"Scientists have not yet established a direct climate change link with this particular storm."
20 years ago, scientists predicted bigger, wetter, more extreme storms. Now we're getting bigger, wetter, more extreme storms. The only thing that benefits from this pusillanimous "journalism" is fossil fuel companies. And this is from "Inside Climate News"! It's not like it's CNN or something.
If you fully implement ecological accounting--that is, deducting from the balance sheet the cost of any environmental damage or degradation caused by production--then you come out even. That's the best we can hope for, because we live in a system that is, apart from the sun's daily energy input, closed.
Remember Patrick Braxton? The absolute legend who got sick of his small Alabama town being run by a bunch of unelected racist anti-vaxxers? The guy who ran for mayor of Newbern, AL, and won, despite said unelected officials trying to give him the wrong information about running for office? The guy who was then subsequently locked out of the mayor's office by said racist anti-vaxxers and sued?
Well, he has had a minor setback: a federal judge refused to grant his and other plaintiffs' request for an immediate injunction forcing Haywood "Woody" Stokes III (the unelected, white mayor who inherited the mayoralty from a 60-year-long chain of unelected white men) to stop locking Braxton out of town hall and step down. She noted that the plaintiffs, by waiting over a year to file the suit, failed to show the urgency of the request. However, she also noted that his argument in the trial, set to begin this September, is likely to win out.
Ways in which liberals who claim to care about the outcome of the 2024 presidential election can help Trump win: post shit like this. Blame voters for getting upset about being asked to vote for genocide.
@SallyStrange That's a real leap to voting from genocide.
I get you are rock solid on your position, but could you perhaps for just a moment see it as being a vote for a system where you can try to stop genocide vs. a system where you could be shot in the street for trying to stop anything.
I'm not saying you're wrong nor your opinion invalid.
But could you see from a different point of view where someone is voting for a future positive as opposed to an indifferent, callous nazi supporter?
The problem with reading a lot is then you learn a lot, and then you want to tell other people about the things you've learned, and then they resent you for being a "know-it-all" (no I just know some of the things)
"The literature on degrowth routinely argues (appropriately so) that the global north rather than the global south must be the target for change, but it may well be that the vanguard for degrowth resides, paradoxically, in the global south. It may be that subconscious bias causes us to believe that the global south must catch up with the economic production of the wealthiest states, rather than encouraging us to imagine that the wealthy states need to catch up to the level of consciousness displayed by the most radical societies in the global south."
(Some) ignorant leftbros: "Class first! No idpol!"
Scholars of right wing politics/economics: "All these right-wing thinkers are much more comfortable thinking about the blurred lines between sexual and economic politics than many thinkers on the left. And they understand that Keynesianism rests on a certain kind of sexual contract. Any challenge to this order—whether it be an escalation of wage or benefit claims, or the flight from sexual normativity, or unmarried women claiming welfare benefits—disrupts the fiscal and monetary calculus on which Keynesianism rests."
Above remark from "The Extravagances of Neoliberalism", an interview of Melinda Cooper (author of "Counterrevolution: Extravagance and Austerity in Public Finance") by Benjamin Kunkel, in The Baffler.
@SallyStrange@bookstodon I always feel that those on the Left who wish to reduce everything to class to the exclusion of all else care more for what is usually a very superficial dogma than manifesting actual change
Without recognition and due value for the experiences of different communities, there can be no intersectionality and without intersectionality there will be no change. As you say, the Right gets this only too well
A fun climate adaptation update from the world of roofing construction:
-blue roofs, which are designed to retain water. New to me. One must design roof deck to hold greater loads, of course, but this is going to be a requirement across the board regardless of whether one builds a blue roof or not, just because of increased storm severity. Anyway, the water retained on a blue roof can be directed inside to water plants or, I suppose, flush toilets. Or it can be released into the storm drain system, but slowly, thus reducing local flooding. Stored water can insulate and it can actively cool a building during hot weather as it evaporates.
-green roofs, you've probably heard about them, it's a roof with plants on top! Also requires increased load-bearing capacity. Can be challenging to maintain, especially during dry weather. But the advantages: insulation and cooling, reduction in flooding and in air pollution impacts. When paired with solar panels, they can increase the efficiency of electricity generation, since photovoltaic panels don't love operating in high heat.
-the simplest roofing climate intervention: changing the color of the roofing membrane or shingles from dark to light. A simple increase in albedo can decrease temperatures in the vicinity 1 - 2 C.
@SallyStrange I live on the 9th floor in a traditionally 3-floor brownstones neighborhood and I've seen several buildings' roofing change from mate black to silver over the past years. It's probably better for these buildings' insulation, but it has drastically increased the amount of reflected sunlight we are getting in our own apartment!
Steven Donziger (the lawyer literally jailed by Chevron for the terrible crime of helping Indigenous peoples win court victories against them) has an update about the South African case against Israel in the ICJ:
"Among the chilling new facts: Israel has created "extermination zones" in Gaza where any human that moves can be killed, no questions asked; the country's army uses Artificial Intelligence to quickly put together extensive target lists, without actually verifying the person targeted is a combatant as required by international law; Israel has now "hermetically sealed" Gaza from the outside world with its invasion of Rafah, further crippling the entry of life-saving humanitarian aid needed to stave off mass famine; Israel is attacking and closing the last two hospitals in Rafah, essentially eradicating the last remnants of the territory's health care system; 600,000 children in Rafah, many alone and orphaned, have no place to flee; and Israeli snipers are actually killing children foraging for food."