Climate change? No shit, it has changed since the formation of Earth. Nothing new. Climate has changed 300 years ago, has changed 200 years ago, has changed 100 years ago and it's changing now.
The climate change you talk about happens over thousands, even millions of years. Not just decades, like we're seeing now. Since the mid-20th century, climate change has accelerated something brutal.
Is it getting hotter? Yeah, by a degree every 50 years or century, right now.
There's a big problem with that. Actually, two big problems. First, the increase is exponential, so it's not going to stay at 1 degree every 50 years. Second, solar activity has been in recession for some time now, meaning by all rights it ought to be getting
cooler.
In the 60s we were told there will be an ice age. In the 80's we were told there will be no ice on earth and the oceans will rise covering most coastal cities by 2010. (I might exaggerate a bit)
Who are "they"? I can tell you it's not the climate scientists, because they've been pretty consistent. One thing climatologists have always been irritated over, however, is how journalists choose to represent them. Certainly none of them spoke of a new ice age in the '60s, because global warming has been a concern amongst them since the '50s. And to show you how "alarmist" climate scientists have been, here's a quote from John Sawyer in 1972:
"The increase of 25% CO2 expected by the end of the century therefore corresponds to an increase of 0.6 °C in the world temperature – an amount somewhat greater than the climatic variation of recent centuries."
In the first half of 20th century the temp barely bounced back to the levels that were prior to the little age. And compared with that the increase is not that much.
A lot has happened since the first half of the 20th century. More than a tripling of the human population, for one thing, with an explosion in the portion of people with access to one or more motor vehicles.
So, there is natural component to the climate change as well, and a human driven change. Problem is: we don't know exactly how important is our contribution to the present climate change.
There is scientific consensus that the human contribution is significant. Like I pointed out, if left to its own devices, the planet ought to be cooling right now - but it isn't.
It's not quite the same as seeing a comet flying to us. And will most likely will not affect (as to instantly kill) too many of the people alive today :D
In the movie, when you could actually see the comet it was already too late. For the most part of the movie, the comet could not be seen with the naked eye and people simply had to trust the scientists at their word. And we are approaching a similar moment in time in our age, as climate is starting to change perceptibly in the span of a single life time.
reply
share