Climate Change(d)?

[The Sage of Main Street]

The thread has drifted toward the natures of ancient civilizations. In this regard let me re-post a book suggestion I made two weeks ago: a book said to "upend bedrock assumptions"! The book may be quite relevant to some of the points made in this thread.

The Dawn of Everything

The Atlantic has a review (subtitled "A brilliant new account upends bedrock assumptions about 30,000 years of change") of a book titled The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow. I've not read the book but plan to order it....

The book is not yet available at the on-line store I order from, but just the review article is fascinating. Or save time and just click to my prior post where I include a long excerpt.

Sounds excellent. Definitely on my list.

“How did we get stuck?” the authors ask—stuck, that is, in a world of “war, greed, exploitation [and] systematic indifference to others’ suffering”? It’s a pretty good question. “If something did go terribly wrong in human history,” they write, “then perhaps it began to go wrong precisely when people started losing that freedom to imagine and enact other forms of social existence.” It isn’t clear to me how many possibilities are left us now, in a world of polities whose populations number in the tens or hundreds of millions. But stuck we certainly are.

Not sure I agree with a lot of this. Are we really stuck? If we're really stuck then so is every other species on the planet in its own right. They all toil similarly.

Hitler wrote war was a natural human state, was he wrong? China is on an empire building path. Brits vs EU. Historically don't all things boil down to conflict over resources and survival?

Post WWII our foreign policy was get resources and markets for business, by any means possible. Assassinations and toppling governments,. Puppet regimes aka Banana Republics.

We Are Kept Down by B Students Who Are Jealous of A Students

The shoppers' brawl over limited resources is caused by failure to reward creative geniuses early and often. If America treated superior minds exactly the way it treats superior athletes from childhood on, we would not only have widespread prosperity at home but our inventions and resource-development processes would enrich the whole world. Any country that paid a student for his grades would dominate this century's world economy.

 

[The Sage of Main Street]

We are all stuck between economies and action on climate. We saw what happened with a relatively ordered economic shutdown during the pandemic.

"Pollution" Is a Dishonest Word Taken From a Primitive Superstition

What happened was that the Lethal Lockdown lowered auto emissions to the level in which the virus could survive. Otherwise, it would have been quickly wiped out because of the atmosphere being toxic only to microbes. Fauci lied, people died.

Ad Hominin, Hominem to attack the individual without substantive critique of the issue. FOX And Friends.

Faux-See Shows Us That MDs Are Vindictive Grade-Grubbing Mamas' Boys Who Don't Earn a Living Until They Are 26-Years-Old.

Your retarded grammar proves that you are slavishly stupid.

 

[The Sage of Main Street]

Sports is an outlet for aggression.

Jock and Jill

No pro athlete served on active duty during the Vietnam War. Their aggression is play-acting sissiness.

 

[steve_bank]

Sports is an outlet for aggression.

Jock and Jill

No pro athlete served on active duty during the Vietnam War. Their aggression is play-acting sissiness.

Are you not acting out aversively on an anonymous forum where there are no personal consequences?

Neighborhood unorganized sports for kids was always an outlet. Maybe you missed that experience.

Brutal games were once a staple of Roman life.

I was not drafted and signed up in the VN war, have you served?

 

[TSwizzle]

Cop(out)26 comes to a conclusion. There will be one more very, very last chance to save the planet which will be discussed at Cop27 no doubt;

Britain's president of the conference Alok Sharma 'fought back tears' on Saturday as he told delegates he was 'deeply sorry' for how the 'process' unfolded as he brought down the gavel to signal an agreement that was negotiated over two weeks had been passed. His voice broke with emotion after hearing from vulnerable nations, which expressed their anger over the changes to the text, as he said: 'May I just say to all delegates I apologise for the way this process has unfolded and I am deeply sorry. I also understand the deep disappointment but I think as you have noted, it's also vital that we protect this package.'

DailyMail

Are we really expecting this blubbering fool to save the planet? Hilarious.

A-rapture like cult.

 

[lpetrich]

The good, the bad and the Irn-Bru: how Cop26 played out | Cop26 | The Guardian - "The climate summit is winding down after 12 days of talks, protests, deals, frustration and a fizzy drink"

As locals adapted to the sound of their city being mispronounced “Glaz-cow” by visiting news anchors, Joe Biden’s first-day promise that “the United States is not only back at the table but hopefully leading by the power of our example” was a reassertion of American credibility after Donald Trump pulled out of the Paris climate agreement, but notable too were the absences of the leaders of Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Russia and China, all major contributors to the crisis.

