Arctic ice melt could trigger uncontrollable climate change at global level

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I think they are, at least here on CAF and in certain political circles.

Actually the IPCC is way too reticent and conservative re the issue – greatly fearing the false positive of making inaccurate claims, rather than fearing the false negative of failing to alert people to the very serious dangers.

As mentioned in the news article, “Scientists ‘too frightened’ to tell truth on climate impacts” at climatechangenews.com/2016/09/26/scientists-too-frightened-to-tell-truth-on-climate-impacts/ :

“[There are]…a number of serious threats to the planet resulting from the loss of Arctic ice. These include much greater sea level rise than estimated by the*Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC), resulting in the flooding of cities and of low-lying deltas where much of the world’s food is grown.”

&

“…*large escapes of methane from the Arctic tundra and the shallow seas north of Siberia – again, something that has not been fully taken into account in the IPCC’s calculations on the speed of warming.”
The IPCC has held the same side of barn projection for 30 yrs, warming of 1.5-4.5C with CO2 doubling. Even these model projections have not been supported by measurement over the 30yr period.

Your penchant for even warmer projections has no basis in fact.
 
The IPCC has held the same side of barn projection for 30 yrs, warming of 1.5-4.5C with CO2 doubling. Even these model projections have not been supported by measurement over the 30yr period.

Your penchant for even warmer projections has no basis in fact.
The IPCC is projecting for 2100 (several projections, acc to how much GHGs we continue to emit), so we are not there yet.

As for year to year projection, even decade to decade, sometimes they are a bit lower and sometimes a bit higher than actual data that comes in.

However, again, you have to look at the long term picture over many decades, not just one year or one decade.

There was some discussion of why some earlier years’ projections were above the actual data. Several reasons were given – such as the much deeper and longer solar minimum and more heat going into the deeper ocean (due to various ocean dynamics).

They CANNOT predict the future of the intensity of the solar cycles, only that they will be happening fairly regularly, nor can they predict volcanic activity or the intensity of el ninos years in advance. Also, as mentioned, the climate figures used are based only on surface temps and do not include deeper ocean temps.

Furthermore, GW is based on the laws of physics, as well as evidence and data. It is not just some crazy idea scientists cooked up. They’ve known about the natural GH effect for 200 years, and oddly enough the sensitivity that Arrhenius came up with over 100 years ago has panned out to be fairly accurate – having made errors in both directions. 🙂

So one has to think more holistically and longer term.

And as for us non-scientists who are concerned about life on earth, the best policy is prudence – mitigating GW just in case it is happening and just in case it may do serious harms.

So we don’t need extreme level of match-ups and data. We just need to do the right thing.

I just don’t understand why people cannot grasp and follow prudence and why they reject science so out-of-hand…except that it is an “Inconvenient Truth.”
 
Yea, what’s new?

An Asteroid/Comet from space could wipe us all out, a new strain of virus could appear that is immune to our antibiotics and wipe us all out, Nuclear warfare could erupt wiping us out, and a whole bunch of other scientific doomsday predictions… And I could get hit by a bus tomorrow.

Not only that, but lets go to even wackier doomsday predictions, like the Multiverse theory, multiple universes in an effort to deny design and make ‘chance’ more believable, in such a case, this universe could possible collapse any second, even as your reading this.

But righto, lets all panic about Global Warming doomsday predictions … oh, I’m sorry, I mean Climate Change, what do you plan to do? what sort of things are you advocating?

I know you supported Clinton due to this Climate Change fear, at that point you sacrifice millions of unborn children for a hypothesis in an effort to gain probably a couple days (Not yourself of course, but some future generation) in a world that is finite and will inevitably perish sooner or later regardless.

On Living in an Atomic Age - C.S. Lewis - youtube.com/watch?v=oxFmkg5dcyk

I hope this has helped

God Bless

Thank you for reading
Josh
 
The IPCC is projecting for 2100 (several projections, acc to how much GHGs we continue to emit), so we are not there yet.

As for year to year projection, even decade to decade, sometimes they are a bit lower and sometimes a bit higher than actual data that comes in.

However, again, you have to look at the long term picture over many decades, not just one year or one decade.

There was some discussion of why some earlier years’ projections were above the actual data. Several reasons were given – such as the much deeper and longer solar minimum and more heat going into the deeper ocean (due to various ocean dynamics).

