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America Is in Denial
21–30 of 84 posts
Re: America Is in Denial
#22> When entire countries fail to confront serious challenges, it doesn't end well. At least in the case of global warming, the US are in good company: the whole world is failing (some more, some less, but nevertheless all failing) to confront the challenge.
China generates more power from renewables than Europe. Europe has finally gotten some will to get off gas because Putin forced their hand. The US could get their shit together: 80% of US coal plants are uneconomical to continue to run versus firm renewables, EVs are 3-5 times cheaper per mile to operate than a combustion vehicle. $40 trillion dollars of investment capital, greater than the GDP of the US, has divested from fossil fuels. A majority of Americans believe in climate change and support strong government efforts to mitigate it (my citations from another thread below).
But, you’ve got this coalition of entrenched interests and corrupt politicians who are fighting it. So the death gasps continue. Kudos to capitalism in this regard, it will accelerate the transition regardless as renewables and electric mobility learning curves bend adoption and deployment curves closer to vertical.
https://archive.ph/2022.06.30-103521/https://www.bloomberg.c...
https://ember-climate.org/insights/research/eu-slashes-fossi...
https://insight.factset.com/strong-ev-sales-could-soon-weigh...
Re: America Is in Denial
#23> Even as we watch the reservoirs and lakes of the West go dry, we keep watering our lawns, soaking our golf courses, and growing water-thirsty crops. Residential water use has plummeted in the west. Some areas, like vegas, use less water than the 70s, not accounting for population changes. Arizona is the second best residential water manager in the world behind Israel. Agriculture uses the lion's share of water and…
> Residential water use has plummeted in the west. Some areas, like vegas, use less water than the 70s, not accounting for population changes. What's the point of this argument? Vegas population has increased more than 10x since the 70s, why would we not account for population growth when discussing the usage of a limited resource?
I think you misunderstood. Vegas uses less water in total than in the 70s, in spite of the population difference.
Re: America Is in Denial
#24On one hand, where I want to give Mitt Romney some benefit of the doubt for being sincere (and he probably is somewhat) in his conviction where he eventually stood against the leader of his own political party, he did, in the beginning, try to rosy up to Trump in the early months, producing a now infamous photo of him looking rather submissive, smiling with Trump at a dinner table after opposing him during the 2016 primaries. It's telling that only after failing to actually be chosen for a position in the administration did he begin his brand of pitching to the "centrist" crowd as a voice against Trump while voting with him a good fraction of the time in the senate.
One of the under appreciated outgrowths of the Trump years is the rise of a crop of "centrist"-leaning conservatives who really agreed with Trump on almost all of his actually achieved policy goals but really just disagreed with his supposed incompetence or brashness or with the attempted insurrection, but had Trump had a different demeanor, they'd be along for the ride.
Re: America Is in Denial
#25> Even as we watch the reservoirs and lakes of the West go dry, we keep watering our lawns, soaking our golf courses, and growing water-thirsty crops. Residential water use has plummeted in the west. Some areas, like vegas, use less water than the 70s, not accounting for population changes. Arizona is the second best residential water manager in the world behind Israel. Agriculture uses the lion's share of water and…
> The US must continue printing debt (expanding money supply) Can't tell if serious, but if you are, holding that kind of short-sighted opinion, you can be sure to be in most excellent historical company. I mean it's not like currency debasement causes the fall of empires or anything. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denarius https://www.lietaer.com/2021/11/did-the-romans-debase-the-cu... https://www.businessinsider.com…
I encourage you to read more on how the monetary system works. Debt = more currency for use around the world. We need to continuously increase money supply to keep the dollar from appreciating too much and causing a disastrous level of deflation.
Of course borrowing is not sustainable, but the alternative is not sustainable faster.
Re: America Is in Denial
#26> Even as we watch the reservoirs and lakes of the West go dry, we keep watering our lawns, soaking our golf courses, and growing water-thirsty crops. Residential water use has plummeted in the west. Some areas, like vegas, use less water than the 70s, not accounting for population changes. Arizona is the second best residential water manager in the world behind Israel. Agriculture uses the lion's share of water and…
> Yet again blaming individuals' choices when large corporations are by far the largest global polluters. Corporations don’t exist. There are only individual people.
Take amazon, for example. Fine the corporation for using excessive packaging at scale. People don't have a choice of what packaging they receive.
Re: America Is in Denial
#27> When entire countries fail to confront serious challenges, it doesn't end well. At least in the case of global warming, the US are in good company: the whole world is failing (some more, some less, but nevertheless all failing) to confront the challenge.
WTF? Every country failing to act on an impending crisis is not good news, it's worse.
Nature does not dole out milder climates to countries which pollute less either. We're all in the same boat.
Re: America Is in Denial
#28> Even as we watch the reservoirs and lakes of the West go dry, we keep watering our lawns, soaking our golf courses, and growing water-thirsty crops. Residential water use has plummeted in the west. Some areas, like vegas, use less water than the 70s, not accounting for population changes. Arizona is the second best residential water manager in the world behind Israel. Agriculture uses the lion's share of water and…
I do not think "agriculture[...] can be cut off when things get really tight." Everyone in the US has been bleeting about inflation for months, suppressing food production would make people slam their cars into buildings.
Re: America Is in Denial
#29> Even as we watch the reservoirs and lakes of the West go dry, we keep watering our lawns, soaking our golf courses, and growing water-thirsty crops. Residential water use has plummeted in the west. Some areas, like vegas, use less water than the 70s, not accounting for population changes. Arizona is the second best residential water manager in the world behind Israel. Agriculture uses the lion's share of water and…
I do not think "agriculture[...] can be cut off when things get really tight." Everyone in the US has been bleeting about inflation for months, suppressing food production would make people slam their cars into buildings.
Something tells me that residential water rationing will be less palatable to the West's population than "California Almonds will be significantly more expensive this season".
Re: America Is in Denial
#30You can't fix a dish that has rotten ingredients. You have to throw the dish away and start over.