Tundra will soon experience full freedom.
There Is Gas Under the Tundra
61–70 of 78 posts
Re: There Is Gas Under the Tundra
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why is it destruction and not just it will be more costly to adapt? Why suppose that we can't figure out a way to scrub C02 from the atmosphere, or offset it some other way? Why can't humanity, who managed to survive an ice age with stone aged tools, figure out a way to survive a warmer planet with modern tech?
Cold is easier to survive than heat. Humans can't do any useful work outside or even survive once the web bulb temperature reaches a certain point. For example at 90% humidity the temperature limit is 35℃. Some tropical areas will become essentially uninhabitable. https://insideclimatenews.org/news/02082017/heatwaves-deadly...
Some tropical areas becoming uninhabitable doesn't sound like doomsday. It sounds like people have to be relocated, or stay indoors during part of the day or season. Which might mean increased automation in that part of the world to replace manual labor.
Re: There Is Gas Under the Tundra
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
Flow batteries, where charged electrolyte can be stockpiled, are under heavy development. These would allow us to finally make the grid 100% fossil fuel free. Also, I firmly believe that we can figure out how to make things like methane and oil from biological processes; it's just that extracting it from the ground is cheaper. Maybe I'm too optimistic, but I think we're quickly getting to a point where this is a poli…
Making methane and oil from known biological processes is quite inefficient, even if a lot of energy input comes just from exposure to sunlight. We have to either bio-engineer organisms to make them better producers (as we do for producing medicines, etc), or use any of the non-biologic processes for fuel synthesis, like Fischer-Tropsch.
"it's just that extracting it from the ground is cheaper"
Re: There Is Gas Under the Tundra
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cold is easier to survive than heat. Humans can't do any useful work outside or even survive once the web bulb temperature reaches a certain point. For example at 90% humidity the temperature limit is 35℃. Some tropical areas will become essentially uninhabitable. https://insideclimatenews.org/news/02082017/heatwaves-deadly...
Some tropical areas becoming uninhabitable doesn't sound like doomsday. It sounds like people have to be relocated, or stay indoors during part of the day or season. Which might mean increased automation in that part of the world to replace manual labor.
Is that supposed to be some kind of joke? We're talking about mass migrations to cooler areas. Wealthy people might be able to crank up the AC and hide inside but the poor will just die. If the predictions do come to pass then it literally will be doomsday for parts of the world.
Re: There Is Gas Under the Tundra
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some tropical areas becoming uninhabitable doesn't sound like doomsday. It sounds like people have to be relocated, or stay indoors during part of the day or season. Which might mean increased automation in that part of the world to replace manual labor.
Is that supposed to be some kind of joke? We're talking about mass migrations to cooler areas. Wealthy people might be able to crank up the AC and hide inside but the poor will just die. If the predictions do come to pass then it literally will be doomsday for parts of the world.
So doomsday for part of the world or doomsday for the human race? The parent's claim was we have ten years or we face doomsday without qualifications.
As for migrating to cooler climates , what is the time scale? A century? 50 years? 20 years? What about technological solutions that come into existence during that time frame? Are we going to discount them?
Doomsday implies the human race can't adapt.
Re: There Is Gas Under the Tundra
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why is it destruction and not just it will be more costly to adapt? Why suppose that we can't figure out a way to scrub C02 from the atmosphere, or offset it some other way? Why can't humanity, who managed to survive an ice age with stone aged tools, figure out a way to survive a warmer planet with modern tech?
Thermodynamics comes into play. Because the entropy of a pure gas increases rapidly as it diffuses into a mixture, it will always require massively more energy to scrub CO2 from the air than you get from burning the carbon in the first place. Scrubbing would only become possible if we either: - develop unlimited free energy (fusion, or incredibly cheap solar) - let plants do the work for us, harvesting the Earth's tr…
There's also geoengineering. While it's risky and controversial, it will become a real option if we are faced with bad enough consequences otherwise. Doomsday predictions assume we can't figure out a way to adapt or counter the climate change.
Re: There Is Gas Under the Tundra
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thermodynamics comes into play. Because the entropy of a pure gas increases rapidly as it diffuses into a mixture, it will always require massively more energy to scrub CO2 from the air than you get from burning the carbon in the first place. Scrubbing would only become possible if we either: - develop unlimited free energy (fusion, or incredibly cheap solar) - let plants do the work for us, harvesting the Earth's tr…
There's also geoengineering. While it's risky and controversial, it will become a real option if we are faced with bad enough consequences otherwise. Doomsday predictions assume we can't figure out a way to adapt or counter the climate change.
I agree. But I haven't heard a plausible geoengineering plan proposed yet. This is the part where engineers should be able to provide an answer today, achievable with our existing technology. It isn't enough to wave one's hands and assume that a solution can be developed someday when we're in deep enough trouble.
With our technology, it's still considered a nation-scale accomplishment to build a bridge spanning 55 km, or a dam spanning 2 km. Those kinds of engineering accomplishments are currently the likes of which most nations can only dream.
All we can currently do on the planetary scale is resource extraction -- fishing, strip mining, and deforestation. And accidentally altering the atmospheric composition of course.
I guess we can try to cover the entire ocean in floating white plastic pellets, to increase its albedo? That would probably work.
Re: There Is Gas Under the Tundra
#68Re: There Is Gas Under the Tundra
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
Temperature exceeds 35C, and humidity exceeds 90%, but not both at the same time.
I can find quite a few examples of both happening at the same time. For example, look at May 30.
I'm not seeing it. Temperature peaks at 37C, but humidity is only 57% when it happens. Humidity peaks at 94%, but temperature is only 29C when it happens.
Re: There Is Gas Under the Tundra
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
I guess so. But all I can see are extremely fuzzy images.[0] Anyone know why I might be seeing that? 0) https://keybase.pub/mirimir/flare.png
The same thing, in Firefox on Linux. Disabling uBlock origin didn't help, neither did disabling DuckDuckGo privacy extensions.
Yes, for me as well, Firefox in Linux.
I use NoScript and a bunch of other extensions, but disabling them didn't help. And sure, I could have spent more time debugging it, but damn. These are image files!