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Alaska’s thawing soils are now pouring carbon dioxide into the air

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Alaska’s thawing soils are now pouring carbon dioxide into the air

#171

Post by specialist »

bluGill wrote: post #71
specialist wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no tradeoff. Reducing waste (CO2, methane, heat, whatever) increases profits. Not for the entrenched interests, obviously. Happily, everyone else who's been paying their externalized costs (taxpayers, consumers) benefits.

There is only so much you can reduce waste though. The internal combustion engine is limited by thermodynamics to about 50% efficiency, we are already reaching >40% in production engines. There just isn't much more waste we can get rid of. (electric cars bring up a different sets of limits, though probably higher)

Fewer trips, fewer miles/km, lighter vehicals, vehical sharing, etc.

Optimize the whole system. Localized optimization leads to decreased overall efficiency.

Re: Alaska’s thawing soils are now pouring carbon dioxide into the air

#172

Post by nyxtom »

cryoshon wrote: post #60

and we can't even get people to agree that there's a problem. and we have no leadership to guide our response. and we can't winnow our way out of this alone. what now?

Consider how lucky we are to even have spent any time at all to reach a point in the cosmos to make this realization. Even if humanity manages to survive past this problem, there are many more including the overconsumption of the world's finite resources. Perhaps it is inevitable given a biological imperative to be selfish. Our means of survival in future generations may be determined by our ability to adapt to withering resources, reuse of existing and exploring space for more. Consider the issue of water reuse; some amount of research suggests that graphene filters when they come to fruition may help with far more reuse and recycle of water. Other work such as the electric transport systems, high speed hyperloops, and 3D print manufacturing combined with a closed loop system may help bring down massive resource waste. There is a lot of tech to be hopeful of but it won't be all positive. Many of it seems to be adaptations to a world which is constantly at risk for extinction

Re: Alaska’s thawing soils are now pouring carbon dioxide into the air

#173

Post by basurihn »

trapperkeeper74 wrote: post #102

That's probably so however Siberia is contributing much more. The whole of subarctic tundra is at risk for rapid melting and co2 and methane release as trapped ancient organic material decays. There are also other major, imminent issues: the uncertain liability of the ESAS clathrates, zero summer sea ice (arctic ocean heating) and jetstream abnormalities (hence more variable weather day-to-day). Anyone whom wants act…

Or perhaps another more honest source, who is upfront about the statistical uncertainties underlying all but the most basic climate science.

Hell if you want a good scaremongering, there are some old Van Impe videos around somewhere.

Re: Alaska’s thawing soils are now pouring carbon dioxide into the air

#174

Post by [deleted] »

memracom wrote: post #166

Probably the asteroid Apophis, due to hit the Earth in 2029, will cause enough cooling to prevent most clathrate from melting. If that works we have a nearby supply of small asteroids that we can fire at the Earth to deepen the winter effect. It works best if you hit a shallow coastal shelf area with lots of limestone rock. Maybe we will sacrifice the Caribbean?

[deleted]

Re: Alaska’s thawing soils are now pouring carbon dioxide into the air

#175

Post by EGreg »

bluGill wrote: post #85
EGreg wrote: post #25

Can someone PLEASE tell me why there haven't been more efforts underway to have commnities around the world plant more trees and engage in planned reforestation? This is as close as you can get to a globally available mechanism for pulling carbon dioxide out of the air (and methane can burn leaving carbon dioxide). I mean this very seriously. Richard Branson is looking to fund ways to pull Carbon out if the atmospher…

We are. The lumber and paper companies replant all the time. Sometimes directly, sometimes they don't have to because natural processes will do it. Many forests in the US are over populated. There is a lot of land that cannot support a forest though. Where we really go wrong is not lighting forest fires every year. As a result dead trees build up until the slightest spark (lightening) results in a hot fire that burns…

Why not simulate the smaller fires by chopping down trees and using them in construction after fireproofing the wood?

