Science Breakdown: The Effects of Global Warming are Becoming More Apparent

in science •  9 years ago  (edited)

Global Warming is a Big Deal


I know many of you out there may not "believe" in global warming, I don't want to believe in it either. I want to find out that the studies are faked, driven by interests who want to see the downfall of the big fossil fuel industries. I don't want it to be real that we are doing large amounts of damage to our planet. But the fact of the matter is, the overwhelming amount of evidence presented in the scientific literature indicates that its not only real, its a BIG DEAL.


Image Source: isrj.org

Lake Tanganyika

Its one of the great lakes of africa, its the second largest fresh water lake in the world by volume (it holds 18% of the worlds total fresh water! 18%!), and is home to some of the worlds greatest biodiversity. Not only that its freekin beautiful:

Image source: safariyako.com

Image source: irhal.com


a recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Acadamy of Sciences (http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2016/08/02/1603237113, a pretty freeking prestigious journal) has found that rising global temperatures are affecting the mixing and oxygenation of the water there. This has caused a reduction in the amount of algae by about 38%. Algae is a major food source for many of the fish and other organisms that live in this lake, many of which aren't found anywhere else. As the temperature rises, these little critters get less food. They die off.

This data is helping to explain local anecdotal evidence that they have been catching a lot less fish from the lake. The reduced fishing is having a negative impact on the lives of nearby people in Africa, who are dependent on this lake for fresh food.

I know this is just one example, but its really time for the world to have a serious conversation about global warming, because if we don't and things are allowed to go unchecked, more animals will die, more people will go unfed, and these small ripple effects will become waves.


Can we please try not to all get washed away?

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ClimateOfGavin Gavin Schmidt tweeted @ 15 Aug 2016 - 20:18 UTC

July 2016 was absolutely the hottest month since the instrumental records began. https://t.co/GQNsvARPDH

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I am humbled by the recognition. The best reward is that someone out there learned something from my posts, and that is exactly what I wrote them for. Hopefully the golden nuggets post points a few more people there and they too can learn something.

I think it's pretty clear we're having some effect on the planet. I didn't know that lake even existed, let alone holds 18% of the worlds freshwater. Dayumn...

Pretty shocking right? Its an incredibly significant body of water, especially because its fresh water.

so could I just stick my head in the water and drink away?

If you don't mind drinking dirty water with animals and bacteria living it it, sure.

I feel like once global warming gets absolutely out of hand, then people are going to begin to worry about it. Such a shame.

I hope by then it is not too late. :(

The problem is there is too much money behind the denialist side plus it costs to actually do something.

Problems exist only to be solved by ingenuity. It does cost to actually do something, but is the cost greater to not do anything? I suppose it depends on how much the quality of life on the planet has value to people.

Part of the problem is people are good at lying to themselves, and bad at thinking long term. Plus, realistically, we're probably a generation or two out from when shit gets serious.

So you're rich now, you can either take a cut in your revenue or you can choose to believe humans don't cause global warming, or that someone else will solve it, or selfishly not care because you'll be dead before it happens anyway.

I don't think we are a generation or two out personally. This shit is more of a tipping point sort of thing, its not going to seem serious until it happens all at once and we are fucked.

Well, the tipping point may well be closer... But people aren't going to pay attention until it's raining fire basically.

That is the most beautiful lake I've ever seen. Thanks @btotherist for all the great advice on Golden Nuggets!

Have you watched Neil Degrasse Tyson's Cosmos? It describes an extinction level event that happened in the past when CO2 got out of control. It's not a simple matter of rising oceans, it changes the actual composition of the atmosphere eventually... to one that probably can't support human life. Yay.

I have seen a few episodes, but not that one. We seem to be on a collision course with that same problem. They say history repeats it self, if only we would learn from what has happened and prevent it from occurring again.

Yep, that's the point of the episode. Neil even points out that we SHOULD be smart enough to see what's coming and avoid it.

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@Justtryme90 Global warming is a natural occurring event , long b4 humans ever existed the earth was supposedly around 3x hotter than it was now . They are using this as an excuse in order to TAX you for more money.

It is both naturally occurring and man made. While politicians may try to take advantage of the situation that does not change the fact that the current rate of warming is in excess of that caused naturally. So you are correct in your thoughts, there is just more to the story than that. I don't like it any more than you do.

The DolphCoin is also a big deal..... not sure which one is more of a big deal seeing as I earned quite a bit of money on the Dolph Lundgren coin....

https://steemit.com/beyondbitcoin/@splatterhaus/how-i-became-a-millionaire-investing-in-dolphcoins-and-the-logic-behind-the-dolphcoin-humor

Any discussion of so-called global warming that excludes geo-engineering is a waste of time.

Thanks for the reply. I disagree wholeheartedly.

Since geo-engineering is at the root of the issue, ignoring it won't solve the problem.

Global warming is an alarmist ideology. The inductive scientific method is always in theory falsifiable with the presentation of new data. Scientists as of yet do not know all of the variables involved in the makeup of earth's climate thereby making it impossible to determine with any degree of accuracy what percent of change is "natural" or "man-made."

This isn't to say that caring for the environment isn't important or shouldn't be a major concern, but rather that global warming serves as a convenient way for policymakers to pander to environmentalists and scare up support for the expansion of their power.

If the politicians got out of the way, fear mongering would be replaced with personal responsibility, enginuity, and self interest. I mean we could all be using hemp right now.

I have read quite a few publications on the matter my self and I think the available data is sufficient to conclude that the current uptick in warming is caused by man.

Natural causes are insufficient. Just because the earth was hotter in the past does not mean this is not caused by man.

That aside I agree with your sentiments with regards to politicians. People do care about the environment and the effect we have on it. However our hands are indeed largely tied in certain fronts.