I feel terrible for the polar bears. I wonder if there is any possibility that they wont go extinct.
I remain optimistic that the human race will figure things out before we completely decimate all ocean life and before we make half of the planet inhospitable. However, I am certain the powers that be will not take any action until MAJOR death waves in the western world such as the destruction of a major picturesque city from a freak weather event. Before that, I expect we will lose: * Polar bears * Wild Tuna * Wild…
German ship completes historic Arctic expedition
21–30 of 59 posts
Re: German ship completes historic Arctic expedition
#22*> "The sea-ice is dying," he said.
The sea ice was never alive, so saying it is dying is just loaded with pathos. He sounds more like an activist than a scientist.
Re: German ship completes historic Arctic expedition
#23The Polarstern ("Pole Star") is a ship of the AWI (Alfred-Wegener-Institute [0]). Another project of theirs, which you might know from images because it has a characteristic look, is the current Neumayer-Station [1][2]. It sits on columns that can hydraulically raise and lower the station to adapt to different heights of snow. This is off-topic but you might like it as well.
The station is of course host to experiments of others as well. The DLR (Deutsches Luft- und Raumfahrtzentrum, "German Aerospace Center") has an indoor-container-greenhouse called EDEN ISS [3][4] there which grows vegetables, herbs and fruits under artificial conditions [5] (german). The fresh produce is a welcome variation of diet for the crew during the long months of winter which otherwise consists solely of dried or deep-frozen food.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Wegener_Institute_for_P...
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neumayer-Station_III
[2] https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Neumayer-Station+III
[3] (english) https://eden-iss.net/
[4] While ISS refers to the international space station (see [3]), it is almost certainly a play on words because "Iss!" means "Eat!" in german)
[5] (german) https://www.mdr.de/wissen/dlr-antarktis-gewaechshaus-gaertne...
Re: German ship completes historic Arctic expedition
#24*> "The sea-ice is dying," he said. The sea ice was never alive, so saying it is dying is just loaded with pathos. He sounds more like an activist than a scientist.
It’s also common to say stars are dying.
Re: German ship completes historic Arctic expedition
#25I would be curious if anyone can give a scientific analysis of the "Blue Ocean Event" theory. If you apply heat to a pot of water that has ice cubes, most of the energy goes to melting the ice, and once the ice is melted the remaining water warms much more quickly. Are we not due for similar abrupt disruption when the ice finally disappears? I've tried to find any strong support or criticism of this idea but haven't…
I'ts not a lot of ice compared to the ocean. A bigger problem is that ice reflects light and in this way keeps the temperature down.
But there is not that much sunlight at the poles, which is actually the reason why there is ice. Also, the antarctic ice coverage seems to be pretty stable.
Re: German ship completes historic Arctic expedition
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
I remain optimistic that the human race will figure things out before we completely decimate all ocean life and before we make half of the planet inhospitable. However, I am certain the powers that be will not take any action until MAJOR death waves in the western world such as the destruction of a major picturesque city from a freak weather event. Before that, I expect we will lose: * Polar bears * Wild Tuna * Wild…
If I understand your position correctly, you are optimistic that the human race will figure things out once a huge number of [poor] people are killed?
That's a very uncharitable view of his comment.
Re: German ship completes historic Arctic expedition
#27*> "The sea-ice is dying," he said. The sea ice was never alive, so saying it is dying is just loaded with pathos. He sounds more like an activist than a scientist.
It’s also common to say stars are dying.
A star is active and full of energy, while ice is just passive and does nothing.
Re: German ship completes historic Arctic expedition
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'ts not a lot of ice compared to the ocean. A bigger problem is that ice reflects light and in this way keeps the temperature down.
But there is not that much sunlight at the poles, which is actually the reason why there is ice. Also, the antarctic ice coverage seems to be pretty stable.
Depends on the season, in summer with 24/7 sunlight the Arctic takes more heat than a location near the equator.
Re: German ship completes historic Arctic expedition
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
At our current rate humans won’t face extinction for thousands of years. We don’t need a biosphere to live in a 5C warmer planet. What will happen is likely massive unrest and famine due to crop shortages leading to a significant population decline. But we can lose 80% of the population and barely be set back 1-2 centuries.
Its mother Nature b we're talking about, no level of optimism can predict what can go wrong.
But humans can currently live in vastly different climates on the earth already. Unless something happens way outside of the worst case climate change models, we’re just not looking at anything near an extinction level event for humans.
The big island of Hawaii alone has enough population to not suffer genetic inbreeding problems and it’s mountains mean it can handle multiple meters of sea level rise. The entire rest of the planet could be dead and they would be enough to avoid extinction.
If we’re going to start ignoring climate science to scream about human extinction, then we’ve moved into the same corner of the deniers. Let’s stick with what we know, which is catastrophe and mass migrations; but that’s leagues away from extinction.
Re: German ship completes historic Arctic expedition
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
But there is not that much sunlight at the poles, which is actually the reason why there is ice. Also, the antarctic ice coverage seems to be pretty stable.
Depends on the season, in summer with 24/7 sunlight the Arctic takes more heat than a location near the equator.
Apparently the Arctic gets more insolation than the Antarctic, but the former only peaks at about 25% higher than the Equatorial mean, and the peak is relatively short.[1]
[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sci...