413 thoughts to “Open Thread Non-Petroleum, February 25, 2019”

  1. Battery-free/Battery-Agnostic Grid optional microgrids ship in bulk Q1 2020.
    https://enphase.com/en-us/ensemble
    https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/ENPH
    The best solution for DIY. Install an IQ7 String now, Add an IQ8 string when available. There is a silent funding ENPH partner (SunNova – I think) that is taking all current preproduction of the Next Gen IQ8 Inverter for the islands which will interop with ANY power source including Diesel Gen sets. No one can do this well now without complex and expensive designs.
    Last post I made a typ0 – The current Standard size PV Panel is the 60 cell 1.0 x 1.6m. Know as a 250 watt class panel, but the average rating is now > ~300watt.
    There is the Utility 72 cell size, 1.0m x 2.0m, but it’s over the 50 lb limit OSHA limit for handling by crew on a roof.

  2. Why We Think Cats Are Psychopaths
    Sarah Zhang

    https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/02/cat-psychopaths/583192/

    When Becky Evans started studying cat-human relationships, she kept hearing, over and over again, about how cats are psychopaths.

    Evans, a psychology graduate student at the University of Liverpool, recently devised a survey for owners who think that their cats are psychopaths. The survey asks owners to describe the allegedly psychopathic behaviors, and so far they have included bullying other pets, taking over the dog’s bed, and waiting on the kitchen counter to pounce on unsuspecting family members. In short, pretty typical cat behavior.

    The survey, Evans hopes, is just the first step in devising a way to measure psychopathy in cats. She’d like to eventually study cats in their natural habitat—their house—so as not to rely on the word of their owners. The ultimate goal of the research is to devise a test for shelters so they can better match cats with owners. Whether it’s fair to call a cat a psychopath, we naturally do it, and it affects how well new owners and their cats will get along.

    1. Got me to thinking- what is psychopath?
      Looking it up, they list characteristics such as-
      [uncaring, shallow emotions, selfishness, irresponsibility, insincere speech, overconfidence, narrowing of attention, inability to plan for the future, violence]

      In general, it describes humans in groups. And often their leaders.
      Bad animal to have hands.

      1. Often psychopaths obtain high political and business positions. I can think of several.

      2. Like the Duke is The Thirteen Clocks.

        Hark, Hark!
        The dogs do bark
        The Duke is found of kittens
        He likes to take their insides out
        And use their fur for mittens.

    1. Also continuing the discussion from the last thread, one of the main factors behind Trump’s improving approval ratings among independents is due to Hispanics approving of him in increasing numbers. There’s definitely something going on here. Politico has picked up on it as well.

      Trump’s Secret to Victory in 2020: Hispanic Voters

      Yes, it’s true: The man who wants to build a wall to keep out immigrants is winning over just enough Latinos to get re-elected. Unless Democrats figure out how to stop him.

          1. Nuance above everything else is necessary to any serious understanding of politics.

            Think about what I’m saying. Most of us here are convinced that we are deep into overshoot, and that the shit is going to hit the fan, is already hitting the fan, as the direct consequence.

            So we talk about the need for the population to peak and decline, but NOBODY here is willing to say what everybody obviously believes,if they really believe time is running out, that we need to do some proactive things to hurry up the decline in birth rates.
            A thinking person, who thinks we are looking at economic and ecological collapse, depletion of nature’s one time gift of natural resources, etc, has to at least CONSIDER the question of whether he should be looking at his own country as a LIFEBOAT, and wondering how many more people he wants IN his country, regardless of color, religion, culture, or any other factor, other than RAW NUMBERS.

            Now I expect to be flamed for the above remarks, but they set the stage for the rest of what I have to say.
            My own family fled the old country to come here, back when the borders were open, I GET IT. And I am not all opposed to allowing smallish numbers of new people into the country, meaning hundreds of thousands annually, max, IF they are vetted, especially the young men, as best we can. That many is a third of one percent , or a little less, of our total present day population, and won’t result in much in the way of disruption, unless some of them are professional troublemakers, such as flat out gang members, etc.

            Now consider the Hispanics already here. They are understandably in favor of their own families and friends getting in, just as old Trump is in favor of HIS women and friends getting in, but they also understandably are opposed to allowing very many more people into the country. They believe, as most of my working class neighbors believe, that more immigrants means fewer jobs for them, higher rents for them, more political problems for them, less safety and peace and quiet for them.

            Pardon my French, but it does NOT matter a flying FXXX whether these worries and fears are based on facts, ALL that matters is what my neighbors and Hispanic immigrants BELIEVE. Their BELIEFS determine their votes.

            Furthermore, lots of Hispanics take their religion VERY seriously, and therefore their religious convictions in respect to such matters as abortion COMPELL them to vote against Democrats, or else just simply hope their God doesn’t put them in the eternal fires for voting D, and murdering babies.

            BELIEVE ME, my neighbors, and some Hispanics take this JUST as seriously as any member of the GLBT faction takes her or his personal rights about sex, abortion,etc.

            So the bottom line is that some Hispanics are going to think it over, and decide that while Trump is not necessarily their friend……. he is at least the lesser enemy, in comparison to the Democrats, who want his guns, want to tell him he has to do business with people he loathes in some cases, if he has a business, want him to play a role in murdering babies, want him to worry about people with similar names but unknown to him PERSONALLY competing with him for jobs and housing, etc, etc etc.

            Anybody who can’t or does not GET IT is either not trying or dumb as a fence post.
            IF you have a functioning brain, you get it, but that does NOT mean you have to take either side, that’s a matter of CHOICE you are free to make as best suits your own beliefs and other personal considerations.

            I have my fireman’s gear on already, lol.

            2. Hi Survivalist,
              Thanks for the links. What I’ve read so far from the first one is basically dead on, and scary as hell. Unfortunately, the biologists who should be talking about this sort of trouble openly and constantly in public are cowed by political considerations, stuck between the devil of reality, and a political hard place of seeming to endorse the policies of the far right, which are an ecological disaster in the making all by themselves, and in and of themselves.

              Your remote mountain home can continue to serve as your lifeboat only so long as your own country is stable and peaceful, with secure borders. Your home is more like a life jacket, in some respects, than a lifeboat.

              I live in such a place myself, except it’s a quarter of a mile down to the creek. When I was a kid, my community was in the back of beyond, in relative terms, for a place in the Southeastern USA. Now it’s built up to the point I would like to move, but I’m too old to put down roots anyplace else. If the shit really and truly hits the fan in the USA, which is not entirely out of the question, I probably wouldn’t last more than a few months before I would be murdered by roving gangs intent on taking anything they can find that’s edible, or wearable, or sexually attractive, by force. I would fort up, with friends, but we wouldn’t last very long, with the countryside full of roving marauders ready to kill for something to eat.

              I’m not a fan of big government, but I’m utterly convinced that the only possible source of peace and stability in an overpopulated world IS big government, hopefully honest and ethical big government.

            3. I agree with what you say here OFM.
              I have heard that many Mexicans have great disdain for Central Americans such Guatemalans.
              And many Hispanics who have citizenship don’t want new Hispanic immigrants.
              Not all that dissimilar from the experience of English vs Irish in the 1800’s [Tribes of NY].
              And yes, many Latin Americans are very culturally conservative.

              The two biggest factors that push them towards democratic voting is the white nationalism and big business [vs the common man] stance of the republican party.

            4. “I have heard that many Mexicans have great disdain for Central Americans such Guatemalans.”

              I have observed that. I have some Mexican friends who really hated on Trump and his wall idea, but when the caravans were on route from Guatemala to USA they seemed quite enthusiastic for Mexico to BE the wall, so to speak, between USA and Guatemala.

              I also find those same folks to be very conservative, very religious, very against gay marriage, very against abortion etc etc. As usual, voters are swayed by appeals to their values, not their interests.

            5. I thought it was a pretty reasoned list of points, OFM. Where I live it’s similar to new people not wanting any other homes built.

            6. t does NOT matter a flying FXXX whether these worries and fears are based on facts

              That statement only makes sense to someone who agrees with those fears.

              It’s crucial to know whether fears are based on facts or not. It may appear that you can declare that short term power politics are the only important thing and that perception is the most important thing. But, if fears are unrealistic, then reality will tend to creep in. Fear mongering may succeed in pushing reality back to the sidelines, but it will be a constant battle to do so.

              And, countries that do not succumb to unrealistic fears will do better.

              And, the political tactics that you use to combat these fears will be different, if they’re unrealistic. If these fears are just a bogeyman, if they’re just a cynical tactic, then you can’t fight them by giving in to them and agreeing with them. Your opponents will just find another bogeyman to beat you over the head with.

              And… those fears are indeed unrealistic. Countries that trade openly with others will do better. If you’re afraid of resource limitations, then open trade in commodities becomes all the more essential – only “cornucopians” that think that no single element is essential might think that individual countries can go it alone without commodity imports! Countries that allow immigration will do better, as the US has been doing relative to Europe and Japan.

              Should we screen for criminals? Sure. Though, of course, that’s a red herring, a conservative talking point. If a history of criminal immigration is a problem, then Australia is in serious trouble…

              Immigration is a bogeyman. It’s a red herring. The truth? Working people have been stagnating for 40 years because all of the growth in income and wealth have gone to the 1%. No amount of immigration control will help that. Not at all.

            7. Hi Nick,
              We’re not really on different pages, but I probably didn’t make my point quite clear, at least to you.

              The CONTEXT I failed to include in the particular comment you find fault with is that VOTERS VOTE BASED ON WHAT THEY BELIEVE. You will NOT dispute this, in so many words, because you are a smart fellow, not a fart smeller, lol, as we put it in our local vernacular here in the hills.

              Democrats, as I see it , better get their asses in gear and take into account what working class voters BELIEVE, rather than what smart fellows tell them voters OUGHT to believe, if they want to win elections, rather than hand elections over to the Trump type Republicans.

              I do agree with you, mostly about everything you say, but I absolutely insist that a politician that wants to WIN will base his or her campaign on what his target voter BELIEVES.

              NOW THAT’S a fact, you can take it to the bank.

              I basically agree with you concerning the rest of your reply. The obvious solution is a better educated public, in terms of winning over voters for the D/ liberalish side, but that’s a long, slow process. It’s not going to win very many elections in the short term. The short term is 2020.

            8. Hmmm.

              My sense is that professional politicians of every stripe (certainly including Democrats) understand that voter perceptions and beliefs are crucial, certainly including working class voters. What makes you think otherwise?

              I”d say that Republicans have been more successful in manipulating those beliefs, but that has a lot to do with having a lot of media (and “think tanks” and other background organizations like ALEC) owned and closely managed by very well financed, deeply conservative operatives, who have been running a very long-term game. That’s tough to fight. They were also lucky in getting a demagogue in the last presidential election, someone astonishingly skilled at conning voters and unexpectedly raising turnout on election day.

            9. I think I know where this idea came from, that Democrats are out of touch with working class voters. It came from…Republicans.

              Republicans, of course, are working hard to hurt the working class. The only things they’re doing for the working class are social policies which…hurt the working class.

              Who’s hurt by diminished access to abortion services? Working class women, who don’t have the resources to fly out of state to find a provider. Wealthy women can afford to have children, or to get an abortion. Working class women are the ones whose lives are destroyed by Republicans blocking family planning, contraception and abortion.

          2. If voters of a particular persuasion are concentrated by gerrymandering, or by circumstances, in a given district, it takes only a handful to flip elections either way. Half of seventeen percent is sometimes enough to elect congressmen, senators, governors, possibly even presidents.

          1. OK, thank you. There are some heavily biased polls out there and it is important for the source of such charts to be available.

            NAOM

    2. I fear the democrats will hand the next election to Trump, Pence, or whoever is next for the republicans.
      There is a strong tendency towards excessive idealism, rather than pragmatism on so many issues, among the democrats. Particularly among the activists who, because of their activity, get a bigger voice at the table.
      It gives the republicans a strong chance, even with a sub-marginal human being like trump.
      I am pretty sure Ruth will not be able to hold out for another term.

    1. That is a very interesting article. Do you know where the full results of that country risk study can be seen?

      1. I agree. I’m glad you liked it. His ECoE (energy cost of energy) way of talking about EROI is uniqiue, but whatev., same difference. I’m not sure where the rest of that risk analysis is published. I do like to follow his articles though.

    2. According to SEEDS, growth without this simple spending of borrowed money would have been only €13bn, not €111bn. Put another way, 89% of all “growth” reported in Ireland since 2007 has been nothing more substantial than the effect of pouring cheap credit into the system, helped, too, by the “leprechaun economics” recalibration of GDP which took place in 2015.
      .

  5. Carbon dioxide cooling of the upper atmosphere and contraction of the thermosphere.

    Scientists detect carbon dioxide accumulation at the edge of space
    CO2 occurs naturally throughout Earth’s atmosphere and is the primary radiative cooling agent in the energy balance of the mesosphere (~50-90 km altitude) and thermosphere (>90 km). The same properties of CO2 that cause it to trap heat in the troposphere (<15 km) make it an efficient cooler at higher altitudes. The difference is that at high altitudes, the density of CO2 is too thin to recapture the infrared radiation (heat) that it emits. "In the upper atmosphere," explains Emmert, "thermal energy is transferred via collisions from other atmospheric constituents to CO2, which then emits the energy as heat that escapes to outer space."

    The enhanced cooling produced by the increasing CO2 should result in a more contracted thermosphere, where many satellites, including the International Space Station, operate.

    https://phys.org/news/2012-11-atmospheric-co2-space-junk.html

  7. Wimps. They’re lucky to have any snow to play in at all.

    ‘KILLER’ COAL INDUSTRY BLAMED AS BLACK SNOW FALLS IN SIBERIA

    “It depresses you when everything around you is black. And you understand it’s extremely harmful for your health,” said Natalya Zubkova, 42, editor of an online newspaper in one of the affected cities. Our children aren’t going outside to play at all with the black snow likely to remain on the ground till the end of April.”

    Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2019-02-killer-coal-industry-blamed-black.html#jCp

  8. WE ARE TERRIBLE JUDGES OF EARTH’S CHANGING CLIMATE

    “Americans aren’t necessarily good at noticing how small, gradual changes in the world around them are adding up — variations that definitely make the case for climate change. That’s the takeaway from a new study that analyzes more than 2 billion location-tagged tweets about the weather sent from across the U.S. between March 2014 and November 2016. The results suggest that Americans may not be able to recognize just how much havoc climate change is wreaking on their lives; if they do, the recognition may inspire just a grumpy tweet, not the sort of systemic change needed to address climate change.”

    https://www.space.com/you-are-terrible-judge-of-climate-change.html

    1. Americans aren’t necessarily good at noticing how small, gradual changes in the world around them are adding up — variations that definitely make the case for climate change.

      NO WAAAY!!

      How could that possibly be?! You mean the average American doesn’t dive on the same coral reefs in his or her backyard, for at least the last quarter of a century and keep detailed logs on coral bleaching? Don’t they measure the ocean temperature or check on the ocean pH and then graph that data?! They don’t notice King tides getting higher every year and flooding their streets?

      They aren’t aware that temperatures are currently about 5 to 7 degrees fahrenheit above what is supposed to be average for this time of year?!

      You’re not suggesting that the average American is not paying attention to the fact that there are fewer and fewer insects splattering on their car windshields and flying around their porch lights at night? They haven’t noticed the disappearance of bees, wasps, butterflies, moths, and beetles? Fewer spiders, song birds, geckos, lizards and frogs?

      Next you are going to tell us that the average American is not only oblivious to actual visible changes but that they don’t keep up on the scientific research and read hundreds of peer reviewed papers from dozens of scientific fields?

      Jeez, you might as well try to convince us that Americans spend most of their time watching TV eating junk food, shopping at the mall and spend the rest of their free time on social media and don’t give a flying fuck about what happens in the rest of the world!

      Well, I for one, find all that very difficult to believe!

      Cheers!

      1. Apparently, many song birds depend on finding safe nesting sites. I especially love swallows and consequently have put up a dozen plus squirrel-proof nest boxes following all the rules: floor area, access holes size, height, etc. For years they were almost all occupied and typically supported two, sometimes three hatches. Alas — no more. I’m certainly no expert but one reason may be is they’re not surviving their winter range. Also, the bug population here has become pathetic. Almost no grasshoppers, moths, butterflies, etc. This is both distressing and depressing to me.

        1. Alas — no more. I’m certainly no expert but one reason may be is they’re not surviving their winter range. Also, the bug population here has become pathetic. Almost no grasshoppers, moths, butterflies, etc. This is both distressing and depressing to me.

          It is very depressing to me as well! However, like a wreck on the highway, I find it impossible not to look and stare in horror. I would like to know how many Americans, 1) are aware this is happening? and 2) understand the implications?

          Any migratory species that winters in the tropics may be effected by collapsing food webs caused by climate change and may not survive as climate change kills off terrestrial arthropods.

          https://www.pnas.org/content/115/44/E10397

          Climate-driven declines in arthropod abundance restructure a rainforest food web
          Bradford C. Lister and Andres Garcia

          Significance
          Arthropods, invertebrates including insects that have external skeletons, are declining at an alarming rate. While the tropics harbor the majority of arthropod species, little is known about trends in their abundance. We compared arthropod biomass in Puerto Rico’s Luquillo rainforest with data taken during the 1970s and found that biomass had fallen 10 to 60 times. Our analyses revealed synchronous declines in the lizards, frogs, and birds that eat arthropods. Over the past 30 years, forest temperatures have risen 2.0 °C, and our study indicates that climate warming is the driving force behind the collapse of the forest’s food web. If supported by further research, the impact of climate change on tropical ecosystems may be much greater than currently anticipated.

          Bold mine.
          Cheers!

        2. Not everyone shares the same interests you guys do, Fred & Doug. Most people are able to learn that in childhood.

          1. “Not everyone shares the same interests you guys do, Fred & Doug. Most people are able to learn that in childhood.”

            So, what ARE my main interests Kevin? Well, in no particular order: helping teach my homeschooled Grandson, my dog, working (playing) in my machine shop, astrophysics especially as applied to physics (equation of state) of neutron stars, the natural world in all its wonder, reading/writing, spending time with friends and relatives, my two Daughters. inter-species communication, developments in (notably), physics, math, astronomy, geology and geophysics. Music, especially classic and jazz.

            Basically, stuff I wasn’t able to learn enough about in childhood. I expect the same goes for Fred.

            WHAT ARE YOUR INTERESTS KEVIN?

