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Judge Rules Big Oil Can't Be Sued For Climate Change Costs (cbsnews.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: A U.S. judge who held a hearing about climate change that received widespread attention ruled Monday that Congress and the president were best suited to address the contribution of fossil fuels to global warming. So he threw out lawsuits that sought to hold big oil companies liable for the Earth's changing environment. Noting that the world has also benefited significantly from oil and other fossil fuel, Judge William Alsup said questions about how to balance the "worldwide positives of the energy" against its role in global warming "demand the expertise of our environmental agencies, our diplomats, our Executive, and at least the Senate. The problem deserves a solution on a more vast scale than can be supplied by a district judge or jury in a public nuisance case," he said. Alsup's ruling came in lawsuits brought by San Francisco and neighboring Oakland that accused Chevron (CVX), Exxon Mobil (XOM), ConocoPhillips (COP), BP (BP) and Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A) of long knowing that fossil fuels posed serious risks to the environment, but still promoting them as environmentally responsible.

244 of 418 comments (clear)

  1. Big shocker. by penandpaper · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Glad the judge had enough sense to throw this case out.

    Want to get public action on climate change? Convince people and win elections. Using the courts to forward your agenda can and will backfire.

    I seem to remember a particular article written about a party using the courts to forward their agenda is bad.

    1. Re:Big shocker. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      So if I want to sue someone who has harmed me, I should try to win an election and get legislation passed as my remedy?

      No, lawsuits are the exact mechanism our society contemplates as the remedy to civil wrongs.

    2. Re:Big shocker. by tepples · · Score: 3, Insightful

      So if I want to sue someone who has harmed me, I should try to win an election and get legislation passed as my remedy?

      The reason for legislation is to get the harm done to you officially recognized as actionable harm in the first place.

    3. Re:Big shocker. by penandpaper · · Score: 1, Insightful

      The courts are good at individual cases that have nuance and the technicalities of jurisprudence. That is not the place to drive social agenda to solve societal problems.

      People exhale CO2. When the EPA or courts expands the authority of the government to regulate CO2 as a pollutant they can effectively regulate your breathing. Perhaps you can see the problem with using the courts to bypass obvious deficiencies in your thinking.

      We have a body made specifically for these kind of things, Congress. Use that instead of judicial fiat.

    4. Re: Big shocker. by kenh · · Score: 1

      And what of the people that read those reports, but continue to drive 30 miles each way to work in their own car, burning fossil fuels and converting gasoline in to greenhouse gases - they are blameless?

      The climate was impacted by millions, maybe billions, of people burning fossil fuel - the process of creating fossil fuels produces very little greenhouse gases by comparison.

      --
      Ken
    5. Re:Big shocker. by Petersko · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It's not a valid comparison. If the tobacco sellers stop selling tobacco, the result is people don't get to smoke.If the oil companies turn off the tap, people will die.

      And even if they had put up their hands decades ago and said, "Hey, this isn't good for the environment, and it'll heat up the planet causing all sorts of problems!", would it have changed behaviours at all? The mountain of evidence available now isn't good enough to do that today.

    6. Re:Big shocker. by polar+red · · Score: 1

      let me get this straight: if person X does damage to person Y, but this kind of damage isn't legislated, person Y can't defend him/herself ?

      --
      Yes, I'm left. You have a problem with that?
    7. Re:Big shocker. by Gilgaron · · Score: 1

      On the one hand, sure, if they're following the regulations then it isn't at least negligently their fault if they're poisoning us. On the other hand, if they are helping ensure that guys like Pruitt get in charge of the EPA and gut the regulations so they don't have to spend money to be poisoning us less, then that's a bit different.

    8. Re: Big shocker. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Everyone knows moving oil isn't bad for the environment. Driving is. Sue drivers instead

    9. Re:Big shocker. by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 1

      The courts are a good venue for this kind of thing, especially in the US where politicians are owned by corporations.

      Judges are appointed by politicians, and are supposed to decide cases based on law that politicians make.

    10. Re:Big shocker. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Yes, exactly (you idiot). If you want to sue someone for "fart-rape" but there is no law on the books for it, even though you are 110% convinced that you've been wronged in a way that requires millions in compensation, the judge SHOULD throw your case out.

      If you can actually get a law passed that defines fart-rape and sets out the conditions for someone to be tried and punished for it, THEN you can go to court.

    11. Re:Big shocker. by mysidia · · Score: 3, Insightful

      So if I want to sue someone who has harmed me, I should try to win an election and get legislation passed....

      Yes. You don't get to sue just because someone "harmed you"; the other party also has to have harmed you in specifically an illegal manner such as a direct infringment on your legally recognized rights or by failing in a recognized duty to you (such as failing to uphold their part of a bargain) requiring redress by the courts to correct an injustice --- for example, if you lost money because my fancy marketing convinced someone to buy a good or service for me instead of you, then that's perfectly legal, and there's no grounds for suit.

      So it is with Oil companies.... they might in theory have provided other companies petroleum products which resulted in CO2 releases that some groups claim related to global warming that you theorize has harmed you, But there was no law against their actions, there's no proof of a causal relationship, and even if you own property, there's no legal right to prevent someone from affecting the weather/climate over your property...

    12. Re:Big shocker. by penandpaper · · Score: 2

      On the other hand, if they are helping ensure that guys like Pruitt get in charge of the EPA and gut the regulations so they don't have to spend money to be poisoning us less, then that's a bit different.

      Should advocating for a particular policy or politician that helps you be illegal? Why does a oil company not have the same rights as say, Netflix with Net Neutrality? Or even you personally.

      IOW: Should rights be limited because a number of individuals pooled their resources toward a common goal?

      That is the argument you are promoting. I say, no, rights are not limited because you pool your resources with like minded people toward a specific goal.

    13. Re:Big shocker. by cyberchondriac · · Score: 1

      Agreed. It's apples and .. brussel sprouts, to use a better analogy. Tobacco has no real benefit to society, smoking is just an unnecessary, dirty personal habit.
      Energy, OTOH, is absolutely critical to modern life, everything demands it, and the demand keeps increasing. 40, 30, even 20 years ago, there were no solid, widely available, viable alternatives. Solar technology was still highly inefficient.

      --

      Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
    14. Re:Big shocker. by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 3, Insightful

      CO2, soot, lead... Yeah I hold the oil companies responsible. Not least because when it became clear what was happening they were extremely slow to do anything about it, just like tobacco sellers.

      Well, technically the oil companies don't produce CO2, soot, or lead. You can blame the power plants, and the car owners for that. Their industry, pumping out oil doesn't produce much more CO2 than many other industries. It's how consumers (power plants, car owners) use the product that cause the CO2. If consumers watered their lawn with oil instead of using it to power their car, they wouldn't release as much CO2. :)

      On a more serious note though; for this to be comparable to tobacco the oil companies would have had to know BEFORE the public how harmful oil was- and actively try suppressing the truth. As far as I am aware- oil companies didn't find out before the public- and the public continued to use oil after learning of the dangers. Unlike tobacco who knew about the dangers of their product before the consumers did (and hid that information)- oil companies didn't hide anything. We've known as long as them how CO2 is linked to global warming.

      It's also worth pointing out that it's hard to pinpoint how much blame goes to Oil as opposed to coal, deforestation, slash and burn, melting ice causing sequested CO2 and methane to be released.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    15. Re:Big shocker. by AlwinBarni · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The case is not reported adequately. The problem here is not that big oil companies have influenced climate (indeed, humanity benefited from the energy and plastics) - the problem is that they have known about their impact on climate for a while now and still kept spending resources to actively deny it and undermine research about it - similar to what happened with tobacco companies and health effects of smoking tobaccos. This fact, in my opinion, has enough merit for a trial.

      It is futile though.

    16. Re:Big shocker. by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 2

      let me get this straight: if person X does damage to person Y, but this kind of damage isn't legislated, person Y can't defend him/herself ?

      Who's person X? Your next door neighbor who filled their gas tank today? Why or why not?

    17. Re:Big shocker. by cyberchondriac · · Score: 2

      I'm dying to know what the definition of "fart-rape" would be. It sounds worse than man-splaining.

      --

      Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
    18. Re:Big shocker. by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 1

      On the other hand, if they are helping ensure that guys like Pruitt get in charge of the EPA and gut the regulations so they don't have to spend money to be poisoning us less, then that's a bit different.

      Perhaps we could peacefully decide and manage such big, diffuse, divisive issues by, I dunno, electing representatives and stuff.

    19. Re:Big shocker. by polar+red · · Score: 1

      judges appointed by politicians doesn't make a country communist. It makes it a bit fascist or totalitarian though.

      --
      Yes, I'm left. You have a problem with that?
    20. Re:Big shocker. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      CO2, soot, lead... Yeah I hold the oil companies responsible. Not least because when it became clear what was happening they were extremely slow to do anything about it, just like tobacco sellers.

      The courts are a good venue for this kind of thing, especially in the US where politicians are owned by corporations.

      Not even close

      If any group "owns" politicians, it's public-employee unions. Much more so that corporations.

      And there are actual facts backing my assertion up.

    21. Re:Big shocker. by omnichad · · Score: 1, Insightful

      The EPA has all but been disbanded. Since they've abdicated their responsibility, the courts are what's left.

    22. Re:Big shocker. by polar+red · · Score: 1

      > (you idiot)
      sure. whatever. big boy.

      --
      Yes, I'm left. You have a problem with that?
    23. Re:Big shocker. by omnichad · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Hey look, it's the same argument used for poor working conditions and a low minimum wage!

    24. Re:Big shocker. by penandpaper · · Score: 1

      You miss the point of "nuance" and "technicalities of jurisprudence". The idiocy is on you. If you use the courts, which are more services toward nuanced individual cases, to proclaim social agendas what will happen is like the example I gave. Large sweeping rulings that more than the intended outcome.

      Do you have any example of a judicial exception being created that wasn't overturned by another court? Why would some producers of a pollutant not be regulated by a court ruling that says that pollutant is damaging?

    25. Re:Big shocker. by penandpaper · · Score: 2

      This fact, in my opinion, has enough merit for a trial.

      How do you quantify the damages to you personally for this 'misinformation campaign'?

    26. Re:Big shocker. by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      Where is the EPA reg that treats short cycle CO2 differently from old CO2?

      Your right, but right about an irrelevant point.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    27. Re:Big shocker. by Gilgaron · · Score: 1

      I agree that they aren't legally culpable, but I think it is fair to point out that it isn't good stewardship to push to rescind environmental regulations. I drive a fossil fuel powered car, the manufacturer has done their best to make it as efficient and clean as they can and as far as I know didn't try to get current restrictions on those changed.

    28. Re:Big shocker. by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2

      I'm not suggesting that oil producers should stop tomorrow, but they have been slow to take action even after it became apparent the harm that CO2 and lead were doing. Some are now investing in alternative sources of energy and fuel, which is the responsible thing to do when you have a product that is both necessary and harmful.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    29. Re:Big shocker. by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Even though they found out about the harm at the same time as consumers did, they then spent vast amounts of money trying to deny the harm and convince people that it wasn't happening with what they knew was bunk.

      You could also argue that they failed to do proper research and checks on the harm their products did, because they didn't want to be told it was bad.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    30. Re:Big shocker. by polar+red · · Score: 1

      Go ahead and go sit a few hours in a closed garage with a car with a running diesel or petrol engine. I DARE you.

      --
      Yes, I'm left. You have a problem with that?
    31. Re:Big shocker. by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      Dutch oven or crop dusting?

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    32. Re:Big shocker. by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

      You also benefitted immensly from the oil companies, powering the industrial might, and therefore wealth of the West, with a hundred years of technological amd medical wonders.

      Balancing this is exactly what elected officials are supposed to do.

      Or is The Power of The Vote, the justification to any number of intrusive laws, something only believed in when the instrusion is in accordance with your own desires?

      --
      (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
    33. Re:Big shocker. by sycodon · · Score: 1

      CO2 CO

      --
      When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    34. Re:Big shocker. by sycodon · · Score: 1

      CO2 != CO

      --
      When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    35. Re:Big shocker. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If you hold the oil companies responsible you will also need to include everyone who has ever used or benefitted by the energy products produced by the corporations. It will be the largest class action lawsuit in history and as usual the only people who could possibly benefit are the lawyers. The use of fossil fuels to power manufacturing and transportation services go back hundreds of years. Those complaining about fossil fuels seem to have no problem driving to their protests or flying to their international climate change circle jerks. They have no problem using diesel powered ships to save the whales or cruise the artic circle looking for melting ice. They have no problem wearing clothes manufactured using fossil fuels. And they have no problem using plastics and other manufactured materials in their daily lives. And of course the very computers and cell phones and all of our other technologies not only require fossil fuel derivatives but also the mining and use of volatile rare earth elements that wreck havoc on the ecosystems where the mining occurs. The US cut back mining for rare earth elements because of the expense involved in meeting EPA regulations.

      But by all means lets go cold turkey on fossil fuels and bankrupt the only companies capable of providing alternatives. All the companies named in the lawsuit are also some of the largest contributors to alternative energy research and development. Those who have controlled and profited the most on fossil fuels are not stupid. Alternative energy solutions are coming and they want the same level of control and profits running the alternative energy industry. As the ROI increases so will the amount of money and resources.

      And we might as well scrape every form of transportation that relies on internal combustion engines. Alternatives are coming but they take time and nobody living today will see the end of the fossil fuel era. Life is not as simple as the pithy campaign signs, political sloganeers, and frothing at the mouth activists make it out to be.

      This lawsuit ranks right up there with suing all white people for the inequities and insults that black people suffered hundreds of years ago. People love to complain and go postal with their demands but that's as far as they will ever get in solving whatever outrage of the day they are having a meltdown about. The noble and good natured activists of today never fix anything or provide workable solutions to problems they only concentrate on affixing blame on someone for the problem. Once that blame is affixed they march to their next protest or chatroom and start complaining about something else. And it appears our current generation of morons are unable to find a job with their expensive BS degree in English, History, or Political Science so they become "activists" to complain about the inequities of life. A life that tends to revolve around ignoring the consequences of ones choices and actions. And one recent example of ignoring consequences of ones actions is a prominent Democrat politician calling for mobs to chase down people serving in the current administration and do anything necessary to harass or shame these people. The most obvious consequence of this call to abandon reasoned and civilized conduct will be the Republican supporters returning the favor with gusto. A reasoned approach to dealing with the Trump administration would be to realize there is another election in 2 years. Instead of putting all their efforts into formulating and communicating a better economic and social policy platform. Trump won the first time because the Democrats presented a weak platform and Clinton's supporters doubled down on insulting anyone who looked like a Trump supporter. I believe the words redneck, ignorant, and hillbilly were used combined with wide scale patronizing of those deemed to uneducated to make the right vote.

    36. Re:Big shocker. by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      CO2, soot, lead... Yeah I hold the oil companies responsible. Not least because when it became clear what was happening they were extremely slow to do anything about it, just like tobacco sellers.

      More importantly, just like the tobacco sellers, they both a) paid for scientific research into the secondary effects of their products which indicated that they did harm, and b) followed this up by claiming that their products didn't have harmful secondary effects (i.e. AGW.) e.g. ExxonMobil. They deliberately perpetrated fraud. If the tobacco companies are the standard (which seems reasonable) then they are precisely as guilty, and for all of the same reasons.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    37. Re:Big shocker. by polar+red · · Score: 2

      even without the CO, the exhaust of cars are killing people (particulates, NOX, ...). Furthermore, the HUGE amount of CO2 released by burning petrol/diesel is increasing the greenhouse effect of the atmosphere of planet earth.

      --
      Yes, I'm left. You have a problem with that?
    38. Re:Big shocker. by whoever57 · · Score: 1

      But you do know that people only exhale as much CO2 as the food they eat took from the atmosphere?

      But what about the methane that people produce?

      --
      The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
    39. Re:Big shocker. by penandpaper · · Score: 1

      You didn't quantify anything. Conjecture does not quantify anything.

      Misinformation campaign for tobacco: "I would have quit smoking in a year with correct information. That would have X effect my health which results in Y healthcare costs. I am claiming damages for the loss of monetary funds of Y. and the loss of life that X has resulted for a total of Z damages. These damages occurred because I was misled about the product I was buying from a company from a misinformation campaign started by the defendant who is liable for damages."

      You: "vague conjecture that may or may not apply to me."

      Can you quantify the damages to you personally without vague conjecture?

    40. Re:Big shocker. by sycodon · · Score: 1

      Do you know what the major cause of Death is?

      Living.

      --
      When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    41. Re:Big shocker. by Q-Hack! · · Score: 2

      What a bunch of nonsense. I love it when non-lawyers try to explain how they think the law works.

      Except the GP is correct here. This is the same reason the tobacco companies fought long and hard to show no evidence of harm.

      --
      Some days I get the sinking feeling Orwell was an optimist.
    42. Re:Big shocker. by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

      The point is that there is no logical limitation to regulations on CO2 emission. If it's absurd to regulate exhaling CO2, it's absurd to regulate mechanical emission of CO2.

      --
      Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
    43. Re:Big shocker. by Fly+Swatter · · Score: 1

      As soon as you found out, I am sure you sold your car, and stopped having anything picked up or delivered on your behalf by gas powered vehicles? Also maybe you are fortunate not to live where you need heat in the winter, or electricity at night.

      High horse and all.

      If we stopped consuming it they wouldn't be able to make it.

    44. Re:Big shocker. by penandpaper · · Score: 1

      Ugh. Maybe you missed the author of that particular article. Address the argument and not the location where it resides because that authors opinion is orders of magnitude more important than yours.

    45. Re:Big shocker. by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

      So if I want to sue someone who has harmed me, I should try to win an election and get legislation passed as my remedy?

