

Mankind is an insignificant speck compared to mother nature and has zero to negligible impact on the weather that has gone through warming and cooling cycles for millenia.

The Role of Human Activity

 

In its Fifth Assessment Report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of 1,300 independent scientific experts from countries all over the world under the auspices of the United Nations, concluded there's a more than 95 percent probability that human activities over the past 50 years have warmed our planet.

The industrial activities that our modern civilization depends upon have raised atmospheric carbon dioxide levels from 280 parts per million to 412 parts per million in the last 150 years. The panel also concluded there's a better than 95 percent probability that human-produced greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide have caused much of the observed increase in Earth's temperatures over the past 50 years.

https://climate.nasa.gov/causes/

 

I have to post this often ... many are still denying the facts ... why ?

Edited February 12, 2020 by nobodysfriend

[nobodysfriend]

Just now, BritManToo said:

Sea levels haven't risen measurably since the 1860s.

first photo made at high tide , and second one at low tide ...?

[Brunolem]

50 minutes ago, Kurtf said:

"while clearly fossil fuels are the cause of climate change". Well in my mind that is absolute hogwash. Just look back in history when there wasn't nearly as much fossil fuels being used and one can find when climate changes even greater have occurred. Years where the official recorded temps in Australia reached 45 degrees Celcius for weeks on end. How did mankind cause that climate spike? The ice caps on Mars are melting and getting smaller. No man made pollution there. How do all you climate alarmists explain that? 

     How about this for a hypothesis..... Mankind is an insignificant speck compared to mother nature and has zero to negligible impact on the weather that has gone through warming and cooling cycles for millenia. So sit back and accept that man kind is insignificant and not nearly as self important as people with inflated egos think. In my mind the climate change activists are merely globalist trying to panic people into accepting another tax so they can further control the peons. 

The problem with deniers is that they are often also malinformed.

 

Humans are NOT insignificant.

 

Believe it or not, in the very early stages of life on Earth, simple bacteria managed to completely transform the atmosphere, thus making it breathable for organisms needing oxygen.

 

Obviously, the climate also changed at that time.

 

The (major) difference is that bacteria were not as "efficient" and fast as humans.

 

Humans have also managed, in just a few decades, to literally cover the whole earth with plastic particles, so much so that you can't eat or drink anything today without absorbing some plastic at the same time...which is as good for your health as living in proximity of a coal power station.

 

And just look how humans have reshaped the surface of the Earth, or emptied its oceans of fish.

 

Humans may be a "speck" as you say, but so are viruses compared to humans, and yet they can wreak havoc as we can witness first hand these days.

 

In terms of power of destruction, size doesn't matter!

 

Edited February 12, 2020 by Brunolem

[Billy Bloggs]

6 minutes ago, nobodysfriend said:

The Role of Human Activity

 

In its Fifth Assessment Report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of 1,300 independent scientific experts from countries all over the world under the auspices of the United Nations, concluded there's a more than 95 percent probability that human activities over the past 50 years have warmed our planet.

The industrial activities that our modern civilization depends upon have raised atmospheric carbon dioxide levels from 280 parts per million to 412 parts per million in the last 150 years. The panel also concluded there's a better than 95 percent probability that human-produced greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide have caused much of the observed increase in Earth's temperatures over the past 50 years.

https://climate.nasa.gov/causes/

 

I have to post this often ... many are still denying the facts ... why ?

Facts by skewing data a data set so small it is rubbish, the scientists are all CC ones would they say any different. The seas havent risen as stated in decades yet this lot has said for the last 24 years they would, thats why.

By the way the major problem is population numbers, start reducing those and see the effect.

[nobodysfriend]

2 minutes ago, Billy Bloggs said:

Facts by skewing data a data set so small it is rubbish, the scientists are all CC ones would they say any different. The seas havent risen as stated in decades yet this lot has said for the last 24 years they would, thats why.

That's right , the NASA only employs idiots ... they should listen to you instead .

 

4 minutes ago, Billy Bloggs said:

By the way the major problem is population numbers, start reducing those and see the effect.

Too many people , that,s true .

But the damage to the biosphere is done and accelerating even if there would be no more humans ... Too late to change back .

[sucit]

51 minutes ago, Kurtf said:

"while clearly fossil fuels are the cause of climate change". Well in my mind that is absolute hogwash. Just look back in history when there wasn't nearly as much fossil fuels being used and one can find when climate changes even greater have occurred. Years where the official recorded temps in Australia reached 45 degrees Celcius for weeks on end. How did mankind cause that climate spike? The ice caps on Mars are melting and getting smaller. No man made pollution there. How do all you climate alarmists explain that? 

     How about this for a hypothesis..... Mankind is an insignificant speck compared to mother nature and has zero to negligible impact on the weather that has gone through warming and cooling cycles for millenia. So sit back and accept that man kind is insignificant and not nearly as self important as people with inflated egos think. In my mind the climate change activists are merely globalist trying to panic people into accepting another tax so they can further control the peons. 

"World big, human small. Human can do nothing to earth". 

 

Very intriguing data. You should present at the next IPCC.

