global warming

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Alex123
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Re: global warming

Post by Alex123 »

Buckwheat wrote:
Alex123 wrote:Image
7000 ppm was over 500 million years ago, and if memory serves, during the Cambrian period, the biological forefront was to become multi-cellular. The life that existed at that time was radically different than the current biome.

Even looking at the age of dinosaurs, when CO2 levels were in the low thousands, global temperatures were much higher than today. So much so, that if we suddenly revert back to those conditions, there would be a mass extinction event. Do you want to live through the end of the human race?
The Climate doesn't "care" about Humans, dinosaurs, or multi-cellular organisms. It is what it is and life adapts (or doesn't) to it. My point that when we consider the Overall picture, today's CO2 and temperature are indeed extreme. Too low. For millions of years the levels were much higher, and that is more usual.
Today's levels are the unusually low ones.

And natural climate is still much more powerful than us. Volcano eruptions can cool the planet (hopefully not into another Ice Age). So we are not doomed.
When Mount Pinatubo erupted in the Philippines June 15, 1991, an estimated 20 million tons of sulfur dioxide and ash particles blasted more than 12 miles (20 km) high into the atmosphere. The eruption caused widespread destruction and loss of human life. Gases and solids injected into the stratosphere circled the globe for three weeks. Volcanic eruptions of this magnitude can impact global climate, reducing the amount of solar radiation reaching the Earth's surface, lowering temperatures in the troposphere, and changing atmospheric circulation patterns. The extent to which this occurs is an ongoing debate.

Large-scale volcanic activity may last only a few days, but the massive outpouring of gases and ash can influence climate patterns for years. Sulfuric gases convert to sulfate aerosols, sub-micron droplets containing about 75 percent sulfuric acid. Following eruptions, these aerosol particles can linger as long as three to four years in the stratosphere.
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Volcano/
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Alex123
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Re: global warming

Post by Alex123 »

Dan74 wrote:Yes, it is. You are not listening. And I'm not interesting in continuing. Believe what you wish, Alex
I've used Kim's information and it made no sense when I plugged in the numbers. It is not the matter of belief, but of analyzing and checking the available data.
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LonesomeYogurt
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Re: global warming

Post by LonesomeYogurt »

Alex123 wrote:I've used Kim's information and it made no sense when I plugged in the numbers. It is not the matter of belief, but of analyzing and checking the available data.
No, it's not. You have made your own formulas and your own models to explain things that you don't understand. And it's okay to not understand - I don't really get a lot of this stuff either - but it's not okay to assume that you can make up your own science here. We have repeatedly pointed out the errors you are making here, kindly I hope, but you are not listening.
Gain and loss, status and disgrace,
censure and praise, pleasure and pain:
these conditions among human beings are inconstant,
impermanent, subject to change.

Knowing this, the wise person, mindful,
ponders these changing conditions.
Desirable things don’t charm the mind,
undesirable ones bring no resistance.

His welcoming and rebelling are scattered,
gone to their end,
do not exist.
- Lokavipatti Sutta

Stuff I write about things.
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Alex123
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Re: global warming

Post by Alex123 »

LonesomeYogurt wrote:No, it's not. You have made your own formulas and your own models to explain things that you don't understand.
None of what I've said is totally my own. I did my own research and use common sources of information.
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manas
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Re: global warming

Post by manas »

I have hesitated to 'come out' properly here, but I think I can safely do so, and not get pilloried for it. We are all friends in the Dhamma after all, and that surely overrides any difference of opinion we might have regarding AGW.

I was one of the first people i know to jump on board when it first became popular to be concerned about this issue. I believed in it and was almost losing sleep over it. That is because I have loved this beautiful and wondrous planet we live on, with it's amazing ecosystems and biodiversity, since I was a little kid, and I still do. Although unemployed at the time, I went on to a '100% wind, solar and hydro electricity plan' where, by paying a bit more for my power, they would invest more in these technologies.

But over the years I also began to read some disturbing things. That the measuring stations are in locations where one would expect higher temperatures, for example, thus skewing the data. That most of the climate research is basically computer modelling and not 'hard' science at all. Plus the way that the mainstream media taints anyone who expresses doubt about it with the emotive term, 'denier' with it's implications - we all know what they are hinting at with that term, I think. And does everyone remember how there was this incident where scientists did not get the data that they wanted, and so simply changed it to suit themselves? And we trust these people?

