But billionaires need bigger yachts. And more mansions. What’re we to do? Can’t sacrifice the billionaires ultra-mega-yachts.
Comment on The Earth is reflecting less and less sunlight, study reveals
themeatbridge@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Just in case it wasn’t clear, that’s a horrifying discovery. Like the extinction of all life on earth.
Yawweee877h444@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
fartographer@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Dark colored yachts
protist@mander.xyz 3 weeks ago
That’s actually not clear at all. How did you draw this conclusion from what’s written here? It cites decreased pollution across the northern hemisphere as one of the drivers of this, for example, and how is that horrifying?
Jtotheb@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Also due to reduced water vapor and ice cover lol. It’s a conclusion that can be drawn without much reliance on the article, which focuses a lot on specific climate model improvements and not the obvious concern: given our desire for the earth to reflect more of the sun’s rays and cool off, reflecting fewer and warming up is not good
protist@mander.xyz 3 weeks ago
“The extinction of all life in Earth” is not a reasonable conclusion to draw from this
Jtotheb@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Oh, right. I barely clock exaggerations of that sort anymore. People reach straight for the top shelf with their words. Especially in this case I think it works in environmentalists’ favor. Maybe I’m wrong and we should be more concerned about pushback when people overstate the case, but even within the left I’ve encountered few people who seem to profess that much interest in biodiversity or wild plant/animal/fungal rights to existence, so misunderstanding the issue in exaggerated terms at least evokes concern rather than apathy. It’s not like the conservative’s real issue with climate change is that akshually “life” in the broadest sense will find a way to adapt.
captainlezbian@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Yeah, between extremophiles that will probably outlast the atmosphere and the mesozoic having been pretty balmy, life finds a way. That said, complex life is about to have a very bad time, especially specialists that can’t handle wide temperature ranges. It’s an extinction event, and our species is gonna have to really try to survive it.
themeatbridge@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Because absorbed light is excess energy.
protist@mander.xyz 3 weeks ago
It’s pretty big leap from the Earth absorbing slightly more energy from the sun to “the extinction of all life on Earth.”
leftzero@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
how is that horrifying?
Less albedo -> more heat -> ice caps melting -> less albedo and more greenhouse gases -> much more heat, and so on.
It’s a vicious cycle, and there doesn’t seem to be any viable solution. We could put shades between us and the sun, but that’d probably reduce light too much and kill most plants, leading to even more carbon being released.
We’re fucked, and probably way beyond any chance of unfucking ourselves. We let those pass by years ago.
T00l_shed@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Hopefully enough things can adapt in time and then something can give it another go
JohnnyEnzyme@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
FWIW, the Earth has about 500-600My left before common photosynthesis is no longer possible due to fallout from the sun heating up gradually. My understanding is that unless complex life somehow adapts, then that will be the end of it on Earth, with simpler life presumably surviving for billions more years past that mark.
Point is– if complex life can survive the coming collapse, then it evidently does have a healthy window to work with. I believe that might be helped out by the ‘churning of the continents,’ in which landmass gets regularly cycled back in to the magma layer over the course of millions of years, with new areas appearing on the other edges, so to speak.
salacious_coaster@infosec.pub 3 weeks ago
I’m enjoying the thought of our current planet being melted down into liquid hot magma and a whole new planet surface getting a chance
JohnnyEnzyme@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
Right??
It’s going to be glorious.
–(sotto voce)
Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 3 weeks ago
What about life around deep sea vents?
JohnnyEnzyme@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
Ahh, good point, yes.
I actually was thinking about those beautiful little deep-sea worlds when I wrote the above, but simply didn’t know enough to assert a dang-ol’ thing at the time. Okay, let’s see:
So… looks like we have at least *some* members of these little communities carrying on, past the death of oxygenic photosynthesis, which they evidently don’t need in order to survive. (meanwhile with anoxygenic photosynthesis carrying on for many millions more of years).
But off the top of my empty coconut, it does raise a couple Q’s:
1) Since there are maybe a dozen or less community members who live in these little worlds, closely built in to a commensurate ecosystem, would the death of the ones who rely on traditional photosynthesis bring about a collapse, either partial or total?
2) Would rampant global warming tend to mess with the already super-heated, typically sulfurous nature of these worlds? (me, I would tend to think “nawt,” since they’re already so hot, but then again, I’m just some layperson really curious about all this, hah)
Ah… those beautiful, entrancing little forbidden worlds:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrothermal_vent
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECBbAjoEHWI
❤️