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Adding to this CO2 is just one symptom of climate change. Treating a symptom rarely has long lasting benefits whereas curing the root causes may be preferred.
by LinuxBender 4y ago
Adding to this CO2 is just one symptom of climate change. Treating a symptom rarely has long lasting benefits whereas curing the root causes may be preferred. Tinkering with just one feedback loop can lead to unintended consequences, a nasty lesson I learned from prescription drugs.
- rustybelt 4y agoIsn't excess CO2 the literal cause of climate change? What is the actual cause if not that?
- sokoloff 4y agoCO2 is the gas everyone talks about. Other gases also contribute (CH4, H2O, N2O, SO2, and others).
- blululu 4y agoYeah because it’s the biggest new contributor. Technically water is the biggest green house gas but there are good reasons for focusing on CO2.
- DennisP 4y agoPeople talk most about CO2 because it has the most total effect as a driver of climate change. CH4 for example has a greater effect per kilogram, but we emit a lot less of it and it doesn't last nearly as long. H2O technically affects the temperature even more than CO2 but it's not a driver, because the total H2O in the atmosphere depends on overall temperature. Emitting more H2O, from hydrogen cars or something, would just mean you get more rain somewhere.
- specialist 4y agoYes and: And it's very likely any fixes will not simply be a matter of reducing atmospheric carbon. Here's a first principles explanation for why carbon net zero and sequestration are not the direct, most expedient path towards reducing temps. "Dr. Ye Tao on a grand scheme to cool the Earth" https://www.volts.wtf/p/volts-podcast-dr-ye-tao-on-a-grand#details https://www.volts.wtf/p/volts-podcast-dr-ye-tao-on-a-grand#d... TLDR: Given the time and resources we have, focus on strategies for cooling the atmosphere the fastest way possible.
- DennisP 4y agoMaybe most sensible approach: use SRM to reduce temperature directly and head off nasty positive feedbacks like melting permafrost, but treat that as buying time to get CO2 down to a safe level.
- blululu 4y agoHuh? We are clearly tinkering with the atmospheric CO2 levels on a massive scale. But also CO2 is a cause not a symptom. It only becomes a symptom when the solubility of the ocean changes and carbon is released.
- cat_plus_plus 4y agoHuman civilization cycles technologies on timescale of centuries or even decades. No long lasting benefits are needed, just a little while to tide us over to the next better thing. Like burning coal was a giant environmental breakthrough that saved planet's forests from being chopped for firewood and now we have decent nuclear and renewable energy sources that are even cleaner.