Sunday, April 23, 2017
Thursday, April 6, 2017
Five Degrees
Crazy flooding and massive droughts. Due to this war is a huge possibility, well more like a necessary thing for most. China will have to invade Russia and the United States will need to invade Canada to find habitable land. Everywhere, the soil will be bad in one way or another, the availability of fresh water will be scarce and humans will be compressed in the small places that are suitable, but many or most will die off.
In a world where humanities existence is in question, no other species matters. If humans can find a way to survive that takes from another species, they will do it. Interesting enough, 55 million years ago a similar global warming event happened but this time it wasn't due to humans. There was a huge release of methane gas and other greenhouse gas emissions then, showcased by fossils of animals that only lived in warmer climates being in areas of tundra. It was a huge volcanic eruption that lasted a long time.
This event was called the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum. Many scientists are taking a very close look at this episode in time because it is so like what is happening today. What is different about today is we are adding carbon at a much quicker rate, in PETM there was 10,000 years from beginning to end. We have given our Earth only a few decades to adapt but that is impossible. Tsunamis can also be a result of such climate change that we must watch out for.
It is very interesting because the book describes a reverse of globalization happening because we will have to localize to survive. When there is widespread famine and drought then civilizations in the lower regions will move up to the cooler regions and wars will begin if they haven't already begun, "conflicts that were once fought with spears and swords, however, will now be fought with guns, grenades, or nuclear weapons." This chapter ends very grimly, hinting at an even worse future in the sixth degree.
http://people.earth.yale.edu/paleoceneeocene-thermal-maximum This site gives you more information on PETM.
In a world where humanities existence is in question, no other species matters. If humans can find a way to survive that takes from another species, they will do it. Interesting enough, 55 million years ago a similar global warming event happened but this time it wasn't due to humans. There was a huge release of methane gas and other greenhouse gas emissions then, showcased by fossils of animals that only lived in warmer climates being in areas of tundra. It was a huge volcanic eruption that lasted a long time.
It is very interesting because the book describes a reverse of globalization happening because we will have to localize to survive. When there is widespread famine and drought then civilizations in the lower regions will move up to the cooler regions and wars will begin if they haven't already begun, "conflicts that were once fought with spears and swords, however, will now be fought with guns, grenades, or nuclear weapons." This chapter ends very grimly, hinting at an even worse future in the sixth degree.
http://people.earth.yale.edu/paleoceneeocene-thermal-maximum This site gives you more information on PETM.
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