Links for you. Science:
Cities, obsessed with electric cars, overlook simple solutions at climate summit
Let Teenagers Sleep In: Starting schools before 8:30 a.m. shows a tragic disregard for both the mental health of children and for science
Kavanaugh and the Blackout Theory: It is both easy and common to drink, act and then have no memory of it.
The end of HIV transmission in the U.S.: A once-unthinkable dream becomes an openly discussed goal
How Dutch stormwater management could have mitigated damage from Hurricane Florence
Other:
Have you been PURGED? Georgia Voters – you MUST check this NOW
Why the distribution of wealth has more to do with power than productivity
Two senators are proposing national rent relief bills. Here’s why it matters
I ran from a job over sexism. Then I realized it’s everywhere.
Housing Market Slows, as Rising Prices Outpace Wages
Years after role in young DC punk scene, Anna Connolly releases 1st album
Here’s How I Grapple With Lack of Diversity in the Press Corps as a Black White House Reporter
Here’s What Prosecutor Rachel Mitchell Gets Wrong About the Evidence Against Brett Kavanaugh
Dear dads: Your daughters told me about their assaults. This is why they never told you.
The bottom 90 percent are still poorer than they were in 2007 (“Elites might be in a self-congratulatory mood because they feel like they saved the system, but that’s really only true for themselves. Everyone else is still struggling just to get back to where they were before 2008, and they aren’t particularly close.”)
Democrats must investigate Brett Kavanaugh — and be ready to impeach him
I.R.S. Tax Fraud Cases Plummet After Budget Cuts
Under the Fog of Kavanaugh, House Passes $3.8 Trillion More in Tax Cuts (these tax cuts, if used to subsidize employee side Social Security taxes, would be the equivalent of lowering the SS tax from 6.25% to around 1.5%)
Should Judge Kavanaugh Be Removed from the Bench? The Question We Ought to Be Asking
Winning the War on Christmas (funny)
DC’s Growing Prosperity Is Not Reaching Black Residents, Census Data Show
Trump Administration to Deny Visas to Same-Sex Partners of Diplomats, U.N. Officials
Barack Obama endorses Ben Jealous as governor of Maryland, which has never had a black chief executive
(Not) long ago and (not) far away, jobs boomed but housing prices didn’t
mikethemadbiologist
“Cities, obsessed with electric cars, overlook simple solutions at climate summit” bewails the lack of conversation about walking and biking more in cities.
Sorry, but this is seriously nuts. Our American urban and suburban geography has been designed around the automobile.Travel distances for shopping, in most places, is simply not conducive to walking or hiking. Nor does the infrastructure exist to do so safely. Walkable communities? Sure, if we basically rebuild everything. And there goes your carbon footprint savings.
Meanwhile, using an ICE car less still means you are using one often. And for longer trips. And a huge portion of the transportation sector is trucks, so if you think you are really helping by walking all you can, think again.
-> This idea of walking more is a category error that is going to kill us. Let me explain…
Joe Romm has been repeating something quite profound for years:
* The only important thing is building and deploying new renewable energy infrastructure. *
This IS profound, because you can not get rid of a machine that burns fossil fuels until you already have built the clean RE equivalent to replace it.
Try to get your head around this. Increasing energy efficiency is not important. Walking more is not important. Because it puts zero pressure on any person or entity to build and deploy new RE. (B&DNRE)
Anything that is not B&DNRE simply increases worldwide [GHG] a teensy bit more slowly. We have been doing this sort of thing for decades – what is the result? The result is (because the half-life of [CO2] is ~ 10,000 years and the population keeps increasing) a steadily increasing [CO2] concentration. As I said – get your head around this, because you are going to push back against it – and you would be wrong. Really, really wrong.
The only important thing is building and deploying new renewable energy infrastructure. That means cities are absolutely correct to be pushing electric transportation.Just as we *must* remove fossil fuels from electricity generation, and industrial processes. And toughest of all will be removing fossil fuels from the equation of home heating.
You can not attain these things by personal actions, by using less energy, by recycling, by walking more. As a species we are doomed if we do not recognize this, and realize the only way we are going to survive this is to spend government money to do the only thing that is important:
B&DNRE.