I still live as sustainably I can, by the way. I try to organise life so there is as little driving as possible, I buy organic when I can afford it, and I would love some solar panels (if only I could afford them). But I think that the real issues are the destruction of forests and ecosystems, the erosion of the topsoil, pollution of the biosphere with pesticides, nanoparticles, and genetically modified organisms, the destruction of clean underground water by fracking...take your pick, we have a lot of real issues to work on, and these are the things I will continue to try to raise awareness of. As for CO2, we've had periods in Earth's history when the concentrations were MUCH higher than they are today; it's being used as a 'scapegoat' to distract the masses from those other, truly urgent issues I mentioned, I believe. Where is the alarm about GMO's here? Anyone concerned about the growing land-mass made of plastic in the Pacific? Did the 'water' coming out of your tap catch on fire lately, due to nearby fracking? These are verifiable concerns, not just based on computer modelling.

Metta.
To the Buddha-refuge i go; to the Dhamma-refuge i go; to the Sangha-refuge i go.
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Alex123
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Re: global warming

Post by Alex123 »

Hello Manas,

Thank you for writing that. I agree. I do wonder why increasing nuclear waste and radiation is not being talked about.

I suggest reading http://enenews.com/ site. That is what I worry about.

Fukushima crisis has not being solved yet. Huge amount of radioactive water is being pumped into Pacific Ocean. IMHO it is MUCH more serious than carbon dioxide emissions. CO2 does not cause cancer or birth defects. Man made radiation (cesium 134,137, etc) contributes to cancer. CO2 is naturally produced. Nuclear isotopes/waste is not. Here I believe is the danger.

Too bad I don't hear the outrage about:
"U.S. bluefin tuna still contaminated with Fukushima radiation — Study: Cesium found in 100% of small, recently migrated tuna tested"
http://enenews.com/new-study-u-s-bluefi ... una-tested

Or
"US West Coast bore “significant brunt” of hot particles from Fukushima disaster, study claims -Bellona"
The report goes on to say that “the Fukushima radioactive plume contaminated the entire Northern Hemisphere during a relatively short period of time” after [3/11]
http://enenews.com/us-west-coast-bore-s ... ms-bellona

Or some Japanese children being FORCED to eat contaminated food:
“Don’t be a chicken” mayor tells parents who are concerned their children are eating radioactive lunches
http://enenews.com/dont-be-chicken-mayo ... ting-japan

Japanese mayor says students are gaining knowledge by eating radioactive food in school lunches
http://enenews.com/japanese-mayor-educa ... ctive-food

Tokyo official blasts parents who want kids to avoid ingesting radioactivity at school: “It is important to share the pain”
http://enenews.com/tokyo-official-blast ... share-pain
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Ron-The-Elder
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Re: global warming

Post by Ron-The-Elder »

Alex123 wrote:
Buckwheat wrote:
Alex123 wrote:Image
7000 ppm was over 500 million years ago, and if memory serves, during the Cambrian period, the biological forefront was to become multi-cellular. The life that existed at that time was radically different than the current biome.

Even looking at the age of dinosaurs, when CO2 levels were in the low thousands, global temperatures were much higher than today. So much so, that if we suddenly revert back to those conditions, there would be a mass extinction event. Do you want to live through the end of the human race?
The Climate doesn't "care" about Humans, dinosaurs, or multi-cellular organisms. It is what it is and life adapts (or doesn't) to it. My point that when we consider the Overall picture, today's CO2 and temperature are indeed extreme. Too low. For millions of years the levels were much higher, and that is more usual.
Today's levels are the unusually low ones.

And natural climate is still much more powerful than us. Volcano eruptions can cool the planet (hopefully not into another Ice Age). So we are not doomed.
When Mount Pinatubo erupted in the Philippines June 15, 1991, an estimated 20 million tons of sulfur dioxide and ash particles blasted more than 12 miles (20 km) high into the atmosphere. The eruption caused widespread destruction and loss of human life. Gases and solids injected into the stratosphere circled the globe for three weeks. Volcanic eruptions of this magnitude can impact global climate, reducing the amount of solar radiation reaching the Earth's surface, lowering temperatures in the troposphere, and changing atmospheric circulation patterns. The extent to which this occurs is an ongoing debate.

