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Humanity is good in sweeping problems under the rug and not preparing to various threats.
by xvilka 2y ago
Humanity is good in sweeping problems under the rug and not preparing to various threats.
- RedShift1 2y agoWhat problems?
- more_corn 2y agoThat’s the spirit!
- ekianjo 2y agoresources are limited. You cannot prepare for all the threats in the world.
- xvilka 2y agoNobody says about all threats, but there are many, just like CMEs, that are literally thrown to our face.
- fsloth 2y agoAlso good at response. Ozone situation was fixed and now we actually track the asteroids.
- bingbingbing777 2y agoOzone is not fixed because I will still get extremely burnt in the sun here in Australia. Asteroids is not fixed because what happens when one super massive one is coming straight for us?
- southernplaces7 2y agoYou do understand that even with a fully normal ozone layer, exposure to the sun can indeed cause burns during certain times of the year and especially in hot, tropical places? Are you expecting magic as a definition of fixed, or something that actually applies to reality? Much of the climate change discourse on this site strays into the absurdly hysterical, but some of it veers even further into deep childish fantasy.
- bongodongobob 2y agoKind of tired of hearing this. Citing one initiative from 50 years ago is the definition of cherry picking, I'm sorry. The trend is that humans are incapable of long term global initiatives. I'm sure some game theory guy could prove it.
- squigz 2y ago> The trend is that humans are incapable of long term global initiatives Doesn't this sort of assertion leave no room for the possibility of learning to do so?
- AlecSchueler 2y agoNo, trends can be broken.
- nozzlegear 2y agoThough the constant doomerism one encounters when they speculate about breaking such trends can discourage anyone from thinking it’s worth pursuing.
- AlecSchueler 2y agoThis sounds like a way to free yourself of personal responsibility. "We could have done so much if the doomsayers hadn't discouraged us!"
- squigz 2y agoYou can't personal responsibility your way out of large-scale societal issues...
- AlecSchueler 2y agoAnd this is a bit like saying your vote doesn't count because it's just one of many. Society is built of people. Changes can only come from people.
- felsokning 2y ago> Ozone situation was fixed... Ozone is still hole'ing[1]. The hole is no longer growing, sure, but that's a far fetch from "fixed". [1] - https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220321-what-happened-to-the-worlds-ozone-hole https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220321-what-happened-to...
- hnlmorg 2y agoWe neither have a plan to fix the existing ozone hole and nor do we have a way for preventing an asteroid collision (assuming we are lucky enough that the theoretical asteroid that hits us is one of the subset of asteroids we can actually track) So no, neither of those problems are even remotely fixed. We’ve just done the bare minimum to check the “we’ve reacted to a crisis” box.
- philipwhiuk 2y agoWe do have a way of redirecting an asteroid. The problem is that we won't learn about it early enough for our current level of technology to do anything about it. We'd need 2 fully-operational Starship launches or 4 SLS launches or 10 Delta IV Heavy launches with 25 years notice to redirect an asteroid like Bennu. Now obviously 2 is better than 4 is better than 10. But the 25 years notice is a big problem. The momentum change you need to deliver the later it gets is so much larger.
- southernplaces7 2y agoAnd quite frankly, Bennu isn't even all that large. At worst, it would cause a regional catastrophe. Imagine humanity being forced to react to an impending impact, say within a few years, from a newly detected 1km+ asteroid, never mind something like the colossal Chicxulub impactor.
- hnlmorg 2y ago> The problem is that we won't learn about it early enough for our current level of technology to do anything about it. And this is exactly my point. We aren’t investing into inventing the technology to do this. Instead we just say “if we can detect a small asteroid early enough then we might be able to divert it” and then count that problem as solved. Even though Bennu is small, we still can’t see the vast majority of objects in the solar system and the advance notice we are talking about is impracticality long. If this was a software engineering Jira ticket, it wouldn’t pass PR. And software developers aren’t even the most diligent of professionals compared engineers, doctors and scientists. But there’s no incentive for governments to sink money into a theoretical risk that impacts their “enemies” equally. And man do I hate how nations refer to other nations as “enemies” — but that’s a whole other argument.
- epgui 2y agoThe current ozone situation is very bad and worsening.
- Cthulhu_ 2y agoAre we not prepared though? Given other posts in this thread it seems to me that the effects are all calculated, expected and accounted for. I mean if it's strong enough to fry off-grid electronics then it's a different matter entirely, but consumer electronics has some protections against that, right?
- RedShift1 2y agoIn the past consumer electronics came in metal boxes that were earthed, I sure those will be fine. But these days everything's made out of plastic and not grounded.
- surfpel 2y ago> I mean if it's strong enough to fry off-grid electronics then it's a different matter entirely Last big storm in 2003 did damage grid level transformers. They also don’t just have those lying around and they’re quite expensive so it’s particularly devastating. https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/images/u33/finalBoulderPresentation042611%20%281%29.pdf https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/images/u33/fin... > but consumer electronics has some protections against that, right? Much more complicated to answer, but no consumer electronics aren’t safe. Also not much use if the communication systems and electrical grid are down
- 77pt77 2y agoAlso excels at destroying the cassandras if you will.