[Brunolem]

21 minutes ago, nobodysfriend said:

 

 

I have to post this often ... many are still denying the facts ... why ?

Here comes the answer: deniers don't want to accept responsibility.

 

If humans are the cause for climate change and its dire consequences, then we are all partially responsible...except maybe Tarzan...

 

And if we a accept responsibility, we'd rather also try to change our way of life, which is the last thing deniers want to do!

 

They want to enjoy their cars, aircon, flights and everything else until they drop, never mind the consequences for the next generations...drill, baby, drill...

[Surasak]

1 hour ago, Brunolem said:

The problem with deniers is that they are often also malinformed.

 

Humans are NOT insignificant.

 

Believe it or not, in the very early stages of life on Earth, simple bacteria managed to completely transform the atmosphere, thus making it breathable for organisms needing oxygen.

 

Obviously, the climate also changed at that time.

 

The (major) difference is that bacteria were not as "efficient" and fast as humans.

 

Humans have also managed, in just a few decades, to literally cover the whole earth with plastic particles, so much so that you can't eat or drink anything today without absorbing some plastic at the same time...which is as good for your health as living in proximity of a coal power station.

 

And just look how humans have reshaped the surface of the Earth, or emptied its oceans of fish.

 

Humans may be a "speck" as you say, but so are viruses compared to humans, and yet they can wreak havoc as we can witness first hand these days.

 

In terms of power of destruction, size doesn't matter!

 

So, if humans are, as you suggest here, the problem, doesn't that tell you something???

[rwill]

There is no climate crisis.  Climate change is normal. Man's effect on it is minimal.  The problem is these scientists look at climate change and attribute all of the change on man.

[Surasak]

Computer models and more computer models, all based on whatever the computer is fed. I can fly you to the moon and back in your tea break with a calculator, it the practicalities that cause the problems.

If humans have caused the problem of climate change/global warming, I can't help but wonder how and why this coronavirus came about?

[RickBradford]

The "way forward", eh?

 

Well, since the climate activist movement has outsourced its authority to the sayings of a 16-year-old schoolgirl, we should let Greta Thunberg tell us what is the "way forward".

 

Of prime importance, Greta tells us, is to realize that the climate movement is in fact another form of social justice.

 

Quote

After all, the climate crisis is not just about the environment. It is a crisis of human rights, of justice, and of political will. Colonial, racist, and patriarchal systems of oppression have created and fueled it. We need to dismantle them all."

That unfortunately outlaws alternative forms of energy, such as nuclear. The huge drawback of nuclear power is that it doesn’t dismantle systems of oppression - it only produces clean energy. This makes it unsuitable for solving the climate crisis, which isn’t just about the environment.

 

Once we've dismantled all these badly defined elements of progressive puppet-babble, then perhaps we can return to the scientific endeavors and challenges.

[Catoni]

Why do leftist climate Alarmists continue to deceive and lie? 

    The real goal is to undermine western industrialized capitalist society and build world socialism. 

    Climate alarmism gives them the perfect excuse. 

     Many of them are even beginning to admit that that is in fact the real goal. 

[Catoni]

3 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Sea levels haven't risen measurably since the 1860s. Tide mark is in the same place.

Food and crop production are currently at the highest levels in the history of man.

Here’s photos of Fort Denison, Australia:    Terrifying !  Just look at that frightful sea level rise over the past 135 years. 

    Better pack up and move to the mountains soon. 

Edited February 12, 2020 by Catoni
Addition

[Lacessit]

2 hours ago, Surasak said:

Computer models and more computer models, all based on whatever the computer is fed. I can fly you to the moon and back in your tea break with a calculator, it the practicalities that cause the problems.

If humans have caused the problem of climate change/global warming, I can't help but wonder how and why this coronavirus came about?

The cause is the same, human greed. The novel coronavirus arose from a wild meat market in Wuhan. It is apparently prestigious to consume protein derived from an exotic species, even though exactly the same effect in terms of nutrition is achieved with farmed chicken, fish or soybeans.

[Catoni]

2 hours ago, Surasak said:

Computer models and more computer models, all based on whatever the computer is fed. I can fly you to the moon and back in your tea break with a calculator, it the practicalities that cause the problems.

If humans have caused the problem of climate change/global warming, I can't help but wonder how and why this coronavirus came about?

What “...problem...” of climate change/global warming? 

      The REAL problem would be if the world was to grow colder.

   Mankind...civilization...historically has always done worse during colder times, and better during warmer times. 

   That’s history. 

[timendres]

4 hours ago, nobodysfriend said:

If that becomes true , it means the end of mankind . Even at a 4% rise there is hardly a chance to survive ...

https://www.greenfacts.org/en/impacts-global-warming/l-2/index.htm

 

The explored consequences of an increase of the global earth temperature of 4°C are indeed devastating.

Among the foreseen consequences are:

• the inundation of coastal cities;
• increasing risks for food production potentially leading to higher malnutrition rates; many dry regions becoming dryer and wet regions wetter;
• unprecedented heat waves in many regions, especially in the tropics;
• substantially exacerbated water scarcity in many regions;
• increased frequency of high-intensity tropical cyclones;
• irreversible loss of biodiversity, including coral reef systems.