Large-scale volcanic activity may last only a few days, but the massive outpouring of gases and ash can influence climate patterns for years. Sulfuric gases convert to sulfate aerosols, sub-micron droplets containing about 75 percent sulfuric acid. Following eruptions, these aerosol particles can linger as long as three to four years in the stratosphere.
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Volcano/
Interestingly, exhaust particulate from diesel powered vehicles acts in the same manner as volcanic particulate and adds to global cooling. It's a shame that this same particulate contains polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons such as alpha-nitro-pyrene which is a powerful human carcinogen. Why aren't the climatologists whining about that? Guess CO2 trumps carcinogens and radiological wastes from Japan.

May all beings find peace, loving-kindness, compassion, and joy. :anjali:
What Makes an Elder? :
A head of gray hairs doesn't mean one's an elder. Advanced in years, one's called an old fool.
But one in whom there is truth, restraint, rectitude, gentleness,self-control, he's called an elder, his impurities disgorged, enlightened.
-Dhammpada, 19, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
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Dan74
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Re: global warming

Post by Dan74 »

manas wrote: But over the years I also began to read some disturbing things. That the measuring stations are in locations where one would expect higher temperatures, for example, thus skewing the data.
Hi Manas,

This addresses your point:

http://www.skepticalscience.com/surface ... ements.htm
Surveys of weather stations in the USA have indicated that some of them are not sited as well as they could be. This calls into question the quality of their readings.

However, when processing their data, the organisations which collect the readings take into account any local heating or cooling effects, such as might be caused by a weather station being located near buildings or large areas of tarmac. This is done, for instance, by weighting (adjusting) readings after comparing them against those from more rural weather stations nearby.

More importantly, for the purpose of establishing a temperature trend, the relative level of single readings is less important than whether the pattern of all readings from all stations taken together is increasing, decreasing or staying the same from year to year. Furthermore, since this question was first raised, research has established that any error that can be attributed to poor siting of weather stations is not enough to produce a significant variation in the overall warming trend being observed.

It's also vital to realise that warnings of a warming trend -- and hence Climate Change -- are not based simply on ground level temperature records. Other completely independent temperature data compiled from weather balloons, satellite measurements, and from sea and ocean temperature records, also tell a remarkably similar warming story.
_/|\_
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manas
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Re: global warming

Post by manas »

Dan74 wrote:
manas wrote: But over the years I also began to read some disturbing things. That the measuring stations are in locations where one would expect higher temperatures, for example, thus skewing the data.
Hi Manas,

This addresses your point:

http://www.skepticalscience.com/surface ... ements.htm
...

More importantly, for the purpose of establishing a temperature trend, the relative level of single readings is less important than whether the pattern of all readings from all stations taken together is increasing, decreasing or staying the same from year to year.
Thanks Dan, but this paragraph above concerns me. We need more accuracy, imo. Actual numbers do matter, not just 'trends'! I do not understand why temperature measuring devices could not be spread out more evenly over the planet. But even then, it's a pretty big planet, with lots of climatic variations. How could we ever be sure that overall the Earth's total surface temperature was increasing? Or that the trend being observed from the stations they do have, isn't just natural variation? Or that it's human-released CO2 that is the primary culprit (I say human *released* because, we did not create it - we are simply releasing back into the atmosphere, what the prehistoric plants had originally absorbed from it millions of years ago, when the oil and coal deposits were formed. I actually wonder why no-one ever mentions that. I'm not even a scientist, and I figured that out.

Now, should we stop burning coal and oil anyway, and move towards alternatives (but not nuclear)? Yes, because they are also highly polluting and environmentally destructive in other ways. But that's another story.

