HN Explorer

16 comments

[ 7.7 ms ] story [ 146 ms ] thread
gardenfelder
There is a temperature-photosynthesis curve (googles well)

>A small fraction of tropical tree leaves already pass the threshold, scientists estimate, and that number could grow under worst-case climate models.

ugur2nd
What is the solution? How can it be solved? The first thing that came to my mind was to take actions to increase the population of photosynthesizing sea creatures.
petre
Algae blooms? It will naturally happen anyway at some point but green water is not pretty and it stinks. I don't want to imagine oceans turning into the Black Sea.
ugur2nd
Ok, I see. I'm just brainstroming.
jschveibinz
According to evolutionary reasoning, some tropical trees will still be able to photosynthesize in tropical regions. Those will become the dominant species.

It will be the same order of business for all life on a warmer earth. Will humans thrive? Perhaps not. But some species will thrive.

tmhn2
> some tropical trees will still be able to photosynthesize in tropical regions. Those will become the dominant species.

Unless the environmental changes happen too fast for adaptation to keep up with--the tree of life can have dead ends.

seeknotfind
Not necessarily adaptation. It may be a selection and reduction of existing biodiversity.
tmhn2
Right. What "reduction in biodiversity" means is that some species will adapt fast enough and some won't. Unfortunately, there is no lower limit to "reduction in biodiversity".
toasted-subs
Getting hotter because all the developers are chopping down trees.