Carbon Emissions since 2000

The economic side was never part of my argument. I was hitting back on the reality of climate change. That's what this is about. It's real as it gets and the effects actually will be an economic disaster if steps aren't taken. If you genuinely read the landmark study I posted the other day, you'd understand what that means. This isn't like a nuke. It's a creeping disaster. These effects take a very long time to present themselves. Whoever said NYC would be underwater by now, please source that so I can laugh.

Not only can we largely avoid this slowly creeping physical and economic disaster, we can create an economic surge for a greater good. It's serious stuff, not to be taken lightly. There's no reason why fossil fuel consumption can't be dialed down while renewables are dialed up. The sum of the parts is the same. That can never happen if it's not developed. People need to be adaptable to change. It will hurt some people and it will help others. This is the price of change. I won't go into big solutions. You know where to find those. Something needs to change. That's the big takeaway.

Perhaps you don't deny climate change but I can't speak for your brothers.

Also, I, and other serious scientists are not suggesting completely removing fossil fuels. It should still be a widely used form of energy. Just not as much. Any publication or pundit you see who is trying to kill the fossil fuel industry blah blah blah is extreme. That's not reality. Fossil fuels will still exist. It just can't be our # 1 source of energy for much longer if anyone cares about the future.

It can, yes, at a higher price for future generations. And we've come full circle.

R&D in this arena is essential, Throbby. It's plain and simple. You don't just wait for a car to almost hit you before you jump out of the way at the last second. This is what progressing as a species is. Preparation, advancement, development, positive change. All things we should strive for, I would hope, individually and collectively. Ground-breaking new tech happens all the time. Industrial changes have happened before and they will happen again. Why is this such a thorny topic of contention? We're the greatest nation on earth and should be on the forefront of EVERYTHING. That's what we do. The big bugaboo in all this is oil and gas special interests and why transition has been slow. That's a whole 'nother topic.

Do you guys all work in the mines? Houston? I'm a geophysics major, I know all about Shell/Chevron/the like. They had some nice recruitment presentations at my internship. They bought us all nice lunches.

Whatever 35 year Doomsday scenario psychobabble you saw or read was simply incorrect, taken out of context, a wildly extreme position, clickbait, what have you. This shit doesn't happen over 35 years. It's been happening since the Industrial Revolution and will continue unabated if not curbed and the impact will be felt more and more annually. We're seeing a rapidly increasing rate of change (remember derivatives?) over the last few decades, setting abnormality records (they aren't natural cycles so don't start) yearly, you'd be amazed if ya kept an open mind to what scientific discovery, scientific process, etc, is. We are already seeing effects. No they aren't the doomsday scenarios you guys fantasize about ripping apart, but they are very real and dramatic, on a global scale, cost $$$, and are getting worse. We are hitting points of no return, genuinely. The effects are self-reinforcing, for example, the shrinking ice caps (yes, its happening) shrinks the earth's overall albedo (how much light is reflected off the surface of the earth). Less ice, less reflection = more absorption, increased water temps in the polar regions, increased melting = increased sea rise, increased polar water temps = frozen ocean currents from the equator = altered meteorological patterns, increased extreme events, wildfire, floods, more damaging and frequent hurricanes/tornados, drought, etc, etc. It's all connected and even though it's already been established that there's serious impacts from this, we still learn more every day. That's one of many examples of impact that is happening currently. If you want to talk about future generations, it's pretty ugly. Sea rise is real, it has increased, no it hasn't put NYC underwater, you loons. We're talking inches here, but that's over decades, which is EXTREMELY fast. Even so, these inches have already been ruionous. Low lying islands around the globe know. I could go on and on, but I've said enough. There's so much depth to this subject, it's not really serious to have me educate anyone on anything. I can only give the big picture. It's a disservice to science to learn what is happening in a few sentences. Same with politics. Same with anything.

If you truly want to learn about the impact, in good faith, with an open mind, I can send you down some fantastic rabbit holes. I just don't see that willingness in here, unfortunately. I try to be level headed but ya'll make it rather difficult.

Race, sensationalist headlines have been a thing since the dawn of news. You post them every day. What's the difference? Time magazine covers have zero bearing on what's happening. You're building strawmen.

Show me where it was 5 degrees warmer 2024 years ago. I'm itching to see this conclusion so I can eviscerate it.

I almost forgot a law of thermodynamics when I failed to mention thermal expansion. Simply, water expands as it warms, all the way through the gaseous phase. Fills a larger volume. Why that happens might bore you. A lot of this is basic stuff you see in your kitchen though. This is approximately half of the contribution to sea level rises alongside polar ice melt.