Hot Earth

Preparing for Hot Earth

Economy, ,

It doesn’t matter if you believe that humans are contributing to global warming or not. Doesn’t matter if you believe the current scientific consensus or not. What matters is that Earth is getting hotter.

Sure, if our civilization finally reaches consensus on doing something about global warming, we may be able to slow or even reverse the process. But, given the current political outlook, it doesn’t seem that we’ll see any serious measures being taken in the coming years. So, let’s get ready for what may be coming and let’s meet it with the best we’ve got.

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Solar Power

Scratching the Surface of Solar Power

Futurology, ,

Among all the different ways we currently can produce electricity, harnessing the power of the sun is the cleanest. The efficiency of solar panels has increased during the past decade, following solid research investments in renewable energy sources. Even though the installation of solar panels can take up vast amounts of space, this can be done in areas where there is not so much life to disturb, such as deserts.

Did you know that by covering less than 2% of the Great Saharan Desert with solar panels we can meet the energy consumptions needs of the entire planet?

But the world’s energy needs will continue to increase. In the same time, we’re witnessing worsening global catastrophes due to global warming, a situation we’ve brought upon ourselves. We need to think big. Thanks to advances in mass manufacturing, we can think big. And that’s exactly what I invite you to do.

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Reef Death

Reef Death

Ecosystem,

“One-third of the 3,863 reefs that make up the Great Barrier Reef — the largest, most extensive reef system in the world — went through a catastrophic die-off after a searing heat wave in 2016, according to a newly published study in the journal Nature. A bleaching event in 2017 devastated even more of that reef, and the cumulative effects have killed an estimated half of the magnificent system in just two years.”

It’s a quote from the article below, a work that fits in the “doom and gloom” category. But unlike articles about Planet X, the “unavoidable catastrophic” eruption of Yellowstone or the reversal of the Earth’s magnetic poles, this is “real doom and gloom”. Corals around the world are dying at an alarming rate. This can lead to sudden, disastrous effects on the ocean ecosystem (and thus, the entire planet).

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The Global The Carbohydrates Injection

Our Warming Atmosphere Makes Plants Less Nutritious

Ecosystem, , ,

It is said that “you are what you eat”. That stands true not only for humans, but for everything that eats. It’s well known that at optimal temperatures and humidity, plants thrive given light and carbon-dioxide. It was considered that one of the perhaps positive effects of global warming would be that plants would grow faster. This self-balancing property of our ecosystem could even contribute to cleaning up our atmosphere, as more plants would eat more CO2. That may very well hold true, if it wasn’t for desertification.

However, even though plants do thrive thanks to having more carbon-dioxide available, they apparently are not as nutritious. This is an extremely important finding, because, like the linked article points out, “increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is reducing the protein in staple crops like rice, wheat, barley and potatoes, raising unknown risks to human health in the future”.

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Latest and Greatest in Climate Change

The Latest (and Greatest) on Climate Change

Ecosystem, ,

Thanks to climate-change skeptics, we’ve been fortunate to have a lot of talented, driven people doing great research that proves how real and dangerous global warming really is. Unfortunately, even with the best of intentions, the media has turned the frequent updates from the scientific community into a deluge of climate change news, which led to the audience developing a sort of selective hearing when it comes to this topic. “Yeah, yeah, we’ve heard it all before”. But hey, here on Mentatul I need to address dozens of topics while keeping at roughly post per week. This forces me to only post about climate change roughly twice per year.

Two articles are the reason for this post. The first one is about farts. Cow farts to be precise. The methane that they contain, to be even more precise, and how it affects global warming.

The second article provides a rather appalling prognosis for our future. And it’s not even “the worst case scenario”. I’m sorry to say, but given all the statistics I’ve seen recently, it seems to be that the following article is presenting a future that has a high probability of becoming reality. And I see very few governments do anything about it, especially when it comes to the world’s biggest polluters.

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