[TheClimate.Vote] July 14, 2018 - Daily Global Warming News Digest
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Sat Jul 14 09:44:19 EDT 2018
/July 14, 2018/
[fire storms]
*We've entered the era of 'fire tsunamis'
<https://grist.org/article/weve-entered-the-era-of-fire-tsunamis/>*
By Eric Holthaus - on Jul 5, 2018
Life in the Rocky Mountains is frequently extreme as blizzards, baking
sun, and fires alternate with the seasons. But fire tsunamis? Those
aren't normal.
On Thursday, one observer described a "tsunami" of flames overnight at
the Spring Creek fire near La Veta in the south-central part of the
state. And you can't stop tsunamis.
"It was a perfect firestorm," Ben Brack, incident commander for the
Spring Creek fire, told the Denver Post. "You can imagine standing in
front of a tsunami or tornado and trying to stop it from destroying
homes. A human response is ineffective."
Pyrocumulus clouds, a sure indicator of intense heat release from
wildfire, were clearly visible from 100 miles away. The fire is just
five percent contained and covers more than 100,000 acres - larger than
the city limits of Denver - making it the third-largest wildfire in
state history..
- - - - - - - - -
*Spring Creek fire "tsunami" sweeps over subdivision, raising home toll
to 251
<https://www.denverpost.com/2018/07/05/spring-creek-wildfire-update-thursday/>*
The thermodynamics of this historic wildfire demand unusual tactics by
firefighters
A 300-foot-high tsunami of wildfire swept over a subdivision
overnight turning an untold number of homes into cinders and making
unprecedented acreage gains in the middle of the night when
wildfires are normally docile, authorities say.
"It was a perfect fire storm. This is a national disaster at this
time," said Ben Brack, fire spokesman of the racing Spring Creek
fire now burning in three southern Colorado counties. "You can
imagine standing in front of a tsunami or tornado and trying to stop
it from destroying homes. A human response is ineffective."
With wind gusts of 35 mph, the fast-moving blaze defied
measurement..Officially, the fire swept over an additional 15,000 to
20,000 acres at night, when wildfires normally lay down as
temperatures drop.
"We're seeing unprecedented fire behavior that pushed this fire
through the night. Because the fire has been moving so fast we don't
know exactly know how big it has become,"
https://www.denverpost.com/2018/07/05/spring-creek-wildfire-update-thursday/
- - - - - - - - - -
Pyrocumulus clouds, a sure indicator of intense heat release from
wildfire, wereclearly visible from 100 miles away
<https://twitter.com/caseyrbristow/status/1014738544173174784>.
https://twitter.com/caseyrbristow/status/1014738544173174784
The official term for the hellish meteorological event that hit La Veta
is a "firestorm," a self-propelling explosion of flame generated by
strong and gusty winds from a particularly intense fire over extremely
dry terrain. When a fire gets hot enough, it can generate its own
weather conditions and wind speeds can approach hurricane force, drying
out the surrounding land. In just a few hours on Wednesday night, the
Spring Creek fire swelled by nearly 20,000 acres, with airborne sparks
igniting new fires nearly one mile downwind.
Months of unusually dry and warm weather have combined to push
Colorado's fire risk to "historic levels," leading the state to close
millions of acres of public lands. Two-thirds of the state is in
drought. It's part of a pattern of intense fire danger currently
plaguing most of the western United States, which is unlikely to fade
anytime soon.,,
- - - - -
Over the past two decades, more than 800 million of Colorado's trees
have been consumed by bugs - a phenomenon more common worldwide as
warmer temperatures are helping plant-eating pests flourish in
previously cool places. To top it off, this past winter was one of the
warmest and driest ever recorded, "the stuff of nightmares," according
to local experts. Rivers are running at about half their normal levels,
and the summer monsoon rains still haven't arrived.
