this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2023
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Collapse

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This is the place for discussing the potential collapse of modern civilization and the environment.


Collapse, in this context, refers to the significant loss of an established level or complexity towards a much simpler state. It can occur differently within many areas, orderly or chaotically, and be willing or unwilling. It does not necessarily imply human extinction or a singular, global event. Although, the longer the duration, the more it resembles a ‘decline’ instead of collapse.


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From Prof. Eliot Jacobson:

Wow! Wow! Wow!

North Atlantic sea surface temperature anomalies are going vertical again. And yes, I needed to extend the y-axis.

Yesterday's temperature of 24.49°C (76.08°F) was 4.2σ above the 1991-2020 mean. The previous high for July 17 was 23.71°C (74.68°F) in 2020.

https://twitter.com/EliotJacobson/status/1681321023306874880

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[–] Chainweasel 22 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

It takes about ~30 years to see the effects of emissions on the climate. That means the climate crisis we're experiencing right now is only the emissions up to ~1993. Looking at CO~2~ emissions alone, in 1993 the global total was 22.8 billion tonnes. The latest Data available is from 2021, which shows the global CO~2~ emissions at 37.1 billion tonnes. That's in increase of 14.3 billion tonnes of annual CO~2~ emissions in the amount of time it takes us to feel the effects, that's a 61% increase in Annual emissions, Not Total emissions. If we stopped all CO~2~ emissions today, it would continue to get considerably worse for at least the next quarter-century. We are truly ~~Fucked~~ on the bleeding edge of that climate "tipping point" and major changes are about to start happening very rapidly.

source for CO~2~ emissions numbers: https://ourworldindata.org/co2-emissions

[–] Cybermass 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Where did you learn that CO2 emissions take 30 years to have an effect on our atmosphere?? I've never heard that.

[–] Chainweasel 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

30 years isn't a hard number, but it can still take 2-3 decades. It has to do with how CO~2~ changes ocean chemistry, which has broad effects on the rest of the climate. https://info.ecogardens.com/blog/what-is-climate-change-lag-and-why-do-we-care

Edit: I think this is the first place i saw it years ago https://skepticalscience.com/Climate-Change-The-40-Year-Delay-Between-Cause-and-Effect.html

[–] FrankLaskey 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I imagine you noticed this but that second citation (from your edit) has this at the top of the article:

Update August 9, 2020: Please be aware that this article was published in 2010 and that its content is no longer considered accurate. As it still gets regularly linked to from other websites, we will not delete or "unpublish" it. Instead, here is the link to a better take on this topic published by our late team member Andy Skuce in 2013: Global Warming: Not Reversible but Stoppable.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It takes about ~30 years to see the effects of emissions on the climate

This is a long debunked myth.

Here is an article that goes into some detail.

https://www.carbonbrief.org/explainer-will-global-warming-stop-as-soon-as-net-zero-emissions-are-reached/

So there is some hope, if we can stop emoting CO2 ASAP. If one finds that a realistic path to belive in on the other hand is a matter of opinion.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I think it's a misunderstanding, not a myth.

CO2 influences the greenhouse effect - keeping more solar energy on Earth.

Solar energy gets converted into heat, heat gets absorbed. Some of it gets absorbed by oceans. Some of CO2 also gets absorbed by oceans - their pH decreases. The greenhouse effect doesn't require great time, but oceanic warming and acidification does require time. Interaction happens on the surface, but the volume is great.

Thus, delays in response are inevitable. Response may also depend on circulation - an ocean current slowing or speeding up.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Imagine a bull in a china shop destroying everything, now there is two options :

  • 1- you take the bull out of the shop
  • 2- you decide that it would be to inconvenient to take the bull out but you are sure that in a few decades we will invent a technology that can repair the China faster than the bull is destroying it.

Carbon capture is the option 2, we continue to break the carbon molecules for energy pretending that we can recapture later. It's not gonna happen, we need to stop emitting NOW and maybe we can think about carbon capture.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Apparently the scale that's required makes it completely impractical, especially given the timelines that are also required.