:anjali:
To the Buddha-refuge i go; to the Dhamma-refuge i go; to the Sangha-refuge i go.
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Kim OHara
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Re: global warming

Post by Kim OHara »

manas wrote:I have hesitated to 'come out' properly here, but I think I can safely do so, and not get pilloried for it. We are all friends in the Dhamma after all, and that surely overrides any difference of opinion we might have regarding AGW.
Hi, Manas,
Thanks for making your position clear.
manas wrote:But over the years I also began to read some disturbing things.
(1) That the measuring stations are in locations where one would expect higher temperatures, for example, thus skewing the data.
(2) That most of the climate research is basically computer modelling and not 'hard' science at all. [and later: These are verifiable concerns, not just based on computer modelling. ]
(3) Plus the way that the mainstream media taints anyone who expresses doubt about it with the emotive term, 'denier' with it's implications - we all know what they are hinting at with that term, I think.
(4) And does everyone remember how there was this incident where scientists did not get the data that they wanted, and so simply changed it to suit themselves? And we trust these people?
All well-known memes!
(1) Dan addressed this but if you want more detail try http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/ar ... re-trends/ or http://www.skepticalscience.com/surface ... vanced.htm. The issues are known and have been exhaustively analysed, and the real numbers are out there but basically the trend is what is important, anyway.
(2) Computer modelling is especially important in climate science because we only have one world and we can't run a series of experiments - especially in real time. But the models have been improving even faster than the hardware they run on. See http://www.skepticalscience.com/climate-models.htm. And computer models are tested every which way, constantly checked against each other and (as much as possible) against the real world. They really are pretty accurate and reliable and in many cases are the only way of obtaining data. And in other cases, scientists do get out into the real world and collect all the available data - there are even teams of people combing old ships' logs for weather observations.
(3) You're getting the "emotive" and (unspoken) "Nazi" implications straight from the denialists. They don't like the term because their whole campaign depends explicitly on maintaining there is "reasonable doubt" about AGW. There isn't any - see http://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.ph ... 20#p236121. See also "Merchants of Doubt" for what is really going on - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchants_of_Doubt. The denialists would prefer to be called "skeptics" but anyone who now denies the basics of AGW does so from ignorance or in an attempt to deceive, and calling them "skeptics" is lying. I won't do that, as you may have noticed. :tongue: I do regret having to be offensive but I can't come up with a better name for them.
(4) Climategate was a smear campaign based on a crime. Many separate independent enquiries cleared the scientists of any wrong-doing but the mud seems to have stuck. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climatic_R ... ontroversy or (more briefly) http://climatecrocks.com/2011/08/23/cli ... -in-kenya/.
manas wrote:I still live as sustainably I can, by the way. I try to organise life so there is as little driving as possible, I buy organic when I can afford it, and I would love some solar panels (if only I could afford them).
Great!
manas wrote:But I think that the real issues are the destruction of forests and ecosystems, the erosion of the topsoil, pollution of the biosphere with pesticides, nanoparticles, and genetically modified organisms, the destruction of clean underground water by fracking...take your pick, we have a lot of real issues to work on, and these are the things I will continue to try to raise awareness of. As for CO2, we've had periods in Earth's history when the concentrations were MUCH higher than they are today; it's being used as a 'scapegoat' to distract the masses from those other, truly urgent issues I mentioned, I believe. Where is the alarm about GMO's here? Anyone concerned about the growing land-mass made of plastic in the Pacific? Did the 'water' coming out of your tap catch on fire lately, due to nearby fracking?
Metta.
So many problems, so little time!
And that is a genuine, serious problem. All we can do is put our efforts where we see the greatest need.
Some can only be addressed locally so it's good to get out and join (e.g.) a riverbank cleanup. Others can be addressed politically - Get-Up, Avaaz, Earth Hour, etc. Go for it!
But we can't ignore AGW. It is already driving extreme weather events - hurricane Sandy and others, Pakistan floods, etc - and the slower changes are driving species to extinction regardless of pollution, GMO's, etc.

:namaste:
Kim
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Alex123
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Re: global warming

Post by Alex123 »

Kim,

The reason people doubt AGW is because when one analyzes the data and what warms the earth or doesn't, then AGW makes no sense. I am all for the environment.

We also can't rely on simple linear models and ideas that "CO2 levels went up by 2 points this and that year, it means that it will continue going up 2 points every year so that in 50 years it will be 100ppm higher".

A volcano eruption or some other natural event can easily bring down CO2 levels.


