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Original poster

Climate change

109 replies

PingPowKaPowWow · 23/07/2023 15:32

Stephen hawking says that if the polar ice caps melt (I think this means fully melt) then the resultant release of co2 would increase the climate to 250 degrees Celsius.

I am assuming this must be true. It was in his book, brief answers to the big questions, but the quote does not reference how this has been calculated, not what paper the fact is drawn from.

I had no idea that if the ice caps totally melt, the world would be entirely uninhabitable and basically dead. I feel like this needs to be more known about? It's the way he casually writes it.

Climate change
OP posts:
notol · 23/07/2023 16:20

Tech is not green or a saviour.

We need to go backwards. Which obviously doesn't really feel like an option.

Missingmyusername · 23/07/2023 16:17

PingPowKaPowWow · 23/07/2023 15:51

@Bananasandcorn if he is correct then these are the glory days, and humans probably don't have much longer on the earth. It's certainly sobering. It makes more sense that the billionaires are funnelling personal cash into space ex, and creating bunkers in places such as NZ.

Hawking says that humans can reverse all of this, and innovation is how it will be done. That children, as an aggregate, need to be more scientifically aware and minded in order to give humanity a fighting chance.

We are out of control. Our consumption is scary.

I’m at an all inclusive, mountains of food being wasted. Parents loading three year old kids plates with enough to feed an adult- if they don’t like it they just go and fill another plate. Same with drinks.

Plates filled with bread and salad for the table- like bloody ornaments.

Sheets, pool towels, washed daily.

How long have we got?
I’ll probably be dead, but I fear for my child’s future.

Daftasabroom · 23/07/2023 16:06

Olderandolder · 23/07/2023 15:34

I don’t know.

But the answer to a changing climate is innovation, not taxes, regulation and repression.

How do we pay for innovation (and the NHS and education etc)?

How do we ensure that there is a level playing field so companies can't take short cuts to make a quick buck?

Not sure what you mean by repression.

Bananasandcorn · 23/07/2023 15:59

No tech wont save us, simply not the time now. Too much Global warming is baked in.

If its as bad as almost all scientists say it will be, bit like a nuclear war, probably best not to survive it.

I think the film the Day the Earth Stood Still is a fair description of what we are like.

Original poster
PingPowKaPowWow · 23/07/2023 15:51

@Bananasandcorn if he is correct then these are the glory days, and humans probably don't have much longer on the earth. It's certainly sobering. It makes more sense that the billionaires are funnelling personal cash into space ex, and creating bunkers in places such as NZ.

Hawking says that humans can reverse all of this, and innovation is how it will be done. That children, as an aggregate, need to be more scientifically aware and minded in order to give humanity a fighting chance.

OP posts:
Bananasandcorn · 23/07/2023 15:45

i think humans are so arrogant that like King Canute, we will ignore the signs and warnings until there is nothing left.

there is zero sign we are doing anything at all to limit our effects on the climate, just talk and back patting on how well we ve done.

3dogsandarabbit · 23/07/2023 15:42

He says it COULD make our climate like that of Venus not that it will definitely happen although we should be taking climate change very seriously.

calmcoco · 23/07/2023 15:38

Climate change is a huge threat. I don't know enough to challenge or support what Hawking has written.

But I find it strange how people still wiffle on about how we 'can't afford' to do anything about climate change.

Olderandolder · 23/07/2023 15:34

I don’t know.

But the answer to a changing climate is innovation, not taxes, regulation and repression.

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