And there goes the next 10+ more years of inaction. Combined with the 30-40 years of courts acting against any action whatsoever. — Xtrix
Leaves little option but to unionize workplaces and start striking, and shift to the state and local level. — Xtrix
And China along with Europe will most definitely overtake the US in the green tech revolution since the US is incapable of getting it's act together on just about anything. — Mr Bee
That’s pretty cool.
So you see all of this as inevitable? Better to just get away from it?
I hope you’re wrong, if that’s the case. — Xtrix
WASHINGTON — President Biden bowed to political reality on Friday, conceding that he had been unable to persuade a holdout coal-state Democrat, or any Republicans in the Senate, to back legislation that had been his greatest hope to confront the climate crisis.
Ending more than a year of fruitless negotiations over a proposal to push the nation’s electricity and transportation sectors away from fossil fuels, Mr. Biden said Friday he was instead prepared to “take strong executive action to meet this moment.”
Even for a president who has prided himself on compromise and the art of the possible, it was a marked retreat, one driven by the economic and political challenges of rampant inflation.
In hindsight, about ten years from now, this will be recognised as one of those watershed moments when the battle was lost. — Wayfarer
Well on the bright side Europe is probably gonna be forced to taking the transition more seriously this time now that they are effectively at war with Russia. — Mr Bee
Temperatures in Texas climbed into the triple digits this week but this isn’t unusual. The problem is that wind power faltered, as it often does during hot spells.
Over the past year, Mr. Manchin has taken more money from the oil and gas industry than any other member of Congress — including every Republican — according to federal filings. A Times investigation found that he also personally profited from coal, making roughly $5 million between 2010 and 2020 — about three times his Senate salary. Coal has made Mr. Manchin a millionaire, even as it has poisoned the air his own constituents in West Virginia breathe.
As Upton Sinclair put it: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it."
Circling back to "grid parity" these added costs need to be included in the cost of solar / wind which, when done honestly, demonstrate the immense scale of our predicament. Energy storage on a large scale is a very large infrastructure project that requires decades to build even if the technologies required were cost-competitive with subsidised fossil. Add in some disruption to the global system as resource competition heats up, a few material bottle necks ... and ... its gone — boethius
We will need now to be relying now on the US, China and India, Russia Brazil et. al. to lead the way in environmental policies. — boethius
What's even the proposed connection between "faltering" wind power and a heat wave? — boethius
None of these changes has nearly the impact that federal action would. But smaller changes can still add up — and even foster broader changes. Consider the vehicle market: By mandating electric vehicles, California and other states will lead automakers to build many more of them, likely spurring innovations and economies of scale that will reduce costs for everybody and thereby increase their use around the country.
It’s a reminder that climate change is one of those issues on which activists may be able to make more progress by focusing on grass-roots organizing than top-down change from Washington, especially in the current era of polarization. Locally, the politics of climate change can sometimes be less partisan than they are nationally, as Maggie Astor, a climate reporter at The Times, has written.
Get involved in philosophical discussions about knowledge, truth, language, consciousness, science, politics, religion, logic and mathematics, art, history, and lots more. No ads, no clutter, and very little agreement — just fascinating conversations.