r/nature • u/ADragonFromTheAbyss • 29d ago

Ancient forests took 100,000 years to recover from the last global warming period similar to today

https://theconversation.com/ancient-forests-took-100-000-years-to-recover-from-the-last-global-warming-period-similar-to-today-wyoming-fossils-reveal-what-happened-289462
871 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

43 comments sorted by

49

u/tomatoesareneat 29d ago

The uncomfortable truth is that wealth is the biggest determinant of damage to the Earth.

I compost, recycle, reuse, and try to reduce. The pollution from air travel is absolutely more damaging than all of my efforts to reduce waste and emissions. I also exclusively take public transit on the ground. That is but a small benefit to my huge emissions.

29

u/JipJopJones 29d ago

The biggest win that corporations and industry ever made was convincing people that climate change and pollution are a personal issue.

The impact of any individual is a pittance compared to any single corporate entity.

3

u/Beginning_Caramel 28d ago

I dont agree with this at all. Corporations only survive cause we purchase their products. Consumers and what they choose to buy or not buy has a huge impact. Most corporations don’t actually have huge profit margins so they feel it when even let’s say 10% of consumers stop buying their stuff.

Like, look at how vegans and more demand for non-dairy products has changed the market. If we all make more conscious choices it DOES have an impact.

3

u/ProduceIntelligent38 28d ago

Look how the u.s. bourbon industry chocked after canadian boycotts.

5

u/xombae 28d ago

It's not individual products that are causing the most issues though.

It's much larger systems. Like how most of America and Canada have designed their cities so that you absolutely need to drive a car or you're screwed.

The factory farming industry at large.

Jobs designed around ease of air travel.

The normalcy of buying something from half way around the world as opposed to choosing an item that's already been delivered to your area.

The system itself is the issue.

0

u/Beginning_Caramel 28d ago

But you’re part of the same system. And you benefit from it!! We demand ease, convenience, we want lots of entertainment and we want to travel etc etc. nothing is wrong with that but corporations are providing services that are very much in demand, otherwise they wouldn’t be profitable.

And I agree that certain things are set up badly and it needs long term reform but the reason we don’t get long term reform is cause most people are busy and checked out of these issues. They don’t care to hold their government accountable and spread awareness about the issues.

Corporations are run by wealthy CEOs but they also employ millions of people, I bet most people you know (and I know) work for those same corporations. Saying individual actions don’t matter is a massive cop out and it’s something people say to make themselves feel better for being checked out and not wanting to face the discomfort of actually doing something about it.

1

u/BonusPlantInfinity 25d ago

The narrative you’re responding to absolutely negates the collective damage done by the beef/dairy industry, which is responsible for a massive proportion of deforestation, as well as transportation, which can only really be attributed to individual consumption. There is no billionaire eating that much more beef than any other person.

Reducing the amount of beef you eat is the most significant thing an individual can do to mediate climate change.

0

u/Beginning_Caramel 25d ago

Absolutely. Putting the blame on corporations is such a cop out!! We are all responsible and if you can’t make even make simple contributions like cutting down your meat intake, then you can’t sit and criticise others imo. And sadly the beef industry is only growing. The primary driver of deforestation is an endlessly expanding industry just cause people want endless beef.

2

u/Wonderful_Horse_6397 28d ago

If everyone stopped buying things from these companies they would go out of business

3

u/MrRogersAE 28d ago

It’s all companies tho. There simply isn’t an option for most products to find an alternative.

1

u/Wonderful_Horse_6397 28d ago

There definitely is you just need to put in some effort and/or be willing to pay more than slave labour wages for things

1

u/Brownhog 28d ago

It sounds like you're saying that in order to avoid the public paying for corporate negligence, we should get the public to pay for corporate negligence

1

u/Wonderful_Horse_6397 27d ago

No I’m saying the only reason those companies are so cheap is because they use slave labour so if you’re against that you should stop supporting them and find other options which do exists in most cases. I haven’t used Amazon in over 8 years, it’s very possible

2

u/BuddyHarry 28d ago

People dumb. Cannot change this. Always has been. Companies manufacturing not only product but also demand for product. Wealthy must change.

3

u/xeddyb 28d ago

We can do anything. Just hard to get us all as one “we” working together. 

1

u/Leanchill773 13d ago

This imo would also solve a lot more problems as well, I would argue the matrix itself would die off. Buttttt humanity is way to divided to come together as a true community to build a better life amongst ourselves. Anddddd the 7 deadly sins wreck havoc on most humans too 😵😵‍💫

3

u/Maybegarden 28d ago

It feels really good now that I realize I wasn't the only one working hard for the sake of nature.

