#burning coal in China

[probablyasocialecologist]

The vast majority (99%) of the 281,000 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2 equivalent) estimated to have been generated in the first 60 days following the 7 October Hamas attack can be attributed to Israel’s aerial bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza, according to a first-of-its-kind analysis by researchers in the UK and US. According to the study, which is based on only a handful of carbon-intensive activities and is therefore probably a significant underestimate, the climate cost of the first 60 days of Israel’s military response was equivalent to burning at least 150,000 tonnes of coal. The analysis, which is yet to be peer reviewed, includes CO2 from aircraft missions, tanks and fuel from other vehicles, as well as emissions generated by making and exploding the bombs, artillery and rockets. It does not include other planet-warming gases such as methane. Almost half the total CO2 emissions were down to US cargo planes flying military supplies to Israel. Hamas rockets fired into Israel during the same period generated about 713 tonnes of CO2, which is equivalent to approximately 300 tonnes of coal – underscoring the asymmetry of each side’s war machinery.

[...]

David Boyd, the UN special rapporteur for human rights and the environment, said: “This research helps us understand the immense magnitude of military emissions – from preparing for war, carrying out war and rebuilding after war. Armed conflict pushes humanity even closer to the precipice of climate catastrophe, and is an idiotic way to spend our shrinking carbon budget.”

[...]

Even without comprehensive data, one recent study found that militaries account for almost 5.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions annually – more than the aviation and shipping industries combined. This makes the global military carbon footprint – even without factoring in conflict-related emission spikes – the fourth largest after only the US, China and India.

[cookie-crumblr]

The Smell of Smoke

Innocent F! Reader x M!Yandere Bully OC

Part 7~

His Info: 🖕✨

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8

CW: Fem Reader, reader referred to as she/her, reader has a vagina, asphyxiation, drugged reader, collars, explicit language, names used against reader(bitch, slut, ), size difference/kink, NON CON SA BY ML, P in V, non con anal, biting, marking, burning, drugs like hard drugs (not usage though in this part…) collar and leash use, bullying, creampie, unprotected sex

You awake in someone’s strong arms, at first you think it’s Ace, you snuggle into the warmth without thinking. He smells so good though. A scent that’s nostalgic and comforting to you, a scent that brings you both joy and despair…

A contradicting scent, for the contradicting man that owns it.

Though your vision is blurred the hair color you see is not pink, and the hight difference is evident judging by how far off the ground you are…

You weakly push away though you use all of your strength, you aren’t really moving.

“Pfft, you wan’ me t’ let ya go tha’ bad? fine. Bitch.” he drops you and you land onto the earth with a solid THUD. You don’t bounce at all and everything thrums intensely with pain.

“fuuuck!” The wind was knocked out of you, and it comes out strained and ragged.

He sits on a rock nearby.

“You wan’ed it.”

“Shinsh when do you everr- gimme whaaad i want.” Your slurring and putting weird emphasis in the wrong places. You can’t control your body very well it seems. This is aggravating.

“Bahaahahaha! You sound like an alcoholic!” He laughs deeply.

As he laughs, it echos through the swiftly darkening trees.

“Where, arrre we?” You look around you slowly, eyes widening in the dimness of dusk around you in the foggy forest.

Glancing down you realize you’re in lingerie and a thick collar with a padlock and a leash that he’s still holding.

You reach up but even that action wears you out, your arms fall to your sides. “What’dddid you do t’ me?”

He looks away.

“No! You don’t get t’ d-do that ‘ny more! jack-ass!” you feel your body waking up a little bit more.

“You don’t get to tell me,” He stomps over to you and grips you around the collar squeezing the thick leather tight against you, his thumbs press into pressure points as he lifts you. “What i can, or can’t do, bitch” Your throat feels like it may just collapse before he throws you back into the dirt.

You gasp for air, before he starts back up.

“I can’t be without you” he’s grabbing at his head as if he’s the one in pain, “I can’t stand you! But i can’t seem t’ be without you” he steps over you.

Shakily, you start to crawl, your body moves, but only barely. You claw the ferns pulling up their snapping roots, while trying to pull yourself away from him. You’re groaning through pain and you knew you wouldn’t make it far, but you have to fight. You just won’t give up.

He’s loving this side of you. It excites him that you’re now unbroken, you’ve somehow gathered your previous shards and glued them back together with gold, and he gets to be the rampaging bull in your china shop.

and oh my, is he gonna tear you apart, again and again, as long as you keep fighting him.

He squats over you and rips down the panties you were in.

His massive, bloody hands enrapture your body, groping your breast, your neck, your thighs, and your belly. You’re trying your hardest to fight, fight through the pain, through the drowsiness and now through the shameful heat igniting the coals in your core.

He bites your back leaving bruises and deep teeth marks, as he presses his burning tip to your entrance.

“Please!” You’re always begging him, as if the humanity that has to be buried deep inside of him will ever hear you. “Ezra! No!!” You struggle and punch at the ground.

He’s forcing his hardened and dry dick inside of you.

It burns in both the absolute worst and somehow the best way you’ve ever felt.

You scream, again and again breathlessly, as he starts slamming into you not giving you any time to adjust or feel anything other than the pain now. His impossibly long length takes the air out of your lungs everytime it punches into you.

he has you face down in the dirt, and you’re still begging and screaming but everytime you try and breathe in, dirt is getting into your mouth and nostrils. You’re humiliated and disgusted on top of everything else. “You like this don’t you slut!? That’s why you keep fighting me!” He pulls on your leash choking you and pulling your head back towards him and out of the dirt.

“Hah! I fucking love your face righ’ now” He pulls out his phone and takes a few pics before slamming back into you and then harshly dragging it out slowly.

For a second his hips roll while only his tip is inside you, massaging that one spongey spot that has you moan out accidentally.

“You’re enjoyin’ this too much…” Ezra smiles.

He pulls apart your ass cheeks and spits on your hole…

“N-No!! EZRA! NO!!” even with lube it would still be insanely painfull with a dick his size.

He pulls out of your sopping pussy, “I knew you liked this, slut,” He spits again and stuffs his dick into your tight little ass hole. It feels like you are ripping apart. You’re being torn like construction paper, messily and all the edges are jagged and ugly.

He groans as he pulls your body up into his lap, he completely engulfs and dwarfs you. He bites your shoulder while pounding your ass and using you like a fleshlight. Or a doll, a pretty little doll just for him to shatter. He doesn’t give you an ounce of pity or mercy. “You can take it!” He spits. “I know you can take this!”

