Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumThe Guardian: 'No one wants to be right about this': climate scientists' horror and exasperation ...
No one wants to be right about this: climate scientists horror and exasperation as global predictions play outAs the northern hemisphere burns, experts feel deep sadness and resentment while dreading what lies ahead this Australian summer
Guardian Australia asked seven leading climate scientists to describe how they felt as much of the northern hemisphere is engulfed by blistering heatwaves, and a number of global land and ocean climate records are broken.
I am stunned by the ferocity
What is playing out all over the world right now is entirely consistent with what scientists expect. No one wants to be right about this. But if Im honest, I am stunned by the ferocity of the impacts we are currently experiencing. I am really dreading the devastation I know this El Niño will bring. As the situation deteriorates, it makes me wonder how I can be most helpful at a time like this. Do I keep trying to pursue my research career or devote even more of my time to warning the public? The pressure and anxiety of working through an escalating crisis is taking its toll on many of us.
Dr Joëlle Gergis, senior lecturer in climate science Fenner School of Environment and Society, associate investigator ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes at the Australian National University
Even 1.2C of global warming isnt safe
We knew by the mid-1990s that lurking in the tails of our climate model projections were monsters: monstrous heatwaves, catastrophic extreme rainfall and floods, subcontinental-scale wildfires, rapid ice sheet collapse raising sea level metres within a century. We knew just like we know gravity that Australias Great Barrier Reef could be one of the earliest victims of uncontained global warming.
paleotn
(17,989 posts)They had to water down what the models were showing for fear of being called "shrill" by our vaunted media of yappers and scribblers, plus the unrelenting attacks by internet mobs. Now, the chickens have come home to roost.
Seems the reich wing meme today is " Sure global warming is real and yes it's caused by humans but what did you want us to do about it? Live like it's the 15th century?" I've seen that straw man batted around a number of times this Summer. Idiots.
erronis
(15,370 posts)That's where they are trying to take us. But even the filthy rich will find that life will be unpleasant, and hopefully equally brutish.
OKIsItJustMe
(19,938 posts)She was bemoaning that we were not as good at growing our own food as our grandparents had been. My response was Even our grandparents couldnt grow food if the climate wasnt conducive to it.
Its fine to imagine the rich feeding themselves from indoor hydroponic farms, how fast do you suppose they can build them?
OKIsItJustMe
(19,938 posts)I hadnt encountered that straw man.
The best I had seen was, OK, yes, the climate is changing, but the climate does that. Havent you ever heard of ice ages? and no one knows what caused them!
I occasionally try to explain Milankovitch (Orbital) Cycles and Their Role in Earth's Climate, but its a mostly pointless exercise.
jaxexpat
(6,857 posts)"When Scientists Can't Be Objective Because Their Country Is Dying". Long title, yeah but I'm pretty sure lots of folks will go to the screening. It's air-conditioned in cinemas, right?
OKIsItJustMe
(19,938 posts)James Hansen already wrote the script! Scientific reticence and sea level rise.
jaxexpat
(6,857 posts)Those blue bloods can be so difficult.
OKIsItJustMe
(19,938 posts)I love Boston, but Global and Regional Sea Level Rise Scenarios for the United States
erronis
(15,370 posts)Very thorough and very scary document.
OKIsItJustMe
(19,938 posts)It might be helpful to read its prequel, Target Atmospheric CO: Where Should Humanity Aim? (AKA Hansen et al (2008))