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Is "Negative Emissions" Even Attainable?
(www.theguardian.com)
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this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2023
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Yeah, that may be unsustainable. Norway's seed vault is already threatened by thawing permafrost...
[https://time.com/5177165/climate-change-threatens-norway-seed-vault/](from 2018)
Well, it's a matter of funding. Like the article mentions they actually got it to flood-proof the vault.
We could fix every problem at present if we wanted to, it's just a (very non-trivial) matter of if we will. Hopefully cute clownfish can sell some rich bozos on an indoor reef. Heat-resistant coral algae is another promising approach. On the other hand, random tropical insects are pretty fucked.
I don't think that flood-proof is a thing, but their heart is in the right place.
And it's true that with sufficient wherewithal, most problems could be fixed. The solutions are certainly non-trivial and will be unthinkably expensive.
I mean, boats and submarines do it. Keeping seeds viable in the naturally cold arctic isn't the hugest engineering problem really.
Imagine if we could react to climate change with the same urgency as Covid. I imagine we could replace all the old powerplants in a few years, and all the old cars in 10. The thing is, that's just not going to happen.
Yes, boats and submarines flood. And the conditions at both polar regions are changing more dramatically than anywhere else. There are lakes bubbling methane from melted permafrost in Siberia and Alaska. Norway is already too warm to have glaciers.
I agree that It is completely possible to transition to zero emissions in just a few years. The process would be painful, disruptive, and cost $50 trillion. There's a shot if it starts next week. It may be too late.
I don't think there's a scenario where even the arctic is too hot to survive in. Keep in mind it's not in normal Norway, it's on the island of Svalbard, which is closer to the North Pole than anything and IIRC has an average temperature of -15C pretty much year-round. Assuming the arctic continues warming at 4x the global average it won't start reaching thawing temperature on the surface until 4 degrees warming.
Plus, the cold is nice but seeds can actually last a really long time even at room temperature. I'm reminded of the date tree seed they found and successfully planted after a couple of millennia in Israel.
I'm kind of a doomer but that specific one seems both doable and actually being done.
Temperatures up to 10C
Wow, I remembered that seriously wrong, sorry! Man, that gulf current is crazy. Svalbard is just about as far north as it gets.
I think my point still stands, though.