Well this is pretty much the beggining of the end then.
The consensus is that unchecked GW would not be a human extinction event.
So who will survive? And what will death look like for those who don't?
Thousands of underground gas bubbles poised to 'explode' in Arctic
91–100 of 384 posts
Re: Thousands of underground gas bubbles poised to 'explode' in Arctic
#92Here is a good video about the arctic methane emergency: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8F9ed5E54s4 Some summary points: - Total amount of methane in the current atmosphere: ~5 gigatons - Amount of carbon preserved as methane in the arctic shelf: estimated at 100s-1000s of gigatons - Only 1% release would double the atmospheric burden of methane - Not much effort is needed to destabilize this 1% - The volume current…
Methane has a short ~5-10 year half life in the atmosphere. So, releasing 50x current methane levels over 100 years does not triple current methane levels.
Yep. Everything depends on how fast that methane will get released. It can vary from "we are completely fucked up, good bye" to "that's a rounding error, no big deal".
Methane should be easier to take out of the atmosphere than CO2. Spraying something at the Stratosphere could be incredibly helpful even if the substance is short lived. (But I have no idea what to spray there, would water make any difference?)
Re: Thousands of underground gas bubbles poised to 'explode' in Arctic
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It always amazes me how much people and governments focus on prevention when it comes to climate change If the US government was actually focused on prevention, that would be a huge step up from "denying there's a problem."
I suspect that the interests driving denial are planning to ride the crash. There are probably developments in favorable locations. Land. Security. Infrastructure. Resources.
Siberia stands to become more arable if the permafrost thaws. It certainly becomes more drillable.
Wonder who might be involved there...
https://www.2b1stconsulting.com/exxonmobil-and-rosneft-set-j...
Re: Thousands of underground gas bubbles poised to 'explode' in Arctic
#94Let it crash. Human need a lesson.
This would be a "lesson" like death is a "momentary setback"
Re: Thousands of underground gas bubbles poised to 'explode' in Arctic
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
And then good luck rebuilding civilization now that every easily accessible resource has been mined/harvested out.
Let's hope the beings that will rebuild civilization will learn from our mistakes.
Well, what did we learn from the Indus Valley folks? Or the Amazon folks? Whatever electronic records survive will probably get recycled long before they're read. And paper doesn't last very long. So arguably they'll just have folktales.
Re: Thousands of underground gas bubbles poised to 'explode' in Arctic
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why focus on "fixing" climate ? Why not just assume it's going to become unstable in close future and start building with that assumption ? Large scale isolated citiy domes. Nutrient synthesis that doesn't rely on climate/agriculture. Environment independent energy generation like micro nuclear reactors. Large scale air filtration and temperature control. As the world becomes more interconnected and developed catastr…
If you can't mobilize man to fight climate change, you aren't going to mobilize him to prepare for it either. People are in deep denial about the problem.
Preserving human knowledge and art [0] won't require mobilizing all of mankind; it could be done by a few individuals and it's kinda already being done by Wikipedia, Wikia, "pirates" etc.
Re: Thousands of underground gas bubbles poised to 'explode' in Arctic
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is some hope. We could geoengineer a giant shade structure to reflect sunlight away from earth. It would cost $trillions (twelve zeros) but it could be done with current technology. And it would cool the Earth immediately. Unfortunately it would do nothing to fix ocean acidification, which threatens to starve and/or suffocate us all.
That "solution" fucking sucks. We kinda rely on the sun to grow plants and power life, you know?
Erm, it's not like anyone is suggesting "block all sunlight". We're talking about blocking at most a few percent.
On this topic, I've always wondered if you could make such a solar shade that hovers just on the far side of the Lagrange point between sun and earth, balancing radiation pressure and gravity. Does anyone know if that would be passively stable?
Re: Thousands of underground gas bubbles poised to 'explode' in Arctic
#98Here is a good video about the arctic methane emergency: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8F9ed5E54s4 Some summary points: - Total amount of methane in the current atmosphere: ~5 gigatons - Amount of carbon preserved as methane in the arctic shelf: estimated at 100s-1000s of gigatons - Only 1% release would double the atmospheric burden of methane - Not much effort is needed to destabilize this 1% - The volume current…
Would you happen to know, what percentage of temperature increase due to greenhouse effect is caused by methane right now?
Isn't Wikipedia great? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_gas)
|Water vapor and clouds |36–72% |
|Carbon dioxide | 9–26% |
|Methane | 4–9% |
|Ozone | 3–7% |
Re: Thousands of underground gas bubbles poised to 'explode' in Arctic
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
Let's hope the beings that will rebuild civilization will learn from our mistakes.
I don't know about you, but I like human civilisation, so this is not much of a consolation for me.
Well, but you'll likely be dead, no? And yes, I'm sure that parents fear for their kids.
Maybe the AIs will pick up where we left off. They'll be sort of human. Especially if hybrids become popular.
Re: Thousands of underground gas bubbles poised to 'explode' in Arctic
#100This is a particularly dramatic methane release, but methane is being released regularly in the high latitudes. I visit Alaska in the summertime and I see methane releases in many locations -- for example (taken from my kayak):
http://i.imgur.com/rRs3fQU.jpg
It's important to say the only reason you can see this outgassing is because the source is underwater. The entire landscape is releasing methane this way, but without any clear signs.