Has the waterline changed:
https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/AK/3_rid/waterfront_at...
Alaska’s thawing soils are now pouring carbon dioxide into the air
111–120 of 214 posts
Re: Alaska’s thawing soils are now pouring carbon dioxide into the air
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
I came to that realization after taking an environmental education class where they " left out the feedback loops". I disagree with your sentiment that they had to leave things like this out of the model. If it was left out it was probably not well understood. Its pretty easy to see that any form of mitigation is irrelevant until it becomes a real problem because getting large groups to agree on things isn't a scient…
One of the major flaws of this species is that we don't do anything inconvenient, that requires global agreement, until it becomes literally an existential threat. And even then we may dither, and there will be special interests that will keep spreading out misinformation about it, etc. Seriously, the "sapiens" part in the name of our species is a bit of an exaggeration.
It's a prisoner's dilemma type problem. Unless you can get everybody to agree then the rational thing to do is to use as much carbon as you can to stay ahead of the other guys.
Re: Alaska’s thawing soils are now pouring carbon dioxide into the air
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
One of the major flaws of this species is that we don't do anything inconvenient, that requires global agreement, until it becomes literally an existential threat. And even then we may dither, and there will be special interests that will keep spreading out misinformation about it, etc. Seriously, the "sapiens" part in the name of our species is a bit of an exaggeration.
Have we ever done something that requires global agreement?
Approximately all nations, the Nuclear test ban treaty (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comprehensive_Nuclear-Test-Ban...)
Re: Alaska’s thawing soils are now pouring carbon dioxide into the air
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
One of the major flaws of this species is that we don't do anything inconvenient, that requires global agreement, until it becomes literally an existential threat. And even then we may dither, and there will be special interests that will keep spreading out misinformation about it, etc. Seriously, the "sapiens" part in the name of our species is a bit of an exaggeration.
Have we ever done something that requires global agreement?
CFC global ban in the 90s - http://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/this-week-in-history...
Re: Alaska’s thawing soils are now pouring carbon dioxide into the air
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm a big proponent of huge increases in funding for fusion research. But I think a better "extreme measures" project to mitigate global warming is the space sunshade: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_sunshade
The fusion Manhattan project? The problem with that is the Manhattan project scientists knew exactly what they wanted to do and how to do it. With fusion research there are already dozens of active research efforts, but we have absolutely no idea if any of them will work, or if we need a new approach nobody has thought of. In this situation throwing money at the problem simply isn't the solution. Meanwhile new solar…
I don't think scientists in the Manhattan project knew exactly how to do it. That's why they ended up having (at least) two totally different types of bombs, one with a Plutonium core using spherical implosion and another with a Uranium core using cannon-like ignition.
Why try one scheme when you can try two at twice the price?
Re: Alaska’s thawing soils are now pouring carbon dioxide into the air
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
The destruction of civilization will probably cap our ability to do further significant damage. If not, then our extinction surely will.
Nobody believes that global warming will cause the literal extinction of the human race. The scientific consensus is that sea levels will rise by a couple feet over the next 2 hundred years. That's the science. Doesn't sound like doomsday to me.
we have 7 billion people with a new billion every decade. 1-2C differences in temperature are going to have a huge impact on agriculture.
Re: Alaska’s thawing soils are now pouring carbon dioxide into the air
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
One of the major flaws of this species is that we don't do anything inconvenient, that requires global agreement, until it becomes literally an existential threat. And even then we may dither, and there will be special interests that will keep spreading out misinformation about it, etc. Seriously, the "sapiens" part in the name of our species is a bit of an exaggeration.
To be fair to us we are only just barely sentient. In evolutionary terms we have literally only just managed to build a technological society. Therefore it stands to reason we only recently evolved sufficient intelligence to do so. Otherwise we'd have done it sooner. In the grand scheme of things we're on the very lowest bottom level of the sentience hierarchy.
That's fair, but it'll be sad to see our species added to the dustbin of history after squandering such a great opportunity to move from planetary to stellar civilization.
If there happen to be any other sentient species watching us, I can only assume they spend most of the time face-palming, head-shaking and eye-rolling.
Re: Alaska’s thawing soils are now pouring carbon dioxide into the air
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
"I wouldn't be surprised if such feedback loops have been excluded from the models of climate change because they paint a picture so dire that no amount of mitigation (if there were any serious attempts at mitigation going on) could save our way of life." If such feedback loops could be that dire and unavoidable, then they would already have happened direly and unavoidably. It has been this warm before, in the not-th…
All things being equal yes, but they're not equal. The Holocene Climate Optimum is the nearest thing in the last few hundred thousand years and it wasn't anywhere near this warm globally. What it did do though is melt the Laurentide ice sheet, dramatically raising global sea levels. But the ice sheet protected the North American continental tundra. Nowadays there's no ice sheet there any more to absorb the heat and s…
Link for the lazy:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleocene–Eocene_Thermal_Max...
Re: Alaska’s thawing soils are now pouring carbon dioxide into the air
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
I recommend you read "Money: The Unauthorized Biography [0]" You'll never look at money the same way again. Money is not a commodity even though we treat it as such. It certainly is not a finite resource. Plenty of money gets created everyday for thing far more stupid than trying to save the world. Look at how much money has been created (and will be spent) for no good reason at all in the current cryptocoin bubble.…
Actually.. Original money was just a highly marketable commodity. Salt, spices, gold, cigarettes in prison. I highly suggest a better biography of currency. Maybe something authored by one of those pesky Austrians.
The author addresses this. I suggest you read the book before making assumptions.
Re: Alaska’s thawing soils are now pouring carbon dioxide into the air
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
I came to that realization after taking an environmental education class where they " left out the feedback loops". I disagree with your sentiment that they had to leave things like this out of the model. If it was left out it was probably not well understood. Its pretty easy to see that any form of mitigation is irrelevant until it becomes a real problem because getting large groups to agree on things isn't a scient…
One of the major flaws of this species is that we don't do anything inconvenient, that requires global agreement, until it becomes literally an existential threat. And even then we may dither, and there will be special interests that will keep spreading out misinformation about it, etc. Seriously, the "sapiens" part in the name of our species is a bit of an exaggeration.
> Seriously, the "sapiens" part in the name of our species is a bit of an exaggeration.
I think that was meant to point to the individuals, not the species as a whole and that's exactly what causes this problem. But we're working on the hive mind as we speak.