Earth has entered its sixth great mass extinction event, it's our fault, and we might not survive, s - Polidicks

[QUOTE=Kommodore;48009017] science can't do all the work for us[/QUOTE] nah, lets just bank on the next innovation instead of changing our society.

[QUOTE=Xonax;48009063]While this sucks, it doesn't scare me as much as it used to since I know we are in this together.[/QUOTE] "We" is what got us into this mess in the first place

[QUOTE=ScottyWired;48009085]I'm worried about food but honestly electricity isn't going anywhere. We're REALLY good at making it[/QUOTE] Really damn good, we can turn exercising into a way to make energy. [editline]20th June 2015[/editline] [QUOTE=Derposaurus;48009093]"We" is what got us into this mess in the first place[/QUOTE] And "We" are going to realize at the last second "we" fucked up.

So long and thanks for all the fish.

[QUOTE=Xonax;48009094]Really damn good, we can turn exercising into a way to make energy.[/QUOTE] The average human isn't THAT desperate

[QUOTE=ScottyWired;48009105]The average human isn't THAT desperate[/QUOTE] It was an example.

I don't think that humans are incapable of fixing the atmosphere. The question is whether we're willing to put the effort and resources into it (and the answer is no, because people are so short sighted that they won't do anything about it until it's too late, and a good portion of the population won't even admit anything is wrong ins the first place) There could be a breakthrough that turns this whole carbon dioxide thing around. If Algae farms really take off, and we're careful about how many fossil fuels we use, for instance.

[QUOTE=Megadave;48009005]I don't know, this seems a little bit [I]sensationalist[/I].[/QUOTE] [quote] Averting a dramatic decay of biodiversity and the subsequent loss of ecosystem services is still possible through intensified conservation efforts, but that window of opportunity is rapidly closing. [/quote] The published journal itself is alot more optimistic than the BBC report. Furthermore, bear in mind that since 1900, we have increased our efforts in conservation and enviromental understanding immensely, even the fact that we are now identifying these impending catastrophes is a testament to us coming to terms with the reality we face with our enviroment. There is a long way to go, obviously, (bearing in mind that "very soon" can span 100s of years for some impacts of enviromental degradation). We cant forget that there have been victories, such as the renewal of the ozone hole over the Antarctic. The reality is very far from a "lost cause hummanities doomed within a generation" scenario, but at the same time complacency and generational procrastination cause very little progress to be made.

We have a far greater mental capacity than animals, and we possess the ability to adapt and overcome adversity through means of invention. "But bees are dying," we have small-scale artificial pollination already in place. In a time of great need I have no doubt we could expand those techniques to fit a larger scale solution. Animals going extinct? We've already taken steps to bring Woolly Mammoths back from the grave through use of Elephant chromosomes. Call it a hunch but I doubt that this forward progress is going to disappear any time soon. These articles that keep saying "humanity to go extinct!", imo, only applies if we all sat down on our asses and waited for our extinction to come to us.

[QUOTE=Megadave;48009005]I don't know, this seems a little bit [I]sensationalist[/I].[/QUOTE] Can you just consider for a second that every time an animal goes extinct due to human activity an unbroken chain of genetic information spanning several billion years is broken? Is that not a big deal to you? We never get these species back and they are being absolutely destroyed. We are overfishing the seas and replacing all sorts of ecosystems with land for cattle to eat. This is a pretty old but interesting xkcd infograph [img]http://i.gyazo.com/0a03e6f18f769cb0e4402b45ac203a0f.png[/img]

When those shitlord Baby boomers are out of congress and we millennial run the shit, I hope we decide to be more respectful and gracious than our predecessors and leave the world a better place for our kids and grandkids.

lets pump some volcanic ash into the atmosphere to deflect sunlight

[QUOTE=Banhfunbags;48009180]When those shitlord Baby boomers are out of congress and we millennial run the shit, I hope we decide to be more respectful and gracious than our predecessors and leave the world a better place for our kids and grandkids.[/QUOTE] Nah, let the next generation worry about that.

[QUOTE=Banhfunbags;48009180]When those shitlord Baby boomers are out of congress and we millennial run the shit, I hope we decide to be more respectful and gracious than our predecessors and leave the world a better place for our kids and grandkids.[/QUOTE] Society is already replacing the baby boomers with plenty of young right wing libertarian idiots that don't believe in Global Warming or government regulation. The GOP won't go away just because the old people die off.

[QUOTE=Helix Snake;48009195]Society is already replacing the baby boomers with plenty of young right wing libertarian idiots that don't believe in Global Warming or government regulation. The GOP won't go away just because the old people die off.[/QUOTE] ok then were fucked

Eat your pizza and drive your cars now, while you still can.

