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Trump Picks Top Climate Skeptic To Lead EPA Transition (cbsnews.com)

Billly Gates writes: Trump's transition team is steamrolling ahead to transition the government. Trump chose Myron Ebell to oversee environmental policies. Myron Ebell is chairman of the Cooler Heads Coalition, a group of climate change denialists and alarmists. Scientific American provides some background information about Ebell in a report from earlier this year: "In a biography submitted when he testified before Congress, he listed among his recognitions that he had been featured in a Greenpeace 'Field Guide to Climate Criminals,' dubbed a 'misleader' on global warming by Rolling Stone and was the subject of a motion to censure in the British House of Commons after Ebell criticized the United Kingdom's chief scientific adviser for his views on global warming. More recently, Ebell has called the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan for greenhouse gases illegal and said that Obama joining the Paris climate treaty 'is clearly an unconstitutional usurpation of the Senate's authority.' He told Vanity Fair in 2007, 'There has been a little bit of warming ... but it's been very modest and well within the range for natural variability, and whether it's caused by human beings or not, it's nothing to worry about.' Ebell's views appear to square with Trump's when it comes to EPA's agenda. Trump has called global warming 'bullshit' and he has said he would 'cancel' the Paris global warming accord and roll back President Obama's executive actions on climate change."

685 of 1,066 comments (clear)

  1. And the hits keep on coming ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Well the white baby boomers have now solved the problem of leaving a shitty planet to the next generation ... they are going to help end it themselves.by electing trump and his clown show. They don't give a crap they won't be around in 10-15 years anyway. They just want to go out on top, even if noone is left to see it.

    1. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by Dunbal · · Score: 1, Flamebait

      If he's right, then people will be able to work again. If he's wrong, THE PLANET WAS FUCKED ANYWAY. Nothing in any existing or proposed "climate legislation" has a) changed "global warming" at all or b) has any hope of changing "global warming". If we're going to be fucked, we might as well have jobs in the meantime. But chances are we're not fucked because climate change is part of living on this hunk of space rock. Only 100,000 years ago, N. America was covered by glaciers. In a few million years, it will be again. And there's nothing we can do about it.

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    2. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Do you realize what the difference in magnitude between 100,000 and 100 is?

      It's about the same as the difference between a walking pace and a hypersonic aircraft.

    3. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by yakumo.unr · · Score: 2, Insightful
    4. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by footNipple · · Score: 1

      I'm sincerely interested in knowing what your point is.

    5. Re: And the hits keep on coming ... by NatasRevol · · Score: 1, Insightful

      I don't disagree. But then we need to hold Reagan, both Bushes, and Obama responsible for all the innocent people killed in the middle east under the guise of protecting our 'freedom'.

      --
      There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
    6. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by Jzanu · · Score: 2

      numeracy

    7. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by Dunbal · · Score: 1, Funny

      I like the depth of your argument. You made a couple interesting points. I'm so glad you wasted electricity and increased global warming to let us all know your point of view... Which is exactly the whole point. IF global warming is anthropogenic - WE ARE FUCKED. Sticking a carbon tax is like putting a toll on a toilet at a bar and expecting that people will stop peeing.

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    8. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by bryanbrunton · · Score: 1

      Be able to work again? WTF are you talking about. You are moronic troll.

    9. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by drinkypoo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      IF global warming is anthropogenic - WE ARE FUCKED. Sticking a carbon tax is like putting a toll on a toilet at a bar and expecting that people will stop peeing.

      Under capitalism, taxing something is basically the best way we have to encourage people not to do it, especially if the money is spent cleaning up after the people who do the thing anyway. We have alternatives to carbon release (even if the alternative is just to fix as much as we emit) and if we don't take them, we're gonna have a bad time. It may not even be necessary for industry to have net zero carbon emissions; it may be that if we ratchet back substantially we'll find a stasis point at which we can reasonably operate.

      There are alternatives to carbon release, and the free market will find them if you make carbon release expensive. You know what doesn't work, though? Cap and trade schemes. Carbon caps are helpful, but if you let people trade you miss the point entirely. If you tax, then alternatives will be found.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    10. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by alvinrod · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I'm not really worried about the environmental effects of climate change. We've scientifically progressed to the point where that can be managed. The real danger is that the impacts to the less advanced parts of the world are going to spur mass out migration. To some extent we're already seeing this in parts of the world. I don't know if it's fair to squarely lay all blame at the feet of climate change as shit like this happened historically before mankind could have any significant effect on the planet, but if we do have any potential to control these outcomes it would be best to prevent them.

      As xenophobic as people might want to accuse America of being now, imagine what it would be like if millions flooded into the country to escape some hell wrought in their own lands due to prolonged weather effects such as drought, flooding, etc. Even the bleeding hearts who might normally feel obligated to help out in such matters will hoist the black flag if it gets bad enough.

      I'm not fearful of the times ahead, but I don't think they'll be easy either. There's been all kinds of doom, whether from religious demagogues or scholars, preached in the past and yet humanity has endured and I suspect we will in the future. However, I didn't expect either the Brexit vote or Trump to succeed, but I think both show a level of dissatisfaction in the populace that's only going to grow further as time goes on. This feels like the beginning of transitional period for humanity where the old systems break down and give way to something new and different.

    11. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by gumbi+west · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I am an economist. There is really very little difference between a tax and cap and trade. The tax is great if you know the cost of remediation or are pretty sure you know the price of the externality. But if you know your target quantity, then cap (at that target) and trade makes the most sense. The main difference is that in cap and trade you might issue permits instead of charging for them. Simple fix, cap and sell. You could even make it revenue neutral by using the revenue to cut the income tax.

    12. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by gumbi+west · · Score: 2

      This is actually an economist thing. Pretty much every economists (the lefties and the righties) agree that we would be better off taxing things that we want less of (e.g. pollution) rather than things we want more of (e.g. work). If the tax money has to come from somewhere, changing behavior makes the most sense.

    13. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by chipschap · · Score: 1, Troll

      When temperatures go up, it's global warming.

      When temperatures go down, it's global climate change.

      When temperatures stay the same, it's a "pause" in (choose one) global warming or global climate change.

      When there's drought, it's due to global climate change.

      When there are floods and torrential rain, it's due to global climate change.

      Ditto for the presence and/or absence of hurricanes, Pacific storms, etc.

      What's really going on? There is so much nonsense being spewed (including, I'll say it for you, my own) that who can sort it out? The nonsense is coming from both sides of the question, by the way.

      This is a religious war worse than Emacs vs. VIM. Fortunately, there's less at stake :)

      (In case of whoooosh, well, that's a joke, son.)

      Flame away ..... three, two, one ....

    14. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by Dunbal · · Score: 1

      It doesn't make it ok, but it makes it unrealistic to think that saying "why don't people just stop killing each other" will do anything at all. Heck, people know that they will go to jail or even be executed and they still do it. It's not that it's ok. It's you are wasting your time crying over spilled milk. I'm a cynical sob and a realist. I'm not going to pretend to be a better man than I am by saying impossible things.

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    15. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, Insightful

      But there is something we can do about climate within the scale of a century or two, and we do that by stopping the vomiting of large amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere. What you're doing is the last redoubt of the AGW deniner, to accept, but insist that short term goals should override long term goals.

      If that's the case, why don't you light your house on fire and say "Well, at least I'll be warm tonight."

      Beyond that, the costs to the US and global economies over the next few decades is go to mount and mount, and unless you're in your 70s or 80s, it's likely you'll be paying just like the rest of us for it, so in other words, being selfish and short sighted is fucking yourself over. And for what? It's not like the universe doesn't have plenty of other ways to produce energy. Are you really so fucking moronic that you want to sacrifice even your own well being so some rich fucking assholes can make a decade or two more profits?

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    16. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

      There is no logic to the reasoning. It is the reasoning of sociopaths and morons.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    17. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by MightyMartian · · Score: 2

      Temperatures are going up, you moron.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    18. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Why does that chart start 20000 years ago, during an ice age? Look at a temperature chart over 200 million years and current temperatures are not even close to the maximum.

    19. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by Dutchmaan · · Score: 1

      If even one person stops killing because of that philosophy, then it was worth it.

    20. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by Dutchmaan · · Score: 1

      Maybe it's to make people more efficient with their peeing.... Instead of making X trips at $Y maybe you're holding it more so you can pay less between trips and get that extra drink!

    21. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by quax · · Score: 5, Informative

      Less funny longer time scale:

      http://cdn.phys.org/newman/gfx...

    22. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The major flaw with that comic, and the other people using the data behind it, is that we don't have any data, at all, for the rate of temperature change more than a thousand years ago. In fact, we don't even have good data on a decade to decade basis more than 20,000 years ago. Of course the graph is going to be smoothed when you have data binned in 1000 year increments.

    23. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by Dutchmaan · · Score: 1

      What is the speculation based on?

    24. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by quax · · Score: 5, Informative

      Consider the scaling, on the scaling to the left our current trend would make for an almost vertical ascent.

    25. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by quax · · Score: 1
    26. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by quax · · Score: 3, Informative

      Google is your friend. There are many ways to infer the past thermal record, some are mentioned in the article.

    27. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      There is no logic to the reasoning. It is the reasoning of sociopaths and morons.

      Didn't you get the memo? That is all the reasoning that is required to win an election for the control of a first world country these days. The sad part is the more I think about it, I don't blame Russia's hacking, Assange, Clinton's mediocre candidacy, stupid email issues blown insanely out of proportion, infinite fake stories, lies so thick they are impossible to keep up with or an of it, insane amounts of free press for trump, or any of the other ways the election was made far too easy for Trump.

      I blame the people. It is not republican ideas or democrat ideas that are destroying the country. Both have good points at times and take things too far at times. No the true issues is the culture of anti-intellectualism. A great many people are actually proud of being fairly uninformed and easily duped.

      How do you fix that? Seriously, how do you fix that? We tend to downplay the importance of liberal arts and history. Hell when I was in high school I thought I'd never need that.

      We have to do better. The arc of history can hardly continuing to bend towards justice when the driver is incompetant.

    28. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by skids · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Is that why you leftists love to tax people's work?

      We can't just tax property due to too many rich assholes complaining, and we need to get shit done nobody wants to pay for.

    29. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by quax · · Score: 4, Interesting

      As unfalsifiable as any inference from a geological or planetary or fossil record. Odd how this never seems to factor in unless we are dealing with climate science.

      It's almost as if you don't want to know how the inference is made. Now why would that be?

    30. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by flyingfsck · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yah, it is a good thing we killed all the buffaloes and prevented their methane farts from warming the planet, the way the dinosaurs did.

      --
      Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
    31. Re: And the hits keep on coming ... by skids · · Score: 2

      Yeah that's the crux of the problem... while some of the zero-footprint hippy types are doing some good in exploring the feasibility of options/technology, the actual impact economically of personal usage reduction is just to make fossil fuels cheaper for the group of idiots who do not care.

      On national levels, the impact is better as it promotes markets for sustainable technologies, but in a competitive trade environment unilateral action can incur economic penalties versus idiot nations that don't care, who get to take advantage of the resulting cheaper fossil fuels. America's always been one of the biggest piles of idiots on the face of the planet, but at least willing to do some amont of self-improvement, until now.

      Fortunately, the sustainable and bridge energy sectors have been boosted enough that market forces are driving their adoption almost as much as policy these days. Wonder what WV's reaction will be when coal jobs fail to return under Trump because natural gas continues to eat their lunch... oh right, they'll be too busy hating on whoever gets scapegoated next to remember how he promised what he simply could not deliver.

    32. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by nedlohs · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I guess if you get all your science "knowledge" from crappy magazines you are going to believe in a lot of things that. Did you invest in housing real estate in 2005 since Time said it was going to be awesome (http://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,1101050613,00.html)?

      Scientific papers were a tad different than your interpretation of them it would seem: http://aerosol.ucsd.edu/classe... there are some charts 9 pages in if you prefer pictures to words.

    33. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by quax · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The ice core samples have a typical resolution of hundred of years, sometimes a bit higher, combining with sediment analysis can narrow it down further. The data is plenty precise enough to reconstruct the thermal record.

      But let's drop the pretence that this about the science.

    34. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      There is almost no chance of him being right here. A slightly higher chance than the world turning out to be flat after all, but still.

      But it's not doom and gloom. If humans got us into this situation then it's possible to slow it down. If we can't even do that we can at least mitigate the problems by planning for them.

      I mean sheesh, Clinton supporters weren't defeatists, the Trump supporters weren't defeatists, why are we giving up now?

    35. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by Darinbob · · Score: 1, Insightful

      The factor is not climate science. The factor is how well will my oil, coal, and timber stocks do if the science is accurate.

    36. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by Darinbob · · Score: 2, Funny

      Slashdot is getting popular! We're getting lots of poeple who know nothing about science showing up now, just like Facebook and Twitter!

    37. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by fredrated · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You, coward, are a fool and an ass.

    38. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by Hognoxious · · Score: 2

      putting a toll on a toilet at a bar and expecting that people will stop peeing.

      They do that in Belgium.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    39. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by Dog-Cow · · Score: 1

      He was only announcing his presence.

    40. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by Dog-Cow · · Score: 1

      You seem to be an advocate of male genital mutilation and cannibalism. You aren't a nice person at all.

    41. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by yuriklastalov · · Score: 2, Informative

      Where the fuck have you been since 2003? This place has been going down the shitter for so long all that's left are the skid marks.

    42. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by dbIII · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Here let me fix that for you. On one side you have scientists who are completely dependent on government and private grants for their paychecks. If they study global warming and come to the right conclusions they get cash rained on them. If not they get black listed and driven out of their field

      Bullshit.
      The governments want them to find that global warming does not exist.

    43. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by dbIII · · Score: 1

      I'm not really worried about the environmental effects of climate change. We've scientifically progressed to the point where that can be managed

      That kind of involves actually doing something and there is a vast amount of resistance to doing something.

      Did I outline the problem in a simple enough way? It's getting harder and harder to describe things to the slashdot audience.

    44. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by kyrsjo · · Score: 2

      The crazies are out in force there too... 6000 y.o. earth etc.

    45. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by quax · · Score: 2

      Yep. Post-factual world view all around.

    46. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by amorsen · · Score: 1

      This is absolutely true, as long as both are equally enforceable. Alas, so far tax has a better track record there.

      Cap-and-trade has somewhat worked for fishing permits, but it also turned what was a bunch of fairly independent fishermen into a few financial companies that happen to also catch fish. Whether this would have happened anyway is of course unknown, so it is not guaranteed that it was cap-and-trade that did it.

      --
      Finally! A year of moderation! Ready for 2019?
    47. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by silentcoder · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Because modern humans didn't exist 200 million years ago and didn't leave Africa until 20-thousand years ago so global temperatures prior to that are utterly irrelevant since we've NEVER had to survive (let alone to try thrive) in them.

      --
      Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
    48. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by silentcoder · · Score: 1

      Apparently he isn't... but that doesn't make him wrong.

      --
      Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
    49. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by silentcoder · · Score: 4, Informative

      Yep, apparently a science budget that has been set by republicans for 6 years has been funding only the scientists who keep finding what the republicans really didn't want to hear. Hell the last several chairmen of the senate science committee were all very vocal deniers and the majority of them were creationists (Apparently knowing anything about, or even LIKING, science actually DISQUALIFIES you for the job of overseeing the government's science funding).

      --
      Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
    50. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by silentcoder · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That's because deniers are overwhelmingly conservative and the position that short-term goals must have an absolute override over long-term outcomes is quintessential to all their thinking. It's the same reason they reject things like UBI, free college or universal healthcare - they see the immedate price (a short term goal) and ignore that the cost of all these things is actually NEGATIVE. They don't think far enough ahead to see that the return on investment is bigger than the price.

      The same applies with climate change. The investments we need to make to change course are all cost-negative, but all they see is the short-term price-positive. And they are even LESS inclined to want to make the investments since the majority of them sincerely do not believe they'll live to get the ROI. Since there is nothing in it for them, and they don't actually LIKE their kids... well fuck everybody. But saying "fuck everybody" tends to have limited political clout (the new president-elect being an interesting exception) - so in order to actually fuck everybody else, their best course of action is to deny there is any reason to invest. That these denials fly in the face of overwhelming evidence, science itself, rational thought, critical thinking and indeed requires you to stick your head so far up your own rectum that if they ever needed brain surgery they would have to go to a proctologist clearly has never dissuaded them from the course.

      --
      Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
    51. Re: And the hits keep on coming ... by silentcoder · · Score: 1

      There's a catch. If you want to see the biggest immediate impact of the Trump election - consider this. Renewable energy company shares tank... and arms company shares have skyrocketed.

      So much for choosing the non-warmonger president. Historically, when America elects isolationists - world wars happen. That's good for arms companies and terrible for everybody else.

      --
      Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
    52. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by Maritz · · Score: 1

      This will go down very well indeed on slashdot.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    53. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by TomGreenhaw · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The Trump effect is not a generational thing its a regional thing - look at the electoral college results map. If you're pissed, blame the right category of people please.

      --
      Greed is the root of all evil.
    54. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by TomGreenhaw · · Score: 1

      So if your house is on fire you might as well throw gasoline on it because its screwed anyway?

      --
      Greed is the root of all evil.
    55. Re: And the hits keep on coming ... by butzwonker · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You couldn't be wronger than that. People are way more open to rational arguments than is commonly thought, and they are certainly not natural killers. There is also no reason to believe that mankind cannot change to the better, just take a look at how societies have changed to the better during the past 200 years. Death penalty and slavery used to be normal, not they are prohibited almost everywhere, women ethnic minorities could not vote, now they can vote almost everywhere.

      The list could go on and on how societies have changed for the better. The situation has also dramatically improved regarding armed conflicts and wars, mainly because of international human rights and contracts that entangle former enemy nations with each other. It only appears otherwise, because there were more deaths in the 20th century than ever before, but these occurred thanks to advances in weapon's technology. There used to be a time were it was normal and accepted to wage a war against a neighboring country just to gain some territory. This is no longer accepted anywhere in the world.

      So don't be such a cynic.

    56. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by BlueStrat · · Score: 1

      There are alternatives to carbon release, and the free market will find them if you make carbon release expensive. You know what doesn't work, though? Cap and trade schemes. Carbon caps are helpful, but if you let people trade you miss the point entirely. If you tax, then alternatives will be found.

      One of the problems with artificially increasing energy costs with taxes/fees/etc is that they are in effect an extremely regressive tax which affects the poorest the worst and the quickest. It actually costs real lives. You hear about people found frozen to death because they couldn't pay their heating bill reported in the news every winter. How many frozen grannies per cent/kWh price increase is "OK"? How many frozen grannies per cent-kWh price increase are too much? Can you justify their unnecessary deaths to their grandchildren face-to-face and walk away without them calling you a monster?

      If you care about the poor, lower energy costs are a huge assist to not only lower heating/lighting costs but also lower food costs, housing costs, etc etc etc. Energy prices affect the price of almost everything, including healthcare.

      Far too many people reach for the tax-hammer when every problem is not a revenue-nail nor solvable with the same tool(s) without dire results, and fail to think through the consequences of their proposals.

      Strat

      --
      Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
    57. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by wbr1 · · Score: 1

      There is a floater or two around that still pop up. But normally they are crusty with age.

      --
      Silence is a state of mime.
    58. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      a walking pace and a hypersonic aircraft.

      This is America. We don't do things at walking pace.

      Make Climate Change Great Again.

    59. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by someone1234 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Probably they are betting on the chance, climate change won't affect them..
      1. If climate change doesn't happen, they won.
      2. If climate change happens, it will destroy the liberals living on the coasts :D
      Win-win situation.

      --
      Patents Drive Free Software as Hurricanes Drive Construction Industry
    60. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by Bongo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "hundred of years" -- really? we're talking about global warming since 1880 or so, surely hundred(s) of years is still too vague?

      the real dilemma is, there are many ways the science could be wrong, but we trump that by saying, we cannot afford to wait. but i think that's a bad strategy, because the real issue is about risk. the more people try to insist the science is certain for all practical purposes, the less convincing it actually becomes, because world+dog know it cannot be that certain, because you're making scenarios about the future. i realise the PR is to insist it is certain for all practical purposes, but that strategy is about to blow up in people's faces, just like identity politics blew up in the face of the democrats.

      two things everyone should be talking about: risk, where "doing nothing" is also on the table, because doing something is also a risk (unintended consequences, for starters). second, we need to own up our own values and attitudes and put them on the table and say, "i believe the world should devalue growth for its own sake" or "i believe humanity is needlessly greedy" or "i believe we have to develop as fast as we can, that that's the challenge, to explore new horizons" and so on. put the values on the table, and argue over those values as ethical questions worthy of their own inquiry. for example, should climate change plans trump human rights? well, that's an ethical question.

      too often, people say "science" or "anti-science" when they really mean, my values versus your values.

      science doesn't prove any particular values or ethical outlook. dictators often use natural resources, or their lack, as a weapon -- we should start with the values in any case. if climate change wasn't a known problem, wouldn't people still hold the values as the thing of most concern, to be what really matters for humanity?

      mixing science and values leads directly to the kind of mind-fuckery where religious zealots have to invent their own "science" in order to "prove" that their own values -- no abortions -- are the "correct" values. and the story goes that margaret thatcher, one of the UK's most right-wing politicians, actually started championing global warming as the reason why the UK had to shut down its coal mines and so destroy the coal unions and cut off the miners' strikes.

      which only goes to show that science and values are not the same game, not by a long shot. so yes, it isn't about science. that's really the point.

    61. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by Immerman · · Score: 1

      There is an option to make energy taxes progressive though: redistributing the proceeds.

      If you're looking to alter behavior with taxes rather than generate revenue, you could simply redistribute the proceeds. Tax all fossil fuels at $X/tonCO2, and then redistribute that money equally among all citizens every year/quarter/whatever. Any citizen emitting less than the average amount of CO2 actually comes out ahead.

      That simultaneously rewards both conservation and using green energy sources , with the effect percolating throughout the entire supply chain. And it does so without trying to pick winners by subsidising particular technologies - all non-fossil energy sources get the same per-watt cost advantage.

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
    62. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by drinkypoo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I am an economist. There is really very little difference between a tax and cap and trade.

      It's too bad that you're not an ecologist. There is a massive difference, and that difference is that trading schemes rubberstamp pollution, and taxes do not. Under a trading scheme, someone gets paid to permit someone else to pollute excessively. That never happens under a tax-only scheme. Then you only need to ratchet up the taxes until they are meaningful.

      The main difference is that in cap and trade you might issue permits instead of charging for them. Simple fix, cap and sell.

      That is not a fix to the primary problem of trading schemes, which is that they actually make enabling pollution profitable! It means that someone who is already doing a good job can sell their allotment to someone else who isn't, and reduce their incentive to change.

      What we need is cap and tax, not cap and trade. Anyone who says the two are the same is selling something.

      You could even make it revenue neutral by using the revenue to cut the income tax./quote

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    63. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      It doesn't make it ok, but it makes it unrealistic to think that saying "why don't people just stop killing each other" will do anything at all.

      In fact, people are going to do a lot more killing of one another if we don't care for our climate, because there's not going to be enough food and clean water to go around.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    64. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      We can't just tax property due to too many rich assholes complaining, and we need to get shit done nobody wants to pay for.

      Taxing personal property needed for survival is wrong. We shouldn't tax someone's first home up to US$0.5M or so in value. The money should come from some profits, because nobody not making a profit can afford to pay taxes.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    65. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by fintux · · Score: 3, Informative

      Have a look at this: http://coed.com/2016/11/09/how... The generation difference is much greater than the regional difference. There are also other interesting maps here: http://www.motherjones.com/pol....

    66. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by tburkhol · · Score: 3, Informative

      I'm sincerely interested in knowing what your point is.

      His point is that between 100,000 years ago (last ice age) and 100 years ago, the planet warmed by about 3 degrees. In the last 100 years, the planet has warmed by another 3 degrees. So, when Mr Ebell claims that 3 degrees is well within historical ranges, he's looking only at the delta and not the velocity.

      Waffle Iron is exaggerating a bit, though - it really only took 10,000 years of warming to end the ice age, and the temperature division between pre- and post-industrial revolution is probably more like 4:2 than 3:3. Still 4 degrees in 10,000 years is two orders of magnitude faster than 2 degrees in 100. You can get downtown by walking at 1 m/s or by 100 m/s bullet train. Same trip, same distance. One takes 5 minutes, the other takes 8 hours. Also, it hurts a lot more if the bullet train hits you that if the walker hits you.

    67. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by Eravnrekaree · · Score: 1

      I know many liberals that got into housing investing during that craze and it was Obama who said we should hope that real estate prices shoot back up,when it crashed. I could see the crash coming in 2005 when housing prices were going up faster than inflation. Part of the problem was many Liberal programs that you Liberals love so much called the Community Reinvestment Act which forced banks to give out loans to people who could not pay them back, which forced an unsustainable pile of debt to accumulate in the financial sector, and a bunch of elitist liberals who were flipping houses again and again. Liberals then passed a horrible law called Dodd-Frank which basically is designed to make too big to fail worse by putting smaller banks out of busines, a kick back to the mega-Bankers who support and buy Liberals into office. So Liberals basically hav threatened to give us a banking monopoly.

      Conservative economists were warning about the bubble but were ignored. Time Magazine is basically a mouthpiece for the liberal establishment, so its not surprising.

    68. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by tburkhol · · Score: 1

      Pretty much every economists (the lefties and the righties) agree that we would be better off taxing things that we want less of (e.g. pollution) rather than things we want more of (e.g. work). If the tax money has to come from somewhere, changing behavior makes the most sense.

      Which is why the founding fathers ran the country essentially off excise taxes. We could do this today: just slap a 1400% tax on alcohol and cigarette sales, and we can do away with all of the income-tested taxes. Sure, there might be some complaints over $20 beers ($70 at your local bar), but wouldn't it be good to return to the economic vision the country was built on?

    69. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Cap-and-trade has somewhat worked for fishing permits, but it also turned what was a bunch of fairly independent fishermen into a few financial companies that happen to also catch fish. Whether this would have happened anyway is of course unknown, so it is not guaranteed that it was cap-and-trade that did it.

      The most awesome thing about permits is that they say what they do right in the name. They permit things to happen. Guess what that particular permit system permitted?

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    70. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by Sir+Holo · · Score: 1

      Well the white baby boomers have now solved the problem of leaving a shitty planet to the next generation ... they are going to help end it themselves.by electing trump and his clown show. They don't give a crap they won't be around in 10-15 years anyway. They just want to go out on top, even if noone is left to see it.

      Baby Boomers. Also (formerly) called "The Greatest Generation."

      Thanks, US geezers.

    71. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Is that why you leftists love to tax people's work?

      That and correcting when people find ways to externalize costs onto other people.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    72. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by Orgasmatron · · Score: 2

      Nope, sorry. The Greatest Generation lived through The Great Depression and fought WWII. Then, with the world returned to peace and the country returned to prosperity, they spawned the Baby Boom.

      And somehow managed to completely fuck up their upbringing.

      The only time I've ever heard of the boomers being called "The Greatest Generation" is indirectly, like when TLP calls Millennials "the second greatest generation of narcissists ever".

      --
      See that "Preview" button?
    73. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by newcastlejon · · Score: 1

      Using the word "whom" is like riding a unicycle...

      --
      If God forks the Universe every time you roll a die, he'd better have a damned good memory.
    74. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Of course there's uncertainty. But that we've gone from ~280 to 400ppm CO2 in a couple of centuries is a measurable fact, and that most of that CO2 increase is from anthropogenic sources is really obvious if you look at the carbon isotope data, which shows most of that increase is due to "old" carbon being reintroduced to the atmosphere in pretty much the way you'd expect from burning fossil fuel sources. It's us. And the physics behind atmospheric CO2 concentration and temperature is a pretty simple principle. How it plays out in terms of the climate system is more complicated, which means coming up with an exact prediction is challenging, but we're already seeing ocean acidification and a decent match between atmospheric models and results.

      As for your mitigation suggestions, where would the energy come from for the desalination plants? How could you stimulate ocean productivity on the scale you're talking about, *and* guarantee that the carbon fixation would "stick" (i.e. that it wouldn't get immediately re-oxidized and therefore still not be a net carbon sink)? Where would the money come from to implement these mitigations on the massive scale necessary? Would these experimental ideas actually be cheaper than simply (crazy thought) reducing things at the input end, especially when (equally crazy idea) fossil fuels are a limited resource that we'll eventually have to switch off of anyway?

      People who prefer the status quo would probably call it "speculation" if someone said that because of the physics involved it would be a bad idea to step in front of a moving bus. Crazy scientists. What do they know?

    75. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by Sir+Holo · · Score: 1

      But let's drop the pretence that this about the science.

      Seriously.

      The scientific debate is between these two boundaries:
          * Are we completely fucked already?
              vs.
          * If we all cut emissions now, can we perhaps avert being completely fucked already...
                    to a maybe? Please?

    76. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by Rockoon · · Score: 1

      we would be better off taxing things that we want less of

      Like income, property, and corporations.

      --
      "His name was James Damore."
    77. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      People are reaping the rewards of electing Obama over Romney last election. For being so stupid as to give the disastrous O a second term, unchecked by a fawning media while he proceeded to make stupid choice after stupid choice, we get a backlash. O spent his first 6 years bashing the opposition, being a politician instead of being a leader. He was a great politician, a horrible leader. The country proved how stupid it was re-electing him, then proved how stupid it was again by winding up with Hillary and Trump as the only options.

      If you voted for O the second term, its on you.

    78. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by Sir+Holo · · Score: 1

      Do you realize what the difference in magnitude between 100,000 and 100 is?

      It's about the same as the difference between a walking pace and a hypersonic aircraft.

      An off-topic analogy, yes, but never mind that. It is physically accurate.

      I will use this in the future when trying to convey "powers of ten", or logarithms, to lay-people.

      Thanks!

    79. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by Dunbal · · Score: 1

      Except economists deal with graphs and numbers. Oh their science claims to be about "aggregate human behavior" but they are far removed from humanity. Tax is an imposition. There is the assumption that laws and taxes are inviolable and complied with. Understanding human nature tells us that taxes encourage people to cheat and avoid. So while an economist might argue for taxation, someone who understands actual people would argue for EDUCATION (or even indoctrination). Better to convince people WHY something is necessary than to pretend you can enforce people to "comply".

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    80. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by dcw3 · · Score: 1, Troll

      "I am an economist."

      Not trying to be insulting, but... the odds of you being right are about the same as a coin flip...

      https://www.scientificamerican...
      http://www.cnbc.com/2016/06/21...
      http://www.governing.com/topic...

      --
      Just another day in Paradise
    81. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by Dunbal · · Score: 3, Insightful

      There won't be complaints, there will be gang warfare. If you make something prohibitively expensive it's just as effective as outright banning it. Look at what happened with cigarette taxes. All of a sudden you have people stealing container-loads of cigarettes, counterfeit cigarettes, people killing each other for cigarettes. When I was a kid and a carton of cigarettes was under $5, this didn't happen.

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    82. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by Sir+Holo · · Score: 4, Interesting

      IF global warming is anthropogenic - WE ARE FUCKED. Sticking a carbon tax is like putting a toll on a toilet at a bar and expecting that people will stop peeing.

      Under capitalism, taxing something is basically the best way we have to encourage people not to do it, especially if the money is spent cleaning up after the people who do the thing anyway...

      BINGO! Regulations only work if the taxpayers are willing to fund a significant number of inspectors to enforce the regulations.have to fall in line. Those that don't will get surprise visits from inspectors, who will generally demand the unpaid tax at triple damages. That prevents, or at least reduces, transgressions.

      I have heard some manufacturers quite literally say that they would prefer to use a "less poisonous" solvent in their process (for example). But if they did, its slightly higher cost would destroy their competitive advantage, and bankrupt them.

      Really. There are plant-owners in industries that would much rather use a less toxic process solvent, but are prevented by free-market forces from doing so without losing any competitive advantage. They really do exist, but can do nothing unless the regulators or tax-men impose the same requirement on everyone in a market sector simultaneously and equally.

      The EPA's SuperFund is a good example of this force for environmental clean-up in action.

    83. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by Dunbal · · Score: 1

      Then you only need to ratchet up the taxes until they are meaningful.

      Easily said. But THEN you need guys to make sure people are paying their taxes and not cheating. And you need guys with guns to enforce compliance. And you need jails and consequences for those who were caught.... etc etc. There are ALWAYS hidden economic costs.

      I argue for investing on the other end. Instead of imposing tax and dictating what people are "allowed" to do, you could EDUCATE people so they understand WHY they shouldn't do it. But of course this is a long term project that delivers results in generations and only if it's done properly and consistently. Taxes pretend to deliver immediate results, but don't. They deliver tax cheats, smuggling, etc.

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    84. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by Dunbal · · Score: 1

      Yeah, they'll piss outside the the bathroom. Right next to the toll collector. You just don't know humans as well as I do.

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    85. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by Smidge204 · · Score: 4, Informative

      The Community Reinvestment Act has never FORCED a bank to loan anyone money. Ever. It merely required that the banks stop discriminating by having different loan terms based on neighborhood.

      That doesn't mean they were required to loan anyone money, only that they had to treat everyone the same.

      And there was nothing in the law - any law - that required the banks to over-leverage, or lie about the ratings of their investment instruments, or to hide the poisonous mortgages in bundled-tiered-re-bundled packages.

      > Conservative economists were warning about the bubble but were ignored.

      Cite one.
      =Smidge=

    86. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by MitchDev · · Score: 1

      Did anyone NOT see this kind of shit coming?

    87. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by humptheElephant · · Score: 1

      An all of this because Anthony's weiner was the dick heard round the world.

    88. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by coofercat · · Score: 1

      ...Trump wants to build infrastructure. There are only so many roads around his towers and businesses, and once they're all resurfaced, there won't be much left to do. A few extra tornadoes and hurricanes will make sure there's plenty to keep the construction industry busy and his policy safe.

    89. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by thrich81 · · Score: 1

      Many people have looked at the results (http://www.electoral-vote.com/#item-1) and their conclusion is that it was not an unusual turnout of white baby boomers who propelled Trump to victory, but rather a lack of turnout by everyone who isn't a white baby boomer (compared to previous recent elections). The baby boomers didn't change their voting habits much, the Millennials just didn't bother to get out and vote for their own futures -- that's not the Boomers' fault. And I've seen statements that the Millennials are now a bigger voting block then the Boomers -- maybe voting just isn't trendy and cool enough.

    90. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by Jason+Levine · · Score: 1

      I blame the people. It is not republican ideas or democrat ideas that are destroying the country. Both have good points at times and take things too far at times. No the true issues is the culture of anti-intellectualism. A great many people are actually proud of being fairly uninformed and easily duped.

      How do you fix that? Seriously, how do you fix that? We tend to downplay the importance of liberal arts and history. Hell when I was in high school I thought I'd never need that.

      I don't know how you can fix that. Usually the fix to ignorance is education. If someone says that the world was created 6,000 years ago, you present evidence that it wasn't. But if that person shrugs off any evidence as being "liberal lies" or "a test from god" or something, then there's nothing you can do. They not only reject the only fix available to us, but claim that the fix itself is bad because it counters their incorrect world view.

      My next go-to was always "just cut off those people from your life and ignore them," but what do we do when that person is President and is putting other anti-intellectual people in positions of power? Ignoring doesn't work then.

      The only thing I can think of is that we need to make our voices heard. Write to your congressmen/women. Attend rallies (but keep it peaceful - turning rallies into riots undermines your message). Use your First Amendment rights to the fullest to get the message out there and hope that enough people listen.

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
    91. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      where would the energy come from for the desalination plants?

      Nuclear has been scientifically shown to work. It works on submarines.

    92. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 1

      Maybe he'll outlaw fossil fuels and put everyone back to work farming again. Automatic 55% increase.

