Even outlaw Daisy Domergue on her way to the gallows, handcuffed to John Ruth the Hangman, recognized her moment sitting in a field after getting punched out of a carriage by Marquis Warren, to take a moment in the chaos to catch snowflakes on her tongue and enjoy the brief respite.
Instead of quickly winding down energy use to a sustainable level — as scientists say we *must* do — capitalism is taking us in the opposite direction.
_______________________________
Experts warned a few years ago that the world had to stop building new fossil fuel projects to preserve a livable climate.
Now, artificial intelligence is driving a rapid expansion of methane gas infrastructure — pipelines and power plants — that could have devastating climate consequences if fully realized.
As large language models like ChatGPT become more sophisticated, analysts predict US energy demands will grow by a “shocking” 16% in the next five years. Tech giants like Amazon, Meta, and Alphabet have increasingly turned to nuclear power plants or large renewable energy projects to power data centers that use as much energy as a small town.
But those cleaner energy sources will not be enough to meet the voracious energy demands of AI. To bridge the gap, tech giants and fossil fuel companies are planning to build new gas power plants and pipelines that directly supply data centers.
_______________________________
Instead of quickly winding down energy use to a sustainable level — as scientists say we *must* do — capitalism is taking us in the opposite direction.
_______________________________
Experts warned a few years ago that the world had to stop building new fossil fuel projects to preserve a livable climate.
This is what 💵 for-profit 💵 healthcare does to us…
________________________________
A leaked report reveals UnitedHealth Group, the nation’s largest insurer, systematically limits access to critical autism therapy by culling providers.
Internal documents obtained by ProPublica show that the company has implemented cost-cutting measures targeting applied behavior analysis (ABA), a widely recognized therapy for children with autism.
________________________________
EDIT: After I made this original post yesterday, several people left strong comments explaining about the actual nature of ABA "therapy" for autism. It is apparently not helpful at all, doing a lot more damage than good. I didn't know about that, and I'm grateful for the education.
Several other commenters also noted that the motives of UnitedHealthcare in this matter have *zero* to do with seeking the best treatment for children with autism, and everything to do with cutting costs and saving money any way they can to make themselves richer. So the spirit of my original post is still valid, even if the specific content was in error. But I do apologize for my ignorance.
This is what 💵 for-profit 💵 healthcare does to us…
________________________________
A leaked report reveals UnitedHealth Group, the nation’s largest insurer, systematically limits access to critical autism therapy by culling providers.
Internal documents obtained by ProPublica show that the company has implemented cost-cutting measures targeting applied behavior analysis (ABA), a widely recognized therapy for children with autism.
________________________________
@breadandcircuses@climatejustice.social Suddenly, we have good news about UHG? #ABA is evidence based, to show that it causes intense trauma, and is #conversionThereapy for autistics. We ban it when it's being used to convert gays to ex-gays, but it's "evidence based" when the exact same methodology is used for autistic people.
I'm not being hyperbolic calling it, "conversion therapy" and "the exact same treatment". It is quite literally the same treatment, created by the same person, just with a different target population.
Saying ABA is evidence based, is saying #gayConversionTherapy is evidence based. Do you support that?
@breadandcircuses@climatejustice.social Suddenly, we have good news about UHG? #ABA is evidence based, to show that it causes intense trauma, and is #conversionThereapy for autistics. We ban it when it's being used to convert gays to ex-gays, but it's "evidence based" when the exact same methodology is used for autistic people.
I'm not being hyperbolic calling it, "conversion therapy" and "the exact...
@breadandcircuses
I've said it before and I'll say it again - this once, they did the right thing, albeit for all the wrong reasons.
ABA, at its core, is just pavlovian training used - without any safeguards (!!) - on children who can't consent. Even dog trainers have higher standards of care than ABA practitioners. This stuff needs to be outlawed as child abuse.
Of course, with US insurance companies, they wouldn't care about any of this if they thought it would bring in more money...
@breadandcircuses
I've said it before and I'll say it again - this once, they did the right thing, albeit for all the wrong reasons.
ABA, at its core, is just pavlovian training used - without any safeguards (!!) - on children who can't consent. Even dog trainers have higher standards of care than ABA practitioners. This stuff needs to be outlawed as child abuse.
