Global warming

Last evening I listened to a science talk about the modeling of the global warming.
The bloke actually said that the fact that current models cannot explain the "plato" of the last 15 years is might be because we did not include all factors in modeling of the atmosphere.
A situation that should not be surprising considering the complexity of the atmospheric system. It is quite possible that not even the model of this bloke is full and correct, although he seems to be able to get a better fit of his model data and past records.

This new model gives us a bit of hope. A new factor that this scientist included into his model is behavior of the ocean, specifically the established oscillation in the amount of the transferred heat from the equatorial to the polar regions of the planet. The catch is that this oscillatory behavior reached last maximum 15 years ago and now is in downward trend. Scientist hopes, that if his prediction is correct, and downward trend continues, we'll have 50-60 more years to do something about carbon production. Since I'm studying the Sun, I also know that there are indications that Sun itself is getting into the lul of the its activity. Some of my colleagues actually think that Sun will get into the same behavior as it exhibited during the last "little ice age". Anyway, this means two indicators for a bit of hope, a chance that we do something.

The audience had the cluster of the old white men siting quite close to me, who were not shy about their support of the petrol industry. One of them brought to the talk the book that had "Chevron" written on it. The rest of the audience were students, postdocs and faculty members of the local university. They were diverse crowd, and younger person it was you could see more worry in the eyes. Not surprising, we, younger ones will live through the hell caused by the consequences of the global warming. It is not an attractive prospect. Yes, I belong to the younger crowd. And honestly, I would not mind to have a child. But to bring a child into the world that is doomed?

Anyway, reaction of the audience to the talk was quite interesting. Old white men got into the huddle discussing what they heard, and apparently upset that scientist did not say that human influence is not contributing. Younger persons were trying to figure out how exact this model would be in predictions of the future, because if it is, we have a bit more time.
I have to admit, that when I heard that we'll have a bit more time, my first thought was, good, these old men will die, so we'll have less opposition and finally we'll be able to really do something about the pollution.  Honestly, that was my thought. Because I know that is impossible to talk with those people. I know, I tried several times. They do not care about facts, about complexity of the atmosphere. No. They still live in the bubble of the frozen time from 50-th of the last century. And, especially when they talk with a woman about subject like this, it is disgusting. Patronizing, then aggressive and full of dismissal. The sad point is that many of such men actually still hold enough power and influence over events today to be a significant brake for a change.

I know as another scientist that there are several others functioning alternatives for energy production. And with every year there is stronger push for it. Interestedly enough, the push is happening outside US, so seems like that these old white men who are so hanged up on US supremacy are actually the ones that will cost US future technological supremacy just because they cannot accept existence of the differences in solutions, in life, in opinions, in ideas.