Anthropogenic Global Warming - Does More Need To Be Done?

It may or may not wipe us out, but it could certainly destroy our civilization, though crop failures. Which would kill billions. You right when you say life will survive just fine, but that doesn't mean it will be the same lifeforms. Only the strongest species will survive, plenty of others could die out.

As I said, our technology is far superior to anything the superior species had at the time of other weather extremes. As soon as people stop bitching about genetic modification ethics, crops can be made to withstand a wide variety of situations, more speedy growth etc. Heck, I believe there already are special kinds of rice that were genetically modified to contain more vitamins and other nutritious stuff than usual. I think it was called golden rice, but I'm not sure. Still, with or without climate change, overpopulation, and thus food, will eventually become a problem.

It wouldn't be nutrition or growth rates it would be the droughts and extreme heat. That's the problem. I'm not so sure genetic alterations can help too much. Even if it could it would be very expensive to change all the world's crops over to super sturdy plants. Most countries couldn't afford it.

I'm sure nature will check us before global warming ever has any catastrophic deadly effect on us. Of course said check is bound to be horrible itself.

And lol at you nuclear energy buffs. You do realize that in order to meet the current world energy demand satisfied by fossil fule consumption we would have to add roughly 10,000 more nuclear plants to the globe, greatly increasing the consumption rate of uranium? Right?

And intern, the greater the rate of consumption becomes. Meaning that the resource is put under greater strain.

Until production peaks, then declines, and supply fails to meet demand...... So sad.

I don't know exactly how it works, but I wouldn't even be surprised if they managed to create wheat with the durability of a cactus. Not to mention Global Warming doesn't just mean it gets hotter everywhere. The weather in general gets more extreme, with higher chances of hurricanes and massive downpours. I think I've also read or heard somewhere Europe would get a lot colder because of the Gulf Stream getting disturbed.

Not exactly. It's definitely accelerating the process, but it's still a natural one. Even if we didn't use up all those fossil fuels, eventually the world would warm up. The world is in a constant cycle of Ice Ages and warmer periods. I think the last Ice Age was around 20,000 years ago, and the Earth is still recovering from it.

Then what is the alternative? And of course nuclear fission won't be the one source of power, it's very suitable for gaining some time for better alternatives to develop, like fusion, which isn't very efficient yet.

Yes but in general it will get a lot dryer. Rain fall will get less frequent so when it does rain, we'll be getting floods. So in short lots of dry followed by lots of wet. It's a disaster for crops and I really doubt you could engineer a plant that can withstand floods and droughts. Also Africa gets screwed no matter what because it can can't afford those genetically engineered plants. Think about it, Africa can barely feed its people now so of course it's not going to be able to feed its people in extreme weather conditions.

Two choices.

1. Drastic reversal in the rate of population growth starting yesterday.

2. Drastic reduction of the population by destructive force, utilized either by nature or a vary tense humanity, later.

So no actual choices?

I hate when people say: Its snowing in California so global warming cant exist.

If only we had irrigation systems.
In Asia, they've dealt with the monsoons year after year, if humanity can set its differences aside in emergency situations like these, we can survive. Of course, there's no way we would be able to sustain population numbers like we have now in such an extreme situation, but then again, Earth itself can hardly sustain the levels we're at right now.

I'd say we still have a good chance by investing more and more into renewable or durable energy sources. You can't use a single one, but wind, water, solar and nuclear energy combined might buy us enough time to develop more and better sources of power. Of course, we can take either of your options, which in theory would work, but in practise would be near impossible to achieve.

True, variations in weather happens quite often. Winter's been shifting around here for a few years now. Sometimes, it starts snowing in December and it's all gone in February, and sometimes it doesn't start until March.

quote="UnitRico, post: 198635, member: 124"]If only we had irrigation systems.
In Asia, they've dealt with the monsoons year after year, if humanity can set its differences aside in emergency situations like these, we can survive. Of course, there's no way we would be able to sustain population numbers like we have now in such an extreme situation, but then again, Earth itself can hardly sustain the levels we're at right now.
[/quote]

Yep irrigation makes crops invincible. That's why there never been massive crop failures since irrigation. Yeah... Also there's going to be less fresh water on the ground so what are we going to water all the crops with? Gatorade? The world is going to get collectively dryer. So there is going to be less places to grow crops and the crops will be less healthy. The population is still going to get bigger and there's going to be less food. So what do we get? Mass starvation. If you think famines are bad now, you just wait. I'm sure as a species we're going to live, but I don't want our species to merely survive I want it to thrive. So essentially we sit on our ass and do nothing as people die off in droves around us. Or put a little effort in to saving the planet now and stop a huge global tragedy. Which one makes sense to you?

Global warming is a social and political problem for us Westerners, not a threat to our existence. The largest and deadliest impacts of climate change will hit sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and South America. Drought and disease are the threats, not flooding or severe weather.

Our concern will be over the immense number of refugees coming from Third World nations (and the political extremism that's sure to come with it), not the climate itself. Of course our societies will feel the strain of these refugees, either in the form of economic stress due to overpopulation or the tyranny necessary to actively combat refugee movements of such a massive scale. Either way, life will go on, and probably won't be a whole hell of a lot different from life as it is now.

In terms of actually combating climate change, I don't think we ought to spend our time changing nature as much as we should spend it weathering nature. Our capacity as a civilization and species has always been more adaptive and reactive than anything else. Not to mention that it's the only realistic and practical solution.

Yeah the movement of hundreds of millions of people from one area to the other wouldn't drastically change life for the West. Strain is a bit of an understatement. Near collapse would be more appropriate.

IT ALWAYS FUCKING SNOWS IN CALIFORNIA, CALIFORNIA HAS ONE OF THE MOST DIVERS CLIMATES OF ALL THE FUCKING STATES, HOW IS LIFE ON THE JERSEY FUCKING SHORE!??!!??!?

Hundreds of millions of people can't physically move to the West, least of all America or the UK.

Why not? I hope its clear I didn't mean all at once it would be a slow process. Over 50 or 60 years. It's already happening.

Ha! A lot more practical then suddenly discovering some magic source of cheap energy, let alone in the quantity to sustain life as it is plus the requirements created by additional growth.

Because travel from the Third World into the West is already incredibly difficult, and can only get more so in the future.

We don't need to discover any new "magic" clean source of energy. Just develop the ones we have so they become more practical. Birth rates are leveling off, were getting more efficient at using our resources. We don't need bunch of people to die in order for us to survive. We'll be fine as long as we use basic logic.