Humanity and its greed and ability to allow itself to believe the insane and refute the rational has signed a collective death sentence on life form's bigger than a toaster oven by 2150 or sooner, depending on how resilient mankind's sane minority is and how many feedback loops interact and amplify each other.

We have had decades to act and spent them all refuting stupidity, pretending that insane greed was equal to cold hard fact. We allowed people to pretend that what was clearly happening was actually happening slower than it was, or that it was not real or that if it were real there is no solution anyway, so live out your days and fuck the future.

Well, we're about ready to have our collective ass kicked by the bill. Time's up, Accounts must be settled. Billions - with a "B" - are going to die in the resource wars and privation on the horizon... and into this dangerous soup, MILLIONS of Americans are seriously going to suggest with their votes that it would be a good idea to reinstall a hateful, ignorant moron...a bigoted fool obsessed with himself and no one else... a racist, misogynistic, bombastic clown back at the wheel as the car skids and enters an unrecoverable spin.

To say I have little hope is kind.

instead of spending all their time campaigning for Trump, ruining Twitter, and trying to go to Mars. I am only half joking. It seems to me that the so-called free market should have encouraged firms to work on real solutions to this problem but I forgot that many of the advances in science and technology were fueled by government funded research.

The oil companies, knowing for many years that fossil fuels, a limited resource, would be harder and more costly to exploit, and also being aware of the impact of fossil fuel combustion on the environment and climate, were uniquely positioned to divert some of their ample resources to the development of sustainable energy but mainly failed to do so.

Why, why can’t this soon-to-be trillionaire be one of the good guys?

I know that some of them engage in philanthropic activities after they have made their billions, but wonder how many of them were "good guys" from the start.

Last edited Thu Oct 24, 2024, 03:30 PM - Edit history (1)

It is true that on average, the wealthy give less to charity than middle and lower income earners. They also feel more entitled to free stuff, even though they could afford to pay.

Many of them would rather see the social safety net and Social Security fail than to pay a bit more in taxes.

To answer your question- very few companies have executive compensation policies similar to the old Ben & Jerry's. Hell, many CEOs even get huge golden parachutes when they get fired for doing a lousy job.

I thought Elon sold himself and Tesla as a company that cared about making sustainable cars for the average income person. Was he just being cynical? That's a rhetorical question. He also sold himself as a defender of free speech and we know what he has done with Twitter.

He apparently believes that fossil fuels will run out.

1. The Nissan LEAF™: It had an affordable price, with a relatively short range, good enough for the vast majority day-to-day driving.
2. The Chevy Volt™: It too had a relatively small battery, with a good-enough range, but added a “range extender” (a gasoline engine which would “kick in” when the battery got too low.) Naturally the “range extender” added to the price, and GM lost money on every one they sold.
3. The Tesla Model S™: It had a much larger battery pack, giving it much greater range, and a much higher price, to “justify” that, “high-end” features were added, definitely not for “average income person.” When people complained about the price, Tesla fans would compare it to other high-priced cars.

and how dare we serfs question his intentions, actions, or right-to-rule. This is the most troubling aspect of Musk and some of the other ultra-wealthy self-proclaimed libertarians. They really are authoritarians at heart, hearkening back to an imagined time when kings ruled as they wished and all institutions and people served the king rather than the other way around. They see themselves as supremely gifted and therefore most deserving of kingship. Hell, one of these clowns (I forget his name) has advocated for an American Caesar. That is some scary stuff.

At this point, climate scientists agree that we need Carbon Capture, but that is in addition to drastic cuts in emissions (not instead of them.)

The "average american” (per capita) is currently responsible for 14 tons of CO₂/year.

https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-annual-greenhouse-gas-index

Climate Change: Annual greenhouse gas index
BY REBECCA LINDSEY REVIEWED BY STEPHEN MONTZKA AND JAMES BUTLER
PUBLISHED JUNE 17, 2022

Among the most basic questions about global warming is how much are human-produced greenhouse gases influencing the climate today compared to the past? To answer this question, NOAA developed the Annual Greenhouse Gas Index ("AGGI" for short). Updated yearly, the AGGI calculates the combined warming influence of the most important long-lived greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous dioxide, and a number of industrial chemicals used in cooling and refrigeration, aerosol sprays, and other processes. The total direct heating influence in a given year is compared to conditions in 1990—the year that countries who signed the U.N. Kyoto Protocol agreed to use as a benchmark for their efforts to reduce emissions.

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By the end of 2022, NOAA reported that the AGGI was 1.49, meaning the direct warming influence of human-produced greenhouse gases had risen 49 percent since 1990. Most of the warming influence (64 percent) is due to carbon dioxide. Methane is the second-largest contributor (19 percent). The third-largest contributor is the chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) category (8.1 percent). (CFCs were widely used in cooling systems and aerosol sprays in the mid-1900s, before we realized they damaged the ozone layer. These substances and their replacements are now regulated under the Montreal Protocol, but they are extremely long-lived in the atmosphere, so they continue to play a role in Earth's heating imbalance.)




This graph shows the heating influence caused by the major human-produced greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide (gray), methane (dark purple), nitrous oxide (medium purple), chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs, lavender), hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs, blue), and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs, light blue). Relative to conditions in 1750, today's atmosphere absorbs more than 3 extra watts of energy per square meter of Earth's surface. Graph by NOAA Climate.gov based on data from NOAA Global Monitoring Lab. For the complete list of chemicals in the CFC, HFC, and HCFC groups, see Figure 3 in the Full AGGI Report.Graph by NOAA Climate.gov based on data from NOAA ESRL.

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