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Environmental News

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

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  1. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    'we must hang together, or surely, we will hang separately'
     
    #1521 bisco, Nov 3, 2021
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  2. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    When I was young, there were lots of ideas about what might have caused the mysterious Tunguska blast in 1908. Evidence on that, and numerous events detected by surveillance satellites watching for nuclear blasts, gradually built up over the years, until the 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor instantly wiped away most doubts. These high energy visits from space are not all that rare.

    Here are some recent links for Sodom:

    How a Meteor May Have Destroyed Ancient City and Inspired Biblical Tale of Sodom
    A Massive Meteor May Have Destroyed The Biblical City Of Sodom
    Nature: A Tunguska sized airburst destroyed Tall el-Hammam a Middle Bronze Age city in the Jordan Valley near the Dead Sea

    Older articles:
    New Science Suggests Biblical City Of Sodom Was Smote By An Exploding Meteor
    Phys.org: A meteor may have exploded in the air 3,700 years ago, obliterating communities near the Dead Sea
     
    #1522 fuzzy1, Nov 3, 2021
  3. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

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    I would only add that ignorance of physics and math contributes to earlier missunderstanding. I have always loved math but humble statistics gave me the rod to separate likely truth from ignorance and propaganda.

    I appreciate probably but it’s purity assumes a degree of honesty too often lacking in our species. Probably is the foundation that practical statistics teaches us how separate possibly propaganda from what works.

    Bob Wilson
     
    #1523 bwilson4web, Nov 3, 2021
    Last edited: Nov 3, 2021
  4. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    #1524 tochatihu, Nov 3, 2021
  5. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    Whale eating and pooping quantified for one major species:

    Researchers find whales are more important ec | EurekAlert!

    Many species of previously hunted whales have not returned to their pre-hunt (eating and pooping) populations and it may be beyond our skills to figure that out. But anyway, oceans are quite different now.
     
    #1525 tochatihu, Nov 3, 2021
  6. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    Tunguska is on my bucket list and will probably remain there :rolleyes:
     
    #1526 tochatihu, Nov 3, 2021
  7. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    in post #1496 I showed Calif forest fire history for most recent few decades. Suggested the recent increase was at least consistent with climate change.

    Canada entire and USA entire do not show this pattern; graphs could be posted for them. I revisit the topic to avoid leaving an impression that Calif pattern is followed more generally. I suspect at these larger scales, droughts and very wet times co occur in different places, and burn trends get averaged out over decadal scales. There is certainly enough data on spatial fire patterns over the last 4 decades or so to figure out if areas besides Calif. show similar recent increases. Enough GIS experts to explore it, if they are so inclined.
     
    #1527 tochatihu, Nov 5, 2021
  8. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    On to Mars. Human activities there would be simpler with more oxygen supply and with hydrocarbons to power rockets for the backhaul.

    Bacteria with some genes engineered in from cyanobacteria can make both:

    https://www.popsci.com/science/microbes-could-fuel-human-mars-missions/

    Making it work at scale at that dim and dusty location is work for the future.

    ==
    I could go on and on about cyanobacteria, but y'know, nobody asked.
     
    #1528 tochatihu, Nov 5, 2021
  9. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    On radio telescopes, future planning goes pretty large:

    https://ngvla.nrao.edu/page/performance

    This would build out from VLA in New Mexico with many smallish fixed-angle dish receivers and cutting-edge data processing. If such a thing cannot detect ET (not its primary purpose), then 'they' are not sending many gigaHertzian watts our way.
     
    #1529 tochatihu, Nov 5, 2021
  10. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

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    • If you know, you won't ask.
    • If you ask, you might never know
    Assuming a source of water, the Mars atmosphere has CO{2}
    CO{2} + 2H{2} -> CH{4} + O{2}. ​

    I suspect one of the earliest payloads will be a methane and oxygen generator. This would provide the fuel and oxygen needed by a SpaceX Starship.

    Bob Wilson
     
    #1530 bwilson4web, Nov 6, 2021
  11. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    A lithium battery recycling report:

    Study: Recycled Lithium Batteries as Good as Newly Mined - IEEE Spectrum

    Others may have enough grasp on the topic to know if there is any 'there' there.

    ==

    Paleotemperatures extended:

    Scientists extend and straighten iconic climate “hockey stick” | Ars Technica

    the 2 studies linked are viewable:
    https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03984-4.epdf?sharing_token=8uBqYfou1DMhvg82BsgNvNRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0NEoU8H4wGeQ9C6CA2sLhCNvi-H3jAFohKVoRCZg_67LI12rAHd1qrP1kaUNxrS7prfxGFKt8JNBZhx2dEyPTHtLbYY5BXdYb54WeXBVj_MgxAcJNsjH1cC-Ox9oBLxo214cNKh1J1IOMqTeUvtQpbIxbJWybj4XX4zLvYWea0YOP5MYxX0qOUPEVPkm7HkOiw%3D&tracking_referrer=arstechnica.com

    https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-03155-x.epdf?sharing_token=2wkbcffbLdfBfuU1R9mTONRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0NTPebG7AdTT0YROLCc5FbqFdM707AgjtyrfWs-Et-YWPnUZ9X3hk7OWEiKX2QDsuDVCKWu0md9xtOfFdFHZcTcTDEMb9f29vRRRcG3JhBeVg-eT2g5PkyNdRho-0PFaj79U4Thmrt_sD6P7BDDOh--BnJfVWGwhkLxlEx9MgwLEX9DM1U_ec4NdEs9YIxp3bo%3D&tracking_referrer=arstechnica.com

    and if you clean out that ars stuff, they may be downloadable as well.

    ==
    A political spin persists on this topic, but I make no comment. In a way it is more interesting that marine paleotemps (>2/3 of earth surface) are known as well as they are, because petroleum exploration paid for almost all the seafloor sediment cores. They are expensive to acquire, and have led to many scientific insights.

    So, be careful what you wish against. I guess.
     
    #1531 tochatihu, Nov 10, 2021
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  12. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    #1532 tochatihu, Nov 10, 2021
  13. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    shouldn't the sea level be lower?
     
    #1533 bisco, Nov 10, 2021
  14. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    Similar to removing all the ships from the oceans, as discussed back at post #1504:
    Environmental News | Page 76 | PriusChat

    The 2 Gt of large fish and marine mammals such as dolphins, would amount to about 4 microns of sea level.
     
    #1534 fuzzy1, Nov 11, 2021
  15. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    that should make up for all the rocks falling in
     
    #1535 bisco, Nov 11, 2021
  16. vvillovv

    vvillovv Senior Member

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    #1536 vvillovv, Nov 11, 2021
  17. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    ah but as the rocks fall in the area increases
     
    #1537 ChapmanF, Nov 11, 2021
  18. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    NASA 'Eyes on the earth'

    Eyes on the Earth

    Good for viewing current and recent products. Not nearly all of them, one might add :)
     
    #1538 tochatihu, Nov 18, 2021
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  19. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    #1539 bisco, Nov 18, 2021
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  20. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    #1540 tochatihu, Nov 28, 2021
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