A few days ago, Greta Thunberg said this…
______________________________
As the COP29 climate meeting reaches its end, it should not come as a surprise that yet another COP is failing. The current draft is a complete disaster. But even if our expectations are close to non-existent, we must never find ourselves reacting to these continuous betrayals with anything but rage.
The people in power are again about to agree to a death sentence to the countless people whose lives have been or will be ruined by the climate crisis. The current text is full of false solutions and empty promises. The money from the Global North countries needed to pay back their climate debt is still nowhere to be seen. The host country, Azerbaijan, is a repressive and authoritarian petrostate that has committed ethnic cleansing and genocidal acts towards Armenians. Civil society present at COP29 are being silenced, yet continue fighting and pushing negotiators towards the bare minimum.
All of this while oppression, inequalities, wars, and genocides all over the world continue to intensify. Those in power are worsening the destabilization and destruction of our life-supporting ecosystems. We are on track to experience the hottest year ever recorded, with global greenhouse gases reaching an all-time high just last year.
It is clear that the current systems are not working in our favor. The COP processes aren’t just failing us, they are part of a larger system built on injustice and designed to sacrifice current and future generations for the opportunity of a few to keep making unimaginable profits and to continue exploiting planet and people.
With every negotiation, with every speech made by a world leader, and with every agreement they sign, it becomes clear that it is up to us as a global collective to take the action we so desperately need, and to show where the leadership truly lies. They are not going to do it for us, as this COP29 yet again proves.
______________________________
A few days ago, Greta Thunberg said this…
______________________________
As the COP29 climate meeting reaches its end, it should not come as a surprise that yet another COP is failing. The current draft is a complete disaster. But even if our expectations are close to non-existent, we must never find ourselves reacting to these continuous betrayals with anything but rage.
Extended excerpts below from a stark warning issued by a team of international scientists about the intensifying climate crisis...
_______________________________
You don't have to look far to see what climate change is doing to the planet. The word "unprecedented" is everywhere this year.
We are seeing unprecedented rapidly intensifying tropical storms such as Hurricane Helene in the eastern United States and Super Typhoon Yagi in Vietnam.
Unprecedented fires in Canada have destroyed towns. Unprecedented drought in Brazil has dried out enormous rivers and left swathes of empty river beds. At least 1,300 pilgrims died during this year's Hajj in Mecca as temperatures passed 50°C.
Unfortunately, we are headed for far worse.
Our new report, the 2024 State of the Climate, shows a continued rise in fossil fuel emissions, which remain at an all-time high. Despite years of warnings from scientists, fossil fuel consumption has actually increased, pushing the planet toward dangerous levels of warming. Atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases – particularly methane and carbon dioxide – are still rising.
Last September, carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere hit 418 parts per million. This September, they crossed 422 ppm. Methane, a highly potent greenhouse gas, has been increasing at an alarming rate despite global pledges to tackle it.
Compounding the problem is the recent decline in atmospheric aerosols from efforts to cut pollution. These small particles suspended in the air come from both natural and human processes, and have helped cool the planet.
Without this cooling effect, the pace of global warming may accelerate. We don't know for sure because aerosol properties are not yet measured well enough.
Other environmental issues are now feeding into climate change. Deforestation in critical areas such as the Amazon is reducing the planet's capacity to absorb carbon naturally, driving additional warming. This creates a feedback loop, where warming causes trees to die which in turn amplifies global temperatures.
Loss of sea ice is another. As sea ice melts or fails to form, dark seawater is exposed. Ice reflects sunlight but seawater absorbs it. Scaled up, this changes the Earth's albedo (how reflective the surface is) and accelerates warming further.
Without drastic changes, the world is on track for approximately 2.7°C of warming this century. To avoid catastrophic tipping points, nations must strengthen their climate pledges, reduce dependence on fossil fuels, and accelerate the transition to renewable energy.
Immediate, transformative policy changes are now necessary if we are to avoid the worst effects of climate change.
Climate change is already here. But it could get much, much worse. By slashing emissions, boosting natural climate solutions and working towards climate justice, the global community can still fend off the worst version of our future.
_______________________________
The above is taken from an article written by two scientists who helped produce the 2024 State of the Climate report. In my next post, I'll highlight some of the important content from the report itself. 🧵 1/3
Extended excerpts below from a stark warning issued by a team of international scientists about the intensifying climate crisis...
