Deaths from climate change

[s2udio]

Just watched this from real accredited scientists, not fake bought and paid for ones.
Released today

 

[cyrano]

The world needs an enemy (Marwan Barghouti)...

It's funny how they link concrete to heat in cities. Avoiding the elephant in the room: asphalt. In the US, 94% of roads are asphalt. It heats up faster than concrete and is a permanent source of hydrocarbons in the air. Even when it's cold. Concrete has NO emissions.

There are a lot of holes in climate research. Doesn't take away we need to be far cleaner. There are over 100,000 containers with radio-active waste in our oceans, fi. How long do we think that we can keep that up? Micro plastics are everywhere. Then we need to address PFAs and the like. Not climate related, but evidence of how we are burning up our planet.

When a species disappears, we don't know if that is mother nature's way of ending a development strain, or caused by us. Logic dictates, however that most species were terminated by man.

 

[Matador]

All the scientists that agree with me are real and accredited! The ones that don't are fake and paid for!

 

[AnalogPackrat]

All the scientists that agree with me are real and accredited! The ones that don't are fake and paid for!

Missing the point again, I see. Consensus isn't science. Science is never really "settled." There are plenty of credible scientific explanations for what is (and is not) happening in the world's climate (or, more correctly, our currently very limited understanding of it and our imprecise estimates of it's distant history).

 

[AnalogPackrat]

The world needs an enemy (Marwan Barghouti)...

It's funny how they link concrete to heat in cities. Avoiding the elephant in the room: asphalt. In the US, 94% of roads are asphalt. It heats up faster than concrete and is a permanent source of hydrocarbons in the air. Even when it's cold. Concrete has NO emissions.

Concrete is an energy intensive material to produce and use compared to asphalt. Concrete is more expensive to use, more easily damaged by water intrusion and freezing, and more difficult to repair than asphalt. Concrete roads produce much more sound pollution than asphalt which is important when roads and highways pass through residential areas. Asphalt made with ground up recycled tires as an admixture makes an even quieter road. Asphalt can more easily be recycled than concrete and can be resurfaced quickly and easily when needed.

So the comparison really isn't nearly as simple as you make it out to be.

There are a lot of holes in climate research. Doesn't take away we need to be far cleaner.

There are over 100,000 containers with radio-active waste in our oceans, fi. How long do we think that we can keep that up? Micro plastics are everywhere. Then we need to address PFAs and the like. Not climate related, but evidence of how we are burning up our planet.

Not burning up, but trashing. I pick up litter on my road and try to avoid buying items with excess packaging, but sometimes there's limited choice. I think there are a lot more people in the developed world doing similar things. Getting China, India, and the developing world on board may be more difficult. I have seen more awareness of littering and attempts to reduce it in my wife's home country (Philippines) over the last decade plus. It's a start.

When a species disappears, we don't know if that is mother nature's way of ending a development strain, or caused by us. Logic dictates, however that most species were terminated by man.

Over the ~2-3B years of life on earth, that is clearly incorrect. Over the past 50-100 years, maybe.

 

[jabe]

I finally found one those victims of cancel culture Dostoevsky apparently liked to talk about.
John Hinckley Jr., who once tried to kill Ronald Reagan, claims he is a victim of ‘cancel culture’

 

[cyrano]

Also, a remarkable portion of the interviews in the movie are very short. No way to verify if the response was to that particular question or any other. Reminded me a lot of the fake documentary the French TV made, "proving" that the moon landing was fake. After all, they had Kubrick stating it himself. Only, it was Kubrick in one of his scarce interviews, joking about having made the fake moonlanding video in a studio in Londen.

A second thing that struck me, was that most of the scientist weren't even mentioned by name.

 

[ruffrecords]

Excellent film.

Cheers

ian

 

[JohnRoberts]

To do my part fighting climate change I just ordered a second heat pump, another mitsubishi mini split. The second one will only be 18,000 BTU while still overkill for my modest sized bedroom, it will supplant my existing 24,000 BTU split that is currently heating/cooling my entire house.

The two ton unit has been adequate except for weather extremes like very hot periods and very cold spells. I still have the original resistance in wall heaters that I can use as backups to warm up the house on very cold mornings. Adding another ton and a half of efficient heating/cooling capacity should actually reduce my energy consumption while improving my comfort level (win-win). I just got a nudge from the power company noting that I just used 30% more electricity than the same month one year ago, but that can be explained away by the weather. Next year I will be even more efficient.

I can tolerate the air conditioning not being completely adequate during heat waves, but the older I get the less I can tolerate being cold. Perhaps a natural consequence of getting older but I am lucky*** enough to be able to do something about it.

JR

**** not just luck.... I worked hard, and lived frugally for most of my adult life. From operating several small businesses I became very thoughtful analyzing cost/benefit of large purchases. My knee-jerk reflex reaction was when in doubt don't buy. Here is one example. Back in the mid 80's when I was first hired by Peavey I drove my (very sensible) Pinto station wagon (with no air conditioning) to the ford dealer and took a test drive of a new mustang GT. My reflex when the salesman pitched me to close the sale, was no, and I drove away (slowly) in my Pinto. I got about a block away from the ford dealer before asking myself what the hell am I thinking? I turned right around and purchased that mustang on the spot.

I never wasted money on bad habits like drugs, and loose women like so many. I have recently been making efforts to resist my "just say no" reflex and buy stuff I need and/or want. Like a second heat pump. FWIW I am still driving a 27 year old mustang cobra.

