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Siberia's Methane Release Larger Than Previously Thought
An anonymous reader writes "New research suggests that the amount of methane being released from Siberian permafrost is much larger than previously thought. From the article: 'Thawing permafrost gets a lot of attention as a positive feedback that could amplify global warming by releasing carbon dioxide and methane, both of which are greenhouse gases. Because of this, a lot of effort goes into studying Arctic permafrost. An international group of researchers led by Natalia Shakhova at the University of Alaska Fairbanks has been plying the remote waters of the Siberian Shelf for about a decade to find out how much methane was coming up from the thawing permafrost. They didn't expect to find it bubbling.'"
Methane ice under the ocean also does this. Interesting?
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Free Pussy Riot!
Studying doesn't reduce it. Looks like a runaway process to me. Mars-like surface to come at the end - thanx a lot. Probably not the only idiotic failure in the universe.
God damn it. Capitalism is not a style of managing an economy. Capitalism is how money works when left alone. Any government regulation that does anything other than inform the public is NOT capitalism. The only pro-capitalistic regulation would be something like weights and measures, it informs by governing a system of common measurement preventing deception.
As such there is no truly capitalistic society in the world. If anything the economics of rural Africa are more capitalistic than any western society. The majority of the problems we have in the west with regard to our economies are our poorly thought out, half implemented attempts at socialism. If we'd just go all in, it would probably not be so bad. But as things are, we institute weak regulation which interested parties with large capital then manipulate to their advantage usually to the detriment of those the regulation was intended to help. Look to our financial markets to see some real regulatory abuse.
By "money is left to its own," one of course means "the rich are left to their own" (being the ones with the most money, which controls how money is used to produce more money for the rich, etc.). "Capitalism" left to its own is an inevitable slide into oligarchy, with an oppressive tiny elite at the top. The "invisible hand of the free market" is not a beneficent God working for the good of all if only entrusted with our full hearts; it is the manipulating iron fist of whoever has the most money, squeezing the labor and life out of those with less.
I want to be rich. Is it so horrible to want to have enough money to fund my dreams?
If your dream is to mercilessly grind millions into poverty, then yes, you are horrible for wanting to fund them. I actually have no problems with people who build up money to satisfy "dreams" of the "travel around the world by sailboat" or "establish a youth symphony orchestra for inner city kids" type. However, this represents a minuscule proportion of the apparent "dreams" of the ultra-rich, which generally seem to revolve around becoming ever richer and richer with no regard for human life and suffering.
I'm willing to accept being poor for a while in order to have a chance to get what I want.
How generous of you. However, a shitload of people aren't given a chance to accept being poor, but are thrust into it from birth, with infinitesimal chances of ever reaching beyond grinding poverty. I wouldn't object to a world where a person living a decent, comfortable life could choose to lower their standard of living on a gamble for greater gains. But, that's not the case today --- the rich start with much and get more, stripped from the poor who start with little and end with less.
The nice thing about pure capitalism is that the people who gain power are the ones who work for it
Ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha! Oh, my sides! I'm sure the Walton (Wal*Mart) heirs who were *born* into immense fortunes have personally put in so much more work than the approximately *half of all US families* who together own the same amount of wealth. Not to say that the ultra-rich don't sometimes have to put in some work; but it's not the work that distinguishes them from people who put in immense lifetimes of work and never come anywhere near being rich.
The parent is right. The people who work their way to the top are the rare exceptions, and nobody born into wealth is going to understand what that took. Inter-generational wealth doesn't mean inter-generational lessons, and it rapidly turns into entitlement to use wealth as social clout to secure more wealth.
Most of all - it's used to trample the ability of others to negotiate what they earn from their work. Come on, if you're not a CEO or major shareholder - how likely is it that capitalism is working to create profits? Most people are being reduced to a minimum or less in this system, and Adam Smith didn't write with ultra-wealthy and ultra-poor people in mind. That would just be feudalism by any other name. Students of history know how dark that gets.