Just Slow Down and Take a Breath

[David Horn]

(02-21-2022, 08:32 PM)Eric the Green Wrote:

(02-21-2022, 03:43 PM)David Horn Wrote:

(02-21-2022, 02:00 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: New research warns that the earth may be approaching key tipping points, including the runaway loss of ice sheets, that could fundamentally disrupt the global climate system. A growing concern is a change in ocean circulation, which could alter climate patterns in a profound way.

Much like the COVID deniers who wanted the vaccine on their deathbeds, climate deniers assume the fix can happen much later when it is not inconvenient to them.  This is really bad for Xers and suicide for Millennials and younger gens.  If it stays that way, this will not get fixed before catastrophe happens.  Meanwhile, I'll be ashes in the urn on the mantle.  Sorry, I simply can't be there to help.

You'll be here for the remainder of the 4T, at least, probably. I don't know your health conditions but you seem alive and kicking to me. That's long enough at least to keep trying to fix climate-breakdown denial. It will be fixed in the 2020s, or not fixed. Boomers and Silents and many Xers who continue to deny may not be reachable. As the Captain in Cool Hand Luke says, "some men you just can't reach" "what we've got here is failure to communicate". But Millennials and Gen Z are the new majority of voters, and many of them can still be reached. Somehow they need to stop disapproving of Biden enough and stop blaming him for gas prices enough to get out and vote Democratic in November. That will be the most important decision any of us can ever make in the near or far future.

I'm actually well, overall, so it's not the 2020s that worry me.  The entire world, but the US first and foremost, seems bent on pulling this off at the last possible minute.  The Chinese are no paragons of virtue, but they are moving pretty fast in the area of renewables and electric vehicles -- much faster than we are, but the Indians aren't even started (and they will grow their economy first, just like China).  The Europeans are a mixed bag.  Africa and South AMerica aren't even in the game yet.  As far as the US is concerned, if the GOP continues to say no to everything we need to do (unless they benefit personally, of course) then this is not getting done in the '20s, probably not in the '30s and the '40s aren't soon enough.

Eric Wrote:And if you can get behind renewables, and not just nuclear, as the fix to the climate crisis, that would be a big step, and a lot you can do. I'll make a deal with you, fellow Boomer Gray Champion. I'll be open and up to date about nuclear if you are open and up to date about renewables. Be sure to read the article on batteries I posted. 

I'm onboard with renewables 100%.  I'm even onboard with battery backup systems, to the extent they can help.  The primary failure is on the consumption side.  For example, we permit, even incentivize, the ownership of pickup trucks as auto-substitutes.  Why? When gas prices go up, and they should go up to incentivize the changeover to electric or hybrid at the very least, the public screams that they can't afford to drive these things they shouldn't be driving in the first place.  We are a nation of whiners, and whiners never volunteer to suffer in the least in any way at any time.  We allow waste to keep them happy -- and I'm not immune myself.  We all have our blind spots.

So let's admit it.  The politics of aggrandizement isn't going to end soon.  It will take a shock to get the attention of all but the already committed, and I don't see one in the offing.