161–170 of 400 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The degree to which we’ve been blessed with resources and opportunity to do the right thing (and have consistently chosen to do the dumb thing) never fails to amaze me. Infinite power from the sky that’s cheaper than fossil fuels; vast reserves of lithium to help oil-producing nations smoothly transition us away from oil; huge and unusually-enriched Uranium deposits we could use to build power (but instead used to bu…
Nah the garden of eden comes from an extinction event where almost all humans were wiped out. The only survivors were trapped in a small piece of fertile land at the equator and everything else was solid ice. It would be easy to see that garden as a gift from god after you’ve seen everyone else freeze to death. Then you just need a reason to leave e.g overhunting or overpopulation or some dispute. Then the myth would…
> "Paleoclimate and archaeological evidence tells us that, 11,000-5,000 years ago, the Earth's slow orbital 'wobble' transformed today's Sahara desert to a land covered with vegetation and lakes."
https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/green-saha...
If you're referencing the likely near-extinction of humans ~74,000 years ago, it's not clear anyone in the relatively recent past would have remembered that:
Earlier quoted context omitted.
1,370 watts per square meter isn't what I'd call diffuse. We're just not good at harvesting it.
A typical nuclear station genrates 1 Gw. You'd need 1000000 square meters (=1000 sq km) to generate the same thing. Oh and we can only capture 20-30 % of the energy of the total light. We're going to need solar power, and fossile fuel is madness. But to deny that solar power is not 'dense' seems irrational.
Compare the amount of land needed to power the US with solar to the amount we use to brew a small amount of ethanol as a minor energy sourced. We can completely power the US with a fraction of the land that we currently use as a subsidy for corn farmers, who grow more corn than we can eat.
Maybe Iran will meet democracy
It did in 1953 when Prime Minister Mossadegh wanted to nationalize Iran's oil. The US and UK launched a coup to stop that and installed a dictator (who was initially reluctant to go along with this and had to be convinced). Then SAVAK cracked down on domestic secular left opposition for decades, aided by the CIA.
So yeah... who know what they're denying now, and what we'll find out in 60 years
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The people of Iran are currently in the process of liberating themselves. I hope they succeed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021%E2%80%932022_Iranian_prot...
> themselves With zero external influence, I bet ;)
[1] https://innovationorigins.com/en/india-discovers-5-5-of-worl...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Which means China will buy it. And that might be good: right now China is the largest carbon emitter in the world, so everything that helps them transition rapidly helps us too.
Yep, US sanctions were working in the past, when US economy dominated the world. Right now sanctioning a country just means that you are giving China a free reign over it.
Take Iran. The US and several others sanctioned them over trying to develop nuclear weapons. Iran stopped the weapons program, agreed to inspections to verify compliance, and the sanctions were lifted.
Then the US put back sanctions for domestic political reasons, and so now when Iran does something the US does not like (such as supplying Russia with weapons to use against Ukraine), the US doesn't really have a way to deal with that because (1) they've already got Iran nearly maximally sanctioned, and (2) even if they could find something else to sanction Iran over there is no reason for Iran to believe that changing their behavior would lead to removal of that sanction.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can I interest you in some liberation?
The people of Iran are currently in the process of liberating themselves. I hope they succeed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021%E2%80%932022_Iranian_prot...
It wouldn't be the first time [1][2][3]
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_r...
[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_intervention_in_Libya...
[3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_involvement_in_the_Ven...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
1,370 watts per square meter isn't what I'd call diffuse. We're just not good at harvesting it.
A typical nuclear station genrates 1 Gw. You'd need 1000000 square meters (=1000 sq km) to generate the same thing. Oh and we can only capture 20-30 % of the energy of the total light. We're going to need solar power, and fossile fuel is madness. But to deny that solar power is not 'dense' seems irrational.
A strong argument for the existence of a diety is hilarious-if-true outcomes like the Ayatollah getting to have both oil & lithium to remain fully hedged through the EV transition. Too improbable for a fictional movie, but here we are. Life, as always, is stranger than fiction.
The degree to which we’ve been blessed with resources and opportunity to do the right thing (and have consistently chosen to do the dumb thing) never fails to amaze me. Infinite power from the sky that’s cheaper than fossil fuels; vast reserves of lithium to help oil-producing nations smoothly transition us away from oil; huge and unusually-enriched Uranium deposits we could use to build power (but instead used to bu…