tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1575603731696062553.comments2024-01-26T17:20:23.015-06:00The Great ChangeAlbert Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17627996921976501534noreply@blogger.comBlogger1200125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1575603731696062553.post-82481524364380145872024-01-26T01:24:09.577-06:002024-01-26T01:24:09.577-06:00Thank you for speaking about Gaza and the West Ban...Thank you for speaking about Gaza and the West Bank.. for peace. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1575603731696062553.post-67212740174507141322024-01-15T06:09:06.102-06:002024-01-15T06:09:06.102-06:00Have a look too at Jem Bendell's website ... a...Have a look too at Jem Bendell's website ... and Nate Hagens', Gail Tverberg's, etc. <br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1575603731696062553.post-62360497808042400132023-12-17T09:16:55.751-06:002023-12-17T09:16:55.751-06:00Pharoah (over-developed nations) still must suffer...Pharoah (over-developed nations) still must suffer many plagues before he lets go of his fossil fuel slaves.Robert Gilletthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14799065630702219168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1575603731696062553.post-39841127882575429422023-12-12T18:02:04.291-06:002023-12-12T18:02:04.291-06:00A good article--it's good news that the Sultan...A good article--it's good news that the Sultan got the oil/gas producers to commit on methane reduction. Very good.<br /><br />I think the Sultan is correct--although the science can give us estimates of future carbon emissions and temperature increases, it is a political decision on how to manage those emissions and the reduction pathway to choose.<br /><br />Although I would like to agree with Mary Robinson, I don't think it's possible right now to end fossil fuels in the near future--doing so would cause more human suffering than those same humans will get from using fossil fuels. She would also be more convincing if there could be just one city/region/state or country that can serve as a prototype for fossil-free civilization. Right now, it can't be shown that this is possible. At the same time, I think that we could make large reductions in usage given awareness, incentives, and education. We will also need to consider offsetting with ecological rebuilding--something that the "fossil free" crowd for some reason that I can't figure out, opposes.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1575603731696062553.post-72812082040876032762023-12-10T09:37:55.675-06:002023-12-10T09:37:55.675-06:00The mob is scared. No one can tell them for certa...The mob is scared. No one can tell them for certain how bad ecological Overshoot will get or when things will go south exponentially. No one can tell them when they need to start looking for caves, how many caves there are, or how many humans (much less other living kin) will die in the Overshoot process. The mob wants action and not just words or promises or commitments. They want things like your biochar to scale, sequestering carbon for millennia. They want “growth” in dirty carbon use to stop and be reversed, not knowing that all alternative energies are just “adding” to the total energy availability and use and not replacing fossil fuels. They want the power structures to stop feeding themselves at the expense of the rest of life. We’ll all be stepping in the s**t full time very soon, and no, it will not be pleasant. The mob is scared and just want help, geniuses aside.Bob Bateshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04080536315967112941noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1575603731696062553.post-87039275330580033902023-09-27T05:21:25.999-05:002023-09-27T05:21:25.999-05:00Musk I find fascinating. There was a another area...Musk I find fascinating. There was a another area not mentioned, AI, that is extremely important. <br />Musk, being a sci-fi nerd sees the existential risks as many nerds do but not many “jocks” or politicians. <br /><br />When Tesla rose up ~4 years ago I was pretty despondent that as smart as humanity was we could not even dent climate. Politicians and voters appeared to not care and humanity was hurtling to demise. <br />Then Musk appeared and said the right things and allowed me to “vote” by both buying stock and more recently a Tesla. <br />Yesterday I watched a surreal debate w Musk, Netanyahu, Tegmark and an open AI founder. <br /><br />Tegmark has many valid concerns and I’m happy to see both Musk and a important politician on a stage with him. Tegmark is like a AI Greta. Bringing up existential risk. Good discussion. <br />I suspect there are 3 main