SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
It's the final call, say scientists, the most extensive warning yet on the risks of rising global temperatures.
Their dramatic report on keeping that rise under 1.5 degrees C says the world is now completely off track, heading instead towards 3C.
Keeping to the preferred target of 1.5C above pre-industrial levels will mean "rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society".
[...] After three years of research and a week of haggling between scientists and government officials at a meeting in South Korea, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has issued a special report on the impact of global warming of 1.5C.
The critical 33-page Summary for Policymakers certainly bears the hallmarks of difficult negotiations between climate researchers determined to stick to what their studies have shown and political representatives more concerned with economies and living standards.
Despite the inevitable compromises, there are some key messages that come through loud and clear.
"The first is that limiting warming to 1.5C brings a lot of benefits compared with limiting it to two degrees. It really reduces the impacts of climate change in very important ways," said Prof Jim Skea, who co-chairs the IPCC.
"The second is the unprecedented nature of the changes that are required if we are to limit warming to 1.5C - changes to energy systems, changes to the way we manage land, changes to the way we move around with transportation."
"Scientists might want to write in capital letters, 'ACT NOW, IDIOTS,' but they need to say that with facts and numbers," said Kaisa Kosonen, of Greenpeace, who was an observer at the negotiations. "And they have."
The researchers have used these facts and numbers to paint a picture of the world with a dangerous fever, caused by humans. We used to think if we could keep warming below two degrees this century, then the changes we would experience would be manageable.
Not any more. This new study says that going past 1.5C is dicing with the planet's liveability. And the 1.5C temperature "guard rail" could be exceeded in just 12 years, in 2030.
We can stay below it - but it will require urgent, large-scale changes from governments and individuals and we will have to invest a massive pile of cash every year, about 2.5% of global gross domestic product (GDP), the value of all goods and services produced, for two decades.
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 4, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Wednesday October 10 2018, @01:01AM (5 children)
Your faith in the sensibility of vehicle design is touchingly naive. Price, safety and efficiency, you say? Wow, just wow. You totally overlooked appearances, which is stunningly important to most people. I am constantly amazed at the importance they place on appearances. The paint may not make the car go, but their attitude is it ain't worth going if the paint is bad. And what people want for the most part is what they know, whatever is conventional no matter how dated. We're still lugging spare tires around. At least most aren't full sized any more, but still, the practice continues despite little need for it thanks to tires having become far better. Also, roadside assistance is a lot better and more common. I have had badly designed tires fail on me-- had 2 of those infamous Firestone 500s as spares, and when used, one lasted 8000 miles, and the other only 13 miles. Another bum one was a defective Pep Boys store brand tire. The last time I had a defective tire surprise me with a sudden blow out was over 20 years ago. Well, I refuse to ever buy Firestone again, which may well have saved me some trouble.
Further, a little more spending up front can more than pay for itself, but manufacturers won't do it, because the public won't go for it. For instance, consider the undersides. There's no cover, and just about no one cares, it's very much out of sight, out of mind. Instead there's all kinds of stuff hanging down, contributing to drag. We have hoods to cover the top of the engine. They aren't absolutely necessary, cars can run fine without hoods, but they are a good idea. But we won't insist on the same for the underside, although covering it is as good an idea. Every time a car splashes through a big puddle, some of that gets thrown on the engine. Can get the belt wet, and cause slipping and squealing. It can get into more important places and cause the engine to stall. Also a good idea to put skirts on the wheels, and shrink the grill opening. Some of these changes would actually reduce costs as well as save gas. But people won't accept it because it's "ugly".
What cars should look like is this: http://edison2.com/very-light-car-overview/ [edison2.com]
(Score: 3, Informative) by jmorris on Wednesday October 10 2018, @01:33AM (3 children)
Like I said, your kind want to rule and force the "stupid people" to obey you. For our own good of course. I'll be one of the mob outside your palace shooting at you with a nice big coil of rope along for the festivities after we get in.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 10 2018, @02:16AM
Your paranoid fantasies are finally leaking out as violent dreams. Good stuff. Your most deeply buried fantasies will also come true if you pull off your little shooting spree and get a life sentence.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 10 2018, @02:49AM
And, you want to force the consequences of your actions (for your own short term gains) upon everyone else. Stealing from us, our freedom to live quality and healthy lives.
Your freedom to swing your fist ends a couple feet away from my nose-- your freedom to destroy our shared environment ends where your actions affect anyone besides yourself. E.g., I don't care if you swallow poison, but I do care if you dump poison in our rivers or oceans.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday October 10 2018, @08:51AM
+Informative on what excites jmorris.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 10 2018, @02:57AM
I guess you haven't looked underneath most cars built in the last ten years. Most of them have plastic fairings underneath them now. They can't cover the whole underside - you can't cover an exhaust pipe with a plastic cover, or suspension with much of anything - but they do cover most of the machinery. They have plastic fairings under the hood, too, to direct the airflow to where it needs to go instead of letting it blow around inside the engine compartment causing drag.
You probably haven't looked at the grille much either. Most cars today have mostly cosmetic grilles and take in only the amount of air they need for cooling and combustion. This was true even decades ago. It's true that people like the looks of them. So they are still there - in fact much bigger than before - but just for show.
For me the poster child for this grille inflation is the Hyundai Elantra. Compare the second generation car of the late 1990s, which essentially had no grille [wikipedia.org] to today's model [wikipedia.org]. This grille is not real. It's just for looks, and it contributes almost nothing to drag. With the computer modeling they have now, it might even improve the drag.
Fuel economy standards are serious business, and manufacturers take them seriously. Today's passenger sedans have better drag coefficients than most sports cars or economy cars had even 20 years ago. Heck, even today's *minivans* have better drag coefficients than most sports cars or economy cars did 30 years ago.