[extropy-chat] Climate skepticism patterns

[Anders Sandberg]

Harry Harrison wrote:
> This argument, about the poles, is obviously untrue. Since there are no
> local energy
> sources worth speaking of on the land, energy must be obtained from
> members who
> have come from elsewhere -- i.e the from sea and frequently the distant
> sea,
> making the poles the most ecologically dependent places on earth.

No, this is not true. Energy is provided by the sun, as everywhere else.
The productivity of the arctic seas is quite significant despite the long
polar nights and low solar angle. 24 hour sunlight makes the algae grow
quite well, in turn feeding huge amounts of krill. In fact, during summer
months the antarctic upwellings have among the highest primary
productivity anywhere on earth.

Since as a rough rule of thumb the amount of biomass decreases with one
order of magnitude for every trophic level you go up in the ecosystem, you
can imagine the total mass of Antarctic penguins (an enormous, cute and
fish-smelling pile). At their side is a ten times bigger pile of fish.
Beside that there is a hundred times larger pile of krill. And towering
above them there is a thousand times larger pile of algae.

In fact, the simpler ecosystems in the arctics are the reason the numbers
of most arctic species are larger than one would expect. There are simply
fewer species to share the same trophic level.

-- 
Anders Sandberg,
Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics
Philosophy Faculty of Oxford University