leicsmac

The problem there is that the people saying things are going to hell in a handbasket only need to be right once. But, again, if a person wants to simply let things play out in the short term and trust in human ingenuity, driven by the unshakeable faith that the earth is ours (or by the idea that it's not, but that's OK too because all species die) then that's between them and their own conscience. Everyone views the world differently, after all.

... and? The numbers show very clearly that historic emissions (and therefore contribution to the current and future situation) are a very balanced area along whatever corner of the world one would care to name. But if a person wants to try to pin the blame on those other people from a faraway place and not their own nation, then by all means, have at it - should the consequences of a rather warmer world become fully apparent, as per above those who feel the brunt of those consequences aren't going to divide accountability along nation state lines. And nor should they.

Just another hot season, apparently. Right. And what exactly is generating the conditions where those fires can grow and spread to the rather devastating levels that they have? And shutting down the nuclear plants in Hungary. And getting the farmers to scream bloody murder about reduced harvests in the UK. Edit: of course, it could be entirely coincidental.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckg6454zey6o More on this.

Yeah, they're not even bothering to change their currency from roubles these days.

And unfortunately the tinfoil-hat wearing nutjobs aren't limited to the US, either:

You can see how he's perfecting the art of doublespeak after working with his (literal) partner in crime who is in charge Stateside right now.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czdmv0vyv4zo A US Senate committee chairman has warned ex-White House chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci could be held in contempt of Congress after he refused to answer questions at a combative hearing into his handling of the Covid pandemic. The former top infectious disease expert invoked his constitutional right against self-incrimination during testimony more than 100 times. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky said afterwards: "I think there is a very real chance that he could be prosecuted for that." Paul has long accused Fauci of trying to cover up the origin of the coronavirus, and of funding research at a lab in Wuhan in China, where some theories say the pandemic began. Fauci has denied wrongdoing. This goes much further than just this hearing and the people attending it. This is a blatant attempt to memory-hole the very idea of the truth behind a pandemic and the deaths of a great many people, all because the tinfoil-hat wearing nutjobs in charge at the time don't want to take the fall for placing superstition and nationalism (and personal gain) over science and need a scapegoat, even though he's been pardoned.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckg35n7yny3o Just a day early, mate. Isn't it a wonderful world?

Schools and students both could certainly benefit from allowing a wider choice of curriculum. Actually doing that in practice is a problem of resources (both human and material), but then a lot of things are.

Not the first and sure won't be the last either. Everyone has different interests and specialties when it comes to learning. And there should be no argument that schools should try to cater to that as they can. (A lack of gifted science teachers is also a problem because scientists often aren't the best communicators, those good at science are doing something else, and those decent at science but better at communication are doing something else too - there's better opportunities out there for both.) That all being said, Covid and other matters have showed rather starkly how damaging scientific illiteracy as described above (not harmful by itself) can be when combined with decisions that affect everyone (much more of a problem).

No disagreement there. I'm just a bit leery of discussions along these lines when quite a bit of the situation the UK and the wider world finds itself in right now is because of a combination of scientific illiteracy and that same illiteracy being applied to government policymaking because of the degree of that problem allows it to be in a democracy.

That word is very important when you're talking about any kind of limitation against teaching the hard sciences.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c87nj3w9gxjo The US delegation walked out of a UN Security Council meeting on Monday, in protest at comments made by France that compared Washington's voting on human rights to that of authoritarian states. The diplomatic row was initially sparked last week, when the US joined North Korea and Russia in voting against extending Volker Turk's term as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. After the vote on Friday, France's UN mission criticised the US and compared it to North Korea and Russia. "The US used to be a beacon of human rights. Not anymore," it posted on X, external. In response, US ambassador Mike Waltz accused France of voting for a human rights chief who had been "lecturing" democratic countries while "cozying up to the world's worst oppressors", without elaborating on what he meant. For folks who use the term "snowflake" so often, they certainly are thin skinned when someone actually levels legit criticism at them. So, thin skinned and hypocritical, then.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dry-weather-and-drought-in-england-2026-summary-reports/dry-weather-and-drought-in-england-17-to-23-july-2026 We're knocking on the door.

Quite. Which gives us something of an insight into how at least some humans would behave if the situation got rather direr, or really dire. And also shows that it's probably in the best interest of decent people everywhere that things don't get that bad.

Jenrick on breakfast TV flapping a bit talking about the Polanski matter and then the Beeb pulling up a social media post where he himself took a Labour MPs remark massively out of context. Pretty obvious trap to set and fall into, but funny nonetheless.

The book, the bookcase and the library brick by brick, hopefully. That being said, arson is not the reason these wildfires in Europe and the Americas are much more massive, much more prevalent and much more devastating this year.

It's not just indoor infrastructure that is the concern, naturally. Farmers have been sounding the alarm for a long time now. The really fun time will begin when there are consecutive widespread failures due to the heat and dry.

And now there are steps underway to prepare for the evacuation of a French city with one a million people. Welcome to the future, ladies and gentlemen. Arriving ahead of schedule.

I don't doubt it. Which, again, makes addressing the problem in a manner used to democracy all the more difficult. And this may just be the start of such change.

And this shows just how important relativistic frames of reference for velocity are.

What an unbelievably dominant tournament from Littler.

It's almost as if a lot of people are so self centred that they can't comprehend the issue until it's affecting them personally. It's also as if, when such people can and do affect policy for everyone in a democratic system, that is a massive flaw of that same system that might need looking into.

Then I'm not sure what we're disagreeing about, because I said that firstly it isn't harmless and secondly that it has use as a civilly, rather than criminally, regulated substance in the pharmaceutical sector.