DailyDirt: Who Needs Dinosaurs Anyway?

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Jurassic World raked in over a billion bucks in less than 2 weeks by digitally re-creating some enormous (and sometimes fictional) dinosaurs. A few folks are actually working on re-animating prehistoric animals and other ancient organisms, but do we really need to bring these species back? Perhaps we should work on preventing an artificially-created extinction event of our own before we try to reverse the effects of the last one?

• An impact event that left a 110-mile-wide crater off the Yucatan coast of Mexico is most likely the cause of the mass extinction of the dinosaurs. That impact happened 66 million years ago, and it took a couple of million years for the ocean biosphere to recover its diversity afterwards. [url]
• A mass extinction occurring over 200 million years ago might have had a few contributing factors -- perhaps bacteria (aka methanosarcina) produced a world-changing amount of methane? Volcanoes might have also been a contributing factor, too, but we may never really be certain what actually happened that many millions of years ago. [url]
• We're headed for another mass extinction event, and the 'Sixth Great Extinction' is probably already underway. Species are dying off at a rate that's over 100 times higher than 'normal' -- are we only concerned when the next 'great extinction' also includes humans? [url]

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Filed Under: bacteria, biosphere, dinosaurs, ecosystem, extinction, global climate change, methane, methanosarcina, prehistoric animals, sixth great extinction, species, volcanoes

DailyDirt: What Will Humanity's Legacy Be?

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Humans have obviously had a significant impact on the Earth. We've killed off various species and built stuff that may long outlast our grandchildren (e.g., the pyramids, the Long Now clock, nuclear waste facilities, etc.). At some point, we might want to think about what we'll leave behind after we're gone ourselves. Here are just a few links on planning for the future for our world.

• A professor of water management looked at humanity's overall environmental footprint -- and concluded our behavior is unsustainable. It's not such a big surprise, but the report also points out that technology alone probably won't bring us back to sustainable levels if we don't alter our consumption habits. [url]
• Economically, though, maybe you shouldn't worry too much -- and just consume as much as you can when you're young and able to enjoy it. If you're not planning to live too long, it doesn't make much sense to save for the future or work long hours hoping that you'll be able to enjoy retirement someday. [url]
• Humanity's new, long-lasting techno-fossils might be plastiglomerates -- a new type of rock made up of plastics, volcanic sediment and various other kinds of beach debris. These plastic rocks might not last as long as other kinds of geological materials, but their traces could become a distinguishing feature of the Anthropocene era. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: anthropocene, environment, footprint, global climate change, impact, long now, plastic, plastiglomerates, rocks, sustainability

DailyDirt: The End Of The World As We Know It

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Predicting the end of the world has been a famously difficult calculation. Population growth trends have not proven to follow a continuously exponential path, so we've easily avoided previous calls of Malthusian catastrophe. However, it's still possible that we've only managed to postpone the sixth major extinction event, and our technological cleverness won't be able to save us next time. Here are just a few modern predictions of doom that could ruin some retirement plans.

• NASA recently issued a statement clarifying that a study by university researchers was NOT "solicited, directed or reviewed by NASA" because the research was going viral... and predicted the end of our civilization. However, NASA did fund the development of the "Human And Nature DYnamical" (HANDY) model which was used to reach the conclusion that civilization could collapse due to unsustainable resource exploitation and growing inequality in wealth distribution. [url]
• Global population growth could strain our ability to feed billions of people in the coming decades. We've overcome agricultural challenges before with the Green Revolution, but decreasing biodiversity and increasing genetically modified crops may pose significant problems in the future. [url]
• Our planet could cross a dangerous threshold in 2036 -- when it's predicted that global temperatures might be 2°C higher than preindustrial times. Maybe we'll be able to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels by then, or figure out a way to cost effectively sequester atmospheric CO2... maybe. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: civilization, doom and gloom, global climate change, green revolution, malthusian catastrophe, population growth
Companies: nasa

DailyDirt: Windmills Of All Sizes

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Alternatives to fossil fuels are pretty well known, but it's hard to beat the short term returns from burning hydrocarbons that are pumped out of the ground -- which is why fossil fuels still make up about 80% of our energy supply. One of the most environmentally-friendly energy sources comes from wind turning some turbines to generate electricity, and wind power has been growing rapidly in the last few years. In 2010, wind power generated about 2.5% of worldwide electricity usage (about 430 TWh), up from just 0.1% in 1997 and projected to hit 8% by 2018. If you're interested in the creation of energy out of thin air, here are just a few links to check out.

• Extremely small windmills less than 2 mm in diameter could be used to power mobile devices. These tiny windmills could also be fabricated by the thousands on large sheets to be placed on the sides of tall buildings, too, but the researchers who made the first prototypes don't mention if it would actually be cost effective to do so. [url]
• On the other side of the spectrum, windmill blades ~1,000 feet in diameter could be generating electricity at a 20 megawatt scale in the next few decades. Commercial turbine blades have grown from diameters of just 50 feet in the 1980s to diameters of nearly 500 feet now. [url]
• The energy-generating capacity of large wind farms might have a lower limit than once thought. If the entire Earth could be covered in wind farms, some estimates say over 100 terawatts of energy could be produced, however, it wouldn't be easy to build wind farms at even a small fraction of that scale without running into significant problems. Still, wind energy is one of the most scalable renewable sources of energy known, but it could have an upper limit of just a few percent of our total energy consumption requirements. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: energy, fossil fuels, global climate change, renewable energy, turbines, wind energy, wind farms, wind power, windmills