It's a bit warm/ wet/ cold outside

[Tiplodocus]

Just bought a plug in hybrid. Managed most journeys on electricity alone so far. Actually had to use some petrol today though. It showed as getting 129 mpg. So quite chuffed with that.

[Funt Solo]

Well, that sounds cheery.

[shaolin_monkey]

Just bought a plug in hybrid. Managed most journeys on electricity alone so far. Actually had to use some petrol today though. It showed as getting 129 mpg. So quite chuffed with that.

That sounds pretty cool! I was thinking of trading in my next to worthless Nissan Note for maybe a 2015 Leaf, but after blowing a large chunk of savings on a certain book the Leaf is a bit outside of my budget. However, hybrids might be the temporary answer, particularly if they perform as you describe!

Regardless, most of my journeys are still on foot or cycle.

[shaolin_monkey]

XR Scientists have released this fantastic document, which has achieved something I've been trying to do for quite some time - gather all the science, diagrams and sources, and put it all in one super-accessible document, available to all, and signed off by climatologists around the world.

It's a great (but obviously intensely frightening) read.

https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1QdWn7PCDqNUQvzmPaJPMEYqsXKAVcuE0MPxcJVdaKjw/mobilebasic#h.98ae8s6gn9n2

[JayzusB.Christ]

It's not quite a climate change story, but Ireland's biggest turf (that's peat to anyone who isn't Irish) company stopped cutting turf (ditto) this summer. There are still smaller companies doing it, but this hopefully will make a difference. 

  It breaks my heart every time i see the peat-fuelled power plant in the Midlands - thousands of years of -Sláine mummies and ancient weapons literally going up in smoke, day after day.  I half-expect a Monad to come out through one of the chimneys.

[shaolin_monkey]

It's not quite a climate change story, but Ireland's biggest turf (that's peat to anyone who isn't Irish) company stopped cutting turf (ditto) this summer. There are still smaller companies doing it, but this hopefully will make a difference. 

That is DEFINITELY a climate change story! The CO2 released from burning peat and just using peatlands as a resource is definitely contributing to the problem, alongside deforestation, and other natural resources we plunder.

It's great to hear Ireland is trying to reduce or eliminate the cutting. I was impressed by the Irish PM's statements on climate, and Ireland's role. Of course, the proof is always in the pudding.

[Funt Solo]

Well, we aren't supposed to open the windows today, because the wildfire smoke settling over the Puget Sound from the fires in California & Oregon is too thick to safely breath.

Of course, we're very fortunate - we're only at "unhealthy" - some nearby areas are at "very unhealthy" and the top setting of "hazardous". Plus, we're not actually on fire, like the half a million Oregonians who had to flee their homes this week.

As the California governer points out that this is the cause of human-induced climate change, let's go over to presidential hopeful Biden and the current president (POTUS my tail, ass debater) to see what solace they have to offer on this topic ... *CAW* ... [the wind moves through the long, desert grass] ...

[shaolin_monkey]

Bloody hell mate - hang in there. I hope you and your nearest and dearest stay as safe as possible.

I've been watching the record levels of burning with utter horror. It's a repeat of the shocking footage that came from Australia earlier in the year, plus the Amazon, plus the Congo, and the total devastation in Siberia and even Indonesia (though the latter was as much a result of human deforestation as climate change).

The silence on this in the US in terms of using the words 'climate change', or the outright denial if you watch FOX News, is just so sickening. It's happening on your own bloody doorstep to your own citizens, and yet the government and media largely look the other way.

[IndigoPrime]

I'm seeing idiots on Twitter arguing this is just normal and what happens every year. I don't even. We as a species seem to be revelling in our own destruction.

[sheridan]

Crossing over to the political thread - some people say that as the detrimental economic effects of leaving the EU become more apparent, many of those who voted to leave will admit that EU membership did actually have some benefits.

I wasn't sure where Oregon was so just did a quick search.  A top news story was how there were claims on facebook that the fires in Oregon were set by AntiFa.  One thing this shows is that those responsible for destructive behaviour will never admit when it's their fault, always looking to blame it on external factors.

[Funt Solo]

Their are conflicting claims that the fires were started by either left-wing or right-wing extremists. The Trumpet of Poop passes it all off as poor forest management, of which there is some. And some fires are set by arsonists. And there are normally fires at this time of year. Just not this many, not this big, not this persistent.

But if we just side step all of the politics for a moment and go and have a chat with the scientists - these extreme fire systems are the result of a rise in temperature and a drop in rainfall that are both caused by global warming, which is caused by humanity, and could be repaired by humanity.

There's a sort of clutching at straws of belief that happens with an acceptance of a kernel of truth as being the end of a matter. Lazy thinking.

[shaolin_monkey]

It is pure propaganda, encouraged by NewsCorp, Murdoch, and all the other billionaires with dirty oil money, and regurgitated by idiots determined to find commentary that backs their ideology.

More greenhouse gases = more heat.

More heat dries out soil & vegetation = greater wildfire danger.

Physics is not partisan. Denial of physics is.

[shaolin_monkey]

Lots going on today.

Another ordinary day in the US, as the west coast forests are largely on fire, and warnings of a "mass fatality event" go out, while POTUS retweets climate science denial.

https://twitter.com/climatedom/status/1305586990902120448?s=21


Flame retardant being dumped on the treeline next to a residential area in California. Absolutely mad footage.

Anyone else struggling to process all this?

https://twitter.com/rexchapman/status/1305605113495650307?s=21


September heat records smashed in France.

https://twitter.com/scottduncanwx/status/1305604736671010816?s=21


Oh, did I mention there are five tropical cyclones going on in the Atlantic basin right now?

One more and we'll beat the 1971 record.

Are you ready to join Extinction Rebellion yet?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/14/atlantic-bermuda-hurricane-tropical-storm-sally



BBC viewers terrified by Attenborough extinction special:

https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/a34004227/bbc-one-sir-david-attenborough-new-documentary-extinction-the-facts/?fbclid=IwAR2ED8tCeBijTExLJ4b9bph2OJyfBaOUm9B6ItvZjTQrXZIVMUJ4XbMuJe8


Good. I'm glad. I am really glad viewers were terrified by it. They damn well should be.

I've been terrified of it, and banging the drum about it for nigh on 30 years, and like every other environmentalist or scientist or expert on biodiversity or concerned citizen we got laughed at, scorned, and ignored.

And now here we are, killing everything around us, and ourselves in the process.

Maybe now there will be a damn sight more action taken.

If you haven't seen it yet, watch it. It should be compulsory viewing.

[shaolin_monkey]

Almost forgot - Connecticut filed a lawsuit on Monday against oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp for misleading the public over the impacts of climate change, becoming the latest state to target the fossil fuel industry for violating state consumer protection laws.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-climatechange-lawsuit-idUSKBN2652PF?utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR3mFty0y1rTNElTdhFEOluPAp--0TPjkp-Foq5BRReHvxeHFFvMGHt6vss

[Funt Solo]

We're on day #5 of the gloom.

Quite glad to go into work today - they have air filters.