Brendanjones

Brendanjones, 16 days ago to climate

Can somebody explain to me how any climate scientists think we will stay below 1.5C by 2100? I don’t see how we can keep below 1.5C considering the current temperature, the continued rate of high emissions, and the likely future efforts to reduce emissions (specifically, the insufficient efforts in the near future).

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/08/world-scientists-climate-failure-survey-global-temperature #climate

Brendanjones, 1 month ago to random

Now that quote posts are coming (confirmed by Renaud https://oisaur.com/@renchap/112299860209222424 ), I think it important that we have agreed upon acceptable usage.

Quote posts can be an amazing tool – there's a good reason they're so requested – but they also have the potential to add massive amounts of toxicity.

Gargron recognised this years ago: https://mastodon.social/@Gargron/99662106175542726

So here's my proposal for the Do's and Dont's of quote posting on Mastodon. Please boost!

🧵 Thread time:

Brendanjones, 1 month ago to climate

Fantastic. This is the kind of thing that'll directly drive reductions in fossil fuel projects.

"Zurich Insurance Group AG will no longer underwrite new oil and gas projects, and is cracking down on clients planning to expand in metallurgical coal mining."

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-04-08/zurich-insurance-to-halt-coverage-of-new-fossil-fuel-exposures
#climatechange #fossilfuels

Brendanjones, 1 month ago to climate

In a credibility-destroying move, the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) have decided to allow companies to count offsets towards reducing their scope 3 emissions.

Five SBTi teams have written an open letter calling for the CEO and Board who voted in favour to resign, and other orgs have also come out against it: https://carbonmarketwatch.org/publications/open-letter-on-the-use-of-carbon-credits-to-meet-scope-3-ghg-targets/

Full summary here: https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/companies-get-green-light-use-offsets-supply-chain-emissions-2024-04-10/

#climate #emissions

Brendanjones, 1 month ago to Economics

One thing that irks me about firms in (capitalist) markets is that they don't share information.

Capitalism is supposedly an efficient driver of innovation, but how efficient can it be when efforts are surely duplicated far more often than would happen if firms were collaborating?

So, how do you structure companies and inter-company relationships to foster both innovation (through competition?) and collaboration? Anyone have any info on this?

#Coops #Capitalism #Economics

Brendanjones, 2 months ago to UX

My wish for 2024 is for 'onboarding' to be added to keyboard dictionaries.

No, computer, I did not mean 'on-boarding' or 'on boarding'. Stop red-underlining my words. #UX

Brendanjones, 2 months ago to climate

“When environmental defenders are tried in future they will be barred from giving evidence of climate impacts to the jury to explain their motives”

Quite a worrying development in the UK, especially for climate protestors but also generally for anyone facing the justice system.

https://www.desmog.com/2024/03/19/court-of-appeal-rules-climate-crisis-a-matter-of-opinion/ #climate #uk

Brendanjones, 2 months ago to firefox

I’m seeing more and more sites not working in #Firefox for iOS - the latest is LinkedIn.

It was working a few months ago, but now it’s completely messed up compared to how it displays in Safari and Chrome. I refuse to download their app.

It always seems to be companies that very much have the resources to make their website interoperable, so it’s very obviously an intentional choice. Not a great sign for the #OpenWeb.

This is not a criticism of Firefox, quite the opposite.

Brendanjones, 2 months ago to random

Wowsers. @terzibus here basically saying 'there's a problem but it's politically hard to fix so we won't fix it' is certainly an ... er ... interesting dismissal.

https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/degrowth-movement-is-politically-impractical-by-alessio-terzi-2024-03 #degrowth

Brendanjones, 2 months ago (edited 2 months ago) to random

Turns out the only thing that certain Marxists hate more than #degrowth is the idea that Marx was the original degrowther.

Jacobin publishing degrowth hit pieces is nothing new, but Kohei Sotei's vision of degrowth communism obviously riles them up so much that Leigh Philips and Matt Huber felt the need to get together and co-author an article.

The hate is palpable, and amusing: https://jacobin.com/2024/03/kohei-saito-degrowth-communism-environment-marxism

Brendanjones, 2 months ago (edited 2 months ago) to books

I've been meaning to read Tim Jackson's books for many years but never got around to it.

Does anybody have opinions on which to read, if I were to choose just one?

The choice is between Prosperity Without Growth (2009) and Post Growth: Life After Capitalism (2021).

I am well read on #degrowth and #postgrowth in general so don't need an intro. I'm more interested in visions of post growth systems than critique of growth. #books

Brendanjones, 2 months ago to climate

Blimey, we just hit 21.2°C global average sea surface temperature. First time that's happened in recorded history.

#climate

Brendanjones, 2 months ago to science

“according to a recently published survey, lots of digital documents aren't consistently showing up in the archives that are meant to preserve it. And that puts us at risk of losing academic research—including science paid for with taxpayer money.”

https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/03/study-finds-that-we-could-lose-science-if-publishers-go-bankrupt/?
#science #Academia #research #OpenScience

Brendanjones, 2 months ago to sustainability

Can we fulfill basic needs for 10 billion humans without destabilizing the Earth system? Can we live in the donut (economy)?