            1. Basically, stuff I wasn’t able to learn enough about in childhood. I expect the same goes for Fred.

              Yeah, I’d say there is a good amount of overlap in our interests. At this point I tend to learn more from my son than he does from me. I’d also add learning about other cultures, languages. Marine and rainforest ecology is pretty high on my list as well. My Brazilian doctor friend will be visiting me again in Miami soon and I’ll catch up on the latest in VR robotic surgical techniques. Probably discuss everything from CRISPR to 3D printing of scafolds for artifiicial organs to Brazilian politics and how things are shaking out with Bolsonaro. Etc… Etc…

              Part of the allure of this blog, at least for me, is exchanging thoughts with people from all walks of life with knowledge about a myriad of topics, if someone is not interested in a particular topic than they shouldn’t engage in that conversation.

              Life is short and there is so much to see and learn!

            2. My interests are fishing, personal finance, gaming, golf, baseball, cigars, Netflix & chill with friends, playing with my dogs.

        3. I have full swallow houses here on the BC Coast, and build more every year. We also have a pretty strong resident bat population, so much so that you look behind things during the day before you remove anything. They snooze against the cedar shingle siding. I also encourage the bats and swallows to reduce our insect population. Plus, spiders rule by sheer numbers. On a wet August morning we have thousands of webs hanging from our seedlings. It looks like diamonds. Every fall we constantly relocate to outside huge wolf spiders. I have no clue how they get in? Many are more than 2 inches across and they barely fit under a glass. Plus, they motor and dodge. Local bee keepers do fine with their hives out in the logging slash; fireweed honey.

          I also read the stats, but it must be site specific. When spring turns cold and no insects are flying the swallows feed off the ground in the estuary. When it warms up they return to our bird houses along the river. Of course there are few farms here so no pesticides. Logging companies occasionally use herbicides they like to call, ‘conifer release’. They use it to kill alder and salmon berries to speed up the regen cycle. It’s not widespread.

          1. Hi Paulo,

            What can you tell us about colony collapse disorder and your local beekeepers ?

      2. “you might as well try to convince us that Americans spend most of their time watching TV eating junk food, shopping at the mall and spend the rest of their free time on social media and don’t give a flying fuck about what happens in the rest of the world!”

        Wait, doesn’t that describe DT? Except for shopping at the mall.
        It also describes a slob.

        Do you think tweeting is a good test for this. Wouldn’t the medium filter out anyone who is not a slob in most cases?

        1. I don’t really have a problem with someone being a slob in their own private space but a sociopath, with narcissistic personality disorder and authoritarian tendencies should be banned from twitter according to their own rules!

  9. 1366 Technologies and Hanwha Q Cells to open wafer factory in Malaysia

    The promise of kerfless wafering

    In March, 1366 Technologies said it was abandoning plans to build a wafer manufacturing facility in New York and would construct its first commercial-scale wafer factory at an undisclosed overseas location. As part of the change in strategy, the company had withdrawn from the loan guarantee process of the U.S. Department of Energy without having received funds……[snip]

    Price reduction

    The Bedford-based company said the new manufacturing facility could lead to the production of wafers for less than $0.20 per piece, and its Direct Wafer process enables the production of thinner 3D wafers by reducing the amount of silicon used to less than 1.5 g/W without compromising quality. The company said its production process has other advantages, such as a high-purity growth environment, better microstructure and the ability to grade doping agents across the wafer.

    Kerfless wafer production does not require silicon ingots to be sawn into wafers, a time-consuming process which wastes up to 44% of the material which becomes silicon dust. 1366’s kerfless technology forms wafers directly, using molten silicon.

    This is a company and technology I have been watching for some time and just as I predicted, technology developed in the US, with US taxpayer assistance, is being deployed outside the US. Sad.

    The thing that the anti-renewables crowd fail to realise is that there are far more options for the location of silicon based manufacturing. Silicon is the second most abundant element in the Earth’s crust and unlike carbon, enables the production of electricity without having to burn the compounds which are derived from the element. Solar PV only needs incident radiation at sufficient levels to produce useful amounts of electricity. I would say that the world is on the cusp of a transition from a carbon based energy system to a silicon based one. To succeed in the silicon age counties will have to emphasize development silicon based technologies. It would appear that under the leadership of Trump and the Koch Industries puppets in Washington DC, the US is ceding leadership of the new energy race to China and others.

    1. Glad they are getting ramped up for manufacturing. Haven’t anything about this company for quite a while.

  10. Yet another significant cold wave is on the way. Although for the Northern Plains, they’ve been stuck in a historic deep freeze since January. When the month of February wraps up on Thursday, many are going to gasp when they see what the monthly temperature anomalies in the region look like.

    1. They say that in the winter, it is generally colder than in the summer.
      Good to see the pattern holding up.

      1. Well it does kinda depend where you are!

        https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/breaking-uk-weather-met-office-14050723

        It is the first time on record it has been 20C in winter and the earliest in a calendar year since March 2, 1977, the Met Office says.

        Britons have been basking in a spring-like February heatwave that has sent temperatures soaring exactly a year after the Beast from the East brought heavy snow and freezing cold.

        Meteorologists have been left stunned, with the BBC’s Tomasz Schafernaker calling the new record “utterly astonishing”.

        I’m wondering if there will be a repeat of last summer’s drought and crop failures throughout Europe this coming summer?! I hope the apple and pear trees I planted in Germany this past November survive!

        1. I’m worried about my new apple trees drowning. We are having record rainfall in Sonoma county, CA

        2. Yes, we have butterflies in the yard now, in February, above the 51st parallel.

    2. Once more, Mr Blobby points out the effects of global warming that have been predicted.

      NAOM

    3. Yep, North America will be about the only cold anomaly on the planet. We seem to be blessed with cold Canadian air here in the US. Maybe someone should build a wall to keep it out or at least put an import tariff on it.

    4. Yes, the jet stream is severely out of wack this year. It has been warmer at the north pole than interior BC and Alberta. Your graphic/map speaks for itself. Usually I am out getting ready to garden by now with tomatos starting in the house and potting shed. Minus 10C tonight for us which is beyond unusual. I have a heat lamp on my chicken waterer, a small heater in the pumphouse, and another in the crawl space where we store potatoes and garlic. It has been cold and snowy here for a month and we hardly ever get snow…slush once in awhile,but not like this. We were going to go camping next week or so, like that is going to happen. Maybe the end of March. Maybe. (in a Westfalia).

      1. Most of Virginia is dark blue. Everybody I know personally, and I know a lot of people scattered all over the state, will tell you quick that this month has been one of the warmest February’s in their memory, lol.

        Three new all time daily highs for the date were set an the weather station nearest my home this month.

        1. Don’t forget, Mr Blobby posts predicted probabilities of changes from average, which can be wrong, expecting people to confuse the blue for current cold conditions. 😉

          NAOM

      2. I can’t see my auto in Bend Or, but there is a large lump of snow where it probably is.
        But the food is ok, and the electricity is on.

    1. Geely – also owns Volvo. The intro to car as a service sold out in US.

  13. Fires in Winter

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/feb/27/firefighters-tackle-huge-blaze-on-saddleworth-moor

    Increased flooding.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35181139?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/c26xdmnee19t/floods&link_location=live-reporting-story

    Buildings that stood for 200 years destroyed by floods.

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/mar/21/flooding-and-heavy-rains-rise-50-worldwide-in-a-decade-figures-show

    The devastating effects of global warming are a reality now and most people are not willing to do what it takes to reverse this destruction.

    It has been calculated that it will cost £2.5 trillion per year for the next 20 years to convert the global economy from fossil fuels to renewable energy. After that solar panels, wind turbines and hydrogen fuel cells would be far cheaper then coal or gas. Much of the cost going to storage solutions to power cities at night time.

    This would cost the average American or European £1,250 per year. A carbon tax is the fairest way to raise the money, the more you use the more you pay. Rich people heating a 15 bed home with a swimming pool would pay the most. The poorest would pay the least.

    http://www.lse.ac.uk/GranthamInstitute/news/what-does-the-october-2018-budget-mean-for-uk-carbon-pricing-in-a-no-deal-brexit/

    But unless America, China, India also have the same rate of carbon tax Europe on a loser.

    1. The US isn’t going to give up our sovereignty for a pie in the sky scheme like a carbon tax. You’ll have to come up with something a lot more realistic.

      1. sov·er·eign·tyDictionary result for sovereignty
        /ˈsäv(ə)rən(t)ē/Submit
        noun
        supreme power or authority.
        “how can we hope to wrest sovereignty away from the oligarchy and back to the people?”
        synonyms: jurisdiction, supremacy, dominion, power, ascendancy, suzerainty, tyranny, hegemony, domination, sway, predominance, authority, control, influence, rule; More

        https://bios.fi/bios-governance_of_economic_transition.pdf

        Global Sustainable Development Report 2019 drafted by the Group of independent scientists

      2. You will have sovereignty over dead forests

        https://www.boston25news.com/news/trees-are-dying-at-an-alarming-rate/828593591

        Sky high food prices

        https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/05/26/third-nations-honeybee-colonies-died-last-year-why-you-should-care/348418001/

        https://www.farmprogress.com/weather/40-bee-colonies-died-unexpectedly-last-year

        and a pile of ashes

        https://www.ucsusa.org/global-warming/science-and-impacts/impacts/global-warming-and-wildfire.html

        but by then even the dimmest will realise it’s too late

        1. Yep, late:
          1987 — US: The Tower Commission Report, detailing the Iran-Contra Scandal, finds Beloved & Respected Comrade Leader Ronnie Reagan confused & uninformed. It faults White House Chief of Staff Donald Regan, former National Security adviser Robert McFarlane & his successor Admiral John Poindexter, & CIA Director William Casey. Casey had resigned on February 2 for health reasons; McFarlane attempted suicide on February 9; & Regan resigns today.

            1. Yep-
              Bush wanted to put “Five Felonies John” Poindexter in charge of one of the major security agencies .
              Even the Repugs would not go with that one——–

            2. My favorite event in the 80s was Nancy Reagan driving around in a tank knocking down the houses of black people.

  15. STUDY SUGGESTS HUMANS ARE NOW PRODUCING MORE CHEMICAL WASTE THAN CAN BE TESTED

    A team of researchers with members affiliated with several institutions in the U.K. has found evidence that suggests humans are dumping more chemical waste into the environment than can be tested for its impact. In their paper published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the group describes their review of recent research surrounding the amounts and types of chemicals being dumped into ecosystems and what they found.

    What most concerns the researchers is the rate at which new chemicals are being introduced and used and which eventually wind up in natural ecosystems, which is so high that there is no way to test their impact. We may be flushing chemicals into the ocean right now that could potentially kill off most if not all marine animals, and not even know it. They conclude by suggesting that more work is required to investigate the problem and to look for ways to address it.

    Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2019-02-humans-chemical.html#jCp

    1. And that is compounded by the unknown synergistic effects of all those chemicals combined.

      1. Yeah, another example, friend of mine, our local fire chief, told me synergistic effects of burning plastics in house fires are his biggest nightmare.

  16. CLIMATE CHANGE COULD MAKE SUPER-COMMON CLOUDS EXTINCT, WHICH WOULD SCORCH THE PLANET

    If humanity pumps enough carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, one of Earth’s most important types of cloud could go extinct. And if the stratocumulus clouds — those puffy, low rolls of vapor that blanket much of the planet at any given moment — disappear, Earth’s temperature could climb sharply and radically, to heights not predicted in current climate models. That’s the conclusion of a paper published today (Feb. 25) in the journal Nature Geoscience and described in detail by Natalie Wolchover for Quanta Magazine.

    https://www.space.com/clouds-extinct-climate-change.html

  17. ASH LOGGERS RACE AGAINST TIME BEFORE BEETLES GET THEM ALL

    “Loggers in snowy forests are cutting down ash like there’s no tomorrow, seeking to stay one step ahead of a fast-spreading beetle killing the tree in dozens of states. The emerald ash borer has been chewing its way through trees from Maine to Colorado for about two decades, devastating a species prized for yielding a light-grained hardwood attractive enough for furniture and resilient enough for baseball bats. Many hard-hit areas are east of the Mississippi River and north of the Mason-Dixon Line. Some fear areas in the invasion zone like upstate New York might have only five to seven years of ash logging left.”

    Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2019-02-ash-loggers-beetles.html#jCp

      1. Maybe we should euthanize cancer patients. Would reduce medical insurance and free up scads of hospital beds.

        2. The public health care system of many countries do not treat recurrent (or poor prognosis) cancer patients aggressively, in recognition of the poor cost benefit ratio. But most do give good end of life comfort care.

          1. In Canada some doctors treat cancer patients who smoke or are seriously obese less aggressively than others. One day I watched a woman sitting in a wheel chair beside the front door of our local hospital. She was taking turns breathing oxygen from a bottle and sucking on a cigarette. Not exactly doing her bit. Of course I’ve no idea if she was (is) a cancer patient.

            1. “Maybe we should euthanize cancer patients”
              Yep, murder 15 million people a year even though with treatment many live a decade or two after initial disease discovery.
              That would surpass any recorded genocide.

            2. Did you think I was serious for fuck sake? I’ve been kept alive by my oncologist for the last ten years. No, not just alive, he has given me a damn decent decade – and counting!

  18. Hi Dennis,

    What’s the email address you use to get in touch with you at this blog, personally? I take it that Ron is mostly leaving running it up to you now, given his age.

    Thanks, I have something I would like for you to see, and maybe post as a thread.

    I can’t get into OFM email anymore, the computer I had it on crashed, and I never could figure out a way to recover the password. Dumb, but that’s me, when it comes to computers.

  20. Synapsid –

    EARTH SCIENTISTS PLAN TO MELD MASSIVE DATABASES INTO A ‘GEOLOGICAL GOOGLE’

    The British Geological Survey (BGS) has amassed one of the world’s premier collections of geologic samples. Housed in three enormous warehouses in Nottingham, U.K., it contains about 3 million fossils gathered over more than 150 years at thousands of sites across the country. But this data trove “was not really very useful to anybody,” says Michael Stephenson, a BGS paleontologist. Notes about the samples and their associated rocks “were sitting in boxes on bits of paper.” Now, that could change, thanks to a nascent international effort to meld earth science databases into what Stephenson and other backers are describing as a “geological Google.”

    http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/02/earth-scientists-plan-meld-massive-databases-geological-google

    1. DougL,

      There’s something endearing about the British approach: The Geological Society, which had Lyell and Darwin as members, of the country where the Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, and Carboniferous were first defined, largely on the basis of fossils, thinks that perhaps it would be worthwhile to make the information contained in the largest collection of her fossils made available for study.

      You know, for a good part of my life I was an unreasoning Anglophile. Then I lived in England…

      Thanks for this, Doug.

  21. A man in my neighborhood built a homemade electric bike for almost nothing, out of an ordinary bike, plus a heavy duty large battery powered drill motor, a few little gears and shafts, and six new batteries. He used the butts of old drills to plug up the batteries, sawing them off from the rest of the drill, and soldering the wires as necessary to put all six in parallel, and put them in a little box mounted on the rear fender. Crude as hell, no instrumentation at all, but it got him back and forth to work for as long as he was around.I saw him riding it off and on for a year or two.

    This one is rather elaborate.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISR8pKoIa5k

    He kept the batteries looking brand new, lining the box with foam, and when one wouldn’t hold a good charge, he just took it back to the store and exchanged it, so long as they still had some that looked the same. Not altogether honest of him, but he said they were charging about four or five times what it cost to make them, and everybody using a different plug set up so you couldn’t get a generic that would fit your tool, forcing you to buy only the name brand…. and it’s perfectly true that you can get two new batteries plus a new charger, for only a few bucks more, hardly anything, than just the two batteries at the same store the same day, so I guess he was right about that.

    You can get Dewalt or almost any brand battery tools, with charger and bad batteries often included, at a flea market in great shape for almost nothing. You just take a hot battery with you, according to which brand you want, if you have batteries already, and want more , different tools, so you can make sure the tool is running right.

  22. The way I hear it, Norwegians are going nuts for electric cars, with forty percent of new car sales expected to be electric in the very near future.

    https://electrek.co/2019/02/27/tesla-model-3-norway/

    And they’re selling the oil they could be burning in their cars, and investing that money, lol.
    The rest of the world with plenty of wind and sun or water power is apparently not smart enough to figure it out.
    And they say blondes are dumb!

    1. A stark contrast to Britain’s Margret Thatcher, who blew the oil money on tax cuts for the rich. Now the oil is running out, but the tax cuts are still in place, so the Tories are blaming the EU for their troubles.

  23. They call this kind of rain on the West Coast atmospheric river rain.
    https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/officials-in-california-warn-russian-river-area-residents-to-evacuate-now/70007561

    Google floods California, west coast, civil war era or 1860’s.

    The flooding that time will blow your mind. If it happens that way again, and it WILL, sooner or later, it’s going to be an outright economic disaster.

    Ninety nine plus percent of all the people I have ever mentioned this to, in public forums, have never even heard of these historic super floods.

    All my political junkie friends are glued to the tube today. Likewise myself. Turn on the news, and you will see why in a flash.

    1. That 1860’s flood had a nice series of ‘atmos rivers’ that melted some early heavy snows in the mountains. It will happen again some day.

      The wettest station in the greater bay area is Venado- a remote forested spot 7 miles NW of Guerneville (Russian River), and 1000 ft above. The 48 hr rain total just posted is 21.56 inches. Lot of rain, especially for a hilly area.

      As an aside, when I was 20 and new to the area, my friend took me on a weekend tour. We parked on the main road and walked down through the woods to the Russian river. Came upon a clearing with a naked volleyball game going on. I found it hard to concentrate on the ball. I learned that I prefer to watch it with the girls in small bikinis.

  24. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aa-JvLlRfN8
    No mention that the driver was close to the speed of sound.
    RT is #1 for news on youtube, but here they are not reporting, Could it be because Russia has the Oil. This type of Cobalt Battery “NCA” will be phased out, it’s not scale-able much past a few million cars a year. But even this Battery is much safer than Petrol.
    One consideration, if the cells are smashed they will re-ignite as long as exposed Oxygen, so there are blankets for this purpose. Will someone toss 50 cc of Petrol on this reporter, add spark and be done with such propaganda. Perhaps BYD will use such propaganda to sell it’s EV’s.

    1. The mainstream news feeds on spectacle, not context. It’s mostly spectacle, propaganda and a sick form of entertainment. RT is a direct arm of Putin.

      “Russia Today was conceived as a soft-power tool to improve Russia’s image abroad, to counter the anti-Russian bias the Kremlin saw in the Western media. Since its founding in 2005, however, the broadcast outlet has become better known as an extension of former President Vladimir Putin’s confrontational foreign policy.”
      https://archives.cjr.org/feature/what_is_russia_today.php

      1. At Least you know where they are coming From… Putin is a Populist, not a Hawk, but he has to satisfy the hardliners, Study History and Russian behavior become clear. Germany invaded the Soviets for the Oil and the losses were horrendous. Russia needs decades of peace just like all of us, we have no choice to get along. Organizations like :https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_on_Foreign_Relations
        control over western mainstream media does not promote global stability and peace.

