Our Collapsing Civilization

User avatar
Mongrel
Posts: 21290
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:28 pm
Location: There's winners and there's losers // And I'm south of that line

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby Mongrel » Fri Sep 28, 2018 1:53 pm

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national ... 4344190a21
Last month, deep in a 500-page environmental impact statement, the Trump administration made a startling assumption: On its current course, the planet will warm a disastrous 7 degrees by the end of this century.

A rise of 7 degrees Fahrenheit, or about 4 degrees Celsius, compared with preindustrial levels would be catastrophic, according to scientists. Many coral reefs would dissolve in increasingly acidic oceans. Parts of Manhattan and Miami would be underwater without costly coastal defenses. Extreme heat waves would routinely smother large parts of the globe.

But the administration did not offer this dire forecast as part of an argument to combat climate change. Just the opposite: The analysis assumes the planet’s fate is already sealed.

The draft statement, issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), was written to justify President Trump’s decision to freeze federal fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks built after 2020. While the proposal would increase greenhouse gas emissions, the impact statement says, that policy would add just a very small drop to a very big, hot bucket.


Not that "Okay well then let's keep making this problem worse" is the correct response. But they're not wrong about it being too late. Seriously - who are we fucking kidding at this point? It was probably too late ten years ago, if not twenty.
Image

User avatar
Mongrel
Posts: 21290
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:28 pm
Location: There's winners and there's losers // And I'm south of that line

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby Mongrel » Sat Sep 29, 2018 6:55 pm

Image

User avatar
Yoji
Posts: 1440
Joined: Mon Apr 04, 2016 4:12 pm
Location: Screamtown

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby Yoji » Sat Sep 29, 2018 7:47 pm

Good lord, I can practically hear Trump and his white supremacist ilk getting an erection over this.
Image: Mention something from KPCC or Rachel Maddow
Image: Go on about Homeworld for X posts

User avatar
Mongrel
Posts: 21290
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:28 pm
Location: There's winners and there's losers // And I'm south of that line

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby Mongrel » Sun Sep 30, 2018 3:06 pm

Kiddie Kamps still going strong:

In shelters from Kansas to New York, hundreds of migrant children have been roused in the middle of the night in recent weeks and loaded onto buses with backpacks and snacks for a cross-country journey to their new home: a barren tent city on a sprawling patch of desert in West Texas.

Until now, most undocumented children being held by federal immigration authorities had been housed in private foster homes or shelters, sleeping two or three to a room. They received formal schooling and regular visits with legal representatives assigned to their immigration cases.

But in the rows of sand-colored tents in Tornillo, Tex., children in groups of 20, separated by gender, sleep lined up in bunks. There is no school: The children are given workbooks that they have no obligation to complete. Access to legal services is limited.

These midnight voyages are playing out across the country, as the federal government struggles to find room for more than 13,000 detained migrant children — the largest population ever — whose numbers have increased more than fivefold since last year.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/30/us/m ... texas.html
Image

User avatar
Mongrel
Posts: 21290
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:28 pm
Location: There's winners and there's losers // And I'm south of that line

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby Mongrel » Wed Oct 03, 2018 6:29 pm



Starr: oh hey there's a name for this it's like, "Nistallkracht" or sommink
Me: How about "weringlashäusernlebtsolltekeinesteinewerfennacht"?
Image

User avatar
Mongrel
Posts: 21290
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:28 pm
Location: There's winners and there's losers // And I'm south of that line

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby Mongrel » Mon Oct 08, 2018 2:35 pm

Mongrel wrote:Not that "Okay well then let's keep making this problem worse" is the correct response. But they're not wrong about it being too late. Seriously - who are we fucking kidding at this point? It was probably too late ten years ago, if not twenty.

Kind of a grim update here.

NYT: The UN just released a report stating that most of the more severe climate change effects could be here as early as 2040 and that it essentially is too late to avert them.

Basically what happened is that climate scientists have been saying for years that 3.6C is the approximate disaster mark for Climate change. However, the leaders of small island nations asked the UN to look at the consequences of a 2.7C increase and the research into that found that many of the effects expected at 3.6C will have already happened at 2.7C.

While it's theoretically, technically possible, it's politically impossible (e.g. carbon taxes of as much as $25,000 per ton). In the international game of Climate Chicken we all lose.

