5 ms·

The way things seem to be heading, I'm afraid we're going to have much bigger problems by 2059 to worry about.

politician 7y ago
Unless the rich are going to start building domed cities for themselves, they might be better off making their designer children smaller, vegan, and tolerant of lower levels of oxygen.
- chrisco255 7y ago
  The hyperbole is strong with this one.
  - politician 7y ago
    Maybe, but... Pliocene and Eocene provide best analogs for near-future climates https://www.pnas.org/content/115/52/13288/tab-figures-data https://www.pnas.org/content/115/52/13288/tab-figures-data ... there's also the science.
    - chrisco255 7y ago
      The pliocene era had thriving primate populations, in addition to many other species. Eocene is much older but there was thriving life then, too. The idea that people would need to live in domes is preposterous, if it even occurs so rapidly, which is extremely unlikely.
      - politician 7y ago
        Did you watch _any_ of the visualization videos? The ecosystems shift from today's climate to Eocene (+15deg) over 100 years decimating most of the world. At that time, the Pliocene (+5deg) areas are quite small and sparse. If there are thriving human populations left, they're going to be in those pockets. They're going to be doing agriculture in domes - greenhouses, because evaporation will be a major impediment to growing food in the open air. Germination is highly sensitive to temperature - we need to focus genetics research on high-temperature stress-resistant crops, not designer babies for the well-to-do. Primate populations weren't dependent on rice, but it provides 1/5th of the calories consumed by humans. High-Temperature Effects on Rice Growth, Yield, and Grain Quality https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780123876898000047 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B978012387...
- aeternus 7y ago
  How about robot children: - No oxygen required - No food required - Can be made quite small - 50% lower chance of uprising when compared to humans
  - chr1 7y ago
    "No food required" is quite nice. Technology for full robots may require quite some time, but before that it is probably possible to create artificial stomach that can replace your stomach and gut, and instead of eating 3 times a day and going to toilet you simply could replace a bottle once a week.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
- strken 7y ago
  The atmosphere is 20% oxygen and 0.04% carbon dioxide, climate change isn't going to deoxygenate it enough to have any noticeable impact on breathing.
  - politician 7y ago
    Are you discounting an increase in the proportion of methane in the air from melting permafrost and drying of the air from increased temperatures along with increased proportions of C02 in your analysis that breathing 115deg air is non-impactful? Have you ever been in West Texas during summer?
    - strken 7y ago
      Let's take a step back, here. Climate change is real and I'm sure it will make West Texas slightly more uninhabitable, but that's not what you originally said: you said that they should genetically modify their kids to breath less oxygen, which is almost completely useless against climate change. I corrected you because one of the biggest weapons in the arsenal of climate change deniers is taking an incorrect but tangential argument and tearing it to shreds, and then pretending they tore the entirety of climate science to shreds. Bad arguments on our side are a massive liability.

Unless the rich are going to start building domed cities for themselves, they might be better off making their designer children smaller, vegan, and tolerant of lower levels of oxygen.

chrisco255 7y ago
The hyperbole is strong with this one.
- politician 7y ago
  Maybe, but... Pliocene and Eocene provide best analogs for near-future climates https://www.pnas.org/content/115/52/13288/tab-figures-data https://www.pnas.org/content/115/52/13288/tab-figures-data ... there's also the science.
  - chrisco255 7y ago
    The pliocene era had thriving primate populations, in addition to many other species. Eocene is much older but there was thriving life then, too. The idea that people would need to live in domes is preposterous, if it even occurs so rapidly, which is extremely unlikely.
    - politician 7y ago
      Did you watch _any_ of the visualization videos? The ecosystems shift from today's climate to Eocene (+15deg) over 100 years decimating most of the world. At that time, the Pliocene (+5deg) areas are quite small and sparse. If there are thriving human populations left, they're going to be in those pockets. They're going to be doing agriculture in domes - greenhouses, because evaporation will be a major impediment to growing food in the open air. Germination is highly sensitive to temperature - we need to focus genetics research on high-temperature stress-resistant crops, not designer babies for the well-to-do. Primate populations weren't dependent on rice, but it provides 1/5th of the calories consumed by humans. High-Temperature Effects on Rice Growth, Yield, and Grain Quality https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780123876898000047 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B978012387...
aeternus 7y ago
How about robot children: - No oxygen required - No food required - Can be made quite small - 50% lower chance of uprising when compared to humans
- chr1 7y ago
  "No food required" is quite nice. Technology for full robots may require quite some time, but before that it is probably possible to create artificial stomach that can replace your stomach and gut, and instead of eating 3 times a day and going to toilet you simply could replace a bottle once a week.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
strken 7y ago
The atmosphere is 20% oxygen and 0.04% carbon dioxide, climate change isn't going to deoxygenate it enough to have any noticeable impact on breathing.
- politician 7y ago
  Are you discounting an increase in the proportion of methane in the air from melting permafrost and drying of the air from increased temperatures along with increased proportions of C02 in your analysis that breathing 115deg air is non-impactful? Have you ever been in West Texas during summer?
  - strken 7y ago
    Let's take a step back, here. Climate change is real and I'm sure it will make West Texas slightly more uninhabitable, but that's not what you originally said: you said that they should genetically modify their kids to breath less oxygen, which is almost completely useless against climate change. I corrected you because one of the biggest weapons in the arsenal of climate change deniers is taking an incorrect but tangential argument and tearing it to shreds, and then pretending they tore the entirety of climate science to shreds. Bad arguments on our side are a massive liability.