What we’re doing now to the oceans alone has the potential to take down modern human civilization and probably a large percentage of species now on the planet, throw in everything else we do on a constant basis and the only real question that remains is how much longer we have…and I think it’s a lot less than most people are able to accept.
I agree, I don’t think CC is being alarmist, if anything he’s presenting what is a very scary and rapidly approaching future without us in clear and effective terms. IMO it’s far more responsible to do that than cheer on the oncoming collapse.
I love the newscaster who said, a few days ago, that there was no evidence of climate change right now in the U.S. because we have had a pretty average year so far - about the normal amount of rainfall and the normal temperatures. And he’s right, if you average the unseasonably warm dry weather in the western parts of the country with the extremely cold, wet weather we’ve had in the eastern parts of the country. Sort of like those who point out that the average wealth of the U.S. family is four million dollars. Ain’t statistics wonderful? :lol:
Occam
Skeptical Science has a great article on how deniers constantly use short term regression to the mean as “proof” that climate change isn’t happening, I’ll see if I can find it.
Basically it describes how the normal short term fluctuations in temperature, precipitation, ice cover and other things are cherry picked while ignoring the multi-decadal trends that clearly show that human driven climate change is underway. Ice pack in the Arctic is one key indicator and the overall volume of ice in the Arctic Ocean has decreased by about 75% in the last 30 years. Climate change deniers will take the fact that last years Arctic ice pack covered about 45% more area as the year before as proof of a cooling trend.
Here’s one on how Arctic Ice cover data is spun to back up deniers arguments.
edit- here it is.
Cherrypicking is the practice, widespread amongst climate change contrarians, of carefully selecting particular points in the noisy short-term climate datasets and using them to show 'trends' that are not representative of the true situation. The huge global surface air temperature spike that accompanied the monster El Nino of 1997-98 is thus chosen as the starting point for the "no warming in 17 15 16 years" that you may read in internet comment-threads below climate stories (the number varies, apparently at random, from commentator to commentator). This year we have seen the Arctic sea-ice melting season once again reported by contrarians as a recovery, although as the graph below, from the National Snow and Ice Data Center, clearly shows, there have been a number of 'recoveries' in previous years too. The long-term trend, as shown by the dotted trendline, is downwards.
I love the newscaster who said, . . .Now here's the weather-caster I love http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmfcJP_0eMc :cheese:
I love the newscaster who said, a few days ago, that there was no evidence of climate change right now in the U.S. because we have had a pretty average year so far - about the normal amount of rainfall and the normal temperatures. And he's right, if you average the unseasonably warm dry weather in the western parts of the country with the extremely cold, wet weather we've had in the eastern parts of the country. Sort of like those who point out that the average wealth of the U.S. family is four million dollars. Ain't statistics wonderful? :lol: OccamOr to put it another way, Tell a farmer that his drought and flood events have averaged out and he's doing fine. Or try convincing a fruit grower that the spring freak-freeze {while buds were developing} is compensated for by the heat wave during picking season.
These really are the Putin games.
The cost of mistakes is much greater when there are no rules to hold back the man in charge. Putin insisted the Games would be held at Sochi, a palm-tree laden summer resort at the same latitude as the French resort town of Nice. The Games had to be at Sochi because Putin’s favorite ski resort, Krasnaya Polyana is in the nearby mountains. Last year, World Cup events in the Sochi mountains had to be cancelled for lack of snow. Unlike Salt Lake City, Sochi was also bereft of the infrastructure necessary to support an event of this scale. Putin also went ahead with his pet project in spite of the proximity of the Islamist insurgency in the North Caucasus. Sochi is only 300 miles from Chechnya, about the distance from Boston to Philadelphia. It is only 185 miles from the less well-known Kabardino-Balkaria, site of 69 attacks from January through September of last year. Thankfully, there have been no incidents at the Games so far, although extreme security measures have driven up the cost and compromised the privacy of everyone attending the Games.
To limit government expenditure, Putin hoped to pass the Games’ costs on to the country’s top billionaires. Yet as the costs spiraled out of control, the state was soon using one of its own banks to loan the billionaires money to donate back to the government. It’s impossible to estimate how much costs have grown because of corruption. The owner of one construction publicly complained that he was still being harassed for additional bribes even after he had kicked back the agreed upon $50 million to a top Kremlin official. After the third Olympic chief was fired, the government opened up 27 separate criminal investigations into alleged embezzlement. Predictably, no one has been brought to trial.
The need for labor had drawn an estimated 16,000 migrant laborers to Sochi from surrounding countries. A lengthy report by Human Rights Watch recounted how many went unpaid for long periods while working 12-hour days, seven days a week, with only a day or two off per month. Dozens of workers shared a single-family home with a single bathroom. Those who complained were fired, or had their passports confiscated, or were deported. One man literally sewed his own mouth shut as a form of silent protest. Meanwhile, Aron notes, many of Sochi’s 335,000 residents had to endure months without running water and power outages that occurred almost daily as major construction went ahead with minimal regard for local well-being. At least 2,000 families were evicted to make way for the Games. While promising the “greenest Olympics ever", the government has shown consistent disregard to the environment. Thousands of hectares of forest were cut down in protected Sochi National Park, as well as in a nearby UNESCO World Heritage site. Predictably, critics of the despoliation are intimidated with arrests, trials, or similar abuses of power.
