explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

90: Jacket

2016-09-04T09:26:35Z

Jubal Harshaw: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 90
| date = April 17, 2006
| title = Jacket
| image = jacket.jpg
| titletext = We have this conversation at least once a day in my apartment
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] clearly means to use ''[[wiktionary:fucking|fucking]]'' as an intensifier. However, the friend (likely intentionally in response to the unnecessary swearing) takes ''fucking'' to be an identifier of which jacket is being discussed, and gives a smart-aleck response. His counterpart gets confused by the sarcasm, and the topic is dismissed.
Fuck is an obscene term meaning sex and can be used as a noun, verb, adjective, and adverb. A "fucking jacket" would be a jacket worn especially while having sex or, less likely, a jacket that has sex.

==Transcript==
:[Two men stand and talk to one another.]
:Cueball: Where's my fucking jacket?
:[Friend indicates something behind him.]
:Friend: Over there, next to your regular one.
:Cueball: My what?
:Friend: Never mind.

==Trivia==
*This comic is the first to use an all-caps lettering, except for 78: Garfield.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Sarcasm]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]

1720: Horses

2016-08-18T08:26:34Z

Jubal Harshaw: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1720
| date = August 15, 2016
| title = Horses
| image = horses.png
| titletext = This car has 240% of a horse's decision-making ability and produces only 30% as much poop.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Is White Hat clearly either a sales man or just owner of a nice new car? Randall's transcript doesn't specify, so discuss in the comments.}}
[https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/10/are-consumers-automakers-and-insurers-really-ready-for-self-driving-cars/ The programming] of {{w|self-driving cars}} has been in the news lately, as engineers and philosophers debate what rules the cars should follow in dangerous situations (for instance, what to do when forced to choose between hitting a pedestrian or swerving into oncoming traffic). [[Randall]], in the form of [[Ponytail]], suggests one approach for solving this problem: to think of the car as behaving like a horse, using its own intelligence and ignoring dangerous commands in the interests of self-preservation.

The comic begins with Ponytail claiming that in the old days, riding a horse or driving a horse drawn vehicle while drunk was less dangerous than {{w|drunk driving}} today. Given the higher speed and the denser traffic today this might seem plausible. On the other hand, modern cars have seat belts, airbags, and other features designed to save lives when crashes do occur; horses and horse-drawn vehicles lacked these safety features. But if you do fall asleep the horse will not suddenly walk into another oncoming horse, and may actually just stop walking while you sleep.

Ponytail expands the argument by stating the horse itself will be acting in the interest of its own self-preservation. She finally states that in a comparison of the ability of self-driving cars, we should forget humans, and instead it should be the ability of horses that should be the benchmark that the self-driving cars should be judged against.

This segues into a scene with [[White Hat]], bragging to Cueball and Megan about the features of a car (either to sell the car or simply boast; it's unclear whether White Hat is acting as a salesman) by comparing the features to those of horses. Car engines are traditionally measured in {{w|horsepower}}, which (roughly) compares the power output of the engine to that of a horse. White Hat goes a step further, claiming he can measure the car's onboard computer's driving abilities in the equivalent number of "horses", comparing the car's ability to mitigate for a drunk driver and/or avoid obstacles to that of a horse. (White Hat has been [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/9/9f/lorenz_-_sale_2.png depicted as a salesman] before in [[1350: Lorenz]] and similarly earlier in [[260: The Glass Necklace]]).

The title text features more comparisons of the car to horses. Apparently the car has 240% of a horse's decision-making ability while producing only 30% as much poop. So even with 3.5 horse-intelligence it may only have 2.4 times the decision-making ability (assuming it's the same car). A cars "poop" would be its exhaust, which is usually not found on the road in the form of solid waste but could still nonetheless be measured, as it contains mass. While no source is stated for the 30% ratio, the point that cars are less polluting than horses is surprisingly valid when regarding waste left in the street. Before the invention of the automobile, city streets were commonly filled with horse manure. Of course the amount of pollution created by the cars of the world makes them much more toxic both for humans breathing the exhaust fumes and on the larger scale with the climate. (Then again, if there where a horse for each horsepower in all the cars, then that would also be a problem with the release of methane gas etc.)

