Global Warming

[Articulate_and_Analytical]

Svante Arrhenius, in 1896, was the first to use basic principles of physical chemistry to calculate estimates of the extent to which increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) will increase Earth's surface temperature through the greenhouse effect. These calculations led him to conclude that human-caused CO2 emissions, from fossil-fuel burning and other combustion processes, are large enough to cause global warming. This conclusion has been extensively tested, winning a place at the core of modern climate science.

In the 1890's it was considered a beneficial thing that humans could heat up the planet by burning fossil fuels. However, some seventy years later, the outlook had changed.

By the 1960's government scientists were warning the White House that not only were humans warming the planet by burning fossil fuels, but that such warming could have disastrous consequences for human beings.

By the 1970's and 1980's, oil company scientists were warning the CEOs of major oil companies that the burning of fossil fuels was rapidly warming the planet and that such warming could have disastrous consequences for human beings.

Curiously, this scientific information was not shared with the general public. In fact, the oil companies began to fund campaigns to discredit scientists and spread disinformation. And for the past thirty years, most of the people who have attempted to climate censor scientists, harass climate scientists or to refute the reality of human-caused CO2 emissions heating the planet, have been financed by the oil companies in one way or another.

So, for thirty years or more, the oil companies have been the enemies of science, fighting a war against climate scientists by financing cat’s paws to do their dirty work. People like Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Donald Trump, Scott Pruitt, Ken Cuccinelli, James Inhofe and Rick Scott have called scientists “idiots”, claimed that Global Warming is a “faddish idea” that never would have occurred to anyone twenty years ago, that Global Warming is “a hoax”

The oil companies have known for decades that carbon emissions from their products would heat up the planet and cause flooding, drought, higher tides, more powerful storms, coastal erosion, melting permafrost and other problems, yet they spent millions of dollars trying to cover up the truth, silence the truth-tellers and confuse the public.

Rising ocean levels, disappearing coastlines, higher tides, hotter temperatures, longer hurricane seasons and melting permafrost are already causing billions of dollars of damage to the United States. In Florida, ocean water is leaking into the aquifers and contaminating drinking water due to rising ocean levels. In Alaska, roads, businesses and people's homes are sinking into the ground as the permafrost they were built on melts.

And in a stunning act of hubris, oil companies in Texas are asking the government to pay for miles of coastal floodwalls, steel levees and concrete seawalls to protect their petrochemical facilities from the higher tides and more powerful storms that are being caused by Global Warming…..even as they continue to fund and orchestrate a movement to deny that Global Warming actually exists.

Can you believe the arrogance? They want the American taxpayer to spend millions of dollars to protect their property from the effects of Global Warming, all the while insisting that Global Warming is some sort of myth!

 

[allison22]

So, for thirty years or more, the oil companies have been the enemies of science, fighting a war against climate scientists by financing cat’s paws to do their dirty work. People like Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Donald Trump, Scott Pruitt, Ken Cuccinelli, James Inhofe and Rick Scott have called scientists “idiots”, claimed that Global Warming is a “faddish idea” that never would have occurred to anyone twenty years ago, that Global Warming is “a hoax”

It was Ann Coulter who said that global warming was a faddish idea that wouldn't have occurred to anyone 20 years ago. However, the idea had occurred to Svante Arrhenius 122 years ago, Ann has lost all credibility on the subject.

 

[allison22]

So, for thirty years or more, the oil companies have been the enemies of science, fighting a war against climate scientists by financing cat’s paws to do their dirty work. People like Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Donald Trump, Scott Pruitt, Ken Cuccinelli, James Inhofe and Rick Scott have called scientists “idiots”, claimed that Global Warming is a “faddish idea” that never would have occurred to anyone twenty years ago, that Global Warming is “a hoax”

It was Ann Coulter who said that global warming was a faddish idea that wouldn't have occurred to anyone 20 years ago. However, the idea had occurred to Svante Arrhenius 122 years ago, so Ann has lost all credibility on the subject.

 

[Ziggins]

It was Ann Coulter who said that global warming was a faddish idea that wouldn't have occurred to anyone 20 years ago. However, the idea had occurred to Svante Arrhenius 122 years ago, Ann has lost all credibility on the subject.

Then her book sales and speaking fees would be zero. Spouting gibberish on cable news is still enough cred to keep a career going.

 

[Schlank]

By the 1970's and 1980's, oil company scientists were warning the CEOs of major oil companies that the burning of fossil fuels was rapidly warming the planet and that such warming could have disastrous consequences for human beings.

Curiously, this scientific information was not shared with the general public. In fact, the oil companies began to fund campaigns to discredit scientists and spread disinformation. And for the past thirty years, most of the people who have attempted to climate censor scientists, harass climate scientists or to refute the reality of human-caused CO2 emissions heating the planet, have been financed by the oil companies in one way or another.

