crash_course

FantasticalEconomics, 1 month ago to climate

Not going to lie, I'm skeptical. Very skeptical. But there is a chance CO2 emissions will have peaked in 2023.

"We find there is a 70% chance that emissions start falling in 2024 if current clean technology growth trends continue and some progress is made to cut non-CO2 emissions."

Regardless of if it actually happens, it is important to recognize the progress we are making, which are more rapid than most realize and many predicted. There is hope.

https://www.vox.com/climate/24139383/climate-change-peak-greenhouse-gas-emissions-action

#ClimateChange

compost, 1 month ago to gardening

This video by the channel No-Till Growers presents a simple composting system that uses chickens.

It is an interesting system that explores how to use on-farm inputs only.

#Nodig #gardening #chickens #compostodon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLaG47P-Q24
.

compost, 1 month ago to random

Here is a fascinating video on how to make compost with ancient tools.

I love this garden that is for me an inspiration. The owner Yves has created a garden on a swamp that he has maintained for 40 years.

The video is in French but it shows all of the basics of how to harvest and prepare your organic matter.

#compostodon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T94mlh8qtfw

compost, 1 month ago to climate

Starting to read articles about farmers warning that for the first time, since WWII, we could have a year with no harvest in a lot of crops.

I have seen many documentaries warning us that because of the topsoil being washed away we will see events like this happening.

The consequences of the #ClimateChange are that it becomes more difficult to provide a crop with safe conditions to grow.

My point is mastering compost at home and learning to grow your food is a very valuable skill.

lzg, 2 months ago to random

deleted_by_author

compost, 2 months ago to climate

AI services contribute to the #climatechange

We support fully the choice of #mastodon to limit the use of AI. This is why we chose to exclusively post our content here.

There is a lot of tech companies that rush to use the latest AI technologies but if it is to the detriment of our planet we are not going to care for it.

Not using AI is resistance and a thing you can do if you wish to help the #climate.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ais-climate-impact-goes-beyond-its-emissions/

doomscroller, 2 months ago to random

Planetary boundary pioneer Johan Rockström awarded 2024 Tyler Prize
"We are risking to destabilize the entire Earth system. We’re risking to push the whole planet on a drift away from livable conditions for humanity. It’s an existential risk we’re facing."
https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/planetary-boundary-pioneer-johan-rockstrom-awarded-2024-tyler-prize/ #LateStageHumanity

BE, 3 months ago to homeassistant

I have some personal news to share. We're moving! As some of you already know, we have been working on a formerly abandoned homestead site, completely off-grid, with a small log cabin in the woods, for years now, trying to make it livable again. We are finally at the point where we can make this happen in the coming months. We are tentatively planning this for the summer.

For the first time in my life, really, I will no longer be an active chemist. The push and pull of going back into the office, where I am not needed, has reached a boiling point for me. I am resigning from the company I helped start and build and moving onto the next thing in my life as a forest farmer, dad and homeschool parent. Wish me luck. I've done one thing for the last 30+ years and now I'm going cold turkey away from it, to something pretty much the opposite.

I think I will be posting some about our successes and failures with the new adventure. Don't expect any pictures of us or anything. I have never found a picture of myself on the internet and there's not one of either of my boys. We're pretty private people, but, hopefully there'll be lots of nature photos along our trails and pictures of our soon-to-be plant based foods.

This year I am hoping to get some good information from the brilliant minds of Mastodon about a lot of things, including:

#Greenhouse gardening. We have an ~800 sq ft, completely empty greenhouse. It has a large built in fan on one end, but no power. We have some solar panels on a hillside near it that are decades old, but still functional, that we are planning on repurposing to power the greenhouse along with the EcoFlow solar generators that we previously used to power the cabin before getting our permanent power up and running. Depending on how power hungry the motor is, we may need to add onto that. We'll see! I honestly don't know how many hours a day we'll need use the fans, for instance.

It's a blank slate, though. Zone 7b under the latest USDA map. Concrete floor. Otherwise completely empty. We have lots of thoughts about how best to use it, both to feed the family and have some left over. In the short term we would like to can and jar excess food, but we have plans to donate to the local community in the long term.

We have a year-round running spring at an appropriate elevation above it, but it would be quite the chore to collect and get that water to the greenhouse. We also have a year-round creek below it that we could conceivably pump water up from. We also have two boys who may end up running a lot of water around manually in the short term.