Note that riding a horse while drunk is in fact still dangerous and illegal in many places (for example, {{w|Licensing Act 1872|the UK and Ireland}}). A badly-driven horse can throw off its owner, trample passersby, fall on bad surfaces, and destroy any wagon or carriage it's pulling. A self-driving car should be able to understand road rules, which a horse will not - which is presumably why the cars in the comic and the title text are both specified as being more intelligent than a horse.

In [[887: Future Timeline]] dogs driving cars are mentioned. Self-driving cars is a [[:Category:Self-driving cars|recurring topic]] on xkcd. In [[1461: Payloads]] spacecraft mass is measured in horses.

==Transcript==
:[Ponytail walks right with Cueball.]
:Ponytail: Drunk driving was less of a problem before cars. If you got on your horse drunk and fell asleep, it could just walk home.

:[Zoom in on Ponytail's torso; she holds up a palm to proffer an idea.]
:Ponytail: And if you tried to ride into a tree, the horse could be like "No."
:Ponytail: Forget human drivers – ''that's'' the benchmark we should be judging self-driving cars against.

:[The front end of a car, with the bottom of the windshield and the right side mirror just inside the panel is parked before White Hat. He is holding his hand, palm up, out to the left towards the car as he brags about it to Megan and Cueball standing in front of him admiring the car. At the top left of the panel a small frame with a caption is placed over the panels frame:]
:Soon:
:White Hat: This baby has 200 horses under the hood and 3.5 in the computer.
:Megan and Cueball: Ooooh!

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Self-driving cars]]

Talk:1720: Horses

2016-08-18T08:24:48Z

Jubal Harshaw:

[[Link title]]
Not sure being very close to decomposing manure and urine is less toxic (or carcinogenic) than breathing our relatively dispersed modern car exhaust. Would be a very difficult thing to quantify. Might we change in some way "Of course the amount of pollution created by the cars of the world makes them much more toxic both for humans breathing the exhaust fumes and on the larger scale with the climate."?

Except, no one really worries about drunk drivers driving into a tree. If that happens, I'd say its all good, servers them right... The real problem is drunk drivers running into other drivers, pedestrians, property, etc. And even back in the days of horses and carriages, when forced to go at full gallop the horses would not be able to prevent such mistakes. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.210.238|162.158.210.238]] 13:22, 15 August 2016 (UTC)

A horse is a low tech version of KARR. Surely we want a KITT?
[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.49|141.101.98.49]] 14:04, 15 August 2016 (UTC)

"A badly-driven horse can toss-off its owner"... *fnar fnar*. Perhaps "throw off" or "buck" would mesh less easily with the remnants of immature adolescent brain that I still possess? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.75|141.101.98.75]] 14:12, 15 August 2016 (UTC)

Alert: your car has noticed a wolf. Initiating auto-ejection procedure. Notice: your car has driven over a rattlesnake. Initiating horn honking and spinning out. WARNING: your car has drawn the attention of a pickup of the opposite sex. Program Sexy-fun-times is now running. Sux to be you. ~~ Siliconwolf {{unsigned ip|108.162.216.67}}
:Like[[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 21:37, 15 August 2016 (UTC)

;White Hat -- salesman or owner?

I personally think white hat is a salesman because in the title text a different car is described. It could be a different person describing it, or that white hat owns multiple cars (though given his friendship with black hat, this seems unlikely). I further think that the incomplete tag should be either removed or moved to the transcript section, and a note made in the article. '''Vote: salesman, vote: remove incomplete tag''' [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 21:43, 15 August 2016 (UTC)
: Being sexist, under normal circumstances my wife would rather watch Golf on TV than stand around being regaled by a proud car owner, so I'm voting for car salesman. :) [[User:RoyT|RoyT]] ([[User talk:RoyT|talk]]) 07:03, 16 August 2016 (UTC)
::I'm not sure he is a sales man. Megan could be a horse girl thus interested in the horse aspect. Also it could just as well be the same car in the title text, why could a car not be represented with these two lines: ''This baby has 200 horses under the hood and 3.5 in the computer'' -- and it has -- ''240% of a horse's decision-making ability and produces only 30% as much poop''. No reason to assume it is two cars. I guess this depends highly on what you thought of the first time you saw the comic? But I can easily imagine both that he brags about his own car or that he tries to sell this one (and maybe that it's another in the title text). Too bad Randall has stopped making transcripts when he releases comics. They sometimes get up later, but recently they have been up for the wrong comic... I have fixed the transcript so it is not assuming it is his car. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:45, 16 August 2016 (UTC)

