Floods, Fires, and Heat Domes (the climate change thread)

At the moment however…

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Normally, I would say “bring it on”, since the cold kills the ticks.

Unfortunately, with lots of folks in Alberta without housing, and living in tents, my normal enthusiasm for a cold snap isn’t there.

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It does bring on some interesting weather phenomena, though.

On a very still, cold day, I saw those forming over Lake Huron over a very low fog that stretched to the horizon. From the 6-th floor offices of the Bruce B nuclear plant, it was an eerie sight.

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Merz and colleagues believe that most climate “solutions” proposed so far only tackle symptoms rather than the root cause of the crisis. This, they say, leads to increasing levels of the three “levers” of overshoot: consumption, waste and population…

“Essentially, overshoot is a crisis of human behaviour,” says Merz. “For decades we’ve been telling people to change their behaviour without saying: ‘Change your behaviour.’ We’ve been saying ‘be more green’ or ‘fly less’, but meanwhile all of the things that drive behaviour have been pushing the other way. All of these subtle cues and not so subtle cues have literally been pushing the opposite direction – and we’ve been wondering why nothing’s changing.”

Nah, I believe supply-side and a very small group of extremely greedy people are at the root. Humans have a difficult time consuming what companies don’t produce. If it’s not available, humans will adapt. Instead of changing their behavior, corporations are doubling down on selling every toxic resource they have before converting to cleaner alternatives.

They care more about return on investment and profit than the planet and/or other people. They enjoy pointing the finger at poor people and consumers for it, too. It’s classic victim-blaming, “stop making me hurt you” bs.

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People are the victims – we have been exploited to the point we are in crisis. These tools are being used to drive us to extinction,” says the evolutionary behavioural ecologist and study co-author Phoebe Barnard. “Why not use them to build a genuinely sustainable world?”

“Is it ethical to exploit our psychology to benefit an economic system destroying the planet?” asks Barnard. “Creativity and innovation are driving overconsumption. The system is driving us to suicide. It’s conquest, entitlement, misogyny, arrogance and it comes in a fetid package driving us to the abyss.”

its all in the article.

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The framing used matters, and that’s what @PsiPhiGrrrl was addressing. Just because they bury her point in the article, doesn’t make the framing less problematic.

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sure. and I was just pointig out that it is nevertheless somewhat adressed in the article. which -I give you that- doesnt adress the core of the problem as the core of the problem.

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This is so eloquently stated.

A small example. I’m heading out on a work trip next week. It’s too far to drive, it’s still well over a day one-way on current train lines, but I know if it was in Europe or Japan, I’d be able to get there in half a day via high-speed rail. Instead, the only reasonable way for me to get there is by plane, with all the carbon impact (not to mention increased personal risk involved). So if the problem is demand, where’s my &%(*&% bullet train ticket? No, the problem is supply-side.

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Checking in on how the Donnie party is running their electrical grid in Texas

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This Is Fine GIF

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Freezing Sweater Weather GIF by Libby VanderPloeg

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All the clothing!

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I live in the coastal south of Finland, where the weather is usually quite mild. As the weather is starting to change, I have begun wearing merino wool underwear, long johns, and a shirt. I’m considering getting heated gloves, as I have poor circulation in my limbs and they tend to feel frozen.

Back to the floods…

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In one case study, the researchers point to a spike in this kind of content from Canadian pundit Jordan Peterson over the last few years. “The idea that we can make the planet more habitable on an environmental, on the environmental front by impoverishing poor people, by raising energy prices and food prices, is absolutely, it’s not only absurd logically, but I think it’s tantamount to genocidal,” Peterson says in one YouTube video his channel posted in 2022.

Peterson did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Verge. Climate change is expected to cause 250,000 additional deaths each year in the coming decades as it raises risks from heat stress, malaria, undernutrition, and diarrhea, according to the World Health Organization. Fortunately, renewable energy is already a cheaper alternative to fossil fuel power plants and can help prevent deaths linked to the effects of climate change.

tina fey eye roll GIF

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Family Guy Lobster GIF

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Joe Biden Reaction GIF by Election 2020

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