They CANNOT predict the future of the intensity of the solar cycles, only that they will be happening fairly regularly, nor can they predict volcanic activity or the intensity of el ninos years in advance. Also, as mentioned, the climate figures used are based only on surface temps and do not include deeper ocean temps.

Furthermore, GW is based on the laws of physics, as well as evidence and data. It is not just some crazy idea scientists cooked up. They’ve known about the natural GH effect for 200 years, and oddly enough the sensitivity that Arrhenius came up with over 100 years ago has panned out to be fairly accurate – having made errors in both directions. 🙂

So one has to think more holistically and longer term.

And as for us non-scientists who are concerned about life on earth, the best policy is prudence – mitigating GW just in case it is happening and just in case it may do serious harms.

So we don’t need extreme level of match-ups and data. We just need to do the right thing.

I just don’t understand why people cannot grasp and follow prudence and why they reject science so out-of-hand…except that it is an “Inconvenient Truth.”
This thread keeps going on and on, apparently trying to convince either non-believers of global warming, sceptics, or cautious watchers that global warming is accelerating at an unprecedented rate and we are doomed unless we take immediate action of some kind.

So once again, I ask you as I did earlier-bottom line after all this rhetoric:

1-What do want the Untied States and the rest of the world to do. A, B, C…
2-What are you personally doing besides talking on this forum to counteract your claims
of the pending climate change? A, B, C…
 
This thread keeps going on and on, apparently trying to convince either non-believers of global warming, sceptics, or cautious watchers that global warming is accelerating at an unprecedented rate and we are doomed unless we take immediate action of some kind.

So once again, I ask you as I did earlier-bottom line after all this rhetoric:

1-What do want the Untied States and the rest of the world to do. A, B, C…
2-What are you personally doing besides talking on this forum to counteract your claims
of the pending climate change? A, B, C…
Now we’re getting somewhere. Those are actually the important questions (which I’ve been answering for several years on CAF).

The US and the rest of the world needs to greatly ramp up its energy & resource efficiency & conservation. One needs to understand that each product entails GHG emissions at nearly every stage – resource extraction & shipping, processing, manufacturing, wholesaling & retailing, consuming and disposal. Even water requires energy to pump & treat it, and hot water requires energy to heat it.

With that in mind the ideas of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and buy things made of recycled materials become important.

Then there is going on alt energy. It is true that it is not windy all the time, nor sunny all the time (esp at night), but a combo of these with some other back-up (fossil fuels or bio-gas, etc), makes these attractive. Not only do they tend to save money, but more importantly they reduce pollution at the local, regional, and global levels, and the sun and wind are not finite resources as are coal and petroleum.

There is a neighborhood in the next town that has a 33 acre benzene plume underground that is causing leukemia and other health hazards – from leaks over decades. This is just one price, an externality, of fossil fuels. Sad to see children dying from this (there’s an elementary school just on top of the plume).

As for our own efforts, we started in 1990 (after JPII’s message for World Peace Day, Jan 1st telling us we need to mitigate climate change… then referred to as “the greenhouse effect”). We made efforts to reduce our energy and resource consumption first, with CF bulbs (which were somewhat expensive then but paid for themselves in energy savings), a low-flow showerhead (saved ½ the hot water & I figure saved us over $2,000 in water and electricity/gas to heat it in the 26 years we’ve had it), installed a low-flow toilet (went from 5 gal to 1.5 gal a flush), insulation, turning off lights not in use, and many many other things, including buying a Sunfrost Frig (which uses 1/10 the energy and tho quite expensive, eventually over some 16 or so years paid for the difference and went on to save and pay for itself in energy savings). We had already made it a point to live within one or two miles of work since the 70s so as to reduce our using up of finite energy resources; and we’ve always been frugal, buying a garage sales (Reuse), etc. So not counting those last ones, we figure we reduced our GHG emissions by about one-third.

Then in 2002 we went on Green Mountain’s 100% wind-generated electricity, bought a Volt in 2012, and installed solar panels in 2013 (that generate about 40% of our electricity). So with all those & earlier conservation/efficiency we figure we’ve reduced our GHG emissions and other pollution by over 60% below our 1990 emissions. And net we’ve saved many $1000s over the past 26 years.

Just saw a report that did an analysis figuring the US could reduce its GHG emissions by 50%, and others figure even a greater reduction possibility.

What it takes is a lot of prayer and God’s help to find the solutions (they are myriad, like hypermiling), then God’s help to implement them.

And the upshot is that we actually saved money.

