Catastrophic climate change could happen within 50 years

I don't know what to make of this.
I saw Al Gores DVD when it first came out I wasn't too impressed. I still can't help but wonder if the Earth is headed for a drastic change [Whether Natural or man made] makes no difference to me. I'll continue to stock up and prepare.

Your thoughts?

Catastrophic climate change could happen within 50 years, five decades earlier than previously predicted

An average global temperature rise of 7.2F (4C), considered a dangerous tipping point, could happen by 2060, causing droughts around the world, sea level rises and the collapse of important ecosystems, it warns.

The Arctic could see an increase in temperatures of 28.8F (16C), while parts of sub Saharan Africa and North America would be devastated by an increase in temperature of up to 18F (10C).

Britain's temperature would rise by the average 7.2F (4C) which would mean Mediterranean summers and an extended growing season for new crops like olives, vines and apricots.

However deaths from heat waves will increase, droughts and floods would become more common, diseases like malaria may spread to Britain and climate change refugees from across the world are likely to head to the country.

[edit on 27-9-2009 by SLAYER69]

Truthfully im looking forward to it if indeed it is going to happen, if there is nothing we can do about it and the warming is imminent then lets just roll with it.

Im a gardener by trade and hobby, and i would revel in the opportunity to have a longer growing season and more temperate winter months. Canada is just not the best place for someone who loves to garden, and im in the most southernly part of Canada.

reply to post by Retikx


What gets me going is the possible weather pattern changes, some areas in theory will stay the same while others will become wetter while still others are headed for permanent drought.

It's a giant crap shoot IMO.

Slayer, what did we tell you about too much television?

It gives you nightmares.

And stop making this up, there is no such thing as global warming come on now .

On topic, yes I think we are going to see more and more problems with our environment caused by the Sun primarily, but I am sure we don't help the problem.

Let's not forget the island of garbage floating around in the pacific, if that isn't climate or environmental change, I dunno what is.

~Keeper

More politics as usual...

ANALYSIS-Promises? Leaders must act to spur climate talks

WASHINGTON, Sept 27 (Reuters) - World leaders pledged last week to step up efforts to reach a U.N. deal to fight climate change, but they will have to match rhetoric with rapid action to break a crippling deadlock before a December deadline.

At a United Nations meeting on climate change in New York and a subsequent summit of G20 leaders in Pittsburgh, leaders from U.S. President Barack Obama to Chinese President Hu Jintao laid out measures to advance talks on global warming.

It was not enough.

Well people if that is true I guess the smarter species will always survive.

After all climate change is not new it happen before and guess what we are still around to prepare for the next one.

[edit on 27-9-2009 by marg6043]

reply to post by marg6043


50 years though...
Hmmm That barely gives me enough time to try and rule the world. Muahahaha.

Seriously though I'm not sure how accurate these types of studies are.

reply to post by SLAYER69


Well in my case I probably will not be around to see what happen unless immortality is achieved before is time for me to go.

PROPAGANDA


Seriously, if this gets removed as "off topic" I am going to blow a gasket, cause it's absolutely spot on.

Some predictions from Earth Day, 1970.

“Civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind.”
• George Wald, Harvard Biologist

“Population will inevitably and completely outstrip whatever small increases in food supplies we make. The death rate will increase until at least 100-200 million people per year will be starving to death during the next ten years.”
• Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist

“By…[1975] some experts feel that food shortages will have escalated the present level of world hunger and starvation into famines of unbelievable proportions. Other experts, more optimistic, think the ultimate food-population collision will not occur until the decade of the 1980s.”
• Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist

“Demographers agree almost unanimously on the following grim timetable: by 1975 widespread famines will begin in India; these will spread by 1990 to include all of India, Pakistan, China and the Near East, Africa. By the year 2000, or conceivably sooner, South and Central America will exist under famine conditions….By the year 2000, thirty years from now, the entire world, with the exception of Western Europe, North America, and Australia, will be in famine.”
• Peter Gunter, professor, North Texas State University

“Scientists have solid experimental and theoretical evidence to support…the following predictions: In a decade, urban dwellers will have to wear gas masks to survive air pollution…by 1985 air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching earth by one half….”
• Life Magazine, January 1970

“By the year 2000, if present trends continue, we will be using up crude oil at such a rate…that there won’t be any more crude oil. You’ll drive up to the pump and say, `Fill ‘er up, buddy,’ and he’ll say, `I am very sorry, there isn’t any.’”
• Kenneth Watt, Ecologist

“The world has been chilling sharply for about twenty years. If present trends continue, the world will be about four degrees colder for the global mean temperature in 1990, but eleven degrees colder in the year 2000. This is about twice what it would take to put us into an ice age.”
• Kenneth Watt, Ecologist

“Dr. S. Dillon Ripley, secretary of the Smithsonian Institute, believes that in 25 years, somewhere between 75 and 80 percent of all the species of living animals will be extinct.”
• Sen. Gaylord Nelson

reply to post by mikerussellus


Star that's classic.