#HomeAssistant - I want our #Victron equipment to talk to our HomeKit in the end. While I don't intend to expand our HomeAssistant usage dramatically beyond that, I know that's how these things start and next thing you know you have 100 devices. It would be pretty cool to have greenhouse monitoring equipment as well.

Do I start a setup with something simple like the HomeAssistant Yellow if I don't want to spend a ton of time on this part of the plan?

It might be possible to get this to communicate to our new Rheem heat pump hot water heater, too, but that's the extent of our current HomeAssistant thoughts.

#ForestFarming - We have some endangered native plants, as well as some cash crops growing both natively and intentionally planted in the forest as some test plots. Think ramps, ginseng, etc. but we are forest farming noobs.

We also have some test mushrooms going in log plugs that we intend to expand as we learn what works and what doesn't.

#LIDAR and #GIS - The state we are moving to has pretty decent LIDAR data of our property. I've played around with it quite a bit and made some fun maps. I was even able to find some hidden old logging roads that haven't been used in 100 years. I don't even know what I don't know in this area, but I'm planning to keep playing with it for data for the forest farming, running water from springs, etc.

I'm sure I'll add to this in a thread as we go and more things come up. It's all, honestly, terrifying and exhilarating at the same time at the moment, particularly for our boys who will be leaving the only home they've ever known this summer.

Also, wish me luck on my first ever public toot, I believe. I block and mute a lot of people anyway, so at least I know where those buttons are up front :)

davidho, 3 months ago to random

What if we just stopped burning fossil fuels instead?

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/02/climate/sun-shade-climate-geoengineering.html?unlocked_article_code=1.TE0.6ccB.WPbyWyHFA-6J&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb

crash_course, 4 months ago to privacy

Year In Review: Google’s Corporate Paternalism in The Browser

It’s a big year for the oozing creep of corporate paternalism and ad-tracking technology online. Google and its subsidiary companies have tightened their grips on the throat of internet innovation, all while employing the now familiar tactic of marketing these things as beneficial for users. Here we’ll review the most significant changes this year, all emphasizing the point that browser privacy tools (like Privacy Badger) are more important than ever.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/12/year-review-googles-corporate-paternalism-browser

#privacy #surveillance #SurveillanceCapitalism #Google #Chrome #CrashCourse

forteller, 5 months ago to cycling

Looking for a last minute gift? Give a bicycle to someone in need in Ukraine!

Bikes4Ukraine ships used, fixed up bikes to Ukraine. There they are used – without fuel, able to go past "potholes" from bombs and rubble from toppled buildings – to deliver food, water, medicine, etc to those in need.

Everybody needs transportation. And in a crisis a bike can be the perfect tool!

You get a gift card to print/email as a gift.

https://bikes4ukraine.myshopify.com/products/give-a-used-bike-to-ukraine

#bicycle #BikeTooter #christmas #ukraine #Gifts

gerrymcgovern, 5 months ago to random

Tire dust makes up the majority of ocean microplastics and hangs as an invisible mist wherever cars are driven. A traditional petrol / diesel car's four tires will pollute 1 trillion toxic nano particles for every kilometer driven. There are about 1.4 billion cars in the world. Let’s assume they drive and average 20,000 km per year. That means that every year some 28 septillion of these toxic particles pollute air, soil and water. That’s 28,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

crash_course, 5 months ago to Collapse

On doomers and sentinel intelligence.

Many of us have been identifying strongly with Cassandra over the last few years. We watch the media downplay and dismiss one threat after another. We endure endless opinion pieces about everything from climate alarmism to coronaphobia. Influencers accuse us of hurting everyone’s mental health. Strangers call us doomers and fearmongers. Our friends and family treat us like we’re paranoid. When we share dozens or even hundreds of studies, they refuse to look at them. They say, “I don’t want to read anything that’ll bring me down.”

“I’m trying to stay positive.”

....
Here’s the thing:

You’re not a fearmonger.

You have sentinel intelligence.

Sentinel intelligence refers to a special cognitive ability that allows someone to detect threats before anyone else. Richard A. Clarke and R.P. Eddy talk about this trait in their book.... They review a number of natural and economic disasters throughout history. ”Not only were Cassandra's ignored, but “the people with the power to respond often put more effort into discounting the Cassandra than saving lives and resources.”

Well worth reading!

https://www.okdoomer.io/youre-not-a-fearmonger-you-have-sentinel-intelligence/

#doomer #Collapse #Fear #psychology #CrashCourse #positivism

crash_course, 6 months ago to Depression

We all know things are bad.

