Why are climate deniers so tied to a fossilized past?

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

By Sid Schwab / Herald columnist

As if it isn’t already obvious, we’ve received another warning from climate researchers that we’re heading toward an “unlivable world.”

Timely, a letter-writer to this paper recently threatened canceling her subscription because of its coverage of climate change. Weather has always had “ups and downs,” she wrote. And, by golly, as I began this column, the sunny sky darkened and there was a flash of lightning, followed by a thunderous downpour. The temperature dropped 4 degrees in a minute. And now there’s some blue sky again. She’s right!

And she correctly thinks climate alarmism is about cashing in. But she suspects the wrong people. It’s not Gov. Jay Inslee, ma’am. It’s oil companies and their wholly owned Congresspeople, who’ve unalarmed you. (Seattle Times: tinyurl.com/toughTimes4u)

Deviating from the norm, the letter’s author omitted the well-petrolated trope that in the 1970s scientists were predicting another ice age. For one thing, it was a small minority of scientists. For another, the effects of greenhouse gases were less-well understood back then. And such a reversal over 50 years pretty much proves how fast the climate is changing. Unlike Trump’s lies and Fox’s “news,” science evolves with new information.

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/schwab-why-are-climate-deniers-so-tied-to-a-fossilized-past/

[Ferrets are Cool]

1. To own the libruls

🤪

[modrepub]

2. We Are (Supposed) To Be Heading Towards Another Ice Age

but we've pumped so much CO2 into the atmosphere we're certainly going to be skipping the next one (the next ice age was forecast to peak in about 80k years). If we can't stop soon, it may be half a million years until the climate settles back on its pre-man path.

[IbogaProject]

3. Uh it might go runaway

http://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2022/03/from-a-miocene-like-co2-level-of-420-ppm-to-irreversible-climate-change.html?m=1 We are going up in greenhouse gases so rapidly there is a serious risk of runaway warming.

[modrepub]

5. The Great Dying

at the the end of the Paleozoic was probably due to a sudden influx of CO2 emissions from the Serbian Traps. It's estimated that about 75% of the Earth's species went extinct. I'm pretty confident some life would survive including us, but I would guess they'd be far less people afterwards.

The Paleozoic was a real weird time in Earth history. CO2 levels were about 4 times higher than today. There were major glaciation cycles during the Carboniferous when most of the Earth's coal was being formed. Low-land swamps were common. Layers of peat would be put down then covered as the ocean rosed during the interglacial periods. Ten foot or more coal seams are common in this period. To make a foot of coal you need about 10 feet of peat. Glacial cycles were probably the same then as today. So to generate a 10 foot coal seam you'd need to form 100 feet of peat in less than a hundred thousand years. That's if the glacial cycle matches today's. Earth's history indicates there are also 41,000 year ice age cycles so these swamps could have generated 100 feet of peat in half that time. The tree's in these swamps were so prodigious they altered the atmospheric composition so oxygen levels were probably twice as high as they are today. This allowed for mega sized insects, some being bigger than people, and dragon flies in the 2-3 foot range (air density was higher so flying became easier). Amphibians were also much larger taking advantage of the higher oxygen levels. You'll often see artists depict large fires in their Carboniferous reconstructions reflecting probably more intense fires.

[Haggis 4 Breakfast]

4. One word . . .

MONEY.

Republicans have never been concerned about the future of anything. As one particularly obnoxious GOP prick once said, "Why should we be concerned about that ? We won't be around to have to deal with it."