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I guess I don't agree that we (or anyone) lives in a democracy. And I also don't think that modern society is best served by a democracy.
The word is thrown around but everyone knows we don't really live in a democracy.

If we lived in a democracy, we would have real federal gun control - as an example. (An example of how democracy would be better than what we have).

I will disagree with Mspohr, I think people do lack tools/intelligence/information to make proper long term decisions. So I wouldn't lump us together too quickly.

Democracy is not to be capitalized (except of course as the beginning of the sentence, as part of a name etc). Am I missing something in your post that warrants capitalization?

We live in a democratic republic that has been twisted by those in power to limit choices dramatically so that there is very little democracy left. The population doesn't seem to care that much. It was also designed so long ago that it fails to meet the needs of the modern world.

The US fails on nearly every measure of a modern society. We have so many geographic and resource advantages, yet our life expectancy is an embarrassment. Our Covid response an embarrassment. And, we can't even keep the power on in a cold snap - in the state richest of all with energy resources. The quality of our food supply. The uninsured.
 
Et Tu, Ted? Why Deregulation Failed Opinion | Et Tu, Ted? Why Deregulation Failed

The disaster in Texas, however, was different. The collapse of the Texas power grid didn’t just reveal a few shortcomings. It showed that the entire philosophy behind the state’s energy policy is wrong. And it also showed that the state is run by people who will resort to blatant lies rather than admit their mistakes.
But while the right-wing political-media complex can’t and won’t learn anything from the Texas power debacle, the rest of us can. We’ve just been offered a clear view of the dark (and cold) side of free-market fundamentalism. And that’s a lesson we shouldn’t forget.
So does the free market ensure that the whole system works under stress? Probably not. Last but not least, a system that depends on the incentives offered by extremely high prices in times of crisis isn’t workable, practically or politically.
 
I guess I don't agree that we (or anyone) lives in a democracy. And I also don't think that modern society is best served by a democracy.
The word is thrown around but everyone knows we don't really live in a democracy.

If we lived in a democracy, we would have real federal gun control - as an example. (An example of how democracy would be better than what we have).

I will disagree with Mspohr, I think people do lack tools/intelligence/information to make proper long term decisions. So I wouldn't lump us together too quickly.

Democracy is not to be capitalized (except of course as the beginning of the sentence, as part of a name etc). Am I missing something in your post that warrants capitalization?

We live in a democratic republic that has been twisted by those in power to limit choices dramatically so that there is very little democracy left. The population doesn't seem to care that much. It was also designed so long ago that it fails to meet the needs of the modern world.

The US fails on nearly every measure of a modern society. We have so many geographic and resource advantages, yet our life expectancy is an embarrassment. Our Covid response an embarrassment. And, we can't even keep the power on in a cold snap - in the state richest of all with energy resources. The quality of our food supply. The uninsured.
A Radical Proposal for True Democracy Opinion | A Radical Proposal for True Democracy
We’ve learned much in the last few hundred years about random sampling, about the benefits of cognitively diverse groups, about the ways elections are captured by those with the most social and financial capital. Landemore wants to take what we’ve learned and build a new vision of democracy atop it — one in which we let groups of randomly selected citizens actually deliberate and govern. One in which we trust deliberation and diversity, not elections and political parties, to shape our ideas and to restrain our worst impulses.
This is a challenging idea. I don’t know that it would work. But it’s a provocation worth wrestling with, particularly at this moment, when our ideas about democracy have so far outpaced the thin, corrupted ways in which we practice it.
 
A Radical Proposal for True Democracy Opinion | A Radical Proposal for True Democracy
We’ve learned much in the last few hundred years about random sampling, about the benefits of cognitively diverse groups, about the ways elections are captured by those with the most social and financial capital. Landemore wants to take what we’ve learned and build a new vision of democracy atop it — one in which we let groups of randomly selected citizens actually deliberate and govern. One in which we trust deliberation and diversity, not elections and political parties, to shape our ideas and to restrain our worst impulses.
This is a challenging idea. I don’t know that it would work. But it’s a provocation worth wrestling with, particularly at this moment, when our ideas about democracy have so far outpaced the thin, corrupted ways in which we practice it.

