May oil futures are negative. People are paying other people to figure out how to store May oil production contracts:
Now might be a wonderful time to add a $0.50 or $1.00 per gallon gas tax.
by David Anderson| 109 Comments
This post is in: Climate Change Solutions, Energy Policy, Open Threads
May oil futures are negative. People are paying other people to figure out how to store May oil production contracts:
Now might be a wonderful time to add a $0.50 or $1.00 per gallon gas tax.
This post is in: Climate Change Solutions, Open Threads, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome
I’m going to be away from the keyboard the first part of today, but the strike for the planet’s climate has begun and is sweeping around the globe.
I know there’s too much going on. What are you doing for the climate?
Among the thousands of #GlobalClimateStrike protesters was this geographer. Huge crowd. Unable to tweet at time because of overload of system? #SydneyClimateStrike pic.twitter.com/6B0orqmNxt
— Linda Vergnani (@ecowrite) September 20, 2019
This is Sydney, Australia.
On strike.
For the climate. https://t.co/5siJcj9rwF
— Eric Holthaus (@EricHolthaus) September 20, 2019
VIDEO: ?? People take to the streets of Polish capital Warsaw as part of the global #FridaysForFuture climate strike. A global day of protests will culminate in New York, where 1.1 million students have been permitted to skip school.#CoveringClimateNow pic.twitter.com/AvPmqGW6ND
— AFP news agency (@AFP) September 20, 2019
From children to grandparents… everyone is here at the Delhi #ClimateStrike. Because we want #ClimateAction NOW! pic.twitter.com/vsiaX8ToD4
— Amrita Bahl, Ed.D (@amritabahl) September 20, 2019
Tiny tiny fraction of the Edinburgh #ClimateStrike pic.twitter.com/qmI20wBwz8
— James Mackenzie (@mrjamesmack) September 20, 2019
The rain isn’t stopping #ClimateAction in Copenhagen! #klimastrejke #ClimateStrike pic.twitter.com/ACUSuK4PPP
— E3G (@e3g) September 20, 2019
Over 50’000 in #Hamburg according to early reports #FridaysForFuture #ClimateStrike pic.twitter.com/C9a7jytAN6
— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) September 20, 2019
Today was the biggest climate march Johannesburg has seen!
The #ClimateStrike seems set to be the biggest climate mobilisation the world has seen!
May this be the pivotal moment where people truly take back the power from the fossil fuel industry and rise for climate justice! pic.twitter.com/zDziuxHZ0n
— Alex Lenferna (@AlexLenferna) September 20, 2019
The conference I’m attending in Munich was right next to a massive #climatestrike protest. This was the closest I could get to the square where it was held. pic.twitter.com/2066z1wNo4
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) September 20, 2019
With thousands of participants gathered in Nation square #Paris.
People walked out of their offices and homes to support the #GlobalClimateStrike, ask politicians to listen to scientists and fight for the future.#grevepourleclimat #ClimateStrike #FridaysForFuture @GretaThunberg pic.twitter.com/qwOTpKv0Ye— Rimaille (@Rimaille) September 20, 2019
Open thread!
by David Anderson| 48 Comments
This post is in: Climate Change Solutions, Energy Policy, Open Threads
Wow. For the first time ever, renewables are a bigger contributor to U.S. energy than coal https://t.co/WgQYXKTy9T pic.twitter.com/pjleiCnz9Q
— Joe Weisenthal (@TheStalwart) June 26, 2019
by David Anderson| 72 Comments
This post is in: Climate Change, Climate Change Solutions, Open Threads
This #Coal-free run ended at 90 Hours 45 Minutes.
This is a modern record for Great Britain
Generation during this time was met by: Gas 42%, Nuclear 23%, Wind 12%, Solar 11%, Imports 7%, Biomass 4%, Large Hydro 1%, Storage 0% pic.twitter.com/Ii5RCjqTZK
— UK Coal (@UK_Coal) April 22, 2019
Great Britain went almost four days without having to draw power from a domestic coal power plant. That is good news. It is not great news, as half of the power generated and consumed still produced carbon dioxide but it is good news.