_______________________________
You don't have to look far to see what climate change is doing to the planet. The word "unprecedented" is everywhere this year.
We are seeing unprecedented rapidly intensifying tropical storms such as Hurricane Helene in the eastern United States and Super Typhoon Yagi in Vietnam.
From the concluding paragraphs of the 2024 State of the Climate Report, in which a team of scientists warn that without system change, we are likely facing societal collapse...
________________________________
Despite six IPCC reports, 28 COP meetings, hundreds of other reports, and tens of thousands of scientific papers, the world has made only very minor headway on climate change, in part because of stiff resistance from those benefiting financially from the current fossil-fuel based system.
We are currently going in the wrong direction, and our increasing fossil fuel consumption and rising greenhouse gas emissions are driving us toward a climate catastrophe. We fear the danger of climate breakdown.
The evidence we observe is both alarming and undeniable, but it is this very shock that drives us to action. We recognize the profound urgency of addressing this global challenge, especially the horrific outlook for the world's poor.
In a world with finite resources, unlimited growth is a perilous illusion. We need bold, transformative change: drastically reducing overconsumption and waste, especially by the affluent, stabilizing and gradually reducing the human population through empowering education and rights for girls and women, reforming food production systems to support more plant-based eating, and adopting an ecological and post-growth economics framework that ensures social justice.
The surge in yearly climate disasters shows we are in a major crisis with worse to come if we continue with business as usual. Only through decisive action can we safeguard the natural world, avert profound human suffering, and ensure that future generations inherit the livable world they deserve. The future of humanity hangs in the balance.
________________________________
What's most notable to me about the 2024 State of the Climate Report is that some of the more moderate climate scientists, such as Michael Mann, signed their names to it. This report goes well beyond what we usually get from the mainstream science establishment.
Although they insist they're not being either optimistic or pessimistic but simply honest, the whole thing feels a lot closer to the kind of 'doomism' that many have denounced in the past. Of course, they don't want anyone to give up yet, and neither do I. As they say, "the fact is that avoiding every tenth of a degree of warming is critically important."
But they're willing to state here that climate feedback loops and tipping points could amplify warming beyond human control. And they allude to findings that suggest the current rate of global warming could be accelerating, per James Hansen.
They're even calling for a post-growth economy, i.e. #degrowth.
Bottom line: These scientists are scared, as they should be. As we all should be.
From the concluding paragraphs of the 2024 State of the Climate Report, in which a team of scientists warn that without system change, we are likely facing societal collapse...
________________________________
Despite six IPCC reports, 28 COP meetings, hundreds of other reports, and tens of thousands of scientific papers, the world has made only very minor headway on climate change, in part because of stiff resistance from those benefiting financially from the current fossil-fuel based system.
@breadandcircuses@jensorensen I've owned and driven an SUV since 2005. The reason was because my wife started needing a wheelchair in 2004 and we needed a car into which it would fit along with our two kids. I don't need a monster truck, but... If you got rid of big vehicles, you would be impacting the disabled and light construction/service people.
@breadandcircuses@jensorensen I'd feel a little safer if I knew the person driving the hunk of steel got their licence in it
Or maybe, before they could drive it, had to get a specific certification to prove they could safely control the vehicle
@breadandcircuses Not really. I get what you're saying. And mostly agree. But something here was left out. And it's very important.
Desperate people make ideal workers and distracted citizens,,,,to full on morons.
There's this idea in most countries that stupid people can't plan. Which isn't true. They can. They just can't plan effectively.
It's why fascism always has a natural expiration date. Why capitalism constantly has problems keeping itself afloat. Because the stupidity is built in.
Desperate people make the worst workers and citizens who can be manipulated by almost anyone. As in. The more desperate a person is the more mistakes they make in jobs. Which very often lead to not only the loss of life but categorically less profit.
And. That last part is literally how republicans/conservatives lost overall control of their party to trump to begin with. In general. Everything in this is reasons why so much sucks.
And it sucks because morons instituted it.
@breadandcircuses Not really. I get what you're saying. And mostly agree. But something here was left out. And it's very important.
Desperate people make ideal workers and distracted citizens,,,,to full on morons.
There's this idea in most countries that stupid people can't plan. Which isn't true. They can. They just can't plan effectively.
