Serious Considerations Regarding Demolishing the Isthmus of Panama
Facts that make this appear to be actually on the table
Since I thought that it might basically save the world to demolish the Isthmus of Panama, I was wondering how reasonable that would actually be. If we needed to, I’m sure an international effort of all countries could do it, but no one’s going to want to if they can barely be convinced that’s necessary and it would take every last penny and worker. In fact, it appears it would actually be quite easy technology-wise to demolish the Isthmus of Panama because… there’s apparently a giant tunnel underneath Panama just sitting there conveniently as if it wanted people to pour explosives into it or something, which probably would have a cost of near zilch since oh look, we have all these H-bombs sitting around, maybe we just put them in the hole under Panama and detonate them there once we pay way less than the national debt of the US to give everyone enough money to pick somewhere similar that won’t be blown up and leave.
'Wind' from Earth's middle layer blows through a secret passage beneath Panama | Live Science
In fact, I don’t think many people are going to want to live in Panama in the near future because… the Panama Canal is basically going out of business due to droughts brought on by climate change, which has huge repercussions for international shipping and travel, but will also have huge immediate effects on the GDP of Panama and probably quickly turn it back into somewhere so poor, no one wants to live there, not the natives, and not the retirees who really just consider it a budget version of Costa Rica anyway. The fact is everyone already doesn’t really like Panama due to it being really inconveniently located despite otherwise being a nice, warm location, so maybe no one would care if we busted it up as long as we helped make sure everyone could definitely leave well in advance.
More upheaval for global shipping as Panama Canal cuts traffic due to drought | CBC News
The rebrand from “global warming” to “climate change” to describe the effects of CO2 emissions is probably very appropriate because a planet that’s just warmer is basically what everyone would want. You don’t get horrifying tropical diseases just from being somewhere tropical, you get them from poor sanitation primarily. You have to get your shots to avoid foreign contagions and parasites, but that even applies in Europe where the cold forests are full of FSME ticks. I don’t hear anyone freak out about the idea of going somewhere warm but clean for vacation such as Jamaica or the nicer parts of Mexico or India. Never mind all the bears that are already primarily in cold places, you know, the animal that’s had its name changed several times because people were afraid of accidentally summoning it by saying it. Meanwhile one of the African exchange students I know was using lions she saw as her desktop pictures because they’re not so afraid of lions like people seem to mostly not be so afraid of wolves.
That just seems like a fear of the unknown issue people use to try to rationalize living in colder climates like Europe when everyone seems to have been driven to leave Europe due to gradually decreasing temperatures and this overwhelmingly appears to be the proximal cause behind colonialism to begin with. There’s absolutely no evidence of a “medieval warm period” in Europe and the best evidence actually says the temperature decreased steadily from at least 1000 to 1850 AD, antiquity has myths of lions because it had lions and the lions didn’t come back in the medieval period because it wasn’t really warmer. I think Europe just had a gradual decline of temperature and that was a problem, like stretching it until it snapped, and not that warm weather is somehow bad and gives you Dark Ages while cold weather gives you Renaissance. The Little Ice Age was later anyway, especially since the colonization from the Age of Exploration probably directly caused it since they killed lots of people in other countries. I think that’s just an excuse used by people who are overly sentimental about ice, barren landscapes, and having to pay for central heating and generally just afraid of the unknown.
Based on what I know, I would venture to guess Europe got colder because they developed isolationist tendencies, probably related to the Roman Empire which collapsed because they wouldn’t pay their own armies due to not being “pureblooded Romans” (the “barbarians” were literally armies that the Romans hired to protect them but underpaid, and once they realized that Rome was unguarded without them, they decided to just run in and take everything.) I think isolationist tendencies would make Europe colder as a form of anthropogenic climate change because there would be less trade, which means less development, which means the same as the likely cause of the Little Ice Age, that there would be a lot of vegetation soaking up all the warmth and making everything cold, even if that ironically kills vegetation as well. The problem seems to be proportionately more vegetation, and ironically not the conditions under which vegetation flourishes which are warmth and moisture just like for people.
If anything, Christianity probably helped Europe because it told them to evangelize instead of isolating themselves with tending the vestal flames and marrying their cousins for blood purity, and the Dark Ages were probably a period of slow recovery from the collapse of the Roman Empire, even if it was a reduced standard of living compared to what people think of as the height of the Roman Empire. The collapse was probably relatively sudden (which I think evidence bears out) but the Dark Ages were probably considerably better than the period of collapse even if it was still an incredibly low standard of living. The name mostly refers to the lack of written records anyway and the fact is, for all people including me tend to bemoan the Middle Ages, you don’t hear about much after the 1st century AD at all with regards to Rome other than just Constantine all the way in the 4th century AD unless you’re a huge history buff which I am decidedly not, I’m looking toward the future and don’t feel like the past matters all that much, to the point most people I meet probably think I’m a huge rube who’s not very educated when really I just spent all the time people spend learning history learning STEM instead and I think that’s poetic and artistic and cultured so I don’t really care.
Heat – Renewables 2019 – Analysis - IEA
The great irony of “global warming” vs. “climate change” is… 50% of CO2 emissions are from heating. Yes, you read that right. If we made the world warmer on purpose then we would probably have significantly fewer issues with CO2 ironically. Additionally, if all the snowy and icy areas had more vegetation and algae (algae convert 50% of all CO2 into oxygen) due to not being freezing then it might not matter so much how much CO2 humans release (other pollutants like PFAS, microplastics, and oil spills which just shouldn’t be there at all will continue to be reasons to hold corporations accountable for their actions.) So if warmth and humidity themselves are not actually a problem, only CO2 emissions, and Europe is basically being evacuated due to having become too cold plus Europeans finally getting the means to leave which has driven all the controversies around colonialism, I see no reason why we shouldn’t try to warm up the planet on purpose. However, I’m not trying to advocate for it quite yet, I’m just trying to advocate for people looking into it and suggesting some possible courses of action if we decide this is a good thing so it’ll look reasonable enough in the first place that people will want to look into it instead of looking like some kind of pipe dream even if they decided it is a good idea. We need to do a lot of calculations but I think it’s reasonable to consider that maybe we need a warmer planet, just not one with a bunch of CO2, and that warming it might get rid of CO2, and that this can be done by possibly collapsing a bunch of land that no one seems to want anyway which conveniently seems to have a gigantic tunnel underneath it.
Expanded from this post: