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Long before trees overtook the land, Earth was covered by prototaxites (2013)

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Re: Long before trees overtook the land, Earth was covered by prototaxites (2013)

#121

Post by njarboe »

Ma8ee wrote: post #111
derefr wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rather than motivating environmental conservation out of some species-level nostalgia for "the biodiversity of our youth", there's another, forward-looking motivation for it: the species that evolved at the same time we did — our "evolutionary cohort" — are the species of our own Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness. While they may not share our ecological niche, they all share a dependency on the same air mix we…

The time scale for new species adapted to a completely new climate is many millions of years, not a few thousands. What we destroy today won’t be replaced while humans as a species as we know it today even exists. It will always be many orders of magnitude easier to terraform Earth, even after we screwed it up, than trying to terraform Mars.

Hopefully in the future we will have two beautiful worlds full of life. Doesn't that dream seem great?

Re: Long before trees overtook the land, Earth was covered by prototaxites (2013)

#125

Post by gizmo686 »

yummypaint wrote: post #118
Ma8ee wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The time scale for new species adapted to a completely new climate is many millions of years, not a few thousands. What we destroy today won’t be replaced while humans as a species as we know it today even exists. It will always be many orders of magnitude easier to terraform Earth, even after we screwed it up, than trying to terraform Mars.

We have been agressively terraforming the earth into a form less accomodating of current complex life for some time now, and we show no signs of slowing. That's the whole problem

Agressively?

We increased CO2 concentration by about 200 parts-per-million (a factor of about 2x), and increased the average temperature by about 1-2°C. Rain patterns are slightly different. Ocean PH levels dropped by about 0.04 .

Sure, given how delicate the biosphere is, these small changes have a significant effect. However, if we look at Earth on the same scale as any other object in the solar system, the environment on Earth today is almost identical to the environment on Earth 1,000 years ago. The atmosphere is about 1023 millibars; 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 1% argon, and 0.04% everything else. Liquid water covers most of the surface, with an active water cycle causing water rain to occur periodically over much of the planet.

The temperature change is so small, that we would not notice it if it were on any other planet in the solar system, and it is far below the noise floor of day-to-day variance

Re: Long before trees overtook the land, Earth was covered by prototaxites (2013)

#127

Post by croes »

bheadmaster wrote: post #9
tsunamifury wrote: post #2

I 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…

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...

Because therr are people who use such theories to claim that climate change always existed and that mankind has nothing to do with it.

But usually that ignore the speed of climate change

Re: Long before trees overtook the land, Earth was covered by prototaxites (2013)

#128

Post by sharkweek »

tsunamifury wrote: post #20
rektide wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

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…

He gives the example in (maybe my favorite content of the last decade) Can’t Get You Out Of My Head about how climate scientists looking to alter weather patterns to fight the Cold War discovered, accidentally, how even the tiniest of changes cause Earth’s climate system to spiral wildly out of control.

Re: Long before trees overtook the land, Earth was covered by prototaxites (2013)

#129

Post by lovecg »

tsunamifury wrote: post #2

I 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…

The phase shifts in huge dynamic systems are fascinating. The Earth can look more or less the same for millions of years (with minor variations), then an extreme event happens and the world is completely transformed, never to return to a previous state again. We humans sure like to play with fire.

Re: Long before trees overtook the land, Earth was covered by prototaxites (2013)

#130

Post by acchow »

ru552 wrote: post #103
drewfis wrote: post #98

What if Fungi were the key to our technological advancement? If we could make fungal computers we could become a bio-technical race like Species 8472 in Star Trek Voyager Season 3 Episode 26.

I watched a documentary that proposed eating mushrooms, and the ensuing hallucinations that happened, as the cause of our Neanderthal ancestors developing free thought and the underpinning of creativity that lead to tool development.

There isn't really much "science" to back up these claims. It is fun to think about tho.
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