A small bit of hope is presented in that we can still cool things down a bit and reverse SOME effects if we do aggressively capture and sequester carbon at a later (but not too much later) period, but some of the key threshold effects - such as all the coral reefs in the world dying - would of course be irreversible.
Image

User avatar
Mothra
Woah Dangsaurus
Posts: 3963
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 7:12 pm
Location: Boston, MA
Contact:

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby Mothra » Sat Oct 20, 2018 8:03 pm

Guardian: Trump says US will withdraw from nuclear arms treaty with Russia

“We’ll have to develop those weapons,” the president told reporters in Nevada after a rally. “We’re going to terminate the agreement and we’re going to pull out.”

Trump was referring to the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty (INF), which banned ground-launch nuclear missiles with ranges from 500km to 5,500km. Signed by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, it led to nearly 2,700 short- and medium-range missiles being eliminated, and an end to a dangerous standoff between US Pershing and cruise missiles and Soviet SS-20 missiles in Europe.

the everloving fuck is he doing

User avatar
hngkong
Posts: 604
Joined: Thu Jun 05, 2014 7:29 am

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby hngkong » Sat Oct 20, 2018 8:52 pm

Mothra wrote:Guardian: Trump says US will withdraw from nuclear arms treaty with Russia

“We’ll have to develop those weapons,” the president told reporters in Nevada after a rally. “We’re going to terminate the agreement and we’re going to pull out.”

Trump was referring to the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty (INF), which banned ground-launch nuclear missiles with ranges from 500km to 5,500km. Signed by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, it led to nearly 2,700 short- and medium-range missiles being eliminated, and an end to a dangerous standoff between US Pershing and cruise missiles and Soviet SS-20 missiles in Europe.

the everloving fuck is he doing


Giving Putin everything he asks for?

User avatar
mharr
Posts: 1583
Joined: Tue Sep 27, 2016 11:54 am
Location: UK

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby mharr » Sat Oct 20, 2018 9:47 pm

Redirecting attention.

User avatar
Mongrel
Posts: 21290
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:28 pm
Location: There's winners and there's losers // And I'm south of that line

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby Mongrel » Sun Oct 21, 2018 1:53 pm

The Central American migrant horde ('horde' may not be a fair description, but pretty sure that 'caravan' is no longer very accurate), is apparently well over 5000 people now (swelled by 2k in less than 2 days) and seem in no mood to let Mexican officials (or anyone, for that matter) stop them.

At some point, someone's going to start shooting, aren't they? Be it a terrified Federale, some self-appointed trigger-happy border patrol redneck, or a panicked national guardsman.

It's also a harbinger of what we're going to see with climate refugees.
Image

User avatar
Yoji
Posts: 1440
Joined: Mon Apr 04, 2016 4:12 pm
Location: Screamtown

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby Yoji » Sun Oct 21, 2018 3:09 pm

Mongrel wrote:At some point, someone's going to start shooting, aren't they? Be it a terrified Federale, some self-appointed trigger-happy border patrol redneck, or a panicked national guardsman.

It's also a harbinger of what we're going to see with climate refugees.

If there's anything the post-2016 world has taught me, it's that if I can imagine something stupid and/or depraved, someone will try to do it.

So not only do I foresee someone getting killed over this, but I can also see Americans fleeing to Canada as climate refugees and being the biggest dicks possible about it. Just stompin' in like they own the place, which they'll probably believe based on some paint fume-based interpretation of North American history.
Image: Mention something from KPCC or Rachel Maddow
Image: Go on about Homeworld for X posts

User avatar
Mongrel
Posts: 21290
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:28 pm
Location: There's winners and there's losers // And I'm south of that line

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby Mongrel » Sun Oct 21, 2018 3:16 pm

Yoji wrote:
Mongrel wrote:At some point, someone's going to start shooting, aren't they? Be it a terrified Federale, some self-appointed trigger-happy border patrol redneck, or a panicked national guardsman.

It's also a harbinger of what we're going to see with climate refugees.

If there's anything the post-2016 world has taught me, it's that if I can imagine something stupid and/or depraved, someone will try to do it.

So not only do I foresee someone getting killed over this, but I can also see Americans fleeing to Canada as climate refugees and being the biggest dicks possible about it. Just stompin' in like they own the place, which they'll probably believe based on some paint fume-based interpretation of North American history.

