“It is five minutes to midnight. Two years ago, it appeared that world leaders might address the truly global threats that we face. In many cases, that trend has not continued or been reversed. For that reason, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is moving the clock hand one minute closer to midnight, back to its time in 2007.”
About climate change, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists says,
In fact, the global community may be near a point of no return in efforts to prevent catastrophe from changes in Earth’s atmosphere. The International Energy Agency projects that, unless societies begin building alternatives to carbon-emitting energy technologies over the next five years, the world is doomed to a warmer climate, harsher weather, droughts, famine, water scarcity, rising sea levels, loss of island nations, and increasing ocean acidification. Since fossil-fuel burning power plants and infrastructure built in 2012-2020 will produce energy — and emissions — for 40 to 50 years, the actions taken in the next few years will set us on a path that will be impossible to redirect. Even if policy leaders decide in the future to reduce reliance on carbon-emitting technologies, it will be too late.
Among the existing alternatives for producing base-load electricity with low carbon dioxide emissions is nuclear power. Russia, China, India, and South Korea will likely continue to construct plants, enrich fuel, and shape the global nuclear power industry.
Countries that had earlier signaled interest in building nuclear power capacity, such as Vietnam, United Arab Emirates, Turkey, and others, are still intent on acquiring civilian nuclear reactors for electricity despite the Fukushima disaster. However, a number of countries have renounced nuclear power, including Germany, Italy, and Switzerland. In Japan, only eight of 54 power plants currently operate because prefecture governors, responding to people’s opposition to nuclear power, have not allowed reactors back online. In the United States, increased costs of additional safety measures may make nuclear power too expensive to be a realistic alternative to natural gas and other fossil fuels.
The hopeful news is that alternatives to burning coal, oil, and uranium for energy continue to show promise. Solar and photovoltaic technologies are seeing reductions in price, wind turbines are being adopted for commercial electricity, and energy conservation and efficiency are becoming accepted as sources for industrial production and residential use. Many of these developments are taking place at municipal and local levels in countries around the world. In Haiti, for example, a nonprofit group is distributing solar-powered light bulbs to the poor. In Germany, a smart electrical grid is shifting solar-generated power to cloudy regions and wind power to becalmed areas. And in California, government is placing caps on carbon emissions that industry will meet. While not perfect, these technologies and practices hold substantial promise.
Yet, we are very concerned that the pace of change may not be adequate and that the transformation that seems to be on its way will not take place in time to meet the hardships that large-scale disruption of the climate portends. As we see it, the major challenge at the heart of humanity’s survival in the 21st century is how to meet energy needs for economic growth in developing and industrial countries without further damaging the climate, without exposing people to loss of health and community, and without risking further spread of nuclear weapons.
Read the BAS’ “Doomsday Clock moves to five minutes to midnight.”
Good point, Tobias. The Mayans are way ahead of these “scientists”.
This is much to the point: “Remember in the 1970′s with the dawn of the book: “The Population Bomb” ?”
What historical consciousness! Keep in mind that your enemy’s enemy might not be your friend.
I don’t have the facts before me, but I remember in the late 70s the “scientists” and establishment news media were predicting the workd would be out of oil by 2010-2015 and out of natural gas before 2000. Actually, Nostradamus was better at prediction than 20th and 21st century scientists.
When all of the hand-wringing stops and all of the doomsayers are spent the reality that AGW has been exploited for socialist style mass redistribution of wealth cannot be denied. Some of us, discerning enough to understand this, will never submit, never bow down to the false god of man made global warming. Climate has always and always will change, often times much more destructively than today’s mild anomalies. The warmist’s stubborn refusal to acknowledge this is testament to the evil this cult has wrought.
This news is the mother of shock and awe. Iran and N Korea will now simply replace those old stuffy bunkers with windmills and we’re saved, saved I tell you! My condolonces to the human shield herd that will now go extinct.
From Adam Smith in 1776: The annual produce of the land and labour of England, for example, is certainly much greater than it was, a little more than a century ago, at the restoration of Charles II. Though, at present, few people, I believe, doubt of this, yet during this period, five years have seldom passed away in which some book or pamphlet has not been published, written, too, with such abilities as to gain some authority with the public, and pretending to demonstrate that the wealth of the nation was fast declining, that the country was depopulated, agriculture neglected, manufactures decaying, and trade undone. Nor have these publications been all party pamphlets, the wretched offspring of falsehood and venality. Many of them have been written by very candid and very intelligent people, who wrote nothing but what they believed, and for no other reason but because they believed it.