          1. Its a bullshit version. No justification to invade another country (and kill millions of civilians) just because your war machine or military/industrial complex is short on oil.
            That goes for Germany, USA, China, and anyone else with such past or future ambitions.

            1. Don’t forget the so-called Suez Crisis which, I believe, guaranteed BP and Europe access to Arab oil.

            2. I don’t think the video is defending Hitler or the invasion of Russia. He is merely showing that given the situation Hitler put Germany in and his conception of the fact that the country is getting crowded beyond the comfort level that Hitler had no choice. Partly that was driven by the fact that they could not continue their aggressive plans without Russian oil.

              It’s a strategic discussion not an ethical one.

            3. “It’s a strategic discussion not an ethical one.”

              When you are talking groups of men with weapons in their hands, strategic discussions need to also be ethical ones!
              Or else you are planning massacre, ethnic cleansing, genocide, civilian starvation and the rest.
              The history of humanity.

              I have no appetite for any discussion that rationalizes Germanys actions.
              Next we will here why USA just had to invade Vietnam.
              Or why the Spanish just had to unleash the Inquisition upon the world.
              All evil.

            4. Your response rather stuns me. You suggest that trying to understand what Hitler was doing is somehow defending it on an ethical basis. I would say rather that understanding the logic of evil is the best way to defend against it rather than decide you know everything because you are the good guys.

              I doubt you even watched the video or understood it, much less my comment.

            5. OK, I reread the thread, and I get your comment (s).
              I admit to getting severely enraged about the subject. Makes me think even less clearly than usual.

            6. Hickory, you are being unreasonable. I want to understand human motives, evil or kind. Simply trying to understand human behavior is totally different from condoning it. I am shocked that you don’t seem understand that simple fact.

              “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

              Sir Winston Churchill

            7. Timothy Snyder has some great works on Germany circa WW2

              Will this be the catalyst for the next Holocaust?
              “Snyder explains the ideology that led to the Holocaust, but stresses that such poisonous thinking can only take root if global conditions are right. For Snyder, the world of today looks a lot like the world before Hitler’s rise to power.”
              https://medium.com/war-is-boring/how-the-holocaust-could-happen-again-42a4c329d502

              (Hint: objective scarcity)

          2. Haha, Hitler was a moron who destroyed Germany. People like to see him as an evil genius or something, but he was just an idiot that accidentally fell upstairs.

            1. He was incompetent as an administrator, and as a general. But, he was a very good demagogue. People who attended his rallies came away with a very strong, very powerful impression.

              I’m not so sure that his success was accidental. His movement was bankrolled by some very wealthy people, who expected to get benefit from his success.

            2. Hitler was never a General. He never rose past the rank of Gefreiter (lance corporal) while he was in the Bavarian Army from 1914 to 1920. He did however serve as the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Wehrmacht (German Armed Forces) through his position as Führer.

    2. I like On Contact, with Chris Hedges. It’s not like an American network is gonna broadcast anything that guy has to say. Same goes for most of his guests; try find anyone who has appeared on his show being interviewed on an American network.

      1. I like some of the news on RT, but as with all news sources and articles one must have a skeptical eye and know which way they lean.

      2. Hedges is great, even though he is a Cabbage For Christ.
        Been on the ground, so real time experience.

        1. The fear of anything smacking of democratic socialism by the conservative right is extreme. As much as Hedges and others make sense, it will be an extremely tough go to make any social progress in the US until the whole structure is weakened.

          1. Hedges thinks it is already way late.
            He is probably right.
            Just look around.

            Just finished America: The Farewell Tour by Hedges.
            It is very convincing.

            1. Well, as far as I am concerned things have to break to fix them.

    2. Nope! At least it didn’t in 2018. The latest Electric Power Monthly came out yesterday with the whole year’s data for 2018 now in. I started working on the spreadsheets right away and have completed most of the graphs for my next report, which I should have ready within the next week.

      1. Hmmm, maybe that is why the Maxwell investors are kvetching at the Tesla deal, they think they will get more in an oil company deal.

        NAOM

  28. The real war on coal.

    rising carbon price drives down coal use by a jaw-dropping 75 per cent in a single decade while oil use is barely affected.

    That is because, as noted above, oil delivers much more value to society than coal does per tonne of CO2. So putting a price on CO2 and letting the marketplace pick winners and losers will KO coal.

    In the high-stakes fisticuffs for the remaining carbon budget, a price on carbon quickly leaves King Coal flat on the mat in the world’s second-biggest coal market. In contrast, Big Oil is barely affected in the world’s largest oil market.

    And that combination is exactly what Big Oil needs to maximize how much of their oil gets out of the ground.

    https://www.nationalobserver.com/2015/05/28/news/big-oil-takes-king-coal-climate-fight-shifts-gears

  29. Dennis will argue, perhaps rightly, debt doesn’t matter; I reserve judgement (sort of).

    THE FED CHAIR JUST ADMITTED ON RECORD THAT THE US IS HEADING FOR A DEBT CRISIS

    “This is the FED CHAIR talking… the person in charge of maintaining STABILITY for the financial system and who controls the printing the of the US currency… not just some talking head on TV. So just how bad are the US’s finances that the Fed Chair would be willing to admit this PUBLICLY? Total US debt has just hit $22 trillion. The US now has a Debt to GDP ratio of 105%. This is roughly where Greece was when it entered a debt crisis in 2010.”

    https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-02-27/fed-chair-just-admitted-record-us-heading-debt-crisis

      1. For the record, I have never said debt doesn’t matter.

        The statistics suggest that debt to GDP of up to 250% is not likely to be a problem. Dect in this case is all public and private non-financial debt as one would find at the link below.

        https://www.bis.org/statistics/totcredit.htm

    2. Total US debt has just hit $22 trillion. How is that defined? OK Public only.
      http://www.usdebtclock.org/
      Looking forward unfunded a decade or so, 20 million Government employees * 1 million?(pension+healthcare) – who ya going to call?

  30. Disclaimer: The following paper is not a general interest topic and should not be read by those with limited interests and especially by those who are not interested in understanding marine ecosystems and how they are connected to the general well being of humanity and the long term survival of civilization as it is currently configured! If this topic is not your cup of tea, then by all means feel free to go play a round of golf or watch a movie on Netflix instead of reading it!

    https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsos.180667

    Microplastics and synthetic particles ingested by deep-sea amphipods in six of the deepest marine ecosystems on Earth
    Published:27 February 2019

    Abstract
    While there is now an established recognition of microplastic pollution in the oceans, and the detrimental effects this may have on marine animals, the ocean depth at which such contamination is ingested by organisms has still not been established. Here, we detect the presence of ingested microplastics in the hindguts of Lysianassoidea amphipod populations, in six deep ocean trenches from around the Pacific Rim (Japan, Izu-Bonin, Mariana, Kermadec, New Hebrides and the Peru-Chile trenches), at depths ranging from 7000 m to 10 890 m. This illustrates that microplastic contaminants occur in the very deepest reaches of the oceans. Over 72% of individuals examined (65 of 90) contained at least one microparticle. The number of microparticles ingested per individual across all trenches ranged from 1 to 8. The mean and standard error of microparticles varied per trench, from 0.9 ± 0.4 (New Hebrides Trench) to 3.3 ± 0.7 (Mariana Trench). A subsample of microfibres and fragments analysed using FTIR were found to be a collection of plastic and synthetic materials (Nylon, polyethylene, polyamide, polyvinyl alcohol, polyvinylchloride, often with inorganic filler material), semi-synthetic (rayon and lyocell) and natural fibre (ramie). Notwithstanding, this study reports the deepest record of microplastic ingestion, indicating that anthropogenic debris is bioavailable to organisms at some of the deepest locations in the Earth’s oceans.

    Cheers!

    1. If microplastics are found in the gut of these tiny crustaceans over 20,000 ft down, we shouldn’t be surprised to find them in the neural ectoderm of the human embryo.
      Do people care?
      Worldwide, 480 billion plastic drinking bottles were sold in 2016.

      1. Do people care?

        It’s difficult to care about something you are unaware of, or that which you don’t fully understand!

        1. …or something that conflicts with the constant drumbeat of buy more, work more, “oh look a butterfly”.

    2. “Disclaimer: The following paper is not a general interest topic and should not be read by those with limited interests and especially by those who are not interested in understanding marine ecosystems and how they are connected to the general well being of humanity and the long term survival of civilization as it is currently configured! If this topic is not your cup of tea, then by all means feel free to go play a round of golf or watch a movie on Netflix instead of reading it!”

      Passive aggressive much, Fred?

      1. Passive aggressive much, Fred?

        Not at all! Perhaps a tad sarcastic…

        “If the foo shits, wear it! ”

  31. Synapsid – I expect you will find this interesting. I’ve always fancied myself as a half-assed volcanologist having studied VMS deposits at the University of Tokyo under Professor Horikoshi (for awhile in the 1980s)

    ‘AMAZING SNAPSHOTS’ PLUMB VOLCANIC DEPTHS

    “The new information on magma transport prior to past volcanic eruptions can provide context to help better respond to future monitoring signals, like seismic measurements from earthquakes.” Dr. Ubide and her team have analysed variations in the chemical composition of volcanic crystals, which form in a chemical pattern known as “sector zoning”. “Volcanologists and mineralogists have observed sector zoning in crystals for decades, noticing that it might develop when crystals form rapidly,” she said. “But because the exact origin and implications of sector-zoned crystals in magma were poorly understood, they were typically disregarded in the study of pre-eruptive processes inside volcanoes. “Now we’ve discovered that they not only record detailed magmatic histories and eruption triggers, but might also provide information on the velocity of magma transport to the surface.”

    Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2019-02-amazing-snapshots-plumb-volcanic-depths.html#jCp

    1. Hi Doug.

      Thanks. I read this this morning on EurekAlert; there have been similar papers in Nature Geoscience over the past half year or so, if fumbling memory serves.

      It’s kind of neat because I’ve always been a little puzzled by the pictures in the books about smooth volcanic plumbing when that isn’t what we see when we examine the deeper-seated rocks which were after all the sources of the magma. There’s a lot more of interest going on down there than had been thought.

      On the other hand, looking at the walls in Yosemite and the North Cascades–and the Okanogan!– leads to thoughts of huge bodies of magma that were in place down there. Seismology is getting better, maybe soon we’ll be able to see some of those.

      If you haven’t been to the US Southwest I’d recommend a visit. It’s beautiful down there, especially in September, and to the south of the Four Corners is Shiprock which truly is a simple, vertical volcanic neck. There are similar though smaller ones in the South of France and those often have castles on them. Sheer vertical sides of solid rock are handy defensive factors, it seems.

  32. ANOTHER OIL TRAIN CRASHES AS ALBERTA GOVERNMENT GETS INTO OIL-BY-RAIL BUSINESS

    “The government of Alberta, Canada, the heart of tar sands country, recently announced plans to get into the oil-by-rail business. Attempting to work around a lack of pipelines, the provincial government intends to spend $3.7 billion to lease 4,400 oil tank cars and locomotives to export more Canadian tar sands oil to the U.S. The announcement came just days after the latest oil train derailment and spill in Manitoba, Canada.”

    https://www.desmogblog.com/2019/02/26/manitoba-oil-train-crashes-alberta-government-notley-rail-business

  33. Good article on the industry transition from ICE to EV vehicles. They describe a consumer phenomena of delaying a purchase when a better/more advanced model is on the verge of availability, and the effect on the vehicle industry.
    In the 2020’s, there will be a big transition from ICE to EV, and the article explores the possible sharp drop in vehicle sales during the transition.
    The overall economic effects are potentially huge.

    https://cleantechnica.com/2019/02/25/the-osborne-effect-on-the-auto-industry/

  34. Fred —

    REDUCED SALINITY OF SEAWATER WREAKS HAVOC ON CORAL CHEMISTRY

    “New research confirms that drastic changes in ocean salinity from, for example, severe freshwater flooding, as recently experienced off the coast of north-east Queensland from abnormal monsoonal conditions, provoke a similar stress response in corals as extreme heating, resulting in “freshwater bleaching” and if unabated, coral death.”

    Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2019-02-salinity-seawater-wreaks-havoc-coral.html#jCp

    1. Yeah. if anyone is interested there is a link to a paper at the end of that article that gives a more in depth look at what is actually happening to the corals when they are exposed to low salinity levels.

      https://bmcgenomics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12864-019-5527-2

      Transcriptomic analysis reveals protein homeostasis breakdown in the coral Acropora millepora during hypo-saline stress

      Abstract
      Background
      Coral reefs can experience salinity fluctuations due to rainfall and runoff; these events can have major impacts on the corals and lead to bleaching and mortality. On the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), low salinity events, which occur during summer seasons and can involve salinity dropping ~ 10 PSU correlate with declines in coral cover, and these events are predicted to increase in frequency and severity under future climate change scenarios. In other marine invertebrates, exposure to low salinity causes increased expression of genes involved in proteolysis, responses to oxidative stress, and membrane transport, but the effects that changes in salinity have on corals have so far received only limited attention. To better understand the coral response to hypo-osmotic stress, here we investigated the transcriptomic response of the coral Acropora millepora in both adult and juvenile life stages to acute (1 h) and more prolonged (24 h) exposure to low salinity.

      Results
      Differential gene expression analysis revealed the involvement of both common and specific response mechanisms in Acropora. The general response to environmental stressors included up-regulation of genes involved in the mitigation of macromolecular and oxidative damage, while up-regulation of genes involved in amino acid metabolism and transport represent specific responses to salinity stress.

      Conclusions
      This study is the first comprehensive transcriptomic analysis of the coral response to low salinity stress and provides important insights into the likely consequences of heavy rainfall and runoff events on coral reefs.

      If it were up to me, no candidates for the senate or congress would be allowed to run for office until they had demonstrated competency in maintaining living coral reef aquariums.

      BTW, I’m afraid to go out on my local reefs. Due to this year’s very warm winter temperatures and very heavy rains recently, I’m afraid I will see even more coral die off than normal.

      Cheers!

    1. I think within 12 months, the Tesla Model 3 will overtake the Toyota Camry, and become the best selling sedan in the U.S.

      1. I worry that Tesla has neither the cash nor the expertise to grow that much in the time allotted.

          1. I really wish Tesla well although I don’t like their cars much. If I understand correctly they have big bond payments due during this year, no profit history and have antagonized Wall Street. Perhaps if they can, in spite of the odds, produce the volume needed to become profitable the money will arrive.

  39. I’ve not read his book yet but it seems to be highly recommended by some big picture systems folk.
    Quarks to Culture: How We Came to Be
    by Tyler Volk

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvZckqJnC6E

    From Quarks to Culture: Tyler Volk’s Plenary Address to the IBHA

    Tyler Volk, professor in the departments of environmental studies and biology at New York University, gave the plenary address to the Fourth conference of the International Big History Association at Villanova University. Tyler Volk has authored seven books, most recently, Quarks to Culture: How We Came to Be. Barry Wood of the University of Houston introduced Dr. Volk.
    https://bighistory.org/

  40. The nation is not nearly as crazy as I thought it was.

    Maddow Wins Wednesday Night Ratings As MSNBC Has Its Highest-Rated Day Ever

    According to ratings data released Thursday by Nielsen, MSNBC finished first among total viewers from 9 a.m. ET, before the Cohen testimony began, to 5 p.m., the network’s highest-rated daytime performance ever. MSNBC drew a total daytime audience of 2.652 million, ahead of Fox News Channel’s 2.252 million and CNN’s 2.011 million. Among viewers 25-54, the demographic most coveted by advertisers, CNN led in daytime, with 554,000. MSNBC was second with 421,000 followed by Fox, with 369,000.

    1. The nation is not nearly as crazy as I thought it was.

      Don’t worry Ron, I’m sure it is only a temporary lapse of the normal insanity! 😉

  41. The methane emergency that has been in process is still being ignored by most mainstream scientists. Methane also causes a water vapor and ozone increase beyond it’s very high IRF. The sinks are reducing. Once the Arctic gets mostly free of ice in the summer, the ocean will heat up much faster causing increasing self reinforcing feedbacks in the shallow methane hydrates and permafrost. One would think that alarm bells would be ringing with the permafrost line already 80 miles further north and the Arctic Ocean up to 8C warmer in the winter and 3.5C warmer overall for Arctic land stations (annual).
    Well at least some mainstream scientists are asymptotically approaching reality, though still falling short since they rely heavily on models and don’t want to be seen as outside the middle ground. About the time the Arctic Ocean opens up in summer they will reach the conclusions that several Arctic field scientists have years ago (I am being a bit optimistic). Though it will be too far gone by then to do much about. Looks like FF is going to be burned through anyway, as much as possible.

    Starring Michael Mann doing his forward-back shuffle “It’s also important not to panic. We’re not outside of the range of what the models predict…”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUedKfZ4dss&t=602s

    1. Starring Michael Mann doing his forward-back shuffle “It’s also important not to panic. We’re not outside of the range of what the models predict…”

      ‘I don’t want your hope, I want you to panic’:
      Greta Thunberg

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=6&v=RjsLm5PCdVQ

      To be clear, we are currently already at about 1 °C above baseline preindustrial average global temperatures. We are not on track to stop at 1.5 °C. The data is coming in telling us that 2 °C is already enough to cause ecological disasters of unprecedented proportions. Climate scientists like Mann just don’t understand biological tipping points!

      1. YOUTH CLIMATE STRIKERS: ‘WE ARE GOING TO CHANGE THE FATE OF HUMANITY’

        The Youth Strikes for Climate movement is not centrally organized, so keeping track of the fast growing number of strikes is difficult, but many are registering on FridaysForFuture.org. So far, there are almost 500 events listed to take place on 15 March across 51 countries, making it the biggest strike day so far. Students plan to skip school across Western Europe, from the US to Brazil and Chile, and from Australia to Iran, India and Japan.

        Thunberg, now 16 years old and who began the strikes with a solo protest beginning last August, is currently on holiday from school. She was one of about 3,000 student demonstrators in Antwerp, Belgium on Thursday, and joined protesters in Hamburg on Friday morning.

        In recent days, she has sharply rejected criticism of the strikes from educational authorities, telling the Hong Kong Education Bureau: “We fight for our future. It doesn’t help if we have to fight the adults too.” She also told a critical Australian state education minister his words “belong in a museum”.

        https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/mar/01/youth-climate-strikers-we-are-going-to-change-the-fate-of-humanity

        1. In recent days, she has sharply rejected criticism of the strikes from educational authorities, telling the Hong Kong Education Bureau: “We fight for our future. It doesn’t help if we have to fight the adults too.” She also told a critical Australian state education minister his words “belong in a museum”.

          As do the words of Dianne Feinstein and Nancy Pelosi! Both of them belong with the fossils in a museum of paleontology…

          https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2019/feb/23/dianne-feinstein-rebuffs-young-climate-activists-calls-for-green-new-deal-video

      1. And it is also one of the main reasons why I keep saying that I think that statements assessing the risks of an RCP 8.5 scenario as highly unlikely, based on burning of fossil fuel and their emissions alone are simply not credible!

        Though I also consider melting of land based permafrost to be a compounding factor as well.

        If I could be granted only one wish, it would be for people to understand the irreversiblility of tipping points once they have been passed !

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoYSToa2Yfw

        TED-Ed
        Published on Oct 23, 2014
        View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/is-our-clim…

        Scientists have warned that as CO2 levels in the atmosphere rise an increase in Earth’s temperature by even two degrees could lead to catastrophic effects across the world. But how can such a tiny, measurable change in one factor lead to huge, unpredictable changes elsewhere? Victor J. Donnay uses billiards to illustrate tipping points, chaotic motion and their implications on climate change.

        Lesson by Victor J. Donnay, animation by Karrot Animation.
        Category
        Education

        1. Problem with getting traction on the positive feedback scenarios is that they are really unknowable- meaning that there is no tested model, no clear set of precedents, no reliable data trail or concrete tipping point. We are on the thin ice of speculation.
          Are the scenarios likely?- I think so. What does likely mean? 20% or 80%?
          How soon, how severe?
          People won’t be proactive to the extent it would take to shut this possibility/likelihood down, even if they praise the ‘Greta’ sense among us.
          I have friends who make many decisions to ‘live right’. They have had PV on the roof for ten years. Yet, they will still fly across the world to see the natural world and other cultures. It doesn’t jive with the urgency of the risk.
          Me too. I hope to drive to mountains this summer to kayak and hike. With petrol.

          1. Yet, they will still fly across the world to see the natural world and other cultures. It doesn’t jive with the urgency of the risk.
            Me too. I hope to drive to mountains this summer to kayak and hike. With petrol.

            Yes, I know. I’m guilty myself. I don’t worry about the price of the ticket but I do save up on my personal carbon budget before splurging on an international flight. I have been averaging one such round trip flight every three years to see friends and relatives we all take turns. Though I’m pretty sure the planes will still fly whether I’m on them or not. I no longer fly domestically and have cut my driving to a bare minimum. Either we make a collective decision to stop emissions or it really won’t matter anyway.

      2. I think one of the problems is that the science is not recognised until numbers can be put to it, no numbers and it doesn’t go into the mainstream model. They know it is there but need to research it first. By the time the numbers are in it is too late.

        NAOM

    3. The Planet can withstand the temperature rises just fine. It’s been warmer in the past, with plants and animals flourishing even at 25 deg C higher. The human species, though unfortunate, won’t survive the inevitable temperature rises. It seems we are just too ignorant to understand the best way is finding ways to survive the inevitable temperature rises instead of trying to stop that which CANNOT be stopped anyhow.

      1. The Planet can withstand the temperature rises just fine. It’s been warmer in the past, with plants and animals flourishing even at 25 deg C higher.

        You don’t say?! You know it only takes a few seconds to look this stuff up.

        https://www.climate.gov/news-features/climate-qa/whats-hottest-earths-ever-been

        What’s the hottest Earth’s ever been?

        Like nothing we’ve ever seen
        Earth’s hottest periods—the Hadean, the late Neoproterozoic, the PETM—occurred before humans existed. Those ancient climates would have been like nothing our species has ever seen.

        Modern human civilization, with its permanent agriculture and settlements, has developed over just the past 10,000 years or so. The period has generally been one of low temperatures and relative global (if not regional) climate stability.

        http://www.geologypage.com/2013/10/hadean-eon.html
        Hadean Eon
        The name “Hadean” comes from Hades, the ancient Greek god of the underworld due to the “hellish” conditions on Earth at the time: the planet had just formed and was still very hot due to high volcanism, a partially molten surface and frequent collisions with other Solar System bodies.

        https://www.pnas.org/content/113/28/7739
        Temperature and atmospheric CO2 concentration estimates through the PETM using triple oxygen isotope analysis of mammalian bioapatite

        BTW, also check out the climate of the Neoproterozoic:
        http://geosci.uchicago.edu/~dkoll/PAPERS/annurev-earth-040809-152447.pdf

        So yes, the planet can and has withstood some rather significant temperature fluctuations throughout it’s 4.5 billion year history. However to state that plants and animals have flourished at average global temperatures 25 °C higher than today, is a bit of a stretch, to put it mildly!

        And there is not a snowball’s chance in Hades that humans could adapt to anything in that range!

        1. Hi Fred,
          How hot might it be at higher altitudes someplace near the South Pole, with the average temperature up 25 degrees C?
          Just wondering, for my own amusement, but a few people might survive down that way. It might even snow a little from time to time, lol.

          1. Given that during the PETM, the global mean temperature appears to have risen by about 5-8°C and that led to the largest deep-sea mass extinction event in the last 93 million years, I really don’t think I’d want to find out what life would be like on this planet if the global mean temperature rises by about 25 °C. I assume it would include massive dead zones in all of the oceans with hydrogen sulfide loving extremophiles being the main life forms.

      2. Mossygrape- “understand the best way is finding ways to survive the inevitable temperature rises”

        What do have in mind? Migration? From where to where?

        1. I don’t know. That’s for the venture capitalists and entrepreneurs to figure out, not the government or scientists on taxpayer grants.

          1. ” That’s for the venture capitalists and entrepreneurs to figure out”

            Seriously? If the people of the world wait for those segments to solve these problems, their job will be to decorate a funeral of the global ecosystem.

            1. https://medium.com/s/teamhuman/stupid-smart-cities-with-molly-sauter-a1112e2fc0bf

              Interesting conversation between Douglas Rushkoff and Molly Sauter about venture capitalists and entrepreneurs.

              Playing for Team Human today is technology and society researcher Molly Sauter. Molly will be helping us see how stupid some “smart city” visions really are. Molly and Douglas discuss the extractive, “mining ethos” of the tech investment swarm, and how this mentality does harm to communities from Silicon Valley to Toronto, Canada. Is your city the next VC guinea pig in the technocratic experiment to grow cities and extract their value?

        1. C’mon GF, Mossy has just assured us that plants and animals have thrived at global mean average temps of 25 °C above present day global mean average temps.

          It certainly isn’t his fault, that: “we are just too ignorant to understand the best way is finding ways to survive the inevitable temperature rises instead of trying to stop that which CANNOT be stopped anyhow.”

          Not to mention that all of this is for: “the venture capitalists and entrepreneurs to figure out, not the government or scientists on taxpayer grants.”

          Cheers!

            1. I think I saw that donkey with the TV once, going along a ridge.
              It after a Grateful Dead show.

  42. AUSTRALIA EXPERIENCES HOTTEST SUMMER ON RECORD

    Hundreds of individual heat records were shattered across the country over the past three months. The warm weather, 2.14C above the long-term average, caused bushfires, blackouts and a rise in hospital admissions. Wildlife also suffered, with reports of mass deaths of wild horses, native bats and fish. “The real standout was just how widespread and prolonged each heatwave was – almost everywhere was affected.”

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-47410366

      1. Maybe when the their wheat growing region, which is moving south, ends up in the ocean they will toss the coal burners and coal magnates in after it.

    1. Yeah, Tks! I was already aware of this planter and their story. Perhaps it is time to apply this to areas such as abandoned parking lots and shopping malls. That’s what I’d really like to start seeing! Especially as we transition to fewer cars and brick and mortar stores. Mixed in with a few urban farms, greenhouses and aquaponics sites.

        1. I’m helping a relative set up a green house operation doing something similar to what’s in this link, except it will run mostly on sunlight,and it’s out in the country where land is cheap.

          He will be forcing micro greens and raising tilapia . We have the frame up already, and the fish tank in place, and most of the plumbing in place.

          He stands to make some money, but such operations are never going to produce much in the way of what I refer to, generally and personally as REAL food, as opposed to rabbit food. You simply cannot produce much in the way of calories and protein this way, and if you go UP, the costs of doing so are astronomical, in terms of racks, shelving, lights and wiring, and you BETTER be sitting down when you come up with the estimated cost of electricity.

          It can work though, so long as you have a market for super duper expensive rabbit food, and you can harvest as often as every four or five weeks.

          Considering that we’re looking at some really tough problems in terms of energy supplies, I don’t see this kind of thing as ever being a significant source of food in terms of protein and calories, except possibly in a few places with lots and lots of water power available, and no good way to make use of it. Some greenhouse operators up Canada way get juice cheap enough to raise tomatoes this way.

          The fish do help with the greenhouse operation, but you still have to feed the fish, and if raising fish is the goal, then you don’t need more than a quarter of the infrastructure, max, and possibly as little as ten percent, just for the fish part of the operation.

          Boutique food for skinny women, and metrosexual men,from the pov of an old redneck, lol.

          Just kidding about that, it’s extremely important that everybody gets some of this stuff in his or her diet, but the vast majority of us can’t afford it raised this way.

          We Yankees better be praying that California doesn’t wash away or dry up and blow away, or else we will be going back to canned or frozen or doing without, unless we can afford fresh stuff shipped from Central and South America during the winter.

          1. “metrosexual men”
            I have heard that term before. Never tried to learn what it means. I know it must be something odd.
            Boy OFM, you sure get around.

          2. “such operations are never going to produce much in the way of what I refer to, generally and personally as REAL food, as opposed to rabbit food.”

            Sure, but its nice to have some arugula with your goat stew.

            btw- its important to refrain from putting any fossil fuel heater in this facility, or the operation costs will end up being astronomical. I have seen many such abandoned projects for just that reason.

            1. They’re girly guys, except they are mostly basically straight male, in terms of sexual preferences and activities. Meaning very concerned with clothing, wine, etc. Into arts, entertainment, HollyWood, gossip, etc, as opposed to hunting, fishing, cars, real physical world activities. The glossy magazines they read are full of clothing ads. CHOCK FULL, more clothing ads than everything else combined.
              There aren’t any in my immediate neighborhood, but they are to be found around any university town or city. . They must have some money, or else they can only be wannabe’s, because that sort of men spend more on their clothes and furniture and music than I live on, lol.

              As for heating the greenhouse, we live just north of the VA Carolina state line,and only halfway up the mountain, so it’s warmer here, thru the winter months than you might expect, and there is as much logging waste available as you could ever want, basically free, except to pay for loading and delivery.

              The biggest load that will go on an eighteen wheeler legally is only three hundred bucks delivered, as of today, but it’s still green, and must be bought ahead to allow it to dry.

              So the plan at the moment is that there will be a gas heater, for emergencies only , and that I will build a super sized wood stove, to be installed in a small well insulated shed a few feet away, and we will run a large duct to and from, and use some of the clear plastic tunnel type duct overhead to distribute the heat, the kind that has holes all along.

              The owner is a big burly guy capable of handling hundred pound sticks and chunks of firewood easily, so he will just cut the wood up in pieces about that size. We estimate that firing that super stove will only be necessary once in the evening, except possibly during very cold weather, by which I mean below about 20 F. We used to get lots of this cold weather, sometimes down below zero, for a week, but in recent years, not so much. The owner is self employed, and firing the stove during the night once in a while won’t be any worse than changing diapers, lol.

            2. OFM- speaking of wood heat, there has been development of ‘new’ stove type. Started as a small cook stove for undeveloped areas, but has more recently been upscaled for heating, and then married to the heavy masonry often seen with Scandinavian home stoves.
              Still being tinkered (experimented) with across the country , but looks worth diving into-
              Rocket Stove Mass Heater.
              Here is one link as a teaser-
              http://www.canadianoffthegrid.com/rocket-stove-mass-heater/

              Thanks for the education on metrosexuals. I have met some. The people I know or have seen who may fit the label (I hate labels) generally seem bright, industrious, tolerant. And naive (especially about rural and ‘workingman’ issues). But lots of people seem naive about various issues to me. Myself included.

    2. Hi NAOM,
      The link has almost no info at all, other than that this planter exists. Do you or does anybody else have a better link, one about this particular planter?

      1. Sorry it was not so informational, it was not the one I was actually looking for. I suggest searching for more from ‘Food Unwrapped’ but from the UK Channel 4 series not the American Twinkies oriented series. There were items on indoor greenhouses and Tilapia farming based in London with the Tilapia waste feeding the plants.

        As for buying the salads, I would welcome buying good quality mixed salads as I cannot consume enough to make buying a mixture of full size greens possible, too much would get thrown away. Many of the mixed salads you get down here go bad within a couple of days of opening but there are a few new hydro ones appearing that seem to be better. Cost is important as I will not pay inflated prices. Note that the one shown is aiming at London restaurants where price may not be so critical.

        A well insulated, industrial building with LED lighting powered by solar with multi tiers of plants may well be able to provide food at a cost effective level. Sites close to the consumers could be used with reductions in the cost of transport, cost of large scale mechanisation and pest control.

        NAOM

  44. Perhaps it’s too little too late, but I remember how long it took for the unwashed masses to finally acknowledge that cigarettes are killers…… about thirty or forty years, on average, from the time it became obvious to better informed people. The people who didn’t want to face the truth simply didn’t own up to it, didn’t recognize it, because they didn’t WANT TO. They read the anti tobacco message as a hoax, because it was primarily pushed by liberals, and mostly pushed back by conservatives. By now they’ve forgotten why they ignored the message, since for the last few years not even the hardest of hard core conservative politicians ever has anything positive to say about smoking in the msm.

    I think maybe the public is moving a little faster towards acknowledging that forced climate change is real, and dangerous, because of the internet, tv, movies and so forth. The most powerful political weapon is often laughter, and damned near every body in Holly Wood, and on the net, and in the mainstream media, with the exception of talk radio and Fox, is laughing at Trump and company.

    Any and all opinions on this matter from regulars here are welcome,and thanks in advance.
    You guys, know it or not, paid or not, are all serving as my research assistants and fact checkers, lol.

    1. You may not be aware that the tobacco companies worked with one of the original “think tanks” to suppress and question the science of health problems caused by tobacco use. The name of the group is the Heartland Institute:

      https://www.heartland.org/

      Heartland is now, and has been for a very long time, the main mouthpiece of the climate denier movement. Care to guess where the money comes from now?

      1. Thanks JJ,
        I know already about Heartland, but for those who may not, they’re a well polished, highly professional hard core right wing outfit, skilled in dressing up their message in language and image that tugs the heartstrings of anybody who actually loves his country, while subverting it.

        They are primarily funded by Koch brother types.

        But my gut feeling is that they’re losing this fight, just as they lost the tobacco fight, but the tobacco industry got excellent value for its money, because they got to operate with impunity for another ten or twenty years with Heartland and other similar outfits fighting a rear guard action for them.

        Likewise the fossil fuel industries, and the coal industry in particular, are losing the climate fight, in terms of public perceptions, although they are winning it here in the states, temporarily, due to Trump being prez.

        The rear guard action is again making it possible for the coal, and to a lesser extent, the oil and gas industries, to operate very profitably for many extra years, before being finally held to account.

        Rear guard or no, the wind and solar industries are now bedrock solid establishments, and while the electric vehicle industry is still wearing short pants, it’s definitely out of the diaper stage, and looking great.

    2. Hey OFM,
      You might enjoy this podcast
      https://teamhuman.fm/
      EP. 122 LIVE AT WNYC’S THE GREENE SPACE WITH NAOMI KLEIN -“THE BIG TENT”
      FEBRUARY 27, 2019

      Naomi Klein on confronting the triple threat of climate crisis, inequality, and white supremacy. Recorded Live at WNYC’s the Greene Space.

  46. Here is a roundup of the February full-month temperature anomalies alluded to previously. In many locations in Montana and the Dakotas, the only analog is February 1936, which is the coldest month on record overall in most of the region (see further reading).

    Portland, OR
    Average Temperature: 33.9 °F
    8.0 °F Below Normal
    3rd coldest February in 120 years

    Pendleton, OR
    Average Temperature: 27.7 °F
    10.8 °F Below Normal
    3rd coldest February in 127 years

    Sioux City, IA
    Average Temperature: 13.6 °F
    11.4 °F Below Normal
    7th coldest February in 130 years

    Kalispell, MT
    Average Temperature: 12.9 °F
    12.3 °F Below Normal
    2nd coldest February in 120 years

    Missoula, MT
    Average Temperature: 17.3 °F
    12.7 °F Below Normal
    3rd coldest February in 126 years

    Watertown, SD
    Average Temperature: 3.4 °F
    14.1 °F Below Normal
    3nd Coldest February in 127 years

    Sheridan, WY
    Average Temperature: 12.0 °F
    14.6 °F Below Normal
    3rd coldest February in 112 years

    Canton, SD
    Average Temperature: 7.3 °F
    14.7 °F Below Normal
    2nd coldest February in 123 years

    Aberdeen, SD
    Average Temperature: 1.7 °F
    15.9 °F Below Normal
    2nd Coldest February in 127 years

    Huron, SD
    Average Temperature: 5.0 °F
    16.6 °F Below Normal
    4th Coldest February in 138 years

    Bismarck, ND
    Average Temperature: -0.4 °F
    18.5 °F Below Normal
    7th coldest February in 145 years

    Rapid City, SD
    Average Temperature: 8.7 °F
    18.6 °F Below Normal
    Coldest February in 77 years

    Helena, MT
    Average Temperature: 6.5 °F
    21.2 °F Below Normal
    5th coldest February in 139 years

    Williston, ND
    Average Temperature: -4.5 °F
    21.4 °F Below Normal
    2nd Coldest February in 126 years

    Billings, MT
    Average Temperature: 8.4 °F
    21.8 °F Below Normal
    2nd coldest February in 85 years

    Miles City, MT
    Average Temperature: 2.1 °F
    22.2 °F Below Normal
    Coldest February in 83 years

    Glasgow, MT
    Average Temperature: -3.4 °F
    22.6 °F Below Normal
    2nd coldest February in 126 years

    Lewistown, MT
    Average Temperature: 1.8 °F
    24.0 °F Below Normal
    2nd coldest February in 124 years

    Great Falls, MT
    Average Temperature: -0.2 °F
    27.5 °F Below Normal
    2nd coldest February in 128 years

    Cut Bank, MT
    Average Temperature: -3.8 °F
    28.0 °F Below Normal
    2nd coldest February in 116 years

    Havre, MT
    Average Temperature: -5.9 °F
    28.2 °F Below Normal
    2nd coldest February in 140 years

    Further Reading
    1936 North American cold wave
    The Extreme Temperature Anomalies of March 1843 and February 1936

    1. It was really cold in Saskatoon as well.
      And yet very hot in Australia.
      Go figure.

      1. It was a cold one for Albuquerque also. February only got 6 60F+ days, pretty impressive since normal is mid-upper 50s. That’s on top of the record snow around the area we had earlier. I have noticed weathermen on TV being confused by why we’re seeing so much record cold lately around the country.

