Climate Change (For Those That Respect Science)

[isolar8001]

Just about every day we hear about "this rarely happens" "record breaking" "shape of things to come"
I feel for the younger generations...Their world will be shaped by nature's wrath.

Hilary track and updates: 1st ever tropical storm watch issued in Southern California

Hilary, now a powerful Category 4 hurricane, is expected to make landfall in Mexico's Baja California on Sunday.

abcnews.go.com

 

[Steve81]

It's fun times we live in. People are afraid of nuclear because of accidents like Chernobyl (flawed design>see positive void coefficient) and Fukishima (also an older design lacking passive cooling, and even then it took a natural disaster of nigh epic proportions). Wind is fine....so long as it's in somebody else's back yard. Solar with a thermal energy storage system holds promise IMHO.

On transportation, electric cars...I dunno. They work great around here, but in a cold Minnesota winter, that's a different story. I prefer the idea of a plug in hybrid with a small diesel generator running on biodiesel (though I think that gels in cold temps too). Better investment in mass transport is low hanging fruit, but people do like their cars.

The big problem is going to be the developing world when they actually develop. The West isn't exactly a majority of the world's population, and they're going to want stuff too. They're going to need a jump start, but actually accomplishing that with the corruption endemic to some of these spots is easier said than done.

Barring some significant technical advances, the answer is probably just thousands of years old

The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less.

 

[isolar8001]

It's fun times we live in. People are afraid of nuclear because of accidents like Chernobyl (flawed design>see positive void coefficient) and Fukishima (also an older design lacking passive cooling, and even then it took a natural disaster of nigh epic proportions). Wind is fine....so long as it's in somebody else's back yard. Solar with a thermal energy storage system holds promise IMHO.

On transportation, electric cars...I dunno. They work great around here, but in a cold Minnesota winter, that's a different story. I prefer the idea of a plug in hybrid with a small diesel generator running on biodiesel (though I think that gels in cold temps too). Better investment in mass transport is low hanging fruit, but people do like their cars.

The big problem is going to be the developing world when they actually develop. The West isn't exactly a majority of the world's population, and they're going to want stuff too. They're going to need a jump start, but actually accomplishing that with the corruption endemic to some of these spots is easier said than done.

Barring some significant technical advances, the answer is probably just thousands of years old

Insightful.
Back in the 60's we got warned a lot about world population.
This seems to have been forgotten about...it's not just the numbers, it's the implications.
Every citizen of this planet wants the same thing. A comfortable life, with all the modern comforts they can get...a home, a car, a job, food, water, clothing..the list is endless.
Does the Earth have enough ?
It could if all things were done perfectly.
Can millenia of doing things wrong be undone ? Maybe.
It's going to really hurt getting there if we can and if we do.

 

[isolar8001]

On transportation, electric cars...I dunno. They work great around here, but in a cold Minnesota winter, that's a different story. I prefer the idea of a plug in hybrid with a small diesel generator running on biodiesel (though I think that gels in cold temps too)

Mazda has kind of done this now with a small rotary engine as a generator in their new Electric SUV.
(the rotary is only there to charge the battery..I would bet you could get away with hardly ever plugging this vehicle in to charge if you were crafty)

 

[Steve81]

It's going to really hurt getting there if we can and if we do.

No doubt about that. I live pretty simply these days. I wear jeans and a t-shirt to work (toss on a polo if I need to go on-site to a client). I drink a couple Atkins shakes for breakfast and lunch (quick, efficient, means I can go for a stroll at lunch and clear my mind). Dinner is usually just a sandwich from Subway since it's a convenient stop on the way home, and I'm too lazy to cook or grow my own food (I have a brown thumb anyway).

The rig I was so proud of in my signature mostly sits collecting dust in a basement I never venture to except to do laundry. Most of my listening is done on a $30 set of wireless ear buds I found that measured reasonably well and sound adequate. The big luxuries are a car (I have a 30 mile commute to work, and no mass transit options to get there), a computer and smart phone (so I can communicate, which clearly I've been doing a lot of lately ).

I might aim to go remote support and work from home, but some human contact is nice, and I love my coworkers, so it'd be a hard transition for me.

Contrast all that with the "keeping up with the Jones" lifestyle most Americans practice. The thing about me is, I just don't really give a flying sh*t what other people think about those choices.

