Will global warming solve itself?

[OldWiseGuy]

If the climate warms we will burn less fossil fuel for heating, vehicles will operate more efficiently, and longer growing seasons over a larger area will sequester more carbon. It looks likes the problem will actually solve itself.

 

[Armoured]

Ha. We've gone from "Global Warming isn't even happening" to, "well, maybe it is happening, but it's not our fault", and now, apparently, to "well it is our fault, but it will just fix itself". Anything to avoid "there is a real problem which requires corrective action that may be inconvenient in the short term".

 

[OldWiseGuy]

Ha. We've gone from "Global Warming isn't even happening" to, "well, maybe it is happening, but it's not our fault", and now, apparently, to "well it is our fault, but it will just fix itself". Anything to avoid "there is a real problem which requires corrective action that may be inconvenient in the short term".

Actually man-made global warming will correct itself......when mankind is dead and gone because of it.

 

[Armoured]

Actually man-made global warming will correct itself......when mankind is dead and gone because of it.

That is true. If, however, we make the informed choice that species suicide is preferable to lifestyle adjustment, I, personally, still think it would be nice if we rendered as few other species extinct as possible on the way out. Because although the climate would self correct eventually after humans are gone, that eventually is a long time, and we've already pushed many other species to the brink as it is. Those that aren't already gone.

Just IMHO.

 

[Chalnoth]

If the climate warms we will burn less fossil fuel for heating, vehicles will operate more efficiently, and longer growing seasons over a larger area will sequester more carbon. It looks likes the problem will actually solve itself.

Reducing the rate at which we put CO2 into the atmosphere will just slow the rate of increase in temperature. It won't fix the increase that has already occurred, or the increase that is already "baked-in" (essentially, once the greenhouse effect has been increased by some amount, it takes the planet a number of decades for a fair fraction of the temperature increase to occur, e.g. currently the amount of warming we've experienced is about 60% of what will eventually result from just the current levels of greenhouse gases).

The fundamental problem here is that it takes a long time for CO2 to work its way out of the atmosphere, generally many hundreds of years. So we really need to dramatically reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, and the sooner we do it the less damage there will be.

 

[Chalnoth]

Also, just to drive the point home: the fact that some of the effects of increases in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere take decades to appear means that by the time things have gotten bad enough that the current conditions make people stand up and say, "Okay, it's time to do something about this," things will continue to get worse for decades (if not longer), no matter how rapidly they work to halt more emissions.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

I think we will probably continue to make it worse in spite of our efforts to reverse it.

 

[Armoured]

I think we will probably continue to make it worse in spite of our efforts to reverse it.

The cynic in me agrees with you. Or, at least, thinks it will be "too little, too late"... but then I see all the houses around with solar panels, and the government loan programs to make solar panels affordable for everyone, and I hope...

But then there's another massive oil spill in an ecologically sensitive area and the hope passes.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

The cynic in me agrees with you. Or, at least, thinks it will be "too little, too late"... but then I see all the houses around with solar panels, and the government loan programs to make solar panels affordable for everyone, and I hope...

But then there's another massive oil spill in an ecologically sensitive area and the hope passes.

I live in one of the most 'enlightened' cities in the country and you have to search hard to find solar collectors on houses. In fact few new houses have any substantial roof surfaces oriented for solar collection. It's as if global warming was occurring everywhere except here.