The world’s “top-rated” climate scientist implies that 437 degrees is on the way real soon.
The top-rated climate scientist in the world, James Hansen from NASA stated, “If we burn all reserves of oil, gas, and coal, there is a substantial chance we will initiate the run-away greenhouse. If we also burn the tar sands and tar shale, I believe the Venus Syndrome is a dead certainty.”
Venus has a temperature of 450°C (842°F), hot enough to melt lead. It once held water but the runaway greenhouse effect heated the planet so much that the water molecules were destroyed.
The sun’s energy hitting Earth is slightly more than half that of Venus. Burning the tar sands and tar shale could, over time, put Earth’s temperature to around 225°C (437°F).
h/t to Marc Morano
it must’ve been pretty hard to manage to write so many anti-scientific statements all at once. Perhaps Weird Al was really unto something…
But on Venus the atmosphere never reached saturation vapor pressure. The run-away greenhouse effect was caused by water vapor stuck in the atmosphere. Here on Earth everything is different, we have the oceans. Hansen knows this, it’s basic planetary atmospheres 101.
That may be the scariest statement yet!! This is beyond desperation.
But there is always the nuclear option-set off enough nukes to create Nuclear Winter. And get rid of some pesky countries at the same time.
Well it should be fun to watch how Hansen is defended this time. Maybe he will give a differing statement later and that will absolve him of ever having made these statements.
That’s an amazing bit of certitude from a man that has to make 3 different, yet all incorrect, predictions of earth’s climate in one paper.
I once read that no “Respectable” Climate scientist ever claimed the globe could ever reach runaway warming but would just reach a higher equilibrium temperature.
Other than some magical theoretical figure there is and never has been equilibrium because a lack of weather would be the result and all life on the planet would die without a method of moving moisture around the system that is caused by the lack of equilibrium.
The closest to equilibrium the globe could get is 100% cloud cover but that would not allow enough energy into the system to maintain the state for any length of time. Excessive aerosols would be similar but would be washed out of the atmosphere before equilibrium could be reached.
Historically we have been in a cold phase compared to Billions of years of records but a warm phase compared to the current Ice Age average. Unless the glacial interglacial cycle is broken we can expect the globe to cool over the next 100,000 years.
actually James may be correct that we get real hot, he just blew the date all to h*ll, eventually the sun will envelop the earth, then it will get smoken hot…
Of course during Earth’s history when CO2 levels were orders of magnitude higher than they are now, it was hot enough to boil the oceans and kill off all life forms. Then they introduced carbon taxes to solve the problem.
That explains what happened to the dinosaurs, Dave. They were taxed to death.
Jim was just generalizing.
Now, if he had explained the part about Elvis and his unicorn, it would have all made sense.
So, will Manhattan be under water when Hansen’s certainty of the Venus Syndrome hits?
If we burn all our food to make ethanol so we don’t use oil the oil will be around but we will be gone.
Hansen’s mental wellbeing should be investigated. These phantasmaGORIcal declarations are the Cognitive signs of inward Dissonance.
Do turf accountants take bets on the diagnosis of diseases? Hansen to Alzheimer in two years? What are the odds? Detective to defective in one easy go.
I agree with the headline. The Venus syndrome as a certainty on Earth is a dead hypothesis.
Maybe my math’s wrong, or my available data on proven reserves are wrong, but a rough guesstamate for buring all the worlds proven reserves in one fell swoop will raise the CO2 level by about…0.02%, assuming no absorption by nature.
Obviously, your math is very badly wrong.
We’ve already raised the CO2 level from ~280ppm to ~390ppm by burning some 500 billion tons of fossil carbon, which (if one were to include sources like oil shales and tar sands) constitutes an insignificant fraction of reserves.
I’m not sure where you get this figure of 0.02% from burning the entire reserve, as the annual increase due to human emissions – after absorption by the oceans – is already on the order of 0.5%.
It might be Jan 2099, or it might be Dec 2099, or it might be in between.
No one can say for sure when business as usual will end human life, but some of the most notable climate scientists in the world suggest that continuing as we are, humanity or at least civilization, will be terminated in about 89 years, the end of this century.
At least we won’t have to worry about Manhattan flooding, all the sea will have evaporated.
In 20 years time Tony will come along and explain that Homer was misquoted and that a few “nots” had been omitted and anyway he had his fingers crossed behind his back.
For once the alarmists may be onto something (kind of).
Assuming our GHG emissions are adding to the MASS of the atmosphere, then it would be theoretically possible to induce a “Venus syndrome” on Earth by increasing the thickness of the atmosphere…..
Crunching some numbers….
Mass of Venus’s atmosphere : 480,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg
Mass of Earth’s atmosphere : 5,300,000,000,000,000,000 kg
Difference in mass (Venus – Earth) : 475,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg
Current Global GHG emissions (p.a) : 31,300,000,000,000 kg
If the CEO of Exxon Mobil or Gazprom ever announce that they have found 15 million years worth of oil reserves (for that is how long it would take to raise the mass of the Earth’s atmosphere to Venusian levels at current rate of emissions) THEN would be the time to start worrying…
Venus Syndrome doesn’t necessarily mean heating to the temperature and pressure of Venus. Just hot enough to start the oceans boiling. Then, you can add the 1.4×10^21 of water in the Earth’s hydrosphere to your figures.
Remember back in the “naive” 70s when a disaster movie was a burning building or a sinking ship? Today we have worlds being destroyed by ice (The Day after Tomorrow) or fire (2012). I guess the lunacy of the high priests has to match hollywood theatrics.
(face palm)
“Venus Syndrome is a dead certainty”
Don’t worry folks. For one thing, Hansen might be wrong. He has already prepared for that possibility but clearly stating that his certainty is dead. Its the live certainties we need to worry about.
It doesn’t matter if he is wrong, that is a resume enhancer to a leftist. Besides it provides jobs – Hansen appologist is a growing field.
What!?! You dare suggest that Hansen could be wrong??? I think you need to read this:
“If you want to know the scientific consensus on global warming, read the reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. But if you want to know what the consensus will be ten years from now, read Jim Hansen’s work.”
— Dr. Chuck Kutscher, National Renewable Energy Laboratory and American Solar Energy Society (ASES), editor of ASES report “Tackling Climate Change in the U.S.
Not only is he always right now, but he know what the future is.
Don’t forget, he knew that last year would be the hottest year before it happened.
If he had long hair and a beard, he would look like Jesus Simpson.
Wow, he really is a superhero. I bet he could make a year in the 1940s 1 degree colder if he wanted to. I never understood how he could do it but now I see he must have master time traveling.
Somewhere I read that if we burned all known oil and coal reserves in short order that it would only raise it to around 550ppm.
Hansen’s preoccupation with Venus is ongoing. The motivations of all these people is hard to discern. I kinda feel sorry for some of them. It must be horrible going through life, short as it is, fearing doom all the time.