US scientists report big jump in heat-trapping CO2

[NickB79]

http://news.yahoo.com/us-scientists-report-big-jump-183612249.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- New federal figures show the amount of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the air jumped dramatically in 2012, making it very unlikely that global warming can be limited to another 2 degrees. Many governments set a 2-degree increase as the upper limit.

Scientists say the rise in CO2 reflects the global economy revving up and burning more fossil fuels, especially in China.

U.S. government scientists report that carbon dioxide levels jumped by 2.67 parts per million for a total of just under 395 parts per million compared to 2011.

That's the second highest rise in carbon emissions since records started being kept in 1959. Only 1998 had a bigger increase.

Scientists say hopes of limiting warming to 2 degrees are fading away to almost nothing.

We're boned, and boned hard.

[GliderGuider]

1. Don't give up hope yet.

We can always add some more windmills and nukes to the mix. That will fix it, right?

[wtmusic]

2. Nah, despair is too easy nt

[GliderGuider]

3. That's actually true.

It's facing the probable end of civilization-as-we-know-it without falling into despair that's hard.

[NickB79]

4. Of course! And we could have China build them

Which would increase their economic growth, which would require more coal-fired plants and resource consumption, which would give them more access to US-style consumerist hell, which would.....oh fuck me.

[limpyhobbler]

5. I can't figure out why more people aren't paying attention to this.

oh well.

[wtmusic]

6. Then they might have to do something about it.

If you wait long enough you can say, "well, it's too late now to do anything." And be right.

[stuntcat]

7. "If you wait long enough you can say, "well, it's too late now to do anything." And be right."

Wow.. Just Wow........ That seems like the perfect explanation for humanity right now.

[limpyhobbler]

8. Heads in the sand?

Or simply laziness? I guess so.

Seems like the media partly is blame. The issue isn't really presented as urgent.

[struggle4progress]

9. Ships to sail directly over the north pole by 2050, scientists say

Melting sea ice will allow ice-strengthened vessels to sail directly over the pole, and normal ships to take the 'northern sea route'
John Vidal
Monday 4 March 2013 15.00 EST

Ships should be able to sail directly over the north pole by the middle of this century, considerably reducing the costs of trade between Europe and China but posing new economic, strategic and environmental challenges for governments, according to scientists.

The dramatic reduction in the thickness and extent of late summer sea ice that has taken place in each of the last seven years has already made it possible for some ice-strengthened ships to travel across the north of Russia via the "northern sea route". Last year a total of 46 ships made the trans-Arctic passage, mostly escorted at considerable cost by Russian icebreakers.

But by 2050, say Laurence C. Smith and Scott R. Stephenson at the University of California in the journal PNAS on Monday, ordinary vessels should be able to travel easily along the northern sea route, and moderately ice-strengthened ships should be able to take the shortest possible route between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, passing over the pole itself. The easiest time would be in September, when annual sea ice cover in the Arctic Ocean is at its lowest extent.

The scientists took two classes of vessels and then simulated whether they would be able to steam through the sea ice expected in seven different climate models. In each case they found that the sea routes opened up considerably after 2049 ...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/mar/04/ships-sail-north-pole-2050

[Kablooie]

10. I seem to hear this almost every week. Global warming is worse than they thought.

I'm not saying its not but hearing new shocking discoveries every week sounds like either crying wolf or propaganda. It gets old and people tune out.

If they want to draw the public's attention again someone needs to find a new way to get the message out.

[Nihil]

11. They are trying and yet ...

... people still seem to think that it

> sounds like either crying wolf or propaganda. It gets old and people tune out.

If those "people" had the attention span of a drunken gnat then they'd already have
receieved and understood the message but instead they just make excuses and
whinge about how "someone needs to find a new way to get the message out".

Fuck the sound-bite morons. Fuck the deniers wearing "I'm not saying" armbands.
Fuck the whole useless cancerous greedy fucking species.

[Kablooie]

12. You're right that sound bites aren't the problem.

I get your frustration and anger. It's valid.
The problem is the problem and who the hell is going to start fixing it?
I hear there is public pressure in China to do something about their emissions.
The air is unbreatheable at times. That's different than global warming but cutting emissions will help.
Unfortunately people don't usually change until they are forced to.
Warnings don't force change.
Only laws or nature will force our society to start dealing with the problem and laws are not doing the job.
Nature, in time, will but not pleasantly.