The climate change consensus extends beyond climate scientists

[oil pan 4]

Life always finds a way.
In 2012 to 2013 it went 9 months only raining enough to make cars dirty once or twice.

[RedDevil]

The point is our infrastructure is not built to deal with extreme droughts.
Half of our country is at or below sea level, because it used to be one big marsh basically and the mixture of fertile river clay and peat, or what was left of it, bottomed out when the water got drained to allow for agriculture and housing. Hence we have a complex cellular and often nested system of dikes, mills and ring canals.
Those dikes were built out of or on top of peat, and work perfectly well as long as they are slightly moist. So now they have to be sprayed to prevent collapse.

We're also the most densely populated country in Europe, with most people living in the 'Randstad' (rim city) area in the west; Amsterdam, Utrecht, Rotterdam, Delft, Den Haag, Leiden and Haarlem and their suburbs and neighboring towns; all at or below sea level.
All built on sagging ground, so it typically takes longer to lay the foundations than to build an actual house, and is almost as expensive. Same for roads, railroads, bridges, etc. Infrastructure and upkeep are costly, despite it all being flat around here.
The canals are an important part of the infrastructure; a lot of heavy transport finds its way over them. And everything needs water to keep working, especially the canals

So, we can't do without water. But two rain storms are forecast for this afternoon and evening. I even took my coat to work

[edit]The storms arrived, approaching with lightning, black clouds and all - and left us mildly moist There may be some coming this evening, but I hardly dare hope for it.

[freebeard]

It turns out one vulnerability of nuclear power is high ambient temperatures:

duckduckgo.com:europe+reactors+shut+down+in+heat

Just to protect the little fishies of course.

[oil pan 4]

Then that could also happen with any Rankine cycle power plant.
The main difference between nuclear powered Rankine cycle and combustion fuelled Rankine is the nuke plants like to run at least at 90% capacity.
When you try to throttle the power on low enriched uranium reactor you get problems with the reaction spontaneously shutting down then not wanting to restart for hours.
This is not a problem on US Navy reactor that use highly enticed uranium.
But by design they are intended to be started and stopped rapidly, throttled and do all of this with out hesitation every single time, because if your reactor shuts down in the middle of a naval battle, you die.

[sendler]

Learn about our energy slaves.
.
Energy Slaves comic about Buckminster Fuller - by Stuart McMillen
.

[freebeard]

Thanks for that.

R.B.Fuller is a personal hero. This shows why. He was the Ur-environmentalist.

Interesting to see the Dymaxion car in a sea of 1980s traffic. That never happened. But the metaphor of the chain you clamp to your own neck is golden.

[NeilBlanchard]

What part of losing a bushel and a half of soil per bushel of corn produced don't you understand as a massive problem?

What part of depleting aquifers don't you understand to be unsustainable?

What part of dead zones in the ocean pointing to obvious failure?

How can we deplete phosphorus mines, and continue to do what we are doing?

What part of massive production of nitrous oxide - which is eight times more powerful a greenhouse gas than methane - doesn't point to climate change way beyond the ability of crops to be sustainable?

What we are doing is not sustainable - that means it will fail.

[oil pan 4]

Here in the late 1940s, early 1950s water was at around 80 to 90 feet.
Now it's a 108'. The impermeable clay layer is at 120'.
Another 30 or 40 years pumps in use now won't be able to pickup any water.

[sendler]

Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard

What we are doing is not sustainable - that means it will fail.

Exactly. Civilization will be much smaller and simpler in the future.
.
So the big question is, How do we bring this artificially high flying civilization in for a softer landing? How do we reach the masses and open their eyes. How do we reach the world leaders? There are no major countries that are planning for anything that does not require the continuation of the current (last 100 years) fossil fueled exponential growth to keep the economy from crashing.

The USA just put into place a tax give back the requires 3% growth for the next 15 years to pay it back. Can we really double the size of the US economy again through 2040? And if every country does this, and more in developing countries, what will this do to the remaining finite resources of the planet?
.
We are already on course for at least 10 Billion people by 2100.

[freebeard]

So the big question is, How do we bring this artificially high flying civilization in for a softer landing?

Geodesic domes. Big ones over cities and little ones over tomato plants.

Ben Davidson: "Earth is hotter. Humans play a role. We must stop pollution."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HntrGv_d8XU

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