A very good, clear, well presented review of where we’re at… for those who dare look
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzUKPYw6UsA State of the Planet. Melting Ice, Rising Seas, and Shifting Shorelines Oceanographer and consultant John Englander http://www.johnenglander.net/bio-john-englander
This is about where we’re at and where we’re likely to be re: sea level rise. Sea level rise is a crucial part of the challenges created by AGW, but there are other parts, such as the social and economic challenges of climate changes in populated regions. And such as the, as yet, not fully known impact on the oceans and on the various life forms on Earth.
The bad news that he gives a very grounded and rational explanation for, is that sea levels will continue to rise, period.
The good news is that we could have, at least, a few hundred years* to adjust (for sea level rise), and we can still make changes now that can positively effect (or diminish the associated damage) for the future.
*The caveat being that the possibility of losing much of our coastal cities and seaports within our lifetimes, does exist. (He suggests there may be as much as a 30% chance that the ice shelf on the western coast of Antarctica will slide into the ocean, raising sea levels by another 6 feet. And that once this process begins, it will only take a decade.)
Another striking thing that I got from watching this video, was that all of Florida, most of Louisiana and Cuba, and many various other parts of the world that we have become accustomed to, will be underwater, sooner or later during the next few thousand years.
The State of the Planet is going to be the result of the State of Humanity.
I think education is a major issue. And I mean “education” not SCHOOLING.
Most of the talk that claims to be about education is really about making money on SCHOOLING.
I believe a National Recommended Reading List could be very useful for education to a lot of children that want to learn. A good book is better than a lot of our so called teachers.
The Tyranny of Words (1938) by Stuart Chase
I could have read that in high school but I never heard of it. This book is derived from the ideas of Alfred Korzybski who wrote Science and Sanity. I read that in my 20s. But many people admit that book is a difficult read.
But what we hear about these days is NLP, Neuro Linguistic Programming.
The funny thing is that NLP might not work on someone who understands General Semantics.
Some people want other people to be stupid so they can be manipulated with words. All you have to do is listen to some climate change deniers to tell they are talking that kind of bullshit.
So we can forget about fixing big problems if we don’t educate people to THINK.
psik
So we can forget about fixing big problems if we don’t educate people to THINK.I couldn't agree more Psikey but who do you think first taught those kids to read? Teachers. Who taught you? My mantra has always been " now that you know how to read, I'm going to teach you how to do the research". So now you may be able to think on your own. I also told them not to simply trust what you've been told but check on the veracity of the claim. In short, teachers should teach not just the material but how to be skeptics, how to verify what is claimed to be true. I even challenged them to check the Material I presented and a lot of them took me up on the challenge. This even bled over to discussions about religious philosophy, a touchy no-no subject to most. And there a many teachers in the field doing just this, just not enough yet. But I'm optimistic. Cap't Jack
I strongly agree about the importance of teachers, Jack, but parents are even more important at the very beginning. Even though my mother had only an eighth grade education, she started teaching me to read when I was about two and a half. Although she had no scientific education, she was never satisfied with anything that didn’t work the way she wanted it to, so she modified just about everything and often used things in ways that they weren’t designed for. I couldn’t help learning from her, and that gave me a big advantage as soon as I started school.
Occam
I strongly agree about the importance of teachers, Jack, but parents are even more important at the very beginning. Even though my mother had only an eighth grade education, she started teaching me to read when I was about two and a half. Although she had no scientific education, she was never satisfied with anything that didn’t work the way she wanted it to, so she modified just about everything and often used things in ways that they weren’t designed for. I couldn’t help learning from her, and that gave me a big advantage as soon as I started school.No one can disagree with the importance of parents who care to give their child a boost up on reading and positive behavior, especially in infancy up to early childhood. My parents had a high school education but always encouraged us to read. They were both readers too although my mother read only pop fiction. But it started us on a habit that lasted a lifetime. However this isn't the norm today, or actually hasn't been since I have been involved in education going back forty years now. Reading skills are low in this country due in part to parents who unlike ours don't emphasize reading (and writing) as a skill to be mastered. But, now with preschools opening up parents can send their 4 year olds off for basic skills that used to be taught in the home, if at all. And remember Occam that the whole family dynamic is changing e.g. It takes both parents to bring in enough money to provide for even a basic family whereas in the 50's only one income sufficed. Often parents have little extra time for their child's mental development and what time there is available is taken up by the electronic media. So, teachers are the fall back surrogate parents who not only encourage but teach the skills that our parents taught us. And it's becoming more complex as time passes with new state requirements to be met. Cap't Jack
My mother. I could read before I went to school. Then school was boring. It wasn't until I discovered science fiction that I liked reading. Catcher in the Rye? Give me a break. It was as though the reading assigned by school had no content. SF from the old days had science and engineering. Arthur C. Clarke used Plato to explain infra-red. psikSo we can forget about fixing big problems if we don’t educate people to THINK.I couldn't agree more Psikey but who do you think first taught those kids to read? Teachers. Who taught you?