It's clear that the state's steady and transformative slide into a drier
future has already begun. This week's firestorm is terrifying proof.
https://grist.org/article/weve-entered-the-era-of-fire-tsunamis/
[Straw man from Grist]
*Is Seattle's straw ban a green gateway drug or just peak slactivism?
<https://grist.org/article/is-seattles-straw-ban-a-green-gateway-drug-or-just-peak-slactivism/>*
By Shannon Osaka - on Jul 5, 2018
But we have to ask - under the threat of severe climate change, extreme
weather, ocean acidification, and all the other plastic pollution in our
waters, why has America become obsessed with something as small as
plastic straws?
"I think it's a way for people to feel that they have some agency over
the problem of ocean plastics," says Kara Lavender Law, researcher and
professor at the Sea Education Association. "These are things that we
have easy alternatives for.
https://grist.org/article/is-seattles-straw-ban-a-green-gateway-drug-or-just-peak-slactivism/
["something beyond hope"]
*UN security council considers 'cycle of conflict and climate disaster'
<http://www.climatechangenews.com/2018/07/12/un-security-council-considers-cycle-conflict-climate-disaster/>*
Published on 12/07/2018, 2:19pm
Sweden chaired the influential body's first session focusing on climate
change in seven years, calling for international coordination to address
the risks..
- - - -
The relationship between environmental pressures and conflict is complex
and disputed. Climate change is typically described as a "threat
multiplier," rather than a primary cause of war. Weather extremes can
hit the availability of water, food and other essentials, stoking
tensions between rival groups...
- - - -
The security council is expected to put out a presidential statement in
the coming days on next steps.
Camilla Born, an advisor to the Swedish government, told Climate Home
News the signal for action was stronger than last time it was discussed
at this forum.
"Previously, you had the recognition that you needed climate-related
information in reporting, but it was quite a soft recommendation," said
Born. "The difference between now and 2011 is you can now see climate
change reshaping the security landscape. Every representative of a more
fragile or vulnerable country was speaking about their personal experience."
There was "a lot of alignment between countries about what was needed,"
she added. That included the bureaucratic work of gathering and
analysing data as well as mobilising political leadership.
http://www.climatechangenews.com/2018/07/12/un-security-council-considers-cycle-conflict-climate-disaster/
[Japan lesson]
*Soon every weather event could become a state of emergency
<https://theoutline.com/post/5344/climate-change-is-catching-places-off-guard-and-driving-death-counts?zd=1&zi=y5hwin2a>*
An unprecedented two-week rain storm devastated Japan and killed almost
200 people. Climate change is part of the reason that the region was so
unprepared.
*We've never experienced this kind of rain before.*
-Unnamed Japanese weather official speaking to the BBC.
In Japan, what started as a downpour on June 28 refused to relent, dug
in its heels, and kept dumping rain on southern Japan for more than two
weeks, and at least 176 people lost their lives. A blanket of water 847
million cubic feet in scale flooded the region, destroying almost 2,000
homes. The worst-hit regions were struck with about 70 inches of
rain-almost six feet. Then, on July 9, just as the rain stopped, a
barrage of simultaneous landslides devastated thousands of square miles
in Western Japan, causing over 100 of the 176 deaths.
The flooding in Japan is a tragic example of what happens when climate
change raises the threat of dangerous but (at least at the time of
onset) sub-emergency weather, like torrential rain, in regions that
aren't used to experiencing comparable events like typhoons or
hurricanes. The country had no reason to expect that the event would be
so extreme, and as a result, it didn't have the emergency response
mechanisms in place to properly deal with the issue. As climate change
makes weather more unpredictable, particularly when weather forecasting
relies on relatively calm historical information, the potential for
unexpected consequences is much higher....
- - - -
Japan's Meteorological Agency has a budget of $57.8 billion, so it's not
that it's underfunded and drawing up poor predictions. But meteorology
works by considering weather in the past. When there's little to no
precedent for an event, there's not as much of a reason to expect it in
the present. Disaster preparedness works the same way: governments
figure out how to respond to an issue based off of which responses
worked and didn't work in the past. So what do they do when they're
faced with an event of quite literally unprecedented scale?...
