Scientists Grapple with Their Own Future in an Altered World
February 5, 2020
I missed this when it came out a year or so ago, but do take the time.
Sobering look at what scientists are thinking, and doing, in light of their climate research and its implications.
Climate Denial Crock of the Week 
February 5, 2020 at 9:56 am
Scientists Say Paris Agreement Climate Goals May Now Be Unattainable
February 5, 2020 at 10:30 am
*shrug* What me worry, I’ll be dead before the very worst hits…
February 5, 2020 at 3:53 pm
If anyone qualifies for the epithet “intelligent layman” (or person if you insist), it’s me. Scientifically and mathematically “literate”, 72 years old and retired, I have the time to read and to think. And I do plenty of both. I’ve been following climate matters very closely for 15 years or so. I know an exponential curve when I see one and I’ve developed my own rule of thumb for climate projections: take the IPCC’s numbers and double them.
You don’t need to be a scientist to understand what the scientists are saying. You just have to listen to them. Abstracts are short and pretty much jargon-free. Moreover, Eric Rignot has said, “Even we only read the abstracts. We simply don’t have time.” Mike Mann says of James Hansen that he went out on a limb in 1981. “But he got it right. You ignore Hansen at your peril.” And Hansen predicts “multi-meter” sea level rise during the next 80 years. “All hell will break loose in the North Atlantic.”
I’m touched by these climate scientists’ private fears. They strike a chord in me: “…all this knowledge and not being able to do anything with it.” Touched, yes, but not surprised. As the lady said, “Basically, we’re all fucked.”
February 5, 2020 at 7:08 pm
=> Global warming will happen faster than we think
February 6, 2020 at 6:26 am
Yep, that’s the one!
February 7, 2020 at 3:02 am
I have to point out that the ‘I’ in IPCC stands for intergovernmental. It must be tough trying to get the science out past the political soft-pedaling.
February 9, 2020 at 12:56 am
True. The drafts often speak a much clearer language than the final reports.
February 5, 2020 at 11:57 pm
Do not think these guys are really channeling me, just feels like it.
Luckily, preparing for doomsday and working to prevent it, are not mutually exclusive. Awareness and positive activity are increasing. Do not need to be told it is not fast enough. Mitigation is possible, and as for stopping CAGW, The Horse Might Learn to Sing!
February 6, 2020 at 8:10 pm
Mitigation is possible? LOL Maybe in OZ where you teach horses to sing, but here in the USA we’re trying to teach pigs to sing, and you know how that goes.
February 7, 2020 at 3:38 am
Ye of little faith.
February 6, 2020 at 8:25 pm
This clip actually came out nearly 2-1/2 years ago, and has only been viewed 300+K times on YouTube—more than many but still not a whole lot. Why aren’t these scientists standing on the rooftops and shouting to the world?—-is part of their depression due to feelings of guilt? Why does it have to get to be 2020 and much worse before anyone pays them any attention at all?
February 6, 2020 at 11:42 pm
Article today:
Bumblebees’ decline points to mass extinction – study
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/06/bumblebees-decline-points-to-mass-extinction-study
February 7, 2020 at 3:08 am
I’ve decided on an eventual move from Austin to Durham, North Carolina. It’s major vulnerability seems to be rain bombs leading to river flooding, but I will pay for higher ground there. It is unlikely to get as hot as central Texas, and it’s far enough inland that hurricanes should only be an occasional threat via rain.
February 7, 2020 at 3:39 am
Just had a message from a friend in NC, 250mm at his place in the last 24 hours and expecting snow again next week. Nowhere is safe, even places outside the worst hits still depend on, or are affected by, places that will be.
Not going to die of boredom eh?
February 11, 2020 at 2:40 am
I survived 14 years in Massachusetts, so the snow won’t bother me. The issue for me is that I hate short winter days, and Durham is my compromise. Also, I want to live some place that has more black people, like where I grew up.
February 10, 2020 at 4:57 pm
Aussies are such pussies. Such a big bunch of crybabies.
Hard to feel sorry for them. Such losers. They used to be great at tennis, and now they only get a tournament but no players. I mean – what are they known for? The world’s worst “Premium” beer – which no one is Australia actually drinks.
Marsupials, which are basically queer reject mammals. Nobody else wants them!
The world’s most dangerous living conditions. You have the top 10 most venomous snakes who prefer child care centers, spiders not only incredibly toxic but big as small dogs. Crocodiles as large as a Greyhound bus living in your effing lakes. They call them “billibongs” which is Australian for “wet place of nightmarish Death”.
It’s a sun-baked inferno of a sun-seared continent surrounded by dying atolls of coral reefs infested with aggressive scimitar-toothed patrolling Great White Sharks which are the country’s tourist Welcome Wagon.
They have no indigenous cuisine to speak of. No international manufacturing of note – when is the last time you heard of anything “cool” manufactured in Australia? Ok – they are good at environmental angst.
On the other hand, they have a small rock – Ayers’ Rock. Aussies love it. Please – let’s let them think it’s really big and beautiful. (it’s a boring rock in the middle of the boring desert)
Of course these Aussies talk about gloom and doom. What else do they have to talk about?