God Hates THE WORLD (Natural Disaster Thread)

[RazoR]

There seem to be some easy targets to achieve good progress:

Most of the power sector’s emissions come from a small minority of plants

Shutting down the worst 5% would cut electricity's carbon emissions by 75%.

Let's see how this gets shot down.

[Lachesis VII]

There seem to be some easy targets to achieve good progress:

Most of the power sector’s emissions come from a small minority of plants

Shutting down the worst 5% would cut electricity's carbon emissions by 75%.

Let's see how this gets shot down.

The free market keeps those plants running. You wouldn't interfere with the free market, would you?

[RazoR]

There seem to be some easy targets to achieve good progress:

Most of the power sector’s emissions come from a small minority of plants

Shutting down the worst 5% would cut electricity's carbon emissions by 75%.

Let's see how this gets shot down.

The free market keeps those plants running. You wouldn't interfere with the free market, would you?

That polish monster apparently generates 20% of their electricity so there's that.

On the other hand it's 5420 MWt which could be done with 4 new and shiny VVER-1300.

[dzajic]

We are getting a lot of trolleybuses and regular buses replaced by battery electric buses. And big talk about hybrid and fully electric vehicle subsides. Note 1. We have maybe 2 or 3 charging stations in entire Belgrade. Note 2. At least 75% of our electricity is from lignite coal.

[Liare]

the worst, dirtiest coal station still has higher power efficiency than a petrol or diesel engine.

[Liare]

reminder that anything above 1.5c is considered "irreversible" and there is a danger of self-amplifying feedback loops kicking in.

[Caldrion Dosto]

reminder that anything above 1.5c is considered "irreversible" and there is a danger of self-amplifying feedback loops kicking in.

That picture doesn't look very comforting......

[Armyofme]

[dzajic]

Doesn't really matter. 15 years ago scientists were arguing that if we "take action now" we can keep the end of century temperature rise at 1 degree. Now its at 1.5 which is painful obviously impossible to achieve as it would require drastic cuts within next few years. I guess in 10 years scientists will be arguing that "drastic action now" can reduce end of century warming to "just" 3.5 degrees. Or something like that. Until we are extinct.

[Armyofme]

Until we are extinct.

Do we deserve anything better then that really?

[dzajic]

Yes we do. For all of humanity's faults and innate evils, it looks like we are only technological civilization in the Galaxy currently and that anyone before us died out at latest at similar level as we are now. It's most likely that no one on the freaking local group made it to "we are building Dyson swarms and Matrioshkas left and right" (something you don't need FTL for, just specefaring civilization that can last for tens of millions of years)

We are not yet certain how rare life in the universe is, but intelligence is certainly externally rare out unique to us. Only art, thought, love and laughter in the history of cosmos could be right here right now. That makes us worth of surviving.

[Nordstern]

Until we are extinct.

Do we deserve anything better then that really?

Even a cynical person would agree that life in general deserves better than that.

[Lilalaunebör]

One might argue that the consequence of life is always its own extinction, especially when it comes to sentient life. Complex life exists in a perpetual state of conflict with its surrounding, a contest which we have temporarily "won" at the cost of our long-term survival.

The theory goes that 3 billion years ago, during the Great Oxygen Event, oxygen producing organisms essentially poisoned the atmosphere, leading to a great mass extinction of anaerobic species, as well as a 400million year long ice age. Today, we are those (CO2) producing organisms.

From the perspective of the anaerobic ancestors, the invention of oxgen-producing photosynthesis was a great unexpected calamity, from our prespective it seems almost inevitable.

[Armyofme]

but intelligence is certainly externally rare out unique to us

One might argue that intelligence got us into this mess in the first place.

[Armyofme]

Until we are extinct.

Do we deserve anything better then that really?

Even a cynical person would agree that life in general deserves better than that.

Life in general, yes. Human life, not so sure

[rufuske]

So edgy.

[Hel OWeen]

One might argue that the consequence of life is always its own extinction, especially when it comes to sentient life.

Yepp. That would be one answer to the Fermi Paradox.

[rufuske]

One might argue that the consequence of life is always its own extinction, especially when it comes to sentient life.

Yepp. That would be one answer to the Fermi Paradox.

Scariest one. I'd rather believe in reapers, being first or being too far from each other.

[Hel OWeen]

One might argue that the consequence of life is always its own extinction, especially when it comes to sentient life.

Yepp. That would be one answer to the Fermi Paradox.

Scariest one. I'd rather believe in reapers, being first or being too far from each other.

The last one is what I think is the most likely scenario by all we know up until now about physics. That in combination with a very tiny time frame in which civilizations unintentionally broadcast their existence into space. E.g. mankind started "blasting" radios waves (and later TV) in the early 1930. That was our main means of transferring information. Up until the early 2000s or so, I guess. At that time we began moving information transfer to the internet = back to wires. Even radio and TV. So let's be generous and make that epoch 1920-2020. That means only for a century - a blink of an eye in the galactic timescale - we were easily detectable from elsewhere.

[depili]

One might argue that the consequence of life is always its own extinction, especially when it comes to sentient life.

Yepp. That would be one answer to the Fermi Paradox.

Scariest one. I'd rather believe in reapers, being first or being too far from each other.

The last one is what I think is the most likely scenario by all we know up until now about physics. That in combination with a very tiny time frame in which civilizations unintentionally broadcast their existence into space. E.g. mankind started "blasting" radios waves (and later TV) in the early 1930. That was our main means of transferring information. Up until the early 2000s or so, I guess. At that time we began moving information transfer to the internet = back to wires. Even radio and TV. So let's be generous and make that epoch 1920-2020. That means only for a century - a blink of an eye in the galactic timescale - we were easily detectable from elsewhere.

If by easily detectable you mean "not really above the background noise and would require an instrument way past anything we can currently think of to detect from few light years away" then yes, you are right. An omnidirectional signal would need to pretty much use solar scale energy to be detactable, a tightbeam aimed at a certain destination could be maybe achieved.

Even for aimed tightbeam the energy needed is quite astounding; you can for example read about how we use a reflector left at the moon by apollo astronauts to measure the distance between earth and the moon with a laser. Using a really powerful laser on optimal conditions leads to only few singular photons getting returned.