Politics & Stuff

[cosmicway 1,333]

2 minutes ago, Vesper said:

"The Four Billionaire Horseman of the American Apocalypse"

Acrylic Paint, 2021

 

Richest people on the planet atm

1 (when combined)

Larry Page
$126.3 B

Sergey Brin
$121.1 B

Total combined $247.4 B

Both are 51
Google
United States
 

2
Elon Musk
$241.8 B

53
Tesla, SpaceX
United States
    
3
Jeff Bezos
$190.4 B
60
Amazon
United States
    
4
Mark Zuckerberg
$173.4 B
40
Facebook
United States
    

 

I never liked facebook all that much.
The reason is we can't have debates.
When something like a debate starts it dies in a few hours.
In a forum I can start a thread and it stays for ever. It may even be revived two years from now.
Anyway when writing sums of money, you should tell us what you 'd like to do with it (and if you say I 'd like them for myself it does n't count).
 

[cosmicway 1,333]

2 minutes ago, Vesper said:

and there is a fatal flaw, m8

You must add all the monies you are targetting and then divide them with the population total.
Otherwise it is becoming like Buckingham palace. The peoples commissars take it, open the corridors to the tourists and then what ? I would probably not even go there. I prefer the strip tease clubs in Piccadilly.
The idea of supertaxation has flaws in it.
It does n't work.
Governments are more interested in the lifetime of money.
So every euro coin that comes out of your pocket has a lifetime. You buy chewing gum, 10% goes to the government. With the remaining you buy something else and again a percentage goes to the government. Ultimately the one euro returns to it's base, the government and the faster this happens the more happy they are.
My problem is simply why they want to tax people out of business and then get nothing from them.

[Vesper 30,119]

Just now, cosmicway said:

I never liked facebook all that much.
The reason is we can't have debates.
When something like a debate starts it dies in a few hours.
In a forum I can start a thread and it stays for ever. It may even be revived two years from now.
Anyway when writing sums of money, you should tell us what you 'd like to do with it (and if you say I 'd like them for myself it does n't count).
 

In re the West and core first world:

Smash the gobal systemic banking system (on international, national, and massive private banking levels)

Wealth inequality reduction on a massive scale

End austerity regimes for social welfare regimes

Scupper the military industrial complexes and the endless wars to preserve the petrol/dollar matrix

Remove the for-profit nature from vital human services (like heathcare)

All-out assault, on a global basis, to combat global climate change

Kick off a half century (or a full century, if need be) plan to sort out Africa

Introduce UBI

THINK BIG

 

[cosmicway 1,333]

12 minutes ago, Vesper said:

In re the West and core first world:

Smash the gobal systemic banking system (on international, national, and massive private banking levels)

Wealth inequality reduction on a massive scale

End austerity regimes for social welfare regimes

Scupper the military industrial complexes and the endless wars to preserve the petrol/dollar matrix

Remove the for-profit nature from vital human services (like heathcare)

All-out assault, on a global basis, to combat global climate change

Kick off a half century (or a full century, if need be) plan to sort out Africa

Introduce UBI

THINK BIG

 

 

Climate change is a lie.
Over several billion years yes, there will be new age of the dinosaurs and what have you.
But the Thunberg myth is a lie.

[Vesper 30,119]

47 minutes ago, cosmicway said:

Climate change is a lie.

sorry, but that is absolutely delusional

[Vesper 30,119]

I am not going to get into a debate with crackpot climate change denialism

complete waste of time over massively settled science that is an existential threat to humanity

[cosmicway 1,333]

18 minutes ago, Vesper said:

I am not going to get into a debate with crackpot climate change denialism

complete waste of time over massively settled science that is an existential threat to humanity

It is over geological ages.

[Fulham Broadway 17,306]

How climate change is driving extreme fires in Greece

 

Just as an enormous wildfire tears through the suburbs of Athens, scientists in Europe are racing to understand why "extreme" fires like this are becoming more common.

The conditions for some of these fierce blazes have become between three and 20 times more likely, according to the first research of its kind.

 

The new annual review of what is causing extreme fires, and whether we can predict them, comes off the back of a staggeringly destructive wildfire season from March 2023 to February 2024.