    93. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by JoeMerchant · · Score: 1

      The thing is, if he goes too far in denying world perception of reality (forget the debate about truth: perception is all there is) the world will backlash on him and start to isolate the US the way North Korea and Cuba have been isolated... It won't happen overnight, but with proposed 35% tariffs on trade, he's already starting to do it to us himself.

    94. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by nedlohs · · Score: 1

      Everyone paying any attention saw the crash coming in 2005 - the unexpected part was that it took so long to finally pop. And while the things you mentioned were contributing factors the actual underlying cause was rampant monetary inflation by the fed. The stock market crash in 2000 and the housing crash in 2008 both were bubble pops due to inflationary monetary policies creating a need for somewhere for the money to go that wasn't consumer prices.

      Do you think house prices are in a similar situation right now as they were in 2005?

      That Time is a "mouthpeice for the liberal establishment" only makes it stranger that conservatives rely on it for determining what the scientific ideas were in the 70s.

    95. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by T.E.D. · · Score: 1

      The Trump effect is not a generational thing its a regional thing - look at the electoral college results map. If you're pissed, blame the right category of people please.

      It would be pretty damn hypocritical to go around blaming other people, when the Slashdot moderators were practically operating as an arm of the Trump campaign for the last 4 months. If you're looking for a culprit, you're soaking in it.

    96. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 1

      If it reduces the demolition costs for the cleanup. Easier to sweep up the ashes than to have to rent a bulldozer to pull down the remaining 3/4 burnt structure.

    97. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by HBI · · Score: 1

      She was going to lose anyway. Obama pissed in the soup - bad economy, "you didn't build that", the white privilege thing, the rioting and allowing it...the list goes on. Leftist overreach. Instead of a level playing field, she had an uphill battle the whole way. Not absolving her of blame for her own faults, of course, but that was baked in.

      Watching poll swings is fun, but most US elections are decided around Labor Day. Trump had a small lead then and it was indicative that he would win. Grabbing pussies and Anthony Weiner notwithstanding. That was all just noise.

      Now we will all get to find out that "elections matter", to quote Obama circa 2009. He took things to the Left, very far for America. Now we're heading to the Right.

      --
      HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
    98. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by khallow · · Score: 1, Insightful

      the planet warmed by about 3 degrees

      Or is that 10 C? Funny how nobody was around to measure the temperature, yet we have people who are absolutely confident in what the temperature was back then.

    99. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 1

      It's almost trivial to make your own alcohol. Cup of sugar, can of frozen apple juice and a package of yeast. If I really needed to drink and didn't have any money, that's what I'd be doing. When I traveled to eastern europe and russia, every person that I met had a fermentor running in a back bedroom.

    100. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by ilctoh · · Score: 1

      Maps present information by region, not be age/generation. So of course the electoral college results map will appear to show support based on geography rather than by other factors.

      --
      How many slashes would a slashdot dot, if a slashdot could dot slashes?
    101. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 1

      We don't. AFAIK, I pay no federal property taxes. It's all local and most of it goes to the school.

    102. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by acrimonious+howard · · Score: 1

      The ice core samples have a typical resolution of hundred of years ... combining with sediment analysis can narrow it down further

      "hundred of years" -- really? we're talking about global warming since 1880 or so, surely hundred(s) of years is still too vague?

      What are you talking about? Did you not see the "can narrow it down further" part?

    103. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by NatasRevol · · Score: 1

      Just a reminder.

      'Tax and spend' is a much more fiscally conservative point of view than 'just spend'.

      --
      There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
    104. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by acrimonious+howard · · Score: 1

      the real dilemma is, there are many ways the science could be wrong, but we trump that by saying, we cannot afford to wait. but i think that's a bad strategy, because the real issue is about risk.

      This is like walking into the ocean, getting up to your head in high water, and then saying "no, I don't want to stop walking further out because there's risk if I stop." The people who want to act now usually want to reduce the pollution that we're releasing. Compared to the expensive and inhumane risks of climate change, there is little risk to simply slowing down the pollution.

    105. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by NatasRevol · · Score: 1

      Ahh, the old Fox News trope of 'bad economy'. Not recovered better than anyone in history from a massive recession caused by a Republican president's policies.

      Grabbing pussies and Anthony Weiner notwithstanding. That was all just noise.

      It's cool that you put down sexual assault so easily. What's your moms address? See how she feels about having it done to her.

      --
      There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
    106. Re: And the hits keep on coming ... by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 1

      Does this include the gap between 1st and 3rd worlds, or only within the first world?

    107. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by acrimonious+howard · · Score: 1

      Yep https://www.scientificamerican...

      This is reminding me of how marijuana was outlawed.

    108. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 1
      According to wikipedia we are still in an ice age.

      An ice age is a period of long-term reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      Maybe we need a new term

    109. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by nedlohs · · Score: 1

      Because he thinks his campaigning to reduce CO2 emissions will be successful?

      Because he is rich enough to accept the short term benefit over the long term loss?

      Because he thinks he'll get fishing rights over the soon to be ocean and make bank?

      It seems strange to require explanations from a random politician before answering a simple yes/no question. Especially given said politician has a 0% chance of seeing you question.

    110. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by khallow · · Score: 2
      What's up with the idiotic term "post-factual"? That implies, incorrectly, that there was a "factual" era some point in the past. And funny how global warming mitigation advocates suddenly are concerned about post-factual when they've been living it for decades now.

      For example, you give a good example in your attempted correction of an AC's assertion:

      [AC]The major flaw with that comic, and the other people using the data behind it, is that we don't have any data, at all, for the rate of temperature change more than a thousand years ago. In fact, we don't even have good data on a decade to decade basis more than 20,000 years ago. Of course the graph is going to be smoothed when you have data binned in 1000 year increments.

      You attempt to correct that by providing a link to a graph with the millennial scale resolution and then noting

      The ice core samples have a typical resolution of hundred of years, sometimes a bit higher, combining with sediment analysis can narrow it down further. The data is plenty precise enough to reconstruct the thermal record.

      So right there, you confirm his complaint about not having decadal scale measurements. And "resolution of hundreds of years" is not significantly different than a resolution of 1,000 years, particularly when the original author was complaining about not having a resolution of 10 years. And this glosses over the fact that the temperature estimate is only for that point in space.

      In other words, facts that aren't actually relevant and used to confirm your anti-scientific bias:

      But let's drop the pretence that this about the science.

    111. Re: And the hits keep on coming ... by Yvan256 · · Score: 1

      Speed, my friend. Speed.

    112. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 1

      According to wikipedia we are still coming out of the last ice age

    113. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by khallow · · Score: 1

      You don't have evidence that either "boundary" is relevant. Hence, this is a false dilemma argument combined with the usual argument from authority fallacy (you mischaracterize the scientific debate BTW). How come people can't argument for climate change mitigation right now without using fallacy a lot? It's almost like there isn't a scientific foundation for their beliefs. Odd that.

    114. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by HBI · · Score: 1

      Who exactly was sexually assaulted? Yep, you can't name one person.

      You lost, get over it.

      --
      HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
    115. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      the planet warmed by about 3 degrees

      Or is that 10 C? Funny how nobody was around to measure the temperature, yet we have people who are absolutely confident in what the temperature was back then.

      From 1999:

      * "Cold Climates, Warm Climates: How Can We Tell Past Temperatures?": http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/briefs/schmidt_01/

      More reading:

      * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temperature_record

    116. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by thrich81 · · Score: 1

      The Greatest Generation also spawned the Vietnam War (and sent the Boomers to fight it) and with it the collapse of citizens' trust in the American government. And they also enshrined the concept of untouchable entitlements for the elder generations, paid for by the next generation; on that the Boomers are just following up what their parents set in place.

    117. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by TomGreenhaw · · Score: 1

      The important political reality here is the electoral college. If there is to be change made politically, it needs to be in the minds of the rural voter not white baby boomers. It is the rural voter who has placed a leading climate change denier in charge of the EPA, not simply white baby boomers. Electoral college votes are assigned to locality, not age or race.

      As a 56 year old white male who happens to be an environmentalist and supporter of sustainability, I'm understandably concerned about the broad brush being used here.

      I think to discriminate and place blame on an entire generation and race is wrong on every level. It does not address the true factors requiring consideration to implement change. I've spent my life trying to leave the world a better place and it really sucks to be in the crosshairs of people who haven't really thought this through.

      --
      Greed is the root of all evil.
    118. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by khallow · · Score: 1

      Again, where's the evidence AC? Who was measuring temperature back then to verify our assumptions about paleoclimate temperature proxies?

    119. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by greythax · · Score: 1

      Inferences from geological fossil data are known as a "predictions". You claim to know science, so you may be familiar with the term. Predictions are.... you guessed it, falsifiable, which is how we test geological sciences. But hey, lets not let reality get in the way of a good narrative.

    120. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by NatasRevol · · Score: 2

      How fucking dumb are you?

      http://people.com/politics/eve...

      Jessica Leeds
      Kristin Anderson
      Barbara Corcoran
      Cathy Heller
      Mariah Billado
      Jill Harth
      Karena Virginia
      Temple Taggart
      Mindy McGillivray
      Rachel Crooks
      Natasha Stoynoff
      Jessica Drake
      Ninni Laaksonen
      Summer Zervos
      Cassandra Searles

      And definitely don't read about him raping a 13 yr old girl provided by Epstein, who pled guilty to doing exactly that in 2008.
      http://www.alternet.org/electi...

      Finally, remember that Trump was going to provide proof of his innocence & sue everyone falsely accusing him? Just wondering where that is.

      And, we all lost. If you don't believe that, go look at who he's putting into his cabinet.

      --
      There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
    121. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by Dunbal · · Score: 1

      Same thing in latin america. When you leave the city, almost every country peasant has his own still, or buys from his neighbor. Taxation works in theory. On paper people just cheat, so it looks like sales have fallen but they're just bypassing your data channel. Just like narcotics. The percentage of a country's population that uses drugs is around 3%. Making them legal or illegal has NO IMPACT on this figure.

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    122. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by Dunbal · · Score: 1

      Prove that it dropped because of price and not because of education about the perils of smoking. When I was a kid everyone (including myself) smoked. I quit because I had a heart attack (at 28), not because I couldn't afford it. It was expensive, but I still paid it.

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    123. Re: And the hits keep on coming ... by LordNelsonthe2nd · · Score: 1

      So in the USA there are no jobs that wont cause global warming and/or pollute the environment, what year do you have over there, 1930? Good that I'm not living there, especially now that a clueless Reality-TV-jerk was voted for president. I don't care too much about the US going down (While feeling sorry for anyone who hasn't voted for Trump :/) but could you please stop fucking up the whole planet on the way to self-destruction?
      Well, Trump first!... or however his slogan is...

      P.S.: California, New York and others living in the current century: Just get rid of that useless ballast and get independent...

    124. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by khallow · · Score: 1

      Temperature leaves various records. The mix of plants from a certain age places the year-average temperature accurately enough. Plants are picky, if you look at 100 species together. Erosion by ice only happens where it is cold enough for ice, and so on.

      Well, when that is actually done, then get back to us. And also, when is the "pickiness" actually going to be demonstrated? For example, anywhere north of 45 degrees latitude probably hasn't yet settled down from the last glacial period.

    125. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      I argue for investing on the other end. Instead of imposing tax and dictating what people are "allowed" to do, you could EDUCATE people so they understand WHY they shouldn't do it.

      That will never work so long as the system permits a malicious actor to take advantage of a lax regulatory landscape, because that actually creates a profit incentive.

      Taxes pretend to deliver immediate results, but don't. They deliver tax cheats, smuggling, etc.

      They deliver both. But education will provide nothing in our system to deal with this issue. The only way education can improve the situation is if it leads to people who are willing to vote for stronger environmental protections.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    126. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Simple fact of the day: Cold kills more people worldwide every year than heat.

    127. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by kwbauer · · Score: 1

      Or maybe some actual real science can start happening with honest open discussions and sharing of data to prove statements that are made instead of everybody nodding heads in an echo chamber of "trust me, i smart".

      Maybe some scientist will actually offer an explanation for how they managed to obtain million year old ice cores from glaciers that were nearly non-existent aroudn 600 years ago according to actual historical accounts.

    128. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by BundesSheep · · Score: 1

      Since we have a secret ballot, I'm assuming that data for these maps came from polling data. Since polls before the election completely failed to project a Trump win, it's certainly possible that exit polling is not going to be very accurate either.

    129. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by BlueStrat · · Score: 1

      If you're looking to alter behavior with taxes rather than generate revenue, you could simply redistribute the proceeds.

      I believe that using taxes as a social-engineering tool and/or instrument of wealth redistribution is wrong and ultimately leads to tyranny, as anything that can be weaponized for political gain will be. Once you start down that road there's a never-ending list of government initiatives to push via taxes and wealth-inequality to "correct". There's no way to have both individual freedom and equal outcomes, only equal opportunities.

      Strat

      --
      Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
    130. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by quax · · Score: 1

      You apparently paid little attention to the discussion that you jumped into.

      This was about the thermal record inferred over geological time scales, before there were human temperature measurements and historic records to throw into the mix.

      The problem of how to do this reliably is a scientific one and has nothing to do with values.

      What you then do with the results that are handed to you (e.g. your Thatcher example) is where the values come in.

      What we've seen over and over again, is a shoot the messenger approach to climate science, and your obfuscation seems to have the same goal.

    131. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It can be, and was, both generational and regional. Look at the demographics of those regions. They are much older on average. That's because this country's small towns have been slowly dying for the past 30 years or so, many of their jobs having been moved by powerful international forces, by automation in agriculture, and by big box stores who could undercut the prices mom-and-pop stores have to charge to be successful. As a result of that, many of their kids move to the city because that's where the opportunity is, and frankly, that's where the life that a lot of them want to live is. Many are resentful that they have to choose between a dying way of life they love and the opportunity of the city, and become bitter towards the city for not suffering the same way due to forces beyond their control.

      Older rural people have legitimate reasons to be angry, but in this case, they essentially took a dump in the corner of a crowded elevator shortly before it got to their floor.

    132. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by quax · · Score: 1

      Just when I thought the arguments can't get any more stupid.

    133. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by dywolf · · Score: 1

      idiot.

      --
      The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
    134. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by dywolf · · Score: 1

      not insightful.
      just stupid.

      --
      The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
    135. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by amicusNYCL · · Score: 2

      If we're going to be fucked, we might as well have jobs in the meantime.

      Why? Do people have some sort of right to work a harmful job? Coal miners in West Virginia - do they have some sort of right to always mine coal? For as long as it's there anyway, I imagine that once the coal is gone they'll want laws to put the coal back in the ground so that they can have a job taking it back out again. What about buggy whip manufacturers? We should also make sure that they always have jobs too, right? No reason to learn any new skills or move to a place that has work, no, if the only thing you're good for is taking rocks out of the ground then we have a responsibility to make sure that you can get paid taking rocks out of the ground. Because that's our responsibility, to make sure that coal miners always have jobs mining coal, right? That's our responsibility, right? It's not our responsibility to make sure we're not fucking up the planet, but it's definitely our responsibility to make sure that a coal miner always gets paid for taking coal out of the ground.

      Listen man, if environmental protections mean that you can't find a job, then maybe you need a new fucking job.

      --
      "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
    136. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by Gonoff · · Score: 1

      US climate experts may seem dependent on Government in the USA but they certainly are not universally so in the rest of the planet.

      Global warming / Climate Change / whatever else you want to call it - is not an idea only being pushed around the 4.5% of humanity that you live in. It is Global. Like gravity, it does not matter if you believe it or not. You are still affected by it. You may not believe in the theory of relativity. That might be because you don't understand it. I don't understand it but defer to people who know about the matter better than me.

      What would happen if people decided that they knew better than the police and traffic planners? There mould be problems because experts in a subject really do know more than those who are not. You may think that a road is OK for 100 MPH. It isn't. You may know someone who thinks that evolution is nonsense. I have the choice in believing scientists or the less educated in the subject. I will listen to the experts - speed limits, evolution or climate change. The people who have studied the matter scientifically are a better group to listen to!

      --
      I'll see your Constitution and raise you a Queen.
    137. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by quax · · Score: 1

      Par for the course - welcome to the Idiocracy.

      Stupid rules - literally.

    138. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by meadow · · Score: 1

      Actually that's not correct. According to Milankovich cycles we're are right at the time we should be heading into a new ice age.

      I'm not an expert in climate change nor climate change policy, but the only thing I can postulate on this issues is maybe there is a positive side to taking a refreshing look at everything regarding energy policy.

      While I'm not an expert, I do know that most of the proposed "clean" energy alternatives are in fact false in many ways because all the infrastructure that is behind them, that enables them to be created, maintained, etc. is still fossil-fuel based. I think James Howard Kunstler goes into this idea a little bit.

      For example with solar cell, its not just a matter of how efficient a cell is - where did all the materials come from? How were the transported, processed, and assembled? What infrastructure behind all these things is assumed to exist in order for these things to be created?

      When all of this is taken into account in great detail it often turns out that fossil fuels indeed are more efficient (although I'm not saying this is certainly always the case).

      Given government's and the oligarchy's propensity to lie and manipulate things - especially when it comes to public policy - I can at least hypothetically appreciate how a fresh look at things might at least be helpful - for everyone involved.

    139. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by quax · · Score: 1

      You don't need that kind of resolution when analyzing a trend over of geological time scale. This is not about the science, it's simply nit-picking because you don't like results.

    140. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

      And another lie. We have much longer than 20 years worth of data.

      Is it your intent to just simply lie at every turn, to repeat bullshit that people whose only interest is to profit by making sure a harmful way of producing energy is used as long as possible? What other motive could there be than cowardice and/or stupidity?

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    141. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by quax · · Score: 1

      And once we manage to get down to decades AC like him will ask for year by year resolution, as if this had an impact on a trend analyzed over thousands of years.

      At any rate you can get better resolution by combing many different sources, and run various statistical techniques to the the robustness of the inference (it's called data science you may want to look it up).

      http://www.realclimate.org/ind...

    142. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by MightyMartian · · Score: 2

      Sooner or later this anti-science attitude is going to hit the US where it hurts. If it alienates major tech centers like Silicon Valley, the people that actually produce the technology will walk.

      If I were Canada and the EU, I'd be looking at dumping hundreds of billions of dollars into building Silicon Valleys in their own backyards, and offering citizenship to any and all engineers, programmers and other R&D types in the US. Offer double what any US company is paying with ten year employment contracts, and then just suck the US dry. It can keep the evangelicals, the Breitbart alt-right types, and they will sink into the mire.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    143. Re: And the hits keep on coming ... by bingoUV · · Score: 1

      The "mankind changing for the better" nearly always happened during times of rising prosperity. Economic fears and stagnation brings out the worst in people.

      Are people open to rational arguments? Yes, if cloaked in emotions : http://www.ted.com/talks/simon...

      --
      Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
    144. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by Altrag · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Tree rings, ice core samples, sediment layers, etc. We have lots of ways to estimate temperatures based on observable biological and geological histories. And several of those can be measured independently and so far agree with each other to a pretty good degree.

      I mean you can always stick your head in the sand and claim that everything you don't want to believe is bullshit and that's your prerogative, but unfortunately the planet and the environment operate with or without your personal consent, and the rest of us would prefer to leave a habitable planet for our grandchildren.

      And if nothing else, there's always the simple safe bet approach: If science is somehow wrong but we clean up our act anyway, Shell and Exxon lose 1% off their quarterly reports for a few years while cleaner technology is invented.

      On the other hand, if science is right and we do nothing, we all lose the only planet we know can support human life. Which gamble are you willing to take?

      Not to mention the fact that unless you're heavily invested in an oil company, you probably won't be personally affected much either way so in addition to gambling the future of humanity, you're doing so for no real material benefit.

    145. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by skids · · Score: 1

      Taxing personal property needed for survival is wrong.

      I'm sure details could be negotiated to your satisfaction. You seem reasonable. Were I to be taking a contrarian point, I'd move the negotiating chip to "no higher than can be payed by some sort of reverse mortgage annuity lasting two human lifespans" and we could kick the puck around in the middle for a while.

      There are also other things that could be thrown in to the mix:

      Personally I think any federal property taxation should come with federal insurance on the property, at least in those property classes where that does not produce too much of a moral hazard. That would give the government extra incentive to ensure the protection of the property.

    146. Re: And the hits keep on coming ... by skids · · Score: 1

      When I stop seeing clear cases of corporate malfeasance and incompetence in the nuclear sector for a decade and some plans for waste disposal that don't involve seismic fault lines, I'm perfectly happy to consider nuclear. The problem with nuclear is not so much the technology but the people.

      But you're dead wrong on solar/wind. It can do the job. We just need an investment in storage.

    147. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by penguinoid · · Score: 1

      Less funny longer time scale:

      http://cdn.phys.org/newman/gfx...

      I was going to post the image without the disproportionate scaling, but the "doesn't appear to be increasing that fast if we change the scale from 100,000 years = 80 pixels to 100,000 years = 0.05 pixels for the last section" would have changed the entire last section of the graph to a vertical line but too thin to be visible.

      --
      Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
    148. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by Altrag · · Score: 1

      Because by the time we have solid, uncontroversial proof that the planet no longer supports life, there won't be anyone around to care.

      That said, there's plenty of scientific evidence of climate change. What there isn't strict evidence for is exactly how the planet will react to a (geologically) extremely sudden rise in average temperature. Estimates range from "kind of fucked" to "extremely fucked" and everywhere in between.

      Of particular note is that "not fucked" isn't in that range of possibilities. Very few scientists are still willing to make that claim and most of the ones who do are almost universally funded by the oil industry in one way or another.

      It would certainly be nice if science could be more concrete when predicting the future, but we don't exactly have a trove of Earths laying around that we can trial various scenarios on, so they're stuck making predictions based on the available information, rather than just sticking our collective head in the sand and hoping nothing bad happens.

    149. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by penguinoid · · Score: 1

      Less funny longer time scale:

      http://cdn.phys.org/newman/gfx...

      I was going to post the image without the disproportionate scaling, but the "doesn't appear to be increasing that fast if we scale the last section from 1/5th of a pixel to 266 pixels" would have changed the entire last section of the graph to a vertical line but too thin to be visible.

      266/(2100-1860) = 1.1083 pixels / year
      80/100000 = 0.0008 pixels / year
      1.1083 / 0.0008 = 1,385 so the last section of the graph is happening over a thousand times faster than it appears, when compared to the rest of the graph.
      266 pixels / 1,385 = 0.19 pixels

      --
      Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
    150. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by penguinoid · · Score: 1

      oops, those numbers were wrong, please disregard this post I'll redo with the correct numbers

      --
      Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
    151. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by erapert · · Score: 1

      I sincerely want to know how they verified that their proxies give them accurate measurements of the temps. Could anyone cite some sources on this matter please?

    152. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by erapert · · Score: 1

      Odd how this never seems to factor in unless we are dealing with climate science.

      Wrong. I, for one, have pointed this out numerous times regarding matters besides climate science.
      However, I'll note that doing so tends to just get everyone who might say something like "science is settled" all huffy and angry at you and they'll then shut down the conversation rather than deal with you rationally.

    153. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by fiannaFailMan · · Score: 1

      the planet warmed by about 3 degrees

      Or is that 10 C? Funny how nobody was around to measure the temperature, yet we have people who are absolutely confident in what the temperature was back then.

      Core samples.

      --
      Drill baby drill - on Mars
    154. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by quax · · Score: 1

      The greenhouse effect is really not that complicated. That's why the core of climate science is as settled as GR, or the theory of evolution.

      Hasn't stopped crackpots in the latter two cases either.

      You make your bed you get to lie in it.

    155. Re: And the hits keep on coming ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      This is bunk, another example of false equivalence. Go do some research before makong claims like this. The greenhouse gas emissions from producing solar cells or wind turbines are completely offset in the first few months of use. Or, equivalently, it only takes a few months worth of energy to make these devices. After that, you're home free for 20-30 years. It is entirely possible to create a self-sustaining, zero-emission energy system. And since wind and solar power are now getting cheaper then coal, it's going to happen whether you care about climate change or not.

    156. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by quantaman · · Score: 1

      There is no logic to the reasoning. It is the reasoning of sociopaths and morons.

      Didn't you get the memo? That is all the reasoning that is required to win an election for the control of a first world country these days. The sad part is the more I think about it, I don't blame Russia's hacking, Assange, Clinton's mediocre candidacy, stupid email issues blown insanely out of proportion, infinite fake stories, lies so thick they are impossible to keep up with or an of it, insane amounts of free press for trump, or any of the other ways the election was made far too easy for Trump.

      I blame the people. It is not republican ideas or democrat ideas that are destroying the country. Both have good points at times and take things too far at times. No the true issues is the culture of anti-intellectualism. A great many people are actually proud of being fairly uninformed and easily duped.

      How do you fix that? Seriously, how do you fix that? We tend to downplay the importance of liberal arts and history. Hell when I was in high school I thought I'd never need that.

      We have to do better. The arc of history can hardly continuing to bend towards justice when the driver is incompetant.

      I think the issue is that people are talking past eachother.

      The majority of Trump voters, I don't think they were particularly racist, but they did have a lot of demographic anxiety. They're seeing immigrants change the composition and culture of previously homogeneous community and its freaking them out.

      It's the same thing that's happening in Europe, for hundreds of years France has been full of white people who were Christian (or Christian turned atheist) who were children of people who were the same. Sure there was sometimes an influx from surrounding countries, but those people looked similar and came from a similar enough culture that they were quickly indistinguishable.

      Not wanting your community to change isn't racist or bigoted, but so far our only response has been to call it that. They do have a legitimate concern and it needs to be acknowledge, it doesn't mean we shut down immigration but we need to make them feel like they're being heard if for no other reason than to assuage their fears.

      When no one serious will take them seriously then someone unserious will do it and become their hero. Trump is that someone.

      --
      I stole this Sig
    157. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Hogwash. Sociopathic hogwash.

      I think you misspelled "socialist"

      The people paying for a carbon tax will be power company customers.

      In fact, it will be practically everyone since there is not enough carbon-neutral anything to go around. But there will be massive demand for it.

      Inducing behavior through taxes is an abuse of taxation.

      It's effective use of taxation. And in this case, the behavior is harmful to everyone both now and in the future, so if the symmetry were any more perfect, I should think that one of us would weep.

      In order to move from carbon energy sources we will need interstate power distribution made to distribute it.

      That's true. We need that anyway, for strategic reasons.

      Carbon tax is just an excuse to tax and blame while neglecting the governmental responsibility to arrange collective action that will likely not occur without of the assurance and leadership that only a government can provide.

      Assigning blame can be useful if your goal is to stop ongoing bad behavior. I care relatively little for the ills of the past (unless we're going to clean them up and there's a chance of getting the actual criminals involved to pay for it) but I care very much about ongoing damage.

      Switching generation schemes is capital intensive.

      And yet, it is already profitable. It can be more profitable, and then it will happen more. I am personally not in love with capitalism but if we're going to run everything this way, then this is a way to make it work for the people. The people have no reason to support anything which doesn't work for them to some degree.

      Imagine that. Instead of "inducing" behavior through punishment, the government actually does something.

      I keep hearing that the owners of capital do all these things, and now I'm hearing you say that they can't do it without the government to hold their hands for them. Which is it?

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    158. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by HuguesT · · Score: 1

      How can this comment be insightful? That's the problem with science, right? there is not always a simple way to explain it, so simple-looking objections may sound convincing.

      Have you read the article on the NASA site?

      The ratio of these two isotopes tells us about past temperatures. When the carbonate solidifies to form a shell, the isotopic ratio in the oxygen varies slightly depending on the temperature of the surrounding water. The change is only a tiny 0.2 parts per million decrease for each degree of temperature increase. Nevertheless, this is sufficient for us to be able to estimate the temperature of the water in which the forams lived millions of years ago.

    159. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by gumbi+west · · Score: 1

      great point!

    160. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by gumbi+west · · Score: 1

      Your quaint 1700s era anti-trade sentiment is part of why Democrats didn't agree to cap and trade in the first place--and now we have nothing. NOTHING. Congratufuckinglations. With cap and trade you limit solution. Without it you don't. Who the fuck cares that people trade something? WHY DOES THAT MATTER? Sorry, I'm really upset that my planet is burning because of this notion.

    161. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by gumbi+west · · Score: 1

      That's macro economics: a whole economy. they know nothing.

      I'm talking about microeconomics: one market.

    162. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by Immerman · · Score: 1

      We're WAY past starting down that road. "Sin Taxes" have been a major factor for decades, maybe centuries, and they're one of the least-invasive ways the government has of guiding social and market behavior.

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
    163. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The fact that CO2 levels drive temperature is based on atmospheric gas laws, radiative transfer equations, and thermodynamics. It is not a statistical inference or assumption.

    164. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by gumbi+west · · Score: 1

      That fact that there is cheating doesn't mean the tax isn't working. If I make it more of a pain in the ass I've also succeeded.

      Education ma work, depending on the thing. Like I can't much educate people about how tuna is disappearing when someone else will just eat the last ones.

    165. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by quax · · Score: 1

      Well, yeah if you do this on rational or natural numbers. Try it with some other finite algebraic groups and get back to me.

      (P.S.: You must really think climate scientists are fucking stupid).

    166. Re: And the hits keep on coming ... by khallow · · Score: 1

      Then by all means provide that data when you get it. I'm tired of reading up on crap research that doesn't mean anything.

    167. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by khallow · · Score: 1
      Ok, where's the evidence in those links? There's a lot of assertions such as:

      In consequence, the many records of Î18O in ocean sediments and in ice cores, contain information about the temperature, evaporation, rainfall, and indeed the amount of glacial ice â" all of which are important to know if we are to understand the changes of climate in the Earth's history. Unfortunately, trying to disentangle these multiple effects is complicated since we have one measurement with many unknowns.

      The paleoclimate group at GISS is working to try to decode these records using the latest generation of numerical models of the atmosphere and ocean circulation. In those models, we have included most of the physics necessary to simulate the distribution of Î18O in the oceans and the atmosphere. In addition, we have developed models of foram ecology that allow us to estimate at what depths in the ocean and at what season the carbonate forms on average.

      Doesn't answer my question. How are we to know that they're getting this right? This is just a typical argument from obfuscation. You don't know a thing about the climate before the instrument age, but you can waste my time with links that don't mean much.

    168. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by khallow · · Score: 1

      I have. Hence, why I have this problem. The geological record is not at all clear cut and so many people refuse to acknowledge that.

    169. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by BlueStrat · · Score: 1

      We're WAY past starting down that road. "Sin Taxes" have been a major factor for decades, maybe centuries, and they're one of the least-invasive ways the government has of guiding social and market behavior.

      That's the whole point.

      The government should fuck right off about "guiding" markets, society, or anything else except guiding themselves to a copy of the US Constitution. The government is there to be guided by "We The People", not the other way around.

      Strat

      --
      Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
    170. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by khallow · · Score: 1

      Because by the time we have solid, uncontroversial proof that the planet no longer supports life, there won't be anyone around to care.

      You and those nebulous scientists you claim to channel haven't shown that's a problem. I call your bluff on this.

      That said, there's plenty of scientific evidence of climate change.

      Exactly my point. There's a huge gap between "there's climate change" and "we're all gonna die from climate change".

      Of particular note is that "not fucked" isn't in that range of possibilities. Very few scientists are still willing to make that claim and most of the ones who do are almost universally funded by the oil industry in one way or another.

      Says someone who just used an ad hominem attack as a scientific argument.

      It would certainly be nice if science could be more concrete when predicting the future, but we don't exactly have a trove of Earths laying around that we can trial various scenarios on, so they're stuck making predictions based on the available information, rather than just sticking our collective head in the sand and hoping nothing bad happens.

      Do so. Don't talk about how it'd be nice if you actually had a scientific reason for your opinions on the matter. I'll note the obvious here. We are already running the clock. If you're correct, then we will see global warming (not just some vague climate change) of the appropriate size to warrant your concern. But if we don't, and we're quite on track for not confirming your concerns, then we do have bigger things to worry about than mild global warming.

    171. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by khallow · · Score: 1

      That would have been a fine argument. But arguing that a slightly shorter 300 year resolution instead of 1000 years adequately addresses the poster's concerns about the absence of decadal scale measurement does not.

      Let us note however a huge drawback of the low resolution. You can't actually show evidence for the assertion that today is the fastest rate of climate change ever. Short term rate of change measurements are impossible not merely impractical. I think that was what the original poster might have been getting at.

    172. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Who the fuck cares that people trade something? WHY DOES THAT MATTER? Sorry, I'm really upset that my planet is burning because of this notion.

      No, no it is not. I already explained why it is important, but here it is again: UNDER CAP AND TRADE SOMEONE GETS PAID TO PERMIT SOMEONE ELSE TO POLLUTE. UNDER CAP AND TAX, POLLUTION IS NEVER REWARDED. The Democrats didn't agree to cap and trade or cap and tax because they are in the pockets of big business, just like the Republicans. They say they care about the environment, but they are lying. Don't be their useful idiot.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    173. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      I think you're imagining some iron-fisted tax which is so high that it simply kills the industry.

      What industry? All industry? That's stupid. I only want it to be high enough that it's cheaper to fix emitted carbon oneself than to pay the tax, which is sufficient to drive the kind of behavior that we need to not continue to shit up our atmosphere.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    174. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by KingBenny · · Score: 1

      is lol ... i thought it was established beyond doubt that the effects are real albeit not beyond doubt wether its totally manmade or humanity just gave it a nudge so its probably very sound to simply imagine a rolling train will not hit you if you ignore it hard enough
      this seems a bit ott when it comes to sanitizing the economy
      stripmining the planet hm ?
      no one answered my question yet .. if the amount of matter on the planet is finite, then how many humans does it take to gobble it all up ? in theory cos calculating how many could actually still stand on top of each other on whats left of the third rock is probably a bit difficult
      yea this is clearly a we're not gonna live 50 yeas anymore anyway situation
      lets hope besos and musk apply for chinese citizenship and get to mars before that happens

      --
      Free speech was meant to be free for all... how can anyone grow up in a nanny state ?
    175. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by RespekMyAthorati · · Score: 1

      Where's the independent confirmation?

      Well, since you clearly define "independent" as "agreeing with me" then you won't find any.
      That's because unlike you, scientists are generally not morons.

    176. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by chipschap · · Score: 1

      I could have said "Emacs vs. VI" but VIM is the real competitor in the religious wars. Perhaps you, Mr. AC, ought to research a little.

    177. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by gumbi+west · · Score: 1

      You still haven't said why I would care that, "SOMEONE GETS PAID TO PERMIT SOMEONE ELSE TO POLLUTE." I'm fine with that so long as we can control the solution--that's the point. I don't appreciate being called an idiot. Demi absolutely want to decrease pollution. They are the ones defending the EPA, Bill Clinton begged for a "BTU tax" and never got it.

    178. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by khallow · · Score: 1

      Well, since you clearly define "independent" as "agreeing with me" then you won't find any.

      In other words, you're just wasting my time.

      I decided some time ago that I wasn't ever going to get straight answers from the climate change crowd. And we see that happened yet again in this thread.

      So I'm running the clock. If there really is a near future problem with global warming, it'll show up in the next few decades.

    179. Re: And the hits keep on coming ... by khallow · · Score: 1

      I think its time for all liberal elites with thier fancy university degress to go on strike and let the populists go die in the cold and the dark.

      Don't let the door hit you on the way out. Liberal elites don't light a thing. Engineers do.

    180. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by Immerman · · Score: 1

      And assuming (big assumption) we're guiding the government, having the government guiding us back is on a very short list of ways to avoid many common tragedy of the commons situations.

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
    181. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      I'm fine with that so long as we can control the solution--that's the point.

      But that solution doesn't actually work. It doesn't result in a sufficient reduction in CO2. We know because we're already doing it, and it isn't working.

      I don't appreciate being called an idiot.

      Stop acting like one, then. Problem solved. You should try logic. It works.

