3 ms·
Serious question: Is there any research in how far will nature be able to adapt? For example, if the permafrost melts, wouldn't that enable growth of CO2 absorb
by spiderfarmer 10y ago
Serious question: Is there any research in how far will nature be able to adapt? For example, if the permafrost melts, wouldn't that enable growth of CO2 absorbing plants in those areas?
I found this article that says the predicted CO2 levels will increase plant growth: http://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/effects-of-rising-atmospheric-concentrations-of-carbon-13254108 http://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/effects-of-...
- api 10y agoWe don't know what runaway climate change will look like. The system is chaotic with lots of feedback loops. Stuff will happen, some of it counter-intuitive. It may or may not be okay in the end. I like Elon's take: yeah, it might not be that bad, but is it really smart to do an uncontrolled experiment on your own biosphere and "see what happens?" I also like George Carlin's: "Stop talking about saving the Earth! The Earth is four billion years old. The Earth will be fine. We're fucked." Carlin's comment is actually quite wise. Life will adapt, but adaptation is a painful evolutionary process that often involves a lot of death. Concern over things like climate change is entirely self-interested. We don't want to unleash a Darwinian "adaptive" process at the global scale upon ourselves.