Is Earth Doomed? (global warming, Canada, how much, elect)
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This week I've found out that Earth hit a milestone of over 400PPM (parts per million) Carbon Dioxide (C02) concentration in the atmosphere. According to what scientists believe, this is above a safe level (I think 350 PPM), and also the highest concentrtion since man has lived in our current form on earth.
This is bad because the earth was livable because it is not too hot and not too cold. The gases in the atmosphere helped to regulate the temperature by keeping in some heat, and reflecting some back into space. CO2 (this is me the non-scientist paraphrasing what I have read) used to be in carbon under the earth in various forms. Humans took it out and used it for stuff like fuel, and turned it into a gas.
Unlike water and methane, CO2 is hard to catch and take out of the atmosphere, because it likes being gas. The problem is that when it is in the air, it keeps heat from leaving earth--making the temperature on earth hotter and hotter, as we have seen per the average global temps. To make this worse, the people in Cali just released a sh_t ton of METHANE into the atmosphere...
It sounds to me like mankind is seriously doomed. Per one reference I read from 1997, there is no easy to way to get rid of the massive amounts of CO2 in atmosphere, and back then there wasn't even as much! They are considering trying to inject it back into earth and stuff...but I don't really hear any concern or funding talks from world governments. I think we're screwed.
This may make me turn over a new leaf and try to love others. Happy Valentine's Day! I'm also actually a bit relieve that so much suffering will come to an end, as horrible as that sounds. Am I over-reacting? Feel free to discuss.
This week I've found out that Earth hit a milestone of over 400PPM (parts per million) Carbon Dioxide (C02) concentration in the atmosphere. According to what scientists believe, this is above a safe level (I think 350 PPM), and also the highest concentrtion since man has lived in our current form on earth.
This is bad because the earth was livable because it is not too hot and not too cold. The gases in the atmosphere helped to regulate the temperature by keeping in some heat, and reflecting some back into space. CO2 (this is me the non-scientist paraphrasing what I have read) used to be in carbon under the earth in various forms. Humans took it out and used it for stuff like fuel, and turned it into a gas.
Unlike water and methane, CO2 is hard to catch and take out of the atmosphere, because it likes being gas. The problem is that when it is in the air, it keeps heat from leaving earth--making the temperature on earth hotter and hotter, as we have seen per the average global temps. To make this worse, the people in Cali just released a sh_t ton of METHANE into the atmosphere...
It sounds to me like mankind is seriously doomed. Per one reference I read from 1997, there is no easy to way to get rid of the massive amounts of CO2 in atmosphere, and back then there wasn't even as much! They are considering trying to inject it back into earth and stuff...but I don't really hear any concern or funding talks from world governments. I think we're screwed.
This may make me turn over a new leaf and try to love others. Happy Valentine's Day! I'm also actually a bit relieve that so much suffering will come to an end, as horrible as that sounds. Am I over-reacting? Feel free to discuss.
And methane isn't hard to catch and take out of the atmosphere?
Actually, the greater threat now is unbridled methane release from the arctic permafrost, and from the underwater continental shelf in the arctic. Methane is around 100 times more powerful a greenhouse gas than CO2. Now that CO2 levels have reached a point that arctic methane release is underway, even if CO2 levels remained stable or even decreased in a few years, the heat the planet is experiencing would take decades to reverse, so methane release will continue. The risk is that the heating of the atmosphere has reached an unstoppable point due to the methane problem, and could at some point possibly sooner rather than later, trigger a massive methane "burp" all over the planet, where all methane sources will release at once. When that happens (if not before), we'll be cooked.
Doomed? It looks that way. The only hope is that the melting of the Greenland ice sheet will stop the Gulf Stream, and cause a new Ice Age, halting the warming process. Difficult to say if that would overpower the methane effect or not. There's not much to be done but wait and see.
And methane isn't hard to catch and take out of the atmosphere?
