A couple of comments in a discussion on Grist here:
isaacschumann says: "...i profoundly disagree with your assertion that we have only a brief window to act before things spin out of control, there is absolutely no scientific basis for tipping points and the like."
Since we know there actually is a scientific basis for human caused GHG climate disaster, and we realize individuals with your point of view can't be convinced by scientific evidence, we choose to stop trying to convince you.
We will stick to convincing swing voters instead, people in the middle of the political spectrum. Extremists are being marginalized daily as their spokespersons rant.
Feel free to further this cause. It helps get the majority to vote for a climate curing, job creating green energy and ag revolution. We will continue to emphasize economic stability and financial security by advocating independence from imported energy and chemical fertilizer (yes, that's right, ammonia fertilizer is now brought in on ocean going tankers from Russia).
Jobs, jobs, jobs. Votes, votes, votes. Stall out this new energy economy with denier talking points and all those jobs continue to be exported.
It's the same result of "death panel" talking points in the healthcare debate, 10s of thousands of families losing their homes and 1000s dying every month because they don't have health insurance.
Millions losing their jobs, healthcare, and homes because US industries can't/won't compete in this worldwide renewable energy race. It feeds into the same decline brought on by the Reagan revolution. Thank you Reaganites and conservatives, you have turned US into a debtor nation dependent on imported energy and manufactured goods and a second class world power rapidly dropping down the list in every category used to measure national success.
Maybe more Reagan de-regulation will help quicken the slide? Let's just let the "free" market build more coal and oil lubricant under this melting glacier. Woooosh! The US economy dropping into the ocean of counterfiet (100s of trillions) electronic currency disguised as "credit default swaps" and "bundled mortgages" and "derivatives".
US credit meltdown. How long will china conytinue to lend US our money back to buy more stuff from them?
Why actually manufacture anything? That's for suckers, right?
isaacschumann: " i work developing chemical processes to turn agricultural and municipal waste into valuable fuels and chemicals through yeast, fungal or bacterial fermentations."
You mean like the yeast in snack foods derived from papermill waste? Let me guess, the clorine (that introduces dioxin into our food supply) used to eliminate competing microorganisms in the process is failing, so the next big thing is GMO yeast and a version of "roundup" for microorganisms?
No wonder you are defensive.
isaacschumann: "i dont appreciate being talked down to by a political hack"
Hehehey, good obfuscation here though:
isaacschumann: "Why is it fair that 1% of the worlds population gets to do 20% of the worlds manufacturing?"
Why is it that 20% consume 50% of the world's resources in a way that is catastrophically changing the biosphere? Should we increase this destructive consumption in order to increase fairness?
Nope. We should manufacture a renewable technilogical civilization. With technology that does not consume our living planet, the use and manufacturing of products will increase as the standard of living of everyone on the planet imptroves.
Lift all boats or go for the corporate bottomline in the next quarterly report? The yeast food additive model is an example of the pervasive short term bottomline world view. So what if the current GMO/toxin cycle is ineffective next year? We can make money now, then develop a new GMO/toxin pair next year. It's all/only about the short term dollars.
isaacschumann: I say that there is no scientific basis for tipping points in nature because nature is a non-steady state system and tipping points only apply to steady state systems; there has to be a continual, persistant set of baseline conditions to tip away from.
Your tipping point, point is ludicrous. How can anyone in the biological sciences not understand exponential growth? Your job involves the conditions for growing microorganisms that display this fundamental trait of life itself. Math illiteracy is rampant in media and our culture in general, but even in the sciences? Yep.
That's why the "political hacks" pushing denier talking points have such a liesurely time finding scientists to tout their nonsense. Evidently you are actually volunteering to help out? Amazing.
