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Re:Centuries-old whaling logs are filling gaps in our climat... by mmastrac on Monday November 07, 2022 @04:37PM (#33512887)
The continued support for climate change consensus from new research is good to see, but is it having an effect on the final ~25% of Americans that haven't believed in it yet?

And as a curiosity, what happened in the late 2000s to cause belief in climate change to drop off a cliff, and then slowly creep back up?

https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/visualizations-data/am...

Re:Centuries-old whaling logs are filling gaps in our climat... by ForHackernews on Monday November 07, 2022 @04:59PM (#33513153)
Al Gore made a movie about climate change so the other team was obligated to violently disbelieve in it.
Re:Centuries-old whaling logs are filling gaps in our climat... by mmastrac on Monday November 07, 2022 @05:25PM (#33513427)
Oddly the political view tag suggests that it's an opposing team issue, but even left-leaning folks did have a blip. Maybe it's just a survey issue with the first datapoint? (I can't seem to link to the political view tab directly)

The good news is that even the most staunchly anti-climate-change group, conservative republicans, are nearly at 50/50 when it comes to whether it's happening at all.

Re:Centuries-old whaling logs are filling gaps in our climat... by Izkata on Monday November 07, 2022 @06:27PM (#33514018)
> Maybe it's just a survey issue with the first datapoint? (I can't seem to link to the political view tab directly)

Probably not because I just spotted something from that link that I find even more interesting: On the radios in the upper-right, switch to "policy support". There was a very sudden shift in 2013, from consistently down to consistently up.

...and now that I think about it, I think that might actually explain it: The sudden drop in the late 2000s might be due to the great recession. They may have accidentally measured "why do I care?" instead of "is it happening?", and maybe it took until 2013 for peoples' lives to stabilize enough to care again.

Re:Centuries-old whaling logs are filling gaps in our climat... by Spooky23 on Monday November 07, 2022 @06:54PM (#33514246)
The reactionaries have a strategy that’s like the old “embrace, extend, extinguish”… “deny, rationalize, accept”.

Post-Al Gore, it was “don’t believe your lying eyes”. That gradually pivoted to “climate change is happening, but it’s a natural cycle”. Eventually it will pivot to “meh” or “it’s gods will”.

It’s a pattern applied to lots of issues by the reactionary elements. It works because it’s easy to deny and subsequently concede small points. We’ve trained a generation to be adept at this online.

Re:Centuries-old whaling logs are filling gaps in our climat... by OrvalWintermute on Monday November 07, 2022 @08:54PM (#33515078)
Al Gore made a movie about Global Warming, not Climate Change.

When the hyperbolic claims about Global Warming with runaway climate forcing failed, it was swiftly rebranded Climate Change.

At which point, the critics became accurate, since climatic periods are measured in 30 year intervals, and weather != climate. Solar Radiance being the keymost driver of earth's temperature of course, varies due to the natural cycle and supercycles of the Sun [1]

The longterm trend of deglaciation and CO2 levels rising back to nearer Earth's historical norms continues unabated.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cycle

Re:Centuries-old whaling logs are filling gaps in our climat... by deadbolt on Monday November 07, 2022 @10:50PM (#33515698)
> Al Gore made a movie about Global Warming, not Climate Change.

How would you define those two terms?

Re:Centuries-old whaling logs are filling gaps in our climat... by transcriptase on Monday November 07, 2022 @11:07PM (#33515775)
One is an observable phenomenon.

The other gets grant money in perpetuity no matter what the data says.

Re:Centuries-old whaling logs are filling gaps in our climat... by deadbolt on Monday November 07, 2022 @11:43PM (#33515936)
I wasn't asking you, but okay.
Re:Centuries-old whaling logs are filling gaps in our climat... by jjtheblunt on Tuesday November 08, 2022 @12:01AM (#33516017)
Climate Change could include onset of an ice age?
Re:Centuries-old whaling logs are filling gaps in our climat... by deadbolt on Tuesday November 08, 2022 @12:33AM (#33516185)
Are you really answering a question with a question? I wasn't even asking you, but go ahead.

Define these terms:

- Global warming

- Climate change

Re:Centuries-old whaling logs are filling gaps in our climat... by OrvalWintermute on Tuesday November 08, 2022 @11:21PM (#33527492)
Russian Climate Scientists readily talk about ice age onsets.

When I was in my youth, that was the buzz at the time. My, how the winds have changed.

