Expect big jump in temperatures, U.N. warns

[IDemo]

6-degree increase by 2100 forecast after review of scientific data

AP - updated 6:41 p.m. MT, Thurs., Sept . 24, 2009

WASHINGTON - Earth's temperature is likely to jump six degrees between now and the end of the century even if every country cuts greenhouse gas emissions as proposed, according to a United Nations update.

Scientists looked at emission plans from 192 nations and calculated what would happen to global warming. The projections take into account 80 percent emission cuts from the U.S. and Europe by 2050, which are not sure things.

The U.S. figure is based on a bill that passed the House of Representatives but is running into resistance in the Senate, where debate has been delayed by health care reform efforts.

Carbon dioxide, mostly from the burning of fossil fuels such as coal and oil, is the main cause of global warming, trapping the sun's energy in the atmosphere. The world's average temperature has already risen 1.4 degrees since the 19th century.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33011378/ns/us_news-environment/

[xchrom]

1. i think we're looking at a situation -- where we started it --

but it's hard to realy interrupt the trajectory.

makes you hate deniers even more.

[obliviously]

2. I hope so. t has been unseasonably cold this year.

[aquart]

8. What a stunningly foolish remark.

Let's see how much you like famine, pestilence, and drought. Oh, yeah, and flood and fire.

[obliviously]

19. I could stand to lose a little weight!

[autorank]

3. How about a "dead pool" on the end of the species? k*r

I'm figuring some mass poisoning, unintentional, nanotechnology or misapplication of another new
technology by 2030 with the few hundred thousand left going at a rapid pace by 2042, at the latest.

Toss your money in the hat. Of course, what's the point of collecting.

It's the triumph of The Money Party.

[Lorien]

4. And if we choose not to cut them? We're toast. Most of us will not see

old age. Children born today won't see 40.

[lutefisk]

5. That whole Nader-Bush-Gore fiasco back in 2000 kind of screwed us, didn't it.

That was the f'ing tipping point, imho. After 8 years of Bush hell, the Republicans only need a few small victories over the next few years to finally "win" and kill us all. Pretty bleak...

[Hissyspit]

6. I do not believe you hyperbolize.

[jgraz]

7. They don't care. It'll just get'em to Jeezus quicker.

[Nihil]

9. F***.

> The projections take into account 80 percent emission cuts from
> the U.S. and Europe by 2050, which are not sure things.

"Not sure things"?

That's rather like a projection to cut the national debt that takes
into account the gains obtained by betting the national gold reserves
on a 100-1 outsider at a horse race!

> Even if the developed world cuts its emissions by 80 percent and
> the developing world cuts theirs in half by 2050, as some experts
> propose, the world is still facing a 3-degree increase by the end
> of the century

:wow:
:scared:

[GliderGuider]

10. And people wonder why we're pessimistic...

[OKIsItJustMe]

11. Press Release

http://unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=596&ArticleID=6326&l=en

Impacts of Climate Change Coming Faster and Sooner: New Science Report Underlines Urgency for Governments to Seal the Deal in Copenhagen

Washington/Nairobi, 24 September 2009 -The pace and scale of climate change may now be outstripping even the most sobering predictions of the last report of the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC).

An analysis of the very latest, peer-reviewed science indicates that many predictions at the upper end of the IPCC's forecasts are becoming ever more likely.

Meanwhile, the newly emerging science points to some events thought likely to occur in longer-term time horizons, as already happening or set to happen far sooner than had previously been thought.

Researchers have become increasingly concerned about ocean acidification linked with the absorption of carbon dioxide in seawater and the impact on shellfish and coral reefs.

…

The observed increase in greenhouse gas concentrations are raising concern among some scientists that warming of between 1.4 and 4.3 degrees Centigrade above pre-industrial surface temperatures could occur. This exceeds the range of between 1 and 3 degrees perceived as the threshold for many "tipping points", including the end of summer Arctic sea ice, and the eventual melting of Himalayan glaciers and the Greenland ice sheet.

…

To download the full report, visit http://www.unep.org/compendium2009/

…

[Javaman]

12. 6 Degree increase is a civilization ender.

there will still be people around but a whole lot fewer.

And those that are still alive will be maintaining what ever left of society,in the extreme northern and southern reaches of this planet.

I can't even imagine what the equatorial regions of the earth might be like.

I live in texas and am middle aged. I suspect that by the time I croak, sometime in the 2050s (we live reasonably long in my family), it will look like something along the lines of present day Ethiopia. Drought, no farm land and very very few people.

My mission is simple. Many may think I'm crazy. I'm in the process of carving a tablet. It contains, the alphabet of several languages, basic math problems, basic geometry and simple depiction of what we look like (think Voyager space craft). Then, I'm getting cast in bronze. It's one of the very few metals that last a very very very long time.

Once that is complete. I will bury it in my back yard.

I'm no scientist, I'm not famous for anything, nor have I accomplished anything of note, but I will do the best I can to leave a "Rosetta Stone" for what ever takes our place.

Now that I have told you my secret, you may, if you want, regard me as crazy.

:)

[GliderGuider]

13. What a wonderful, human thing to do!

I'm in awe.

Namaste.

[Javaman]

15. I just do what I can with the tools I have.

At some point, either via climate change or some other massive calamity of our making, some one will survive.

they need to carry the torch again.

there are so many things I would love to include on the tablet, but I thought, "just the basics", let whom ever finds it, figure out the rest and create their own Shakespeare.

[phantom power]

14. I think it's cool.

:toast:

[OKIsItJustMe]

16. The alphabets are nice, but some grammer would be helpful

The letters they may be able to work out for themselves.

The key to the "Rosetta Stone" was that it had translations of the same text in 3 different languages (i.e. not just 3 alphabets.)

(I don't actually do anything useful, I just criticize the efforts of others to do something useful! ;-) )

[Dead_Parrot]

17. That is all kinds of awesome

:yourock:

[NMDemDist2]

20. don't bury it, put it in a cave, preferably in a salt flat area

people will always need salt. they will be in the areas where salt can be found and water.

check out the Guadalupe Mtn National Park or White Sands area. you can't leave it in the Park it's self but there is areas in BLM land close by

[Dead_Parrot]

18. 6 may be optimistic...

...going by past performance: