We are still screwed: the coming climate disaster

[DeForrestation]

[ineffablebob]

Climate change will have dire consequences for US, federal report concludes

Thanksgiving week, perfect time to bury a report.

[Miramon]

I’m surprised it was permitted to be released at all. Perhaps the administration was unaware of the existence of the cross-agency working group that is required by law to compile and release it…

The actual report: https://nca2018.globalchange.gov/

[ineffablebob]

Amazon deforestation 'worst in 10 years'

Lost an area the size of London last year, and Bolsonaro isn’t going to help matters any.

[ShivaX]

Dave Anthony: "Vote for Rancid Ham 2020" (daveanthony)

[Nesrie]

I kind of want to laugh and cry…

[DarthMasta]

The thing with the light absorbing aerosols, it’s cheap enough that once things get bad enough, someone, somewhere is going to try it. Bezos could do it for a laugh. And there’s no lack of countries rich enough and in danger enough that once it gets bad enough, well, kind of a foregone conclusion.

And maybe it’ll be bad, but what are the alternatives, change the way we live? Ha…

[Quaro]

AP Politics (AP_Politics)

[KevinC]

Some men you just can’t reach.

[Nesrie]

Trump isn’t about teaching or learning or absorbing anything really. He’s all about incentive. He has too much incentive not to believe it, and he’s old so he doesn’t care either. When someone is wholly self-centered like he is, why would he care if he leaves behind useless dust as his legacy?

[Gordon_Cameron]

But what about Tiffany? TIFFANNYYYYYYY

[Pyperkub]

Some men you just can’t reach.

Eh, I think we can. Just need to convince him of the money to be made in fighting climate change and selling the solution(s). He’s just too blind to see it, poor businessman that he is.

[Rock8man]

Eh, I think we can.

I agree. If Fox News had people on all day talking about how much money we could save by mitigating climate change, I think he would be convinced pretty fast.

Who controls Fox programming now that Ailes is gone? And how can we reach these people?

[CraigM]

And how can we reach these people

Two by fours?

Nah, who am I kidding, they are so insulated by their money that peons like you and I could never reach them.

Not without bribing their private security first.

[RichVR]

Not without bribing their private security first.

Eventually their money will have no value. Then their security will be the first to draw their knives.

[Gordon_Cameron]

Eventually their money will have no value. Then their security will be the first to draw their knives.

Right, we can just recapitulate the history of the Roman emperors. They were miserable individuals, many of them. Nero constantly terrified of being assassinated, Domitian too – he complained that nobody would believe his fears of assassination until they were proven true by him being assassinated. And he was.

You get back to that Praetorian Guard sort of situation – the rulers are absolutely dependent on the military to protect them from the masses, and the military thereby indirectly control things, except that they don’t really give a shit about policy as long as they keep getting paid. Similar with Janissaries and Mamelukes, I think.

[Gordon_Cameron]

Krugman in high dudgeon.

Opinion | The Depravity of Climate-Change Denial

Why would anyone go along with such things? Money is still the main answer: Almost all prominent climate deniers are on the fossil-fuel take. However, ideology is also a factor: If you take environmental issues seriously, you are led to the need for government regulation of some kind, so rigid free-market ideologues don’t want to believe that environmental concerns are real (although apparently forcing consumers to subsidize coal is fine).

Finally, I have the impression that there’s an element of tough-guy posturing involved — real men don’t use renewable energy, or something.

And these motives matter. If important players opposed climate action out of good-faith disagreement with the science, that would be a shame but not a sin, calling for better efforts at persuasion. As it is, however, climate denial is rooted in greed, opportunism, and ego. And opposing action for those reasons is a sin.

Indeed, it’s depravity, on a scale that makes cancer denial seem trivial. Smoking kills people, and tobacco companies that tried to confuse the public about that reality were being evil. But climate change isn’t just killing people; it may well kill civilization. Trying to confuse the public about that is evil on a whole different level. Don’t some of these people have children?

[JonRowe]

Indeed, it’s depravity, on a scale that makes cancer denial seem trivial. Smoking kills people, and tobacco companies that tried to confuse the public about that reality were being evil. But climate change isn’t just killing people; it may well kill civilization. Trying to confuse the public about that is evil on a whole different level. Don’t some of these people have children?

That is a really good way of putting it.

[Rightbug]

The fucking gob smacking thing about Trump saying he doesn’t believe a report which says climate change will cost the US billions of dollars is that he says it the same day that Zinke is in California saying that the cost of the fires there will likely be in the billions.

But then, as the Times points out, the deniers are not speaking in good faith so, as ever, Trump’s stated beliefs have no connection to reality.

I had to stop watching Zinke’s remarks from Paradise as he was using the tragedy as a platform for praising Trump and saying that we need to gut environmental regulations to prevent this from happening again.

[Gordon_Cameron]

saying that we need to gut environmental regulations to prevent this from happening again.

Glad I didn’t see that. I might be having to buy a new TV set…