WinterWxLuvr

Sorry, no they don't. That second article is just a summary of the first article.

 

Neither Stephen Hawking nor Bill Gates are experts in Artificial Intelligence. But even ignoring that, this is not something society should be concerned with at the moment. There is almost an infinate number of things that could change that would make their prediction never happen. The "warning" they are giving has been around since the 1950s. As of yet, none of those predictions have come true. I do believe that one day there will be robots that look and act human walking among us, but that day is very, very far away. The time that HAL from the movie 2001 or the Terminator exist is much farther in the future than that.

 

What I do know is that continuing to pump CO2 into the atmosphere will result in changes to the environment that are harmful to our society. Those changes will be more disruptive, cost more, and happen long begore the threat of robots taking over the earth. If you want something to be concerned about that is within our current event horizon, climate change is it.

But you are?

We were talking about economic revolution, but I suppose that's just too abstract for you to handle.

I disagree. Who will be programming those "humanless" financial advisors? Who will build the robots? Who will program the robots? Who will repair and upgrade the robots? Who will design next year's version of the robot/software/etc?

Even discounting all of that, the economy will invent and require new jobs that we haven't even thought of. 100 years ago, who ever thought there would be such a job as a "web programmer?" Or a "software programmer?" Of course, the demand for horse-drawn carriages has subsided dramatically since then, too. So there will always be jobs, they will just be different. Just like there always has been. People will still be able to aquire wealth and the incentive to do such that implies.

Global warming, in the long run, is a net negative for humans and most animals. Our advanced society has existed only in the climate we are experiencing today. Our cities, transportation, and farming practices are finely honed to work in this climate. Major disruptions will only make these less efficient and more expensive.

Gaining farm land in more northern lattitudes will not be able to offset the farm land lost further south. Not only is that northern land less hospitable to farming (poorer soil, etc.), but the amount of light available is different than what we have now. Growing season will have to start later due to available sunlight, and it will be shorter in length. We are unsure at this point if these new, further north farmlands will have enough rain during the growing season in a new, warmer climate. Or maybe too much rain.

This doesn't account for all the coastal cities that will be lost to sea level rise. How much cost is there to build giant seawalls to hold back the ocean, or to relocate entire populations? These are not trivial tasks.

All current research shows that it is far cheaper to stop emitting CO2 now than it will be to live with the effects in the future. That will have a larger effect on the ecomony than the concern of losing jobs to robots.

Here are some opinions that might alter yours.

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-30290540

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/555092/Bill-Gates-Stephen-Hawking-Artificial-Intelligence-AI-threat-mankind

Our current economic systems (global) are doomed.  The reason won't be climate change, however.  It will be technology.  Soon, as in less than 100 years, there will be no jobs for humans.  I just heard an advertisement the other day that Schwab (sp?) now offers "humanless" financial advisors.

With no jobs, there will be no way to acquire wealth.  Through death, properties will be redistributed, and over the course of a few more years (fewer than you think), there will only be one economic status....equal.  Obviously, this will produce a change in human society like no other.

As for global warming, I think in the long run, it benefits humans and most animals.  Land that is currently uninhabitable due to cold will become habitable and farmable.  Most land on the planet is currently located in "cold" zones.  Sure, you will lose some real estate, but you'll gain in back in other areas.  Some species will go extinct, but that's the way of the world.  Remember, 99.9%.....

Do what we can to live in harmony with the environment, sleep well at night.  Worrying about it.......not gonna happen for me.

he's fine....just needs a break.

chill..

Probably needs to get out of the basement.

Ain't nobody got time for this. Sorry guys but the law gone get laid down.

you'll probably be banned by fall.

Well, if it's not true....that means the AGW theory is severely broken, as well as the laws of thermodynamics. I hope you're not one of those nutty conservatives, or liberal. Hell if I care about your political ideaology. The Earth will do what it wants, it won't be saved by 'god'.

I would of just let you be If you would of stopped getting involved in areas that are not your place. I will walk softly and carry a big stick. Since you are effortlessly leading a propaganda campaign and trying to defund NASA Earth Science and wrecking the future for everything on this Planet.

