The lessons of the pandemic and global warming

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_MeDotOrg
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The lessons of the pandemic and global warming

Post by _MeDotOrg »

I've been staying indoors in San Francisco, where the AQI is 189. Mill City, Oregon has a AQI of 647. What we are breathing is the destruction of the earth's lungs, both here and in the Amazon. Plumes of smoke reaching 55,000 feet, unknown in human history.

Look at a Global 3D map of Air quality. Plants absorb CO² . Fewer forests, more CO² . Look at the Amazon an the Pacific Northwest. This is the destruction of the Planet's ability to absorb CO² .

The temperature in Greenland has risen 3° centigrade since 1980. A chunk of the ice shelf, the size of Manhattan, broke off this week.

There are 5 cyclones in the North Atlantic for the second time in history.

A virus crosses into the human genome in Wuhan, China. Six months later, the world is infected.

What do all of these data points have to do with one another? They show the inter-connectivity of life on this planet. The nature of this inter-connectivity does not recognize borders. It does not recognized races. It does not recognize economic systems. We are all connected on a biological level on this planet.

And humanity, which organizes itself into Nation-states, has institutions that are not suited for the paradigm of global inter-connectivity. Our human hubris tells us that our economic systems are sacrosanct, rather than the biological system that supports us all. We think we are saving the economic institutions, but the economy does not exist without a healthy human genome. And humanity's response to both Global Warming and Covid-19 show that our consciousness does not correctly perceive the relationship between man and our biological underpinnings, upon which the safety of our human genome rests.

After Hiroshima, man's perception of warfare changed. People began to recognize that warfare could permanently affect the planet. We have not disarmed, but have realized Winston Churchill's observation about the arms race: All you're going to do is make the rubble bounce. A realization that global warfare was a zero-sum game with no winner.

Now we are being asked to assimilate the reality of our biological inter-dependence and our position in the biosphere. Humanity, instead of understanding the connectivity, is playing a zero-sum game with itself. We are not evolving.
Nikos Kazantzakis wrote:Blowing through heaven and earth, and in our hearts and the heart of every living thing, is a gigantic breath - a great Cry - which we call God. Plant life wished to continue its motionless sleep next to stagnant waters, but the Cry leapt up within it and violently shook its roots: "Away, let go of the earth, walk!" Had the tree been able to think and judge, it would have cried, "I don't want to. What are you urging me to do? You are demanding the impossible!" But the Cry, without pity, kept shaking its roots and shouting, "Away, let go of the earth, walk!"

It shouted this way for thousands of eons; and lo! as a result of desire and struggle, life escaped the motionless tree and was liberated.

Animals appeared - worms - making themselves at home in water and mud. "We're just fine", they said.
"We have peace and security; we're not budging!"

But the terrible Cry hammered itself pitilessly into their loins. "Leave the mud, stand up, give birth to your betters!"

"We don't want to! We can't!"

"You can't, but I can. Stand up!"

And lo! after thousands of eons, human beings emerged, trembling on their still unsolid legs.

Human beings are centaurs; their equine hoofs are planted in the ground, but their bodies from breast to head are worked on and tormented by the merciless Cry. They have been fighting, again for thousands of eons, to drag themselves, like a sword, out of their animalistic scabbard. They are also fighting - this is their new struggle - to draw themselves out of their human scabbard. The human being calls in despair, "Where can I go: I have reached the pinnacle, beyond is the abyss". And the Cry answers, "I am beyond. Stand up!"
I've been out of work for six months. I have too much time on my hands. But it seems to me that human beings are experiencing 2 trials that point to our dysfunctional way of placing our economic systems above our biological ones.
"The great problem of any civilization is how to rejuvenate itself without rebarbarization."
- Will Durant
"We've kept more promises than we've even made"
- Donald Trump
"Of what meaning is the world without mind? The question cannot exist."
- Edwin Land
_ajax18
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Re: The lessons of the pandemic and global warming

Post by _ajax18 »

If Trump just hadn't left the Paris accord, none of these wildfires in CA would have happened.
And when the confederates saw Jackson standing fearless as a stone wall the army of Northern Virginia took courage and drove the federal army off their land.
_Brackite
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Re: The lessons of the pandemic and global warming

Post by _Brackite »

ajax18 wrote:
Mon Sep 14, 2020 11:05 pm
If Trump just hadn't left the Paris accord, none of these wildfires in CA would have happened.
The Northern Hemisphere recently had it's hottest summer on record. Link
President Trump again today denied the reality of Climate change. Link
Why does Trump still continue to deny the reality of climate change and doesn't really want to do anything about it? I believe that the President should acknolwedge the reality of climate change and have a plan to deal with it.
"And I've said it before, you want to know what Joseph Smith looked like in Nauvoo, just look at Trump." - Fence Sitter
_subgenius
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Re: The lessons of the pandemic and global warming