The scientific evidence, is unequivocal about the fact that humans are the cause of global warming, and that major changes are already being observed: global mean temperature is now 0.8°C above pre industrial levels; oceans have warmed by 0.09°C since the 1950s and are acidifying. Sea levels rose by about 20 cm since pre-industrial times and are now rising at 3.2 cm per decade; an exceptional number of extreme heat waves occurred in the last decade; major food crop growing areas are increasingly affected by drought.

"it means the end of mankind"

 

Hardly. It means some uncomfortable changes for many people, and a lot of adaptation. And possibly a serious curtailment of the standard of living we have come to enjoy. But it is not the end of mankind in any sense of the word.

[allanos]

Changes in the weather are not the same as Climate Change!

 

It is possible that the climate is changing, but we would need a better data set than is currently available.  

 

The climate has been changing over millions of years, which is a small time-frame in an earth which is 4.6 billion years old, give or take a few.

 

Is any climate change being experienced now, man-made?  Highly unlikely; man's contribution would be infinitesimally small, if any.

 

Neptune's moon, Triton, experienced a 5% temperature increase between 1989 - 1998, equivalent to earth heating up by 22 degrees. Man-mad causes?

 

Pluto experienced global warming during a similar period.  NASA attributed it to seasonal change, although the increase in temperature was severe.  Perhaps it was man-made, like that of earth?

 

I think that the alarmist, climate-change brigade have self-serving reasons for their pronouncements, and science has very little to do with it.

 

 

 

 

[allanos]

5 hours ago, nobodysfriend said:

That's right , the NASA only employs idiots ... they should listen to you instead .

 

Too many people , that,s true .

But the damage to the biosphere is done and accelerating even if there would be no more humans ... Too late to change back .

It takes two to tango.  My personal belief is that the NASA, which certainly doesn't employ idiots, is equally caught up in alarmist, climate-change "science", but for its own political reasons (e.g. additional funding possibilities).  I have included a You Tube link, below, which gives a somewhat different perspective to the NASA pronouncements.  It is one of many others which may be found on You Tube, if one is not blinkered, and is open to other, less-biased viewpoints.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Thingamabob]

6 hours ago, Kurtf said:

"while clearly fossil fuels are the cause of climate change". Well in my mind that is absolute hogwash. Just look back in history when there wasn't nearly as much fossil fuels being used and one can find when climate changes even greater have occurred. Years where the official recorded temps in Australia reached 45 degrees Celcius for weeks on end. How did mankind cause that climate spike? The ice caps on Mars are melting and getting smaller. No man made pollution there. How do all you climate alarmists explain that? 

     How about this for a hypothesis..... Mankind is an insignificant speck compared to mother nature and has zero to negligible impact on the weather that has gone through warming and cooling cycles for millenia. So sit back and accept that man kind is insignificant and not nearly as self important as people with inflated egos think. In my mind the climate change activists are merely globalist trying to panic people into accepting another tax so they can further control the peons. 

I entirely agree. Just take a look at the latest IPCC report. It is a truly pathetic piece of work.

 

 

[Kurtf]

7 hours ago, nobodysfriend said:

The Role of Human Activity

 

In its Fifth Assessment Report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of 1,300 independent scientific experts from countries all over the world under the auspices of the United Nations, concluded there's a more than 95 percent probability that human activities over the past 50 years have warmed our planet.

The industrial activities that our modern civilization depends upon have raised atmospheric carbon dioxide levels from 280 parts per million to 412 parts per million in the last 150 years. The panel also concluded there's a better than 95 percent probability that human-produced greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide have caused much of the observed increase in Earth's temperatures over the past 50 years.

https://climate.nasa.gov/causes/

 

I have to post this often ... many are still denying the facts ... why ?

As soon as I read "under the auspices of the UN" I knew it was BS. I want to know what caused climate changes up and down 200 years ago. You know way before there were SUV's. For every scientist or study saying it's all because of humans there are twice as many saying if you believe the <deleted> being shovelled at you, you deserve to be herded around like sheep and pay all the taxes that they will require to make the world "safe" again. Why are ma y denying your "facts"? Because they are refuted by thousands of other scientists who say don't be stupid and buy the <deleted> you are being fed by global alarmists. 

[bristolboy]

22 hours ago, 4MyEgo said:

There won't be any change unless the politicians make laws to that effect, but as we all know they are controlled by the super rich.

Renewable Energy Investment to Surpass USD 2.5 Trillion for 2010-2019, UNEP Report Finds

https://sdg.iisd.org/news/renewable-energy-investment-to-surpass-usd-2-5-trillion-for-2010-2019-unep-report-finds/

[bristolboy]

7 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Sea levels haven't risen measurably since the 1860s. Tide mark is in the same place.

Food and crop production are currently at the highest levels in the history of man.

Wow! If anything demonstrates a profound lack of knowledge it's a comment like this. For these photos to be validly compared you'd have to know what time they were taken in relation to high and low tide for those particular days And even that wouldn't be enough since wind can influence the height of the tide as well.