The great thing about it is that nuclear weapons have a zero carbon footprint.
Yes Global warming is a hoax, but we can do more about taking care of our world without destroying our economy and losing everything that we all have worked for. We the people should decide what to do about it and not the global hoaxers who would much rather have us live in the Stone Age. The only reason they are all for this global warming crap, is because they invested all of their money in companies that can’t make anything that people would buy. So they are trying to scare, and force people in to buying all of their earth friendly “wink, wink” products, and so that they can make some type of profit on it.
Team Obama & his surrogates had to trump this up prior to the election so he can paint the GOP nominee as the one who destroys the world.
Myself, I went over to their Feedback page http://www.thebulletin.org/content/contact-us/feedback and suggested that they make some effort to look up what the overall pH of the oceans is now, before they embarrass themselves further.
Those overpopulation schemers are still at it and misquote demographers. They’re almost as popular as Global Warming.
Update: Not 9 billion by 2050 but a little around 8 billion by 2040 with rapid decline afterwards. Off topic, but I had to get this out there.
This whole thing is highly inaccurate. None of the things the describe have happened or have any possibility of happening. This whole diabtribe has nothing to do with science but everything to do with politics. Please, please, please, give us real science, not your subjective view of what “may” happen to our world.
That does it. I am convinced so we’re not going to drive our pickup truck or SUV ever again. We’ll destroy them for mankind! We will ride or drive our horses everywhere, stores, church, school drive-in movies, drive thru fast food, etc.
Oh, wait, horses breathe, exhale and fart that dangerous CO2 stuff. Okay, not good. So we’ll destroy them for the good of mankind. Oh, oh, all animals breathe, exhale and fart. Got to get rid of them so mankind can survive! Wait a minute buster, mankind breathes, exhales and farts also.
This is getting way too complicated.
Guess me and the wife, kids and grandkids will get into all of our various oversized vehicles, drive to a fancy restaurant and eat steaks, veggies and drink expensive wine for our last meal on this desolate planet.
Ooops, got to throw some hay to the horses, feed those dogs and cats before we go. Yippie Ki Ya you global warming dingbats!
I thought the Doomsday clock was counting down to Nuclear Armageddon??? What the hell does climate change have to do with it? A little slow in the atomic catastrophe biz so they have to moonlight a little?
No, Crash! No! Put *their* heads in the noose instead.
Somebody really should sue these data faking morons for fraud. It has been ten-years since the UN decided to impose a wealth redistribution tax on the West, to benefit Africa, disguised as a tax on carbon emissions as per the idiotic Greenhouse Radiation theory, now scientifically trashed and disproved by, Joseph E. Postma. (M.Sc. Astrophysics, Honours B.Sc. Astronomy) in his article, Understanding the Thermodynamic Atmosphere Effect, published March 2011.
“The conclusion of this article is very simple: there is no such thing as a radiative Theory of the Greenhouse Effect, not in real greenhouses, and certainly not in any planetary atmosphere known to man. The true role of the atmosphere, on Earth, is that it cools the ground, not warms it. Therefore, there is no such thing as Anthropogenic Global Warming or anthropogenic-CO2 induced climate change, because that supposition is based on the false Theory of the Greenhouse Effect. Any monetary expenditure or political debate on this issue can therefore stop. Now. Or, those can exist only in so far as they are directed to eradicate the false science.”
We all know that Nature produces thirty-two time the amount of CO2 than man. That in, In 85,799 molecules of air, only 33 are CO2. Nature supplies 32 of the 33, we supply 1, that if we took a mile high column of atmosphere and eliminated mankind and our emissions, the hight of the column would be reduced by a quarter of an inch.
We know that every scrap of evidence.to support anthropogenic global warming was deliberately faked, and the scare stories told by Al Gore, and Club of Rome were designed to stifle scientific protest.
Yet knowing this, we continue, like lemmings, to allow our Governments, to blatantly defraud us, to literally rob us using barefaced lies,
They stole our energy and next they will steal our freedom, until we are nothing but their meal tickets. Just what will it take to make us,, free sovereign men and women, to turn to our public servants and say,”No more, you will no longer dictate to us, we pay your wages, and you have betrayed us all.”