The take away message: Seek ye 1st the kingdom of God and its righteousness and ALL things will be added unto you. Which I didn’t quite really believe then, but I know now to be very true. Blessed are they who believe without doubting!
 
Yea, what’s new?

An Asteroid/Comet from space could wipe us all out…
The difference is that is caused by nature, while the global warming that’s happening now is caused by people. Not sure if our immortal souls are in jeopardy, but denial and putting forth efforts to dissuade others from mitigating may be more serious sins.

At any rate, I can’t stomach contributing to people’s death, so I’ve been doing what I can to reduce our GHG emissions and other harmful pollution, hoping that others would have the heart to do their part.
 
The difference is that is caused by nature, while the global warming that’s happening now is caused by people.
I don’t know what it’s caused by, or even if it is moving in an irreversible direction or whether it is simply a larger cycle unknown due to our recent weather recording capabilities. There are many theories.

Of course though, pollution is probably not a healthy thing, I do not know though, if there is another way to achieve the same or similar results, than by all means, but at the moment, it’s more about crippling and weakening successful and reliable means, rather than new efficient means and on such a basis, many of these Global Warming and Climate Change fear mongers, are instituting ridiculous and even gravely evil policies, meaning they will have earned my opposition.
Not sure if our immortal souls are in jeopardy, but denial and putting forth efforts to dissuade others from mitigating may be more serious sins.
Than abortion? I don’t think so.
At any rate, I can’t stomach contributing to people’s death,
But it seemed you could stomach voting for Clinton who would have stood by and advanced abortion. That not only threatens someone in the future, but threatens and kills them today. Hypocrisy much?
so I’ve been doing what I can to reduce our GHG emissions and other harmful pollution, hoping that others would have the heart to do their part.
If it’s reasonable. Most of what I have heard and seen is completely unreasonable, even gravely immoral or evil, much of it is fear mongering.

Not to mention the ideology behind this has the capability of grave consequences, unless people put things in their proper order and calm themselves down. Which is why C.S. Lewis - Living in an Atomic Age I believe is very apt - youtube.com/watch?v=oxFmkg5dcyk
The Gospel of Matthew 6:33:
33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well.
The Gospel of Matthew 8:24-27:
24 And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. 25 And they went and woke him, saying, “Save, Lord; we are perishing.” 26 And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O men of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm. 27 And the men marveled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?”
I hope this has helped

God Bless

Thank you for reading
Josh
 
I don’t know what it’s caused by, or even if it is moving in an irreversible direction or whether it is simply a larger cycle unknown due to our recent weather recording capabilities. There are many theories.
It is a distortion of the truth to imply that the various theories are all held by equally reputable authorities. This is a scientific question. Listen to those who have made the study of science their career. Then you will know.
I do not know though, if there is another way to achieve the same or similar results, than by all means, but at the moment, it’s more about crippling and weakening success…
That, too, it just a theory. There are also theories that say that renewable energy means can lead to a more prosperous and comfortable life. Those that warn of dire consequences of a move to renewable energy are worse fear mongers than those who warn of dire consequences of global warming.
Than abortion? I don’t think so.
It was quite clear that Lynn meant that leading others to ignore global warming might be a more serious sin than merely ignoring global warming yourself. This has nothing to do with abortion.
Not to mention the ideology behind this has the capability of grave consequences, unless people put things in their proper order and calm themselves down. Which is why C.S. Lewis - Living in an Atomic Age I believe is very apt - youtube.com/watch?v=oxFmkg5dcyk
I have great respect for C.S. Lewis as a philosopher, author, and Christian moralist. But there are always instances where great men in one field venture too far into fields not their own. I am reminded of a little piece written by the great G.K.Chesterton where he dismissed the claims of the dangers of smoking tobacco. Neither he nor others of his time knew what scientists know now about this subject. Similarly, neither C.S. Lewis now others of his time really understood the implications of nuclear war. I suspect if C.S. Lewis were living today and knew what we all know now about this issue, he would have quite a different view.
 
I don’t know what it’s caused by, or even if it is moving in an irreversible direction or whether it is simply a larger cycle unknown due to our recent weather recording capabilities. There are many theories.
Best to follow the Holy Fathers’ advice over the past 26 years and mitigate climate change – they all at least accepted what the scientists have been saying, and our current pope has graduate education in science. They are not dumb bunnies.
Than abortion? I don’t think so.
I agree that having an abortion is a worse sin, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t strive to reduce our other sins.

