6601

Yeah, in fairness it’s not just a government problem when the people who elect the government (us) will just vote anyone out of office who really works hard to correct the problem.

Good luck keeping your political seat after you take away peoples’ god given right to excessive air conditioning and monster trucks.

Or for the nerds, force you to shut off your over-powered gaming computer, big screen TV, and console.

6602

If only we didn’t have a collective action problem at the governmental level also! No one country can solve the issue.

6603

Hey, no one else managed it. The dinosaurs might have after a while if a space rock hadn’t killed em, but we managed to do it on our own.

So you’re saying we should conquer the world?
/s

6604

I’m not sure if this video has been posted before but I thought it was really interesting. It’s a little old now but still relevant. It’s a lecture on the possible geo-political fallout from climate change.

6605

Interesting factoid, but AFAIK the only other life form that brought about a mass extinction is Cyanobacteria - their waste literally killed off almost all life at the time. [That waste product being oxygen though, so not quite the same thing.]

6606

I really want to read Avery’s Information Theory and Evolution, because I suspect your comment is on the nose when it comes to the author’s thesis, I just don’t know if I want to read it $40 physical copy bad:

Like, what if life, specifically evolution, is actually the most efficient way of maximizing entropy? It’s funny because I’ve been taught to think of life as an “interruption in entropy”; a localized decrease. But maybe somehow self-replicating, localized decreases will cause the system to trend toward a big increase much more quickly than it would have otherwise?

What does this say about our purpose here? …and what about free will? I feel as if I have free will, which means I have a choice between right and wrong, even if that choice is an illusion. So, by choosing the right thing (not destroying the environment), am I choosing to be something other than what’s in my nature? A bacterium doesn’t have choice with respect to when its going to divide, etc. Where does this leave consciousness?

Information Theory and Evolution discusses the phenomenon of life, including its origin and evolution (and also human cultural evolution), against the background of thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, and information theory. Among the central themes is the seeming contradiction between the second law of thermodynamics and the high degree of order and complexity produced by living systems. This paradox has its resolution in the information content of the Gibbs free energy that enters the biosphere from outside sources, as the author will show. The role of information in human cultural evolution is another focus of the book.

Some may try to use this as ‘well, it’s just in my nature to maximize entropy so by driving a big gas guzzling tank on my one-man commute to work I’m only really helping things along’; go out and subdue the Earth as it were.

…keeps me up at night.

6607

That’s wild and kinda fits with ecological efficiency.

Ethics (and empathy) is the counter to base instincts. Simple thought experiment: If you could murder someone you despise and get away with it, would you?

Human beings are capable of acting outside their own self-interests, and Aldo Leopold extended this to include nature:

the relationships between people and land are intertwined: care for people cannot be separated from care for the land. A land ethic is a moral code of conduct that grows out of these interconnected caring relationships.

6608

If life weren’t a way to maximize entropy faster, it wouldn’t exist.

But entropy begins and ends as a thermodynamic concept; identifying it with psychological or epistemological concepts of chaos or disorder is a mistake.

6609
6610

Counterpoint: The cost of these projects is untenable for some of the LCOL cities unless the federal goverment ponies up a lot of extra cash. In Akron for example, I know people who are seeing sewer bills of over $100/mo - which admittedly is not a lot of money for most people, but again, LCOL area with wages to match. Akron is now ~$1.4b in debt from this project, and expects to be paying it off over multiple generations. Here’s a decent article on it (because like most things, it’s complicated):

Now obviously a habitable planet is worth that and more. But we’re asking those who are the least able to pay to foot this bill, and also their potential children or grandchildren.

6611

Using publicly-available government documents, the report found that countries’ plans to increase production of coal, oil, and gas amounts to 120 percent more in 2030 than would be consistent with limiting global warming to 2.7 degrees F. Those plans include producing 280 percent more coal. That puts the world on a path that could exceed 5.4 degrees F (3 degrees C) of warming, says Lazarus.

6612

Hmm. if they can pull this off, it could make solar so much more efficient and lead to a lot more generation, in a future generation, of course:

6613

Isn’t that passive nuclear energy they’re talking about, or am I misreading it?

6614

The paper that the article is talking about is paywalled, but I don’t believe that the actual paper supports what that article is suggesting.

It seems like it’s based on the idea of capturing energy that’s radiating from the panel to deep space, but it seems like you are going to have interference with that effect due to the fact that we have an atmosphere that helps hold heat.

6615

What’s that rule about headlines in the form of a question?

6616

Betteridge. And, yep… that headline’s a nope.

6617
6618

The biggest solar plant that can also store energy has flopped. Not good for those seeking solutions.

6619

So… fix the leaks and improve energy infrastructure?

Natural gas may be 75% cheaper now, but there is a big price to pay later.

Article is weird with phrases like “the scientist who virtually created the global warming scare” and “Solar is useless because it can’t replace the generating infrastructure of the traditional electric grid. In Nevada, an army of natural gas plants will never be replaced by solar.”

6620

Credit where it’s due, I am surprised that BoJo is at least talking the talk about climate change:

The world sorely needs leaders right now that are trying to push the needle. Who knows if he’ll follow through but it’s better than nothing which is what I anticipated.