Re:Centuries-old whaling logs are filling gaps in our climat... by evol262 on Tuesday November 08, 2022 @05:24AM (#33517759)
GWB rebranded it as Climate Change, not anybody else.

Solar forcing is completely accounted for in the models, in all areas (albedo, bouncing in the galactic plane, distance from the Sun).

The repeated cries of "but you didn't account for this or that, which I know as a layman, but surely PhDs in climate science didn't think about!" is inane. It's in the models. Every single variable you can name and then some are in the models.

Climactic periods are not "measured" in any kind of arbitrary 3 decade cycle. Even if you want to pretend that they are, and we are returning to some kind of baseline (which every bit of science says we are not -- we are going to dramatically overshoot it), humanity did not evolve under those "historical norms". Our society and agriculture and population patterns did not emerge under those "historical norms".

Returning to those "historical norms" will mean the largest population migration in human history, with a large amount of it from nuclear states which already have shooting skirmishes in their borderlands facing an existential crisis over water (India, Pakistan, China). Those "historical norms" are not necessarily compatible with civilization.

Before you talk about how much farmland it is going to "open", ask yourself how well the supply chain did during COVID. Then ask yourself what will happen to it during a population migration. Ask yourself what happens when deep water ports at low sea level start having problems, and how we would get crude to refineries to get bitumen to even make asphalt to create infrastructure in the new "open" land, how we'd transport concrete and steel there if there are interruptions in the supply chain which impact diesel production. Ask yourself how long it will take to transform old-growth forest and granite-filled glacial retreat zones in Canada into arable land, how easily we'll be able to get chemical fertilizers, etc.

Even if you want to talk about how this is some kind of "historical norm", the question ultimately becomes not "is this anthropogenic?" (it is, but it doesn't matter), but "how do we intend to survive this as a species?"

Re:Centuries-old whaling logs are filling gaps in our climat... by OrvalWintermute on Tuesday November 08, 2022 @11:36AM (#33520922)
> The repeated cries of "but you didn't account for this or that, which I know as a layman, but surely PhDs in climate science didn't think about!" is inane. It's in the models. Every single variable you can name and then some are in the models.

You made an extraordinary claim "It's in the models. Every single variable you can name and then some are in the models."

I am calling your bluff.

Please provide evidence of six variable things

(1) The change from Whitewash to semi-latex in the painting of Stevenson screens (the old paint vs the new paint) which is a feed into GHCN

(2) The change in the sizes of some Stevenson screens in some countries records (230L to 60L)

(3) Analysis of the greater accuracy of space based temperature measurement which deviate substantially from in-situ measurements

(4) The removal of corrupted data sources like ASOS from the Climate Record, as ASOS as placed on hot airfields and is hit by prop blast and jetwash

(5) Fixes to the Sea Surface Temperature (SST) readings to account for ship altitude, height, deviation from marine surface temperature, etc.

(6) Weather Station gaps used in location where urbanized city centers are extrapolated for all nearby landscape (e.g. Africa) and the large gaps in the surface temps (Antarctica, Greenland, Siberia, Sahara, Amazon, Northern Canada)

Re:Centuries-old whaling logs are filling gaps in our climat... by ForHackernews on Tuesday November 08, 2022 @02:05PM (#33522891)
You're so right, you're smarter than every scientist in the world who has studied this problem in detail for decades. Thank god you're here to set us all straight.
Re:Centuries-old whaling logs are filling gaps in our climat... by OrvalWintermute on Tuesday November 08, 2022 @11:20PM (#33527483)
> You're so right, you're smarter than every scientist in the world who has studied this problem in detail for decades. Thank god you're here to set us all straight.

You didn't respond to a single request.

I 've been in the industry for decades now too.

That these things jumps out so readily is proof that the science around this field is truly in its infancy. Science is a process that is self-correcting over time. And I am happy for it.

> Hacker News Guidelines

> Be kind. Don't be snarky. Have curious conversation; don't cross-examine. Please don't fulminate. Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community. Edit out swipes.

> Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive.

> When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. "That is idiotic; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3" can be shortened to "1 + 1 is 2, not 3."

Re:Centuries-old whaling logs are filling gaps in our climat... by llanowarelves on Monday November 07, 2022 @09:42PM (#33515339)
Giving cataclysmic predictions that don't happen, and quietly ignoring them when the year comes to replace it with the next cataclysmic prediction, is much like how some religious people say we're always either in or about to be in the End of Days. And is treated the same. Especially when malincentives like regulators lining their pockets are involved ("Carbon credits" can be like a type of religious indulgence).

