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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)

#61

Post by pmiller2 »

ghaff wrote: post #54
pmiller2 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In what sense have we “recovered” from supply chain disruptions? I go to the store and still routinely see empty shelves where TP should be; have experienced meat shortages in recent days; and stores are still rationing things like hand sanitizer (when you can find it), canned goods, meat, and rice.

From what I can see in the Boston area--not that I've gone to stores much--you still see bare shelves and you can't really go to the store and expect to get everything on your shopping list. On the other hand... Getting food to eat was never a problem at any point. And today, reliably getting meat, chicken, dairy, paper products even if not exactly what you want, most baking supplies, etc. is pretty much a non-proble…

True, I never had a problem getting enough food. But, I am definitely still seeing issues getting most of the things you listed out explicitly, at least intermittently.

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

#62

Post by lgl »

The 2010 eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull [0] was a small sample of the perturbations that a volcanic event can have on day to day lives. And it was a relatively small eruption. Anything much larger than that will most likely have devastating effects on modern society on pretty much all levels and it's not really a matter of "if" but "when".

Besides eruptions, many other scarier events can cause huge shifts on the planet's thermal equilibrium including our current state of global warming or many other unknown events (like whatever happened to cause the Younger Dryas [1] "only" ~13k years ago which is theorized to have been either a mega eruption, impact event or stellar supernova).

It's pretty scary and definitely not something that we're at all prepared even with all our technology so we're basically in a permanent state of risk of complete reset which is guaranteed to happen eventually. Sadly it's not something most of us spend too much time thinking or preparing for. I guess this is largely because we live very short lives and that make these kind of events appear much "larger than life" so they go mostly ignored except for some underfunded science departments or the occasional billionaire. To me this is the main reason that going multiplanetary or space habitat based is basically the only way to escape this inevitable doom even though that is also a huge barrier to overcome on so many levels.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_eruptions_of_Eyjafjallaj%...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Younger_Dryas

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

#63

Post by SpicyLemonZest »

pmiller2 wrote: post #43
pureliquidhw wrote: post #17

How susceptible are we to another catastrophic volcano eruption? After COVID-19 shut down supply chains, there were some problematic delays, but seems like we quickly recovered. If the entire planet's crops were wiped out, we're all just SOL if we don't get canned goods in time? If we had 12 months notice, could we as a planet get it together? 6 months? 3 months? Is there forecasting for volcanoes? (looks like yes: h…

In what sense have we “recovered” from supply chain disruptions? I go to the store and still routinely see empty shelves where TP should be; have experienced meat shortages in recent days; and stores are still rationing things like hand sanitizer (when you can find it), canned goods, meat, and rice.

Personally, I haven't seen any empty shelves or shortages since early May, and the only rationing I've seen in June is on hand sanitizer and instant noodles. I guess I don't know whether my area is uncommonly good or yours is uncommonly bad.

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

#64

Post by stuff4ben »

Avalaxy wrote: post #36

Could we use this against global warming? Artificially put something in the atmosphere that bounces part of the sunlight back?

Clearly you're not a fan of sci-fi as every time we do that we screw it up. Snowpiercer on TBS is the latest iteration on that concept.

More seriously though, I think there are better and more economical ways to combat global climate warming.

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

#65

Post by divbzero »

pureliquidhw wrote: post #17

How susceptible are we to another catastrophic volcano eruption? After COVID-19 shut down supply chains, there were some problematic delays, but seems like we quickly recovered. If the entire planet's crops were wiped out, we're all just SOL if we don't get canned goods in time? If we had 12 months notice, could we as a planet get it together? 6 months? 3 months? Is there forecasting for volcanoes? (looks like yes: h…

In our recent past, we experienced some disruption from the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption.

On a less likely and more extreme level, Yellowstone has erupted 3 times over the past 2.1 million years [2] and there are other known supervolcanos [3] on Earth.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyjafjallajökull

[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowstone_Caldera

[3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supervolcano

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

#67

Post by AnssiH »

pmiller2 wrote: post #43
pureliquidhw wrote: post #17

How susceptible are we to another catastrophic volcano eruption? After COVID-19 shut down supply chains, there were some problematic delays, but seems like we quickly recovered. If the entire planet's crops were wiped out, we're all just SOL if we don't get canned goods in time? If we had 12 months notice, could we as a planet get it together? 6 months? 3 months? Is there forecasting for volcanoes? (looks like yes: h…

In what sense have we “recovered” from supply chain disruptions? I go to the store and still routinely see empty shelves where TP should be; have experienced meat shortages in recent days; and stores are still rationing things like hand sanitizer (when you can find it), canned goods, meat, and rice.

> I go to the store and still routinely see empty shelves where TP should be;

Huh, so that is why Google Maps keeps asking me whether TP was in stock every time I go the store - I did not realize there were still actual shortages on that elsewhere, I thought it was just a couple of days of panicing in March and that Google was just being weird / behind the times.

FWIW, I haven't noticed such disruptions here (Finland) since March, so it probably varies a lot regionally.

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

#68

Post by kjs3 »

deanCommie wrote: post #10

These kinds of cataclysmic volcanic eruptions could happen today right? What's.......our intended process for dealing with this? Are there any technical solutions for dispersing ash from the atmosphere? I know this is a stupidly naive question to some degree - how do you prevent acts of god, but I am curious if someone has thought about it.

What's.......our intended process for dealing with this?

Same as other existential threats like asteroids. Spend a relative pittance on monitoring, not much else.

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

#69

Post by harryh »

Avalaxy wrote: post #36

Could we use this against global warming? Artificially put something in the atmosphere that bounces part of the sunlight back?

Yes, potentially. But the potential side effects are scary.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-03/solar-geo...

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

#70

Post by Ascetik »

Synaesthesia wrote: post #8

The Christian revolution around that time in Europe also put civilisation back there. See “The Darkening Age” by Catherine Nixey

Christian 'revolution'? What nonsense. The missionaries were never interested in revolution (not in the modern sense at least), but converting people to Catholicism. St. Bede's History of the Church in England is a good example. Or the life of St. Boniface. The term "Dark Ages" was coined by anti-Christians to undermine the conversion of Europe to the Catholic faith.
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