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Fastest rate of natural carbon dioxide rise over the last 50k years

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Re: Fastest rate of natural carbon dioxide rise over the last 50k years

#111
post #68

Great visualization from Randall Munroe: https://xkcd.com/1732/ Literally everyone should see this. Edit: Evidently many people still do not get the point The point is that yes, climate has changed in the past, and the individual values are not the problem. The PROBLEM is that it has never changed this FAST . By orders of magnitude. Velocity changes everything. Consider just taking a sip of your coffee 1000X as fast…

And before they start panicking, they should see this: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:All_palaeotemps.svg The XKCD comic starts at the coldest moment in history known to mankind.

What do you take away from this?

Re: Fastest rate of natural carbon dioxide rise over the last 50k years

#112
post #99

It’s time to stop pretending we aren’t going to do geoengineering and get serious about making it happen.

I imagine it will happen when heatwaves and droughts start to be a serious issue.

Nah. Politicians will still have the wrong incentives, and they’ll just let the poor die. Meanwhile the rich will buy up all arable land, and all land not largely affected. Following that, they’ll tighten control of national borders to stop waves of migration.

Re: Fastest rate of natural carbon dioxide rise over the last 50k years

#113
post #29
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel AGI and nuclear conflict have zero relevance to this article. I also personally think the risk of nuclear conflict is pretty much zero.

I don't know about that; I could see everyone drifting into a conflict no one wants, WW1 style. Recent events also are incentivizing small countries to go nuclear, which will increase the risk of nuclear war. I expect South Korea, Japan, and maybe even the Philippines and Vietnam to acquire nuclear weapons at some point. Japan already has a capability to acquire nuclear weapons quickly, with their separated reactor-g…

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Re: Fastest rate of natural carbon dioxide rise over the last 50k years

#114

The comments section is an trash fire. Some people seem to be more than ready for the apocalypse to actually happen. What a sad state of affairs.

People never picture themselves as being among those great numbers who suffer and die in these scenarios.

Re: Fastest rate of natural carbon dioxide rise over the last 50k years

#115
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It it's not per capita that counts, but per country, then each American should be allowed to pollute 4 times as much as each Chinese person because there are less of them? I guess as a Brit, I should be allowed to pollute 5 times more than an American?

The climate doesn't care about countries either, and people in developed countries aren't going to lower their standard of livings to meet some acceptable per capita carbon footprint standard. That's why these kinds of arguments are pointless. Blame China, blame the US, blame the British Empire, what difference does any of that make? Unless you can convince the richer countries to pay fines to the developing ones to…

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Re: Fastest rate of natural carbon dioxide rise over the last 50k years

#116
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Should the conversation be production or consumption? Who's really to blame?

When it comes to regulations, production. Stricter laws in the US just lead to shipping production overseas to locations with less strict regulation.

Regulate trade. Carbon taxes on production and shipping disincentivize this.

Re: Fastest rate of natural carbon dioxide rise over the last 50k years

#117
post #3

We are in the multilayered race between - The risk of the rise of AGI - The risk and madness of Nuclear conflict - The risk of runaway Climate change My money is on Mother Gaia. She will brutally and swiftly discipline her puppies.

Letting off a few nukes could slow climate change a bit right? I vaguely recall that all the dust kicked up by the hundreds of tests in the 50s and 60s had an effect.

It works best if the nukes hit densely populated areas, but I hope we manage to implement the solutions to climate change that don’t require killing billions.

Re: Fastest rate of natural carbon dioxide rise over the last 50k years

#118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

#1 is marketing hype. #2 is very real. #3 is happening and could cause #2 if wars for livable land and water resources break out.

#1 is very real #2 is warmongering #3 will be solved by human ingenuity I have a more positive outlook. :)

> #3 will be solved by human ingenuity

It already started, billions of dollars in losses, with no real solution in sight.

Re: Fastest rate of natural carbon dioxide rise over the last 50k years

#119
post #99

It’s time to stop pretending we aren’t going to do geoengineering and get serious about making it happen.

I imagine it will happen when heatwaves and droughts start to be a serious issue.

Isn’t the whole issue that the real action will be too late given our currently technology?

Re: Fastest rate of natural carbon dioxide rise over the last 50k years

#120
post #3

We are in the multilayered race between - The risk of the rise of AGI - The risk and madness of Nuclear conflict - The risk of runaway Climate change My money is on Mother Gaia. She will brutally and swiftly discipline her puppies.

1. AGI doesn't even exist and Sam Altman and I agree on one thing, GPTs will not get us there. Saying AGI is a risk is like saying the sun exploding is a risk. 2. Nuclear conflict is real, it's astounding Pakistan or Russia hasnt used the bomb yet but they will when the US backs them into a corner. 3. Climate change? At this point, who cares? We know it's happening and happening VERY slowly so we have PLENTY of time…

Hey, aren't you the user who was trolling I'm that one thread about someone making an app? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40199670

Oh well, some concerns around AGI might be attempts at marketing and attracting attention, though some caution probably isn't too bad to have. AGI might become a thing, it's just that there's no guarantee that it will happen in our lifetimes. On the other hand, even LLMs will put some folks out of a job.

Relations between nuclear powers are anyone's guess but there's no reason why Russia couldn't be forced to back off, as opposed to "being backed into a corner". Wouldn't be the first proxy war and most likely won't be the last.

I care about climate change, there are certainly others. No idea whether much of a change will be made in our current course, but there's no reason to be super dismissive. If anything, recycling, eating a bit less meat or doing lots of the other common recommendations improves my own quality of life, even if the legislature that goes after the big corporations is nowhere to be seen yet. No reason not to make the world a better place, or ar least try to, in whatever ways are viable, like donating towards planting trees or something like Wren.

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