Re: Alaska’s thawing soils are now pouring carbon dioxide into the air

#176

Post by jasonwatkinspdx »

smokeyj wrote: post #142
jasonwatkinspdx wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The book you want is David Graeber's, but it will not confirm austrian leanings, nor the history of money you present above.

It's not fair to just say go buy someone's book without a single supporting argument. Drop some wisdom on me, man.

The tl;dr is that the commonly told origin of money, right back to Adam Smith, is a-historical assumption that is contradicted by archeological evidence.

The a-historical account is that money was developed to make barter more efficient. This is not what we see in the records from Sumer, and there is similar evidence in the other locations where we know writing arose. Before the neolithic revolution societies economic structure was largely based on social ties and a sense of reciprocal behavior: a sort of informal communism. As sedentary agriculture lead to the development of temple complexes and cities, debt and credit records replaced these. Money was not developed until nearly 2k years later. Barter was actually uncommon in the ancient world and was typically reserved for interactions between strangers such as traders that had traveled long distance and had no social ties to one another. Coinage in particular typically arose as part of a complex that involved raising armies and funding them via taxation.

The commodity theory of money is a-historical, and not what "original money" was.

It's a great book, though Graeber has little restraint in taking pot shots at economists, which might provoke some readers to defensiveness.

Re: Alaska’s thawing soils are now pouring carbon dioxide into the air

#177

Post by stale2002 »

ForHackernews wrote: post #110
stale2002 wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/07/climate-change-...

That article is wrong on a number of facts.

For example, it explicitly mentions 10 degrees C of warming over the next century.

A 10 degrees C scenario is not something that any respectable scientist believes is going to happen.

The IPCC, which is the official authority on climate change, believes that there will be a 2-3 degrees C increase in temperature over the next century.

Thats the facts. Please listen to the scientists. Every single doomsday prediction that this guy is making, can be traced back to this fundamental problem that he is talking about scenarios that the experts and the scientists do NOT believe has even a remote chance of happening.

Re: Alaska’s thawing soils are now pouring carbon dioxide into the air

#178

Post by stale2002 »

fencepost wrote: post #157
ForHackernews wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/07/climate-change-...

The annotated version with links to source data is probably a better option to link. http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/07/climate-change-...

The guy is talking about 10 degrees C scenarios, aka scenarios that nobody believes is going to happen.

The IPCC, which is the official authority on climate change, believes that there will be 2-3 degrees C increase in temperature over the next century.

When someone can rationally talk about what will happen in the IPCC predicted scenarios, which is the scientific consensus, then I will listen to them.

If you are some crank, who is talking about 1000 parts per million of C02, and 10 degrees C temp increase by 2100, well then you shouldn't be taken seriously.

Re: Alaska’s thawing soils are now pouring carbon dioxide into the air

#179

Post by FrozenVoid »

stale2002 wrote: post #177
ForHackernews wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/07/climate-change-...

That article is wrong on a number of facts. For example, it explicitly mentions 10 degrees C of warming over the next century. A 10 degrees C scenario is not something that any respectable scientist believes is going to happen. The IPCC, which is the official authority on climate change, believes that there will be a 2-3 degrees C increase in temperature over the next century. Thats the facts. Please listen to the sc…

Such short-term warming due methane clathrates is certainly possible. A study based on a coupled climate–carbon cycle model (GCM) assessed a 1000-fold (from 6 °C within 80 years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clathrate_gun_hypothesis#Model...

Re: Alaska’s thawing soils are now pouring carbon dioxide into the air

#180

Post by perilunar »

syncopate wrote: post #22

Couldn't one try to at least limit the feedback loop by spreading sulfur over the affected regions by plane? (Simulating a volcanic eruption that reflects sunlight)

Why simulate a volcanic eruption? We could just bury some nukes in some volcanoes and blow the tops off. Instant cooling!

Also, I hear nuclear winter is really 'cool'. We could always start a war in Korea...

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