Of course many will choose to become debt slaves of the banks and corporations, rather than stand up and fight, to reclaim your freedom/
U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey
http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/earthwherewater.html
This site gives an estimate of the total global water that is contained in various states. Ocean water accounts for 96.5%, ice caps, glaciers, & permanent snow, 1.7% and the rest various locations. So about 2% of the worlds water is tied up as ice, etc. Therefore, if, as predicted by the climate change crowd, all the solid water were to melt, the most it could add to the ocean volume is 2%. Let’s say the average global difference between low tide and high tide is 15ft: therefore, the sea level rise at high tide would by about 4in.
No ocean front property for me, I guess.Another site with useful data is
http://climate.rutgers.edu/stateclim_v1/climreportcard/climate_report_card.html
This Rutgers research center claims, of course, that they need more funding to clearly demonstrate that NJ is warming. However, the massive information given in graph format demonstrates the opposite. Using weather stations with at least 85 years of data, it is clear that the warmest period is in the 1930’s and temperatures have been generally declining since.
And I thought global cooling was the problem:
1970 Earth Day Predictions
“We have about five more years at the outside to do something.” • Kenneth Watt, ecologist
“Civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind.” • George Wald, Harvard Biologist
“Population will inevitably and completely outstrip whatever small increases in food supplies we make. The death rate will increase until at least 100-200 million people per year will be starving to death during the next ten years.” • Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist
“By…[1975] some experts feel that food shortages will have escalated the present level of world hunger and starvation into famines of unbelievable proportions. Other experts, more optimistic, think the ultimate food-population collision will not occur until the decade of the 1980s.” • Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist
“It is already too late to avoid mass starvation.” • Denis Hayes, chief organizer for Earth Day
“Demographers agree almost unanimously on the following grim timetable: by 1975 widespread famines will begin in India; these will spread by 1990 to include all of India, Pakistan, China and the Near East, Africa. By the year 2000, or conceivably sooner, South and Central America will exist under famine conditions….By the year 2000, thirty years from now, the entire world, with the exception of Western Europe, North America, and Australia, will be in famine.” • Peter Gunter, professor, North Texas State University
“Scientists have solid experimental and theoretical evidence to support…the following predictions: In a decade, urban dwellers will have to wear gas masks to survive air pollution…by 1985 air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching earth by one half….” • Life Magazine, January 1970
“At the present rate of nitrogen buildup, it’s only a matter of time before light will be filtered out of the atmosphere and none of our land will be usable.” • Kenneth Watt, Ecologist
“Air pollution…is certainly going to take hundreds of thousands of lives in the next few years alone.” • Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist “By the year 2000, if present trends continue, we will be using up crude oil at such a rate…that there won’t be any more crude oil. You’ll drive up to the pump and say, `Fill ‘ER up, buddy,’ and he’ll say, `I am very sorry, there isn’t any.’” • Kenneth Watt, Ecologist
“Dr. S. Dillon Ripley, secretary of the Smithsonian Institute, believes that in 25 years, somewhere between 75 and 80 percent of all the species of living animals will be extinct.” • Sen. Gaylord Nelson
“The world has been chilling sharply for about twenty years. If present trends continue, the world will be about four degrees colder for the global mean temperature in 1990, but eleven degrees colder in the year 2000. This is about twice what it would take to put us into an ice age.” • Kenneth Watt, Ecologist
IPCC says:Summary for Policy Makers:
Projected changes in climate extremes under different emissions scenarios generally do not strongly diverge in the coming two to three decades, but these signals are relatively small compared to natural climate variability over this time frame. Even the sign of projected changes in some climate extremes over this time frame is uncertain. For projected changes by the end of the 21st century, either model uncertainty or uncertainties associated with emissions scenarios used becomes dominant, depending on the extreme. Low-probability high-impact changes associated with the crossing of poorly understood climate thresholds cannot be excluded, given the transient and complex nature of the climate system.
Like many political statements, the “clock” oversimplifies the situation, even if it is correct. The risk during the cold war was between two possibilities: 1. there would be an atomic war if we carried on being armed with atomic weapons, and 2., there would be an atomic war when the USSR attacked us when we gave up atomic weapons. The clock showed only one of these possibilities. There should have been another clock with its arms pointing to high noon for the case where we unilaterally gave up atomic weapons. This policy would certainly have lead to our destruction and to atomic war.
The Atomic Scientist’s clock was naive in not recognising the second possibility. MAD was horrible, but it was the only possible policy that would give us an excellent chance of survival.