He finishes in your ass while holding your arms behind your back. You feel yourself fill to the brim with his hot, defiling substance.

He throws you back into the dirt.

You land face down, overflowing ass, up.

“Better find y’r way home, I’ll be waitin’ bitch.”

He walks off without you, into the fog.

He would have carried you home, but you just had to be difficult.

You stumble forward in the direction he went as your swiftly numbing body drags behind your mind.

You can’t feel your leg anymore at least.

And your feet stopped hurting from all the thorns and prickly plants a long time ago.

You keep moving.

Just as you fight him, you’re fighting for your life right now. Even if it means getting home to him in your dorm. who knows, maybe before you get there someone will let you use their phone…

That’s wishful thinking.

Lights of the college start breaking through the canopies of leaves and you almost laugh, you made it!

You really made it!

“haaah, hah,” You fall flat.

You can’t move your legs anymore and your vision is blacking out, when you hear crunching footsteps encroaching from nearby.

“Did better than i thought y’ would” You hear Ezra, he was following you the whole time, just watching you suffer.

What a sadistic maniac.

and with that last thought, you’re out again.

When you come to, Ace is there this time, he tells you what happened and where you ended up while you were unconscious.

A rival gang kidnapped you.

Ezra “saved” you.

“pfft. I wish he hadn’t” You snicker. “What could they’ve done that he hasn’t?”

After a little while Ace leaves, and Ezra returns, flicking a cigarette butt at you onto your bed.

You scramble as best as you tired and sore body will let you to put it out before anything catches fire and end up burning yourself, “Ow!”

“Y/N. I want you.”

“What else is new.” You roll your eyes. This is ridiculous.

He isn’t even surprised this time, he just smiles wickedly.

“You just don’t get it, do you? Look at chu! All battered and bruised up. Fuck when are you jus gon give in?” he grabs your cheeks and squeezes them causing your lips to fish out.

You pull away, you’re tempted to bite him. He sees your jaw clenching and his already wild smile grows.

“I have nother present for ya.” You cant move to see what he’s doing, your body is too heavy and worn from your trudge back last night.

you hear rustling of a paper bag before he returns to your vision with a syringe and a spoon and baggie of vinegar scented tar…

“N-no, Ezra… Please…” You always beg.

He never listens.

[odinsblog]

Saudi Arabia, the world’s leading exporter of oil, has become the biggest obstacle to an agreement at the United Nations climate summit in Dubai, where countries are debating whether to call for a phaseout of fossil fuels in order to fight global warming, negotiators and other officials said.

The Saudi delegation has flatly opposed any language in a deal that would even mention fossil fuels — the oil, gas and coal that, when burned, create emissions that are dangerously heating the planet. Saudi negotiators have also objected to a provision, endorsed by at least 118 countries, aimed at tripling global renewable energy capacity by 2030.

Saudi diplomats have been particularly skillful at blocking discussions and slowing the talks, according to interviews with a dozen people who have been inside closed-door negotiations. Tactics include inserting words into draft agreements that are considered poison pills by other countries; slow-walking a provision meant to help vulnerable countries adapt to climate change; staging a walkout in a side meeting; and refusing to sit down with negotiators pressing for a phaseout of fossil fuels.

The Saudi opposition is significant because U.N. rules require that any agreement forged at the climate summit be unanimously endorsed. Any one of the 198 participating nations can thwart a deal.

Saudi Arabia isn’t the only country raising concerns about more ambitious global efforts to fight climate change. The United States has sought to inject caveats into the fossil fuel phaseout language. India and China have opposed language that would single out coal, the most polluting of fossil fuels.

…Saudi Arabia has stood out as the most implacable opponent of any agreement on fossil fuels.

“Most countries vary on the degree or speed of how fast you get out of fossil fuels,” said Linda Kalcher, a former climate adviser to the United Nations who has been in negotiating rooms this week. Saudi Arabia, she said, “doesn’t even want to have the conversation.”

Saudi officials did not respond to requests for comment.

(continue reading)

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this New York Times story:

President Trump’s repudiation of renewable-energy technologies stands to make the United States an outlier in the world.

Many of its large-economy peers are choosing a different path. Even as coal, oil and gas still power the global economy, and more fossil fuels are burned year after year, the movement globally is toward heavy investment in solar, wind and batteries, the prices of which have fallen sharply in recent years.

The European Union has aggressively moved away from coal. Its use of natural gas is declining, and last year solar alone made up 11 percent of power generation across the 27-country bloc, inching above coal, according to a new analysis by Ember, a research group.

Britain closed its last coal-burning power plant last year, and its government has said it would issue no new drilling licenses in the North Sea. Norway, a petrostate that has enriched itself with oil exports, offers such attractive incentives for clean transport that 90 percent of new cars sold in 2024 were electric.

Even Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, has set a goal to generate half of its electricity from renewable energy by 2030.

China is in a league of its own. It burns more coal than any country by far, making it the world’s biggest emitter of planet-heating greenhouse gases. But at the same time, it is home to nearly two-thirds of all the world’s utility-scale solar and wind projects under construction. China’s dominance of the manufacturing of inexpensive solar panels has driven down the price of solar energy globally. And its companies are setting up electric vehicle factories as far afield as Thailand and Brazil.

Worldwide, investors poured nearly twice as much money into renewable energy in 2024 as they did into fossil fuels, according to the International Energy Agency. “The world is undergoing an energy transition that is unstoppable,” Simon Stiell, the head of the United Nations’ climate agency, said Tuesday at the World Economic Forum gathering in Davos, Switzerland.

Mr. Trump’s energy-related executive orders, many issued on his first day in office, seek to make it easier for companies to produce oil and gas, and empower the government to stop clean-energy projects that have already been approved. (Coal use has sharply declined in the United States, mainly because of the availability of cheap fracked gas.)

[arrozaurus]

One of the primary driving forces of the particular trade system designed in the 1980s and 1990s was always to allow multinationals the freedom to scour the globe in search of the cheapest and most exploitable labor force. It was a journey that passed through Mexico and Central America’s sweatshop maquiladoras and had a long stopover in South Korea. But by the end of the 1990s, virtually all roads led to China, a country where wages were extraordinarily low, trade unions were brutally suppressed, and the state was willing to spend seemingly limitless funds on massive infrastructure projects—modern ports, sprawling highway systems, endless numbers of coal-fired power plants, massive dams—all to ensure that the lights stayed on in the factories and the goods made it from the assembly lines onto the container ships on time. A free trader’s dream, in other words—and a climate nightmare.