Post by _subgenius »

ajax18 wrote:
Mon Sep 14, 2020 11:05 pm
If Trump just hadn't left the Paris accord, none of these wildfires in CA would have happened.
If only we had a way to track our environmental impact since leaving the accord....if only....
Seek freedom and become captive of your desires...seek discipline and find your liberty
I can tell if a person is judgmental just by looking at them
what is chaos to the fly is normal to the spider - morticia addams
If you're not upsetting idiots, you might be an idiot. - Ted Nugent
_Gunnar
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Re: The lessons of the pandemic and global warming

Post by _Gunnar »

Brackite wrote:
Mon Sep 14, 2020 11:29 pm
Why does Trump still continue to deny the reality of climate change and doesn't really want to do anything about it? I believe that the President should acknolwedge[sic] the reality of climate change and have a plan to deal with it.
The answer is obvious. Trump continues to deny the reality of climate change because: 1. The fossil fuel industry is among Trump and the GOP's biggest and most powerful donors, and Trump himself is heavily invested in fossil fuels. 2. Trump knows that he will be safely dead and buried before the most disastrous consequences of climate change are upon us, and he couldn't care less what happens to the planet, even his own descendants, after he is gone.

I doubt he even cares whether climate change is a real problem or not, as long as he can continue to accumulate more wealth and power until he dies.
No precept or claim is more likely to be false than one that can only be supported by invoking the claim of Divine authority for it--no matter who or what claims such authority.

“If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; but if you really make them think, they'll hate you.”
― Harlan Ellison
_Gunnar
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Re: The lessons of the pandemic and global warming

Post by _Gunnar »

subgenius wrote:
Mon Sep 14, 2020 11:34 pm
ajax18 wrote:
Mon Sep 14, 2020 11:05 pm
If Trump just hadn't left the Paris accord, none of these wildfires in CA would have happened.
If only we had a way to track our environmental impact since leaving the accord....if only....
Do you think we don't?
No precept or claim is more likely to be false than one that can only be supported by invoking the claim of Divine authority for it--no matter who or what claims such authority.

“If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; but if you really make them think, they'll hate you.”
― Harlan Ellison
_Gunnar
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Re: The lessons of the pandemic and global warming

Post by _Gunnar »

ajax18 wrote:
Mon Sep 14, 2020 11:05 pm
If Trump just hadn't left the Paris accord, none of these wildfires in CA would have happened.
No one is claiming that, but it is a given that wildfires will continue to become more frequent and serious if the climate continues to get hotter, droughts become more frequent, and humidity continues to decrease. That is just basic, inexorable and brutal physics. No amount of wishful denial and sticking one's head in the sand can change that.
No precept or claim is more likely to be false than one that can only be supported by invoking the claim of Divine authority for it--no matter who or what claims such authority.

“If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; but if you really make them think, they'll hate you.”
― Harlan Ellison
_Res Ipsa
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Re: The lessons of the pandemic and global warming

Post by _Res Ipsa »

Both present a similar problems: They required action long before noticeable effects began. Both were also highly politicized, leading significant numbers of people to simply deny the evidence. And both required changes in lifestyle that people were simply unwilling to make, making the damage much worse than it had to be.
​“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.”

― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1951
_ajax18
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Re: The lessons of the pandemic and global warming

Post by _ajax18 »

Why does Trump still continue to deny the reality of climate change and doesn't really want to do anything about it? I believe that the President should acknolwedge the reality of climate change and have a plan to deal with it.
Have you guys dropped the "man made" part of climate change in your rhetoric on purpose? Climate change has been happening since the earth was formed. Are you telling me that if Hillary Clinton were president these wildfires would not have happened? Do you not realize that only a few countries were forced to cut carbon emissions in this nonglobal agreement while the biggest polluters like China were exempt for the next 50 years? Do you really think this agreement changed the global climate that drastically in under four years? That doesn't sound very scientific to me at all.

Green energy is not cheap. Brackite are you fine with your utility bill tripling in cost to use less efficient green energy and of course pay the electric bill for those that cannot do so themselves? Do you realize that once these suckers can claim a medical condition it's illegal to cut their utilities off, hence they never pay again.
And when the confederates saw Jackson standing fearless as a stone wall the army of Northern Virginia took courage and drove the federal army off their land.
_Themis
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Re: The lessons of the pandemic and global warming

Post by _Themis »

Gunnar wrote:
Tue Sep 15, 2020 12:36 am
ajax18 wrote:
Mon Sep 14, 2020 11:05 pm
If Trump just hadn't left the Paris accord, none of these wildfires in CA would have happened.
No one is claiming that, but it is a given that wildfires will continue to become more frequent and serious if the climate continues to get hotter, droughts become more frequent, and humidity continues to decrease. That is just basic, inexorable and brutal physics. No amount of wishful denial and sticking one's head in the sand can change that.
Ajax and subby are just trolling. Ajax is a science denier who probably believes in a young earth and global flood, and has no interest in learning if he is wrong about any of that including climatology. Hopefully they will be a dying breed or the world is in deep crap.
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