[C8]

everybody writing and reading this thread is going to die anyway- including me

sometimes I think people use social catastrophe as a way to divert themselves from the "stark reality" of their own coming personal catastrophe- nonexistence

[onlooker]

everybody writing and reading this thread is going to die anyway- including me

sometimes I think people use social catastrophe as a way to divert themselves from the "stark reality" of their own coming personal catastrophe- nonexistence

Well, I can only speak for myself but I do admire the people here because it seem most of us have confronted both our personal doom and are also dissecting the coming catastrophe headed towards all on planet Earth.

[Plantagenet]

I wonder if the big push by NASA and by wealthy people like Bezos to get to Mars has something to do with these oncoming catastrophes.

Is the best solution to the ecological destruction of the earth just move to another planet and start over?


Is the earth too screwed up to save? Thats OK---lets just terraform Mars and start all over again.

[Hawkcreek]

Regarding americandream-in-his-own-mind and his comments; I'll not engage with egotistical a'holes other than to say I won't engage with egotistical a'holes who've clearly taken their self-aggrandisement to intolerable levels.

One thing I like about this site is that my vocabulary is improving.
It is always fun to have to look up a word.

[xraymike79]

I wonder about the fact that since the already the overall state of the the biosphere and its composite ecosystems is pretty poor, will that mean that the added pressures bought by climate change will be even more devastating than in past rapidly warming periods?

Good point. The answer is yes. Manmade environmental degradation including climate change is happening multiple times faster than in past CO2 outgassing events. In fact, it was recently discovered that the terrestrial biosphere is now a net emitter of GHGs, no longer a sink:

Long story short, due to human activity, mostly land use, the terrestrial biosphere is a net source of greenhouse gases expressed in CO2-equivalence.

That's a Big Deal because for a long time now scientists have thought of the terrestrial biosphere as a carbon sink (net absorber of anthropogenic carbon emissions, e.g., trees take up carbon). That's still true in terms of carbon dioxide alone, but when you add in methane and nitrous oxide, the terrestrial biosphere becomes a greenhouse gas source, not a sink.

Speed kills. No time for adaptation.

[dolanbaker]

I wonder if the big push by NASA and by wealthy people like Bezos to get to Mars has something to do with these oncoming catastrophes.

Is the best solution to the ecological destruction of the earth just move to another planet and start over?


Is the earth too screwed up to save? Thats OK---lets just terraform Mars and start all over again.

Before you start terraforming Mars, you need to fully understand why it lost its previous "possibly" liveable biosphere. I have seen theories that the core was too small to self sustain its heat & magnetic field generation capabilities. Unless these could be restored, terraforming would be impossible.

[Lore]

Guys like Bezos and the rest of his ilk breath a different atmosphere already on earth then most of us. The problem they have is that they are at the rotting tip of the spear and they just don't realize it yet that it's about to break off.

[Lore]

everybody writing and reading this thread is going to die anyway- including me

sometimes I think people use social catastrophe as a way to divert themselves from the "stark reality" of their own coming personal catastrophe- nonexistence

Well aren't you mister cheerful...

[ennui2]

Regarding americandream-in-his-own-mind and his comments; I'll not engage with egotistical a'holes other than to say I won't engage with egotistical a'holes who've clearly taken their self-aggrandisement to intolerable levels.

One thing I like about this site is that my vocabulary is improving.
It is always fun to have to look up a word.

You mean like his obsession with "dialectic"? You can look the word up but I don't think it will make what he's trying to say any clearer. The guy's points are hopelessly "obfuscated" (look that one up if you like).

[Kylon]

If you wanted to terraform Mars, you could use nuclear rockets to move the giant Asteroid Ceres into Mars.

It contains more water than Earth.

Then you could bombard it with other Asteroids using nuclear rockets to provide other elements it needed.

Put enough CO2, nitrogen and water on the planet, and it would warm up, then through in a few containers of microbes that had been adapted to cold living, and let them populate. Pretty soon you have an atmosphere with oxygen nitrogen, co2 and water.

Nuclear rockets (I mean rockets that use nuclear fission to create propellant) are in theory great. It's just that they spew radioactive waste out their tail end (which is probably the reason we don't use them on Earth). However getting around the solar system with them should be just fine.

[dohboi]

Yeah, we've already f'd up the planet, so why should we worry about f'ing up the rest of the solar system!!

[americandream]

Regarding americandream-in-his-own-mind and his comments; I'll not engage with egotistical a'holes other than to say I won't engage with egotistical a'holes who've clearly taken their self-aggrandisement to intolerable levels.