      Demi absolutely want to decrease pollution

      That is orthogonal to the point. Please try to stay on topic.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    182. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by fintux · · Score: 1

      Yes, polls were the source. But the polls weren't completely off. The actual results were within the margin of error of at least most polls. Also, there were several polls that predicted Trump winning. The polls also did predict to a degree the regional difference, so in all likelihood, to a degree, they are right on the generation difference, and other ones as well, but of course, with some margin of error.

      The exit polls are probably more accurate than the pre-election polls since they better take into account voter activity and last minute change of heart etc. However, they of course have their weaknesses as well (for example, some groups might be less likely to reveal their vote, and they don't take early voting into account). All this said, I think there's still pretty well reason to believe the generation difference really is greater than the regional difference.

      Completely different thing is the voting activity. It could have shifted the results completely if the voting activity was similar in all of the groups. For example, the younger the people, the less likely they were to vote.

    183. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by gumbi+west · · Score: 1

      with a cap and trade you set the quantity. Morons want it to hurt (aka for the credits to be expensive) for some reason. This would actually spell the end of the system. We do not have cap and trade on e.g. CO2. It would go a long way.

    184. Re: And the hits keep on coming ... by erapert · · Score: 1

      Link appears to be broken

    185. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by hyades1 · · Score: 1

      You poor, ignorant child. Obama, in many respects, was considerably to the right of Richard Nixon.

      You must be very young, and not very educated about your own country's history.

      --
      I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
    186. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by HBI · · Score: 1

      No charges, no convictions, and all revealed themselves in a political campaign. Very believable. Some even are relatives of Democratic operatives. Shocker.

      A party and media that were willing to lie about _everything_ during the campaign is not going to be believed about this, either.

      --
      HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
    187. Re:And the hits keep on coming ... by HBI · · Score: 1

      Comparing people from different times for political orthodoxy is pointless. Being "for the environment" in 1970 wasn't a strictly left-wing viewpoint, for instance, regardless of what you might like to think about it now.

      Besides which, I got to see RN in action as a child, so I am quite aware of who he was. Obama is not to his right, at all. It is you that are misinformed.

      --
      HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
  2. Re:The truth is that it does not matter. by Mitreya · · Score: 2

    So. Trump & Ebell? Whatever. Let them think themselves important.They are not.

    Unfortunately, we have made them important
    (assuming you are in US, that is).

  3. Re:The truth is that it does not matter. by NotInHere · · Score: 2

    I doubt that this will be the end of humanity, as we've lived through the ice age as well. But certainly parts of the planet that were inhabitable before will become uninhabitable in the future, and this will create wars and maybe our whole civilisation will collapse. Maybe we will lose everything industrialisation has brought us, and likely it will be harder in the future to get a similar industrialisation going due to the energy resources of the planet being depleted. But at least those coal miners could keep their jobs... or wait, they were replaced with machines. Well, whatever.

  4. Re:Oh boy. by dbIII · · Score: 2

    Here we go...

    Indeed - all those people complaining about elites and insiders are in for a shock when such "think-tank" losers who have done nothing in their lives other than circle Washington like files end up suddenly getting put into positions where they are in charge of thousands despite zero useful experience.

  5. Re:The truth is that it does not matter. by Dunbal · · Score: 1

    We were going to ride it out to the end anyway. People don't stop breeding, and everyone wants to eat - how dare they!

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  6. And so it begins--down the drain by shanen · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The article is so non-newsworthy that I have NO reaction except "Of course." Alt-Right has the Trump card and they are going to play it hard until the rest of us drown.

    I'm only reminded of a prediction webpage I wrote when Dubya staggered into the White House. My predictions were kind of broad, divided into the categories of education, federal courts, economy, environment, military, war, Internet, and public trust in government. No details, but just probabilities and some wild estimates of recovery times. Back then I though I was just being a gloomy Gus, but looking over the predictions after 15 years, it now makes me look like a Pollyanna with rose-colored glasses. Is it worth making such an effort for the Donald?

    Right now a question of some interest to me is how long it will take the angry losers to learn they are still losers. Might make them angrier, but of course no one really cares about losers, especially losers who were stupid enough to believe silly promises for a vote. Even more obviously, no one cares about the mindless always-R (or always-D) voters. It's the cold-blooded haters who worry me.

    --
    Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
    1. Re:And so it begins--down the drain by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 1

      Thank you for letting us know how disappointing it must be when you realise that, "I voted for the winner!" sounds a bit hollow when it's coupled with, "But I'm still a wilful idiot who's jealous of anyone who isn't one".

      --
      Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
    2. Re:And so it begins--down the drain by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

      It will take the angry losers a few years after the infrastructure money that Trump has dumped on their heads has dried up and the entire country has to pay for the largess.

      A lot of people thought they elected some sort of conservative Santa Claus. What they've really done is elected a Hugo Chavez with bad hair.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    3. Re: And so it begins--down the drain by sl3xd · · Score: 1

      That's assuming he can get a tightwad congress to decide to spend a trillion dollars they don't have.

      Paul Ryan hasn't been a huge supporter of Trump, and I suspect he won't support the amount of spending Trump will ask for.

      --
      -- Sometimes you have to turn the lights off in order to see.
    4. Re:And so it begins--down the drain by skids · · Score: 4, Funny

      The article is so non-newsworthy

      Apparently it is newsworthy because apparently a lot of voters had no clue what they were doing.

    5. Re:And so it begins--down the drain by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 1

      Alt-Right has the Trump card and they are going to play it hard until the rest of us drown.... [On Trump's Supporters] of course no one really cares about losers, especially losers who were stupid enough to believe silly promises for a vote

      If they really are losing, if they really already have very little to lose and you have so much to lose, "share or there's a 50-50 chance of the world ending" is a reasonable ultimatum. If Trump doesn't get it done, expect them to up it to a 60-40 chance with his successor.

      --
      Your ad here. Ask me how!
    6. Re:And so it begins--down the drain by shanen · · Score: 1

      Perhaps I should explicitly clarify that I divide the bulk of Trump's voters into three groups. No sense worrying or even thinking about the ones that just vote R (or D) because they don't worry or think either. The cold-blooded haters are nasty, but I don't think there are that many of them. The critical voting bloc is the angry losers who rallied around Trump because they think he is going to make some radical changes and they are going to benefit from them. I think they are basically the same kind of suckers that Trump has exploited in most of his career, and I'm unconvinced Trump has suddenly become an altruist.

      There is going to be change. That's just a given. Some changes are going to make things better for some people, and others make things worse. The long-term average, at least since civilization got on the roll, is for things to get better, though there are occasional dips in the road. I think that evolutionary change is better, but maybe America really has reached a point where things are too broken to fix without a big revolution. The remaining problem is that the revolution may not make things better, and we've even reached the point where we could exterminate the human race in the attempt...

      I actually think that infrastructure spending is good, but that's why President Obama has been pushing for more of it for the last 8 years. Basically the same Congress, still representing the same minority of the actual voters, but I predict they I'll suddenly find the cash now that Obama can't get any credit. That could even be a good thing if Trump doesn't put the wall first.

      Returning to the original story, the infrastructure they're going to need first will be dykes around Florida.

      --
      Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
    7. Re:And so it begins--down the drain by yuriklastalov · · Score: 1

      Donald Trump is gonna make it rain on the white man! Hallelujah!

    8. Re:And so it begins--down the drain by flopsquad · · Score: 1

      The Trump Promise to the Good White Folks of America: No more facts you don't like, no more guff from those uppity minorities, plenty of pussy to grab, lots of new beachfront real estate.

      --
      Nothing posted to /. has ever been legal advice, including this.
    9. Re:And so it begins--down the drain by kenaaker · · Score: 1
      And the question I have is, "Was he running a con during the campaign, or is he running a con now when he's acting all "Presidential".

      The worst case scenario is both, I think.

    10. Re:And so it begins--down the drain by nwaack · · Score: 1

      The critical voting bloc is the angry losers who rallied around Trump because they think he is going to make some radical changes and they are going to benefit from them

      Ummm, isn't that how Obama got into the White House?

    11. Re:And so it begins--down the drain by skids · · Score: 1

      Actually, it was abstentions and third party votes that "put him over the edge", across all races, but in particular, Clinton was down 2 points from Obama in the white vote.

      But you knew that, and decided to be dishonest about it anyway. Way to take after the president elect.

    12. Re:And so it begins--down the drain by skids · · Score: 1

      a majority of those believe God is responsible for everything. I think they knew exactly what they were doing.

      Really? You think people who think that "know what they are doing"?

    13. Re:And so it begins--down the drain by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 1

      I understood your point. I don't think you understood mine.

      The critical voting bloc is the angry losers who rallied around Trump because they think he is going to make some radical changes and they are going to benefit from them

      Those people are losing right now in America. And they're willing to take big risks to be "not losing". Your "solution" of mocking them is pretty useless. They're going to be taking bigger and bigger risks until they're not losing. So, by all means, we need to make sure we take care of out of work coal miners whose towns are drying up. People who are 50 and cannot get work. Because, until we do, they're going to take chances with our country til it blows up or they catch up.

      And yes, the nice thing is we will have major infrastructure projects.

      --
      Your ad here. Ask me how!
    14. Re: And so it begins--down the drain by MachineShedFred · · Score: 1

      It's not like Congress has had a whole lot of reservations about spending money they don't have in the past...

      --
      Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
    15. Re:And so it begins--down the drain by shanen · · Score: 1

      Not exactly, but it might have something to do with a so-called Republican Party that pledged to stop him from accomplishing anything from the day he was sworn into office.

      However, before I "invest" any more keystrokes, convince me you aren't a racist troll. It's possible, but I bet you can't.

      --
      Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
    16. Re:And so it begins--down the drain by shanen · · Score: 1

      I'm not actually disagreeing with you I think, but I definitely think nihilism is a losing strategy almost all of the time. The more chaos you stir up, the less likely you're going to get an orderly state at the end. Entropy doesn't work that way, and I even think that someone who thinks it does deserves mocking at a minimum. Then again, I'm not sure that I'm even mocking them. If I lived among them, I would be scared of their increased anger when things just get worse under Trump.

      Then again, I do feel like we've been living in an era of superabundance, but we're headed for near scarcity.

      --
      Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
    17. Re:And so it begins--down the drain by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 1

      I don't think their strategy is "create chaos, chaos leads to goodness" I think their strategy is "create chaos, people with plenty will put pressure on government to share resources more equitably to stop having these guys wanting to create chaos". So less entropy, more MAD

      --
      Your ad here. Ask me how!
    18. Re:And so it begins--down the drain by shanen · · Score: 1

      I don't think their strategy is "create chaos, chaos leads to goodness" I think their strategy is "create chaos, people with plenty will put pressure on government to share resources more equitably to stop having these guys wanting to create chaos". So less entropy, more MAD

      I'm having trouble following your interpretation of their reasoning there. It seems more likely, even obvious, that the "people with plenty" will simply invest slightly more of their excess in protecting themselves from the angry losers. Your mob with pitchforks against my machine gun nest. I probably win. Even if your mob overruns my machine gun nest, the wealthy estate protected by the machine gun will probably get burned down in the melee, so everyone winds up with nothing.

      Currently reading Putin's Kleptocracy (with gloves). Makes the interesting claim that Russia has extremely large income disparity now. I hadn't been following those statistics for Russia, though I have been seeing a lot of information about the growing disparity in America. The key in Russia appears to be the transformation of the criminals into quasi-legitimate enterprises, whereas most American companies seem to be evolving in the opposite direction. My money would be on America under Trump to become more like Russia than vice versa.

      Is there such a crime as trumpicide? First degree would be where someone dies, perhaps driven to suicide by thoughts of Trump?

      --
      Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
    19. Re:And so it begins--down the drain by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 1

      It seems more likely, even obvious, that the "people with plenty" will simply invest slightly more of their excess in protecting themselves from the angry losers.

      These people aren't picking up pitchforks. They're voting for Trump. Trump is a force for change. I don't think anyone will dispute that.

      . Even if your mob overruns my machine gun nest, the wealthy estate protected by the machine gun will probably get burned down in the melee, so everyone winds up with nothing.

      And nothing is what they have now. That's a very bad result for you, and a pretty status quo result for them.

      My money would be on America under Trump to become more like Russia than vice versa.

      Quite possibly. Russia has a huge income disparity (although so does the US). But income disparity is usually less interesting than wealth disparity. I mean, Putin's friend/official violin player had millions of dollars socked away overseas.

      --
      Your ad here. Ask me how!
    20. Re:And so it begins--down the drain by nwaack · · Score: 1

      However, before I "invest" any more keystrokes, convince me you aren't a racist troll. It's possible, but I bet you can't.

      What the what? Because I typed the word "Obama" in a post you're labeling me a racist? I REALLY hope you're trying to make a joke, otherwise it is you who is the racist troll.

    21. Re:And so it begins--down the drain by shanen · · Score: 1

      I absolutely would dispute your absurd claim that "Trump is a force for change." Trump thinks he is a colossal winner. He thinks he has been winning for his entire life and this is just his biggest win. Why would he want anything to change?

      The primary lesson of Trump's entire life is that lies are effective. Objectively, he's a loser. Based on his inherited assets, he should be roughly three times wealthier than he is, even allowing for the inflated valuation of his so-called brand. Lying about his business acumen is just a starting point. He lies to ALL of his supporters, but EACH of them manages to delude himself into believing that some tiny part of what Trump said that personally applies to him and which might help him is actually what Trump believes.

      It is absolutely clear that that America has walked off a cliff. It doesn't seem to matter if the rocks at the bottom are fascist rocks, less authoritarian rocks, kleptocratic rocks, or perhaps even royal rocks. I can easily imagine Trump dumping Pence in 2020 and making Ivanka his VP in the expectation of her becoming president in 2024. After that Trump's other kids could take turns. His youngest son won't even be old enough to run for president until around 2040. Of course by that time the office of president will be purely symbolic, doing nothing but supposedly standing for America's "greatness". Assuming the nation still exists in any recognizable form.

      Yeah, change, but certainly not because of Trump's intentions or promises. Change happens. Deal with it.

      Anyway, since you are resorting to inlined and trivial hacking at out of context extracts, it seems pretty clear that this discussion is reaching its terminus. Perhaps you simply have no independent thoughts to organize and present? I really had to scrape the barrel to find anything worth responding to in your last so-called reply. I confess that I have actually been trying to figure out if you're a sadder-but-wiser Trump apologist, a cunning Trump supporter and propagandist, or just a paid troll, most likely working for Putin or some Alt-Right billionaire.

      --
      Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
    22. Re:And so it begins--down the drain by shanen · · Score: 1

      You failed to convince me. Yet another so-called discussion on Slashdot to be marked "pointless and closed".

      --
      Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
    23. Re:And so it begins--down the drain by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      Watch out, or he'll *grab your gonads*!

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    24. Re:And so it begins--down the drain by nwaack · · Score: 1

      Well then, you must be very proud of yourself. I don't need to defend myself against your baseless accusation. I skimmed through a bunch of your posts. I'm not sure if you're: A: Trying to be a troll, but just not very good at it. Or B: An extraordinarily arrogant douche. Either way, your writing skills are lacking, your logic is flawed, you're trying waaay too hard to sound smart, and I'm glad you've decided I'm not worthy of your extremely precious time because I didn't care to talk to you anyways.

    25. Re:And so it begins--down the drain by shanen · · Score: 1

      What part of "pointless and closed" were you unable to understand?

      --
      Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
    26. Re:And so it begins--down the drain by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      :-) A? B? or all of the above?. Quite the spectacle, isn't he? Let's see if he responds to me in his usual perverse fashion here also.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    27. Re:And so it begins--down the drain by nwaack · · Score: 1

      I guess he's moved on to being an idiot elsewhere.

  7. Re:The truth is that it does not matter. by vux984 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    People don't stop breeding,

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    Actually, between education, economics, and so forth, yeah they do. Several countries already have negative or neutral birthrates and are only net positive due to immigration.

    There is no reason to beleive humans could not acheive equilibrium.

  8. Re:The truth is that it does not matter. by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    People don't stop breeding

    Some of us don't breed, by choice. And I've been dumped over that particular issue, it's not for lack of opportunity. It's for lack of desire. I don't need to inflict myself on a child, a child on myself, a child on a world, or the world on a child.

    I do like to eat, though

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  9. Re: Oh, god damn it. by reboot246 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    None of us alive now will live long enough to see any seriously negative consequences. Humans will still be around in a hundred years, a thousand years, maybe in ten thousand years. We adapt.

  10. Re: Oh, god damn it. by Uberbah · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Oh, fuck you. The richest nation on the planet, with 4% of the population, produces a quarter of the world's pollution directly. And even the Indian and Chinese pollution you whine about is to power factories, producing your electronics and cheap shit for Wal-Mart for you to buy.

  11. Years ago we got Scientific American at home. by techvet · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I didn't realize how political it had gotten. The Wicked Witch of the West probably got a better write-up from them.

    1. Re:Years ago we got Scientific American at home. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I didn't realize how political it had gotten. The Wicked Witch of the West probably got a better write-up from them.

      Since policies and laws can affect land and environment, I understand their motives.

      But I'm with you and wish they would stick to pure tangible science facts. I stopped the subscription 15 or 20 years ago when they started getting (very) religious. I don't mix my hamburger with my chocolaty desert and I don't need my science and religion blended.

  12. MAD - and some of you will be by s.petry · · Score: 1, Insightful

    As I said in a thread the other day the policy is unfortunately a choice between the US starving itself of resources and energy while the world keeps moving, or we try our best to move forward with a different mindset. Pollution and deforestation is a bigger problem than CO2 emissions, yet the same groups wanting to take your cash for carbon put forth no projects or proposals to deal with those issues. They are more than happy to watch China build more and more polluting industry, and we even pay them to take all of our trash to dispose of as they see fit.

    The power struggle is not simply a matter of fixing the West (US, UK, France) but a world wide issue. Are we demanding that the UAE stop destroying massive amounts of ocean with cool looking projects? Are we demanding that Saudi Arabia stop pumping oil? Why is it always one side being blamed by the people holding power? Then we get to hear all of he people claiming that the US needs to be punished, which if you wish to be an annex of China or Russia in the future is a good position to have.

    Trump did tell people fair and square that he wanted deregulation to stimulate the wheezing and gasping US economy. That does not mean we stay that way forever, but in my opinion we could probably start with a clean slate given all of the cruft put into our regulations over the last 30 years.

    Lets also not forget that a Free economy has a built in check and balance system. If you don't like pollution don't use products that pollute. People selling products will be forced to come up with better, cleaner solutions. Power plants product what people use, and very little more. Awareness and boycotts are very useful tools when used properly.

    --

    -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

  13. Re: Oh, god damn it. by KeensMustard · · Score: 2

    India and China are both signatories to the Paris Climate Accord.

  14. And you think Hillary would be any different? by Uberbah · · Score: 2, Informative

    She exported fracking the world as Secretary of State. She waged war on Libya and Syria to keep the supply of energy moving. She was going to continue in the fine tradition of Obama - who was a bigger oil man than Bush and Cheney combined.

    That's the problem with all the whining and bitching from Dems and the media, before the election, now, and after Trump takes the oath of office - every criticism you can make of Trump applies to Hillary Clinton, as much if not more so. The only "difference" here is that Hillary would utter the occasional platitude that we need to do something about climate change, while continuing to drill for more and more oil, and mine for more and more coal.

    1. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by Jzanu · · Score: 4, Informative

      Libya and Syria were civil revolts by subject populations against dictators, in both cases resisted with military force. In Libya the western world organized and deposed a dictator as required. In Syria the fallout of the motivational failure of the Republican party and the deadlock they inflict on the most powerful nation prevents equivalent and necessary actions to remove Assad.

    2. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      A totalitarian opinion. I'm guessing by your intolerance of others, you voted for Hillary?

    3. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by gumbi+west · · Score: 1

      What makes you say the status quo is rotten?

    4. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by Princeofcups · · Score: 4, Interesting

      She exported fracking the world as Secretary of State. She waged war on Libya and Syria to keep the supply of energy moving. She was going to continue in the fine tradition of Obama - who was a bigger oil man than Bush and Cheney combined.

      That's the problem with all the whining and bitching from Dems and the media, before the election, now, and after Trump takes the oath of office - every criticism you can make of Trump applies to Hillary Clinton, as much if not more so. The only "difference" here is that Hillary would utter the occasional platitude that we need to do something about climate change, while continuing to drill for more and more oil, and mine for more and more coal.

      Excuse me, but the story isn't about Hillary. She has NOTHING to do with this decision. You should stop trying to avoid the issues.

      If things keep going this way, I'm all for the UN coming in and setting up a new provisional government. This insanity has to come to an end some way.

      --
      The only thing worse than a Democrat is a Republican.
    5. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by I'm+New+Around+Here · · Score: 1, Troll

      So you get to decide which countries around the world have improper leaders, eh? What other countries should we invade on your suggestion?

      --
      If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
    6. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      resisted with military force.

      Yeah, and take a wild guess who sold them the weapons.

      Cry all you want about Trump's win. I revel in Clinton's loss. And now she can take Kissinger's place for the next 20 years at all those state dinners where real foreign policy is made. Trump will be calling her every night asking what to do next.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    7. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by hey! · · Score: 1

      This is in a context of an Obama administration policy to undermine the Russian gas monopoly in Europe, which is potentially destabilizing. Just this year we started exporting LNG to Europe, and within a few years will have the capacity to replace most of Europe's imports from Russia should Russia cut them off.

      Also oil production has increased dramatically under Obama as well. This year the US became a net exporter of energy for the first time since 1957.

      It's not that the Obama administration wants the world to burn more fossil fuels, but it doesn't want Europe dancing on a Russian string either. A president has to balance different policy objectives against each other. US CO2 emissions have actually gone down slightly since the recovery started in 2010,

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    8. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by FlyHelicopters · · Score: 1

      Of course, there's another reason that Clinton lost: because there are so many voting shitheels.

      You are the perfect example of the intolerant left, you claim to be all accepting, but you're really not.

      In my experience, the left is FAR more xenophobic and intolerant than the right is, bunch of idiots you are, which is why Trump won. The left is STILL falling all over themselves trying to figure it out, clueless...

      Clinton lost because she sucks, is a terrible person, and wanted to start WWIII. Nothing Trump has done is even remotely close.

    9. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      :-) Classic!

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    10. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by FlyHelicopters · · Score: 1

      If things keep going this way, I'm all for the UN coming in and setting up a new provisional government. This insanity has to come to an end some way.

      That isn't how it works... that isn't how anything works...

      You might want to actually get an education and grow up before you run around talking like that out loud...

    11. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by whoever57 · · Score: 1

      It's more than power through supply disruptions. It's about money and military power.

      It's in the US's interest to have Russia run out of money so that Russia has to stop spending on its military. Russia gets a lot of its money from fossil fuel sales.

      Russia has a sovereign wealth fund, built up when oil was expensive, but it has been spending down the fund now that oil prices are cheap. Only a year or two to go and Russia will be out of money and Putin will become unpopular. Obama's policy has been excellent in this respect.

      --
      The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
    12. Re: And you think Hillary would be any different? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Can you back up the claim of Obama being a bigger oil guy than Bush and Cheney? Knowing a lot of people in the US oil industry, at low and at very high levels, I have a different viewpoint based on what I've heard from them, so I'm interested in understanding your view and why it's different.

    13. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by hey! · · Score: 1

      Only a year or two to go and Russia will be out of money and Putin will become unpopular. Obama's policy has been excellent in this respect.

      I wonder how much that scenario may change. Trump is a lot more pro-Russia and pro-Putin, but it's all predicated on US energy production and sales.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    14. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by publiclurker · · Score: 1

      actually the only difference is that you think someone is actually ignorant enough to believe that they are in any way similar, son.

    15. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by publiclurker · · Score: 1

      classic in how he is right I assume.

    16. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by publiclurker · · Score: 1

      there is nothing wrong about hating bigoted, willfully ignorant morons. If that shows you in a bad light then tough, you deserve to be in a bad light for being a bigoted, willfully ignorant moron.

    17. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      :-) You shouldn't assume anything. Along with the more famous reason, it blinds you to simple truths.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    18. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by BradMajors · · Score: 5, Funny

      So you get to decide which countries around the world have improper leaders, eh? What other countries should we invade on your suggestion?

      Belgium. I vote for invading Belgium. I don't like their leader.

    19. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by Uberbah · · Score: 1

      Except that she would have appointed an environmental expert to the position and not a guy with his head up his ass.

      Yes, an environmental expert....from Exxon. Why you guys even debate the subject, after leaks show Hillary describing the necessity of having 'a public position, and then a private position' on every issue is beyond me.

      Lefty platitudes (occasionally) while adopting Republican policies - the Democratic Moonwalk since January of 1993.

    20. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by Uberbah · · Score: 1

      Sorry, not everyone is a willfully blind partisan tribalist such as yourself. Obama has run around bragging about how the United States has been drilling oil at a faster rate than it has the capacity to transport: fact. It was Obama, not Bush, that opened the eastern seaboard to offshore drilling: fact. Hillary spent her time as SoS as an advocate for fracking: fact.

      You wanna talk Trump's racism? Let's talk about Hillary, Superpredators, and wanting to deport latino kids (fleeing from a junta she supported) to "send a message to their parents'. You wanna talk Trump's shady business deals? Let's talk Clinton Foundation and pay-to-play. I could go on all night, so take out your dentures and go the fuck to bed, grandpa, before you embarrass yourself further.

    21. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by Uberbah · · Score: 1

      One day, you will have to look at the world around you and realize that a large portion of the current problems were not made by a woman that isn't the President.

      1) Policies that were 110% endorsed by the woman who ran for president

      2) You can't give Hillary credit for her time as FLOTUS and say she had no role in the shitty policies of Bill Clinton (which again, she campaigned for)

      Give it up, Hillbot.

    22. Re: And you think Hillary would be any different? by Uberbah · · Score: 1

      Knowing a lot of people in the US oil industry, at low and at very high levels, I have a different viewpoint based on what I've heard from them

      No doubt you have. Conservatives have deep dislike of the Clintons - despite the Clinton's having passed the trade deals, deregulation, and gutting of welfare that Reagan could have only dreamed of.

      Bragging about drilling faster than our capacity to transport - from the White House web site itself:

      So we are drilling all over the place -- right now. That's not the challenge. That's not the problem. In fact, the problem in a place like Cushing is that we're actually producing so much oil and gas in places like North Dakota and Colorado that we don't have enough pipeline capacity to transport all of it to where it needs to go -- both to refineries, and then, eventually, all across the country and around the world. Thereâ(TM)s a bottleneck right here because we canâ(TM)t get enough of the oil to our refineries fast enough. And if we could, then we would be able to increase our oil supplies at a time when they're needed as much as possible.

      Obama administration approves sonic cannons, reopening US Eastern Seaboard to oil exploration

      Hillary Clinton Tried to Push Fracking on Other Nations When She Was Secretary of State, New Emails Reveal

    23. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by plopez · · Score: 1

      She would have sold us out. Trump is the iron fist. Hillary would've been the iron fist in the velvet glove.

      --
      putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
    24. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by Uberbah · · Score: 2

      This is in a context of an Obama administration policy to undermine the Russian gas monopoly in Europe, which is potentially destabilizing.

      Typical batshit insane, cuckoo cocoa puffs inversion of reality from an American Excpetionalist. It was the United States that spent billions subverting the democratically elected government of Ukraine, not Russia. It was Russia that offered Ukraine cheap natural gas and a low interest loan - it was the United States that wanted to herd the country into an economy-crushing IMF loan at high interest rates, requiring them to sell off public assets to the lowest bidder.

      Also oil production has increased dramatically under Obama as well. This year the US became a net exporter of energy for the first time since 1957.

      Like I said, a bigger oil man than Bush and Cheney combined.

      It's not that the Obama administration wants the world to burn more fossil fuels, but it doesn't want Europe dancing on a Russian string either.

      No. It wants it dancing on an American string built out of willful ignorance and the same MIC propaganda that any second grader should be able to call bullshit on. Yet you're buying it hook, line and sinker.

    25. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by Uberbah · · Score: 1

      Who did she rape? Who has she sexually assaulted? It's not every criticism.

      Thousand and thousands of people in Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Pakistan Somalia, just for starters. War leads to rape, and Hillary has never seen an American war she didn't support to the hilt - even back in '68 she lost sleep over trying to talk her classmates out of protesting the Vietnam war.

      Trump is a rat bastard and anyone who voted for him that knew what was coming if he got elected is a shitheel.

      ...as was anyone who voted for Hillary, who was more corrupt and a bigger warmonger than Trump could ever be. See Truman's quote on voters choosing the real Republican over the not-so-fake-in-this-instance Republican every time.

    26. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by Uberbah · · Score: 1

      Libya and Syria were civil revolts by subject populations against dictators

      Try those excuses on some other planet where leaks have shown both countries were targeted for regime change before the 'Arab Spring'.

      In Libya the western world organized and deposed a dictator as required.

      As opposed to Bahrain, another dictatorship to...whom the United States sold weapons to, even as they were violently suppressing their own Arab Spring protests. So, you going to go on with this horseshit propaganda, or do we need to move on to Yemen, where the United States is again suppressing a popular revolt against a brutal dictatorship?

    27. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by Uberbah · · Score: 1

      Faggot realize the world doesn't work by your fantasy. American security requires global reach and action.

      Says a bedwetting crybaby who doesn't realize no American has had to die to defend American soil since the war of 1812. And even that was for a war started by....America.

      Go get some new plastic sheets, the ones you have right now are starting to stink.

    28. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by Jzanu · · Score: 1

      Picking allied governments to support for temporary utility is a valid strategy. Dictatorships will all be destroyed, especially the Russian one.

    29. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by Uberbah · · Score: 4, Informative
    30. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by Uberbah · · Score: 1

      Picking allied governments to support for temporary utility is a valid strategy.

      Using a talking point that completely and utterly contradicts your last talking point, outs you as a person who regurgitates any crap he hears from the same military industrial complex that sold you on Saddam's WMD's and ties to Al Queda. Get fooled once - eager to get fooled and fooled again.

      So which is it? The United States is noble and just when it attacks dictatorships suppressing protests, or when it attacks protesters demonstrating dictatorships? Pick one.

    31. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by fredrated · · Score: 2

      We destroyed the must successful nation in Africa and turned it into a failed state. "as required"?

    32. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by hey! · · Score: 1

      A Yanukovych fan, I see.

      You neglected to mention that Russia, in addition in return for cheap natural gas, Russia got a lease to keep its fleet at Sevastapol. Oh, we should look carefully at that particular deal, because when that particular corrupt puppet was deposed Russia simply invaded and annexed the region.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    33. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by Jzanu · · Score: 1

      You're still fucking wrong you god damn autistic retard, all dictatorships are enemies of the democracy of America. They are destroyed as soon as possible.

    34. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by Jzanu · · Score: 1

      Wrong. And you're fucking ignorant. Nigeria is the most successful nation by a long shot, and Ghana. The western world led by Britain and France proceeded in Libya in supporting the local populace against a dictator who assumed power in the vacuum it created. Ghadaffi was no saint, and Libyan's hated him so badly he was obsessed with personal security. He got what was coming and it just required assistance. Similar methods should be used in every dictatorship - when the populace seeks freedom, those who are free help them with military might.

    35. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by Tom · · Score: 1

      And Libya is such a wonderful place now, peace, prosperity, freedom - you name it, they have it all. Such a good thing that the western world intervened...

      --
      Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
    36. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 1

      So you get to decide which countries around the world have improper leaders, eh? What other countries should we invade on your suggestion?

      Yup. France. [You must be new around here.] :-)

      --
      It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    37. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by Jzanu · · Score: 2

      It is actually much better than when under Assad. Assad sponsored regional wars explicitly to destabilize his neighbors and cause unrest. He deserves to be dead.

    38. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by dunkelfalke · · Score: 1

      That was probably his point - they could have had cheap credits and the Sevastopol lease payments and now they have neither. I think this is called cutting the nose to spite the face.

      --
      "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
    39. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by dbIII · · Score: 1
      A bit of an aside, but I find it very strange that attacking Ghadaffi was seen as a good thing under Reagan, but doing it with such a degree of success that Ghadaffi is dead and his regime gone is somehow a very bad thing if Clinton is in some way involved.

      every criticism you can make of Trump applies to Hillary Clinton,

      I hope you are correct but I suspect by March he's going to do something so drastic and even downright "UnAmerican" that you are going to change your mind. He talks like he wants to be the King that George Washington freed the USA from.

    40. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by hey! · · Score: 1

      That's kind of a peculiar reading of the situation. Ukraine had a treaty with Russia and Russia abrogated it by invading and annexing the Crimea. Ukraine didn't ask them to do it.

      And the nose they cut off was Yanukovych -- a wildly unpopular and corrupt authoritarian who jailed political opponents, outlawed protest, censored the press and introduced laws restricting freedom of speech, and had his secret police torture people who criticized him. He enriched himself and his cronies at public expense. It's estimated he embezzled 70 billion dollars from the public treasury.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    41. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by Tranzistors · · Score: 1

      Can you point out, what US policy would bring peace, prosperity and freedom in Libya? Your time-line is anywhere in Obama administration.

    42. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by Chrontius · · Score: 1

      Start with a list of ongoing genocides, and work your way down the list.

    43. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by barc0001 · · Score: 1

      DUH! The ones with oil or strategic locations that won't fight back too much.

    44. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by dunkelfalke · · Score: 1

      Well, duh. Exactly like every Ukrainian politician before and after him. That's why it is cutting the nose to spite the face - they still have the same crap, but with an added war, expensive credits, far lower standards of living and can't go on vacation in Crimea anymore. And for what?

      Hence my peculiar reading of the situation. I mean, I have visited Ukraine a few times and I can assure you, nowadays it sucks to live there far more than, say, 5 years ago. Same with being a tourist - the only upside is that their currency nosedived compared to Euro, so food and girls are really cheap there.

      --
      "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
    45. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by EmeraldBot · · Score: 1

      Of course, there's another reason that Clinton lost: because there are so many voting shitheels.

      You are the perfect example of the intolerant left, you claim to be all accepting, but you're really not.

      In my experience, the left is FAR more xenophobic and intolerant than the right is, bunch of idiots you are, which is why Trump won. The left is STILL falling all over themselves trying to figure it out, clueless...

      Clinton lost because she sucks, is a terrible person, and wanted to start WWIII. Nothing Trump has done is even remotely close.

      In your experience, Donald Trump and Jill Stein are FAR more xenophobic and intolerant than Donald Trump and George W. Bush? A man who campaigned 30 years for homosexual rights, even when it was unpopular, is more xenophobic and intolerant then a man who was endorsed by the KKK?

      Before anyone takes you seriously, you're going to need to provide some evidence.

      --
      "Set a man a fire, he'll be warm for the rest of the night. Set a man afire, he'll be warm for the rest of his life."
    46. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by FlyHelicopters · · Score: 1

      If you were really tolerant, then you'd be understanding and accepting of someone who DOESN'T believe in gay people.

      You're happy to accept people who think like you do, but you can't imagine it is acceptable to think otherwise. That is your great flaw.

      That is why Trump won. Until you understand that, you will continue to have problems on the right.

      Trump didn't win by getting 10% or 20% of the country to vote for him, he got 48%, which is more or less half. And yet you dismiss half the country as "deplorables" and wonder why you lost...

    47. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

      Excuse me, but the story isn't about Hillary. She has NOTHING to do with this decision. You should stop trying to avoid the issues.

      I don't think you understand how it works. It's all Hillary's fault. And when everything's fucked in 4 years time with a Republican president, House, Senate and Supreme Court, it will *still* be Hillary's fault.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    48. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by EmeraldBot · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If you were really tolerant, then you'd be understanding and accepting of someone who DOESN'T believe in gay people.

      You're happy to accept people who think like you do, but you can't imagine it is acceptable to think otherwise. That is your great flaw.

