3 ms·

I think a more important lesson here is that this is not a simple system. its pretty unlikely that we're going to able to calmly walk it back to the state it wa

I think a more important lesson here is that this is not a simple system. its pretty unlikely that we're going to able to calmly walk it back to the state it was in before

RC_ITR 5y ago
The even more wild concept is that the atmosphere’s composition was already changing before human involvement, we just sped up the process by like 1000x. We don’t normatively need the atmosphere to be “natural,” we just need it to be in a state that doesn’t destroy the thousands of years of infrastructure we’ve built.
landemva 5y ago
There were many prior states. In fact, it changes. Vikings had pastures on Greenland until it got cold and they were driven off. Greenland is now covered in snow and ice. Will Greenland return to pastures? Probably at some time.
- jbotz 5y ago
  The Viking colonies on Greenland were during a relatively warm period, but the difference was rather minor... it's not like now Greenland is covered in snow and ice and then it wasn't, the glaciers weren't any smaller then, they were actually a bit bigger. But during this warm period that lasted a couple of hundred years the summers were a bit longer and probably more sunny. The Viking settlements were in the far South of Greenland, actually further South than their prior home on Iceland, on land that's quite green in Summer today as well (just visit Greenland's official tourism site to see what it looks like). Tundra vegetation is actually excellent pasture, very mineral and protein rich... enough so to have supported lots of the largest mammalian mega-fauna!
- lifeisstillgood 5y ago
  Is this correct? I thought that Greenland was always a marketing lie, and that the viking's refusal to absorb Inuit style living meant they simply could not become self sustaining and eventually lost the result ships (vaguely remembered BBC podcast as source)

I think a more important lesson here is that this is not a simple system. its pretty unlikely that we're going to able to calmly walk it back to the state it was in before

RC_ITR 5y ago

The even more wild concept is that the atmosphere’s composition was already changing before human involvement, we just sped up the process by like 1000x. We don’t normatively need the atmosphere to be “natural,” we just need it to be in a state that doesn’t destroy the thousands of years of infrastructure we’ve built.

landemva 5y ago

There were many prior states. In fact, it changes. Vikings had pastures on Greenland until it got cold and they were driven off. Greenland is now covered in snow and ice. Will Greenland return to pastures? Probably at some time.

jbotz 5y ago
The Viking colonies on Greenland were during a relatively warm period, but the difference was rather minor... it's not like now Greenland is covered in snow and ice and then it wasn't, the glaciers weren't any smaller then, they were actually a bit bigger. But during this warm period that lasted a couple of hundred years the summers were a bit longer and probably more sunny. The Viking settlements were in the far South of Greenland, actually further South than their prior home on Iceland, on land that's quite green in Summer today as well (just visit Greenland's official tourism site to see what it looks like). Tundra vegetation is actually excellent pasture, very mineral and protein rich... enough so to have supported lots of the largest mammalian mega-fauna!
lifeisstillgood 5y ago
Is this correct? I thought that Greenland was always a marketing lie, and that the viking's refusal to absorb Inuit style living meant they simply could not become self sustaining and eventually lost the result ships (vaguely remembered BBC podcast as source)