Climate Change Will Not Be Dangerous for a Long Time

Scientific American ^ | November 27, 2015 | Matt Ridley

[sparklite2]

The theory of dangerous climate change is based not just on carbon dioxide warming but on positive and negative feedback effects from water vapor and phenomena such as clouds and airborne aerosols from coal burning. Doubling carbon dioxide levels, alone, should produce just over 1 degree C of warming. These feedback effects have been poorly estimated.

The last IPCC report also included a table debunking many worries about "tipping points" to abrupt climate change. For example, it says a sudden methane release from the ocean, or a slowdown of the Gulf Stream, are "very unlikely" and that a collapse of the West Antarctic or Greenland ice sheets during this century is "exceptionally unlikely."

If sensitivity is low and climate change continues at the same rate as it has over the past 50 years, then dangerous warming-usually defined as starting at 2 degrees C above preindustrial levels-is about a century away. So we do not need to rush into subsidizing inefficient and land-hungry technologies, such as wind and solar or risk depriving poor people access to the beneficial effects of cheap electricity via fossil fuels.

[terycarl]

Climate change is inevitable and has been for millions of years...Wisconsin was covered by a glacier at one time and have the beautiful moraines to show for it. For humans to think that they can control or even influence the climate of a planet is arrogant at best. Lake Superior stayed frozen over this year more than any other in history. Carbon dioxide harms nothing, water vapor is far more harmful but we are seeking to eliminate our carbon footprint.

I lived in Milwaukee when I was a child (1940's) and in the winter, you could SEE the air....most people heated their homes,and everything else, with coal....the coal guy would come, carry buckets of coal to the side of your house, and dump it down a chute through your basement window. You would then, everyday, shovel it into the furnace where it would provide your heat....

[terycarl]

Whenever the environmental freaks show up it is all about solar or wind....neither are practical solutions for any long term solutions. They never, however, mention nuclear, which is clean, non polluting and fairly inexpensive.