Could we handle a similar eruption these days? Should we be building more nuclear power stations as well as solar, because if this happens, solar even with batteries is going to be useless?
Why 536 was 'the worst year to be alive' (2018)
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Re: Why 536 was 'the worst year to be alive' (2018)
#52And nothing prevents new volcanic explosions from doing this again. How would the northern world deal with this today? Not that well.
Most of the northern world would not have much trouble buying its food wherever possible. For a high price, of course, but USA, Europe, Japan and even China are so extremely wealthy compared to others that they can outbid the majority of the South on the global food market without much difficulty. Thus, a decline in food production in the North would primarily affect the global South.
The rich countries are also going to be outbidding each other though. Some nations may decide not to sell it all because they need to eat themselves. This would be worse due to limited supply and no way to quickly ramp up.
Re: Why 536 was 'the worst year to be alive' (2018)
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is irrational pearl clutching. If sulfur is added, it will be done gradually, with the results monitored. There would not be some sort of catastrophic cooling. The real sticking point would be that some countries would not want the cooling. Russia, say.
Our proposed planet-scale terraforming will be done gradually, don't be irrational! We'll just see how it goes... Are you serious?
Without taking a side on sulphur injection, it should be noted that we are already doing very rapid planet-scale terraforming.
Re: Why 536 was 'the worst year to be alive' (2018)
#54[deleted]
Re: Why 536 was 'the worst year to be alive' (2018)
#55Could we handle a similar eruption these days? Should we be building more nuclear power stations as well as solar, because if this happens, solar even with batteries is going to be useless?
Probably when, instead of if.
Re: Why 536 was 'the worst year to be alive' (2018)
#56So far!
Reminds me of the Calvin and Hobbes comic
https://www.socomic.gr/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/ch140325.g...
Re: Why 536 was 'the worst year to be alive' (2018)
#57> The team deciphered this record using a new ultra–high-resolution method, in which a laser carves 120-micron slivers of ice, representing just a few days or weeks of snowfall, along the length of the core. Each of the samples—some 50,000 from each meter of the core—is analyzed for about a dozen elements. The approach enabled the team to pinpoint storms, volcanic eruptions, and lead pollution down to the month or ev…
They match the ice samples up with tree rings. There exists tree ring data of 7k+ years, the ice contains more info, but the tree rings allow for absolute pinpointing on a year. They match them on common info.
I am reading "tree story" by valerie trout.
Re: Why 536 was 'the worst year to be alive' (2018)
#58The worst year was probably something more like 70,000 years ago, when the human population fell as low as 2,000 individuals.
Re: Why 536 was 'the worst year to be alive' (2018)
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most of the northern world would not have much trouble buying its food wherever possible. For a high price, of course, but USA, Europe, Japan and even China are so extremely wealthy compared to others that they can outbid the majority of the South on the global food market without much difficulty. Thus, a decline in food production in the North would primarily affect the global South.
The rich countries are also going to be outbidding each other though. Some nations may decide not to sell it all because they need to eat themselves. This would be worse due to limited supply and no way to quickly ramp up.
Countries like the US and Canada, who are net food exporters, would basically be fine. China would face huge problems. Failed states would experience catastrophic famine.
Re: Why 536 was 'the worst year to be alive' (2018)
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
We have electricity and insulation. We won’t starve. Will it suck? Absolutely.
You can't eat electricity or insulation. There's close to 1 billion acres of farmland in the U.S. alone. If we were to suffer a decade of volcanic winter, large parts of the midwest would become non-productive. If the reports of the sun being as dim as the moon due to the ash are true, there would be massive crop failure. One or two years like that, we might be ok. But any longer than that and our stores would be rap…
The vast majority of that food is grown as animal feed. Only 27% is consumed directly by people. That's a huge buffer in an emergency.