 

[JohnRoberts]

I just installed my second mini-split so I have already removed the baseboard resistance heaters I was using in my bedroom.
=======
I am of the "climate" school of thought that we should invest our climate money into research and development of more efficient technology. My heat pump guy told me about a new experimental mitsubishi split with two stages of compressor in series to work down to significantly lower outdoor temperatures. They connected the prototype mitsubishi split outdoor unit to a home in MN with central heat/air. Reportedly they were able to heat the entire home through a typical MN winter.

This would be a game changer expanding the latitudes that support heat pump use further north. This could reduce heat energy consumption dramatically.
=====

Speaking of technology, today I tried to buy an old school mouse trap at walmart and the shelves were bare.... I bought some sticky traps but I am not enthusiastic. I used to routinely see field mouse inside my house every spring, but have not had any inside for years since sealing up their points of ingress. I can speculate there is rear access cover behind my shower plumbing that may have been ajar. It is only held in place with some wire brads. I need to attach it more securely.

I also ordered a couple real mousetraps from amazon.

JR

 

[cyrano]

Same here. Had to wait a week for mousetraps...

Weak winters have been great for the mouse communities. Plenty of feed anywhere. They even got picky when it comes to food. A first try (wit cheese as bait) yielded no mice at all. One trap had the cheese eaten off, but it still was armed.

Tried peanut butter and one catch in just an hour or so. Seemed promising. Since then, no more mice have been keen on the peanut butter. I'm not sure what to try next...

 

[JohnRoberts]

I have found that rodent evolution has not advanced them beyond simple "Victor" mouse traps.

Over the decades I have sent many to mouse heaven using them. I think I have some very old peanut butter in my refer. I used it to bait rat traps a few years ago when squirrels tried to set up house in my attic. (I never killed a squirrel with a rat trap but I knocked one out once. )

My rule is no rent, you gotta go. Especially squirrels. Mice are almost cute but they can spread hanta (?) virus or other such nasty stuff.
===
BTW I ordered some proper drywall screws with self drilling anchors... I saw my heat pump guy using them and they look pretty slick. I will use these to secure my shower plumbing access panel as I don't know how else the mice got inside my house.

JR

 

[AnalogPackrat]

I, too, prefer the wooden victor traps. The newer plastic ones are more sensitive, but often don't kill the mouse. I prefer quick and humane. Peanut butter used to work, but I've found that raw unshelled sunflower seeds are better. You can jam one in the little bait clip on the victor type. Pick one out of your bird feed (or chicken scratch if you raise chickens). I've caught a dozen this way in the past 3-4 months.

 

[cyrano]

Mice get through the tiniest hole. Someone told me to put metal cleaning sponges in the holes. Seems to work. The mice have made other holes...

 

[AnalogPackrat]

Mice get through the tiniest hole. Someone told me to put metal cleaning sponges in the holes. Seems to work. The mice have made other holes...

Bronze wool works if you can locate the hole(s). More $ than steel wool, but doesn't rust so lasts much longer. Any sizeable structure is very difficult to fully protect from mice.

Garage doors with rubber bottom seals are my problem now. Rubber degrades and becomes less flexible which leaves gaps where it meets the concrete.

 

[Rusan]

Same here. Had to wait a week for mousetraps...

Weak winters have been great for the mouse communities. Plenty of feed anywhere. They even got picky when it comes to food. A first try (wit cheese as bait) yielded no mice at all. One trap had the cheese eaten off, but it still was armed.

Tried peanut butter and one catch in just an hour or so. Seemed promising. Since then, no more mice have been keen on the peanut butter. I'm not sure what to try next...

Believe it or not, chocolate works better than anything.

 

[JohnRoberts]

I found the squirrels aggressive about chewing holes through wood to get into my attic. I had my carpenter put up a layer of sheet metal, where they were chewing.
==
The glue trap worked, scratch one mouse .... I placed another empty trap where the mouse was caught, but I think there was probably only one. Today is garbage collection day so the mouse will not smell up my trash can (the mouse had not expired yet but wasn't getting away).

Years ago I used the spray expanding foam to seal gaps around plumbing pipes, and that seemed to be working. I may need to recheck the pipe seals.

[edit- there was a surprising amount of mouse poop in my silver ware drawer for only a couple days.... /edit]
[edit2- days later my 3 unused glue traps remain empty so the mouse was a lone ranger /edit]
JR

PS: I ate the cheese I was saving for use in my victor traps.

 

[cyrano]

The peanut butter as bait was a tip of a biologist friend. I'll try chocolate...

 

[ruffrecords]

Here is an interesting insight into the real world of academia.



Cheers

Ian

 

[Ó Draighnáin]

Here is an interesting insight into the real world of academia.



Cheers

Ian

What she says is pretty accurate. I think it is actually worse than she explains it. She didn't touch on the politicization. Researchers have to find a way to bend their speciality into the topic areas that are getting the funding. These topic areas are set by the government (obviously because they are the ones providing the funding).

It was also disheartening to watch some of those ancient proud disciplines get amalgamated and sidelined to make room for foreign language students (very big business).

I became pretty disillusioned myself. Believe it or not, I found that research in the private sector was conducted more rigorously, at least where I was doing it (I know there are bad actors everywhere so don't throw 1000 pharma examples at me).

One final thing, you might be under the impression that the very best and brightest become researchers, not the case. A lot of them are rather ordinary. The best and brightest probably don't want to be paid peanuts (you know what they say about peanuts and monkeys), and get out of academia tout de suite.

Obviously there are exceptions and what I have written above are just some of my observations (not generally applicable maxims with Kantian weight).