      No, it's too late. Your new legislation applied to old action is "ex post facto" and explicitly forbidden (although Bill Clinton got away with it for a tax increase.)

      --
      Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
    46. Re:Big shocker. by Bodhammer · · Score: 1

      Can't we all just agree that humans are evil and the only solution to protect the planet (Gaia Goddess) is self-extinction?

      --
      "I say we take off, nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."
    47. Re:Big shocker. by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

      Perhaps we should sue the people who really profit on a gallon of gas: the Governments that tax gasoline. Considering they have essentially zero cost for revenue, their net profit per gallon is larger than anyone else in the chain. Governments have benefited the most from the sale of gasoline, maybe they should bear the brunt of any costs you wish to attribute to that sale of a regulated and taxed commodity.

      --
      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
    48. Re:Big shocker. by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

      Do you own a vehicle? Do you fly in an airplane? Do you eat food that you did not personally grow? Do you use any medical equipment? If so - you're part of the problem...

      --
      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
    49. Re:Big shocker. by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 1

      Energy, OTOH, is absolutely critical to modern life, everything demands it, and the demand keeps increasing. 40, 30, even 20 years ago, there were no solid, widely available, viable alternatives.

      Sure there were. Nuclear power produces no CO2, and was available 50+ years ago.

      Of course, the same sort of people now crying about CO2 fought to keep nuclear plants from being built back then.

      Net result? We kept on dumping even more CO2 into the atmosphere (what, did no-one expect that the Third World would want a standard of living as high as USA/Europe had?), and will continue to do so for a long time yet.

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    50. Re:Big shocker. by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      The exact same thing ...

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    51. Re:Big shocker. by cyberchondriac · · Score: 1

      Well, that's it exactly. It's not entirely viable because the environmental and political resistance kept nuclear from becoming more widely accepted, and kept people from accepting more modernized nuclear technologies. Many people probably aren't comfortable with a plant in their "neighborhood". TBH, I'd have had second thoughts about living too close to one back then, I still remember the 3 mile island scare.
      But also, 50 years ago, nuclear could not power your car, nor a fleet of trucks to deliver goods to market. Nor could everyone afford to convert to electrical heat in their homes.

      --

      Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
    52. Re:Big shocker. by Shotgun · · Score: 1

      Go sit for a few hours in a pure oxygen atmoshpere. I DARE you.
      Go sit for a few minutes in a vacuum. I DARE you.
      Go sit for a few seconds in a pure nitrogen atmosphere. I DARE you.

      --
      Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
      Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
    53. Re:Big shocker. by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

      IOW: Should rights be limited because a number of individuals pooled their resources toward a common goal?

      As private individuals? No.

      But if they take advantages of limites liability protection? Sure why should they have more rights than individuals?

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    54. Re:Big shocker. by whoever57 · · Score: 1

      The exact same thing ...

      No.

      Methane has a much greater impact on warming than CO2. While it doesn't last forever in the atmosphere, eventually, CO2 is produced from the methane. Plants don't convert methane.

      So, it's not neutral when you consider the climate effects.

      --
      The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
    55. Re:Big shocker. by Humbubba · · Score: 1
      In the decision not to hold corporations liable for their adverse impact on climate change, Judge Alsup said, "The problem deserves a solution on a more vast scale than can be supplied by a district judge or jury in a public nuisance case." I think he is passing the buck. Declaring that, in this case, corporations are not responsible for their actions contravenes the corporate personhood that was granted, not by law, but by a transcendent set of judicial decisions.

      For me, some of the most heinous, egregious court rulings have been the ones establishing and empowering corporate personhood (Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Co; Dartmouth College v. Woodward; Citizen's United v. FEC; Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc.; etc.). They have had a devastating effect on the democratic republic that Thomas Paine and colonists fought for in the American Revolution. We are governed not by citizens but by corporations.

      The country has become a corporatocracy. Advising citizens to vote for change, as many actually did for Obama, leads to a rude awakening. There is no "Change We Can Believe In" anymore. That old critique about governance seems even more true today: "If voting changed anything, it would be made illegal." The decision of Judge Alsup's court just adds to existing corporate power by allowing them to maliciously disregard their impact on the environment.

      No branch of government is perfect. Maybe we get what we deserve. Or perhaps there's madness in the courts' methods.

    56. Re:Big shocker. by sdinfoserv · · Score: 1

      Nice sentiment, but the Oligarchy that actually runs the US won't let that happen. Look at the facts, the GOP hasn't won the popular vote for a 1st term president since Bush Sr, (1989). Both Bush Jr & Trump lost popular vote in term 1. It's much harder to unseat a President for term 2. Given the GOP rank and file completely overlook the lies that routinely flow from Czar Trumpkin the 1st, in all probability , we're going to see Trumpkin part Deux. Why, because he's busy eliminating all those "pesky job killing regulations", like clean air, water, environmentalism, personal protections, human rights... all those things that can be very profitable by violating.
      And here's the real key - he's appointing judges that follow his line of thinking. In this specific case, that wasn't the point, but it is true for the recent Supreme Court decisions. Had the GOP done their job while Obama was still President and appointed an Obama nominee, decisions today would be quite different. The landscape and society has effectively been changed for a generation.

    57. Re:Big shocker. by fafalone · · Score: 1

      People exhale CO2. When the EPA or courts expands the authority of the government to regulate CO2 as a pollutant they can effectively regulate your breathing.

      Your body endogenously produces dimethyltryptamine, yet it's also a Schedule 1 drug. Does that mean that government can arrest anyone for possessing it at any time? Of course not. Nor would CO2 regulations ever effect breathing.

    58. Re:Big shocker. by penandpaper · · Score: 1

      In other words, you can't convince enough people to win elections to get what you want. The GOP are getting what they want because they have been winning elections after 2008. I am not just talking about the federal government. How many state legislatures and governor seats the democrats lost after 2008? Your comment seems rather empty because what it comes down to; you can't convince people to vote the way you want. That is your problem. Not mine.

    59. Re:Big shocker. by penandpaper · · Score: 1

      Passing the buck. As in, letting the legislature do their job.

    60. Re:Big shocker. by penandpaper · · Score: 1

      Was drug scheduling set up through judicial fiat or legislative oversight?

    61. Re: Big shocker. by penandpaper · · Score: 1

      I am sorry but when taken to the partisan levels I am less concerned about voter interest because when it comes to the parties there will always be one side saying it's not fair. GP brought up the parties so my comment is in the context of a party winning/losing elections.

      If you want to have a discussion about voter disenfranchisement and the reasons for it is one thing. Having a conversation about the proper role of governance between the branches and why one party is getting (somewhat) what they want while the other side is upset is a different thing particularly in context to an article about a judge refusing judicial activism for the party that can't win elections.

      Using voter disenfranchisement in defense of judicial activism is a red herring and a very dishonest argument.

      this is quoting your own words two weeks ago

      citation.

    62. Re:Big shocker. by Ichijo · · Score: 1

      The CO2 we exhale has always been circulating between the soil, the water, the air, and the plants and animals we eat. That's all carbon-neutral. But the CO2 from fossil fuels had been dormant outside of that cycle until we burned those fuels and released the CO2, and it isn't easily made inert again (re-sequestered). That's the reason why the CO2 ratio in the atmosphere is increasing, and that's the source of climate change, not the air we exhale. This is an important distinction that's lost on climate deniers.

      --
      Any sufficiently unpopular but cohesive argument is indistinguishable from trolling.
    63. Re:Big shocker. by Humbubba · · Score: 1
      penandpaper said

      Passing the buck. As in, letting the legislature do their job.

      If congress had previously passed a law, signed by the president, that gave corporations 'personhood', i.e. rights and responsibilities assigned by the Constitution, I might agree with you.

      No such thing happened.

      Because corporate personhood is something created by the judicial decree and not by an Act of Congress, the courts have the duty to hold corporations responsible for their actions.

      Instead, corporations have only limited liability. They can cause earthquakes while fracking, make cyanide ponds while mining for gold that are known to spill over into other properties, rivers and streams, and pollute the atmosphere and water sources with god knows what. When it's time to clean up the toxic mess that corporations wreck, more often than not, the funds the government uses comes from the taxpayer.

      Giving rights to corporations without responsibilities is just plain wrong.

    64. Re:Big shocker. by lenski · · Score: 1

      They deliberately perpetrated fraud. If the tobacco companies are the standard (which seems reasonable) then they are precisely as guilty, and for all of the same reasons.

      This. It's not really the CO2, as much as it's the endless lying about it.

      And *nobody* suggested turning off the tap "immediately", at least not back when it made sense to start researching improvements to the overall architecture of energy policy.

      As far as I am concerned, fossil fuel executives know that as long as they keep their revenue streams from digging and drilling, they have a sweet deal. It's the digging, drilling and purifying that provide the greatest profit.

      Alternative / renewable sources do not have the same ongoing revenue stgream character, and it's my opinion that is why the executives are putting up such a fight: Wind, solar, hydro, etc. are ongoing inputs not requiring all that work. Once the capital is invested, the rest is just maintenance. No ongoing revenue stream for the executives.

    65. Re:Big shocker. by lenski · · Score: 1

      Sue the liars.

    66. Re:Big shocker. by sdinfoserv · · Score: 1

      When the only way the GOP can win is via gerrymandering, and using the SCOTUS's appointed by the GOP to affirm their gerrymandering... the US is no longer a Country of "we the people"
      Spin it any way you want.

    67. Re:Big shocker. by penandpaper · · Score: 1

      If congress had previously passed a law, signed by the president, that gave corporations 'personhood', i.e. rights and responsibilities assigned by the Constitution, I might agree with you.

      Um, because technically there is no such thing in law called "corporate personhood'. It's a concept to describe a legality of rights. Just like technically there is no such thing in law called "jury nullification". It's a concept and a byproduct of our legal system (jury trials, double jeopardy). Simply put, 'corporate person-hood' means that your individual rights are not abridged when you pool resources with others toward a specific goal. If you read the opinion of the court in Citizens United vs FEC the court say that congress must change the law but doesn't say how because of the specious grounds that the government was on regarding the 1st amendment.

      I don't know if I agree with you that a shareholder should be personally liable for damages a company does. I think you are going about it the wrong way. If you can prove damages were caused by illegal behavior of a company you can receive compensation. What's the problem?

    68. Re:Big shocker. by penandpaper · · Score: 1

      If you think gerrymandering is a single party issue then you are blind to your own partisanship and biases. If you have a better idea for drawing voting districts then implement it in your State and risk your political power to prove your concept is the best and convince the rest of the Union through action and not rhetoric. The US has never been a country of "we the people". It has always been a Union of States governed by the people. I, assumingly in a different state, do not need to suffer the problems of your political solutions to be forced on me. The Constitution gives the power to the States to decide their elections for reason. If you are at all concerned about this issue I am sure you have read those reasons.

      A Republic if you can keep it.

    69. Re: Big shocker. by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

      The numbers are older, but at least at the Federal level, gas taxes cover costs of roads. It's just that lots of funds are also spent on rail and transit.

      --
      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
    70. Re: Big shocker. by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

      Take a look at the graph again. Roads have a negative subsidy - meaning, they actually generate revenue. Air, transit, rail all have positive subsidies. At least the Federal level, roads tend to be money-makers.

      Now, I know some States are poor at road maintenance. I live in California, and I know CADOT loves to spend money on anything but roads. We have 360,000 miles of State and local roads in CA, and about $20 billion in revenues. Ohio says it costs about $500,000 to pave 1 mile of 4 lane road (and Ohio winters and summers are much more extreme than most of California). So California should be able to pave 10% of our roads, every year - and we're lucky to get a few potholes filled per year.

      There is, in fact, enough money if it was spent on roads, but a lot of times it goes to non-road spending like trains between Bakersfield and Modesto, bike paths, and such - and let roads and bridges continue to deteriorate. And thus raise gas taxes even further...

      --
      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
    71. Re:Big shocker. by prisoner-of-enigma · · Score: 1

      And there are actual facts backing my assertion up.

      How dare you bring facts and logic to this emotionally-based knee-jerk-response argument! Don't you know that can't be tolerated in today's climate of mandatory total tolerance?

      Orwell would be proud.

      --
      In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
    72. Re: Big shocker. by penandpaper · · Score: 1

      Because democrats have never controlled both the house and senate?

      Read some history you ignoramus.

    73. Re:Big shocker. by SvnLyrBrto · · Score: 1

      Why focus only on single individuals? It doesn't have the emotional value of those commercials with survivors of cancer caused by smoking; but it shouldn't be too hard to find quantifiable property damages. Parts of Miami Beach are already routinely underwater, thanks to rising sea levels caused by climate change. The flooding has undoubtedly caused damages that could be assigned a dollar value. Florida is already committed to spending at least half a billion dollars or so trying to mitigate it with pumps and seawalls. And if it gets so bad that significant parts of Florida, or any other state, needs to construct a system of Netherlands-style dykes to hold back the sea, the construction costs would be public record. And just speculative; but I imagine having a new flood zone spring up around your house would negatively affect its property value. And floods themselves damage personal property as well.

      The oil and coal companies should be won the hook for all of that.

      --
      Imagine all the people...
    74. Re:Big shocker. by Humbubba · · Score: 1
      penandpaper said

      ...technically there is no such thing in law called "corporate personhood'.

      Oh, I agree. There is no law establishing corporate personhood. For corporations to qualify for such rights and responsibilities, there would have to be a constitutional amendment, a treaty usurping said constitution, or a few arbitrary judicial fiats:

      Dartmouth College v. Woodward in 1819, Where the court recognized that corporations were entitled to some of the protections of the Constitution dealing with the application of the Contracts Clause of the United States Constitution.
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dartmouth_College_v._Woodward

      Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Co, 118 U.S. 394 (1886), the first time that the Supreme Court was reported to hold that the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection clause granted constitutional protections to corporations.
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Clara_County_v._Southern_Pacific_Railroad_Co.

      These and other rulings established that corporations have rights (and hopefully responsibilities) assigned to citizens by the constitution. A legal fiction, if you will, that has become known as "corporate personhood".
      ~~

      Simply put, 'corporate person-hood' means that your individual rights are not abridged when you pool resources with others toward a specific goal.

      I disagree. To quote Wikipedia

      Corporate personhood is the legal notion that a corporation, separately from its associated human beings (like owners, managers, or employees), has at least some of the legal rights and responsibilities enjoyed by natural persons (physical humans).

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

      I don't know if I agree with you that a shareholder should be personally liable for damages a company does. I think you are going about it the wrong way. If you can prove damages were caused by illegal behavior of a company you can receive compensation. What's the problem?

      I don't think shareholders should be financially liable, unless they are somehow responsible. Lloyd's of London, for example, use to rake many their investors over the coals when the company had to pay up, sending many into bankruptcy. Lloyd's has since changed.

      The people who should pay, and possibly go to jail, are those responsible for making the decisions to pollute, put people in personal harm, cause damage directly or indirectly, etc. The potentially liable come from a large group: management (upper, mid and lower), the board of directors, the chairman, majority shareholders, and others who escape my alleged mind at the moment.

      By the way, I'm not adverse to our legal tradition of going after the deepest pockets. And when appropriate, the person or persons liable should go to jail.

      I've gotten very pessimistic about all this. The law's purpose is to serve justice, not the rich, and certainly not corporations. So much has gone wrong. Now we find corporate lackeys and shills writing the very laws that are supposed to regulate them. 'Criminal Justice' has become an oxymoron, double entendre. Lenny Bruce was right, "In the Halls of Justice the only justice is in the halls."

    75. Re:Big shocker. by mcswell · · Score: 1

      Actually, increased CO2 by itself would do relatively little to increase the average temperature of the Earth. The much greater increase in temperatures, as derived from the models, are due to other changes that are supposed to follow from the rise in temp due to the CO2, particularly increased evaporation leading to increased clouds. Factor those in, and if the models are correct, you'll get your 2-5 degrees of warming over the next century or so. Drop those assumptions, and the number is more like 1 degree, or less.

    76. Re:Big shocker. by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      It is the exact same thing.

      The methane would otherwise be produced by the rotting plants you did not eat ....

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    77. Re:Big shocker. by slash.jit · · Score: 1

      That's why we have Plan B - A.I.

    78. Re:Big shocker. by penandpaper · · Score: 1

      Simply put, 'corporate person-hood' means that your individual rights are not abridged when you pool resources with others toward a specific goal.

      I disagree. To quote Wikipedia

      Corporate personhood is the legal notion that a corporation, separately from its associated human beings (like owners, managers, or employees), has at least some of the legal rights and responsibilities enjoyed by natural persons (physical humans).

      Wikipedia doesn't disagree with me. Wikipedia is fine for a surface understanding but you seem to be misunderstanding the core idea to think the two statements are somehow at odds. Why do corporations have rights? Because individuals have rights and corporations are made of individuals. What are corporations? Simply put, it is a number of individuals pooling resources toward a common goal. So when Wikipedia says "a corporation has legal rights just like natural persons" it is a different way of saying "individual rights are not abridged when you pool resources with others". If you are interested in this topic I would recommend Citizens United v FEC oral arguments and opinion. These ideas are thoroughly discussed and the court views corporations as simply as I put it. IMO, the court got that one right despite all the bad press.

      There is no law establishing corporate personhood. For corporations to qualify for such rights and responsibilities, there would have to be a constitutional amendment,

      Again this is a misunderstanding of the concept. And again just like jury nullification there is nothing in the constitution to grant 'jury nullification' to citizens. It is an emergent property of our rights codified in the constitution. To take away corporate person-hood or jury nullification would require a constitutional amendment. That amendment would have to say something like: 'when a citizen groups together with other citizens toward a common goal. Their right of property, speech, and due process are limited in the following ways. XYZ". Or if you want to take away jury nullification that amendment would be something like: " jury decisions can be overturned by the presiding judge. double jeopardy is fine."