So, for thirty years or more, the oil companies have been the enemies of science, fighting a war against climate scientists by financing cat’s paws to do their dirty work. People like Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Donald Trump, Scott Pruitt, Ken Cuccinelli, James Inhofe and Rick Scott have called scientists “idiots”, claimed that Global Warming is a “faddish idea” that never would have occurred to anyone twenty years ago, that Global Warming is “a hoax”

The oil companies have known for decades that carbon emissions from their products would heat up the planet and cause flooding, drought, higher tides, more powerful storms, coastal erosion, melting permafrost and other problems, yet they spent millions of dollars trying to cover up the truth, silence the truth-tellers and confuse the public.

Rising ocean levels, disappearing coastlines, higher tides, hotter temperatures, longer hurricane seasons and melting permafrost are already causing billions of dollars of damage to the United States. In Florida, ocean water is leaking into the aquifers and contaminating drinking water due to rising ocean levels. In Alaska, roads, businesses and people's homes are sinking into the ground as the permafrost they were built on melts.

And in a stunning act of hubris, oil companies in Texas are asking the government to pay for miles of coastal floodwalls, steel levees and concrete seawalls to protect their petrochemical facilities from the higher tides and more powerful storms that are being caused by Global Warming…..even as they continue to fund and orchestrate a movement to deny that Global Warming actually exists.

Can you believe the arrogance? They want the American taxpayer to spend millions of dollars to protect their property from the effects of Global Warming, all the while insisting that Global Warming is some sort of myth!

This is a familiar trend when it comes to the oil industry.

The oil companies knew decades ago that leaded gasoline was a potent neurotoxin and a severe threat to the health of the American people, yet they spent decades lying to us, telling us that fumes from burning leaded gasoline were perfectly harmless.

For more than four decades, all scientific research regarding the health implications of leaded gasoline were underwritten and controlled by the original lead cabal–Du Pont, GM and Standard Oil; such research invariably favored the industry’s pro-lead views, but was from the outset fatally flawed; independent scientists who would finally catch up with the earlier work’s infirmities and debunk them were–and continue to be–threatened and defamed by the lead interests and their hired hands.

From the very beginning, the leaders of Big Oil knew that lead was a deadly poison. The scientific data had confirmed this early on, and even employees of the oil industry died from lead poisoning. The oil CEOs could have, and should have kept lead from ever being added to the fuel that they sold, however, rather than take the responsible approach, the oil barons paid regulators, attorney generals, congressmen, senators and other government authorities to help cover up the truth about the toxic threat that their lead-based fuels posed.

Thousands of Americans died from lead poisoning every year from breathing in lead fumes from the products made by oil giants such as Dupont, GM and Standard Oil, yet scientists were harassed, intimidated and hounded if they dared speak of it. Science wasn’t as important as corporate profits. The lives of the American people weren’t as important as a corporate agenda, thus it was decided that the oil industry would have an antagonistic relationship with America’s scientists. The oil industry would do everything in its power to muddy the waters, fund pseudo-science and discredit real scientists.

Now, bearing in mind that the oil companies spent decades lying to us about lead poisoning and the dangers of breathing in lead fumes, and decades trying to harass and intimidate scientists into silence, and decades funding pseudo-science that was used to deceive the public, why would anybody believe that the oil companies are telling the truth about global climate change now?

 

[BabyBoomer50s]

Over the past century, there has been a 99% decline in the death toll from natural disasters, during the same period that the global population quadrupled.

While global economic losses from weather and climate disasters have been increasing, this is caused by increasing population and property in vulnerable locations. Global weather losses as a percent of global GDP have declined about 30% since 1990.

While the IPCC has estimated that sea level could rise by 0.6 meters by 2100, recall that the Netherlands adapted to living below sea level 400 years ago.

Crop yields continue to increase globally, surpassing what is needed to feed the world. Agricultural technology matters more than climate.

The proportion of world population living in extreme poverty declined from 36% in 1990 to 10% in 2015.

 

[Jesus_Ateo]

Great investigative reporting at places like the LA Times, the Pulitzer Prize–winning website InsideClimate News, and the Columbia journalism school revealed over the last few years that the fossil-fuel industry knew everything there was to know about climate change back in the 1980's. And they believed what their scientists were telling them. Exxon started building all its drilling rigs to compensate for the rise in sea level it knew was coming.

But of course the thing they didn’t do was tell any of the rest of us. Just the opposite. They’ve spent billions of dollars building the architecture of deceit and denial and disinformation that has spread with relentless efficiency the lie that science was unsure about climate change. And you can measure the results of that lie by the fact that the man in the White House right now believes that climate change is a hoax manufactured by the Chinese. That’s a view so delusional that, if someone started muttering it to you seated on a public bus, you’d get up and change seats.

So that’s where we are. We’ve had a 30-year completely phony debate about whether global warming was real, a debate that both sides knew the answer to when it began. It’s just that one of them was content to lie about it in an effort to preserve its business model.

 

[BabyBoomer50s]

This is not a binary issue where one either believes in anthropogenic warming or not. All credentialed climate scientists, including those often called “deniers”, recognize that human activity impacts climate. There is no debate that land use and CO2 emission affect climate. The greenhouse effect is not a matter of debate.