Actually, the greater threat now is unbridled methane release from the arctic permafrost, and from the underwater continental shelf in the arctic. Methane is around 100 times more powerful a greenhouse gas than CO2. Now that CO2 levels have reached a point that arctic methane release is underway, even if CO2 levels remained stable or even decreased in a few years, the heat the planet is experiencing would take decades to reverse, so methane release will continue. The risk is that the heating of the atmosphere has reached an unstoppable point due to the methane problem, and could at some point possibly sooner rather than later, trigger a massive methane "burp" all over the planet, where all methane sources will release at once. When that happens (if not before), we'll be cooked.
Doomed? It looks that way. The only hope is that the melting of the Greenland ice sheet will stop the Gulf Stream, and cause a new Ice Age, halting the warming process. Difficult to say if that would overpower the methane effect or not. There's not much to be done but wait and see.
Hey Ruth are you a scientist? Your post is interesting. Do you think that the warming of the planet may have had an effect on the methane leak in California? Forgive me if I'm not understanding what you wrote correctly. And yes I'd agree that at this point it is unstoppable.
This week I've found out that Earth hit a milestone of over 400PPM (parts per million) Carbon Dioxide (C02) concentration in the atmosphere. According to what scientists believe, this is above a safe level (I think 350 PPM), and also the highest concentrtion since man has lived in our current form on earth.
This is bad because the earth was livable because it is not too hot and not too cold. The gases in the atmosphere helped to regulate the temperature by keeping in some heat, and reflecting some back into space. CO2 (this is me the non-scientist paraphrasing what I have read) used to be in carbon under the earth in various forms. Humans took it out and used it for stuff like fuel, and turned it into a gas.
Unlike water and methane, CO2 is hard to catch and take out of the atmosphere, because it likes being gas. The problem is that when it is in the air, it keeps heat from leaving earth--making the temperature on earth hotter and hotter, as we have seen per the average global temps. To make this worse, the people in Cali just released a sh_t ton of METHANE into the atmosphere...
It sounds to me like mankind is seriously doomed. Per one reference I read from 1997, there is no easy to way to get rid of the massive amounts of CO2 in atmosphere, and back then there wasn't even as much! They are considering trying to inject it back into earth and stuff...but I don't really hear any concern or funding talks from world governments. I think we're screwed.
This may make me turn over a new leaf and try to love others. Happy Valentine's Day! I'm also actually a bit relieve that so much suffering will come to an end, as horrible as that sounds. Am I over-reacting? Feel free to discuss.
You are not over-reacting. The human species - along with many animal and plant species - is doomed. The only question is "when", not "if." Temperatures on the planet are estimated to rise as high as the temperatures were in the Jurassic by the end of this century. No one knows if humans can adapt to such highs since no human beings ever existed under such conditions. We also need to keep in mine that raising temperatures are melting the polar ice caps the vast glacier that covers the surface of greenland and nany other smaller glaciers. There will be no more NYC or LA or London or Amsterdam. There will be no more low lying countries like Bangladesh or the island nations in the the South Pacific. The term "global warming" can be misleading because it will be about climate change almost as much as it is about warming. The record snows we have been getting in some of the Eastern and Southern states are due to global warming/climate change. The only reason we're not seeing even more dramatic weather changes right now is because there is a certain lag effect due to the fact that climate systems are huge and very complex, so at first they do not apppear to be responding to the changes going on around them. It's a little like turning on a cold burner on an electric stove to high. If you watch the burner nothing seems to happen - at first - but soon enough, the rings of that burner are glowing bright red.
The US is the most powerful country on earth and yet we do next to nothing to deal with this very real crisis that may soon turn life on earth a living hell. The percentage of CO2 in the atmosphere has already risen to the point that a warming of 2 degrees C is guaranteed. The US attends the global conferences on climate change, but has yet to sign a single binding action to halt or reduce the emissioms of greenhouse gases. Anything that interferes with the bottom line or the profit motive is labeled a hoax and the carbon industry and others call highly respected atmoshperic scientists con artists - paid off by a government that is against such revered national patriots as the **** brothers.
I getting older and I see the changes everywhere around me. However, I don't believe the really drmatic or unpleasant stuff will begin happening until sometime after I'm in the grave. The youngest folks reading this are going to have many things happen over the course of their lifetimes. I can only wish you well,
Wow that is too literal. Ok Is MANKIND doomed? Please discuss .