Record-breaking flames scorched Canada and turned skies far away in New York orange and grey. The largest recorded fires in the European Union killed 19 people in Greece, and blazes in western Amazonia brought filthy air to local towns.

Today's major study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Earth System Science Data, finds carbon emissions from wildfires in 2023-2024 were 16% above average, spewing out 8.2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

 

 

And, had it not been a quiet fire season in the African savannahs, the global emission from wildfires would have been the greatest of any fire season on record since 2003, they said.

Image:Parthenon shrouded in smoke from Greek wildfires

Image:Pic: Reuters

What is an 'extreme' wildfire?

There is no single definition of what constitutes an extreme fire, because it is relative to the location, said one of the authors Dr Douglas Kelley, from the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (UKCEH).

It could be measured by things like burned area, intensity, or how unusual they are, depending on the region.

 

But they used three mega blazes in Canada, Greece, and western Amazonia last year as a benchmark.

The current flames in Greece would count as an extreme fire because of its proximity to and potential damage to people, said fellow author Dr Joe McNorton from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF).

At 200 square kilometres, this year's fires in Greece are still much smaller than the 900 square kilometres burned last fire season.

That's because the current flames are at the "wildland-urban interface", which brings with it "potential loss of life, destruction, economic devastation" said Dr McNorton.

Image:Pic: Reuters

Climate change raised the chances of unprecedented fires last year

Human-driven climate change made the tinderbox conditions of 2023-24 up to three times more likely in Greece, similar in Canada and 20 times more likely in western Amazonia, today's paper found.

They then looked at "how likely we are to get them in the future", said Dr Kelley.

If the world warms by up to 2C by 2100, sticking to Paris Agreement goals, they project such a fire in Canada will be two to three times more likely, but no change in Greece and western Amazonia.

But if temperatures warm by more like 3C, extreme fires like last year will be up to 11 times more likely in Canada, three in Greece and 1.3 in western Amazonia.

Other research shows the number of intense fires has been rising.

How does climate change impact extreme fires?

Climate change is "clearly increasing" fire conditions, said Dr Matthew Jones from the University of East Anglia.

Warmer temperatures dry out forests, which make a fire "more likely to spread", said Dr Kelley. It can also cause more vegetation to grow, which provides more "fuel" for the fire.

Human factors also influence fires, like starting them themselves, or breaking up the landscape, or how well they fight them.

0:59

 

 

 

 

Play Video - Drone captures damage of Greece wildfires

Drone captures damage of Greece wildfires

How do fires impact climate change?

Although the number of extreme fires is on the up, the total amount of land being burned has been decreasing.

That is a bit of a "red herring" said Dr Jones, because it's due to a fall in the less harmful savannah fires, as things like agriculture break up the grassland, often bringing better protection or irrigation.

But what scientists are really concerned about is the rise in wildfires in forests.

Forest wildfires release more carbon emissions, pose a higher risk to people, take longer to recover, and mean the loss of huge carbon storage.

Image:The total amount of land burned globally has been falling, largely due to a decrease of fires in savannah areas Pic: Jones et al (2024)

Image:CO2 emissions from fires have not changed much even though land area burned has fallen, because now more dense forests are burning Pic: Jones et al (2024)

Read more from Sky News:
New warning about 'demise' of Great Barrier Reef
Britain's smallest house 'at risk' due to climate change

That's why global fire emissions have barely budged even though land area burned has fallen - and there's a fear global emissions from fires could soon increase.

More extreme fires in Canada and western Amazonia are "quite worrying... in ecosystems which hold a lot of carbon and in some cases, don't experience much fire today, so they haven't really adapted to it," said Dr Kelley.

Image:70-year-old Sakis Morfis inspects the damage in Greece

What can be done?

Dr Clair Barnes from Imperial College London, who was not involved with the study, said she hopes the report will both "guide preparations for wildfires, and help the world understand the simple fact that fires will keep getting worse until fossil fuels are replaced with renewable energy sources".

Scientists agree that emissions need to fall in order to avoid future risk - but that will take a long time to have an impact.

In the meantime, the authors said, leaders should consider protecting forest boundaries, reducing the amount of natural fuel fire, imposing fire bans on high-risk days, and investing more in early warning prediction systems.