As countries continue to deploy more solar and storage prices come down, more and more days will be coal free. The next challenge over the next decade is to eat into cheap natural gas. And even there, there is hope as the combined levelized cost of power for brand new renewable generation is below that of fossil fuels. There is a huge bolus of natural gas capacity that has a significant natural lifespan in front of it, but the repair or replace calculation looks like it will be leaning towards replace with renewables and storage for most cases.
OPEN THREAD
by Adam L Silverman| 101 Comments
This post is in: 2020 Elections, America, Climate Change, Climate Change Solutions, Crazification Factor, Domestic Politics, Foreign Affairs, Glibertarianism, Open Threads, Politics, Popular Culture, Post-racial America, Silverman on Security, General Stupidity, Get Angry, Not Normal, Our Failed Political Establishment, Somewhere a Village is Missing its Idiot
Senator Lee gave a speech delineating his opposition to the Green New Deal today as part of Senate Majority Leader McConnell’s attempt to put the Senate Democratic caucus in a bind by making them take a stand either for or against one of the House Democratic caucus’s signature issues. Fortunately for us all, Senator Lee is, well, Senator Lee, which is sort of the Congresswoman Virginia Foxx of Senator Ted Cruzes. Or something… Even more fortuitously, Senator Lee posted a YouTube video of his remarks and posted a transcript of them at his Senate website. He’s so considerate!
Senator Lee’s major proposal for resolving the problem that is climate change is to have more babies*, because one of them might actually come up with a good idea to resolve the problem at some point in the future.
This, Mr. President, is the real solution to climate change: babies.
Climate change is an engineering problem – not social engineering, but the real kind.
It’s a challenge of creativity, ingenuity, and technological invention.And problems of human imagination are not solved by more laws, but by more humans!
More people mean bigger markets for innovation.
More babies mean more forward-looking adults – the sort we need to tackle long-term, large scale problems.
American babies, in particular, are likely going to be wealthier, better educated, and more conservation-minded than children raised in still-industrializing regions.
As economist Tyler Cowen recently wrote on this very point, “by having more children, you are making your nation more populous – thus boosting its capacity to solve [climate change].”
Finally, Mr. President, children are a mark of the kind of personal, communal, and societal optimism that is the true pre-requisite for meeting national and global challenges together.
The courage needed to solve climate change is nothing compared with the courage needed to start a family.
The true heroes of this story aren’t politicians or social media activists.
They are moms and dads, and the little boys and girls they are, at this moment, putting down for naps… helping with their homework… building tree houses… and teaching how to tie their shoes.
The planet does not need us to “think globally, and act locally” so much as it needs us to think family, and act personally.
The solution to climate change is not this unserious resolution, but the serious business of human flourishing – the solution to so many of our problems, at all times and in all places: fall in love, get married, and have some kids.
I yield the floor.
This, however, wasn’t the most batshit insane part of Senator Lee’s audio-visual extravaganza. Pride of place for that honor goes to the graphics and images he used to help make his point.
President Reagan on a velociraptor wielding a machine pistol while the velociraptor carries a tattered American flag – this is apparently big on one of the Chan boards/sites:
A still image from The Empire Strikes Back of Luke Skywalker riding on a tauntaun on the ice planet Hoth:
A still image from the Hannah-Barbera Saturday morning cartoon series Superfriends of Aquaman on his seahorse Storm from the early 1970s (in the earlier 1960s Filmation Aquaman-Superman Adventures Storm was white with gold ears – do not ask how I know this…):
A picture of a bunch of babies (awww!):
This is stupidity, disingenuousness, and bad faith on par with Kyle Reese’s description of the Terminator:
Listen, and understand. That terminator is out there. It can’t be bargained with. It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead.
