Climate Change(d)?

[TSwizzle]

Dude, you're all over the map here with your doom and gloom. Drought, pandemics, war, political assasinations, pollution, changing ocean currents, cats and dogs living together.... Yes, things are going to be changing (as they always do) and we will need to adapt by making sacrifices, lifestyle changes, technology improvements, etc. I welcome some of the "low hanging fruit" changes...no more lush green golf courses, watering residential lawns, growing water intensive crops (I'm looking at you, almonds!), more nuclear power plants, more water desalinization. There's also reducing overall consumption (ladies, you don't need 50 pairs of shoes!), cutting back on leisure travel to far away lands, etc. Even reducing meat consumption (I will miss that though, but maybe meat substitues will be as yummy by then).

What is the purpose of these sacrifices? To stop/slow climate change or something else?

By the way, it is a catastrophic 78f today.

 

[Shadowy Man]

I welcome some of the "low hanging fruit" changes...no more lush green golf courses, watering residential lawns, growing water intensive crops (I'm looking at you, almonds!), more nuclear power plants, more water desalinization. There's also reducing overall consumption (ladies, you don't need 50 pairs of shoes!), cutting back on leisure travel to far away lands, etc. Even reducing meat consumption (I will miss that though, but maybe meat substitues will be as yummy by then).

But is any of that even being planned? Will we wait until all the shot has already hit the fan to prepare for any of these changes? Who in USA is planning new nuclear plants? What is the plan for the Colorado river reservoirs, which are nearing empty? Are people who live in Phoenix planning on moving out of the desert? Any Almond farms closing up shop?

These all seems like good ideas to adapt to climate change, since we don’t plan on combating it, but I don’t even see any plans to adapt even being put into place. Just a lot of heads in the sand.

 

[brewer]

Looks like Texas is building desalinization plant(s). Anyone know if Cali has plans for more? I keep seeing Colorado river/Lake Mead in the news.

 

[TV and credit cards]

I'm thinking about how more and more of the nation is drying up and I'm looking at the Great Lakes Compact, an agreement between states that share the lakes for their water supply. Perhaps fifty years from now the Rust Belt will be some of the most desirable property in the nation.

The predicted strengthening of this year's El Niño is looking like it might have people here mowing the lawn into late December.

 

[thebeave]

I welcome some of the "low hanging fruit" changes...no more lush green golf courses, watering residential lawns, growing water intensive crops (I'm looking at you, almonds!), more nuclear power plants, more water desalinization. There's also reducing overall consumption (ladies, you don't need 50 pairs of shoes!), cutting back on leisure travel to far away lands, etc. Even reducing meat consumption (I will miss that though, but maybe meat substitues will be as yummy by then).

But is any of that even being planned? Will we wait until all the shot has already hit the fan to prepare for any of these changes? Who in USA is planning new nuclear plants? What is the plan for the Colorado river reservoirs, which are nearing empty? Are people who live in Phoenix planning on moving out of the desert? Any Almond farms closing up shop?

These all seems like good ideas to adapt to climate change, since we don’t plan on combating it, but I don’t even see any plans to adapt even being put into place. Just a lot of heads in the sand.

Well, He-who-shall-not-be-named is planning nuclear power plants. Or if you prefer the self-bloviating version, you can read about it here.

As far as the water shortage issues, I predict once we get to serious long term crisis conditions then draconian measures will come. Every region has its own unique water problems and possible solutions, so I can't speak for them, but In California, we are in a boom-and-bust cycle with our water supply. We depend on the Sierra snow pack for most of our water. We seem to have luckily been bailed out by a wet winter or two each time things have gotten sorta dire, but we probably won't keep getting so lucky going forward. We will dilly-dally for a few decades still before we will have no choice but to let ALL the lawns and water intensive crops to die. It would have been nice if our state government would have gotten proactive and addressed our present and future water shortage problems more seriously instead of building a $100+ billion "supertrain" to nowhere.

Combating (or worse yet, reversing) climate change to any significant degree is essentially a lost cause at this point. Solar panels, windmills and electric cars are not going to get us there. We really have no choice at this point except to suffer a little and learn best how to live with it.

 

[Elixir]

Maybe if you take the feeders down for about a month, the bear won't bother them when you put them back up.

It’s a sure bet that if I leave them down until late October they’ll be okay until spring … but birds need to load up for winter too so I might try to find a different suitable location.
Worse stuff has happened … and as The Beave observes, bears are awesome characters in so many ways. I love their clownery despite the fact that it is so often destructive.

 

[Elixir]

By the way, it is a catastrophic 78f today.

No, it topped out at 93°F.
Oh wait - the high was 38°F
No … that was in Tasmania …

Possibly Swiz, you are STILL confusing weather with climate.
After the many times you have been corrected on that specific point, it becomes more and more difficult to avoid the conclusion that you’re STUPID.
Because the alternate explanation would be that you’re dishonestly trying to obfuscate, and we wouldn’t want to ascribe to malice that which stupidity is sufficient to explain.

 

[Shadowy Man]

Well, He-who-shall-not-be-named is planning nuclear power plants.

Apparently this is “to meet the skyrocketing power demand from massive data centers” not to help adaptation to climate change, according to that article.

 

[thebeave]

Well, He-who-shall-not-be-named is planning nuclear power plants.

Apparently this is “to meet the skyrocketing power demand from massive data centers” not to help adaptation to climate change, according to that article.

From the article:

Energy Secretary Chris Wright cited "tremendous interest" among developers of data centers that would buy the power, as well as utilities and energy companies. The nuclear plants could begin construction by 2030 and become operational in the mid-2030s, Wright and other officials said Tuesday.