- - - -
Climate change is dangerous largely because it has the capacity to
unearth the corruption, inefficiencies, and inadequacies in governments.
When there's a climate change-driven disaster, all of these
vulnerabilities come to light. However, it's just as scary to consider
that high death tolls aren't always driven by corruption. What was true
in the past simply isn't true for the present, and it won't be true for
the future. Even for competent scientists and leaders, that's an
incredibly difficult challenge to face.
https://theoutline.com/post/5344/climate-change-is-catching-places-off-guard-and-driving-death-counts?zd=1&zi=y5hwin2a
- - - -
[passive propaganda or clueless]
*Major broadcast TV networks mentioned climate change just once during
two weeks of heat-wave coverage
<https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2018/07/12/Major-broadcast-TV-networks-mentioned-climate-change-just-once-during-two-weeks-of-heat-wa/220651>*
ABC, CBS, and NBC aired 127 segments on the recent heat wave and only
one noted that climate change is a driver of extreme heat
Throughout the recent record-breaking heat wave that affected millions
across the United States, major broadcast TV networks overwhelmingly
failed to report on the links between climate change and extreme heat.
Over a two-week period from late June to early July, ABC, CBS, and NBC
aired a combined 127 segments or weathercasts that discussed the heat
wave, but only one segment, on CBS This Morning, mentioned climate change.
*The recent heat wave was record-breaking and deadly*
From the last week of June into the second week of July, an intense
heat wave moved across the U.S., going from the eastern and central
parts of the country to the West Coast. A large area of high atmospheric
pressure helped to create a massive and powerful heat dome, which
migrated from New England to southern California. The heat wave brought
record-breaking temperatures -- during its first week, 227 U.S. records
were broken for highest temperature for particular days, and during the
second week, at least six locations in southern California alone saw
record-breaking highs. The heat wave killed at least five people in the
U.S. and up to 70 people in Quebec, Canada.
*Climate change is exacerbating both the frequency and intensity of heat
waves*
There is overwhelming scientific evidence that human-induced climate
change is exacerbating both the frequency and intensity of heat waves.
Heat domes like the one that caused this recent heat wave are becoming
more intense and more common, scientists have found. UCLA climate
scientist Daniel Swain, who has studied extreme weather patterns in
California, said recent heat in California was unusual. "The overall
trend over decades to more intense and more frequent heat waves is
definitely a signal of global warming," he told The New York Times. And
according to Jeff Masters, director of meteorology for Weather
Underground, this recent heat wave was "the kind of thing you expect to
see on a warming planet," making it "easier to set a heat record."...
- - - -
CBS aired one segment that discussed the connection between climate
change and high heat. Out of 36 CBS segments that mentioned the heat
wave, just one mentioned climate change. The July 3 episode of CBS This
Morning featured a discussion with Lonnie Quinn, chief weathercaster for
WCBS-TV in New York City, who stated that there is a "really good,
strong understanding that there's a correlation between climate change
and extreme hot and extreme cold" and noted the significant increase
since 1970 in the number of days above 100 degrees in Miami, FL, and
Austin, TX. ...
- - - -
But there are positive trends in broadcast coverage. PBS continues to
set the standard for quality news coverage of climate change, as it has
in the past. And local meteorologists are increasingly incorporating
discussions of climate change into their segments and forecasts. For
example, on July 4 in Kansas City -- where there were two suspected
heat-related deaths -- NBC affiliate KSHB discussed that climate change
is expected to increase the number of extremely hot days in the future,
using a dynamic map from climate science nonprofit Climate Central to
make the point.
https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2018/07/12/Major-broadcast-TV-networks-mentioned-climate-change-just-once-during-two-weeks-of-heat-wa/220651
- - - -
[We all knew, they have no clue]
*Americans Increasingly Aware of Climate Change, Media Clueless
<https://earther.com/americans-increasingly-aware-of-climate-change-media-c-1827555165>*
Paola Rosa-Aquino
Climate change-it's happening. Americans' awareness of this fact is at
an all time high, according to a new survey. Maybe someone should tell
mainstream news channels.