    2. Now I see why Bob F didn’t report on January 2019, a real dud as far as cold goes in the US.
      •For January, the average contiguous U.S. temperature was 32.7°F, 2.6°F above the 20th century average, ranking in the warmest third of the 125-year period of record.
      • Parts of the southeast, mid-Atlantic, High Plains and western U.S. were warmer than average. California ranked 11th warmest in January and was the only state to rank much-above-average for the month. No state ranked below average for the month.

      https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/national/201901

      And globally it was even warmer.
      Averaged as a whole, the January 2019 global land and ocean surface temperature was 0.88°C (1.58°F) above the 20th century average and tied with 2007 as the third highest temperature since global records began in 1880. Only the years 2016 (+1.06°C / +1.91°F) and 2017 (+0.91°C / +1.64°F) were warmer. The ten warmest Januaries have all occurred since 2002, with the last five years (2015–2019) among the six warmest years in the 140-year record. January 1976 was the last time the January global land and ocean temperatures were below average at -0.02°C (-0.04°F).

      The global land-only January 2019 temperature was the fourth highest in the 140-year record at 1.51°C (2.72°F) above average, trailing behind 2007 (+1.85°C / +3.33°F), 2016 (+1.58°C / +2.84°F), and 2017 (+1.58°C / +2.84°F). According to NCEI’s Regional Analysis, three (South America, Asia, and Oceania) of six continents had a January temperature ranking among their five highest since continental records began in 1910. Of note, Oceania had its warmest January on record at 2.56°C (4.61°F) above average. North America had its coolest January since 2011. Meanwhile, the global ocean-only temperature for January 2019 was 0.65°C (1.17°F) above average—the third warmest January since global records began in 1880. The record warm global ocean temperature departure from average of +0.86°C (+1.55°F) was set in 2016. January 2017 ranked as the second warmest on record.
      •A heat wave impacted much of Chile during January 24–27, with several locations registering temperatures as high as 40.0°C (104.0°F). The city of Santiago set a new maximum temperature record when temperatures soared to 38.3°C (100.9°F) on January 26. Santiago’s previous record was set in 2017 at 37.4°C (99.3°F).
      •According to the World Meteorological Organization, Brazil also had a heat wave that affected the southeastern part of the country. Several locations recorded temperatures above 30.0°C (86.0°F). Of particular interest, Rio de Janeiro had registered a temperature of 37.4°C (99.3°F)—the second hottest temperature for the station since 1961.
      •Unusually warm temperatures engulfed much of Australia during January 2019, resulting in the warmest January since national temperature records began in 1910. The national mean temperature was 2.91°C (5.24°F) above the 1961–1990 average, shattering the previous record set in 2013 by 0.99°C (1.78°F). The nation’s maximum and minimum temperatures were also record warm at +3.37°C (+6.07°F) and +2.45°C (+4.41°F), respectively. Most regions had a record warm January, with South Australia and Western Australia having their second warmest January on record. The region with the highest mean temperature departure from average was New South Wales at 5.86°C (10.55°F) above average. New South Wales’ previous record was set in 1939 at +3.79°C (6.82°F).
      ◦An intense heat wave affected Australia throughout much of the month, with many locations setting new high maximum and minimum January temperature records. According to Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology, the nation’s mean temperature reached 40.0°C (104.0°F) on five consecutive days (12–16 January 2019), exceeding the previous record of two consecutive days set in 1972 and again in 2013.
      •New Zealand’s January 2019 temperature of 18.8°C (65.8°F) was 1.7°C (3.1°F) above the 1981–2010 average and the third highest January temperature since national records began in 1909.

      Hot time on the old planet this century.

          1. Oh yes indeed Bob has a narrative-
            You can summarize it like this-

            ‘Even though we are witnessing a very strong and undeniable warming trend across the globe, we still can have occasional cold spells!’

            So don’t be surprised. Keep your winter jackets and boots.

            I see that he posted on the fossil page- “Anticipate a notable drop in Bakken production for the month of February when the numbers are released. February 2019 was the 2nd coldest February on record in Williston, North Dakota”.
            Take home message here is that when things warm back up in Dakota, we can expect an uptick in production of oil and gas. This will allow more burning, and thus help to diminish such severe future cold spells.
            Good point Bob, but I’m not sure its really that simple.

      2. I reported on the extraordinary SSW event over the North Pole back in December, warning that very cold conditions would set up somewhere over the Northern Hemisphere by the following month. Then, when the polar vortex inevitably split in late January and sent one of the coldest Arctic air masses in the past three decades into the Canadian prairies and United States Midwest, I reported on that too.

        Further Reading
        Late January 2019 Cold, National Weather Service

        Overview
        In late January 2019, a historic arctic outbreak brought bitterly cold wind chills and record-breaking cold temperatures to the Midwest. Many schools and some businesses and government offices were closed for three days, with USPS mail delivery even suspended on Wednesday, January 30th due to extremely dangerous wind chills. The coldest temperatures occurred on the morning on January 31st when Cotton, MN recorded a low of -56, approaching the Minnesota state record low of -60 set back in 1996.

        1. Excellent local short term local weather reporting Bob F, you should get your own YouTube channel. Seems biased though, but that is no problem on YouTube or Fox News.

          1. Here, I made a graphic to help our friend Bob understand your point.

            2. Thanks to JayBoy – Now we are all just as ‘well-informed’ as Bob. [sarc]

        3. I’m not sure what exactly your point is in posting these temperatures?

          Please see the link posted by GF!
          https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/national/201901

          Here’s the data for the entire globe
          https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global/201901

          The first month of 2019 was characterized by warmer-than-average conditions across much of the world’s surface. The most notable warm temperature anomalies were present across much of Australia and across parts of northeastern and southwestern Asia, where temperature departures from average were 4.0°C (7.2°F) above average or higher. Record warm January surface temperatures were present across much of Australia and its surrounding Southern Ocean, southern Brazil, the ocean off the south coast of South Africa, and across parts of Africa, Asia, and the southeastern Pacific Ocean. Notable cool temperature departures from average were present across parts of northern North America, Europe, and central Asia, where temperatures were 1.0°C (1.8°F) below average or cooler. According to our analysis, no land or ocean surface had record cold January temperatures.
          .

    3. Well, I’m convinced. I’m heading out to buy a 4wd Suburban and just drive it around in circles I’m so happy we can forget any environmental worries thanks to the profound research by Frisky Bob. Wow some places got cold this winter. Whuda thunk?

    4. The early unofficial returns are starting to come in…

      Monday, March 4, 2019

      February NCEP/NCAR global surface anomaly up 0.097°C from January

      The Moyhu NCEP/NCAR index rose from 0.296°C in January to 0.393°C in February, on a 1994-2013 anomaly base. That makes it the warmest month since May 2017. The warmth came mainly in a spurt at the end of the month, which is continuing.

      It was quite cold in W Canada and the US, although warm in Alaska and the SE USA. Warm in Europe, cold in the Sahara, and mostly warm in Antarctica, with the Arctic mixed.

      https://moyhu.blogspot.com/2019/03/february-ncepncar-global-surface.html

  47. Hyundai isn’t gathering any moss when it comes to EV’s-
    https://cleantechnica.com/2019/03/01/hyundai-will-introduce-new-battery-only-chassis-in-2020-working-with-aurora-on-autonomous-cars/

    “Of all the traditional car companies planning to make electric cars to compete with Tesla, Hyundai and Kia are arguably the best in the business at the moment.”
    “it plans to introduce 44 electrified models between now and 2025 and will invest around $40 billion over the next 5 years in modernizing and upgrading its production facilities, developing electric automobiles, and preparing its products for self-driving technology”

    1. If this keeps up no one will be able to break the speed limit and cars will have to actually stop at stop signs and follow the other rules of the road. Hard to imagine such a change.
      Maybe they will still allow tail gating.

      1. “Maybe they will still allow tail gating.”
        Fine for autonomous mode. We got us a convoy!
        Heaven help the IfCE driver who tries to overtake!!

        NAOM

        1. The transistion will be both very exciting and very contentious for many.
          Some of my friends say it will not happen in their lifetime. Guess I have more funerals to attend.

          1. I was thinking about autoguided convoys and realised there may be an unintended consequence. The first car makes an emergency stop. Seconds later a driver from further back is pounding on his door in road rage ‘Why did you stop? You just made me spill my coffee!’

            NAOM

  49. He’s Creating a New Fuel Out of Thin Air — for 85 Cents per Gallon
    By Jared Lindzon

    https://www.ozy.com/rising-stars/hes-creating-a-new-fuel-out-of-thin-air-for-85-cents-per-gallon/92686

    Advocates of America’s Green New Deal or other radical efforts to decarbonize the world economy in the face of a looming climate crisis may well have one of their greatest champions in a rumpled 65-year-old who lives in the Toronto suburbs.

    Roger Gordon wears a navy wool coat that extends well past the bottom of his green knit sweater on a chilly day in February. He talks with a quintessentially Canadian politeness as he rails against what he sees as a massive conspiracy to suppress his life’s work — which could amount to a fuel revolution.

    In 2014, Gordon — who’s spent his career producing active pharmaceutical ingredients for sale around the world — secured a patent for his long-time side project: a refrigerator-sized machine that turns water and air into a reusable, renewable, ammonia-based NH3. The project began in the early 2000s, and took almost nine years before it produced a usable prototype. The patent application was submitted the following year, at a time when Gordon says he didn’t even have transportation fuel on his radar. Today, he drives a converted Ford F-350 with a button on the dashboard that allows him to switch between traditional gasoline and one of the small tanks of colorless, strong-smelling NH3 gas sitting in back of the pickup truck.

    Anyone can retrofit a traditional combustion engine into one that runs on NH3 for about $1,000, and at least 100 others around the world have made the investment, but Gordon says the infrastructure required to change the global transportation industry is too overwhelming to even consider. Instead, Gordon sees opportunities in places that are spending significant resources on getting access to fuel, such as remote communities and industrial operations in Africa or northern Canada. “The lowest hanging fruit would be a mine in the far north that’s now spending $105 million on diesel fuel a year, and they can now come to us for half the price,” he says.

    1. If he’s right, then Gordon has earned his place as the scientist who not only upset the energy industry apple cart, he’s going to be acknowledged as being smarter than Newton, Einstein, Feynman, and others of such exalted status.

      His machine might actually produce some ammonia, but I’ll bet my farm against a six pack it’s a trivial amount, in relation to the amount of energy that must be fed into it in order for it to work. IF it works, it will be like trading dollars for dimes, in terms of feeding it. CO2 and water are basically free, but electricity most assuredly is NOT.

      This is not to say that someday, if we happen to have a big surplus of wind and solar juice, we can’t feed it into ammonia plants, and make good use of it manufacturing ammonia, which is one of the most important of all industrial feed stocks, including the use that keeps all of us collectively alive, the manufacture of nitrate fertilizers.

      Sure it works as a motor fuel. But it’s worth a hell of a lot more as nitrate, and most likely, always will be. Maybe somewhere down the road, it will have a niche application running police cars and ambulances, maybe even a few farm tractors or something, if and when oil gets to be REALLY short.

      Furthermore, in a country such as the USA, the conversion to ammonia dual fuel is going to cost WAY closer to ten thousand than one thousand, and is probably illegal to boot, unless you convert a really old vehicle, one grandfathered on pollution regs.

    2. NH3 might be OK for industrial power and use if contained well and methods are used to reduce NOx emissions to near zero are applied fastidiously.
      Otherwise, producing GHG that is 300 times stronger than CO2 and just as long lasting, as well as causing ozone depletion is just another way to the place we are heading.
      Also ammonia is toxic, causes severe tissue and lung burns. I notice the articles promoting NH3 as a transport fuel skirt wide of these issues. Only positive points are mentioned, as in a propaganda piece.

      2. GF, Don’t worry! It seems Dennis is right and alarmists like us, still concerned about the plausibility of extreme scenarios such as RCP 8.5 due to multiple feedbacks can just sit back and relax. 😉

        Actually not a bad discussion over at realclimate.org

        http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2019/02/the-best-case-for-worst-case-scenarios/#comments

        The best case for worst case scenarios
        Filed under: Climate impacts Climate modelling Climate Science Communicating Climate IPCC Reporting on climate Scientific practice — gavin @ 26 February 2019

        But some things can be examined and ruled out. Imminent massive methane releases that are large enough to seriously affect global climate are not going to happen (there isn’t that much methane around, the Arctic was warmer than present both in the early Holocene and last interglacial and nothing similar has occurred). Neither will a massive oxygen depletion event in the ocean release clouds of hydrogen sulfide poisoning all life on land. Insta-freeze conditions driven by a collapse in the North Atlantic circulation (cf. “The Day After Tomorrow”) can be equally easily discounted.

        Among the many reasonable comments made in the discussion, is this one from Paul Beckwith:

        @30
        Paul Beckwith says:
        27 Feb 2019 at 4:12 PM
        Thanks for your very interesting article Gavin.

        Google an expression like “xxx is happening faster than expected” where xxx is climate change, glacier melt, warming, etc. and you get enormous numbers of hits. Then try “xxx is slower than expected” or “xxx is changing as expected” and you get next to nothing.

        Doesn’t this tell us that our climate science is extremely biased towards being way too conservative, and that our projections are almost always way too slow, and that we can expect that rates of change will likely be much higher in future projections?

        Thus, worst case scenarios are at a higher risk of happening than we think.

        In any case I salute Gavin for at least bringing this topic up for discussion in a forum where actual climate scientists are willing to share their perspectives.

        In a slightly different forum released by the MSM, we had a report of the final warning and goodbye from Wallace Broecker.

        The ‘grandfather’ of climate science leaves a final warning for Earth
        Days before his death, Wallace Broecker urged scientists to consider deploying a last-ditch solar shield to stop global warming.

        Many scientists have been hesitant about pursuing such an extreme measure, citing scientific, ethical, legal and political dilemmas. Tampering with Earth’s atmosphere was not a preferred alternative, Broecker had acknowledged, but he insisted that his fellow academics needed to be ready, should last-ditch measures be needed to prevent a climate catastrophe.

        Thank God! There isn’t that much methane around
        And we can always pour SO2 into the atmosphere to cool things off in an emergency.
        We won’t even have to worry about ocean acidification from CO2 because, well, just because!

        Cheers! 😉
        .

        1. Hilarious, Real Climate does dark comedy and they don’t even know it.

    3. I have one question- EROEI?

      [Hey folks, look here! I just got a gallon of fuel out the spigot,
      and I only had to put 3 gallons in the front end]

      2. Why worry about EROEI? The whole petroleum transport system works on an energy loss. It’s primary products are pollution, heat, eco-destruction, noise and climate change. Oh yeah, money too. We get less motive energy to the road than it takes to produce, refine and distribute the fuels.

        We have designed a civilization on the margin of a system that produces waste and destruction.
        Imagine if we used an actually efficient system and were honest about what we are doing.

        1. ‘Imagine if….and were honest about what we are doing.’

          Waiter, I’ll have what ever he is smoking.

        2. We get less motive energy to the road than it takes to produce, refine and distribute the fuels.

          Naaaah, there’s a misunderstanding there somewhere. Just because internal combustion engines are inefficient, doesn’t mean EROEI can go negative.

          If it took three gallons of oil to produce, refine and distribute two gallons of oil, then that scheme would soon run out of fuel. I know oil produces a lot of waste and pollution but that is all beside the fact. Oil is ancient sunshine, packed with energy. Yes, we use it inefficiently and pollute the planet. But it is still the energy that drives our economy, or a good part of it anyway.

          1. Right. It doesn’t matter if your process is net energy negative if you can sell the resulting product for more MONEY than you put in.

          2. Hi Ron,
            “If it took three gallons of oil to produce, refine and distribute two gallons of oil”
            Not what I said at all nor even in the same ballpark. Maybe I can make myself clearer, have posted similar results several times before so should fall together.
            First let’s look at all the energy losses in cars.
            https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/atv.shtml

            Next we will assume a 20 percent engine efficiency and ignore all the other losses, making it a frictionless, non-parasitic vehicle.
            Next realize that for every gallon of gasoline produced about 0.7 gallons of energy from coal, natural gas, coke, other chemicals, electricity and some petroleum products were consumed from well to refinery to final distribution. Ignore the energy needed to mine and obtain all those other inputs, making this estimate even more conservative.

            So now we have a conservative low estimate of other energy input of 40% making the final gasoline energy at about 60% of total energy.
            Multiply the car efficiency of 20% by 0.6 which give 12% reaching the wheels (ignoring all the friction and parasitic losses in the car).

            Therefor, 12% energy to the road is < 40% external inputs to produee the gallon of gasoline. So voila, as I stated!
            "We get less motive energy to the road than it takes to produce, refine and distribute the fuels. "

            This all assumes that the real purpose of the car is to move itself down the road. If one includes transporting loads such as people or cargo the efficiency drops further. If one also recognizes most vehicles do not operate at their peak efficiency most of the time, it gets worse.

            So a round figure of 10 percent or less energy out for energy in an ICE cars is probably a decent estimate of reality.

            A more comprehensive analysis would include the coal, natural gas, coke and electricity production losses, but here I just look at them as isolated products with zero energy to produce and distribute. Oh, I forgot, refineries use a lot of steam too (more losses there).

            1. GF, I am sorry but you are still on the wrong track. The energy efficiency of the internal combustion engine has nothing to do with it. And neither does the amount of coal, or whatever the source of energy was that it took to build the automobile.

              The energy embedded in a gallon of gasoline is, in most cases, far greater than the energy required to produce it. The same can be said for a ton of coal or a cubic meter of natural gas.

              The inefficiency of the method of converting these fuels into usable work does not change the fact that you still get more usable work from all these fuels than the work required to produce them.

              A coal-fired power plant is less than 35% efficient. That simply doesn’t change the fact that you still get far more usable energy in the form of electricity than it takes to mine and deliver the coal.

              Though costs to produce fossil fuels are not an accurate measure of the energy required to produce the fuels, it is the only useful measure we have. As long as oil companies can get more money for a barrel of oil than it cost to produce that barrel of oil they will continue to do so. In some cases, they will even produce oil at a loss. But not for long.

