"There is no ambiguity" on climate change, U.N. concludes

[TomCADem]

Source: CBS News

COPENHAGEN, Denmark - Climate change is happening, it's almost entirely man's fault and limiting its impacts may require reducing greenhouse gas emissions to zero this century, the U.N.'s panel on climate science said Sunday.

The fourth and final volume of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's giant climate assessment didn't offer any surprises, nor was it expected to since it combined the findings of three earlier reports released in the past 13 months.

But it underlined the scope of the climate challenge in stark terms. Emissions, mainly from the burning of fossil fuels, may need to drop to zero by the end of this century for the world to have a decent chance of keeping the temperature rise below a level that many consider dangerous. Failure to do so, which could require deployment of technologies that suck greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere, could lock the world on a trajectory with "irreversible" impacts on people, like altering the male-female ratio, and on the environment, the report said. Some impacts are already being observed, including rising sea levels, a warmer and more acidic ocean, melting glaciers and Arctic sea ice and more frequent and intense heat waves.

"Science has spoken. There is no ambiguity in their message. Leaders must act. Time is not on our side," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said at the report's launch in Copenhagen.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/climate-change-is-happening-and-it-is-mans-fault-un-panel-concludes/

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Thanks to our corporate sponsored media and politicians who say idiotic things like "I am not a scientist," when asked about climate change, the U.S. ranks low among countries in terms of understanding what is climate change and what causes it?

Can you imagine Republicans saying, "I am not an economist," when asked about taxes?

Or, "I am not a soldier," when asked about gun policy?

Yet, the media repeatedly gives Republicans a free pass on climate change. It probably doesn't hurt that you have oil companies like Koch Industries given millions in advertising dollars to help create doubt.

[Voice for Peace]

1. kickety

Can you imagine Republicans saying, "I am not an economist," when asked about taxes?

Or, "I am not a soldier," when asked about gun policy?

[thesquanderer]

2. Yup worth rec'ing just for that (n/t)

[Ampersand Unicode]

16. Well, they're not exactly "rocket surgeons" either.

http://www.nbcnews.com/video/martin-bashir/50629567#50629567

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

3. Is this another case of telling a lie over and over

until it becomes truth?

[NickB79]

8. What's that supposed to mean?

Who exactly are you accusing of lying? The GOP, or the UN?

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

11. Sorry, I stated that very badly

What I meant to say was, that the far right has been lying about climate change for so long now, those lies are becoming real to them.

[Ampersand Unicode]

17. Duh, they've been believing the same Big Lie™ for 2,000 years.

Jesus had a pet dinosaur, and man was given carte blanche to nuke everything if he so pleased.

Anyone who believes otherwise is a Gaia-worshiping, job-killing, commie tree-hugging heathen.

"The gospel of the Lord, Amen."

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

21. I don't know about the job-killing part.

But the rest works for me.

[geomon666]

4. It's going to take a major city drowning to change anything.

Where I live in Miami, we're a prime candidate. Of course by the time they're scared into action, it will be too late.

[7962]

5. Well then, forget it because its not gonna happen.

Unless we find some silver bullet immediately. Zero CO2 emissions? Tell China & India that. Not to mention the rest of us.
And then they go onto male/female control?

[BlueEye]

6. Although I agree that Zero is likely a highly optimistic goal...

It's worth keeping in mind that target is for the year 2100. Most of us will be dead by then, and I do believe technology will make great leaps in the next 86 years, making such a goal slightly more attainable.

[blkmusclmachine]

13. http://media.treehugger.com/assets/images/2011/10/whokilledtheelectriccar.jpg

[Ampersand Unicode]

18. Hate to say it but we need a population-control policy

Maybe death panels for Halliburton executives..........?

[cheapdate]

7. I'm not a scientist and I don't have any understanding

of how bodies in space radiate heat, or how the absorption and emission properties of atmospheric gases influence the earth's radiative balance, and thus the surface temperature.

But I have COMMON SENSE! And I know a liberal lie! Scientists with an agenda to destroy capitalism! Coal is a gift from God!

[Ampersand Unicode]

19. At least you're willing to cede ground to the experts.

Unlike this guy.

[daleanime]

9. kick, kick, kick.....

[Kelvin Mace]

10. If you are not a scientist

and thus cannot offer an opinion on climate change, shut the fuck up about Ebola.

[TomCADem]

12. Mainstream Media Never Points Out This Inconsistency

On Ebola, it is okay to close the board, impose mandatory quarantines, turtle up, on the off chance that casual contact could cause the transmission of Ebola, yet on climate change, the message is to wait for more evidence and say that politicians are not scientists.

[heaven05]

14. will mass greed

trump mass survival, probably.

[Ampersand Unicode]

20. The words "mass greed" and "Trump"

...should always be in the same sentence.

http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2014/01/blizzards-dont-refute-global-warming

[tclambert]

15. Well, of course they would say that. They're part of the conspiracy.

It's all the scientific and environmental group lobbyists behind the effort to ruin the business operations of poor, helpless family businesses like Koch Industries and Exxon Mobil. How are Mr. and Mrs. Mobil supposed to compete against all that science grant money and charitable donations to the Sierra Club? How can the fossil fuel industry be expected to raise enough money to combat the scientific propaganda machine?