 

[isolar8001]

No doubt about that. I live pretty simply these days. I wear jeans and a t-shirt to work (toss on a polo if I need to go on-site to a client). I drink a couple Atkins shakes for breakfast and lunch (quick, efficient, means I can go for a stroll at lunch and clear my mind). Dinner is usually just a sandwich from Subway since it's a convenient stop on the way home, and I'm too lazy to cook or grow my own food (I have a brown thumb anyway).

The rig I was so proud of in my signature mostly sits collecting dust in a basement I never venture to except to do laundry. Most of my listening is done on a $30 set of wireless ear buds I found that measured reasonably well and sound adequate. The big luxuries are a car (I have a 30 mile commute to work, and no mass transit options to get there), a computer and smart phone (so I can communicate, which clearly I've been doing a lot of lately ).

I might aim to go remote support and work from home, but some human contact is nice, and I love my coworkers, so it'd be a hard transition for me.

Contrast all that with the "keeping up with the Jones" lifestyle most Americans practice. The thing about me is, I just don't really give a flying sh*t what other people think about those choices.

That's commendable...I am the king of frugal. I live on a thousand bucks a month SS.
It can be done.
The future is going to be challenging...people will learn to adapt or die.
How I wish Carl Sagan was still here.

 

[Steve81]

That's commendable...I am the king of frugal. I live on a thousand bucks a month SS.
It can be done.
The future is going to be challenging...people will learn to adapt or die.
How I wish Carl Sagan was still here.

A product of my upbringing mostly, plus I like to be utilitarian. I have about as much interest in shiny metals and fancy rocks as I do a c*ck flavored lollipop.

 

[isolar8001]

This doesn't bode well for the hurricanes we know are coming on the Atlantic side soon...

https://www.axios.com/2023/08/17/hurricane-hilary-2023-flooding-california-arizona

 

[GO-NAD!]

A product of my upbringing mostly, plus I like to be utilitarian. I have about as much interest in shiny metals and fancy rocks as I do a c*ck flavored lollipop.

Well....it ain't no frozen chicken.

 

[Steve81]

Well....it ain't no frozen chicken.

It’s from a line in the movie Dodgeball, though they edited it to poopy flavored due to the vulgarity.

 

[GO-NAD!]

Just about every day we hear about "this rarely happens" "record breaking" "shape of things to come"
I feel for the younger generations...Their world will be shaped by nature's wrath.

Hilary track and updates: 1st ever tropical storm watch issued in Southern California

Hilary, now a powerful Category 4 hurricane, is expected to make landfall in Mexico's Baja California on Sunday.

abcnews.go.com

I've been thinking about this a lot recently, as well. It almost feels like we've reached that tipping point. We had a bone-dry spring, leading to unprecedented wild fires, followed by biblical amounts of rainfall over the summer, leading to flooding I've never seen here before. It's pouring outside now, as I type.

Then it was Quebec's turn to go up in flames, followed by the western provinces. The entire city of Yellowknife, in the Northwest Territories (20,000 people) is being evacuated right now, due to an approaching fire.

And, the death and devastation in Maui is heartbreaking to see, as well. I can't imagine how traumatized the residents must be right now.

 

[Steve81]

It’s the end of days, and Trump is the Antichrist. Not actually a totally bunk analogy.

 

[GO-NAD!]

This doesn't bode well for the hurricanes we know are coming on the Atlantic side soon...

https://www.axios.com/2023/08/17/hurricane-hilary-2023-flooding-california-arizona

After our spring fires and summer floods, everyone here is pretty much expecting to be hit by hurricane(s) come September.

 

[GO-NAD!]

Insightful.
Back in the 60's we got warned a lot about world population.
This seems to have been forgotten about...it's not just the numbers, it's the implications.
Every citizen of this planet wants the same thing. A comfortable life, with all the modern comforts they can get...a home, a car, a job, food, water, clothing..the list is endless.
Does the Earth have enough ?
It could if all things were done perfectly.
Can millenia of doing things wrong be undone ? Maybe.
It's going to really hurt getting there if we can and if we do.

Does the earth have enough resources for all countries to have the similar levels of affluence as we have in Canada and the US? Not. A. Chance.

Sure, we all say - well, most of us anyway - that we'd like everyone on the planet to live as comfortably as us, but that would be impossible. For everyone on the planet to have a decent roof over their head, three square meals a day, sufficient clothing, a few mod cons, etc. - you know, the basics - it will mean facing the elephant in the room. It would mean that we have to make sacrifices. Real ones, such as: eating meat maybe 2-3 time a week, mass adoption of public transit, having no more than one vehicle, massive curtailment of international travel, no more McMansions.