      That is why Trump won. Until you understand that, you will continue to have problems on the right.

      Trump didn't win by getting 10% or 20% of the country to vote for him, he got 48%, which is more or less half. And yet you dismiss half the country as "deplorables" and wonder why you lost...

      That's such a rich post I don't even know where to start. For starters, we have a pretty strict separation of church and state - you cannot cite religion as a reason for influence in any decision. Saying marriage should be strictly between a man and a woman because you're a Christian is acceptable if a Muslim can require you to read the Quaran, because it's against his beliefs for people not to read it. To build on this, you can do whatever the hell you want with your life - if you are gay and chose not to act on it or accept it, that's entirely your choice, and I support your right to make it. In exchange, you have no right to fuck with someone else's life, and if somebody else's freedom of expression bother you so much that you took the time in your life to write not one but two rants on a website, immigrate to Iran or Saudi Arabia. They're more in line with your values than the United States of America is.

      Secondly, that is a completely bullshit pivot from my point. I asked you for proof of your statement, and you dodge by trying an ad hominem on me. You either give me the evidence I require, or you look like an idiot spouting bullshit, which increasingly I suspect you are. Now, which is it?

      --
      "Set a man a fire, he'll be warm for the rest of the night. Set a man afire, he'll be warm for the rest of his life."
    49. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You are the perfect example of the intolerant left, you claim to be all accepting, but you're really not.

      Tolerance of intolerance is not tolerance. It's accepting abuse.

      In my experience, the left is FAR more xenophobic and intolerant than the right is,

      Get back to me when the left goes back to lynching people, or dragging them behind pick-em-up trucks. The right never stopped.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    50. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by Sir+Holo · · Score: 1

      resisted with military force.

      Yeah, and take a wild guess who sold them the weapons.

      Cry all you want about Trump's win. I revel in Clinton's loss. And now she can take Kissinger's place for the next 20 years at all those state dinners where real foreign policy is made. Trump will be calling her every night asking what to do next.

      Russia and the US supply the rest of the world with most of their armaments. The linked graphic is a bit misleading because it omits "under the table" or "non-official" Russian arms sales.

      Both countries do the same thing, on an income basis, at about the same percentage-level globally. For example, the price of a couple of top-end jet fighters (which require tons of maintenance documentation, and thus repair-parts orders) offsets the price of many, many plane-loads of off-the-books Kalashnikovs and RPGs, which are designed to require minimal maintenance.

      It is not a secret.

    51. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by Orgasmatron · · Score: 1

      The neo-jacobin conceit is the insane idea that people who have neither the history of, nor desire for, democracy will suddenly turn into a polite society of Minnesotan churchgoing farmers if only we destroy the government they currently have and apparently want.

      Did you learn nothing from Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya?

      --
      See that "Preview" button?
    52. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by Orgasmatron · · Score: 1

      Wait... What was Assad doing in Libya? Did Ghadaffi know he was there?

      --
      See that "Preview" button?
    53. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      Well, are you in a wonderful mood! You're a funny guy...

      The US intentionally destabilized the area. The reasons are understandable, but I disagree. It isn't for 'security'. It's for empire.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    54. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by laughing_badger · · Score: 1

      If you were really tolerant, then you'd be understanding and accepting of someone who DOESN'T believe in gay people.

      You're happy to accept people who think like you do, but you can't imagine it is acceptable to think otherwise.

      You have the right to believe what you wish. You don't have the right to force others to believe what you wish. Feel free not to believe in gay people, but don't expect _them_ to change just because _your_ belief is in conflict with _their_ reality.

      --
      Help children born unable to swallow - www.tofs.org.uk
    55. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by Cederic · · Score: 1

      there is nothing wrong about hating bigoted, willfully ignorant morons

      Yes, there is. A moron by definition can't be expected to know bigotry is bad and ignorance should be educated. Why are you hating on people lacking in intellectual prowess?

      Oh.. you're hateful bigot, and you're being wilfully ignorant. Are you a moron or should we hate you?

      It's ok, I think we already know the answer: You're throwing labels like 'hateful', 'bigot' and 'moron' around because people actually dared to disagree with you.

      Hate you? No, I lack the emotional energy. You're not worth it.

    56. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by dywolf · · Score: 1

      conservatives just elected a dictator in waiting, so of course they now support other dictators around the world.

      --
      The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
    57. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 1

      To be fair, the machinations of economics are highly-complex and nonobvious. Common sense dictates the exact opposite of practically everything a close examination of economics will reveal. I doubt a second-grader could call bullshit on anything.

      Look at minimum wage. Minimum wage puts more money into the hands of low-income earners. They can then spend more, which means they can buy more, which means more jobs because spending makes the economy go. Makes sense, right? Easy. Common sense should tell you that.

      Wages are paid from revenue; revenue is paid from consumer spending; spending comes from income; and income is a product of time. That means there's only a finite amount of total income in a given time span--say, a year. 2015, America had $15.4 trillion of total income; 2014, it was $14.8 trillion; and the difference is from net exports (which are negative) and bank loans (central bank issues money, banks are allowed to loan more, consumers take loans to buy things, that money enters the economy). Raising someone's wage doesn't actually create money; and the total of all income (including that increased wage) can only be spent at the rate of income.

      Well, if wages come from revenue, you must increase prices--not like the Conservative line of doubling prices when minimum wage goes up, but more that raising MW from $7.25 to $15 will cause that $8 value meal to cost $8.17. Those price increases combine for a total dollar amount (265 billion customers served by fast food per year; 17 cents increase; $45.05 billion), which represents a number of full-time, minimum-wage jobs ($45.05 billion / ($7.25/hr * 2000hr/year), 3.1 million jobs). Because those 17 cents are spent on one thing, they can't be spent on another; therefor the jobs to produce and retail that other thing can't draw revenue; thus we can't employ those people.

      So raising minimum wage reduces jobs. It does this essentially by making everyone slightly-poorer, by unemploying some minimum-wage workers, and by compensating the remaining MW workers enough that their lower-buying-power dollars still stack up to a greater amount of buying power.

      That's exactly the opposite of what common sense tells us.

      This works for trade (FOUR TIMES--immediate employment impacts, long-term employment impacts, wealth impacts of "making more things", and wealth impacts by the effect on prices), technical progress (new technology's entire function is to eliminate labor time invested in production, thus reducing jobs; we recover the jobs, reduce scarcity, and create more jobs, causing population growth until scarcity sets back in), and even basic concepts like scarcity (I'm the guy who re-defined scarcity as the situation in which a proportional increase in production requires a larger proportional increase in labor, which means there are situations where e.g. food is scarce while the supply of food is in no danger of falling below the demand).

      A lot of people even manage to miss the factor of time entirely. Trade and technical progress make us wealthy, and they do so by creating unemployment: either of these will eliminate someone's job, either by sending it offshore or by having 4 people do the same work as 5 by using a shiny new tool of which 1 person can make 1,000 (i.e. for every 1,000 people you unemploy, you create 1 job making the new tool). This lowers costs; and over time, the economic pressures pushing price back to a certain profit margin (i.e. closer to cost) increase, lowering prices. That allows us to create replacement jobs. If you eliminate jobs too rapidly, you destroy your economy; the automation nightmare everyone on Slashdot cries about will happen if it happens overnight. If you eliminate jobs slowly, your economy just gets wealthier; if that automation happens over years and decades, unemployment will wobble a little, while prices fall to a pittance and individual wealth increases rapidly.

      It takes a lot more than the average American has time for to identify how economics works.

    58. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by judoguy · · Score: 1

      In Libya the western world organized and deposed a dictator as required.

      Required by whom? Not me. Why the hell is it "required" to right all the wrongs in the world with which you disagree?

      --
      Peace is easy to achieve, just surrender. Liberty is much harder get/keep.
    59. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by Talderas · · Score: 1

      Which one? The head of state or head of government?

      --
      "Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
    60. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by Tom · · Score: 1

      Can you point out, what US policy would bring peace, prosperity and freedom in Libya?

      Not letting the CIA stage a bogus revolution to overthrow a government that was actually working not bad, especially compared to many other African countries. There was education, healthcare, a mostly functioning state. Yes, not a dream country and with many problems, but not one of them is better now. So just doing nothing would have been better as a policy.

      --
      Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
    61. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by Tom · · Score: 1

      You mean Gaddafi.

      Hm, wars - 1969 vs. Chad and 1977 vs. Egypt. That's two wars he was directly involved in. In 30 years. The USA manages to start that many wars under practically every president ever.

      Sponsorship is more difficult to compare because you're never completely sure of the truth, but I'm ready to take high bets that again the USA easily beats him.

      So, according to your logic, every US president of the 20th and 21st century deserves to be dead, yes?

      --
      Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
    62. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by publiclurker · · Score: 1

      yup, when called out you insist on doubling down on your racist inspired BS. Face it cupcake, your temper tantrums do not impress anyone over the age of 12.

    63. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by publiclurker · · Score: 1

      even a moron would realize that when everyone else is calling you out on your bigotry that you are not doing a very good job of pretending to be an ethical person. Of course, maybe you and your friends are at a level below moron, a fact that is in evidence, but I was feeling generous and assumed that you were at a higher level than you apparently are.

    64. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by Cederic · · Score: 1

      Given you're the sort of imbecile that can't even tell who he's talking to, I'm kind of struggling to worry about your views.

    65. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by Jzanu · · Score: 1

      You autistic little fucktard look into actual god damn history! Gaddafi instigated rebel groups throughout western africa eespecially SIerra Leon and Liberia. In particular he supplied weapons that fueled decades of war. Even diamonds don't turn into AK-47s by themselves.

    66. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by Jzanu · · Score: 1

      Did you learn anything at all, ever? Besides how to fucking copy-paste wikipedia and google fake marxist BS?

    67. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by Jzanu · · Score: 1

      Faggot get your head out of your god damn asshole. The world isn't fucking minecraft and cheeto dust even though that is clearly your version. In reality western freedom is not only the guideline but the only only source of assistance for people pursuing it. That is why.

    68. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by Uberbah · · Score: 1

      False equivalence, you're not even fucking close.

      Kneejerk, Hillbot butthurt does not an argument make. Trump has yet to help overthrow a single democracy, or create another Iraq-style failed state. As opposed to your right-wing freakshow candidate.

      Let me guess, you voted for Gary Johnson.

      Non sequitur.

    69. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by Jzanu · · Score: 1

      It is the western world's job because we are the most powerful free nations and must lead the way out of the autocracy and dictatorships of the past or risk being drowned fighting them all later to preserve freedom from autocracy and dictatorship.

    70. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by TangoMargarine · · Score: 1

      And Libya is such a wonderful place now

      It is actually much better than when under Assad.

      A) Assad is still in charge, at least nominally.
      B) He's the president of Syria, not Libya.

      --
      Unity? Screw that: XFCE. Slashdot Beta? Screw that: SoylentNews. Australis? Screw that: Pale Moon. UX developers DIAF
    71. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by tricorn · · Score: 1

      She said half of Trump supporters were deplorable, that's only one quarter of the country, not half. If you look at the polling on various positions of Trump supporters, that's probably low.

      It's also the case that a lot of deplorable categories are strongly attracted to Trump (e.g. "alt right").

      In other words, Trump supporters are racists, they're bigots, they're stupid and gullible, and some of them, I assume, are good people. Or is that just not PC to say things like that unless you're Trump?

    72. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by FlyHelicopters · · Score: 1

      That's such a rich post I don't even know where to start.

      And that is why you lost the election...

      For starters, we have a pretty strict separation of church and state

      Again, you still don't get it... it has nothing to do with religion, another of your failings...

      You either give me the evidence I require

      I'm not obligated to give you anything, and you're not entitled to "require" anything, another of your failings...

      Please note: You lost, Trump won, that alone should give you a very long pause...

    73. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by FlyHelicopters · · Score: 1

      You have the right to believe what you wish. You don't have the right to force others to believe what you wish. Feel free not to believe in gay people, but don't expect _them_ to change just because _your_ belief is in conflict with _their_ reality.

      Your post provides the reason you lost the election, you simply don't get it...

      You think that there are only two positions, either total enforcement and support, or outright bans... You bully people into either thinking your way or you call them "deplorable".

      This is why you lost, reasonable people have grown tired of it. I'm tired of being called a racist when I'm not. I'm tired of being called homophobic when I'm not. What I AM tired of is being told how to think and how to behave in my private life, if I wish to not be called "deplorable".

      THAT is why Trump won...

    74. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by EmeraldBot · · Score: 1

      That's such a rich post I don't even know where to start.

      And that is why you lost the election...

      For starters, we have a pretty strict separation of church and state

      Again, you still don't get it... it has nothing to do with religion, another of your failings...

      You either give me the evidence I require

      I'm not obligated to give you anything, and you're not entitled to "require" anything, another of your failings...

      Please note: You lost, Trump won, that alone should give you a very long pause...

      I can laugh at your stupidity all I want, actually, and your only chance to stop that was an effort at rationality. So if you didn't even make an attempt at justifying yourself, you really are just spouting nonsense - would you actually say that garbage to someone in real life, I wonder?

      As to your point, to be honest, I don't really care all that much, except for perhaps a little schadenfreude. Trump is probably going to be miserable as all fuck being president because he'll never have time to do anything enjoyable and he'll be blamed for everything, Pence is going to be miserable as fuck because he has to do all of Trump's dull work without getting any of his own input in, and you are going to be miserable as fuck because you don't seem to realize that he's not actually interested in changing very much. In return, all I have to do is wait four years and we'll get a Democrat who would reverse any presidential executive decisions on social matters he makes if they're in a conservative direction, and we'd probably get a Democrat senate with that too. *shrugs*

      Given that my only mandate is to sit on my rear for the next four years and complain, I'm pretty happy with my lot after this election. Now that we've switched places, what are you going to do?

      --
      "Set a man a fire, he'll be warm for the rest of the night. Set a man afire, he'll be warm for the rest of his life."
    75. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by FlyHelicopters · · Score: 1

      If some people want to protest gay marriage, I might disagree with what they have to say, but I VERY MUCH insist on their right to say it. And that's accepting that some people are intolerant assholes.

      But if they physically harm anyone due to their intolerance? Well I just won't tolerate that. Send the cops, lock them up. That shit's illegal. And if they're facing a jury that let's them off scott-free? That's what federal hate-crimes are for. (But oh man have they been dragged into some stupid fights).

      ^ I agree with you... people should have the right to not like people, to disagree with something like gay marriage... but should not have the right to harm them.

      Do I support gay marriage rights? Yes
      Do I endorse or like gay marriage? No

      Those are not incompatible positions

    76. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by FlyHelicopters · · Score: 1

      I can laugh at your stupidity all I want

      You can, of course... but you're missing the chance to learn something by doing so...

      I said that Trump's win should give you pause, if you throw that away, then you've learned nothing and will repeat the mistakes...

    77. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by FlyHelicopters · · Score: 1

      In other words, Trump supporters are racists, they're bigots, they're stupid and gullible, and some of them, I assume, are good people. Or is that just not PC to say things like that unless you're Trump?

      The percentage of Trump supporters who are really racist is probably similar to the number of Mexicans who are rapists, which is to say, a very small number.

      Side note, being a rapist is a crime, being a racist is not, yet you wish to equate the two...

      Another fault of the left and another reason Trump won, we're tired of being called near-criminals for daring to think different...

    78. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by EmeraldBot · · Score: 1

      I can laugh at your stupidity all I want

      You can, of course... but you're missing the chance to learn something by doing so...

      I said that Trump's win should give you pause, if you throw that away, then you've learned nothing and will repeat the mistakes...

      What mistake? I think Trump getting elected has some pretty nice benefits actually, not the least of which being that maybe we're reminded why it's best to stick someone with brains in charge. Trump is also super pro on certain democratic issues, such as import tariffs and infrastructure investment, so we basically get those but without any risk of backlash or the absurdly petty resistance Republicans give to anything started by a Democrat. On top of that, when Trump fails to get his goals through, people like you might actually realize that change is only a good thing if it's better than what came before, and he'll almost certainly block the most egregious Republican policies from being tied to his name. If I'm getting a quarter democrat in policies, with no backlash, and at the same time building support for a truly democrat government, what's not to like? When Trump is burned out and crawls back into his shell, he'll take his supporters with him, and we'll be left with a weak Republican party and a power vacuum. Hello Mr. Teddy Roosevelt in 2020 (or maybe perhaps 2024) - and then we can start with helping the poor get actual paying jobs and fixing our healthcare for the better, much as the Republicans will resist both of these.

      I want change as well, but rather than listening to a narcissist with no idea what he's talking about, I'd rather listen to the widely respected guy who does genuinely care and has a long and successful history in his job. As for your lesson, what the hell was it? That ignorance is fashionable right now? If that's what energizes people these days, stupid lies and dramatized scandalous headlines, then no thanks. I'll stick to policy and track record, thank you very much.

      --
      "Set a man a fire, he'll be warm for the rest of the night. Set a man afire, he'll be warm for the rest of his life."
    79. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by FlyHelicopters · · Score: 1

      What mistake? I think Trump getting elected has some pretty nice benefits actually, not the least of which being that maybe we're reminded why it's best to stick someone with brains in charge.

      Like who, Hillary? Please don't make me laugh, she is as stupid as Trump is...

      You still don't get it, you have no idea who was actually running for the key job of "person in charge", and it wasn't either of them...

    80. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by EmeraldBot · · Score: 1

      What mistake? I think Trump getting elected has some pretty nice benefits actually, not the least of which being that maybe we're reminded why it's best to stick someone with brains in charge.

      Like who, Hillary? Please don't make me laugh, she is as stupid as Trump is...

      You still don't get it, you have no idea who was actually running for the key job of "person in charge", and it wasn't either of them...

      Um... alright? You've claimed yourself to be against the "intolerant left", so you're obviously not referring to Bernie Sanders, and Jill Stein is out of the question too then. If it's not Hillary or Trump, then who the hell are you referring to? Johnson was the only other candidate to seriously run, but he screwed up his chance at getting people's enthusiasm so badly that he only managed to get the boring average of about 3% of the popular vote. Who are you talking about?

      --
      "Set a man a fire, he'll be warm for the rest of the night. Set a man afire, he'll be warm for the rest of his life."
    81. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by FlyHelicopters · · Score: 1

      Let me put it this way... George Bush didn't run the country, Dick Cheney did, along with a few others in the background (Karl Rove, etc.)

      Donald Trump really only trusts 3 people in the world... Donald Jr., Eric, and Ivanka, with her husband Jared Kushner a really, really close 4th...

      Notice how fast Chris Christie was out? That took 3 whole days... Ivanka was the one who got Daddy to fire Corey Lewandowski and Paul Manafort and to hire Kellyanne Conway who knew what she was doing. Jared was the one who kept Donald from putting Chris Christie on the ticket as VP (which is what he wanted to do).

      VP Mike Pence is current the "top man" for the transition team, for appearances and political reasons, but Donald has largely reached the point where he just like giving speeches and feeling important. He lets the kids run the company and soon, the country. Jared will join them and he is no fool, he'll be fine. Mike Pence will also get more of a role than most VPs do, and that's not a bad thing.

      Donald recently told his advisers that he wants to keep having big rallies and crowds, he loves hearing himself talk, he can do that for 8 years and feel important.

      I very much hope that Ivanka runs for President in 2024, she would make a wonderful first female President who understands the balance between capitalism and human beings. Who understands the importance of woman's issues and should be acceptable across a wide path of Americans, she should win it in a landslide.

    82. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by Tom · · Score: 1

      If you can't attack the argument, attack the person. A show of weakness.

      Yes, Gaddafi was not angel. But supporting rebel groups? Really? That's the best you can come up with for declaring a death penalty? What about the Contras? The Iranian Revolution? The various color revolutions? Ukraine, Syria or - irony - Libya itself recently? The US and Europe are guilty of the same crime.

      Of course, we only ever support the "good" rebels. Like ISIS... oh, wait...

      --
      Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
    83. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by tricorn · · Score: 1

      So now being a racist is "daring to think different"? Wow.

      So it's worse to generalize that a group of people are "deplorable", because that isn't criminal, than it is to generalize that a group of people are criminals? Would you rather have someone say that "Trump supporters are rapists, they're murderers, and some, I assume, are good people"?

    84. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by tricorn · · Score: 1

      Trump won because he sucks, is a terrible person and quite possibly will start WWIII. Nothing Clinton has done is even remotely close.

    85. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by FlyHelicopters · · Score: 1

      So it's worse to generalize that a group of people are "deplorable"

      You still haven't learned...

      Being called names finally grew to be too much... so we voted Trump in to send you a message that perhaps you'd hear.

      Seems like it didn't work, you're not listening... neither is a lot of the media, who STILL can't figure it out... For "college educated" people, liberals can be really stupid.

    86. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by Imrik · · Score: 1

      Don't know about lynching people, but the left has already started assaulting people and dragging them with cars for allegedly voting for Trump.

    87. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by Tom · · Score: 1

      So let's talk about Afghanistan. US supports the local islam "holy warriors" fighting the soviets after the 1979 start of the civil war. Weapons, training, money, everything except soldiers, which instead of from the USA come from all parts of the islam world after the whole thing was rebranded as a holy war. The logistics, organisation and support is run by a couple international organisations, one of whom is called "Al Qaida" ("the base"). The "holy warriors" or "freedom" fighters or Mujaheddin are later called "Taliban".

      1-2 mio. civilians are killed, the civil war lasts 10 years, then the Taliban destroy every piece of progress and culture in Afghanistan, breed Al Qaida into a terror organisation, who go on to kill more people. Then some Saudis fly planes into skyscrapers in NYC and the USA bombs Afghanistan and invades Iraq, which kills about a million more arabs and leaves a power vaccuum into which Al Qaida spawns a splinter group that calls itself ISIS and goes on to occupy a kalifat, killing another half a million or so, but since they're fighting Assad whom the US government would like to remove as well, all it needs is a rebranding to Al Nusra and a go-back to the "freedom fighters" meme and they get - guess what - weapons, training and money from the USA.

      And that is just one operation. Do you want a list of what the Contras did, or do I need to remind you about Vietnam? Korea?

      Sorry dude, but compared to the US, Gaddafi actually is an angel.

      --
      Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
    88. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by Uberbah · · Score: 1

      Nothing has done more to reduce greenhouse emissions than fracking due to the switch to burning more natural gas.

      Natural gas does no more to reduce emissions than corn-based ethanol has, and for the same reason: whatever CO2 emissions you save when burning the product are made up for by the CO2 emitted when creating it.

    89. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by Uberbah · · Score: 1

      yup, when called out you insist on doubling down on your racist inspired BS.

      The racist is the person who has a problem with racism, no matter which party its coming from? I see someone took a double dose of their dumbfuck pills in the morning.

    90. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by Uberbah · · Score: 1

      A Yanukovych fan, I see.

      Says another tool of the MIC getting in bed with openly anti-semetic fascists.

      You neglected to mention that Russia, in addition in return for cheap natural gas, Russia got a lease to keep its fleet at Sevastapol.

      Yeah, because they had a long term deal for the base. As opposed to, say, Guantanamo, which the United States gets to keep in perpetuity, because reasons.

      Oh, we should look carefully at that particular deal, because when that particular corrupt puppet was deposed Russia simply invaded and annexed the region.

      Did your American Exceptionalist card come with a free lobotomy, or did you already have it? It takes a special person to call the coup in Ukraine legitimate, then turn around and call a super-duper majority vote to in Crimea to succeed illegitimate, because reasons.

    91. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by Uberbah · · Score: 1

      That's why it is cutting the nose to spite the face - they still have the same crap, but with an added war, expensive credits, far lower standards of living and can't go on vacation in Crimea anymore. And for what?

      For getting the son of the Vice President as the CEO of an energy company? Somebody's gotta make a living.

    92. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by Uberbah · · Score: 1

      It's more than power through supply disruptions. It's about money and military power.

      You got that part right.

      It's in the US's interest to have Russia run out of money so that Russia has to stop spending on its military.

      So they may continue to expand American hegemony completely unopposed. There is no other reason.

      Only a year or two to go and Russia will be out of money and Putin will become unpopular. Obama's policy has been excellent in this respect.

      Unless it brings someone to power far more nationalistic and less cautious than Putin. Then it would just be unbelievably fucking stupid, like most of America's foreign policy.

    93. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by Uberbah · · Score: 1

      moran?

      Yep.

      Protip: run spellcheck before submitting comment when trolling, else you may come off as as an illiterate dumbass!

      Says someone who is completely illiterate of a basic meme.

      Moran.

    94. Re:And you think Hillary would be any different? by Uberbah · · Score: 1

      Wrong. And you're fucking ignorant. Nigeria is the most successful nation by a long shot, and Ghana.

      No, that was Libya, you mindless American Exceptionalist.

      The western world led by Britain and France proceeded in Libya in supporting the local populace against a dictator who assumed power in the vacuum it created.

      You mean executed a regime change operation when said dictator wanted to found a gold-backed African currency to establish independence from western nations.

      Similar methods should be used in every dictatorship - when the populace seeks freedom, those who are free help them with military might.

      Then explain why the United States has sold weapons to dictatorships like Yemen, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia to put down their protestors, you fucking idiot.

    95. Re: And you think Hillary would be any different? by Uberbah · · Score: 1

      They don't need to buy arms. They have more than enough planes and missiles to cause the U.S. a world of hurt in any theater, and more than enough nukes to pound the U.S. into dust in an all-out war.

      Just because Russia's budget is a fraction of NATO's, doesn't mean they don't have the capacity to fuck your shit up.

  15. Flamebait by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    The Scientific American article is dated Sep 26th.
    This post isn't news, just someone looking for today's "how fucked are we?" reaction in comments.

  16. Breaking News by KeensMustard · · Score: 4, Insightful
    A corrupt liar thinks another corrupt liar would be good for a job he doesn't understand. Details at 11.

    Meanwhile, I wonder Trump thinks he can cancel the Paris Climate Accord? WIll he take take some white out to cover over the names of the other signatories?

    1. Re:Breaking News by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 5, Informative

      Of course Trump can cancel the Paris Climate Accord, at least for the US. The Senate never ratified it. It, in spite of being a treaty, was declared in force for the US on Obama's word alone. Trump's word alone can therefore repeal it.

    2. Re:Breaking News by I'm+New+Around+Here · · Score: 1

      A corrupt liar thinks another corrupt liar would be good for a job he doesn't understand. Details at 11.

      Meanwhile, I wonder Trump thinks he can cancel the Paris Climate Accord? WIll he take take some white out to cover over the names of the other signatories?

      It was signed by President Obama, not approved by the Senate. President Trump can remove us from it just as easily. Or, he could really showcase it, and submit it to the Senate for official approval, they will reject it, and then we are out of it.

      --
      If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
    3. Re:Breaking News by FlyHelicopters · · Score: 1

      Meanwhile, I wonder Trump thinks he can cancel the Paris Climate Accord?

      You seem to not quite understand how government works...

      Yes, he indeed can pull out of that agreement...

    4. Re:Breaking News by KeensMustard · · Score: 1

      Of course Trump can cancel the Paris Climate Accord, at least for the US.

      Well Chris, it looks like you missed the point. To quote myself: WIll he take take some white out to cover over the names of the other signatories?

      Do you think Trumps charm and impressive intellect will convince others that climate change is "bullshit"?

    5. Re:Breaking News by KeensMustard · · Score: 1
      This might come as a terrible shock, so maybe you need to sit down.

      President Obama didn't sign on behalf of anybody else: just the US. So, revoking that signing doesn't cancel the accord. All the other 196 signatures are still on there.

    6. Re:Breaking News by KeensMustard · · Score: 1

      You seem to not quite understand how government works...

      I was under the impression that Trump didn't like government. Shouldn't he be getting on with dismantling the government?

      Yes, he indeed can pull out of that agreement...

      This might come as a terrible shock, so maybe you need to sit down.

      President Obama didn't sign on behalf of anybody else: just the US. So, revoking that signing doesn't cancel the accord. All the other 196 signatures are still on there.

    7. Re:Breaking News by RobRyland · · Score: 1

      Actually, Obama didn't sign for the US, he just gave his personal word (which won't be worth much when he leaves office).
      In order to sign for and obligate the US, Obama first must seek the advice and consent of the senate.
      I think Trump would be wise to submit the Paris Treaty to the senate for approval in his first months in office. I suspect the Senate will reject it.

    8. Re:Breaking News by FlyHelicopters · · Score: 1

      This might come as a terrible shock, so maybe you need to sit down.

      And THIS might come as a terrible shock...

      President Obama didn't sign on behalf of anybody else: just the US. So, revoking that signing doesn't cancel the accord. All the other 196 signatures are still on there.

      If the US isn't on there, then it doesn't mean jack shit...

    9. Re:Breaking News by KeensMustard · · Score: 1
      Good one.

      Tell you what:
      if we decide we need a view from a failed country on what means jack shit and what doesn't we'll be sure to give you a call :-)

    10. Re:Breaking News by KeensMustard · · Score: 1
      You know: I think you've hit upon something there. Whatever Trump does, it's largely irrelevant.

      That being said, it hardly relates to the topic at hand.

    11. Re:Breaking News by FlyHelicopters · · Score: 1

      Is that the best you can do for a reply?

    12. Re:Breaking News by KeensMustard · · Score: 1

      Why would I need a better one? Seems a waste

    13. Re:Breaking News by Feral+Nerd · · Score: 1

      A corrupt liar thinks another corrupt liar would be good for a job he doesn't understand. Details at 11.

      Meanwhile, I wonder Trump thinks he can cancel the Paris Climate Accord? WIll he take take some white out to cover over the names of the other signatories?

      Obama 'ratified' the treaty by exercising his executive agreement power. That's not technically 'ratification' but de-facto it is the same thing. This leaves Trump with three options. Firstly he can challenge whether this is a legitimate exercise of Legitimate executive agreement power. This can be a lengthy legal process and it might weaken the executive agreement power if it succeeds and that might be bad for trump if he wants to use it later so he may not want to exercise that option for the same reason that nobody has ever attempted to abolish filibustering, they might want to use it later so there is an unwritten agreement that nobody will abolish it. Secondly, Trump can simply withdraw from the UNFCCC which would leave the USA free to pig out on coal within a year. Failing that it would take four years to withdraw. One thing is for sure, he has to do something because the USA will not meet it's emissions targets by 2025 and there is no way he could meet that target with the current congress and senate even if he wanted to reduce emissions and he does not. The Coal lobby will be breathing down his neck along with every ultra right wing, borderline fascist Republican out there. which which these days seems to be about 90% of them so he has do do something quickly. I'm guessing he'll withdraw from the UNFCCC and then pig out on coal. That along with doubts about America's commitment to NATO, his obvious favouritism towards Putin, his rabid Xenophobia and the trade wars he has promised to ignite will in turn will in turn further strain his relationship with his European Allies where pollution reduction and clean energy is an important election issue, as opposed to the USA where the opposite now seems to be true. In the mean time Vladimir Putin will look upon of this series of events play out and smile as he sees Trump take another giant step towards separating itself it's oldest and most loyal allies.

    14. Re:Breaking News by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      The Paris accord is a joke. The EU has been INCREASING their Co2 output every year for the last 100 years. It isn't going to change. That is lipservice.

    15. Re:Breaking News by silas_moeckel · · Score: 1

      And they can go down that with that suicide pact, thats good for us. Hopefully we start bringing modern fission reactors online ya know realy fighting climate change.

      --
      No sir I dont like it.
    16. Re:Breaking News by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 1

      No, it just didn't occur to me that you were arguing against the claim that Trump could stop the Paris accords in other nations, as that is a claim absolutely no one has tried to make.

    17. Re:Breaking News by swillden · · Score: 4, Informative

      Of course Trump can cancel the Paris Climate Accord, at least for the US. The Senate never ratified it. It, in spite of being a treaty, was declared in force for the US on Obama's word alone. Trump's word alone can therefore repeal it.

      A nit: The Senate basically never ratifies treaties that the US enters. We almost never use the treaty process defined in the Constitution.

      What we do instead is what's called a "congressional-executive treaty", where the executive branch (usually the State Department, though sometimes the president personally) negotiates the terms and signs them. This signature does not obligate the country, unless everything being committed to is within the executive branch's authority (those are called sole executive treaties). Normally that's not the case, so the signature on its own is really nothing more than a commitment to go back to Congress and try to get enabling legislation passed which enacts the terms of the treaty as federal law. This is done through the normal legislative process, getting both houses to pass the legislation with a simple majority vote and then having the president sign it.

      The reason the congressional-executive process is used rather than the constitutional process is that it's usually easier to get majority approval of both houses than a 2/3 majority of one, especially since it leaves room for negotiation. Not generally on the agreed-on terms of the treaty, but on domestic side issues (i.e. pork).

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    18. Re:Breaking News by swillden · · Score: 1

      Who cares whether he convinces anyone? If the second-largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world refuses to comply, the accord is nearly useless. If the decision of the US to back out also causes the largest emitter (China) to back out, which is likely because it will erode their competitive advantage, then it's a dead letter since the two countries produce nearly half of the world's emissions.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    19. Re:Breaking News by fred6666 · · Score: 1

      in spite of being a treaty

      No, it is an executive agreement under US laws. It doesn't matter if other countries or even the press call it a treaty.

    20. Re:Breaking News by dywolf · · Score: 1

      its an accord, not a treaty.

      --
      The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
    21. Re:Breaking News by RandomSurfer314 · · Score: 1

      Sure, but then the US will also be held responsible for the consequences by future generations in all countries. You can ignore reality for some time, but it will come back and bite you in the ass at some day. It's a bit like ignoring bills by not opening them. Nice short-term solution, but not good in the long run. (Just so you don't get me wrong, in saying that I'm assuming that more than 95% of climate scientists are currently not entirely wrong, of course. If they turn out to be wrong in 50 years from now, which is always a possibility, then the laugh is on you. If...)

    22. Re:Breaking News by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

      Any significant party in the Paris climate accord can effectively cancel the whole thing. Without the participation of all significant polluters (and at least a majority of small polluters) it turns from a climate agreement into an infinite carbon-credit giveaway to whoever isn't signed onto the accord. See also: Kyoto protocol and how completely useless it was without the US (and later Canada).

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    23. Re:Breaking News by RandomSurfer314 · · Score: 1

      You've elected a steak salesman who can barely formulate two complete sentences in a row unless he reads from a teleprompter as your president. Idiocracy is alive and well. What else should he have replied?

    24. Re:Breaking News by KeensMustard · · Score: 1

      And they can go down that with that suicide pact, thats good for us.

      Errr No. The countries that invest early win. You're already behind.

      Hopefully we start bringing modern fission reactors online ya know realy fighting climate change.

      With what investment? Trump has committed to coal, even though nobodies buying it. No fission reactors for you! For us? Yes.

    25. Re:Breaking News by KeensMustard · · Score: 1

      Correct. There are no penalties and no enforcement mechanisms. Aaand so why is Trump afraid of being signed up to it?

    26. Re:Breaking News by KeensMustard · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Who cares? If other countries want to sign away their economies in some sort of suicide pact, that is their right.

      You signed your country over to a guy whose only claim to fame is failing at business. Maybe other countries aren't looking to you to tell them how to do things right?

      Then their populations have the right to kick their corrupt lying asses out of office just like how we stopped Hillary here.

      That sounds like the kind of bullshit that Trump says.

    27. Re:Breaking News by KeensMustard · · Score: 1
      Except for Trump.

      But then he is a moron.

    28. Re:Breaking News by KeensMustard · · Score: 1

      Which other signatories are you thinking he would need to white out?

      All of them. That seems obvious.

      No, but I do wonder about the relevance of this question. Trump doesn't need to convince anyone, anywhere, in order to get the US out of it, does he?

      Trump says he wants the Accord cancelled. The accord can (and probably will) go on regardless of whether the US is in it.

      So what will he do to convince others to withdraw?