    79. Re:Big shocker. by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Do you own a vehicle? Do you fly in an airplane? Do you eat food that you did not personally grow? Do you use any medical equipment? If so - you're part of the problem...

      Are you deciding what kind of fuel vehicles sold to the public will run on? Do you decide what aviation fuel will be made from? Do you decide how crops will be grown? Do you decide how medical equipment will be produced? If so, you're part of the problem. Otherwise, you are a victim.

      The power has never been in the hands of The People in the USA. It is an Oligarchy controlled by the same kind of people the nation was built for, as evinced by its constitution: white male landowners. Women were only given the vote after being trained to do as they were told in politics. We have a non-representational government thanks to gerrymandering. This is not a democracy, and pretending it is one is immature and pathetic.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    80. Re:Big shocker. by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

      On a more serious note though; for this to be comparable to tobacco the oil companies would have had to know BEFORE the public how harmful oil was- and actively try suppressing the truth. As far as I am aware- oil companies didn't find out before the public- and the public continued to use oil after learning of the dangers.

      That's because you are willfully ignorant. You don't want to know the truth. It's just a google search away, but you didn't ask because you didn't want to know. Well, I'm telling you anyway. Do people working for corporations really sell out our future for a cheeseburger? People do.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    81. Re:Big shocker. by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Some are now investing in alternative sources of energy and fuel, which is the responsible thing to do when you have a product that is both necessary and harmful.

      That is not the kind of investment which is the responsible thing to do, because they've known for decades that burning fossil fuels caused AGW, emitted radioactives, etc. Only Exxon has outright admitted they knew ahead of time, but you can bet your last dollar that every oil company was aware of the problem. They are not investing in "alternative" sources of energy and fuel (some of which, like wind, substantially predate fossil fuels) because it is the right thing to do. They are doing it because the writing is on the wall for their current industry. They can see that sooner or later, The People will rise up against use of fossil fuels (probably too late, but that's another conversation) and ban them. If they don't have an alternate model by that time, they will cease to exist, and the first job of any bureaucracy is to self-perpetuate.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    82. Re:Big shocker. by AlwinBarni · · Score: 1

      You didn't quantify anything.

      Please keep in mind that it was not a trial, but a decision whether to have a trial or to dismiss it. Quantifying anything is a job for lawyers during a trial if there was any.

      I am not a side at this case, so I am not obliged to prove anything, also I am free (guaranteed by constitution) to express my opinion that there is enough evidence to start a trial. I repeat not to convict - but to start a trial. There is evidence of companies knowing about environmental impact and there is evidence of them actively lobbying against any actions.

      There is no need to be so offensive about the issue, we all have only one planet and there is no plan B, I think a dialog and open-mindedness is the best way to move forward.

    83. Re:Big shocker. by AlwinBarni · · Score: 1

      Do you own a vehicle? Do you fly in an airplane? Do you eat food that you did not personally grow? Do you use any medical equipment? If so - you're part of the problem...

      Yes, I am, but I am not denying the problem exists and I am trying to solve it.

      Again, as I mentioned in my original post there are benefits of industrialization, however there is a difference between knowing a problem and doing nothing, and knowing the problem and trying to solve it. We are fortunately at the stage of development that we can do a lot, "green" energy became at least equal in costs to fossil based energy production (not even counting for health costs). Green energy is more decentralized by it's nature, which additionally makes it more resilient to any potential enemies attacks - a bonus.

    84. Re: Big shocker. by LinuxLuver · · Score: 1

      The issue here is that oil companies knew about climate change, then actively worked to confuse the public on it.....and they are still doing that. Sorry you...and the judge.... Missed the key point. America isn't what it used to be, that's for sure. This judge just proved that: guilty people get off. Thanks, Judge.

      --
      Only boring people are ever bored.
    85. Re: Big shocker. by LinuxLuver · · Score: 1

      The oil companies knew about the affects in climate. They then spent millions lying about it. That is definitely wrong. No two ways about that. American courts clearly are having more and more trouble seeing right from wrong. Much like the people in this thread who can't see the core issue here. MAGA simply requires willful blindness to the ragingly obvious. Nothing great about that.

      --
      Only boring people are ever bored.
    86. Re: Big shocker. by LinuxLuver · · Score: 1

      Until very recently, they had no choice and oil-lobby owned politicians and Fox News lie to them all day every day. A court case is a great way to air the issues in what is assumed to be a neutral forum. This judge shows how deep the rot has gone. The oil companies knew about climate change in the 1970s then spent 40 years lying about it and finding lobbyists to lie about it. Blaming drivers is pure 'whatabout-ery' that doesn't address the active and ongoing deception of those drivers by oil companies and their paid stooges in Congress and the media.

      --
      Only boring people are ever bored.
    87. Re: Big shocker. by LinuxLuver · · Score: 1

      No one is saying turn the tap off. They are saying hold the oil companies accountable for their 40 years of lies about climate change. They knew about it a long time ago and then *deliberately* worked to deceive others.

      --
      Only boring people are ever bored.
    88. Re: Big shocker. by penandpaper · · Score: 1

      Not sure why I am replying to a pedantic coward but meh. Wikipedia and I are on a first name basis and drink beer every night playing poker. Wikipedia didn't say much that was different that my over simplification.

      Yes, I am sure the court would be aghast at my simplification. Where I get my expression is from oral arguments and referenced cases.

      lets say you have 10 individuals and each contribute to a corporation and say 'we want this corporation to convey a particular message'. why can't they do that when they did that as a partnership that would be alright. ...
      Most corporations are indistinguishable from the individual that owns them... there is no distinction from the individual interest and the corporate interest. and that is true for the vast majority of corporations.".

      Further in Bellotti.

      The question in this case, simply put, is whether the corporate identity of the speaker deprives this proposed speech of what otherwise would be its clear entitlement to protection. The court below found confirmation of the legislature's definition of the scope of a corporation's First Amendment rights in the language of the Fourteenth Amendment. Noting that the First Amendment is applicable to the States through the Fourteenth, and seizing upon the observation that corporations "cannot claim for themselves the liberty which the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees," Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 U. S. 510, 268 U. S. 555 (1925), the court concluded that a corporation's First Amendment rights must derive from its property rights under the Fourteenth.

      My simplified expression is a way to encapsulate the nuance of the referenced arguments and the jurisprudence the court has upheld in Bellotti. Would it stand up in court? No. Can it convey the arguments in the court about 1st amendment protections to corporations observed in the 14th amendment in a simplified way? Yes.

    89. Re:Big shocker. by TetsuwanPenguin · · Score: 1

      Big oil isn't to blame for global warning caused by fossil fuels, everyone who USES fossil fuels is to blame. Of course, we KNOW that the Big Oil lobby has bribed our government to limit support for renewable energy. In the end it is the congressmen and the current president who deny the science of climate change so in the end it will be the government that will have to pay the piper. Just wait till land owners whose property goes underwater start burning their mortgages, and demanding that the government bail them out for causing the problem by denying climate change. THEN watch taxes on Big Oil go through the roof.

    90. Re:Big shocker. by mysidia · · Score: 1

      no they don't - it isn't illegal to wave a hammer around but if I accidentally hit you with it and break your arm - you can sue.

      Wrong. It certainly is Illegal (unlawful) behavior to hit someone with a hammer, and furthermore, directly causing bodily injury to somebody or through negligence or reckless actions failing in your duty to prevent property under your care causing bodily injury to somebody is a violation of that person's recognized rights protected under the law.

      In case you cause someone bodily injury, what can be claimed and all the procedures for bringing the claim
      are clearly defined by various state laws ---- There is a law in your state which allows somebody to sue you whom you directly injured by carelessly waving a hammer around, Or at least they can claim you were carelessly waving a hammer around: there is a possibility the court will find, the person who ran into the hammer was 100% responsible, because there was a warning sign and yellow tape out which they went around before sneaking behind the person using the hammer.

      Illegal activity is criminal courts not civil courts, civil courts can address any complaint that shows a provable harm.

      No.... Illegal activity can be EITHER a criminal issue, OR a civil issue, OR both.

      Civil courts address Unlawful harm.

      There are lawful ways a person can be harmed which will not be addressed by the courts; since they don't violate a recognized legal right Or relate to an infringement for which there is a civil procedure.

      For example: People who disagree with content in a Company X spokesperson's speech can organize a
      public shaming on social media or a boycott of their company, and the company can fire their employee.
      Company Y can start offering a competing product thus decimating Company X and resulting in their business failing.
      A landlord can increase a tenant's rate of rent after the initial lease expires, or even give them notice they must leave within 30 days of lease expiration. These are all lawful actions, in spite of great harm they cause, but they are all lawful actions, so there is no civil claim.

    91. Re:Big shocker. by No+Longer+an+AC · · Score: 1

      Interesting that Gorsuch is complaining about the politicization of the Supreme Court. He couldn't have foreseen it at the time, but that's exactly why he's a part of it today.

      And he points out* that Dems failed to win a majority of the popular vote in 9 out of 10 of the last presidential elections. (The article was written in 2005 - he could not have foreseen 2016 - Okay, not a majority either, but Trump did even worse). 1984 and 1988 were outliers. Discounting those two elections the GOP has hardly done better.

      Starting with 1992, only ONE election has resulted in the winner having a majority of the popular vote. In 2004, Bush got 50.7%.

      He then uses* election results for gay marriage as an example of Democrats litigating instead of legislating. I guess we'll just have to disagree on that because I believe they should have the right to marry and the Supreme Court eventually agreed. I wonder how Gorsuch would have voted in that case.

      * - at this point I hadn't yet read von Drehle's article. Gorsuch is just raising points von Drehle did

      And I haven't seen recent polling, but I'm under the impression that we're even more accepting of gay marriage today than we were 13 years ago. Would those measures pass today?

      I believe sometimes courts are the right avenue.

      But why link to Gorsuch's opinion on this? Why not go straight to the original opinion piece by the "self-identified liberal"?

      Take the Issues to the People, Not to the Courts

      For many Democrats, the worst thing about the election result is the prospect of President Bush's appointing a new generation of conservative justices to the Supreme Court.

      That's interesting because I've seen many self-identified conservatives who say that despite all Trump's problems, at least he'll nominate judges who will serve for decades and that more than makes up for Trump's other faults. Many of these same people stand ready to bring litigation against any kind of gun control measure that may be passed into law. For others the issue is abortion or gay marriage or bathrooms. Often it is the main or only issue they care about.

      Now that I've read both articles, I must admit von Drehle raises some good points.

      Nothing riles up social conservatives like a stirring denunciation of the so-called "activist" courts.

      Civil rights lawyers of 50 years ago filed lawsuits as part of a well-planned strategy. Equal or even greater energy was put into political organizing and public persuasion. The individuals and groups bringing gay-marriage lawsuits did so, in many cases, without the backing of leading gay rights organizations. Little was done to cultivate support even among liberals. Essentially nothing was done to persuade moderates.

      This is interesting because 50 years ago I was not in favor of gay marriage. Even 30 years ago I wasn't but somehow I've completely reversed positions. Part of what convinced me was absurd rhetoric from self-identified conservatives who said it would lead to people marrying children and animals as well as hateful rhetoric and acts towards gay people.

      I didn't need liberals to convince me that Lawrence v. Texas overturning anti-sodomy laws was the right decision and I saw lawsuits fighting for gay marriage as a means of the courts being used as they were designed - as a check and balance against the other branches of government.

      All this talk of "activist judges" and "legislating from the bench" struck me as bitterness that the Constitution was for the most part being upheld. Of course I sometimes disagree with the courts, but not to the point of wanting to stack them with partisan judges.

      There is even talk of overturning Roe v. Wade although I think that's just wishful thinking or perhaps outright trolling. They're often hard to distinguish

      And since he

    92. Re:Big shocker. by KingBenny · · Score: 1

      yes well not talking about persons here but about conglomerates who have been stripmining the planet for generations . To say their solely responsible for climate change might be scientifically inaccurate but to say they're responsible for pollution, increased cancer rates, poverty and crime certainly is not ... but HEY, its the taxpayers duty to blame it on the unemployed and the foreigners, so what are you waiting for ? i just received a mail from mt. gox after (i lost count) how many years that i may be able to get my 1.5 BTC back at the prices from back then ... that stuff i gpu mined when the world was young ... which would have gotten me a LOT of money by now trading it ... microshyte banned my login account email ... for no reasons given, i have NO CLUE what name i registered under back then so many years ago (i mean it was THEN, it was gox ... the myth of anonimity existed) ... my point ? paper law is useless to all but those who write it

      --
      Free speech was meant to be free for all... how can anyone grow up in a nanny state ?
    93. Re:Big shocker. by penandpaper · · Score: 1

      Thanks for the interesting comment. It seems rare to have a comment that builds a conversation as opposed to... I don't know. Anyways, thank you.

      only ONE election has resulted in the winner having a majority of the popular vote

      I have actually changed my position on voting participation lately and I think you allude to some of those reasons why I have changed that position. Before, I would tell anyone I know to vote regardless their understanding of the issues or candidates. Now, I say don't vote if you don't know and do what you want. Too often, the federal government is operating in a space that the average person is laymen. I may have my opinion on North Korea or China, as an example, but my opinion has hardly any weight beyond the logic I can articulate. That logic may be irrelevant to the facts and reality. How many are discouraged of voting in elections because of such a informational and participatory paralysis? Citizenship in a democratic state necessitates a level of statesmanship that is always forfeited to fallacious appeals. My guess, that has always been the case which makes a Republic superior, as it narrows the public's need to be of proper statesmanship.

      I've seen many self-identified conservatives who say that despite all Trump's problems, at least he'll nominate judges who will serve for decades and that more than makes up for Trump's other faults.

      I agree. I think one of the reasons Trump won was because self-identified conservatives were voting on a Supreme Court nomination. It was a point of debate during the election a few times and on everyone's mind. I think, it goes to a larger issue of the role of the federal government having a direct impact on peoples lives. We have seen SCOTUS make bad decisions. For that historical context it is now paramount for the "right side" to have control when the original purpose was not supposed to be so important to the day to day lives of the average citizen.

      Part of what convinced me was absurd rhetoric from self-identified conservatives who said it would lead to people marrying children and animals as well as hateful rhetoric and acts towards gay people

      I am not one to disparage gay people from living their lives free from oppression. I agree with gay marriage but do not like that it was made national through the courts. If I remember correctly the issue came about because federal employees wanted the same benefits regardless of the sex of their spouse. That to me doesn't seem like a legitimate reason why the courts should decide which government should define marriage. The federal government has no business in the definition of marriage. Employee benefits are not the same as rights. If a State doesn't recognize gay marriage then why should that matter to the people in the State that does? This is the issue. This is the problem of voter paralysis and participation because every election becomes a life and death scenario for distant officials to decide it's meaning.

      He couldn't have foreseen it at the time, but that's exactly why he's a part of it today.

      Indeed. It is sad that before judicial nominations were a matter of credentials. Now there is a litmus test of partisanship. Which, I must be honest, I almost agree with because I feel that originalism is proper while "living document" is a bastardization of law. I do not like when the court makes a decision based on what they feel is right rather than what the law states. Too often the Congress abdicates their duty and responsibilities. Too often do we empower the federal government for short term gains for long term losses and then are upset when Congress says "just use a pen".

      There is even talk of overturning Roe v. Wade

      I have heard it was a bad decision because of the arguments but I have not looked into them so I cannot make an opinion. However, the court has been wrong before. Just because it is a precedent doesn't mean it is the law. That is one reason why the judiciary is a poor place to enact social agenda.

    94. Re: Big shocker. by mysidia · · Score: 1

      Because they did cause harm to CONSUMERS who purchased and used the product: the Tobacco companies
      were able to be sued successfully for various damages under the Consumer Protection and Antitrust laws.

      The key was: not only did they cause harm, BUT there were laws providing protection to consumers against
      manufacturers selling them products that would cause damage to their health ESPECIALLY if they knew their
      product would be harmful and employed false advertising, or deliberately deceived consumers or took steps to
      conceal information about the harm.

      That was the case with Tobacco companies, BUT there aren't consumer protection statute that deal with
      claimed harm to the environment.

  2. Consistent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    If Big Oil is to be held liable, then we have to throw in the anti-nuke scaremongers and NIMBYs.

    long knowing that fossil fuels posed serious risks to the environment, but still promoting them as environmentally responsible.

    No one ever promoted fossil fuels as environmentally responsible. The point is they produce enough energy for our needs at an acceptable cost. It would be lovely to have cleaner alternatives.
    It's also really weird to leave out coal. Isn't coal an overwhelming portion of the problem?

    1. Re: Consistent by kenh · · Score: 2, Funny

      No, cow flatulence is.

      You can't pick on coal, China and the third-world rely on it, that would be racist.

      --
      Ken
    2. Re:Consistent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      > at an acceptable cost.

      the sea will rise approx. 200 feet. if all ice melts. is that acceptable ?

    3. Re:Consistent by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 4, Informative

      > at an acceptable cost.

      the sea will rise approx. 200 feet. if all ice melts. is that acceptable ?

      Even the worst case examples put forth by scientists don't predict ALL ice melting. Sea levels won't rise 200ft.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    4. Re:Consistent by Geoffrey.landis · · Score: 1

      the sea will rise approx. 200 feet. if all ice melts. is that acceptable ?

      Even the worst case examples put forth by scientists don't predict ALL ice melting. Sea levels won't rise 200ft.

      Not in the next century. If we keep on adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, in the long term, yes.

      Ice caps aren't a permanent feature of the planet. They can very well melt.

      --
      http://www.geoffreylandis.com
    5. Re:Consistent by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

      No one ever promoted fossil fuels as environmentally responsible.