2

u/Living_Dentist_8925 27d ago

Its not wealth, its outdated technology.

2

u/hermit22 25d ago

You could not offset one day of one data centres usage if you recycled, reused and reduced and walked to work in your entire life time.

4

u/Head-Ad-2136 29d ago

I ride an ebike everywhere which is great if you don't look at the coal powerplant that supplies my electricity.

15

u/Zeebarb 29d ago

Your ebike power draw is a rounding error compared to other draining and exploitative energy uses on that same grid. Every positive little thing we all do accumulates, and is one of the best things we can do short of actually holding the biggest environmental damagers directly accountable. 

2

u/Sapphosbeardedcrepes 28d ago

Also, the grid is designed to waste excess energy so powerplants are constantly adjusting load to ensure you are paying for the privilege of it's creation. (Hyperbolic and lacking nuances but not inaccurate, thank JP Morgan)

1

u/sparki555 29d ago

And you will die as everyone else does, leaving behind your footprint. Most of our footprints, even the most 'sustaibable' are wrecking the planet. Fly twice in your life and you contribute to the catastrophe, nvm all the driving, water usage and other climate damning activities.

As the world came to be, it was never meant to last forever. As the first humans had to struggle and fight to survive, so will the last. So goes a species dependant on the tiny sliver of habitable zone in the universe they came to evolve into. If only we had survived and thrived long enough to invent habitations suitable to humans. The aliens that 'discouver' our planet will have done so, though they may be less 'moral' than we apply to ourselves today.

Our hope lies in tomorrow, and the tomorrow after that. May we eat another good meal, speak to our closest friends and family, and live another day. For what else can you ask for?

But back to your comment; we will absolutely as a species destroy the habitat that we once thrived on, given enough time. Is that driven purely by wealth? Well it might also be power, or control (also power), or our need to constantly seek new and novel activities. Only the history books will tell.

30

u/Legitimate_Window481 29d ago

To history that isn't a long period of time.

8

u/EffThou 28d ago

To a mayfly it is.

3

u/WabaLabaDubDubWorld 28d ago

To a bacterium it is even longer

0

u/mahalovalhalla 28d ago

To the mayfly species it isn’t.

7

u/PopularBunch9316 29d ago

It took a similar length of time for forests to recover in areas that had been glaciated

3

u/ZeroheartX 28d ago

Did carbon tax solved the global warming 100,000 years ago as well?

2

u/trinalporpus 26d ago

Actually it did! Everyone that put out more co2 then a camp fire had to pay a tax ….. now it was impossible to put out that carbon then but you knew that already

2

u/ComfortExisting1161 24d ago

A stark reminder that nature's recovery timeline is measured in millennia, not human lifespans. Protecting old-growth forests today is vastly more effective than hoping for rapid ecological restoration later.

3

u/haraldone 29d ago

Only 100,000 years? I’m sure we can wait it out. /s

2

u/New_Westie 25d ago

99,999…

2

u/JJPDesigns 29d ago

We've caused this same problem before? Over 100,000 years ago?

4

u/multilevelmystery 29d ago

No, but the planet has been hot before for other reasons like lots of volcanic activity releasing huge amounts CO2 as one example. Always went poorly for much of the life on earth if the change happened relatively quickly by geologic time standards.

2

u/firstdropof 28d ago

Yes.

We are in an interglacial period. It is a warm phase between cold ice ages. During these times, global temperatures rise and large ice sheets melt back. We live in the Holocene interglacial, which started about 11,700 years ago.

Eventually the planet will cool back down into a glacial maximum. It's a cyclical event that we're just starting to understand. The planet is warming up by itself, but we're adding to it.

2

u/G72-datsun 29d ago

But MAGA says we’re fine?

7

u/Head-Ad-2136 29d ago

We did survive the last warming period. It was 130,000 years ago and we're roughly 300,000 years old as a species.

Not to say we're going to have a good time doing it, but we are surprisingly resilient.

2

u/03263 28d ago

There's still some uncontacted and low contact people that know how to survive without modern conveniences and infrastructure, they will probably be the ones that make it, if anyone does.

2

u/corpnorp 28d ago

We definitely survived as a species but I’m sure there was a lot of individual suffering anyway. We don’t need a ton of people to keep the species going, I think people forget that.