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Wolfgang Lucht

Bill McGuire at CNN (shortened): " I’m a climate scientist. If you knew what I know, you’d be terrified too".

"We’re experiencing, in our lifetimes, a heating episode that is probably unique in the last 4.6 billion years."

"In fact, this isn’t a matter of scaring people, but of informing them. As a climate scientist, it is my duty to tell you."

"Everyone has the right to know the facts so as to provide the opportunity to act upon the reality of what we are doing."

us.cnn.com/2024/03/07/opinions

@W_Lucht what do you do if you want off planet?

@VeroniqueB99 @W_Lucht Elon Musk was offering indentured servitude on Mars last I checked.

@W_Lucht
For me, and this may just be me, when someone says, "We’re experiencing, in our lifetimes, a heating episode that is probably unique in the last 4.6 billion years." I discount what ever else they are saying. This planet has been both covered edge to edge in Lava and an ice ball over the last 4.6 billion years if we can believe the fossil record. The changing climate is bad *for humans* the planet doesn't care.

@ChuckMcManis
He's referring to the likely fact that Earth as a whole hasn't seen a heating event unfolding this rapidly, ever. The sentence before the one I cited reads, if you go to the article: "The reality is that, as far as we know, and in the natural course of events, our world has never — in its entire history — heated up as rapidly as it is doing now." And that is likely true, and not in contradiction with what you write.

@W_Lucht
I read the article 🙂 but here is the thing: "He's referring to the likely fact that Earth as a whole hasn't seen a heating event unfolding this rapidly, ever."

"Geologic Context" != "Anthropocene Context"

Just as a fruit fly in autumn, who can say with certainty that "For the last 10 generations of my family, it has never been this cold!" It is the context of time. The Pliocene was 10-20 degrees C warmer than it is now, but no records. How quickly did it warm? Why did it cool?

@ChuckMcManis
I'm afraid you don't have the facts right. The Pliocene started about 4 deg C warmer than today and ended cooler than today. The so-called mid-Pliocene warm period likely was about 3 deg C warmer, globally. The Pliocene saw a cooling trend throughout. CO2 remained below 400 ppm, less than today. There is no mechanism that would lead us to expect rapid (century-scale) warming spikes. It's also not true we don't have records. We have good d13C and dO18 time series.

@nadege
Let's turn it into something productive

@W_Lucht I sometimes give talks about the consequences of climate change, and my recipe is this: I take the audience by the hand and together we take a decent look into the dark abyss of the climate catastrophe. A clear view on the terrible unadorned truth. But with my last slide I always remind them that we can take this challenge on in a very positive way: No matter how bad our situation is, fighting for a better world can be a very joyful and fulfilling endeavor.