Climate Change/Mass Extinction Megathread

[crazy canuck]

I assume the other goal of announcing before hand is to cause the airport to shut down as a precaution.

[crazy canuck]

And Trump does more damage

The Trump administration is set to announce on Thursday that it intends to sharply curtail the regulation of methane emissions, a major contributor to climate change, according to an industry official with knowledge of the plan.

The Environmental Protection Agency, in a proposed rule, will aim to eliminate federal requirements that oil and gas companies install technology to inspect for and fix methane leaks from wells, pipelines and storage facilities.

The NYTimes article goes on to report that the large producers are opposed to the deregulation while the smaller producers who complain they cannot afford the added cost are supportive.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/29/climate/epa-methane-greenhouse-gas.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

[Syt]

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/08/28/politics/tongass-national-forest-donald-trump-alaska/index.html

Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump has asked his agriculture secretary to provide a regulations exemption in order to open millions of acres of protected land within Alaska's Tongass National Forest to "potential logging, energy and mining projects," The Washington Post reported Tuesday.

The Post, citing conversations with three people briefed on the issue, said Trump asked Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue earlier this month to exempt the 16.7-million acre forest from Clinton-era logging restrictions that prevented the area from being open to some commercial interests for nearly 20 years. According to the paper, the move would impact "more than half of the world's largest intact temperate rainforest," which is filled with "with old-growth spruce, hemlock and cedar, rivers running with salmon, and dramatic fjords."

The move is the latest in ongoing efforts by the Trump administration to lift restrictions on protected lands in order to provide industry access to the land. Among other places, the administration has rolled back restrictions on Utah's Grand-Staircase Escalante National Monument and the Bears Ears National Monument in what were two of the largest downsizes of protected lands in US history.

The Post, which noted that in 2016 the Forest Service completed a plan to "phase out old-growth logging" in the forest within 10 years, said it was "unclear how much logging would take place in the Tongass if federal restrictions were lifted because the Forest Service would have to amend its management plan to hold a new timber sale."

"The 2016 plan identified 962,000 acres as suitable for commercial timber and suggested no more than 568,000 acres of that should be logged," the Post said. It added that Congress had previously "designated more than 5.7 million acres of the forest as wilderness, which must remain undeveloped under any circumstances." Under Trump's plan, the paper said, 9.5 million acres could be impacted.

According to the paper, three unnamed sources said the President's request to Perdue came after a conversation in late June with Alaska's Republican governor, Mike Dunleavy, who supports the exemption. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, also supports the move, according to the paper, and, along with Dunleavy, has "pressed" Trump to provide an exemption.

In a statement provided to both CNN and the Post, Murkowski said the state's entire congressional delegation has "always supported a full exemption" from the regulations, which she argued are "harming our ability to develop a sustainable, year-round economy for the Southeast region, where less than one percent of the land is privately held."

The paper said three unnamed people from the Forest Service, which is under the Department of Agriculture, said the agency was "forging ahead with an exemption at Perdue's instructions."

[Tamas]

I assume the other goal of announcing before hand is to cause the airport to shut down as a precaution.

Which is stupid, as you can't shut down hundreds/thousands of flights because some people on the Internet claim they'll fly drones.

[crazy canuck]

I assume the other goal of announcing before hand is to cause the airport to shut down as a precaution.

Which is stupid, as you can't shut down hundreds/thousands of flights because some people on the Internet claim they'll fly drones.

Nevertheless that is likely their goal - given the name of their organization.  Whether their strategy works depends on whether the authorities take the threat seriously enough to shut down the airport and can't find another way to mitigate the threat (which is more likely to occur) and remains to be seen.

I was responding to your comment that people would crash and die which is actually the least likely of all possible outcomes.

[grumbler]

I assume the other goal of announcing before hand is to cause the airport to shut down as a precaution.

Which is stupid, as you can't shut down hundreds/thousands of flights because some people on the Internet claim they'll fly drones.

Which is stupid, because the announcement of it ahead of time means that authorities will be looking for the drones, and shutting down the airport in response to the sighting of drones, instead of waiting to shut down in response to the crashing of planes.

If the protesters are trying to be as moral as possible in their protests, they'll announce in advance that a hazard will be created, even if it increases their own risk of arrest.

[The Brain]

Hopefully they'll be dealt with harshly. Shutting down important infrastructure by threats of mass killings sounds like terrorism to me.

[grumbler]

Hopefully they'll be dealt with harshly. Shutting down important infrastructure by threats of mass killings sounds like terrorism to me.

Okay, Mono.  We get it.

[The Brain]

Hopefully they'll be dealt with harshly. Shutting down important infrastructure by threats of mass killings sounds like terrorism to me.

Okay, Mono.  We get it.

I'm sure those who depend on air transport or not being killed appreciate your soft spot for terrorism.

[Zoupa]

 

[grumbler]

I'm sure those who depend on air transport or not being killed appreciate your soft spot for terrorism.

Okay, Mono.  We get it.

[viper37]

The NYTimes article goes on to report that the large producers are opposed to the deregulation while the smaller producers who complain they cannot afford the added cost are supportive.

It is no surprise.  Regulations always have an added cost that smalltime players are unable to afford completely while bigger corporations who made their money a long time ago can afford it. And they like it because it keeps the smaller players out there...

[fromtia]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnAzoDtwCBg

Here is Margaret Thatcher giving a lengthy speech on the imminent danger of climate change and what can be done to avert the danger. This is from 1989.

[Duque de Bragança]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnAzoDtwCBg

Here is Margaret Thatcher giving a lengthy speech on the imminent danger of climate change and what can be done to avert the danger. This is from 1989.

Closing down coal mines did help. 

[Valmy]

Closing down coal mines did help. 

It did. Maggie is a great environmentalist heroine.