I do think we'll see the end of fossil fuel use in our lifetime. But it won't be until companies and entrepreneurs find out how to make a profit from cleaner tech. A lot of Republicans I've talked to are not [I]against[/I] renewable energy or clean tech. They just don't think climate change is a super big enough issue to be the driving force behind the change. They don't want to change over if it's going to hurt the way we live. They live under an impression that clean tech generally sucks. EV's are slow and can only drive 60 miles per charge, solar and wind are inefficient, green-cleaners don't work as good, green-refrigerant is not as cold, etc. What they [I]don't[/I] realize is that clean industries are coming of age and they are profitable and we can switch over without hurting the economy. The moment Exxon finds out they can make more money growing algae or mining lithium than they can off oil and gas, is the moment Exxon switches to green tech. I feel like we'll see this climax in our lifetimes. It's going to teeter over I'd say in the next 50 years. By 2100 oil, gas, and coal will be extinct. (again) ICE engine "classic" vehicles will run off biofuel. Everything else will be electric. The world will be powered by solar, wind, and fusion.

Just think, if we had been using nuclear power more all these decades, the problem wouldn't be nearly as bad as it is. Not to say that nuclear wouldn't necessarily bring about different problems in the long term, but still, quite sobering to think about.

I just realized I did a meme reply on the first page. Nice knowing you guys.

The political climate of climate change is a lot like the political climate of smoking causes cancer. People with a lot to lose smear and hire scientists to try and discredit the factual research, and it becomes a big political fight over something that shouldn't be political in the first place. I feel like a lot of people who say they don't thing climate change is a problem have never looked into the facts and just fall for the rhetoric. Politicians fall into this category whether they realize it or not, and it perpetuates. What someone needs to do is sit down, and say hey, it's okay to be a Republican and believe in Climate Change. You're not stupid for misunderstanding it. It's complicated to someone that's not scientifically literate. But here's why its a real thing, why its a bad thing, why its a thing we caused, and how you can help. And here's why we should switch even if we're wrong on the whole climate thing, and why it's not going to hurt you.

[QUOTE=Vasili;48009078]Change will only happen when your average family has no food on their table, or electricity for their TV's.[/QUOTE] Either that, or an entity / government lays down a [I]shit-ton[/I] of money on the table. It's sad to say that most politicians (especially in western governments) don't really give a shit about the opinions of the 'general populace', or their lives (unless it effects their chances to be reelected, or effects their income), and are usually incredibly bigoted (Ted Cruz, Sarah Palin, etc) and will take their views above everything else (Said politicians above) despite overwhelming evidence / disapproval, because regular people are "too stupid to understand." Another (more innocent, but still scummy) probable reason they're waiting is because of the effort needed for this. They think "Why go through this effort right now, when I can procrastinate till I'm out of office, and then my successors can take care of this?" and this happens over and over again, until they literally have no other option than to deal with it. Politicians are a lot like the majority of major businessmen in their workings, They will always go for the easiest and most efficient way of income, they will always blow off effort if it is not needed, and they really won't worry about anybody outside of them and their company, unless money, jobs, public relations (Only if it gets to the point where people are rioting), or other things of material possession are involved. These are just my views, I'm sure its different in reality (i hope)

I'm going to live to see deus ex play out. I doubt this study will actually play out the way they say it will

[QUOTE=Megadave;48009005]I don't know, this seems a little bit [I]sensationalist[/I].[/QUOTE]Not really, you can't deny that we fucked up tremendously in regards to pollution and messing with the ecosystem.

[QUOTE=Toro;48009274]Either that, or an entity / government lays down a [I]shit-ton[/I] of money on the table. It's sad to say that most politicians (especially in western governments) don't really give a shit about the opinions of the 'general populace', or their lives (unless it effects their chances to be reelected, or effects their income), and are usually incredibly bigoted (Ted Cruz, Sarah Palin, etc) and will take their views above everything else (Said politicians above) despite overwhelming evidence / disapproval, because regular people are "too stupid to understand." Another (more innocent, but still scummy) probable reason their waiting is because of the effort needed for this. They think "Why go through this effort right now, when I can procrastinate till I'm out of office, and then my successors can take care of this?" and this happens over and over again, until they literally have no other option than to deal with it. Politicians are a lot like the majority of major businessmen in their workings, They will always go for the easiest and most efficient way of income, they will always blow off effort if it is not needed, and they really won't worry about anybody outside of them and their company, unless money, jobs, public relations (Only if it gets to the point where people are rioting), or other things of material possession are involved. These are just my views, I'm sure its different in reality (i hope)[/QUOTE] A lot of republican candidates/republicans are half way through the 5 stages of grief: denial, anger, [B]bargaining[/B], depression and acceptance. They've gone from flat out denying it's a thing, to blaming the liberals/Gore, to (if you look at a few current candidates) "oh well if I'm president I'm going to let the science decide." The problem is, they want the science that was invented by a giant system run by those that have a lot to lose to decide. As it teeters more and more favorable and profitable to the general public, republicans will enter depression, and passive-aggressively blame liberals. Then they'll notice it's not so bad and enter acceptance.