    29. Re:Breaking News by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      You meant "suicide prevention pact", right?

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    30. Re:Breaking News by KeensMustard · · Score: 1

      Any significant party in the Paris climate accord can effectively cancel the whole thing.

      Is Trump's America a significant party?

    31. Re:Breaking News by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      So a treaty signed this year is a joke because it didn't affect the previous one hundred years? That's some interesting view on causality.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    32. Re:Breaking News by TangoMargarine · · Score: 1

      No, but why are you even asking? What's your point?

      --
      Unity? Screw that: XFCE. Slashdot Beta? Screw that: SoylentNews. Australis? Screw that: Pale Moon. UX developers DIAF
    33. Re:Breaking News by TangoMargarine · · Score: 1

      You seem to not quite understand how government works...

      I was under the impression that Trump didn't like government. Shouldn't he be getting on with dismantling the government?

      Probably after he's actually inaugurated? I can't tell how many levels of sarcasm and/or stupidity we're operating on here.

      --
      Unity? Screw that: XFCE. Slashdot Beta? Screw that: SoylentNews. Australis? Screw that: Pale Moon. UX developers DIAF
    34. Re:Breaking News by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

      The 2nd biggest after China, to be precise.

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    35. Re:Breaking News by KeensMustard · · Score: 1

      See above

    36. Re:Breaking News by KeensMustard · · Score: 1
      I think you'll find that to be Obama's America.

      Once Trump's plans kick in (mostly around making products nobody wants and digging up coal that nobody will buy, sending money he doesn't have and furiously suing all mockers in between night long sessions rage tweeting about girls who spurned him), we can expect a steep decline from Obama's America. The only thing significant about Trump's America will the unemployment lines and debt.

    37. Re:Breaking News by KeensMustard · · Score: 1

      Probably after he's actually inaugurated?

      So he IS going to dismantle the government once inaugurated?

    38. Re:Breaking News by Raenex · · Score: 1

      only claim to fame is failing at business

      I wish I failed at business so hard I could fly around in my own jet.

    39. Re:Breaking News by KeensMustard · · Score: 1

      Why is that?

    40. Re:Breaking News by FlyHelicopters · · Score: 1

      You've elected a steak salesman who can barely formulate two complete sentences in a row unless he reads from a teleprompter as your president. Idiocracy is alive and well. What else should he have replied?

      He should have a brain and understand the situation, but he doesn't...

      No ruler rules alone, Trump is just the figurehead, the real question is, who really runs things...

      Answer? Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner. She has her daddy's ear and he knows what he is doing. She got him to get rid of the first two campaign managers and give it to Kellyanne Conway (a very qualified woman). He got Trump to keep Chris Christie off the ticket (Trump wanted him as VP) and got him to demote Chris Christie today from the head of the transition team.

      Mike Pence is now the "head" of the transition team in name, but the vice-chairs of it are now Ivanka and Jared, who are really running things.

      I would very much like to see Ivanka run for President in 2024. When she gave her speech at the RNC convention, I rather thought we had nominated the wrong Trump. But she is too young and not ready for that, give it 8 years...

    41. Re:Breaking News by Raenex · · Score: 1

      Because you have to be obscenely rich to be able to afford your own jet, so he's not the failure you make him out to be. It's annoying to have to explain the obvious to people.

    42. Re:Breaking News by KeensMustard · · Score: 1

      Perhaps he paid for it illegally out of Trump foundation - just like those giant portraits of himself and the money he stole from the charity to pay court settlement costs?

    43. Re:Breaking News by Raenex · · Score: 1

      It reportedly cost $100 million in 2011. According to Wikipedia, "Since inception through 2015, Donald Trump has contributed $5.5 million to the Trump Foundation while outside donors have contributed an additional $9.3 million."

      And anybody giving to the Trump Foundation was probably doing it for business reasons and not actual charity. As in it's probably a tax dodge. The rich are quite fond of them.

      Yeah, the guy's a corrupt businessman, a successful one. Just like the Clintons were corrupt politicians and also successful -- quite successful financially. Not many politicians can make tens of millions of dollars just by being politicians and not owning a business.

      And just to refute your earlier point even further, Trump was already famous before his biggest business failures. He was always very good at marketing himself.

    44. Re:Breaking News by TangoMargarine · · Score: 1

      IF he's going to dismantle the government THEN it will be after he's inaugurated.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      --
      Unity? Screw that: XFCE. Slashdot Beta? Screw that: SoylentNews. Australis? Screw that: Pale Moon. UX developers DIAF
    45. Re:Breaking News by KeensMustard · · Score: 1

      Is he is isn't he?

      Do you expect Trump to keep his campaign promises?

      What will you do if he doesn't?

    46. Re:Breaking News by swillden · · Score: 1

      Then just answer YES bitch ... Trump can cancel the treaty with a pen-stroke.

      You need to work on your reading comprehension skills.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    47. Re:Breaking News by TangoMargarine · · Score: 1

      What will *I* do personally? There's nothing I *can* do about it (short of indignantly moving to Canada, and no). So I won't bother to predict one way or the other what he'll do.

      Why do you care about my opinion?

      --
      Unity? Screw that: XFCE. Slashdot Beta? Screw that: SoylentNews. Australis? Screw that: Pale Moon. UX developers DIAF
    48. Re:Breaking News by KeensMustard · · Score: 1

      What will *I* do personally? There's nothing I *can* do about it (short of indignantly moving to Canada, and no). So I won't bother to predict one way or the other what he'll do.

      There is a lot you can do. Protest. Write to your congressman. Thwart him with legal cases, Fund organisations that block his path.

      And by the by, if hardworking, dedicated and honest Americans want somewhere to live for a few years, then may I say you'd be welcome to sit it out in my country (provided you contribute something, which the vast majority of temporary visa holders do). We welcome refugees - just don't come by boat.

  17. Wow the brainwashing!! Greenpeace activist? by evil9000 · · Score: 1, Insightful

    "a group of climate change denialists and alarmists."

    The guy is a geologist, the enemy of WWF, Sierra club and Greenpeace. They explain that the climate is always changing because that is what humans have discovered after hundreds if not thousands of years of investigation. To toss that aside immediately because he disagrees with Obama's hand picked ex head of the UN WMO John Holdren?

    But it also shows that you do not need to have any understanding of science, economics, history or even culture to post anything to /. and immediately assume it is correct.

    Have these environmentalists proven there is a hot spot of CO2 feed backing heat to water vapour? UNSW has! They used wind-sheer off the coast of NSW to prove there is a hot spot over the equator. Sarcasm aside, no, we measure that area of air and it is either the same temperature or has actually decreased. Have you heard? If you havnt, you've been reading the MSM and /. and soylent news. It is as if these places are gatekept for consistency of this unproven science.

    The inability to think is anti-science. Anti-philosophy. It is parallel to the inquisition where society all agreed that WITCHES caused the climate to change. These people need to be locked up before they ruin more lives on imaginary quests which only require more of your money to make happen - otherwise we'll threaten your children's unborn children with unjustifiable temperature or sea level rises. Or we'll rename man made global warming to something else and ask for twice the amount of money (83 trillion isnt enough?!)

    Disgraceful.

    People need to start thinking otherwise they will fall for other scams which use the same tricks.

    1. Re:Wow the brainwashing!! Greenpeace activist? by jrumney · · Score: 1

      The guy is a geologist

      Really? Is that the capacity he was working in at Phillip Morris? Or was his BA in Geology? I know it wasn't his MSc, because that was in political theory.

    2. Re:Wow the brainwashing!! Greenpeace activist? by MightyMartian · · Score: 1, Flamebait

      Water vapor, including cloud cover, while not perfectly modeled, is considered to be relatively consistent over time. If you have some evidence to counter this, please provide it.

      But you don't, because you're a fucking retard who just mouths Heartland Institute talking points. You're an infantile child who is too cowardly to admit the truth. You're pathetic and vile and stupid.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  18. So no one read the fucking article? by the_Bionic_lemming · · Score: 5, Informative

    This is one of the scare pieces the media ran to frighten liberals into destroying trump.

    The article was written BEFORE Tuesday.

    And judging from the cesspool responses in this thread, I'm also going to be exiting from reading and commenting here.

    Beau, you should be ashamed of yourself. Either you aren't doing your job and being an editor, or you are abusing your job and being a jackass.

    --
    _ _ _ Go for the eyes Boo! GO FOR THE EYES!
    1. Re:So no one read the fucking article? by khchung · · Score: 2

      Beau, you should be ashamed of yourself. Either you aren't doing your job and being an editor, or you are abusing your job and being a jackass.

      See how many comments and clicks this piece generated? That's /. editor doing his job.

      --
      Oliver.
    2. Re:So no one read the fucking article? by vinlud · · Score: 1

      Do you really think Trump is going to appoint a top climate scientist considering the situation where the GOP controls everything?

      Even without the article it is fair to expect some radical changes for the worse in climate and energy policy in 2017...

      --
      Repeat after me: We are all individuals
    3. Re:So no one read the fucking article? by OoSync · · Score: 1

      It was written in September because transition planning in both parties was underway.

      So....maybe its still relevant.
      We'll know soon enough.

      --

      I always get the shakes before a drop.
    4. Re:So no one read the fucking article? by bytesex · · Score: 1

      "So no one read the fucking article?"

      This. Is. SLAAAAASHHHDOOOOOT!!!!!!

      --
      Religion is what happens when nature strikes and groupthink goes wrong.
    5. Re:So no one read the fucking article? by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

      So you're saying Trump isn't an AGW denier and doesn't count other AGW deniers as his close advisers? Oh wait, you pulled out because you don't actually want to have to answer that question.

      AGW pseudo-skeptics really are a pack of cowards, which most certainly indicates that a fair portion of them actually know that AGW is real, but either are sociopaths who don't really care if it fucks of everyone else, or believe that a few more years can be squeezed out of fossil fuels, and then it's some future government's problem.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  19. Re:The truth is that it does not matter. by Dunbal · · Score: 1

    Slowing down population growth only postpones the inevitable. It does not avoid it. IF global warming is anthropogenic then it is a direct function of population size. The more people there are, the more goods have to be produced, the more land has to be farmed, the more pollution is created. But there is only ONE way to reduce population size in anything less than a period of thousands of years. Any volunteers?

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  20. Re: Oh, god damn it. by Jzanu · · Score: 2

    Wrong. Coastlines are flooding now, desertification is already increasing, and massive populations are already moving on short notice as lands become untenable.

  21. Re: No by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If you want to save people, work out a plan to deal with a Carrington event (look it up) or the super volcano under Yellowstone. Those actually matter more, because they would be sudden catastrophes with immediate widespread consequences, not something that happens gradually so there is time to mitigate. Plus if Yellowstone happens, all your climate science and anti global warming measures go right out the window, because the ash in the air overrides it. Plan for those, THEN talk to me about global warming. It might be a problem, but it isn't the problem to worry about first.

  22. Re:MAD - and some of you will be by whoever57 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The US needs energy independence. Renewables are now providing some of the cheapest electricity (recent bids for offshore wind power in Europe are at levels below electricity from coal). Renewables employs more people than fossil fuels in the USA. Renewables don't rely on a politically unstable region of the world, where the US has had to spend huge resources to ensure continued supplies.

    We need oil today, but our investment should be in renewables. Focusing on fossil fuels is not an economically sound decision, even if you discount global climate change.

    --
    The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
  23. Re:Godspeed you Mr. President. by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Funny

    Finally someone with the nads to stand up to these nozzles spewing junk science.

    Teach them scientists with their fancy book-learnin' a less, once and for all. Who's with me?

    If ignorance was good enough for my daddy and my grandaddy before me, then by gum, it's good enough for me. Godspeed you Mr President.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  24. Re: No by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Time to mitigate only matters if people are going to mitigate. They are not, so the time is irrelevant.

  25. Re:The truth is that it does not matter. by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    IF global warming is anthropogenic then it is a direct function of population size.

    Nonsense. We could build things to last and keep them longer. We could use more insulation so that we use less heating oil. We could make hay while the sun shines not just literally but also in manufacturing so that we can use more wind power and the like which goes through production cycles. It's affected by population size, but there's a whole lot of other factors. Right now the primary driver is greed.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  26. jokes on the EPA by frovingslosh · · Score: 1

    I'm sure that Trump is just doing this to screw with those who still thought this country could be saved.

    --
    I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
  27. Re:The truth is that it does not matter. by Dunbal · · Score: 1

    I realize this. I have two children with my first wife. My second wife chose not to have any which is fine because I got a vasectomy after the birth of my second anyway. I always felt I was entitled to replacement - a child for each parent, but that more kids was unreasonable in a modern technological world - and expensive to boot. So between my first and second marriages I've had below replacement value of children, on average.

    But there are people who feel that it's not a problem or worse, that it's some sort of divine mandate to have as many children as they possibly can. Worldwide the global population is still exploding especially in the poorer countries. And unfortunately politicians panic, for very selfish reasons, when they see their country's fertility rates plummet (as is normal as high socio-economic development is attained). This doesn't work when you're running deficits and trying desperately to grow your tax base to make up shortfalls. So you import foreigners from poor countries to breed and keep your fertility rate HIGH. And then you complain about all the pollution, and how water has to be rationed because the water table is disappearing, etc...

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  28. Let's play "WHO SAID IT?" by Jhon · · Score: 1, Informative

    “Elections have consequences, and at the end of the day, I won.”

    Wait for it...

    "President Obama"

    1. Re:Let's play "WHO SAID IT?" by hey! · · Score: 2

      Which is not a license to act like a fool.

      Here's the thing about democracy: it doesn't guarantee you good government. It only gives you the ability to kick a bad one out.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  29. Is it time to start isolating USA? by Misagon · · Score: 1

    The world can fight climate change only if it can keep uninfluenced by the anti-science movement in the US.
    That can happen only if we deny them influence over global politics and the global economy. The rest of the world has relocate its interests elsewhere, and learn to stand up and say no to USA.
    It may seem radical and impossible and not particularly constructive.. but I don't see any other way forward.
    The point is to allow the civilized world to stay constructive and progressive about the climate issue.

    Trump and his supporters does not want global trade? Fine!
    They want a wall against Mexico. Then let's build one along the Canadian border to USA as well.
    Welcome Californa and New York as free states in the new world if they chose to leave the union. By all means, let the Red(neck) states keep to themselves as much as they want. They chose disaster for themselves. We should not let them chose disaster for us.

    --
    "We mustn't be caught by surprise by our own advancing technology" -- Aldous Huxley
    1. Re:Is it time to start isolating USA? by I'm+New+Around+Here · · Score: 1

      The world can fight climate change only if it can keep uninfluenced by the anti-science movement in the US.
      That can happen only if we deny them influence over global politics and the global economy. The rest of the world has relocate its interests elsewhere, and learn to stand up and say no to USA.
      It may seem radical and impossible and not particularly constructive.. but I don't see any other way forward.
      The point is to allow the civilized world to stay constructive and progressive about the climate issue.

      Trump and his supporters does not want global trade? Fine!
      They want a wall against Mexico. Then let's build one along the Canadian border to USA as well.
      Welcome Californa and New York as free states in the new world if they chose to leave the union. By all means, let the Red(neck) states keep to themselves as much as they want. They chose disaster for themselves. We should not let them chose disaster for us.

      Tell you what -- you can have the Democrat controlled parts of California and New York state, fold them into Canada, and not let them import any food, electricity, or gasoline from the hick states surrounding them.

      I'd call that a great deal for the rest of us.

      --
      If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
    2. Re:Is it time to start isolating USA? by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 1

      They want a wall against Mexico. Then let's build one along the Canadian border to USA as well.

      Canada might beat us to that to keep us out. :-)

      --
      It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    3. Re: Is it time to start isolating USA? by I'm+New+Around+Here · · Score: 1

      You have extremely poor reading comprehension. I specifically was responding to this statement:

      Welcome Californa and New York as free states in the new world if they chose to leave the union. By all means, let the Red(neck) states keep to themselves as much as they want. They chose disaster for themselves. We should not let them chose disaster for us.

      I'm not the one that made the offer of separating California and New York from the rest of the country. I just felt empathy for the hard workers that were being sacrificed to the liberal nightmare. So I suggested that we should just let the liberal cesspools leave, and keep the people who actually produce something.

      Because I noticed that you didn't mention any restrictions on the "hick states" so they can still get what they want.

      The restrictions of the hick states is that they can no longer sell food, power, or fuel to Los Angeles, British Columbia (Annexed), Canada, or to New York, Ontario (Annexed), Canada. The hick states also can no longer see movies made by ultra-leftist movie stars that think everyone in the hick states are scum, nor can they access the corrupt financial institutions that caused the economic collapse across the hick states a few years ago.

      See? Win-win.

      Have a nice Trump-day. #:^)

      --
      If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
    4. Re:Is it time to start isolating USA? by fnj · · Score: 1

      Water. Don't let them siphon off the water from the real world either. We'll see how the scruffy lunatics like that.

    5. Re:Is it time to start isolating USA? by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      Ask yourself why Canada and the EU have been increasing their Co2 output every year, but ONLY the US has reduced it.

    6. Re:Is it time to start isolating USA? by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

      That may be a bit too radical but I had a similar though. As soon as Trump was elected I started thinking that the leaders of other countries should form a secret "Trump containment coalition" where they can plan on how to work together to limit the influence of this jackass on international politics until he's voted out. It's something every country not ruled by a strongman or far-right party could agree on.

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    7. Re:Is it time to start isolating USA? by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1
      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    8. Re:Is it time to start isolating USA? by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1
      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
  30. Excellent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I love skeptics. People should be skeptical of EVERYTHING the supposed world government is demanding of them.

    1. Re:Excellent by plopez · · Score: 1

      And the posts you read on the internet

      --
      putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
  31. Re: Oh, god damn it. by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 2

    The fact is that even if every American citizen biked to work, carpooled to school, used only solar panels to power their homes, if we each planted a dozen trees, if we somehow eliminated all of our domestic greenhouse emissions, guess what - that still wouldn't be enough to offset the carbon pollution coming from the rest of the world.

    If all the industrial nations went down to zero emissions...it wouldn't be enough, not when more than 65 percent of the world's carbon pollution comes from the developing world.

    -- John Kerry

    Well, it's a good thing that Trump wants to bring those factories back home where we can keep an eye on them. Plus, think of all the other good effects from making our own products again. Good thing Hillary the crooked globalist didn't win, eh? Her idea was to go ahead with TPP and shove even MORE globalism down our throats. Hurrah for democracy!

    --
    Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
  32. Re: And so it begins... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    How come the left accuses the right of fearmongering all the time, but when their puppet masters dish it out, they lap it up like a dog laps up its own throw up.

  33. Re:The truth is that it does not matter. by gumbi+west · · Score: 1

    then you need to make more insulation. I looked at having my insulation increased in about a $5,000 deal. It would save me about $200/year. Probably making the insulation creates more polution than the energy wasted because I don't have it.

  34. Re:The truth is that it does not matter. by Dunbal · · Score: 1

    We could build things to last and keep them longer.

    That fixes a problem with GARBAGE. How will you magically build these durable things without producing CO2? You still need to build the factories that build these durable things, and build the things themselves. Plus entropy works against you - there's no such thing as a product that will last forever.

    We could use more insulation so that we use less heating oil.

    That insulation has to be manufactured. It has to be shipped to where you need it. It has to be installed.

    While you are suggesting techniques that would "stretch" our resources if they were even possible, this merely postpones the problem. As long as the population growth rate remains POSITIVE, we are inevitably going to hit the wall one way or another. Since killing millions or even billions of people is not an acceptable solution to our morality (unless their invisible sky wizard says something offensive about our invisible sky wizard), this problem is one we are irreversibly stuck with no matter what we do - especially IF we have already crossed this mysterious threshold that sends our planet into an irreversible plunge into greenhouse mode.

    Right now the primary driver is greed.

    Assuming you are not living in a hippy commune in the woods somewhere (and you're not, because you're using a computer and connected to the internet) you are guilty of that very same greed. Greed for the convenience of modern life. It's easy to blame it all on "the corporations" or "the 1%", but in reality we are to blame. You. Me. Each and every one of us. After all, if no one bought the products, no one would waste time selling them...

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  35. Re: Oh, god damn it. by gumbi+west · · Score: 1

    Bad news, those factories aren't coming back. And if they do, robots will work in them.

  36. Re: Oh, god damn it. by h33t+l4x0r · · Score: 2

    Right, that's where things like UN economic sanctions come into play. We can expect USA to be more on the receiving end of those than the giving end for the next four years or so.

  37. Re: Oh, god damn it. by gweilo8888 · · Score: 1

    Oh so very much this. We love to point at China and scream "It's all their fault", but those Chinese factories are predominantly making products for the Western world, and tailoring their processes to minimize the cost over all else as we specifically told them to do. If our companies were requiring them to have proper environmental controls and we were willing to pay the extra cost, I'm sure they'd be more than happy to make their factories cleaner.

  38. Re: Oh, god damn it. by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So let me get this straight. If you lived on a street where several of your neighbors were murderers, your solution wouldn't be to try to get them put away, your solution would be to grab an ax and join them in the frenzy?

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  39. Re:MAD - and some of you will be by FlyHelicopters · · Score: 1

    You can't compare the price of coal in Europe to the price of coal in the US.

  40. Re: Oh, god damn it. by MightyMartian · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Or we could just move to alternative energy sources? Why in the fuck should we spend untold trillions on engineering the climate just so we can keep burning oil, when we could, you know, stop burning fucking oil.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  41. Re:Oh, god damn it. by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

    Let's imagine if several other major trading partners started slapping tariffs on American exports as a means of making the US pay for its lack of action on climate change.

    Are you going to bomb the EU into buying American goods?

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  42. She was pretty anti-coal by rsilvergun · · Score: 5, Informative

    and it cost her Ohio. Coal's pretty worthless if you're not willing to allow massive pollution of the kind that has immediately negative consequences for people's quality of life. Sure, you can make steel with it instead of burning it for power, but there's a glut of Chinese steel that's not going away anytime soon.

    The thing about Hilary is she wasn't going to make things better but she also wasn't going to make them worse. Trump will accelerate all the bad stuff while his running mate + supreme court picks take away women's reproductive rights. If you have a wife, girlfriend or daughter and no anything about the terror that is child birth left up to God's whim you know this is terrifying...

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    1. Re:She was pretty anti-coal by Uberbah · · Score: 2

      And if you believe that, I have some oceanfront property in Ohio I'd love to sell you at a cheap rate.

      No. It's because she was the candidate of NAFTA and the TPP, which have been (and will be) devastating to Ohio. Don't cast about for arcane excuses when the truth is right in front of you.

    2. Re:She was pretty anti-coal by tfmg_b · · Score: 1
      Yes she was anti-coal. This is why you were made hate her and love Trump.

      http://thinkprogress.org/clima... "the exposure—response between CO2 and cognitive function is approximately linear across the concentrations used,” [500 ppm - 1500 ppm]"

    3. Re:She was pretty anti-coal by Sir+Holo · · Score: 1

      and it cost her Ohio. Coal's pretty worthless if you're not willing to allow massive pollution of the kind that has immediately negative consequences for people's quality of life. Sure, you can make steel with it instead of burning it for power, but there's a glut of Chinese steel that's not going away anytime soon.

      Wasn't there a glut of cheap Japanese steel in the 1970s that had a similar effect?

      Your 6-digit ID# indicates that you were probably around just as the aftermath of that was hitting. Of course, as a small-ish island nation, Japan might have had less to worry about in terms of the trapped smoke and smog that some major industrial cities in China have. They're on the coast, but the sea-breeze pushes everything inland, and several of those cities are ringed by mountain ranges, trapping the smog in. Kind of like LA.

    4. Re:She was pretty anti-coal by njahnke · · Score: 1

      Sure, you can make steel with it instead of burning it for power, but there's a glut of Chinese steel that's not going away anytime soon.

      What if Trump slaps a fat tariff on that, like he's indicated he will do?

    5. Re:She was pretty anti-coal by Cederic · · Score: 1

      I agree with you, it's all dancing around the issue. It's not reproductive rights.

      It's the choice around elimination of an unwanted parasite that endangers a woman's health.

      I think that choice belongs to every woman about her own body, but I'm not actually pro-choice. I'm pro abortion.

    6. Re:She was pretty anti-coal by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 1

      Trade can create or destroy jobs, typically in small magnitude for small effects. Go 3 paragraphs down for the funny part.

      Numbers. Importing a 40-foot long shipping container from China costs under $1,300. They hold 40,000 pants or jackets, at a unit cost of 6.5 cents per each to import. Chinese labor averages roughly $3.50/hr, including wage and social insurances. The import share of MBCT (essentially, the cost of Chinese labor) is $6.12 per unit.

      Men and Boys's Cotton Trousers imported from China, for example, represent $1.197 billion (of $2,760 billion) imports into America (versus $2,230 billion exports). If we stopped importing MBCT from China and made them in America, we'd lose jobs if we paid all Americans involved (factory workers, people maintaining the factories, machinists, the people at the power plant, the people making the fuel to generate power, etc) above $18/hr, and gain American jobs if we paid below $18/hr.

      Paying the Americans $21/hr ($23.85 when you include benefits and payroll taxes), we would create 50,627 American jobs, and lose 59,627 American jobs. That's a net-loss of 8,630 jobs. For that loss, the average $14.97 price of MBCT would rise to $50.57. At an $8.25/hr minimum wage, we would create nearly American 20,000 jobs, and only raise the average price of MBCT to just over $25.

      So here's the best bit: this only matters for a short time. Population grows faster or slower based on scarcity or, as per Malthus, on abundance: if there's overall more wealth, there's less poverty, and population expands until the general effect of poverty causes a slowing of growth.

      If blocking trade loses jobs (e.g. in Ohio), then the number of unemployed will decrease in as little as 3-5 years (largely by people going into early retirement at 59 1/2 instead of getting bigger benefits at 70 1/2, in America; also by the poor dying). If blocking trade creates jobs, then the number of job-seekers will expand (partly by discouraged workers becoming active, by less early-retirement, and by less poverty extending lifespans; in the long run, by faster population growth). The opposite is also true: whether trade creates jobs or loses jobs, the employment impact is null within half a generation.

      Those pants, however, will stay expensive if you reduce trade.

      That goes for things like TVs also. Taiwanese and Korean semiconductors assembled onto Chinese circuit boards and cases in Chinese factories. 52 inch flat screen TV imports to America for $1.80 per unit in a 40-foot container. $487 labor share for a $500 TV. For $21/hr American factory workers making the chips, the screens, the boards, and the plastic components, it's a $3,300 TV; for $8.25/hr minimum wage, it's a $1,450 TV.

      Without trade, TVs, computers, cell phones, and the like are luxury goods bought by the same kind of people who buy a Tesla Model S for $85,000 today. Are you going to spend $3,000 or more on a computer, plus $1000+ on the monitor, and buy yourself a new $1,800-$2,500 smart phone every 2-3 years? Even if we go with minimum wage jobs, what minimum-wage worker is going to buy a $1,500 television, or an $8,000 television, or a $2,000 phone?

      Bernie Sanders says a lot of things starting with "you don't need a Ph.D. in economics to understand...." Maybe, if he had Ph.D. in Economics, he wouldn't say stupid shit about trade being bad for Americans. Nobody wants to think past "Mexican picking vegetables? An American can pick vegetables!" to "how much would that raise the price of the vegetables? After spending that extra on food, how much less would Americans have to spend on other things? How many jobs does that represent?"

      People are dumb enough to think money comes into existence when you receive your paycheck, and can't fathom that there's a finite amount of money in every time frame--2015 had $15.4 trillion of total income because $15.4 trillion of stuff was bought, and the extra $0.6 trillion over 2014 came from a combination of e

  43. Re:MAD - and some of you will be by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

    But the short term stimulation will come at medium and long term costs that will outweigh any short term benefit. It's like a guy who makes money selling blood who thinks if he just ups the amount he sells by a couple of pints a day, he'll have more money in his wallet. Well yes, for a very brief that's true, but then he's going to end up seriously anemic, extremely ill, and whatever he made in selling blood, and more than that, will have to spent to get him healthy again.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  44. Disingenuous all around by SlaveToTheGrind · · Score: 5, Informative

    1. The SA article is dated September 26, but the submitter carefully worded the opening sentence to make it sound like a post-election event ("Trump's transition team is steamrolling ahead to transition the government"). Those people we call "editors" either didn't check it or didn't care.
    2. The SA article presents this as an absolute fact, but then essentially says "a little birdie told me so." Other sources (including one written today) are honest enough to call it what it is: a rumor.

    1. Re:Disingenuous all around by andydread · · Score: 1

      So are you saying that the content in the article is untrue? that this never happened? That he didn't pick a major anti-science oil company lobbyist to head EPA transition?

    2. Re:Disingenuous all around by Sir+Holo · · Score: 1

      2. The SA article presents this as an absolute fact, but then essentially says "a little birdie told me so." Other sources (including one written today) are honest enough to call it what it is: a rumor.

      Oh, the stupid. It hurts. It really fucking hurts to click on such a link as @SlaveToTheGrind provided. The facts presented in the link allow even the casual observer to note that the cited 'guy in lab-coat' is a PR flack.

      I know that you were trying to argue, and not troll. But, oh, Flying H. Spaghetti Monster, you picked a 'supporting link' that actually demolished your own argument. Sorry.

      I gently encourage you to verify your sources before posting them as support for a Comment. It saves everyone a lot of time.

      Thanks.

    3. Re:Disingenuous all around by acrimonious+howard · · Score: 1

      Yep. I do agree in the disdain for the wording. But given the surprise results of the election, I'd also say it just didn't seem to matter before. As a nerd who believes in science, I didn't believe that this EPA pick mattered much until I realized it was actually likely to happen. I mean, what are the odds he actually appoints Ebell? I'd say 70/30 at this point.

    4. Re:Disingenuous all around by SlaveToTheGrind · · Score: 1

      Unsurprisingly, your rhetorical spew didn't quote a single word from the article I linked. Let me help you out:

      Donald Trump is rumored to appoint Myron Ebell, a climate change denier, as head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

      Next, carefully compare that quote to my statement above:

      Other sources (including one written today) are honest enough to call it what it is: a rumor .

      I know reading comprehension is really undervalued these days, but give it a try -- the results may amaze you.

      Thanks.

    5. Re:Disingenuous all around by Sir+Holo · · Score: 1

      Unsurprisingly, your rhetorical spew didn't quote a single word from the article I linked. Let me help you out:

      Donald Trump is rumored to appoint Myron Ebell, a climate change denier, as head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

      Next, carefully compare that quote to my statement above:

      Other sources (including one written today) are honest enough to call it what it is: a rumor .

      So, you expect other people to predict what will be published or commented-on IN THE FUTURE?

      Are you serious, or just seriously lacking in the ability to evaluate arguments in chronological order?
        . .

      I know reading comprehension is really undervalued these days...

      You are a walking, talking example of FAIL in reading comprehension.

    6. Re:Disingenuous all around by SlaveToTheGrind · · Score: 1

      So, you expect other people to predict what will be published or commented-on IN THE FUTURE?

      No, I expect other people, and in particular a journal like Scientific American, not to couch as factual that which is solely based on rumors from anonymous sources. But I'm very comfortable you understand that and are just trying to save face over your original embarrassingly misguided post.

  45. Re:The truth is that it does not matter. by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 1

    Slowing down population growth only postpones the inevitable. It does not avoid it.

    But reversing population growth, where the death rate surpasses the birth rate, avoids the "inevitable" quite nicely. And that's happening in places, and the number of those places are growing.

  46. Re:The truth is that it does not matter. by FlyHelicopters · · Score: 1

    Nonsense. We could build things to last and keep them longer.

    We "could" do many things... but we aren't likely to do so...

    You're just having a bout of wishful thinking...

  47. Re:You personally can reduce carbon footprint by by I'm+New+Around+Here · · Score: 1

    Eating less beef

    Do you know how energy and water intensive vegetable farming is? Do you know how much more energy and irrigation will be needed to grow succulents on the grasslands that now support cattle?

    --
    If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
  48. This was the real problem with the Bush Jr Admin by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    he put cronies in charge that had no idea what the hell they were doing. That's a large part of why New Orleans was such a cluster fuck (aside from diverting billions meant for their levies to the war in Iraq). The Trump presidency won't just be about corruption. They'll be plenty of gross incompetence to go around. I pity anyone who lives in a state with real natural disasters. Jesus I hope the weather holds...

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  49. Published: Monday, September 26, 2016 by qubezz · · Score: 1

    Old news, it is from almost two months ago. http://www.eenews.net/climatew...

    1. Re:Published: Monday, September 26, 2016 by Z80a · · Score: 1

      Was you one of the guys that made third party a thing?
      Next election the libertarian party will have federal funding and probably a real shot at getting at least some senators elected thanks to this.

  50. The EPA by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

    You mean this EPA?

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    1. Re:The EPA by plopez · · Score: 1

      You mean the disaster caused by a private contractor and which the EPA s struggling to scrape money together to fix?

      --
      putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
    2. Re:The EPA by Orgasmatron · · Score: 1

      Woah! Are you saying that I can avoid responsibility for my actions by hiring an intermediary to pull the trigger?

      --
      See that "Preview" button?
    3. Re:The EPA by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      No, the actual spill was directly caused by the EPA, accidentally of course, but they did it.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    4. Re:The EPA by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

      Well, don't worry, with deregulation and the likely defunding of any federal body with any ability to monitor such disasters, you'll never really know if you're being poisoned. You'll be a good citizen, crawl your ass to the voting booth every couple of years, blaming them damned Liberals for saying your sick, even as your body fills with toxic levels of metals and with tumors.

      We saw this already with GWB, but the Trump presidency is literally going to terminate any government ability to monitor the ill effects of just simply allowing private interests to shit over the environment and the global climate. Of course some states, mainly blue ones (which tend to be the richest states anyways), will continue to do their best to monitor and alleviate the situation, but those are those damned Liberals again, trying to make God-fearing fag-hating oil-drinking Americans feel bad about themselves, and this is all about making AMERICA GREAT!!!

      Meanwhile, the rest of the planet will have to try to make do, and in the end, they'll probably have to start erecting their own trade barriers against US goods to try to keep a country now run by anti-intellectual anti-scientific morons who somehow believe making some wealthy industrialists even wealthier is the prime directive of a nation of over 300 million people to make sure that the US's newfound love of vomiting CO2 into the atmosphere and poisoning two oceans is properly priced.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  51. Re:MAD - and some of you will be by whoever57 · · Score: 2

    You can't compare the price of coal in Europe to the price of coal in the US.

    That's true, but the latest bids for European offshore wind power are at rates that are comparable to US prices for electricity from coal (less than .05 euro per kWh). Prices for solar and wind power are dropping very quickly, whether residential or utility-scale projects.

    --
    The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
  52. Check out this guy's science background. by hey! · · Score: 5, Informative

    According to Wikipedia he's got a BA in philosophy and a M.Sc in politics. Between getting out of school and setting himself as a climate expert he worked as a lobbyist for the tobacco industry.

    He has never done anything STEM related or worked in any other field but politics.

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    1. Re:Check out this guy's science background. by hey! · · Score: 2

      The qualifications for presenting the scientific consensus and contradicting the scientific consensus are different.

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    2. Re:Check out this guy's science background. by Calydor · · Score: 1

      So he is literally a career politician. Wasn't that exactly what was so terrible about Hillary?

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  53. Lobbyist expect Trump to approve H1B visa increase by JoeyRox · · Score: 1

    Unrelated to this article but thought others would find this interesting. It's only one lobbyist's opinion but...

    "The chamber already knows there are certain items Mr. Trump has said he will not support, like the current versions of trade deals with Asia or comprehensive changes in the nationâ(TM)s immigration laws, which the chamber pushed during Mr. Obamaâ(TM)s tenure. But there are aspects of each of these plans, like increasing the number of visas for highly skilled foreign workers, that Mr. Josten said he expects Mr. Trump to endorse."

