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I'm curious how much this phenomenon might affect CO2 levels compared to the deforestation of the Amazon, which I have read in the past is the single most disas

I'm curious how much this phenomenon might affect CO2 levels compared to the deforestation of the Amazon, which I have read in the past is the single most disastrous human action when it comes to climate. The Amazon forest is vast and produces a significant percentage of the world's oxygen. The balance we have seen the past few thousand years is being upset not only by industrial pollution but by depriving the world of its CO2-to-O2 conversion machinery in Amazon as well as the ocean algae. A reduction in algae, which seems to be happening and is possibly due to pollution, will be catastrophic. There is also the methane deposits on the ocean floor that are being released because of increased acidity caused by CO2. This is creating a deadly cycle that may be accelerating the greenhouse effect. I doubt that there's anything we humans can do at this point other than preserve and restore the Amazon, stop polluting as much as possible, and pray. Earth by David Brin is a very good novel that describes a grim future some 40 years hence. It goes off into pure sci-fi regarding black holes bouncing around the earth's core, but the predictions in the novel seem pretty realistic. He speculates that as the Northern Territories and the Siberian tundra thaw, people will move north and build towns to get away from the increasingly tropical conditions in previously moderate latitudes. Something not touched upon in that novel but which we are seeing today is the spread of tropical diseases like zika into new areas. This is one of the scariest prospects, actually; the next great plague will probably come from a previously unknown tropical virus or bacterium. I hope the Mars colonization project proceeds apace.

throwaway2048 10y ago
even the most inhospitable places on earth (even post global warming) are far far more hospitable than the best places on mars.
- TillE 10y ago
  Right. You can at least breathe in Antarctica. And terraforming Mars would be several orders of magnitude more expensive than even a massive readjustment of Earth's climate.
  - mikegioia 10y ago
    Expensive? By all measurements it's impossible.
    - kerbalspacepro 10y ago
      Then why do engineers/scientists keep talking about how they'd do it.
  - blisterpeanuts 10y ago
    Terraforming is a nice long term thing but I would think some underground habitats could be built in the short term. If there's some water ice, oxygen, and useful minerals such as iron that can be harvested, a colony could be almost self-sustaining once they've set up their solar power, smelters, digging equipment and fabricating tools. Probably about a thousand people would be the tipping point. I'm imagining a turn-key colony that initially accommodates 1,000 people and can expand arbitrarily, that is robotically prepared, then the humans arrive to a heated, lighted, oxygenated, self-sufficient habitat. Once this has been standardized, it's a matter of dropping these in various spots around the planet, not too far apart, humanity can then colonize the planet in 1,000 person increments. It's not a solution for our climate problems back on Earth, obviously, but it's a way to ensure some redundancy, should the Earth become uninhabitable through climate catastrophe or war. Or an asteroid strike.

throwaway2048 10y ago

even the most inhospitable places on earth (even post global warming) are far far more hospitable than the best places on mars.

TillE 10y ago
Right. You can at least breathe in Antarctica. And terraforming Mars would be several orders of magnitude more expensive than even a massive readjustment of Earth's climate.
- mikegioia 10y ago
  Expensive? By all measurements it's impossible.
  - kerbalspacepro 10y ago
    Then why do engineers/scientists keep talking about how they'd do it.
- blisterpeanuts 10y ago
  Terraforming is a nice long term thing but I would think some underground habitats could be built in the short term. If there's some water ice, oxygen, and useful minerals such as iron that can be harvested, a colony could be almost self-sustaining once they've set up their solar power, smelters, digging equipment and fabricating tools. Probably about a thousand people would be the tipping point. I'm imagining a turn-key colony that initially accommodates 1,000 people and can expand arbitrarily, that is robotically prepared, then the humans arrive to a heated, lighted, oxygenated, self-sufficient habitat. Once this has been standardized, it's a matter of dropping these in various spots around the planet, not too far apart, humanity can then colonize the planet in 1,000 person increments. It's not a solution for our climate problems back on Earth, obviously, but it's a way to ensure some redundancy, should the Earth become uninhabitable through climate catastrophe or war. Or an asteroid strike.