You would have just let me be? LOL...that's rich. And you can shove your big stick up your ass.

The only thing I can take from your propaganda statement is that you're truly off balance, evidence of which you have provided a seemingly endless example of lately.

Yeah, there are a lot of people in here that are skeptical of the long term prediction of major global problems, but fully acknowledge global warming continues on.  If anyone in here thinks that sea level will drop anytime soon or next decades' temperatures will be cooler than this decade, they are just in lala land.  

 

The 2020s will be much warmer than the 2010s.  In addition, sea level will be higher, heat waves will get worse,forest fires will get worse, extreme precipitation will continue to become more common.  This of course is barring some major volcanic eruption or geoengineering project.

 

I think Weatherguy needs to keep an openmind to honest skeptics that are not convinced of the doomsday scenarios. Skeptic does not automatically mean denier.   

The definitive statement.  It's been know to make people look foolish.  Too bad we have to wait 15 years to put it to the test.

Big bag of holy sh**.

So where is the pic of normal to compare it too?

Since when did education become an indoctrination of manners? You pretty much validated all the conspiracy theories about how higher education is controlled by elitists who brainwash the youth.

Brainwashed??? I think they scrubbed yours bare.

My god, you're dumb. If you aren't drunk, you probably should be.

Stop filling the thread with garbage. Delete all this ORH.

Go eat crow, not my problem CAD. Actually it is, keep spewing out garbage and fooking up the Earth indefinitely and see how far you get. Your name will be hated for eternity.

Don't expect me to clean out your diaper either. Better build up that 401K.

You need a few lessons in manners.

Weatherguy, in what field is your degree? Just wondering what level of education you've achieved that would allow you to address ORH in such a disrespectful manner.

Yes

I triple dog dare you.

Bump

I wish somebody would delete this thread

Superstorm..........no doubt.

This thread should be locked forever.

Agree on your three biggest. 96, 03, 93, 79 and 10 are the best in that order for me. 96 and 03 both dropped 3 feet in my area.

What did the Superstorm drop in Winchester?

In SWVA it put down anywhere from 25-42 inches.  That storm is the most incredible weather event I've ever witnessed.  If you go back and read about it, the stats, the records, you just can't get over how powerful it was (2 degrees in Birmingham!!, 4 inches of snow in the Fla panhandle!!  On March 13!!)

Great thread Bob. I think Fozz is right. Pin this sucker, keep it right at the top of the page. I'm on the phone right now but I can't wait to examine the replies to your question.

Having read the back and forth in this thread, I think it's time for all parties to switch to decaf. Vergent, thank you for posting the link to the article. It is interesting and alarming - but it's just a news article. It's not peer-reviewed science . . . heck, it's not even non-peer-reviewed science. It is a news article which was written to grab the readers' attention. And I confess it did so.

I hope all parties can agree that before anybody can assess how significant and serious this methane release is we need real data. We don't know the extent of the venting, the amount of methane being released, or (worst case) whether this is an indication that the massive arctic methane deposits are becoming unstable. Hopefully the Russian researhers will publish their results soon. Until then it is largely pointless to speculate. Methane leaks are not new - you can search youtube and find lots of alarming videos. Here's the url to a video of

in the summer of 2007. If the newly discovered vents are reaching the surface I expect they look like a larger version of these vents. And here's a video on 'The Door to Hell', a methane leak that's been burning for over thirty years.

For those skeptical and denialist posters who keep singing "Don't worry, be happy!" - you might want to do some reading on Extinction Events and how methane releases have been implicated in several of them. Wikipedia has a good article on the Clathrate Gun Hypothesis which provides link for further reading. Here's an excerpt from that article:

One exception, however, may be in clathrates associated with the

Arctic ocean

, where clathrates can exist in shallower water stabilized by lower temperatures rather than higher pressures; these may potentially be marginally stable much closer to the surface of the sea-bed, stabilized by a frozen 'lid' of

permafrost

preventing methane escape. Recent research carried out in 2008 in the Siberian Arctic has shown millions of tons of methane being released, apparently through perforations in the seabed permafrost,

^[11]

with concentrations in some regions reaching up to 100 times normal.

