AMOC Collapse and gardening

Posts

• Fire Posts: 19,096

  10 February edited 10 February

  A good question. Someone will arrive shortly to tell you that it's nothing to do with them, they don't care and it's not their responsibilty to do anything at all. They will start in on 'whataboutery'.

  
  

  https://www.watchthisspace.uk/what-do-we-do-about-all-this-whataboutery/
  

  
  

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• Stulti Posts: 90

  11 February

  I was unable to gain access to the Washington Post’s article, but I have seen something about this subject in other publications. This one for example:
  
  https://www.newscientist.com/article/2416631-atlantic-current-shutdown-is-a-real-danger-suggests-simulation/
  
  
  

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• punkdoc Posts: 15,039

  11 February

  Reading the New Scientist article, I am left with the impression that this is almost totally guess work. Yes, it will be a disaster if it happens, but we really have no idea how likely it is, and if we are honest, we are probably past the point where we can do anything about it.

  How can you lie there and think of England
  When you don't even know who's in the team
  
  S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border

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• Lizzie27 Posts: 12,494

  11 February

  Very sensible viewpoint @punkdoc.

  North East Somerset - Clay soil over limestone

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• barry island Posts: 1,847

  11 February

  I'm no scientist and don't pretend to understand the ins and outs of this argument but I have watched a you tube video by the German Physicist Sabine Hossenfelder where she seems to to say that the collapse of the Gulf Stream is an impossibility. If you care to check her youtube channel out you can search for Sabine Hossenfelder, Climate change won't stop the gulf stream. Here's why.
  
  
  
  
  

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• Ceres Posts: 2,698

  11 February

  We are like ants on a bowling ball. Not one of us has the power to alter what is going to happen. As to climate change......we have been warned about this for decades and yet I don't notice many people altering their way of life or ignoring the blandishments of the admen. We are promised a solution if we will only switch to green transport, and we can still magically fly away on holiday if someone plants a tree for us. In order to influence anything, it requires every person on the planet to seriously think about the way they are living and to do something positive to change for the better. That is never going to happen. We can pick around the edges of all this and recycle our plastic bags, for all the good that is doing at present, but until we all agree to use less, to give up our luxuries, to stop looking on a holiday as a right, and to look at the problem of overpopulation, then the Atlantic thing and every other possible disaster is just something we will have to suck up and deal with.
  

  Looked at logically, humans are an invasive species who have done more damage to the earth than any other creature. If our rape of the planet has led to warming seas and the possibility of climate disaster then we have only our greed to blame.

  Is that too political?
  

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• KT53 Posts: 9,016

  11 February

  The big problem with the climate change discussion is that everybody has their own theory, and agenda, about its likely effects.  Some have a doomsday scenario whilst others say there obviously is a change in the climate but how bad it will be is not known, or knowable.

  Climate models are put together by people, and people put in the data which the models work on.  Just last week on the BBC Weather, two very different scenarios were shown for the weather pattern just a few days hence.  If the models can't agree on the very short term, the long term really is just a guess.
  

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• Fire Posts: 19,096

  11 February

  "It's only climate modelling" is a pretty standard shrug reponse in the playbook of people who aren't very fussed and plan to make no changes to their own lives.
  

  
  

  
  

  One thing I would like to see now is for people to quit moaning about 'cold summers' and too much rain. We only have the temperate advantages we have in the UK because the gulf stream is protecting us. If it moves or other climate changes hit we will "miss it when it's gone" and will hanker for the mild climate of yesteryear. Can we enjoy what we have while we have it?  We don't have much of -20C or +40C, no volcanoes, earthquakes, hurricanes or desertification. Can we take care of and protect what we have ?
  

  
  

  
  

  https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jul/25/gulf-stream-could-collapse-as-early-as-2025-study-suggests
  

  
  
  
  

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• punkdoc Posts: 15,039

  11 February

  IF, the gulf stream could collapse as early as 2025, then there is certainly nothing we can do.
  I believe in climate change, and I do what I can, but gulf stream collapse is not regarded as at all likely by many of the scientists, and I need to get on and live my life.

  How can you lie there and think of England
  When you don't even know who's in the team
  
  S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border

  0
• ViewAhead Posts: 866

  11 February

  I am wholly in favour of reduced consumerism.  We need a totally different way of looking at economics.  Growth is unsustainable on a planet with finite resources.  However, the growth mantra greatly favours the richest, hence its relentless push by govs reliant on wealthy donors and backers.  

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