Well, the last two times we had a massive wave of American refugees, those ended up as some of the biggest prosperity and social gains we've ever had, as the the first time was Loyalists and the second time was mostly educated left-wing intellectuals (people refusing the Vietnam draft).

So, given the types who might *actually* try to move to Canada, I'm not super worried.
Image

User avatar
Mongrel
Posts: 21290
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:28 pm
Location: There's winners and there's losers // And I'm south of that line

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby Mongrel » Tue Oct 23, 2018 3:39 pm

Caravan is now 14,000 people (article in Spanish): https://www.eluniversal.com.mx/nacion/s ... a-migrante

Oh fuck.
Image

User avatar
Mongrel
Posts: 21290
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:28 pm
Location: There's winners and there's losers // And I'm south of that line

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby Mongrel » Tue Oct 30, 2018 4:18 pm

Well. That's about as stark a headline as you'll see all... decade year month week.



EDIT: But what would the end of the world be without a little black humour?
This only covers vertebrates, explaining why Paul Ryan has not gone missing.
Image

User avatar
WingSounds
Posts: 219
Joined: Tue Oct 09, 2018 8:54 pm
Location: Portrait of a jester; Nople Dople.

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby WingSounds » Tue Oct 30, 2018 6:58 pm

Image

The worst thing about the loss in biodiversity is how it affects everything else. In America, especially, there's a lack of understanding on how much everything is dependent; my attempts at explaining why I wanted to leave the wasp nest on my house up fell on deaf ears. But I can only speak for plant life, and it's just -

I hear, often, the young talking about how the 1% will escape to space.
There is no escape to space. Hell, if it came to that, their private guards would kill them, steal the equipment, and manage to bungle using it in a week. I feel like even that murmured rumination is hopeful, you know. 'At least somebody made it.'
Then again, 60% of all vertebrate life. Maybe the question isn't 'did someone' but 'should someone.'

User avatar
Mongrel
Posts: 21290
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:28 pm
Location: There's winners and there's losers // And I'm south of that line

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby Mongrel » Tue Oct 30, 2018 8:37 pm

WingSounds wrote:Image

You really do fit in here.
Image

User avatar
WingSounds
Posts: 219
Joined: Tue Oct 09, 2018 8:54 pm
Location: Portrait of a jester; Nople Dople.

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby WingSounds » Wed Oct 31, 2018 10:28 am

Mongrel wrote:You really do fit in here.


I strive to please.
Failing that, I'm here to make shitty puns and do finger guns.
Also talk about flowers. Let's get our sunglasses and ride.

Ocean shock: The climate crisis beneath the waves

One of my favourite modern... I guess it's not that modern, eek...
Anime is a weird little ova called Blue Submarine no 6. In it, there's a 'villain' I totally get.

Venus is a beautiful bringer of light, but I don't think I'd like to live there.

User avatar
Mongrel
Posts: 21290
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:28 pm
Location: There's winners and there's losers // And I'm south of that line

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby Mongrel » Wed Oct 31, 2018 1:08 pm

Oh man, Blue Submarine. I completely forgot about that... always did mean to watch it as it actually looked great (Geo used it as an avatar for a long while, IIRC). Probably up on Crunchyroll or something, Hmmm.
Image

User avatar
WingSounds
Posts: 219
Joined: Tue Oct 09, 2018 8:54 pm
Location: Portrait of a jester; Nople Dople.

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby WingSounds » Thu Nov 01, 2018 12:43 am

It's short, which I think some people could use against it, but I think it works in it's favour. The plot and characters are pretty simple, but work very well because of that. Main focal protagonist is the ever-lovely gruff, kinda scary misanthrope who really isn't all that bad, or at least has a reason for his misanthropy. There are a lot of interesting side-characters, and a killer jazz soundtrack. Plus, if it isn't your cup of tea, it's short! And I never mind people going 'oh, I don't like it' - so long as you tell me why, if it was interesting enough to provoke a strong reaction!..

User avatar
Mongrel
Posts: 21290
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:28 pm
Location: There's winners and there's losers // And I'm south of that line

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby Mongrel » Sat Nov 10, 2018 10:34 pm

This is one of the saddest headlines I've ever read:

Migrants trust Trump will hear their stories, let them in: ‘He will take pity on us’
Image

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 26 guests