Similarly, the global warming clock oversimplifies. The cost of prevention of carbon release will destroy our economy and may not even reduce global warming. We would be in the worst of all possible worlds. We need another clock showing the risk of economic destruction.
It is amazing how evil people and organizations tend to cloak themselves as looking out for mankind and/ or the planet. I believe deep down, they all hate themselves and mankind, otherwise why would they be cutting their own standard of living, not to mention all the third worlders who will never get decent food or shelter.
neonbuzzin is right! We’ve got to raise the level of hysteria as quickly as we possibly can. I would also suggest burning down the personal residences of all executives who work for a coal fired power plant. We could also mount a campaign to take out all gasoline stations in our local communities. We must stop driving these pollution machines we call automobiles right now! Why wait for electric cars that can be recharged with the free electricity that’s supplied by our local solar companies who have decided to build their businesses around the concept of ‘love for Mother Earth’ instead of that EVIL PROFIT MOTIVE! Death to anyone who owns stock in a power company!
I’m sorry for the rant, really. I’ve just had it with the ‘warmies’… in fact, they make me sick to my stomach!
The doomsday clock for nuclear war was, at one time, at one minute to midnight and nothing happened. Mankind was also not placed on the endangered species list despite the doomsday clock’s prediction.
Good post Steve, and I’d also have to agree with everyone who has responded here. The AGW scare has just about run it’s course. People are becoming hip to the fraud that’s been going on for the past couple of decades. The “scientists” who have been micro-managing this “catastrophe” for these past several years have been finding it increasingly difficult to find new funding for their various areas of ‘climate expertise’ (read as fraud) that the true scientific community is finally being heard from. It’s ALWAYS about the money, isn’t it? Scammers will always go where the money is… just like politicians and used car salesmen. Please let me take a moment to apologize to the used car salesmen. At least they’re trying to EARN their living!
I’m confused. How does the Doomsday clock coincide with the Mayan Calendar? And are we on local or Greenwich mean time
NeoBuzzin The idea is to empty your pockets, remove your brain and listen to the voices in your head telling you what to do. Mainly give these “scientists” your money. Give WWF Give IPCC and give till it hurts, and dont forget, give what money you were going to give your children when you die, to those who are doing their utmost to save the world. Chicken little is already dead. Er its not our problem really. This is our problem
FITNESS FOR USE Definition: Effectiveness of a design, manufacturing method, and support process employed in delivering a good, system, or service that fits a customer’s defined purpose, under anticipated or specified operational conditions.”
This must include affordability of the product.
“Industry is more than willing to risk research dollars on technologies that show real promise, but it is not willing to flush shareholder money down a rat hole. Politicians, however, operate from different incentives. When a crisis, real or imagined, makes headlines, they want voters to see them doing “something” about it, and they must move quickly because election cycles and constituent attention spans are short. Funding long-term research in promising technologies is not sufficient to meet politicians’ needs. Solar panels, wind turbines, and ethanol refineries are all current technology, and can be erected quickly with fanfare and photo-ops. By the time these alternative power sources prove to be financial (or not) and, possibly, environmental busts, the politicians will have been re-elected and voters’ attention will have shifted to the next crisis.
You’re exactly right. Remember in the 1970’s with the dawn of the book: “The Population Bomb” ? People thought the world was overpopulating and a great scare tactic was created. Of course, people didn’t know the truth. Now we’re suffering a birth-dearth and no one wants to reverse it. See how damaging scare tactics are? AGW is no different.
Global Warming is a hoax
The Atomic Scientists have diddled their clock back and forth across the ten-minutes-to-midnight mark for the past half century. As far as I am concerned, ten minutes on the Atomic Scientists’ clock corresponds to at least 3,000 real-world years. Talk about having absolutely no credibility. Anybody who has spent any actual adrenaline on this clock since 1962 probably also answers emails from millionaire Nigerian widows. Yawn!
Obviously the Doomsday Clock is very defective. I guess all that solar and wind power aren’t enough to move it. That should give people a clue. The mere fact that so-called scientists have anything to do with this scare tactic (and a poor one at the) should tell you that they aren’t interested in “science.” We’ve seen articles like this for the past 30 years. Deadlines have come and gone. Anyone willing to bet that in 5 years, after having done nothing different, that these scientists will proclaim that the “window of opportunity” is now lost and no matter what, we are doomed?
The obvious solution is for all of us to become hysterical and run around the streets screaming with our eyes bulging from their sockets.
Oh, blimey. Somebody hold my stool while I put my head in this noose.