New report on climate change released today

[angelo]

Too right, Agree with the above post 100% for violence begets violence.

 

[lpetrich]

ICNC - Lessons of Uprisings Around the World: The Present Moment, and Possible Future

What transforms deep emotions and a trigger event into action is often the presence of grassroots activists and organizers. In many cases these individuals have prepared ahead of time to mobilize, built trust and confidence among different groups, and developed skills at unifying people and organizing protests, strikes, boycotts, and other nonviolent actions. People with these skills and experience are incredibly important in times like these by helping to shape the direction of popular mobilization. When others are confused about what to do, activists and organizers (most of whom are not high-profile leaders) can provide guidance.

The article notes

Another common element in the current wave of uprisings is that most of the people who are mobilizing are choosing nonviolent methods instead of violent methods. If this choice is maintained, significant research tells us that they will be much more likely to achieve their goals over time than if they lapse into violence.

It gets into whether these features are present:

• Unity
• Strategy / Planning
• Nonviolent Discipline - should stay nonviolent even when provoked

How a decade of disillusion gave way to people power | Rebecca Solnit | Opinion | The Guardian

Even deeper than that was the evolution of new, inclusive, less hierarchical, nonviolent organising strategies that rejected some of the failed tactics and principles of past activism and have been important ingredients in movements ever since.

What works and what doesn't is rather hard to predict. Only a couple things seem evident, like the necessity of persistence. One won't get results right away, and one will often have to continue for some years with one's activism.

The climate movement is inevitably an anti-capitalist movement. That capitalism is the best or only way to do things was, in the triumphalism after the collapse of the Soviet Union, affirmed again and again. That mood fell apart in the wake of episode after episode of corruption, destruction and failure – and the rise of a young generation ready to rethink the alternatives and, often, embrace versions of socialism. The nonviolent strategist George Lakey argues that polarisation brings clarity and a volatility that makes positive change more possible. We have the polarisation and the disillusionment, and with perspective about how we got here and when we won, we can claim the possibilities in the decade to come.

 

[repoman]

How practical is biochar and crushing and spreading of minerals like olivine for lowering the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere? Would it even be doable with zero emissions starting today (not possible, but play along)?

Should coal and natural gas power plants use some form of carbon scrubber like olivine (no idea on implementation)?

 

[lpetrich]

Biochar? That would certainly work. Growing a lot of plants and algae will work -- if one can keep them from decaying. That is because decaying will return their carbon to the air. Making biochar or charcoal will keep the plants' carbon in place. Bake the plant material without an airflow and it will become carbonized with more volatile components being driven off. Wood is approximately (CH2O), so baking it will make C + H2O.

 

[lpetrich]

The anti-Greta: A conservative think tank takes on the global phenomenon - The Washington Post - "How a group allied with the Trump administration is paying a German teen to question established climate science."

For climate skeptics, it’s hard to compete with the youthful appeal of global phenomenon Greta Thunberg. But one U.S. think tank hopes it’s found an answer: the anti-Greta.

Naomi Seibt is a 19-year-old German who, like Greta, is blond, eloquent and European. But Naomi denounces “climate alarmism,” calls climate consciousness “a despicably anti-human ideology,” and has even deployed Greta’s now famous “How dare you?” line to take on the mainstream German media.

So their answer to a Nordic teenage girl is another Nordic teenage girl.

That think tank is the Heartland Institute, one of several similar right-wing pro-capitalist "institutes".

Graham Brookie directs the Digital Forensic Research Lab, an arm of the nonprofit Atlantic Council that works to identify and expose disinformation. While the campaign “is not outright disinformation,” Brookie said in an email, it “does bear resemblance to a model we use called the 4d’s — dismiss the message, distort the facts, distract the audience, and express dismay at the whole thing.”

Brookie added: “The tactic is intended to create an equivalency in spokespeople and message. In this case, it is a false equivalency between a message based in climate science that went viral organically and a message based in climate skepticism trying to catch up using paid promotion.”