[QUOTE=OvB;48009235]I do think we'll see the end of fossil fuel use in our lifetime. But it won't be until companies and entrepreneurs find out how to make a profit from cleaner tech. A lot of Republicans I've talked to are not [I]against[/I] renewable energy or clean tech. They just don't think climate change is a super big enough issue to be the driving force behind the change. They don't want to change over if it's going to hurt the way we live. They live under an impression that clean tech generally sucks. EV's are slow and can only drive 60 miles per charge, solar and wind are inefficient, green-cleaners don't work as good, green-refrigerant is not as cold, etc. What they [I]don't[/I] realize is that clean industries are coming of age and they are profitable and we can switch over without hurting the economy. The moment Exxon finds out they can make more money growing algae or mining lithium than they can off oil and gas, is the moment Exxon switches to green tech. I feel like we'll see this climax in our lifetimes. It's going to teeter over I'd say in the next 50 years. By 2100 oil, gas, and coal will be extinct. (again) ICE engine "classic" vehicles will run off biofuel. Everything else will be electric. The world will be powered by solar, wind, and fusion.[/QUOTE] Will 2100 be too late?

[QUOTE=smurfy;48008997]We pretty much walked into a China shop and smashed a priceless vase and now we're like oh shit I'm so sorry let me tape that back together real quick, and while doing so continuing to knock over several more vases in the process[/QUOTE] We've turned into a British comedy sketch. Bollocks.

By coincidence, I just spent this last week reading 100+ pages of material on climate change for an international relations class I'm enrolled in online. The basic conclusion is that yes, we're in for a rough time (with droughts, crop failures, and badly damaged oceanic populations to name a few issues in store for the late 21st century/early 22nd), but the general assumptions that we're too far gone and that nothing is being done are totally false. For example, scientists generally agree that we can avoid "catastrophic" effects if we can keep the average temperature less than 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. To do that, we have to reduce our emissions to keep the ppm of carbon dioxide below a certain level, at the earliest by 2050. The year factors in because the rate at which we change temperature is of equal importance to the amount. Unfortunately, by our current estimates we're on track to exceed that level sometime in the 2030s. The good news is that there's a lot of progress being made which will likely result in our eventual success, despite the major issues anticipated that I described above. For example, the US never signed the Kyoto Protocol (which requires a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions per capita to 1990 levels for all developed nations) because it exempted developing nations, including China. Currently, the US is forming bilateral agreements with China and other nations to achieve the same goals, and other developing nations such as Brazil are taking unilateral action to curb emissions. Next year, there's supposed to be a major meeting similar to the Kyoto one to write up a new international framework which will incorporate a bunch of these deals into a coherent global effort. More importantly, however, is the dramatic drop in price for solar energy, which most economists never saw coming. [B]The price per kW of solar energy has dropped by 75% since 2008.[/B] For the first time ever, alternative energy is competitive with fossil fuels. This is critical because at the same time, nations around the world are beginning to account for the negative externality of fossil fuels by introducing carbon taxes. Currently, the world is "subsidizing" fossil fuels by not taxing for the environmental and health damages they cause- by introducing taxes on carbon emissions, these subsidies disappear, and the price of solar energy becomes cheaper than fossil fuels. The best part is that solar panels are a technology, not a fuel. That means that as time goes on, solar energy can only become cheaper and more efficient, whereas fossil fuels can only become more expensive. As stronger laws go into effect in the coming decade, we should see an explosion in solar power development worldwide and near-universal decreases in greenhouse gas emissions. In other words, we'll survive, even if we miss the 2 degree Celsius mark. The only real question is how severe the consequences of our past will weigh on the future.

This is one of those things I really feel powerless about. Even if I were to go totally off the grid and do everything in my power to get people to do the same, it's totally out of my hands that my home and potentially my life are gradually more assuredly being destroyed. Crime rates going up and criminal culture being celebrated I can handle, I train to shoot bad dudes and stop crime on the weekly, no matter how bad it gets, I can still control my own safety reasonably Stupidity and bigotry rising with the more and more people joining the free-flowing information and misinformation of the internet I can handle, I educate myself with reliable and credible sources and keep my feet on the ground Climate change, evironmental destruction and contamination, and systematic extinction is completely beyond my grasp to affect or control and it genuinely scares me that I can't

[QUOTE=Killer900;48009293]Not really, you can't deny that we fucked up tremendously in regards to pollution and messing with the ecosystem.[/QUOTE] Yeah, but humans being among the first causalities is probably not going to happen. The article didn't even mention it in anything other than the very start.

[QUOTE=WitheredGryphon;48009150]We have a far greater mental capacity than animals, and we possess the ability to adapt and overcome adversity through means of invention. "But bees are dying," we have small-scale artificial pollination already in place. In a time of great need I have no doubt we could expand those techniques to fit a larger scale solution. Animals going extinct? We've already taken steps to bring Woolly Mammoths back from the grave through use of Elephant chromosomes. Call it a hunch but I doubt that this forward progress is going to disappear any time soon. These articles that keep saying "humanity to go extinct!", imo, only applies if we all sat down on our asses and waited for our extinction to come to us.[/QUOTE] Extinction can take the animals and the bees, we'll flip Darwin off with our fucking robot fingers.