A nightmare because there is a close correlation between low wages and high emissions, or as Malm puts it, “a causal link between the quest for cheap and disciplined labor power and rising CO2 emissions.” And why wouldn’t there be? The same logic that is willing to work laborers to the bone for pennies a day will burn mountains of dirty coal while spending next to nothing on pollution controls because it’s the cheapest way to produce. So when the factories moved to China, they also got markedly dirtier. As Malm points out, Chinese coal use was declining slightly between 1995 and 2000, only for the explosion in manufacturing to send it soaring once again. It’s not that the companies moving their production to China wanted to drive up emissions: they were after the cheap labor, but exploited workers and an exploited planet are, it turns out, a package deal.

A destabilized climate is the cost of deregulated, global capitalism, its unintended, yet unavoidable consequence.

This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein

[entomolog-t]

INSTAЯ (3)

Multi Prompt Post; Mirror, Forlorn, Hush

Who else has ever thought, "You know what charades is missing? Angst."

In case the remark above wasn't clear, this chapter deals with some decent angst- you have been warned.

- - - -

Previous Chapter: Chapter 2

Next Chapter: Chapter 4

Word count: 2755

CW: Mild body horror, Panic/angst, Unintentional dehumanization, Adult language

I gasp as the weight in my hand thrashes- jerking up and scrambling back in my open palm. 

It- it’s alive?!

As if I’d been given a handful of burning coals, instinct yanks my hands back and the… thing clatter onto the floor with an audible clink.

What the fuck is -

Before my brain can follow, a not quite human form stumbles to its feet and bolts away and at an unnerving speed. Within a matter of seconds the kitchen erupts into chaos. Honey’s barking reverberates against the walls as she follows suit- bounding after it as if it were one of the numerous elusive squirrels frequenting the property. Mouth open, she lunges, in an attempt to grab it but the creature dives out of the way, letting out a strained noise- a high pitched wail followed by a series of clicks as it darts under the kitchen table. Like a bull in a China shop, Honey continues her pursuit, carelessly shoving chairs aside without a second thought as she gives chase to … to what?? Its almost as if my brain stutters, stumbling over dots it’s struggling to connect.

The creature- as fast as it was- was no match for Honey, especially in the open expanse of the kitchen. Their frantic chase lasts all of 10 seconds before Honey has it cornered. 

The creature squeaks- crying out as Honey pounces from side to side, yipping at it as she urges it to play in her very one sided game of chase- daring it to run. I stare blankly, having barely moved since my initial fright. 

I couldn't quite see the creature from my vantage point behind Honey, but the glimpses I had gotten were telling; the iridescent sheen, the strange limbs… 

There was no way…

The strained chittering from the corner jolts me out of my thoughts. Honey playfully nips at the creature not unlike the way she used to annoy the neighbors barn cat, blissfully unaware she was just torturing the poor thing… until he had swiped at her- The thought sends a chill through me. Would it bite her? Memories of its horrific mouth and those clawed finger tips are pulled from my mind… Sure, it was small, but that certainly didn’t mean that thing wasn’t dangerous- especially now that she had it cornered. 

My mind was racing, searching desperately for some sort of plan of action. What was I supposed to do? There was no way I was letting that thing escape somewhere in my house- but its not like I could just let Honey maul some… Alien..? Monster? I still had no clue what that thing was, and there was absolutely no way I was going to be touching that thing myself. I shuddered as my brain conjured up various gore filled movie scenes of parasitic aliens burrowing themselves into a host. Was that what it was? Some juvenile alien looking for a host?? My eyes hastily dart around the kitchen, looking for some kind of solution- and then I see it. 

A whiskey glass.

On the counter I spot one of the fancy glasses Clyde had insisted on bringing over the last time we drank. At the time I thought he was being pretentious, but at this moment I’m filled with nothing but thanks. 

I take a wary step forward and watch as both Honey and the creature’s head are on me in an instant. I give a sharp whistle. 

"Off." Honey tilts her head, reluctant to give up her new plaything, but upon making a noise of disapproval, she relents, trotting over behind me as she would when out hunting. I quickly take her spot- not letting the creature leave the corner. 

There's an audible squeak from the creature as I kneel down. It chitters frantically, all four of its arms raised up in between us as it takes a step back.  

Its antennae twitch in a way that almost seems ... nervous. It’s tail- I furrow my brow- it had a tail? Aside from the drastic change in size, the creature looked slightly different than it had before.  For one- it had a tail; whip-like and bristly, almost like a porcupine with its spines folded back. It’s antennae seemed thicker, club-like near the tip, and its shell, no longer an inky black, had taken on a deep bluish green tone. It stares up at me, eyes wide and unblinking as it continues to chitter, head turning to look at the glass and back to me. 

I raise the glass over its head and the creature stumbles, falling backwards in a much too human-like motion- a fearful little action that nearly makes me feel guilty. As the glass comes down over it, the creature ducks its head forward, clambering to its hands and knees- the whiskey glass too shallow even with it sitting.   

For a moment, we both stare at each other, until the reality of the situation seems to settle in; I had caught some tiny creature maybe-alien in a whiskey glass. 

Just what the Hell was I supposed to do now? Should I call some? Who would I even call??

I caught myself right before starting to chew on my thumb, trading in the old habit for occupying my hands with fidgeting instead. My eyes scan the countertops for my phone, finding it in its usual place at the corner opposite to me, right between my notepad and truck keys. 

I hesitate- not too keen on the idea of leaving the creature unattended even for a brief moment, lest that thing get loose in my house. Wracking my brain for any sort of plan, I start taking a mental inventory of anything I could possibly use within arms reach.

Cleaning supplies, baking supplies, paper towels, paper plates- 

I pause. 

That could work.

Opening the cupboard to my left, I pull out a paper plate. Tipping the glass up ever so slightly, I slip the plate underneath, frantically trying to convince myself this is no different from catching a wasp.

It’s face turns up to lock eyes with me, muffled chittering escaping from through the glass. It seemed to stare daggers at me, squinting at me as if it were… insulted? 

Questions of its intelligence resurface once again. There was no doubt in my mind that it was thinking, analyzing my actions as it scrutinized me… It had known how to lock the doors- Just how smart was this thing? More importantly - what was this thing? 

As I shimmy the plate underneath the glass, the creature reluctantly crawls onto it, its glare never once relenting. I stand, placing the trapped monstrosity on the countertop near my phone. With a deep breath, I pick up my phone and stare at the screen- my mind once again racing at the bizarre logistics- just who the Hell I was supposed to call about a potential alien I had trapped like some kind of weird bug? Should I call Clyde? The police? They’d think I was crazy, right? Should I lie, or - 

Tink.

