OT: 20,000 Leagues under- Oops!

[KenElevenShadows]

27 minutes ago, ProfD said:

Two weeks later and counting, the media is still talking about the Titan implosion. 

 

As one media outlet admitted, it's all about the story. They will run with anything that guarantees folks will watch/listen.  The news has become entertainment.

 

An  imploding sub with rich folks on board sells better than a cap-sized vessel with several hundred dead or missing regular people. 😎

 

Yeah, rather sad.

 

And here's part of it.

 

- People become inured to it because it happens often. Here's a list of how many migrants boats have sunk in 2023 alone.

- Many people don't like migrants, whether they understand that they are fleeing oppression, fleeing for their family's safety, or other alarming reasons.

- Many people fear them because they are afraid that the boats harbor criminals and terrorists.

- Many people are prejudiced against people who have different skin color or it otherwise doesn't hold their interest because they are people who are not from their country.

- The story of millionaires dying while trying to see one of the best-known shipwrecks in history is compelling.

- And obviously, the media is trying to sell ad time. If people were actually that concerned about migrants being killed, the media would be all over it.

 

 

[Notes_Norton]

6 hours ago, ProfD said:

As one media outlet admitted, it's all about the story. They will run with anything that guarantees folks will watch/listen.  The news has become entertainment.

I'm over it.

 

I read a story about a climate scientist who predicted that if we keep destroying the earth at the present rate, we'll reach the tipping point in 15 years. When we get there, it'll be impossible to reverse global warming, and it will accelerate in a feedback loop.

 

Of course, that's one scientist's opinion. And we will continue to make things worse, because this year's corporate profits are more important than the future of humanity. So if they guy is right, it'll be less than 15 years.

 

I hope he is wrong.

 

If he is right, we're all sunk.

 

Notes ♫

[KenElevenShadows]

2 hours ago, Notes_Norton said:

I'm over it.

 

I read a story about a climate scientist who predicted that if we keep destroying the earth at the present rate, we'll reach the tipping point in 15 years. When we get there, it'll be impossible to reverse global warming, and it will accelerate in a feedback loop.

 

Of course, that's one scientist's opinion. And we will continue to make things worse, because this year's corporate profits are more important than the future of humanity. So if they guy is right, it'll be less than 15 years.

 

I hope he is wrong.

 

If he is right, we're all sunk.

 

Notes ♫

 

I don't know. In some ways, scientists have underestimated the tipping point, and things have begun happening faster than their models. And in some ways, they've overestimated it a bit. There are obviously a lot of variables, so it's not like people are going to nail it with calendar-like accuracy. But I think almost all people studying this can be quite certain that it is growing increasingly worse and worse and that we will reach a tipping point.

 

Hey, let's hope we can make Europa inhabitable.   

[Anderton]

The problem is there's no "control group Earth." So, there's no way to test hypotheses. However, I am quite certain that overall, we're mostly clueless about where this will all lead. There are just too many variables. One good supervolcano, or a Carrington-level solar event, and all the theorizing goes out the window. 

[Notes_Norton]

Like I said, that was one scientist's opinion. The guy is probably correct, but is time frame is an educated guess, and it is likely to be either sooner or later than his prediction.

 

One thing, almost all the climate scientists agree on, is that we humans are heading in the direction of making the planet uninhabitable for our species.

 

So what can we do? If we each do a little, the result will be a lot. The problem is getting enough people to do it. And this is all my opinion from what I've read from hopefully good sources. At worst, they won't hurt.

 

