The climate change consensus extends beyond climate scientists

[sendler]

Yes. There will be a great deal of "red" when we do nothing in advance to change the human amoeba from sloughing along to the shortest payback on frivolous luxuries until we finally enter the collapse phase (already started in places) of energy and resource depletion. Resulting in an endless world resource war III.

[redpoint5]

[oil pan 4]

Its already cheaper to use solar to cover peak load and wind to cover some peak and some base load.
Problem is that pesky base load. Right now coal and natural gas round out the base load. Hydroelectric too, but hydro only makes up like 6% of the electricity used in the United States, unfortunately.

[sendler]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

Its already cheaper to use solar to cover peak load and wind to cover some peak and some base load.
Problem is that pesky base load. Right now coal and natural gas round out the base load. Hydroelectric too, but hydro only makes up like 6% of the electricity used in the United States, unfortunately.

But that is only concerning electricity. Which is only 20% of the energy we use.
.
We have to build out another 50X wind and solar. And storage. And also electrify all of the 100's of $trillions of built out infrastructure, machines, heat and processes. And grow at 3%/ year to pay back the $275 trillion the world has already borrowed from the future. And not run out of resources or money while doing all of this.
.
It takes a WWII type austere focused effort to do all of this world wide in 20 years.

[freebeard]

We'll always have Moon Power.

Molly Crabapple is a good artist, I've seen her work for years, probably the modeling for Suicide Girls. Especially when she hand-letters on a circle (although it is stop-motion?).

I think the message is reprehensible.

but as we battled the floods fires and
droughts we knew how lucky we were to
have started acting when we did and we
didn't just change the infrastructure we
changed how we did things we became a
society that was not only modern and
wealthy but dignified and humane too by
committing to universal rights

They're simply restating the principles that Buckminster Fuller articulated in the 1970s (AOCs arbitrary starting point). Shame on them for not being more humble about their tardiness. And lack of intellectual rigor.

[sendler]

Moon power is obviously not very feasible or we will have been doing it already.

[redpoint5]

It's easy to see when you're smarter or more knowledgeable than someone else who is less knowledgeable, but extremely difficult to tell when you're the one lacking understanding.

Understanding isn't some easy or trivial thing; it requires intense concentration at length, and usually all that does is expose how infinitely complex the subject is, rather than give a sense of mastery.

Perhaps the most reliable way to tell if someone is (un)knowledgeable is if they say "the solution is easy".

[freebeard]

Moon power is obviously not very feasible or we will have been doing it already.

I'd say the limitation is technical. One would have to be able to engineer a solution that can stand up to the environment. All have failed so far.

Who's going to 'bell the cat'?

[oil pan 4]

Well new mexico passed the mandate to make 80% of the electricity renewable.
Mostly activists and Lawyers. Not engineers and scientists.

[RedDevil]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

It's easy to see when you're smarter or more knowledgeable than someone else who is less knowledgeable, but extremely difficult to tell when you're the one lacking understanding.

Understanding isn't some easy or trivial thing; it requires intense concentration at length, and usually all that does is expose how infinitely complex the subject is, rather than give a sense of mastery.

Perhaps the most reliable way to tell if someone is knowledgeable is if they say "the solution is easy".

That's what I call 'seeing other people's horizons of perception'.

Now it is interesting to watch when someone gets confronted with things outside their scope. Do they accept without further ado, do they investigate, do they ask for proof and if that proof is provided, do they accept it?

There's something as a complexity threshold too. If things get too complicated for one almost nothing gets in and most will be rejected.

Then there's expert blindness. If you're the expert you'll be extra wary of anything laymen and newcomers say or do.
Like the group of macaques, where a young male found a clever way to get drinking water from a pool they could not reach at first.
In due time all the other macaques copied the trick - except the old males...
They must have understood the trick, still they refused to use it.