Stop hoping we can fix global warming by pulling carbon out of the air – Scientists warn of “dire consequences for food production or the biosphere”
Desdemona posted this title and topic (which I highly recommend you read), a topic near and dear to the message I’ve long stated here. The future means starvation – for billions.
Nobody is listening to this message. It’s rather stunning.
Even the majority of scientists themselves are really not listening. Obviously, a few are, but it’s an appalling small number.
Listen to this Radio Ecoshock broadcast for an example of what I’m referring to here. They KNOW that temperatures will exceed tolerable limits, but they’re unwilling to tell the world how catastrophic this will be. Anybody can look up wet-bulb temperatures to determine what plant survival is – and when this threshold is passed (as it will be by a mile), it means starvation for billions of humans.
We do not die from heat or heat stroke first, we die from starvation. And dehydration.
Anyway, nobody will pay attention to this. Here’s what the Desdemona article says:
Scientists are expressing increasing skepticism that we’re going to be able to get out of the climate change mess by relying on a variety of large-scale land-use and technical solutions that have been not only proposed but often relied upon in scientific calculations.
Two papers published last week debunk the idea of planting large volumes of trees to pull carbon dioxide out of the air — saying there just isn’t enough land available to pull it off — and also various other strategies for “carbon dioxide removal,” some of which also include massive tree plantings combined with burning their biomass and storing it below the ground.
We’ve known for some years that the projections of the IPCC are woefully underestimating warming. Moreover, in EVERY scenario for mitigation, they have ASSUMED carbon removal from the atmosphere by some IMAGINARY means. That is to say – the technology does not exist (and still does not exist, all these years later). NOW we are being told that natural carbon removal through trees will NOT WORK.
Morever, whatever imaginary vaportech that eventually (if ever) is devised, this must be brought up to a MASSIVE scale to be even slightly effective. The reality is this: we cannot remove sufficient levels of carbon with the technology we have; we have not invented an effective means to do this; the likelihood of humanity ‘mitigating’ extreme levels of heat from the planet is now approaching ZERO. THEREFORE – every human on the planet will be facing intolerable, UNSTOPPABLE temperature increases (and the resulting extreme weather events) leading to planetary starvation as farmland production fails.
The world does not want to recognized the planetary emergency conditions that already exist. To do so would be to stop the business-as-usual paradigm. To not do so will be to commit the human race to extinction. There is no in-between.
I am one of the very few authors who has published these conclusions some years ago. Now, climate scientists are starting to realize that this reality is unfolding upon us all. The sheer recklessness of the denial, delay and disinterest in this topic has already committed the world to extremely dangerous levels of warming (listen to the Radio Ecoshock broadcast). The intent is to push “off” any effective actions until the last possible minute – a policy of planetary suicide.
The models generating possible trajectories of climate change mitigation bet on planetary-scale carbon removal in the second half of the century
This means extinction. Nothing, but NOTHING has changed this outcome. This report is 4 years old (and there are many others on this blog far older) and the conclusions reached are as immutable as ever.
The world is not serious about this. And neither are the majority of YOU either. In America, the country has already given up. It’s almost as bad everywhere else. The LIFE Project is the only “survival plan” for humanity that I have come across (so far). But it continues to appear that there is virtually no common interest in human survival. Which leaves me at a total loss. There is no point in continuing this blog or sharing these articles. Humanity has chosen to ignore the most pressing, most dangerous, most cataclysmic issue of its entire history.
Sky High Carbon Tax Needed to Avoid Climate Catastrophe Experts Warn
Which won’t work either. Monetizing carbon doesn’t mean we won’t burn the shit – Admin.
Miles of Ice Collapsing Into the Sea
This is just the beginning of what will be truly catastrophic – Admin.
Do you have a link for The Life Project?
Maybe you mean the Lifeboat Foundation?
No, the LIFE Project is something that was proposed here. It is a “Strategic Initiative for Reduced Human Survival” plan / proposal. It received little interest like most things I write. I suspect it is a few decades too early for acceptance and understanding.
The realization that the majority of the world is going to die is too hard to accept. It is easier to ignore the issue right now then engage it.
LIFE Project – Strategic Initiative for Reduced Human Survival
Executive Summary
I was hoping for a rebuttal on the use of super-computers (SC’s) for CDR engineering. There may be SC’s available next year that would be 10 times smarter than current SC’s and could process over a quintillion units of info per second, (a handheld calculator may process 10 FLOPS; 10 units of info per second).
I don’t understand why everyone from mainstream politicians to radical environmentalists have lobbed the issue of removing atmospheric carbon into the “too hard basket”. Maybe I’m stupid but how do people not see that the biosphere will live or die based on whether an innovative CDR breakthrough is invented in time?
Does anyone consider the proposal of a 10 billion dollar prize for viable CDR as something that could be potentially helpful?
Obviously GHGE’s will still have to be slashed and human greed needs to be reined in but the issue at hand is what is chemically possible, in a time of runaway SC intelligence, in CDR engineering.
It’s been looked at. The numbers simply do not work. It is a project that vastly exceeds anything humanity has ever done (many times over).
Computers (algorithms) can’t dictate human actions, policies or efforts. They also can’t overcome physics. Even if there was a ‘solution’ found, it doesn’t change the scale.
I don’t know if you’ve looked into the sheer scale of the problem, but others have and its physically impossible to remove the quantity of carbon necessary within the short time frame required (atmosphere / oceans) before catastrophic levels of warming occur. That is an outcome that is decided (immutable now). Most of the news and bullshit that surrounds this topic is couched in language that attempts to gloss it over (can’t tell the world we’re all fucked), but it is there is you look for it.
I’ve no doubt that “everything will be tried” as the situation worsens – including using AI (artificial intelligence) and every trick in the book to try and find a answer. It is already evident that there is no single answer – but a multitude of changes and efforts required – but again, the scale is nearly unimaginable.
Civilization would have to re-engineer itself far, far beyond what any living human today will accept. Its not just political infeasible, it is categorically unacceptable by the modern world.
This is why something like the LIFE Project will be necessary (and will also happen anyway). It’s an unavoidable response to a unsolvable problem (predicament as some like to say). Between now and then, there will be endless bickering and debate about “what to do”, but the reality of this future will still unfold upon the world. I already see this and more and more people do too. The only thing humanity can really / truly do is to prepare for this hellish outcome. And yes – we should still be trying our damnedest to do everything else possible, but it is dishonest to claim that it will have much effect when we know already that it really won’t.