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Comment Re:Highlander III did it already... (Score 3, Funny) 421

Nothing that mankind has control over is more likely to cause mass death than continuing to contribute to climate change

The most likely stable state the climate is going to end up in, compared to the interglacial we're in right now, is back into full glaciation.

There's no stable "hotter" state known (no matter the historical CO2 levels, which have been much much higher than we're projecting to ever reach) to science. The only question during an interglacial is whether the poles will be free of ice or not - and looking at the latest interglacial, the Eemian, we shouldn't be surprised if the arctic circle becomes ice free (still without any catastrophic effects whatsoever).

What do we need to do to get back into full glaciation?

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Although - changing the albedo as proposed in the article might well bring us there sooner rather than later.

Caveat: This post reflects the current state of science accurately. Watch out for replies that don't.

Comment Re: BitCoin's isn't a mature cryptocurrancy (Score 1) 148

The functionality is available in the Bitcoin protocol. Your complaint is apparently about BitPay. It's like blaming RFC 5246 for an incomplete TLS implementation by Microsoft.

I have had no issues using Bitcoin for payments and didn't know there had been any (all the scams I've seen are about people storing their private keys with someone else).

Comment Re:10% of all bitcoins (Score 1) 148

Of course they would have, and did. There's enough liquidity going through Bitcoin exchanges every day for millions of dollars to go in/out of BTC.

A few years ago a co-worker and I had dinner, and since he was curious about Bitcoin I offered to pay my part of the dinner to him in BTC. That amounted to 10 BTC at the then-exchange rate of $4/BTC.

He sold them at $1000 each.

Comment Re:Temperature? (Score 1) 145

I fully agree with you - but - carbon dioxide is not in any way "pollution". It's plant food. It has likely contributed to our greening planet, which has caused deserts to shrink and our food output to reach record highs.

Either we explicitly want to cut down on CO2 production due to our skilled models saying it will hurt us - and/or we stop various forms of pollution. It's very unscientific to pretend there the same thing.

Comment Re:Sounds reasonable (Score 1) 243

There is no adequate explanation - which is why the court in its judgement specifically told the prosecutor to "get on with it". Including stating to the press that "get on with it" could mean "go to London and do the interrogation there".

I have no idea how that extremely important development could be left out from an objective summary ..

Comment Re:phase change (Score 1) 295

No, no we are not in an unsually unstable period of climate. Or more accurately stated, that instability is BECAUSE OF US.

Not according to research.

Until a few decades ago it was generally thought that all large-scale global and regional climate changes occurred gradually over a timescale of many centuries or millennia, scarcely perceptible during a human lifetime. The tendency of climate to change relatively suddenly has been one of the most suprising outcomes of the study of earth history, specifically the last 150,000 years (e.g., Taylor et al., 1993). Some and possibly most large climate changes (involving, for example, a regional change in mean annual temperature of several degrees celsius) occurred at most on a timescale of a few centuries, sometimes decades, and perhaps even just a few years. The decadal-timescale transitions would presumably have been quite noticeable to humans living at such times, and may have created difficulties or opportunities (e.g., the possibility of crossing exposed land bridges, before sea level could rise)

http://www.esd.ornl.gov/projec...

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