Climate Change? Nahhh ...

You're welcome on the hurricane thread. It's kinda my thing.

 

Not just Boise ... was noticed here in North Idaho. Thankfully, just a weird movement feeling and some overhead lights swaying.

BTW, I'm working from home tonight — and the dog was pacing around and acting strange right before I felt the earthquake. Funny how animals somehow know it's coming.

 

About 10-12 years ago in the middle of the night my dog came racing into the bedroom and woke me up. He was acting like I'd never seen him, but I just figured he just really had to go out. About that time, the house shook. Glasses in the kitchen rattled. I ran to look out, thinking a car had hit the house.
Nothing.
I figured I must have dreamed it.
The next morning, I found out it was an earthquake.

 

I've found the "Cure is worse than the disease" discussion regarding Coronavirus interesting because it does get down to philosophy and ethics - something that rarely comes into public debate on such a wide scale with such very large stakes.
Do we accept the deaths of X number of people literally as "the cost of doing business?" Has the economic lockdown in some way offset those losses? Traffic deaths, crime, school and workplace shootings, accidents?
And what does this tell us about our ability to grasp the true debate about Climate Change - our we willing to change our economy - is the world willing to change its economy - sacrifice jobs in order to save lives? It's my biggest problem with the climate deniers - it's stolen from the Tobacco Institute arguing about the health impacts of tobacco, delay and sidetrack action in order to stockpile profit and allow and encourage more people to die in the process.

Is "the cure" to climate change worse than the impact of climate change? I don't think so. In fact, I think an argument could be made that this virus might be the first major wave of global impact. A prologue maybe. Perhaps now, more peope will telecommute and fewer people will drive. We will invent and adapt to more efficient use of resources. But also think about a virus that thrives in warmer weather, how rising sea levels will cause massive migrations to higher ground, massive population migrations bringing new diseases to new populations not immune to them. Think of the wars that will be fought for ever scarcer resources, including fresh water.

 

I'm coming up on 64 years old. I've got maybe twenty years left, if I'm lucky. Assuming the Covid does not get me I'm going to live to see the big changes begin, but I'll be dead before things get really bad. I'm glad of that, and sad for the poor bastards who will be stuck with it, especially today's kids who can plainly see the train wreck coming but have zero power to stop it.

 

The trolley problem is the perfect meme for our government's pandemic response

Wouldn't it be nuts if the shutdown made a noticeable impact on carbon output?

 

I saw articles on the visually perceptible changes in China while they were shut down, and more about it beginning to come back. See also articles about fish and birds reappearing in Venice.

I can't speak to carbon counts but I'd bet they're there.

 

My group of high school friends and I will be 49 at various points this year. I figure we've got 40 if we're lucky. The two of us who don't have children are pretty tuned into climate change and try to live accordingly. The other two do have kids and presumably grandkids some day, literally say it's a hoax. I've pointed out the irony of that to them many times.
My one buddy works works for the state department of environmental conservation, so he's a given. I am a teacher and consider myself more of a conservationist than a true environmentalist.
On the other side, one works for the local power company and is all for coal-fired power plants (despite being repeatedly given proof that it's bad on many levels). The last owns gas stations, has no interest in the outdoors, and loves to shout "dill baby drill."

 

Some of it might be real, some of it is definitely eco-fash propaganda and outright fakery.
Fake animal news abounds on social media as coronavirus upends life

 

I try not to think too hard about just how much disinformation is being spread by the Russians, Chinese, Norks, Iranians, and lord only knows who else. It's awful easy to crank out horrible memes, and no matter how bad they are, somebody's out there believing every word.

The bad part is that while I try to look closely, so much stuff goes by so fast that I'm sure I've bitten on some of it.

 

From what I can tell by looking it up, if every bit of ice on the planet melted, the oceans would rise 260 feet. At that level, Memphis will be under water, West Virginia will have a sea port and there will be oceanfront property in Arizona.