Also, Manas made a very interesting point. Thank you. We don't produce CO2 out of nothing. We release it back into the atmosphere. So there is limited amount of CO2. We are not making any more CO2 than there naturally can be.
The Earth's oceans contain a huge amount of carbon dioxide in the form of bicarbonate and carbonate ions — much more than the amount in the atmosphere. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dio ... centration
So when Earth warms up, more water evaporates from Ocean and more CO2 is released into the atmosphere. Is this relationship between CO2 and temperature? Temperature affects CO2 levels...
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Alex123
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Re: global warming

Post by Alex123 »

Kim O'Hara wrote:But we can't ignore AGW. It is already driving extreme weather events - hurricane Sandy and others, Pakistan floods, etc - and the slower changes are driving species to extinction regardless of pollution, GMO's, etc.

Extreme weather events occurred for 4.5 Billion years. Mass extinctions happened a number of times in past 500 million years.

What is totally human fault IS the radioactive pollution, nuclear power plants, etc. The effects of radiation on DNA, fertility, etc, is much greater than earth trying to leave ice age.
Kim O'Hara wrote: There isn't any - see http://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.ph ... 20#p236121
So if many people believe it, it is true? BTW, 24 studies DO reject AGW. So at best, AGW is not proven. I wonder the quality about those 13,950 articles...
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poto
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Re: global warming

Post by poto »

manas wrote:for the sake of saving the planet
When you strip away all the rhetoric, this is really what it boils down to. People trying to save an impermanent thing. Deep emotional attachment that some have to trying to save the planet. For some this becomes some kind of twisted green anti-humanism, that advocates murder via abortions for population control, suffering via energy poverty and other unwholesome things.

No matter what we do, our planet will one day die and humans will die out or evolve to something else. Eventually we will come to a Dhamma ending age too. I think it better to focus on my practice than waste time and effort trying to save something that is destine to die. I may not be able to save the planet, but I do have a good chance at awakening and saving this one being here from the cycle of suffering.

This is why I have generally tried to avoid these debates recently and focus on my practice.
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." -- C. S. Lewis
daverupa
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Re: global warming

Post by daverupa »

poto wrote:
manas wrote:for the sake of saving the planet
When you strip away all the rhetoric, this is really what it boils down to.
Perhaps consider these sorts of efforts to be an act of dana for future generations in order that they might have a place (i.e. planet) for Dhamma practice (to say nothing of having a place, at all). Many monks and nuns in the suttas did things "out of compassion for future generations", so I fail to understand how making changes to unsustainable lifestyles while educating ones fellow humans in this matter feels at odds, to you, with your individual Dhamma practice. Where is the generosity, the compassion for others both now and in the future?

The inevitability of anicca is hardly warrant for apathy - after all, the continuity of the Dhamma as a teaching has causes and conditions, per the suttas... it isn't fated to die off at a certain time...

Frankly, it does not all boil down to saving an orbiting rock. Such rhetoric is out of place.
  • "And how is it, bhikkhus, that by protecting oneself one protects others? By the pursuit, development, and cultivation of the four establishments of mindfulness. It is in such a way that by protecting oneself one protects others.

    "And how is it, bhikkhus, that by protecting others one protects oneself? By patience, harmlessness, goodwill, and sympathy. It is in such a way that by protecting others one protects oneself.

- Sedaka Sutta [SN 47.19]
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Dan74
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Re: global warming

Post by Dan74 »

daverupa wrote:
poto wrote:
manas wrote:for the sake of saving the planet
When you strip away all the rhetoric, this is really what it boils down to.
Perhaps consider these sorts of efforts to be an act of dana for future generations in order that they might have a place (i.e. planet) for Dhamma practice (to say nothing of having a place, at all). Many monks and nuns in the suttas did things "out of compassion for future generations", so I fail to understand how making changes to unsustainable lifestyles while educating ones fellow humans in this matter feels at odds, to you, with your individual Dhamma practice. Where is the generosity, the compassion for others both now and in the future?

The inevitability of anicca is hardly warrant for apathy - after all, the continuity of the Dhamma as a teaching has causes and conditions, per the suttas... it isn't fated to die off at a certain time...

Frankly, it does not all boil down to saving an orbiting rock. Such rhetoric is out of place.
:goodpost:

How can we expect to save ourselves if our choices are motivated by self-interest and self-gratification rather than cherishing all beings, as the Buddha urged us?
_/|\_
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