alanjjohnstone
Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Capitalism and Wind Power
A new monthly record was set in September this year, when £28,434,560 was paid out by National Grid to STOP electricity generation. Most cash was paid to Scottish wind farms, with some earning more than £1m a month for NOT supplying power.
https://www.scotsman.com/news/environment/scottish-wind-farm-paid-96m-to-switch-off-1-4846602
Canada’s yellow vests – anti-environment, anti-immigration
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/20/canada-yellow-vest-protests-gilets-jaunes
Nelson Wiseman, a professor of political science at the University of Toronto, said, “When you scratch the surface, it’s very shallow,” he said. “It’s a vehicle for people who are very conservative and anti-immigrant – and want to use anything they can against the current government.”
We have discussed tipping points that will lead to runaway climate change but it seems the risks have been under-estimated
“The risks are greater than assumed because the interactions are more dynamic,” said Juan Rocha of the Stockholm Resilience Centre. “The important message is to recognise the wickedness of the problem that humanity faces.” [strange choice of word – wickedness]
“We’re surprised at the rate of change in the Earth system. So much is happening at the same time and at a faster speed than we would have thought 20 years ago. That’s a real concern,” said Peterson. “We’re heading ever faster towards the edge of a cliff.
Sylvia Pankhurst, the socialist painter
George Bernard Shaw once compared her to Joan of Arc, describing her as both “miraculous” and “unbearable”
Capitalism tries to save itself
http://news.trust.org/item/20181219135521-2fwi8/
“Mainstream and large businesses are an important part of today’s economy. They need to be part of the transformation to foster true systemic change,” Danone’s Blandine Stefani.
Now i wonder what she really means by “true systemic change”
Interesting – Paddy described as anarcho-socialist.
I often use this Dietzgen quote:
“The terms anarchist, socialist, communist should be so “mixed” together, that no muddlehead could tell which is which. Language serves not only the purpose of distinguishing things but also of uniting them – for it is dialectic.”
Pope Francis on Tuesday condemned nationalist leaders who blame migrants for their countries’ problems and themselves fostered mistrust in society by pursuing dishonest gain and xenophobic and racist policies.
“Political addresses that tend to blame every evil on migrants and to deprive the poor of hope are unacceptable,” said the pope, who did not mention any countries or leaders.
He said today’s times were “marked by a climate of mistrust rooted in the fear of others or of strangers, or anxiety about one’s personal security.”
Francis said it was sad that mistrust was “also seen at the political level, in attitudes of rejection or forms of nationalism that call into question the fraternity of which our globalised world has such great need.”
Coal is not staying in the hole… the market rules
despite much of Europe and North America phasing out the dirtiest of all fossil fuels. The International Energy Agency predicted demand will remain steady at least until 2023, due to strong growth in India and Southeast Asia.
More stringent air quality and climate change policies, alongside the declining cost of renewable energy sources and abundant supplies of gas have all made coal an increasingly less attractive option. But despite these trends, after demand for coal increased in 2018 its contribution to the energy mix will only drop slightly by around 2 per cent to 25 per cent in 2023.
“Despite significant media attention being given to divestments and moves away from coal, market trends are proving resistant to change,” the report said.
The fright and flight of capital
Credit Suisse have advised clients to consider moving assets out of the UK because of a lack of clarity around Brexit. Wealth managers in London contacted their top customers to warn that a prolonged period of “turmoil” had already caused a rush of clients wanting to “move assets offshore”. Ultra-wealthy clients were advised that they might want to “accelerate” similar plans before the rescheduled vote in parliament in early January, according to people familiar with the matter. Multimillionaires are setting up investment accounts in places such as the Channel Islands and Switzerland, or are shifting the location of UK-registered trusts holding their wealth to outside the country.
The sell-off in sterling-denominated assets has accelerated since parliament shelved its Brexit vote last Monday, sparking a sharp drop in the pound and extending the decline for UK stocks this year to 7 per cent, compared with an average of 3 per cent around the world.https://www.ft.com/content/aacf019a-01e9-11e9-99df-6183d3002ee1
A silver lining? The great thing about a techno-fix is we don’t have to change our lifestyles and most definitely not our economic system
Warming has helped increase U.S. corn harvests, delivering more than one-quarter of the yield growth across Corn Belt states since 1981.
But
Overall, climate change-driven heat, droughts and soil erosion will likely diminish U.S. agricultural production, according to the latest installment of the U.S. National Climate Assessment, issued Friday Nov. 23.
Warmer temperatures also bring “unusually long dry spells and harsher storms” which make farming “more uncertain.”
However
The growing season used to be too short to grow corn in Alberta. That’s no longer true. A warming planet means longer growing seasons, making it practical for Canadian farmers to raise corn.
Canada’s corn acreage has climbed 20% over the past decade, while soybean acreage has roughly doubled… Before 2013, provinces such as Saskatchewan and Alberta grew no significant amounts of soybeans…. Now soybeans cover 425,000 acres in those provinces.
“Today, the U.S. corn belt is in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana,” Cargill CEO David MacLennan said in a 2016 interview. “In 50 years, it may be in Hudson Bay, Canada.”
Bayer AG, Cargill Inc., DowDuPont Inc., and Bunge Ltd. are pushing to develop hardier crops, plan new logistics networks and offer new technologies designed to help farmers adapt. DowDuPont, maker of Pioneer brand seeds, said its scientists are developing crops that mature faster and in drier conditions for farmers in regions growing hotter.
The lesson is that wealthy, First World countries will be able to adapt to climate change, if anyone can. Third World countries will not.
Where No Corn Has Grown Before: Better Living Through Climate Change?
Yp, it is a flaw with the reinstated website.
Posters when copying and pasting need to return to their message and edit out the code.
I fully understand that with the length of the WSPIndia minutes this would be too time consuming.
I’m sure it will get fixed in due course…too much work has been placed on too few shoulders, so we will have to endure some irritations and inconveniences for a bit longer.
