However, the reporting often treats protests on elite college campuses, or social media posts from articulate activists, as though they’re a proxy for the youth vote overall. Young voters do differ from older ones on some issues, including Israel-Palestine and free speech. But they do not care about these issues nearly as much...
The alternative is moving away from rare earth minerals to more common ones for battery tech, which is starting to happen. A long term transition will likely require more fundamental shifts in society, which will bring a lot of benefits too. But in the short term, fossil fuels need to be abandoned rapidly.
No problem, I don’t disagree with your argument at all. And broadly, the “just shutdown society” approach, even it it’s the most effective, I just don’t see how it would work. Unless every government in the world goes full authoritarian, the people just aren’t going to support that level of action. The only way I see it happening, if it happens by necessity (which means things have already hit disaster level).
So the things that can be rolled out rapidly to quickly transition things with minimal disruption need to happen first, like renewable energy and EVs (I say that as a “fuck cars” type, but I know that winning that argument is going to take longer than the time we have to reduce emissions rapidly). And the argument of reducing consumption, circular economies, and more efficient infrastructure design needs to be made over the coming decades.
The New South Wales government will announce within days it will extend the operations of Australia’s biggest coal-fired power station for as long as four years....
Australia’s coal mine methane emissions are being vastly underreported and are damaging the nation’s credibility on climate change, economist Professor Rod Sims has warned....
When you argue for housing reform to legalize denser development in our cities, you quickly learn that some people hate density. Like, really hate density, with visceral disgust and contempt for any development pattern that involves buildings being tall or close together.
Some people just like space. That doesn’t make them bad or inconsiderate people, they just like space.
It does make them bad if they are placing their needs over the needs of others. If they want that space, they should move to a rural town and let cities develop as they should.
Better housing design can help here. In a properly designed apartment building, you won’t be able to hear people’s loud music, their laundry, or much of anything else really.
I think this is mostly due to historical issues in North America then anything fundamental about density (I.e. driving white people out of the cities and into the surburbs through various incentives and disincentives, then marginalising those that remain). But you’re right, those issues cast a long shadow and need to be addressed as well. And I’m all for more public housing, mixed-use development, and green space. Which should be easier to do if there are less single family dwellings taking up precious space, but does require government will.
There’s a vast middle ground between only single family dwellings and only skyscrapers. Duplexes, fourplexes, rowhouses, small apartment buildings are all a good option, and where you’d start in your example town, if there was demand to build them. You currently can’t do that in many places, even in cities, because of absurdly restrictive zoning laws.
The Behind the Bastards podcast goes into another aspect of this repression, of paying mercenary hackers to target minorities. And it has intensified under Modi.
There’s a tendency in this heated political climate to simply reject people who are saying false things and to write off conspiracy theorists writ large....
Not a bad article, but I wish they wouldn’t use politically neutral language like fringe or polarisation or even just conspiracy theorist, as if the issues aren’t almost exclusively happening on one side of politics. Call a spade a spade already.
And because it’s politically controversial, you can expect delays of many, many years for new builds in most democracies. Which is precisely why conservatives have been pushing it, because it allows coal and gas to dominate for a bit longer.
They might also want to be in the running for a future Steam Deck or Linux based gaming console. And fully open source drivers is a requirement, especially if Valve is involved.
At the least it counters the Sleepy Joe rhetoric aimed at swing voters. It won’t convince the true believers (because they don’t believe in anything but destroying the left) but it might slightly change the swing voters’ impression of Biden (and of Trump) if this line of attack is neutralised.
We all know America has a massive problem with sprawl and mandatory parking minimums, however there does seem to be a trend of easing these arbitrary minimums. With that said, we still have massive parking lots with nothing happening....
The land owner doesnt pay any power bills, so they don’t care about long term utility savings, and the tenants cant justify a huge upfront cost that will save them money on power bills, but one they wont own and one they won’t benefit financially from if they leave that particular retail space.
This is the same reason most rental houses don’t have solar panels.
Although I could see a future where panels are so cheap that people just add them whenever there is a major renovation or new build. It’s already close to that point in Australia.
We need more multifamily homes, but I sincerely think that green spaces are super important, not only for the environment, but for the community as well. There’s no reason people who live in multifamily units shouldn’t have access to green spaces or gardens.
Agreed, they just should be public spaces, instead of everyone having their individual lawn that they don’t know how to utilise in the best way.
Israel/Palestine concerns rate 2nd botttom in Harvard poll of 18-29 year olds. (www.natesilver.net)
However, the reporting often treats protests on elite college campuses, or social media posts from articulate activists, as though they’re a proxy for the youth vote overall. Young voters do differ from older ones on some issues, including Israel-Palestine and free speech. But they do not care about these issues nearly as much...
Tensions grow as China ramps up global mining for green tech (www.bbc.com)
…...
Why the Guardian is investigating the deep failings in Australia’s school system (www.theguardian.com)
NSW to announce life extension of Eraring, Australia’s largest coal-fired power station (www.theguardian.com)
The New South Wales government will announce within days it will extend the operations of Australia’s biggest coal-fired power station for as long as four years....
“Simply astounding:” Australian coal mine methane emissions may be twice offical data (reneweconomy.com.au)
Australia’s coal mine methane emissions are being vastly underreported and are damaging the nation’s credibility on climate change, economist Professor Rod Sims has warned....
If You Hate Density, Maybe Don’t Live in A City (Oh the Urbanity!) (www.youtube.com)
When you argue for housing reform to legalize denser development in our cities, you quickly learn that some people hate density. Like, really hate density, with visceral disgust and contempt for any development pattern that involves buildings being tall or close together.
Nevada put big battery energy storage where a coal plant used to be (electrek.co)
Texas sues Biden administration for right to discriminate against LGBTQ+ students (www.lgbtqnation.com)
An assassination plot on American soil reveals a darker side of Modi’s India [gift article] (wapo.st)
Sexsomnia: An embarrassing sleep disorder no one wants to talk about (www.cnn.com)
A 38-year-old man repeatedly tries to force his wife to have sex in the middle of the night but has no memory of his actions when he wakes up....
Analysis: Misinformation has created an alternative world for some Americans (www.cnn.com)
There’s a tendency in this heated political climate to simply reject people who are saying false things and to write off conspiracy theorists writ large....
Why Germany ditched nuclear before coal—and why it won’t go back (arstechnica.com)
NVIDIA Developer Opens Feature Pull Request For Open-Source NVK Driver (www.phoronix.com)
tl;dr further signs that the open source Nvidia driver stack on Linux is getting semi-official support
‘A deeply colonial backward step’: why are donors, staff and politicians up in arms about the South Australian Museum? (www.theguardian.com)
Trump slips into a “bona fide nap" once again during trial (www.salon.com)
Discussion: Parking lots and solar farms.
We all know America has a massive problem with sprawl and mandatory parking minimums, however there does seem to be a trend of easing these arbitrary minimums. With that said, we still have massive parking lots with nothing happening....
[meme] Lawns and car storage — name a more wasteful use of land (lemmy.world)