Those who endured the chaotic queues for entry into the tightly secured and Covid-regulated blue zone were boosted by India’s announcement that the country would go net zero by 2070, albeit several generations hence but one of the last remaining major economies to have held out on such a commitment.

Then came the domino run of pledges: a declaration on Tuesday on ending deforestation by 2030 and a plan to coordinate the global introduction of clean technologies in order to rapidly drive down their cost; a commitment on Wednesday to reduce methane emissions by at least 30% from 2020 levels by the end of the decade; an agreement on Thursday to phase out coal-fired power between 2030 and 2040.

There were some failures to pledge to do very much.

Over the past fortnight, richer countries have been repeatedly challenged on their failure to hit the longstanding $100bn (£75bn) targets for providing climate finance to the developing countries struggling with a climate crisis not of their making. That was not resolved here, and the final draft agreement published on Friday morning still grossly underestimates the necessary amounts, according to global debt campaigners.

...
There were low points for individual nations. A few days after the Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, refused to sign the methane pledge during his brief and grudging attendance, his government’s policy response to the climate crisis was ranked last in an assessment of 60 countries by the Climate Change Performance Index.

And this week it became embarrassingly apparent that the UK hosts were not joining the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance, founded by Denmark and Costa Rica as a club of countries committed to phasing out oil and gas production.

Beyond Oil & Gas Alliance

Core Members: Denmark, Costa Rica, France, Greenland DK, Ireland, Quebec CA, Sweden, Wales UK
"Core members of BOGA commit to end new concessions, licensing or leasing rounds for oil and gas production and exploration and to set a Paris-aligned date for ending oil and gas production and exploration on the territory over which they have jurisdiction."

Associate Members: California US, New Zealand, Portugal
"Associate members of BOGA will have taken significant concrete steps that contribute to the reduction of oil and gas production, for example subsidy reform or an end to international public financial support for oil and gas exploration and production abroad."

Friends of BOGA: Italy
"Both governments and other partners can become Friends of BOGA by signing up to the BOGA Declaration, which supports a socially just and equitable global transition to align oil and gas production with the objectives of the Paris Agreement, and commits the signatures to work together to facilitate effective measures to this end in line with the Paris Agreement and national climate neutrality targets."

 

[lpetrich]

After an expletive-strewn speech on arrival in Glasgow, the Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg pledged to go “net zero on swearing”, but she made no apology for the force of her fury at the school strikes rally last Friday. “This is no longer a climate conference,” she told the crowd of 10,000 young people in George Square. “This is now a global north greenwash festival, a two-week-long celebration of business as usual and blah blah blah.”

Does GT have a sense of humor?

Her rage and frustration was shared by other activists who arrived over the first week, having struggled with Covid travel restrictions and overpriced accommodation. Many questioned why the green zone – where civil society, charities and campaigners meet – was set up across the river from the main conference site, and why there was so little public space directly outside the blue zone, meaning protests held there were regularly corralled by police.

...
The legitimacy of the entire summit was called into question at the start of the second week, as observers representing hundreds of environmental, indigenous and women’s rights organisations revealed they were being excluded from negotiating areas, given limited tickets and prevented from joining online due to technical glitches.

...
The former US president Barack Obama nearly lost the crowd when he described Scotland as “the Emerald Isle” on Monday, but recovered sufficiently to be awarded a lifetime membership of the local student union.

Thinking that Scotland was Ireland???

 

[lpetrich]

But the intense love it/loathe it debate among delegates during the first week of the summit reached stratospheric proportions when the US congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez documented her first taste of the uniquely flavoured beverage on Wednesday. The verdict? “Love it.” Showing admirable restraint, Irn-Bru simply tweeted back: “We’re glad you liked it.”

noting
‘The first sip was rather shocking’: Cop26 delegates try Irn-Bru for the first time | Cop26 | The Guardian

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Instagram: “Moment of truth for Irn Bru …”

Moment of truth for Irn Bru (for those not fully caught up, I have been in Scotland for #COP26 and sharing my thoughts and behind the scenes in my stories. Irn Bru is a very popular drink here that I have been trying to get a hold of and finally did today)
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Upon further tasting, it’s not EXACTLY like Kola Champagne (or Inca Kola) but it’s in a similar family of flavor. I was so shocked at having something in Glasgow that tasted like HOME however Irn Bru is also very unique on its own. It’s got pizazz. I like it! Will bring some cans home to NY for sure!

AOC traveled there as part of the US Congressional delegation, traveling with them in a CODEL trip in what was likely a Boeing C-40, a military version of the Boeing 737. It was a little less than 5 years ago that she went with some friends to the Standing Rock protest camp.

