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536 was ‘the worst year to be alive’ (2018)

sciencemag.org

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Re: 536 was ‘the worst year to be alive’ (2018)

#271

Post by fulafel »

chrisco255 wrote: post #82
CameronNemo wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would green/grow houses help in such a situation?

The cold weather would kill crops in all but probably tropical latitudes. The lack of sunlight will slow plant growth. Placing plants in greenhouses / growhouses would keep them warm and you could supplement sunlight with LED lighting to feed the plants.

Greenhouses cool down rapidly after sunset though, they still freeze if it's many deg below freezing outside. (Also mass crops like wheat and soy would have to solve harvesting machinery and resource cost vs area size)

Re: 536 was ‘the worst year to be alive’ (2018)

#272

Post by hodgesrm »

indigo945 wrote: post #182
LukeEF wrote: post #166

I don't mean to be too precise, but the article is slightly undermined by the claim in the graphic that the 543 Justinian plague hurried the collapse of the eastern Roman Empire. The 'Eastern' Roman Empire fell in 1453 when the walls of Constantinople were breached by the Ottomans. Very difficult to claim that the Romans fell in the 6th Century. I mean nearly 500 years later Basil is rolling back into Syria on the ba…

The precise date of the fall of the Roman Empire -- and the point where it became Byzantium -- is a subject of debate. There is no unanimous agreement that referring to Constantinople as the Roman Empire is much more useful than, say, calling the Holy Roman Empire "Roman". Whatever your personal views may be on this matter, there indeed are some scholars that date the fall of the Roman Empire on the failure of Justin…

> There is no unanimous agreement that referring to Constantinople as the Roman Empire is much more useful than, say, calling the Holy Roman Empire "Roman".

Except that Constantinople had essentially continuous government dating from the 300s AD until it was sacked by the army of the 4th Crusade in 1204, whereas the Holy Roman Empire's first emperor--Charlemagne--was crowned in 800 AD, some 324 years after the dissolution of the Roman Empire in the West. The Holy Roman Empire of Charlemagne was, as you imply, an entirely different beast from the original Roman Empire.

Re: 536 was ‘the worst year to be alive’ (2018)

#273

Post by Dylan16807 »

mark-r wrote: post #235
Nasrudith wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not too certain of the logic of the arguement - namely because fossil fuels are actually pretty damn advanced in terms of "actual technology and societal infastructure to access and exploit them". We already went through this long ago with surface deposits of copper ore as well essentially millenia ago. Effectively the time when it is useful is "when we don't have cheaper alternatives yet". We still should striv…

Good luck with those "renewable" solar farms when the next eruption happens.

...wait a week then wash them off?

Re: 536 was ‘the worst year to be alive’ (2018)

#276

Post by taneq »

izzydata wrote: post #47
chadlavi wrote: post #11

The worst year to be alive _so far_

I imagine there will come a time when the earth is just on the cusp of no longer being able to sustain the massive population that it has grown to or human life at all. Since the earths human population will be so high even a 5th of people dying off will be drastically more deaths than any worldwide catastrophe of the past. Maybe within another 1000 years.

Maybe within 100 years. Hopefully not within 10.

Re: 536 was ‘the worst year to be alive’ (2018)

#277

Post by natmaka »

pmiller2 wrote: post #170
leetcrew wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

sorry, I've seen so many memes lately comparing US grocery stores to soviet bread lines that I read a bit of that sentiment into your comment. it was a bit unsettling to see how much stuff was out of stock in the first few weeks of the crisis and wonder whether that was going to get better or worse. now the greatest hardship I face is having to settle for my second favorite brand of eggs sometimes. overall, I'm surpr…

I'm actually surprised there wasn't more supply chain disruption. Cleaning supplies, meat, TP, cold medicine (initially), disinfectants of any sort, canned goods, rice, dry beans, baking supplies, thermometers, masks, and gloves are the major things I noticed had gone "missing." My girlfriend and I could have certainly survived by modifying our diet and, as I mentioned, possibly buying a bidet. But, we are both fortu…

Bread for all? In Soviet Russia they had Holomodor (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor), many non-conforming people died in gulags (where bread was pretty rare).

Soviets could not emigrate, they were prisoners in their own country.

As far as I know Einstein & Hawking political views aren't in line with what Soviet Russia was, nor pretended to be.

Which "socialist perspective" do you appreciate?

Re: 536 was ‘the worst year to be alive’ (2018)

#278

Post by jsjohnst »

azinman2 wrote: post #274
Dylan16807 wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...wait a week then wash them off?

The article suggested 18 months of non-stop no sun.

> The article suggested 18 months of non-stop no sun.

If there was no sun at all, do you think the temperatures would only drop 1-3° as mentioned in the article?

Re: 536 was ‘the worst year to be alive’ (2018)

#280

Post by paganel »

LukeEF wrote: post #166

I don't mean to be too precise, but the article is slightly undermined by the claim in the graphic that the 543 Justinian plague hurried the collapse of the eastern Roman Empire. The 'Eastern' Roman Empire fell in 1453 when the walls of Constantinople were breached by the Ottomans. Very difficult to claim that the Romans fell in the 6th Century. I mean nearly 500 years later Basil is rolling back into Syria on the ba…

Technically you're correct, but IMHO the Eastern Roman Empire fell at the end of the 6th - the beginning of 7th century when the Danube "limes" fell in front of the incoming Slavs and Avars. Yes, there was a renaissance between let's say ~850 and the late 1100s (with the Eastern Roman Empire getting back to the Danube, among other things), but I think that at that point they were actually a Greek empire, nothing Roman left about them.
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