My mother. I could read before I went to school. Then school was boring. It wasn’t until I discovered science fiction that I liked reading.So could I, basically. Then my teachers took it many steps further than Dick and Jane (if you happen to be a member of my generation) by encouraging me to read history. Read the Catcher in the Rye once, didn't see what all the fuss was about. I tackled William L. Schirer's book Rise and Fall of the Third Reich when I was a freshman, and in addition have always been a sci-FI fan. I read every Jules Verne book I could get hold of then on to H.G.Wells (The Time Machine is my all time favorite. I read it in 1960 then saw the movie, once again my all time favorite) and Robert Louis Stephenson and later to Azimov. It helped set the pattern of reading for fun and inspiration. My parents started the fire but my teachers fanned the flames until I was on my own. Now teachers are using sci-FI in the classroom and not just in science classes. Now with the use of technology e.g. Smartboards linked to the intent learning is a hellova lot more fun and inspirational since you sat in the classroom. Cap't Jack Cap't Jack
My parents started the fire but my teachers fanned the flames until I was on my own.I had to put up with nuns. One told me I would get into a good high school but I would not do well. One told my sister that science and religion didn't mix. Science fiction helped persuade me that my grade school teachers were idiots. In high school I only took math and science teachers seriously. I recently finished the books 1491 and 1493. They simply helped confirm my conclusion that history I got in school was propagandistic crap. But what do we encourage people to read to try to improve the future state of the planet? I think science fiction is mind expanding but mostly for young kids. The adults I discuss SF with mostly regard it as entertainment and don't even notice the scientific flaws in what they like and get annoyed if you point them out. The SF I see most often mentioned for kids is A Wrinkle in Time. I tried it but only got half way and don't regard it as SF. I find this state amazing considering this: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/sce.3730430106/abstract 1959? It seems that the Literary People have more influence on education. C. P. Snow put his finger on it. psik
My mother. I could read before I went to school.My one year older sister taught me. Then she became angry when I caught on and surpassed her skills...lol!
I had to put up with nuns. One told me I would get into a good high school but I would not do well. One told my sister that science and religion didn’t mix. Science fiction helped persuade me that my grade school teachers were idiots. In high school I only took math and science teachers seriously. I recently finished the books 1491 and 1493. They simply helped confirm my conclusion that I got in school was propagandistic crap.I've heard many cliche horror stories about parochial schools, even from George Carlin. Sounds like you lived them! And now I'm beginning to understand your resentment concerning education and your attitude concerning sci-FI in your posts. One of the major problems with parochical schools is their total dependence on tuition and the meager stipend from the Church. This limits their ability to provide a quality education for students, having limited technology, underpaid and barely educated staff, and a strict adherence to a religious dogma. I could go on (and on) but like Occam I like to keep my diatribes down to a paragraph or two. Now, over the past twenty years "religious schools" focusing on fundamentalist doctrines are popping up like mushrooms and begging for state money. The kids are exiting these schools barely educated and almost completely science ignorant (only a bare mention of evolution). I know, I've taught many whose parents ran out of money an were forced to, send their kids to pppppppuuuuubbbbliccc schools! Horrors! Needless to say their test scores were way below the norm. There were exceptions however. My daughter's best friend is a forensic scientist and works for the state police and she attended one of the more moderate Catholic schools and wasn't taught by nuns. On the books, yes they're very revealing, especially 1491. You discover that germ warfare pretty much wiped out whole nations. I' m aware that your using these as examples of self learning and I agree. I often quote Horace Mann "The man (woman) who graduates today and stops learning tomorrow, is uneducated the day after". If you don't carry on with learning then like anything else your knowledge stops and recedes. A typical primary and secondary ed. Is just a rung on the ladder. Cap't Jack
I've heard many cliche horror stories about parochial schools, even from George Carlin.ROFL I love that line: Bobby was a Catholic, and Billy WAS NOT! I discovered the ideas of atheism and agnosticism in SF books. I decided I was an agnostic at 12. It was rather strange going to school knowing that I would ignore a lot of what the adults had to say. But still have to put up with the rigmarole. Stand up, sit down, kneel down, genuflect, genuflect. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvhYqeGp_Do But the annoying thing is that the Catholic grade school was universally regarded as better than the public school in the neighborhood. That is why I find it so strange that the idea of a National Recommended Reading List hasn't been thought of and promoted since before I was a kid. But it would have a tendency to be egalitarian. I often think schools are part of the process of creating and maintaining class differentiation. Smart poor kids knowing the exact same books to read as rich unbright kids when traditionally the rich kids are not told the best books anyway.
