Fossil CO2 impacts will outlast Stonehenge and nuclear waste 5

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1. 

   endependence Posted 8:57 am
   01 Dec 2008

   Another reason for the War for EndependenceWow, this is scary stuff.
   We knew we were messing things up for our children, but not for 100s of generations of children.
   We need to band together and demand that we chart a course for energy independence that ends dependence on polluting fuel.  
   We call if Endependence.
   There are personal, local community, state and federal steps we can take.  You can find out more at endependence.info .
   Join us by signing the Declaration of Endependence at http://endependence.info/declaration .
   Show us how you save energy, we will copy your great ideas.

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2. 

   Delay And Deny Posted 11:00 am
   01 Dec 2008

   Thanks, Dad, For Messing Up My Climate
   
   Messing it up?  The weather is better every year as far as I see it.
   I want to thank my Dad for buying a 6 cylinder 4-door Chevy Impala in 1968 (butternut yellow) and stinking up the Troposphere to high heavens so that I don't have to sludge through blizzards any more and can enjoy moderate winters and mild summers.
   
   Texeme.Construct.Questioner

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3. 

   LPS Posted 12:41 pm
   01 Dec 2008

   Sounds about rightand probably what is going to happen. My best guess is that the great bulk of the carbon will be combusted this century and the only real reduction will occur as the coal begins to deplete. Despite what people claim "can happen" to subtantially alter this scenario, I believe it is doubtful that anything "will happen" of any consequence. The reality of energy scacity and the needs of the present will render long-range efforts ineffective and inadequate. They were always long-shots anyway.
   So what we will have is a relatively short, but high amplitute pulse of CO2 that will begin to be scrubbed from the atmosphere in some kind of asymptotic fashion. Large reductions in the first 1,000-2,000 years, and a long tail lasting for several more millenia. Eventually, the net effect of positive forcings will be moderated and the 100,000-year solar forcing cycle will reassert itself, possibly resulting in a delayed return to the Pleistocene ice ages, which themselves are superimposed on a long-term cooling trend that began some 55 million years ago or so.
   That's what I think will happen. I'm sure many will disagree.
   I often wonder the following (only tangentially related to the issue): Suppose we were on the cusp of a natural cooling trend--a new glaciation--that would result in a continental ice sheet stretching across North America as far south as St. Louis. Would we try to stop it?
   And I often wonder about the following: Suppose global warming were solved tomorrow. That would not solve the fundamental problem of the human condition.

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4. 

   Bob Wallace Posted 2:06 pm
   01 Dec 2008

   I suspect the ones of us...who won't agree with you will be all of us who don't engage in magical thinking.
   You know, the reality based majority....

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5. 

   LPS Posted 11:18 pm
   01 Dec 2008

   Please explainwhere the magical thinking is? I paint a nearly textbook scenario for a higher CO2 atmosphere together with William Ruddiman's forecasts for resulting long-term trends.

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