These two helped launch the Svalbard seed vault in Norway and protect massive amounts of seed diversity for future use. Not to mention their work on bringing orphan crops back into production to support food security in developing countries.
Why do alt-history people never focus on infrastructure or innovation? What would have happened had bikes been invented centuries before cars instead of around the same time? How different would the built environment and our culture have looked?...
Traditional crops are more nourishing for people who eat them and for the soils in which they are grown, according to Mr. Fowler, and they are better at withstanding the wild weather delivered by climate change. The problem, he says, is that they’ve been ignored by plant breeders. His goal, through the new State Department...
In 2008, the most likely projections had us around 4.5 degrees of warming. So, there is progress. Insufficient progress, we need to double down, but progress nonetheless
Overall, oil companies are withdrawing investment from exploration and new drilling. It seems oil companies are not drilling new but riding out on the investment they’ve already made plus utilizing market power to squeeze out profits. In terms of Biden’s political calculus, it seems that they think new drilling leases don’t involve much risk of increased oil coming onto the market, but it does improve his position among voters, especially in an era of inflation. Plus, this gave him political capital to pass the IRA, especially with Manchin.
It’s definitely more personality-driven, so if you’re not into Robert or his humor style, it can impact your enjoyment. Like for me, his bits almost always land so I really like when he gets sidetracked.
Unfortunately, I don’t know if it would be possible for another species to reach our level of technology or civilization. We built up our society off of easily accessible energy resources (surface-level coal being our first source of industrial energy). This energy excess allowed us to develop other sources of energy, solar, wind, nuclear, etc. But if you tried starting from zero again, you could never get to this point, at least along the same path, as you need a high level of technology to access any available energy resources. Thus, if any new species took our place, they could only ever rise to the level of the pre-industrial revolution.
To an extent, but we have the chance of transitioning into a solar and wind society and remediate that damage. Subsequent species would not have that potential.
I disagree. To unlock workable solar and wind powered electricity, you need something to carry you energetically through the ‘tech tree.’ I simply don’t think you can get to that level of technology without some fossil fuel use.
Highways were constructed in regions with sparse populations or in urban areas with little political power (primarily black and Latino neighborhoods). Basically, areas where democracy didn’t have to function because there was no democratic power to block it. Whereas nowadays, with higher levels of democracy (unequivocally good) and local control (more of a mixed bag), massive infrastructure projects are harder to accomplish. Plus, the 50s had the benefit of a booming postwar economy and the national cohesion (at least among enfranchised Americans).
By placing the fire and chimney on opposite sides of the house and constructing a tunnel between them, heat is pulled through the tunnel, heating the floors and helping distribute heat more evenly.
Agricultural biodiversity recognized with this years World Food Prize laureates (www.worldfoodprize.org)
These two helped launch the Svalbard seed vault in Norway and protect massive amounts of seed diversity for future use. Not to mention their work on bringing orphan crops back into production to support food security in developing countries.
Giant Batteries Are Transforming the Way the U.S. Uses Electricity | They’re delivering solar power after dark in California and helping to stabilize grids in other states. The technology is expanding (www.nytimes.com)
What if bikes had been invented earlier?
Why do alt-history people never focus on infrastructure or innovation? What would have happened had bikes been invented centuries before cars instead of around the same time? How different would the built environment and our culture have looked?...
A ‘Revolutionary’ Way to Feed the World That’s Very Old | The U.S. global food security envoy is pushing to bring back traditional African crops that American policies helped to sideline. (www.nytimes.com)
Traditional crops are more nourishing for people who eat them and for the soils in which they are grown, according to Mr. Fowler, and they are better at withstanding the wild weather delivered by climate change. The problem, he says, is that they’ve been ignored by plant breeders. His goal, through the new State Department...
A Directory for Agricultural News and Information (open.substack.com)
Happy Smallpox Eradication Day!! (ottawacitizen.com)
A dive into soil balancing (ndmonaghan.substack.com)
Global warming on track for 2.9C as greenhouse gases keep rising, UN says | Chances of keeping within 1.5C threshold put at a low 14% (www.ft.com)
Archived copy of the article...
A glimpse of optimism on climate change (thehill.com)
only thing I'm pulling are stuck ATVs (slrpnk.net)
Behind the Bastards - A podcast that dives in past the Cliffs Notes of the worst humans in history and exposes the bizarre realities of their lives. (www.iheart.com)
A history of the Yucatan's distributed tramways (www.tramz.com)
I Study Climate Change. The Data Is Telling Us Something New. (www.nytimes.com)
high speed rail go brrr (slrpnk.net)
Meet the Ondol, a traditional Korean system for heating one's house (slrpnk.net)
By placing the fire and chimney on opposite sides of the house and constructing a tunnel between them, heat is pulled through the tunnel, heating the floors and helping distribute heat more evenly.
Brown Cows and Chocolate Milk | Exploring the myth of consumer ignorance (open.substack.com)