My daughter’s best friend is a forensic scientist and works for the state police and she attended one of the more moderate Catholic schools and wasn’t taught by nuns.I think the nun drain started in the 70s. Not enough women bought into the delusion sufficiently for that degree of commitment. psik
On the original topic, the way he presented the information made me notice something I presumably already knew. I had not seen it presented this way before.
Under normal conditions we would be at the warm end of the ice age cycle and approaching the 80,000 year decline into the cold end of the ice age cycle. But putting massive amounts of CO2 into the air has essentially taken us off the normal cycle. We are going higher than the top of the traditional cycle and therefore in uncharted climate territory. The effect will probably be felt for thousands of years. Like he said, there is nothing we can do to refreeze what has already melted and the heat in the oceans will continue the melting for decades to come.
We have “Jumped the Shark!”
psik
One of the major problems with parochical schools is their total dependence on tuition and the meager stipend from the Church. This limits their ability to provide a quality education for students, having limited technology, underpaid and barely educated staff, and a strict adherence to a religious dogma. I could go on (and on) but like Occam I like to keep my diatribes down to a paragraph or two.A few weeks ago I checked the website of the Catholic high school I attended. The tuition is now $10,000 annually. How many parents can afford that especially if they have multiple kids in high school? But it did amaze me back in the day how much better the high school was than my grade school but then there were White kids at the high school too. I say we need a National Recommended Reading List. Probably more than one considering all of the different factions. But in the 60s it was like you had to read 10 books to find one that was really good, now it must be 30 or 40. And wade through digi-dreck on the Internet in addition to that. :lol: psik
Here is a book to consider for the reading list or perhaps as a textbook:
Feeling the Heat: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Climate Change, Jim Motavalli
Here is a book to consider for the reading list or perhaps as a textbook: Feeling the Heat: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Climate Change, Jim Motavallihttp://www.jimmotavalli.com/feeling-the-heat.html It's 10 years old. Should be ready for a 2nd edition. psik
A few weeks ago I checked the website of the Catholic high school I attended. The tuition is now $10,000 annually. How many parents can afford that especially if they have multiple kids in high school? But it did amaze me back in the day how much better the high school was than my grade school but then there were White kids at the high school too. I say we need a National Recommended Reading List. Probably more than one considering all of the different factions. But in the 60s it was like you had to read 10 books to find one that was really good, now it must be 30 or 40. And wade through digi-dreck on the Internet in addition to that.I know this is off topic but I'll reply here and get back to AGW next. Yea, the tuition has to go up just to maintain the school system and those who can will pay because parochical schools are reputed to have better discipline, a lower teacher-pupil ratio (one thing I never enjoyed BTW) and of course the emphasis on all things religious, you know morality and ethical behavior. As to white kids in the high school, I attended and taught at schools that were fully integrated, since the first grade, and that was 1954. Date ring a bell? Not a big fan of homogeneity. And yes I agree on a national recommended reading list but that would mean governmental indoctrination! And that leads to evolution and that means trouble right here in River City! But seriously, there are nationwide reading programs to encourage reading for students, it's called the AR program, (accelerated reading) and it's based on a point system. All students must accumulate a number of points per grade level and each book has a point value depending on content and length. It seems to be working well and also allows teachers to better gauge the amount of reading a student is doing at any given time. They also have to take a test based on the book and pass it before they are given the points. Also, any student may read above their grade level and receive the points for that book so if a 12year old wants to read say War and Peace then have at it! Cap't Jack
Ok, back at it. I listened to an NPR program the other day concerning global warming and a climatologist warned that the effects of AGW on the permafrost could lead to a dramatic spike in temp. , depending on how rapidly this occurs, that may ultimately result in the release of massive amounts of methane gas into the atmosphere. His estimation, if the trend continues is an eventual rise of 32 degrees and if that happens game over. Of course no one can be certain that the release will immediate or over a century but it will have a long term effect on the climate. Not sure whether or not models have been created for is scenerio but maybe CC knows something.
Cap’t Jack
If that happens, I’d guess that there will be two small tribes of humans, one at each pole. by the time the climate stablizes and goes back to livable in the rest of the world, they would probably have diverged into two separate species. Interesting idea.
Occam
If that happens, I’d guess that there will be two small tribes of humans, one at each pole. by the time the climate stablizes and goes back to livable in the rest of the world, they would probably have diverged into two separate species. Interesting idea. OccamYep, the Eloi and the Morlocks. And you know what will happen then! Cap't Jack