It would have been impractical to go by sailboat, as Greta Thunberg did back in 2019.

This time, she can do the entire journey by train. I went to eurail.com and it found some Stockholm - London trips. This is the fastest one that I found:

• Stockholm 23:09 - 06:14 Malmö - 613 km - 7h 5m - 87 km/h
• Malmö 06:33 - 07:10 Copenhagen - 41 km - 37m - 66 km/h
• Copenhagen 07:26 - 12:04 Hamburg - 334 km - 4h 38m - 72 km/h
• Hamburg 12:46 - 16:50 Köln - 432 km - 4h 4m - 106 km/h
• Köln 17:43 - 19:35 Brussels - 211 km - 1h 52m - 113 km/h
• Brussels 20:52 - 22:57 London - 373 km - 2h 5m - 179 km/h

All times CET

 

[bilby]

But the intense love it/loathe it debate among delegates during the first week of the summit reached stratospheric proportions when the US congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez documented her first taste of the uniquely flavoured beverage on Wednesday. The verdict? “Love it.” Showing admirable restraint, Irn-Bru simply tweeted back: “We’re glad you liked it.”

noting
‘The first sip was rather shocking’: Cop26 delegates try Irn-Bru for the first time | Cop26 | The Guardian

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Instagram: “Moment of truth for Irn Bru …”

Moment of truth for Irn Bru (for those not fully caught up, I have been in Scotland for #COP26 and sharing my thoughts and behind the scenes in my stories. Irn Bru is a very popular drink here that I have been trying to get a hold of and finally did today)
.
.
.
Upon further tasting, it’s not EXACTLY like Kola Champagne (or Inca Kola) but it’s in a similar family of flavor. I was so shocked at having something in Glasgow that tasted like HOME however Irn Bru is also very unique on its own. It’s got pizazz. I like it! Will bring some cans home to NY for sure!

AOC traveled there as part of the US Congressional delegation, traveling with them in a CODEL trip in what was likely a Boeing C-40, a military version of the Boeing 737. It was a little less than 5 years ago that she went with some friends to the Standing Rock protest camp.

It would have been impractical to go by sailboat, as Greta Thunberg did back in 2019.

This time, she can do the entire journey by train. I went to eurail.com and it found some Stockholm - London trips. This is the fastest one that I found:

• Stockholm 23:09 - 06:14 Malmö - 613 km - 7h 5m - 87 km/h
• Malmö 06:33 - 07:10 Copenhagen - 41 km - 37m - 66 km/h
• Copenhagen 07:26 - 12:04 Hamburg - 334 km - 4h 38m - 72 km/h
• Hamburg 12:46 - 16:50 Köln - 432 km - 4h 4m - 106 km/h
• Köln 17:43 - 19:35 Brussels - 211 km - 1h 52m - 113 km/h
• Brussels 20:52 - 22:57 London - 373 km - 2h 5m - 179 km/h

All times CET

London is still a long train ride away from Glasgow. It's not even in the same country...

 

[lpetrich]

Oops. I could not find Stockholm - Glasgow at eurail.com, but I found London - Glasgow there.

666 km - 4h 19m -154 km/h

So GT might want to spend the night in London before continuing to Glasgow. She will have to change stations there:

• To mainland Europe: St. Pancras
• To Glasgow: Euston

However, those two stations are very close, about 0.5 mi / 850 m apart.

• Why are there so many train stations in London and where does each London station serve? - Fun Kids - the UK's children's radio station
• UK Train stations with direct services to each London terminal station [OC] : TransitDiagrams
• File:Major railway stations of London map.svg - Wikimedia Commons
• British Rail fares and timetables from London explained

Notice how each station serves a slice of Great Britain, radiating out from London.

 

[bilby]

Oops. I could not find Stockholm - Glasgow at eurail.com, but I found London - Glasgow there.

666 km - 4h 19m -154 km/h

So GT might want to spend the night in London before continuing to Glasgow. She will have to change stations there:

• To mainland Europe: St. Pancras
• To Glasgow: Euston

However, those two stations are very close, about 0.5 mi / 850 m apart.

• Why are there so many train stations in London and where does each London station serve? - Fun Kids - the UK's children's radio station
• UK Train stations with direct services to each London terminal station [OC] : TransitDiagrams
• File:Major railway stations of London map.svg - Wikimedia Commons
• British Rail fares and timetables from London explained

Notice how each station serves a slice of Great Britain, radiating out from London.

Tourists often catch the underground from St Pancras to Euston, but it's actually faster, and requires less walking, to simply stroll along the Euston Road.

