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Antarctic sea-ice at 'mind-blowing' low alarms experts

bbc.co.uk

21–30 of 116 posts

Re: Antarctic sea-ice at 'mind-blowing' low alarms experts

#21
post #5

Could we breed trees which capture more CO2? We increased crop yields multifold already: https://ourworldindata.org/crop-yields So maybe we can do the same to carbon yield? Are trees the plants which capture most CO2 per hectare?

There's part of me thinks just let the worst happen and let it end half of humanity, that way we might learn to live more in harmony with our environment. Currently we're a pox on this planet.

Re: Antarctic sea-ice at 'mind-blowing' low alarms experts

#22
post #14
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do I feel some climatoscepticism, or at least climatodenialism in this message ?

[flagged]

Funny you mention religion, the deniers also have their own religion, disputing facts with their own "facts" and "truth".

So what about 1981? Do you think it means it could've been lower than right now in, say, the 1970s, but the liars conveniently only started counting from the decade after? Given we have temperature data from further back and we know higher temperature = ice melts, the scientific mind would conclude there's a correlation. But oh nooo, jiofj knows better, there could be something else affecting it!

Re: Antarctic sea-ice at 'mind-blowing' low alarms experts

#23
post #20
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We increased crop yields multifold already With catastrophic effects. https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/research-news/2... All planetary boundaries mapped out for the first time, six of nine crossed https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320356605_Agricultu... Agriculture production as a major driver of the Earth system exceeding planetary boundaries Most of it is because of animal agriculture - it use…

Your two quotes don't follow: > We increased crop yields multifold already With catastrophic effects. > Most of it is because of animal agriculture.

The animals need to be fed - a great deal of crop yield goes into making meat.

Re: Antarctic sea-ice at 'mind-blowing' low alarms experts

#24
post #5

Could we breed trees which capture more CO2? We increased crop yields multifold already: https://ourworldindata.org/crop-yields So maybe we can do the same to carbon yield? Are trees the plants which capture most CO2 per hectare?

There's part of me thinks just let the worst happen and let it end half of humanity, that way we might learn to live more in harmony with our environment. Currently we're a pox on this planet.

If we grow our resource use to such a point that we reach a ceiling, then we are exactly like a pox, or any other organism that breeds until its niche is filled.

Those who want to make us live sustainably now or previously are hoping that we can be smarter than that. We're supposed to be a smart species. Can we limit ourselves artificially to preserve a better quality of life?

Easy to be pessimistic about this now(!)

Re: Antarctic sea-ice at 'mind-blowing' low alarms experts

#25
post #5

Could we breed trees which capture more CO2? We increased crop yields multifold already: https://ourworldindata.org/crop-yields So maybe we can do the same to carbon yield? Are trees the plants which capture most CO2 per hectare?

There's part of me thinks just let the worst happen and let it end half of humanity, that way we might learn to live more in harmony with our environment. Currently we're a pox on this planet.

Half of humanity is not going to die from climate change. It is going to die from other people who consider humanity itself to be a pox.

Also, birth rates are in terminal decline pretty much everywhere except Africa so don’t worry, we’ll control our population on our own.

Re: Antarctic sea-ice at 'mind-blowing' low alarms experts

#28
post #5

Could we breed trees which capture more CO2? We increased crop yields multifold already: https://ourworldindata.org/crop-yields So maybe we can do the same to carbon yield? Are trees the plants which capture most CO2 per hectare?

There's part of me thinks just let the worst happen and let it end half of humanity, that way we might learn to live more in harmony with our environment. Currently we're a pox on this planet.

That might take a while. Humans fare better in hotter climates.

Re: Antarctic sea-ice at 'mind-blowing' low alarms experts

#29
post #20
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We increased crop yields multifold already With catastrophic effects. https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/research-news/2... All planetary boundaries mapped out for the first time, six of nine crossed https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320356605_Agricultu... Agriculture production as a major driver of the Earth system exceeding planetary boundaries Most of it is because of animal agriculture - it use…

Your two quotes don't follow: > We increased crop yields multifold already With catastrophic effects. > Most of it is because of animal agriculture.

> two quotes don't follow

They do.

A significant influence on those increases was thanks to fertilizers, insecticides, and herbicides. This goes hand in hand with water pollution and biodiversity loss, exemplified by dead zones in oceans and an 80% decline in insect populations in the last few decades.

Improvements in irrigation systems have led to the depletion of our aquifers, which were filled over many millennia, and their renewal may take centuries.

Mechanization and soil management lead to soil erosion; maybe only a few decades of soil remain until we lose all of it.

Less than 50% of our crops are for human consumption; the rest is used as animal feed and biofuels.

Re: Antarctic sea-ice at 'mind-blowing' low alarms experts

#30
post #13
post #5

Could we breed trees which capture more CO2? We increased crop yields multifold already: https://ourworldindata.org/crop-yields So maybe we can do the same to carbon yield? Are trees the plants which capture most CO2 per hectare?

> We increased crop yields multifold already With catastrophic effects. https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/research-news/2... All planetary boundaries mapped out for the first time, six of nine crossed https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320356605_Agricultu... Agriculture production as a major driver of the Earth system exceeding planetary boundaries Most of it is because of animal agriculture - it use…

I agree with most of what you wrote above. The ludicrous amount of resources used for growing animals for food is totally non-value adding and harmful to the environment as a whole. That said I'm not a vegetarian - my diet is based on industrila logistics - I eat the protein that the supermarket logistics chain provide to our neighbourhood.

"The only realistic way out of it is immediate phase-out of fossil fuels and plant-based diets."

The suggestion for a global plant based diet is not unfeasible. Only thing you need is to convince the elites to change to vegetarianism. One of the large scale "hari seldon" style rules of thumb are that the non-elites will generally imitate the perceived lifestyles of the elites to the best of their abilities. This is not a physics or engineering problem, but a marketing problem and hence not impossible to solve.

I disagree we can immediately phase-out fossil fuels. They are foundational to the whole global industry including agriculture. I agree we should, but this is an engineering problem that has not yet been solved.

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