Among the problems associated with unbridled capitalism is that it creates a society that is both mean and stupid. Speaking for myself, I really don’t like living among hateful idiots. It’s depressing.
Fifty years ago, we had our share of morons, but at least we weren’t deliberately manufacturing them as if they were cheap hamburgers.
Sensible people find the meme here to be compelling, while noting that it doesn’t take into account human misery: deaths from hyperthermia, drowning, and wildfires, the disease transmitted by insects, the loss of homeland, the hunger and thirst.
Here’s a good example of what makes David Attenborough an international treasure.
In just a few words, he explains precisely where humankind finds itself — “like it or not.”
An anti-vaxxer sent me the meme here.
In actuality, Australia’s vaccination rate is 84.6%, and it has one of the lowest per capita death rates in the world, at 471/M.
The problem with these people seems to be that they have no interest in the truth. That must make life tough.
Human civilization is making slow progress in the direction of reducing cruelty to animals. Unacceptably slow, IMO, largely driven by our lack of willingness to change our diets.
I’ve always gotten a smile out of the cartoon here. In particular, I love all the work that went into drawing the duck: his bicep, the muscling in his back, the perfection of the alignment of his bill with his target.
Amazingly, this guy is single!
I would have thought that this way of thinking, so in vogue during our Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal days, would have endured over millions of years. I guess times change.
A reader asked for my feedback on this concept in CO2 capture.
I really don’t have the background to evaluate this, but I can say that the capturing of CO2 at point sources, e.g., coal plants and concrete manufacturing, is already pretty good. Could this be less expensive? I’m not well equipped to make that call.
But the problem is what you do with CO2 once you have isolated it.
People like Doty Windfuels propose to use off-peak energy to synthesize gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. The more traditional approach is to sequester it underground.
The point sources discussed above contain about 30% CO2 in their exhaust streams, where auto exhaust is about 14%, and there are over one billion cars and trucks on American roads alone “that dog (clearly) don’t hunt” in the transportation space which makes me extremely suspicious of the rest of these claims.
We also need to keep in mind that the whole enterprise of CCS (carbon capture and sequestration) seems to be a red herring, constantly being regurgitated by the fossil fuel industry.
Sorry for the vulgarity here, but I wanted to make a brief point.
There is stupid, and then there is the level of stupidity required to troll Jon Stewart.
Those unfamiliar with American lower-end eateries may not know of Cracker Barrel, a chain of country-themed restaurants, mostly found in the southeast portion of the nation (read: red states).
As one might suspect, patrons are generally not gourmets with high-powered metropolitan careers, and tend to get riled about social trends towards progress and enlightenment, of which plant-based meat is only one.
Thus the meme here should come as a surprise to no one.
As disappointed as many of us are that Elon Musk turned out to be a selfish pig, we need to give credit where it’s due, and that means acknowledging that most of his observations about energy and transportation are spot-on.
His comments here on hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles are a fine example.