A sharp clinking interrupts my thoughts. The creature bangs on the glass and I instinctively recoil 

“Fat chance I’m letting you out-” I mutter, but my words die in my mouth the moment my eyes are on it. I watch in horrified fascination as the creature gestures frantically pointing to the notepad. 

I freeze- heart beating wildly in my ears.

Did… Did it want to write?

An uneasy feeling creeps at the edge of my consciousness, making my skin prickle. As soon as I pick up the notepad it nods vigorously. That simple gesture made my skin crawl. It was communicating…

I feel as the blood drains from my face- a noticeable sinking feeling in my gut at the brief glimpse of this…this being’s intelligence.  

I blanche, staring at the being, dumbfounded. Its mouthparts twitch under my gaze, as it continues pointing insistently at the notepad and then to the pen, looking all too human in its frustration. 

It’s as though I’m underwater, my movements delayed as I pull up a chair and sit down. Carefully, I tilt the glass, a not insignificant part of my brain expecting the creature to dart off… but it doesn’t. Ever so slowly, it gets to its feet, tail swishing nervously as its multitude of eyes stay locked on my own. 

It chitters, raising up its first set of arms, gesturing impatiently for me to hand it the pen. I comply, placing the pen in their outstretched arms, taking note of just how massive the pen looks in their strange grasp; The being no bigger than the pen itself- if that. 

I flip the notepad open to a blank page and place it down in front of them. They awkwardly jostle the pen around, trying to figure out how best to hold it before figuring out a relatively steady grasp- the sight would be comical if it weren’t so bizarre… so real. In a motion almost akin to sweeping, bit by bit shaky letters begin to form.

H…E…L…P

I gasp- eyes wide as I read the word… the English word.

“H-help?” The creature flattens its antennae at the sound of my voice, but nods, “How-” I shake my head, wanting my own answers, “What are you?”

Again, it awkwardly dances with the pen as it answers,

H…U…M…A…N

It stares at the word before it moves, standing on the “HU” portion, and gesturing to the remaining letters.

M… A… N

My skin tingles with the pricking sensation of goosebumps as I read the word over again, mouth agape. A nervous laugh escapes me as the apparent not-so-human human points to the word and back to itself- himself. I grimace.

“I got news for you, buddy.”

The least human looking man I’d ever laid eyes on  chitters an aggravated series of clicks as he begins to write again, almost as if muttering to himself. 

W…A…N…T  

My mind reels trying to figure out what he would need.

L … O…O…K

As he finishes his second word he then points to himself. 

My mouth goes dry. Were they really human?  Worse yet, if he was … what happened to him?  

My voice feels hollow as I speak, 

“You want to look…? At yourself??” 

He makes a chirping sound, responding with an emphatic nod. An uncomfortable thought crosses my mind, Had he not seen what happened to him? I chew my lip, my thigh bouncing wildly beneath me.

“You know, it would have been faster to write mirror.” I quip, trying to relieve some of the tension I felt boiling under the surface. 

He chitters in what I assume to be annoyance, sounding oddly similar to a treed squirrel. I hear the jingle of Honey’s collar as she perks up- clearly all too familiar with that sound. 

I shoot Honey a stern look, 

“Stay.” Turning back to the little being I add, “That goes for you too,” as I get up to grab my purse from the coat rack. He tosses his hands up in an exaggerated gesture of exasperation. 

It’s as though I’m in a daze, my brain on autopilot as I navigate my way around the carnage of the night prior. The newfound context of the incident with the creature twisting a knot in my stomach. It’s- no, his hands raised in a placating gesture between Honey and himself… pleading to me… looking for help. I exhale- my breath coming out shaky. There were still so many questions- and it seemed like he had questions of his own as well. 

I return to the kitchen with my purse, finding him sitting down on the countertop, staring blankly at his hands. Upon my approach his antennae perk up, and he stands to meet me. I can’t help but stare. He looks so small. I rummage through the mishmash contents of my purse, pulling out a compact with a mirror. Part of me wants to warn him- but what was I supposed to say? Heads up, you’re fucking horrifying? Surely he would have some understanding about his situation. It’s not like they couldn’t see their own body… Or my reaction to him last night. Without saying a word, I pop the compact open, placing it in front of him.

At the sight of his reflection, he stumbles back- his strange mouth hanging agape. That is, until he catches sight of his mouth- his hands flying up rapidly to cover it from view. For a moment, everything is still. He stands frozen in front of his reflection, looking like a deer caught in the headlights. Soft chittering fills trinkles into the silence. In an agonizingly slow motion, his first pair of limbs reaches upwards, while his second remains wrapped around his waist, as if covering himself. His hands move across the hard surface of his face. He grazes clawed fingertips around each eye, hands trembling as they come up to feel the horn like protrusions at his crown. 

He drops his hands, gaze falling to stare at them, before returning to his reflection once more. His movements at first slow and timid, increase in speed. He grabs at his face, twisting his head left and right before trembling hands grope at the gaps in his exoskeleton- frantically gripping and tugging at the edges. The groping becomes more violent- almost mauling- as he starts to pull at the edges of his shell as if wanting to rip it from his body. My hand twitches, ready to intervene. He chitters, and his attention gets pulled to his mouthparts. Motions far too violent, he yanks at the insectoid appendages covering his mouth, peeling back the appendages to stare at the horrific expanse of his oral cavity. I flinch at the pained squeak they make as he sees the grotesque sight of his inhuman maw. His chittering grows frantic- pained even. 

Hands shaking, he scrapes at the hard shell of his face with clawed fingers, reefing on any gaps in his armor while making a strange shrill sound, like a bird simultaneously whistling and hyperventilating. The sound came forth rapidly and without rhythm, hitching and catching at random intervals as his chest heaved- 

Oh. 

He was sobbing. 

My heart aches at the sight, and without thinking I reach my hand out in an attempt to break him from his panic. He flinches back staring up at me with too many wide wet eyes. I hesitate- hand hovering just before him, my heart wrenching in my chest. 

Ever so carefully, I curl my fingers around him. He stiffens, freezing in place. I brush my thumb across his cheek, gently wiping away a trail of tears dripping down the too hard and too smooth surface of his face. He goes rigid under my touch, but doesn't pull away- instead he looks away, turning his head to avoid my gaze.

I will my hand steady as I hook my finger under his chin, softly guiding his face back to meet mine. 

