Doesn't have to be an asteroid. The Yellowstone supervolcano exploding would be catastrophic enough. What can we do within the limits of our technology to restore Earth's ecology to a safe level? Assuming we are adequately prepared before the event occurs.
Ask HN: What can we do after a giant impact event
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Re: Ask HN: What can we do after a giant impact event
#2There’s a good book called “The Precipice” (2020) by Toby Ord that suggests things people can do: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Precipice:_Existential_Ris...
Re: Ask HN: What can we do after a giant impact event
#3I would say the greatest near-term risk to Earth's ecology is humans so probably the best preparation would be not to destroy it in the first place.
Re: Ask HN: What can we do after a giant impact event
#4I would say the greatest near-term risk to Earth's ecology is humans so probably the best preparation would be not to destroy it in the first place.
unfortunately the world is growth and consumption hungry and we don't want to do anything that compromises wealth creation, even reduction targets are deeply resented, let alone actually achieving sustainable consumption levels.
Re: Ask HN: What can we do after a giant impact event
#5I would say the greatest near-term risk to Earth's ecology is humans so probably the best preparation would be not to destroy it in the first place.
Absolutely agree with this point! You also raised another interesting idea - since we don't know when a giant impact or similar catastrophic event will occur, we can't categorize it as a near-term risk or long-term risk. It could happen anytime within the near to long range. How are risks on that broad time scale defined?
Re: Ask HN: What can we do after a giant impact event
#6After seeing how much trouble something relatively benign like Covid caused I think we would just fight each other. Countries/people with enough resources would make sure they are doing fine and the rest would have to figure something out.
Re: Ask HN: What can we do after a giant impact event
#7Pretty sure this will remain the realm of scifi for the next couple dozen decades.
Re: Ask HN: What can we do after a giant impact event
#8Well moving to New Zealand wont help (Sorry Mr Billionaires)
Re: Ask HN: What can we do after a giant impact event
#9literal and figurative re-seeding.
off the top of my head, given unlimited budget, I'd probably have a massive vault of seeds (not just in variety, in quantity, too,) and adequate staff in rotations in a deep-sea bunker. not near a fault line, but deep enough that surface conditions are less likely to impact (no pun intended). Sea vs land because "digging your way out" become less of a problem. If you had a truly unlimited budget, one could imagine an Ark of embryos and a sufficient population of young does of each animal species you sought to preserve.
Re: Ask HN: What can we do after a giant impact event
#10literal and figurative re-seeding. off the top of my head, given unlimited budget, I'd probably have a massive vault of seeds (not just in variety, in quantity, too,) and adequate staff in rotations in a deep-sea bunker. not near a fault line, but deep enough that surface conditions are less likely to impact (no pun intended). Sea vs land because "digging your way out" become less of a problem. If you had a truly unl…
You’re in luck! https://www.croptrust.org/our-work/svalbard-global-seed-vaul...
Though not a deep sea bunker. I imagine there would be trade-offs to that too, like water leaking. Plus, access without submarines could be difficult.