    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/11/us/politics/lobbyists-trump.html

  54. Re:MAD - and some of you will be by FlyHelicopters · · Score: 1

    We pay about 2.5 cents per KWh for coal power (wholesale), give or take...

    Wind may well get there, but it has another problem... 24/7 uptime...

    And if your next reply is "but storage" or "but it is always windy somewhere", then you don't understand 2 things.

    1. Math
    2. Geopolitical borders on maps

  55. Your analogy is wrong by s.petry · · Score: 1

    You are attempting to compare apples to a literally hundreds of disparate communities. No, ou won't be able to do it with a car analogy either, because it's a complex social issue.

    --

    -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

  56. Just in time ... by quax · · Score: 4, Informative

    ... when now even biologists can detect the impact of global warming on the biosphere.

    I am sure if we just keep ignoring the problem, it will go away.

    1. Re:Just in time ... by quax · · Score: 1

      People with a brain.

    2. Re:Just in time ... by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      Even if that were the case, biologists can already detect the impact of ocean acidification for sure, and that one is tied to CO2 emissions as well.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
  57. Re:Oh, god damn it. by hey! · · Score: 1

    America, in aggregate, actually chose the other candidate. But we've got this antiquated system that was designed to shore up the political power of slave holding interests and was quickly twisted for factional ends.

    The people who argued for the electoral college were appalled by how it worked out. They intended as an exercise in indirect democracy, not some kind of broken popular election.

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  58. Re:MAD - and some of you will be by whoever57 · · Score: 1

    What you don't understand: weather forecasts and how costs reduce over time. We can forecast the wind, allowing wind power to be used effectively alongside other technologies. What's the real cost of extracting that coal, when all the effects on the landscape and the environment are taken into account?

    Can wind power replace coal today? No. But how much electricity is generated by natural gas today? Wind power is potentially cheaper than natural gas today.

    The issue is not what should be used today, but where should our investments be? You can invest in technologies that will make life much more difficult and expensive in the future, or technologies that will reduce global climate change and reduce global tensions.

    --
    The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
  59. Re: No by skids · · Score: 2

    We might be able to adapt to climate change itself, but the biomes do not have that capability, and we cannot adapt to a failed biome... well we might be able to pull off a small populaion, but your descendents' odds of being in that population are pretty small, and that small population's ability to make technological progress will be rather limited.

  60. It gets worse by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2, Informative

    Trump is also floating the name "Ben Carson" as Sec'y of Health and Human Services. Ben Carson is a creationist who hawks vitamins to cure cancer.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
    1. Re:It gets worse by plopez · · Score: 1

      Slash medicine people die less resources used less global warming. Win! Win! Win!

      --
      putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
    2. Re:It gets worse by bongey · · Score: 4, Informative

      Ben Carson one of the best pediatric neurosurgeons in the country. Was Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at John Hopkins, that happens to be a Christian. Yep he screwed up a bit on the vitamins crap. Much better than the two previous Obummer sec'y who were both politicians, neither of the two had any education in medical field.

    3. Re:It gets worse by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      He should stick with his day job.

    4. Re:It gets worse by Eravnrekaree · · Score: 1

      Ben Carson actually has an excellent record of helping people. Nuerology is tricky and its not something you can fake.

    5. Re:It gets worse by Eravnrekaree · · Score: 1

      So I am sure you would have enjoyed your per annum 110% obamacare premium increases, $10,000 deductibles and I you are happy about people not being able to find work because businesses cannot afford to buy insurance or the Obamacare fines. Furthermore, all of those stupid young millenials who voted for it would end up being expected to pay far higher premiums to subsidize more expensive insurance to high risk groups to hide the real cost of Obamacare, a hidden tax on the young who often the least can afford it. The things a monstrosity. Good riddance. By the way, most people were getting healthcare and did have health insurance, Obamacare was successful at making it unaffordable for people who already had it. If you wanted to cover the poor, do it the straight up way by funding a subsidy for poor and high risk groups and be upfront about rhe cost by putting it into the federal budget, rather than try to hide the cost with all of your little games like jacking up premiums on young people.

    6. Re:It gets worse by Eravnrekaree · · Score: 1

      By the way, you liberals want there to be as many poor people as possible so you can buy them off with welfare goodies. Best way to fix healthcare is to get people off of public assistance by bringing our jobs back. So, getting rid of the climate change whackoism and producing abundant energy will help us reduce poverty and create jobs here. Reducing poverty is a nightmare for democrats, democrats are not about reducing poverty, they are about putting as many people on welfare as possible and keeping them there. They depend on that welfare vote, which is why they want Co2 regulations to turn the US into a third world cesspit.

    7. Re:It gets worse by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2

      Not nearly as bad as the blatantly irrational, e.g. "any belief in God + any stance whatsoever = creationist = bad".

      No, he's an actual creationist. As in, believes in a six-day creation of the universe schedule with Eve being shaped from a rib bone God took from Adam.

      And he believes the pyramids were built to store grain.

      And vitamins can cure cancer.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    8. Re:It gets worse by Type44Q · · Score: 1

      Ben Carson one of the best pediatric neurosurgeons in the country.

      Right; I'm sure that's why he went into politics.

    9. Re:It gets worse by Sir+Holo · · Score: 1

      ...vitamins to cure cancer.

      That is what killed both my aunt and my cousin.

    10. Re:It gets worse by fred6666 · · Score: 1

      being a Christian is no excuse for being stupid, creationist, or both.

    11. Re:It gets worse by DavidMZ · · Score: 1

      You can be a neurosurgeon and not have your beliefs come in the way of you decisions. It's much more difficult when you have to decide on policies.

    12. Re:It gets worse by Patent+Lover · · Score: 1

      No, they have a history of opposing idiots that align with the GOP.

    13. Re:It gets worse by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      Ben Carson's only crime was pissing off the establishment and feeling their rage. He's paid his dues and now he'll have a chance to implement some positive change on a pretty grand scale. No amount of ad hominem attacks is going to change that.

      Pointing out his positions and beliefs are not ad hominem attacks.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    14. Re:It gets worse by Gilgaron · · Score: 1

      A doctor is a very skilled mechanic. It doesn't mean they're good at science.

    15. Re:It gets worse by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      Yeah, doctors and engineers often become the worst anti-scientific nutbags. As they say, "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing", and some people assume that since they've learned a lot about something, they suddenly know something about everything. They don't.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    16. Re:It gets worse by larkost · · Score: 1

      I advise you to read more about Ben Carson before you defend him as a good person to be a Cabinet Secretary. He does not seem to be very able to reason out issues. Having seen a number of his interviews and lines of logic I really do wonder how he made it though medical school, let alone planned out complicated procedures (which he does seem to have done). Maybe I should believe him that he passed because God gave him the answers in a dream:

      http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/god-helped-ben-carson-ace-his-college-chemistry-final-by-giving-him-all-the-answers-in-a-dream/

      Skip the obvious bias in the source, just watch the video of him saying this himself. Or go look up his (still maintained) views on the Pyramids. This is not a rational thinker.

  61. Re:MAD - and some of you will be by Tough+Love · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Pollution and deforestation is a bigger problem than CO2 emissions, yet the same groups wanting to take your cash for carbon put forth no projects or proposals to deal with those issues.

    From which orifice did you pull that "fact"?

    --
    When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
  62. Re:The truth is that it does not matter. by QRDeNameland · · Score: 4, Insightful

    IF global warming is anthropogenic then it is a direct function of population size.

    No, it's a direct function of the aggregate amount of heat-trapping gasses put into the atmosphere by all of the people on earth. If you could magically lower the rate of population growth to zero or below tomorrow, yet at the same time more and more of the developing world adopts more carbon energy demanding western lifestyles, you still won't have fixed the problem. Conversely, if we could magically make it so that we could have an equivalent lifestyle on a small fraction of the carbon-producing energy we use now, we could still maintain population growth with greatly reduced carbon output.

    I'm not arguing in favor of continued population growth, anything but. But population alone is not the driving factor.

    --
    Momentarily, the need for the construction of new light will no longer exist.
  63. Re: And so it begins... by publiclurker · · Score: 1

    because when your betters are pointing out how badly you are screwing things up, they have the facts to back it up. Unlike your fear mongering where they have facts that show you are full of it.

  64. Re:The truth is that it does not matter. by SirSlud · · Score: 1

    > But there are people who feel that it's not a problem or worse, that it's some sort of divine mandate to have as many children as they possibly can

    Yeah, they make TV shows about those folks, and they're by and large Christian. You know, the dominant religion in the states that's against birth control, abortion, and just voted in the President?

    --
    "Old man yells at systemd"
  65. Its almost too late to matter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    People don't stop breeding,

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    Actually, between education, economics, and so forth, yeah they do. Several countries already have negative or neutral birthrates and are only net positive due to immigration.

    There is no reason to beleive humans could not acheive equilibrium.

    The population decline is nearly worldwide. It may not be reversible.
    Last one out turn off the lights
    http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2013/01/world_population_may_actually_start_declining_not_exploding.html
    http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/29/magazine/29Birth-t.html

  66. Re:The truth is that it does not matter. by skids · · Score: 2

    specially in the poorer countries

    This is a cultural result of lingering agrarian traditions, though poverty itself can be a contributing factor, in that these traditions still make sense if kids are the best way to ensure food security and health care into old age, or a source of free labor in mid-life. Providing social services could help make those traditions look sillier faster.

  67. Re: Oh, god damn it. by skids · · Score: 1

    The idiocy is pretty astounding, isn't it?

  68. Re: Oh, god damn it. by skids · · Score: 2

    Boy, you sure bought it hook line and sinker. Prepare for an extremely disappointing 4 years.

  69. Re:The truth is that it does not matter. by coastwalker · · Score: 1

    If Trump throws away progress on carbon reduction his legacy will be to be remembered as outdoing the Nazi's in murdering people through the resulting climate change. Populist leaders with bad ideas have a history of doing very bad things. Sadly the USA is about to become the most despised and hated country on the planet.

    --
    Facts are history now plebs have politics for religion on social media.
  70. Re: Oh, god damn it. by skids · · Score: 1

    Most of the gear I install to run the Internet is made in Asia. A lot of the firmware is written in other countries as well. And technical advances and new standards are also not "Made in the USA" so improvements in the Internet aren't "USA TECH". There was never any patent protection on "The Internet" and even were there, it has long expired. It belongs to the word at large now, as it should.

  71. Re: Oh, god damn it. by skids · · Score: 1

    Apparently unlike us, in a few months. Sad.

  72. Re:fuck trump by skids · · Score: 1

    Yeah. I'm going to walk outside and turn my back on D.C. come inauguration.

  73. Re:MAD - and some of you will be by blindseer · · Score: 1

    Pollution and deforestation is a bigger problem than CO2 emissions, yet the same groups wanting to take your cash for carbon put forth no projects or proposals to deal with those issues.

    What is just maddening to me is the trend for using wood for heat and energy. While I'm not sure that deforestation is really an issue I do understand that wood is a multipurpose crop (and it is a crop, just like corn or watermelons are a crop) and burning wood means less of it for building material, paper, and Parmesan cheese filler.

    I've seen AGW believers get pilloried by their own for advocating that trees should be grown and used for building material to sequester carbon. I guess, somehow, it's better for the carbon cycle or something to burn those trees for heat.

    I do agree that carbon taxes are a loser, both as public policy and as a means to reduce carbon output. As a policy people don't want to see their costs go up for fuel (vehicle and heat), electricity, and everything really since most every product we buy needs to be shipped, refrigerated, heated, and all of those processes take energy. As a means to reduce carbon output it fails because energy use is a largely inelastic demand. Even if prices for fuel go up people still need to eat, drive to work, use lights, and so on. It might keep people from taking a drive to visit Grandma but then it's less about reducing carbon and really sinking into quality of life, mobility (social and transportation), and just generally making life worse.

    After something like 40 years of being told to "reduce, recycle, reuse" we are running into diminishing returns. We've cut all the fat and now we're cutting into bone here. Don't tell me I need to reduce my energy consumption, tell me that we are going to see some nuclear power plants built. Nuclear power will save the trees, provide inexpensive energy, and replace dirty coal.

    --
    I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
  74. Science by Roger+W+Moore · · Score: 4, Informative

    What is the speculation based on?

    Science.

    1. Re: Science by khallow · · Score: 2
      You can only test climate models forwards by running the clock. What has been done on that account shows a consistent exaggeration of global warming to date.

      and NASAs models demonstrate a 3% margin of error

      Even the ones that differ from each other by more than 3%?

    2. Re: Science by Bartles · · Score: 1

      No people believe if a government paid scientist does it it's automatically science. All those other scientists are just corporate and profit driven shills. Only someone who gets paid with other people's money can be virtuous.

    3. Re:Science by NetNed · · Score: 1

      Yes, science, till math comes along and proves the science wrong. When people show the math it is either ignored or they get shouted at with labels of "denier!"

    4. Re: Science by Altrag · · Score: 1

      Yes, that's generally how it works not just in science but everywhere -- most people do their best to work toward the benefit of their employer.

      When your employer is Exxon-Mobile and your research shows that burning fossil fuels is screwing the planet, perhaps you go ahead and bury your research or try to massage the data to make it show what your boss wants.

      When your employer is the public and your research shows that burning fossil fuels is screwing the planet, then its in the public's interest (ie: your employer) to warn them and try to fix things before its too late.

      Basically, its not so much an issue of corporate scientists all being shills.. its more an issue that the shills are the ones the corporations show to the public.

  75. Re:The truth is that it does not matter. by grcumb · · Score: 1

    It is too late. There is no going back. Now we ride it out to the end. The end of us.

    If by 'us' you mean you, then by all means, feel free to ride it out any time. In fact, why wait?

    --
    Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
  76. Education by Roger+W+Moore · · Score: 1

    Let's push the true cost of our ignorance down to our kids and our kid's kids.

    Don't worry - with the education they are getting they are sadly far better equipped to deal with ignorance than we were.

  77. Re:DT by grcumb · · Score: 1

    Donald Trump - the great filter...

    I was wondering what the hair was for....

    --
    Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
  78. Re:You personally can reduce carbon footprint by by plopez · · Score: 1

    Do you understand most beef comes from feedlots? Rangeland is just the nursery. Beef is "grain finished" by feeding it corn (which is a lousy food for cattle as they have a hard time digesting) in hyperpacked inhumane feedlots that concentrate pollution and require large amounts of water and waste disposal.

    --
    putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
  79. Re:Climate Hysteria by plopez · · Score: 1

    It's not taxation. Just merely preventing externalization of costs. No more free rides.

    --
    putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
  80. Re: Oh, god damn it. by scdeimos · · Score: 1

    The beauty of rising sea levels is that eventually there won't be any deserts left. :)

  81. Re:The truth is that it does not matter. by Charcharodon · · Score: 1
    How pray tell will that happen? (Throw away progress) Methane is cheap and getting cheaper. Solar is just about there and getting cheaper. Electric cars are expanding at a healthy rate. Even if he let's coal do what ever they want tomorrow, it's not going to come all the way back to its former glory.

    Most hated country? It won't be because we elected a populist leader, it'll be because we are about to shit can every crappy trade deal and treaty we've ever signed up for. The easy money from the US is about to dry up.

  82. Re:Oh, god damn it. by Joce640k · · Score: 1

    America, seriously, what in the actual fuck have you done.

    What ever the fuck we want. If you don't like it you can go fuck yourself.

    Yes, we know WHY you did it (you all think you're Texans).

    The question was: "Do you know what you've done?"

    --
    No sig today...
  83. What seems clear by Roger+W+Moore · · Score: 1

    What's really going on? There is so much nonsense being spewed...

    Yes there is but the evidence that the climate is warming is pretty much incontrovertible. It also seems true that the rise in the last century or so has been extremely fast compared to changes over the past 100k years and the period of rapid rising coincides with our increase in fossil fuel burning so it seems reasonable to conclude that GHGs are responsible for a good deal of the warming.

    At least that's my take as a non-climate related scientist.

  84. Anti-vaxers by Roger+W+Moore · · Score: 2

    I doubt that this will be the end of humanity...

    Just wait until he appoints an anti-vaxer as head of the CDC. Life was so much simpler when the only anti-vaxers were those who hated VMS.

  85. Re:Godspeed you Mr. President. by Darinbob · · Score: 1

    Ha, I know you're a phony! It's pronounced "pres'dent".

  86. Re:Oh, god damn it. by Charcharodon · · Score: 1

    You know how much money we are going to save by stop paying the NATO bills that most of Europe has been welching on for the past 30 years? We won't need Europe to buy our goods on how much we won't be spending on their security.

  87. Re: Oh, god damn it. by fredrated · · Score: 1

    It's unbelievable.

  88. Re:MAD - and some of you will be by FlyHelicopters · · Score: 1, Troll

    What you don't understand: weather forecasts and how costs reduce over time.

    Wind could be free, it will never be base load. Or at least, not in my lifetime.

    What's the real cost of extracting that coal, when all the effects on the landscape and the environment are taken into account?

    That doesn't matter because I don't pay it.

    Now you could debate if you like if I SHOULD pay it, but I don't, so that is a moot point.

    Can wind power replace coal today? No. But how much electricity is generated by natural gas today? Wind power is potentially cheaper than natural gas today.

    Natural gas is even less expensive than coal, at about 2.2 cents per KWh, coal is having trouble because of natural gas at the moment. Wind is about double the cost of natural gas, give or take.

    In any case, natural gas is "cleaner" than coal, but not by enough to change the outcome.

    The issue is not what should be used today, but where should our investments be? You can invest in technologies that will make life much more difficult and expensive in the future, or technologies that will reduce global climate change and reduce global tensions.

    Did I say I was against wind and solar? I'm not, they are fine for producing perhaps 25% in the near term and up to 50% in the long term of our total power needs. Where do we get the rest from?

    The primary problem is point 1 above, Math... people simply suck at it, unable to understand how much energy is used, consumed, and what it would REALLY take to stop the rise in CO2 levels.

    It will take more than we're willing to do, full stop. Everything else is just fantasy and expensive.

    The point of no-return probably passed 30 years ago, we are way, way beyond that point, adaption to the new world is where we should be putting our money, not trying to keep the Titanic from sinking after it has already hit the iceberg.

  89. Re: No by Dog-Cow · · Score: 1

    So what? The negative results of climate change are not going to significantly affect me or any of my relatives during my lifetime. It's not at all logical to care about people who aren't alive yet, and who may never be alive. And why should anyone living today care whether humans in the future will make any technological progress?

    There are reasons to take care of the planet. Yours are completely illogical and rely purely on emotion.

  90. Re:The truth is that it does not matter. by penguinoid · · Score: 2

    It is too late. There is no going back. Now we ride it out to the end. The end of us.

    Just because we're already in the rapids doesn't mean we shouldn't try to avoid the waterfall. Things can always get worse.

    Oh, and in no way will this be the end for humanity, almost certainly not even for civilization. "Too hot to grow tropical crops in Antarctica" is way beyond any of the current predictions, and with wind and solar and batteries improving and cheapening by the year, we'll eventually drastically cut CO2 emissions if only out of greed.

    --
    Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
  91. Neither Assad nor Qaddafi should have been removed by blind+biker · · Score: 2

    They both held a lid on the islamists in their countries, and the West had no business destabilizing them. The results of Western meddling in those shitholes is clear: they've become much, much worse shitholes.

    --
    "The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
  92. Re:You personally can reduce carbon footprint by by I'm+New+Around+Here · · Score: 1

    What can survive on the Montana grasslands with little human interaction?

    A) A herd of cattle
    B) A garden of tomatoes
    C) A herd of bison
    D) A vineyard

    --
    If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
  93. Re:Neither Assad nor Qaddafi should have been remo by Jzanu · · Score: 1

    Wrong. Their people decided to remove them. That is why they must be removed. All they require is military assistance to prevent civilian massacre and implement their will. It is in America's interest to provide it now, and they've waited too long because of fucking Republican cowards.

  94. Trump will get us to Mars faster by seoras · · Score: 4, Funny

    Now that Tesla's fucked all Elon's got left is his Mars project.
    If you'd asked me last week if I'd go to Mars I'd have said "no way".
    Where do I sign up?

  95. Re:MAD - and some of you will be by Xest · · Score: 1

    Exactly, realistically Trump's policy mean that he's setting the US on a path to be left behind.

    The US will still be digging coal, something that we started doing seriously in when America wasn't even a country, whilst the rest of the world will have whole new economies and industries based on renewable power.

    It really is a journey back to the 17th century for America, whilst the rest of the world will see massive economic growth from the new and growing industry of renewables as fossile fuel use continues to decline everywhere else. America wont find many allies to invade middle eastern nations for oil and gas when no one else actually has much use for it anymore.

  96. Re:Oh boy. by schnell · · Score: 4, Interesting

    all those people complaining about elites and insiders are in for a shock

    That's the problem with voting for "change." You are going to get it.

    I was very surprised, just based off reading comments on this site over the past few days, how many ardent Trump supporters are here. I say surprised not because I am assessing a value judgement but because US presidential voting in recent years has become much more strongly correlated with education level, and I presumed that a tech site would reflect certain patterns as a result. (Full disclosure: I did not like any of the available ballot options and wrote in my presidential vote for Alexander Hamilton. I live in a solidly colored state on the West Coast and knew that my little exercise in protest would not have any meaningful effect on my state's electoral college votes, otherwise I would have voted seriously.)

    At any rate, it turned out that many many more people than pollsters and the media expected cast their votes in the cause of upsetting the status quo. There's nothing wrong with being unsatisfied with the way things are and wanting to lob a big water balloon full of "f--k you" at the powers that be in this country.

    When you vote for the loser, you enter a world of "coulda woulda shoulda" and you can just theorize how things would have been better. But when you vote for the winner, you have to own that vote because you're getting what you said you wanted. That's the price of winning. And it will be fascinating to see whether the people who cast a ballot to shake up the system like what they get when the system actually gets shaken up...

    --
    "95% of all Slashdot .sig quotes are incorrect or completely fabricated." -Benjamin Franklin
  97. Re:Oh, god damn it. by yuriklastalov · · Score: 2

    Are you going to bomb the EU into buying American goods?

    Fuck yeah, why do you think Putin got Trump elected? So they can requite their undying love for each other by divvying up Europe and "plundering the booty", so to speak.

    I dunno, as a broke white male, I kinda like the sound of "The American Empire". It rolls off the tongue. Empire... Emperor Trump. Emperor Donald J Trump I of the Great American Empire. How's that for Making America Great Again, eh?

  98. actually, go ahead. This will not matter by WindBourne · · Score: 2

    Seriously, let him roll back O's regulations on coal plants. At this time, they have done NOTHING. Prior to O, we were like China and was growing our coal plants. However, it was not O's regs that have stopped this.
    It was 2 things which was the Mercury regs ( while we are already way below Europe, Asia, but this will bring our mercury down to near zero) being moved to end of 2016, along with W's push for drilling and fracking. That fracking provided CHEAP CHEAP nat gas at a time when coal plants had to decide on shutting down or putting on scrubbers. As such, we went from ~60% coal (and 15% nat gas) to 27% coal and 33% nat gas at end of this year. So, our fossil fuel has converted to clean fossil, but also dropped.
    So, what will happen over the next couple of years? Trump and GOP want to push both COAL AND DRILLING. If both are done, then nat gas will remain low costs, and no American utility will want coal plant. OTOH, China, japan, and south korea might pick up more, but I doubt that it will be too much. Australia is now heavily automated on their coal. So, cheap coal is going NO WHERE in America.
    UN-Subsidized Wind is already cheaper than coal. Solar is more expensive, but that is the average. Solar City has the lowest installed costs and with their new plant should be cheap than coal. So, America's electricity will continue to move towards being cleaned up over time.

    That leaves vehicles. Tesla's M3 will be cheaper and superior compared to its ICE competitors. Who will want to buy a BMW 300 series when they can buy a Tesla M3? Few. The fastest competitor will compete with the slowest version of the M3. That will no doubt cause buyers of some of the most polluting cars (luxury cars such as Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Caddy, Porsche, Lexus, Infiniti, etc) to continue losing shares. As it is, Tesla MS already sells 1/3 of the full size luxury market and should move up to about 50% by summer 2017. Tesla MX is expected to hit 33% of is market by summer 2017. Basically, Tesla will force car makers to move to DECENT EVs or die. And by decent EVs, we are not talking the leaf, bolt, I3, i5 type garbage. All of those have been gutted so that they will not compete against ICE vehicles. Tesla will force them to produce cars that compete against tesla and will destroy their own ICE.

    So, for those of you concerned with where America is going, do not fret. While we will likely drop paris, we will continue to clean up regardless of what trump and his ilk do.

    --
    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    1. Re:actually, go ahead. This will not matter by Eravnrekaree · · Score: 1

      Where do you get your figures from on coal vs wind cost? You also have to consider scalability, could wind generate as much power as coal, and is it practical to install so many wind generators.

    2. Re:actually, go ahead. This will not matter by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      Right here from EIA.Likewise, if you do not want to accept those figures, then simply note the fact that Utilities are shutting down coal plants and replacing them with a mix of nat gas and wind. The reason for the wind is that it can be cheaper than nat gas depending on the area.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    3. Re:actually, go ahead. This will not matter by HuguesT · · Score: 1

      I agree with you, but then there is no point in dropping the Paris agreement. A smart strategy would be to keep it since the USA will meet its requirements, while forcing China to do the same.

    4. Re:actually, go ahead. This will not matter by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      china will NOT keep its agreement. They have made many agreements and then simply ignore them, or had them set up to cheat from the gitgo.
      Japan's agreement with China on its pollution, requires that all new coal plants for the last 20 years, have pollution controls on them (scrubbers, etc). Sadly, they did not require that China have them turned on. CHina just leaves them turned off.
      America's trade agreement with china is likewise a joke. They have broken nearly 100% of it. And yet, our gov does nothing.

      THis is why Im hoping to get America i.e. Trump's ppl, to put a tax on ALL CONSUMED goods/services that will rise slowly. If the manufacture or the service company goes on-line to a certain site, they can list out the states and nations where the sub-parts, ingredients, services comes from. Then simply make the tax % based on where the WORST part comes from in terms of CO2. What is needed is OCO-3 for getting absolute values on CO2 flow (in and out of nations), along with smart normalization. Most push per capita but ppl do NOT make the choices. Gov and businesses do. So, we should do a % based on emissions / $GDP. It the heavy emitting states and nations knows that it will costs them exports, then and only then, will they take it down rapidly. For example, you can bet that CHina will quit building Coal plants and instead pour that money into nukes and AE. In addition, they will quit trying to cheat since OCO-3 guarantees that they will not be able to cheat.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  99. Re:fuck trump by yuriklastalov · · Score: 1

    Not My President, amirite?

  100. Re:MAD - and some of you will be by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    And you don't understand how big the USA are.
    Yes, you always will have enough wind.
    Just like Germany, which is how big? A 1/50th of the United States?
    Wind less zones big enough to cover a whole country only exist on a few isolated places on the world .... and those are at sea.

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  101. Re:MAD - and some of you will be by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    You still have not grasped what base load is ...
    Germany now is producing 'around base load' capacity with wind alone. Hence our base load - nuclear and lime coal - plants are becoming obsolete.
    'Base load' does not mean what you think it means, I suggest to read it up. Probably from a lexicon and not wikipedia :)

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  102. Re:MAD - and some of you will be by tfmg_b · · Score: 1
    > Pollution and deforestation is a bigger problem than CO2 emissions

    All right.

    https://thinkprogress.org/excl...

  103. Re: No by EmeraldBot · · Score: 1

    So what? The negative results of climate change are not going to significantly affect me or any of my relatives during my lifetime. It's not at all logical to care about people who aren't alive yet, and who may never be alive. And why should anyone living today care whether humans in the future will make any technological progress?

    There are reasons to take care of the planet. Yours are completely illogical and rely purely on emotion.

    Alright, let's shift it up. Let's assume you go to your local park, the one with a nice lake. Well, actually, it has dumped trash bags floating on the surface with their contents, is filled with chemical dumpings from the local factory, and was often used to dispose of leftover food scraps. The water looks dark brown, contains no living things anymore, and is unsafe for anyone to swim in it. The previous generation said when they were young, "I don't know if I'll ever have children, so it's illogical to care about my dumping my trash in it" - do you think your father was wrong?

    --
    "Set a man a fire, he'll be warm for the rest of the night. Set a man afire, he'll be warm for the rest of his life."
  104. Re:The truth is that it does not matter. by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 2

    IF global warming is anthropogenic then it is a direct function of population size.
    No it is not. Most CO2 per capita is produced in the USA ... which has an extremely small population and Kuwait which has a mini population.
    CO2 production is tied to energy usage, industries, house heating, car travel etc.

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  105. Re:The truth is that it does not matter. by EmeraldBot · · Score: 2

    We could build things to last and keep them longer.

    That fixes a problem with GARBAGE. How will you magically build these durable things without producing CO2? You still need to build the factories that build these durable things, and build the things themselves. Plus entropy works against you - there's no such thing as a product that will last forever.

    We could use more insulation so that we use less heating oil.

    That insulation has to be manufactured. It has to be shipped to where you need it. It has to be installed.

    While you are suggesting techniques that would "stretch" our resources if they were even possible, this merely postpones the problem. As long as the population growth rate remains POSITIVE, we are inevitably going to hit the wall one way or another. Since killing millions or even billions of people is not an acceptable solution to our morality (unless their invisible sky wizard says something offensive about our invisible sky wizard), this problem is one we are irreversibly stuck with no matter what we do - especially IF we have already crossed this mysterious threshold that sends our planet into an irreversible plunge into greenhouse mode.

    Right now the primary driver is greed.

    Assuming you are not living in a hippy commune in the woods somewhere (and you're not, because you're using a computer and connected to the internet) you are guilty of that very same greed. Greed for the convenience of modern life. It's easy to blame it all on "the corporations" or "the 1%", but in reality we are to blame. You. Me. Each and every one of us. After all, if no one bought the products, no one would waste time selling them...

    Your arguments boil down to, "you can't completely eliminate it so there's no point in doing anything", "we're all to blame so everything is pointless", and "delaying the problem is as bad as speeding it up". Are those really the ones you intended to make?

    --
    "Set a man a fire, he'll be warm for the rest of the night. Set a man afire, he'll be warm for the rest of his life."
  106. Re:Godspeed you Mr. President. by yuriklastalov · · Score: 1

    What if this has all been an elaborate set up for his latest Reality TV venture: Trump's the Boss. Cameras follow his every move, and various national situations are handled by Trump and two guest celebrity panelists, who must choose between various proposals. The proposals are the work of the contestants, the Interns. The interns must group up to form a possible response to the crisis.

    I only hope I live to see Trump institute the Purge. It will be a glorious day indeed!

  107. Re:MAD - and some of you will be by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1, Informative

    Clean energy is a huge opportunity for the US economy, not a threat. China is now doing more than the US to clean up, so don't give us that "it's futile if no-one else does it" shit.

    If the US wants to build up manufacturing again it will either have to clean up, because the EU requires it if you want to sell your products here, or it will have to limit itself to selling into developing nations.

    Plus, you should stop being selfish libtard fucks.

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  108. Re:The truth is that it does not matter. by tsa · · Score: 1

    If this moron in Inferno had just introduced the virus he developed somewhere secretly instead of shouting about it all over TV and internet first he would have saved the world :-).

    --

    -- Cheers!

  109. Nostalgia? by TapeCutter · · Score: 2

    Anti-science comments surrounding AGW on slashdot were actually worse before 2003. Public opinion has changed for the better, eg: most people on slashdot would now accept the fact it's getting warmer, very few did back in 2003.

    --
    And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
    1. Re:Nostalgia? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Public opinion has changed for the better, eg: most people on slashdot would now accept the fact it's getting warmer, very few did back in 2003.

      One of the last acts of the last Bush administration was to acknowledge AGW. Yes, it's true, Slashdot is full of people dumber, more out of touch, and/or more corrupt than George W. Bush.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  110. Re:MAD - and some of you will be by yuriklastalov · · Score: 1

    Straight from the gut, no doubt.

  111. Re: No by amorsen · · Score: 2

    Resources exist to be consumed. And consumed they will be, if not by
    this generation then by some future. By what right does this forgotten
    future seek to deny us our birthright? None I say! Let us take what is
    ours, chew and eat our fill.

    -- CEO Nwabudike Morgan,
    "The Ethics of Greed"

    --
    Finally! A year of moderation! Ready for 2019?
  112. Re: Oh, god damn it. by EmeraldBot · · Score: 1

    So engineer the climate. Figure out the science to do it right, and do it, don't just push the line that the only answer is to take totalitarian control over everyone else's lifestyle and reduce their carbon usage. But shockingly nobody in the climate science community likes that answer... It doesn't give them an excuse to dictate how the rest of the world should live.

    Nobody likes that answer because it's fucking unbelievable. You're against taxes on carbon emissions, investments in renewable energies, and subsidies so people can get more energy efficient, because doling out a little money here and there and recollecting it will be catastrophic to the human race. So instead, within 30 years, we're going to terraform the planet with technology that doesn't exist and doesn't appear to be even close to possible, force people to move off land that we're going to change and completely reshape, and somehow do this all without causing any kind of natural disaster. Oh, and uh, do this all without raising any extra money or without causing anybody any potential loss of theoretical profits.

    Uh-huh.

    What your ACTUAL answer is is, "Well, it's 'totalitarian control over everyone else's lifestyle' when it's me who has to potentially maybe pay a small tax, but if my children have to lose their homes, eh, it's alright. Not my problem".

    You still stand by your point, yes?

    --
    "Set a man a fire, he'll be warm for the rest of the night. Set a man afire, he'll be warm for the rest of his life."
  113. Re: Oh, god damn it. by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    The fact is that even if every American citizen biked to work, carpooled to school, used only solar panels to power their homes, if we each planted a dozen trees, if we somehow eliminated all of our domestic greenhouse emissions, guess what - that still wouldn't be enough to offset the carbon pollution coming from the rest of the world.
    It would ... you are illusional.
    The USA produce more than 25% of the CO2 on the planet ...
    Seems you did not know that.

    If all the industrial nations went down to zero emissions...it wouldn't be enough, not when more than 65 percent of the world's carbon pollution comes from the developing world.
    Of course it would not be enough. But luckily only a small percentage of CO2 production comes from the developing world :) And those are mostly installing renewable power to ... cough cough ... power their growth.

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  114. Re:MAD - and some of you will be by FlyHelicopters · · Score: 1

    You still have not grasped what base load is ...

    Hello fool, still walking around thinking you know anything?

    I figured you might have had a chance to buy a clue, but it seems not...

    Germany now is producing 'around base load' capacity with wind alone.

    You're going to bankrupt yourselves trying... Watch what happens when you actually have to defend yourselves and spend money on your military.

    Trump just got elected, he likes Russia more than Germany, you will have to change your budget soon... the USA is not going to cover for you anymore, or did you miss the news?

    ---

    Further point, if your tiny little brain can try and hear it... Germany is a small, wealthy nation, it does not reflect the world. Even if you turn off all your power tomorrow, it doesn't mean anything. We all share the same air. You REALLY fucking suck at math, you have no idea what it will take to stop CO2 rise in the air, it is simply not going to be stopped.

  115. Re: Oh, god damn it. by tsa · · Score: 1

    Come to the Netherlands to see what we did to protect our country against the consequences of climate change that we are dealing with we are facing NOW and then dare say that again you moron.
    Islands in the pacific have disappeared because the sea is rising. Miami is brining and drowning but in your little part of the world nothing seems to have changed in your short live so there are no problems? It's an idiot like you who's in power now in the US and who will make sure that the US will have big problems due to climate change in the near future.

    --

    -- Cheers!

