It turns out we weren’t just burying all the trash we didn’t know what to do with! We were just creating resource caches for when we start running out of stuff that’s easy to mine! [Read more…]
Oceanoxia
Exploring an increasingly strange new world
It turns out we weren’t just burying all the trash we didn’t know what to do with! We were just creating resource caches for when we start running out of stuff that’s easy to mine! [Read more…]
So I’m not sure that an adequate introduction is even possible here. I found this, and I think it’s important for everybody to know it exists.
I don’t feel that this needs justification, but it does occur to me that an enterprising congressperson could enter this into the congressional record as part of a discussion on climate change. I’m almost tempted to make a transcript for a senator to use as a filibuster on the issue.
Partial description below for the hearing-impaired, or those who want to see my attempt at describing the sounds I’m hearing.
“The question of the last few years has not been do we have a case, but rather how far will the federal government go to prevent justice?”
-Kirnan Ooman
In 2015 a group of kids and young adults, with the support of Our Children’s Trust, filed a lawsuit accusing the American government of dereliction of its duty to safeguard the rights of the 21 plaintiffs, and by extension the generations they represent:
The lawsuit has been progressing since then, going through the pre-trial discovery process, and resolving a number of issues between the two parties without input from the courts. Despite this progress, the government has been trying, without success, to get the whole thing dismissed. The latest attempt, now by the Trump administration, was to try for a “writ of mandamus”. Basically, their claim was that because the lawsuit was about policy and lack thereof, the plaintiffs’ attempt to seek justice through the courts actually threatened the separation of powers.
The next few decades are going to see some significant changes in global agriculture. Not only will current breadbaskets get worse and worse for farming, but growing water shortages will force significant changes in how we irrigate, and what crops we can grow. Fortunately, I think that agricultural problems will be some of the easier ones to solve, and I’m expecting that we’re going to see a lot more food grown in places like the Sundrop Farm in Port Augusta, AU. [Read more…]
Since it seems like we’ll never be free of people making this obnoxious argument, here’s another response to the unavoidable question – If the planet’s warming, why is is so cold?
Round 1
ED: You see a well groomed garden. In the middle, on a small hill, you see a gazebo.
ERIC: A gazebo? What color is it?
ED: (Pause) It’s white, Eric.
ERIC: How far away is it?
ED: About 50 yards.
ERIC: How big is it?
ED: (Pause) It’s about 30 ft across, 15 ft high, with a pointed top.
ERIC: I use my sword to detect good on it.
ED: It’s not good, Eric. It’s a gazebo.
ERIC: (Pause) I call out to it.
ED: It won’t answer. It’s a gazebo.
ERIC: (Pause) I sheathe my sword and draw my bow and arrows. Does itrespond in any way?
ED: No, Eric, it’s a gazebo!
ERIC: I shoot it with my bow (roll to hit). What happened?
ED: There is now a gazebo with an arrow sticking out of it.
ERIC: (Pause) Wasn’t it wounded?
ED: OF COURSE NOT, ERIC! IT’S A GAZEBO!
ERIC: (Whimper) But that was a +3 arrow!
ED: It’s a gazebo, Eric, a GAZEBO! If you really want to try to destroy it, you could try to chop it with an axe, I suppose, or you could try to burn it, but I don’t know why anybody would even try. It’s a @#$%!! gazebo!
ERIC: (Long pause. He has no axe or fire spells.) I run away.
ED: (Thoroughly frustrated) It’s too late. You’ve awakened the gazebo. It catches you and eats you.
ERIC: (Reaching for his dice) Maybe I’ll roll up a fire-using mage so I can avenge my Paladin.Round 2
I don’t like going to protests, political rallies, and other things like that. I think they’re important, I think they are good things to go to, but I generally find the experience to be uncomfortable. That said, there are times when I think it’s important to bestir myself, and go participate.
A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has concluded that the rate of sea level rise between 1993 and 2012 was two or three times greater than before 1990. This appears to be partly due to a slight over-estimate in the rate of sea level rise prior to 1990, and partly due to the fact that higher temperatures mean more ice melt and faster thermal expansion.
As I’ve said before, it is inevitable that the waters will rise faster and faster as the planet gets hotter, and while the yearly increase in sea level is still a matter of a couple millimeters, it’s going to be a lot more pretty soon. You can read more on this from Chris Mooney at the Independent.
With the death of Roger Ailes, I find myself pondering, once again, the legacy of those people who have spent so much time and effort on bringing about the horrors of an unstable, warming climate. [Read more…]