Yeah, this administration is not big believer of climate change, but it is green energy and will most definitely help with climate change, whether they know it or want it*. The thing is, "We need more power!" (/Tim the Toolman) and nuclear is the best option. Fossil fuels, wind, solar, hydro, (good but we're largely tapped out on that), aren't going to cut it. Fusion possibly, but that's 5 years away.

* Don't let them know it is green energy and will help with climate change. If they learn that, they will abandon their plans.

 

[thebeave]

Drought, pandemics, war, political assasinations, pollution, changing ocean currents, cats and dogs living together....

Terrible, just terrible.
The good thing is that it’s all local to the Seattle area. Here in Colorado, no changing ocean currents, we only have the cats and dogs thing. And bears.
A bear somehow got to my bird feeder that was 12’ off the ground. Mrs E watched him stroll by, right next to the dog yard, less than 100’ ftom the bedroom door. He must have come back late that night. Destroyed the feeder after he knocked it down. Now I’m hesitant to replace it because if he find food there twice he will become a regular and we don’t need that. I miss my birds, and my pet squirrel is devastated.

Maybe if you take the feeders down for about a month, the bear won't bother them when you put them back up. I've not had anything but raccoons attack a feeder and that was many years ago. Now we just hang suet feeders and most of them are attached to the bottom of our sun room. We also have a couple of hummingbird feeder and they go crazy over them. Mr. Sohy has to refill them about every 2 days. I love watching them and they usually leave around the end of September to take that long flight to Costa Rica. Amazing little bird with tiny brains. Sadly, climate change and human development has put many birds in danger of extinction. Sorry about the bear. So far, I have never seen a bear in our area.

Did you see Jimothy at your bird feeder?

 

[Elixir]

Yeah, this administration is not big believer of climate change reality

FIFY

 

[Elixir]

Well, He-who-shall-not-be-named is planning nuclear power plants.

Apparently this is “to meet the skyrocketing power demand from massive data centers” not to help adaptation to climate change, according to that article.

It is to placate billionaires who need a fiscal sinkhole for their out of control fortunes.

My hope is that the power requirement is quickly addressed by small “fast” reactors. I hope they gain acceptance in that role and in increasing roles. It could knock the bottom out of energy markets over time, and generally elevate global standards of living, while mitigating human caused ecological disaster.

 

[brewer]

It is to placate billionaires who need a fiscal sinkhole for their out of control fortunes.

My hope is that the power requirement is quickly addressed by small “fast” reactors. I hope they gain acceptance in that role and in increasing roles. It could knock the bottom out of energy markets over time, and generally elevate global standards of living, while mitigating human caused ecological disaster.

I've been singing that song for years.

J. Frank Parnell

 

[DBT]

Perhaps pessimistic, but it could come to the point where our ecosystems simply cannot support 8 billion or more consumers regardless of whatever tech solutions we may come up with.

 

[Elixir]

Perhaps pessimistic, but it could come to the point where our ecosystems simply cannot support 8 billion or more consumers regardless of whatever tech solutions we may come up with.

Current tech deployed optimally and globally, could support a trillion or more, at least for a handful of generations.
I don’t want to be one of them, but I wish all trillion of them a wonderful planet.

 

[DBT]

Perhaps pessimistic, but it could come to the point where our ecosystems simply cannot support 8 billion or more consumers regardless of whatever tech solutions we may come up with.

Current tech deployed optimally and globally, could support a trillion or more, at least for a handful of generations.
I don’t want to be one of them, but I wish all trillion of them a wonderful planet.

A handful of generations is probably right. Good luck to them and their way of life.

 

[southernhybrid]

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/19/...e_code=1.7VA.S9VB.QUaFXcucSdRS&smid=url-share

The global chaos agent known as El Niño is back, and this year it’s already on track to be, by far, the strongest and most severe on record, wreaking havoc on weather across the world.

Today, Chico Harlan, the global climate reporter for The New York Times, goes over El Niño’s history, its inner workings and its increasingly destructive fallout.

And this year, it’s already shaping up to be by far the strongest and most severe on record and to wreak havoc across the world. Today I spoke to my colleague, global climate reporter Chico Harlan, about El Niño’s history, its inner workings, and its destructive powers.

It’s Wednesday, August 19.

Chico, welcome back to “The Daily.”

Chico Harlan
Thank you, Michael.

Michael Barbaro
So I feel like this episode requires a little bit of a confession that despite a lot of us hearing about El Niño our entire lives and despite pretending what it means and invoking it in casual conversation, most of us don’t really understand what El Niño does, how it works. And I think if we’re going to do justice to a historic El Niño, like the one we’re experiencing right now, we should probably start by actually explaining what it is.

Chico Harlan
So El Niño is a planetary phenomenon that is both totally natural and also a huge chaos agent. And at the core, it is something that happens in the tropical Pacific. It is changes that occur there. And to understand those changes, it helps to think about this rectangle that stretches across the equator in the Pacific Ocean. It would basically run from the coast of Peru, Ecuador, all the way towards the International Date Line. You’re almost in the darkest, most uninhabited territory you could find in the Pacific, south of Hawaii and to the north of the small islands, like Fiji and Samoa.

And normally, these waters follow a pretty predictable pattern year by year. They don’t change so much in temperature. If I can use Celsius —

Michael Barbaro
You can. You can.

Chico Harlan
Got it.

Michael Barbaro
For the purposes of this conversation, you can.

I think you can read or listen to this shared article about the impact of El Niño this year. It's rather dismal to say the least.