There's far too much mention of climate science and carbon sequestration in the article. I appreciate that it does also note the importance of forested wetlands as habitats for organisms, but this should be without question the primary emphasis. I really worry that we're creating a generation of humans that think that the value of natural habitats primarily has to do with their effects on the climate.
Whenever I see wetlands + people hiking around + satellite measurement I am reminded of Mandelbrot and fractals. It was one of Mandelbrot's classic examples.
There's a sort of inverse relationship between distance (O(r^1)) of a coastline and area (O(r^2)) of a coastline, or wetland, where the distance increases as the man walks compared to how the satellite flies (O(r^1.x)) and the area of the wetland decreases (O(r^(2-x))).
It is put forward in the HN title that (some) wetlands are missing, but at satellite scale there are probably areas which are deemed wetland which aren't if you actually go and hike the ground. Mandelbrot's thesis is that if you go hike the whole thing to identify all of that missing wetland and do an honest job tossing out what's not wetland you will end up with a net decrease in wetland area compared to satellite scale.
The article itself doesn't really go into why what they're saying is wetlands actually is. There's not really any definition of wetlands that I'm aware that's based on carbon content of the soil rather than it being based on water content either directly (like measuring water with satellite imagery) or indirectly (that only certain fauna can grow due to persistent high water content in the soil).
The word "methane" doesn't appear once in that article. Any time you bury organic material in anoxic conditions you can get anaerobic decomposition, which makes methane. In the short term methane is a very powerful greenhouse gas.
The problem is that the Sun is significantly brighter now than it used to be back then, so the amount of heating from the same amount of methane/co2 is proportionally more now too
I know we talk about warming and the same copypasta doom gloom but...
Lately I like imagining the Earth like a Human Body. Staying hydratated is very healthy. Our maps are like an MRI scan to see where the humans are and all the healthy earth organs that taste like opportunities and sadly unpalletable money salad.
Mapping is very important! I hope an AI gets trained soon on honest satellite data so it can empathize and expand our view of maps. Like our roads are dry crusty scabs but in Earth scale they can heal and peal off too :)
Readit News
There's a sort of inverse relationship between distance (O(r^1)) of a coastline and area (O(r^2)) of a coastline, or wetland, where the distance increases as the man walks compared to how the satellite flies (O(r^1.x)) and the area of the wetland decreases (O(r^(2-x))).
It is put forward in the HN title that (some) wetlands are missing, but at satellite scale there are probably areas which are deemed wetland which aren't if you actually go and hike the ground. Mandelbrot's thesis is that if you go hike the whole thing to identify all of that missing wetland and do an honest job tossing out what's not wetland you will end up with a net decrease in wetland area compared to satellite scale.
Atmospheric methane was abundant billions of years ago. Then somehow life appears and transforms the composition of our atmosphere.
Now humans are terraforming us back towards the initial stage.
Life itself is very much this: one giant, ongoing, turbulent chemical reaction, brewing in a pot the size of a planet.
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Lately I like imagining the Earth like a Human Body. Staying hydratated is very healthy. Our maps are like an MRI scan to see where the humans are and all the healthy earth organs that taste like opportunities and sadly unpalletable money salad.
Mapping is very important! I hope an AI gets trained soon on honest satellite data so it can empathize and expand our view of maps. Like our roads are dry crusty scabs but in Earth scale they can heal and peal off too :)
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