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How certain are you that Global Warming is man-made?  

132 members have voted

  1. 1. How certain are you that Global Warming is man-made?

    • Certain
      34
    • Likely
      49
    • Not Likely
      34
    • No way
      17

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Since we were recently discussing Andrew Marr on another thread, here he is, from this very morning, 4th November 2018, still unaware of the difference between 'climate' and 'weather' or (being charitable) joking about it like a shit Jeremy Clarkson:

 

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4 hours ago, HanoiVillan said:

Since we were recently discussing Andrew Marr on another thread, here he is, from this very morning, 4th November 2018, still unaware of the difference between 'climate' and 'weather' or (being charitable) joking about it like a shit Jeremy Clarkson:

 

I also wonder what the out...

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  • 4 weeks later...
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The collapse of civilisation and the natural world is on the horizon, Sir David Attenborough has told the UN climate change summit in Poland.

The naturalist was chosen to represent the world’s people in addressing delegates of almost 200 nations who are in Katowice to negotiate how to turn pledges made in the 2015 Paris climate deal into reality.

As part of the UN’s people’s seat initiative, messages were gathered from all over the world to inform Attenborough’s address on Monday. “Right now we are facing a manmade disaster of global scale, our greatest threat in thousands of years: climate change,” he said. “If we don’t take action, the collapse of our civilisations and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon.”

'We are last generation that can stop climate change' – UN summit

“Do you not see what is going on around you?” asks one young man in a video message played as part of a montage to the delegates. “We are already seeing increased impacts of climate change in China,” says a young woman. Another woman, standing outside a building burned down by a wildfire, says: “This used to be my home.”

Attenborough said: “The world’s people have spoken. Time is running out. They want you, the decision-makers, to act now. Leaders of the world, you must lead. The continuation of civilisations and the natural world upon which we depend is in your hands.”

 

Grauniad

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Insect collapse: ‘We are destroying our life support systems’

Scientist Brad Lister returned to Puerto Rican rainforest after 35 years to find 98% of ground insects had vanished.

“We knew that something was amiss in the first couple days,” said Brad Lister. “We were driving into the forest and at the same time both Andres and I said: ‘Where are all the birds?’ There was nothing.”

His return to the Luquillo rainforest in Puerto Rico after 35 years was to reveal an appalling discovery. The insect population that once provided plentiful food for birds throughout the mountainous national park had collapsed. On the ground, 98% had gone. Up in the leafy canopy, 80% had vanished. The most likely culprit by far is global warming.

Earth’s bugs outweigh humans 17 times over and are such a fundamental foundation of the food chain that scientists say a crash in insect numbers risks “ecological Armageddon”. When Lister’s study was published in October, one expert called the findings “hyper-alarming”.

The Puerto Rico work is one of just a handful of studies assessing this vital issue, but those that do exist are deeply worrying. Flying insect numbers in Germany’s natural reserves have plunged 75% in just 25 years. The virtual disappearance of birds in an Australian eucalyptus forest was blamed on a lack of insects caused by drought and heat. Lister and his colleague Andrés García also found that insect numbers in a dry forest in Mexico had fallen 80% since the 1980s.

“We are essentially destroying the very life support systems that allow us to sustain our existence on the planet, along with all the other life on the planet,” Lister said. “It is just horrifying to watch us decimate the natural world like this.”

 

Grauniad

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The world’s insects are hurtling down the path to extinction, threatening a “catastrophic collapse of nature’s ecosystems”, according to the first global scientific review.

More than 40% of insect species are declining and a third are endangered, the analysis found. The rate of extinction is eight times faster than that of mammals, birds and reptiles. The total mass of insects is falling by a precipitous 2.5% a year, according to the best data available, suggesting they could vanish within a century.

The planet is at the start of a sixth mass extinction in its history, with huge losses already reported in larger animals that are easier to study. But insects are by far the most varied and abundant animals, outweighing humanity by 17 times. They are “essential” for the proper functioning of all ecosystems, the researchers say, as food for other creatures, pollinators and recyclers of nutrients.

Insect population collapses have recently been reported in Germany and Puerto Rico, but the review strongly indicates the crisis is global. The researchers set out their conclusions in unusually forceful terms for a peer-reviewed scientific paper: “The [insect] trends confirm that the sixth major extinction event is profoundly impacting [on] life forms on our planet.

“Unless we change our ways of producing food, insects as a whole will go down the path of extinction in a few decades,” they write. “The repercussions this will have for the planet’s ecosystems are catastrophic to say the least.”

The analysis, published in the journal Biological Conservation, says intensive agriculture is the main driver of the declines, particularly the heavy use of pesticides. Urbanisation and climate change are also significant factors.

 

Guardian

Fossil fuels as well as Monsanto and their glyphosates need to go :angry:

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1 minute ago, HanoiVillan said:

... not necessarily the most encouraging omen for our ability to handle global warming. 

With our deregulated for profit role model, the US, angling for the fattest oil grab yet.

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Record breaker today apparently, first ever winter day in the UK to top 20 C.

 

Noticed yesterday the pond in my garden needs topping up, and realised I don't recall the last time it rained. It's February, in Wales, and I don't recall it raining here anytime recently... I mean, I've looked out in the morning and it's all a bit damp, but I put a waterproof in the car in December for my site work and I don't think I've worn it.

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31 minutes ago, Rugeley Villa said:

Yep, something is definitely going on. Whether that’s to do with man made climate change, or the earths natural cycle, or journey , is another thing. 

It's man made. That's established fact.

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On 19/02/2019 at 22:06, HanoiVillan said:

It occurs to me that the observable fact that basically no-one in the UK's political class took Brexit particularly seriously until about three months before the departure date, and that the actual government still aren't taking it seriously, happier to negotiate with themselves rather than admit any awkward realities, is not necessarily the most encouraging omen for our ability to handle global warming. 

This was discussed briefly in the Hardcore History Addendum podcast last week.

Democracies are really bad at long term planning. Global warming requires significant efforts to be made today that mean people today need to best a cost that they will not benefit from. That's not a vote winner.

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59 minutes ago, Chindie said:

Democracies are really bad at long term planning. Global warming requires significant efforts to be made today that mean people today need to best a cost that they will not benefit from. That's not a vote winner.

Even worse, the efforts required to make a difference to climate change are completely at odds with market capitalism - and that isn't going to change for anyone. To do something about this, we're going to have to change the way we think about our societies, how they work and operate; we're going to need a new economic model. 

Essentially we're doomed. 

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1 hour ago, blandy said:

It's man made. That's established fact.

It’s partly / mainly  man made , would be the established fact , wouldn’t it ?

we are to blame , but not solely to blame 

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