Warmth, Globally

[Calloutman]

From my understanding of the topic, climate science is an incredibly complicated field. The atmosphere is an incredibly complex system, with many variables, know and unkonwn having large impacts on weather cycles. From my reading it seems that climate can be influenced by man made means, however it is hard to tell how much of the 'global warming' we see these days is due to higher amounts of 'greenhouse gasses' in the atmosphere. Factors such as solar sun spots have large effects on global temperatures.
Regardless, reducing pollution and weaning ourselves off fossil fuels can only be seen as a good thing, they are a limited resource and generally cause a mess. The problem with a lot of the solutions (wind, solar, etc.)to this problem is that they are horrifically inefficient and expensive. Basically we need nuclear fusion to hurry up. With current research, it's only a matter a time till we've developed a fusion reactor that can break even in terms of the amount of energy it takes to run, and the amount of energy it kicks out. The ITER project in France hopes to do this.

How will you prepare for and handle the change in weather patterns?

I live in the UK, we don't really experience any extreme weather here... so nothing. Though we have had some flooding... although not where I live.

[Shrapnel]

I think it really comes down to Einstein's equation: E=MC^2.

C is of course constant so if we increase mass then we increase energy.

As the atmosphere heats it can hold more water. The more water it holds the more mass the atmosphere has. Since the atmosphere is HUGE, small changes in average temperature (even half a degree) can have a HUGE impact on the total amount of energy it holds. Higher energy levels mean bigger, more powerful storms and larger extremes in local temperatures and pressures (which give birth to storm systems).

[Chefcook]

THE END IS NEAR!

[iRawPeanut]

THE END IS NEAR!

Maybe it's already here?

[KoffeinFlummi]

THE END IS NEAR!

[BotoloLover]

Basically we need nuclear fusion to hurry up.

This. Sea water is full of Deuterium and the fusion reaction in itself produces so much energy per unit of fuel that fusion reactors could sustain Earth's energy needs for a loooong time. Not enough for man to see the death of the sun, but I'm sure that for that time we've found other means of producing energy.

Not that this bother us, of course, unless some of you are immortal.

Edit: Wikipedia told me to go frak myself.

"Fusion power commonly proposes the use of deuterium, an isotope of hydrogen, as fuel and in many current designs also use lithium. Assuming a fusion energy output equal to the 1995 global power output of about 100 EJ/yr (= 1 × 1020 J/yr) and that this does not increase in the future, then the known current lithium reserves would last 3000 years, lithium from sea water would last 60 million years, and a more complicated fusion process using only deuterium from sea water would have fuel for 150 billion years. To put this in context, 150 billion years is close to 30 times the remaining lifespan of the sun, and more than 10 times the estimated age of the universe."

[StarfisherEcho]

Me? I'm saving up to buy this: http://www.missilebases.com/adirondack

Stock that baby up with 25 years of freeze-dried rations and I'm ready for all apocalypses, including zombie, Bruce Willis/Black President asteroid/comet, Bruce Willis plague, Matt Damon plague, and even Yellowstone blowing up. Might even be safe in case of aliens (!) depending on how determined they are to destroy us. Atmospheric deprivation device or high fraction of lightspeed planet buster are still non-survivable. Global warming? Pfft, not even a blip compared to what I'll be prepared for.

...

So anyone want to lend me some money?

[KoffeinFlummi]

So anyone want to lend me some money?

You could sell me that fancy company of yours...

[mrBLUE9]

Me? I'm saving up to buy this: http://www.missilebases.com/adirondack

I'll be knocking on your hatch door when the time comes.

[Cheesy]

I'll be knocking on your hatch door when the time comes.

Be careful, I hear all he does in that hatch is type a bunch of numbers into a computer every 108 minutes

[StarfisherEcho]

108 minutes?!?! YOU MEAN I CAN WALK AWAY FROM THIS fraking THING FOR 107 MINUTES?!?!?!?!?!@?!!?!?!?!?

Abdicating. Cheesy is the general now. IM OUT BITCHES

[KoffeinFlummi]

108 minutes?!?! YOU MEAN I CAN WALK AWAY FROM THIS fecking THING FOR 107 MINUTES?!?!?!?!?!@?!!?!?!?!?

Abdicating. Cheesy is the general now. IM OUT BITCHES

Can we get that signed?

[Kismet]

You guys so crazy.

Global warming:
-More extreme weather = more damaging weather = more costly damage
-Colder winters = more heating costs
-Hotter summers = more cooling costs
-Less glaciers and snowcaps = higher sea levels = less habitable land = Major coastal cities increasingly underwater

I don't have a plan, per se, but I hope you all understand this is a real and major problem. New York City and the nearby east coast had a couple days of horrible storm and flooding... and it decreased the US GDP substantially. This is serious.

[haruky]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4rfHAqs9EI[/youtube]

[Chefcook]

This thread reminds me of the late 80s/90s where this was new(ish) to me!