I don’t care if you’re Senator Booker who is claiming one of his key strengths is that he can, because he has in the past, work effectively across the aisle or Howard Schultz who keeps stating that as an independent centrist that he can work with both sides, THERE IS NOTHING HERE TO WORK WITH!!!!! There’s no difference to split here, there’s no accommodation that can be made here, and there is no compromise that can be reached. Right now, whether you agree, partially agree, or disagree with what the Democrats are proposing, you’ve got one party actually proposing solutions that have been thought through and one party that proposes the same four things no matter what is going on: 1) cut taxes, 2) cut regulations, 3) gut the social safety net and undo the New Deal, 4) and allow unlimited amounts of money in politics because money equals speech and corporations equal people. And, if there’s a crisis involving brown people with funny accents: 5) deploy troops to deal with them. The shame that is the United States in 2019 is that there is one party, the Democratic Party, that is dealing with reality, even if you don’t agree with what they’re proposing and then there’s this insanity being peddled by the Republicans.
At this point I’m about two weeks away from declaring myself Sub-Commandante Citizen-Leftenant Zero and storming a radio station… **
Which leads to one of my favorite political cartoons of all time:
* I’m sure at some point this will be rolled into an argument why Roe V. Wade must be overturned and abortion made illegal so we don’t accidentally abort the baby that will save us from the climate change crisis that Senator Lee doesn’t actually believe exists.
** This is SARCASM, lest someone eventually show up or use this to claim I’m advocating the overthrow of the US government or endorsing the use of low intensity warfare and political violence.
Today in Great Moments in Senatorial Debate: Senator Mike Lee Edition!Post + Comments (101)
by Adam L Silverman| 198 Comments
This post is in: 2020 Elections, America, Climate Change, Climate Change Solutions, Domestic Politics, Foreign Affairs, Open Threads, Politics, Popular Culture, Post-racial America, All Too Normal, Assholes
Earlier today Waleed Shahid, fresh off of getting dragged for posting barbered and highly edited clips of Senator Harris from her town hall on his twitter feed several weeks ago, decided it was time to set his sights on the senior senator from California. As I suspected in the comments to an earlier post, Shahid had once again posted heavily edited videos on his twitter feed to go after someone that doesn’t measure up to his purity fanaticism. Fortunately, just like the last time, someone came along to set the record straight.
Here's the @SenFeinstein video threaded #DianneFeinstein To recap: she engaged on substance, told them she might vote "yes," and OFFERED ONE OF THEM AN INTERNSHIP. pt 1 pic.twitter.com/2Qgob2CH1V
— Tommy X-TrumpIsARacist-opher (@tommyxtopher) February 23, 2019
Here's the @SenFeinstein video threaded #DianneFeinstein pt 2 pic.twitter.com/r2lDYF7RqF
— Tommy X-TrumpIsARacist-opher (@tommyxtopher) February 23, 2019
Pt 3 Here's the @SenFeinstein video threaded #DianneFeinstein pic.twitter.com/c4sjJIUlt4
— Tommy X-TrumpIsARacist-opher (@tommyxtopher) February 23, 2019
Pt 4 Here's the @SenFeinstein video threaded #DianneFeinstein pt 4 pic.twitter.com/aelAQizpef
— Tommy X-TrumpIsARacist-opher (@tommyxtopher) February 23, 2019
Pt 5 Here's the @SenFeinstein video threaded #DianneFeinstein pt 5 pic.twitter.com/RXu4ieGY8d
— Tommy X-TrumpIsARacist-opher (@tommyxtopher) February 23, 2019
Pt 6 Here's the @SenFeinstein video threaded #DianneFeinstein Pt 6 pic.twitter.com/faKk46W3AP
— Tommy X-TrumpIsARacist-opher (@tommyxtopher) February 23, 2019
Now here’s the crap Shahid posted:
Everyone needs to watch this video of @SenFeinstein disparaging literal children from @SunriseMvmt calling on her to support @AOC and @SenMarkey’s Green New Deal.pic.twitter.com/SjF8thnucQ
— Waleed Shahid (@_waleedshahid) February 22, 2019
Shahid was once again full of shit, imagine that!!!!