"Shh." I hush,  "I.. I don't know what's happening, but I'm here to help, okay?" 

As I speak, clawed hands grip onto my finger as his tiny form hunches forward, burying his face against my hand. My skin crawls as I feel his second set of arms unfurl, gripping onto my fingers. The sensation of the far too insect-like texture of their shell and two too many limbs against my skin made me wince- both disgusted with the sensation, but more so with myself for having the disgust cross my mind at all. 

What the fuck is wrong with you?

Almost as if to spite my own thoughts, I wrap my hands around him, in the closest approximation comfort I can think to provide- resenting the way I suppress a cringe as he returns the embrace. 

Muffled chirps spill from between my fingers, his body trembling under my touch. My throat constricts- thigh still rapidly bouncing against the chair. What was I supposed to do? How on Earth was I supposed to offer any comfort? I stroke his side with my thumb, ashamed that fidgeting action was more to comfort myself. I told them I would help them… What am I supposed to do? Is there even anything I can do? My heart wrenches. Fucking useless. In my hands I held a pitiful sight, and there was nothing I could do, no words I could say, no solution I could offer. 

All I could offer were hands to hold him.

[elbiotipo]

Do you think there’s any hope to save the planet? Like, whatsoever? Or are things just totally fucked forever? I’ve seen a lot of professionals (citation needed) saying everything is irreversibly fucked forever and we’re doomed

Not only there is hope, but things have changed in positive directions lately.

If you're concerned about climate change, recall that the initial expectations for climate change, during the Paris Agreement, with no intervention at all, were an increse of 4°C by 2100. This would have been virtually a collapse event for human civilization, as this would have meant catastrophic crop failures, violent changes in climate, deadly heatwaves, and more.

That is not the scenario we're heading towards to, however, because that is the scenario without any interventions at all, that is, the "business as usual, we keep burning coal" scenario. We no longer live in that sccenario at all. Coal plants have closed at a fast pace, while renewables are cheaper than ever in history. Virtually all of India's new electricity production, to give one example, are renewables, while China is thoughening, if inconsistently, its carbon zero targets, but renewable energy is so cheap that it does not make sense to invest in fossil fuels anymore. Current actions point to 2.7°C increase, but this means CURRENT actions. Further pledges reduce that to 2.1°C. Future technologies such as carbon sequestration, as well as the ol' reliable "planting trees" might even reverse climate change in the future. These are things that are happening right now.

If you're concerned about ecosystem degradation, ecosystems can recover VERY quickly when just left alone to recover. True, ecological succession is slow to recover biodiversity rich areas, but without human pressure, habitats recover surprisingly quickly. Animals are quicker to reproduce than humans in general, and while you do need to give a push, reintroducing species and rebuilding original vegetation cover, once that's done, the biomes that were there originally spread again. The key factor is how to do that while having a good relationship with the people who live in those areas. Coordination with native peoples and rural communities is key here.

If you're asking about the more political side of things, I subscribe to a historical materialist view of things. For me, the fall of capitalism is inevitable once states serve the working class. This will happen, eventually, because of the contradictions of capitalism and organized popular struggle (by many ways, not just one). I don't believe in the end of history. Capitalism will be only a phase in human history, and perhaps not even a long-lived one.

[darkmaga-returns]

He will get rid of 10 regulations for each new regulation

Tariffs, whose amounts are not yet established, will be imposed on foreign goods

Federal tax breaks will be given for companies that make products within the US: he will lower it from 21% to 15% if products are produced in the USA.

He will reduce interest rates and inflation

The US is becoming a merit-based country

He (of course) talked about the border

There are only 2 genders. Transgender surgeries will be rare. Transgender athletes will not compete with women.

The United States is a sovereign country

We are returning to freedom of speech, no misinformation/disinformation labels to suffocate Americans’ free speech

Asks nations to increase their defense spending to 5% from 2% (this was a US request to NATO nations under Biden last fall)

It is time to end the Ukraine war, it is a carnage. He said millions are dying. He wants to talk to Putin soon about this. Hopefully this is an exaggeration.

There will be no support for electric cars. People can buy whatever car they want.

Prolonged delays for project approvals will end

With AI, we will need twice the energy in the US as we use now. (!). He suggests electricity generating plants be built next to AI plants, avoiding need to use the grid.

President Trump spoke about the use of “clean coal.” Does this mean we will use better scrubbers? RF Kennedy sued coal-burning plants for releasing large amounts of mercury into the air, generally harming low income communities where they were located.

President Trump said “debanking” is wrong and told the big banks to stop doing it.

President Trump said we don’t need Canada for wood, for making our cars, etc. He pointed out that essentially everything Canada has, the US has. This presages some tough negotiations on tariffs.

The President said President Xi called him. We have a 1.1 trillion dollar deficit with China that needs to be corrected. Hopefully China can help stop the Ukraine war. We’d like to see denuclearization of our two countries (Russia and the US) and China could come along. President Putin really liked the idea of reducing our nuclear capability. Xi did too.

The Ukraine war should never ever have been started. A lot of stupidity all around. “Far more people have died than is being reported.”

[shadowstarkanada]

The symbol of the Moriarty family is the red rose, but when William James Moriarty orders a bouquet of flowers to be delivered to 221B Baker Street the day after the night he is to die, roses are entirely absent from the bouquet.

It is instead composed of rainflowers, baby blue eyes and purple milk-vetch, surrounded by mixed rue and butterfly weed.

Sherlock isn't there to receive it.

Mycroft is there instead, disappointed when the person who arrives is not the man he ordered to not die. He accepts the bouquet even though it is clearly meant for Sherlock, and he takes the time to look up the meanings of the flowers.

"You are my one and only," is the meaning of the little baby blue eyes, and Mycroft shakes his head at it. "I love you back. I must atone for my sins," is what the rain flower is intended to say, and Mycroft wonders what Sherlock would have said to those messages.

The rue is relatively simple: "Regret and repentance."

The last two flowers take quite a bit longer to look up. The purple milk-vetch is not a common English flower; it's been imported from China, and while Sherlock does have a book that includes it, it is not close at hand. "Your presence softens my pain," is what he works out, eventually.

The butterfly weed is American, an orange fire mixed in with the yellow rue of regret, and this, too, is obscure. It takes Mycroft time to find. "Let go of your grief," it commands.

Mycroft shakes his head, and lets his wounds settle in his gut, burning coals of anger and sorrow deep inside of him, and wonders how William James Moriarty has so thoroughly miscalculated his last action.

As if a Holmes would ever take orders from a flower. ** I cannot art.

