RE: Can we recover from human caused climate change?
March 10, 2017 at 10:13 am
(This post was last modified: March 10, 2017 at 11:01 am by pocaracas.)
(March 10, 2017 at 8:07 am)Mathilda Wrote: I used to run a discussion forum on this very subject and interest waned once we realised that however we looked at it, we're fucked. Everything is interconnected and everything is increasing / depleting exponentially. The problem is that humans generally do not appreciate what exponential growth is like in advance. This is a good analogy
https://www.peakprosperity.com/crashcour...ng-problem
The only way out is if we get fusion to work (unlikely) or asteroid mining.
Ahem.... Fusion will work.
Keep your eyes out for ITER.
The thing is that Fusion isn't like on Back to the Future, where each car can have its own fusion reactor... it requires a lot of initial input power to get the reaction going... and that requires a large machine.
So the problem then becomes energy storage for small applications, like cars... that will require all cars turning into EVs... and new battery technologies are required for long term storage, fast charging, high current output and large capacity, of course.
If the damage done is recoverable? Most of it, I'd say no. Some is still possible but it would require the major pollutants to stop... China, the US and India... Companies responsible for pollution will only take action if they are forced to by the governments... no imposition from above, means a green light to the least expensive course of action and that we all know what it it.
Unfortunately, this planet is faced with a future climate that is different from what it has been in the past few millennia... Hopefully, GMOs will be able to keep feeding the population.... it is possible that a large part of the world's population will not survive. I've once seen an estimate of how many people can be fed by using the entire land mass for farming and it topped out at 14 billion people. Given that much of the land mass isn't really farmable, I'd say 10 billion is closer to the real absolute maximum of people that can be fed. There is bound to be created some equilibrium condition... and there will be regional variations on population density and feedability (I may have just invented a new word!)
The bigger problem is that this is a global problem that needs to be tackled NOW!.... but the world leaders are short sighted and care only for their small corner of the Earth, thus shoving aside crap to countries that don't have the resources to deal with it.
Like where is all our electronic trash ending up? http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/0...rroll-text
The world is producing cheap consumer products at the expense of future cleanup... a cleanup with is going to cost but that cost isn't going into the prices of those products. Who will pay? everyone... sooner or later.
Going underground isn't really a solution, as most of our food requires sunlight. Sure, there are lamps that can replace the sun... but we'd need way too many of such lamps... more trash, not to mention the toxic by-products of producing those lamps.... or anything.
Manufacturing by-products are also a major source of trash... toxic trash... but, as long as most manufacturing is in China, we don't care, huh?
And trash isn't just heavy materials, it's also gasses: http://edition.cnn.com/2014/01/22/travel...mog-bikes/
Bottom line, yes... it's a huge problem, there have been a few summits where the governments have come together to agree to improve our environmental footprint... but little to nothing came of that. The EU imposed some air quality goals on its cities... and some filters on factory chimneys and a few more controls... all good stuff, but maybe not enough.
In Lisbon, the city is putting up lots of bike lanes to encourage people to use a bike instead of a car... but construction takes time, and people are accustomed to the car; the bike makes you sweat a bit, which forces you to change at the office and offices aren't prepared to handle that... And forget about taking two kids on a single bike! So I guess what I'm saying is that it's a huge effort from the governments, from the local administrations, from the companies, from the people themselves.
The mentality needs to change and it doesn't change overnight... it's a multi-generation change... it will happen. I'm confident humans will outlive this present environmental crisis... but lots of things will have to change.