Unfortunately, for all too many, Shahid’s lies will have already been taken as the gospel truth. It is bad enough that Democratic candidates and Democratic officeholders, as well as the organizations and individuals who support them, are going to be subjected to influence operations from the Russians, as well as a host of other state and non-state actors as we move into the 2020 elections, they shouldn’t have to also worry about being targeted by ideological fanatics like Shahid.
And as for the Justice Democrats, apparently they are running a protection scam where they require the candidates they endorse to send them funds rather than raise funds and send them to the candidates they’re endorsing!
Consulting fees from candidates to them are much more interesting.
— Hector Morales (@HectorMoralesTX) November 6, 2017
At one point as BNC/JD candidate I had to pay a 95% commission fee from my fundraising to them.
— Hector Morales (@HectorMoralesTX) November 6, 2017
You’d be a lot more disappointed if you saw the math we saw a few months ago.
— Hector Morales (@HectorMoralesTX) November 6, 2017
Not implying anything, but when I ceased paying for consulting both endorsements were removed. A coincidence I suppose.
— Hector Morales (@HectorMoralesTX) November 6, 2017
And lining their own pockets too!
https://twitter.com/JohnnyAkzam/status/930549286097637376
https://twitter.com/JohnnyAkzam/status/930586399564292096
https://twitter.com/JohnnyAkzam/status/930911897045618695
These fanatics aren’t interested in making things better, they are interested in promoting themselves, fleecing their donors, and ultimately tearing down the people that have the only real chance of ending the current President’s reelection chances and then beginning the long, hard, slow, and frustrating work of fixing all of the messes that the President, his administration, and his Republican Party and conservative movement enablers have created. I’m all for opening up the debate and pulling the center back somewhere closer to where it should be from where the Republicans and the conservative movement have pulled it for over the past 40 years. Waleed Shahid, the Justice Democrats, his fellow travelers, and their attempt to create an ideological inflexible Tea Party and Breitbart of the left is not the solution to any of these problems.
As I’ve been writing here for almost three years, we were attacked and are still being attacked by a hostile foreign power! We are at war! But rather than everyone that isn’t supporting the domestic beneficiaries of the ongoing attacks – the President, the Republican Party, and the conservative movement that supports them – pulling together to fix our problems, Shahid and his fellow travelers would rather do the enemy’s work for them and pull us apart. With “friends” like these, Democrats, liberals, progressives, the center left to left of center Americans don’t actually need enemies.
Open thread!
Waleed Shahid of the Justice Democrats is a Lying Shitbird!Post + Comments (198)
This post is in: 2020 Elections, Climate Change Solutions, Environmental Rights Are Human Rights, Open Threads, Rofer on Nuclear Issues, Blatant Liars and the Lies They Tell, General Stupidity
Last night we learned that Cory Booker feels that nuclear power will be important in our response to global warning.
So let me give a short summary of my feelings about nuclear power. They haven’t changed since I wrote this in August 2017.
We need nuclear power. I think that we can make it work. But there are a lot of reasons we might not. The fear of radioactivity is a big one. It’s irrational, it comes from a lack of education, the media fan it, and it seems impervious to any sort of persuasion.
The belief that there is no way to deal with the wastes is related, but separate. The repository at Yucca Mountain would be just fine except for politics. Nevada has decided that it won’t take other states’ radioactive garbage. So there. I can sorta sympathize, but not really. We do have a lot of empty space out here in the west, and not many people.
The time it takes to build a new reactor and the cost overruns, as they exist now, are disqualifying. This seems to be a problem in all sorts of areas, though. The solution may have more to do with contracting practices and bad incentives than anything else.
The new, smaller reactors that are being developed may be part of the solution. But it will take time to have them ready to go. Older reactors should not be shut down simply because natural gas is now cheap. Booker is right about that.
Overall, don’t give up on nuclear power. Learn about what radioactivity is. The nuclear industry and its proponents at DOE have to do a better job.