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Crip Dyke's avatar

So one of the less tragic aspects of the entire world drowning is that it takes TIME for that energy to slowly weep away the watery mass of glaciers. We act as if "sea level" is a universal thing around the world, but it actually takes time for river water entering the sea to disperse evenly over the surface of the world. Sea level rise is happening and fossil fuel use is causing it, but what's actually causing it is last year's fossil fuel use, because it takes time for that carbon dioxide to disperse into a proper heat-retaining global cover.

And since CO2 lasts for 500 years or more at a best guess, in addition to last year's fossil fuel use, sea level rise is also affected by deforestation, wood burning, and fossil fuel use for 499 years before that.

And so as things get worse and people finally move to do something drastic, we will expend massive amounts of social effort to remake economies and infrastructure in ways that do not exacerbate climate change, but even a decade after we reach net-zero carbon emissions we'll have 500 years of climate effects yet to come.

And thus one of the lesser tragedies. When we finally do something about all this, sea level rise will continue, and these anti-science blowhards will scream at the storm surge, "I told you that stopping fossil fuel use would not help!"

And, honestly, because they don't believe in careful analysis of data, and because they won't see the world actually cooler and calmer in their lifetimes, they will go to their lives thinking that they were forced to stop using fossil fuels and the world did not get better as a result. They will point to the water slowly consuming Miami and scream, "See! I gave you your windmills and the ocean took Miami anyway!"

But they didn't give anyone windmills, and the ocean is already coming for Miami.

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Villago Delenda Est 🇺🇦's avatar

Texas Rejects Science Books With Too Much Science In Them

Wife: Have you got anything without science?

Waitress: Well, there's science egg sausage and science, that's not got much science in it.

Wife: I don't want ANY science!

Man: Why can't she have egg bacon science and sausage?

Wife: THAT'S got science in it!

Man: Hasn't got as much science in it as science egg sausage and science, has it?

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