Climate Change / Global Warming Discussion

[mspohr]

Interesting fight between two billionaires over energy in Nevada. Looks like they are trying so see who can screw people the most.
GOP megadonor Sheldon Adelson outsmarts himself on Nevada Energy Choice initiative

(Also includes some information on Arizona initiative.)

 

[ggies07]

From the recent podcast -

**** yeah!

"The fundamental good that Tesla provides is accelerating the advent of sustainable transport and energy production....it's very important for the future of the world, it's very important for all life on Earth. This supersedes political parties, race, creed, religion, doesn't matter - if we do not solve the environment we are all damned." - Elon Musk

 

[Merrill]

I totally agree but the frustrating part is how many people just are clueless or do not care. It is the same old thing I hear all the time “ there is nothing I can do to change this”. To me if every person who says that did their small part guess what we now have a large part.

 

[mspohr]

Summary of election results on renewable energy/fracking/carbon tax:
Fossil fuel money crushed clean energy ballot initiatives across the country

Mostly bad news.

 

[mspohr]

Capitalism is killing the environment (and all of us).
An interesting new report points out that most of the climate damaging activities are carried out by a small number of large companies. They are also the key to saving us from climate change.

https://thinkprogress.org/new-study...key-to-combating-climate-change-4c1ddaeba37a/
"A fascinating new study is seeking to recast the debate on how best to combat climate change, identifying a handful of financial institutions that could play an outsized role in preventing the Earth’s climate from tipping into runaway warming.

The study, published in the latest issue of Global Environmental Change, determined that a relatively small number of financial institutions — from American investment firms to Norwegian sovereign wealth funds to Swiss banks — can help build the resilience of some of the main geographic areas key to stabilizing the Earth’s climate: the Brazilian Amazon and boreal forests in Russia and Canada.
“And this is the result of a bigger change in the global economy: the concentration of power through equity in the hands of major asset managers in the U.S.” Many of the significant holdings are held by a trio of the largest passive asset managers in the world: BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street. "

Unfortunately, asking these capitalists to give up profits to save the earth is probably futile.

 

[mspohr]

Canada is desperate to get tar sands oil to market. Keystone Pipeline is latest setback.
Now they've come up with the idea of packaging the oil in little plastic pouches.
Oil pucks and pellets; Canada eyes new ways to move stranded crude | Reuters

 

[ohmman]

Canada is desperate to get tar sands oil to market. Keystone Pipeline is latest setback.
Now they've come up with the idea of packaging the oil in little plastic pouches.
Oil pucks and pellets; Canada eyes new ways to move stranded crude | Reuters

“How to make bad worse.”

 

[S'toon]

Canada is desperate to get tar sands oil to market. Keystone Pipeline is latest setback.
Now they've come up with the idea of packaging the oil in little plastic pouches.
Oil pucks and pellets; Canada eyes new ways to move stranded crude | Reuters

It's embarrassing being Canadian, and how our leaders have absolutely no vision for the future or making our country better with technology and innovation.

 

[nwdiver]

It's embarrassing being Canadian, and how our leaders have absolutely no vision for the future or making our country better with technology and innovation.

Try being an American post Nov 2016

 

[Merrill]

We have a president that just said that the reason California has all these fires is the national park system is not doing a good job with vegetation management. Does he know that the national park system is federal not state. It is disgusting to realize we have a person running our country that is so brainless.

 

[Ulmo]

Here is another reason to go solar:

Iranian Oil Tankers Sanctioned by US Go ‘Completely Dark’ for a Week

 

[Ulmo]

We have a president that just said that the reason California has all these fires is the national park system is not doing a good job with vegetation management. Does he know that the national park system is federal not state. It is disgusting to realize we have a person running our country that is so brainless.

1. Trump wants to fix his own house as well as other homes. Trump wants the Federal land management agencies to be repaired. Federal forest management needs to be reparied.
   
2. Trump is also referring to ALL the land management: public, private, governmental, non-governmental. It ALL needs to be fixed. We need good forest management everywhere.

[PushBack] Re-Examine “Let It Burn”

California's Devastating Fires Are Man-Caused -- But Not In The Way They Tell Us

 

[Ulmo]

It's embarrassing being Canadian, and how our leaders have absolutely no vision for the future or making our country better with technology and innovation.

Use your own money to make such decisions. Get solar, and buy from companies that use more solar than their competitors. Don't buy from China which has increased coal burning output.

Summary of election results on renewable energy/fracking/carbon tax:
Fossil fuel money crushed clean energy ballot initiatives across the country

Mostly bad news.

This is why we must buy our own solar and buy from countries that decrease their pollution output.

 

[Ulmo]

Capitalism is killing the environment (and all of us).
An interesting new report points out that most of the climate damaging activities are carried out by a small number of large companies. They are also the key to saving us from climate change.

