Global Warming

Old Duck

Old Duck
Whenever "art", be it a movie or TV series or video game, forces a political or social statement into the narrative, it can backfire. I'm a firm believer in global warming / climate change, but I have a problem with this:

DOGrszNWsAEnEFt.jpg:large


What's my problem? By 3303, we have terraformed Mars! If humans have the technology to bring a completely dead and dry planet to life, surely we have the technology to restore CO2 to pre-industrial levels, thus restoring lost, valuable landmass on 'Earth Prime'. If anything, we should have more land by 3303, not less. I mean, China is building islands today in 2017!

And for people who think 3303 is eons into the future, it's no different than 731 AD but in the opposite direction. I'm pretty sure earth wasn't radically different back then, even with various climate changing events (volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, etc) over the last 1286 years.

/rant
 

RidingTheFlow

RidingTheFlow
It was changed, but then it was terraformed back to "classic look" due to nostalgia & tourism lobby ;) It's a "listed planet".
 
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Macy

Macy
1286 years is a blip of time for a planet. We think of the Pyramids as ancient but they're just 5000 years old approx. A planet works on millions of years. Maybe they did fix the atmosphere but it could take thousands of years to correct itself. Or maybe once a climate has shifted to a different state it doesn't change back. Dunno. Interesting tho.
 

ChiefRedCloud

ChiefRedCloud
Kind of looks like their map of America is slightly flawed even for global warming .... But I'm glad I didn't retire in Florida ... seems like the realestate is awash ... not to mention the Great Lakes moving ...

Chief
 

Allitnil

Allitnil
Old Duck said:
What's my problem? By 3303, we have terraformed Mars! If humans have the technology to bring a completely dead and dry planet to life, surely we have the technology to restore CO2 to pre-industrial levels, thus restoring lost, valuable landmass on 'Earth Prime'.
Click to expand...
[3303 mode]

Is it possible? Yes, of course. Lowering the planet's temperature to capture more of the water in the polar ice caps is fairly trivial these days although the side effects of even relatively minor terraforming would be rather horrendous for an already populous planet. But even without those, by cooling the planet we would just be recreating the massive and disastrous upheavals that occurred in the 21st and 22nd centuries. Sure, we would gain twice as much prime real estate as we would lose, but try selling that idea to those who live in the areas to be deliberately sacrificed. If there is one thing we learnt from the global warming fiasco, it is that those in charge live and - all too often, literally, as it came to pass - die by sitting by and watching the masses lose their homes and livelihoods.

[/3303 mode]
 

Ralph Vargr

Ralph Vargr
Allitnil said:
[3303 mode]

Is it possible? Yes, of course. Lowering the planet's temperature to capture more of the water in the polar ice caps is fairly trivial these days although the side effects of even relatively minor terraforming would be rather horrendous for an already populous planet. But even without those, by cooling the planet we would just be recreating the massive and disastrous upheavals that occurred in the 21st and 22nd centuries. Sure, we would gain twice as much prime real estate as we would lose, but try selling that idea to those who live in the areas to be deliberately sacrificed. If there is one thing we learnt from the global warming fiasco, it is that those in charge live and - all too often, literally, as it came to pass - die by sitting by and watching the masses lose their homes and livelihoods.

[/3303 mode]
Click to expand...

I don't have a problem with your analysis. :)

Bartizan said:
Would we really miss Florida? If you ever been there you would not. =)
Click to expand...

There's a news site with a "Florida" tag, that would. :)

Sandra Day O'Conner, Katherine Harris, and George W. Bush would have a problem with this, too. :)
 

Old Duck

Old Duck
Jukelo said:
This was Earth in FFE

http://www.frontierastro.co.uk/Earth/brown_earth.gif
Click to expand...

krylite said:
Exactly. It was explained the Earth was in some sort of geological disarray in FFE circa 3250 ( some accident since Elite2:Frontier ), so it's only been 53 years since. So probably the terraforming restoration is still ongoing. The Earth is also mainly considered a tourist and preserved historical planet.
Click to expand...

Limoncello Lizard said:
Earth was terraformed back to the same state it was 1200 years earlier, in 2103.

Or do you think they should have gone back further?
Click to expand...

I was unaware of this particular "lore" that makes earth look like that. What am I seeing in those Commodore graphics - complete "smog" covering the earth, or a waterless planet like Mars?

As for how to "restore" the earth, yes, I think it makes sense to take the earth back to pre-global warming days. You all realize if our world continues to warm, it's not just rising oceans we'll have to worry about. I'm not going to go into a geology and climatology lesson, as I'm not qualified, but there are many things about our world that is preferable in its current (or better yet, pre-industrialized) state - weather, agriculture, sea life, etc. But, if you all believe we'll get along just fine without the polar ice caps (and thus warm oceans), then "Drill, baby, drill!"

The other point I would make is that we humans are notorious for making land at the coastal edges of our countries. New York and Boston are prime examples, and of course I could go on and on, but the point is, our continental shelves are not going to change in 1000 years, so I'm pretty sure we'd terraform our earth "the whole way back", because the current(ish) climatological model 'just works' for us humans, and it gives us more land! I'm pretty sure "land" is valuable in 3303 ;)

I quote all this science mainly because I want to be an astronaut and see "my" earth, LOL. Even Kirk and Picard got to see earth "as-is", at least I think they did...
 
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Arry

Arry
Old Duck said:
Whenever "art", be it a movie or TV series or video game, forces a political or social statement into the narrative, it can backfire. I'm a firm believer in global warming / climate change, but I have a problem with this:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DOGrszNWsAEnEFt.jpg:large

What's my problem? By 3303, we have terraformed Mars! If humans have the technology to bring a completely dead and dry planet to life, surely we have the technology to restore CO2 to pre-industrial levels, thus restoring lost, valuable landmass on 'Earth Prime'. If anything, we should have more land by 3303, not less. I mean, China is building islands today in 2017!

And for people who think 3303 is eons into the future, it's no different than 731 AD but in the opposite direction. I'm pretty sure earth wasn't radically different back then, even with various climate changing events (volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, etc) over the last 1286 years.

/rant
Click to expand...
Yes we have the technology to replace the CO2, the US has a whole business making said machines. That is part of the argument against lowering CO2 output; because they can fix it with machines. It would be simpler to keep the trees and plant some more.

Also: Yes China etc are reclaiming land from the sea. However: If you add to the land, the sea level would simply rise and we would lose land elsewhere.
 
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