 

[Elixir]

The anti-Greta: A conservative think tank takes on the global phenomenon - The Washington Post - "How a group allied with the Trump administration is paying a German teen to question established climate science."

For climate skeptics, it’s hard to compete with the youthful appeal of global phenomenon Greta Thunberg. But one U.S. think tank hopes it’s found an answer: the anti-Greta.

Naomi Seibt is a 19-year-old German who, like Greta, is blond, eloquent and European. But Naomi denounces “climate alarmism,” calls climate consciousness “a despicably anti-human ideology,” and has even deployed Greta’s now famous “How dare you?” line to take on the mainstream German media.

So their answer to a Nordic teenage girl is another Nordic teenage girl.

That think tank is the Heartland Institute, one of several similar right-wing pro-capitalist "institutes".

Graham Brookie directs the Digital Forensic Research Lab, an arm of the nonprofit Atlantic Council that works to identify and expose disinformation. While the campaign “is not outright disinformation,” Brookie said in an email, it “does bear resemblance to a model we use called the 4d’s — dismiss the message, distort the facts, distract the audience, and express dismay at the whole thing.”

Brookie added: “The tactic is intended to create an equivalency in spokespeople and message. In this case, it is a false equivalency between a message based in climate science that went viral organically and a message based in climate skepticism trying to catch up using paid promotion.”

Quelle surprise! (not)

The Climate Denial community consists entirely of professional liars and their dupes. Very much like Big Tobacco, but without any of their own research.

 

[repoman]

Climate Change compared to social and economic fields may as well be Newton's Blind Watchmaker given its much greater precision. Yes the planet is big and there are lot of things happening on it, but greenhouse gases do only one thing to net energy balance.

 

[repoman]

A rapture like cult and climate catastrophe prophets of doom have among other things in common with say, Jehovah Witnesses, is a sense that they-themselves can change the future, or the destiny of the very planet itself. A forlong conclusion that they can actually change the course of the future of planet Earth and all life upon it. Forgetting that more than 95% of all life on planet Earth became extinct long before the evolution of homo sapiens.

So, I just saw this Babylon Bee (right wing christian version of The Onion that has a few good stingers) satire:

The Science On Climate Change Is Settled,' Says Man Who Does Not Believe The Settled Science On Gender, Unborn Babies, Economics

So on face value that may make sense of pointing of hypocrisy, but as I already pointed out in above post, this CC from GHGs is clockwork stuff that if all died today would STILL WARM THE PLANET for a long time. If we had many mega volcanoes erupt in massive coal seams to get the same CO2 bump we would have the same warming. CO2 is unconcerned about history unlike humans and our environmental sins.

If there are some ELF, ER or PETA type loonies, I ignore them. I also ignore PragerU shitheads on the other end


I will say that unique life begins at conception but abortion should be allowed in first trimester. Yes I am sanctioning murder and I don't care. If a woman got shot through her womb at ten weeks pregnant, no murder charge for the fetus?

As far as trans stuff goes, all XY criminals belong in male prison, get all FTM and crossdressers out of female roller derby as an example. Science is hijacked by politics in these examples. I don't care what a doctor has to say about this since this REALLY is a topic where heresy and soon independent research will be punishable by career exile.

But greenhouse gases can't identify as non GHGs and magically not heat the planet.

Economics is also a political negotiation more than a science and it can have multiple steady states with unstable transitions.

So save your energy for actual social fights for those topics. Uncross your wires.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Biochar? That would certainly work. Growing a lot of plants and algae will work -- if one can keep them from decaying. That is because decaying will return their carbon to the air. Making biochar or charcoal will keep the plants' carbon in place. Bake the plant material without an airflow and it will become carbonized with more volatile components being driven off. Wood is approximately (CH2O), so baking it will make C + H2O.

Easier--grow trees, toss the wood in an old salt mine.

 

[lpetrich]

Easier--grow trees, toss the wood in an old salt mine.

Yes, trees would work -- trees are giant plants.

One may still want to make charcoal/biochar out of them.

