There's nothing wrong with his "politics getting weird". There's nothing saying that just because you enjoy listening to someone and exploring their ideas that you have to fall in line with them. I pick and choose what I agree with, but enjoy hearing an alternate viewpoint sometimes as well. As to climate change, I believe it's happening, but I don't believe that it's going to cause some sort of catastrophic failure. I believe that big corporations are a part of the reason it's happening, and that they have bought the government who are then allowing it to happen much, much more than it really should. But as much as I think humans have an influence on climate, I don't think we have as much impact on it as some people think we do, and I don't think we're the primary cause of the change in climate. So yeah, we have an impact, but it's not the primary force behind the impact. I tend to think that we should be smarter about shit we do to the planet, but not to the point that we need to go full retard on the issue. I also think that we have been looking at such a small section of an incredibly complex system that we don't know what's going to happen in the mid to long term, or what will or won't have an effect. The science behind the modelling of such a system is very immature and cannot be relied on for such long-term forecasting, and the climate records we've been keeping are for a drop in the bucket. So I'm firmly in the middle at "we're not causing it but we have to be smarter about what we're doing".
That's really the crux of the issue. Of course we're affecting the planet with the shit we're doing. The real question is, are we fucking things up to the point that we can't adapt? Is the man-made effect significant compared to the background noise? Those are the questions we should be focusing on instead of arguing about whether the climate is exactly the same as it used to be.
That's what I believe. All the science I've seen basically says, "yes, shit is changing, but we don't know if we're causing it, or if it's going to be permanent". The thing about that kind of finding is that either side can cherry pick the parts they want to support their position, when it's really somewhere in the middle. But "somewhere in the middle" doesn't sit well in an environment where you have to be for or against, true or false, red or blue.
It doesn't help that the Industrial Revolution happened at the same time as the end of the Little Ice Age. Or maybe it caused the end of the Little Ice Age. Who fucking knows?
I also think that we drastically underestimate the power of nature. I remember when Mount St. Helens blew... I mean, I saw the aftermath in the sky for weeks afterwards... and the nuclear-winter-like footage of the aftermath, and the dire scientific predictions that it would take decades if not longer for shit to recover. In less than 20 years that shit had basically recovered and was back to somewhat normal. It was "unbelievable" how quickly things adapted and flourished and recovered. I'm not saying "nothing to worry about", but I do believe that we tend to underestimate that which we don't know.
That's the same sort of thing that happened with Chernobyl. It's basically a wildlife refuge at this point because nature isn't remotely as risk averse as humans are. The deer don't care that they might die 6% faster of cancer. Everything eventually boils down to risk, and we've been so damn lucky for the last 50 years in the west that we're scared shitless of absolutely everything.
Ehhhhh, the Chernobyl area is still highly radioactive. It's just that animals don't typically live long enough to feel the latent effects of a high dose of radiation. Having an area get irradiated by something like an atom bomb is much different than a reactor core meltdown. Thing about the amount of material in a reactor is wayyy higher and just sitting there giving off radiation. The amount of material in a weapon is much more dangerous but in far smaller amounts and is used to create the reaction that causes the damage. The area stays radioactive for a bit but it dissipates quickly. Not Fukushima or Chernobyl.
BBC: New Crop Varieties Can't Keep Up With Global Warming. "They found that in a warmer world durations will be shorter meaning these varieties will have less time to accumulate biomass and yields could be affected. In their paper, the researchers write that crop duration will become significantly shorter as early as 2018 in some regions but by 2031, the majority of maize-growing areas of Africa will be affected."
What's really interesting is radioactivity can only "puncture" about two inches into animal flesh, so the big animals handle it a lot better. The smaller ones died off in droves at the beginning and now https://www.sciencenews.org/blog/wild-things/some-birds-adapt-chernobyl’s-radiation There's also nematodes that used to usually breed asexually there that now fuck to make their children, because apparently sexual reproduction is a better idea given the radioactive environment.
There ought to be a law against the weather girl announcing on the 5:30 AM news cast that it's already 96 degrees. Then I get into work and apparently the AC is on a timer. It's like 88 degrees in my office and I'm sitting here sweating. It's going to be a lovely day I can tell. EDIT: 6:30 AM. AC just kicked on. Thank God.
Aren't you old people supposed to love the desert because "it's a dry heat" and thereby good for your joints or something? Isn't that the entire reason for the existence of Sedona?
Sedona is where rich folks with RVs go in the winter to escape the snow. Other then that it's record high is only 110 and only about 10K people live there.
I've never understood the appeal of RVing. Or owning a trailer. Perhaps this makes me a snob. I just don't get why you'd want to put a house on wheels and roll it across the country. That's why God created HoJos.
Anyone who says they're going camping, but take their house on wheels to a concrete lot with electrical outlets in the middle of well groomed park is a moron. You can't go camping with an RV, just like you can't ice skate in shoes. Apparently someone had to be rescued in Phoenix yesterday because of heat exhaustion. This person decided it would be fun to go mountain biking in the middle of the day. Can't fix stupid.
Jesus. My next door neighbor has an RV. He's having a sort of mid-life crisis and this, THIS, is what he bought. I recently put in a really nice privacy fence around my backyard. Neighbor owned a pontoon boat, which on the truck trailer was like 12 feet high. Of course he parked it in his backyard. He and his son spent the weekends on the boat, in their own backyard, never having sailed it in actual water, the two drinking bud lights and looking directly into my yard. All day. When he got rid of that stupid thing I rejoiced. Couple days later in rolls this fucking RV with the windows a solid foot higher than my 6 foot fence. He once again starts hanging out inside the fucking RV all fucking night doing... something. I'm over here just trying to be naked in my pool, you bastard. I can't wait for him to fuck off forever in that rolling douchecanoe.
But RVs are expensive? Maybe thats why they're poor, because they spent their money on something expensive and useless when they have no money to begin with.
I always wanted a motor home so I could drive it to the bar, get belligerently drunk and then have an after hours in the rv. You've got a bed, bathroom and kitchen right there. Basically a mobile party.