  116. Re: Oh, god damn it. by EmeraldBot · · Score: 1

    The fact is that even if every American citizen biked to work, carpooled to school, used only solar panels to power their homes, if we each planted a dozen trees, if we somehow eliminated all of our domestic greenhouse emissions, guess what - that still wouldn't be enough to offset the carbon pollution coming from the rest of the world.

    If all the industrial nations went down to zero emissions...it wouldn't be enough, not when more than 65 percent of the world's carbon pollution comes from the developing world.

    -- John Kerry

    Well, it's a good thing that Trump wants to bring those factories back home where we can keep an eye on them. Plus, think of all the other good effects from making our own products again. Good thing Hillary the crooked globalist didn't win, eh? Her idea was to go ahead with TPP and shove even MORE globalism down our throats. Hurrah for democracy!

    Yeeeeeah. Because Trump and his partners are totalllllllly going to keep an eye on things. We're also going to accept a 30% price increase for paying a living wage, we're going to accept that we need massive amounts of tax investments at your expense to pay for these new factories, and you're personally willing to buy a gas mask for the days where there is no wind.

    Oh, and when the rest of the world levies sanctions on us because we refuse to follow the environmental treaties we signed, followed by massive economic depressions, you're going to accept that, yes?

    --
    "Set a man a fire, he'll be warm for the rest of the night. Set a man afire, he'll be warm for the rest of his life."
  117. Re:The truth is that it does not matter. by allcoolnameswheretak · · Score: 1

    And then you have conservative idiots who like to loathe over the poor masses and overpopulation but are against birth control and abortions because every sperm is sacred.

    Well, they need a steady influx of poor black people to fill the jails with and keep the prison industrial complex running, so I guess it all does make sense.

  118. Re: Oh, god damn it. by tsa · · Score: 1

    At least China has a long term policy for 'greening' their country.

    --

    -- Cheers!

  119. Re:MAD - and some of you will be by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    Then make up your mind ...
    Wind is not working because:
    1) there is no wind/might be no wind
    2) the country is so small, that the whole country has no wind
    3) there is no grid 'big enough' ... so wind from A can not be transported to B

    Or any other bullshit? You are arguing against wind all the time ...
    The lack of a national grid can be fixed ... surprisingly second world countries like, Rumania, Belarus, Hungary, Greece, Bulgaria, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Georgia (the country, not the stats) and a few dozens more are interconnected in an international grid, and you can not even manage a national one?
    And that is your argument against wind and so,ar?

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  120. Re: No by Hognoxious · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Don't bother looking when you're crossing the road because an an aeroplane might crash on your head. So develop a man portable air warning radar THEN think about getting new glasses.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  121. Re:Oh, god damn it. by EmeraldBot · · Score: 1

    You know how much money we are going to save by stop paying the NATO bills that most of Europe has been welching on for the past 30 years? We won't need Europe to buy our goods on how much we won't be spending on their security.

    Oh, not really. We're still going to be spending that money because we want a strong military, which will still get involved in wars, so our bills won't decrease at all. If anything, they'll rise as per Republican advice, so the only change in that is that the European countries might have to pay more for themselves - but at no savings to you.

    However, it is going to be nice to watch Apple's and Exxon's market values crash because they lost 50% of their customer base. When your megacorp starts laying off employees to pay for that, you'll be first in line to volunteer, yes?

    --
    "Set a man a fire, he'll be warm for the rest of the night. Set a man afire, he'll be warm for the rest of his life."
  122. Re: No by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

    Your 100% Wrong

    His what?

    And we already have all the technology we need to do it.

    Care to elaborate?

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  123. Re:Oh boy. by EmeraldBot · · Score: 2

    all those people complaining about elites and insiders are in for a shock

    That's the problem with voting for "change." You are going to get it.

    I was very surprised, just based off reading comments on this site over the past few days, how many ardent Trump supporters are here. I say surprised not because I am assessing a value judgement but because US presidential voting in recent years has become much more strongly correlated with education level, and I presumed that a tech site would reflect certain patterns as a result. (Full disclosure: I did not like any of the available ballot options and wrote in my presidential vote for Alexander Hamilton. I live in a solidly colored state on the West Coast and knew that my little exercise in protest would not have any meaningful effect on my state's electoral college votes, otherwise I would have voted seriously.)

    At any rate, it turned out that many many more people than pollsters and the media expected cast their votes in the cause of upsetting the status quo. There's nothing wrong with being unsatisfied with the way things are and wanting to lob a big water balloon full of "f--k you" at the powers that be in this country.

    When you vote for the loser, you enter a world of "coulda woulda shoulda" and you can just theorize how things would have been better. But when you vote for the winner, you have to own that vote because you're getting what you said you wanted. That's the price of winning. And it will be fascinating to see whether the people who cast a ballot to shake up the system like what they get when the system actually gets shaken up...

    Education helps, but it doesn't do you much good if you're not voting rationally. I mean, picking a candidate who's primary selling point is "I'm different, in a way that you have no idea or even a guarantee that I am, but I'm different, believe it" isn't rational at all. On top of that, Slashdot has a pretty quirky crowd, and while we tend to be well educated and accomplished, we also tend to entertain things that are a little less... normal. Sometimes this is healthy, such as our general standards on civil and social rights or the outcry on mass surveillance back in 2013 - but sometimes it's not, such as, well, Donald Trump's popularity. However, it's alright - he's our president now, so there's no more uncertainty. With Republican domination at virtually every level of government, there is absolutely no excuse for his failures except himself and his party, so you can judge for yourself how Republican policies work out in practice.

    Ultimately, I have serious doubt the Slashdot crowd will get what they want, but I'm keeping an open mind to Mr. Trump's presidency. If we do wind up dissatisfied, then I'm sure we'll be ready to vote for a progressive candidate, someone who'll probably be a younger version of Mr. Sanders, and hopefully a democratic senate and House of Representatives (as unlikely as that will ever be). And if/when we do, I'll be prepared to own my vote for that, much as I hold Trump supporters today to theirs.

    --
    "Set a man a fire, he'll be warm for the rest of the night. Set a man afire, he'll be warm for the rest of his life."
  124. Re: No by silentcoder · · Score: 1

    >Resources exist to be consumed

    Citation needed. There is actually sweet fuck all to back this idea up. Resources existed before we got here and their reason for existing had nothing to do with us. If anything consumption of (some) resources may be the one thing evolution has no way to recover from.

    >By what right does this forgotten future seek to deny us our birthright?
    Birthright ? ?You haven't proven that a right exists, let alone a birthright. And besides, if that's the basis of your claim about a billion people have a stronger birthright claim than you (all native peoples for one) and they, overwhelmingly, favor NOT burning CO2.

    --
    Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
  125. whoosh by dillee1 · · Score: 1

    whoosh

    1. Re:whoosh by Tranzistors · · Score: 1

      You don't seem to understand. I get Tom's sarcasm. I am pointing out that he can shove it up his ass.

    2. Re:whoosh by Uberbah · · Score: 1

      You don't seem to understand. I get Tom's sarcasm. I am pointing out that he can shove it up his ass.

      Then you're an idiot. Before regime change, Libya was a secular state, and the most prosperous one in Africa. It had an educated populous, rights for women, and had plans to establish a gold-backed currency to free other African countries from western influence - so Gaddafi had to go. Now it's another Iraqi style failed state, ruled by warring factions and a breeding ground for Al Queda. Way to go, American Exceptionalist.

    3. Re:whoosh by Tranzistors · · Score: 1

      Ok then. Perhaps you can do better than Tom and point out, what US policy towards Libya should have been at any time during Obama administration, so that everything would have ended well.

  126. Re:You personally can reduce carbon footprint by by I'm+New+Around+Here · · Score: 1

    So the solution is buying grass-fed beef.

    --
    If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
  127. CO2 makes mankind stupid by tfmg_b · · Score: 1
    http://www.breitbart.com/big-g...

    There was about 280 ppm CO2 in 18th century. There is >400 ppm CO2 at voting booths now. At least, given that they are in closed spaces.

  128. Re:MAD - and some of you will be by jabuzz · · Score: 1

    The stupid thing is that coal is dying in the USA for exactly the same reason it died in the UK; natural gas. In the UK it came out the North Sea, in the USA it is coming from fraking. It would be utterly stupid to try and roll back from this and go back to coal. It would make energy more expensive not less.

    The other thing is that simply switching from coal to gas you lower your CO2 emissions (burning methane produces less CO2 per Joule of energy released), the tonnes of uranium (burn a million tonnes of coal and if uranium is present at 1 part per million in the coal then a tonne of uranium goes into the atmosphere), all that acid raid producing sulphur.

    Reopening coal mines is simply not going to happen ever. Heck even China has realized that coal is not a good idea and is looking to migrate away.

  129. Re:MAD - and some of you will be by TomGreenhaw · · Score: 1

    I very much in principle would love to agree with you.

    Unfortunately we've learned that democracy is not perfect. I call it the BoatyMcBoatFace effect. Left to our quixotic whims, we voters have a tendency to make some pretty silly choices.

    --
    Greed is the root of all evil.
  130. Brawndo by mwvdlee · · Score: 3, Informative

    Brawndo.
    Because plants crave electrolytes.

    --
    Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
    1. Re:Brawndo by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

      You say that, but president Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho actually knew his limitations and ended up seeking advice from the most intelligent person he could find. Donald Trump is not that smart.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
  131. Re:The truth is that it does not matter. by wbr1 · · Score: 1

    I do like to eat, though

    Children?

    --
    Silence is a state of mime.
  132. Re:MAD - and some of you will be by FlyHelicopters · · Score: 1

    Then make up your mind ...

    You're still a fool? Yep, pretty sure on that one...

    Wind is not working because:

    You continue to not see it, either because:

    1. You are an idiot
    2. You choose not to see it
    3. You're a troll

  133. Re:MAD - and some of you will be by Feral+Nerd · · Score: 2

    Pollution and deforestation is a bigger problem than CO2 emissions, yet the same groups wanting to take your cash for carbon put forth no projects or proposals to deal with those issues.

    From which orifice did you pull that "fact"?

    Why? Is he wrong? Or are you just another one of those idiots like Trump who sit there with their hands over their eyes and their thumbs in their ears singing: LALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU LALALA I CAN'T SEE YOU.!!
    Deforestation is proceeding all over the world at alarming speed and pollution isn't helping either. To take just one example you cannot get any marine seafood anymore that isn't full of microscopic plastic particles and has chemical traces that are not normally found in nature. The result has been a massive extinction wave which makes deforestation and pollution at least as big a problem as climate change.

  134. Re:The truth is that it does not matter. by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    Assuming you are not living in a hippy commune in the woods somewhere (and you're not, because you're using a computer and connected to the internet) you are guilty of that very same greed.

    If you think that, it's because you completely failed to understand what I'm saying. This is about the broken window fallacy. People make garbage that will fail so that they can sell more garbage that will fail. People then buy the garbage because it's all they can afford, and the end result is that the biosphere is a toilet. I do not do a shit job to produce more work, so no. I am not guilty of the very same greed, and fuck you sideways for suggesting that I am. My fucking hobbies are all about re-use; I wrench, I repair, I modify used beat-down things and then I use them. I am the opposite of this problem.

    After all, if no one bought the products, no one would waste time selling them...

    If no one were allowed to profit from making garbage, no one would waste time selling it.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  135. Re: No by amorsen · · Score: 1

    It's a quote. It is from the game "Alpha Centauri", which contains a lot of other insightful quotes from different perspectives.

    It was sort of an attempt at reductio ad absurdum on my part.

    Read my comment history, we are on the same side in this debate.

    --
    Finally! A year of moderation! Ready for 2019?
  136. Re:The truth is that it does not matter. by Dunbal · · Score: 1

    Do you feel better now?

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  137. Re:The truth is that it does not matter. by Dunbal · · Score: 1

    And then you have conservative idiots who like to loathe over the poor masses and overpopulation but are against birth control and abortions because every sperm is sacred.

    Except you're completely wrong. See - you're arguing with yourself, not me. You don't know me. First I don't loathe the poor. In fact I have probably done much more to help the poor than you have. I also live in Latin America where poverty is MUCH more serious and widespread. In the US poverty is not being able to buy things. In Latin America poverty is about not being able to eat.

    And second, I am absolutely not against birth control (reading failure, I stated that have a vasectomy and limited the number of kids I have. My wife takes contraceptives. That's birth control.). As a physician I AM against abortion as a form of birth control, however I recognize that in some cases it is better to terminate a pregnancy than to allow it to reach term with horrendous malformations or tremendous health risk to the mother. I think there are times when abortion is justified but there is a huge moral risk if abortion is made "too easy" that it becomes a solution just because someone is too lazy to use a condom or take birth control pills. And I am an atheist - by the way. Whoops - see how wrong you can be?

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  138. Re:The truth is that it does not matter. by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    The idea that you won't breed will make the world ever so slightly better...
    Thank you

    You're welcome. The sad part is that most of the people who think they're making the world a better place by having children are dead wrong.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  139. Re:The truth is that it does not matter. by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    Children?

    I was going to make a joke about being a crypto-Jew but it would have sounded a lot funny in an America without a president Trump. Suffice to say that I did leave that comment ambiguous for your amusement during the editing process.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  140. Ticket to Mars? by Sir+Holo · · Score: 1

    What's the going price for a ticket to Mars these days, on ebay or elsewhere?

    I think I might need one.

  141. Re:The truth is that it does not matter. by Dunbal · · Score: 1

    Are those really the ones you intended to make?

    I realize I may not be the most effective communicator, and I am quite the cynic. Ultimately all our environmental problems are a consequence of our massive human population. Anything you propose is merely a rationing system, nothing more. Rationing does not solve problems therefore I hate seeing it portrayed as a solution. The ONLY solution is reducing the size of our population. There are ways to do that involuntarily at huge moral and ethical cost via war, hydraulic despotism, or just out and out murder. And there are ways to do it voluntarily and morally, through education - teaching people why it's important that many should abstain from breeding and encouraging them to abstain.

    Unfortunately we live in a world where our leaders feel that investing in bombs and jet fighters is far more worthwhile in terms of return on investment than education. So for all you propose, and for all you complain - nothing is going to change - even under a rationing system.

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  142. Re:MAD - and some of you will be by transporter_ii · · Score: 1

    You can't use logic or reason here. We are in the Great Dumbing Down period. You are going up against people who think they are geniuses. I tried to pull this exact same argument with a super smart fellow yesterday. This guy is so smart, he only reads things that tell him EXACTLY what he wants to hear. So free market forces or improving our trade imbalance be damned, it's all political. You can't go against 10,000 hours of Alex Jones with something sensible, here.

    --
    Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, religion destroys spirituality
  143. Re: No by tburkhol · · Score: 2

    >Resources exist to be consumed

    Citation needed.

    Important note: Nwabudike Morgan is a fictional character from the Civilization series meant to epitomize/caricature the ruthless/sociopathic entrepreneur. Quoting him, instead of Ayn Rand, should be seen as sarcasm.

  144. Re:The truth is that it does not matter. by allcoolnameswheretak · · Score: 1

    Sorry, misunderstanding. I was not arguing -against- you, I was just adding a few additional considerations to what you said without intending to attack your arguments.

  145. Re:The truth is that it does not matter. by Dunbal · · Score: 1

    If no one were allowed to profit from making garbage, no one would waste time selling it.

    True. But this would require re-working the economic models of our societies and re-educating our consumers. For example how can you have a society that discourages innovation (via a patent system) and yet penalizes less sophisticated products? If I make the best widgets and tomorrow you come out with a way to make better widgets then you have just put me out of business if you don't allow me to immediately upgrade my process and improve my widgets - since my product is now an inferior product.

    And yet still, this is all just a rationing system. Resources are finite. Human expansion is infinite (or at least can theoretically reach the critical point where remaining resources per capita are simply no longer sufficient to sustain life). Rationing can help stretch out resources - as can technology. Slowing down the population growth rate can help us survive longer in time. But ultimately we are doomed as long as our growth rate is positive.

    Heck we're doomed in all cases, but population is the more immediate problem. I don't care what the statistics say because statistics are political tools. I take a more empirical approach: When I was a kid there were almost 4 billion people in the world. Now we're closer to 8. You can argue percentages and rates and everything but reality is, we are doubling in size every 40 years or so. This is not sustainable. If we're affecting global temperature now and have been for some time according to AGW pundits, we won't be affecting it less in 40 years with 16 billion people. Taxes will not avoid the fact that people need to eat, people need to work, and people need to travel from A to B to do those things.

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  146. Re:The truth is that it does not matter. by Dunbal · · Score: 1

    It's the internet. I have thick skin :)

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  147. ***TRUMP*** OMG!!! The Sky is falling OMG!!! by dcw3 · · Score: 1

    Apparently, /. has decided to post every second or third article with a Trump headline to generate more clicks.

    Better all head for Canada now. Your safe spaces are about to disappear.

    --
    Just another day in Paradise
  148. Re:Climate Hysteria by Kiuas · · Score: 1

    You'd have to be a complete fucking idiot if you think CO2 is the control knob the Climate...pfft.

    No, you'd have to be a scientist with a working understanding of the greenhouse effect. You can measure the heat trapping ability of CO2 in a lab or test it yourself by building a greenhouse, we can do the math on it and figure out how much an increase in CO in the atmosphere traps more heat. It's not the only controller of heat in the atmosphere but it is the most prevalent and therefore most important

    Do you understand that increasing the greenhouse effect has real life implications really fast: sea-levels rising, rainfall increasing in other areas whereas droughts will increase alsewhere, more and bigger storms etc. Plus there's the risk of chain-reactions occurring: once the northern permafrost starts to melt it will release methane which is 20 times stronger as a greenhouse gas the CO2, which will them increase the warming yet again melting more of the frost and creating an unstoppable feedback loop.

    We're not in complete control of the climate but we're having a major impact on it in ways which do not bode well for the future. The oil and coal companies are racking up short term profit the total cost of which will be seen in the daces to come when coastal cities start to get flooded and people start dying more from food shortages and droughts. If the oceans get acidified enough for mass extinction of plankton to occur that puts a stop to major oxygen producer and has the change to quite literally wipe us out as well.

    These being the realities of the situation anyone favoring oil or coal for energy production at this point has to be an idiot, ignorant or just self-destructive.

    FYI, China (the biggest contributor of global emissions) plans a 20% increase in coal by 2020:

    Wrong. Their CO2 emissions are rising because of among other things cars/traffic until 2030 when they're projected to peak and turn it around. Providing clean energy for over a billion people is not exactly a project you can achieve overnight. As for coal itself: they're already planning restrictions on coal mining/use because major cities have severe issues with smog/pollutants causing significant damage to the people and industries, they have a vested interest in fixing this stuff.

    Paris Agreement targets

    China’s NDC, submitted to the UNFCCC on 3 September 2016 includes a number of elements:

    Increase the share of non-fossil energy sources in the total primary energy supply to around 20% by 2030;
    Increase the share of natural gas in the total primary energy supply to around 10% by 2020;
    Lower the carbon intensity of GDP by 60% to 65% below 2005 levels by 2030;
    Increase the forest stock volume by around 4.5 billion cubic metres, compared to 2005 levels;
    Proposed reductions in the production of HCFC22 (35% below 2010 levels by 2020 and 67.5% by 2025) and “controlling” HFC23 production.
    These elements were all in China’s INDC on 30 June 2015, and were carried over to the NDC submitted to the Paris Agreement on 3 September 2016. China’s NDC also includes a comprehensive list of actions to achieve its 2020 and 2030 targets. A large number of the policies have already been implemented.

    2020 pledge

    China’s 2020 pledge consists of the following elements:

    Overall reduction of CO2 emissions per unit of GDP by 40–45% below 2005 levels by 2020;
    Increase the share of non-fossil fuels in primary energy consumption to around 15% by 2020;
    Increase forest coverage by 40 million hectares and forest stock volume by 1.3 billion cubic metres by 2020 from 2005 levels.
    We analysed the effects of all these targets, including the non-fossil target for 2020 and 2030. To do this, energy-related emissions until 2020 were assumed to follow current policy projections from the IEA WEO 2015,

    --
    "It is the business of the future to be dangerous" -Alfred North Whitehead
  149. Re:Climate Hysteria by guruevi · · Score: 1

    The "solution" in the Paris accords are indeed taxation on the entire population to offset production of CO2 by industry not just in their own country but worldwide. I don't know how you solve the climate problem by extracting money, we all know government doesn't actually handle it all that well.

    The solution would be to tax the producers but we can't enforce that in China or India, therefore China/India can promise to purchase offsets instead for every ton they produce and in theory for every offset purchased, the developed nation should produce less CO2. However China is never going to purchase any so we just tax the people to pay for the offsets. It's a huge scheme to pay for our trillions in Chinese debts by tax.

    --
    Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
  150. Re: No by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

    In other words: I got mine, fuck you.

    --
    SJW n. One who posts facts.
  151. Re:MAD - and some of you will be by Rockoon · · Score: 2

    China is now doing more than the US to clean up

    ...while continuing to build a coal plant every few weeks...

    Jesus AmiMoJo why are you constantly talking about subjects that you know literally nothing about?

    My source is that right wing nut job think tank known as greenpeace

    Yet China has another 200,000MW of coal-fired capacity under construction, and a new Greenpeace analysis has identified a further 150,000MW of projects potentially able to enter construction — despite recent suspensions.

    I have an idea though... why dont you just fucking stop making shit up on every story they you "feel" for?

    --
    "His name was James Damore."
  152. Re:***TRUMP*** OMG!!! The Sky is falling OMG!!! by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

    Better all head for Canada now. Your safe spaces are about to disappear.

    You reckon? Because your first lady to be wants to make the internet a safe place.

    --
    SJW n. One who posts facts.
  153. Re:MAD - and some of you will be by Orgasmatron · · Score: 1

    Shit, we've been saying that for years. You didn't need a Harvard study to tell us that increased atmospheric carbon dioxide turns people into morons, you can just open the journals and start reading. The apparent IQ of climate "scientists" is quite obviously inversely correlated, and has been since at least the 90s.

    --
    See that "Preview" button?
  154. Re: No by coofercat · · Score: 1

    If something we understand reasonably well and can demonstrate reasonably well, and anecodtally can see happening isn't enough to convince people, then something that hasn't ever happened, and may never happen sure won't.

  155. Re:The truth is that it does not matter. by Sir+Holo · · Score: 1

    There is no reason to beleive humans could not acheive equilibrium.

    Hooray!

    A neutral and reasonably stated hypothesis that carries some weight!

    I'd only correct the misspellings, and change "equilibrium" to "steady-state". Humans birth and die. If the two rates match, then we are in a steady state.

    "Equilibrium" would imply interstellar maximization of entropy – in other words the heat-death of the Universe – so we won't go there today.

  156. Re: Oh, god damn it. by coofercat · · Score: 1

    The problem is, a lot of people are 'adapting' by putting air conditioning into their houses. Once, we built houses out of stone and lime, and painted them white, and drew the curtains during the day. Now you can have a house made out of wood, paint it any colour you like, have the sun shining in and have a lower temperature inside, even on the hottest days of summer.

    One method has a low carbon output but high up-front cost, the other has a high output, but lower up-front cost. One takes a small amount of 'adapting', the other takes almost none. I'd say we're a lot less adaptable than we might appear.

  157. Re:The truth is that it does not matter. by EmeraldBot · · Score: 1

    Are those really the ones you intended to make?

    I realize I may not be the most effective communicator, and I am quite the cynic. Ultimately all our environmental problems are a consequence of our massive human population. Anything you propose is merely a rationing system, nothing more. Rationing does not solve problems therefore I hate seeing it portrayed as a solution. The ONLY solution is reducing the size of our population. There are ways to do that involuntarily at huge moral and ethical cost via war, hydraulic despotism, or just out and out murder. And there are ways to do it voluntarily and morally, through education - teaching people why it's important that many should abstain from breeding and encouraging them to abstain.

    Unfortunately we live in a world where our leaders feel that investing in bombs and jet fighters is far more worthwhile in terms of return on investment than education. So for all you propose, and for all you complain - nothing is going to change - even under a rationing system.

    Well, if your goal is to eliminate people, then investments in bombs and fighter aircraft are a very worthwhile investment for the environment :)

    Speaking frankly, I agree with that sentiment. Our planet is overpopulated, and policies like insisting every married couple have children aren't helping with that. However, you also have a pretty nihilist attitude on this - even though encouraging energy efficiency isn't going to eliminate our pollution problems, it is going to slow them down and lessen their severity. Likewise, keeping garbage off the streets is healthier for our environment, even if it doesn't reduce Co2, it's still going to drastically improve the quality of life for not just humans but animals and plants as well. To suggest a darkly accurate metaphor, if you have cancer, that doesn't necessarily mean it's fatal if you attack it while it's still small, and even if it is, at least you can reduce the suffering. The alternative is either twiddling our thumbs and saying it's impossible or actively living in a delusional fantasy, and I'd rather be harpooned through the ear than sit around and die from a problem we could have prevented had we taken action sooner...

    Of course, we all have to actually come together and want to save our planet, and I'm not really getting the impression that's the case...

    --
    "Set a man a fire, he'll be warm for the rest of the night. Set a man afire, he'll be warm for the rest of his life."
  158. Re:MAD - and some of you will be by Sir+Holo · · Score: 1

    We need oil today, but our investment should be in renewables. Focusing on fossil fuels is not an economically sound decision, even if you discount global climate change.

    Yep. Fracking wells tend to get tapped-out very quickly.

    Some drillers simply "flare" off the natural gas that comes up because it's not "cost-effective" to pipe it to a near-enough LNG plant. And the helium that is sitting there with it goes up in that flare (some isotopes of which are critical to fusion power), but instead it just rises up-and-up into stellar space – irretrievable. Despite this fact, and that there is a US (global, too) shortage of the stuff, alternative-energy R&D suffers. What a surprise!

    They just want that orangey-brown gooey juice.

  159. This is the long game for red states. by funkymonkjay · · Score: 1

    Drown out the coastal blue states and profit!

  160. Is it my fault? by pedz · · Score: 1
    Is it my fault the other viable choice was a criminal who very likely would not have followed the plans she claims to have wanted?

    Is it my fault, she literally stole the Democratic nomination from a very intelligent practical leader?

    Is it my fault that the DNC itself uses "Super Delegates" to make sure that these types of events will occur with predictable frequency?

    I voted for Johnson. The only candidate who is against war, understandable on immigration and free trade. Is it my fault, 95% of the country is locked into the Democrat and Republican mind control?

    Frequently I rage that our problems are due to ourselves. In this case, I'm excluding myself. While I would much prefer Trump instead of the One World Order continuation I by no means liked him -- ever. Until more people think instead of react, nothing is going to get better no matter who or what is at the steering wheel.

    Anyone who voted for Trump or Hillary is part of the problem.

  161. Re:MAD - and some of you will be by swillden · · Score: 1

    I've seen AGW believers get pilloried by their own for advocating that trees should be grown and used for building material to sequester carbon. I guess, somehow, it's better for the carbon cycle or something to burn those trees for heat.

    I don't claim to know what AGW believers you're talking about, or what goes on inside their heads, but one theory that springs to mind is that they're concerned that if heat isn't being produced by burning wood, it will inevitably be produced by burning fossil fuels. Burning wood at least has the advantage that it's net carbon neutral over the life cycle of the trees, while fossil fuels are carbon positive on any timescale less than geologic.

    --
    Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
  162. Re:And to head NASA by russotto · · Score: 1

    Dateline: Cape Canaveral, June 16, 2019

    NASA's new anti-gravity spacecraft, the _Ivanka_, successfully began its first mission today, with an eerily silent liftoff in the early morning here at Cape Canaveral.

  163. Re: No by Gilgaron · · Score: 1

    Perpetuation of the species and/or culture isn't illogical. Else we'd all be best off sticking electrodes in our brains and orgasming ourselves to death.

  164. Re:The truth is that it does not matter. by Dunbal · · Score: 1

    However, you also have a pretty nihilist attitude on this

    Not really. Humans tend to think punitively. How can I make people obey. Force them. Punish them. I'd like to think the other way. What if somehow we could figure out how to reward those who choose to abstain from breeding. Reward them either with status, wealth, privilege or a combination of all. Then our collective need - reducing our population footprint - can be addressed in a morally acceptable way. Don't punish people for having kids with fines or mandatory sterilization or worse - like has been tried in the past. Educate people as to why it's necessary to reduce our vast numbers and then reward those who willingly make this sacrifice. I think it's possible but it requires a rethink of our priorities as a society.

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  165. As he should by T.E.D. · · Score: 1

    Not real sure what the big deal is here. Trump never hid that he was a climate denier while he was running. That's who America voted for, so that's what they were asking for. From a political standpoint, it would be wrong for him not to appoint climate deniers to head environmental agencies. That's how Democracy is supposed to work.

    I hope nobody thought all this was some kind of joke.

  166. Re: Oh, god damn it. by JackieBrown · · Score: 1

    Oh so very much this. We love to point at China and scream "It's all their fault", but those Chinese factories are predominantly making products for the Western world, and tailoring their processes to minimize the cost over all else as we specifically told them to do. If our companies were requiring them to have proper environmental controls and we were willing to pay the extra cost, I'm sure they'd be more than happy to make their factories cleaner.

    They don't have to comply. They'd do it anyways and you know it.

    China has not been know for it's clean air long before apple moved there.

  167. Re:MAD - and some of you will be by blindseer · · Score: 1

    We could save the trees for building material if we used nuclear power for heat instead. Of course we need heat but we don't need to burn wood, coal, or oil, to do it.

    What we also see are AGW types that lobby against nuclear power as well. Some AGW types leave us in a corner of where we cannot burn fossil fuels, cannot use nuclear power, and so we are left with burning wood, which even then some are unhappy with. These kinds of AGW types are insane and cannot be reasoned with. The AGW types that advocate for nuclear power are at least reasonable since it leaves us with an "out" from returning to hunter gatherer society.

    As you may have guesses I am skeptical of AGW but I will play along with the AGW theory so long as we can have nuclear power. No fossil fuels and no nuclear means living like cavemen or an environmental disaster as we fight over the last of the trees to cut down, and then we live like cavemen.

    --
    I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
  168. Re: No by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 1

    Everything is linear for small enough increments.

  169. Re:MAD - and some of you will be by bytesex · · Score: 1

    That's not fair. Germany was, until not so long ago, not even *allowed* to defend itself.

    --
    Religion is what happens when nature strikes and groupthink goes wrong.
  170. Re:MAD - and some of you will be by Rockoon · · Score: 2

    Nothing you just said contradicts the fact that you lied. You made shit up. You did it because you "feel."

    China emits over twice as much CO2 as the US and the rate this growth of its emissions is still increasing you fucking fucktard lying twat.

    My source is again that right wing think tank known as greenpeace.

    Being a transvestite doesnt give you permission to lie about all the shit you feel for, fucker.

    --
    "His name was James Damore."
  171. Re:The truth is that it does not matter. by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 1
    No it's not. USA is 7th on the list behind Luxembourg and Australia and barely ahead of Canada.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

  172. Re: Oh, god damn it. by Calydor · · Score: 1

    And just how much pollution do you think will be created by moving out of existing, useful buildings, hauling shit across the planet, and building new buildings just because?

    --
    -=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
  173. Re: No by amorsen · · Score: 1

    Yay for being able to move two hexes per year!

    Much more important than an extra energy per hex in one city, unless you're doing one city challenge.

    --
    Finally! A year of moderation! Ready for 2019?
  174. Re:The truth is that it does not matter. by chuckugly · · Score: 1

    Nuclear fission as an energy source. Eventually we will realize it's the only way forward and we will adopt it and perfect it and stop burning our plastic (er, I mean oil) for energy. We can keep denying this and put off the inevitable, or face the fact and start sooner. We need energy, period, and we're going to have it. Sooner we face that and then move on with the next step the better.

  175. Re: Oh, god damn it. by strikethree · · Score: 1

    So let me get this straight. If you lived on a street where several of your neighbors were murderers, your solution wouldn't be to try to get them put away, your solution would be to grab an ax and join them in the frenzy?

    You know the old saying, "When in Rome..." ;)

    --
    "Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen
  176. Re:Oh, god damn it. by laughing_badger · · Score: 1

    I dunno, as a broke white male, I kinda like the sound of "The American Empire".

    You misspelt 'as a conscripted foot soldier'... still like the sound of it?

    --
    Help children born unable to swallow - www.tofs.org.uk
  177. War and Culture by Tenebrousedge · · Score: 1

    No matter what your political views are, those maps are very interesting. We have something of a culture war going on, and it may be about to escalate. War is the continuation of politics by other means...

    --
    Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
  178. The Post WW2 Generation Are the Zombies by stoicio · · Score: 1

    In all those films, just substitute.
    If you get a little bit of it on you somewhere, then you sell out too.
    Those unwilling to sell out to cynicism, well..., keep fighting I guess.
    They can't live forever.

    We need to find ways to mitigate climate change despite the post war zombie generation.
    Let them have their moment. But never forget.

  179. Climate History Timelines by Jodka · · Score: 1
    --
    Ceci n'est pas une signature.
    1. Re:Climate History Timelines by Altrag · · Score: 1

      Sooo.. according to that guy's data.. temperatures have been almost horizontal over the past 100-150 years (which amounts to a very fast increase using their top-down charting method and relatively corresponds to xkcd's chart.)

      But after that when he gets into future predictions, even his worst case for the next 500 years is barely shy of vertical, and his best case prediction has the trend toward warming suddenly do a 180 and go entirely the other direction? Even if we completely discounted human causes for global warming, that's a pretty damned unlikely thing to happen.

      In fact the only way that would be remotely possible is if humans not only immediately stopped our warming-related actions but actively started trying to cool the planet (and given our history, we'd probably drive ourselves right into the opposite direction of cooling the planet too fast..)

  180. Re:This was the real problem with the Bush Jr Admi by gweihir · · Score: 1

    This begs the question whether corruption or plain old incompetence is better. After all, the corrupt ones may possibly still be frightened into doing a reasonable job when things get really bad, while no such possibility exists for the incompetent.

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  181. Re:The truth is that it does not matter. by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    If no one were allowed to profit from making garbage, no one would waste time selling it.

    True. But this would require re-working the economic models of our societies and re-educating our consumers

    That is self-evident. However, it's going to have to happen barring the discovery of a science-fiction level clean energy source, a magic CO2 conversion process, etc.

    Heck we're doomed in all cases, but population is the more immediate problem.

    I agree that it is a problem, but the immediate problem is waste which exists specifically due to greed, namely to keep prices high. Not just building shit that will fail, but also things like building cars that nobody wants so that they can be registered by dealers to artifically inflate sales figures. Thousands of automobiles are created for this purpose every year. That has a measurable and significant environmental impact.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  182. Re: Oh, god damn it. by chuckugly · · Score: 1

    Bad analogy. If my neighbors threw their trash in the street, my solution would not be to pay a huge fine for all the trash I sent to the landfill. I would see what we could do to get them to use the landfill FIRST.

  183. Re: where's the evidence? by airdrummer · · Score: 1

    just because u dont understand something doesnt make it wrong
    u fucking trumpite imbecile
    but i repeat myself:-/

  184. We need more climate data to be sure by Ensign_Expendable · · Score: 1

    After all, the earth is only 6,000 years old. *cough*

  185. Re:The truth is that it does not matter. by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    We could build things to last and keep them longer.

    That fixes a problem with GARBAGE.

    The rate at which things turn into garbage directly affects the amount of energy that has to be spent replacing them.

    How will you magically build these durable things without producing CO2?

    There's nothing magic about it; you build less stuff, and you plant trees or bamboo or whatever it is that's convenient to fix the CO2 emitted by what you do produce.

    Plus entropy works against you - there's no such thing as a product that will last forever.

    Perfect is the enemy of good, and you are moving the goalposts. I never said forever.

    insulation has to be manufactured. It has to be shipped to where you need it. It has to be installed.

