161–170 of 180 posts
In my city, the Christmas tree is flown in by helicopter each Christmas… because we have too much money I guess? It would totally fit by other means (truck, crane, however the rest of the world does it) but no we have to have this gigantic tree cut down, helicoptered in, and disposed of a month later. Infuriating.
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There was a nice comic that expressed things in terms of horse-power or "invisible slaves" working for you. When your enjoyment requires the equivalent of thousands working for you, and it is from a resource that is finite and non-renewable, then it is probably wasteful. Found it: https://www.stuartmcmillen.com/comic/energy-slaves/
Then it's a beautiful thing that modern life allows even those of humble means to enjoy the comforts for which kings of old would have needed thousands of actual slaves. Every resource is finite and non-renewable considering even the sun will go out at some point. Let's not bemoan the use of fossil-sourced energy until the point we level up in technology and can master less polluting sources. After all, fossil fuels…
That remains to be seen.
And Big Oil worked very hard for decades at smothering any effort to develop less polluting alternative energy sources. They’re still doing it by suing the EU for mandating laws to reduce fossil fuel usage.
Here is a ludicrous futurist thought experiment:
1) If the slopes could be covered in a building, similar to this: https://th-thumbnailer.cdn-si-edu.com/u-PEeOAFNhog5RDbemURPe...
2) If that building were highly insulated, but with the option to rapidly circulate outside air inside it (for use at night time, when the weather is colder).
3) If we could invent some new meta-material glass that allows infrared light to pass through it, then we could actually make this out of glass and still have the wonderful views on the mountain without incurring a huge greenhouse effect penalty for the transparency. In fact, if the glass is totally transparent to infrared and visible light LEAVING the covered slops, but slightly tinted for any light entering, then it would naturally be net cooler than the outside.
4) if the additional cooling required is powered by solar and wind.
5) Final ridiculous addition: Make these double paned glass roofs retractable so when real snow happens or the weather is cold enough, it is still outdoors.
Having the ability to still ski on the real slopes all year long would be great.
[1] https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/eight-worlds-coolest-i...
HN: proudly carrying the torch of the late, great Twitter in turning molehills into blazing novas of righteous outrage. One helicopter. *One*.
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I am generally not inclined to engage with comments like this, but in this case I will: I am a pragmatist and not an absolutist, stopping all tourism is obviously a non-starter, so are other things that would be high impact like making everyone be vegan or banning gasoline outright. Burning tons of fuel to haul snow to a place that no longer gets enough snow because of how much fuel we've burned is, in my opinion...…
If I were in charge of a ski resort anywhere in the world (and I am not suggesting that I should be), I'd be spending most of my working time trying to come up with a radical transition plan, to an industry with a viable future. I'm not sure if there's much you can do with a mountain that's covered in mud instead of snow though.
Lift serviced downhill mountain biking being the obvious choice. Many resorts already do a brisk summer business - snow mass and telluride. For instance… Zermatt…
I wonder if there is an environmentally sustainable solution to converting established ski resorts that become unviable due to climate change into indoor ski resorts. Indoor ski resorts are already a thing but generally they suck[1] Here is a ludicrous futurist thought experiment: 1) If the slopes could be covered in a building, similar to this: https://th-thumbnailer.cdn-si-edu.com/u-PEeOAFNhog5RDbemURPe... 2) If th…
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You realize there are entire towns and villages whose lives depend on this tourism, right? I'm not saying it's a perfect solution to fly snow in, but you can't discount the impact this has on the population if the resorts close down.
The survival of a few villages is an issue that pales in comparison to the issue of climate change.
Answering questions like "what should people do instead?" is important to figuring out how we can move away from things that damage the climate. If you just tell people "your life and livelihood isn't as important as X" isn't going to get that person to agree with you.
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This was 1 chopper doing private property management to increase its value, yet outrage here resembles end of world... lets be a bit smarter. Ie one can save 1000x more energy every year to resettle people from places like Phoenix to location where AC nor heating is not needed. We can sit all day coming up with fantasies what to ban to cut down energy consumption
Which places in the USA don't need AC nor heating? How much would it cost to resettle everyone in Phoenix?