;Example
Here is very recent example of the horse-powered argument https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC7_Hkf8wnA {{unsigned ip|172.68.17.176}}

Para 3: "A cars "poop" would be '''it's''' exhaust" should be "its" --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.84|141.101.98.84]] 11:40, 16 August 2016 (UTC)
:Just fix it, its (it's ;-) a wiki. Has been fixed now. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:45, 16 August 2016 (UTC)

Note that current programmers are VERY far from making an AI as intelligent as horse. They currently struggle with making drones as good in avoiding obstacles as bees are. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 13:42, 16 August 2016 (UTC)

Very similar to an old Dinosaur Comics, specifically the one from March 10, 2014: http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=2588
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.92|108.162.221.92]] 04:09, 18 August 2016 (UTC)

689: FIRST Design

2016-08-14T06:28:08Z

Jubal Harshaw: Added the word 'not' to preserve meaning

{{comic
| number = 689
| date = January 15, 2010
| title = FIRST Design
| image = first_design.png
| titletext = Pool on the roof must've sprung a leak.
}}

==Explanation==
Two members of a team are designing a robot for the 2010 {{w|FIRST Robotics Competition}}, in which teams design robots to push soccer balls into their team's goals. The final design for this team's robot is a trailer with a matchbook on a telescoping pole and the actual robot, a mobile platform with an umbrella on top and pusher in front.

This is an underhanded design, exploiting the presence of a heat-activated {{w|sprinkler system}} at the venue and lack of water resistance in the opposing team's equipment.

When the event starts, the robot moves off and deploys its umbrella. The trailer extends its arm, causing a lit match to set off the sprinkler, which causes the opposing robots to short out and malfunction. This causes the umbrella-protected robot to score goals without opposition.

This may also be referencing how FIRST is famous for its bending of the rules, as loopholes are not only not against the rules, they are encouraged. This would be shown best by how Team 67 designed a robot that utilized a loophole, which allowed them to control a robot using an Xbox Kinect during the time where the robot is supposed to be autonomous. (This loophole has been removed in the rules for more recent competitions.)

The title text is an excuse presented by the umbrella robot team, presumably because they won but are facing disqualification. This excuse seems weak because none of the venues have a rooftop pool. The comment "the pool on the roof must've sprung a leak" is a quote from the 1995 movie "Hackers".

==Transcript==
:Team Member 1 (out of panel): Wow, this is a much better design.
:Team Member 2 (out of panel): Let's build it.
:[A blueprint depicting a robot design for the FIRST competition. It consists of a standard mobile platform, with a pusher blade at the front. Additional parts include an umbrella on top and a trailer unit consisting a telescoping pole with a matchbox and match on top.]

:Referee (out of panel): Go!
:''CLICK''
:[A FIRST competition field, with teams at opposite ends. Various robots appear on the field, and the team whose design appears above activates their robot.]

:[The robot's trailer unit detaches as the telescoping pole begins to extend, and the mobile platform with umbrella rolls forward.]
:''VRRR''
:''CLICK''

:[Telescoping pole extends further.]
:''VRRRR''

:[Telescoping pole extends further.]
:''VRRRR''

:[Telescoping pole extends further, approaching a sprinkler head fixture.]
:''VRRR''

:[Telescoping pole stops extending, placing the matchbox and match very near the sprinkler head fixture.]

:[The mobile platform stops moving.]

:[The umbrella deploys, extending beyond the dimensions of the mobile platform.]
:''FWOOMP''

:[The match box and match are lit beneath the sprinkler head.]
:''FWOOSH''

:[The heat from the match triggers the sprinkler's valve, and water sprays out of the sprinkler into the room below.]
:''PSSSSHH''

:[Water pours from the sprinkler onto the competition field, causing the electrical components of the opposing team's robotics platform to short and malfunction. The opposing team appears distressed and confused.]
:''FZZZT''
:''BWooooooo!!!''

