Sea 'Boiling' with Methane Discovered in Siberia • Hacker News Board

Re: Sea 'Boiling' with Methane Discovered in Siberia

#11

Post by seiferteric » Wed, Oct 09, 2019, 2:44 AM UTC

egloo wrote: post #8

blhack wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What should we do?

Throw as much engineering and innovation at the problems as possible. Conservation alone is no longer sufficient. And I meant problems. As in, protecting the food supply chain, protecting the electronics supply chain, adopting a defense posture to prepare for a far more desperate global population, finding ways to save coastal cities or quickly relocate people, throwing everything at the wall for innovative new exoti…

I wonder why ocean fertilization isn't talked about much anymore? All the articles I found about it were from ~10 years ago, with some vague conclusion that we shouldn't do it because it might be bad for the life on the ocean floor or something. There are no good solutions though, nothing will be perfect.

Re: Sea 'Boiling' with Methane Discovered in Siberia

#12

Post by abootstrapper » Wed, Oct 09, 2019, 2:44 AM UTC

blhack wrote: post #4

mdorazio wrote: post #2

So have we fired a clathrate gun then [1]? It's getting increasingly difficult to pretend worst-case global warming scenarios won't turn into reality in the next 25 years. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clathrate_gun_hypothesis

What should we do?

I don’t mean to pick on you, but this question comes up in every single climate change post. Answering it is exhausting. We need a climate change FAQ.

The simple answer is end fossil fuels. How do we do that? Vote, eat less meat, bike ride, strike, protest, invest in solar, boycott, reuse, buy less, telecommute, etc. Use your imagination. Do something, do everything, the end goal is we all stop releasing sequestered green house gasses into the atmosphere.

Re: Sea 'Boiling' with Methane Discovered in Siberia

#13

Post by jumpingmice » Wed, Oct 09, 2019, 2:46 AM UTC

mdorazio wrote: post #2

So have we fired a clathrate gun then [1]? It's getting increasingly difficult to pretend worst-case global warming scenarios won't turn into reality in the next 25 years. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clathrate_gun_hypothesis

Maybe, but that's not new. Atmospheric CH4 has been far, far above historical levels for decades.

Re: Sea 'Boiling' with Methane Discovered in Siberia

#14

Post by eloff » Wed, Oct 09, 2019, 2:48 AM UTC

kjar wrote: post #5

Apparently it’s no longer mitigation, now adaptation. The desire to avoid nihilism at point is tough. I’m pushing 40 and I hope I get 25 more years, family kids are in for it.:(

I see comments like this all the time, but it doesn't happen that fast. You won't notice a big difference in your lifetime, and neither will your children, unless maybe they live in a very low area by the coast. This plays out over hundreds of years.

It's still a serious problem and we need to address it, but I keep seeing emotional reactions that ignore the science and the current predictions.

Re: Sea 'Boiling' with Methane Discovered in Siberia

#15

Post by sieabahlpark » Wed, Oct 09, 2019, 2:49 AM UTC

ngold wrote: post #7

The tipping point of massive frozen methane bubbles melting and that's it. We better get really good at somehow containing them. Good luck humanity.

Time to use it as fuel for space ships

Re: Sea 'Boiling' with Methane Discovered in Siberia

#16

Post by klyrs » Wed, Oct 09, 2019, 2:50 AM UTC

kjar wrote: post #5

Apparently it’s no longer mitigation, now adaptation. The desire to avoid nihilism at point is tough. I’m pushing 40 and I hope I get 25 more years, family kids are in for it.:(

I wish I didn't have a child, for his sake. The climate makes things like "retirement" really hard to think about... it just hurts to think about his future

Re: Sea 'Boiling' with Methane Discovered in Siberia

#17

Post by pdonis » Wed, Oct 09, 2019, 2:53 AM UTC

blhack wrote: post #4

mdorazio wrote: post #2

So have we fired a clathrate gun then [1]? It's getting increasingly difficult to pretend worst-case global warming scenarios won't turn into reality in the next 25 years. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clathrate_gun_hypothesis

What should we do?

Methane is a valuable resource, so it should be cost effective for somebody to capture it.

Re: Sea 'Boiling' with Methane Discovered in Siberia

#18

Post by realusername » Wed, Oct 09, 2019, 2:55 AM UTC

eloff wrote: post #14

kjar wrote: post #5

Apparently it’s no longer mitigation, now adaptation. The desire to avoid nihilism at point is tough. I’m pushing 40 and I hope I get 25 more years, family kids are in for it.:(

I see comments like this all the time, but it doesn't happen that fast. You won't notice a big difference in your lifetime, and neither will your children, unless maybe they live in a very low area by the coast. This plays out over hundreds of years. It's still a serious problem and we need to address it, but I keep seeing emotional reactions that ignore the science and the current predictions.

> I see comments like this all the time, but it doesn't happen that fast. You won't notice a big difference in your lifetime, and neither will your children

I do already, the weather is much worse than when I was a kid, much drier and the heat waves are harsher.

Re: Sea 'Boiling' with Methane Discovered in Siberia

#19

Post by throwaway5752 » Wed, Oct 09, 2019, 2:55 AM UTC

It's a good time to point out that coordinated global action is required. Trump withdrew us from Paris. Harper withdrew Canada from Kyoto. Russia is a petrostate that will benefit more from global warming than any other country in the world, so look at 2016 through that lens.

Only 40% of conservative Republicans even believe climate change is happening (https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/politics-...)

They will drive us all off this cliff and then expect us nerds to fix it. We should do something first.

Re: Sea 'Boiling' with Methane Discovered in Siberia

#20

Post by pdonis » Wed, Oct 09, 2019, 2:55 AM UTC

abootstrapper wrote: post #12

blhack wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What should we do?

I don’t mean to pick on you, but this question comes up in every single climate change post. Answering it is exhausting. We need a climate change FAQ. The simple answer is end fossil fuels. How do we do that? Vote, eat less meat, bike ride, strike, protest, invest in solar, boycott, reuse, buy less, telecommute, etc. Use your imagination. Do something, do everything, the end goal is we all stop releasing sequestered…

> The simple answer is end fossil fuels. How do we do that?

Build nuclear power plants.

All the other things are fine, but if you really want to end fossil fuels, you need a non-fossil-fuel source of reliable base load power. Nuclear is the only one we have. Other sources are fine, but they can't produce reliable base load power.

And, btw, I think we should end fossil fuels even if it turns out not to make much of a difference to climate change (which might well be the case since all of the models that have a high sensitivity to CO2 built in have been over-predicting warming for several decades now).