the myth of personal responsibility masks the nihilistic reality of it all
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One of the most memorable, effective, and downright evil ads I can remember was the one with black balloons coming out of peoples appliances to represent the emissions they were causing.
Spectacular piece of morally bankrupt propaganda from the fossil fuel energy industry. Pretends to be concerned and helpful about global warming , but in reality it was firstly painting the problem as the result of individual choice rather than large-scale policy decisions, and secondly implanting the suggestion that action on climate change was bound to be enormously disruptive, impractical, and annoying. Its main suggestion was to basically turn everything off at the wall rather than the switch when you stopped using it, which absolutely nobody is ever going to do because itās a pain in the arse, and which is going to save infinitesimal amounts of power anyway. Quite the coal industryās Triumph of the Will moment.
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That is a myth. Politicians generally make the decision that their Voters want, unless they are a real Leader who believes in themselves and are prepared to push through.
In our democracy, a Prime Minister has effectively two years to enact change and if they cannot get a majority in the Senate then change is more difficult.
Blaming Big Business, like Oil and Tobacco is just a lame excuse, and it just exonerates all Voters from responsibility. Gina, Twiggy etc are influential, but all those who vote have one vote and if they cannot think for themselves to do the best for our Nation, itās children and the future, then that is on them.
Federally in my voting lifetime, the only progressive Leader was Gough and he failed as well.
So Mr Sniggles, continue to blame this āRuling Classā or take responsibility.
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Comrade Fox, thereās no need for hostility.
I have taken responsibility. I walk or use PT whenever feasible, Iāve banned certain brands and products from my house much to the chagrin of my wife, Iāve made every reasonable climate-friendly dietary choice possible, every election Iāve voted in (beginning with Kevin07) Iāve done so with the climate as my highest priority, across several levels of government in two countries.
The reality is that a lifetime of buying local, avoiding personal car use and arguing with strangers on the internet is barely enough to offset a private jet trip from John Wayne to Van Nuys.
You expect more unity from voters on this issue than the senate. This will never be the case. Even considering the worse case scenario, our leaders should have the courage to make these decisions regardless of public opinion. Public opinion is malleable, and consent can be manufactured. If it wasnāt, Gina et al wouldnāt invest billions into shaping it. More people listen to charlatans like Jordan Peterson than they do accomplished scientists like James Hansen, and thatās because the former receives funding from billionaires to get his voice heard. In the end, everyone suffers for it.
There was no voter will at play when Honest John dishonestly neutered Kyoto with no intention of ever signing it.
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Donāt disagree, but you miss my point, which probably was not put very well.
I firmly believe Government does reflect the will of the people in a democracy. So while criticism of Government is always valid, the majority of people hence numbers in our Senate do not put environmental matters and climate change at the forefront.
No doubt in my mind after living with the Greens in Politics since they began, that they would be a stronger Party electorally if they only stood for Environmental Policy change. It is a massive dilemma for them as involvement in a wide range of policy is a progressive action for them, but while a majority of people have do care about environmental issues and believe our climate is changing, the so-called radical policy of the Greens, turns off people who vote Labor and Liberals and now Teal.
A strong majority of Australians, typically around 70-75% accept that climate change is real, but their choice of Government does not reflect the need for action.
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The Mediterranean is experiencing water temperatures 7.7 degrees above average. Thatās 9 standard deviations above the mean. For perspective, a peak of 5 standard deviations above the mean is a once in several thousand years scenario. And we just hit 9.
Weāre in utterly uncharted territory here, ecologically. This will just flat-out kill a huge proportion of the Medās marine life, from top to bottom. And then a whole lot of the rest will die as food chains shatter and water plants disappear. The place could be functionally a biological desert after this.
So, we should dam the Straights of Gibraltar, and turn the med into a giant farming plain, ala The Man in the High Castle?
I should remember, but do they address how to get the salt out?
Ooh.
Not discounting your post but I have swum a lot in Mediterranean at various locations and it varies greatly.
Near Malta , July averages are around 25 but have been 28. It is 27 today.
I just checked another of my favourite spots in Spain near Barcelona
Water temperature in Sitges today is 28.2Ā°C. Based on our historical data over a period of ten years, the warmest water in this day in the Balearic Seanear Sitges was recorded in 2015 and was 26.7Ā°C, and the coldest was recorded in 2014 at 22.9Ā°C. Sea water temperature in Sitges is expected to drop to 25.3Ā°C in the next 10 days. July average water temperature in Sitges is 25.1Ā°C, the minimum temperature is 22Ā°C, and the maximum is 28.2Ā°C.
Current conditions:
I posted this a few months ago and am wondering if these regulations are shifting the dial already.
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Rotate 45o and crop: looks like Europe is trying to look like an Essendon jumper.
Thatās admirable.
Unfortunately, the med may get Essingtoned.
CBC interview with David Suzuki. He is always worth listening to, imo.
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Climate Holy Grail - āNiā we prefer a shrubbery
Solar and wind are cheap but intermittent, relying on the sun shining and the wind blowing. Finding a so-called baseload source of clean energy that can support them, one that can turn on with the flick of a switch and run all the time, is a climate holy grail ā especially as electricity demand soars, driven by AI and data centers
Next-gen geothermal has the potential to meet global electricity demand 140 times over, according to the International Energy Agency.
Sounds great ā¦ if it can be productionised and deployed at mass scale within the next 10 years. Which it canāt, so from a climate point of view itās functionally useless.
Weāre in the desperate five-alarm sirens blaring critical stages of an emergency right now, we are clinging onto our last despairing hope of a habitable planet by our final fingernail. We need to act very very fast and at gigantic scale right now. Putting our hopes in far-future infancy-level high tech is functionally identical to continuing to burn coal. Transition as fast as possible is the only thing that matters now. We canāt afford to be distracted or let a hypothetical future perfect become the enemy of the good. And the distant mirages of this sort of stuff WILL be weaponised by the usual suspects whoāll glom onto any excuse to avoid winding down carbon emitting generation capacity right now.
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