^[12]

^[13]

The excess methane has been detected in localized hotspots in the outfall of the

Lena River

and the border between the

Laptev Sea

and the

East Siberian Sea

. Some melting may be the result of geological heating, but more thawing is believed to be due to the greatly increased volumes of meltwater being discharged from the Siberian rivers flowing north.

^[14]

Current methane release has previously been estimated at 0.5

Mt

per year.

^[15]

Shakhova et al. (2008) estimate that not less than 1,400

Gt

of carbon is presently locked up as methane and methane hydrates under the Arctic submarine permafrost, and 5–10% of that area is subject to puncturing by open

taliks

. They conclude that "release of up to 50

Gt

of predicted amount of hydrate storage [is] highly possible for abrupt release at any time". That would increase the methane content of the planet's atmosphere by a factor of twelve,

^[16]

^[17]

equivalent in

greenhouse effect

to a doubling in the current level of CO

₂

.

Remember, these methane vents are in addition to the warming caused by our fossil fuel use so if the article is true we could see a much larger rise in global temperatures over the next few decades.

So, for now, let's see what the researchers can tell us. I think we'll still have time for panic if it's warranted.

You can't have it both ways. If they happened before, who caused them. If not humans, who? If humans have both the ability to cause and stop global warming, then logic would suggest that we have the capacity to adapt to the climate, whatever it becomes. If we can't, if we aren't as smart and powerful as we think we are, then we become one of the "extinction events". You can't belong to both groups. Either we can overcome or we can't. So why worry?

Maybe the Mayans were right. Mayber next year is the end. I think I'm worried.

I can understand the interest in climate change. It's science, it's physics, it's weather. Many are interested in those very things. I guess that's why we have a weather board with about 10000 members.

What I can't understand is the fear. Regardless of the change, we'll adapt and so will the other life on the planet. That which does not, will die. It's not like there haven't been extinctions since life first appeared on this planet.

To hear these statements of how "unliveable" the planet will be is a "head scratcher". Unliveable for whom? The guy with a house on the beach? Yeah, might be a problem for him. For cold climate animals. Yeah, might be tough for them. But for humans, who don't live very well in the cold, you'd think that warmth would be a better scenario. Wet areas that become dry would most likely be replaced by dry areas that become wetter. Regions that can't support crop growth now would be able to if it were warmer in certain areas.

I love the science discussion here, but the sensationalism is a bit too much. Whatever happens, we'll adapt. Or we won't. Move on. Time waits for nobody.

Don't know if this has been posted, and I'm too anxious to start reading the hurricane threads to look, but has anyone else experienced well water issues. Mine, which before yesterday ran clear as crystal, now is cloudy. Anybody with similar experience or thoughts?

Biggest facepalm moment so far...a met on WTOP radio saying that a 2.8 magnitude aftershock was "half as strong" as the 5.8 primary quake.

The Richter scale is LOGARITHMIC. A 2.8 is 1000 times weaker than a 5.8.

Bad sh*t happens when novices jump into the world of mathematics.

For some reason that reminded me that tomorrow is the first day of school.

Sounds like the DC area was pretty wild during this thing. We got a really good shake here as well. I've wonder why we're not hearing anything from the posters we have down in the Charlottesville area. Maybe I just missed them. I know this was exciting, but I'll admit that it also scared me as well.

Great news to hear that you are safe. Good luck going forward.

It's not

Does that mean that you guys know his name?

heres the whole storm loop

i think the nam loops in here are ones i made.

One thing that I won't do is watch a radar once a snow storm starts. Silly, I know, but if I had seen that radar at any point on that Friday night, I might have just ended it all. I didn't realize just how close that dry slot was to my area, but it never made it in here.

That water vapor shot on Wed afternoon shows the location I mentioned earlier. The pic that was posted was a visible sat shot just as the sun was setting. I actually think it was already dark on the east coast. The pic looked like it was taken from a satellite that would have been located (over) somewhere in the neighborhood of maybe the Bahamas. It was an incredible photo.