              I will say again what I wrote years ago and repeated numerous times since: Forget EROEI and look at ROI instead. Return on investment is, in the long run, from the investor’s or companies point of view, the only thing that matters. As long as it is profitable to produce coal, or gas, or oil, these fossil fuels will continue to be produced.

            2. So you think that producing profit,heat and waste products is the main objective of oil production. OK, I go along with that. Moving things and getting useful energy is secondary and only needed to convince the consumer to buy the product.
              Guess I came at this backwards, which in a upside down system seemed forward to me.
              Happy Motoring.

            3. No, absolutely not. Maintaining a healthy economy, keeping recession at bay and having a happy and satisfied citizenry is the main objective. Only an efficient system can do that.

              The industrial revolution began when fossil energy began to do the work of hundreds of men or horses. This freed up labor to produce the luxury and healthy life we live today. When fossil energy, or energy from renewable sources, ceases to do that, then the economy will collapse back to the point it was before the industrial revolution.

              My point was, and is, the system must be efficient. And it is regardless of the inefficiency of the IC engine or coal-powered electrical plant. You seemed to suggest that the system is woefully inefficient. No, it is not. When the system ceases to function efficiently it will collapse. That has not yet happened.

            4. The oil fuel system is woefully inefficient at producing net useful energy. Only because a surplus of other energy beyond oil and a large flow of oil exists has kept that particular mode of happy motoring operating.
              The biggest mistake we made lately was the fracking of oil and natural gas. It delayed renewable energy (solar/wind), storage and EV development greatly.
              Now we and the planet pay the price for this ever continuing heat engine which produces a small fraction of useful energy.

              All that you propose is a fast way to an abrupt collapse, which is well (pun intended) on it’s way.

              The only bright spot in the process is it’s huge amount of waste. That means we really need very little energy if we use efficient systems and eliminate the huge energy wasting complexity of the fossil fuel system.

            5. The oil fuel system is woefully inefficient at producing net useful energy. Only because a surplus of other energy beyond oil and a large flow of oil exists has kept that particular mode of happy motoring operating.

              Our massive road, rail, air, and sea transportation system testifies to the inaccuracy of that statement. In fact, that is so obvious that I will not comment further on this thread.

              Have a nice day.

            6. Nahh, it’s a testament to how little energy we really need, we waste most of it as heat, noise and pollution. Those are civilization’s main products, operations are secondary.

              Thanks, I am having a nice day, you too.

            7. Oil isn’t a good source of energy at all. That is not its contribution to society. If it were a good source of energy, it would be used to generate electricity, but it’s much too expensive for that.
              Oil is an excellent way to store energy in a moving vehicle. Until the latest generation of lithium ion batteries appeared, it was pretty much the only way. It isn’t efficient at all, it’s just the only show in town.
              As the EV industry ramps up, oil will die as an energy source, because its niche as an energy storage medium will get exposed to the wider energy market. It won’t happen overnight because of the huge fleet of ICE vehicles on the road.

            8. Oil isn’t a good source of energy at all. That is not its contribution to society.

              O really? Virtually all ships at sea run on oil. All aircraft are powered by oil. Most trains are powered by oil. Virtually all truck transport is powered by oil. And cars? Just step out on any interstate in the US and tell me that oil is not contributing to society.

              It isn’t efficient at all,

              You are a little confused here. The efficiency is not in the fuel, it is in the conversion process. Efficiency is explicitly a measurement of how much of a given resource’s energy potential gets turned into electricity or work. With solar panels, this is around 20%. Car engines only turn about 20% of the energy in gas into movement, with the rest being waste heat. Coal plants achieve from 33% to 40% efficiency in the best cases, with the rest being just wasted heat. Combined cycle gas plants, where the heat is used in addition to the mechanical energy to generate electricity manage to make it up to about 54% efficiency.

              Hey, I am all for replacing oil with renewables. I wish it could happen tomorrow. But it won’t. And I think most of you guys are living in a dream world. You are just not being realistic. Conversion will be very long and very painful. And it will happen, not because renewables will be more economical, but it will happen because the supply of oil will gradually decline. And it will be painful, very painful for society.

              I know most folks on this list don’t believe this but all I can say is “dream on”.

            9. Ron- “Hey, I am all for replacing oil with renewables. I wish it could happen tomorrow. But it won’t. And I think most of you guys are living in a dream world. You are just not being realistic. Conversion will be very long and very painful. And it will happen, not because renewables will be more economical, but it will happen because the supply of oil will gradually decline. And it will be painful, very painful for society.”

              I agree with all that, and probably most of the people who visit site do as well, or else they would be just watching a ball game or something.
              But many people do practice wishful thinking. Its one way of dealing with the harsh reality.

  50. https://electrek.co/2019/03/02/tesla-cut-employee-compensation-layoff/

    Some people on the net are acting surprised and hurt, as if Tesla should be operated as a commune, rather than a business, lol.
    Management is compelled to turn a profit, or close the doors, and Tesla is not able to do much more, if anything, short term, in the manufacturing process. That kind of change takes time, maybe more time than Tesla has before the company either turns a consistent profit, or folds.

    1. The PV-wind power-EV combination is the death knell for petroleum, coal and that very dangerous natural gas industries. If that were enough to prevent ecological catastrophe we could easily move in that direction fast. Sadly it is only one large piece of the system problem puzzle, but still quite worthwhile pursuing, in the short term at least.

      It looks like Tesla is just streamlining it’s business, which is what business do. They are not here for people or the planet. They are here to produce and sell a product at a profit. The world has been taken over by mechanistic memes.

      1. ‘They are here to produce and sell a product at a profit’,

        and to survive. Tesla may or may not.

        1. True of all companies and all species, but that is not important.
          We don’t need the early explorers and inventors to be alive today to benefit from their discoveries or inventions.
          Otherwise powered flight would have ended with the Wright brothers and radio with the deaths of Marconi and De Forest.

          Still, the demise of Tesla has been a constantly recurring story for a long time.

          1. I hope Tesla survives, but we are at the point of rapid development in the industry where it is no longer an integral part. If it fails, it won’t slow down EV adoption at all, IMHO.
            I was talking to a Tesla owner last night, who pointed out that its battery supply chain and charger network are the hardest things to replicate in a timely manner.

      1. I don’t understand which unions want to “bring them down”, certainly not the UAW.

        1. Indirectly. They want to get in, set up their way of doing things which would kill production.

          NAOM

      1. https://www.n2olevels.org/

        332.75 ppb as of January 2019

        1 ppm = 1000 ppb

        So lets call it 0.333 ppm, and at 300 times more powerful than CO2, that gives atmospheric N2O a CO2e of approx 100 ppm.

        CO2e seems likely to be well over 500ppm

          1. I’ve looked and never found a good one for CO2e that stays up to date. It’d be nice if someone put CO2e together on a regular basis from the various GHG data.

            “in my opinion we are getting to the “knee point”, or curve inflection in the exponential rise in the rate of collapse of civilization. Those familiar with exponential curves will know what that means. For others, simply put, the poop has hit the fan and is now being distributed randomly throughout the room.” ~ George Mobus

        2. With methane at 150X (actually higher) that adds another 280 ppm.

          What I observe is a high haze, probably moistening of the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere. That will likely increase global warming.

          1. Man, we are so far past screwed that the light from screwed won’t reach us for 1.3 billion years.

    1. “Late stage Capitalism’s dying paroxysms, suffocating on depleted commodities and our growing numbers; and still and always we ruthlessly pursue growth, the magic elixer that temporarily satisfies our dopamine receptors until the cortisol leaves our minds awash in reality. Expecting change in a rational and competent manner says you have not been paying attention to homo sapiens behavioral patterns throughout his existence. This is the calm before storm, rest and prepare.”

      Naw- turn on The Game, and have another beer—–

    2. There was a big campaign in one of the UK’s cities against this sort of tree clearing which has met with some success. Same thing, it is cheaper to maintain treeless streets.

      NAOM

  53. There’s whining and there’s changing the world. Her message is perfect: don’t listen to me, listen to the people who do know and act on this knowledge — NOW. How can you argue with that? Maybe Greta and her followers will be able to make a difference, in time.

    “Sixteen-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg has criss-crossed the continent speaking at rallies in four countries in just eight days in a bid to spur politicians into action. She also made a brief stop at the European parliament in Brussels to address EU leaders. The Swede has become a social media sensation this year with her campaign of school strikes sweeping across dozens of countries and tens of thousands of teenagers participating…

    • Climate crisis and a betrayed generation
    • Youth climate strikers: ‘We are going to change the fate of humanity’

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2019/mar/01/teen-climate-activist-greta-thunberg-speaks-at-four-school-strikes-in-a-week-video

    1. ‘THE BEGINNING OF GREAT CHANGE’: GRETA THUNBERG HAILS SCHOOL CLIMATE STRIKES

      “I think it’s great that England is joining the school strike in a major way this week. There has been a number of real heroes on school strike, for instance in Scotland and Ireland, for some time now. Such as Holly Gillibrand and the ones in Cork with the epic sign saying ‘the emperor is naked’,” she told the Guardian.

      With an even bigger global mobilization planned for 15 March, she feels the momentum is now building. “I think enough people have realized just how absurd the situation is. We are in the middle of the biggest crisis in human history and basically nothing is being done to prevent it. I think what we are seeing is the beginning of great changes and that is very hopeful,” she wrote.

      https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/feb/15/the-beginning-of-great-change-greta-thunberg-hails-school-climate-strikes

      1. From the link:

        More than 3,000 scientists have given their backing to the strikes. The Belgian government is clearly feeling the pressure. The environment minister was forced to resign after falsely claiming the country’s intelligence services held evidence that the striking children were being directed by unnamed powers. The allegation was quickly contradicted by intelligence chiefs.

        Switzerland has seen some of the biggest actions. Local activists said 23,000 joined the strike on 18 January, followed by 65,000 on 2 February. They too are preparing for the global demonstration on 15 March. They want the government to immediately declare a climate state of emergency, implement policies to be zero-carbon by 2030 without geo-engineering, and if necessary move away from the current economic system.

        Activists said they want to make clear that the problem is systematic rather than a matter of individual lifestyle choices.

  54. Off the current topic, but until I ran across this by accident just now, I had no real idea how much is known about the Krakatoa eruption. There were people on the scene, including a couple of real scientists, taking notes and measurements, etc.
    Fascinating documentary, and well worth the time of anybody interested in geology, climate,etc.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrEIT66oPqU

    1. “Off the current topic”

      Mark Warner says there’s ‘enormous’ evidence of Russia-Trump collusion

      Fox News

      Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., on Sunday said there are “enormous amounts of evidence” linking the Trump campaign to Russia — the same day House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said there’s “direct evidence” of collusion between the two.

      The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee disputed on NBC’s “Meet the Press” recent remarks by Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C. claiming that the committee hasn’t found “factual evidence” of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.

      Warner, referring to “the litany of what we know,” said, “the ongoing negotiations about Trump Tower, well into the campaign, I believe the fact that Mr. Trump knew about the dump of the Wikileaks material, the fact that clearly the meeting at Trump Tower meeting which was not described appropriately, in terms of offering dirt,” were all evidence.

      “To me, that’s all evidence,” he said. “There’s no one that could factually say there’s not plenty of evidence of collaboration or communications between Trump Organization and Russians.”

      https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/mark-warner-says-theres-enormous-evidence-of-russia-trump-collusion/ar-BBUkrXI?ocid=spartanntp

      “To anyone who has ever wondered what you would have done during those defining moments that we read about in history books — whether you would have risked arrest to demand votes for women or bled on the Edmund Pettus bridge to demand voting rights for all — the answer is what you are doing now could be as important as anything that anyone has done before,”

      “When racist and white supremacist views are lifted up in the media and the White House, when hard-fought-for civil rights are being stripped back, when the single most important fight of our time, which makes it possible to fight every other fight and must be, as Frederick Douglass would say, our North Star — the fight to protect our vote — is not gathering the momentum and the energy and the passion it deserves, we have a lot of work to do, don’t we?”

      https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/hillary-clinton-we-are-living-through-a-full-fledged-crisis-in-our-democracy/ar-BBUkj3Z?ocid=spartanntp

      🙂 Just saying

      1. I have a half-baked theory.
        The democratic party leaders in the senate are going slow on pushing for Trumps ouster because they prefer him as their opponent for 2020, rather than an ‘adult’ republican.

        If so, I do think it is a mistake to focus so much on him, rather than on serious policy crafting.

        1. It takes only a majority of the house members to impeach the president. Impeachment does not mean removal from office. To do that, it takes a conviction by the Senate. To do that they need two-thirds of the members, or 67 senators must vote to convict. The Democrats have 47. They will need 20 Republican senators to vote to convict. That will not happen.

          However, if the House votes to impeach they can force the Republican Senators to support a treasonous lying criminal at his trial in the Senate. That will not bode well for them is 2020.

          1. May well backfire by outraging his supporters. It wouldn’t be the first time either. This late in the presidency, given the time to get enough evidence together, it may be better to just build ammunition for the election. Building a strong prosecution case for the courts will take time too as his supporters will fight every inch of the way. The trouble may be that the republicans may decide that he is too big a risk and pick a less vulnerable candidate.

            NAOM

            1. Oh my goodness, his supporters are already outraged almost beyond belief. They are so outraged that Trump could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and he would not lose one of his supporters. They are about 35% of the population. A few more who are not as outraged take his support into the low 40s.

              At least 55% know him as a treasonous, lying, misogynous, narcissist, criminal. That’s enough.

              As for picking someone less vulnerable, that will not be up to the Republican leadership. It will be up to the Republican primary voter. And among registered Republicans, Trump has a heavy majority. Unless the Muller Report drops a real bombshell, he will be renominated by a large majority or Republicas.

            2. Ron, do you think that the republican establishment leaders have a mechanism or plan to undercut Trump at the convention in order to pick an ‘adult’ to replace him on their ticket?
              I’d be very surprised if they weren’t working on such a plan behind the scenes. I think they are very embarrassed by him, and are quietly desperate to get back in control of ‘their’ party.
              I’m curious of your take on this, since you’ve been around since the beginning of time (kidding). You are one generation closer to the beginning than I.

            3. Yes, I have been around for a long time. I can remember brokered conventions. That was the days before the nominee was selected by primaries. But those days are gone. Nowadays we know, by the time of the convention, exactly who the nominee will be.

              So no, I do not think the Republicans have a secret plan to replace Trump. I suspect that almost all of them wish they could replace Trump. But Trump will triumph in the primaries. That is unless something comes up about to expose what a crook he is before the primaries. And even if it does, he still has a good chance of being the nominee. That is because they would vote for him even though they know what a criminal he really is.

            4. I don’t think the Republicans have a secret plan either. They work to hard to protect him. Why not just help the Dem’s impeach with obstruction and tell him it’s best for him to hit the Nixon trail or else. If they wanted to remove him for 2020, the sooner the better.

              I don’t believe his 35% base and their representatives want to replace him. Maybe there is another 10 to 12% out there who will vote Republican Trump that would like to replace him. 80% of todays Republicans are either racists, anti-abortion evangelical cult, homophobias or gun lovers and don’t believe in democracy for all. Also better known as deplorables.

  56. Want a GOOD explanation for the voting habits of people who are not necessarily well educated or even reasonably well informed about actual obvious facts?

    t never ceases to amaze me how boneheaded actual REAL honest to Jesus scientists can be , in terms of refusing to consider what should be and is OBVIOUS to any reasonably open minded person with a reasonably broad acquaintance with the animal world?

    WHY the Fxxx would anybody refuse to seriously consider the possibility, no the EXTREME PROBABILITY that early hominids would be anything OTHER than prey , in the eyes of a big cat,a wolf like creature of any sort, a BIG snake, etc?

    Hubris and the desire to believe what we want to believe is apparently just as big a danger to a scientist as it is to the dumbest Trump voter, lol.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_hl804lSfc

    1. There is a liver fluke that takes over ants and directs them to crawl to the top of grasses, thus eaten by sheep and liver fluke continues it’s journey.
      What has taken over our mentality and placed us at the edge of our destruction with no real control left to help ourselves?

  57. A look into the state and ecology of western salmon and steelhead runs. The connection between ocean and land. The traps we set for others and ourselves.

    Sam Mace is the Inland Northwest Director for Save Our Wild Salmon, a coalition of conservation organizations, sportand commercial fishing businesses, and clean energy advocates working to restore wild salmon & steelhead to the Columbia and Snake Rivers. She works to build support for restoring the lower Snake River by removing four outdated dams on the lower Snake River that are preventing recovery of fisheries in Idaho, Oregon and Washington. She lives in Spokane, WA.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QE3i8InfL1E&t=1050s

    1. Thanks Doug. Although not at all good news.
      “One possibility is conspicuously missing from the list. Scientists have long feared that thawing Arctic sediments and soils could release huge amounts of methane, but so far there’s no evidence of that,”

      Interesting that they are able to get a rough idea of the methane sources.

      1. Meanwhile — Daily CO2 Mar 2, 2019: 411.92 ppm Mar 2, 2018: 408.70 ppm

    2. Both CO2 an CH4 are temperature followers. As temperature goes up the natural levels of both rise.

    3. Nah! Don’t worry Doug. Gavin Schmidt disagrees!
      http://peakoilbarrel.com/open-thread-non-petroleum-february-25-2019/#comment-668274

      And he is the expert!

      But some things can be examined and ruled out. Imminent massive methane releases that are large enough to seriously affect global climate are not going to happen (there isn’t that much methane around, the Arctic was warmer than present both in the early Holocene and last interglacial and nothing similar has occurred). Neither will a massive oxygen depletion event in the ocean release clouds of hydrogen sulfide poisoning all life on land. Insta-freeze conditions driven by a collapse in the North Atlantic circulation (cf. “The Day After Tomorrow”) can be equally easily discounted.

        1. Hey, Ocasio-Cortez says the world is going to end in 12 years.

          Well, at least TEOTWAKI… think about it this way, 12 years ago the iphone hadn’t been launched yet. There were no Teslas. World population was a billion fewer than it is today and atmospheric CO2 was only 382.35 ppm.

          In 2030 it is projected that there will be 8.5 billion happy little humans inhabiting this little rock of ours and they will all want to eat drink and be merry.

          I’m sure the rock part will be just fine though. The rest could start to get really interesting by then if we stay on our current path.

          So let’s not be too hard on AOC if she doesn’t have a perfect handle on all the little details. After all, we have been warned by some rather knowledgeable and concerned world citizens, that we urgently need a course correction in the next 12 years, if our civilization is to survive.