      Specific fossil fuels are being promoted as environmentally responsible, e.g. natural gas is better than gasoline is better than coal and dung.

      --
      Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
    6. Re:Consistent by danbert8 · · Score: 1

      Human habitations are also not a permanent feature of the planet. They can very well move.

      --
      Yes it's an anecdote! Were you expecting original research in a Slashdot comment?
    7. Re:Consistent by BlueStrat · · Score: 1

      Ice caps aren't a permanent feature of the planet. They can very well melt.

      Human habitations are also not a permanent feature of the planet. They can very well move.

      But how will we ever move fast enough to escape oceans rising at fractions of an inch a year? Wouldn't it look something like this?

      https://youtu.be/YgJvgESR920

      Strat

      --
      Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
  3. It make sense... However. by jellomizer · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I think Big Oil needs to be punished for this misinformation campaign. Spreading the belief that Fossil Fuels are not causing global warming or global warming doesn't exist, also their effort to criticize alternative energy sources to prevent energy diversity is rather shady as well.

    That said, Fossil Fuels offer a rather safe high density and portable energy source. Where failure of such companies to meet the demand for oil would also be harmful and criminal.
    The Gasoline Automobile was considered an environmental friendly invention, at the time. Mostly due to the fact the pollution effect is less then the effect of having a lot of horses in a City, Needing food and cleaning, Attracting pests and plagues.

    Alternate sources are getting close (I feel they would be closer if Big Oil didn't try to keep them down) to being as good as Fossil Fuels, Exceeding it in some areas, but behind in others. But I doubt we can truly get off Fossil Fuels, but we can be able to replace a lot of it.

    Big Oil isn't the cause of climate change, it is the consumers who are.

    The difference between Tobacco and Oil is that Tobacco doesn't have many or any real advantages other then for entertainment. So its harmful side effects which were hidden lied about and distorted (like what big oil had done) were not offset by its advantages.

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    1. Re:It make sense... However. by mysidia · · Score: 1

      The difference between Tobacco and Oil is that Tobacco doesn't have many or any real advantages other then for entertainment. So its harmful side effects which were hidden lied about and distorted (like what big oil had done) were not offset by its advantages.

      Tobacco had product liability, because it actually causes damage to the health of the person who purchased and used it, which they deceptively concealed to keep people from buying it. Petrol use doesn't have any harmful side effects for the user when used according to instructions, so there's no chance of product liability for that ---- that is people who Buy or Don't buy the product aren't in any better shape. There is a price to be paid, BUT it is US as an entire society who have decided to use this product as our major fuel, and it is our state and federal governments that continue to approve these companies exploring and fracking and otherwise finding new wells and extracting petroleum products including for the purpose of fuel.

    2. Re:It make sense... However. by NathanWoodruff · · Score: 1

      You are missing something here, the producing, packaging and selling of fossil fuel isn't causing global warming. It is the customers use that is causing global warming. Should Chevy, Dodge, Ford, Nissan and Toyota be also held responsible? No the person driving the car and purchasing the oil should be held responsible.

      I don't see a single person that is bitching and complaining about global warming doing anything about it. Me, I don't bitch and complain at all about global warming, yet I will ride a bicycle this year twice as far as I will have driven a vehicle. I have commuted to work every day since the beginning of May, except for 2 days because of rain. I'm on course for hitting 6,000 miles on a bicycle this year.

      I got notification last Friday that Solar City has accepted my application for a solar roof. Further cutting my dependence on burning natural gas for electricity.

      What have you done??? Nothing???? Quit Bitching and Complaining.

    3. Re:It make sense... However. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      But academy papers and research made by them can be called fraud and their campaigns to dismiss the truth can be punished for endangering public safety, also if they even made propaganda to make them look their products safe and green they can be punished for misleading marketing.

      There are lots of legalese stuff that can be used if the government really wants to, but they won't because big oil and big coal gives lots of money to almost everyone in the government, is like when Mr DuPont was arrested for raping his 3 years daughter, he did it before to his own son and He even wasn't detained.

      Money has too much power, there should be things that money could not be able to be used for.

    4. Re:It make sense... However. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I think Big Oil needs to be punished for this misinformation campaign. Spreading the belief that Fossil Fuels are not causing global warming or global warming doesn't exist, also their effort to criticize alternative energy sources to prevent energy diversity is rather shady as well.

      ...

      So advocating unpopular policies needs to be criminalized?

      Never minding the obvious "I don't like what you say so I'm going to get you shut up!" anti-free speech censorship aspects of that, how would things like slavery and segregation ever be ended under that?

      "I'm right, you're wrong, so you have to shut up!" is awfully arrogant.

    5. Re:It make sense... However. by jellomizer · · Score: 1

      So advocating unpopular policies needs to be criminalized? No
      Using Lies and misinformation to trick people into such a policy needs to be criminalized? Yes

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    6. Re:It make sense... However. by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      That said, Fossil Fuels offer a rather safe high density and portable energy source.

      Wrong. Fossil fuels are hazardous AF, except diesel fuel. Yes, we use a lot of diesel, but we use a lot more gasoline. The diesel is relatively safe (though even diesel school buses burn up occasionally) but the gasoline is horrifyingly volatile — so much so that simply breathing in its presence does lung damage. It also readily enters the water table and pollutes water supplies.

      The Gasoline Automobile was considered an environmental friendly invention, at the time. Mostly due to the fact the pollution effect is less then the effect of having a lot of horses in a City, Needing food and cleaning, Attracting pests and plagues.

      Horse shit is a real problem, but it's one which can be solved. In fact, you can hang a bag under a horse's ass and significantly mitigate the issue. You can't reasonably solve the problem of carbon release from fossil fuels, though; it would take too much energy, and eliminate all the benefits of using them.

      Big Oil isn't the cause of climate change, it is the consumers who are.

      If I loan you my car and you run someone down with it, I'm in trouble because I enabled you.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  4. well, yeah by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 1

    Well, yes. Political questions should be decided politically.

  5. Suing them was unethical anyway by Cajun+Hell · · Score: 4, Insightful

    (No, I don't own any oil stock.)

    This is one of those things where the actual responsiblity is so spread out that it's just ridiculous to blame the vendor.

    How many hundreds of times have YOU personally made the decision to fill your vehicle with fuel? You damn well knew (you did not merely suspect, you the person doing it knew) that it was definitely and inevitably going to pollute the air, with zero chance that it wouldn't pollute. And it was going to happen as a direct consequence of you running your engine after yyou having decided to turn the key.

    But no, it's not all on you, because there are hundreds of millions of people, just like you, who were in exactly the same situation and made the same decision that you did. And just like you, those hundreds of millions of people knew for sure, without the slightly doubt or speculation, that their own vehicles were going to definitely going to cause air pollution, and that as a whole, all our vehicles working together were going to pollute in a large, significant way.

    And me too. You can blame me for my share. I have filled my tank and driven many times.

    Did we do this because we were tricked? Fuck no. We did it because we didn't have a better alternative. Whose fault is that? Reality's fault. It's a shame we don't have teleportation spells, but we don't, so we burn stuff for energy, knowing that it pollutes.

    Some people make an effort to stop doing that. That's great. Fuck yeah! You're awesome. And that's the way ahead: high-five the people who make the choice to stop polluting, instead of blaming the people who .. well, no, not the polluters, but whose who sold us the means to pollute, as if We The Burners deserved less blame than they do. If you're going to point your fucking finger, point it at everyone. Point it at the earth itself. Point it at the gods for not giving us teleportation spells.

    If you need to blame big oil for something, you might have a better case for pollution that is directly tied to drilling, like for spills, pipelines disrupting habitats, etc. That's totally fair game, because oil can be delivered without fuckups if people try hard enough and are willing to pay enough. (But that's not what this story is about. But I'm giving you an out here, if you need a bad guy and you refuse to accept that we are all the bad guys.)

    --
    "Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
    1. Re:Suing them was unethical anyway by jittles · · Score: 2

      It's a shame we don't have teleportation spells...

      Spoken like a true muggle.

    2. Re:Suing them was unethical anyway by swb · · Score: 1

      How many hundreds of times have YOU personally made the decision to fill your vehicle with fuel?

      1500 times I think, but it's kind of squishy because there were those years where I didn't have a car, the years with only a motorcycle, but then there are those years where I may have done it more than once a week, long road trips, and then there's the boat, but "fill your vehicle with fuel" is an operation which takes on around 125 gallons at a fill, which is about 9x what my car takes.

    3. Re:Suing them was unethical anyway by SoftwareArtist · · Score: 2

      You're leaving out an important point. The oil companies knew very well that their product was harmful, but continued to publicly deny it and spend lots of money to discredit anyone who claimed it was. That was a key argument in the lawsuit. Selling a product that causes both harms and benefits is legal, as long as you're honest about it. Selling a product that you know causes harm, but insisting that it doesn't and trying hard to discredit anyone who reveals the truth, even though you know they're right, is illegal.

      --
      "I'm too busy to research this and form an educated opinion, but I do have time to tell everyone my uninformed opinion."
    4. Re:Suing them was unethical anyway by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      How many hundreds of times have YOU personally made the decision to fill your vehicle with fuel? You damn well knew (you did not merely suspect, you the person doing it knew) that it was definitely and inevitably going to pollute the air, with zero chance that it wouldn't pollute.

      Butyl alcohol, or "Butanol", is a 1:1 replacement for gasoline made by bacteria from any organic matter. While most of it today is reformed from petroleum, it was historically produced with a process known as "ABE", by a bacteria called Clostridium acetobutylicum. In this process, the bacteria can turn any organic matter into acetone, butanol, and ethanol. The production of butanol by biological means was first performed by Louis Pasteur in 1861.

      GE Energy Ventures' branch GEVO wanted to sell butanol on the general market, but was prevented for years by BP+DuPont's corporations Butamax. Butamax gained an obvious patent, developed at a public university (and therefore partially with our tax money) on the cost-effective commercial production of butanol. As a result, Butamax now has an effective monopoly on producing butanol as a road fuel. Unfortunately, they seem to have no actual interest in doing so; they could have been producing and selling it years ago, and they have been focusing on lawsuits instead.

      In short, big oil (in the form of BP) has been working hard to keep the situation from improving.

      Let's consider another transportation failure: the proliferation of the interstate highway system, and the decommissioning of profitable public transportation systems by the automobile industry. Automobiles are a spectacularly poor way to travel long distances. The total number of parts failures waiting to happen is vastly higher than when using rail. Automobiles also produce more pollution, both direct emissions and secondary ones like tire dust. And they are substantially less safe, as well.

      To be fair, I can only explain how the American consumer was forced into an automobile, but it is a fact that this situation was perpetrated against us by a series of conspiracies — some of which led to actual convictions, like the streetcar conspiracy, so there is no doubt about whether they were real. Now you want to blame the victims. Real classy there, sport.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  6. Re:Lock Him Up by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 3, Funny
    Subject: "Lock Him Up"

    That judge may or may not have the law interpreted correctly, but his spew about politicians making decisions about science rather strongly suggests the majority of his income derives from ExxonMobil or the equivalent Putin-owned company.

    One more example of why judges should be required to accept the input of nonlegals like, you know, scientists and software professionals.

    As long as we're getting our governmental wires crossed, let's have our elected representatives vote to lock him up!

  7. Re: Lock Him Up by kenh · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Your view of the world is 'interesting'.

    You think 'Big Oil' is a thing, like a group that holds meetings and makes decisions.

    You imagine that judges decide what sources are used to defend a particular side in a court case - that is left to the attorneys.

    I like how you lump 'software professionals' with scientists - I'm going to guess you wanted to be a scientist, but wound up a software professional, so you viewcthem as equivalent.

    --
    Ken
  8. And physics questions by presidenteloco · · Score: 1

    like what's causing the warming, and what the speed and essential content of response needs to be,
    should be decided by science,
    and then the results of that should be respected by political leadership.

    Oh what a wonderful world that would be....

    --

    Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
    1. Re:And physics questions by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 4, Insightful

      like what's causing the warming, and what the speed and essential content of response needs to be, should be decided by science, and then the results of that should be respected by political leadership.

      Oh what a wonderful world that would be....

      What to do about it, on a governmental level, is a political question.

      Expert witnesses can testify, submit evidence, etc., but they don't decide cases. That's never how it works.

    2. Re:And physics questions by Shotgun · · Score: 1

      Scientist are people, too, and they have thier own opinions and values.

      One scientist will decide that the fuel pumps need to all be immediately turned off and every power plant, coal or natural gas, shut down because global warming in 100 years.

      A different scientist calculates that there we be immediate deaths due to people freezing or starving from the lack of transportation of food, and decides that the fuel should flow and the power plants produce.

      They can both be right.

      --
      Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
      Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
    3. Re:And physics questions by presidenteloco · · Score: 1

      But you do understand, right, that the physical system - in this case the Earth and its surface temperature - doesn't respond to the vagaries of or compromises reached by human political processes. It only responds to physically effective solutions, based on the physics of the situation.

      People do get that, don't they?

      So what I am saying would be good would be if the politically implemented solutions are substantial enough and of the right kind to affect (in the direction considered safer) the evolution of the physical system.
      The solution should have measurable effect, even though in this case, due to the spatiotemporal scale of the system, it will take several decades to find out if implemented solutions are moving the needle.

      Anything else is just re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, as the saying goes.

      --

      Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
    4. Re:And physics questions by presidenteloco · · Score: 1

      Well, the scientific consensus now is that negative emissions (active removal of atmospheric CO2) will be required in addition to emissions reductions to 0, to have a good chance of keeping temperature rise below 2 degrees C.

      This is due to delay in beginning our reduction trajectory.

      And there is presently no assurance that an effective active removal mechanism can be implemented in time.

      But I haven't heard any serious scientists call for immediate tap turning off. They have in general merely pleaded that we stop INCREASING fossil fuel production rate (as we still are increasing), and IMMEDIATELY begin a gradual ramp down. Nobody needs to die. The only ones I've ever heard talking about turning off tap immediately and causing deaths are those who do not want us to make any changes at all, in other words the deniers and party-on'ers.

      --

      Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
  9. Not a fan of big oil, but this is a good ruling by istartedi · · Score: 4, Insightful

    San Francisco and Oakland: Oh please, let us sue the oil companies. Oh please let us sue them from our glass towers funded by hi-tech industry, fueled by the very energy we decry, birthed by the military-industrial complex we revile. Oh please, mr. judge we implore you! We're good liberals. Pay no attention to the prime mover behind the curtain.

    Judge: No.

    --
    For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
  10. Re: Lock Him Up by kenh · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I love this logic - he must be on the payroll of 'big oil' to reach that conclusion, otherwise my long-held beliefs are wrong! it's right up there with 'the Russians threw the election, otherwise I have to admit that Hillary was a lousy candidate.

    --
    Ken
  11. Re:I call BS by cyberchondriac · · Score: 1

    I think that what he meant by "turning off the tap" was something more current and abrupt, not 100 years from now. And in that scenario, many people likely could die, without heat, or transport of food and medicine.

    --

    Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
  12. Re:Lock Him Up by penandpaper · · Score: 4, Informative

    why judges should be required to accept the input of nonlegals like, you know, scientists and software professionals.

    Never heard of Friends of the Court? Amicus curiae to the Latin speakers.

    Please learn about how the judiciary works before you spew misinformation.

  13. That's it by jfdavis668 · · Score: 1

    I'm giving up using oil, gasoline, plastic and electricity made from fossil fuels. Now if I can only find a hydrogen powered steam engine to run my generator.

  14. So you want jackasses to decide policy? by raymorris · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Let me see if I understand you correctly.

    A. You think this judge is a jackass.

    B. He's a jackass because he declined to unilaterally decide energy policy, instead leaving policy to policy-makers.

    C. You would have preferred for the jackass judge to decide national energy policy himself.

    Is that about right?

  15. That is utterly false by SuperKendall · · Score: 1, Interesting

    But you do know that people only exhale as much CO2 as the food they eat took from the atmosphere?

    I don't tend to "know" things that are false.

    CO2 exhalation is a result of a chemical process in our body, and has no relation whatsoever to the amount of whatever we consumed itself consuming CO2. I mean, how on earth to you square your insane belief system with someone on an all-meat diet, where a cow itself exhales CO2 and then we kill the cow and eat it and ourselves produce CO2 in turn? What about someone on an all-water diet for a week or two who continues to exhale CO2?

    Talk about anti-science...

    It is a zero sum game, or are you an complete idiot?

    What I have found in life is that people who believe anything is a "zero-sum game" are the same kind of naive quacks that believe in crystal healing and perpetual motion machines...

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:That is utterly false by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      What about someone on an all-water diet for a week or two who continues to exhale CO2?

      You burn carbon from fat that you stored earlier when you were eating more than you needed.

    2. Re:That is utterly false by Freischutz · · Score: 1

      But you do know that people only exhale as much CO2 as the food they eat took from the atmosphere?

      I don't tend to "know" things that are false.

      CO2 exhalation is a result of a chemical process in our body, and has no relation whatsoever to the amount of whatever we consumed itself consuming CO2. I mean, how on earth to you square your insane belief system with someone on an all-meat diet, where a cow itself exhales CO2 and then we kill the cow and eat it and ourselves produce CO2 in turn? What about someone on an all-water diet for a week or two who continues to exhale CO2?

      Talk about anti-science...

      If that was true, and every one of the trillions of life forms on earth generated more CO2 by exhaling than it consumed indirectly by consuming other plants or life forms, life would have exhaled itself into extinction by climate change a long, long, long time ago.

      All the carbon in our body comes either directly or indirectly from plants, which took it out of the air only recently ... Therefore, when we breathe out, all the carbon dioxide we exhale has already been accounted for. We are simply returning to the air the same carbon that was there to begin with. Remember, it's a carbon cycle, not a straight line - and a good thing, too!

      https://www.skepticalscience.c...