Well unless the accuracy of these studies has gotten extremely more accurate I think we can call it bunk.

If the earth truly is in a warming period, then two things are apparent.

OMG there's too much water!
OMG there's not enough water!


If you could figure out an economical way to desalinate large amounts of sea water, you'd be filthy, stinking rich!



and...

I still think Al Gore can take his Carbon Credit Kiosk Company and stick it in a warm place.

Here's your answer, how 'they' arrived at this prediction:

The Government-funded study, which has been sent to the Department for Energy and Climate Change, included new figures on increased emissions from fossil fuels and considered the effect global warming will have on the ability of the oceans and rainforests to absorb carbon dioxide.

Source: www.telegraph.co.uk...

Apparently no one had figured in that the rainforest would turn into a desert, or that permafrost would melt. Well, you can't expect them to think of everything before they start the mass panic.

There is no global warming trend at present. The only way you can get a trend out of average observed global temperatures is to go back more than a decade. And in this past decade, we keep hearing that CO2 levels are slowly rising still. Higher CO2 levels are not producing higher global temperatures. Wow...

Look at this story in its political light (since there's not a shred of scientific information in it, only reported conclusions without a reference to the data used). This is an indicator that public support of carbon credits is waning and therefore more panic must be injected into society to restart carbon credit mania.

TheRedneck

reply to post by TheRedneck



Hey thanks that may explain a few things.

Aload of rubbish as norm, we as normal in uk, have a rubbish summer. The summers here have not been good for a few years.

So where is the rubbish they are spouting. There is no facts to there theories, lol.

This is just the precursor to another little ice age not global warming.

As soon as the sun warms to planet to a certain temperature the shutdown or slowing of Thermohaline circulation,
this will start another mini ice age.

This has happened at least 8 times since the last major ice age.
here is the records of 4 of them.
en.wikipedia.org...:Carbon-14_with_activity_labels.png&limit=20#filehistory

The little ice age in the 16th century to the mid 19th century was caused by the Medieval warm period.
The three years of torrential rains beginning in 1315 ushered in an era of unpredictable weather in Northern Europe which did not lift until the 19th century. (sound like the recent weather in europe)

One of the difficulties in identifying the causes of the Little Ice Age is the lack of consensus on what constitutes "normal" climate, or if one exists.

The Gulf Stream could have been interrupted by the introduction of a large amount of fresh water to the North Atlantic, possibly caused by a period of warming before the little ice age.

The scientific community has been telling us for years that the Earth is warming. This fact has become entrenched in our national psyche and in our public policy. Our government and our institutions operate on its assumption. Laws are passed to stem its effects. But it isn't true.

The oceans are warming. Warming oceans are a necessary prelude to every ice age. The massive ice sheets of an Ice Age require massive amounts of moisture. The moisture comes from the evaporation of warming oceans. It falls in a snow blitz during the winter and doesn't melt away in the summer. Then, more is added the next winter, and the next, until it compresses into ice. Finally, the continents begin to cool, even while the oceans continue to warm, until large land masses are covered by glaciers.

This is not a hypothesis. It is hard science. Studies of previous ice ages show this same pattern, a pattern which is occurring at this very moment. Yes, on the coastlines, glaciers are melting. It is to be expected. They are close to the warming seas. But inland, such as in Antarctica and Greenland, the ice is accumulating at an alarming rate.

When the Thermohaline circulation in the ocean slows or stops the tropic oceans heat up and provide the moisture for the building of glaciers and ice caps.

The glaciers are not shrinking only because of warming but also because there is less snow fall to build them up.
this has been happening since the last mini ice age.

You have to look at the past to see the future.
All this trying to stop global warming is going to do is bring on the next mini ice age faster.

[edit on 28-9-2009 by ANNED]