Comments on: Will human civilization survive the coming apocalypse?

By: BuckGalaxy

BuckGalaxy — Sun, 12 Nov 2023 22:42:04 +0000

Did you mean you “doubt it is more than a drop in the bucket…”?

By: RobVG

RobVG — Sun, 12 Nov 2023 20:45:36 +0000

Nice of you to say but I’ve gotten fat eating humble pie here at the Habitablezone.

By: RL

RL — Sun, 12 Nov 2023 20:17:13 +0000

I doubt it is a drop in the bucket compared to what we intentionally burn…

By: BuckGalaxy

BuckGalaxy — Sun, 12 Nov 2023 19:06:47 +0000

And I took it as a compliment you referred to me as Rob

By: RL

RL — Sat, 11 Nov 2023 22:07:21 +0000

But there still needs to be a supply of more energy than was created in burning all that carbon in the first place… and just how large a facility would be needed if you scale that up to remove ~40 BILLION tons a year? That would be only enough to break-even, Humanity produces 40 billion tons of CO2 a year.

To take care of the problem of the accumulated CO2 we would need to remove 100′s of billions of tons a year to make even a dent…

Is it possible some miracle of technology will pop up to save us? Anything is possible, but I can tell you with certainty that it will not violate conservation of energy. It will take more energy than was produced creating all that CO2. Probably MUCH more.

The climate engineering mega-projects like shading the Earth to reduce the solar energy hitting us have massive problems when you look at the scale required, and the secondary effects they would have.

I am generally an optimist about technology… but not in this case. I do not see a way to prevent what is about to happen, and believe me I would LOVE to believe there is a way…

We are likely, right now, at the pinnacle of human civilization, and we will not return to this level for centuries…IF we are very lucky.

By: RL

RL — Sat, 11 Nov 2023 19:10:39 +0000

And those issues were there from the start. It has been pointed to as evidence that standards have declined unacceptably at Nature.

By: ER

ER — Sat, 11 Nov 2023 04:19:29 +0000

I admired TB’s rhetorical skills as much as I despised his moral and ethical philosophy.

By: podrock

podrock — Sat, 11 Nov 2023 01:28:41 +0000

When I’ve time. From my research years ago, there are lots of small, unregulated mining operations that went to burning. It is surprisingly easy to set a coal seam on fire. Just a pile of sulfur rich coal, when wet, will self-ignite.

And there is no putting them out. There are coal mine fires just a few miles away. Burning since the 1890′s.

By: BuckGalaxy

BuckGalaxy — Sat, 11 Nov 2023 00:59:16 +0000

I resisted a strong sarcastic impulse to refer to you as TB lol.

By: ER

ER — Sat, 11 Nov 2023 00:17:12 +0000

I keep on doing that, mistaking you two for each other. My apologies.

It just goes to show you its not personal.