    3. Re:That is utterly false by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      CO2 exhalation is a result of a chemical process in our body, and has no relation whatsoever to the amount of whatever we consumed itself consuming CO2.

      What is the input to that chemical process? If you guessed glucose that our bodies derive from the food we eat you'd be right.

      What I have found in life is that people who believe anything is a "zero-sum game" are the same kind of naive quacks

      You've never even taken a highschool science class before have you? There are literally countless closed systems in our environment.
      I have a better one for you: The entire physical process of the universe that governs everything around you is one large zero sum game. The universe is literally the exact opposite of what you think.

    4. Re:That is utterly false by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      Well,
      and I consider people who don't know that nearly everything in nature/physics is a zero sum game: idiots.
      Btw: that has nothing to do with 'believes'.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    5. Re:That is utterly false by tkotz · · Score: 1

      ...life would have exhaled itself into extinction by climate change a long, long, long time ago.

      Exhaling itself into mass extinction is kind of life's thing. It just requires an unbalanced adaptation in respiration efficiency (photosynthesis, methane, sulphur, cellulose, lignin digestion) . Example:
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    6. Re:That is utterly false by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 1

      So it is your belief that carbon miraculously appears when human beings exhale and it didn't need to come from a carbon source?

      Hint- the second law of thermodynamics exists for a reason- and the WHOLE BLOODY UNIVERSE is one big zero sum game.

      --
      SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
  16. Re:I call BS by Cajun+Hell · · Score: 1

    If the tap-turning-off is managed and gradual, no one will die.

    Ok, let's hypothesize this. Whose responsibility is this, and why?

    And just making sure: you're saying the public has less responsibility than the people who sold them the fuel, right? We could have gradually started using less and less, but it was more important that the vendor had the discipline to make sure they didn't sell us too much each year, correct? And were they also supposed to make sure a competitor didn't come in and fill the remaining demand Should Exxon have resorted to deadly force to prevent BP from selling people too much?

    I think you are straining to avoid putting the responsibility where it really belongs. OTOH, if you blame the people who burn the fuel, all the weird shit goes away.

    --
    "Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
  17. Bad arguments by sjbe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The courts are good at individual cases that have nuance and the technicalities of jurisprudence. That is not the place to drive social agenda to solve societal problems.

    As a general proposition I agree but sometimes there is no other choice. The rest of the government doesn't always act in a manner that makes social change feasible.

    People exhale CO2. When the EPA or courts expands the authority of the government to regulate CO2 as a pollutant they can effectively regulate your breathing.

    That's one of the more ridiculous arguments I've read in a while. No amount of breathing by humans makes CO2 a pollutant. Massive release of sequestered CO2 from burning coal and oil does make CO2 a pollutant. Anything can be a pollutant if there is enough of it to screw up the ecosystem. Do you really not understand the difference between regulating industry emissions of a chemical versus respiration? Exactly how do you think an EPA regulation will deny you access to breathing?

    1. Re:Bad arguments by penandpaper · · Score: 2

      no other choice. The rest of the government doesn't always act in a manner that makes social change feasible.

      If society is not ready to change because half of it doesn't want change. That says more about you wanting to force it through the courts than the process to make that change legitimately through the proper channels.

      No amount of breathing by humans makes CO2 a pollutant... Exactly how do you think an EPA regulation will deny you access to breathing?

      I understand just fine. You are missing the point. Lawsuit claims CO2 is damaging that must be regulated. Court agrees ordering the government to regulate CO2. The EPA creates rules on how much CO2 can be produced by anything that produces CO2. Lawsuit claims too much CO2 is being produced. Courts agree and order that amount be lowered. There is no legislative oversight. Why is your ~840 lbs a year of CO2 exempt from regulation?

    2. Re:Bad arguments by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If you think a judge doing this is a good idea, what's your thoughts on what Trump has done to disassemble everything Obama did? Because doing it by the courts has the same failure. What is done by one judge can be undone by another, and what all judges do can be easily undone by congress. It's a poor way to do this because it's so easily undone.

    3. Re:Bad arguments by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

      The rest of the government doesn't always act in a manner that makes social change feasible.

      The idea that social change is always a good idea is wrong. This is particularly the case in the U.S.A., where social change generally means making the country more like worse places.

      --
      Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
    4. Re:Bad arguments by penandpaper · · Score: 1

      I care more about proper governance than climate change. Notice the argument isn't about the validity of climate change.

    5. Re:Bad arguments by ChrisMaple · · Score: 2

      Answer the question. Resorting to nothing but an insult is equivalent to admitting you're wrong.

      --
      Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
    6. Re:Bad arguments by danbert8 · · Score: 1

      Do you really not understand the difference between regulating industry emissions of a chemical versus respiration?

      Are you arguing that oil companies should only be held accountable for the emissions they produce in the course of their business? Because the vast majority of emissions come from the end user (i.e. all of us who drive cars and heat homes with natural gas or heating oil) not the "industry emissions". If that is the case, you'd better be suing the entire 1st world instead of oil companies... In essence you would regardless if oil companies actually end up fined because the end user will be paying for the fines in the end.

      --
      Yes it's an anecdote! Were you expecting original research in a Slashdot comment?
    7. Re: Bad arguments by penandpaper · · Score: 1

      ..we will use the courts if we want, and you can go sit in a pickle barrel.

      This says more about you than any preamble .

    8. Re:Bad arguments by ebvwfbw · · Score: 1

      They actually did that - https://www.thenewamerican.com... . No shit. 2009.

    9. Re:Bad arguments by cthulhu11 · · Score: 1

      Let's keep ignoring the 800 pound steer in the room too: the contribution of animal agriculture.

  18. That's really it! by crow · · Score: 1

    I'm mostly there with solar power and electric cars. My lawn mower and snow blower are next. Eliminating plastic is beyond me, but I do try to minimize my use when it's practical.

    If your roof isn't shaded by trees, then solar electricity probably makes sense, especially if your state offers any sort of incentive program. A few states have anti-solar programs (Florida) or really cheap electricity (Idaho), but even without incentives, it's becoming cost effective in many areas.

    If you drive under 100 miles a day, there's little reason not to be driving electric. Certainly for most two-car families, one should be electric. Plug-in hybrids give you many of the advantages, allowing you to only buy gas on trips unless you have a particularly long commute. Having switched entirely to pure EVs, I have no regrets.

    1. Re:That's really it! by Gilgaron · · Score: 1

      I got a battery powered snow blower last year, and it is great! I got the Ego Power+ brand and couldn't be happier with it. Definitely going that way with the mower when my current mower needs replaced. (I haven't looked into it, but I am assuming that the greener thing to do is use the gas mower until it fails, or at least stops running well). Couldn't afford the electric car last time I needed one but it did occur to me when buying the one I have it would probably be the last ICE car I'd likely buy.

    2. Re:That's really it! by jimbolauski · · Score: 1

      Most areas do not make financial sense to put up solar panels, there are only 12 states where panels out perform the S&P500, half the states can't out perform US treasury bonds over 30 years. Solar is not ready for mass adoption until it can pull its weight for the majority of home owners.

      --
      Knowledge = Power
      P= W/t
      t=Money
      Money = Work/Knowledge so the less you know the more you make
    3. Re:That's really it! by crow · · Score: 1

      Most electric snow blowers are single stage. The reviews I see on Amazon tend to fall into two categories: If it's the first snow blower someone has bought, they give it five stars. If it's replacing a two-stage gas blower, it gets one star. My impression is that they just won't do the job when I have a three-foot packed wall at the end of my driveway from the snow plow.

    4. Re:That's really it! by Gilgaron · · Score: 1

      My old gas blower was single stage that would stall out against a plow wall like that, this one is single stage but can handle such things if you slice off layers top down, and throws the snow as far as my neighbor's 2 stage while being very quiet by comparison.

    5. Re:That's really it! by Areyoukiddingme · · Score: 1

      Most areas do not make financial sense to put up solar panels, there are only 12 states where panels out perform the S&P500, half the states can't out perform US treasury bonds over 30 years.

      Did you perform that calculation when you bought your refrigerator? Because that's what you're advocating. You're not going to not use electricity, any more than you're not going to use some of that electricity to preserve food. Solar panels are a quality of life investment, not a financial investment.

      Solar panels make sense now for rural areas, where the power company makes the slimmest investment they possibly can, and weather happens. They make sense in a great many suburban areas too, after 100 years of tree growth and total lack of investment by power companies in burying their lines. Remember the Great Northeast Blackout? Solar panels. Solar panels and batteries, especially now that the Tesla Powerwall 2 is available. No more finicky fiddling about with lead acid battery banks that require so much coddling they're practically a hobby in their own right. Unless my house actually gets run right over by the tornado, my power should stay on. Is this 1918 or is it 2018? And since power companies have done the bare minimum, rather than get rid of all those unsightly poles, it's on us to solve the problem ourselves.

      It's an investment all right. Just not the kind you're thinking of.

    6. Re:That's really it! by jimbolauski · · Score: 1

      You seem to be forgetting that money is finite. If people end up paying more to the finance then they would to buy their electricity they will choose the electric company. If someone has the cash on hand they can invest it in their house or somewhere else, they will more then likely choose the option with higher returns. Your refrigerator analogy misses the mark, over a 10 year period having a refrigerator will be cost effective because less food will spoil/be thrown away/less trips to the store. Solar is not ready for mass adoption until it is economically viable.

      --
      Knowledge = Power
      P= W/t
      t=Money
      Money = Work/Knowledge so the less you know the more you make
  19. Stop using Oil then! by Zorro · · Score: 1

    By all means live an Amish 15th Century technology lifestyle!

    I think I will keep my lifestyle with vaccinations and Internal Combustion engines that can get me anywhere in the world in about 24 Hours. You know like Al Gore and all the other high living Global Climate "Experts."

  20. Lol, you yanks don't get it, do you? by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

    RDS is not American. For that matter, other countries can sue all of these companies too.

    Stop trying to protect your dying fossil fuel industry.

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  21. Gradual [Re:Consistent] by Geoffrey.landis · · Score: 1

    So I must point out that if we just dump fossil fuels today, everybody, across the board, we are going to be in a world of hurt

    Which is an argument for a gradual replacement of power supplies with more sustainable ones, rather than abruptly dynamiting all the existing power plants and outlawing internal combustion engines. But gradual replacement is exactly what we are doing. Nobody is advocating an abrupt "stop all fossil fuel use immediately right now." So I'm not sure what your point is.

    --
    http://www.geoffreylandis.com
  22. Re:Food ultimately comes from plants by Crashmarik · · Score: 1

    Try again.

    Crops are grown using synthetic fertiliizers that rely on the Haber Bosch process to provide the nitrogen compounds. It's an extremely energy intensive process. The crops are further mechanically sown, use synthetic pesticides, and are mechanically harvested, transported and packaged . All of these processes use oil. The same goes for animal feed and caring for animals.

    Try actually thinking next time.

  23. Re:I call BS by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

    When Vermin Supreme is elected and we switch to a pony based economy, all these problems will be solved.

    There are 200,000 ponies in America, 300 million people. Every person gets a pony, genocide might be required to make the math work.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  24. Re: Lock Him Up by El+Cubano · · Score: 2

    You think 'Big Oil' is a thing, like a group that holds meetings and makes decisions.

    There was even a documentary about that selfsame group trying to influence US energy policy in the early '90s. They even had an official meeting.

  25. Re:I call BS by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

    What are you complaining about, I've downsized to a 5 liter V8. (But I smeared some JB weld onto the cam lobes and put in a lower ratio final drive gear.)

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  26. Re:Food ultimately comes from plants by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 2

    And an explosion of human life was the result.

    --
    (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
  27. Re:I call BS by Q-Hack! · · Score: 1

    Have you seen the battery bank for that monster. ROI for running that thing is still unviable. Maybe in the future we will have cheaper versions, but for now that beast is out of reach for the vast majority of farmers.

    --
    Some days I get the sinking feeling Orwell was an optimist.
  28. Re:Lock Him Up by MobyDisk · · Score: 1

    It sounds like you didn't read the article at all. Or even the summary for that matter.

    but his spew about politicians making decisions about science rather strongly suggests the majority of his income derives from ExxonMobil or the equivalent Putin-owned company.

    I see no such statement in the article. What are you talking about?

    One more example of why judges should be required to accept the input of nonlegals like, you know, scientists and software professionals.

    He did. The article says:

    Alsup brought in the world's leading experts on climate change at an unusual hearing in March that he said was intended to educate him about the science behind the Earth's warming.

  29. Our entire economy & way of life is powred by by karlandtanya · · Score: 1, Insightful

    We are *all* guilty.
    Singling out the folks that dig the stuff out of the ground, clean it up, and bring it to the rest of us is just scapegoating.

    --
    "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick
  30. Memo [Re: Lock Him Up] by XXongo · · Score: 5, Informative

    Your view of the world is 'interesting'. You think 'Big Oil' is a thing, like a group that holds meetings and makes decisions.

    Yes, in fact they were and they did, in the form of the American Petroleum Institute.

    In a 1998 memo, they outlined their "action plan" for a campaign to cast doubt on climate science. Which they implemented pretty much as written.

    (despite the fact that they had already-- in 1980-- identified climate warming due to carbon dioxide as a problem.)

    (news article here.)

    1. Re:Memo [Re: Lock Him Up] by HeckRuler · · Score: 1

      Yeah dude, which one of those bullet points DOESN'T sound nefarious to you? Because each one of those is a blatant FUD campaign. Fear, UNCERTAINTY, and DOUBT. ok, so not so much fear. The last bullet is literally planned character assassination.

      we have ... uncertainties around how much warming how much CO2 will end up causing [and] what impact that ... warming will lead to

      Minus all the spin, bias, and weasel words... this is true. Don't get me wrong, the current debate is:

        - How bad it will be?
        - What can we do about it?

      The fact that these are debatable means there is uncertainty. Science is about removing uncertainty leading to better understanding. Speaking on the science of "error margins in the global energy imbalance that are GREATER than the actual imbalance driving climate change(that is directly from the IPCC", Put up or shut up. Pics or it didn't happen.

      So how's our uncertainty doing? You want IPCC's views on climate models? Boom.

      There is very high confidence that models reproduce the general features of the global-scale annual mean surface temperature increase over the historical period, including the more rapid warming in the second half of the 20th century

    2. Re:Memo [Re: Lock Him Up] by vipvop · · Score: 1

      Citing inside climate news is like citing the daily mail. By the way, everything you're accusing Exxon of is actually what a group of environmentalists and plaintiff's lawyers decided to do, with funding by various Rockefeller foundations (among others). The main people that would benefit from this case being successful would be the class action attorneys, who would stand to make hundreds of millions if not billions. Everyone else will just pay a little more at the gas station, along with a little bit more for all the food and items they need.

    3. Re: Memo [Re: Lock Him Up] by HeckRuler · · Score: 1

      The executive summary is page #3.

      oh NOES, is the poor little anonymous coward shill going to have to... READ?

      No, because I pulled out the quoted text for you.

      Observe people, THIS is the sort of troll that argues against climate change and supports the oil companies.

    4. Re:Memo [Re: Lock Him Up] by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      In a 1998 memo, they outlined their "action plan" for a campaign to cast doubt on climate science. Which they implemented pretty much as written.

      The NYT didn't want me to know about their action plan: I got an error the first time I tried to load that page. Convenient archive.org link for anyone else it may happen to.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    5. Re:Memo [Re: Lock Him Up] by HeckRuler · · Score: 1

      Get your head out of the sand, declaring the Kyoto treaty as badly flawed is "planned character assassination"?

      No no, the goal in that bullet point wasn't to refute the Kyoto treaty. There was no science there. It was explicitly to make people supporting it look "out of touch". Read it again.

      you clearly left my claim untouched, that the energy imbalance is badly modelled.

      Read the fucking executive summary again:

      There is very high confidence that models reproduce the general features of the global-scale annual mean surface temperature increase over the historical period, including the more rapid warming in the second half of the 20th century

      The models sure as shit aren't perfect, it's not like we can predict the rainfall in a month. But they are not badly modeled.

      But hey, thank you for actually doing the minimal amount of footwork to make a claim. Page 749. 8 papers had to deal with clouds. And you're not wrong, the IPCC said it themselves in the executive summary:

      The simulation of clouds in climate models remains challenging.
      There is very high confidence that uncertainties in cloud processes
      explain much of the spread in modelled climate sensitivity. However,
      the simulation of clouds in climate models has shown modest improvement
      relative to models available at the time of the AR4, and this has
      been aided by new evaluation techniques and new observations for
      clouds. Nevertheless, biases in cloud simulation lead to regional errors
      on cloud radiative effect of several tens of watts per square meter.
      {9.2.1, 9.4.1, 9.7.2, Figures 9.5, 9.43}

      This shit is hard, but it's getting better all the time. Even with that very real and very sciency factoid of uncertainty when it comes to clouds in a number of climate models, we still have a very high level of confidence (ie, it is not uncertain) that climate change models accurately show the rapid warming after 1950.

      That uncertainty does lead to questions about how bad it's going to get.

    6. Re:Memo [Re: Lock Him Up] by BCGlorfindel · · Score: 1

      you clearly left my claim untouched, that the energy imbalance is badly modelled.

      Read the fucking executive summary again:

      There is very high confidence that models reproduce the general features of the global-scale annual mean surface temperature increase over the historical period, including the more rapid warming in the second half of the 20th century

      The models sure as shit aren't perfect, it's not like we can predict the rainfall in a month. But they are not badly modeled.