The debate is over hysterical claims that human activity has caused an “existential crisis.” The fact is the relationship between greenhouse gasses and extreme weather events is poorly understood. The relationship between GHGs and sea level is poorly understood. The metrics used to measure past and present climate in different regions are highly controversial. The predictive models have been notoriously flawed and remain highly controversial. Even predictions of future GHG emissions are flawed. And impact of natural forces such as sun spots remain poorly understood. The benefits of climate change, human caused or natural, are almost never discussed.

Journalists, teenagers, politicians, and celebrities are poorly equipped to bloviate on scientific matters. Review the scientific literature for yourself. You’ll sleep better at night.

 

[Schlank]

City officials in Annapolis, Md., filed a lawsuit Monday accusing 26 companies including Exxon, Shell, and the American Petroleum Institute of failing to warn state officials about the dangers posed by man-made climate change.

The lawsuit, filed in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court, alleges that the named companies knew "for decades that climate change impacts could be catastrophic, and that only a narrow window existed to take action before the consequences would be irreversible," yet failed to warn relevant state officials.

The city's legal filing goes on to allege that as a direct result of the companies failing to warn about the effects of widespread fossil fuel usage, Annapolis "suffered and will continue to suffer severe injuries, including, but not limited to: inundation and loss of City property; inundation of historic properties, private property, and businesses, with associated loss of tax revenue; injury or destruction of City-owned or -operated infrastructure critical for operations and utility services," among other damages.

“This lawsuit is all about accountability and determining who should pay the high costs of dealing with climate change,” the city's mayor, Gavin Buckley (D), said in a statement. “Annapolis residents and businesses pay the price for the damage inflicted on our infrastructure due to increased flooding caused by sea level rise. Fossil fuel companies knew the danger, concealed their knowledge, and reaped the profits. It is time we held them accountable."

Annapolis's lawsuit follows similar efforts by cities including Baltimore, whose attorneys are currently fighting at the Supreme Court over whether fossil fuel companies can be held accountable for the financial costs of addressing storm damage and other issues linked by scientists to a changing climate.

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-e...-26-oil-and-gas-firms-alleging-they-concealed

 

[Schlank]

Maryland as a whole has faced a number of issues related to climate change in recent years.

This has included worsening levels of flooding in historic Ellicott City that damaged business on the city's Main Street in 2018. Annapolis itself also faces its own flooding issues that have only grown worse in recent years.

 

[Pee4Fun]

The idiots who refuse to believe in climate change will see the light. Or, their children and children's children will. Eventually everyone will believe in climate change. Some experts have predicted that the central valley of California will become a desert by the end of this century. And, when there are literally millions of refugees fleeing their coastal homes...all will believe!

The floods, severe hurricanes, and wild fires that we see now are like a picnic compared to what will definitely happen. It's really too late to avoid catastrophe now, according to most scientists. We're about 25 years too late.

Yesterday, it was 54 F. in Detroit. I've not seen this before in February. To all the morons out there who have not evolved enough to believe in science...keep on drilling!

 

[phrodeau]

https://data.globalchange.gov/report/indicator-billion-dollar-disasters-2020

Go to this site to see the number of disasters that have hit the US which have cost a billion dollars or more, adjusted for inflation.

The average between 1980 and 2019 is 6.6 per year.

The record number set in 2011 of 16 events was matched in 2017.

https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/billions/

There were 22 events in 2020.

 

[Fuzzy1975]

https://data.globalchange.gov/report/indicator-billion-dollar-disasters-2020

Go to this site to see the number of disasters that have hit the US which have cost a billion dollars or more, adjusted for inflation.

The average between 1980 and 2019 is 6.6 per year.

The record number set in 2011 of 16 events was matched in 2017.

https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/billions/

There were 22 events in 2020.

They should also check out the documents showing insurance companies history of rates. ( and future rate forecasts)

That is much better barometer of these "events"....

 

[WillJ8787]

They should also check out the documents showing insurance companies history of rates. ( and future rate forecasts)

That is much better barometer of these "events"....

Yes, this is correct. Back in the day, my parents owned a two story house on a barrier island in what became a very popular shore town.

The house was first on its block when built and eventually the island was built up for miles heading south. Sold it in 1980 just as insurance rates started to climb.

$300 per year for insurance in 1980
Same house in 2020...$25,000 per year and no mortgage if you don't have insurance....you would have to buy it with cash.

 

[allison22]

In a first-of-its-kind ruling, a Dutch court found that Shell is partially responsible for climate change, and ordered the company to sharply reduce its carbon emissions. Hours later in the U.S., an activist investor won at least two seats on Exxon’s board, a historic defeat for the oil giant that will likely require it to alter its fossil-fuel focused strategy.

The back-to-back, watershed decisions demonstrated how dramatically the landscape is shifting for oil-and-gas companies as they face increasing pressure from environmentalists, investors, lenders, politicians and regulators to transition to cleaner forms of energy.

“The events of today show definitively that many leaders in the oil-and-gas industry have a tin ear and do not understand that society’s views and the legal and political environment in which they operate are changing radically,” said Amy Myers Jaffe, a professor at Tufts University’s Fletcher School who has advised energy companies.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/oil-gi...ate-change-as-pressures-intensify-11622065455