More measured approaches on shorter timescales -- actually going after the big fish and not ignoring their excess because they are more "important" than the little people -- is taken more seriously.

Re:Centuries-old whaling logs are filling gaps in our climat... by yongjik on Tuesday November 08, 2022 @12:10AM (#33516058)
> actually going after the big fish and not ignoring their excess because they are more "important" than the little people

Is this yet another allusion on Al Gore and his infamous private jet? Last year, 506,769 airplanes either took off or landed in LAX only. That's 1388 per day in one airport. All packed to the gill by "little people" like you and me.

Al Gore could fly his jet across the Pacific every day and it would be literally a drop in the bucket-full of little guys, in the grand scheme of things.

I'm tired of these talks of "big guys ruining the environment," which is conveniently only brought up when these big guys talk about the environment. This is plain simple "hate the message, shoot the messenger" strategy.

Re:Centuries-old whaling logs are filling gaps in our climat... by llanowarelves on Tuesday November 08, 2022 @01:58AM (#33516598)
Cool, so I can morally use as much as I want because in the grand scheme of things I am just one person. You know what, I agree with that. Now I don't have to change my behavior for any of this stuff. I just needed to see myself as important as them. Thank you for this change in perspective. Now I can say a few words about the environment, while consuming as much as possible, and you'll have to defend me from critique.

By "big fish" I actually meant companies (who are a prime shake-down target for carbon credits), but if for the rich, celebs, and politicians the shoe fits... They are supposed to have noblesse oblige.

Re:Centuries-old whaling logs are filling gaps in our climat... by ForHackernews on Tuesday November 08, 2022 @01:38PM (#33522560)
> Cool, so I can morally use as much as I want because in the grand scheme of things I am just one person.

Fucking yes! We need stringent government regulations, not individual moralizing.

Stop whining and moaning and vote for politicians who will put in place the taxes and regulations needed.

Re:Centuries-old whaling logs are filling gaps in our climat... by melling on Monday November 07, 2022 @05:22PM (#33513399)
Fox News and other media outlets

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/climate-activists-embrace-d...

There’s also not much of attempt on the left to understand climate change better.

Every weather disaster is directly attributed to climate change, even if it scientifically can’t be directly linked.

This convinces deniers that there isn’t a problem and people are being “alarmists”.

Re:Centuries-old whaling logs are filling gaps in our climat... by geysersam on Monday November 07, 2022 @11:11PM (#33515794)
Particular weather events can never be directly linked to climate change.

Most people understand this. In life casual chains are rarely clear cut. "Caused A" and "made A significantly more likely" are interchangeable outside of academic debates.

One has to be severely climate change denialist to focus on such a detail. It's a strategy of sowing uncertainty.

Re:Centuries-old whaling logs are filling gaps in our climat... by hotz on Monday November 07, 2022 @06:20PM (#33513936)
Ever hear of the boy who cried wolf...
Re:Centuries-old whaling logs are filling gaps in our climat... by Brometheus on Tuesday November 08, 2022 @04:27AM (#33517452)
Yeah, ever read the story? it ends with the wolf eating every sheep.
Re:Centuries-old whaling logs are filling gaps in our climat... by Izkata on Monday November 07, 2022 @06:23PM (#33513971)
My guess would be a tipping point of failed predictions, though why exactly then I couldn't say: https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/50-years-of-failed-doomsday-e...
Re:Centuries-old whaling logs are filling gaps in our climat... by verbify on Monday November 07, 2022 @08:37PM (#33514978)
I clicked on a few "Snowfalls are now just a thing of the past" is about English snowfalls, and it is true that we don't have heavy snowfall, not sure why this is a failed prediction, it's more of a statement of fact.

Some of these other predictions aren't necessarily falsified.

Peak oil may have already occurred. The fact that we have to resort to offshore drilling shows the low hanging fruit have already been taken.

Another example of a debatable prediction is "Fifty Million Climate Refugees by the Year 2020" - this is something that environmental groups claim is a correct prediction as they attribute certain current wars (e.g. Syrian Civil War) to have been caused by droughts caused by climate change.

Some of these predictions were not made by scientists or were clearly just meant as a slogan to galvanise action - e.g.

