Expert prognosis for the planet

[Irace86.2.0]

I was also thinking just the other day that they should use wind energy to make electricity through ions or static electricity like lightening.

[Capt Spaulding]

The video is really interesting - for me the high spot is the "powerpod." if the tech scales it could offer an opportunity for home owners to bypass solar and get close to going off grid with wind alone.

I can't wait.

[Irace86.2.0]

Originally Posted by Capt Spaulding

The video is really interesting - for me the high spot is the "powerpod." if the tech scales it could offer an opportunity for home owners to bypass solar and get close to going off grid with wind alone.

I can't wait.

Santa Rosa is 30 minutes from the coast. We typically get pretty decent winds for being in the valley, especially at night. A miniature dildo on the roof or turbine would be cool. Solar would probably be cheap enough in the future to have that too.

[Captain Snooze]

Originally Posted by Irace86.2.0

A miniature dildo on the roof or turbine would be cool.

In this context (and only this context) what is a dildo?

[Irace86.2.0]

Originally Posted by Captain Snooze

In this context (and only this context) what is a dildo?

It is the weird, phallic-shaped, vibrating rod that generates energy from wind harmonics.

[Spuds]

Originally Posted by Irace86.2.0

It is the weird, phallic-shaped, vibrating rod that generates energy from wind harmonics.

Probably the only wind power generator I wouldn't consider for visual reasons unless literally everyone around me had one. I don't have a great house for wind anyway, but that's a different problem.

[Irace86.2.0]

Originally Posted by Spuds

Probably the only wind power generator I wouldn't consider for visual reasons unless literally everyone around me had one. I don't have a great house for wind anyway, but that's a different problem.

I wouldn’t be surprised if teens spray painted a dildo tip and veins on those things if they were on people’s roofs.

[Capt Spaulding]

The mental image of that will be with me for a while. The big question is can you get one with rabbit ears?

[Irace86.2.0]

[Irace86.2.0]

https://arstechnica.com/science/2021...cean-trenches/

Mercury is accumulating in deep-ocean trenches

Key quotes:

This latest report is the first to measure mercury-accumulation rates in sediment cores from some of the deepest parts of the ocean—the hadal zones (>6 km depth). While the deep ocean is considered one of the most important, and relatively safest, places for mercury to end up, the rates of accumulation were up to 56 times greater than prior estimates. The highest measured concentrations were also nearly as high as some of the most contaminated bodies of water on the planet—a jarring finding given that these locations (the Atacama and Kermadec trenches) aren't in the vicinity of any known mercury sources.

Natural sources of mercury, such as volcanic eruptions and rock weathering, have always existed. But according to the latest estimates for the UN Environment Programme, human activities have caused a 450 percent increase in atmospheric mercury compared to natural levels. While the biggest mercury spikes occurred largely due to gold and silver mining between 1520 and 1920, global emissions are still on the rise.

Fossil fuels account for about one-quarter of this increase, but lately the leading contributor has again been artisanal and small-scale gold mining. This kind of extraction has released roughly 1,220 tons of mercury in 2015 alone (nearly 40 percent of that year's global total).

These sediment cores give the first direct evidence of how deep-ocean mercury concentrations have been changing over the last 60-190 years (i.e., the flux). The results show rates between 6 and 56 times greater than what researchers had inferred from measurements in other parts of the ocean. The concentrations were also the highest recorded at any site that was not in the area of a known source, such as an underwater volcano or industrial contamination.

"The concentrations we found—particularly the maximum concentrations in the Atacama trench off Chile—are almost as high as you would see in the Mediterranean Sea or the St. Lawrence Gulf in Canada, which are areas that are actually contaminated long-term by industrial releases of mercury," says Outridge. "To find those sorts of concentrations in a remote part of the ocean—that was a surprise—and the accumulation rates were at least an order of magnitude higher than the averages that have been calculated in the past from water column measurements."

"I think that we would expect concentrations to increase in the sediment as you go from coastal areas into the deep ocean," says Outridge. "If you take lakes as an analogy, if you go from the edge of the lake out to the deepest part of the lake, then the concentration does increase, of mercury and other elements. I think what's going on here is that we're seeing a particle filtering effect, where the finest sediment makes it to the deepest part of the ocean and the coarsest sediment settles out in the coastal areas."

With relatively little life down there and low chances of the mercury moving out before it's buried by plate tectonics, we should be somewhat reassured that mercury might be concentrating in these trenches. But the potential damage en route is still significant, and it's in everyone's interest to keep working to minimize mercury use as much as possible.

[Captain Snooze]

"The tipping point for irreversible global warming may have already been triggered, the scientist who led the biggest-ever expedition to the Arctic has warned.
"The disappearance of summer sea ice in the Arctic is one of the first landmines in this minefield, one of the tipping points that we set off first when we push warming too far," said Professor Markus Rex.
"And one can essentially ask if we haven't already stepped on this mine and already set off the beginning of the explosion." "
German research vessel to return from 'dying Arctic'


Peatlands worldwide are drying out, threatening to release 860 million tonnes of carbon dioxide every year
Specifically, our new research in Nature Climate Change found drying peatlands could release an additional 860 million tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year, by around 2100. To put this into perspective, Australia emitted 539 million tonnes in 2019.

[Captain Snooze]

Thank you, it's been a pleasure.


I mean if there is anybody about in a hundred years time they will probably look upon these times as a myth.
"Yeah, they used to fly through the air in a tube to go places."
"Nah, that's not possible."

[Captain Snooze]

Fermi paradox
The Fermi paradox, named after Italian-American physicist Enrico Fermi, is the apparent contradiction between the lack of evidence for extraterrestrial civilizations and various high estimates for their probability.

It is the nature of intelligent life to destroy itself
This is the argument that technological civilizations may usually or invariably destroy themselves before or shortly after developing radio or spaceflight technology. The astrophysicist Sebastian von Hoerner stated that the progress of science and technology on Earth was driven by two factors—the struggle for domination and the desire for an easy life. The former potentially leads to complete destruction, while the latter may lead to biological or mental degeneration. Possible means of annihilation via major global issues, where global interconnectedness actually makes humanity more vulnerable than resilient, are many, including war, accidental environmental contamination or damage, the development of biotechnology, synthetic life like mirror life, resource depletion, climate change, or poorly-designed artificial intelligence. This general theme is explored both in fiction and in scientific hypothesizing.
From Wiki


Note Well:
There are many hypotheses listed on the Wiki page but this is the one that is relevant to this thread.

[Irace86.2.0]

There are ways of living sustainably. Living sustainably requires an acceptance of limitations, and that is the hardest part. We are driven through our biology to overreach and not see past our our nose. It’s the fault of our selfish genes, to take a phrase from Richard Dawkins.