Should we continue emitting copious amounts of carbon, expecting future technology to save us? Absolutely not.
Should we be hopeful technological advancements will help mitigate the impacts of #ClimateChange? Absolutely yes.
It will always be cheaper, wiser, and more equitable to reduce emissions today than to remove them in the future, #degrowth, but improving efficiency of direct air capture is something we should celebrate as a needed complement.
Just finished Neil Howe's "The Fourth Turning is Here" and 10/10 would not recommend.
Howe uses historical trends to make deterministic predictions about the future - a dubious proposition at best - based on 80ish year generational cycles of which he has only 6, a tiny sample size, to draw trends from. One of those doesn't even fit the grand pattern he argues for.
Future headline: To combat future wokeness, GOP promotes federal book ban ban bans.
"Don't let states tell concerned parents what they can't complain about and which minorities they can't opress" says RNC spokesperson with familial ties to Trump (we at Future News apologize for being unable to narrow down the speaker of this potential quote further).
And by that nonsense, I mean let's applaud Minnesota, Illinois, and Maryland for banning book bans.
You've probably heard of the depressing state climate scientists are in from warning us of dangers we seem unable to marshall the social will to combat.
But you may have heard far less about how social climate scientists - the experts in humanity's efforts to tackle #ClimateChange - feel. You may be surprised many use phrases like: "intentionally optimistic," "climate despair is a luxury for those not living through climate disasters" and " empowerment in the process."
Just a reminder that while one party spends on protecting voting rights the other marshals its legal assault to challenge election results - for an election that is months away - and disenfranchise voters.
Imperfect democracy vs authoritarianism is on the ballot this November. #VoteBlue if that matters to you.
Trump raised a record-breaking $34.8 million the day after being convicted of election interference. That's nearly double their previous largest single-day online donation amount.
29.7% were new donors.
This is not a drill. He will get reelected unless people on the left step up to oppose him. And #Project2025 makes it clear how much worse things can get, both domestically and abroad. #VoteBlue
@FantasticalEconomics@talia_christine Trump will win because Biden and the rest of the institutional Democrats are not taking the threat seriously. We lost the courts possibly forever because they never believed the magnitude of the situation.
As to how to message, it is crystal clear from every country that succeeded in fighting back against far-right populists that the opposition party has to appeal to the centrists and not get dragged apart trying to satisfy the far left.
"ChatGPT Edu, powered by GPT-4o, is designed for universities to responsibly integrate AI into academic and campus operations. This advanced AI tool supports text and vision reasoning, data analysis, and offers enterprise-level security."
Based on everything we know about AI, I am sure nothing could possibly go wrong with this new tool to integrate it into our #teaching and campus operations more broadly.
/Obvious sarcasm
Motion to replace the (rude, misogynistic, and outdated) phrase "wears the pants in the relationship" with "flys the flag in the relationship".
For instance: good relationship advice is to find a partner where no one person flys the flag in the relationship, so that responsibilities, power, and treasonous messages are shared equally.
You've probably heard that many people think inflation is still much higher than it actually is, but did you know that people have changed the definition of inflation (and didn't tell us economists)?
Inflation no longer seems to mean "rising prices" but, instead, "high prices". So 'inflation' can be high even as prices fall, the thought of which gives me a hell of a headache...
When non-violent protest - non-violent protest to save the world, no less - is criminalized, the world should worry.
"Five members of Letzte Generation, Germany’s equivalent to Just Stop Oil, have been charged with “forming a criminal organisation”, a move civil rights campaigners say could in effect criminalise future support for the climate campaign."
"It is believed to be the first time the law has been applied to a non-violent protest group."
@FantasticalEconomics most of the fuss is about not following a detail of the German demonstration last and not registering their demonstrations because some idiot said so.
Germans: Register your demonstration. Don't listen to advise on the internet that tell you to not do it, especially if they advise Congress from Anglo-saxonian lawyers.
In general: don't listen at all to Anglo-saxonian lawyers when it comes to Continental European Law questions ever. Their legal system works very different, their advise is useless on the European continent.
Also take British and American news over Continental European legal questions with a grain of salt or two.
@FantasticalEconomics the legal systems in the Anglo-saxonian sphere - common law - is in principal rather different from the Continental European codified law.
In this article some very important legal details are not even touched but it goes in length over stuff that is just irrelevant on the continent.
I’ve never been accused of having a way with words. I have always been more drawn to math, hence economist.
That said, I gave a speech today asking our administration to drop charges related to the #StudentProtests that I am quite proud of.
I am sharing it here for anyone who would like to hear my perspective as a member of the faculty who has witnessed and been arrested alongside students at one of these protests you have heard so much about.
If anyone is in the Denver area tomorrow (Wednesday 5/22) and is interested in helping push the administration to drop charges against student protesters, I am speaking at a faculty press conference at noon and we would love the support!
This is a prime time for Democrats to change their tune on #Gaza.
"On the basis of evidence collected and examined by my Office, I have reasonable grounds to believe that Benjamin NETANYAHU, the Prime Minister of Israel, and Yoav GALLANT, the Minister of Defence of Israel, bear criminal responsibility for the following war crimes and crimes against humanity committed on the territory of the State of Palestine (in the Gaza strip) from at least 8 October 2023"
Sure. But I think the ICC having "reasonable grounds" to believe war crimes are being committed is reasonable grounds to rethink policy and strategy on the region, no?
Delaying arms shipments until the international body that has expertise in the area of war crimes is convinced they are unlikely to be used to commit war crimes seems like a winning political policy in my book (and has a nice moral ring to it, too).
I may be missing how this article relates here. The three main critiques don't seem to connect to this situation very well.
"On the one hand, the Court is being criticized for not having done enough to raise awareness about its work, because it has not communicated effectively with affected communities, victims, or the general public. ... Two other main areas of criticism faced by the Court concern its high costs and slow pace of justice."
Ah, #capitalism. Neoclasical (mainstream) economic theory tells us it ensures resources will be put to the best, most efficient use. However, ignores the obvious: wealth equals power, so that what is "best" for society is what the richest value.
Like chasing everlasting youth by getting weekly blood transfusions from your teenage son and $40,000 gym membership add-ons.
It can certainly seems, sometimes, as if a given thing does not have much immediate economic value, or even that it ever will, to many or most. That's a criticism many level at many forms of research. Some of us are very reluctant to strongly judge most such decisions.
Few would argue that capitalism does not involve any poor choices. Many argue that it results in superior outcomes when compared with any viable alternative.
"I do think that history makes it pretty clear that free markets and capitalism*, on average, lead to much better outcomes** for humanity than anything else we've tried."