ways each of us could die, climate, AI related, and viruses. <br />Musk is at the center of two of these and I feel confident he at least understands the magnitude of the risks where I think politicians do not and especially DonTheCon does not and may hasten bad futures. <br />I’m curious to see where mUsk goes. We need more people with vision like him. Jensen Huang is one like that but there are few others with vision who get the magnitude of risks. <br />One other thing is it seems many climate warriors don’t see the risks of AI and maybe vica versa. <br />Maybe AI will help with climate if it does not kill us. Erik Saylenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1575603731696062553.post-26267968114979180292023-09-24T22:16:20.165-05:002023-09-24T22:16:20.165-05:00I read a lot of sci fi as a kid, but it didn't...I read a lot of sci fi as a kid, but it didn't take long to realize that stories of going to other planets or solar systems were fantasies divorced from practicalities. Most of the best sci fi is metaphor for our behavior on our only planet.<br /><br />As for the end notes, the estimate of "6.95 million people, and counting, have died" ignores how many governments deliberately undercounted the toll. The Economist magazine estimates the real figure is probably twenty to thirty million, if excess deaths are included. This also ignores the numbers of injured with long Covid and other complications who likely will have shortened lifespans from their infections. <br /><br />Covid shows that many people are not willing to restrain their behavior for a societal good, which has me disbelieving in claims we're supposedly going to be proactive about climate chaos and other aspects of the poly crisis (anyone remember that fossil fuels are finite?).Mark Robinowitznoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1575603731696062553.post-80784114934556861252023-09-24T11:42:21.480-05:002023-09-24T11:42:21.480-05:00I watched the same Sapolsky interview with Hagens....I watched the same Sapolsky interview with Hagens. Sapolsky's take on free will is convincing, but I wish he had discussed the evolutionary aspect of beliefs like free will and supernatural beings. Both outlooks have evolved in humans and human cultures over and over. It would have been interesting to see Sapolsky speculate why.<br /><br />Also, Sapolsky didn't explore the impact of lack of agency (no free will) on ethics. It seems to me that even though free will does not exist, humans need to act as though everyone has at least a modest amount of agency. It would be hard to have a group of humans create a society without it.Joe Clarksonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1575603731696062553.post-90272948204014824362023-09-13T20:48:21.737-05:002023-09-13T20:48:21.737-05:00Thank you so much for this amazingly well written ...Thank you so much for this amazingly well written blog post, Albert!<br />Please also consider to join #UnityNet, where we are promoting various Open Source Regenerative Climate Smart Infrastructure solutions (including things like #biochar) that can help humanity #adapted to Climate Change and also help to achieve a "patadigm change" in our #thinking such that we seek to achieve a Responsible Productive #gLocalized Compassionate Collaborative Regenerative Economy (#CCRE) that seeks to Leave No One Behind (#LNOB).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1575603731696062553.post-26587002343328888112023-08-26T20:06:54.843-05:002023-08-26T20:06:54.843-05:00Bob Bates, Yes absolutely we included that factor....Bob Bates, Yes absolutely we included that factor. While not exact, it works out to approximately a two-ton drawdown being required to accomplish a one-ton net removal.Albert Bateshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17627996921976501534noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1575603731696062553.post-39024095578465671702023-08-20T08:23:53.161-05:002023-08-20T08:23:53.161-05:00Do your calculations on rotational cycles on 200 M...Do your calculations on rotational cycles on 200 Mha/yr on the same ground bringing the atmospheric CO2 levels back down to 300 ppm in 56 years include the CO2 the oceans would outgas in an attempt to achieve equilibrium from the levels it has absorbed currently? I know that would be a delayed achievement (because the outgasing is slow), but just wondering if the calculations included that data.Bob Bateshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04080536315967112941noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1575603731696062553.post-3439778837986591982023-07-16T07:24:01.804-05:002023-07-16T07:24:01.804-05:00Upon further investigation, Erle Ellis