It's a vicious cycle. Methane levels increase to dangerous levels, which causes researchers to soil their pants, which releases more methane into the atmosphere.
Researchers are racing to find out why methane levels are increasing so fast
121–130 of 175 posts
Re: Researchers are racing to find out why methane levels are increasing so fast
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
> an increasing number of extreme weather events due to climate change This is not correct; the number of extreme weather events is not increasing. The damage they do is increasing, but that's because the human population in areas exposed to such events, and the value of the property build in such areas, is increasing.
"New data confirm increased frequency of extreme weather events, European national science academies urge further action on climate change adaptation" https://easac.eu/press-releases/details/new-data-confirm-inc...
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Re: Researchers are racing to find out why methane levels are increasing so fast
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
One technology is called “TREES”, actually scratch that a more advanced version is called “RAINFOREST” (that one sequesters far more CO2 per square meter than TREES alone). Unfortunately people have cut down a significant portion of both TREES and RAINFOREST because they are economically incentivized to do so.
Mature forests are at best net carbon neutral, and at worst net carbon emitters. Comparing our current emissions with amount sequestered per hectare of forest immediately gives that we don’t have nearly enough suitable unused land to plant new forests to make up for our current emissions. The only viable way to use forests to sequester carbon is to cut down immense numbers of trees and bury them underground. I don’t…
Actually, I wonder if that is true.
https://today.oregonstate.edu/archives/2008/sep/old-growth-f...
I'm sure tree-farmers would sale their trees to governments interested in sequestering carbon. Probably could just dump them in the oceanic trenches...
Re: Researchers are racing to find out why methane levels are increasing so fast
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, I'm in Alberta, Canada, and I guarantee 95% of voters here would choose increasing oil production vs. any sort of climate action. We just had a pretty bad recession, our unemployment is still above typical levels, and we just had an unseasonably cold summer after a pretty cold winter. It's not an issue of being brainwashed, people really do prefer having jobs and homes over climate targets to fix a problem that…
This is why I really like Andrew Yang for 2020. He wants to give everyone in the US $1000/month so people don't constantly have "the economic boot on their neck". You can't worry about climate change when you are worried about paying bills and feeding your kids.
Increasing consumer wealth is precisely why we have climate change. One would need to also implement large taxes/bans on co2 and other non-renewables and pollutants. At best this would be a net-zero situation. More likely it would reduce the lower to middle class’s wealth in real terms. Less airline flights, leisure cruises, manufactured goods, imported foods, not more.
Re: Researchers are racing to find out why methane levels are increasing so fast
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is why I really like Andrew Yang for 2020. He wants to give everyone in the US $1000/month so people don't constantly have "the economic boot on their neck". You can't worry about climate change when you are worried about paying bills and feeding your kids.
Wow. That’s not going to cause massive, crippling hyper inflation at all, is it.
That's such a myopic, small way to see the world. Human dignity is the priority, if our economy doesn't work for that then we change the economy, we don't give up on dignity.
Re: Researchers are racing to find out why methane levels are increasing so fast
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Once voters realize that this would take personal cost This is why we need to make sure that voters feel that lost income from climate gas taxes goes directly back to them through other means. It could just be income tax subsidies for low income brackets. Or I mean anything that makes sense. Taxing climate impacting practices doesn't need to have an overall negative impact on the economy of the average voter! This…
> Taxing climate impacting practices doesn't need to have an overall negative impact on the economy of the average voter! This needs to be made super clear. Everything I've seen about the magnitude of change needed suggests this isn't true. And if we keep telling this story of "green growth", "only big corporations will have to sacrifice", you're going to get a ton of backlash once it becomes clear that is very much…
And if the carbon taxes or whatever else are revenue-neutral?
Some things (eg flights) would get much more expensive, whereas more efficient modes of transit (trains) would get relatively cheaper, and also be subsidized by the fliers.
Re: Researchers are racing to find out why methane levels are increasing so fast
#127The only way forward, the only chance we have is to invent technology to trap and sequester green houses gases from the upper atmosphere. Reducing human greenhouse gas output won’t happen fast enough to fix things, and I’m not sure that it’s possible to capture and trap existing green house gases, but it’s the only chance we have, because it’s the only way to stop the positive feedback loops that are currently runnin…
I agree that we'll probably need capture, but just want to inject a concern I have with seeing capture as salvation:
Any capture/sequestration tech that produces marketable byproducts may have a big leg up on any tech that has to depend on large purely-altruistic investments.
Technology tends to get more efficient with time/investment/scale.
If any capture/sequestration processes achieve profitability (maybe even just marginal profitability after an initial capital investment), it may not be straightforward to turn them back off .
Re: Researchers are racing to find out why methane levels are increasing so fast
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Once voters realize that this would take personal cost for benefits they won't see in their lifetime Oh, they are feeling the personal costs of climate change. It's just the political machines are trying their best to hide this fact. Example: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-northcarolina/north-c... I think a generation of people are so brainwashed that they can never be convinced of the harms that climate ch…
Well, I'm in Alberta, Canada, and I guarantee 95% of voters here would choose increasing oil production vs. any sort of climate action. We just had a pretty bad recession, our unemployment is still above typical levels, and we just had an unseasonably cold summer after a pretty cold winter. It's not an issue of being brainwashed, people really do prefer having jobs and homes over climate targets to fix a problem that…
It's not just jobs and homes (poorer people). It's everyone. Everyone is chasing the jonses and is convinced they don't have enough. I'd like a fifth car. And a bigger house. And more vacations.
I'm not saying I, personally, favor those things over what it will cost to limit climate change. But I think society as a whole doesn't have the stomach for it, and it's not just those living on the margins.
Re: Researchers are racing to find out why methane levels are increasing so fast
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is why I really like Andrew Yang for 2020. He wants to give everyone in the US $1000/month so people don't constantly have "the economic boot on their neck". You can't worry about climate change when you are worried about paying bills and feeding your kids.
Wow. That’s not going to cause massive, crippling hyper inflation at all, is it.
Inflation comes from an increase in the money supply. If we printed the money for it, it would cause inflation, but he plans to tax it.
But even if we printed it, it would by no stretch of the imagination cause hyperinflation, just inflation. The M2 money supply -- still an incomplete measure, as there are lots of kinds of money -- in the US is 14 trillion and change, per Investopedia[1]. 12K per year * 350M people in the US = 4.2 trillion more dollars a year. Hyperinflation happens when a regime does something like double the money supply every week.
Re: Researchers are racing to find out why methane levels are increasing so fast
#130There's already a news on front page at the moment which says bird population is declining in North America. The comments section mention that it's not just North America but also Britain, France and also that it could be due to declining insect population. We rarely get this kind of data from developing countries, which means these studies are rarely or not at all performed simply because they don't have resources t…
What do you propose people do?
eat less beef, red meat in general. no need to give up anything. just reduce it a bit.