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by naikrovek 1975 days ago
My argument is that pollution outlives a society that it kills by a non-zero amount of time.
1 comments

I understand. And my argument is that nonzero isn't a good enough lower bound to justify investing in something like that. Oxygen is produced by even very simple organisms, and thus has been present in our atmosphere in significant concentrations for billions of years, currently makes up 20+ percent, and its residence time is 4,500 years [1]. On the other hand, many CFC concentrations are measured in parts per trillion, and have a residence time measured in years or decades [2], and have only existed at all for a century or so at most. Even if every single living thing on this earth died tomorrow, oxygen would be detectible long, long after many pollutants were gone. And chances are, if anything were to survive the kind of disaster that would wipe out humanity, it would be something like the single-celled organisms that excrete oxygen. I'm prepared to believe that you're correct, but you have to present some more compelling evidence.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen_cycle#Capacities_and_fl...

[2] https://cdiac.ess-dive.lbl.gov/pns/current_ghg.html