If the walk tires you out, the Euston Tap pub is built into the gatehouses at the main entrance to Euston station; The left hand side sells a wide range of beer, and the right hand side a range of ciders.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Just noticed an interesting datum:

In 2016 when His Flatulence won I posted a picture out the front door of pouring rain and labeled it "And God cried". Someone noticed a pot with "dead" (seasonally, not truly dead) plant near the front door. While that pot now is doing other things there are more such plants out front--still growing fine and being harvested now, nearly two weeks after the date where they had died back to the roots 5 years ago.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

How many historical weather events this year?

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

And with temperatures so mild, we are a polar vortex intrusion away from a huge lake effect snowstorm.

 

[steve_bank]

As Sec Of State Pompeio said if the NW Passage and the artic e is melting, why not exploit it?

Therein lies a big part of the problem. Maximum exploitation of resorces for profit wirhiout restraints.

 

[Swammerdami]

Violence, at least in the sense of warfare, has massively declined over the last hundred and twenty years.

This claim intrigued me; I Googled and found a graph showing conflict deaths per capita. (It includes genocides so may not fit with bilby's "in the sense of warfare.") You may need to expand the graph to view it easily; for that the linked-to version may be easier than the attachment below.

While war deaths declined sharply after about 1980, the first half of the 20th century was very bad, mainly due to the two world wars.

The graph seems to show a regular cycle, with roughly 50-year period!

 

[steve_bank]

Historically war and disease were checks on population. There were several reasons for the Crusades. One of which i read was a growing population of healthy males with nothing to do. A potential source of unrest.

Hitler wrote war is a natural human state, maybe he was right.

Sudan, Ukraine, Iran vs Israel, Saudi vs Iran, Afghanistan, NK vs SK, Libya. Lebanon and other areas in Africa, N Ireland...I would not say conflict has diminished. WWII was only about 80 years ago.

If Ukraine becomes a trigger point for a NATO Russia conflict then a nuclear exchange is not out of realm of possibility. Add China and Taiwan.

In some ways the conditions are similar to the run up to both WWI and WWII. Regional and cultural disputes. over land and resources.

No one will ant it, but we may walk into a third conflict. The Brits assuming superiority walked in war over the rmeote valueless Falkland Islands with a few trafgc consequences.

 

[bilby]

Historically war and disease were checks on population.

No, they weren't.

There were several reasons for the Crusades. One of which i read was a growing population of healthy males with nothing to do. A potential source of unrest.

Whoever wrote that was wrong.

Hitler wrote war is a natural human state, maybe he was right.

No, he wasn't.

Sudan, Ukraine, Iran vs Israel, Saudi vs Iran, Afghanistan, NK vs SK, Libya. Lebanon and other areas in Africa, N Ireland...I would not say conflict has diminished.

But reality does say that, so you would just be wrong.

WWII was only about 80 years ago.

Which is more than most human lifespans.

Almost nobody who fought in WWII is still alive today.

If Ukraine becomes a trigger point for a NATO Russia conflict then a nuclear exchange is not out of realm of possibility. Add China and Taiwan.

A nuclear exchange will never be outside the realm of possibility.

That doesn't make it likely.

In some ways the conditions are similar to the run up to both WWI and WWII.

But in most ways, and all important ones, conditions are very different.

Regional and cultural disputes. over land and resources.

Which are fewer and less significant now than ever in recorded history.

No one will ant it, but we may walk into a third conflict. The Brits assuming superiority walked in war over the rmeote valueless Falkland Islands with a few trafgc consequences.

The people of the Falklands don't concur. Liberating people from tyrannical invaders is generally considered a good thing.

Your vague memories of popular historical myths, and your deeply held nonsensical nostalgia, isn't a worthwhile replacement for a genuine understanding and study of history or current events.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Violence, at least in the sense of warfare, has massively declined over the last hundred and twenty years.

This claim intrigued me; I Googled and found a graph showing conflict deaths per capita. (It includes genocides so may not fit with bilby's "in the sense of warfare.") You may need to expand the graph to view it easily; for that the linked-to version may be easier than the attachment below.

While war deaths declined sharply after about 1980, the first half of the 20th century was very bad, mainly due to the two world wars.

The graph seems to show a regular cycle, with roughly 50-year period!

Until the UN, which worked. The UN has solved so few problems, but it has managed to prevent catastrophic calamities, especially when we had weapons of near unspeakable power. WWI was hell for soldiers. WWII was hell for nearly all of Europe and Eastern Asia. We came to the brink and seemed to pull back from it.

This is grossly off-topic though.

 

[steve_bank]

In the news the mid west Tornado hot zone, tornado aly, is moving to the north east. Warmer winters means more winter tornadoes farther north.