One thing I like about this site is that my vocabulary is improving.
It is always fun to have to look up a word.

You mean like his obsession with "dialectic"? You can look the word up but I don't think it will make what he's trying to say any clearer. The guy's points are hopelessly "obfuscated" (look that one up if you like).

Hahahaha. I actually gave up on those from the Arab/Muslim world with a Koranic worldview, a while ago. I am rapidly dropping rednecks with an equal Koranic worldview. Some fish simply cannot contemplate the edges of their fishbowls.

[americandream]

But it does give me some pleasure exposing the similarities between the redneck and muslim so the indirect swipes shall continue...dog's should at least be made aware of their arses even if they havent quite got round to wondering why they chase their tails.

[jedrider]

The Stark Realities of Baked-In Catastrophes

That's a very fantastic bit of writing. True though.

Maybe we had a choice at one point: nature or iphones.

We've clearly decided and too late to go back.

[Plantagenet]

If you wanted to terraform Mars, you could use nuclear rockets to move the giant Asteroid Ceres into Mars.

It contains more water than Earth.

Then you could bombard it with other Asteroids using nuclear rockets to provide other elements it needed.

Put enough CO2, nitrogen and water on the planet, and it would warm up, then through in a few containers of microbes that had been adapted to cold living, and let them populate. Pretty soon you have an atmosphere with oxygen nitrogen, co2 and water.

Yup. Terraforming Mars is a certainly possible, although it would be a gigantic task. AND, since there are no fossil fuels on Mars, once Mars gets terraformed the colonists wouldn't have to worry future generations polluting the Martian atmosphere with CO2 and destabilizing the climate as is happening now on earth.

Humans have always used up resources and then gone over the hill or across the mountains or even across the seas to find the next area to exploit. Its just human nature.

The next new area for humans to exploit now is another planet----Mars.



The stark reality of baked-in catastrophes on earth is that large areas on earth are going to be inundated by rising sea level or severely impacted by droughts and heat waves. Mars represents an opportunity to start modern civilization over and do things right this time.

[Newfie]

April 1 is over guys! Back to reality, no matter how stark.

[Hawkcreek]

Regarding americandream-in-his-own-mind and his comments; I'll not engage with egotistical a'holes other than to say I won't engage with egotistical a'holes who've clearly taken their self-aggrandisement to intolerable levels.

One thing I like about this site is that my vocabulary is improving.
It is always fun to have to look up a word.

You mean like his obsession with "dialectic"? You can look the word up but I don't think it will make what he's trying to say any clearer. The guy's points are hopelessly "obfuscated" (look that one up if you like).

I did notice (and wonder why some synonyms couldn't be substituted) the frequent use of "dialectic" by AD, but the word I had to look up was "self-aggrandisement", by GHung.
I already knew "obfuscated". Thanks though, for another good one.
There are a lot of smart people on this site, and smart people are frequently driven by ego. We either all get over it, or die trying.

[Hawkcreek]

Humans have always used up resources and then gone over the hill or across the mountains or even across the seas to find the next area to exploit. Its just human nature.

But if they wait until their resources and energy are exhausted, to go over the hill, they typically just die in place.
I don't think we will ever get even to the top of the hill. And I have been a science fiction nut for over 50 years. It just seems to get further and further away.

[onlooker]

I don't think we will ever get even to the top of the hill. And I have been a science fiction nut for over 50 years. It just seems to get further and further away.

This is what the study Limits to Growth was about. Making mankind understand that they're are and were limitations. That the Earth system is a closed system for all intensive purposes and that we have a limited amount of resources and sinks (for waste). We have seemed to be hell bent to always get over some hill and simultaneously have lacked restraint and prudence while having this sense of self aggrandizement. Sorry to use that word or phrase again.

[Hawkcreek]

I don't think we will ever get even to the top of the hill. And I have been a science fiction nut for over 50 years. It just seems to get further and further away.

This is what the study Limits to Growth was about. Making mankind understand that they're are and were limitations. That the Earth system is a closed system for all intensive purposes and that we have a limited amount of resources and sinks (for waste). We have seemed to be hell bent to always get over some hill and simultaneously have lacked restraint and prudence while having this sense of self aggrandizement. Sorry to use that word or phrase again.

Now you made me look something else up!
The spelling of aggrandizement / aggrandisement.
Looks like in the UK it is spelled with an "s", and with a "z" in the US.
Thanks again.