[princess-of-the-corner]

So, with those butterfly world building revelations, I need a new power for the Peacock & started tinkering with my other 12 Kami power set up

So I was curious as to your take on what you'd replace the Peacock's power with.

Keep in mind it doesn't need to be with the Agreste family or otherwise broken, as the Butterfly can kill its users just fine without cracks XD

Currently my potential options are:

1: Transmutation & Reformation This changes the component elements of an object such as turning coal into gold. Or can be used to enhance a pre-existing object into its strongest or weakest state.

Such as re-structuring a sheet of metal into its most efficient and sturdy self. The usual way to use its power is to take a feather and make it sharp or explosive and throw it.

Might be stepping into Ladybug or the Butterflies domain a bit or could be too easily abuse?

2: Plasma & Ashes Tied to the element of fire and it being a Catalyst for Change through heat and energy the user can unless feathers of explosive plasma or also change themselves into a mass of living ever changing and very hot ash that can move around similar to Style Queen or Sandboy.

Sort of feels a bit disjointed and maybe too limited.

3: Illumination & Iridescence or illumination & obscuration This allows the users to create, remove or alter light and shadows for stealth and surprise purposes.

Feels kind of like the Fox could do it.

4: Concealment & Revelation Hide something be it physically or mentally, as well as reveal something concealed/lost.

This would make it look like the concealed thing was never there & can never be seen or thought of unless one raw will powers their way through it.

A purely physical version of this is basically mobile pocket dimension and being able to, for example, "Summon steam rollers!" and drop them n your enemies.

The conceptual one feels like it could maybe be a bit OP or if not, run the risk of not being powerful enough while the latter is fun I am unsure it really fits.

5: Rebirth & Resurrection This has ties, allegedly, to some broadly common symbolic trends across many areas in what is now China.

I am unsure how it'd manifest save maybe as being the party healer, or maybe a self rez? Could end up being unhelpful or OP.

6: Energy & Passion This could radically enhance the user or an allies powers, essentially a boost to all round energy and abilities. With the possible side effect of burn out if over-used. Could also exaggerate emotions as well as Taoism ties related elements of this to hate & joy.

Might be like a watered down butterfly.

But yeah those are what I have but not sure any of them work as powers or are in line with the other Kwami. Maybe as individuals or maybe in different pairs, I'd love to hear your thoughts and if you have an alternate Peacock what you'd do.

Oh also, the revised first trio:

Snake - Ouroboros, Entirety & Time Ladybug - Creation & Purification Cat - Destruction & Mutation

Okay so I think go with either 1 or 6.

And this is probably because of bias but the others aren't hitting right BUT

With #1: I'm tempted with this because ofc you get my fma:b loving ass in on the idea of transmutation. But also because I can kinda use this logic on helping draw the line from this to the Ladybug's Creation?

Because it's more change and transformation than create. You cannot create from nothing, you have to change and alter what's already there.

as for 6: tbh I just think that we need more support powers in this show.

[stele3]

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/muslims-who-voted-trump-upset-by-his-pro-israel-cabinet-picks-2024-11-15/

[probablyasocialecologist]

In 2020 to 2021, Bitcoin consumed 173.42 terawatt hours of electricity - enough to rank it 27th among nations, trumping the likes of Pakistan with a population of over 230 million people. The resulting carbon footprint was the equivalent of burning 84 billion pounds of coal. To offset this, a study by the United Nations University found 3.9 billion trees would have to be planted, covering an area almost equal to the Netherlands, Switzerland, or Denmark.

Globally, bitcoin mining used 1.65 million liters (about 426,000 gallons) of water in 2020-2021, enough to fill more than 660,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools. China, the U.S. and Canada had the largest water footprints. Kazakhstan and Iran, which along with the U.S. and China have suffered from water shortages, were also in the top-10 list for water footprint. “These are very, very worrying numbers,” Madani said. “Even hydropower, which some countries consider a clean source of renewable energy, has a huge footprint.”

[yourtoradorasextendedwarranty]

You posted videos from PragerU and the Heartland Institute, that fact alone destroys your credibility. I don't know who 'my Babs' is but I stay on anon because I've been in these discussions before and people start sending hateful messages. I've watched your silly videos, you silly boy, they did not prove there is a global hoax going on. Like your man said in the video the question here is how much of an emergency this situation is, not that we don't have a problem. I'm choosing to listen to 'the experts' because I can't take people seriously that think PragerU is a credible source of information on this issue (or any other for that matter). Your map of the countries that signed up to the Paris agreement clearly shows your position in the world. All these countries are in on a hoax/getting hoaxed but the US (the country of alternative facts and tribal politics) is the only one standing up to the cabal, now that the party of Q-anon, Marjorie Taylor Greene and 'the stolen elections' is back in power. The party that has always denied there was ANY climate change. Sounds legit, motherrfucker!

And just like that you prove you're not worth responding to. Just because a video comes from a place you don't like doesn't mean that can't say facts. And Prager himself is actually on the left. But much like the Neo Puritan right you stupid fucks have the same kind of purity test mentality. Always have. Always will. Anyone to the left of STALIN, you around fucks think is far right.

I acknowledge even places like CNN can be correct and about things that don't matter, they tend to be. But about politics they are outright liars. And you just drink that fucking Koolaid. What's funnier still, is every conspiracy the Neo Progressive left has said the right had, has come true. COVID coming from a lab in China? Yup. Masks harming a generation and not actually stopping the spread? Wow right again. Biden being off his rocker? Wow right again.

But you evil fucks do this bullshit where you find the most radical, wild, insane conspiracy online, and posit that as what all right wingers believe. Without fail. However here's the kicker. The people ON those videos were individuals that speak on the topic away from those platforms you seem so quick to criticize.

Also I'll correct one other point. The word Hoax. Climate change isn't a hoax. Most people don't believe it is. However, MOST people know that climate alarmism is a lie. And it's a free position to take to spend money. Something most governments love to do. But it gets better. As several of my mutuals have explained to you people. The Paris Accords don't have any enforcement. It's a "loose agreement" to "do better". Except it's coordinated by WEF types. Because the more scared you are, the easier you are to control.

Because news flash. The world been "ending in 5 years" for the past 70+ years. And China and India are both a part of the Accords. You know who's top polluters in the world? China and India. Who both use a metric shit ton of coal. Which fun fact, has radioactive burn off.

I don't care about this bullshit claim about credibility because so far as I'm concerned Academia has none after the published the James Lindsay papers, and left wing news has less than zero because all they've done is lie, fear monger, and spread intentional division.