does not se...Upon further investigation, Erle Ellis does not seem so crass: https://thebreakthrough.org/issues/conservation/global-conservation-on-a-used-planet. A collective upwelling of ecological consciousness may be the eventual path to restoring wilderness. Robert Gilletthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14799065630702219168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1575603731696062553.post-14586550081088362562023-06-04T16:43:00.378-05:002023-06-04T16:43:00.378-05:00The problem is bullet point number nine, "red...The problem is bullet point number nine, "reduce the human population". There is no way to quickly reduce the human population to sustainable "eco-village" levels without mass premature death. And if the human population is not reduced quickly, hothouse earth is coming. It may already be in the pipeline from existing CO2 levels.<br /><br />Jack Alpert, at the Stanford Knowledge Integration Laboratory suggests that the "solution" is for everyone to stop having children, thereby reducing the world's population to sustainable levels in 70-80 years. Somehow I don't see much prospect of that happening. It looks to me like we are about 7.8 billion people too late.Joehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01251330546889158364noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1575603731696062553.post-18759255017763942682023-05-14T07:43:28.713-05:002023-05-14T07:43:28.713-05:00In Novacene, James Lovelock says the AI takeover i...In Novacene, James Lovelock says the AI takeover is pretty inevitable and will likely spell the end of the human contribution to the evolutionary story, but with the torch of understanding/enlightenment/consciousness carried on by our nano-machine offspring. I guess you have to really appreciate consciousness to consider this a hopeful outcome.Robert Gilletthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14799065630702219168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1575603731696062553.post-63199176383334575732023-05-07T09:23:21.228-05:002023-05-07T09:23:21.228-05:00Thanks for writing on a theme that has long attrac...Thanks for writing on a theme that has long attracted my attention. I wonder if your mischaracterization of Boomers as Artists has altered your interpretation of the theory, because the Boomers are who Strauss and Howe called a Prophet generation. The Artists were the Boomers' parents, the Silent generation brought up in the shadow of the Heroes of WWII.Robert Gilletthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14799065630702219168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1575603731696062553.post-19416509546152846932023-05-04T13:45:20.980-05:002023-05-04T13:45:20.980-05:00something else remarkable about bats...
https://p...something else remarkable about bats...<br /><br />https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19100649/Martin Holsingerhttp://brothermartin.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1575603731696062553.post-85132770713724036122023-05-03T15:14:34.915-05:002023-05-03T15:14:34.915-05:00All well and good, but US-funded NeoNazis really h...All well and good, but US-funded NeoNazis really have taken over in Kiev, and I, for one, hope Putin succeeds in stopping them. It is ironically amusing to see so many Americans recoil in horror from the Jan. 6 clown show, while cheering wildly for The Maidan Coup, which was basically Jan. 6th with enough muscle to succeed.Martin Holsingerhttp://www.brothermartin.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1575603731696062553.post-67855716384335118552023-04-25T10:42:53.092-05:002023-04-25T10:42:53.092-05:00'there are also tipping elements that can push...'there are also tipping elements that can push us back in the right direction, and many of these are still within our control." Such as? A couple of examples Albert would make your statement more of fact than a hope.<br /><br />Check out https://design-school-for-regenerating-earth.mn.co for one good example of what you are encouraging us all to endorse and engage. It's the brainchild of Joe Brewer in his book Design Pathway for Regenerating Earth.