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posted by martyb on Monday February 17 2020, @08:50AM   Printer-friendly
from the Bring-on-the-bottled-air dept.

The world's carbon-dioxide problem doesn't just affect the atmosphere — the gas is starting to fill our homes, schools, and offices, too.

Indoor levels of the gas are projected to climb so high, in fact, that they could cut people's ability to do complex cognitive tasks in half by the end of the century.

That prediction comes from three scientists from the University of Colorado Boulder and the University of Pennsylvania, who presented their findings last week at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union. The study is still under peer review but available online in the repository Earth ArXiv.

The findings show that, if global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions continue to rise on their current trajectory, the concentration of CO2 in the air could more than double by 2100. Based on measurements of how humans function in spaces with that much CO2, the scientists warn, we could find ourselves scoring 50% lower on measures of complex thought by the end of the century.


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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2020, @09:53AM (23 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2020, @09:53AM (#959097)

    Not sure how every commenter but you (and I) are not understanding this.

    CO^2 is not particulate. It can't be filtered out mechanically (er, not without much bigger problems).

    How are these people both 1) visiting a site for nerds and 2) spouting off on things that they so clearly don't understand? Have they no sense of - oh right online communities and signal to noise reducing bad actors. :(

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  • (Score: 5, Funny) by barbara hudson on Monday February 17 2020, @11:51AM (5 children)

    by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Monday February 17 2020, @11:51AM (#959113) Journal
    Must be the retardation from elevated indoor CO2 - after all, it's winter and everything is sealed up.
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    • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2020, @12:56PM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2020, @12:56PM (#959137)

      It's summertime. I'm in the Southern Hemisphere you insensitive clod!

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2020, @02:00PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2020, @02:00PM (#959154)

      It is unwise to throw stones in a glass house.

      • (Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Wednesday February 19 2020, @03:24AM

        by hendrikboom (1125) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 19 2020, @03:24AM (#959770) Homepage Journal

        Inhabitants of domiciles
            of vitreous formation
        With lapidary fragments
            are unwise to make iactation.

  • (Score: 2) by Coward, Anonymous on Monday February 17 2020, @12:37PM (16 children)

    by Coward, Anonymous (7017) on Monday February 17 2020, @12:37PM (#959130) Journal

    Just fire up those carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) machines that we keep hearing about.

    • (Score: 4, Funny) by c0lo on Monday February 17 2020, @01:26PM (9 children)

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Monday February 17 2020, @01:26PM (#959141) Journal

      Just like the free market fairy, those don't exist.

      --
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      • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2020, @02:55PM (4 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2020, @02:55PM (#959169)

        Yeah exactly. We should just do what they do on the ISS to get rid of all that CO2 - open a window and air the place out a bit.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2020, @05:42PM (3 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2020, @05:42PM (#959222)

          Drink our own urine?

          • (Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Monday February 17 2020, @09:21PM (2 children)

            by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Monday February 17 2020, @09:21PM (#959291) Journal
            Actually I don't know which is worse - that they're drinking their own urine or everybody's urine.
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            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 18 2020, @02:41PM (1 child)

              by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 18 2020, @02:41PM (#959527)

              Interestingly enough, it's only the US astronauts that are required to recycle and drink their own urine. The total efficiency gain from the process is mostly negligible. The Russians, for instance, do not drink their own urine - but they do give theirs to the Americans to enjoy.

      • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday February 18 2020, @12:20AM (3 children)

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday February 18 2020, @12:20AM (#959365) Journal
        Just because Australia has been burning their carbon sequestration machines doesn't mean they don't exist!
        • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday February 18 2020, @04:08AM (2 children)

          by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday February 18 2020, @04:08AM (#959429) Journal

          Australia has been burning their carbon sequestration machines

          Nope [insider.com], only cleaning them up of the old carbon.

          Besides, plants and machines [etymonline.com], there's a big difference between them.

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          • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday February 18 2020, @04:12PM (1 child)

            by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday February 18 2020, @04:12PM (#959560) Journal

            Besides, plants and machines [etymonline.com], there's a big difference between them.

            I didn't say anything about plants. We were talking about carbon sequestration machines, which just happen to overlap with the category of plants. After all, what is a "carbon sequestration machine"? It's not a typical machine that does mechanical work because carbon sequestration is not a mechanical problem that can be solved that way. So already you have left the semantic gates wide open for nontraditional machines like those growing in the Australia outback.

            • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday February 18 2020, @08:46PM

              by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday February 18 2020, @08:46PM (#959654) Journal

              A carbon sequestration machine is;
              - genus proximus: a machine - that is a contraption ("device, contrivance," from Latin machina "machine, engine, military machine; device, trick; instrument" (source also of Spanish maquina, Italian macchina), from Greek makhana, Doric variant of Attic mēkhanē "device, tool, machine;")
              - specific difference: that sequester carbon.

              Since plants are not in the genus proxium...

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              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 2) by aclarke on Monday February 17 2020, @02:27PM (5 children)

      by aclarke (2049) on Monday February 17 2020, @02:27PM (#959164) Homepage

      Office plants?

      • (Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2020, @03:03PM (4 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2020, @03:03PM (#959171)

        Are you referring to some of our employees?

        • (Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2020, @05:08PM (3 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2020, @05:08PM (#959209)

          Are you referring to some of our employees?

          Only the ones working for Putin

          • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday February 18 2020, @02:28AM (2 children)

            by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday February 18 2020, @02:28AM (#959401) Journal

            Their mission in life is definitely not carbon capture and sequestration, don't rely on them.

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            • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday February 18 2020, @06:30PM (1 child)

              by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday February 18 2020, @06:30PM (#959616) Journal

              Their mission in life

              A machine doesn't have a mission. Its users do.

              don't rely on them.

              We already rely on forests alone to store [cnn.com] about 1.5 times as much carbon as was introduced by humans into the atmosphere (160 Gtons in 1 trillion trees -> 480 Gtons in 3 trillion trees with 300 Gtons of CO2 estimated in atmosphere from human sources). I think you're a bit late with your warning.

              • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday February 18 2020, @08:42PM

                by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday February 18 2020, @08:42PM (#959653) Journal

                Please revisit

                Are you referring to some of our employees?

                Only the ones working for Putin

                Because... [xkcd.com]

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