So kindly fuck off and bark up another tree. You're a bitch.

[whitesinhistory]

In 1885, the Union Pacific Railroad employed 500 coal miners in Rock Springs, Wyoming, two-thirds of whom were Chinese. White miners, angry that the railroad was hiring Chinese miners, decided to drive Chinese people out of Rock Springs.

On September 2, 1885, a dispute broke out between white and Chinese miners when both groups wanted to work in the same part of the mine. Later that day, 100 white miners gathered with guns, hatchets, and knives and marched toward “Chinatown” where the Chinese miners lived, to stage a brutal attack. When the Chinese residents attempted to flee, the white miners fired at them while they ran.

Twenty-eight Chinese people were killed in the massacre and another 15 were badly wounded. The white miners also looted and burned all 79 houses belonging to Chinese residents, leaving "Chinatown" demolished. In the days following this attack, federal troops brought in to establish order set up camp between the white area of town and "Chinatown," to prevent more violence; troops remained there for the next 13 years. Although 14 white miners were arrested in connection with the massacre, none were ever convicted of any crime.

Today, there is little evidence of the massacre in Rock Springs. No marked gravesites exist for the victims because, at that time, “Orientals” were banned from white cemeteries. Instead, the victims were cremated and their ashes returned to China. Congress eventually authorized an indemnity to China in the amount of $147,748, but the U.S. government never assumed legal responsibility for the massacre.

[rjzimmerman]

The U.N.’s Verdict on Climate Progress Over the Past Year: There Was None. (New York Times)

Excerpt from this New York Times story:

One year after world leaders made a landmark promise to move away from fossil fuels, countries have essentially made no progress in cutting emissions and tackling global warming, according to a United Nations report issued on Thursday.

Global greenhouse gas emissions soared to a record 57 gigatons last year and are not on track to decline much, if at all, this decade, the report found. Collectively, nations have been so slow to curtail their use of oil, gas and coal that it now looks unlikely that countries will be able to limit global warming to the levels they agreed to under the 2015 Paris climate agreement.

“Another year passed without action means we’re worse off,” said Anne Olhoff, a climate policy expert based in Denmark and a co-author of the assessment, known as the Emissions Gap Report.

The report comes a month before diplomats from around the world are scheduled to meet in Baku, Azerbaijan, for annual United Nations climate talks, where countries will discuss how they might step up efforts to address global warming.

Lately, those efforts have faced huge obstacles.

Even though renewable energy sources like wind and solar are growing rapidly around the world, demand for electricity has been rising even faster, which means countries are still burning more fossil fuels each year. Geopolitical conflicts, from the U.S.-China rivalry to war in places like Ukraine and Gaza, have made international cooperation on climate change harder. And rich countries have failed to keep their financial promises to help poor countries shift away from oil, gas and coal.

At last year’s climate talks in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, representatives from nearly every nation approved a pact that called for “transitioning away from fossil fuels” and accelerating climate action this decade. But the agreement was vague on how to do so and on which countries should do what, and so far there has been little follow-through.

The new U.N. report finds that at least 151 countries have formally pledged under the Paris climate agreement to curb their greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. If every country followed through on its stated plans, which is far from assured, then global emissions could be 3 percent to 11 percent lower at the end of the decade than they are today.

But that would still put the Earth on track to heat up an average of roughly 2.6 to 2.8 degrees Celsius (4.7 to 5 degrees Fahrenheit) over preindustrial levels by the century’s end, the report found. The planet has already warmed roughly 1.3 degrees Celsius (2.3 degrees Fahrenheit). That may not sound like much, but every fraction of a degree of warming brings greater risks from deadly heat waves, wildfires, drought, storms and species extinction, scientists have said.

Under the Paris Agreement, world leaders vowed to hold global warming to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius, and preferably closer to 1.5 degrees Celsius, to limit the risks from climate catastrophes.

[cherryblossomshadow]

You Are Not Evil

hankschannel

TL;DW

Humans are not evil.

We solve problems.

And when we do, we create new problems

.

Transcript excerpts below the cut:

I would like to talk really quick about this image. It's a sad Earth, covered in storm clouds … covered in cut-down trees and standing in a puddle of refuse … the Earth is sad. It is crying, and it says, “No intelligent species would destroy their own environment.”

…

Hannah Ritchie’s very excellent book, “Not the End of the World,” has a subtitle … “how can we be the first generation to build a sustainable planet”

.

The argument she makes is that sustainability in her definition includes things like “children not dying in infancy.” And when I look at images like this, what I see is a complete disregard for the accomplishments of humans

…

In the United States in 1895, a quarter of people born could expect to not live to five. And that was lower than it used to be. And I have to emphasize this as much as I can: The biggest problem that our planet faces is that there are so many humans, and that the humans in question want to provide a very high standard of living for themselves and their children

So the reason why the environment is fucked … and I know that there's a group of people who will not believe me when I say this. And they will say, “No, it's the fossil fuel companies.”

And look, the fossil fuel companies have made this much worse and have slowed down our transition. They are not the only problem, but they are a huge problem

But the biggest reason why we have a problem is love. It's that we want to have children, and we want them to survive.

And so now there are 8 billion of us … and we want all 8 billion of those people to have pretty good lives

And I, sitting here in my heated office in short sleeves in December, I cannot tell a bunch of people in China or India or Ghana that they can't have what I have

.

Here's my point: our intelligence for the vast majority of history of life on Earth has been oriented toward survival. And that has resulted in a huge amount of survival. And now we are in a situation where there can be a good life that has a great deal of survival and thriving in it, that does not require the amount of impact on the environment that we are having

But an unintelligent species that did what we have done … this has happened before. Trees, for example, caused a mass extinction when they arrived on land. They absorbed so much carbon dioxide that there was no longer very much carbon dioxide in the air, the water became less acidic, and many things died on the planet because of trees. And they didn't know that they were doing it. but also you can't blame them because they're trees. And so of course, they couldn't see it coming

But here's a story that I think we miss: When we as a species encounter local environmental problems, we tend to fix them. It was not long ago that London could be so clogged with coal smoke that you had to clean it off the windows every day, and that is no longer the case. You now never think of London as a place that has like got a coal smoke problem. In fact, the United Kingdom recently stopped burning coal entirely, which is very weird historically, considering they were where the coal started

But it was also very recently … that Beijing had this problem, and now Beijing has this problem much less. It still has an air pollution problem, just like Los Angeles does, but much less. When rivers catch on fire, we actually change our policies. When the rain becomes acidic, we change our policies

.