I grieve for all that we’ve lost due to capitalist industry and commerce, and for so much more that we still have to lose… 😢
_____________________________
There have been five mass extinctions of life in Earth’s history, caused by cataclysms such as volcanic eruptions or meteorite impact. Scientists warn that human activity is now causing species to go extinct at a *thousand* times the normal background rate. Leading experts in the field predict that half of the world’s estimated eight million species will be extinct or at the brink of extinction by the end of this century unless humanity changes its ways.
Why don’t we react in unbridled outrage to the devastation of the natural world taking place before our eyes? A major reason is that we don’t realize what we’ve lost. Whatever conditions people grow up with are the ones they generally consider normal. This is a tribute to the amazing plasticity of the human mind, but it means that we tend to take for granted things that should never be accepted.
The somber truth is that the vast bulk of nature’s staggering abundance has already disappeared. We live in a world characterized primarily by the relative silence and emptiness of its natural spaces. It’s only when we read accounts of wildlife from centuries ago that we realize how much is gone.
The next time you go for a hike in nature, and marvel at its beauty, take a moment to realize that you are looking at a pale, shrunken wraith of what it once was. An accumulation of studies around the world measuring the declines of species and ecosystems indicates that overall we’ve lost around 90% of nature’s profusion.
We live in a ten percent world.
_____________________________
Grief - Rage - Resignation - Defiance ... how do you respond to all this?
I grieve for all that we’ve lost due to capitalist industry and commerce, and for so much more that we still have to lose… 😢
_____________________________
There have been five mass extinctions of life in Earth’s history, caused by cataclysms such as volcanic eruptions or meteorite impact. Scientists warn that human activity is now causing species to go extinct at a *thousand* times the normal background rate. Leading experts in the field predict that half of the world’s estimated eight million species...
"The somber truth is that the vast bulk of nature’s staggering abundance has already disappeared. We live in a world characterized primarily by the relative silence and emptiness of its natural spaces. It’s only when we read accounts of wildlife from centuries ago that we realize how much is gone. One eighteenth-century writer, standing on the shores of Wales, described schools of herrings five or six miles long, so dense that “the whole water seems alive; and it is seen so black with them to a great distance, that the number seems inexhaustible.” In the seventeenth-century Caribbean, sailors could navigate at night by the noise of massive shoals of sea turtles heading to nesting beaches on the Cayman Islands. In the Chesapeake Bay, plagued today by polluted dead zones, hunters harvested a hundred thousand terrapins a year for turtle soup. In the nineteenth century, passenger pigeons would blot out the sun when they appeared in massive flocks throughout the eastern United States. The last one died in a zoo in 1914.
The Great Dying
In normal times, extinction is a natural part of evolution: new species evolve from prior existing species, meaning that, rather than dying out, “extinct” species are really the progenitors of new ones. When extinctions occur, however, as part of a mass extinction, they represent a grave and permanent loss to the richness of life. Species exterminated by human development are wiped out from nature’s palette, terminating any possibility of further evolutionary branching. The average lifespan of a species is roughly a million years—the unfolding story of each one is, in E. O. Wilson’s words, a unique epic. We’ve seen how life’s prodigious diversity on Earth can be understood as nature’s own evolved intelligence, earned over billions of years. Through extinction, we are dumbing down nature, eliminating the plenitude it has so painstakingly accumulated."
"The somber truth is that the vast bulk of nature’s staggering abundance has already disappeared. We live in a world characterized primarily by the relative silence and emptiness of its natural spaces. It’s only when we read accounts of wildlife from centuries ago that we realize how much is gone. One eighteenth-century writer, standing on the shores of Wales, described schools of herrings five or six miles long, so dense that “the whole water seems alive; and...
I'm 70 years old. Many of my followers here are seniors, like me, or are at least middle-aged. Most of us are angry and probably grief-stricken about what capitalist industry is doing to the biosphere.
But what must it feel like to be a young person in your teens or in your twenties and be looking toward a future of near-certain disaster, the collapse of society, the destruction of everything you hold dear? I can't imagine the pain.
It would be understandable if they reacted by simply giving up. Or perhaps by lashing out in anger. But some of them, showing incredible courage and determination, have formed movements to change what they can and to save at least a vestige of the civilization they are inheriting.
I stand in awe of these selfless, dedicated young people.
