mediocratese

GottaLaff , 30 days ago to random

Folks, I'm going upstairs to watch this on TV now.

THANK YOU ALL

mediocratese , 1 month ago to random

#SilentSunday #photography #vancouverisland #chinabeach

GottaLaff , 1 month ago to random

NYT just now on Mastodon:

"Trump’s Defense Cast Michael Cohen as Untrustworthy"

Trump trusted him for, what, 10 years?

GottaLaff , 1 month ago to random

🇨🇦For those interested, finally, Part 3 of my #Canada series is done. Parts 1, 2 are linked in Part 3 but just in case, I'm linking here too.

This is for anyone interested in why, how we managed to get permanent residency.

Everyone else, ignore, although you may find it interesting regardless.

Part 3: https://thepoliticalcarnival.blogspot.com/2024/05/im-moving-to-canada-part-3-its-happening.html

Part 1: https://thepoliticalcarnival.blogspot.com/2024/01/im-moving-to-canada.html

Part 2: https://thepoliticalcarnival.blogspot.com/2024/01/im-moving-to-canada-part-two-how.html

GottaLaff , 1 month ago to random

Via Pagliery:

So, actual brain worms.

NYT reports RFK Jr. had previously undisclosed health issues, including a parasite in his brain. “I have cognitive problems, clearly,” #RFKJr. said in the 2012 deposition. “I have short-term memory loss, and I have longer-term memory loss that affects me.” https://nytimes.com/2024/05/08/us/rfk-jr-brain-health-memory-loss.html

vapaad , 1 month ago to random

God I love snails. What weird little guys.

mediocratese , 2 months ago to random

#SilentSunday Photo of myself heading downtown for the start of the TC 10K this morning. (not)

rodbotic , 2 months ago to random

This Belted Kingfisher hunted for a while off Jericho Pier. He didn't seem to care that people were around, so i managed to get much closer than usual.
#nikon Z5 200-500mm F5.6 1/1000s iso3600
#birds #nature #photography #wildlife #Vancouver

breadandcircuses , 2 months ago to random

All along they've told us it would be so easy... just recycle some of your trash, or ride a bike once in a while, and everything will be fine.

There's no need to even think about system change. 🙄

#Pollution #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual #Greenwashing #Environment #Climate #Degrowth

GottaLaff , 2 months ago to random

Off I go for awhile. We drive home to California from BC today… first stop: Portland, OR.

We’re moving here permanently in May.

I’ll post news when I can. It gets boring in the car, so I’m happy to do that, but the connection often goes out, so…

GottaLaff , 2 months ago to random

Joyce Vance: “This is a five-alarm fire. We know what the reaction would be if Joe #Biden tweeted a photo of a bound and gagged Donald #Trump in the trunk of an electric car. Why does Donald Trump get more leeway, especially with his past history? He only continues to get it because our institutions—the courts, the Republican party—let him take it.”

https://open.substack.com/pub/joycevance/p/we-need-to-talk-about-this?r=br61&utm_medium=ios

breadandcircuses , 3 months ago (edited 3 months ago) to random

So-called 'biofuels' are NOT a climate solution. They are capitalist industrialist greenwashing at its worst.

Below is a statement posted Friday by Greta Thunberg. She and a group of activists are protesting in Sundsvall, Sweden, outside the annual general meeting of Svenska Cellulosa.

Here is what Greta wrote...

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Forestry is Sweden's single largest emitter of greenhouse gases and the main driving factor behind loss of habitat and species.

Svenska Cellulosa (SCA) is Europe’s largest private forest owner, and we are demanding an end to their systematic clear-cutting of irreplaceable natural forests with high importance for climate and biodiversity. After the demonstration, some of us went inside the meeting to demand accountability.

SCA's logging is built on systematically expanding into the last remaining natural forests, forests whose conditions are vital for many species and which have stored carbon for up to thousands of years, and thus both slow down and act as protection against the climate crisis.

These ecosystems are destroyed to make place for the replanting of environmentally harmful monoculture tree plantations. Often, these monocultures consist of invasive lodgepole pine, which is devastating for indigenous Sámi reindeer herding.

Forest companies, despite their claims, don't consult with Sámi villages on equal terms, and can more or less freely log due to loopholes in laws that they use to their advantage. The Sámi are heavily affected by both the climate crisis & industries like mining and forestry.

All these factors are extensions of the colonialism that has been going on in Sweden for centuries.

Clear-cutting is also a climate bomb. The carbon emitted during clearcuts takes many decades for the replanted trees to reabsorb. This is time we do not have.

After harvesting, the majority of the biomass goes to short-lived products and bioenergy with a higher carbon footprint than burning fossil fuels. Biofuels are nevertheless seen by many as a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels, much to the delight of the forest lobby. They are the ones who have largely created and spread this greenwashed narrative, due to enormous financial interests.