I’ve never had an abortion and have been against abortion since I was a child, well before I converted to Catholicism.

However, I HAVE been contributing to people’s harm and death thru climate change, so even tho this is not as bad as having an abortion, it is bad enough for me to do something about it.
But it seemed you could stomach voting for Clinton who would have stood by and advanced abortion. That not only threatens someone in the future, but threatens and kills them today.
Clinton said she is for making abortion safe, legal, and rare. Since she is my same age I understand where she’s coming from, tho I do disagree and think we should make it illegal after we’ve made some changes to our society.

For one thing, using just the stick approach of making abortions illegal doesn’t really work – I know bec I was a young woman when abortions were illegal and plenty of women were going in for illegal abortions.

I think a more effective method might be to use a “carrot approach” of providing paid maternity leave, free or cheap professional child care, free or cheap medical care for women and children, and other such programs that help women to have their children, rather than forcing women between a rock and a hard place.

Then once these programs were in place (as they have in France, where my niece had her children and has benefitted from these programs), I think laws against abortion might work much better to reduce abortion.

Meanwhile it is not good to continue killing people thru climate change and other serious environmental harms, which also cause “natural” abortions.

One can walk and chew gum at the same time. Mitigating climate change does not in any way preclude working against abortion. In fact I have much more luck in convincing environmentalists not to have abortions by saying it makes no sense to save the world for children by killing children.

I don’t have any luck in convincing CC denialists who are against abortion that it makes no sense to save babies from abortion, then kill them thru environmental harms. They seem deaf to that reasoning. I hope some will prove me wrong on that.

Life is precious, a gift from God, and as it says in the Bible, “Thou shalt not kill.”
 
I wonder if people have seen this graph, which shows just how not normal 2016 is in terms of sea ice.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CxZMyw_UoAAhd75.jpg
Please stop these large images. They make the thread extremely difficult to read.
  1. Do not post large or oversize photos – use a link instead. Those wishing to view will do so, those not, or who are on older computer systems, will not then be adversely affected in their viewing.
forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=187801
 
As for our own efforts, we started in 1990 (after JPII’s message for World Peace Day, Jan 1st telling us we need to mitigate climate change… then referred to as “the greenhouse effect”). We made efforts to reduce our energy and resource consumption first, with CF bulbs (which were somewhat expensive then but paid for themselves in energy savings), a low-flow showerhead (saved ½ the hot water & I figure saved us over $2,000 in water and electricity/gas to heat it in the 26 years we’ve had it), installed a low-flow toilet (went from 5 gal to 1.5 gal a flush), insulation, turning off lights not in use, and many many other things, including buying a Sunfrost Frig (which uses 1/10 the energy and tho quite expensive, eventually over some 16 or so years paid for the difference and went on to save and pay for itself in energy savings). We had already made it a point to live within one or two miles of work since the 70s so as to reduce our using up of finite energy resources; and we’ve always been frugal, buying a garage sales (Reuse), etc. So not counting those last ones, we figure we reduced our GHG emissions by about one-third.

Then in 2002 we went on Green Mountain’s 100% wind-generated electricity, bought a Volt in 2012, and installed solar panels in 2013 (that generate about 40% of our electricity). So with all those & earlier conservation/efficiency we figure we’ve reduced our GHG emissions and other pollution by over 60% below our 1990 emissions. And net we’ve saved many $1000s over the past 26 years.

Just saw a report that did an analysis figuring the US could reduce its GHG emissions by 50%, and others figure even a greater reduction possibility.

What it takes is a lot of prayer and God’s help to find the solutions (they are myriad, like hypermiling), then God’s help to implement them.

And the upshot is that we actually saved money.

The take away message: Seek ye 1st the kingdom of God and its righteousness and ALL things will be added unto you. Which I didn’t quite really believe then, but I know now to be very true. Blessed are they who believe without doubting!
This has been said many times, but it has to be realized that the subsidies involved in this particular case simply cannot be afforded to every citizen.

It is also troubling to me that those who are believers in MMGW never seem to look at anything other than fossil fuels and limiting their use. In a world in which many practices result in a high degree of carbon release and heating/radiation of overused land, practices that could be reversed, one would think those who most fear MMGW would look at more things than fossil fuels. That’s particularly true since most people in this country depend on those fuels for heating, transportation and food, and since all industry is highly dependent on relatively inexpensive energy.

The failure to consider anything else is at least part of the reason why many people are skeptical of the whole thing. Limitation of energy use so often seems to be the real goal, with all the rest simply being a rationale for doing it by fiat. Not so very long ago “peak oil” was the big argument designed to curtail energy usage. That has now faded, since so much more recoverable fossil fuels have been discovered. Then it was man-made global warming, which then changed to “climate change”.

But always, reduction in energy use is the goal, and in the absence of truly viable alternatives. It’s one thing to tout the benefits of this vehicle or that solar array or windmill system. But when it takes huge subsidies for anyone to actually employ them, it tells one that alternative energy’s time has not yet come. And when one further realizes “50% reduction” in fossil fuel usage in the U.S. will not affect global CO2 to any significant degree, the whole thing begins to look more like an ideology the goal of which is other than the ostensible goal.
 
It is also troubling to me that those who are believers in MMGW never seem to look at anything other than fossil fuels and limiting their use.
You should distinguish between those who believe MMGW is real from those who are proposing solutions to combat it. There is a lot of overlap, I suppose, but they really are separate questions. Disagreement over the second question should not imply dismissal of the first question.
In a world in which many practices result in a high degree of carbon release and heating/radiation of overused land, practices that could be reversed, one would think those who most fear MMGW would look at more things than fossil fuels.
And in fact they do.
The failure to consider anything else is at least part of the reason why many people are skeptical of the whole thing.
It is inconvenient to accept that something you have depended on in cheap supply may have to cost more. That could make people skeptical.
Limitation of energy use so often seems to be the real goal, with all the rest simply being a rationale for doing it by fiat.
Except that such a goal does not make sense because there does not seem to be much of a benefit to those that are proposing limitations. I have heard the “power for power’s sake” arguments before, but they are just not compelling. If people are doing things for a hidden agenda, that agenda is usually something that gives them an objective advantage - usually financial. I see no such motivation for “faking” global warming. On the other hand, I see the tremendous potential financial motivation for denying global warming. If we are going to hypothesize hidden agendas, let’s be fair in looking at both sides.
Not so very long ago “peak oil” was the big argument designed to curtail energy usage. That has now faded, since so much more recoverable fossil fuels have been discovered.
It has not really gone away. It has been pushed down the road by the discovery of more extreme methods of recovery, such as fracking and tar sands extraction.
But always, reduction in energy use is the goal…
You imply the existence of one constant goal without giving a reason why anyone would want to strive toward that goal.
 
Except that such a goal does not make sense because there does not seem to be much of a benefit to those that are proposing limitations. I have heard the “power for power’s sake” arguments before, but they are just not compelling. If people are doing things for a hidden agenda, that agenda is usually something that gives them an objective advantage - usually financial. I see no such motivation for “faking” global warming. On the other hand, I see the tremendous potential financial motivation for denying global warming. If we are going to hypothesize hidden agendas, let’s be fair in looking at both sides.

It has not really gone away. It has been pushed down the road by the discovery of more extreme methods of recovery, such as fracking and tar sands extraction.

.
I’m not saying all people have the motivation of making profit from government actions to decrease or at least punish fossil fuel use, but some certainly do. A lot of government money goes into alternative energies, without which those producers could not continue. And, of course, there is the Al Gore sale of credits which the current administration would impose on the whole U.S. if it could, for the benefit of “credit generators” in other countries.

Some, but not all, new petroleum discoveries are achieved through new technologies. But that is the way it has always been. From ancient gathering of bitumen from surface sites to drilling, to slant drilling, to fracking, there have been improvements in the technology. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s harder to find gold nowadays too, as well as a lot of other things.
 
Please stop these large images. They make the thread extremely difficult to read.

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=187801
That’s not as large as a graph I put up (I just couldn’t find a smaller one and did feel bad about it though).

I think this graph is okay, at the upper end of okay. The graph and words all fit into the screen, so I don’t have the slide over.

The graph is important because it shows how arctic ice is reducing…the topic of this thread!!
 
I’m not a scientist but I’ve often wondered if there is a critical point in the ecology of the earth…maybe some micro organism will mutate which will have an effect on something else…and so on…until the whole ecological system collapses in on itself…is that a possibility…I understand that everything in the ecology of the earth is connected…( I think)…I often wonder (again) about Noah and the flood…how everyone was doing what they always did and didn’t take notice of Noah…maybe for us it might be the effects of pollution that will cause an ecological flood and we won’t know it until it’s too late…like I said nothing scientific… just my thoughts…is that sort of thing possible or not…I’m just curious if there is someone here who is a scientist and can answer that.
 