1. Buy a gas-efficient vehicle. I see these folks around here with giant pickup trucks that never haul anything heavier than a week's groceries. The beds are so high off the ground, nobody who works with a truck will use one.
2. Drive with gradual acceleration and coast as much as you can before applying the brakes. I get 100 miles per tankful over the EPA rating for my vehicle.
3. Paint your roof white. A few university studies say we can gain 100 years if we all did that.
4. Plant shade trees. Bonus – save money. I painted my roof white, planted shade trees around the perimeter and no matter hot it is outdoors, it never gets over 80 degrees inside. The white roof reflects the heat up, and the cool air from under the trees comes in to replace it. It's the way we all cooled our houses in Florida before Central AC was invented.
5. Turn off the AC – the AC feeds from the grid, which is partially fed by CO2 producing fuel. Plus, it creates a heat island outside your home. So using the AC heats the Earth more, which requires the AC to work harder ||: which makes the Earth even hotter than before, which requires the AC to work even hotter than before :|| (repeat ad-infinitum - or until we go extinct.
6. Hang laundered clothes on the line instead of using the dryer.
7. Refuse, re-use, and recycle (of course most doesn't get recycled, so consume fewer disposables).
8. If you have a lawn, get rid of it and re-wild your yard.
9. There are so many other things you can do, please feel free to add your own.

Some say our deity wanted us to be stewards of the Earth. We're not doing a good job of that. There are plenty of little things we can do, it just takes doing them.

 

Insights, incites and a minor rant by Notes ♫

 

 

[David Emm]

George Carlin once said "We don't need to save the Earth. Its doing just fine and once we're all gone, it'll clean itself up just like its always done." I recalled the truth of that when during COVID, I saw video of two dolphins in the canals of Venice, swimming through suddenly CLEAR water. It could rebalance itself nicely if we'd just stop farting on it all, like a planet-wide colony animal that's full of bean burritos and tequila.

 

Note's mention of white roofing is an excellent idea, easily managed. The trick is the need for a majority of participants, especially the decerebrate types who see Science as a personal threat. I choose to recycle, recharge and resist certain trends while crossing my fingers. I heart synths that only require microvolts.

 

However, my best recent contribution to saving the planet: buying softsynths instead of hardware. What a First-World a-hole, huh? 🤨

[ProfD]

3 hours ago, David Emm said:

George Carlin once said "We don't need to save the Earth. Its doing just fine and once we're all gone, it'll clean itself up just like its always done."

IMO, the late George Carlin nailed it.

 

According to scientists, the Earth has been around for 5 billion years and is on schedule to spin for another 5 billion years.

 

Considering our species just showed up about 230,000 years ago, I believe we'll be extinct long before the candle that we call the sun flickers out and no longer keeps the Earth inhabitable.

 

I think an inter-planetary purge is more like to wipe us out before the effects of global warming could give the Earth as much as a chest cold.

 

This big blue ball we're living on does an amazing job of taking care of itself by way of natural disasters. The Earth will be fine.😎

[BMD]

The Industrial Revolution was the start of man's wholesale despoiling and destruction of the planet. And we seem to enjoy killing each other. Social media has given a platform and a following to people who hitherto would have been dismissed as lunatics. Humanity is beyond redemption. We deserve to become extinct. Let the earth be given back to the animals. After all, they were here long before we came along and f*cked everything up

 

Just my opinion, obviously

[Notes_Norton]

If it reaches a feedback or tipping point, the Earth will go on, but it will never be the same. If those predictions are correct, it will end up with an atmosphere more like present day Venus.

 

But, as I heard an NPR announcer many years ago say. “It's difficult to make predictions. Especially about the future.” That gave me a chuckle, because you certainly don't make predictions about the past or present.

 

Me? I think if we err, it would be wiser to err on the side of safety.

 

Notes ♫

[KenElevenShadows]

E

3 hours ago, Notes_Norton said:

I think if we err, it would be wiser to err on the side of safety.

 

 

 

[Anderton]

23 hours ago, BMD said:

The Industrial Revolution was the start of man's wholesale despoiling and destruction of the planet. And we seem to enjoy killing each other. Social media has given a platform and a following to people who hitherto would have been dismissed as lunatics. Humanity is beyond redemption. We deserve to become extinct. Let the earth be given back to the animals. After all, they were here long before we came along and f*cked everything up

 

Just my opinion, obviously

 

Well, you're not alone. But we may not have to do the dirty work of becoming extinct. Massive natural disasters have occurred rarely, but regularly, on a global scale. For example, the Tambora volcano in Indonesia erupted in 1815. Of course, it killed a bunch of Indonesians. But according to Stephen Self, an adjunct professor of earth and planetary science at the University of California, "Because Tambora ejected sulfurous gas that generated sulfate aerosols in the atmosphere, which block sunlight, the eruption created a year without a summer, leading to food shortages -- people were eating cats and rats -- and very general hardship throughout Europe and eastern North America." Basically, the volcano turned summer into winter across much of the Northern Hemisphere. This kind of thing has happened before, and will happen again. If the Yellowstone supervolcano erupted (which fortunately isn't expected any time soon), basically the US would be toast.