:[The initial robot, still protected by its umbrella, pushes along the balls toward the goal zone without any difficulty.]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics with inverted brightness]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Robots]]
[[Category:Soccer]]

Talk:1379: 4.5 Degrees

2016-08-14T03:35:52Z

Jubal Harshaw:

Scary thoughts there... [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 05:11, 9 June 2014 (UTC)

I imagine the Earth's axial tilt wouldn't change even if the temperature changed by +2 IAU. So, would palm trees survive the extreme day/night lengths at the poles? [[Special:Contributions/103.22.201.239|103.22.201.239]] 05:31, 9 June 2014 (UTC) P.S. Also, wouldn't the North Pole be underwater, so incapable of supporting palm trees?
Also, regarding the IAU, is it a reference to the {{w|International Astronomical Union|IAU}} that named an {{w|4942 Munroe|asteroid}} after Randall?

"While it says it's "probably no big deal," this is probably a joke, because even half of an Ice Age would be a lot of ice." The article has it wrong. It's a 2 degree increase, not decrease. Ice would melt. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.134|108.162.238.134]] 07:33, 9 June 2014 (UTC)
:-- Fixed {{unsigned ip|173.245.54.77}}

To prevent global warming, act yesterday! ... or, well, since we already failed to do it, maybe ... just maybe ... we should invest some resources to ADAPTING to the change. Because the USSR communist party wanted to command “wind and rain” and how it worked?
... of course, we SHOULD be trying to lower the CO2 emissions ... not like Germany, which [http://www.realclearenergy.org/charticles/2014/01/16/germanys_plans_for_new_coal_plants_107463.html replaced it's nuclear power plants with coal ones] ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 10:03, 9 June 2014 (UTC)
:While it is true that we have build more coal plants, the majority part that replace the nuclear power is from renewable energy, see [https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strommix#mediaviewer/Datei:Energiemix_Deutschland.svg diagram] on wikipedia. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.75.89|141.101.75.89]] 15:51, 9 June 2014 (UTC)
:: ... note that burning biomass, while renewable, also adds CO2. Not speaking about oil. You shouldn't be closing nuclear plants, you should be closing coal ones if you have exceed energy. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 10:02, 10 June 2014 (UTC)
::: While burning biomass adds CO2, the whole point of "burning a biologically-sourced fuel" like biodiesel is that you are merely returning to the atmosphere CO2 that was sucked out of the atmosphere by the biological material in the first place. So you grow an acre of plant material, and that acre of plant material sucks a certain amount of CO2 out of the atmosphere. When you then burn that plant material, you are releasing that CO2 back in to the atmosphere. Thus it is a "net zero" operation. While yes, it would be better to do a "net negative" operation (plant more plants while NOT releasing ANY CO2,) a net zero operation is still better than what we're doing now - releasing massive amounts of CO2 that have been locked up for geological-scale lengths of time, all in a VERY short timeframe. If you were to replace all work-generation power sources with "net zero" sources like biodiesel production and biomass generation, the levels of CO2 in the atmosphere would stop rising immediately. (Well, once they have reached equilibrium from other sources, anyway.) But of course, the difficulty is growing sufficient biological fuel material fast enough to create enough fuel for our needs. (The famous "it would take more farmland than currently exists on all of planet Earth, all of it dedicated to growing corn, to grow enough corn to make enough corn-derived ethanol to fuel every vehicle on the planet" problem.) So obviously energy efficiency and non-bio-fuel renewable energy methods are also needed. But biofuel (burning biomass, ethanol, biodiesel, etc,) is still a SIGNIFICANT improvement over oil/natural gas/coal. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.216|108.162.245.216]] 07:31, 20 June 2014 (UTC)

Well, ''this'' seems like a topic that could generate heated comments. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.208.9|108.162.208.9]] 10:09, 9 June 2014 (UTC)