"A small number of large companies" sounds much more like Communism than Capitalism to me. To me, that means Communism is killing the environment, not Capitalism. Lightly to moderately regulated Capitalism is saving the environment. (No regulation would be bad, and over-regulation would be bad. There needs to be balance, just as there needs to be balance in the environment.)

Here are the key financial institutions that can help prevent climate ‘tipping point,’ per new study
"A fascinating new study is seeking to recast the debate on how best to combat climate change, identifying a handful of financial institutions that could play an outsized role in preventing the Earth’s climate from tipping into runaway warming.

The study, published in the latest issue of Global Environmental Change, determined that a relatively small number of financial institutions — from American investment firms to Norwegian sovereign wealth funds to Swiss banks — can help build the resilience of some of the main geographic areas key to stabilizing the Earth’s climate: the Brazilian Amazon and boreal forests in Russia and Canada.
“And this is the result of a bigger change in the global economy: the concentration of power through equity in the hands of major asset managers in the U.S.” Many of the significant holdings are held by a trio of the largest passive asset managers in the world: BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street. "

Unfortunately, asking these capitalists to give up profits to save the earth is probably futile.

 

[Ulmo]

Do Climate Models Account For Technology? – Ryan DeLongpre – Medium

 

[Ulmo]

Near mid-day Sunday November 11, California grid operators supplied half our electric grid energy from "renewables", most of which are solar:



We need more solar. That includes on our roofs and over our parking lots, and in solar farms.

 

[mspohr]

"A small number of large companies" sounds much more like Communism than Capitalism to me. To me, that means Communism is killing the environment, not Capitalism. Lightly to moderately regulated Capitalism is saving the environment. (No regulation would be bad, and over-regulation would be bad. There needs to be balance, just as there needs to be balance in the environment.)

Not sure of your reasoning in calling large capitalist companies communist. Communism is common ownership by the community and there is no private, individually owned property. Capitalism is private ownership. In capitalism, private individuals own property. Under capitalism, there is a tendency for "the rich to get richer" (through regulatory capture and the formation of monopolies) so you end up with a small number of people owning large monopolist companies.
So, could you explain how large private companies controlled by a few very rich people are communist?
Capitalism hates regulation and ends up corrupting the political system to weaken and destroy regulation (i.e. see Trump administration getting rid of all of those pesky worker, environmental, social, etc. regulations). Also see Zinke, et. al. transferring public lands to private individuals for exploitation.

 

[mspohr]

1. Trump wants to fix his own house as well as other homes. Trump wants the Federal land management agencies to be repaired. Federal forest management needs to be reparied.
   
2. Trump is also referring to ALL the land management: public, private, governmental, non-governmental. It ALL needs to be fixed. We need good forest management everywhere.

[PushBack] Re-Examine “Let It Burn”

California's Devastating Fires Are Man-Caused -- But Not In The Way They Tell Us

https://earther.gizmodo.com/cnn-meteorologist-explains-why-president-trump-is-so-wr-1830377986

“This is wrong on so many levels,” Sater explained. “This has nothing to do with forest management.”

“We’re not looking at dense forest here,” Sater said while gesturing at a photo of Paradise, California, where the town has been completely wiped out by the fires over the past few days. “Especially down in Malibu!”

“Forest management has nothing to do with mountain winds coming down the passes at 70 miles per hour. Or humidity levels in one hour dropping Thursday from 35 percent down into single digits, dryer than most deserts,” Sater continued.
...
It’s not exactly news that President Trump is a blathering idiot. But when you’ve got the weather guy riled up you know something is very, very wrong. President Trump has always been a danger to national security. But his latest statements are particularly galling, even for Trump.
People are dying, and he’s threatening to pull funding. There are only two options: He’s either too dumb to be president or he’s too callous to the suffering of his fellow Americans to be president. Either way, America is suffering because he’s president. And that suffering isn’t going away anytime soon.

 

[nwdiver]

“We’re not looking at dense forest here,” Sater said while gesturing at a photo of Paradise, California, where the town has been completely wiped out by the fires over the past few days. “Especially down in Malibu!”

Some fires have been made worse by decades of improper fire suppression and mismanagement. This may not be the case here and climate change is certainly making things exponentially worse.

People DO need to accept fire as part of the price of living in nature. 50 years ago the forest service pounced on every tiny fire that sprouted and that led to a very sick ecosystem. That has since changed and more people accept that prescribed burns are necessary regardless of how inconvenient they might be. The greenbelt surrounding my Moms house probably hasn't burned in ~50 years... I really hope they torch it soon. Forests HAVE to burn. It's part of the way the ecosystem evolved. Preferably WE pick the time.

If you look at how fires are currently fought the key word is 'containment' not 'suppression'. For the most part they try to control the fire not put it out. Forests need to burn.

 

[nwdiver]

Is this a cultural turning point for 'Merca?

“South Park” apologizes to Al Gore and admits it was wrong about global warming