The burning of biomass leads to more carbon dioxide emissions per unit of energy than other fossil fuels. But, thanks to loopholes in international climate frameworks, it is counted as "climate neutral," so these emissions are not counted in the statistics. Many countries' climate policies, including Sweden's, are completely dependent on these loopholes which actually do more harm than good, not only for the climate but also for the environment and biological diversity.

The level of awareness around these issues is almost non-existent. In this knowledge gap, false solutions to the climate and environmental crisis flourish. False solutions that lead to increased exploitation of nature, continued emissions of greenhouse gases that destabilise the planet and cause the death and suffering of countless people, and continued colonisation and destruction of lands that we all depend on.

We demand protection and restoration of forest ecosystems, an end to clear-cutting and the planting of lodgepole pine as well as a transition to making long-lived products.

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateAction #ClimateJustice

CelloMomOnCars , 3 months ago to random

"With climate change compounding the strains on the #ColoradoRiver, seven Western states are starting to consider long-term plans for reducing #water use to prevent the river’s reservoirs from reaching critically low levels in the years to come.

But negotiations among representatives of the states have so far failed to resolve disagreements. And now, two groups of states are proposing competing plans for addressing the river’s chronic gap between supply and demand."

https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2024-03-08/western-states-divided-colorado-river-plans

breadandcircuses , 4 months ago (edited 4 months ago) to random

I'm 70 years old. Many of my followers here are seniors, like me, or are at least middle-aged. Most of us are angry and probably grief-stricken about what capitalist industry is doing to the biosphere.

But what must it feel like to be a young person in your teens or in your twenties and be looking toward a future of near-certain disaster, the collapse of society, the destruction of everything you hold dear? I can't imagine the pain.

It would be understandable if they reacted by simply giving up. Or perhaps by lashing out in anger. But some of them, showing incredible courage and determination, have formed movements to change what they can and to save at least a vestige of the civilization they are inheriting.

I stand in awe of these selfless, dedicated young people.

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateAction #ClimateJustice

mediocratese , 4 months ago to random

#Photomonday #mosstodon #GarryOakMeadow #vancouverisland #LandscapePhotography

ariadne , 5 months ago to random

An "oldie" (2019 paper) but a real baddie - the danger of #clouds, particularly #stratocumulus clouds in the #subtropics, disappearing (!), is real, and really frightening. According to the most accurate (and afaik only) modeling done about this, if #CO2 reaches 1200 ppm - which it is predicted to do by mainstream #climate models in 100 years - a #TippingPoint will be crossed, stratocumulus clouds will disappear, and average #temperatures will rise by 10C in the subtropics and 8C in the #tropics. In other words, #Earth, as a livable planet for most species. will be done and dusted.

Here is a link to the original journal article in Nature Geoscience, "Possible #climate transitions from breakup of stratocumulus decks under #greenhouse #warming", 25 Feb 2019, by T. Schneider, C.M. Kaul, and K.G. Pressel https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-019-0310-1

Here is a non-paywall, pdf download link to the article - https://sci-hub.hkvisa.net/10.1038/s41561-019-0310-1

And here is a great article about this by Natalie Wolchover in Quanta Magazine - "A World Without Clouds" - https://www.quantamagazine.org/cloud-loss-could-add-8-degrees-to-global-warming-20190225/

#GlobalWarming #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency #ClimateChange #GHG #Emissions #FossilFuels #TippingPoints

breadandcircuses , 5 months ago to random

One of the many potential tipping points that worry climate scientists is the possibility of methane escaping as arctic permafrost continues to thaw due to global warming...

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Beneath Svalbard’s permafrost, millions of cubic meters of methane are trapped — and scientists have now learned that it can migrate beneath the cold seal of the permafrost and escape. A large-scale escape could create a cycle of warming that would send methane emissions skyrocketing: warming thaws the permafrost, causing more gas to escape, allowing more permafrost to thaw and more gas to be released. Because Svalbard’s geological and glacial history is very similar to the rest of the Arctic region, these migrating deposits of methane are likely to be present elsewhere in the Arctic.

“Methane is a potent greenhouse gas,” said Dr Thomas Birchall of the University Center in Svalbard, lead author of the study in Frontiers in Earth Science. “At present the leakage from below permafrost is very low, but factors such as glacial retreat and permafrost thawing may ‘lift the lid’ on this in the future.”

Experts have shown that the active layer of permafrost — the upper one or two meters that thaws and re-freezes seasonally — is expanding with the warming climate. However, we know less about how the deeper permafrost is changing, if at all. Understanding this is dependent on understanding the fluid flow beneath the permafrost. If the consistently frozen permafrost grows thinner and patchier, this methane could find it ever easier to migrate and escape, possibly accelerating global warming and exacerbating the climate crisis.

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FULL STORY -- https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1010417

#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency