Environmental News

Discussion in 'Environmental Discussion' started by tochatihu, Oct 22, 2015.

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  1. Trollbait

    Trollbait It's a D&D thing

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    Oops, I had mistaken the 1000ppm climb preceding the ELI with total level. The rate of that climb in CO2 levels was quite fast in geological terms by some studies, which could have more bearing on the extinction than the total level. Not a cheery though as we might be adding CO2 at a faster rate.
     
    #2481 Trollbait, Jan 4, 2025 at 9:36 PM
  2. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    Far short of Venus conditions, there seem to be so many weird things that could happen that we wouldn't like.

    I'm about 37 ℃ inside. Organisms that live in me without hurting me (like the ones I count on when making yogurt) are well adapted to that temperature, while fewer organisms that are pathogenic grow well at that temperature.

    Hence, I can make yogurt just by letting it sit there overnight at a temperature a little warmer than that. It ends up happily teeming with the organisms I want. My kitchen conditions are far from any biosafety level, but whatever undesirable organisms may have gotten in there have been soundly outcompeted by the benign ones.

    If the pathogenic ones start getting adapted to environmental T closer and closer to that, I suspect it'll get harder to make safe yogurt—though that might not be the only way we'd notice.
     
    #2482 ChapmanF, Jan 4, 2025 at 9:54 PM
  3. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    This was scenario for bad fungus in The Last of Us I think. TV series.

    Fungi in general are not thermophilic. Many bacteria are.

    Fungal diseases of crops might be slightly held back by not having evolved towards success in hot&drier. But as currently provided with monospecies 'Petri dishes', they might. This was a minor plot element in Interstellar.

    TV and movie writers are playing with this. Science researchers are working on this. Preparing crops for future conditions of climate and CO2 ought to be a very high priority.
     
    #2483 tochatihu, Jan 4, 2025 at 10:31 PM
  4. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    Permian Extinction has several independent or interacting potential causes that are being investigated. Coal seams were probably burned by large volcanic events. Forests had big burns either from 'floor is lava' or fires from hot&dry. A large impactor may have hit. It was like a bad day raised to very high exponential pattern.

    Then and also after 62 million year ago removal of dinosaurs other than birds, vegetation recovery had a lot of ferns. Their spores are distinctive and preserve well in sediments. This is an untapped sci-fi scenario ...
     
    #2484 tochatihu, Jan 4, 2025 at 10:46 PM
  5. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    Public Service Announcement: Chew your food thoroughly before swallowing.

    Plants and mushrooms have several biopolymer 'coatings' that your and your bacterial helpers lack enzymes for. Teeth are the only way to open those up. If you were a bird you would swallow small stones for grinding. But I digress.

    One mushroom in China has colloquial name 'see you tomorrow'. I hope that needs no further explanation. Or, swallow corn kernels with minimal chewing and be on the lookout for ...

    Animal food products do not present this problem. Not advising to swallow large meat chunks, but they do digest more readily.
     
    #2485 tochatihu, Jan 4, 2025 at 11:20 PM
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