Climate Change/Mass Extinction Megathread

[mongers]

Maybe my 30-year mortgage on a house below sea level wasn't such a great investment after all.

 

[Tonitrus]

Perhaps my future 30-year mortgage should be in a house boat.

[Josquius]

Sneaking under the radar in the science press here's some positive climate news.

BBC News - 'This could be the holy grail to replace palm oil' - research team
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-66842496


It seems minor and unimportant but when you really think about it this sort of development is Nobel prize level work for it's role in protecting the planet.

[The Brain]

The Swedish National Audit Office has released a report that is very critical of the way post-2000 governments (left and right) have handled the electric power issue. Closing nuclear power plants for no rational reason without analyzing consequences, not acting for years after the necessity of big investments in the power grid became apparent, etc. The stable, cheap, and environmentally friendly hydro-nuclear power system of the 80s and 90s has been mismanaged and partly slaughtered leaving us with expensive and insecure power supply. I wonder what they would have made of Germany's Energiewende.

[Zanza]

I wonder what they would have made of Germany's Energiewende.

Probably similar criticism as the German national auditor reported in 2018, which was basically that it is poorly executed and causes distrust in the government. 

[The Brain]

I wonder what they would have made of Germany's Energiewende.

Probably similar criticism as the German national auditor reported in 2018, which was basically that it is poorly executed and causes distrust in the government. 

Did the criticism have any effect?

[Zanza]

I wonder what they would have made of Germany's Energiewende.

Probably similar criticism as the German national auditor reported in 2018, which was basically that it is poorly executed and causes distrust in the government. 

Did the criticism have any effect?

Not sure, maybe in the details, but not in broad policy.

In general the national auditor here seems to be a Cassandra with little influence on politics. Is it different in Sweden?

[The Brain]

I wonder what they would have made of Germany's Energiewende.

Probably similar criticism as the German national auditor reported in 2018, which was basically that it is poorly executed and causes distrust in the government. 

Did the criticism have any effect?

Not sure, maybe in the details, but not in broad policy.

In general the national auditor here seems to be a Cassandra with little influence on politics. Is it different in Sweden?

No. My impression is that they tend to make very valid points which are then ignored.

[Zanza]

Same here

[crazy canuck]

Here auditor reports make headlines and then are quickly forgotten.

[viper37]

Project drawdown: Table of solutions

A list of solutions to the climate crisis, with numbers.  You can order them to see which solution will remove the most CO2 from the atmosphere.

[HVC]

Project drawdown: Table of solutions

A list of solutions to the climate crisis, with numbers.  You can order them to see which solution will remove the most CO2 from the atmosphere.

Last time we had a non natural disaster decrease in global temperature was because of the mongol devastation and the reforestation that caused. So that's an option   

[mongers]

Well I've just had an automated telephone flood warning/alert for here:

Flood alert for Lower Avon and tributaries.

Can't say I'm that bothered, but unusually early for the season, helps that we've the best part of a million quids worth of active flood defences for only 10 properties.

[viper37]

Project drawdown: Table of solutions
A list of solutions to the climate crisis, with numbers.  You can order them to see which solution will remove the most CO2 from the atmosphere.

Last time we had a non natural disaster decrease in global temperature was because of the mongol devastation and the reforestation that caused. So that's an option 

Family Planning and Education

Health and Education

68.90

It's the politically correct name for genocide according to conservatives

[Sheilbh]

The biggest way to reduce population growth is improving education for girls and developing countries becoming rich - no issue with that.

White rich people worrying about the poor and brown having too many kids don't have a great record. Don't want anything like say the sort of things done in Indira Gandhi's state of emergency. In Europe (I think especially in the UK) a lot of the environmental movement started in the 70s around conservationist and was broadly anti-human (brown, poor, unable to control themselves) and had lots of rather unsavoury links/ideological bedfellows. I think it's best left alone beyond: helping countries develop, educating girls and women and providing general support for (voluntary, non-quotaed) family planning measures - or just provide less intrusive forms like condoms.