The answer is, yes. Much if not all of the population will be wiped out by a volcano, meteor, massive solar flare, something else from space or a super bug. This assumes are technological skills have not evolved to the point to either leave this planet or stop it. Short term my money is on the super bug.
If Ebola for example were to mutate into an airborne contagion you will have devastating consequences. If something else were to emerge as contiguous as Ebola, airborne and the incubation period of AIDS we are all dead.
Life on earth will be eliminated as a bloated sun scorches the planet into a cinder. But that's more than a billion years in the future, so it's nothing to lose sleep over. Long before then, mankind should have moved to Mars and taken many thousands of species along with them to temporarily make that planet their home before moving once again as the sun continues to expand and make even Mars uninhabitable.
Hey Ruth are you a scientist? Your post is interesting. Do you think that the warming of the planet may have had an effect on the methane leak in California? Forgive me if I'm not understanding what you wrote correctly. And yes I'd agree that at this point it is unstoppable.
No, not a scientist. But there's plenty of info available on this. I've been following the permafrost/methane issue for awhile, since it first came up in Russia, which is my beat, so to speak, and then Canada/Alaska. During the climate discussions in Paris, which seemed so very disconnected from the reality in the arctic (no mention whatsoever of methane in the negotiations, it was all about CO2 and how much more (!!) warming we could/should allow), I decided to really dig in and research it.
And btw, all of this was predicted by scientists starting back in the 70's sometime. They said forest fires would become common, which would further exacerbate the problem, as would arctic methane release. That future is now, we're living it. They said a tipping point would be reached, after which warming would increase exponentially. I think we're on the cusp of that right now.
The incident in California is related to poor regulating of natural gas extraction, as far as I can tell. The last I heard, they plugged the leak temporarily, but it's alarming that the leak was allowed to continue for months before any efforts to stop it were made.
If methane were easy to capture and remove from the atmosphere, there wouldn't be so much alarm over it. If there's a way to do that, we should be doing it right now. Remove it to where, btw?
No, not a scientist. But there's plenty of info available on this. I've been following the permafrost/methane issue for awhile, since it first came up in Russia, which is my beat, so to speak, and then Canada/Alaska. During the climate discussions in Paris, which seemed so very disconnected from the reality in the arctic (no mention whatsoever of methane in the negotiations, it was all about CO2 and how much more (!!) warming we could/should allow), I decided to really dig in and research it.
And btw, all of this was predicted by scientists starting back in the 70's sometime. They said forest fires would become common, which would further exacerbate the problem, as would arctic methane release. That future is now, we're living it. They said a tipping point would be reached, after which warming would increase exponentially. I think we're on the cusp of that right now.
The incident in California is related to poor regulating of natural gas extraction, as far as I can tell. The last I heard, they plugged the leak temporarily, but it's alarming that the leak was allowed to continue for months before any efforts to stop it were made.
If methane were easy to capture and remove from the atmosphere, there wouldn't be so much alarm over it. If there's a way to do that, we should be doing it right now. Remove it to where, btw?
Methane may react more easily with other chemicals to form non-methane compounds. According to two of the sources, it reacts with oxygen and chlorine. It can react in the air with OH (hydroxide?) in the atmosphere ( source 3, pg 15).
It seems like carbon does not like to play well with others, and that is why it may be more of an issue. One of the sources also states that Methane breaks down sometimes into CO2, but I can't remember where I read that. Methane can also be used as a fuel, so getting $$ from governments to recapture it may be easier than for CO2:
On the other hand CO2 can't be used for fuel, so it may be hard to get money to capture it. It does a great job of acidifying ground water and ocean water, though Ha ha ha. That IMO would be bad for humans. What CO2 IS good for is growing plants, but getting people to grow plants and stop killing them, is very hard.
Source 4 seems to suggest that CO2 does not easily react with other readily available chemicals. For instance, you need to provide a low PH to get it to react with certain substances. (source 4, pg 45). It may also need extra energy to react such as heat or pressure. If you have time, please take a look at the references and let me know what you think.
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Is Earth Doomed?