Would anyone care to comment on the +200 meter sea rise? I googled "how much would sea level rise" a bit, and I seem to bump into 60 to 70 meters repeatedly for all glaciers melting. I found nothing direct from IPCC. I wonder if Randall really has another view on this. {{unsigned ip|108.162.254.45}}
:Cretaceous sea levels are generally accepted to have been 200m above the present level - you have large shallow seas (with geological evidence showing depths of 200m) over many of the continents - e.g. the Eromunga Sea in Australia. This is not from the IPCC, it predates that considerably. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.237|108.162.250.237]] 11:35, 15 June 2014 (UTC)
:I hope the explanation isn't that he made a meter/feet mistake. [[Special:Contributions/103.22.201.239|103.22.201.239]] 13:04, 9 June 2014 (UTC)
::I would assert that he rounded for a clean read for a relative scale. Also, the '+' denotes the likelihood of a larger actual amount. {{unsigned ip|108.162.217.41}}
:::60 meters is indeed the amount the sea would rise if all the glacial ice melted. However, that figure presumably does not take into account have much the sea would rise by expansion due to the increased heat. That is, after all, the main reason for rising sea levels today. So I would guess that the +200 figure is the 60 meters of added water from glacial ice ''plus'' the amount it would rise due to warming and expanding. [[User:Calebxy|Calebxy]] ([[User talk:Calebxy|talk]])
::::While that's possible, and desalination of water can also cause it to expand (sea water is more dense than fresh), we shouldn't try to justify the numbers if they are incorrect. If we can find some reliable data to suggest the rise would be 200 ft instead of 200m, we should include that. Or at least include a range of estimates from reliable sources. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.134|108.162.238.134]] 15:42, 9 June 2014 (UTC)
:::::Having just re-read the explanation after posting my comment, I can see that the article attempts to do just that. But the link provided says 110 to 770 <b>mm</b>. Isn't the millimeters? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.134|108.162.238.134]] 15:44, 9 June 2014 (UTC)
:::::But the sea level ''would'' rise more than 60m if the expansion of the sea is taken into account. If the earth became as hot as the graph indicates, then logically the seas would expand considerably. [[User:Calebxy|Calebxy]] ([[User talk:Calebxy|talk]]) 16:04, 9 June 2014 (UTC)
:Cretaceous sea levels seem to have been that high, but this tends to be attributed to the shape of the ocean basins, in particular the mid-ocean ridges, rather than to the temperature. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.35|108.162.219.35]] 17:01, 9 June 2014 (UTC)

So sad that Randall is pushing the carbon tax agenda long after the AGW myth has been debunked. [[User:IGnatius T Foobar|IGnatius T Foobar]] ([[User talk:IGnatius T Foobar|talk]]) 16:00, 9 June 2014 (UTC)
:Waitwhat? a) I saw no mention of tax. b) AGW==Anthropogenic Global Warming==debunked? This may not be the place for this whole discussion (despite the relevance), but it's ''far'' from debunked. And even if "there was going to be some Global Warming anyway", you can't dismiss the probability that we're adding ''something'' to this effect and making it more extreme. If not pushing it over the edge in some way. (I'm actually more optimistic than that, but I do find "it's a myth!" to be annoyingly naive, so excuse me if I try to balance that out. It's really not worth tying this discussion box up in this debate, however.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.232|141.101.98.232]] 18:36, 9 June 2014 (UTC)
::I'm not as sure that it isn't worth it. GCC is fact. GW, might be. AGW, that's where we get into the mythical and unproven range, because it's *really hard* to tell the difference between correlation and causation, and because of other problems I wrote below.[[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 19:28, 10 June 2014 (UTC)
:Randall is a scientist. He follows scientific consensus. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.134|108.162.238.134]] 20:03, 9 June 2014 (UTC)
::Randall is a comic artist. While he's a really smart guy, he popularizes science, he doesn't do the experiments himself.[[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 19:28, 10 June 2014 (UTC)
:::No snark intended here, and I am a non-scientist, so I do not speak from a position of authority. However, I thought (one of the) the point(s) of science was that you don't ''have'' to do the science yourself in order to understand and interpret the results. In fact, you can read the reports and conclusions of others in order to draw your own. In law, for example, we follow the cases that have been established in similar situations so that we can advise our clients on the ''best'' course (and by best, I mean the course that won't land you in court paying outrageous fees) of action. We don't have to experience it ourselves in order to reach the desired outcome. We can draw analogies from similar fact patterns. Right? [[User:Orazor|Orazor]] ([[User talk:Orazor|talk]]) 09:09, 9 October 2014 (UTC)
::::Wrong. Meta analysis, while useful, is not original scientific research. It is the first order derivative of science. Law is art, not science, and is not related to the truth at all. Analogies are not facts, analogies are designed to hide the facts, and therefore, hide the truth.[[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 14:32, 22 April 2015 (UTC)
::There is nothing scientific about following consensus. {{unsigned ip|108.162.215.86}}
:::Of course there is... When 99% of climatologists are reasonably certain (which means "very very sure" for non-scientists) that there is Global Warning and that the primary cause is us (humanity greenhouse gas emissions), I wouldn't say that AGW has been "debunked" and that there is nothing scientific in following this consensus (after having made sure of its existence by reading diverse peer-reviewed studies of the field) ! You may have an agenda to defend but could you at least try to make some sense, please. Note that this doesn't mean that the current political propositions are the right way to go about it and that this comic doesn't say anything about that. [[User:Jedaï|Jedaï]] ([[User talk:Jedaï|talk]]) 21:47, 9 June 2014 (UTC)
::::And this is why climatologists playing with models instead of actually examining data from the real world, aren't scientists. It's possible to get so addicted to your models, that you fail to realize that you've fallen into confirmation bias. And consensus, also known as mob-based peer pressure, is only as smart as the lowest IQ in the mob. Which is why climatologists, attempting to top each other's predictions, have a tendency to fall for worst case scenarios, such as Randall's scenario above.[[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 02:42, 10 June 2014 (UTC)
::::There really ISN'T anything scientific about following consensus. Correlation is not causation. The 99% figure will be scientifically relevant if it will be produced by every scientist independently proving it, not by consensus. And even then ... 100% scientists though time is same everywhere ... then Einstein came with theory and models ... and THEN the models were verified. By Sir Arthur Eddington four years later. THAT made Einstein famous. We don't really have the same kind of proof for AGW. We have lot of data which has been tampered with or cherry-picked, even the scientists can't be sure what to believe. What we DO have proof for is that climate is changing (although some of those changes are LOWERING of temperature).
::::And about the political propositions ... most of them fail to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions itself, not speaking about global temperature - but their economic effect would be huge. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 10:02, 10 June 2014 (UTC)
:Where is he speaking about carbon tax? "Acting now" does not equal one possible instrument. There are plenty of ways for climate change mitigation.--[[User:Ojdo|Ojdo]] ([[User talk:Ojdo|talk]]) 07:55, 11 June 2014 (UTC)