This has been said many times, but it has to be realized that the subsidies involved in this particular case simply cannot be afforded to every citizen.

It is also troubling to me that those who are believers in MMGW never seem to look at anything other than fossil fuels and limiting their use. In a world in which many practices result in a high degree of carbon release and heating/radiation of overused land, practices that could be reversed, one would think those who most fear MMGW would look at more things than fossil fuels. That’s particularly true since most people in this country depend on those fuels for heating, transportation and food, and since all industry is highly dependent on relatively inexpensive energy.

The failure to consider anything else is at least part of the reason why many people are skeptical of the whole thing. Limitation of energy use so often seems to be the real goal, with all the rest simply being a rationale for doing it by fiat. Not so very long ago “peak oil” was the big argument designed to curtail energy usage. That has now faded, since so much more recoverable fossil fuels have been discovered. Then it was man-made global warming, which then changed to “climate change”.

But always, reduction in energy use is the goal, and in the absence of truly viable alternatives. It’s one thing to tout the benefits of this vehicle or that solar array or windmill system. But when it takes huge subsidies for anyone to actually employ them, it tells one that alternative energy’s time has not yet come. And when one further realizes “50% reduction” in fossil fuel usage in the U.S. will not affect global CO2 to any significant degree, the whole thing begins to look more like an ideology the goal of which is other than the ostensible goal.
We did not receive subsidies for anything we did before 2002 and were able to reduce our GHGs by about one-third – thereby reducing the subsidies we would have received for fossil fuel and nuclear energy use.

We did not receive a subsidy for our $6 low-flow showerhead, which has saved us over $2,000 in its 26 yrs of use, or for many other things, such as the used bicycle I bought. that helped offset driving an ICE car.

Why do you keep harping on this? Isn’t it great that the gov gives subsidies for good things and life-saving things, not only for the military, nukes, fossil fuels, etc, things that harm and kill? I’d be willing to pay higher taxes for pro-life measures, and feel bad that taxes often go for pro-death measures.

So I have no problem at all with the subsidies we did receive for good things, and I would have bought them anyway without the subsidies. We give to charity to help people, why not spend on things that help reduce our harm and killing of people?
 
I’m not a scientist but I’ve often wondered if there is a critical point in the ecology of the earth…maybe some micro organism will mutate which will have an effect on something else…and so on…until the whole ecological system collapses in on itself…is that a possibility…I understand that everything in the ecology of the earth is connected…( I think)…I often wonder (again) about Noah and the flood…how everyone was doing what they always did and didn’t take notice of Noah…maybe for us it might be the effects of pollution that will cause an ecological flood and we won’t know it until it’s too late…like I said nothing scientific… just my thoughts…is that sort of thing possible or not…I’m just curious if there is someone here who is a scientist and can answer that.
I’m not a scientist either, but some 40 yrs ago I came across “catastrophe theory,” which I think is being used in both the social and natural sciences (see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catastrophe_theory). The idea is that there can be some slowly increasing factor that when it reaches a certain critical point can tip the system into a different state very rapidly.

In anthropology there is “revitalization movements” in which all of a sudden it seems (within years) the whole tribe or society changes, and part of that theory is “mazeway resynthesis,” which has to do with the individual undergoing a rather sudden change, like a conversion experience.

I’ve also seen this type of rather sudden change being applied to climate change, in which the global average temp (energy increase in the earth system) increases slowly over time, but this causes rather sudden (within decades) changes in various earth systems into a new “regime.”

This might help: Rockstrom’s TED talk “Let the Environment Guide Our Development” at ted.com/talks/johan_rockstrom_let_the_environment_guide_our_development
 
Why do you keep harping on this? Isn’t it great that the gov gives subsidies for good things and life-saving things, not only for the military, nukes, fossil fuels, etc, things that harm and kill? I’d be willing to pay higher taxes for pro-life measures, and feel bad that taxes often go for pro-death measures.

So I have no problem at all with the subsidies we did receive for good things, and I would have bought them anyway without the subsidies. We give to charity to help people, why not spend on things that help reduce our harm and killing of people?
I keep saying it because, with all due respect, you keep bringing it up. Not everyone who sees the current posts viewed the ones a few years back when it turned out the total of subsidies, credits, etc to do all of that was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. It shouldn’t be made to seem easier or less expensive than it is. Nor is it likely the government can afford to do the same for every Jack and Jill in the country.
 
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