2009: Climate Genius Prince Charles Says we Have 96 Months to Save World

Re:Centuries-old whaling logs are filling gaps in our climat... by evol262 on Tuesday November 08, 2022 @05:13AM (#33517705)
This is pretty ridiculous. The "so-called 'experts'" are... journalists? Zero of these are studies. Zero. None. Nada.

There's the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2004/feb/22/usnews.t...

And Breitbart: https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2015/06/01/media-fail-no...

And a bunch of other nonsense. Every one of these "predictions" is either a journalist trying to sell copy by exaggerating a story, or conservative media outlets clapping themselves on the back for pointing out that journalists who exaggerated were wrong.

None of these "predictions" are in any way science, and all of the climate modeling in the past 30 years has made predictions which are *more conservative than reality*.

Re:Centuries-old whaling logs are filling gaps in our climat... by Izkata on Tuesday November 08, 2022 @09:32AM (#33519351)
> The "so-called 'experts'" are... journalists? Zero of these are studies. Zero. None. Nada.

> Every one of these "predictions" is either a journalist trying to sell copy by exaggerating a story

> None of these "predictions" are in any way science

That doesn't matter at all because this conversation is about public perception, and guess what makes it to the public?

Re:Centuries-old whaling logs are filling gaps in our climat... by OrvalWintermute on Monday November 07, 2022 @08:47PM (#33515031)
Much of the bogus predictions were based on flawed observations and bad ideas like the hockeystick data normalization problem, and a failure to account for the trend of deglaciation which predates industrialization. A general discounting of solar radiance, misunderstanding albedo, and pushing a low CO2 norm was also part and parcel to this hogwash.

We knew there were incorrectly sited weather sensors that fed data into the climate record, just like ASOS, receiving prop blast and jetwash. Some HCN sensors that had been correctly sited became incorrect over time due to urbanization and industrialization. The discongruence between space based observations and in-situ flawed sensors are the clearest indication of this.

This is also why we saw the rise of the HCN-Reference. We also saw a better understanding of the medieval warm period which, although potentially regionalized, is not without precedents.

The process of fixing of these flaws, we call that science. However, this has not stopped the religious cult from a rearguard action defending by whatever name they choose to call it these days.

Re:Centuries-old whaling logs are filling gaps in our climat... by misja111 on Tuesday November 08, 2022 @03:17AM (#33517034)
This. Climate change is real, but the early climate activist movement has done itself and the rest of the world a disservice by overexaggerating the change and the effects.
Re:Centuries-old whaling logs are filling gaps in our climat... by TEP_Kim_Il_Sung on Monday November 07, 2022 @09:36PM (#33515301)
> what happened in the late 2000s to cause belief in climate change to drop off a cliff

CRU leak?

Re:Centuries-old whaling logs are filling gaps in our climat... by Tade0 on Tuesday November 08, 2022 @07:26AM (#33518326)
I suppose it was due to the so-called "global warming hiatus":

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming_hiatus

IIRC it was the most repeated counter-argument back then.

Of course the 2010s showed that there was no counter-argument to begin with.

Re:Centuries-old whaling logs are filling gaps in our climat... by origin_path on Tuesday November 08, 2022 @12:46PM (#33521877)
The 2010s didn't show there was no counter-argument to begin with re: the hiatus/pause. What actually happened is that climatologists rewrote the temperature data of that period to simply remove the pause from history. In other words, having spent >10 years publishing scientific papers and studies on the causes of the pause in warming, they one day just announced that it'd never happened at all, that all that research had been on bad data and they'd "found" warming.

https://www.nature.com/articles/nature.2015.17700

Of course trust falls when that happens. It's correct for trust to fall. They'd been making hyper-confident assertions about the future of climate and temperature for many people's entire lives and then one day, whoops, actually, it's "we've not been measuring temperature right for the entire history of our field and it fundamentally changes the entire shape of the data".

Re:Centuries-old whaling logs are filling gaps in our climat... by BirAdam on Tuesday November 08, 2022 @08:02AM (#33518526)
Politics caused the split.

The change in course where it slowly creeped up is two fold. First, the warming became completely obvious. People could see in their own living memory very dramatic changes between their childhood and modern day. That just took time. Second, as the left became more and more radicalized toward actions to fight the threat, the right wing could take a less radical position and still claim to be holding the line against radicals. The left shifted the Overton Window left enough that the right could have a politically viable platform that included climate change.