 

The wild card for us is that the veneer of civilization is very thin and highly interconnected. If the "the big one" hit California, the stringent building codes would prevent a huge loss of life. But, the infrastructure would take a massive hit. If the world's 5th largest economy (IIRC) was out of commission for months or even years, it would affect the entire planet. So would solar flares that took out the power grid, thus causing nuclear reactors to melt down and irradiate huge swaths of land, as well as cause multiple varieties of mutations.

 

The black plague killed upwards of 100 million people, and of course, there's always a chance that an asteroid could plow into the earth. Many people who are not nut cases believe the story of a civilization like Atlantis being destroyed is plausible.

 

I don't believe in the idea that the earth is a living thing and that it will consciously extract vengeance on us. But I do believe it's a finely-tuned machine. People who dismiss climate change as "well the earth has gone through ultra hot and cold periods before" tend to forget those changes happened over millions of years, not a couple centuries, as is happening now. Also remember that the earth is a closed physical system, so something like the oceans heating up will have unpredictable consequences on the entire planet. The good news is that in many ways, a closed physical system tends to be self-correcting. The bad news is that humans may not like the way it chooses to correct itself

[Notes_Norton]

5 hours ago, Anderton said:

 

I don't believe in the idea that the earth is a living thing and that it will consciously extract vengeance on us. But I do believe it's a finely-tuned machine. People who dismiss climate change as "well the earth has gone through ultra hot and cold periods before" tend to forget those changes happened over millions of years, not a couple centuries, as is happening now. Also remember that the earth is a closed physical system, so something like the oceans heating up will have unpredictable consequences on the entire planet. The good news is that in many ways, a closed physical system tends to be self-correcting. The bad news is that humans may not like the way it chooses to correct itself

 

And there is a chance, as many scientists have predicted, that we can cause the Earth's atmosphere to get to a tipping point. The tipping point being a point where the heat enters a feedback loop. Anyone with a PA knows about feedback. If the temperature goes into a feedback loop where the heat feeds the heating, there is no way to turn the equivalent of that volume knob down.

 

IF that happens, the Earth will still be here, but life will be different from what it is now, and it won't support us.

 

But before that happens, climate change will get to our food supply. The climate change is already causing crop failures. Georgia lost 90% of its peach crop this year. The water in the west goes through cycles with El Niño and La Niña, and the dry ones become more severe. Look at how low Lake Mead got this year. Farmers depend on that water, and when it gets too dry, we won't have food from that part of the country.

 

Without agriculture, the Earth cannot feed 9 billion humans (and growing). When the crops start failing, the very rich will get food and the very poor will not. There just won't be enough. Think "Soylent Green" if you will.

 

Of course, this is a worst case scenario. But with a possible future like this, doesn't it pay to err on the side of safety? Even if these theories are wrong, we'd still end up with a nicer planet. See Ken's post above.

 

Insights and incites by Notes ♫

[bill5]

I wondered why this thread was still going on so I checked - now I wish I hadn't. You've driven me to drink!
 

[David Emm]

2 hours ago, Notes_Norton said:

Without agriculture, the Earth cannot feed 9 billion humans (and growing). When the crops start failing, the very rich will get food and the very poor will not. There just won't be enough. Think "Soylent Green" if you will.

 

Soylent Mauve is made of grannies. The way things are going, I sometimes get the feeling that if people could go "Home," the name for euthanasia parlors in the film, the revolving doors would fan away part of global warming. The real gain would be fewer OF us, though, since we're the source of so much heat and methane. Then perhaps our unit value would rise again and the neighborhood would smell better.

 

BTW, "Soylent Green" was rightfully added to the National Film Registry. Warning, its not a family musical, although the opening credits feature a visual montage and score that are riveting.