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Xkcd: Greenhouse Effect

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Re: Xkcd: Greenhouse Effect

#21

Post by RuggedPineapple »

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

I know which one you mean, as I'm sure we all do, but it always amuses me that we refer to her as just 'Cleopatra' because... basically every queen of Egypt in that dynasty was named Cleopatra. They named the vast majority of the boys Ptolemy and the girls Cleopatra. Her mother's name is Cleopatra V Tryphaena. Her daughters name is Cleopatra Selene II. Her Fathers name is Ptolemy XII, she has brothers named Ptolemy XIII and Ptolemy XIV, one of her sons is named Ptolemy.

It should be the least useful mononym possible, but its totally not. Its perfectly understood.

Re: Xkcd: Greenhouse Effect

#22

Post by jraph »

SushiHippie wrote: post #20
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.

It's basically for the alt text, which you can display by clicking on "alt text", instead of having to hover to display the title attribute.

And actually, it's better on regular computer for this very reason IMHO. A link or button element could be used though for this button.

Fitting to screen width would not be great on many devices, the image could be too small.

Re: Xkcd: Greenhouse Effect

#23

Post by M95D »

madsbuch wrote: post #19
agos wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

concrete and steel are quite big

Which are these inputs? Any why do they need to be fossil ?

You need carbon (coal) to make steel from iron.

Cement needs lots of heat to make it - from coal too. Also, cement is made from CaCO3 (limestone, the shell of ancient microorganisms). It releases the CO2 it contains when transformed into cement.

Re: Xkcd: Greenhouse Effect

#24

Post by idiotsecant »

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.

Its OK to use fossil fuels as chemical feedstock in manufacturing. As long as we don't literally light it on fire for energy we can deal with the resulting reaction gasses.

In 500 years the idea that we ever burned our most valuable manufacturing chemical to keep warm is going to seem crazy. Petrochemicals are incredibly useful for making things.

Re: Xkcd: Greenhouse Effect

#26

Post by speedgoose »

jraph wrote: post #22
SushiHippie wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It's basically for the alt text, which you can display by clicking on "alt text", instead of having to hover to display the title attribute. And actually, it's better on regular computer for this very reason IMHO. A link or button element could be used though for this button. Fitting to screen width would not be great on many devices, the image could be too small.

You can long press the image to get the alt text on the desktop website.

Re: Xkcd: Greenhouse Effect

#27

Post by jraph »

speedgoose wrote: post #26
jraph wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's basically for the alt text, which you can display by clicking on "alt text", instead of having to hover to display the title attribute. And actually, it's better on regular computer for this very reason IMHO. A link or button element could be used though for this button. Fitting to screen width would not be great on many devices, the image could be too small.

You can long press the image to get the alt text on the desktop website.

Is it not cut when it's long? It was the case when I had a smartphone a few years ago, I don't know the state of it now though.

Re: Xkcd: Greenhouse Effect

#28

Post by landgenoot »

lm28469 wrote: post #15
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

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

Until the alternatives are cheaper. I would recommend you to read: Not the End of the World, Hannah Ritchie

Re: Xkcd: Greenhouse Effect

#29

Post by elihu »

Meanwhile, half of CO2 emissions from human causes since the industrial revolution have happened in about the last 40 years or so. Every time we mash the snooze bar for another decade the problem just gets that much harder to solve.

Re: Xkcd: Greenhouse Effect

#30

Post by offices »

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

I find the more recent ones more fun because a) it's a shifting target, so you can find something new and b) you get to make people feel old!

Let's see... the release of the film The Day After Tomorrow is closer to 'We begin bombing in five minutes' than it is to today.

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