Climate Change Debate | Sir David King | Proposition (7/8)

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Thursday 2nd November 2017

The Motion: This House Believes Individual Apathy is the Greatest Threat to our Climate.

Sir David King closes the case for the proposition, as the seventh speaker of eight in the debate.

Motion Defeated.

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[alistairdarby]

“Those of us who understand the science, those of use who understand statistics, are being disempowered…”

Fascinating talk but this line basically explains the issue. It’s become about power. Who has the power to disseminate information. It’s not to suggest that false information should be given any credence, but when the public who aren’t university educated (the often silent majority) feel that the government are ignoring their needs (jobs/infrastructure etc) in favour of expert opinions guiding policy, which comes at a cost to them through taxation, they will push back. In this case, through ignoring science.

The solution would be (and this is hugely condescending), to make the public think that THEY have come up with the solutions. To make them feel their taxes are actually benefitting them through policy that they want. It would require a HUGE sleight of hand, and misdirection to fool so many people.

[Cspacecat]

CO2 is a greenhouse gas. That is it both absorbs and releases infrared photons. Once released, there is one chance in 41, 253 that infrared photon will continue within one degree in the same direction. This basically gives that photon a 50/50 chance of going either up or down. Since the oceans cover about 71% of the Earth, this gives that photon about a 35% chance of hitting a body of water. Infrared photons will not penetrate the surface, but will instead excite an H2O molecule causing evaporation. H2O is the primary greenhouse gas which prevents the Earth from having a climate like our moon. Consequently the more CO2 we put into the atmosphere, the more H2O gets into the atmosphere, the warmer the planet gets. This is how a 40% increase in CO2 caused a 7% increase in absolute humidity. The present increase in temperature due to this combination of additional H2O and CO2 into the atmosphere is approximately .9C at present. Because it takes a tremendous amount of time for the oceans to heat, it will take centuries for the Earth to reach temperature equilibrium. If we continue to inject CO2 into the atmosphere, that heating process will continue to accelerate.

[Excellentable]

Any idea why Elon Musk wasn’t at COP26, (maybe the spaceX thing?) regardless he would be a valuable head to help pick through the best green doable inventions.

[sfoster]

This is the man who claimed that Antarctica is likely to be the world's only habitable continent by the end of this century if global warming remains unchecked.

[ChiefCabioch]

Hurricanes are a normal weather event,