Despite a recent spate of record-smashing heat waves across the United
States, very few major broadcast TV networks used the opportunity to
discuss linkages between extreme heat and climate change. That's
according to a recent analysis by Media Matters, which found that while
127 TV news segments from ABC, CBS, and NBC talked about the heat wave
from June 27 through July 10, only one-the July 3rd episode of CBS This
Morning-mentioned climate change. In it, CBS weathercaster Lonnie Quinn
said there is a "really good, strong understanding that there's a
correlation between climate change and extreme hot and extreme cold."
Indeed, there's strong scientific evidence that climate change is
already influencing the frequency and intensity of the heat waves and
will continue to do so in the future. And the American public seems
increasingly aware of this.
A new survey conducted in May by the University of Michigan and
Muhlenberg College found that 73 percent of Americans think there is
solid evidence for global warming. The survey also found that 60 percent
people are aware that global warming is happening and that humans are at
least partially to blame. These two results are the highest percentage
of people that have recognized human-caused climate change since the
poll began in 2008. The previous iteration of the survey, in the fall of
2017, found that 70 percent of respondents agreed there is solid
evidence for climate change, while 58 percent accepted the harsh reality
of a man-made global warming.
This increased acknowledgement might be connected to the record high
temperatures occurring more and more often. This past May, when the poll
was conducted, was the hottest May in 124 years of record keeping, The
Guardian reports. This is consistent with a growing body of research
that suggests that weather experiences can shape our views on global
warming.
"There's lots of evidence that contemporary weather is a contributing
factor to belief in climate change," Chris Borick, director of the
Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion, told the Guardian.
So c'mon, newscasters. Give the people what they want: scientifically
sound and contextualized news.
https://earther.com/americans-increasingly-aware-of-climate-change-media-c-1827555165
[Green Biz]
*The math in climate finance isn't adding up
<https://www.greenbiz.com/article/math-climate-finance-isnt-adding>*
Cynthia Cummis, Remco Fischer and Jakob Thoma
Thursday, July 12, 2018 - 12:45am
Banks are connected to every part of the economy through their investing
and lending activities. That means they play a crucial role in financing
the transition to a low-carbon economy.
- - - - -
The financial sector is increasingly aware of the need to shift capital
flows away from companies and activities that contribute to the climate
problem and into climate solutions. However, they are just getting
started in thinking through and strategizing on how best to respond -
and tracking the climate progress of financial institutions has proven
notoriously challenging.
- - - -
Are banks moving their financing in the right direction? It's a very
tough question to answer.
Our analysis of 35 large development and commercial banks found that by
and large, banks are unable to convey their overall climate progress.
Many that report on climate-friendly "green" investments, for instance,
do not fill in the other half of the picture by also reporting on the
financing of activities and technologies that contribute significantly
to GHG emissions, known as "brown" investments.
Until we know a financial institution's contribution to the climate
problem as well as its contribution to the climate solution, claims of
climate progress can only be assessed as incomplete.
Several trends push banks to low-carbon economy
Banks - like any other financial institutions and businesses - are
interested in taking advantage of the new business opportunities
afforded by the low-carbon transition, through financing of sectors such
as sustainable transportation and renewable energy. The world needs an
additional $1 trillion per year, on average, investment in clean energy
through 2050 to limit global temperature rise to no more than 2 degrees
Celsius...
- - - -
Measuring risk, however, is not enough. Understanding their contribution
to international climate policy goals matters, too. Demand from
investors and customers, concerns about reputation and a desire to
become enablers of the low-carbon economy are motivating banks to better
understand, and be more transparent about, the climate progress of their
lending and investment activities more broadly...
