[flagged]
> Please don't use Hacker News for political or ideological battle. That tramples curiosity.
Long before trees overtook the land, Earth was covered by prototaxites (2013)
71–80 of 295 posts
Re: Long before trees overtook the land, Earth was covered by prototaxites (2013)
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
> earth has likely never had as diverse an ecosystem as it has this millennium Don't worry, we can fix that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene_extinction
I think your flippant response here robs us of a conversation as to why we do this — what larger purpose does it serve in the macro scale mentioned earlier. Is earth a set of short term optimized life leading to different eras or are humans the first sentient life that must take responsibility for it. If so how and with what goals. For our own preservation? To freeze all life as it is today?
To learn and try to understand that is the goal of human life. How can we possible understand our planet if we destroy all of its resources, kill off its diversity of life before we have an inkling of the complexity of how it works?
We can continue to exist and learn without killing off the planet.
Re: Long before trees overtook the land, Earth was covered by prototaxites (2013)
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
Changes are static or not depending on the scale of time you consider. In a time span of billions (even millions) of years, our planet indeed went through different eras. For a duration of one human life, the state of nature is expected to remain quite static. The problem with climate change is that we started to witness the planet entering in a new era in such a small time frame - roughly 200 years.
[flagged]
I doubt there is much of a discussion to be had here, but at least you could try to get easily verifiable dates right.
Global cooling: 1970s https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_cooling
Ozone layer depletion: succesfully mitigated starting in the 1980s https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal_Protocol https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna_Convention_for_the_Pr...
Anthropogenic global warming: scientific consensus since around 1990 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPCC_First_Assessment_Report
For reference, it's the year 2023 now.
Re: Long before trees overtook the land, Earth was covered by prototaxites (2013)
#74Re: Long before trees overtook the land, Earth was covered by prototaxites (2013)
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
The internet in general and this forum in particular is prone to pedantic misinterpretations— just heading it off.
I understand why you said it. It just seems that the general atmosphere of the internet is that of self-censorship and fear. It just doesn't sit well with me. The intolerance of different views is driving the hostile and divisive atmosphere in the social media. Let's say there's a person who's really anti-climate change. How is that person supposed to change their mind, if they get attacked every time they voice thei…
I'm not saying it's right or useful, but I think a lot of people (especially young people) are just really sick of climate change denial-ism. I know I am. I'm nearly half a century old and the handwriting has been on the wall my whole life.
I don't want to quash discussion (interesting and informative discussion is the main reason I use HN) but, yeah, it's not a bad thing to differentiate yourself from the climate deniers, if you want people to hear you these days.
Re: Long before trees overtook the land, Earth was covered by prototaxites (2013)
#76[flagged]
I think it's rather the opposite. The insane weirdness of plants (polyploidy, symbiosis with insects, fern genomes, multiple evolutions of tree-forms), parasites, molluscs having all kinds of eyes, indicate more than one divine entity. More over, those entities clearly squabble, make jokes, and generally plague each other at biology's expense.
Re: Long before trees overtook the land, Earth was covered by prototaxites (2013)
#77I think it’s wild and deeply inspiring to imagine how the surface of the earth had radically different forms over billions of years. Huge landscapes of unrotted dead plants. Then massive landscapes of fungus and decomposing bacteria breaking that down into dirt. And on and on. I think it is wise to understand that earth has been through many eras and is not as homeostatic as our narrowly imagined “natural” state we s…
I really like this comment & it has a lot going for it. At the same time I think it's also worth pointing out that earth has likely never had as diverse an ecosystem as it has this millennium. The tree of life has become incredibly wide & complex. The naturalist tendency doesn't have to be as static as portrayed here. Nature itself is such a dynamic & changing system death & population booms chasing each other around…
earth has likely never had as diverse an ecosystem as it has this millennium.
What about the millennium or two prior to that, though? Hundreds of species have gone extinct since around 1900.
Re: Long before trees overtook the land, Earth was covered by prototaxites (2013)
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's somewhat odd that one has to explicitly say they're not "anti-climate change" when presenting any kind of perspective that could be perceived as such. As if they're afraid of the somebody punishing them for daring to think such "problematic" and "destructive" thoughts...
The real effect of cancel culture is the chilling effect it has even on relatively anonymous conversation. Humans are social beings and the spectre that someone could be outcast for sounding like they are from the wrong clan is an innate phobia.
"Cancel culture" was e.g. gays getting beaten up by random strangers just for existing, and now it's e.g. getting fired for telling a homophobic joke in public.
Re: Long before trees overtook the land, Earth was covered by prototaxites (2013)
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
Changes are static or not depending on the scale of time you consider. In a time span of billions (even millions) of years, our planet indeed went through different eras. For a duration of one human life, the state of nature is expected to remain quite static. The problem with climate change is that we started to witness the planet entering in a new era in such a small time frame - roughly 200 years.
[flagged]
It's bizarre to me that climate skeptics think the ozone issue is a point in their favor. Ozone depletion was a real issue, but the international community came together and banned the use of CFCs. Since then ozone levels stabilized and then started to recover. They should reach pre-1980s levels this century based on current trends. It is a clear example of collective action successfully addressing a climate problem.
Re: Long before trees overtook the land, Earth was covered by prototaxites (2013)
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
Adam Curtis’ “All Watched over by Machines of Loving Grace” theorized that that emerging chaotic state mixed with our recent technological emergence has lead us to believe we can “contain the chaos” of this highly sophisticated system. He quite amazingly illustrates over 3 hours that we falsely believe that earth is an unchanging systematic snow globe rather than a chaotic system. And the more we try to control it, t…
"There is no natural state as defined by hyper static equilibrium. Only brief moments where we purport to control it — building up a chaotic momentum beneath it." The moment when, after many years of hard work and a long voyage you stand in the centre of your room, house, half-acre, square mile, island, country, knowing at last how you got there, and say, I own this, is the same moment when the trees unloose their so…
It’s taken me half a lifetime to even learn enough to start to appreciate her wisdom.