[deleted]
Scientists In Alaska Find Mammoth Amounts Of Carbon In The Warming Permafrost
41–50 of 305 posts
Re: Scientists In Alaska Find Mammoth Amounts Of Carbon In The Warming Permafrost
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
The sad thing is that scientists have understood the risks of global warming for decades, and yet our civilization (maybe I'm just speaking for the US here) seems impotent to effectively coordinate a response to this slow-motion threat. It could be our own Great Filter. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter
> decades More than a century, in some cases. Capitalism needs additional constraints or it will end all civilization. Simply, the cost of creating greenhouse gasses has never been priced in to the market since Exxon and the likes have lobbied hard for decades to not let the truth gain any traction. They should all be in jail and there should be no profits in destroying ecosystems. Otherwise there seems no hope.
And yet capitalism gives us the greatest hope we have: companies like Tesla, and products like solar panels and wind turbines. None of that would exist without capitalism.
Re: Scientists In Alaska Find Mammoth Amounts Of Carbon In The Warming Permafrost
#43This is not a “time bomb”, which implies something being inflicted on us by a malevolent agent. It’s a temperature bomb. And we can easily prevent the explosion by simply not making the planet too hot.
In all probability, that ship sailed ten years ago. "So doing bad stuff" is no longer a viable strategy by itself. Sure we should do that, but at this point, without adaptation and mitigation strategies, we're fucked.
Re: Scientists In Alaska Find Mammoth Amounts Of Carbon In The Warming Permafrost
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
> decades More than a century, in some cases. Capitalism needs additional constraints or it will end all civilization. Simply, the cost of creating greenhouse gasses has never been priced in to the market since Exxon and the likes have lobbied hard for decades to not let the truth gain any traction. They should all be in jail and there should be no profits in destroying ecosystems. Otherwise there seems no hope.
In a socialized system you'd have the same thing, except perpetuated by bureaucrats instead of businessmen. If anything, capitalism has an advantage in that it's at least theoretically possible to mitigate the effect of greed on politics. Throwing all your eggs into the government basket gives you no such recourse.
[deleted]
Re: Scientists In Alaska Find Mammoth Amounts Of Carbon In The Warming Permafrost
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are there credible models that suggest Earth will turn into Venus or something? It would take a hell of a lot more to end humanity than it would take to "merely" hurt/kill the most vulnerable segments of our population (which is what I thought the stakes were).
There is definitely no shortage of doomsday climate models. CREDIBLE models is a different story. Look back at ones from 20+ years ago to see what they predicted would be happening by now. It's pretty funny actually.
Are there any models that predict accurately backwards?
Re: Scientists In Alaska Find Mammoth Amounts Of Carbon In The Warming Permafrost
#46It seems the only way to combat the thawing permafrost problem is to deploy world-scale carbon capturing schemes of some sort. Here's to hoping that we can develop something like that in time.
Re: Scientists In Alaska Find Mammoth Amounts Of Carbon In The Warming Permafrost
#47There could be anything underneath all the permafrost, including new biodiversity which we haven't catalogued yet. NPR ran a story[0] where Russian animals such as reindeer infected with Anthrax had thawed out, and caused outbreaks where people had to get preventative treatments against it. As a future threat model, what if there's new viruses or bacterium contained under previously frozen earth for which modern medi…
Such events are necessary to keep human population under a manageable number. Throughout human history there have been outbreaks that claimed many lives and stunted population growth for some time. We will likely see such an event in our time.
Mass death < managed population and immigration control.
Re: Scientists In Alaska Find Mammoth Amounts Of Carbon In The Warming Permafrost
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
"all human civilization"? Isn't that a bit hyperbolic? destructive, sure. It would certainly lead to a lot of death, and a lot of hardship. Human civilization will certainly be changed- perhaps significantly. But I haven't see any evidence that it will cease to exist.
No. There's a pretty clear path: rising temperatures->food supply disruption->regional war->nuclear war->there are maybe a few people left in bunkers.
There's a pretty substantial gap between "poor people starving" and "people with nukes care," but it's still plausible enough to be chilling, that's for sure.
Re: Scientists In Alaska Find Mammoth Amounts Of Carbon In The Warming Permafrost
#49This is not a “time bomb”, which implies something being inflicted on us by a malevolent agent. It’s a temperature bomb. And we can easily prevent the explosion by simply not making the planet too hot.
well lets do this
Re: Scientists In Alaska Find Mammoth Amounts Of Carbon In The Warming Permafrost
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
Such events are necessary to keep human population under a manageable number. Throughout human history there have been outbreaks that claimed many lives and stunted population growth for some time. We will likely see such an event in our time.
> Such events are necessary to keep human population under a manageable number. Is there any evidence for this assertion?
Which part, that the events are necessary or that we have to keep human population to a level that the planet can currently support?