Climate Change/Mass Extinction Megathread

[Berkut]

Well this is rather depressing:

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/what-if-we-stopped-pretending?fbclid=IwAR0vrMXAocKkOH64rdVFarJR_H-eTN3qjuutqPfYXK6UIJqjBtb45hMagcM

[The Brain]

Well this is rather depressing:

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/what-if-we-stopped-pretending?fbclid=IwAR0vrMXAocKkOH64rdVFarJR_H-eTN3qjuutqPfYXK6UIJqjBtb45hMagcM

Jonathan Franzen is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker and the author of, most recently, the novel "Purity."

What does he actually know about climate change, government action, or global cooperation? Maybe we should listen to experts on this critical issue.

[Eddie Teach]

We don't have psychohistory experts yet.

[Oexmelin]

What does he actually know about climate change, government action, or global cooperation? Maybe we should listen to experts on this critical issue.

Do you think experts are experts at communicating their expertise to a general audience?

[grumbler]

Well this is rather depressing:

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/what-if-we-stopped-pretending?fbclid=IwAR0vrMXAocKkOH64rdVFarJR_H-eTN3qjuutqPfYXK6UIJqjBtb45hMagcM

Depressing, yes.  But also realistic and pertinent.  It will be required reading in my government class this week.

[The Brain]

What does he actually know about climate change, government action, or global cooperation? Maybe we should listen to experts on this critical issue.

Do you think experts are experts at communicating their expertise to a general audience?

Some of them are, some of them are not.

[Zoupa]

What does he actually know about climate change, government action, or global cooperation? Maybe we should listen to experts on this critical issue.

Do you think experts are experts at communicating their expertise to a general audience?

Some of them are, some of them are not.

Great insight there buddy.

[The Brain]

What does he actually know about climate change, government action, or global cooperation? Maybe we should listen to experts on this critical issue.

Do you think experts are experts at communicating their expertise to a general audience?

Some of them are, some of them are not.

Great insight there buddy.

It wasn't obvious to everyone.

[crazy canuck]

Well this is rather depressing:

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/what-if-we-stopped-pretending?fbclid=IwAR0vrMXAocKkOH64rdVFarJR_H-eTN3qjuutqPfYXK6UIJqjBtb45hMagcM

Jonathan Franzen is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker and the author of, most recently, the novel "Purity."

What does he actually know about climate change, government action, or global cooperation? Maybe we should listen to experts on this critical issue.

Not maybe, we definitely should be listening to the climate experts, which is one of the points he makes 

[Legbiter]

Well this is rather depressing:

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/what-if-we-stopped-pretending?fbclid=IwAR0vrMXAocKkOH64rdVFarJR_H-eTN3qjuutqPfYXK6UIJqjBtb45hMagcM

The underlying eschatology in these hysterical screeds is much more interesting than what's written per se.

[The Brain]

What we can do right now is a massive expansion of nuclear power. It's a proven concept that would help in a significant way. But noooo, so called environmentalists are against it... "Ew, the color of this lifeboat is so not me! Sorry I can't do this."

[Valmy]

What we can do right now is a massive expansion of nuclear power. It's a proven concept that would help in a significant way. But noooo, so called environmentalists are against it... "Ew, the color of this lifeboat is so not me! Sorry I can't do this."

Environmentalists have been that way about most solutions to the climate problem. I tend to view them with exasperation.

[Legbiter]

What we can do right now is a massive expansion of nuclear power. It's a proven concept that would help in a significant way. But noooo, so called environmentalists are against it... "Ew, the color of this lifeboat is so not me! Sorry I can't do this."

Yeah it's very aggravating.

[The Minsky Moment]

There are practical limitations to an immediate massive expansion of nuclear power.  The upfront capital commitments are tremendous and the pool of skilled engineers and workers has shrunk quite a bit.  The time to make that commitment was a decade ago if we wanted to ramp up now.

[Malthus]

The levelized cost of energy of wind power is now so cheap that it appears to be the power generation of the future. It now significantly beats fossil fuels on cost alone, never mind environmental effects.

Problem with nuclear (aside from regulatory and environmentalist protest nonsense) was always the huge upfront financing gamble of building such plants: if other forms of energy decrease in cost, the poor suckers who invested in a nuclear plant supposed to generate power for twenty plus years at a certain fixed rate are screwed ... and that seems to be exactly what is happening: other forms of generating energy (particularly wind turbines) are getting much cheaper. Solar is making strides too, but is still I think more expensive than wind.