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Climate change

alioth wrote:

It’s not death to the planet, the planet will shrug us off in the long run like we shrug off a bad cold.

Is this including asteroid impact, supervolcano, mass disease outbreak or the sun’s expansion as it works along the main sequence?
My guess in the long run is that we as a race will probably head out into the into the solar system and beyond. But then I’m fairly positive about the way science and technology solves issues over time.

To quote Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, founder and now director emeritus of the Potsdam Climate Institute:
“The climate math is brutally clear: While the world can’t be healed within the next few years, it may be fatally wounded by negligence until 2020,”

He seems to think the earth can be fatally wounded by 2020.

alioth wrote:

It is expected that by 2100 if we continue on as we are there will be a measurable decrease in human IQ due to higher CO2 levels.

Could you point me to this research? I’d love to see how they can get much confidence in a prediction out to that range.

Off_Field wrote:

Could you point me to this research? I’d love to see how they can get much confidence in a prediction out to that range.

I thought it looked strange, too, but did some searches. Apparently studies about indoor air quality show that human cognitive ability begin to suffer at CO2 concentrations of about 2-3 times the current atmospheric concentration. This article has references.

ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden

This is interesting; however their postulation

it is now apparent that we were not created to live in an atmosphere with increasingly high levels of CO2

is supported only by tests with short term exposures. We don’t know whether humans born in and exposed to say 2000ppm CO2 will be more stupid. They may be, or not.

I have read account of submariners who served in 1960s/1970s attack subs which suffered from really excessive CO2; sufficient to eat away their bones so badly that a substantial proportion of the ex servicemen walk around with crutches. But if these people’s brains we not functioning properly, one would think something would have been done about the air composition, for obvious operational reasons.

Outdoor CO2 is said to be 405ppm and increasing 2ppm per year. To reach 1000ppm would take 300 years, not till 2100.

it was found that in a substantial number of poorly ventilated classrooms and workplaces, CO2 levels can average 1000 ppm, a significant proportion of these exceeded 2000 ppm and some even reached 3000 ppm

I am not surprised; I spent most of my school time trying to sleep (another symptom of a high CO2 level and the only advantage mentioned by the submariners)

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Peter wrote:

Outdoor CO2 is said to be 405ppm and increasing 2ppm per year. To reach 1000ppm would take 300 years, not till 2100.

With the business as usual scenario, less than that, as the rate of increase is increasing (due to increasing CO2 output year on year, combined with decreasing carbon sinks year on year).

Andreas IOM

Off_Field wrote:

alioth wrote:
It’s not death to the planet, the planet will shrug us off in the long run like we shrug off a bad cold.
Is this including asteroid impact, supervolcano, mass disease outbreak or the sun’s expansion as it works along the main sequence?

Yes.

There are at least several hundred M years before the Sun becomes too luminous for life as we know it.

In the meantime, the planet will shrug us off just as it shrugged off the asteroid impact that killed the dinosaurs. Bad for the dinosaurs, but life went on. If the planet shrugs us off, it’ll be bad for us – but life will go on.

Last Edited by alioth at 08 Oct 16:25
Andreas IOM

Off_Field wrote:

alioth wrote: It is expected that by 2100 if we continue on as we are there will be a measurable decrease in human IQ due to higher CO2 levels.

Could you point me to this research? I’d love to see how they can get much confidence in a prediction out to that range.

I’d be interested to see this. The article posted by Airborne just seems to talk about indoor levels, which strangely in the intermediate ~1000ppm levels seems to increase in some of the areas.

alioth wrote:

decreasing carbon sinks year on year).

Could you provide the data for this too? The NASA data I was refering to earlier showed that vegetation was significantly up over the last 20 years which will obviously taken in quite a bit of CO2.

I’m certainly more optimistic in the human race surviving major events. Especially as science improves I suspect we will become more difficult to eradicate.

alioth wrote:

Increasing CO2 also makes us more stupid

That explains a lot

The elephant is the circulation
ENVA ENOP ENMO, Norway

Off_Field wrote:

I’m certainly more optimistic in the human race surviving major events. Especially as science improves I suspect we will become more difficult to eradicate.

For the record: I don’t at all doubt that the human race will survive the climate changes if we continue as we do. The question is with what population and what kind of civilization will be left.

ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden

Airborne_Again wrote:

The question is with what population and what kind of civilization will be left.

I think that is a major point where people differ in “philosophical life attitude” (in lack of a better english word). That question is always valid and is always open to be filled with whatever craziness the human race is able to cook up, or filled with whatever nature is able to throw at us. It’s an existential question that has been with us since human kind made it’s first ever philosophical thought.

CO2 or no CO2 won’t change a single thing regarding that question, or any eventual answers. Survivors will survive, that goes for civilizations as well as individuals. If life gets tough in a 100 years, for any reason whatsoever, the tough get going and so on. A more likely scenario is some AI has taken over and rules everything. Maybe the human intelligence only is the stepping stone for much more advanced intelligence in any case, in the grand scheme of things. And God is a robot I mean, what do we know about the meaning of life and the entire cosmos? the answer is zero We are nothing but slightly advanced monkeys and will stay that way for ever.

The elephant is the circulation
ENVA ENOP ENMO, Norway

There may be enough intelligent humans to take action to stop our population being destroyed to allow the Very Rich to enjoy the whole planet with their robots.
Not everyone follows Influencers.

Maoraigh
EGPE, United Kingdom
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