Tracked down a couple recent Scientific Americans in which I have a weird feature on how far into the future you could possibly send a time capsule, as well as a cool spread on my new-ish book (complete with actual photograph of me holding a giant CO2 molecule) pls read at your convenience thx
Thanks! Yeah, the creation of organic carbon by photosynthesis creates oxygen but unless that OC gets buried O2 won't accumulate in the atmosphere because the OC will just be respired/oxidized again, using it up, unless the OC is buried and shielded from surface, or as Shanan Peters put it better
This is Achrioptera manga, a giant phasmid or stick insect native to Madagascar.
The specific epithet, "manga" means blue in Malagasy & it's not hard to see why. Only males are blue.
The tiny back wings ("alae") are an example of brachyptery: they're useless for flight, but have other functions.
I'll be at the LA Times Festival of books this Saturday talking with @peterbrannen.bsky.social, @laurapoppick.bsky.social and Dillon Osleger about their books. Come say hi if you are at bookchella! www.latimes.com/events/festi...
Just looked at the sun through a solar telescope. Sublime but a little disturbing, they wouldnât have made it so bright if we were supposed to see that stuff
Will likely have major ramifications for understanding Earth's climate sensitivity, as less shiny domes have lowered Earth's albedo over the past 7,000 years
The Late Holocene De-Costanza-fication Event
âA cause of male pattern baldness became much less common over the past 7,000 years, contributing to an estimated 1â2% decrease in the prevalence of baldness.â
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Deeply shameful to be an American right now. The only thing more shameful is being in a position of power and doing nothing to stop this
Leftist radical Dwight Eisenhower: "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."
Kind of amazing at this late date that the merged Standard Oils of New York and New Jersey are having their banner year
Maybe unpopular opinion but I think people too glibly hand-wave away physical/geological concerns about things like continuously declining ore grade, which probably isn't going to get much better given we have to mine more copper in next 30 years than previous 6,000 www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Where I disagree is I do not think you can separate Chinaâs partial and emerging âelectrostateâ model from its enormous coal industry, nor do I think you should ignore that China has leaned back *into* coal since 2021. Neither the US nor the Chinese energy systems are entirely laudable end-goals.
âA long time ago, here, there, and everywhere else, everything was all together and unreasonably hot. One day, a very, very long time from now, everything will be very, very far apart, and incredibly cold, and nothing will ever happen again.â
Me: my book covers a huge chronological scope, 250 years!
@peterbrannen.bsky.social: Check this shit out
"The very things that the Ice Ages forged in us to keep us alive, I think are our best hope for keeping us alive in the future." spoke with Living on Earth about Snowball Earth, Pangaea, the Pleistocene, and gratitude for being alive. @insideclimatenews.org insideclimatenews.org/news/2803202...
Oh my god
Behold, the biggest point source of CO2 outside humanity, the volcanic system of Nyiragongo and Nyamuragira in the DRC, which emits an astonishing 16 thousand tons of CO2 a day (we emit over 100 million tons a day)
"Destroying 20 million barrels of petroleum product demand per day is equivalent to peak COVID-driven demand loss from March-April 2020, when roads were deserted and there were barely any planes in the sky. This time, the market will need to curb this magnitude of demand without mandated lockdowns."
Thomas Friedman-level mixed metaphor achievement unlocked. Hate politicizing the bathwater while coming home to roost as a chicken that overeggs my pudding
ha, whaat? It wasn't my impression that Cambrian schist makes for very good petroleum source rock
I just resigned from NASA. It breaks my heart to leave, but Iâve become convinced the best path forward is to do the best science I can, and that canât be here anymore. Iâm still in love with the promise of those four magic letters. Ad astra per aspera, and remember: Earth is the only good planet.
Just finished The Story of CO2 is the Story of Everything www.goodreads.com/book/show/17... by @peterbrannen.bsky.social and am left awestruck. A fantastic, important read, for all of us lucky fire primates.
Thank you!
This line, that it's everyone's fault, is also indistinguishable from the oil industry's own legal defense
This line, that it's everyone's fault, is also indistinguishable from the oil industry's own legal defense
Had this experience in January at a boomer bar, all the songs were implausible (but obviously AI) beachy/reggae covers of, like, Guns n' Roses and everyone was nodding along, loving it. Singularly dispiriting moment in my cultural life.
Here's what I wrote about oil shocks in my new-ish book (that also talks about Snowball Earth and the end-Permian mass extinction if you're into that sort of thing)
I think you might enjoy my discussion of all of these topics in my new book