      But hey, thank you for actually doing the minimal amount of footwork to make a claim. Page 749. 8 papers had to deal with clouds. And you're not wrong, the IPCC said it themselves in the executive summary:

      The simulation of clouds in climate models remains challenging.
      There is very high confidence that uncertainties in cloud processes
      explain much of the spread in modelled climate sensitivity. However,
      the simulation of clouds in climate models has shown modest improvement
      relative to models available at the time of the AR4, and this has
      been aided by new evaluation techniques and new observations for
      clouds. Nevertheless, biases in cloud simulation lead to regional errors
      on cloud radiative effect of several tens of watts per square meter.
      {9.2.1, 9.4.1, 9.7.2, Figures 9.5, 9.43}

      This shit is hard, but it's getting better all the time. Even with that very real and very sciency factoid of uncertainty when it comes to clouds in a number of climate models, we still have a very high level of confidence (ie, it is not uncertain) that climate change models accurately show the rapid warming after 1950.

      That uncertainty does lead to questions about how bad it's going to get.

      Here's what NASA's CERES satellite system observed directly about the global energy imbalance.
      -global mean net TOA flux for July 2005–June 2015 is consistent with the in situ value of 0.71 W m2
      -he overall uncertainty in 1 × 1 latitude–longitude regional monthly all-sky TOA flux is estimated to be 3 W m2 [one standard deviation (1)] for the Terra-only period and 2.5 W m2 for the Terra–Aqua period both for SW and LW fluxes.

      So, currently state of the art Satellite observations show there is a 0.71 W m-2 energy imbalance driving the warming from GHGs, but also notes that the uncertainty of the measurements is between 2.5 W m-2 and 3.0 W m-2. So even the observational uncertainties exceed the signal.

      Let's look at the models, as cited in your link to the IPCC AR5, on page 763:
      Globally averaged TOA shortwave and longwave components of the radiative fluxes in 12
      atmosphere-only versions of the CMIP5 models were within 2.5 W m–2 of the observed values (Wang and Su, 2013).

      So there you have some pretty important facts. Even the observed TOA imbalance has uncertainties greater than the signal, let alone the climate models.

      What does that mean though? Given that the observed warming of the last 100 years was driven by an energy imbalance of 0.7W m-2, it means that an uncertainty in models of 2.5W m-2 makes predictions pretty much unworkable.

      Oh, but the models DO accurately model the warming of the last 100 years, how does that fit?
      Well, as pointed out up thread, the answer is tuning. If you tune parameters that are modelled poorly, like clouds, to correct the energy imbalance then you can get the right imbalance and recreate the warming.

      Modelling of clouds, as noted on page 820 of the IPCC report says:
      Cloud feedbacks in AOGCMs are generally positive or near neutral (Shell et al., 2008; Soden et al., 2008), as evidenced by the net positive or neutral cloud feedbacks in all of the models examined in a multi-thousand member ensemble of AOGCMs constructed by parameter
      perturbations (Sanderson et al., 2010)

      So clouds con

    7. Re:Memo [Re: Lock Him Up] by HeckRuler · · Score: 1

      OH NOES! A satellite doesn't have an accurate reading when looking at Top Of Atmosphere energy imbalance. Now all we have to use to observe and predict global warming is thermometers, tree rings, glaciers, sea-ice levels, core samples, and historical records thereof. "Robust multi-decadal warming, global mean surface temperatures". The correct phrase is "multiple independently produced datasets". It's not like all of global warming depends upon one satellite, or one method of measurement.

      Quothe the IPCC "Warming of the climate system is unequivocal".

      Now... having a precise value for global ToA flux would certainly be a nice metric to have. It'd give us a MORE accurate knowledge of how much the globe has warmed. It might even help us predict how much it's going to warm next year.

    8. Re:Memo [Re: Lock Him Up] by BCGlorfindel · · Score: 1

      OH NOES! A satellite doesn't have an accurate reading when looking at Top Of Atmosphere energy imbalance. Now all we have to use to observe and predict global warming is thermometers, tree rings, glaciers, sea-ice levels, core samples, and historical records thereof. "Robust multi-decadal warming, global mean surface temperatures". The correct phrase is "multiple independently produced datasets".

      All those records are great for observing. Strange you would feel the need to even mention it? I clearly agreed with you on the point when I said the models do on the whole hind cast the observed warming correctly.

      Predicting though, that is another beast. You see, climate models are moving on to using basic physics to drive them. The physics of course relies on the energy of the sun, the trapping and reflection of that energy, and the changes driven by that energy transfer. It's the primary principle on top of which everything else relies upon, you can blithely wave it away as unimportant, but your the one ignoring the science of things then, not me.

      It's not like all of global warming depends upon one satellite, or one method of measurement.

      Quothe the IPCC "Warming of the climate system is unequivocal".

      Again, you are under the mistaken impression that we were ever in disagreement on this.

      Now... having a precise value for global ToA flux would certainly be a nice metric to have. It'd give us a MORE accurate knowledge of how much the globe has warmed. It might even help us predict how much it's going to warm next year.

      Agreed on the first part. Getting a TOA flux at least with error margins smaller than the actual amount driving the observed recent warming would give us more accurate knowledge than we have now. Being able to model it that accurately however isn't best described as helpful to predicting how much it will warm in the future, it is absolutely a prerequisite to any ability to do so.

      Without improving the energy balance, we have to abandon the world of modeling the physical processes and instead rely on statistical projections of past records like temperature, which is obviously a little bit unsatisfactory if showing confidence in our predictions is at all desirable.

    9. Re:Memo [Re: Lock Him Up] by HeckRuler · · Score: 1

      All those records are great for observing. Strange you would feel the need to even mention it? I clearly agreed with you on the point when I said the models do on the whole hind cast the observed warming correctly. Predicting though, that is another beast.

      Yes, and... just so we're clear: Observing the global average ToE flux... is an observation. The one with uncertainty? The one you're pinning all your hopes and dreams about justifying the American Petroleum Institute plan upon? Unless, hey, feel free to move that goalpost.

      And it's not exactly a different beast entirely. Better observations and more historical data help make future predictions. If you need to slow down to 45, it helps to know if you're going 50 or 80.

      Quothe the IPCC "Warming of the climate system is unequivocal".

      Again, you are under the mistaken impression that we were ever in disagreement on this.

      AH! Wonderful. Then there's really no basis for those bullet points put forth by the API, it's not uncertain at all that the Earth is warming, we know for sure it's going to keep warming. It's just a nefarious plan of propaganda, FUD, and character assassination set forth by a committee of megacorps. Alright, as long as we're square on that, then honestly I'm fine with whatever nuance you want to quibble over about data vs statistics vs models.

    10. Re:Memo [Re: Lock Him Up] by BCGlorfindel · · Score: 1

      Quothe the IPCC "Warming of the climate system is unequivocal".

      Again, you are under the mistaken impression that we were ever in disagreement on this.

      AH! Wonderful. Then there's really no basis for those bullet points put forth by the API, it's not uncertain at all that the Earth is warming, we know for sure it's going to keep warming. It's just a nefarious plan of propaganda, FUD, and character assassination set forth by a committee of megacorps. Alright, as long as we're square on that, then honestly I'm fine with whatever nuance you want to quibble over about data vs statistics vs models.

      How can I be more clear? For the umpteenth time, the observed historical warming has been measured with high precision and certainty.

      At the same time, our best and most reliable predictions about FUTURE scenarios for warming depend upon climate modelling. The uncertainty of the climate models for predicting the impact of our emissions is huge, as the IPCC has repeatedly made clear the basic underlying energy budget that the physics relies upon has more uncertainty in it than the contribution our emissions is making.

      Do you realize that the Kyoto protocol had member countries committing to reduce emissions to 18% below 1990 levels? Do you also know that historically most of a nations emissions are directly correlated to it's economic growth? If you thought the housing bubble and ensuing crisis was a disaster when just a year or two of growth was lost, what do you expect from 2-3 decades being cut out to meet 1990 emission levels for the sake of the Kyoto protocol?

      Most importantly, you CAN NOT state that the science on future warming trends is so certain that we know adopting such catastrophic economic consequences now is better than adapting to future warming...

    11. Re:Memo [Re: Lock Him Up] by HeckRuler · · Score: 1

      the observed historical warming has been measured with high precision and certainty.

      Boom! DONE. I agree. Again. And that means the IPA oil giants are conducting a propaganda campaign. FUD, pure and simple. Those asshats. That was really my only argument. This is established, known, not-uncertain fact.

      you CAN NOT state that the science on future warming trends is so certain that we know adopting such catastrophic economic consequences now is better than adapting to future warming...

      We can state for certain that (as of 2018) global warming will continue. It is also a fact that there has been major economic disruption due to climate change. The current debate is how bad it is going to be and what to do about it. I have stated this multiple times. I think we're both on the same page about the current state of the science, although you seem to be confused about what a statistical model is. I don't think that really matters though, we both agree on the main point.

      hmmm, I haven't really pushed the Kyoto treaty... but if I did, would you say that I'm"out of touch with reality"?

    12. Re:Memo [Re: Lock Him Up] by BCGlorfindel · · Score: 1

      the observed historical warming has been measured with high precision and certainty.

      Boom! DONE. I agree. Again. And that means the IPA oil giants are conducting a propaganda campaign. FUD, pure and simple. Those asshats. That was really my only argument. This is established, known, not-uncertain fact.

      Good.

      you CAN NOT state that the science on future warming trends is so certain that we know adopting such catastrophic economic consequences now is better than adapting to future warming...

      We can state for certain that (as of 2018) global warming will continue. It is also a fact that there has been major economic disruption due to climate change.

      If we use a lot of rounding, the last 100 years we have witnessed 1.0 degree C of warming. In that same 100 years global economic production, and more importantly food production has risen consistently. As in, the entire 100 years that our species has been experiencing global warming, we've been flourishing. If you'd like to cite some "factual" examples of major economic disruption due to climate change I'd love to hear them. At this point the most commonly cited ones are simply instances of the same kinds of natural disasters we already experienced 100 years ago, but now with a climate model assisted estimate of some small percentage of the disaster being made worse or attributable to recent warming.

      The current debate is how bad it is going to be and what to do about it. I have stated this multiple times. I think we're both on the same page about the current state of the science, although you seem to be confused about what a statistical model is. I don't think that really matters though, we both agree on the main point.

      I think we are agreed on past observation, but I don't believe we are at all agreed on the certainty of future predictions. Do you acknowledge that our climate models are only as good as their predictions of the global energy imbalance? It's basic physics so I don't mean to be insulting, but it seemed you wanted to wave that away before? Following from that, the IPCC has summarized the modellers themselves as observing that they can not hind cast the recent warming without manually correcting unknown parameters like clouds to correct the energy imbalance. This is to be expected, as the uncertainties like clouds have a greater influence on the energy imbalance than the increased CO2 concentrations we're experiencing.

      If we are agreed on the above, then I would say that yes, we are agreed on our understanding of the science discussed so far.

      hmmm, I haven't really pushed the Kyoto treaty... but if I did, would you say that I'm"out of touch with reality"?

      I would question whether or not we agree on the main point. If the main point is to pay penance for past CO2 emissions and warming, then Kyoto is science backed. If the main point is to prepare for the future though, then scientific certainty in a future catastrophic enough to justify Kyoto is necessary to still be in touch with reality. The fact is, by 2020 Kyoto demands a rollback of 3 decades of global economic growth. When we lack ANY quantitative certainty around how much that emission reduction will save us, I would say yes, it is clearly out of touch with reality.

    13. Re:Memo [Re: Lock Him Up] by HeckRuler · · Score: 1

      I would say yes, it is clearly out of touch with reality.

      . . . ho boy.

      ok. I need you to scroll up and look at the original anonymous coward who posted those bullet points from the oil association. (Was that you? Did you just give up wearing the mask? Whatever, doesn't matter). Here, I'll just post it:

      the plan lists as "Victory will be achieved when":

      -Average citizens "understand(recognize) uncertainties in climate science, recognition of uncertainties becomes part of the "conventional wisdom".
      -Media "understands"(recognizes) uncertainties in climate science
      -Media coverage reflects balance on climate science and recognition of the validity of viewpoints that challenge the current "conventional wisdom"
      -Industry senior leadership understands uncertainties in climate science, making them stronger ambassadors to those who shape climate policy
      -Those promoting the Kyoto treaty on the basis of extant science appear to be out of touch with reality

      Now.... if you agree (which you have) that the IPA is engaging in a propoganda campaign and spreading FUD, then doesn't that kind of highlight the part of their plan where they perform character assasination on anyone supporting the Kyoto agreement? The part where they have plans to paint them as "out of touch with reality"?

      I know that regardless of what PR campaign they're running, and what kind of propoganda and lies have been injected into the debate, none of that changes the actual scientific facts. Only how they're represented by people. The truth is out there no matter the layer of shit it's been covered with. But it can be damn hard to see when there are untrustworthy actors being paid to decieve.

      Does the fact that there has been a for-profit campaign at misrepresenting the truth surrounding this topic make you question the path you took to come to the exact outcome they were aiming for?

    14. Re:Memo [Re: Lock Him Up] by BCGlorfindel · · Score: 1

      I would say yes, it is clearly out of touch with reality.

      . . . ho boy.

      ...then doesn't that kind of highlight the part of their plan where they perform character assasination on anyone supporting the Kyoto agreement? The part where they have plans to paint them as "out of touch with reality"?

      I know that regardless of what PR campaign they're running, and what kind of propoganda and lies have been injected into the debate, none of that changes the actual scientific facts....

      Yes, let's get back to the scientific facts as you didn't answer me on them when I posed this:
      Do you acknowledge that our climate models are only as good as their predictions of the global energy imbalance? It's basic physics so I don't mean to be insulting, but it seemed you wanted to wave that away before? Following from that, the IPCC has summarized the modellers themselves as observing that they can not hind cast the recent warming without manually correcting unknown parameters like clouds to correct the energy imbalance. This is to be expected, as the uncertainties like clouds have a greater influence on the energy imbalance than the increased CO2 concentrations we're experiencing.

      So far, I only have one point of agreed upon fact with you, and the rest unknown. Here's the basic facts that I claim make it clear that Kyoto is not backed by science, and that to claim otherwise is out of touch with reality:
      -agreed-Climate has warmed ~1C in the past ~100 years, primarily due to human CO2 emissions.
      -?agreed?-Uncertainty of the energy imbalance in climate models is GREATER than the energy imbalance caused by that CO2 increase, and by quite a lot.
      -?agreed?-Kyoto demands signatory's reduce emissions to 18% less than 1990 levels by 2020
      -?agreed?-Historically GDP and emissions follow tightly, so achieving Kyoto reductions amounts to erasing 30 years of GDP growth.

      I haven't heard you disagree with these facts, but that you still seem so shocked by my conclusion based upon them I have to ask if you reject any of them. I must also add I'm getting a bit tired of having to re-reference the IPCC very clearly making my second assertion for me.

    15. Re:Memo [Re: Lock Him Up] by HeckRuler · · Score: 1

      Yes, let's get back to TOTALLY DODGING THE QUESTION:.

      Does the fact that there has been a for-profit campaign at misrepresenting the truth surrounding this topic make you question the path you took to come to the exact outcome they were aiming for?

      Answer it, you bastard.

      If you agree that there is not uncertainty when it comes to measured global warming them I'm good. We have TWO DECADES of observable fact since the IPA put forth this plan. They didn't like where the science was headed so they tried to cast doubt on the whole affair and get the public to distrust SCIENCE. This is some straight-up anti-intellectualism. But if you really squint, they were just betting that, hey, maybe the scientists are wrong. There's a chance. Maybe it'll be ok. And here we are, two decades later, and THE OIL GIANTS WERE WRONG.

      But hey, I like science. I'm asking you to do some introspection and provide insight into how much you've been duped. Least I can do is answer your questions. Alright, lemme dig in.

      Do you acknowledge that our climate models are only as good as their predictions of the global energy imbalance?

      No. That's more like global warming models. The aggregate. The global warming models are only as good as their predictions of global energy imbalance, those two things are practically synonymous. Climate models would be the resulting shifts in.... mostly the water cycle, but also wind patterns, and where storms develop. Ocean currents as well I guess. Global warming and the resulting changes to climate are very much tied to the hip of one another and I don't think you'll argue that global warming leads to climate change. The less certain we are about how hot it's going to get the less we can predict climate changes. I think this actually leans in your favor, but it's good to be precise.

      You've shifted from complaining about the size of the error margins in Top of Atmosphere heat exchange to the IPCC's comments about modelling cloud effects. ...oh, I see where you lifted that from. The IPCC report, page 750, box 9.1. Yeah, it mentions "For instance, maintaining the global mean top of the atmosphere (TOA) energy balance in a simulation of pre-industrial climate is essential to prevent the climate system from drifting to an unrealistic state. " My argument against that would be to READ THE REST OF THE FUCKING INFOBOX. The IPCC itself states about the models: "There is very high confidence that models reproduce the general features of the global-scale annual mean surface temperature increase over the historical period, including the more rapid warming in the second half of the 20th century" IE, they CAN INDEED "hindcast", as you claimed they cannot. On model tuning: "What emerges is that the models that plausibly reproduce the past, universally display significant warming under increasing greenhouse gas concentrations, consistent with our physical understanding."

      as the uncertainties like clouds have a greater influence on the energy imbalance than the increased CO2 concentrations we're experiencing.

      You're talking about the differences between models, which comes from how they model clouds, which the IPCC acknowledges is where most the differences come from.