- - - - -
Many banks have made commitments to finance climate solutions, known as
"green" finance. For example, the Australia and New Zealand Banking
Group stated in 2015 that it will fund and facilitate at least $10
billion by 2020 to support increased energy efficiency in industry,
low-emissions transport, green buildings, reforestation, renewable
energy and battery storage, emerging technologies (such as CCS) and
climate change adaptation measures.
Conversely, a few banks are tracking and shedding their financing of
climate problems, known as "brown" finance. For example, the World Bank
announced it will stop financing oil and gas exploration and extraction
from 2019.
- -- - -
To truly bring the climate fight to finance, however, requires
developing science-based metrics and tools that allow financial
institutions to set performance benchmarks in line with global climate
goals. The Science-Based Targets initiative is working to develop
methods and guidance for financial institutions to set science-based
climate targets for their investing and lending portfolios.
Despite evolving practices, banks should not wait to begin measuring and
disclosing metrics on climate progress and tracking performance.
Meaningful and practical metrics are available for numerous asset
classes, and banks can improve their approach over time as more useful
metrics become available. The time for action is now.
https://www.greenbiz.com/article/math-climate-finance-isnt-adding
[Seattle is 7th from the top]
*How a hot city can keep its cool <https://youtu.be/4bqqbYCfYYs>*
Grist video - 3:36
Published on Jul 11, 2018
Dreaming of an island escape this summer? There's one kind of island
you'll want to run far, far away from if you're trying to beat the heat.
Thanks to something called the "urban heat island effect," cities like
Los Angeles and New York are literally the hottest places to live -- and
climate change is only heating things up more.
An epic heat wave wreaked havoc across L.A. over the past week, leaving
more than 26,000 residents without power after temperatures spiked at
109 degrees in downtown. The good news is that cities are taking serious
action to stem the serious public health threats that come along with
extreme heat. Cool, right?
https://youtu.be/4bqqbYCfYYs
Read more about New York's efforts to stay cool:
https://grist.org/article/heat-check/
[Philanthropy]
*Climate Initiative strategy 2018-2023
<https://hewlett.org/library/climate-initiative-strategy-2018-2023/>*
*The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation* has been investing for a
number of years in various strategies to avoid the worst effects of
climate change and spare human suffering by reducing greenhouse gas
(GHG) emissions. Those grants have aimed at cleaning up power
production, using less oil, using energy more efficiently, preserving
forests, addressing non-CO2 greenhouse gases, and financing
climate-friendly investments. Grants have focused on developed countries
with high energy demand and developing countries with fast-growing
energy demand or high deforestation rates.
The Environment Program undertook a process in 2017 to assess the
effectiveness of its past and current climate-related philanthropic
strategies in the U.S. and other countries and to determine what
changes, if any, would be appropriate for the foundation's future
climate investments.
Download the document:
https://s27477.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Hewlett-Foundation-Climate-Initiative-Strategy-2018-2023.pdf
As part of its normal "outcome-focused philanthropy," the foundation
takes a deeper and more comprehensive look at how a strategy is working
through a "strategy refresh" process, which involves program evaluation,
extensive issue-area research, and input from grantees, experts and
stakeholders.
The 2017 process resulted in the foundation board's approval in November
2017 of a renewed $600 million, five-year initiative committed to
addressing climate change. This is the foundation's single largest
commitment to date in any area of its philanthropic work. The resulting
strategy, which will guide the program's grants from 2018 to 2023, is
described in the strategy paper below.
