..."the earth has natural warming cycles... this is just one of them"..
..we hear this mantra over and over from climate skeptics/ deniers as justification for their beliefs..
..well..
April, 2015 was the first time in 800,000 years that CO2 levels went above 400ppm... (from what we are able to measure..see below**)
The last time the concentration of Earth's main greenhouse gas reached this mark, horses and camels lived in the high Arctic. Seas were at least 30 feet higher.. at a level that today would inundate major cities around the world.
The planet was about 2 to 3 degrees Celsius (3.6 to 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer. But the Earth then was in the final stage of a prolonged greenhouse epoch, and CO2 concentrations were on their way down.
This time, 400 ppm is a milepost on a far more rapid uphill climb toward an uncertain climate future.
The last time the concentration of CO2 was as high as 400 ppm was probably in the Pliocene Epoch, between 2.6 and 5.3 million years ago. Until the 20th century, it certainly hadn't exceeded 300 ppm, let alone 400 ppm, for at least 800,000 years**.
(**That's how far back scientists have been able to measure CO2 directly in bubbles of ancient air trapped in Antarctic ice cores.)
"What everything is telling you is that the system is very sensitive. The threshold for losing the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets is very close to where we are now."
Everything in the geologic record says we're very close. You don't need a lot of CO2.. you just need a little bit of warming, and it doesn't matter how you get it."
The Earth does not care how CO2 originates.. it reacts the exact same way irregardless of origin.
And... "it took between a thousand and a few thousand years to melt all or most of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets. The whole inter-glacial lasted 30,000 years, nearly three times as long as ours has lasted so far. So the warming had a long time to build up.
We've brought up our CO2 levels from 280ppm to 400ppm in the amazingly short span of less than 200 years... THAT's ACD!! ... (Anthropogenic Climate Disruption)
At 400 ppm, CO2 is much higher now, and it's still climbing fast. And
even if we could stop that rise tomorrow, the planet's temperature will still be climbing for (many decades, if not) centuries.
"For [us] personally that's the scary thing..
we really don't know what we've already committed ourselves to."... and we're still making it very much worse.
Why do climate deniers have such an impossible time accepting what 97% of all scientists have agreed upon?
The facts are undeniable. Sea levels and global temperatures are rising
(year after year is the hottest on record), glaciers are melting, and ice sheets are shrinking at unprecedented rates. CO2 levels have also shot up dramatically since the Industrial Revolution.
How is it possible to deny this overwhelming evidence that global warming is real and humans contribute to it?
For starters, many leaders and fossil fuel corporations.. (as well as their investors).. have a strong financial incentive to ignore (and obfuscate) facts.
But there are many other subtle reasons why people might turn a blind eye to research.
They seek out information that confirms their beliefs.. and ignore anything that challenges them.
At the core of climate change denial is the brain’s confirmation bias.. a natural tendency to seek and interpret facts in a way that confirms our pre-existing beliefs.
“Nobody wants to be wrong, and that elicits confirmation bias, which is when we seek out information that confirms that we believe to be true.” We believe what we choose and want to believe.
They don’t trust scientists, and listen instead to high-profile skeptics.
Add to this equation a distrust of experts and scientists (a psychological phenomenon known as “discredence”), and you’ve got a recipe for denial.
Climate change denial hit a six-year high in 2014, with 23% of Americans saying they do not believe in global warming, and 53% saying they do not believe global warming is human-caused.
This is likely due, in large part, to the influence of high-profile climate skeptics.
“Social scientists have documented that the public follows ‘elite cues’ when forming opinions on topics, especially those for which they don’t have a lot of information. So when Republican politicians and pundits, whose voices are amplified by conservative media figures, deny climate change, this readily filters down to party activists and eventually many lay Republicans.”
“A single exposure to a denial message significantly reduces subjects’ belief in and concern about climate change.. when issues become more politically polarized, there’s a greater gap between scientists and public opinion."
“In order to be in denial, we kind of need others to participate. So we need to recognize so much of what we’re looking at is a social process, not an individual issue.”
It’s easy for people to expose themselves only to beliefs that reinforce their own through media exposure and their own social networks, which may reinforce their views while shielding them from dissenters. This is also known as the “echo chamber” effect.
“The conservative echo chamber.. Fox News, talk radio, conservative columnists and bloggers.. combine to create a ‘bubble’ in which many committed Republicans live, and when it comes to scientific issues we find that they literally create an ‘alternative reality’ in which human-caused climate change is a hoax.
The problem is that this conservative worldview is deeply at odds with empirical reality.”
So does the science suggest any ways of combating denial?
Experts agree the best step forward may be to rally those who do understand the issue around potential solutions. After all, the debate has never really been about the science.
“It would be far more productive for all of us if we would have a national discussion about these differing belief systems, identifying where we disagree but, more importantly, identifying where we agree, and then try to govern in ways that effectively solve the problems we collectively face.”
The planet continues to heat up VERY fast.. the longer we wait to begin holding the line on increasing CO2 levels in our atmosphere.. the worse climate effects will still keep coming.
... our future...
Additional Note: ... as for those who unequivocally 'despise' the fossil fuel giants for the part they're playing in the ultimate destruction of most all existing life on the planet.. what must be said is we need lots more like them, waking up and getting on board.. feeling the exact same way.
Exxon Knew (do a search... they ALL did !!) about Climate Change almost 40 years ago.
All the fuel companies know fully what they're doing, and the havoc they are wreaking on the planet... AND THEY DON'T GIVE A DAMN !!.. PROFITS-GREED RULE!!
They should all be prosecuted for the greatest of crimes ever committed against humanity. But like Wall Street 'Masters-of-the-Universe,' little is being done, or likely will be done.. especially with the fossil-fuel loving cabal presently holding office.. (hell.. they ARE them!!).
And should their day of reckoning very soon not come.. only 'The Almighty' will then be able to save us.