 

[cosmicway 1,333]

23 minutes ago, Fulham Broadway said:

How climate change is driving extreme fires in Greece

 

Just as an enormous wildfire tears through the suburbs of Athens, scientists in Europe are racing to understand why "extreme" fires like this are becoming more common.

The conditions for some of these fierce blazes have become between three and 20 times more likely, according to the first research of its kind.

 

The new annual review of what is causing extreme fires, and whether we can predict them, comes off the back of a staggeringly destructive wildfire season from March 2023 to February 2024.

Record-breaking flames scorched Canada and turned skies far away in New York orange and grey. The largest recorded fires in the European Union killed 19 people in Greece, and blazes in western Amazonia brought filthy air to local towns.

Today's major study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Earth System Science Data, finds carbon emissions from wildfires in 2023-2024 were 16% above average, spewing out 8.2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

 

 

And, had it not been a quiet fire season in the African savannahs, the global emission from wildfires would have been the greatest of any fire season on record since 2003, they said.

Image:Parthenon shrouded in smoke from Greek wildfires

Image:Pic: Reuters

What is an 'extreme' wildfire?

There is no single definition of what constitutes an extreme fire, because it is relative to the location, said one of the authors Dr Douglas Kelley, from the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (UKCEH).

It could be measured by things like burned area, intensity, or how unusual they are, depending on the region.

 

But they used three mega blazes in Canada, Greece, and western Amazonia last year as a benchmark.

The current flames in Greece would count as an extreme fire because of its proximity to and potential damage to people, said fellow author Dr Joe McNorton from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF).

At 200 square kilometres, this year's fires in Greece are still much smaller than the 900 square kilometres burned last fire season.

That's because the current flames are at the "wildland-urban interface", which brings with it "potential loss of life, destruction, economic devastation" said Dr McNorton.

Image:Pic: Reuters

Climate change raised the chances of unprecedented fires last year

Human-driven climate change made the tinderbox conditions of 2023-24 up to three times more likely in Greece, similar in Canada and 20 times more likely in western Amazonia, today's paper found.

They then looked at "how likely we are to get them in the future", said Dr Kelley.

If the world warms by up to 2C by 2100, sticking to Paris Agreement goals, they project such a fire in Canada will be two to three times more likely, but no change in Greece and western Amazonia.

But if temperatures warm by more like 3C, extreme fires like last year will be up to 11 times more likely in Canada, three in Greece and 1.3 in western Amazonia.

Other research shows the number of intense fires has been rising.

How does climate change impact extreme fires?

Climate change is "clearly increasing" fire conditions, said Dr Matthew Jones from the University of East Anglia.

Warmer temperatures dry out forests, which make a fire "more likely to spread", said Dr Kelley. It can also cause more vegetation to grow, which provides more "fuel" for the fire.

Human factors also influence fires, like starting them themselves, or breaking up the landscape, or how well they fight them.

0:59

 

 

 

 

Play Video - Drone captures damage of Greece wildfires

 

Drone captures damage of Greece wildfires

How do fires impact climate change?

Although the number of extreme fires is on the up, the total amount of land being burned has been decreasing.

That is a bit of a "red herring" said Dr Jones, because it's due to a fall in the less harmful savannah fires, as things like agriculture break up the grassland, often bringing better protection or irrigation.

But what scientists are really concerned about is the rise in wildfires in forests.

Forest wildfires release more carbon emissions, pose a higher risk to people, take longer to recover, and mean the loss of huge carbon storage.

Image:The total amount of land burned globally has been falling, largely due to a decrease of fires in savannah areas Pic: Jones et al (2024)

Image:CO2 emissions from fires have not changed much even though land area burned has fallen, because now more dense forests are burning Pic: Jones et al (2024)

Read more from Sky News:
New warning about 'demise' of Great Barrier Reef
Britain's smallest house 'at risk' due to climate change

That's why global fire emissions have barely budged even though land area burned has fallen - and there's a fear global emissions from fires could soon increase.

More extreme fires in Canada and western Amazonia are "quite worrying... in ecosystems which hold a lot of carbon and in some cases, don't experience much fire today, so they haven't really adapted to it," said Dr Kelley.