https://hewlett.org/library/climate-initiative-strategy-2018-2023/
[New book in August]
*Climate Change, Public Health, and the Law
<http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/law/environmental-law/climate-change-public-health-and-law?format=HB&isbn=9781108417624>*
PUBLICATION PLANNED FOR: August 2018
FORMAT: Hardback ISBN: 9781108417624
Climate Change, Public Health, and the Law provides the first
comprehensive explication of the dynamic interactions between
climate change, public health law, and environmental law, both in
the United States and internationally. Responding to climate change
and achieving public health protections each require the
coordination of the decisions and behavior of large numbers of
people. However, they also involve interventions that risk
compromising individual rights. The challenges involved in
coordinating large-scale responses to public health threats and
protecting against the invasion of rights, makes the law
indispensable to both of these agendas. Written for the benefit of
public health and environmental law professionals and policymakers
in the United States and in the international public health sector,
this volume focuses on the legal components of pursuing public
health goals in the midst of a changing climate. It will help
facilitate efforts to develop, improve, and carry out policy
responses at the international, federal, state, and local levels.
Reviews & endorsements
Advance praise: 'Climate Change, Public Health, and the Law makes a
unique and timely contribution. Policy, law and regulation concerning
climate change must be informed by scientific insights into public
health impacts. This collection from leading scholars offers broad,
thorough coverage of key topics to help translate this scientific
information into much needed action.' Michael B. Gerrard, Andrew Sabin
Professor of Professional Practice, Columbia Law School
http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/law/environmental-law/climate-change-public-health-and-law?format=HB&isbn=9781108417624
[segments from an angry rant]
*The Sinister Underbelly of Climate Change Denial
<https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/07/12/the-sinister-underbelly-of-climate-change-denial/>*
by DAVID MATTSON
Scientists of all sorts, but especially those studying climate, are
confounded and distressed by the fact that there are so many doubters
among American adults, and that so many more, even among believers,
dismiss the consequences of unfolding climate change and are unwilling
to make the radical changes needed to avert a catastrophe, not just for
humans, but for all life on Earth.
How can this be?
This simple question has led to a veritable cottage industry of inquiry
into the psychological, social, and political drivers of climate warming
denial. After roughly 20-years of experiments and surveys, some
more-or-less definitive conclusions have been reached, several of which
initially surprised me. Yet the proffered explanations make a disturbing
sort of psycho-pathologic sense....
- - - - -
We need to act now. And our first order of business will necessarily be
overthrowing the elites and their conservative regime that currently
strangles all aspects of our national life.
David Mattson worked for the grizzly study team for 2 decades. He
retired from the US Geological Survey two years ago.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/07/12/the-sinister-underbelly-of-climate-change-denial/
[Paleo-prognostications]
*Scientists may have solved a huge riddle in Earth's climate past. It
doesn't bode well for the future.
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/energy-environment/2018/07/11/scientists-may-have-solved-huge-riddle-earths-climate-past-it-doesnt-bode-well-future/?utm_term=.ae9b4aa23e84&wpisrc=nl_green&wpmm=1>*
An ancient flood seems to have stalled the circulation of the oceans,
plunging the Northern Hemisphere into a millennium of near-glacial
conditions.
For some time, scientists have been debating how this major climatic
event - called the "Younger Dryas" - happened. The question has grown
more urgent: Its answer may involve the kind of fast-moving climate
event that could occur again.
This week, a scientific team made a new claim to having found that
answer. On the basis of measurements taken off the northern coasts of
Alaska and Canada in the Beaufort Sea, the scientists say they detected
the signature of a huge glacial flood event that occurred around the
same time...
- - - - -
There has long been scientific debate about where all the meltwater
actually entered the ocean, though - with some contending that it would
have occurred through the Saint Lawrence River, which flows past today's
Montreal and Quebec City and thus out into the Atlantic.
The new research holds that, instead, the floodwater exited through the
Mackenzie River, which stretches across today's Northwest Territories,
emptying straight into the Arctic Ocean.
It would certainly have been an enormous flow of fresh water. "I would
say somewhere between the Mississippi and the Amazon," Keigwin said.
That could have interfered with the Atlantic circulation, which is
crucial because it carries warm water northward, and so heats higher
latitudes. Eventually, the waters of the circulation become very cold as
they travel northward, but because they are also quite salty, they sink
because of their high density and travel back south again...