We all know the ecosystem is collapsing.

We all know that civilisation is collapsing.

I wrote a book about it, but I can not do much about it, save raising awareness about it and give suggestions as how to prepare both mentally and physically for things happening and things to come in the near future.

All this did not make me a happier person. It is making me sick and depressed.

To keep 'up-to-date' I, just as many others around here, follow the news about war, ecology, more war, crises, pollution and the proposed solutions out of the pipe of technology (techno-fixes).

That neither helps or gives any relieve.

Watching shit, makes you feel shit, like this article explains:

https://theconversation.com/news-overload-how-a-constant-stream-of-violent-images-affects-your-brain-216770

I decided to detox on this and to focus more on things I can do that have a positive effect on me and hopefully also on the world at large.

I have new project in mind that I will advertise here soon.
(PS edit april 2024: not sure if I want to spend more time online instead of in the garden...)

Don't let yourself be inundated with shit.

#Sad #depressed #depression #collapse #crisis #Extinction #war #CrashCourse

gerrymcgovern, 6 months ago to random

In 1900, if you mined one ton of copper, you caused about 25 tons of waste.

In 2023, to mine the same one ton of copper, you cause almost 190 tons of waste.

Copper, like all other metals, is not disappearing in a flash. It is fading away, dissipating, being available in smaller and smaller quantities. That will result in more and more toxic waste, more and more damage to the environment for less and less return.

Finite mining on a finite planet

cyberlyra, 6 months ago to random

Recommendations for the best Linux distros for touchscreen--go!

(looking for ease of: pop up keyboard, tappable icons, general interaction as tablet-like device)

GhostOnTheHalfShell, 6 months ago to climate

deleted_by_author

crash_course, 7 months ago to climate

When reading headlines like these:

"Earth close to ‘risk tipping points’ that will damage our ability to deal with climate crisis, warns UN

Analysis also warns of further tipping points on horizon such as drying up of groundwater vital for food supplies"

It is clear that a collapse is not just a '#doomer' scenario, but a real threat. #Acceptance of that fact is step 1 towards a sane way of dealing with the situation. The next step would be to adopt another mindset. A very profound #Mindshift is needed.

Why it is unlikely that we can avoid a collapse of both the ecological system and western civilisation is the main topic of my book, but in the last part of it I focus mostly on the things that we can do that will soften our #crashlanding.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/oct/25/climate-crisis-threatens-tipping-point-of-uninsurable-homes-says-un

#ClimateEmergency #ClimateChaos #TippingPoints #Collapse #Ecosystem #CrashCourse

gerrymcgovern, 7 months ago to random

Local residents living in the DRC’s ‘cobalt capital of the world’ are being forced to relocate in order to make way for a mine owned by Chinese company COMMUS (Compagnie miniere de Musonie).
https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/mine-in-world-cobalt-capital-displaces-locals-and-monks-under-questionable-circumstances/

Andy_Scollick, 7 months ago to random

Indigo Rumbelow, Just Stop Oil activist:

"At 6.15 ths morning 5 policemen in an unmarked car came to my house, threatened to bash in the door, arrested and handcuffed me.
I was still in my pyjamas.
The ‘crimes’?
Holding a placard and giving a speech."

gerrymcgovern, 7 months ago to random

Free displaces the cost to Nature, to the environment.

Anything that is free has a massive underlying marketing, advertising and consumption cost.

The Web is like an iceberg. We only see the visible content. 90% of the Web is hidden advertising architecture.

Free hides the cost and encourages consumption and addiction.

Free says there is no cost, so if there is no cost, there is no waste, there is no need to worry about over-use, over-consumption.

Free encourages us to devour.

cyberlyra, 7 months ago to random

Finally read Marc Andressen's techno-optimist manifesto. I will say that I do appreciate him taking the time to write down, for posterity, as if that ideology were just naturally true and not mindbogglingly stupid, all the toxic B.S. that makes the capitalist techno class (building out their prepper bunkers, mind you) tick, if only to ensure that people a hundred years from now won't have to wonder, WTF were these assholes even THINKING??

baldur, 7 months ago to random

“The Techno-Optimist Manifesto | Andreessen Horowitz”

This manifesto is one of the more horrific documents I’ve read lately, largely because of how normalised its rhetoric has become

It’s fascism. Like falangism with the catholicism swapped out for the prosperity doctrine https://a16z.com/the-techno-optimist-manifesto/