I *think* (haven't confirmed) that the 200 m figure is the difference between the peak of the last ice age (sea level low—"-1 IAU" in the strip) and if everything melted. We've already come up 140 m, so we can't go up 200 m from here. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.86|108.162.215.86]] 20:16, 9 June 2014 (UTC)

There are several troubling things with this comic (including the sea level figure), but the most basic is the opening statement: "Without prompt, aggressive limits on CO2 emissions, the Earth will likely warm by an average of 4°-5°C by the century’s end." This is probably from the latest IPCC report, but it takes the worst of several proposed scenarios, and claims it to be the likely one. RCP8.5 projects 2.6C-4.8C, and I suppose that's what getting averaged *up* to "4.5C" for the temperature line in the comic. The second most troubling thing is that mouse-over text, regarding the 2C lid if we "enact aggressive emissions limits now"—this is an entirely arbitrary (unscientific) number based on largely unspecified changes to what the world is doing now. It gives me the sense that Randall didn't look too deep... [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.86|108.162.215.86]] 20:43, 9 June 2014 (UTC)

According to Wikipedia, the polar forests during the Ceretaceous period were temperate, not tropical. Thus Firs in the North and Evergreens in Antartica, not Palm trees. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_forests_of_the_Cretaceous [[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 21:17, 9 June 2014 (UTC)

Oh wait, did he really say "Palm trees at the poles"? The north pole is already 4,261 meters under water. The nearest land is 700 km away. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.86|108.162.215.86]] 05:14, 10 June 2014 (UTC)
:It's hyperbole. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.134|108.162.238.134]] 05:46, 10 June 2014 (UTC)
::Not completely. It's refering to a specific time, the ceretaceous period. When there where forests above 85 degrees in both north and south poles. The forests where temperate though, so palm trees are hyperbole. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.80.217|141.101.80.217]] 12:18, 10 June 2014 (UTC)
:::No, it's not hyperbole at all, actually there were tropical-climate trees in polar latitudes in the northern hemisphere during parts of the Cretaceous. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.237|108.162.250.237]] 11:26, 15 June 2014 (UTC)
::::Citation please- everything I could find was Temperate Rain Forests (kind of like still exist in Washington State and British Columbia).[[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 12:28, 16 June 2014 (UTC)

