The climate change consensus extends beyond climate scientists

[oil pan 4]

Stop factory farming?
Sure grow your own.
I attempted agricultural when I lived in maine 20 years ago. I was marginally successful growing my own. I was more successful with a rifle or shotgun, eating what was eating my garden.

I'm trying again in new Mexico but it's a completely different set of problems.

Right now may be peak food.
Growing your own may be our only option for fresh food in the near future.

Check out the YouTube chanel for "ice age farmer".

[sendler]

People will be wise to simplify now and beat the rush. Growing your own food in a city of 10 million or more is obviously impossible. As is heating the place after fossil fuel if it is in a Northern climate. Like most of Russia, Canada, NE USA.

[oil pan 4]

Yeah Massachusetts and north is pretty much totally screwed.
This is one of the reasons I left maine 18 years ago.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard

We need to stop using factory farming methods.

Factory farming methods have been the most incredible human invention so far. We're not going to go back to hunting and gathering.

Just because something has unintended negative consequences (externalities) doesn't mean we abandon everything. It's a challenge to do less harm, not a challenge to give up and starve... and we would starve if modern farming methods were abandoned. It would make global warming look like a picnic.

Originally Posted by sendler

The only hope for 9 Billion people in 2050 is that we could somehow replace all liquid fuel with electric before the oil becomes too remote to make sense economically. But we will fall well short. And there will be a Great Simplification.

Or, we could make incremental reductions in fossil fuel use; enough to not experience catastrophic economic hardship due to scare oil supply. We don't need to be off fossil fuels completely, only vastly reduce consumption eventually.

Energy production could look something like this in the future:

[freebeard]

There must be a middle path between Prieta Terra and hydroponics.

[Xist]

1. Scrap all farm machinery.
2. Don't use animals either, it oppresses them and they fart anyway.
3. Hire enough people for all of the labor, with benefits, holidays, unions, and adequate pay for a family of four, a mortgage, and a new car in the driveway.
4. Only grow organic food, because if you are not smart enough to enjoy grass and leaves, you can eat bark!
5. ????
6. Profit!

[redpoint5]

Life without meat isn't worth living.

Would be neat if meat could be grown cheaply, efficiently, and tastily sans-animal.

I think we're at the dawn of an explosion in robotics and bio-engineering.

Perhaps in the future all menial tasks will be performed by machines, leaving only highly skilled/creative jobs available. We'd need some sort of basic income for those left behind by this advanced civilization, but they would also need something meaningful to occupy their time. I keep saying they, but I might be included in the not-skilled-enough group. Man does not live by bread alone.

[Xist]

YouTube recommended this video dozens of times and I finally watched it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1kbrlZRDvU

He provides a great deal of interesting information, but towards the end he summarizes it as:

1. Be curious
2. Work hard
3. Be lucky

So far I am 0/3, but I still have hope! [scratches lottery ticket]

Actually, the lottery might be less of a waste of time than Publisher's Clearinghouse, but at least when I lose I do not lose money.

I supposedly have nineteen clients, but I have only seen one this week. Am I not working hard enough or is my luck lacking?

Yesterday I wondered how much soil and sand was washed into the oceans each year and how that accepted the sea level. A while ago I wondered if I could move grass from Mom's garden to the bald spots in the lawn. I bought a bulb planter and I have transplanted a couple dozen grass plants and all but two have survived, which sounds great, but four or five blades of grass isn't much more than none.

I apologize, I do not know where I was going with this, while I was writing a friend started giving me unwanted advice, and refused to stop.

[redpoint5]

You seem curious enough Xist, but not focused enough.

I'd say I'm a healthy dose of all 3, with curiosity being my strength, and distraction/procrastination being my weakness.

I'm not sure people can improve their curiosity; they either are born curious, or they are not. My wife has little curiosity. She's perfectly fine living in a world of magic devices.

[Xist]

The focus is lacking in this one.

In the video Mark says that you need to follow up on ideas to have better ones in the future. I guess that I need to keep a list of things that I want to try if I can ever afford them. Right now I am focused on a raised garden from bales of straw. Straw is cheap, but I am not putting it on my credit card!