Possible gulf-stream collapse

This I think end 2019

Every little is important.

We simply can’t take the attitude that the U.K. emissions make a small difference, our house must be in order.

Good points Esspee. It is only when the world properly grasps the nettle instead of ignoring or paying lip service that any difference will occur.

I am not a global warming denier. A science based education teaches you to keep an open mind.
While Alok Sharma our climate minister <never heard of him oops> was jetting about to 30 countries in the last seven months (it had to be face to face meetings of course) China was building a new coal fired power station every week to add to their total of something like 1,058.
Meanwhile the U.K., with an abundance of coal, has closed down ALL our coal fired power stations to protect the environment and is buying in wood pellets from Louisiana where the trees are cut down, dried and turned into pellets using American power then transported to the U.K. by ships burning polluting heavy fuel oil, then from the port of entry it is shipped to the Drax power station in Yorkshire which, incidentally, sits upon a huge coalfield.
Germany burns the most polluting coal of all - lignite. Australia and America are also major polluters.
Nothing this country does will make more than a very tiny difference to world pollution.

Interesting graphs, thank you WWM2

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202108/medium-519112-0d8caac6-eef6-4c1f-bf9d-d6a78b5c5d15.png https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202108/medium-784715-2f7551de-d7fd-4dbb-857d-ef79870a043e.png

EPA data

I think one of the biggest contributors to reducing co2 would be to simply buy less stuff.

I agree with this. Buy less. Recycle things you don't need (sell on or give away). I ALWAYS think now. Do you NEED this? I'd say, 75% of the time, my answer is no. I do have a weakness about buying for grandson tho.

I think one of the biggest contributors to reducing co2 would be to simply buy less stuff.

Everything produced adds to the emissions - co2 representing something like 70+% of greenhouse gases.

I think manufacturers should be encouraged by governments to produce things like washing machines that can be mended and do not have a built in life span. A guaranteed 20 year+ would be a good start.

Whitewavemark2

Climate change is a problem for the world. Naming and shaming individual countries gets us absolutely nowhere.

Those who deny the evidence that climate change is the result of human activity should provide evidence to the contrary.

There are a number of things as an individual you can do.

Reduce your carbon footprint immediately by 10% by switching to renewable fuel.

Buy an electric car or like us a hybrid until the infrastructure is up to speed.

Plant trees. We pay for a tree to be planted each time a family member has a birthday.

Support biodiversity projects like re+wilding.

Cut out or down any flights you make.

Support sustainable fishing, eat no or less meat.

Support political parties who have the best climate change policies.

Lobby your MP

Lots more.

Do it all for your grandchild’s future.

Excellent advice Whitewavemark2
Thank you

There's no point trying to shame countries into doing things, any more than there is a point in trying to shame people into taking vaccines.

The Chinese know as well as anybody else what the impacts of climate change are, we need to all work together to fix it.

Also; there is lots of exact science about the Gulf Stream. The only unknown is when, and whether we still have time to do something about it. And as someone pointed out above, whether its 10 years away, or 20, or 100, is a blip in geological time.

Naming and shaming is a cope out.

China is currently a big CO2 producer, but every developed country is guilty of being so.

The U.K. government is about to give permission for a huge oil field to be opened in the North Sea.

How will naming stop it?


Everyone in the world has to put pressure on every government to act responsibly.

"Naming and shaming individual countries gets us absolutely nowhere" Actually until those countries are "named and shamed" and forced to take action the efforts by the rest of us, whilst commendable, are merely a drop in the ocean

Whitewavemark2

Plant trees. We pay for a tree to be planted each time a family member has a birthday. GREAT idea. I'm going to start this.

Cut out or down any flights you make. I've already started this.

We have also stopped buying plastic. I wanted some biscuit cutters. Lovely animal set in the supermarket. Plastic. Didn't buy them.

I think of my grandson now when I make my choices. I worry about the world he has ahead of him.

Climate change is a problem for the world. Naming and shaming individual countries gets us absolutely nowhere.

Those who deny the evidence that climate change is the result of human activity should provide evidence to the contrary.

There are a number of things as an individual you can do.

Reduce your carbon footprint immediately by 10% by switching to renewable fuel.

Buy an electric car or like us a hybrid until the infrastructure is up to speed.

Plant trees. We pay for a tree to be planted each time a family member has a birthday.

Support biodiversity projects like re+wilding.

Cut out or down any flights you make.

Support sustainable fishing, eat no or less meat.

Support political parties who have the best climate change policies.

Lobby your MP

Lots more.

Do it all for your grandchild’s future.

25Avalon

We don’t know if “a collapse will occur or how close it will be” according to the Guardian report if you read it from beginning to end. So no exact science on this as yet just a possible warning that has been trotted out every summer for the past few years. I suspect it is being voiced again now with the climate change conference due in Glasgow.

Another good point

“Seagar's work questions whether the shutdown of the gulf stream would have the effect of making the climate in the UK and the rest of Europe abruptly become like that of Canada, for example.”

The climate of Europe is already similar to North America - cold winters, hot summers, the Gulfstream only affects North West Europe to a limited extent. The UK is very dependant but we will still have a maritime climate dependant on the temperature of the Atlantic, so let’s hope we don’t have an ice age and the seas freeze.

Oldwoman70

I don't think many people deny climate change - however there is little the average person can do. Recycle whatever we can, cut out plastics, drive less etc. etc. but the damage is mostly being caused by countries such as China which in 2019 was responsible for more than a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions

Good post.

It won’t be massive ecological disaster. It will be massive ecological change. As has happened before in the earths history and will happen again.

Of course, when people talk about ‘saving the planet”, what they really mean is “saving the planet as a place for humans.”

An ecological change that doesn’t suit us will be a gift to some other species.

We don’t know if “a collapse will occur or how close it will be” according to the Guardian report if you read it from beginning to end. So no exact science on this as yet just a possible warning that has been trotted out every summer for the past few years. I suspect it is being voiced again now with the climate change conference due in Glasgow.

I don't think many people deny climate change - however there is little the average person can do. Recycle whatever we can, cut out plastics, drive less etc. etc. but the damage is mostly being caused by countries such as China which in 2019 was responsible for more than a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions

What us poorly educated old women can really do about averting massive ecological disaster is shout about it ask questions of our MPs, complain loudly , and together with the young ones make ourselves heard.

I believe it, but I’m another who can’t get too worried over something I can do so very little about. Not that that will stop me doing what I can, but it’s such a minute drop in the global ocean.

Namsnanny

This has been highlight for as long as I've been alive.

Not to say it wont happen, but unless there is anything I can positively do about it, I shant worry.
BTW it has happened many times before, but I'll let the better educated scientist types amongst us argue that one!

Serious question - why are so many people more inclined to think that climate change of the size and scope we are seeing now is just natural and has happened many times before, when there is overwhelming evidence to the contrary?

Is it just too big and scary to contemplate? I can understand the attitude that its out of our hands as individuals, but not the attitude that it isn't our fault anyway....

it is safer to be pessimistic regarding the man-made degradation of the Gulf Stream. There is too much to lose if the optimists win.

This has been highlight for as long as I've been alive.

Not to say it wont happen, but unless there is anything I can positively do about it, I shant worry.
BTW it has happened many times before, but I'll let the better educated scientist types amongst us argue that one!