          But until then we can all worry about the WAN

          MODELLING AND SIMULATION BLOG
          Mapping the network of international tourism

          https://physicsworld.com/a/mapping-the-network-of-international-tourism/

          Araujo’s latest research is full of such fascinating facts, and it also has a serious purpose. At the end of their paper, the authors state that it is “imperative to further explore how wealth is transferred through tourism” in order to optimize the WAN to meet the demands of this $1340bn-a-year industry. In a highly connected world, it’s not just the major nodes that matter.

          Does any of that make sense?!
          Here’s a link to the paper. Lot’s of fancy math.
          https://arxiv.org/pdf/1902.04944.pdf

          Cheers!

          1. Hey, civilization went into severe collapse after 1977 and is on a zombie ride now. I don’t disagree with her, civilization may well be done by then.
            However, I thought the toothbrush guy in the second video was just precious. At least he did not bring a suitcase.

            I think we need to ask ourselves a serious adult type question. What is better for all life on earth, a slow collapse or a fast collapse?

      1. Ummm, sea ice is affected by air temperature, sea temperature, insolation, etc, not CO2 & CH4. You wouldn’t happen to be related to Javier, worrying about ice extent which could be as little as icecubes sprinkled over 15% of each square kilometer?

        NAOM

        1. Sea Ice volume is equivalent to 2016, extent is lower than 2012 which turned out to be the record lowest minimum.
          Most of the ice is annual now, it will melt soon. Check back in the summer.

          Old sea ice continues disappearing from the Arctic Ocean
          In the ninth week of 1984, multiyear ice comprised 61 percent of the Arctic sea ice pack. In the ninth week of 2018, multiyear ice comprised 34 percent of the sea ice pack. In its Arctic Sea Ice News and Analysis blog, the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) reported that only 2 percent of the Arctic’s sea ice was at least five years old. That is the lowest percentage of such old ice during wintertime in the satellite record
          https://www.climate.gov/news-features/featured-images/old-sea-ice-continues-disappearing-arctic-ocean-0

  59. The Arctic ice, permafrost, lakes, swamps, bogs and rivers around the globe don’t give a crap about some calculated figure like radiative forcing and some average forcing or average temperature. They experience the present amount of temperature and radiation as well as the large changes in albedo from snow/ice to ground/water.
    The biosphere is apparently very susceptible to rate changes in temperature. It won’t make any difference if the temperature rise in 2100 is 3C or 6C if the oceans are dead, the insects are dead, and many of the plants are dead.

  60. DUE TO HUMANS, EXTINCTION RISK FOR 1,700 ANIMAL SPECIES TO INCREASE BY 2070

    “As humans continue to expand our use of land across the planet, we leave other species little ground to stand on. By 2070, increased human land-use is expected to put 1,700 species of amphibians, birds, and mammals at greater extinction risk by shrinking their natural habitats.”

    Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2019-03-due-humans-extinction-animal-species.html#jCp

      1. I’m 62 and comforted by figuring I’m not going to live long enough to see that amount of devastation.

        1. If you live to be 92 I think you’ll see a good deal of the devastation. Famine is tough on the very young and the elderly due to decreased competitive abilities.; however, a good 6 shooter has been known to change the balance of power equation.

  61. I post this in the Non-P thread because the context of the article is not so much about oil and natural gas production as it is about factors contributing to the pending collapse of Mexico.

    Cartel Death Threats Reveal Challenge of Stamping out Fuel Theft in Mexico
    https://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/cartel-death-threats-reveal-challenge-of-stamping-out-fuel-theft-in-mexico/

    “The two most recent messages aimed at AMLO were sent just days after a bomb was found inside a truck at the Salamanca refinery.”

    ” In 2018, refineries hit only around a third of their 1.63-million-barrel-per-day processing capacity.”

    I wonder what the future will be like when USA has the equivalent of mid-90’s Somalia on it’s southern border.

    1. hWASHINGTON — What do Pakistan and Mexico have in common? They figure in the nightmares of U.S. military planners trying to peer into the future and identify the next big threats.

      The two countries are mentioned in the same breath in a just-published study by the United States Joint Forces Command, whose jobs include providing an annual look into the future to prevent the U.S. military from being caught off guard by unexpected developments.

      “In terms of worst-case scenarios for the Joint Force and indeed the world, two large and important states bear consideration for a rapid and sudden collapse: Pakistan and Mexico,” says the study – called Joint Operating Environment 2008 – in a chapter on “weak and failing states.” Such states, it says, usually pose chronic, long-term problems that can be managed over time.

      But the little-studied phenomenon of “rapid collapse,” according to the study, “usually comes as a surprise, has a rapid onset, and poses acute problems.” Think Yugoslavia and its disintegration in 1990 into a chaotic tangle of warring nationalities and bloodshed on a horrific scale.

      Nuclear-armed Pakistan, where Al Qaeda has established safe havens in the rugged regions bordering Afghanistan, is a regular feature in dire warnings. Thomas Fingar, who retired as the chief U.S. intelligence analyst in December, termed Pakistan “one of the single most challenging places on the planet.”ttps://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/09/world/americas/09iht-letter.1.19217792.html

      Military intelligence is not NECESSARILY an oxymoron.

      1. “Military intelligence is not NECESSARILY an oxymoron.”

        It doesn’t take a PhD in pattern recognition to figure out where Mexico and Pakistan are headed.

  63. No it’s not Guy, it’s a group of people.

    The potential for abrupt climate change is there, which is a great reason to shut down fossil fuel systems. Eventually all those feedbacks and many more will become obvious. How soon or how fast no one is sure. But we do know that speed of change kills the biosphere.

    Oceans are heating up fast.
    He also said that while 2018 was the fourth-warmest year on record in the atmosphere, it was the warmest year on record in the oceans, as was 2017 and 2016 before that. In fact, Hausfather told Reuters that records for ocean warming have been broken almost yearly since 2000.

    https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2019/01/10/global-warming-oceans-hottest-record-2018-heating-up-faster-pace/2539570002/

    And this about increased climate sensitivity.

    In a paper in the journal Science Advances, they said the actual range could be between 4.78C to 7.36C by 2100, based on one set of calculations.
    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/climate-change-game-over-global-warming-climate-sensitivity-seven-degrees-a7407881.html

    1. But we do know that speed of change kills the biosphere.

      Correct, given a couple of hundred thousand years or more, species and ecosystems evolve and adapt.
      Try to do the same thing in a few decades or even centuries and you get a mass extinction event.
      .

    1. Damn!
      I started diving in the early 70s and one of the reasons I ended up moving to Florida was easy access to coral reefs. I still got to see them in all their glory and splendor. But now, even though I am still physically able, I no longer want to go out on the reefs at all. It’s almost too painful. I really don’t think they will be here a hundred years from now. R.I.P.

      1. Yep, Micronesia s starting to go– Guam was really deleted on my last dive there.
        Hawaii is still remarkably intact, if one is away from Oahu.
        Way too many people on the planet, traveling to spots that they shouldn’t go.

  66. Reply to Nicks 2 /28 /5 58

    I take it back that I called you a smart fellow. I apologize.

    From here on out, the you I use should be read as the rhetorical you, not the personal you.

    You are so stuck in your holier than thou, smarter than thou, know what’s good for you and gonna lecture “you working class nincompoop ignorant stupid working class people” that you couldn’t possibly carry on a conversation with one without pissing him off and redoubling his resolve to vote R just in order to give you the middle finger.

    ARE you so dense as to think that working class people don’t READ the sort of shit you just posted here? That you don’t get it that they BELIEVE, in more cases than not, that it’s WRONG to be in a same sex relationship, etc, and that when you talk down to them on that topic, and lots of others, that they are going to tug their forelock and bend the knee to you , because YOU perceive yourself to be THEIR moral superior?

    That they don’t most emphatically want to give you the middle finger for talking about them as if they are IDIOTS, and are being led around by their noses by Trump type propaganda pros? ( NOTE that I am NOT disputing that there is a substantial element of truth in your observations to this effect.)

    I AGREE with you that there’s a substantial element of truth in what you say…… but everything you say is PROOF you are OUT OF TOUCH with social conservatives and working class people.

    You cannot REFRAIN from talking about them as if they are IDIOTS unable to see where their own best interests lie.

    Let tell you one simple thing about a social conservative or fundamentalist aka evangelist Christian woman……. she doesn’t WANT an abortion…..She believes abortion is murder.

    I must conclude that you simply cannot accept the fact that some people have values that are VERY different from your own, and that you think you can change those values by denying they are real.

    Now quite a few such people are idiots, no question, but then there are lawyers washing dishes, lol.

    IF HRC had had brains enough to actually campaign among working class people, and refrain from calling the deplorables, etc, she would be prez today. She TOOK THEM FOR GRANTED, she never showed up. Are you incapable of understanding THAT’S why she lost the three states that put Trump in the WH?

    Dennis , I won’t feel wronged if you delete everything I have had to say in this thread, but it’s DAMNED important that D’s understand that they aren’t necessarily going to win without the substantial portion of the working class vote that belongs to people like my neighbors.

    1. Hey Bud, it might be best if you stay out of the apple cider jug. But if your going to get nasty, I need a little love’n too !

      BTW, who’s forcing conservative working women to have an abortion ? Is there a problem here ? Just keep your Christian government out of my liberals uterus. I’ll be happy to handle that myself.

      You do know Bernie’s OK with baby killers

      1. “You do know Bernie’s OK with baby killers”
        Are you referring to his stance on abortion?
        It seems to me that abortion technology has allowed folks to go from killing babies shortly after the birth, to killing them shortly before it; the true history of the midwife and the bucket of water has all but been forgotten.
        Personally I’m OK with abortion, but only within term limits; I draw the line at 45 months.

          1. Glad to see you’re still around, HB, and still missing the point, which is WINNING elections.

            You and Nick and people like you simply refuse to face up to the fact that many tens of millions of people in this country have values that are different from yours, (and mine too, incidentally, in many respects) and often precisely OPPOSITE and opposed to yours.
            And these people DO have the right to vote, and they DO vote, and ENOUGH of them voted for Trump to put him in office, although he did lose the popular vote.

            Bernie was not and could not have been portrayed as the flipflopping crook that Trump made HRC out to be, which is what enabled him to win, in combination with HRC’s own lack of common political sense. She beat herself, due to her awesome arrogance and sense of entitlement, and her obvious contempt for the white working class voter.
            You don’t have to be very smart to know when somebody holds you in contempt, and it takes an idiot ( HRC in this respect only, she actually is pretty intelligent, taken all the way around ) politician to expect to get that vote.

            I am posting a long comment down below, a verbatim copy of an article about what she did wrong that cost her the WH.

            Blaming the opposition when you lose the ball game is for losers. Winners look to their own shortcomings, so as to WIN the next game.

            Here’s the link.

    2. … but it’s DAMNED important that D’s understand that they aren’t necessarily going to win without the substantial portion of the working class vote that belongs to people like my neighbors.

      Then you better explain to your working class neighbors that neither the current crop of old fuddy duddy Remocrats nor the Depublicans have any serious plans for a future where AI, automation, driverless trucks, etc… etc… are going to make them and their ‘work’ obsolete. Their values ain’t gonna matter!

      They may have to swallow their pride and take a long hard look at AOC’s Green New Deal and Andrew Yang’s universal basic income because if they don’t they are screwed regardless and we will have a very bloody civil war on our hands.

      Did you listen to the Rushkoff and Naomi Klein podcast on Team Human, I linked the other day? Maybe have your neighbors listen to that.

      Good Luck!

      1. Hi Fred,

        I’m doing what I can to convert my neighbors into critical thinkers. It’s a TOUGH SLOW job, but I have succeeded with a few, by attacking at the right point, doing so subtly, not frontally. I have posted numerous comments about the ways I do this in the past.

        Wish me luck, and thanks for not making it any harder than necessary by calling them idiots, superstitious, racists, homophobes, xenophobes, etc. Some of them, a lot of them actually maybe most of them, don’t even know what these last two words mean.That’s no more their fault than it is that they were born in the backwoods, and had near zero opportunities to get decent educations, etc. .

    3. Personally I find the moral sage of the Remocrats vs the Depublicans a little vacuous. Trump seems to me to be the most accurate and realistic representative of the American People to occupy the White House in quite some time; that is to say he has a large and fragile ego with an unearned claim to preeminence, much like the people he is supposed to be representing the interests of. Have fun at the next election folks, I’m sure things will immediately improve as a result :/ sarc

      1. Yep! Agree 100%. I’m sure Trump is going to win the Nobel Peace prize. And if he doesn’t then we will just nuke Sweden…

        BTW, the official rules of the Nobel Prize include this footnote:
        No person can nominate herself/himself for a Nobel Prize

    4. Mac, I read your post last night. I started to reply but I thought better of it. I wanted to sleep on it and give you an honest and very well thought out reply. So here goes.

      I know, and everyone on this list knows, what conservatives think about abortion and same-sex marriages. I know they think abortion is murder, they believe God thinks it’s murder and they believe same-sex marriage is against the law of God.

      I currently live in Pensacola, Florida where the majority of the people believe exactly like those you refer to as “the working class” believe. Every subject discussed in restaurants and public places revolve around three subjects, God, guns, and gays. And if there are no blacks are within earshot they have another subject they often discuss.

      The problem Mac, is that these folks, the ones you refer to as the working class, want to make their opinions the law of the land. They want to outlaw abortion, not only because they believe it is murder, but because they say God says it is murder. And they want to outlaw same-sex marriage because they believe it’s against the will of God.

      Mac, these folks believe in science only when it doesn’t conflict with their belief in the Bible or some conspiracy theory they believe in. They tell me that homosexuality is a learned behavior. They say such behavior should be outlawed. You know, outlawed like it was back when America was great. In fact, their idea of making America great again is to make the Bible the law of the land like it once almost once was.

      And now you tell me we will never win another election unless we win the votes of a substantial number of these people. But to do so we must adopt their backwoods beliefs. We must outlaw abortion and same-sex marriage. No Mac, these folks are only about 35% of the population. And we will win without them or we will remain in the backwoods forever.

      Mac, I love these people just like you do. They are my friends and many of them are my family. But they are wrong. They were wrong back when they made homosexual behavior a crime. They were wrong back when segregation was the law of the land in the South. And they were never more wrong than they are today when they preach hate and separation from the pulpit and the political platform.

      An opinion does not necessarily deserve our respect simply because it is held by someone we love.

  68. Climate Change Is Here—and It Looks Like Starvation

    Blind men and elephant…

    Climate Change Is Here—and It Looks Like Sea level Rise

    Climate Change Is Here—and It Looks Like Coral Bleaching

    Climate Change Is Here—and It Looks Like Mass Extinction

    Climate Change Is Here—and It Looks Like Mass Migration

    Climate Change Is Here—and It Looks Like Nationalism and Border Walls
    .

    1. “For way too long, the politicians and the people in power have gotten away with not doing anything to fight the climate crisis, but we will make sure that they will not get away with it any longer. We are striking because we have done our homework and they have not.” — Greta Thunberg

    3. If climate change is what’s causing the mass migration emergency, then we had better build up more physical barriers and strengthen our security pretty darned quick, because it is going to get a whole lot warmer, and it can’t be stopped anyhow.

      1. Yeah, Canada will need a wall soon and I presume you Yanks will pay for it?

      2. I was kinda hoping “Thoughts and Prayers” would be enough and that a wall wouldn’t be needed. I realize that “Thoughts and Prayers” ain’t working great in protecting the innocent American children from mentally ill gun owners, but give it some time to work before you totally poo-poo it! sarc :/
        Back when I was younger I learnt how to get over walls in the army with this thing called a “ladder”. It was surprisingly easy. I wonder if anyone else has considered this?

      3. So Alex, where do we build it? I’m, thinking somewhere around the Mason Dixon line?

  70. I guess they didn’t get the memo, that we have 12 only years to switch away from fossil fuels.

    BAU = Beyond Alaskan Uncoolness!

    Cheers!

  71. https://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/2019/03/ho-hum-february-it-may-be-unless-we-speak-of-the-bering-sea/

    Arctic sea ice extent for February 2019 was the seventh lowest in the satellite record for the month, tying with 2015. So far this winter, sea ice extent has remained above the 2017 record low maximum. Extent in the northern Barents Sea, which has been quite low in recent years from “Atlantification,” is closer to average this February. Extent is very low in the Bering Sea at the end of February after unusual ice loss throughout the month. In Antarctica, the sea ice minimum may have been reached on both February 28 and March 1.

    2. Whatever one may think of Finklestein and his views, the following excerpt should certainly give one pause!

      The sold-out lecture about Gaza is one of the first high-profile tests of Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s new rule about campus free speech, in force as of January, that universities must enforce freedom of expression on campus to “a minimum standard prescribed by government.”

      Even George Orwell might raise an eyebrow for that.

      1. The problem with social experimentation and social activism si that people put their lives and futures on the line to find the actual limits of society.

        This latest shutdown of language and freedom of speech and action, driven by vocal small minorties in many cases, fits snugly into the upside down and hypocritical nature of civilization. We are now living in a global village, a very nasty social paradigm.

        1. Yeah I agree! Whenever you get government enforcing freedoms you know you’re fucked! Talk about the definition of oxymoron…

          But to me personally, all that pales in comparison to the weight of a text sent to me just last night by a former dive student of mine currently working with coral protection in Cozumel Mexico, she wrote:

          I didn’t want to tell you that I have been feeling very despondent about the reef and our ocean as of late. the white plague is back in Cozumel, and it is bad!

          I got to dive Cozumel before there was a white plague!
          In the big picture of evolutionary and geological timescales this is the kind of rapid change that ushers in a mass extinction.

          Yet the people on the petroleum side of this very blog are still discussing the evils of communism in Venezuela… What a bunch of idiots!

          1. Perspective and magnitude pale in comparison to money and “power” in the dim minded.
            We have many informed people on this blog, but few who understand even basic principles and realities. Information is not comprehension.

            1. Information is not comprehension.

              That might just be the understatement of our epoch!

    1. Tulip Mania! And by 2030 China alone, will be consuming 100% of all the world’s tulip production.
      What could possibly go wrong?!

  76. Did you get chipped yet? Has your virtual bodysuit arrived yet? Did you apply for your UBI yet?
    It’s coming.
    A look into a likely dystopian future which will only be stopped by nature and the crash of civilization.
    Get the munchies out, listen to this and try not to retch.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jg00A5ozvZ4

    1. “We are running a 21st-century digital economy on a 13th Century printing-press era operating system.”
      Douglas Rushkoff, Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus

      We need an OS upgrade 😉

    1. I am more interested to know why the electoral college winner voters don’t about
      trumps school transcripts, his tax fraud, his bank fraud, his insurance fraud, his banking fraud, and his extremely poor behavior. Any idea how many people he has sued, and how many contractors he never paid?
      What a disgrace to this nation, for these people to have voted for such a charlatan.