    Good news, everyone! Most of the houses built in the last forty years are total shit-shacks, and the nation has been hit with more and more flooding and earthquakes, so there is substantial turnover in homes. We can simply institute sane building codes and make a real substantive difference going forwards. Passive solar, meaningful insulation...

    this merely postpones the problem. As long as the population growth rate remains POSITIVE, we are inevitably going to hit the wall one way or another

    Yes, that's where education comes in, since educated people have less children and many nations are now actually having problems replacing their populations.

    Assuming you are not living in a hippy commune in the woods somewhere (and you're not, because you're using a computer and connected to the internet) you are guilty of that very same greed. Greed for the convenience of modern life.

    And yet, the situation can be improved considerably using technology and philosophy which has already been invented, and yet we're not even doing that.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  186. who doesnt care about side effects from policies? by airdrummer · · Score: 1

    so u r ok with rising sealevels drowning the worlds poorest peoples?
    fucking selfish trumpites

  187. Re: where's the evidence? by Bartles · · Score: 1

    You don't look very good here.

  188. The point by fyngyrz · · Score: 1

    The point was that climate change over 100,000 years is less challenging to the biosphere than a similar amount of climate change occurring in 100 years.

    That's not assurance that said 100-year change is going to actually happen as the various attempts at models depict -- those are predictions, and none of them take into account any ameliorative technolg(y/ies), because of course no one has any good way to measure what the impact of such things might be.

    One thing I am pretty sure of is that we'll be transitioning to EVs fairly rapidly now (in terms of a 100 year time period) and that will push the rate of human-generated CO2 downwards by some significant amount [waves hands.]

    Personally, that's what I'm looking for from whatever leadership we end up with next year: get us off the oil teat as fast as possible. For many reasons. It may be Trump and crew or it may not be, but whoever it is, that's the responsible thing to do.

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
  189. Re: who doesnt care about side effects from polici by Bartles · · Score: 1

    Sea levels could rise 100 feet and not a single creature would drown.

  190. Re:Fossil fuels are the way to prosperity by JustNiz · · Score: 1

    Is this really an attempt at sarcasm/irony/comedy?

    I'm hard core anti-Hillary, I love guns and big trucks, fast cars and horsepower and real freedom not the peecee liberal kind, but come on wake up and smell the coffee already.

    The fact that climate change is happening is at this point beyond fucking undeniable to all but the most full-blown retard that is actively avoiding informing themselves with even basic reading about it at all. Please at least for the sake of not making everyone on the right all look like a bunch of dumb backward hicks, get an actual clue.

  191. Re:MAD - and some of you will be by swillden · · Score: 1

    I totally agree with you we should be all-in on nuclear power, especially developing and deploying more modern, safer and cheaper fourth-gen plants, and building a waste reprocessing infrastructure. I also think AGW types who lobby against nuclear are silly. It's obviously because many are the same people who were worried about nuclear waste, etc., years ago, before AGW came on the scene as a concern. The old "greenies" are a big component of the new AGW movement and they've brought their biases with them.

    However, I think you're silly to be skeptical of global warming. The evidence of warming, global and unusually rapid, is abundant. It's less certain (though very, very likely) that it's anthropogenic in nature, but that doesn't really matter. Regardless of the origin, it looks like it's going to cause us big problems so we should be working out what to do to prevent the worst of it.

    --
    Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
  192. Why and why not by fyngyrz · · Score: 1

    Odd how this never seems to factor in unless we are dealing with climate science.

    That's because climate science, in the sense of the "A CO2-induced catastrophe is imminent" message, predicts a future result that has no historical analog (we've never, ever seen this happen), and does so in such a way as to bring a message that massive financial and behavioral change is outright required.

    You have to expect people to hold a prediction like that to a much higher standard of proof than either a claim that has no significant immediate consequences for individuals regardless of its factual nature, or not; or claims that have such impacts, but for which we actually have historical precedent, such as "Tsunamis here will destroy your beachfront house."

    It's perfectly natural for people to resist those who insist they change their behavior when you cannot demonstrate the validity of the impetus -- there has been a lot of variability between the predictions and the actual circumstances, depending on which claims one looks at.

    Expecting the "common person" to grasp the scientific arguments... that's so overly optimistic as to be fairly characterized as outright ridiculous.

    Assuming the suggested consequences are coming and are pendent upon nearly or exactly the CO2 levels and rate of increase that we have now, there's a huge amount of physical inertia to the whole process, and between that and the social inertia inherent in a mostly non-scientifically literate populace, you'd best be thinking ahead, because there isn't any way to really put on the brakes at this point.

    And as someone else noted above, if it's not going to proceed as predicted, then anything you do that has no other benefit to you... is a waste of your time and resources.

    I honestly don't know why either side really expects the other side to grasp the arguments of the other. The one strongly resists anything that might interfere with their lives or cost them time and resources, the other relies on extremely technical arguments that are both hard to grasp in toto, more than a little vague in many ways, and suffer from no historical precedent to point to.

    TLDR: Quit arguing about it. How often have you seen these arguments actually change anyone's mind? I don't think I've ever seen that happen.

    You want to have an actual effect, convince a legislator. Bring an envelope full of money.

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
    1. Re:Why and why not by quax · · Score: 1

      You want to have an actual effect, convince a legislator. Bring an envelope full of money.

      You win this thread.

    2. Re:Why and why not by Tenebrousedge · · Score: 1

      I am not sure if we share similar opinions about the subject at hand but I feel this is a fair description of the issues at stake and -- unfortunately -- an insightful solution.

      --
      Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
  193. Re:MAD - and some of you will be by Jodka · · Score: 1

    What is just maddening to me is the trend for using wood for heat and energy. .

    I and all of the people I have ever known who heat with wood burn scavenged wood which would otherwise have sat and rotted, returning the same carbon to the ecosystem as if burned.

    burning wood means less of it for building material, paper, and Parmesan cheese filler.

    No, it does not. Those end uses do not source the same lumber as is scavenged and burned. Commercial use is sourced from large-scale commercial producers. The farmer who saws up the fallen tree limb lying along his fence row and chucks it into his wood stove next January does not have as an option selling it to Kraft for Parmesan filler instead.

    --
    Ceci n'est pas une signature.
  194. The cost of leveling trade by fyngyrz · · Score: 1

    The easy money from the US is about to dry up.

    Well, if that happens, just remember: the cost of products like steel and phones and laptops and desktops and RPIs and toys and chips and televisions and audio systems and cars and so on are going to spike immediately. As in, the moment associated trade barriers, in whatever form, go up.

    I'm not insisting that's a bad thing in the long run (I have mixed opinions on the matter, and they're far too involved to go into here), but you'd best be ready to reap what gets sown, because if nothing else, you're going to feel it. (BTW, my advice for keeping the personal impact lowish is to buy the stuff you want in the "made overseas" category now, before the impact of trade barriers makes them much more consequential to purchase.)

    Trade between entities with unbalanced cost of production costs jobs on one side and gains them on the other, while providing less expensive products to the side that loses the jobs. That's pretty much right where the US is right now: cheap products and lost jobs.

    Stifle that trade, or eliminate the disparity between cost of production with tariffs, and costs of products will go up, consumption of same will slow, and some jobs may return, depending on just how needful the market is for the product in question.

    Right now, a TV can be had for $100, no problem. Balance the cost of production in China with the cost of production here using tariffs, or block such imports entirely, and a TV will become much more expensive. Probably a large number of people will buy them anyway, but I guarantee it will be a more carefully vetted and far less casual purchase when the entry cost rises to $200, $300 or even higher.

    Same thing for everything else. You want jobs to come back here, okay, but don't run around thinking it's all going to be flowers and candy. It's going to hurt.

    Also, there will be the amusement of watching China continue to sell televisions and the like inexpensively to everyone else: basically, it's going to be harder for consumers to swallow that they have to pay $2x or more for what people in the EU pay $1x for. The butthurt will be profound -- because if there's one thing I am absolutely sure of, it's that the average Trump voter doesn't see this coming at all. But come it will.

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
    1. Re:The cost of leveling trade by Charcharodon · · Score: 1
      You are correct, about that, but I don't think even China is willing give all the profits to be made off of the US. Half of something is better than all of nothing.

      I think China, Japan and some of the others are going to come around to the idea that they are going to have to open up their markets to our products the same way we are opening to theirs if they want to continue to have a relationship with us in the future.

  195. Planned obsolescence by fyngyrz · · Score: 1

    How will you magically build these durable things without producing CO2?

    What you're missing is that if the thing lasts longer, fewer of them will be produced, and that reduces the CO2 of manufacture, transport and so on.

    What the GP is missing is that in a very large number of product categories, low endurance products are a significant part of keeping costs low and sales high, profits likewise. The consequence of that is it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to get manufacturers to actually make more durable products.

    For instance, if we want our refrigerators to last longer, that can certainly be done, in the engineering sense. Those cheap little compressors and thin-walled heat exchangers will have to go, the seals around the doors will become much more expensive, the lighting and defrosting mechanisms will have to be changed, the hardware in the icemaker will no longer be able to use plastic gears, and so on. This will cost a lot more, and when it's done, far fewer refrigerators will be sold. Good for the environment; not good for the manufacturer. Guess what that means... Right: we get cheap refrigerators with short lifetimes. Welcome to profiteering 101.

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
  196. Bush all over again by tgrigsby · · Score: 2

    So it's Bush all over again? And you're surprised by this because...?

    Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.

    Those of us who remember history are doomed to watch everyone else repeat it.

    --
    *** *** You're just jealous 'cause the voices talk to me... ***
  197. Re: Oh, god damn it. by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

    No, it's a good analogy, because basically the intent of saying "We shouldn't do anything because China and India aren't" (which isn't even true, they are signatories to the Paris climate accord) is to say "Because some of my neighbors are killers, I'm going to join them in the murderous orgy because, heck, what could me not being a killer do to the overall murder statistics on my block?"

    Apart from the fact that the US does in fact generate a rather significant fraction of over-all green house gasses, so that if it did, all on its own, reign in emissions, it would have a measurable effect on the amount of CO2 being emitted into the atmosphere.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  198. Why gas / diesel by fyngyrz · · Score: 1

    It's not idiocy. It's corruption based on pure selfishness in the form of influence flowing from oil interests into the legislative process. Money, favor, power... you name it, it's in play here. Re-election coffers swell, cousin Cletus gets a great deal on land / home / boat, etc., that post-political book deal, speaking tour, think-tank position... sexual favors, access to art, collectables, stock tips, club memberships "somehow" become readily available...

    Yep, it's great to be in congress.

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
    1. Re:Why gas / diesel by skids · · Score: 1

      All those machinations rely on idiocy. It is the soil in which they grow.

    2. Re:Why gas / diesel by fyngyrz · · Score: 1

      No. Self-interest is not idiocy. It's selfish, sure enough, particularly in this context, but it's not idiocy.

      When you win from your decisions, from the standpoint of your own life and those who you care about (and I am definitely implying that legislators don't actually care about the people the represent except as to how far they can pull the wool over their eyes), self-interest is quite smart. And there's another issue, when you really face reality: Old congressional person isn't going to see any serious negative consequences. Will die long before anything actually can affect them. The things you are worried about, they aren't worried about, because they literally won't affect them at all.

      So quite smart. Just horribly selfish.

      --
      I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
  199. From a basket of deplorables... by DieByWire · · Score: 1

    to the Cabinet of Deplorables.

    --
    Never shake hands with a man you meet in a fertility clinic.
  200. Re: who doesnt care about side effects from polic by airdrummer · · Score: 1

    u r a fucking moron

  201. Global Warming shouldn't matter by jxander · · Score: 1

    Even if you doubt the science and don't believe that humans are screwing up the planet, there are still plenty of selfish reasons to "go green"

    First and foremost is money. At a personal level, solar panels are cheaper than coal-fired grid power for many people. On a broader scale, an energy company that has fewer options will charge more. Here in San Diego, they decommissioned our nuke plant a few years ago, and home energy prices have increased significantly as a result. People should be supporting alternative energy sources to reduce their bill.

    Secondly is supply. We are going to run out of oil at some point. Coal, too. It's already getting harder and harder to dig up. Check out how deep the Deepwater Horizon drill actuall was. The oil pocket was 2/3 down the Mariana's Trench. That reeks of desperation. Fracking is even more desperate. It's like trying to wring the last few drops of booze out of a bar towel.

    The sun, on the other hand, isn't going anywhere. Not for a few billion years at least. Wind, tidal, geothermal, and nuclear power are similarly long duration. Even if you believe that "clean coal" is actually a real thing, it would behoove you to move away from a power source that might not last your lifetime

    Thirdly, smog. Have you been to Beijing? The air is insane over there. It's like London pea soup fog, except with dirt and soot instead of water condensation. There is seriously a business selling cans of air in China. Whether or not you think that's bad for the planet is immaterial. That's bad for YOU. And if you think "it's on the other side of the world, I'll be fine," I would like to introduce you to the concept of wind.

    Be selfish. Go green.

    --
    This signature is false.
  202. Re:fuck trump by skids · · Score: 1

    More like a sign of disgust at the country, not just the president. If you knew me you'd know how loathe I am to engage in any ritual or symbolism, so that's how bad I feel for this nation. I didn't do it for dubya either time even though I hated his guts. Trump is just beyond the pale.

  203. Re:I'm all in for by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

    So, in other words, you do believe that if you lived on a block with some murderers, your solution isn't to call the police, but to pick up the ax and join them in the killing frenzy.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  204. Re:MAD - and some of you will be by SuricouRaven · · Score: 1

    Allow me to sarcastically paraphrase you:

    "Ha ha, Russia is going to invade and tens of millions of your citizens will die! America could step in and stop that, but fuck you, we don't owe you anything."

  205. Re:MAD - and some of you will be by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

    The fact in question is "the same groups wanting to take your cash for carbon put forth no projects or proposals to deal with those issues". No argument about the need to combat deforestation and pollution.

    --
    When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
  206. Re:MAD - and some of you will be by SuricouRaven · · Score: 1

    Humans are a naturally tribal species. You can pick them from the savana and put them in a modern industrial setting, but the instincts will still assert. They will always divide into tribes - perhaps along racial lines, or political, or even over something as trivial as which football team to support. The members of any tribe will then always put the interests of tribe-members above those of outsiders, and at times may even be actively hostile towards rival tribes.

  207. Re: Oh, god damn it. by chuckugly · · Score: 1

    No, it's a good analogy, because basically the intent of saying "We shouldn't do anything because China and India aren't"

    Except we have strict laws all over our industry WRT pollution, so we ARE following some rules (taking trash to the landfill) they need to catch up on. Then, once they get there, we can talk about further mutual compliance. So no, we are not doing nothing, we are insisting they do what we are already doing before we further hobble ourselves.

  208. Re: Oh, god damn it. by MachineShedFred · · Score: 1

    Because it's clearly easier to invent, design, engineer, and manufacture terraforming technology which doesn't exist that can reduce or outright reverse global impacts of 150 years of burning oil and coal than it is to just use technology we already have, and are already deploying on ever-increasing scale.

    Duh!

    --
    Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
  209. Re: who doesnt care about side effects from polic by Bartles · · Score: 1

    I'm pretty sure even the lowliest creature on earth can outrun water rising at 0.04 inches per year. You're the moron who isn't capable of independent thought.

  210. Re:Oh, god damn it. by MachineShedFred · · Score: 1

    It's always funny people whine about the popular election when they lose the only metric that legally matters.

    It's not like the rules changed all of a sudden. The Electoral College has been a thing for 233 years or so. Stop moving the goalposts and attempting to declare victory. It's not the fault of the Electoral College that the DNC nominated an even more flawed candidate than Donald Trump. If you want to complain about something, complain about that.

    --
    Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
  211. Re: Oh, god damn it. by Jzanu · · Score: 1

    Nice country called Tuvalu, faggot. Also the droughts caused Sudanese instability long before any other elements. What the fuck do you think caused the 30 year drought?

  212. Re: Oh, god damn it. by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    Electronics is one of the least problematic issues - these days, you can get substantial benefits even with little of it, and anyway, the benefits are so large that not having it not an economic option. You just can't drop automation and expect things to become better because your environmental impact has slightly lessened (but productivity of work has dropped like a stone). Heating and cooling can be vastly improved by passive measures, such as those coming into place here in Europe starting in 2020. So car transportation really is the hardest the knack of those four. Fortunately, continuing urbanization significantly improves that.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  213. Re:MAD - and some of you will be by blindseer · · Score: 1

    However, I think you're silly to be skeptical of global warming.

    I'm okay with you disagreeing with me on AGW so long as we can agree on solutions. I believe that we have bigger problems with importing oil than the carbon output, if we can agree on strategies that can reduce oil importation then I don't care what you think about AGW.

    What I have found out is that burning plant matter for energy is demonstrably bad for the economy and bad for the environment. People need to eat and people eat plant matter. Burning plant matter is burning food. The whole idea of "agricultural waste" is laughable. Those corn stalks and soybean hulls that some people want to burn is wasteful. That plant matter is erosion control, nitrogen fixers, and all kinds of good for the soil. If we don't put that plant matter back in the fields then farmers have to use artificial fertilizers, the kind made from natural gas mostly, to make up for it.

    Ethanol is a real bad idea too, I'd go into it but this post is long enough already. Any kind of bio-fuel is a bad idea except perhaps those that are dangerous to human health in some way, like sewage and medical waste, I'm not terribly opposed to burning that kind of material generally because we will often burn it anyway to dispose of it so we may as well derive energy from it.

    I can get along with AGW people, just so long as they don't lobby for things that destroy the economy and my standard of living to "save" the planet. The planet is going to be fine, it will still be here even if the seas rise and ice caps melt, it's people we need to worry about.

    --
    I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
  214. Re:Godspeed you Mr. President. by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

    ^ Xenophobic, Racist comment.

    ^Doesn't know what "xenophobic" or "racist" mean.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  215. Re: 0.04 inches / yr by airdrummer · · Score: 1

    no u r the moron who doesn't realize that rising sea levels increase the danger of typhoons' flooding:-\

  216. Re: Oh, god damn it. by h33t+l4x0r · · Score: 1

    I'm trying to get my neighbors to agree to slowly reduce their murder rates.

  217. We need a SCIENCE COURT in this country by scatbomb · · Score: 1

    I bet most politicians have no idea what is meant by order of magnitude. They argue over millions and leave 10's of billions at stake. OK, we need a scientific equivalent of the supreme court. A completely (or as close to completely as possible) non-partisan group who are experts in a variety of scientific fields. Experts who know a little of politics and a lot of math. Their job will be to analyze disagreements pertaining to key issues that are scientific in nature being discussed in another branch of government. After hearing both sides of the argument they will perform a "peer reviewed" report of each side and cut through the bullshit. I'm just getting kind of sick of politicians arguing (half-assedly) about subjects which they cannot hope to understand because they have the wrong background. Even worse than arguing half-assedly about subjects they don't understand, politicians (predictably) politicize things that aren't even political!! Statements of fact should not be considered partisan, ever.

  218. Re:Too bad... by HuguesT · · Score: 1

    In this instance Trump can basically do as he please given the composition of both the senate and the house.

  219. Re:Invent fuel from CO2 in air or we are doomed by HuguesT · · Score: 1
  220. Re: Oh, god damn it. by gumbi+west · · Score: 1

    If you're a Trump supporter and you were hoping for you job back, yes.

  221. Re:Oh, god damn it. by Charcharodon · · Score: 1
    Already did my 20 in the Air Force.

    Apple and Exxon going broke will not cause me any loss of sleep.

  222. Re:The truth is that it does not matter. by FlyHelicopters · · Score: 1

    You're welcome. The sad part is that most of the people who think they're making the world a better place by having children are dead wrong.

    The irony is that you finally said something I agree with!

    See, goes to show that one of us is right from time to time.

    The real trick is... which one? :)

  223. Re:MAD - and some of you will be by FlyHelicopters · · Score: 1

    "Ha ha, Russia is going to invade and tens of millions of your citizens will die! America could step in and stop that, but fuck you, we don't owe you anything."

    Why should America care if Germany is under the control of Germans or Russians?

    Why is the whole world's problems ours to solve?

    I suppose we could rent out our military, how much are you offering?

  224. Re:Oh boy. by dbIII · · Score: 1

    There's nothing wrong with being unsatisfied with the way things are and wanting to lob a big water balloon full of "f--k you" at the powers that be in this country.

    Doing something drastic to yourself as a "cry for help" is always going to hurt.

    Plus the "change", as seen with situations like this position, is a matter of replacing one bunch of professional political agitators who have never done anything else with a different bunch - so effectively no change at all with some things. The think-tank idiot mentioned above will have no clue on how to manage a handful of people and suddenly he's in charge of thousands.

  225. Re:Oh boy. by dbIII · · Score: 1

    Why don't you wait a few months before assuming you have such great foresight?

    Because ignoring his track record like that is just what got him elected in the first place.

  226. Re:MAD - and some of you will be by FlyHelicopters · · Score: 1

    That's not fair. Germany was, until not so long ago, not even *allowed* to defend itself.

    It has been decades, they have had long enough...

    Keep in mind that the main gun on the American M1 Abrams main battle tank is a German-designed gun. :)

    Germany can take care of itself. If they like, I'd even sell them nuclear weapons from the American stockpile at this point if they'd rather avoid developing their own. A few hundred would be plenty...

  227. It won't matter by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    since we produce way more steel than we need. We need to be able to export the stuff for it to be profitable and with China dumping steel that ain't happening. Maybe if we really did build that wall (it'd need tons and tons of steel rebar) but other than that...

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
  228. Re: Oh, god damn it. by Uberbah · · Score: 1

    Says the guy posting his screed from said electronics and cheap shit manufactured in China

    1) You can't buy electronics that aren't made in China

    2) You wont see me blaming Chinese people for it

    Don't be a fucking dumbass, AC.

  229. Re: Oh, god damn it. by Uberbah · · Score: 1

    So admit china is burning the world down, because jobs were shipped there to avoid putting in clean air scrubbers and clean emission factories in america. So lets blame america??? Welcome to Trump Land, drain the swamp and fix the system that would have fixed your pollution issues.

    You blow off 4% of the population producing 25% of the world's pollution and then start going on about Trump? I find your lack of self-awareness disturbing.

  230. Re:The truth is that it does not matter. by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    We "could" do many things... but we aren't likely to do so...

    If we don't do those things, we will die.

    You're just having a bout of wishful thinking...

    At this point I'm just hoping that it doesn't all go completely tits up until after my death... which I am concurrently hoping will be at least some thirty years into the future, if not more. So far, I'm not encouraged by what I'm seeing.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  231. Re:The truth is that it does not matter. by FlyHelicopters · · Score: 1

    If we don't do those things, we will die.

    Not all of us...

    Frankly, the real solution is population control, much of the problem is really too many people.

    Our rate of pollution per person wouldn't be an issue if we had 500 million total people on Earth. Cutting pollution by 50% per person, then doubling the number of people, doesn't actually solve anything.

  232. Re:The truth is that it does not matter. by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    If we don't do those things, we will die.

    Not all of us...

    No, but who suffers will be psuedorandom and chaotic.

    Frankly, the real solution is population control, much of the problem is really too many people.

    I am not against population control, but we do have the technology to have even more people on this planet without destroying it. What's missing is apparently the will to utilize it.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  233. Re:The truth is that it does not matter. by FlyHelicopters · · Score: 1

    No, but who suffers will be psuedorandom and chaotic.

    Not really, I'm rich, or at least "rich enough", that it won't hurt me.

    I'm not quite to "fuck you money", but I'm getting there...

    You'll probably think that is bad or something, but we each do what is in our own best interest...

    What's missing is apparently the will to utilize it.

    You are correct... it is human nature, you want a lot of people to pay a lot of money to help a lot of other people to harm themselves, that just isn't how humans generally work...

    I don't have solar panels on my roof because they cost too much. I can afford them, but it isn't in my own interest to put them up. It might be in "everyone's interest", but I'm human

  234. Opening foriegn markets by fyngyrz · · Score: 1

    Yes, that's a possibility; it depends entirely on how congress structures any barriers and/or tariffs, assuming they even do. It's one thing to talk about it -- it's entirely another to do it. Lobbyists control what congress does. The process is that of an oligarchy. So in the crafting of any legislative policy, it's all about who has the deepest pockets. American corporations, or the Chinese and Japanese nation states.

    We also have to keep in mind that China and Japan opening to our products coming in means they do damage to their own local production. That damage has to be less than the benefit gained -- it may not, in fact, be "half of something", it may be a straight-up loss. And China, at least, is enjoying the fruits of a large population combined with a roaring economic engine because they don't let in other products easily, or in some cases, at all.

    It's not a given that any of this will work out well. It's popcorn time.

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
  235. Re:Climate Hysteria by Kiuas · · Score: 1

    So you're claiming that something so easy to understand can only be understood by those who study it which means that everything you've said is complete an utter horse shit.

    No, that's not what I'm claiming you idiot. The greenhouse effect simply means that certain gases such as Co2 and methane bounce back k heat and thus warm the atmosphere, which can and has been easily proved in a laboratory setting. This effect is not in dispute among scientists.

    Oh, so do these lab test also account for CMEs and cosmic radiation both of which are well known for quake activity and cloud seeding rates?

    Yes.

    Many climate scientists agree that sunspots and solar wind could be playing a role in climate change, but the vast majority view it as very minimal and attribute Earthâ(TM)s warming primarily to emissions from industrial activityâ"and they have thousands of peer-reviewed studies available to back up that claim.

    Peter Foukal of the Massachusetts-based firm Heliophysics, Inc., who has tracked sunspot intensities from different spots around the globe dating back four centuries, also concludes that such solar disturbances have little or no impact on global warming. Nevertheless, he adds, most up-to-date climate modelsâ"including those used by the United Nationsâ(TM) prestigious Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)â"incorporate the effects of the sunâ(TM)s variable degree of brightness in their overall calculations.

    Ironically, the only way to really find out if phenomena like sunspots and solar wind are playing a larger role in climate change than most scientists now believe would be to significantly reduce our carbon emissions. Only in the absence of that potential driver will researchers be able to tell for sure how much impact natural influences have on the Earthâ(TM)s climate.

    Based on what?

    Based on the simple fact that it's the most prevalent greenhouse has in the atmosphere and thus has the most effect in the heat retaining capability of the atmosphere.

    So you're saying if the Sun vanished tomorrow that the CAGW hypothisis would be unaffected?

    No you idiot, I never said that the original source of the heat is not the sun and neither did the scientists. The greenhouse effect works by binding/bouncing back heat from the sun thus warming the Earth. No-one's disputing that the heat itself is coming from the sun, the whole point of global warming is that dumping more greenhouse gases such as CO2 into the atmosphere means it will retain more of the heat provided by the sun thus affecting the climate.

    So the sun warms the Earth, and increasing the amount of greenhouse gases increases the rate of warming. There's nothing controversial or disputable about this, it's quite simple science.

    Where has rain fall or droughts increased?

    More heat --> more energy in the atmosphere --> more rains and storms. This logic is not disputed among climatologists.

    Oh like what?

    Increased foliage in places like deserts and arctic tundras?

    No, like such increased rainfall that crops will not grow where they now do. Too much rain will prevent normal food crops from growing, while places close to the equator will get so warm that nothing will grow there,

    However, increased warming has ALWAYS 'triggered' the mass emergence of life.

    Yes, but that warming has usually occurred over several centuries and millenia. The problem is that the warming being caused by man is happening at a much faster rate t6han any natural cycles that plant/animal life does not have the time to a

    --
    "It is the business of the future to be dangerous" -Alfred North Whitehead
  236. Re:The truth is that it does not matter. by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    No, but who suffers will be psuedorandom and chaotic.

    Not really, I'm rich, or at least "rich enough", that it won't hurt me.

    That's not how it works, and that kind of idiotic thinking is why we can't have nice things. None of the fucks responsible think it can happen to them. But that's what chaos means. It can.

    You'll probably think that is bad or something, but we each do what is in our own best interest...

    No. You're just being an idiot and making excuses. Cognitive dissonance is leading you to believe that acting like a shitheel is in your own best interest, but the fact is that climate change has already affected you negatively, and it's going to continue to do so.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  237. Re:The truth is that it does not matter. by FlyHelicopters · · Score: 1

    That's not how it works, and that kind of idiotic thinking is why we can't have nice things.

    No, it is why you can't have nice things, I have plenty of nice things and can afford to move if for some magic reason the oceans rose 500 feet.

    but the fact is that climate change has already affected you negatively, and it's going to continue to do so.

    How so?

    I have all the food and water I care to consume, I can heat and cool my home as much as I want. I can take vacations, drive and go anywhere I want, and do almost anything I want.

    How exactly has climate change hurt me?

  238. Re: Oh, god damn it. by Uberbah · · Score: 1

    Myth. As industry has left the USA, and as increasingly stringent regulation has appeared, and as technology has improved, the air and water have gotten the cleanest they have been in the past century. Fish have returned to many rivers that were empty fifty years ago. Forests that are cut down are routinely re-planted in most places - and enormous tracks of land are still mostly wilderness.

    And Santa Clause is on target to deliver all his presents for Christmas. Quite the alternate reality you've constructed for yourself, relying on hand waiving.

  239. Re: Oh, god damn it. by Uberbah · · Score: 1

    So will you be giving up your car? Heating? Cooling? Electronics? No? Hypocrite.

    Dumbfuckery. People have to be given an actual choice before you can accuse them of hypocrisy hypocrite.

  240. Re: Oh, god damn it. by Uberbah · · Score: 1

    They don't have to comply. They'd do it anyways and you know it.

    Hand waiving. "You get what you pay for" applies to China as much as anywhere else. You want top of the line quality quality from a Chinese supplier not running on coal power - you can get it, as long as you're willing to pay for it.

  241. Re:Neither Assad nor Qaddafi should have been remo by Uberbah · · Score: 1

    Wrong. Their people decided to remove them.

    The hell they did. This is as pitiful as continuing to insist in 2016 that Saddam had to be deposed because of his WMD's and ties to Al Queda, a full decade after even Bush flunkies stopped repeating those claims.

  242. Re: Oh, god damn it. by Uberbah · · Score: 1

    The fact is that even if every American citizen biked to work, carpooled to school, used only solar panels to power their homes, if we each planted a dozen trees, if we somehow eliminated all of our domestic greenhouse emissions, guess what - that still wouldn't be enough to offset the carbon pollution coming from the rest of the world.

    Guess what - that's still wankery powered by gross entitlement. India and China combined have 7 times the population of the United States, yet a fraction of our wealth. WTF should they be held to to the same standard as the get-rich-quick kid who gets to fuck over the rest of the planet but not have any responsibility for his actions?

  243. Re:MAD - and some of you will be by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    Wind is not working because:
    1. You are an idiot
    2. You choose not to see it
    3. You're a troll

    Again: In your country, right now.
    There is no reason it could work, as there are plenty of examples of countries where it does.

    So in my eyes the troll and the idiot is you. Because you can not look over the brim of your plate. Or simply lack knowledge about simple laws of physics.

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  244. Re:MAD - and some of you will be by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    Against whom should we need to defend our selves?

    Against Chinese? Or the Turkish soon?

    On what planet do you live?

    The German army/navy/air force is not very big, but belongs to the finest. And most of our stuff is designed for "home defense" and not to bomb third world countries into the Stone Age. In other words, systems like our helicopters and missiles are designed for our terrain. Heavy infantry etc. is basically anti tank defense.

    Even if you turn off all your power tomorrow, it doesn't mean anything. We all share the same air.
    It would change a lot. That is why you are not very smart. You still forget: 75% of all CO2 pollution comes form USA, EU, and niche countries like Kuwait, Russia ofc. If the developed world would over night go to ZERO CO2 (and Germany plans to reach that till 2030 at the earliest and 2050 at the latest) then only 25% is left. That is a HUGE difference.

    You REALLY fucking suck at math, you have no idea what it will take to stop CO2 rise in the air, it is simply not going to be stopped.
    Of course it will be stopped. Either when all energy production is green SOON, or after the fall of mankind when people only can burn wood. I hope / assume there is some middle ground in between. E.g. plenty of asian countries could install off shore wind plants. Some are experimenting with it.

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  245. Re:The truth is that it does not matter. by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    Depends on the year you pick :D that page lacks the recent years btw. I think peek exhaust of the USA was around 2010 or something, no?

    Also most statistics cut out countries like Oceania or Kuwait etc. because they disrupt the big picture.

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  246. Re:MAD - and some of you will be by FlyHelicopters · · Score: 1

    On what planet do you live?

    The same one you do, the one that passed 400 PPM CO2 and is never going back to 350 in our lifetime.

    It will however, hit 600 PPM probably sometime next century, give or take a bit, and the human race will still be here.

    You still forget: 75% of all CO2 pollution comes form USA, EU, and niche countries like Kuwait, Russia ofc

    Really?

    http://www.ucsusa.org/global_w...

    Who is at the top of that list? Try again...

    If the developed world would over night go to ZERO CO2

    If unicorns flew out of my butt, that would be pretty impressive as well. Neither are going to happen...

    I live in the real world, you live in fantasy land.

    Of course it will be stopped.

    Yep, you live in Germany where you are fed bullshit by the people currently in charge who are complete morons... In 20 years you're going to be really fucking sorry you let 1 million people from the Middle East in, by which point it will be too late...

    So you're wrong, perhaps because you'd fed this nonsense and don't bother to fact check, perhaps because you don't care, and perhaps because the reality would scare you and you like your safe space.

  247. Re:MAD - and some of you will be by FlyHelicopters · · Score: 1

    So in my eyes the troll and the idiot is you.

    And nothing short of violence will convince you otherwise...

    You remind me of my 8 year old daughter when she's being stubborn, you plant your feet and ignore reality.

    Think what you want, you're wrong and a fool, but there are many such people like you in the world.

  248. Re:MAD - and some of you will be by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    Well, I just could quote you and say the same about you.
    Unfortunately I have no 8 year old daughter to compare you with :)

    As I pointed out several times before:
    a) I worked in the energy business for about ten years - unlike you
    b) I live in germany and we show the rest of the world how to do renewables - unlike you

    So, my definition of idtiot/troll does definitely not match yours :)

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  249. Re:MAD - and some of you will be by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    Please, don't link web pages that show that I'm right.
    That makes you look very dumb.

    Regarding the millions we let in form the middle east: sorry there is no way around that. Or we would be called Nazies and killers and ugly germans or swines or what ever. You can only keep them out by let them starve to death behind the boarder or shoot them.

    In both cases you likely would be the first one calling us 'Nazis, ugly Germans, or Swines' again. Thank you.

    Unlike your future and former president the High Chancelor of germany has a Phd in Physics. So thank you for your impression that we are 'fed bullshit'.

    I'm soon 50, so I care since 40 years, unlike you. Facepalm. An I know about the problems since over 40 years, unlike you. Troll?

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  250. Re: Oh, god damn it. by Uberbah · · Score: 1

    And Santa Clause is on target to deliver all his presents for Christmas. Quite the alternate reality you've constructed for yourself, relying on hand waiving.

    Learn to use a search engine, and inter-library loan.

    Translation: do all the work to prove that Santa is indeed on schedule, so you don't have to prove your assertions. Sorry, but it doesn't work that way - otherwise I'll casually assert that you've been getting it on with Donner and Blitzen, and leave you to prove that assertion false.

  251. Nuclear Winter is coming by frovingslosh · · Score: 1

    After Trump starts a nuclear war and nuclear winter sets in you'll all be glad that Trump turned up the global warming.

    --
    I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
  252. The Arguement by DarthVain · · Score: 1

    The argument to end all for all of these like topics.

    Globalization and Environmentalism

    Basically if you try to be a good environmental steward you put yourself at a disadvantage to places with no such restrictions.

    You can apply that to just about anything. Until your market attempts to disadvantage other places for not being good stewards, said issue continues.

    We can talk circles around the various topics involved, but unless that discrepancy is addressed little meaningful progress is going to be made.

  253. Re: who doesnt care about side effects from polic by airdrummer · · Score: 1