Floods, Fires, and Heat Domes (the climate change thread) (Part 1)

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Not anymore.

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The big eruption of January last year blew 150 MT of water into the stratosphere :hushed:

The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai Hydration of the Stratosphere
L. Millán, et al.
Geophysical Research Letters, Volume 49, Issue 13, 16 July 2022

Key Points

  • The mass of SO2 and HCl injected is comparable to that from prior eruptions, whereas the magnitude of the H2O injection is unprecedented
  • Excess stratospheric H2O will persist for years, could affect stratospheric chemistry and dynamics, and may lead to surface warming

This could then be the cause/a compounding factor of, in particular, the sudden spike in sea surface temperatures and heat waves in general. We’re seeing the theme of “something has tipped over” in various media outlets (such as a recent CP story via Toronto Star). It seems plausible that this eruption is the “something”, or a big part of it.

If so that’s slightly less apocalyptic, which is good. Other factors are at play (per Guardian article below) that are bad. At least there’s a solid chance that in 10 years we might catch a break. :roll_eyes:

Via:

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Not so sure I agree. This (perhaps temporary) spike will have the effect of accelerating other, very much not temporary, tipping points, such as thawing of permafrost, releasing CO2 and methane, exchanging reflective ice and snow for bare soil and ocean surface, decreasing albedo, Antarctic and Greenland melting, affecting AMOC and other redistributive currents, etc. There are far too many positive feedback loops in play, and all of them can feed off of this one “something.” Every damned climate model winds up underestimating how fast and far the climate can swing. Climate refugees are already a thing, and even that can’t seem to get the message through. I am not sure what will.

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However, the grass pea also houses a chemical that, under the right conditions, can cause those who eat it to undergo permanent paralysis.

Scientists are now developing ways to strip the grass pea of its least attractive side effect.

image

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Season 5 What GIF by The Office

Yeah, this seems to be an unfortunate side effect…

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an unfortunate side effect

YMMV, but you typically have to be malnourished and eat it as a big part of your diet for 3 months to end up badly off.

In grass pea this enzyme pathway has been repurposed, leading to the production of (neurotoxin) ODAP, which provides an alternative route to removing oxalate. One theory is that the toxin is produced as a kind of molecular sink to store the excess molecules used by the plant for defense or the products of essential processes such as photosynthesis.

Editing it out might reduce the plant’s ability to survive fungal attacks as well.

Every time I read about these gene editing efforts, the programmer in me just wants to get into the code base and start cleaning, documenting and refactoring… :thinking: That said, 6.5 billion lines of highly recursive, painfully repetitive, completely undocumented machine code (Nature article) written by blind chance is a bit more than the usual challenge, but hubris is a key virtue, right?

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Yeah, saw that. Understand, as a pediatrician, I am very accustomed to jumping at shadows. We act on risks lower than this all the time. I guess if you are starving, it’s an option. Your friendly neighborhood medico says “Seek other options.”

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BBC News - Raging Hawaii wildfires kill 36 people

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Capitalism is cancer that is killing all of us.

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