How much O2 will be left?
For those who haven’t noticed. There is currently a discussion about melting permafrost on Azimuth. If frozen soil is melted then usually greenhouse gases are going to be emitted. So in this context (comment on Azimuth) I was raising again the question to which extend the melting of permafrost could not only lead to more CO2 in the air but also induce a reagression of O2 (which may e.g. be due to a sudden expansion of aerobic organisms)*. If someone knows more about this then please comment here or on Azimuth.
*I am not sure, but I think such a mechanism may have led to the abort of a simulation for studying the colonization of Mars.
September 25th, 2013 at 8:26 am
Seeing that airplane – I think everybody should take a good look in the mirror before critizising. So having read that you are rather tall it would be interesting for me to hear from you wether you would favourize an additional charge for tall people in airplanes. Finally they are on average heavier, take up more volume, suck in more air etc.
By the way overall it seems being a tall blonde seems to be rather an atavistic feature. That is tall people use up more energy and space in airplanes, trains, houses, clothing etc. and tall blonds get easier fat too. That makes it even worse. And as we know from the dinosaurs – being tall doesn’t necessary mean to have a bigger brain in terms of intelligence. Don’t understand me wrong, I don’t want to sound rassistic, this should just be understood as a matter of fact discussion of atavistic body features.
September 25th, 2013 at 11:59 am
@GI-bee Germans have always been obsessed with the tall and also with the blond and blue eyed. Their leaders had decorated themselves with having them as their personal guards. So yes I think this discussion is needed.
Like King Frederick William I used to have the Potsdam Giants and Hitler had his Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler. Wikipedia writes about that Leibstandarte:
September 29th, 2013 at 8:12 pm
@GI-Bee and Neutral
I’ll eventually try to reply more later.
I am not blond and there are of course even tall black people, like
for example this week-ends Berlin marathon world record winner:
Wilson
Kipsang Kiprotich.
As I understood amongst others you wanted to hear about my flight carbon footprint. I travelled this year for a vacation by airplane within Europe, if I remember correctly, the last pure vacation flights without any working aspect before that were in 2001 to Crete and eventually one or two return flights to London for visiting my sister (I think one visit I combined with going to a math workshop).
Moreover in that 12 years I had 3 long distance return flights to the US and Japan and in between for work reasons and about 4 or 5 within Europe. I try to reduce my life time’s carbon footprint and as everybody I find it not easy. And as one can already see at my private balance – modern work conditions make it especially difficult.
Concerning tallness in airplanes: to my knowledge there are already extra charges on very excessive body weight. There are though sicknesses related to excessive body weight. So this approach sounds just a little bit more fair than charging for tallness. That is I can’t chop of body parts just like that. Moreover squeezing onto an economy class seat is already quite a punishment for someone with long legs. And I think it is a good thing that there are now top-notch surgical stockings designed by swedish supporters for that purpose.
I do think that it is legitimate that if someone says one should reduce carbon footprints than this person should also start at him or herself and in particular monitor what is feasible and what not and why and change behaviour if this is somewhat in reach. That is a preacher shouldn’t preach water and drink wine, but I have the feeling that preaching may here be the wrong approach. In particular I do think one shouldn’t make low carbon living as an exclusive prerequisite for talking about what should be done. Finally fat people know that they should cut down on eating even if they don’t do so themselves and to tell them they shouldn’t preach healthy living if they are fat doesn’t seem the right approach.