The answer is 'yes', according to this new paper:

"it is theoretically possible to satisfy the basic needs of 10.4 billion people within ecological limits. However, large-scale transformations in all sectors and dietary changes are necessary to guarantee safe climate conditions."

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652624008953

#planetaryboundaries #sustainability #donuteconomy #climate

Brendanjones, 2 months ago (edited 2 months ago) to climate

Decent read. It has the same format as most 'intro to #degrowth' articles:

• "The current idea is green growth. Sounds good, right?"
• "Oh wait that's empirically impossible"
• "Here's the new idea: degrowth. It's the only way we avoid environmental collapse"
• "But achieving that is such a huge task that it appears impossible, because a growth based economy, vested interests and cultural inertia make it politically untenable"
• "Sooo...what now?"

https://grist.org/economics/how-to-decouple-emissions-from-economic-growth-these-economists-say-you-cant/

#postgrowth #climate

Brendanjones, 2 months ago to mastodon

I think one of the most powerful changes we could make to content discovery on Mastodon is by showing hashtagged posts to everyone following that tag.

Right now, you only see tagged posts from your federated feed, which is (I think): posts and boosts from your follows, from anyone on your server, and from anyone followed by anyone on your server

If you’re on a big server then yes, that is a lot of posts, but it’s no way near all of them!

Community-building needs this.

#mastodon #mastodev

Brendanjones, 2 months ago to Economics

In a world of global supply chains, why aren't workers paid the same no matter their location?

Economically, I get it. I get why production is outsourced to wherever costs are cheapest.

But morally? Just because that's how the system operates doesn't mean that's how it should operate.

New law: every person involved at any stage of a company's supply chain must be paid, at a minimum, the minimum wage of the country in which the company operates.

#inequality #economics

Brendanjones, 2 months ago to random

Pretty glad we're on a platform where favouriting a post doesn't cost $44.99.

Looks like Reddit is trying to prove they have revenue streams before IPO time 😆

Brendanjones, 2 months ago to UX

I've long seen people question why there's a perception that Mastodon is hard to use.

Let me use a really concrete example I just came across that breaks the maxim "don't make me think":

Bluesky just added keyword muting, and it's way easier than doing it here.

While viewing any feed/post:

Moderation > Muted words and tags > type in word (the focus is in text field, no click required) > hit enter > click back button twice to return to where I was.

That's 4 clicks.

#UX #Mastodon #Mastodev

Brendanjones, 2 months ago to climate

"Achieving carbon neutrality is like solving one face of a Rubik’s cube – necessary but not sufficient."

Another zinger from @timparrique, in response to another load of anti-degrowth drivel from Jacobin.

https://timotheeparrique.com/a-response-to-daniel-driscoll-another-slice-of-degrowth-bashing/ #degrowth #climate

Brendanjones, 2 months ago (edited 2 months ago) to ai

Alright, so many companies are using user or customer data for training #AI without consent that I think I'm going to have to make an ongoing thread to document them all. 🤖

Here we go! 1/x

Starting out with #Reddit who have sold user data to another company, that will use it to train AI:

https://fosstodon.org/@Brendanjones/111964241353263058

Brendanjones, 2 months ago (edited 2 months ago) to TeslaMotors

Y'know what'd be awesome to minimise the material footprint of cars? Standardised, modular battery systems.

Imagine: for your daily city usage you use a small battery with, say, 150-300km range. Then when you want to take your family on holiday you take your car to the local battery swap and install the 800km range battery.

Smaller battery means:

1. Lighter cars = less wear on roads & less danger in crashes
2. Cheaper
3. Lower material and environmental footprint

#EV #cars #Transport

Brendanjones, 2 months ago to goodnews

BREAKING: in fantastic news for life everywhere, the EU Nature Restoration Law was passed this morning.

Restoring the natural systems on which we live is the only logical action to take for anyone who wants human civilisation to continue. It’s also the logical option for the economy:

“The European Commission estimates that restoring natural environments would generate around €1,860 billion, at an estimated cost of just €154 billion.”

https://www.euractiv.com/section/biodiversity/news/contested-nature-restoration-law-passes-eu-parliament-despite-last-minute-revolt/ #GoodNews #EU #biodiversity

Brendanjones, 2 months ago to Trains

In ‘news that should surprise nobody but it’s nice to have it quantified’: high speed rail is less carbon intensive than short-haul flights, even when you take into account the full life cycle (including construction).

In other words, we should be banning short-haul flights and investing in trains.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S136192092300384X?via%3Dihub #trains #climateChange #rail #transport

Brendanjones, 3 months ago (edited 3 months ago) to random

It's always interesting what cultural norms appear that are shaped by the limitations of a given technology.

Case in point: Bluesky doesn't have a way to follow topics like we do with hashtags here. So how are people getting around that?

Well, they do have custom feeds, but how do you tell which posts should go in a feed?

Answer: People have started using emojis as a filter for popular feeds. So the Science feed uses a test tube 🧪, Econsky uses 📈📉, and Ecology uses globes 🌍, 🌎, or 🌏.