I'm 70 years old. Many of my followers here are seniors, like me, or are at least middle-aged. Most of us are angry and probably grief-stricken about what capitalist industry is doing to the biosphere.
But what must it feel like to be a young person in your teens or in your twenties and be looking toward a future of near-certain disaster, the collapse of society, the destruction of everything you hold dear? I can't imagine the pain.
@breadandcircuses Honestly, I've just been utterly confused. Every Science teacher since the 90s has focused on teaching us about climate change, recycling, personal responsibility for our choices...
Then I leave school and it's like no one else knows. Or they outright refuse that it's an issue. It's like generations don't talk to each other anymore or work together. Makes me want to start a club that appeals to all ages so I can try to mend the generational gap.
@breadandcircuses I became involved with my first activist group at age 10. It was what we called back then, an ecology group to protect the earth, from us. Decades later I, too, am heartbroken and angry at the world we leave for the young. They, who rise up, are awesome. We did some, but not enough.
❝ Capitalist society as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of evil. Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands, partly because of competition among the capitalists, and partly because technological development and the increasing division of labor encourage the formation of larger units of production at the expense of smaller ones.
The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital, the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society. This is true since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature. The consequence is that the representatives of the people do not in fact sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population.
Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights. ❞
_________________________
That's from 1949 (!) and it was written by...... wait for it...... Albert Einstein.
❝ Capitalist society as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of evil. Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands, partly because of competition among the capitalists, and partly because technological development and the increasing division of labor encourage the formation of larger units of production at the expense of smaller ones.
@breadandcircuses You should not be allowed to patent or sell something until you can show how it can be easily separated out into its component parts and raw materials for reuse or recycling. Products must also be designed with repair in mind. The current system encourages profligate waste and destruction of precious resources.
@breadandcircuses I don't think it's too late to do mitigation or slow this thing down... But we need to go into lockdown pandemic style worldwide to truly start a healing process. I remember how much better the environment was when humans stopped moving so much.
@breadandcircuses I would like to see more trains and public transit and better-designed crossing areas. That said, EVs are needed for those who live in rural areas and for some people who have mobility issues and yet find that the schedule of access buses don't allow them to be productive.
@breadandcircuses Hey! Stop looking at all the recycling we didn't recycle and sent to [insert African/SE Asian country here]. We can't afford to fix everything you know! #ClimateCatastrophe
Not what we want to hear...
______________________________
"Greenland Ice Sheet is close to a melting point of no return, says new study"
The Greenland Ice Sheet covers 1.7 million square kilometers in the Arctic. If it melts entirely, global sea level would rise about 7 meters (23 feet), but scientists aren't sure how quickly the ice sheet could melt.
Based in part on carbon emissions, a new study using simulations identified two tipping points for the Greenland Ice Sheet: releasing 1000 gigatons of carbon into the atmosphere will cause the southern portion of the ice sheet to melt; about 2500 gigatons of carbon means permanent loss of nearly the entire ice sheet.
Having emitted about 500 gigatons of carbon, we're about halfway to the first tipping point.
"The first tipping point is not far from today's climate conditions, so we're in danger of crossing it," said Dennis Höning, a climate scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research who led the study. "Once we start sliding, we will fall off this cliff and cannot climb back up."
The study was published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
______________________________
Not what we want to hear...
______________________________
"Greenland Ice Sheet is close to a melting point of no return, says new study"
The Greenland Ice Sheet covers 1.7 million square kilometers in the Arctic. If it melts entirely, global sea level would rise about 7 meters (23 feet), but scientists aren't sure how quickly the ice sheet could melt.
@breadandcircuses Our fossil fuel addiction reminds me of other addictions—we’re “bargaining” to try to hold the future at bay, but in reality just kicking the can down the road for future generations to cope with—notice I don’t say solve or remedy.
Gregory's Server
@breadandcircuses
And a love of a great partner!
@breadandcircuses True. And I would add play some sports for free.
@breadandcircuses
Even outlaw Daisy Domergue on her way to the gallows, handcuffed to John Ruth the Hangman, recognized her moment sitting in a field after getting punched out of a carriage by Marquis Warren, to take a moment in the chaos to catch snowflakes on her tongue and enjoy the brief respite.
Wait. We're not just the snowflakes right?