Slashdot Mirror
Carbon-Emitting Soil Could Speed Global Warming, Warns 26-Year Study (theguardian.com)
An anonymous reader quote the Guardian:
Warming soil releases more carbon into the atmosphere than previously thought, suggesting a potentially disastrous feedback mechanism whereby increases in global temperatures will trigger massive new carbon releases in a cycle that may be impossible to break... The 26-year study is one of the biggest of its kind, and is a groundbreaking addition to our scant knowledge of exactly how warming will affect natural systems. Potential feedback loops, or tipping points, have long been suspected to exist by scientists, and there is some evidence for them in the geological record. What appears to happen is that once warming reaches a certain point, these natural biological factors kick in and can lead to a runaway, and potentially unstoppable, increase in warming...
In the Science study, researchers examined plots of soil in the Harvard Forest in Massachusetts, a mixed hardwood forest in the U.S. They experimented by heating some of the plots with underground cables to 5C above normal levels, leaving others as a control. The long-term study revealed that in the first 10 years there was a strong increase in the carbon released from the heated plots, then a period of about seven years when the carbon release abated. But after this second calmer period, which the scientists attribute to the adjustment of the soil microbes to the warmer conditions, the release of carbon resumed its upward path. From 1991, when the experiment began, the plots subjected to 5C warming lost about 17% of the carbon that had been stored in the top 60cm of the soil, where the greatest concentration of organic matter is to be found...
Lead scientist Jerry Melillo, points out that currently 10 billion metric tons of carbon gets released into the atmosphere every year, but "The world's soils contain about 3,500 billion tons of carbon. If a significant amount of that is added to the atmosphere, due to microbial activity, that will accelerate the global warming process. Once this self-reinforcing feedback begins, there is no easy way to turn it off. There is no switch to flip."
In the Science study, researchers examined plots of soil in the Harvard Forest in Massachusetts, a mixed hardwood forest in the U.S. They experimented by heating some of the plots with underground cables to 5C above normal levels, leaving others as a control. The long-term study revealed that in the first 10 years there was a strong increase in the carbon released from the heated plots, then a period of about seven years when the carbon release abated. But after this second calmer period, which the scientists attribute to the adjustment of the soil microbes to the warmer conditions, the release of carbon resumed its upward path. From 1991, when the experiment began, the plots subjected to 5C warming lost about 17% of the carbon that had been stored in the top 60cm of the soil, where the greatest concentration of organic matter is to be found...
Lead scientist Jerry Melillo, points out that currently 10 billion metric tons of carbon gets released into the atmosphere every year, but "The world's soils contain about 3,500 billion tons of carbon. If a significant amount of that is added to the atmosphere, due to microbial activity, that will accelerate the global warming process. Once this self-reinforcing feedback begins, there is no easy way to turn it off. There is no switch to flip."
But you had to sit on it... well, now itâ(TM)s too late.
If you think banning bump stocks would have stopped that guy... then I don't think you've been paying attention.
The guy set up a whole video surveillance system around his hotel room. He planned everything out for months.
Let us say we outright banned guns entirely... do you think criminals wouldn't have guns?
Naturally they would. The Mexican Cartels have them and guns are actually pretty hard to legally own in mexico. And yet the cartels have machine guns and whatever else they want.
Most gun homocides are committed with ILLEGAL guns already. Its mostly inner city drug and gang violence. And gangbangers do not go through background checks to buy guns. They buy black market guns off the street often with the serial numbers filed off. They're not hard to find or buy.
Look at the war on drugs for another example of how utterly pointless this idea is... have you been able to get crack off the streets? Heroin? Nope. Why? Because there is a market for it and you can't fight the market. The Soviet Union couldn't fight the market. There is a black market in maximum security prison. You can buy drugs and get cell phones and other stuff in SUPER MAX PRISON. So.... you think you can control the market on the streets of the USA? Ha. Ha. Ha.
Passing laws will effect LAW ABIDING americans. However, Criminals are going to break laws because... they're "criminals". And guess what, methodical mass murderers that plan out their rampages years in advance are going to go on a rampage no matter what thing you ban. They'll just kill you with something else.
We have seen mass murders done with all sorts of weapons... Cars, fires, air planes, bombs, knives, poison gas, and even that whole anthrax thing.
We've seen people blow up buildings with fertilizer. Exactly where do you think this ends?
Look... you ban what you want. I don't really care about bump stocks. Ban em'. But it won't make any difference.
And while you're doing that, keep in mind that in the urban heart of every major city in the USA there are HUNDREDS of murders in EACH city every year. Urban drug and gang violence... mostly black and Hispanic men killing other black and Hispanic men... Assuming anyone wants to go all BLM on this issue.
Anyone care about that? Someone dies in those neighborhoods almost every day in every city in this country.
They kill each other with illegal guns, knives, or just beat each other to death. My city has about 600 murders per year... most of the death comes out of those neighborhoods... roughly 80 percent. Tiny fraction of the total population. Its a war zone.
But you care about that, right?
Why don't you pass law to actually ENFORCE existing gun laws by going after illegal guns? Take some of the illegal guns off the streets. Going after the millions of law abiding and overwhelmingly peaceful people that own guns simply because some random psycho goes on a rampage every so often is irrational. You're not going to stop men like this by attacking law abiding people. We're not the ones that go on rampages. And all things being equal, you want us armed rather than not. Because the criminals and psychos will be armed. Wouldn't it be nice if people that weren't criminals and psychos were also armed?
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
Exactly. You're not going to stop people like that by going after law abiding common people. The methodical psychos get off in part on getting around the laws. its in part a game for these people. People have gone on rampages pretty much in every country except literal police states. And even then, people might go on rampages but who would know given that there isn't a free press to report on it.
Remember that huge explosion in china that took out like four city blocks? Anyone know exactly what happened there? You never will know. You've got official government reports that can't really be totally trusted... period full stop.
Look, the occasional maniac can't be stopped. Its impossible. Ban all the guns and these people will just drive a gasoline semi truck into a TGI Fridays and detonate it while masturbating from the other side of the road.
If you want to save lives, do something about the urban drug and gang violence. Or maybe look at the suicides which make up about 60 percent of all gun deaths.
Instead what does everyone focus on? Cops killing people which makes up less than a percent of homicides... and the maniac shooters which makes up less than a percent of a percent of a percent of homicides.
Its dumb. If we care about saving lives, we'll focus on something else. If we're trying to use a a tragedy to fuel a divergent agenda then we'll talk about this vegas bullshit as if getting rid of bump stocks will do anything.
We're in the age of the 3d printer, kids. It won't be long before everyone has any gun they want in their garage.
Think.
They didn't stop booze by banning it. They didn't stop drugs by banning them. You haven't made any progress at doing anything with guns by banning them. And very soon things are going to hilarious with the advent of increasingly sophisticated 3d printers.
And for people to not get this on slashdot... silly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
3d printed full metal 1911 pistol.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
You realize you just responded to an AC troll, right?
You are welcome on my lawn.
Switzerland has a law requiring all men in a certain age range to be armed. Any mass shootings in Switzerland that you know of?
France bans guns. Didn't help the people who worked at Charlie Hebdo.
No-one on this planet needs access to an automatic rifle of any kind at home, only if you are in the forces so you require this kind of weapon.
Fuck you. The whole 20th century is a lesson in what governments do to unarmed populations.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."