The problem with global warming is twofold

It's invisible. There are cold days and hot days, like there always were. There will always be  cold days and hot days. You can't see the river catch on fire, you can't see the trees on the hilltop dying, because the soil has become so acidic, because the coal-fired power plants have been putting sulfur into the atmosphere. You can't see it

We only know about global warming because we are an intelligent species. If we were not smart, we would be trundling down this path completely oblivious, sometimes wondering why it got so hot.

Which, I have to point out was a thing that happened in the past. There were times when it just got cold or hot, and we didn't know why. And then the crops would fail, and a bunch of people would starve, and it was because there was a freaking volcano halfway across the world. We only know the problem exists, because we're smart. We only have the tools to deal with it, because we're smart. We are only implementing those tools, because we are smart

2. And the other problem with global warming is, another reason why we are too slow at this is because carbon dioxide is the goal gas. I feel like this is not understood by people but with acid rain, we didn't want the sulfur or the nitrogen to get released into the atmosphere. That was just a side effect of burning coal. With the hole in the ozone layer, we didn't want those molecules being released into the atmosphere. That was just a side effect of how it worked

Like what we wanted was cooling. And cooling, by the way, has saved so many lives. And we are going to have to have more of it to continue to save those lives. And that's going to be energetically expensive. (But it won't be expensive when it comes to the hole in the ozone layer, because we have we have better solutions now)

But energy is what so much of our thriving is based on, and we do not want to give up that thriving. And the way that we have created that energy for the most part has been burning fossil fuels. And the goal gas, the gas that you inevitably get out of burning fossil fuels if you burn them as cleanly as possible, all you get is carbon dioxide and water vapor

We built our society on it, we built our thriving on it. Because we are smart, and because we want to provide a good life for ourselves and our children. This is a Smart Species Activity

.

My son has stared to come home from school with ideas like this in his head, where he's like, “We need to stop cutting down all the trees, Dad.” And I'm like, “Yeah absolutely, like what we need is for there to be lots of forests that are left to their own. But also remember that the house that we live in is built out of wood.”

And like the gears crank in his head, where he starts to ask himself if he's part of the problem. Which is why we need to have the definition of sustainability include the opportunity for human freedom and agency

I'm not saying that I shouldn't be responsible for more carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere, absolutely I shouldn’t … I should be wearing a hoodie right now, I should not have had the heater on all night in here

.

But I think if we have this simplistic idea of humans or certain humans … a lot of the responses I saw to this [meme] were like, “No one ever said a Republican was an intelligent species.” And I'm like, “Oh my God, you people are so caught up in a current discourse and the current moment that you can't see how hard our all of our ancestors worked to provide us with a world that has plenty of food.” That's the biggest thing, plenty of food, but also climate-controlled shelter and pretty easy transportation to anywhere within what 400 miles? And then expensive, but still accessible transportation to the whole world. And also bananas which I love, and we're not going to grow in Montana. And if we did, it would be more energy expensive than shipping them from South America, where they're supposed to grow

Humans are remarkable. We are very powerful. Give any species this level of power, and they will provide opportunities for thriving for themselves and their children. They will try and prevent their children from dying. They will … walk through fire to make sure that their children don't die. They will destroy the Earth to make sure their children won't die. But I'm glad that we have enough intelligence both to provide those opportunities for our children to not die but also to start to uncover the impacts that we have, hopefully some time to self-correct some amount. We're at this point going to experience significant negative impacts from the warming of the planet. We did not move fast enough. I think that there's all kinds of like … not valid, but like understandable reasons, why we haven't moved fast enough

This is hard. People are greedy. People suck. People will tell stories to make themselves believe that the things that they want to do are in fact the right things to do. We all do that

But I don't want my son growing up, thinking that the species he is a part of is in some way evil. And I feel like that's like the root of a lot of sort of armchair environmentalism. I want him thinking humans are problem solvers, and solving problems creates new problems. And that's a little bit more of a complicated idea, but it is so true. I have solved so many problems, and never have I solved a problem that didn't create a new problem. I think we're absolutely at a place where increasing the amount of access to energy that I have as an individual will not make my life any better. But that is not the case for the majority of people on Earth. More access to medicine, refrigerators, ways to cook food that don't involve fires … (which we honestly in the US could also do a better job of, for Christ's sake. We have to stop having natural gas stoves. This is so stupid. I made a video about that once. I'll put that video at the end of this video)

.

But when we solve the global warming problem, we will have created new problems. And we're doing it right now. In the background, there's like a land use fight. Renewable Technologies use way more land. Solar panels take up a lot of space, wind turbines take up a lot of space, you have to make a road between each win turbine, and those roads take up a lot of space. They impact the environment by being there

I think in the future, we will uninstall a bunch of those things, because we'll have other technologies that are better. We'll have maybe like advanced geothermal or we'll have more fission or we'll have fusion or whatever it is. But we're going to need energy

And the people of the future will be mad at us for the work that we did, and that's fine. Just like we're kind of mad at all the people who made the world a better place by burning a bunch of coal, so that we could all have refrigerators, which nobody thinks about as a perk anymore! They just think that's normal! A 100 years ago, more than half of Americans didn't have a refrigerator. It wasn't that long ago

And that's the situation in India now. Less than half of households in India have a refrigerator, and in the next 100 years, that number had better be 100% or we’re going to be pissed off at us

.

I know this video could have been a lot shorter it could have just been one sentence it could have been:

Humans are not evil. We solve problems. And when we do, we create new problems

And I think that is like universally probably going to be a pretty normal story of intelligent species. Like if we found another, I bet they'd have a lot of stories about how they created Problems by solving problems

.

And the speed at which we solve the problems … I think there's absolutely some shame we should experience here. I admit it's a hard one, but oh my God, the extent to which we will not accept any inconvenience in exchange for making the world more livable for people in other places in the world and also our own children in the future is stupid

I will say, this is an amount of foresight that is unusual and requires a great deal of intelligence. There aren't a lot of other species out there trying to figure out how to make the world work for the next generation. Like that's not how they think. Because most species don't think about the future. They don't have a conception of the future. Like dogs don't have a conception of the future. So like, it's remarkable that we're able to do it at all. I do think we could have been better at this, and I am frustrated the extent to which we have spent a lot of time arguing instead of acting, and we could have acted faster, and that would have mattered

…

18:20

I'm going to stick the video about stoves and why we shouldn't use for both health reasons and environmental reasons why we should no longer use gas stoves okay enjoy that goodbye

(link to gas stove)