  78. Synapsid —

    EARTH SCIENTISTS PLAN A ‘GEOLOGICAL GOOGLE’

    “A group of earth scientists and information specialists is laying plans to link now isolated databases into a “geological Google” that will hopefully be a one-stop portal allowing researchers to access all the data they need to tackle significant questions. Backers envision using big data techniques to probe numerous information sources to study such issues as patterns of biodiversity over geologic time, how metal deposits came to be distributed the way they are, and the workings of Africa’s complex groundwater networks. The Deep-time Digital Earth initiative has gotten initial funding and logistical support from within China. But at a meeting this week in Beijing, backers were hoping to enlist more widespread support in hopes of getting the database up and running by spring 2020.”

    http://science.sciencemag.org/content/363/6430/917

    1. DougL,

      That certainly does sound useful but my first two thoughts were 1) initial funding from China? How will this work out? and 2) what will teaching be like with this out there? Wikipedia is bad enough.

      Ideally, of course this sounds great. ‘Bout time, even.

      Thanks.

  79. It seems wildfire smoke wasn’t included in the criteria.

    CANADA RANKED HEALTHIEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD

    “The analysis, compiled by Letter One investment firm and called the Global Wellness Index, gave Canada the top spot over 151 nations. The U.S. ranked 37, while South Africa took the last place. The index considered a series of metrics, including healthcare and exercise. A separate analysis conducted by Bloomberg in February awarded Spain the top spot and placed Canada in the 16th spot. Overall, Canada earned a good score for blood pressure rates and life expectancy as well as high happiness levels. The U.S. lost points for obesity, depression and inactivity. The findings are closely-aligned with a 2018 report by the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business and BAV consulting, which ranked Canada the second-best country in the world. “Beyond the essential ideas of broad access to food and housing, to quality education and health care, to employment that will sustain us, quality of life may also include intangibles such as job security, political stability, individual freedom and environmental quality,” the survey said.”

    Time to start work on our wall?

    1. In general, do you think people in BC feel more cultural commonality with those in Toronto/ Montreal or Seattle /Portland?

      1. Hickory,

        I’d say the average BC resident feels more in tune with Slovenia than Toronto/Montreal, especially Toronto. From time-to-time there’s talk about forming a new state/provence composed of BC, Oregon and Washington which just reflects a feeling of alienation we have out here. All the money/power in Canada is “back east” in fact it’s often said of every 20 dollars in Canada, 19 live in Toronto.

        1. If BC, Oregon and Washington ever decided to form a country I’d be willing to emigrate, assuming that they’d let me in, maybe my friends in Seattle would put in a good word for me 😉

        2. California (northern 2/3rds) wants in. Should be considered.
          Might want to offer Hawaii a spot as well.

          1. Hickory,

            Now you’re talking about Ecotopia, from back in maybe the 70s. That didn’t include Hawai’i though.

            I believe that Hawai’i has been putting effort into PV but I’m not sure. There’s certainly geothermal potential on the Big Island; there’s a geothermal plant that got pretty much surrounded by lava last Spring and Summer.

            1. ‘Ecotopia”. Yes, indeed.
              There are a lot of complementary attributes and commonalities for these places.

              And add excellent wind resource for Hawaii while your at it.

    2. DougL,

      A wall? Yes! Get the US to pay for it. Don’t know how you’ll fortify the border with Alaska though.

      I like Hickory’s question (although, sadly, once Rose’s closed my attention to Portland dwindled.)

      Toronto/Montreal, hmm, I’d think that that’s quite a gap to bridge right there.

    3. Please close the border with the US and cease all trade immediately. No sense in dealing with despicable Americans. Might want to consider leaving NATO also and forming your own defenses.

      1. What has NATO to do with Canada’s World Wellness Rank? BTW Canada has been a member of the NATO since its inception in 1949, a founding member. Also, some of my best friends are Americans but I do have a problem with people, including Americans, who can’t take a dig once and awhile. Like the ones who worship flags and who treat minorities as less than human. Nice to be perfect I guess (and have all the answers).

        1. What does a wall have to do with Wellness Rank? If you don’t like America, then why do you want to be in an organization with it?
          “I do have a problem with people, including Americans, who can’t take a dig once and awhile”
          Guess you have a problem with yourself then, have fun on the other side of the border hedge. You can dish it out but you can’t take it as proved by your reaction and your slurs.

          No I don’t worship any flag, don’t treat minorities as less than human and I don’t pretend to be perfect. Nor do I go about making slurs about national populations since I realize that their views, actions and opinions may vary from a few bad examples.
          However, I also don’t throw in my support to those who want to build walls and be isolationists.
          But if Canada wants to go Canexit, that is OK too. It’s a free world after all.

          1. Slurs? Fuck you. Tell you what, I’ll disappear and stop irritating you. Happy now?

            1. You are free to do what you want. I take care of my own emotional states.

            3. We need to request a ‘Port Button’ from Dennis to place at the end of our posts ?
              Cheers!

            4. FredM,

              Perhaps an idea whose time has come.

              I could only use it if I were posting after midday, that being the Port part of the day.

            5. Hi Doug,

              I am American, and you are not irritating me. In fact, one day I may wish to join the wildlings that live free beyond the wall. I’d also like to say many thanks for the links you post on a routine basis. (especially about Greta Thunberg!)

      2. Coffeeguyzz is like an advertisement for the gas industry. Not arguing with his facts but I don’t like the ramifications.

  82. Its not just Trump who generates stupid headlines-

    Just Ask Washington: Yes, Coal-Killing Solar Panels Work In Rainy Weather-
    https://cleantechnica.com/2019/03/06/just-ask-washington-yes-coal-killing-solar-panels-work-in-rainy-weather/

    Well, not exactly. This PV project is at a location so dry, and sunny, that it is a sparse grassland (east of the Cascades). Less than 10 inches of rain a year. Its only downside for solar is short cloudy winter days.
    Annually, its solar potential is just a little greater than Dallas or Orlando.

    On the west side of the cascades, where it has numerous cloudy drizzly days in the winter, no place in the lower 48 has poorer annual PV potential. 250 miles can make a huge difference in the Pacific NW. Just ask Hightrekker.

    1. Hmmm, put PV in a sunny dry area or in a wet cloudy area. No brainer there.
      Wind works in the rain too.

      The really dumb thing is that supposedly intelligent people think that our energy demands will go up by changing over to EV’s and renewables. Nope, they will fall. Done properly they will fall dramatically.

      1. “put PV in a sunny dry area or in a wet cloudy area. No brainer there”

        Seriously. You obviously never put up your own money for PV, or you’d be aware of the difference between placing them in the sun or shade. The point of my posting was simply pointing that out, along with the false headline from that news source.

        1. Obviously you are not that familiar with click-bait. Why would I comment about the click-bait portion? Too bad you were taken in.
          Obviously someone was thinking, use the clear skies to the west to provide power to the damp areas in the east.

          1. “Why would I comment about the click-bait portion? Too bad you were taken in.”

            You know, its probably better if we just steer way clear of each other. I have thought that many a time.

            1. Hickory said “You know, its probably better if we just steer way clear of each other”
              Now now, don’t get your undies in a bunch. If you find my comments are a problem for you no steering need be involved, just click on the ignore button.
              I must admit though, your comment about me not knowing how PV acts differently in the shade versus the sun was humorous. I was building thermal solar collectors decades ago. Also trained in physics and chemistry. As a long time spectroscopist I think I have a handle on electromagnetic energy.
              I must admit though that my PV test systems have shown a remarkable tendency to not do well if trees are present. Also not much output from the moon either. 🙂

  83. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/can-democrats-love-the-voters-hillary-hated

    Is the D party out of touch with working class voters? I believe with all my heart that it IS, indeed, and that it must fix this problem to win back control of local, state and probably or at least possibly federal government as well.

    Opinion
    Can Democrats love the voters Hillary hated?
    by Timothy P. Carney
    | March 06, 2019 09:17 AM

    Print this article
    Sign up for In Our Opinion commentary

    Hillary Clinton rolled out new excuses for her loss, disenfranchisement in particular, but also promised not to run again. If Democrats are smart, they’ll ignore her excuses and take to heart the real lessons of 2016.

    The most important lesson from Hillary’s loss is this: Don’t hate the swing voters.

    Donald Trump won the White House by swinging tens of thousands or hundred of thousands of voters from Obama, and by bringing many other prior nonvoters out of the woodwork. Also, millions of Obama voters stayed home — a group that included hundreds thousands of working-class whites.
    Would Trump’s national emergency really be an “emergency”?
    Watch Full Screen to Skip Ads

    With all these swings, Trump swung working-class counties in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin, enough to win all four states and the White House.

    Trump, at the same time, underperformed earlier Republicans in the wealthier parts of America.

    Hillary showed her true colors when she declared this result some sort of a victory. “If you look at the map of the United States,” she explained to an overseas audience, “there’s all that red in the middle where Trump won. I win the coast, I win, you know, Illinois and Minnesota, places like that.”

    What are the “places like that”?

    “I won the places that represent two-thirds of America’s gross domestic product,” she explained. “So I won the places that are optimistic, diverse, dynamic, moving forward. And his whole campaign, ‘Make America Great Again,’ was looking backwards.”

    The 2018 election furthered this division. Democrats took over the House of Representatives in part by picking up dozens of seats in upper-middle-class suburban districts. The new bragging point for Democrats is that they are the party of the highly educated and the successful. It allows for the self-serving explanation that people who know the real deal vote Democratic, and only the clueless bitter clingers vote Republican.

    The choice for 2020 is: Do Democrats prefer the pride of being the party of the elites, or are they willing to sully themselves by trying to win over the “backwards” places full of deplorable bitter clingers?

    If they want to win, they need to tune out Hillary and the commentators who insist that Trump’s base was purely racists —the folks who declare “ There’s no such thing as a good Trump voter.”

    This will involve accepting that working-class suffering is real — even for white people.

    The data tell the story clearly. Life expectancy in the U.S. is falling, driven by a sharp decline among working-class whites. Labor-force participation remains low, and the rates of men on disability remains high. Working-class marriage rates are falling, and out-of-wedlock births are rising among the working class.

    Behind all of this are decades of stagnating wages. But there’s something more important at play here: the collapse of community cohesion and local institutions of civil society.

    Too many liberal critics wave away the nostalgic-sounding laments about how America used to be great. To them, this is just the revanchist griping of old, straight, white dudes who are upset that their privilege is eroding. But when the population of your town is shrinking, when the churches and coffee shops are closing down, when the Memorial Day Parade has disappeared, there’s a real loss.

    Trump exploited that loss by promising he could bring back what used to be. Of course he can’t — in fact, turning to a strongman just exacerbates the problem of community erosion by drawing power and attention away from the human level. But Hillary played into Trump’s hands by trying to deny that the suffering was real, and by portraying all the changes as progress.

    Can any 2020 Democrats do better? Maybe. But right now it appears doubtful. Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio is reaching out for the working class, and willing to talk about the “dignity of work” — a concept many on the Left like to mock. But even he demeans the importance of community connections. He penned a snarky retort to an insightful David Brooks column recently.

    “Brooks, in ‘ It’s Not the Economy, Stupid’, writes: ‘It’s not jobs, jobs, jobs anymore. It’s relationships, relationships, relationships,’” Brown wrote. “Actually it’s wages, wages, wages.”

    This denial that social dissolution is a problem is the same sort of coldness that sunk Hillary.

    The suffering is real. The condescension is both heartless and politically destructive. Can the Democrats have enough heart to have a chance at beating Trump?

    If you don’t want to get it, you never will, even if you are a professional working scientist looking at hard data sometimes.

      1. Hi Ron,

        I agree with your eight o five comment.

        Just about every last one of my personal acquaintances among liberals with critical thinking skills admits privately that the election was HRC’s to lose, and that she lost it , that she snatched defeat out of the jaws of victory, due to her arrogance and taking the working class people for granted, ASSUMING that they would vote for her, and not even showing up in the Rust Belt states that put Trump over the top.

        And I already have four or five bets down that unless the D’s manage to run an admitted child molester, they will win back the WH in 2020, because so many fence sitters and working class people who voted for Trump to send the establishment a MESSAGE will not vote for him again……. if he is even able to run again.

    2. “The Washington Examiner is an American political journalism website and weekly magazine based in Washington, D.C. that covers politics and policy in the United States and internationally.[2] It is owned by MediaDC,[3] a subsidiary of Clarity Media Group,[4] which is owned by Philip Anschutz.[5][6]

      From 2005 to mid-2013, the Examiner published a daily tabloid-sized newspaper, distributed throughout the Washington, D.C. metro area. At the time, the newspaper mostly focused on local news and political commentary.[5] The local newspaper ceased publication on June 14, 2013, and its content began to focus exclusively on national politics, switching its print edition from a daily newspaper to a weekly magazine format.[7]

      The Examiner is known for its conservative political stance and features many prominent conservative writers.”

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Examiner

      Consider your source Stud Muffin, the haters need to hate. It’s all the Republicans have left to offer. What ever happened to the Christian love thy neighbor scripture ? Just another power grabbing lie.

      1. Thank you, HB,

        You managed to entirely miss the point once again, lol.

        The people here who possess something in the way of critical thinking skills, and understand just a little bit, or a whole lot, about human nature, will get it, or have gotten it already.

  84. Unsettling trend
    February CO2
    February 2019: 411.75 ppm
    February 2018: 408.32 ppm

    Maximum warming occurs about one decade after a carbon dioxide emission
    “the median time between an emission and maximum warming is 10.1 years, with a 90% probability range of 6.6–30.7 years. We evaluate uncertainties in timing and amount of warming, partitioning them into three contributing factors: carbon cycle, climate sensitivity and ocean thermal inertia.”
    https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/9/12/124002/meta

    1. That is an interesting article, however I think there is a much bigger take home message (than a 10 yr peak in temp effect) from it.
      If you look at figure 1, the extrapolated half life of CO2 effect on temperature is well over 100 yrs. The fall off from peak effect at 10 yrs is a snails pace.
      The implication for sustained cumulative effect on global warming is huge. Beyond huge.
      It means, for example, that temperature effect from the first coal train to run through Sioux Territory is likely still over 50% of its max effect. We are at the very beginning of this phenomena.

      1. I agree 100%. Thanks for the follow up.
        I’m interested to read what other talking heads on POB have to say about also.

        1. Dennis has studied this issue. I wonder if this information is integrated with the projections of temperature he has been favoring.

          Beginning in the 80’s we have seen global temperatures start to rise. This could be effect from CO2 emitted in the 1st half of the 20th century?

    2. I don’t think we need to worry about century long time spans. If we keep BAU running for another decade or two, irreversible and non-linear system changes will have become the drivers of climate and eco change. If not already there.

      1. I hate to sound like a ditto head but I too see non-linear system changes becoming the major drivers of climate and ecological change should we decide to keep pushing BAU.
        And I really fear we may have already passed multiple tipping points in many of our marine ecosystems. I recommend a thorough review of what we know happened during the PETM.

        https://www.palaeontologyonline.com/articles/2011/the-paleocene-eocene-thermal-maximum/

        Introduction:
        The Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) is one of the most intense and abrupt intervals of global warming in the geological record. It occurred around 56 million years ago, at the boundary between the Paleocene and Eocene epochs. This warming has been linked to a similarly rapid increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere, which acted to trap heat and drive up global temperatures by more than 5 °C in just a few thousand years. The fossil record gives us the means of understanding how life was affected by the PETM, and so provides an excellent opportunity to study the relationships between evolution, extinction, migration and climate change.

        1. I had not heard the term “ditto head” before. Thanks for the new term, though I probably will not use it since I hang around them.

          Thanks for the PETM article.
          It probably takes hundreds to thousands of years for trees and other plants to migrate long distance, although animals can shorten that progression.
          If temperature changes occur too fast, some land plants may not make it.

        2. Everyone of us is an enemy of the earth for the day we were born. I remember in the 1970’s and 80’s researchers and scientists discovered depletion of natural ozone, AKA O3. Nitrous oxides and hydrocarbon pollutants build up in the lower atmosphere to get acted on by sunlight to produce O3. Then high levels of ozone cause respiratory problems and kill plants. Freon and other fluorocarbon pollutants in the upper atmosphere may be removing ozone, which acts as a protective layer against harmful UV, ultraviolet light.

          In the 80’s there was a big political push to eliminate man-made chemicals in the aerosol cans and refrigerants. Government successfully campaigned to phase them out. I remember because in the 1980’s they pitched it like the world was going to end tomorrow if we didn’t do something about it. 30 to 40 years later and the ozone has since repaired itself because of that campaign.

          Fast forward 25 years. While in office, Al Gore reignited the campaign because of A. large public interest, B. lots of money to be made, and C. a lucrative strategy to obtain votes. The scientists in the 70’s laid the groundwork and made it a successful campaign for him when he made half a billion $ explaining science to the masses. Then, after selling off his TV network to Al Jazeera and buying his way on to the board at Apple, he bought a huge house in California with 13 bathrooms.

          My point is that after the 1980’s, wave after wave after wave of environmental restrictions were imposed and created trillions of dollars in taxes and restrictions. That worked so well that we created other problems, mostly dealing with a bloated government. That’s a huge folly because there’s no amount of money in the world that can fix the “problems” because there are too many variables keeping the environment in balance. All we can do is minimize some unbalance if we spot it and understand the true causes. However, when the politicians and government get involved it becomes just another money game. Politicians are lawyers, that’s just what they are.

          It’s also not the USA contributing most of the pollution per capita…it is other countries contributing more (China, Russia, Bangladesh, India, and so on). They will not jump on board with the idea of reducing pollution or emissions because they have a different mindset and most of them are at a structural disadvantage financially. Besides, these countries are where we get the majority of our consumables these days, and where we have decided to place many of our manufacturing facilities. If we impose our will on them categorically, not only would our own economic output suffer massively, the cost of all our goods would shoot through the roof, and the economy would take a massive nosedive because people would buy less stuff. No politician would run on that sort of ticket…there aren’t enough hippies out there to help them win elections.

          I tell my friends, when it comes to environmental concerns, let earth take care of itself but also it’s everyone’s responsibility to minimize our impact as long as it doesn’t take extra money to do it. There is no good answer other than that. Take the time, money, and effort you would have spent on lobbying or politics and instead teach your children and neighbors how to be good stewards of their domain on earth.

            2. I’m not sure what that means.

              It’s worth mentioning that I haven’t read your reply to my comment, above. I read the first several lines and decided that you had misinterpreted my comment, and that
              other idea (whatever it was) hit a sore spot.

              FWIW.

Comments are closed.