Climate Change/Mass Extinction Megathread

[Syt]

So are we all playing some sort of joke on Syt here?

#RememberHansmeister

[Duque de Bragança]

For starters it could be Children of Men, sad Clive Owen anxiously wandering a grimy UK overwhelmed by some sort of refugee crisis.

Children of Men is a rip-off of 2019 after the Fall of New York, itself very much inspired by Escape from New York and Max Max 2 among others.

I'll settle for Zardoz, since the French-dubbed line of " The gun is good, the penis is evil" is hilarious in French.

[viper37]

If we devoted significant resources now to developing a new electrical grid with electricity generated from green sources, there could be an economic boom and we could avoid the most significant losses.

oh sure.  All wee need is for most of English Canada to accept hydro-electricity from Quebec and ditch their coal&gaz plants.

Easy peasy?

Last I checked BC was in English Canada and it does not have coal or gas plants.  But you are correct that there is no way we will accept hydro from Quebec - we have our own

So here, ya easy peasy.

Read again and put emphasis on most

We could export energy to New Brunswick, but they do not want it.  Newfoundland lobbyed the Feds to get some money for their own hydro project in Labrador and their own submarine power line to reach New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, PEI and New England.  So far, it's a mess and Newfoundlanders will pay at least 3x the price it was supposed to be until it is done.

Ontario wants to restart its coal plants and does not wish for powerlines from Quebec to cross its territory.  Manitoba, Sask and Alberta do not want to import electricity from a seperatist province.

To me, that qualifies for "most".

[viper37]

Ontario gets like 40% from hydro and the rest from nuclear IIRC

So it is Manitoba that is burning all the coal eh? Bastards.

The prairies burn coal.
New Brunswick too.
PEI, I can't remember.
Newfoundland was supposed to export electricity, but they can't generate enough yet.  Something about cost overrun and production delays...
That is what happens when amateurs try something.

[dps]

For starters it could be Children of Men, sad Clive Owen anxiously wandering a grimy UK overwhelmed by some sort of refugee crisis.

Children of Men is a rip-off of 2019 after the Fall of New York, itself very much inspired by Escape from New York and Max Max 2 among others.

I'll settle for Zardoz, since the French-dubbed line of " The gun is good, the penis is evil" is hilarious in French.

It's pretty hilarious in English as well.

[viper37]

I'll settle for Zardoz, since the French-dubbed line of " The gun is good, the penis is evil" is hilarious in French.

Le fusil est bon, le pénis est mieux ?

[crazy canuck]

Part of the NYTimes editorial on the Green New Deal

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/23/opinion/green-new-deal-climate-democrats.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

The idea of decarbonizing the economy is ambitious, commendable and urgent. In early January, for instance, came three hugely dispiriting reports. The Rhodium Group, a research firm, estimated that America's carbon dioxide emissions, after a period of decline, had risen by 3.4 percent in 2018, even as a near-record number of coal plants around the country were retired. The main culprits were economic growth and rising emissions from factories, putting America's vow to cut greenhouse gas emissions 26 to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025 further out of reach, absent bold new policies or technological breakthroughs.

This bad news was followed by a study in Science finding that the oceans are warming at an alarming pace, 40 to 50 percent faster than the United Nations had estimated, putting corals and fisheries at even greater risk. If that were not enough, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences followed with a study predicting faster melting of Antarctica's huge ice reserves.

These are not good signs, but Mr. Markey, ever the optimist, thinks there is no better time to put forth aggressive ambitions and solutions. Obviously, nothing will happen legislatively as long as the Republicans control the Senate and Mr. Trump sits in the White House. But the stars are aligned, Mr. Markey thinks, for a robust debate about a climate strategy that his party can take to the voters in 2020. The steady drumbeat of alarming reports, plus one climate-related multibillion dollar disaster after another, has raised public consciousness, which in turn increases public pressure on Congress to do something. In an exchange that went viral on Friday, a group of children pressed Democractic Senator Dianne Feinstein over her refusal to support the plan. "We're the ones who are going to be impacted," one of the children lamented.

Meanwhile, technological progress toward clean-energy solutions has been nothing short of remarkable, giving the lie to the old denier argument that clean energy inevitably means fewer jobs. Wind capacity has increased more than fourfold in the last decade. Solar power, while still a very small part of the total energy mix, has increased at an even faster rate. And prices for both have dropped to the point where they are increasingly competitive with fossil fuels. Ten years ago, an electric car was a curiosity; now more than a million have been sold in the United States.

[mongers]

And on the other hand, the soon to be US ambassador to the UN:

CBC Politics 
    
The new U.S. ambassador to Canada says when it comes to climate change she believes in "both sides of the science" cbc.ca/1.4366936 pic.twitter.com/UNKhgSMj74

[Valmy]

Cognitive dissonance is probably an important quality to cultivate in the Trump administration.

[Duque de Bragança]

I'll settle for Zardoz, since the French-dubbed line of " The gun is good, the penis is evil" is hilarious in French.

Le fusil est bon, le pénis est mieux ?

Mieux que ça :
"L'arme c'est le bien, le pénis c'est le mal !"
Oui, jeu de mots (involontaire ?) entre mal et mâle.

[mongers]

Warmest February day ever recorded today, 20.3C in West Wales.

And by extension the warmest Winter's* day in the UK since records began.

So now 'warming' here then. 



* Our Meteorology Office works on calender seasons rather than using the equinox etc, so Winter is offically Dec 1st to Feb 28th/29th.

[Solmyr]

So Trump is setting up an official climate change denier panel. 

[Valmy]

So Trump is setting up an official climate change denier panel. 

Yeah there seems to be a major offensive by the fossil fuels people recently. Probably in reaction to the whole "Green New Deal" business.

[The Minsky Moment]

One of the many curious aspects of Trump's presidency is the degree he finds himself at war with his own executive branch.

[mongers]

One of the many curious aspects of Trump's presidency is the degree he finds himself at war with his own executive branch.

Not really, he's been know to pick a fight with his own reflection.