<story><title>Scientists In Alaska Find Mammoth Amounts Of Carbon In The Warming Permafrost</title><url>https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/01/24/575220206/is-there-a-ticking-time-bomb-under-the-arctic</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>goatlover</author><text>No, the Earth has been a lot warmer and colder in the past. We&amp;#x27;ve had massive volcanoes going off for thousands of years, we&amp;#x27;ve had iceball earth, we&amp;#x27;ve had crocodiles and palm trees in the arctic.&lt;p&gt;The Earth&amp;#x27;s systems always balance out over the long run. We don&amp;#x27;t stay trapped in ice ages or hot phases.</text></item><item><author>jjoonathan</author><text>Are there credible models that suggest Earth will turn into Venus or something? It would take a hell of a lot more to end humanity than it would take to &amp;quot;merely&amp;quot; hurt&amp;#x2F;kill the most vulnerable segments of our population (which is what I thought the stakes were).</text></item><item><author>mr_overalls</author><text>The sad thing is that scientists have understood the risks of global warming for decades, and yet our civilization (maybe I&amp;#x27;m just speaking for the US here) seems impotent to effectively coordinate a response to this slow-motion threat.&lt;p&gt;It could be our own Great Filter.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Great_Filter&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Great_Filter&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>corpMaverick</author><text>It is not just a bomb that can blow the arctic. It can destroy all human civilization. And at this point, we may have lost any ability to do anything.&lt;p&gt;Edit:
Doom scale...&lt;p&gt;1 Inconvenient storms.&lt;p&gt;2 More frequent natural disasters.&lt;p&gt;3 Destroying coastal cities.&lt;p&gt;4 Causing hunger, wars and mass migrations.&lt;p&gt;5 Decimating human population.&lt;p&gt;6 Destroying human civilization.&lt;p&gt;7 Destroying all humans on earth.&lt;p&gt;8 Destroying all life on earth.&lt;p&gt;9 Destroying earth.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>LargeWu</author><text>The difference is that civilization is a comparatively new development, and nobody really knows how that&amp;#x27;s going to fare in the face of all this. The human cost is likely to be staggering.</text></comment>
<story><title>Scientists In Alaska Find Mammoth Amounts Of Carbon In The Warming Permafrost</title><url>https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/01/24/575220206/is-there-a-ticking-time-bomb-under-the-arctic</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>goatlover</author><text>No, the Earth has been a lot warmer and colder in the past. We&amp;#x27;ve had massive volcanoes going off for thousands of years, we&amp;#x27;ve had iceball earth, we&amp;#x27;ve had crocodiles and palm trees in the arctic.&lt;p&gt;The Earth&amp;#x27;s systems always balance out over the long run. We don&amp;#x27;t stay trapped in ice ages or hot phases.</text></item><item><author>jjoonathan</author><text>Are there credible models that suggest Earth will turn into Venus or something? It would take a hell of a lot more to end humanity than it would take to &amp;quot;merely&amp;quot; hurt&amp;#x2F;kill the most vulnerable segments of our population (which is what I thought the stakes were).</text></item><item><author>mr_overalls</author><text>The sad thing is that scientists have understood the risks of global warming for decades, and yet our civilization (maybe I&amp;#x27;m just speaking for the US here) seems impotent to effectively coordinate a response to this slow-motion threat.&lt;p&gt;It could be our own Great Filter.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Great_Filter&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Great_Filter&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>corpMaverick</author><text>It is not just a bomb that can blow the arctic. It can destroy all human civilization. And at this point, we may have lost any ability to do anything.&lt;p&gt;Edit:
Doom scale...&lt;p&gt;1 Inconvenient storms.&lt;p&gt;2 More frequent natural disasters.&lt;p&gt;3 Destroying coastal cities.&lt;p&gt;4 Causing hunger, wars and mass migrations.&lt;p&gt;5 Decimating human population.&lt;p&gt;6 Destroying human civilization.&lt;p&gt;7 Destroying all humans on earth.&lt;p&gt;8 Destroying all life on earth.&lt;p&gt;9 Destroying earth.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>twostoned</author><text>There&amp;#x27;s a really good George Carlin bit in one of his stand-ups about how the earth will be fine. Something along the lines of what you&amp;#x27;re saying; earthquakes, volcanoes, solar flares, etc. She&amp;#x27;s been around for a looong time folks. It&amp;#x27;s humanity that might be in for a bad day.</text></comment>