BTW, I think that charcoal is humanity's oldest synthetic fuel. It was made because it burns hotter than wood, making it more suitable for firing pottery in kilns, smelting metals, and the like.

 

[bilby]

Easier--grow trees, toss the wood in an old salt mine.

Yes, trees would work -- trees are giant plants.

One may still want to make charcoal/biochar out of them.

BTW, I think that charcoal is humanity's oldest synthetic fuel. It was made because it burns hotter than wood, making it more suitable for firing pottery in kilns, smelting metals, and the like.

It's also excellent for steel making. The Saxons (ca. 500-1000CE) made some of the best steel known - it wasn't until the early 20th century that steel of the quality of saxon steel was made again in Europe. One reason why it took so long to rediscover the art of making high quality blade steel was the transition from charcoal to coal and coke for forges and furnaces, which led to lower quality steel from the early modern period until well after the industrial revolution. Once the secrets of saxon steel making were lost with their displacement by the vikings and normans (who shared common heritage, btw), they took centuries to rediscover. The Japanese were making blade steel of comparable quality during their Edo period (contemporary with the low grade coke steel period in Europe from the 17th to 19th centuries), but they weren't telling anyone else.

Coal is mostly awful for steel making, but it's cheap - and once coked, it's a bit less awful, and still cheaper than charcoal.

 

[lpetrich]

Coke is another old synfuel, and it was made in China over a millennium ago -  Coke (fuel)

However  Charcoal doesn't give dates on how far back charcoal has been found.

Some chemical processes used by the oil industry are effectively synfuels processes. Like cracking of heavy hydrocarbons to make gasoline and diesel fuel. Fischer-Tropsch synfuels, as they might be called, have been made by oil companies where crude oil has been hard to obtain, and synthetic motor oils are made in Fischer-Tropsch fashion.

So oil companies can have a future in a post-fossil-fuel era, even if coal companies don't.

 

[Gun Nut]

once coked, it's a bit less awful

I know a few people like that too....

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Easier--grow trees, toss the wood in an old salt mine.

Yes, trees would work -- trees are giant plants.

One may still want to make charcoal/biochar out of them.

BTW, I think that charcoal is humanity's oldest synthetic fuel. It was made because it burns hotter than wood, making it more suitable for firing pottery in kilns, smelting metals, and the like.

I'm saying things like biochar mean a lot of processing costs that you don't have if you just toss wood in a salt mine.

 

[ZiprHead]

https://god.dailydot.com/anti-greta/

Conservative Group Funds “Anti-Greta,” A German Climate Change Denier And YouTuber

Naomi Seibt is a 19-year-old blogger and, by law, an adult. She is becoming known on YouTube as the “anti-Greta,” because her videos are about “climate alarmism” and assuring viewers that the Everything Is Fine here on Earth.

Not so coincidentally, Seibt’s videos are sponsored by The Heartland Institute, a national organization that supports fracking and has in the past lobbied for tobacco firms, according to VT. You might not be surprised to hear that a group that wants to drill deep into the planet for precious oil rejects the idea that climate change is real.

It’s hard to know is Seibt really believes the misinformation she promotes or if she is just trying to be another talking head who makes money by lying on camera and appearing at conservative events. According to The Independent, Seibt’s mother is a lawyer who has allegedly represented politicians from Germany’s far-right AfD party in the past.

 

[lpetrich]

'Anti-Greta' teen activist to speak at biggest US conservatives conference | US news | The Guardian - another article on Naomi Seibt.

She will soon address the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), along with President Trump and Vice President Pence.

YouTube Personality Naomi Seibt joins The Heartland Institute - YouTube
Naomi Seibt vs. Greta Thunberg: Whom Should We Trust? - YouTube
NAOMI SEIBT - Message to the Media - HOW DARE YOU (German with English Subtitles) - YouTube

“I’ve got very good news for you,” she says. “The world is not ending because of climate change. In fact, 12 years from now we will still be around, casually taking photos on our iPhone 18s

“We are currently being force-fed a very dystopian agenda of climate alarmism that tells us that we as humans are destroying the planet. And that the young people, especially, have no future – that the animals are dying, that we are ruining nature.”

