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Skies went dark: Historians pinpoint the 'worst year' ever to be alive

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Re: Skies went dark: Historians pinpoint the 'worst year' ever to be alive

#101

Post by EGreg »

Natfan wrote: post #100
EGreg wrote: post #83

This is why one Bill Gates backed project has me really freaked out! What could go wrong? This is like the plot of the Matrix... https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/amp35938287/bill-ga...

Care to fully explain your argument rather than writing three click-bait sentences and a link? Additionally, much of the CSS on that site fails to load for me. Might just be because I'm using various privacy extensions, but if a website needs to go to a tracking service to load CSS, then it isn't a website I want to use.

So let me get this straight, I linked to PopularMechanics and you didn’t use it or read it, but then you’re asking me to summarize it? Try googling “bill gates dimming the sun” for any other site

Re: Skies went dark: Historians pinpoint the 'worst year' ever to be alive

#103

Post by JetSetWilly »

Jedd wrote: post #78
zelos wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it feasible for many countries - particularly small, densely populated ones - to be self-sufficient in food? In the UK, at least, I'm not sure there's physically enough space to farm enough food to supply the population. About 50% of food is imported and basically all the agricultural land is already used.

Supposing that it was an isolated 'the skies go dark' scenario, then being self-sufficient in food is quite a complex question to try to answer, as most food chains require the skies to not be dark, at least not all the time. An interesting (and today, happily, academic) question is what happens to the UK in the event of, say, AMOC (Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation -- aka the gulf stream that sends warm ai…

> An interesting (and today, happily, academic) question is what happens to the UK in the event of, say, AMOC (Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation -- aka the gulf stream that sends warm air up from the equator) shutting down. Noting that London's only 4 degrees latitude away from, say, Moscow.

Probably not that much because the notion that the gulf stream shutting down would send Northern Europe into an ice age is mostly a fiction:

http://ocp.ldeo.columbia.edu/res/div/ocp/gs/

Simply being next to an ocean with prevailing winds off that ocean is what gives the UK an oceanic climate, if the gulf stream vanishes there might be some slight cooling but it isn't going to make Glasgow have the same climate as Moscow because Glasgow won't be far inside a continental landmass.

Re: Skies went dark: Historians pinpoint the 'worst year' ever to be alive

#104

Post by mro_name »

giantandroids wrote: post #98
pikzel wrote: post #40

Every time I think about the climate and events like these, I'm reminded of when it rained for two million years - "About 232 million years ago, during a span known as the Carnian age, it rained almost everywhere. After millions of years of dry climates, Earth entered a wet period lasting one million to two million years." ( https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-03699-7 )

This is still playing out in the UK

didn't they vote for rainxit recently?

Re: Skies went dark: Historians pinpoint the 'worst year' ever to be alive

#105

Post by eigenhombre »

Kim_Bruning wrote: post #90
eloff wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've only had industry 250 years. Give it 250 million, maybe we sort that out, or most industry moves off planet as in Jeff Bezos vision with blue origin.

Moving industry offworld is actually not a bad idea. Especially to the moon. Transport costs Moon-surface -> Earth-surface are ... non-intuitive to say the least.

Non-intuitive, but... expensive.

Re: Skies went dark: Historians pinpoint the 'worst year' ever to be alive

#106

Post by macintux »

WrtCdEvrydy wrote: post #60
waihtis wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was not acutely aware of this, but is a perfect example of what will happen in severe crisis scenarios: countries will ensure their own survival over others'.

You cannot eat money therefore exporting only works for as long as those supplies are not needed.

During the potato famine, English landowners in Ireland were exporting food to Britain while the Irish starved to death.

Re: Skies went dark: Historians pinpoint the 'worst year' ever to be alive

#107

Post by dang »

sellyme wrote: post #26
dang wrote: post #17

If curious, past threads: 536 was ‘the worst year to be alive’ (2018) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23565762 - June 2020 (356 comments) Why 536 was ‘the worst year to be alive’ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18469891 - Nov 2018 (4 comments) Others?

Extreme weather events of 535–536 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26598570 - March 2021 (87 comments)

Thanks! I suppose that makes the OP a quasidupe.

Re: Skies went dark: Historians pinpoint the 'worst year' ever to be alive

#108

Post by UncleMeat »

ricc wrote: post #16

But was this the “worst year to be alive” mostly in Europe? How about in other parts of the world?

The headline is far worse than the article. The historian behind the work is a medievalist, so naturally his focus will be somewhat limited. His actual quote is less extreme and focused more closely on just Europe.

This is just a headline problem.

Re: Skies went dark: Historians pinpoint the 'worst year' ever to be alive

#109

Post by chrisco255 »

rob74 wrote: post #97
waihtis wrote: post #7

An event like this, or anything else with a significant impact on food production is something many people should be absolutely prepared for. A bulk of countries, including where I live, are completely dependant on importing food. What do you think will happen if the net exporters experience a global supply crisis? Always be cognizant of events that are improbable but have a high impact on survival.

Well, if an event like this happens, even agriculturally self-sufficient countries won't be self-sufficient anymore. The only advantage we have compared to our ancestors 1500 years ago is that we could import food from the Southern Hemisphere (because the ash clouds will mostly stay in the hemisphere they are produced in). But still, there would be drastic food shortages everywhere...

Problem is there's a lot less arable land in the southern hemisphere than in the northern. Not likely enough for world pop.

Re: Skies went dark: Historians pinpoint the 'worst year' ever to be alive

#110

Post by wcarss »

pikzel wrote: post #40

Every time I think about the climate and events like these, I'm reminded of when it rained for two million years - "About 232 million years ago, during a span known as the Carnian age, it rained almost everywhere. After millions of years of dry climates, Earth entered a wet period lasting one million to two million years." ( https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-03699-7 )

Interesting! I wonder when reading things like that about our resolution when discussing such grand scales of time, and the effects of generalization/abstraction on our personal conclusions.

For example, it likely didn't really rain 24/7 ~everywhere on the planet for ~2 million years straight, but, that was my initial picture upon reading what you said. I said out loud to myself, "wow", and then read the article you linked.

Rather, it seems more like: over that period of 2 million years, across the exposed land mass of Pangaea (which was large, but only covered ~1/3rd of the planet) the climate was overall much more humid than most places are today, and it likely rained often.

That is not anywhere near as absurd to imagine, though it's still pretty darn cool.

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