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- Hacker News
- The feedback loop between warming and deoxygenation is particularly concerning for deep-water systems that have been stable for millennia. If we hit the thresholds mentioned where the ocean's 'internal clock' is disrupted, it might permanently alter nutrient cycling beyond what current atmospheric models predict. I'm curious if any researchers here have insight into whether localized aeration tech could mitigate this in crucial spawning grounds, or if the scale is simply too vast.by fenestella
- > irreversible on human timescales
It's almost like we might need that network of oceanic data collection sites.
The one recently defunded by the Trump administration.
https://oceanographicmagazine.com/news/trump-administration-...
by t0mpr1c3 - Two San Diego posts at once! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49083314
Go team!
- a primer regarding gaseous O2 soluability in water.
https://academicpath.org/solubility-oxygen-water-temperature...
by rolph - A higher resolution version of the poster from the article:
https://scx2.b-cdn.net/gfx/news/2026/underwater-oxygen-loss....
by andai - "Irreversible on human timescales" is a nice succinct wording; I think I usually end up discussing that concept in a less clear / more roundabout way.by hrldcpr
- Oxygen loss already happens, see news about dead fish.
Issue here is that becomes more common and underwater oxygen loss is approaching an “unsafe space” with impacts likely irreversible within human lifetimes, some of which could persist for centuries.
Coastal “dead zones”, impact of fish food etc.
by sixtyj - As the link is university press release, here is study mentioned: https://aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ln...by sixtyj
- Have we ever as a species successfully changed our behavior on a scale needed to address something like climate change and underwater oxygen loss?
What would be the closest “we’ve got to change or perish” moment we’ve successfully navigated?
by toddmorey - Historically speaking over over a billion years almost every species has consumed one thing and output another to the point of extinction while another species that consumes that grows and repeats the cycle.
Climate change has been the story of evolution since life appeared on earth and aglae filled the atmosphere with gasses.
by tsunamifury - Nuclear weapons (so far)?
Banning CFCs perhaps?
If you want to go older and more localised you could look at forestry and fisheries laws. Sometimes we self-regulate and form a stable state, other times we over-extract until collapse
by rablackburn - Ozone, leaded motor vehicle fuels, asbestos, acid rain, DDT, commercial whaling, atmospheric nuclear testing.
(Not all of these were existential to humans necessarily, but all have been largely successes.)
by dredmorbius - Well, we inadvertently stopped having as much children. That should help, but our current system economic systems can’t handle falling birthratesby chaostheory
- The only truly global intervention I can think of whose impact might be discernible over geological timescales is the ban on testing nuclear weapons.by t0mpr1c3
- Ozone hole over Antarctica.
It is possible for us to work together and fix these things.
Edit:
Moving away from leaded gas might be another example.
(CFCs and leaded gas invented by the same dude, fun fact: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Midgley_Jr. Quite a legacy...)
by chasing - We did a reasonable job with ozone depletion, but that has much lower costs.by hinoki
- Oxigen is ALSO, and perhaps in vast quantities produced at the bottom of the ocean, by lumps of metal that react with sea water (aka Dark Oxygen). Interestingly, there are now massive marine harvesting operations targeting that very ore.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/scientists-discove...
by flockonus - Deep-sea mining has been studied and foreseen for at least 50 years, but it's never been economical. It is possible that current technology will allow for mining of nodules, but this still seems unlikely to me.by nickff
- it wont matter how much oxygen you try to dissolve, if the temperature is too high you wont hold enough dissolved oxygen to allow aquatic life.
https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/gases-solubility-water-d_...
by rolph