Climate instability/change

The place to discuss everything else..
Cheshire Cat
Posts: 505
Joined: Wed Aug 15, 2018 9:17 pm

Post by Cheshire Cat »

Here we go, before I continue, I acknowledge that the climate is different from my memories as a child in the 50's although where I grew up, the sky was often hidden behind smoke from the Chemical works nearby. I neither have the answer to the issue or a definitive view on the causes. During this latest 'heatwave', I spent a little time on Google looking at Climate 'change' debates. It is totally confusing but I drew the following conclusions.
Greenhouse gases are keeping in the heat more than is comfortable for humans. The planet doesn't exist for our benefit, it was here before us. This is an inconvenience for human kind and therefore someone must be held responsible and cough up money to solve it.

The gases.

CO2 without which we would freeze as it does keep in heat but there is too much CO2 in the atmosphere, although it only makes up 0.04%. As it's heavier than air, it is not in the upper atmosphere and therefore is closer to the surface. The Scientists, remember them? The people that said Diesel was the was forward, British Beef was safe and the Titanic wouldn't sink (not the same ones of course) say it's down to human activity. This is true as the 8,000,000,000 humans on the planet breath it out every day. Fossil fuels contribute when burned and also Volcanoes.

Methane CH4: Methane is is produced daily by the 8,000,000,000 souls farting along with other mammals sending the stuff skyward where it oxidises an forms CO2 (see above) and water vapour.

Water Vapour or clouds to you and me. On a cloudy night in the Autumn and Winter, it's warmer than on a clear night. You don't need to be a climate scientist to figure that one out. So farting produces clouds.

Nitrous Oxide is apparently the real bad one is is produced by the burning of fossil fuels the main source being coal fired power stations.

Conclusions:

Euthanise half the worlds population to reduce emissions no, not really. When a gloomy person of the male gender on the BBC, usually Mr. Shukman, the man who has spent 20 years flying around the globe looking at dried up rivers and flooded towns telling us not to fly around the world, tells us this is the hottest temperature ever recorded in the UK, he means it's the hottest temperature recorded since the Met office began recording temperatures in a scientific way in 1914. This is bit one tick on the clock of the life of the Planet, Equipment has improved also since then and more accurate and many tall building have also been built.
A huge industry has developed linked to Climate issues. You can have companies plant 14 trees a year on your behalf to adsorb all your family CO2 for a year. Cost you $100, I'm not sure of their motives. On the tv this morning, the EU have announce this is the worse drought in Europe for 500 years. 500 years!. Mind you, the Bible states that were droughts and floods and probably very hot days 2000 years ago (so it must be true).

To end (thank God I hear you say). It's clear that the balance of these gases is not right for our species to be comfortable. As I said two hours ago, an inconvenience to the human race. The Planet will be fine and will go on for another 4 billion years until the Sun runs out of unleaded. The chances of the whole of mankind reducing their current lifestyle together is slim. Australians are sceptical about climate change, especially SKY news who are big Trump supporters. Their Government pass all sorts of CO2 reduction laws whilst exporting 400 million tonnes of coal to China.
Hitting the UK motorist with punitive taxes for driving ICE cars will make bugger all difference except to the Politicians attend , by air, various Climate Change conferences with 10,000 others that have all used fossil fuels to get there. still confused.
Dolomite Silver 'S' with red leather 14 way seats, Pano roof, Bose, Air suspension with pasm, Chrono pack, PDLS, Surround view, 911 turbo wheels, heated screen, spare wheel, ioniser,75 lt tank, black tail pipes, black roof rails.

Jon A
Posts: 4376
Joined: Tue Oct 19, 2021 7:26 pm

Post by Jon A »

Good piece. I now wonder if it would be better, cheaper and more attainable to just roll with climate change i.e. adapt accordingly as it occurs… 🤔
718 Boxster - lava orange (2019)
992 C2 racing yellow (2020)
https://configurator.porsche.com/porsche-code/PRIMAJB4
Ex - Macan S - Carmine (2022)
http://www.porsche-code.com/PNZVYTE0
User avatar
Skyway
Posts: 2338
Joined: Sat Jan 01, 2022 11:42 pm
Location: Surrey

Post by Skyway »

Wasn’t the world scorching hot when the dinosaurs disappeared followed by an ice age ;)
Macan S MY 2023
Jon A
Posts: 4376
Joined: Tue Oct 19, 2021 7:26 pm

Post by Jon A »

Skyway wrote: Fri Aug 12, 2022 12:13 pm Wasn’t the world scorching hot when the dinosaurs disappeared followed by an ice age ;)
Apparently we are in the “interglacial period” of a current ice age!!
It would appear it’s all measured by how much sunlight falls on the polar regions 😳
Feels pretty warm to me, although I do think the news are bigging up what has turned out to be “a nice summer” as apparently there was less rain nationally in 1976 and I seem to remember the reservoirs filling up again by about November that year! 😂
718 Boxster - lava orange (2019)
992 C2 racing yellow (2020)
https://configurator.porsche.com/porsche-code/PRIMAJB4
Ex - Macan S - Carmine (2022)
http://www.porsche-code.com/PNZVYTE0
Nella
Posts: 254
Joined: Tue Apr 05, 2022 4:11 pm