      You've yet to actually state how much uncertainty is derived from cloud effects, or how much influence from increased CO2. You've given nothing to compare. So let's look. (And we ARE both looking at the same document). That chart on 818 has cloud feedback at 0.3 +-0.7 W m–2 C–1, the most uncertain, the one you're harping about. I don't know, and you've not stated, how much influence increased CO2 concentrations has on global warming. Am I reading this right? Is the effective forcing 3.7 +-0.8 for CO2?... Anyway, you're claiming it's low. Lower than the 0.7 uncertainty we have when it comes to the feedback factor from clouds. If you want to try your hand and questioning science, you

    16. Re:Memo [Re: Lock Him Up] by BCGlorfindel · · Score: 1

      Yes, let's get back to TOTALLY DODGING THE QUESTION: .

      Does the fact that there has been a for-profit campaign at misrepresenting the truth surrounding this topic make you question the path you took to come to the exact outcome they were aiming for?

      Answer it, you bastard.

      If you agree that there is not uncertainty when it comes to measured global warming them I'm good.

      Only because you asked so nice.

      Not for a second.

      Do you acknowledge that our climate models are only as good as their predictions of the global energy imbalance?

      No. That's more like global warming models. The aggregate. The global warming models are only as good as their predictions of global energy imbalance, those two things are practically synonymous. Climate models would be the resulting shifts in.... mostly the water cycle, but also wind patterns, and where storms develop. Ocean currents as well I guess. Global warming and the resulting changes to climate are very much tied to the hip of one another and I don't think you'll argue that global warming leads to climate change. The less certain we are about how hot it's going to get the less we can predict climate changes. I think this actually leans in your favor, but it's good to be precise.

      You've shifted from complaining about the size of the error margins in Top of Atmosphere heat exchange to the IPCC's comments about modelling cloud effects. ...oh, I see where you lifted that from. The IPCC report, page 750, box 9.1. Yeah, it mentions "For instance, maintaining the global mean top of the atmosphere (TOA) energy balance in a simulation of pre-industrial climate is essential to prevent the climate system from drifting to an unrealistic state. " My argument against that would be to READ THE REST OF THE FUCKING INFOBOX. The IPCC itself states about the models: "There is very high confidence that models reproduce the general features of the global-scale annual mean surface temperature increase over the historical period, including the more rapid warming in the second half of the 20th century" IE, they CAN INDEED "hindcast", as you claimed they cannot. On model tuning: "What emerges is that the models that plausibly reproduce the past, universally display significant warming under increasing greenhouse gas concentrations, consistent with our physical understanding."

      ...

      So you start by answering that NO, climate models aren't only as good as their predictions of the global energy imbalance, and then start talking as though global warming models are an entirely different thing. We are talking about climate models ability to hindcast past warming and the predict future warming. Highschool physics already is enough that you should understand the driving of any changes to the global climate over time is entirely coming from the energy coming and out of the system, yet you want talk around that.

      And you prattle on some more continually misunderstanding the heart of things, and for a chuckle, dodging the other simple questions. Did you mean to start your post with talk of dodging questions as a form of irony?

      I'm tired of trying to get you to look at the science of the models only to be met with tirades of how that's just what Big Oil wants you to believe...

      I'm instead going to simply directly quote the peer reviewed science itself, here's the Mauritsen article the IPCC referenced along with a dozen others on model tuning. I'm including excerpts below that I've been paraphrasing to you in short from. It's fairly written in straightforward language and it's unambigious it matches what you won't listen to from me:

      The need to tune models became apparent in the early days of coupled climate modeling, when the top of the atmosphere (TOA) radiative imbalance was so large that

    17. Re:Memo [Re: Lock Him Up] by HeckRuler · · Score: 1

      Does the fact that there has been a for-profit campaign at misrepresenting the truth surrounding this topic make you question the path you took to come to the exact outcome they were aiming for?

      Not for a second.

      Then you're a true believer that won't question the dogma you've been fed. Good luck with that. It's great you're appealing to science. It's a good path. But part of science is re-examining your preconceived notions.

      I started out by pointing out the difference between global warming and climate change. Then I dug into the text you regurgitated from the IPCC report. I found what you were bitching about, and pointed out the text that followed in the very same report. Then I questioned where you actually got the values you were complaining about.

      That's a lovely dump of some paper.

      Now cough it up the actual values. SCIENCE. You've stated:

      Uncertainty of the energy imbalance in climate models is GREATER than the energy imbalance caused by that CO2 increase, and by quite a lot.

      1) What is the uncertainty of the energy imbalance in climate models? (The uncertainty for the factor for cloud feedback was +-0.7 W m–2 C–1)

      2) What is the energy imbalance caused by CO2 increases?

      This is the main thrust of your argument, yet you've HAVEN'T ACTUALLY STATED WHAT THEY ARE. Other than.... "A lot".

    18. Re:Memo [Re: Lock Him Up] by BCGlorfindel · · Score: 1

      Does the fact that there has been a for-profit campaign at misrepresenting the truth surrounding this topic make you question the path you took to come to the exact outcome they were aiming for?

      Not for a second.

      Then you're a true believer that won't question the dogma you've been fed. Good luck with that. It's great you're appealing to science. It's a good path. But part of science is re-examining your preconceived notions.

      sigh, the irony. I've already pointed to the data you ask for later now and that you imply I refuse to. This is the last I'm gonna bother with responding as you seem disinclined to read anything that disagrees with your own preconceived notions.

      I started out by pointing out the difference between global warming and climate change. Then I dug into the text you regurgitated from the IPCC report. I found what you were bitching about, and pointed out the text that followed in the very same report. Then I questioned where you actually got the values you were complaining about.

      That's a lovely dump of some paper.

      Now cough it up the actual values. SCIENCE. You've stated:

      Uncertainty of the energy imbalance in climate models is GREATER than the energy imbalance caused by that CO2 increase, and by quite a lot.

      1) What is the uncertainty of the energy imbalance in climate models? (The uncertainty for the factor for cloud feedback was +-0.7 W m–2 C–1)

      From the IPCC AR5, Chapter 9 on evaluation of climate models. You'll find this on page 763 as I already pointed out.

      Both the CMIP3 and CMIP5 model ensembles reproduce these patterns with considerable fidelity relative to the National Aeronautics and Space Adminsitration (NASA) Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) data sets (Pincus et al., 2008; Wang and Su, 2013). Globally averaged TOA shortwave and longwave components of the radiative fluxes in 12 atmosphere-only versions of the CMIP5 models were within 2.5 W m–2 of the observed values (Wang and Su, 2013). Comparisons against surface components of radiative fluxes show that, on average, the CMIP5 models overestimate the global mean downward all-sky shortwave flux at the surface by 2 ± 6 W m–2 (1 ± 3%) and underestimate the global downward longwave flux by 6 ± 9 W m–2 (2 ± 2%) (Stephens et al., 2012).

      Now, if you care enough, you can go to the previous post and read the excerpts I gave you from Mauritsen on model tuning. From his setup, we know that modellers universally hand tune the TOA imbalance to the satellite record, and the above IPCC ranges are AFTER tuning, so the true uncertainty is going to be higher still as tuning is compensating for unknowns(uncertainty). For the purpose of my claim though, we can even assume ALL the unknowns and uncertainties being tuned for don't exist or cancel themselves out. The inter model average deviation from observation of 2.5 W m-2 is plenty.

      2) What is the energy imbalance caused by CO2 increases?

      This is the main thrust of your argument, yet you've HAVEN'T ACTUALLY STATED WHAT THEY ARE. Other than.... "A lot".

      The energy imbalance causing the recent warming is 0.5-0.7 W m-2. I already again pointed this out up thread referencing NASA's direct satellite observations. You then waved it away as irrelevant to whether or not climate change is happening, despite the fact we never disagreed on that...

      Here's a different reference then for the same from Mauritsen(one of the papers the IPC references) while discussing the tuning process for their model, although one of his references for the imbalance they target is the same team under Hansen at NASA I referen

  31. Re:I call BS by Q-Hack! · · Score: 1

    Since we are going to run out of fossil fuels, we better have to. And if the burning of those last fossil fuels heats our environment so much that we will have a hard time growing food, what is the use of trying to distribute that non-growing food?

    I have seen this argument before. When we do get close to actually running out of fossil fuels (50 years by some estimates), the free market is the best solution for finding answers to the problem. Using the court system to sue oil companies today only slows any progress they will put forth to find a new business model later. If you think companies like Shell or BP are not investing in energy for the future, then you are very naive.

       

    --
    Some days I get the sinking feeling Orwell was an optimist.
  32. carbon ultimately comes from plants by Geoffrey.landis · · Score: 1

    Try again.

    Crops are grown using synthetic fertiliizers that rely on the Haber Bosch process to provide the nitrogen compounds.

    And I never said it wasn't. The question was where does the carbon you exhale come from. The answer is, it originated from plants, who fixed it from the atmosphere.

    It did not originate from the fertilizer. The fertilizer provides nitrogen, not carbon.

    --
    http://www.geoffreylandis.com
    1. Re:carbon ultimately comes from plants by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

      You're claiming that if a person consumes sodium bicarbonate, the carbon therein was necessarily once part of a plant. Not true.

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    2. Re:carbon ultimately comes from plants by Crashmarik · · Score: 1

      / facepalm

      Yes because all the steps and processes needed to make carbon something edible don't count. You might as well ignore the CO2 released from cooking food.

    3. Re:carbon ultimately comes from plants by sdinfoserv · · Score: 1

      carbon is an element. It does not "come from" plants but rather from stars, like most other elements. Carbon Dioxide is a compound product of respiration.

    4. Re:carbon ultimately comes from plants by iive · · Score: 1

      The argument is that if you release CO2 that has been (recently) captured from the atmosphere you are not increasing the carbon in active circulation, thus not breaking the existing balance.

      The current problem with Global Warming / Climate Change is the increase of CO2 in the atmosphere due to the fact that a lot of fossil carbon is been released as gas in the atmosphere (faster than it can be captured by plants). That fossil carbon has been turned into solid or liquid form eons ago and has remained inert, burred deep underground.

      So the carbon in plants comes from the atmosphere and it can safely be ignored when it goes back into the atmosphere. The carbon in animals comes from other animals or plants.

      The plants can grow without synthetic fertilizers and food can be processed transported without burning fossil fuel.!!

      So taxing/limiting the exhaling of CO2 is absurd and won't change anything.
      Taxing transportation that uses fossil fuel might lead to use of cleaner solutions, like fully electric trains/trucks, powered by renewable or nuclear power. Fertilizer production could also use clean energy sources, methane from organic sources or another source of Hydrogen.

    5. Re:carbon ultimately comes from plants by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 1

      All sodium biocarbonate comes from microorganisms, which ate plants. Can't get around it.

      --
      SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
    6. Re:carbon ultimately comes from plants by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 1

      Of course that so-called "fossil carbon" was mainly forest a few thousand, or hundred thousand, years ago, and thus plants.

      --
      SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
  33. Not only oil companies by techsparrow · · Score: 2

    Not only oil companies are liable for Earth's changing environment but thermal power generating units are also responsible. Attention must be paid to nuclear power plants. It has 100,000 times the energy density of coal, so that even a small plant would be much more efficient than huge, noisy dams and wind farms, which spoil the landscape.Water, wind, and solar power cannot reliably provide energy on the scale required for a modern economy. One kilogram (2.2 pounds) of water behind a dam that is 100 metres (328 feet) high can provide just 1/3,600 kilowatt hours of energy. One kilogram of coal, by contrast, provides about 7 kWh of energy — 20,000 times more. Renewable energy is best for peak load while nuclear power is very much required as a base load plant. https://electricalbaba.com/loa...

    1. Re:Not only oil companies by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Water, wind, and solar power cannot reliably provide energy on the scale required for a modern economy.

      [Citation needed]

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  34. Re:Lock Him Up by squiggleslash · · Score: 2

    Alsup is actually one of the most respected, non-corporate, judges in the US at the moment, and has a tendency to end up with the more difficult cases. He most certainly does seek the input of experts, and even - in the Oracle vs Google case, for example - took the effort to learn programming so he'd have a better understanding of the case.

    Your criticisms are severely misplaced. I'd like to find some way to hold the fossil fuel industry to account too, but if Alsup of all people is saying this path is a no-go, then we should find alternatives.

    --
    You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
  35. Re: Lock Him Up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Why can't both be true?

  36. Re:Lock Him Up by thegarbz · · Score: 1

    So to be clear regardless if you think the judge actually is capable of doing his job, the fact he correctly states that it's the government's job to determine policy makes him in the pocket of an oil company or Russia?

    Do you have a newsletter I could subscribe to?

    One more example of why judges should be required to accept the input of nonlegals like, you know, scientists and software professionals.

    So as a matter of interest, the fact that the judge clearly acknowledged the link between global warming and CO2 which is the only nonlegal aspect of this case, what would have changed? Do you think the presence of a scientists telling the judge something he already acknowledged suddenly changes the fundamental way our governments are setup?

    I have an idea, maybe you should leave legal decisions to the legals.

  37. Re:Let's also sue everyone who uses oil! by micahraleigh · · Score: 1

    I don't know what is going on ... but SOMEONE owes me a million dollars !!

  38. Re:I call BS by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 2

    I'm betting you wouldn't have the guts to tell someone living in the poorest parts of Africa or Asia that the food they have to scramble to get to literally keep their kids from starving to death will cost twice as much because you want to virtue signal and outlaw the use of fossil fuels.

    I'm betting they do. How many people die from Malaria in Africa? That's not stopping many from trying to ban DDT worldwide.

  39. My favourite comment from the nutjobs by thegarbz · · Score: 1, Informative

    The cities attorney was quoted as saying:
    "Our litigation forced a public court proceeding on climate science, and now these companies can no longer deny it is real and valid."

    I actually wonder who he's referring to. BP a major investor in Wind power in the USA, who's CEO is pushing for a price to be put on carbon? Royal Dutch Shell a major investor in electric charging infrastructure? Chevron with their work on Solar power? Conoco Phillips who have published on their homepage: "We recognize that human activity, including the burning of fossil fuels, is contributing to increased concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere that can lead to adverse changes in global climate.". Or maybe Exxon who have published a page dedicated to the very art of not denying climate change is real and valid http://corporate.exxonmobil.co....

    Congratulations San Francisco! What a .... errr ... win?
    Now can we please eliminate the San Francisco city attorney who is constantly expelling CO2 while contributing nothing at all of value to society.

    Source:
    https://www.ecowatch.com/clima...

  40. Re: I call BS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Elon is about to display his new lithium powered AI driven gurneys in a few weeks I heard. Medicare funding will be diverted just a wee bit into this new ground breaking technology.

  41. Re:Food ultimately comes from plants by d0rp · · Score: 1

    The main issue is that all of this carbon has been slowly trapped in the earth over the last hundreds of millions of years, until we started releasing it at an alarming rate within the last few hundred years. That's obviously going to have a significant affect on the environment.

    This is a fairly long read, but worth it. At least checkout "The Story of Energy" section.

  42. Re:Food ultimately comes from plants by aevan · · Score: 1

    Fossil fuels... what were fossils again?

  43. Re:I call BS by Alypius · · Score: 1

    genocide might be required to make the math work.

    Eggs, omelet, repeat as necessary.

  44. If this was brought up decades ago.. by nucrash · · Score: 1

    If Big Oil had shifted their focus decades ago to renewable energy, who knows how much further we would be advanced on that subject. Perhaps we would have only pushed back global warming a few years, perhaps decades. We will never new because Oil companies would rather use that information for increasing the height of their oil rigs and protect their investment.

    --
    Place something witty here
    1. Re:If this was brought up decades ago.. by prisoner-of-enigma · · Score: 1

      If Big Oil had shifted their focus decades ago to renewable energy...

      Speaking as someone who was alive decades ago I can state with confidence the very idea of shifting to renewables back then was impossibly impractical. Solar technology was incredibly inefficient and extremely expensive. Battery technology (largely lead-acid) was environmentally harmful and inefficient. Wind power was impractical as materials technology for light, strong wind turbines was not available.

      You seem to think the only reason none of this came to pass "decades ago" was because of some evil plot. You might as well complain about the 18th century not have carbon fiber composite wind turbines, lithium-ion batteries, and efficient solar cells! Only in the last decade or so have all these technologies either been developed or become affordable alternatives.

      --
      In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  45. I wish..... by Kernel+Kurtz · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    I could just wave a magic wand and remove anything and everything derived from fossil fuels from protester's lives. They would be so fucked, it would be hilarious to watch. And many of them appear too stupid to even know it.

    1. Re:I wish..... by Fly+Swatter · · Score: 1

      No one wants to see that, their first order of business would be to find some fig leaves.

  46. Re:Food ultimately comes from plants by tkotz · · Score: 1

    All the carbon containing fossil fuels were also technically produced from CO2 captured by photosynthesis.
    Filthy plants polluting the world with their complex carbon chains and corrosive O2.

  47. Youa re confusing two thing by aepervius · · Score: 1

    You are confusing the CO2 required to produce food, and the CO2 we exhale. Let us ignore the CO2 produced by food. We as human , do not exhale more CO2 than what we use as energy (actually CO2, H2O and various other elements through urine). If we exhaled MORE than we consumed , we would *loss weight*. If we exhaled less than we consume we *gain weight*. It is a simple fact that for a normal human in homeostase and not gaining/losing weight (let us ignore exchanging muscle for fat and vice versa - so a first approximation), what we consume is what we exhale. As such the GP is right, and not anti science, we are not exhaling more CO2 than we consume. Now the food we produce generate different amount of CO2 depending on what is produced, how it is transported and how it is prepared, but that is different than pretending human would be taxed on their BREATH what the OP was pretending would happen.

    --
    C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
    visit randi.org
  48. Re:Food ultimately comes from plants by winse · · Score: 1

    I say free the trapped CO2 - For a warm and verdant future. Our planet has definitely seen higher CO2 levels than humans have recently experienced. It's called a greenhouse gas because it is added to greenhouses in order for plants to thrive. If you love trees you'll join my movement

    --
    this sig is deprecated
  49. Venus by Tenebrousedge · · Score: 1

    Venus begs to differ. Or are you suggesting that CO2 has no effect at all in the atmosphere?

