Technology, Science and the Environment.

[leicsmac]

5 hours ago, Sampson said:

BBC News - Swiss voters reject key climate change measures
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-57457384

 

This is why you get experts to do jobs which require expertise and why representative democracy where you vote on the best experts to make the decisions is better than direct democracy where everyone votes on everything.

I really want to see direct democracy work, but on topics like this the only way it would work would be if people lived much longer than they do and/or cared about things beyond the end of their own lives.

 

That being said, judging by the reasons this got turned down I reckon the Swiss will approve the measures sometime soon.

[SpacedX]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-57504052

[leicsmac]

5 hours ago, Line-X said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-57504052

"It is believed that, in the near future, after the completion of the Chinese space station, we will see Chinese and foreign astronauts fly and work together."

 

I sincerely hope so. Space is big, far bigger than little petty nationalism.

[Bellend Sebastian]

Government: choke on the filth, peasants

 

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jun/17/uk-refuses-to-commit-to-reduction-of-legal-air-pollution-levels

 

Polling intention: Conservatives +3

 

 

 

[leicsmac]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-57562685

 

Not entirely sure what to think of this. On the one hand, coral bleaching is pretty clearly a big issue and if it's happening to any degree the Aussies are dropping the ball as good custodians of the Great Barrier Reef and they need to get on board with climate change commitments. On the other, using and/or overstating the issue for political capital is just the thing the Chinese government would engage in (as well as the other big boys, too), so there may be more to it all.

[leicsmac]

https://phys.org/news/2021-06-climate-impacts-sooner.html

 

Ready for upheaval that will make Covid look like a picnic?

[The Bear]

Certainly in 100 years society will be pointing the finger squarely at this and the previous century for a lack of action and heads in the sand. 

[moore_94]

Microsoft announce Windows 11, can't wait to see what sneaky tracking stuff they try to hide in the background of this one

 

https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/24/22546791/microsoft-windows-11-announcement-features-updates?utm_campaign=theverge&utm_content=chorus&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

[lcfc278]

54 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

https://phys.org/news/2021-06-climate-impacts-sooner.html

 

Ready for upheaval that will make Covid look like a picnic?

Pretty sobering stuff!

 

I do worry for the future world that my children will grow up in - let's hope in the next decade or so we can make some real strides towards halting these emissions, start looking at cleaner technologies and ways of looking after our planet.

[Buce]

32 minutes ago, The Bear said:

Certainly in 100 years society will be pointing the finger squarely at this and the previous century for a lack of action and heads in the sand. 

 

In 100 years there may well be no society as we know it left to point the finger.

[leicsmac]

3 minutes ago, Buce said:

 

In 100 years there may well be no society as we know it left to point the finger.

Or there will be but they'll be too busy shanking each other over one of the few remaining viable cans of beans.

[leicsmac]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57626173

 

Just another day.

[Free Falling Foxes]

Jeans will be made from flax and woad planted on unused ground along the Leeds and Liverpool Canal.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-57622490

[leicsmac]

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-57641167

 

Perhaps being hit in the wallet in this way is finally the thing that will see swifter change.

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-57641247

 

Unfortunate, but I guess it was always a long shot and I was pretty shocked when the idea was floated in the first place.

[st albans fox]

18 hours ago, Free Falling Foxes said:

Jeans will be made from flax and woad planted on unused ground along the Leeds and Liverpool Canal.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-57622490

So that’s two people in Blackburn who will have a pair of linen jeans to wear (and they won’t be able to sit down in them and they’ll also fall apart) …..  not sure it’s the way forward ! 

[leicsmac]

https://www.channel4.com/news/revealed-exxonmobils-lobbying-war-on-climate-change-legislation

 

I wish this was surprising. It's obvious that this has been going on for decades. Tobacco industry playbook.

[The Bear]

On 28/06/2021 at 01:53, leicsmac said:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57626173

 

Just another day.

Yep. Just the sort of fake information people lap up in this day and age as well. You'd hope people had learned since the tobacco stuff but the population is as thick as ever and potentially getting worse for caring about the truth of things. You just have to look at what is now acceptable in government to see that. On both sides of the Atlantic. 

[leicsmac]

1 hour ago, The Bear said:

Yep. Just the sort of fake information people lap up in this day and age as well. You'd hope people had learned since the tobacco stuff but the population is as thick as ever and potentially getting worse for caring about the truth of things. You just have to look at what is now acceptable in government to see that. On both sides of the Atlantic. 

And social media has acted as a force multiplier for it.

[Fox in the North]

 

[leicsmac]

3 hours ago, Fox in the North said:

 

I dunno, I'm just spitballing here...but perhaps decreasing our reliance on fossil fuels for energy generation specifically wouldn't be a bad idea?

[Guest Manini]

As if the sea is literally on fire, what in the living ****. 

[The Bear]

The sea isn't on fire, the oil spewing out is. 

 

Pedantic, but an important distinction to make. 

[Free Falling Foxes]

An episode of Thunderbirds nearly 60 years ago, predicted this.

[Bellend Sebastian]

Nothing's that surprising in this article other than the extent to which mankind can know about something important and then do f*** all about it until its repercussions are doing massive societal damage.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/jul/05/sixty-years-of-climate-change-warnings-the-signs-that-were-missed-and-ignored

 

[whoareyaaa]