In another film, Naomi Seibt vs Greta Thunberg: Whom Should We Trust?, Seibt says: “Science is entirely based on intellectual humility and it is important that we keep questioning the narrative that is out there instead of promoting it, and these days climate change science really isn’t science at all.”

Seibt has also uploaded a video with the title Message to the Media – HOW DARE YOU – an obvious reference to a speech by Thunberg at the UN in which she rebuked world leaders: “We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money, and fairytales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!”

 

[lpetrich]

A little over a year ago, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez issued her Green New Deal resolution: H.Res.109 - 116th Congress (2019-2020): Recognizing the duty of the Federal Government to create a Green New Deal. | Congress.gov | Library of Congress

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Over the last year, it has become clear that many of the Republicans crying about the #GreenNewDeal... have never actually read it!
Maybe they aren’t readers, so today I chose to read it to them.
Here is the full audio version of the Green New Deal from the floor of the House. https://t.co/od5YfTKb5O" / Twitter
noting
CSPAN on Twitter: ".@RepAOC @AOC: "So today, what I would like to do is to read the #GreenNewDeal resolution for all those who are interested…" Full video here: [url]https://t.co/E7Oumv8o5V https://t.co/VR1d11ASrh" / Twitter[/url]

Michael McAuliff on Twitter: ".@AOC asks on House floor why so many find the Green New Deal so controversial. "Because for years we have prioritized the pursuit of profit at any and all human and environmental cost. And I humbly ask my colleagues and my country to question our priorities for once." https://t.co/KhSPoFwgFd" / Twitter

Source: House Session | C-SPAN.org - February 26, 2020
AOC's speech: 3:24:30 to 3:44:40
Yes, she read the whole thing, all 14 pages of it.

Related remarks: 3:08:45 to 3:55:15
By Reps. Adriano Espaillat, D-NY-13, Nanette Barrigan, D-CA-44, and Sheila Jackson Lee, D-TX-18.
The blotch on Rep. Espaillat's forehead is an Ash Wednesday ash cross.

 

[angelo]

I'm starting to believe those alarmists who claim the Earth is heading into another ice age. This Summer, which is almost over here in Sunny Perth WA. We've had just 1 or two days with 40C + days, where the norm is up to 4-5 days straight. Wasn't all that long ago that the temperature reached a hell on Earth 44.5C one day. in this decade.

23 February 1991
The highest temperature recorded in Perth was 46.2 °C (115.2 °F) on 23 February 1991, although Perth Airport recorded 46.7 °C (116.1 °F) on the same day. On most summer afternoons a sea breeze, known locally as the "Fremantle Doctor", blows from the southwest, providing relief from the hot north-easterly winds.
en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Climate_of_Perth
Climate of Perth - Wikipedia

 

[lpetrich]

I'm starting to believe those alarmists who claim the Earth is heading into another ice age. ...

Whoever they might be.

BTW, someone at C-SPAN clipped AOC reading her GND resolution and posted it: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) reads Green New Deal on House floor - YouTube

The text is at H.Res.109 - 116th Congress (2019-2020): Recognizing the duty of the Federal Government to create a Green New Deal. | Congress.gov | Library of Congress

That's a better source on its contents than Fox News, wouldn't you think?

 

[Elixir]

I'm starting to believe those alarmists who claim the Earth is heading into another ice age. This Summer, which is almost over here in Sunny Perth WA. We've had just 1 or two days with 40C + days, where the norm is up to 4-5 days straight.
23 February 1991
The highest temperature recorded in Perth was 46.2 °C (115.2 °F) on 23 February 1991, although Perth Airport recorded 46.7 °C (116.1 °F) on the same day.

Did you know that Antarctica is bigger than Perth? In fact it's bigger than your whole island. Even bigger than Europe. It's calving icebergs bigger than Perth. And it is recording the highest temperatures ever seen there.
How does your "ice age" hypothesis explain that?