d'Errata @wion@writing.exchange

My sister is in the middle of a knitting craze. So I said, let’s do this!

I don’t think she’s on board yet.

#youtube is such a cancer.

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20200124/09485643792/youtube-streamer-hit-with-demonetization-over-copyright-claims-to-numbers-36-50.shtml

'36 is the ASCII code for "$". And 50 is for "2" since stealing once isn't enough.'

I can almost believe that was the logic behind choosing those numbers.

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20200124/09485643792/youtube-streamer-hit-with-demonetization-over-copyright-claims-to-numbers-36-50.shtml#c43

This seems like an admittance by the US administration, despite all of Trump’s ‘what climate change?’ theater, that the global situation is serious.

Yet I see no evidence from the same administration to more easily, effectively, and timely (if not so economically) take a lead in address the problems causing temperature rise.

Hence, nothing here suggesting collapse scenarios in ‘The Limits to Growth’ won’t be realized.

#USgov is providing millions for #NOAA research on a ‘Plan B’ #geoengineering Hail Mary in the event world nations can not reduce Earth’s temperature in time. The lead researcher says there are so many unknowns, it is so ‘complex’, that any positive result, should that even prove to be the case, wouldn’t be realized until the next century.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/noaa-gets-go-ahead-to-study-controversial-climate-plan-b/

#climate

‘United Kingdom’ (and ‘UK’ by extension) is a proper noun stricken from my style guide. No more general reference to a fallacious notion.

I could not help but notice the many typographical mistakes in the article, however. That's one place independent think tanks might need more help: editing.

So, as a result, readers are left with continuing with classic activism (and that's what most environmentalists do), which is like being a half-spent salmon facing an up-river journey of rapids and falls, with both banks lined with grizzly bears waiting to bite and claw out your last spark.

Managed to get through this today...

'Change resistance as the crux of the environmental sustainability problem'

https://www.thwink.org/sustain/articles/009/Harich_2010_ChangeResistanceAsTheCrux.pdf

The author does a great job of explaining the 'classic activism' model and how it continuously falls short. Anyone interested in why science keeps failing to convince conservative policy and corporate spin will like it.

But after the great build up of what the 'crux' of the problem is — unseen 'systemic change resistance' — there's no specific what or how.

A study has published saying that production of just half the global food supply already exceeds 4 of 9 boundary thresholds for sustainability. And even if boundaries were not exceeded, sustainable production would still only support ~3.4B people (we're 7.8B now) by current processes. Worse still, the low support assumes not passing 1.5°C (and it will be passed). OTOH, we could support a pop. of 10.2B in 30yrs, but profound, global changes are required this decade.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-019-0465-1

That's not an endorsement of Church and State, btw. It's just that I looked for that interview everywhere else and could not find it at original sources anymore. (I did not dig into the Wayback, though.)

FORMAT interview (2013) of Denis L. Meadows*. Luckily reposted by Church and State.

'Cancer cells proliferate until they kill the organism. Population or economic growth behave exactly the same. There are only two ways to reduce the growth of humanity: reduction in birth rate or increase in death rate . . . [but] We have lost the opportunity of choice, anyway. Our planet will do it.'

Grim and honest stuff.

http://churchandstate.org.uk/2013/04/dennis-meadows-there-is-nothing-that-we-can-do/

*Coauthor of 'The Limits of Growth'

Donella Meadows obituary

https://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/22/us/donella-meadows-59-author-and-advocate-for-environment.html

Too young.

'So how do you change paradigms? [Summarizing Thomas Kuhn...] You don’t waste time with reactionaries; rather you work with active change agents and with the vast middle ground of people who are open-minded.'

– Donella Meadows*, 1999

https://web.archive.org/web/20041014084832/http://www.sustainer.org/pubs/Leverage_Points.pdf

A pretty excellent bit of writing, actually. I like her style.

* Coauthor of 'Limits of Growth'

#environmentalism
#sustainability
#oldschool

'There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.' –Henry David Thoreau, 'Walden', 1854

It's a poignant quote, but I've never liked that a tree represents evil, in this and other similar analogies. I prefer them for their healthy strength and good.

'The trees are strong, m'lord. The roots run deep.' -- Orc, 'The Two Towers'

From tonight’s news... Currently in France, average cost (€) of power per 100km of car travel*:

EV charge: ~15,60
Essence (gas): ~9,40

Not a lot of incentive for the vast majority. Not sure EVs will matter, anyway, since little electricity comes from renewable sources.

(*Not everyone lives in a big city.)

You can just imagine seeing some high-ranking official saying ‘low-ranking official’ with the utmost distaste on their face.

So, this #coronavirus in China...

‘The Chinese political body responsible for law and order said on Tuesday that lower-ranking officials who covered up the spread of the virus would “be nailed on the pillar of shame for eternity”.’

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/21/coronavirus-chinese-hospitals-not-testing-patients-say-relatives