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Started by Shadow.97, August 06, 2016, 11:39 AM

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scarface

Tonight, I'm going to talk about a serious problem. The IPCC released a new report. And you are going to see that it predicts a bleak future for oceans and frozen regions.

Maybe you are wondering who is responsible? Is it mister baboon? Is it because ants are becoming too numerous? No. Apparently it's due to viruses crippling the Earth. These viruses are more and more numerous. They are called humans.



Protestors blocked roads and marched in Washington, D.C., to urge the U.S. government to curb greenhouse gas emissions. It was one of many protests around the world on September 23 drawing attention to human-caused climate change.



Earth’s oceans and frozen regions are changing alarmingly quickly, scientists warn in the first comprehensive look at how greenhouse gas emissions are altering the planet’s seas and cryosphere.

Since 1993, the rate of warming in the oceans has more than doubled, scientists report in a new study by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC. Melting of the two great ice sheets blanketing Greenland and West Antarctica is speeding up as well, accelerating sea level rise. And West Antarctica’s glaciers may already be so unstable that they are past the point of no return.

“The consequences for nature and humanity are sweeping and severe,” Ko Barrett, IPCC vice-chair and head of research at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said at a news conference September 24. Rising seas are already threatening low-lying coastal areas that today are home to 680 million people, about 10 percent of the world’s population. 


“The ocean has largely been left out of the discussion on climate,” says Becca Gisclair, senior director of Arctic Programs for the Ocean Conservancy in Bellingham, Wash., who was not involved in the IPCC study. The new report emphasizes the need to “slash emissions, and do it quickly, or these impacts highlighted in the report will quickly become irreversible…. My hope is that seeing all of these impacts in one place can highlight the need for action.”

The report is one of several special reports focusing on the latest science on specific aspects of climate change that the IPCC releases in between its large, sweeping assessments. Since the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report came out in 2013, scientists have learned a great deal about the impacts of absorbing atmospheric carbon dioxide on the oceans and their denizens, as well as in coastal areas, says Sarah Cooley, director of the Ocean Conservancy’s ocean acidification program in Washington, D.C. For this new report, 104 scientists from 36 countries evaluated 6,981 studies to determine the impact on the world’s oceans and ice-covered regions.

While the IPCC report rings an alarm bell, there is hope, says climate scientist Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, who heads the Global Change Institute at the University of Queensland in Australia. The ocean isn’t just part of the problem, Hoegh-Guldberg says â€" it should be a key part of the solution. “What’s surprising is how quickly we can limit the damage,” Hoegh-Guldberg says, a message that he says was also embedded within the IPCC’s 2018 special report on 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming, for which he was a contributing author.

Hoegh-Guldberg and colleagues recently assessed ways to harness ocean resources to reduce or mitigate global greenhouse gas emissions. The study, commissioned by a group of 15 world leaders called the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy, was released September 23 by the World Resources Institute. In it, the researchers highlight five ocean-related activities that they say can help slow warming:

- Build offshore wind farms and other ocean-based renewable energy to shift away from dependence on fossil fuels;
- Eliminate carbon emissions from the shipping industry;
- Restore coastal ecosystems such as mangroves and salt marshes, which not only store carbon but also provide myriad benefits, including serving as buffers against tropical storms, filtering pollutants and providing habitat for fish and other wildlife;
- Harvest more ocean-based protein sources, which have a much lower carbon footprint than any land-based animal protein;
- Store carbon in the seafloor, which theoretically has high potential for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, but also a lot of uncertainty in terms of its environmental impact.

Those five activities have the potential to account for as much as 21 percent of the emissions reductions needed by 2050 to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial times by the end of the century, Hoegh-Guldberg and colleagues write in the Sept. 27 Science. That help is sorely needed. Human activity has already increased global temperatures by 1.1 degrees C, and studies suggest that global emissions are now on track to blow past midcentury targets needed to achieve 1.5 degrees .


scarface

#221
I read that Chirac is dead.

In case you don't know him, here is a funny video. In French.
https://vimeo.com/91009482

An article is available here: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/10009794/jacques-chirac-dead-french-president/


scarface

#222
On Twitter somebody posted "Hong Kong’s very own version of Eugène Delacroix’s ‘Liberty Leading the People’."




The original:


Shadow.97

Quote from: scarface on October 03, 2019, 02:10 AM
Tonight, I went to a bar in Clermont Ferrand, and I talked to a guy named Kevin. I drank 2 beers and I learnt a few things about Japan because Kevin was fond of Japan. He was about to buy a house in Fukuoka.
I notably learnt a few things about Japanese honorifics.
For example, If maher was going to Japan, he wouldn't be called Maher. Instead, he would be probably called Mahersan, "san" being the most commonplace honorific and a title of respect typically used between equals of any age. Or he would be called Mahersama, "sama"  being a more respectful version for people of a higher rank than oneself or divine.
He could be called Maherkun too, by those who don't know who he is, kun being a status addressing or referring to those of junior status. It can even seem rude sometimes.


People being way too fond of anime calls people that in a "playful" way in games and in chats..

I'm not sure what to think about it..


Vasudev


scarface


humbert

Quote from: Vasudev on December 25, 2019, 01:22 PM
Merry Xmas everyone!

I'm surprised you posted this. In India the vast majority of the population is Hindu, followed by Muslims. Christians make up less than 3%. I assume Christmas isn't celebrated in India given such a small number of Christians. Do I assume correctly or what?

Vasudev

Quote from: humbert on December 27, 2019, 05:34 AM
Quote from: Vasudev on December 25, 2019, 01:22 PM
Merry Xmas everyone!

I'm surprised you posted this. In India the vast majority of the population is Hindu, followed by Muslims. Christians make up less than 3%. I assume Christmas isn't celebrated in India given such a small number of Christians. Do I assume correctly or what?
I think most of them celebrate now if not cakes and special sweets will be consumed by many. I studied in a Catholic School so Christmas, Good Friday, Easter etc.. were celebrated in grand!

scarface

Quote from: Vasudev on December 30, 2019, 10:08 AM
I think most of them celebrate now if not cakes and special sweets will be consumed by many. I studied in a Catholic School so Christmas, Good Friday, Easter etc.. were celebrated in grand!
If you are Catholic, then you belong to a very small minority in India, only 2% of the population, the vast majority being Hindu, or Muslim. But apparently faith is strong among them. You probably know the Christian religion more than I do.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6SlR98ZZBo

scarface