Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

How stupid are these people?

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Museums are not America’s attic for its racist shit.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

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Climate Change Solutions

My Views On Nuclear Power

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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.

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A Small Step

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Folks,

I just wanted to pass on a tip that may cost you a bit more money but will reduce your carbon footprint. I mean most of us here know this and care about these issues, but that doesn’t always result in action or change, now does it?

So last Friday I spent 30 minutes researching and then changing my electricity provider from the standard (dirty) mix of sources to 100% renewable. It literally took a few minutes to setup and configure my new source which is still delivered by my local power company.

When I first went to sign up, it offered me at no extra charge on top of my normal power bill, a 50-50 mix of wind/renewable and normal. So just by signing up for free and with no premium, I could be 50% renewable. I figured, “Well, they’ve already given me half, might as well make it 100%” and clicked the slider, Apply, and I was done. Of course that’s the sales pitch, and it worked. On top of things, I get a $50 Best Buy card in the mail soon which will come in handy as I shop.

I am now using 100% renewable power, and since this house is all-electric, I can sleep a bit better knowing that I’m helping in a small way every minute. My power bill will increase a bit as the renewable is more expensive, but that’s a small investment in a slightly better future – in this case, value today means outsize effects in the future and I’d rather pay that bill now if possible, before it gets bigger.

In the back of my mind, I knew that I could do this, but didn’t get around to actually doing it until I read about the Federal Government report on Friday and made my small step. In this case, my provider was/is running a Black Friday promotion with the before-mentioned gift card. The physical hookup, etc. remain as they are, so really this just means that they feed my local power company X kilowatts of power each period to cover my usage.

It’s contract, installation-fee, and investment -free, so I can change my mix or mind whenever I choose, though I expect I’ll stick with them as long as the price remains acceptable. I’m not funding some investment jackass’s new furniture to feel pure, so I plan to keep an eye on the rates and how it all goes down.

I’m not looking for accolades, but wanted to prompt as many of you as possible to check your local electricity providers to see if they offer an option for renewable energy, or if you are in an area where you can choose your supplier, see if you can find a renewable provider that you’re comfortable with. In my case, knowing that my local power company still delivers and services the lines means that I should see no difference except less carbon usage and a slightly higher bill.

 

Open Thread!

 

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Global Warming Topics Suggested By Readers

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Y’all gave me quite an earful on global warming issues. In this post, I’m collecting them into larger categories. I won’t try to identify every contributor, and some suggestions came from more than one. If I missed your suggestion, let me know in the comments.

I am not an expert on all these topics, although I can put together creditably surveys of many of them. I am more than happy to hear from anyone who has expertise in an area and is willing to write a guest post. So far, Martin has volunteered on actions in California, Dan B on communication, and Boussinesque on ocean-related issues.

And yes, I know that the classification can be cut in different ways. I’m just trying to put things together in a way to provoke discussion and eventually start to choose topics for posts.

show full post on front page

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Walking The Walk

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I have spouted off any number of times on Twitter about global warming (yes, that’s what I’m calling it now unless I see a good reason to change to something else), less frequently here at Balloon Juice. The latest IPCC report says we have ten years to do something about it, before the really, really bad effects start to kick in. So we have to start today.

There’s a lot to understand about global warming, although the essentials are

  1. We must start now on a serious program.
  2. The goal is to end combustion of fossil fuels that puts carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

There are many things that need to be done: develop technologies, replace the idiots in government that are making things worse, educate people on how the changes that are coming will affect them. We need to be looking at ways to make our social and physical environment robust to likely changes, like the rising oceans.

To contribute to what needs to be done, I plan to post more frequently on global warming. I want to know what you want to hear about, and what you want to do. In the interests of no surprises, let me tell you up front that what individuals do is a drop in the ocean. The big targets are electricity generation and transportation, particularly international transportation.

I will also be relatively intolerant of whining to no purpose. Defining problems in order to develop solutions is good; whining that this is too big and we can’t understand and everything is terrible doesn’t do us any good. This can be solved, and we can do it. We cut our teeth on controlling emissions that cause the ozone hole. China is cheating on that now, but we’ll handle that.

I would particularly like your thoughts in the comments so that I know what things will be of the greatest interest and use for future posts.

Graphic from here.

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Mid To Late Evening Open Thread: The Crossdressing Attorneys Of Arendelle To The Rescue!

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(Sort of) Queen Elsa to the rescue!

You’d expect to see this type of thing in Florida, not Boston, if Florida had blizzards.

Also, Crossdressing Attorneys would be the name of my neo-punk cover band if I had any musical aptitude whatsoever.

Obligatory:

Stay frosty!

Open thread.

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Good News! A Win for the Environment (If We Can Keep It)

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As many people pointed out, given the current economy, the oil industry was not exactly eager to start pouring money into starting the process to eventually build more offshore rigs that would inevitably draw politically explosive protests. Zinke’s Drill-Baby-Drill Statement was always intended as a slap against the blue states and their “disloyal” non-Repub voters. But getting him publicly pantsed was a win for our side, yes?…

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Scienterrific Open Thread: Because 2017 Can *Always* Get Worse…

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For the record, I’m all in favor of scientific research — I just don’t trust the Repubs and their hand-picked goobers to do anything useful here, and (like everybody else) I’m not sanguine about their ability not to make things actively worse…

… Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, made the announcement, in which he outlined a new framework for the controversial research. The work with three viruses can now go forward, but only if a scientific review panel determines that the benefits outweigh the risks…

The decision brings an end to a three-year moratorium on research involving the influenza virus, severe acute respiratory syndrome (known as SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (or MERS). Critics say the research could unleash a new germ that threatens millions if it is not properly stored or if it escapes from a lab.

The government paused the research in 2014 to review the practices in handling and storing infectious agents. At the time, Collins said that biosafety and biosecurity risks needed to be “understood better.”

The pause came after several incidents involving the mishandling of potentially dangerous pathogens at government laboratories.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention accidentally exposed dozens of workers to anthrax in 2014, and a subsequent investigation detailed other instances in which lab workers did not follow protocol. Around that time, vials of the deadly smallpox virus were found in a cardboard box in an unsecured refrigerator at the National Institutes of Health’s campus in Bethesda, Maryland.

In Tuesday’s announcement, the institutes said that approved research would take place only if the researcher and institution where the research is being conducted demonstrate the “capacity and commitment to conduct it safely and securely, and have the ability to respond rapidly” should things go wrong.

It also said that the research must be “ethically justifiable” and that any pathogen created, transferred or used in the research “must be reasonably judged to be a credible source of a potential future human pandemic.”…

Here’s hoping Jared Kushner isn’t already circulating a memo offering to sell the findings to the highest bidder, cash before delivery, overseas depositories preferred. (I’d say “Don Jr.,” except we’d already have copies of the memo if it were one of Trump’s genetic sons making the offer.)

Scienterrific Open Thread: Because 2017 Can *Always* Get Worse…Post + Comments (15)