This country is nowhere like it was in the 18th Century. We were primarily agrarian, and most of the population was rural. I think the largest city in 1795 was Philadelphia with about 40,000 residents. Senators were appointed by the state governor or the legislatures.

Fast forward 225 years. Senators are elected by the people. We are no longer an agrarian society. We mostly live in urban areas concentrated along the coasts and in a handful of interior cities. Those urban areas have next to nothing in common with places like Oil City, Pennsylvania or Sidney, Nebraska. Those locations have not changed much economically or culturally in the past 100 years while urban areas change constantly.

Then you factor in the population explosion. It is no wonder why a democratic republic is doomed to look out for the welfare and well-being of the populace if we have so many opposed interests, not only intrastate, but also interstate. Why is there such resistance to increasing the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15? Why did McFossil disparage New York State by saying that it was not the government's job to bail out blue states, yet Kentucky receives about $1.15 back from the Treasury for every dollar they send in?

As long as there is such disparity between the skyscrapers of Manhattan and the bluegrass of Kentucky, the current system will never be able to address what the country needs.
 
"Scientist warn that filling the Sahara with solar panel is a bad idea"
Not even worth providing the link to this 'research', obviously funded by Big Oil.

Basis of the 'research':
- There is only 1 desert on Earth.
- We would never deploy solar anywhere else, esp not on rooftops.
- When it's night in Sahara, the world does not need power.

LOL
 
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To stop climate disaster, make ecocide an international crime. It's the only way | Jojo Mehta and Julia Jackson
The Paris agreement is failing. Yet there is new hope for preserving a livable planet: the growing global campaign to criminalize ecocide can address the root causes of the climate crisis and safeguard our planet – the common home of all humanity and, indeed, all life on Earth.
Ecocide shares its roots with other landmark concepts in international law, including genocide. Indeed, ecocide and genocide often go hand in hand. Around the globe, ecological destruction is also decimating indigenous communities. To give just a few cases: Brazil’s Yanomami are facing mercury poisoning generated by the 20,000 illegal miners in their territories. 87% of Native Alaskan villages are experiencing climate-related erosion, even as they face growing calls to drill on their lands.
 
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"Scientist warn that filling the Sahara with solar panel is a bad idea"
Not even worth providing the link to this 'research', obviously funded by Big Oil.

Basis of the 'research':
- There is only 1 desert on Earth.
- We would never deploy solar anywhere else, esp not on rooftops.
- When it's night in Sahara, the world does not need power.

LOL

Well, I guess Sahara is off the hook. LOL

U.S. scientists have shown it's plausible to power the Earth from solar panels in space
 
Who will clean up the 'billion-dollar mess' of abandoned US oilwells?

As oil companies go out of business, they are leaving a legacy of abandoned wells that leak huge amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere

That means the profits for drilling go to individual companies while the damages, both environmental and financial, are largely borne by the local community and by state and federal taxpayers. “Unplugged wells devalue property, they’re a mess to work around, it can lead to groundwater pollution, and no one is really tracking it,” Morrison said. The thinktank Carbon Tracker, reports it could cost $280bn to reclaim wells, and public bonding data indicates that states have less than 1% of that money in secure bonds.
 
Atlantic Ocean circulation at weakest in a millennium, say scientists

The Atlantic Ocean circulation that underpins the Gulf Stream, the weather system that brings warm and mild weather to Europe, is at its weakest in more than a millennium, and climate breakdown is the probable cause, according to new data.
Scientists predict that the AMOC will weaken further if global heating continues, and could reduce by about 34% to 45% by the end of this century, which could bring us close to a “tipping point” at which the system could become irrevocably unstable. A weakened Gulf Stream would also raise sea levels on the Atlantic coast of the US, with potentially disastrous consequences.
 