    --
    Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
    1. Re:Venus by prisoner-of-enigma · · Score: 1

      Venus begs to differ. Or are you suggesting that CO2 has no effect at all in the atmosphere?

      Mars, which is amazingly cold despite an atmosphere of nearly pure CO2, begs to differ.

      See, this is the problem with blaming climate variations on one thing. Climate is a ridiculously complex system dependent upon thousands of inputs and their attendant thousands of feedback and self-dampening mechanisms. The permutations are staggering and that's only considering the variables we know of. Climate science is not a "we know all there is to know" science at this point. We know a lot but we're discovering more every day. Some of those discoveries reinforce our previous beliefs. Some contradict them in surprising ways.

      Is CO2 a greenhouse gas? Absolutely. Does that mean our warming must be due to CO2 increases and nothing else of significance? Only a fool would make such an argument when our understanding of climate is rudimentary at best.

      What argument were you making again?

      --
      In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
    2. Re:Venus by Tenebrousedge · · Score: 1

      It's always funny when one of you gets up on your hind legs and pretends to know something about this subject. The Earth is a very complex system, but take a look at it from 200km altitude in the IR band, and a very simple picture emerges. Either CO2 is a greenhouse gas, and increasing the concentration must raise the global temperature, or you have to find a new way to transfer heat to space and explain why this was not previously observed and explain why the observed temperatures are increasing anyway. Then explain why this phenomenon is also not observed in the atmospheres of Mars, Venus, or the Sun.

      The theory of AGW was first published in 1896; it's older and better-established than Relativity. It's nice that you have some vague mudslinging to display, but I think that if you want to claim some vast ignorance of climate science, you should probably speak only for yourself.

      --
      Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
    3. Re:Venus by prisoner-of-enigma · · Score: 1

      It's always funny when one of you gets up on your hind legs and pretends to know something about this subject.

      It's always funny when one of you resorts to ad hominem attacks and smug arrogance instead of acknowledging the validity of a statement. The climate is not a simple picture where CO2 is the end-all, be-all of global warming. Yes, additional CO2 must raise global temps, but what percentage of the total increase? To hear you tell it, it's 100% responsible which is (and I'm being charitable here) an uninformed viewpoint. Many things contribute to global temperature changes besides just CO2. For example, water vapor contributes much more to capturing IR than CO2. Beyond CO2 there are many other things -- both natural and man-made -- which have GW potentials higher than CO2. If any of these other variables have GW potential they must also raise global temps. How much? That's a question no climatologist has answered -- or is likely to answer -- with specificity due to the incomplete understanding of how all this interacts. All you can confidently say -- and with which I will not argue -- is "these things are greenhouse gases and therefore must contribute a non-zero effect to overall global temperature in some way."

      The argument is not whether CO2 contributes to GW; CO2 is a greenhouse gas which by definition means it's contributing. How much it's contributing and whether or not curbing additional CO2 output will have enough of a positive climate effect to offset the huge economic, political, and cultural effects of CO2 output reductions is an open question that has yet to be answered in any definitive way. There are models, predictions, and suppositions but they are all guesses, all necessarily imprecise due to our lack of full understanding of climate. You would prefer we simplify things down to "CO2 is the sole culprit" which, given the evidence it cannot possibly be the sole culprit, demonstrates this is more of an ideology to you than a science. Your condescension towards anyone who doesn't worship at your altar speaks volumes about your adherence to any kind of scientific method where questions are welcome and data are expected to be verifiable and replicatable.

      --
      In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
    4. Re:Venus by Tenebrousedge · · Score: 1

      Doubling CO2 raises the temperature of the Earth by 3.7 W/m^2, or about one degree C. Water vapor is, as you say, not expected to be a moderating influence. I'm sure you've invented wonderful reasons to not believe in climate sensitivity estimates. You are an ignorant misanthrope, and a liar.

      --
      Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
    5. Re:Venus by prisoner-of-enigma · · Score: 1

      Doubling CO2 raises the temperature of the Earth by 3.7 W/m^2, or about one degree C.

      This assumes nothing else changes in the system. The actual warming could be higher. It could also be lower. You don't bother to address anything except CO2, showing your blindness to the overall complexity of the entire system acting on various feedback and/or self-dampening mechanisms.

      I'm sure you've invented wonderful reasons to not believe in climate sensitivity estimates.

      Who says I don't believe in the estimates? I do. I also believe they're incomplete and, due to that, absolute conclusions like what you're drawing cannot be relied upon. The actual warming could be higher, spot on, or lower. You can't say because neither you nor anyone else fully understands all the mechanisms. As a result you resort to oversimplifications such as "Doubling CO2 raises the temperature of the Earth by 3.7 W/m^2" when such a thing can only be true if no other variables change. Yet I know -- and I assume you also know -- other variables do change, both independently and in response to the increased CO2. Will these other changes force higher temps? Lower temps? No net change? You won't say. CO2 is your exclusive boogeyman simply because you say so and demand everyone else agree or be branded a heretic.

      Get this through that hardened cranium of yours: no one is arguing the climate isn't warming. Neither are they arguing CO2 isn't contributing. Basic physics and chemistry prove both statements. You choose to blame CO2, only CO2, and claim the only remediation possible is drastic cuts in CO2. I respond by saying this is an oversimplification -- which it most obviously is since you neglect any one of a thousand other factors -- and you get all huffy about it like I'm claiming the Earth is flat. Such a thin skin as yours usually hides an unsound argument, one you don't wish questioned. That is antithetical to good science and if you had any respect for science you'd know that.

      And all this still begs and even bigger question: is the warming necessarily a bad thing overall for the global population? I'm not arguing it is or isn't. I'm saying nobody seems to care about the answer. The Earth has been both hotter and cooler than its current state over geological timelines. Who are we to say the "proper" temperature isn't higher? Lower? Instead we get people like you who sidestep the question and demand the climate stay static for whatever we deem ideal for the late 19th century. Climate laughs at you, for climate has always changed and will always change, at least until we develop the technology to make it stop changing. Are we contributing to that change? Obviously a single human being exhaling CO2 contributes to that change so the question is silly. The real question is "are we contributing measurably and negatively to that change?" That's the question you won't answer with any specificity because you lack the means to do so. Note I'm not saying we are or are not contributing "measurably and negatively". Instead I'm saying you cannot make the broad-yet-seemingly-specific statements you're making and expect them to be swallowed like a congregation listening to preachers quoting scripture.

      You are an ignorant misanthrope, and a liar.

      Yours must be a poor argument when you must resort to more ad hominem attacks instead of actually defending your assertion. For the record, please point out exactly where I am "a liar" in any of my prior statements. Go ahead. I'll wait.

      --
      In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
    6. Re:Venus by Tenebrousedge · · Score: 1

      No, that figure is correct unless thermodynamics is wrong. There is no effect which can reduce the warming below that threshold unless you find a new way to radiate energy to space. You talk about missing phenomena, but you have no real idea of the mechanism, so you don't actually know enough to suggest a plausible criticism or alternative. Suggesting that you know anything about this subject is therefore rather completely dishonest..Thanks for playing, have a nice day.

      --
      Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
  50. Re:you're NOWHERE NEAR "there" by crow · · Score: 1

    So if by "almost" there I mean 80%, I can ignore plastics completely, as that's only 4% of oil. But you're right when it comes to oil used for other things besides my cars. 70% of US oil consumption is for transportation, and 65% of that is personal vehicles.

    So switching to EVs for personal transport accounts for about 45% of oil use. Since we have solar, I would say we can safely say we've fossil fuel consumption on our behalf by over 50%. Yes, that's not "almost" there, but it's a very sizable dent.

    If everyone reached for the low hanging fruit, we would be in much better shape.

  51. not just the lengths of the roads by CaffeinatedBacon · · Score: 1

    You don't think maintenance of roads may have something to do with the amount and type of traffic riding on those roads...
    Or do you think places just repave all the roads every year?

    1. Re:not just the lengths of the roads by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

      Oh, I know it has a lot to do with the traffic - and type of traffic - on a road! The point is, that the Federal Government makes more of fuel taxes than it spends on roads. And at least in the State of California they have enough road revenue to repave literally 10% of all State and local roads, every year. And I know they don't do anywhere NEAR that amount of repaving, or even repairing. Gov't makes plenty on fuel taxes - they just choose to spend it on non-road expenses.

      --
      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
    2. Re: not just the lengths of the roads by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

      California raising taxes further to deal with a $52 billion projected backlog of road repairs. I guess having funds to repair 10% of all roads per year isn't enough; we need to raise more funds to deal with the issue - which CA DOT says is 16% of all roads. So somehow funding isn't available to deal with a total 16% backlog (and there is no way in hell that CA DOT is redoing 10% of the roads in California, just drive around and see for yourself).

      --
      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
    3. Re: not just the lengths of the roads by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

      Around where I live, that's about all we get. You don't know any more yourself... Done with ACs here, I broke my own rule, I shouldn't have...

      --
      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
    4. Re:not just the lengths of the roads by CaffeinatedBacon · · Score: 1

      And how much does everything else cost? You keep claiming they could replace 10%, but you haven't shown how much it costs to maintain the current roads. More than that? Less than that? How much more or less? You have no idea so you keep to your irrelevant nonsense instead.

  52. What about the people?! by ripvlan · · Score: 1

    What about all of those people who were complicit in this environmental crime? What of those of who had dirty 2-cycle lawnmowers and big gas guzzling cars, and who heat our homes using propane, NG, coal, and wood?

    What about the basic "that's how civilization works" ?! We'll learn and change as a civilization - no single company did this. We were all complicit together.

    Now - go recycle those soda can's boys and girls.

    And - stop using plastic gosh darn-it.

    1. Re:What about the people?! by ripvlan · · Score: 1

      oh - and I forgot about the Ozone. All of those spray cans with ozone depleting chemicals in them. Or PCBs in the transformers. Or that chemical they used to put in gasoline that can't be removed from the ground water, or the chemical spills in Woburn MA? Open burning of trash, the collection of gold from electronics?!

      There are a lot of things that seemed like a good idea at the time.

  53. Leftists SHOULD Sued For Climate Change Costs by sproketboy · · Score: 1

    The fucking moron environmentalists killed the nuclear energy program - where we wound't have had this issue in the first place.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

  54. Re:Food ultimately comes from plants by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    And an explosion of human life was the result.

    The Green Revolution simply postponed starvation events, and made them bigger because populations grew before they occurred. You get higher yields with intensive farming of guilds than by using synthetic fertilizers on monocultures. And now that the efficacy of synthetic pesticides is waning, farming monocultures is becoming inviable. In fact, planting monocultures literally produces pest swarms (by providing them with abundant food) and those swarms then move on to other fields and decimate them, too. Everything about green revolution farming is wrongheaded, because it is destructive to the biosphere and the land's long-term ability to produce food.

    TL;DR: The result was (and will continue to be) larger starvation events.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  55. Many sources [Re:Memo [Re: Lock Him Up]] by XXongo · · Score: 3, Informative

    Citing inside climate news is like citing the daily mail.

    There's any number of sites that have the memo on them. I cited those two because they have the actual scan of the memo on them, not merely the text file, and added the New York Times article, as a mainstream media source, but if you don't like those, I can send you a few dozen other links to the file. Or you could just google it.

    By the way, everything you're accusing Exxon of is actually what a group of environmentalists and plaintiff's lawyers decided to do,

    I gave a citation and links to three different sources. Where is yours?

    Ah, you don't have a citation, you're making that up. Right. That's a trick right out of Göbbels, that "the cleverest trick used in propaganda" is to accuse your enemies of what you yourself are doing.

    with funding by various Rockefeller foundations (among others). The main people that would benefit from this case being successful would be the class action attorneys, who would stand to make hundreds of millions if not billions.

    Have you fully thought about the fact that the fossil fuel industry is a trillion dollar industry? Mere "hundreds of millions" is less than penny ante to them.

    Who is more likely to fund a campaign, an industry that has a trillion dollars at stake, or some random collection of lawyers who say wait, maybe if we believe the science, some time in the far distant future some laws might or might not get written that might or might not allow a new grounds for lawsuit? Oh, wait, we know the answer to that, because we already have the American Petroleum Institute memo laying out their campaign and asking for 2 million dollars in funding... for the first year.

    Yes, that's right-- the API considered this so important that they could ask fossil fuel companies to contribute a whopping 0.0002% of their cash flow to deal with it.

  56. Re:Food ultimately comes from plants by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 1

    Petroleum comes from plants. Over a few thousand years (we used to think millions, but it's pretty easy to show that decomposition of plants under pressure happens much, much quicker).

    All the carbon that is released from petroleum, originally came from the atmospheric carbon soaked up by plants.

    --
    SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
  57. Re:Food ultimately comes from plants by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 1

    And all the oil used- came from plants.

    --
    SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
  58. Re:I call BS by catprog · · Score: 1

    I'm betting you wouldn't have the guts to tell someone living in the poorest parts of Africa or Asia that the food they have to scramble to get to literally keep their kids from starving to death will cost twice as much because you want to virtue signal and outlaw the use of fossil fuels.

    I'm betting they do. How many people die from Malaria in Africa? That's not stopping many from trying to ban DDT worldwide.

    Actually the ban is to keep it effective. Widespread DDT use = Mosquitoes that are not effected by DDT.

    --
    My Transformation Website
    Kindle Books http://www.catprog.org/rev
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  59. Re: Food ultimately comes from plants by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 1

    They've found oil underneath forests in Mexico. And there is evidence that when you find oil underneath plant life, those oil fields naturally replenish themselves.

    --
    SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
  60. Re: Food ultimately comes from plants by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 1

    http://www.rense.com/general63/refil.htm

    I don't know why that link didn't post

    --
    SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
  61. Carboniferous was a long time ago by Geoffrey.landis · · Score: 1

    Of course that so-called "fossil carbon" was mainly forest a few thousand, or hundred thousand, years ago, and thus plants.

    Uh, I believe you mean a few hundred million years ago.

    A hundred thousand years is mere a blink of an eye in geologic time.

    --
    http://www.geoffreylandis.com
    1. Re:Carboniferous was a long time ago by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 1

      There are shallow pools of oil in the forests of the Yucatan and tar pits in Los Angeles that are much, much younger than that.

      There are coal pits in the Pacific Northwest forests that are likely less than 500 years old.

      Not all "Fossil fuels" come from the Carboniferous era.

      --
      SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
    2. Re:Carboniferous was a long time ago by Geoffrey.landis · · Score: 1

      The coal we burn comes from hundreds of millions of years ago.

      Yes, there are some minor seams that are later-- fossil fuel formation doesn't stop. But, no, most fossil fuels are hundreds of millions of years old. The US coal comes mostly from Wyoming (sorry, West Virginia miners, but it's true-- they're the ones that really put you out of work). Those are Cretaceous to early Tertiary: between 50 and 130 million years old-- which is young, as coal deposits go. Powder River basin is as late as early Eocene-- but that's still not "a few thousand" years old.

      --
      http://www.geoffreylandis.com
    3. Re:Carboniferous was a long time ago by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 1

      "The coal we burn comes from hundreds of millions of years ago."

      Not all of it. Like I said, dig down about 20 feet in any given forest, you'll find coal. Yes, most of the coal that enters the market comes from those Wyoming mines right now, but that isn't all the coal there is or ever will be.

      --
      SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
    4. Re:Carboniferous was a long time ago by Geoffrey.landis · · Score: 1

      "The coal we burn comes from hundreds of millions of years ago."

      Not all of it. Like I said, dig down about 20 feet in any given forest, you'll find coal.

      No, you won't. You might get peat, which can also be burned, but no, there isn't coal under every forest. If there were, coal mines wouldn't exist, and back in the middle ages the profession of charcoal burner would never have existed.

      --
      http://www.geoffreylandis.com
    5. Re:Carboniferous was a long time ago by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 1

      Peat is a form of coal. And charcoal burners create charcoal out of wood from above the ground.

      --
      SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
    6. Re:Carboniferous was a long time ago by Geoffrey.landis · · Score: 1

      Peat is a form of coal. And charcoal burners create charcoal out of wood from above the ground.

      Ah. If you think peat is a form of coal, your previous posts are now understandable.

      --
      http://www.geoffreylandis.com
  62. Re:Food ultimately comes from plants by RockDoctor · · Score: 1

    Crops are grown using synthetic fertiliizers that rely on the Haber Bosch process to provide the nitrogen compounds.

    And the potassium and phosphorus (the other members of the "big three" of fertilizer science) come from ... unicorn farts? Or, are they mined? Out of holes in the ground? Just possibly.

    Have you read a review of K and P resources recently? It's not pretty reading. Particularly if you've got children.

    --
    Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
  63. Re:Food ultimately comes from plants by Crashmarik · · Score: 1

    Very true. Most people don't realize how industrial a process farming has become, and how extractive it is.

  64. Two quick clarifications by BCGlorfindel · · Score: 1

    First, I realize my quoting your question left it ambigiois what I was answering no to.

    No, Iâ(TM)m not bothered or worried in the least whether or not (mis)information campaigns do or do not align with the conclusions I find in peer reviewed journal articles. If the facts are soundly reasoned by relevant experts it certainly shouldnâ(TM)t matter to anyone valuing the scientific method.

    Regarding observed warming for the last 100 years, Iâ(TM)ve already stated many times that there is no uncertainty there at all.

    I also realize in reviewing the paragraphs I quoted I missed inserting ... between each, the Italicized paragraphs in the previous post do not necessarily follow immediately after one another in the journal article referenced and apologies that the layout unintenionally gives that appearance.