The same latitude as Nice? Still, higher than Salt Lake City. 
And although Sochi might have palm trees, nobody is actually skiing in Sochi. The easiness with which the American public can be brainwashed is simply astonishing. Though it’s nice to see both conservatives and democrats join the forces and share the same enemy for once. Ah, those Russians…
Fertility Decline?
Sounds like the perfect solution…
Yep, the final solution.
Watching the game, anyone? My tribe vs. yours. 
I love the newscaster who said, a few days ago, that there was no evidence of climate change right now in the U.S. because we have had a pretty average year so far - about the normal amount of rainfall and the normal temperatures. And he's right, if you average the unseasonably warm dry weather in the western parts of the country with the extremely cold, wet weather we've had in the eastern parts of the country. Sort of like those who point out that the average wealth of the U.S. family is four million dollars. Ain't statistics wonderful? :lol: OccamIf Bill Gates should drop into a Fourth Friday session, the average income of all the attendees would approach a billion dollars. Do you think we can kidnap him for an hour or two? Lois
Yeah, but we’d all be depressed at having our net worth drop back to almost nothing compared to what it was, after he left.
Of course, one of our friends there would have already donated her billion to Cuban hospitals. :lol:
Occam
Yeah, but we'd all be depressed at having our net worth drop back to almost nothing compared to what it was, after he left. Of course, one of our friends there would have already donated her billion to Cuban hospitals. :lol: OccamHa, indeed! Lois
The same latitude as Nice? Still, higher than Salt Lake City. ;-) And although Sochi might have palm trees, nobody is actually skiing in Sochi. The easiness with which the American public can be brainwashed is simply astonishing. Though it's nice to see both conservatives and democrats join the forces and share the same enemy for once. Ah, those Russians...There's a bit more to it than the latitude, such as the fact that the Putin games cost more than all previous Olympic winter games combined. Or that the Russian dominated government in the Ukraine is taking the opportunity to try and wipe out any opposition to the country returning to a satellite state of its much larger neighbour. The Olympics are as much marketing as they are genuine athletic competition and the host country gets a bit of a honeymoon from all those people going, "Wow, aren't the games wonderful!"
What does Ukraine have to do with any of this?
What does Ukraine have to do with any of this?Not much besides being at the center of Putin's desire to resurrect some key features of the Soviet Union such as political domination of the region. Just try Googling Putin and Ukraine and go from there. Here's one from CBC News today. http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/how-the-west-and-vladimir-putin-failed-ukraine-1.2543937
By 2004, the Russian president had dropped his early overtures to align Russia more closely with NATO and the U.S., and was set on creating an alternative Russian sphere of influence, in which Ukraine would be a key component. No democrat himself, Putin was nonetheless still popular at home and he had his administration tutor Yanukovych on how to fix an election. The fix was in, but it was inept. After the vote, Ukrainians of all stripes gathered at Maidan Square, and in 17 days of highly disciplined peaceful mass protest forced through a re-run of the election that Yuschenko finally won. That was the Orange Revolution. Kuchma had ordered his military commanders to use force on the protesters, but they refused to fire on fellow-citizens.The Games aren't just about sports as we've seen repeatedly through their history, for instance the 1936 games that were supposed to highlight Nazi superiority. This is a chance for Putin to appear as a responsible world leader as his toady in the Ukraine implements his agenda there.
And while there are undoubtedly some extreme nationalist elements involved in the protest, inclined to force the issue by a more violent insurgency, Yanukovych himself, having met with Putin in Sochi, seems similarly determined to save his regime by whatever means it takes.
Who knows, maybe Putin told Yanukovych to make the most of the distraction of the games.
Neither side would confirm what was discussed during the informal conversation during the opening ceremony in the Russian city of Sochi. Russia has frozen delivery of a $15bn (£9bn) bailout programme pending the formation of a new government in Kiev. Mass anti-government protests erupted in Ukraine in late November. Under pressure from Moscow, President Yanukovych had refused to sign a far-reaching association and trade agreement with the EU.http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/20/ukraine-crisis-obama-attacks-putin-over-russias-role
Barack Obama has sharply criticised Russian support for crackdowns in Ukraine and Syria, calling for a transitional government in Kiev and personally accusing Vladimir Putin of failing to respect basic freedoms in both countries. In his most explicit comments yet on alleged Kremlin involvement, the president used a press conference at the North American leaders’ summit in Mexico to warn against viewing the countries as a “cold war chessboard", insisting the US was “on the side of the people". “You have, in this situation, one country that has clearly been a client state of Russia, another whose government is currently being supported by Russia, where the people obviously have a very different view and vision for their country," said Obama. “I think this is an expression of the hopes and aspirations of people inside of Syria and people inside of the Ukraine who recognise that basic freedoms – freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, fair and free elections – are fundamental rights that everybody wants to enjoy."
All I see here is that you don’t like Putin. Really? Russia spent all the money on the Olympics in order to reconquer Ukraine? 
And for what it’s worth, I think Putin is okay. Kinda even like the guy.
All I see here is that you don't like Putin. Really? Russia spent all the money on the Olympics in order to reconquer Ukraine? :-) And for what it's worth, I think Putin is okay. Kinda even like the guy.kinda makes sense http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hk0HxDiEkIk :)
Eurasian history repeating itself once again.