<br /><br />Regards<br />IanIan Grahamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02975374352244687491noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1575603731696062553.post-57986532883498868512023-04-01T13:21:53.682-05:002023-04-01T13:21:53.682-05:00Martin Holsinger, I think you may find you like th...Martin Holsinger, I think you may find you like this post better: <a rel="nofollow">The Talosian Origins of the Reality Distortion Field</a>Albert Bateshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17627996921976501534noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1575603731696062553.post-56032671886912502202023-03-30T22:11:02.086-05:002023-03-30T22:11:02.086-05:00I'm all for making the internet widely availab...I'm all for making the internet widely available, as long as it lasts, but it's a shame to see you cheering the attempts of America's favorite Nazis to resist the oblivion they so richly deserve. Not content with being the only country to ever use nuclear weapons, not content with having used them on a defenseless civilian population, the US has fostered the re-empowerment of the world's most pernicious ideology for the sublime purpose of making it so that Americans, not Russians, profit from exploitation of Russia's natural resources. With ideals like that, the human population of the world will surely thrive and prosper.Martin Holsingerhttp://brothermartin.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1575603731696062553.post-68269219544711515982023-03-28T07:57:28.173-05:002023-03-28T07:57:28.173-05:00Actually, Anonymous, the science (not the politics...Actually, Anonymous, the science (not the politics) points towards zoonotic origins whether bat or intermediary raccoon dog. The key 2023 preprint that traces it through DNA, <i><b>Genetic evidence of susceptible wildlife in SARS-COV2 positive samples at the Huanan wholesale seafood market in Wuhan: analysis and interpretation of data released by the Chinese Center for Disease Control,</b></i> has a string of distinguished authors, including Alexander Crits-Christoph, Robert Garry, Kristian Andersen, Eddie Holmes, Andrew Rambaut, Michael Worobey and Florence Débarre. Debarre's breakthrough was described in a <a rel="nofollow">Guardian article</a> on March 28. The premier review before that was Holmes, Edward C., Stephen A. Goldstein, Angela L. Rasmussen, David L. Robertson, Alexander Crits-Christoph, Joel O. Wertheim, Simon J. Anthony et al. "The origins of SARS-CoV-2: A critical review." Cell 184, no. 19 (2021): 4848-4856.Albert Bateshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17627996921976501534noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1575603731696062553.post-47902121594092589322023-03-26T09:13:47.259-05:002023-03-26T09:13:47.259-05:00Nice article on the bats. However, you still seem...Nice article on the bats. However, you still seem think they had something to do with Covid. <br />They are innocent of that charge, as you should well know by now.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1575603731696062553.post-89002785409319731832023-03-04T12:59:14.798-06:002023-03-04T12:59:14.798-06:00re: "George Lakoff, author of The Elephant in...re: "George Lakoff, author of The Elephant in the Room, likes the example of Mother Russia, drawing as it does upon timeless respect for Mother Earth (Mat Zemlya). It is one reason why today so many Russians support the “police action” in Ukraine."<br /><br />I think the real reason why so many Russians support Russian intervention in Ukraine is that they understand that the west's takeover of Ukraine is part of its effort to subjugate Russia and return to the 90's, when the west looted Russia, with complete disregard for the fact that this looting made the lives of ordinary Russians utterly miserable.The Russian people have been there and done that, and don't want it back again.Martin Holsingerhttp://brothermartin.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1575603731696062553.post-71304065307714567852023-03-03T12:51:52.355-06:002023-03-03T12:51:52.355-06:00The only problem I have with this otherwise excell...The only problem I have with this otherwise excellent essay is your story about the Russians and the Ukrainians, which seems highly improbable. Given the Ukrainian government's by now well-established reputation for lying--saying it was the Russians shelling themselves at Zaporizhe, claiming it was a Russian missile, not an intentionally launched Ukrainian one, that landed in Poland, etc--and given that this story appeared in The Atlantic, which has been a major source of US government propaganda/misinformation throughout the proxy war on Russia and throughout the Russiagate fraud which laid the groundwork for it, it seems to me that you have fallen prey to that which you are warning us against. :-)Martin Holsingerhttp://brothermartin.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1575603731696062553.post-80387427948406800802023-02-13T13:58:52.730-06:002023-02-13T13:58:52.730-06:00Unless ... https://blogdredd.blogspot.com/2023/02/...Unless ... https://blogdredd.blogspot.com/2023/02/on-thermal-expansion-thermal.htmlDreddhttps://blogdredd.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com