More than a hundred dolphins have been found dead in the Brazilian Amazon amid an historic drought and record-high water temperatures that in places have exceeded 102 degrees Fahrenheit [38.8 °C].
The dead dolphins were all found in Lake Tefé over the past seven days, according to the Mamirauá Institute, a research facility funded by the Brazilian Ministry of Science.
The institute said such a high number of deaths was unusual and suggested record-high lake temperatures and an historic drought in the Amazon may have been the cause.
The news is likely to add to the concerns of climate scientists over the effects human activity and extreme droughts are having on the region.
Forget the progression.
Getting back to pre-industrial CO2 levels will take millenia if we don’t do anything.
If we start spending 50% of our energy budget (and let’s say that energy generation magically became all renewables and nuclear starting tomorrow) on scrubbing all the CO2 out of the air, we’ll still need over a century to get back to pre industrial levels, and that is not counting CO2 storage and or conversions to (for example) plastics. If we include that too then it’ll be multiple centuries.
Let that sink on for a second. No matter what we do, none of us, none of our children, none of our children’s children will ever see normal CO2 levels in their lives.
And in the meantime we bake, loads of animals will die, food production will be fucked up, and we’ll get mass starvation which likely will trigger war for food resources.
I’m painting a pretty picture, don’t I? I do fear it’s going to be even worse than what I see right now because until now, most climate change predictions actually turned out worse.
We might stand a chance with atmospheric engineering. Start seeding the upper atmosphere with sulfides. They’ll cause acid rain over time, but at least block enough sunlight to stop us from cooking. It’s done before (80’s pollution, volcanos) and it works and we’ll need it sooner rather than later
Yeah that’s a major thing that people aren’t getting. Scientists writing the reports specifically published the lower possibilities because they saw earlier publications get tarred as extremist and ridiculous. So now that we’re actually getting consequences everyone is surprised that it’s happening faster and more violently than publicly predicted.
You painted a perfect picture. A wordsmith I am not and loved your version better.
All of us on Lemmy collectively can’t make a fingernail dent into the problem. We have no power to stop it. If we did, we’re labeled terrorists against the economy.
Before the wars about food occur there will be wars about water. There are already assume pretty heated situations. Ethiopias grand Renaissance dam and it’s conflict with Egypt. All countries connected to Euphrat and Tigris have a big war potential too.
Can you elaborate more about this? Don’t sulfides burn up into SO2, which is classified as a greenhouse gas?