Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Xkcd: Greenhouse Effect

xkcd.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 286 posts

Re: Xkcd: Greenhouse Effect

#11

Post by larschdk »

Paul-Craft wrote: post #6
rcbdev wrote: post #3

Mere ~30 years after discovering the Greenhouse Effect we managed to split the atom, harnessing heretofore unimaginable amounts of energy. Yet almost 100 years later, here we are - Oil and gas dependent, boasting an energy and climate crisis, all the while fooling regulators with worthless climate certificates, unaccountable off-shore factories and just plain rampant fraud when it comes to CO2 emissions.

> Mere ~30 years after discovering the Greenhouse Effect we managed to split the atom, harnessing heretofore unimaginable amounts of energy. That's not correct, unless you mean to say we discovered nuclear energy in the 1880s: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2382758-eunice-newton-f...

Scientific discoveries are not instant, but build upon earlier work.

* 1824 - effect proposed (Joseph Fourier)

* 1827/1838 - further evidence (Claude Pouillet)

* 1856 - Speculation that a high vapor atmosphere would give a warm planet (Eunice Newton Foote)

* 1859 - Demonstration that hydrocarbons had a significant effect (John Tyndall)

* 1896 - Quantification of the effect and prediction of global warming (Svante Arrhenius)

* 1901 - Greenhouse name used (Nils Gustaf Ekholm)

The greenhouse effect in itself is critically important in maintaining a liveable temperature on Earth. It's a runaway greenhouse effect causing global warming that is the problem. Anything before 1896 was about understand the basic effect, while after we began understanding that we were affecting the system by emitting gases.

Re: Xkcd: Greenhouse Effect

#12

Post by grey_earthling »

rcbdev wrote: post #3

Mere ~30 years after discovering the Greenhouse Effect we managed to split the atom, harnessing heretofore unimaginable amounts of energy. Yet almost 100 years later, here we are - Oil and gas dependent, boasting an energy and climate crisis, all the while fooling regulators with worthless climate certificates, unaccountable off-shore factories and just plain rampant fraud when it comes to CO2 emissions.

Energy isn't the hard problem; it's materials. We're still consuming materials that we can't (yet?) make without fossil input.

Re: Xkcd: Greenhouse Effect

#13

Post by varispeed »

rcbdev wrote: post #3

Mere ~30 years after discovering the Greenhouse Effect we managed to split the atom, harnessing heretofore unimaginable amounts of energy. Yet almost 100 years later, here we are - Oil and gas dependent, boasting an energy and climate crisis, all the while fooling regulators with worthless climate certificates, unaccountable off-shore factories and just plain rampant fraud when it comes to CO2 emissions.

Every theory fails to account for human factor. Oil and gas are convenient and make so much money, it is so easy to "lobby" any government for it to stay that way.

We can all be happy clappy about doing something, but it will always fail if we don't have anything to combat corruption and manage greed.

Re: Xkcd: Greenhouse Effect

#14

Post by madsbuch »

grey_earthling wrote: post #12
rcbdev wrote: post #3

Mere ~30 years after discovering the Greenhouse Effect we managed to split the atom, harnessing heretofore unimaginable amounts of energy. Yet almost 100 years later, here we are - Oil and gas dependent, boasting an energy and climate crisis, all the while fooling regulators with worthless climate certificates, unaccountable off-shore factories and just plain rampant fraud when it comes to CO2 emissions.

Energy isn't the hard problem; it's materials. We're still consuming materials that we can't (yet?) make without fossil input.

Do you have examples of these materials?

Re: Xkcd: Greenhouse Effect

#15

Post by lm28469 »

rcbdev wrote: post #3

Mere ~30 years after discovering the Greenhouse Effect we managed to split the atom, harnessing heretofore unimaginable amounts of energy. Yet almost 100 years later, here we are - Oil and gas dependent, boasting an energy and climate crisis, all the while fooling regulators with worthless climate certificates, unaccountable off-shore factories and just plain rampant fraud when it comes to CO2 emissions.

Fossil fuel is a cheat code because you neither have to pay to create it nor pay for the consequences of using it, nature is dealing with both of these. Everything you use from roads to shampoo, toilet paper, clothes, computers, buildings, bicycles, it's all either enabled by fossil or a fossil fuel derivate

At planet scale nothing will ever get better than: dig hole, pump oil, burn oil

Re: Xkcd: Greenhouse Effect

#16

Post by lkdfjlkdfjlg »

nojs wrote: post #9

Some other fun “x is closer to y than z”: * We are closer in time to the T rex than the T rex was to the Stegosaurus * We are closer to the time of Cleopatra than Cleopatra was to the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza

Yeah, but those are so well known that they show up in every reddit thread. Therefore, not that interesting. Whereas the one linked is new (and isn't merely trivia).

Re: Xkcd: Greenhouse Effect

#20

Post by SushiHippie »

a1o wrote: post #2

For people on phones, https://m.xkcd.com/2889/

TIL that there is a mobile version.

But I don't see the advantages over the desktop version, as the images are not made to fit the width, so I need to zoom out of this mobile page to see the image.

Post reply on HN