Independent of everything else, I'm having a tough time reconciling the fact that sea level was apparently 6m or more higher during the Roman era. E.g. the roman settlements and their harbors in places like Caister and Burgh Castle in Norfolk, England? I'm not aware that England has risen 6m. Seems to me that if see levels were to rise as much as 6m we'd just be back to where things were 1600-1700 years ago. {{unsigned ip|103.22.201.239}}
:I'd like to research that, so [needs citation][[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 17:22, 11 June 2014 (UTC)
:Things can be complicated by the likes of 'rebound' of the local area of the Earth's crust after the removal of the weight of glacial ice from various landmasses (although I'm not sure whether that was still producing such measureable effects to those particular locations in Roman times) and other effects. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.232|141.101.98.232]] 11:07, 12 June 2014 (UTC)
:1600-1700 years ago there were 6+ billion fewer people (a large proportion with dwellings near shorelines, or economically dependant on them somehow) on the planet! [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.237|108.162.250.237]] 11:38, 15 June 2014 (UTC)

According to the Scientific Forecasts from 1986, this should have had already happened by the year 2000: http://www.nytimes.com/1986/06/24/movies/earth-s-climatic-crisis-examined-by-nova.html [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.217|108.162.246.217]] 01:18, 28 June 2014 (UTC)
:That link is basically a TV Guide listing for a rerun of a NOVA program which was filmed in 1983. The listing was written by a movie critic who presumably watched the program but may not have quoted it correctly. Anyway, that's popular media, not real science. If you want real science, look at peer-reviewed scientific journals. In the 30+ years since that program was filmed, we have gathered a LOT more data. It's not surprising that our understanding of what's going on is more complete now than it was in 1983. That's how science works. The more data you gather, the more accurate your predictions become (hence older predictions were generally less accurate).[[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.232|199.27.128.232]] 18:53, 23 February 2015 (UTC)

Since I used to live next to Burgh Castle, can I point out that the castle is indeed now c6m higher than the current estuary level. The nearby town of Great Yarmouth is built on land that first appeared above the waves around 1100AD. In Roman times it was possible to sail from Burgh Castle to the castle at Caistor - that's why they were built, to defend the mouth of the estuary between them.If you look at [https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Acle,+Norwich,+Norfolk+NR13/@52.6213598,1.6099949,13z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x47d9ff1ac61e4df5:0x957c4241ca1f0de3 map] very roughly all the green was under water circa 300AD --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.251|141.101.98.251]] 19:04, 1 November 2014 (UTC)

:All the angry people who like to shout "AGW has been debunked! The models aren't exact! I have a fantasy that because I'm the smartest person in the world I will be rich by 30 and therefore I hate anything related to taxes! I've been trained to growl at liberals!" What do they want to do? Even if they're right that the changes would have happened even without humanity and that the effects will be more chaotic and less straightforward and that the 25-year projection will really take 45 years and so on... Does that mean we should just gleefully accept all the changes? I realize that San Francisco; New York, Brussels, Amsterdam, and Stockholm all being underwater sounds like fun to a right-wing partisan--no more hippies, no more "liberal media", no more UN and EU, no more wildly successfully social democracies that disprove all of their economic theories, etc.--don't they care that most of the world's financial and knowledge industries, every conservative think-tank, and most of Rupert Murdoch's houses will also be gone? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.52|162.158.255.52]] 22:01, 24 September 2015 (UTC)

This image is fun to cite!

Munroe, Randall. The Good News Is That According to the Latest IPCC Report, If We Enact Aggressive Emissions Limits Now, We Could Hold the Warming to 2°C. That's Only HALF an Ice Age Unit, Which Is Probably No Big Deal. Digital image. Xkcd.com. Xkcd, 9 June 2014. Web. 8 Dec. 2015. <http://xkcd.com/1379/>.

Not too sure what any teachers will think of that.
([[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.127|108.162.241.127]] 00:06, 9 December 2015 (UTC))

"Sea level was higher during most of the Cretaceous than at any other time in Earth history, and it was a major factor influencing the paleogeography of the period. In general, world oceans were about 100 to 200 metres (330 to 660 feet) higher in the Early Cretaceous and roughly 200 to 250 metres (660 to 820 feet) higher in the Late Cretaceous than at present. The high Cretaceous sea level is thought to have been primarily the result of water in the ocean basins being displaced by the enlargement of midoceanic ridges." https://www.britannica.com/science/Cretaceous-Period [[User:Jubal Harshaw|Jubal Harshaw]] ([[User talk:Jubal Harshaw|talk]]) 03:35, 14 August 2016 (UTC)