Post by Nella »

Was a while back but I do remember in Geography a level being told volcanoes, on land and even more under the sea, pump out more CO2 annually than humans have done since some clever sod discovered fire. Unfortunately for us they haven’t worked out how to tax volcanoes yet!
crockers
Posts: 1078
Joined: Sun Jul 24, 2022 11:56 am

Post by crockers »

Does anyone remember when I.C.E. Used to mean in car entertainment 🤣
Deleted User 4752

Post by Deleted User 4752 »

Does anyone else remember Frank Bough (?) on Nationwide saying how scientists now knew for a fact we were about to enter another Ice age? That the Thames would freeze over and millions would die ( oh and separately half the UK would die from mad cow disease after eating dodgy hamburgers )This is kind of the issue. I’m not clever enough to say if the climate is changing or not, but I do know one of the reasons I bought a 4x4 was because I was fed up having to find new routes home over the last 4 years because of flooding, and that when I were a lad long hot summers seem to be pretty normal. So it looks like what we are currently experiencing is mainly weather.

As was stated the “since records began” thing the press like to trot-out is completely irrelevant because it covers such a small time period. However, climate information can also be gained from tree, rock and ice samples, so in theory we can tell if this is as bad as the press are screaming.

And there in lies the problem. Since Covid and Trump everything has become a superlatives. The biggest this, the hottest that, the dumbest president etc….You can no longer trust the news or the “experts” as there is so much news and so many experts that the noise is constant. People are fed up with it. So the constant guilt trip we are all being subject too actually makes people less likely to respond favourably.

In my opinion its the middle of summer and its hot and dry, definitely drier than normal, but I’m not yet seeing anything alarming. No hosepipe bans in west Sussex ( despite the news again keep showing them, wrongly ) no standpipes like we had 45 years ago when it got hot. So the news needs to calm down a bit and explain things rationally and calmly. Prof Brian Cox says climate change is real, and he’s a bright lad, so I suspect it is. But with all the loonies chiming in as well it’s difficult to get to the real answers.

Ultimately though, Elon Musk will end up saving the human race by letting us go and mess up other planets.
Col Lamb
Posts: 9323
Joined: Fri Oct 30, 2015 8:38 pm
Location: Lancashire

Post by Col Lamb »

I was born and raised in a seaside town.

I only remember hot Summer days, spent on the beach or in the unheated open air pools that there were scattered around the seafront.

So no real change between then and now ….. or is there?

As an retired Pro Engineer in my working life I undertook many energy saving schemes and planted acres of trees to offset our climate impact.

Whatever the rights, wrongs or the diametrically far ranging views people may have on climate change there is one fact that cannot be ignored.

This planet has finite readily accessible resources and we should not be wasting them.
Last edited by Col Lamb on Fri Aug 12, 2022 4:43 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Col
Macan Turbo
Air, 20” wheels, ACC, Pano, SurCam, 14w, LEDs, PS+, Int Light Pack, Heated seats and Steering, spare wheel, SC, Privacy glass, PDK gear, SD mirrors, Met Black, rear airbags
Deleted User 4752

Post by Deleted User 4752 »

Col Lamb wrote: Fri Aug 12, 2022 4:26 pm I was born and raised in a seaside town.

I only remember hot Summer days, spent on the beach or in the unheated open air pools that there were scattered around the seafront.

So no real change between then and now ….. or is there

As an retired Pro Engineer in my working life I undertook many energy saving schemes and planted acres of trees to offset our climate impact.

Whatever the rights, wrongs or the diametrically far ranging views people many have on climate change there is one fact that cannot be ignored.

This planet has finite readily accessible resources and we should not be wasting them.
Totally agree.
Col Lamb
Posts: 9323
Joined: Fri Oct 30, 2015 8:38 pm
Location: Lancashire

Post by Col Lamb »

In 2004 I visited the Rockies in Canada and we went on a tour of a Glacier in a specialised truck.

What was surprising was that in 100 years the image from about 1900 on the wall in the Visitor Centre showed a Glacier vastly larger than what we saw in 2004 when we stood in about the same place that the image was taken.

In 2004 it looked about 1/2 mile further up the valley than it did in the image.

Make of that what you will.
Col
Macan Turbo
Air, 20” wheels, ACC, Pano, SurCam, 14w, LEDs, PS+, Int Light Pack, Heated seats and Steering, spare wheel, SC, Privacy glass, PDK gear, SD mirrors, Met Black, rear airbags
Post Reply

  • Similar Topics
    Replies
    Views
    Last post