Image:70-year-old Sakis Morfis inspects the damage in Greece

What can be done?

Dr Clair Barnes from Imperial College London, who was not involved with the study, said she hopes the report will both "guide preparations for wildfires, and help the world understand the simple fact that fires will keep getting worse until fossil fuels are replaced with renewable energy sources".

Scientists agree that emissions need to fall in order to avoid future risk - but that will take a long time to have an impact.

In the meantime, the authors said, leaders should consider protecting forest boundaries, reducing the amount of natural fuel fire, imposing fire bans on high-risk days, and investing more in early warning prediction systems.

 

We 've been having forest fires ever since I can recall.
I remember them from the eighties as a matter of fact, when I took part in extinguishing a fire as an airman.
But must have been happening always.
It's auto-inflection in most cases but there are other causes too and a number of people have been accused for arson.
Does n't look like "climate change".
To be honest I don't remember about fires before 1980. Can it be because it was then they started for real or just because I don't remember ?
In England it does n't happen. The English rain saves the forests.

Edited September 7, 2024 by cosmicway

[Fulham Broadway 17,306]

14 minutes ago, cosmicway said:

In England it does n't happen. The English rain saves the forests

Fire services in England dealt with nearly 25,000 wildfires this summer, almost four times that recorded over the same period in 2021, figures show. Some forces tackled more than 50 wildfires a day amid droughts and record-breaking temperatures of more than 40C. More than 800 wildfires were recorded on 19 July alone.

[robsblubot 3,595]

The point is always the same: *I* remember... where *I* live... 🤷‍♂️

Disregard science for a second here and ask, who does benefit from the idea that Climate Change isn't a problem? Who does benefit from the idea that it is. The former includes (all) the oil industry.

We've been through that in a discussion recently: 

 

[Vesper 30,119]

47 minutes ago, Fulham Broadway said:

Fire services in England dealt with nearly 25,000 wildfires this summer, almost four times that recorded over the same period in 2021, figures show. Some forces tackled more than 50 wildfires a day amid droughts and record-breaking temperatures of more than 40C. More than 800 wildfires were recorded on 19 July alone.

Arguing empirical science with climate change denialists is like arguing with flat earthers or lunar landing denialists.

They are emotionally and/or ideoligically invested in pushing their false narratives (for a variety of reasons, ranging from simple stupidity, OR a profound lack of understanding (often wilful) basic science, OR their being professional shills, OR their being people who have been gaslighted into taking the denialist stance to 'own the libs' or 'freedom!', because that is how they express their programmed RW inclinations, etc etc).

[Vesper 30,119]

1 minute ago, robsblubot said:

who does benefit from the idea that Climate Change isn't a problem

Right wing politicians and pundits as well, as they use it as a wedge issue, a tribal stance to keep their followers on 'the team'. It is classic 'let's play game of YOU and THEM fight'. It is emotional identity manipulation.

[Fulham Broadway 17,306]

30 minutes ago, Vesper said:

Arguing empirical science with climate change denialists is like arguing with flat earthers or lunar landing denialists.

They are emotionally and/or ideoligically invested in pushing their false narratives (for a variety of reasons, ranging from simple stupidity, OR a profound lack of understanding (often wilful) basic science, OR their being professional shills, OR their being people who have been gaslighted into taking the denialist stance to 'own the libs' or 'freedom!', because that is how they express their programmed RW inclinations, etc etc).

Once i was in the market square at Pirraeus -it was the time of Stavros Poppadapadapadapoulis when there was a socialist uprising. On my mind was 'If a man gives you a glass of water, do you ask for bacon ?'  It is a problem for brexiters and the commies, but for me it was simple - you can lead a horse to water but you cant make it do backstroke, esprcially in a recession. The water is full of migrants that are Erdogan spies, but most are commie agitators that drink champagne and the horse vomitted. That is not climate change

[Vesper 30,119]

24 minutes ago, Fulham Broadway said:

'If a man gives you a glass of water, do you ask for bacon ?' 

 

 

28 minutes ago, Fulham Broadway said:

Poppadapadapadapoulis