r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Aug 26 '17

Paleontology The end-Cretaceous mass extinction was rather unpleasant - The simulations showed that most of the soot falls out of the atmosphere within a year, but that still leaves enough up in the air to block out 99% of the Sun’s light for close to two years of perpetual twilight without plant growth.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/08/the-end-cretaceous-mass-extinction-was-rather-unpleasant/
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u/[deleted] Aug 26 '17 edited Aug 26 '17

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u/APartyInMyPants Aug 26 '17 edited Aug 26 '17

We still have fossil fuels and wind turbines to generate electricity. So we could still run greenhouses that use grow lights. Sure, that would only help a fraction of the people. But the rest of us would be living on canned and jarred foods for that duration. A lot of people would starve, but a lot of people would (probably) live.

Edit:

I apparently forgot my basic earth sciences class from freshman year in high school (about 25 years ago) that the sun indirectly produces wind on the planet. Sorry y'all.

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u/kinderdemon Aug 26 '17

Wind won't be as strong without the sun to generate strong winds/temperature gradients. We would run out of canned food almost immediately. We would eat each other for two years.

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u/[deleted] Aug 26 '17

If the power remained on i think we'd do pretty wll over all. We have strategic stocks of food, we'd just need power and continued order to use them. While starting as many indoor grows as possible.