Unfortunately they are greatly backlogged an unavailable to most of the country.

Indeed. I am completing my new Passive Solar house construction (started last August) and they will start installing solar + battery backup next week. Unfortunately, neither of those system is from Tesla. I asked Tesla for a quote multiple times, never even received a reply, so I had to go with other suppliers.
 
Indeed. I am completing my new Passive Solar house construction (started last August) and they will start installing solar + battery backup next week. Unfortunately, neither of those system is from Tesla. I asked Tesla for a quote multiple times, never even received a reply, so I had to go with other suppliers.
Same here. Waited over a year for Tesla. Gave up and bought Outback Skyboxes. Much more flexible and cheaper.
 
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Climatologist Michael E Mann: 'Good people fall victim to doomism. I do too sometimes'

In his new book, The New Climate War, he argues the tide may finally be turning in a hopeful direction.
Who is the enemy in the new climate war? It is fossil fuel interests, climate change deniers, conservative media tycoons, working together with petrostate actors like Saudi Arabia and Russia. I call this the coalition of the unwilling.
I am optimistic about a favourable shift in the political wind. The youth climate movement has galvanised attention and re-centred the debate on intergenerational ethics. We are seeing a tipping point in public consciousness. That bodes well. There is still a viable way forward to avoid climate catastrophe.
 
Fossil fuel cars make 'hundreds of times' more waste than electric cars
Fossil fuel cars waste hundreds of times more raw material than their battery electric equivalents, according to a study that adds to evidence that the move away from petrol and diesel cars will bring large net environmental benefits. Only about 30kg of raw material will be lost over the lifecycle of a lithium ion battery used in electric cars once recycling is taken into account, compared with 17,000 litres of oil, according to analysis by Transport & Environment (T&E) seen by the Guardian. A calculation of the resources used to make cars relative to their weight shows it is at least 300 times greater for oil-fuelled cars.
 
Fossil fuel emissions in danger of surpassing pre-Covid levels
New figures from the global energy watchdog found that fossil fuel emissions climbed steadily over the second half of the year as major economies began to recover. By December 2020, carbon emissions were 2% higher than in the same month the year before.
The agency’s first ever report to record monthly carbon emissions by region found a strong correlation between countries that put in place economic stimulus packages with a net environmental benefit – such as France, Spain, the UK and Germany – and those that have kept a lid on the carbon emissions rebound. Meanwhile, the countries that had made the smallest contributions to green economic stimulus measures, such as China, India, the United States and Brazil, recorded steep carbon rebounds in the second half of last year as their economies began to reopen.The agency’s first ever report to record monthly carbon emissions by region found a strong correlation between countries that put in place economic stimulus packages with a net environmental benefit – such as France, Spain, the UK and Germany – and those that have kept a lid on the carbon emissions rebound. Meanwhile, the countries that had made the smallest contributions to green economic stimulus measures, such as China, India, the United States and Brazil, recorded steep carbon rebounds in the second half of last year as their economies began to reopen.
Birol said it was “not too late” for governments to prevent remissions from rebounding to higher levels than before the coronavirus pandemic, “but it is becoming a very daunting task”.
 
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Global oil companies have committed to 'net zero' emissions. It's a sham | Tzeporah Berman and Nathan Taft

All that the major oil companies have done (with tacit support from many governments) is shift their public narrative about the climate crisis from denial to delusion. They’re no longer insisting there’s no problem, because they lost that argument. “Net zero” is their attempt to continue business as usual without addressing what they’re doing to people and the planet.
If it wasn’t so serious, the premise would almost be comical: oil companies are claiming that not only can they keep their current levels of production, but expand their operations that extract and refine fossil fuels. They would have us believe that by planting trees and using largely unproven, expensive, and thus far inefficient carbon-capture technologies, they can reach “net-zero” and solve the climate crisis – all while continuing to grow fossil fuel production.
 
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