Sorting our waste and recycling? That's barely picking around the edges of what's required and people b!tch about that. Carbo taxes? People here are losing the minds over them. So, I don't know what appetite we - as a society - will have for making genuine efforts to make this planet livable for the rest of humanity right now, never mind future generations.

 

[isolar8001]

Does the earth have enough resources for all countries to have the similar levels of affluence as we have in Canada and the US? Not. A. Chance.

Sure, we all say - well, most of us anyway - that we'd like everyone on the planet to live as comfortably as us, but that would be impossible. For everyone on the planet to have a decent roof over their head, three square meals a day, sufficient clothing, a few mod cons, etc. - you know, the basics - it will mean facing the elephant in the room. It would mean that we have to make sacrifices. Real ones, such as: eating meat maybe 2-3 time a week, mass adoption of public transit, having no more than one vehicle, massive curtailment of international travel, no more McMansions.

Sorting our waste and recycling? That's barely picking around the edges of what's required and people b!tch about that. Carbo taxes? People here are losing the minds over them. So, I don't know what appetite we - as a society - will have for making genuine efforts to make this planet livable for the rest of humanity right now, never mind future generations.

Yeah...that's what I meant about doing all things perfectly.
That means no man has more than he really needs. (or she)
Our society is built on who has the most toys, and that won't change.
I like to be optimistic about the future, but...we are truly screwed.

 

[Steve81]

Sorting our waste and recycling? That's barely picking around the edges of what's required and people b!tch about that.

My father (from whom I likely inherited a few traits) was born in 1940 to a traveling minister and his wife. You can imagine the conditions he grew up in, with rationing and all that in effect during his early days.

The man was a prolific hoarder, but nothing went to waste. He also figured out neat ways to reuse things. He figured out the cap of a tide bottle and the lid of a peanut butter container fit together to make a nice little container, and used that for all sorts of stuff. Embarrassing as heck as a kid, but I can see the value now.

 

[GO-NAD!]

My father (from whom I likely inherited a few traits) was born in 1940 to a traveling minister and his wife. You can imagine the conditions he grew up in, with rationing and all that in effect during his early days.

The man was a prolific hoarder, but nothing went to waste. He also figured out neat ways to reuse things. He figured out the cap of a tide bottle and the lid of a peanut butter container fit together to make a nice little container, and used that for all sorts of stuff. Embarrassing as heck as a kid, but I can see the value now.

Sounds like my grandfather. He also threw away practically nothing. But, when you go through the Great Depression, you learn a few things.

 

[Steve81]

Sounds like my grandfather. He also threw away practically nothing. But, when you go through the Great Depression, you learn a few things.

About the only thing I could do to reduce waste at this point is find an alternative to the Atkins shakes, since they come in individual servings. Other than that, waste from Subway is minimal, and I don’t really buy anything to speak of except the odd book.

 

[Steve81]

Does the earth have enough resources for all countries to have the similar levels of affluence as we have in Canada and the US? Not. A. Chance.

Sure, we all say - well, most of us anyway - that we'd like everyone on the planet to live as comfortably as us, but that would be impossible. For everyone on the planet to have a decent roof over their head, three square meals a day, sufficient clothing, a few mod cons, etc. - you know, the basics - it will mean facing the elephant in the room. It would mean that we have to make sacrifices. Real ones, such as: eating meat maybe 2-3 time a week, mass adoption of public transit, having no more than one vehicle, massive curtailment of international travel, no more McMansions.

Sorting our waste and recycling? That's barely picking around the edges of what's required and people b!tch about that. Carbo taxes? People here are losing the minds over them. So, I don't know what appetite we - as a society - will have for making genuine efforts to make this planet livable for the rest of humanity right now, never mind future generations.

Oddly, perhaps the most efficient system for living I can think of would be...the prison. It makes sense actually; they cut every penny possible. A small room with basic amenities, but no kitchen. A central dining hall makes food production and waste disposal subject to economies of scale. Depending on what you do (i.e. remote work), you might not need to travel at all except for pleasure. All you need is a computer and an internet connection. You've got plenty of people nearby to socialize with, and see every day at meal time. You'll gain energy efficiency advantages from utilizing a single large structure vs numerous small ones. Just a thought.

 

[its phillip]

About the only thing I could do to reduce waste at this point is find an alternative to the Atkins shakes, since they come in individual servings. Other than that, waste from Subway is minimal, and I don’t really buy anything to speak of except the odd book.

I like Huel black. It’s a meal replacement shake powder.