- - -- -
The question thus becomes whether it is possible to even more
dramatically interfere with the circulation again - and what could cause
that.
"I don't think there's any lakes on land that are big enough to do
this," Keigwin said. "It has to come from ice, because that's the
biggest reservoir of freshwater. And Greenland is the ice mass that you
would be most suspicious of, because it's right there poised to do
enough damage."
And yet, Greenland is no Lake Agassiz. "Greenland doesn't have large
land lakes to store the water," Driscoll said. Rather, it releases
steady streams of water in the form of glacial runoff, which often goes
straight into the ocean - and it releases huge icebergs that slowly melt.
So nobody is necessarily expecting a sudden outburst flood as Greenland
melts. Still, Driscoll and Keigwin both think that Greenland's steady
losses over time, especially if they increase in pace, can build up.
Climate scientists will be quick to point out that even if the Atlantic
circulation slows or shuts down, ceasing to transport as much heat and
leading to some Northern Hemisphere cooling, the overall global warming
trend will still be ongoing and may overpower it. We won't directly
repeat the Younger Dryas, but we can learn from it.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/energy-environment/2018/07/11/scientists-may-have-solved-huge-riddle-earths-climate-past-it-doesnt-bode-well-future/?utm_term=.ae9b4aa23e84&wpisrc=nl_green&wpmm=1
[Lesson time for 2 Laws - Thermodynamics]
*The First & Zeroth Laws of Thermodynamics: Crash Course Engineering #9
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSEFfWf2au0>*
CrashCourse
Published on Jul 12, 2018
In today's episode we'll explore thermodynamics and some of the ways it
shows up in our daily lives. We'll learn the zeroth law of
thermodynamics, what it means to reach a thermal equilibrium, and define
the first law of thermodynamics. We'll also explore how stationary,
adiabatic, and isochoric processes can make our lives as engineers a
little easier.
Note: Different branches of engineering sometimes define the first law
of thermodynamics differently, depending on how work is defined.
Essentially, work released from a system might be defined as a positive
value or a negative value, and thus the first law can be defined as
either Q-W or Q+W. Both are acceptable forms, depending on how the
system is defined! We chose to focus on only one definition here to
limit the confusion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSEFfWf2au0
[The Greatest Climate-Fiction Classic]
*THE ONLY GOOD ONLINE FANDOM LEFT IS DUNE
<https://theoutline.com/post/5333/dune-revival-2018-david-lynch>*
As corporations take control of nerd culture, science fiction's most
esoteric epic remains gloriously untamed.
On a basic narrative level, Paul is the good guy. If you want to treat
Dune as a tale of might makes right, the soil is fertile enough, and the
conditions of fandom easily enable anyone's personal interpretation to
surpass the creator's intent.
Yet Herbert saw that great-man historical thinking led not just to
Hitler and the Holocaust, but to Kennedy and Vietnam - a more
sophisticated critique of imperialism than mainstream American
liberalism has ever freely entertained. (Though in 1972 he worked as an
ecologist with the South Vietnamese government on a land-reform project
designed to win the hearts and minds of farmers to keep them from
supporting the Communists. He also directed TV shows for a while. The
man had a weird career.) Herbert's books are predicated on long-range
environmental preservation, on the right of indigenous populations to
fight imperialist aggression, on respect for non-"Judeo-Christian"
religious and spiritual traditions, on skepticism toward fundamentalism
and the will to power, on borderline terror of technological overreach
and nuclear war. In Dune, misguided attempts to raise the standard of
living regardless of cost lead to depletion of natural resources and
total ecological catastrophe. If you operate on the left side of the
political spectrum, you've got plenty of ammo if you need it..
- - - -
Instead, in the appropriately science-fictional year 1984, David Lynch's
famously strange version (scored by yacht-rock masters Toto, with a lone
Brian Eno contribution) hit theaters, in a bowdlerized edit overseen by
super-producer Dino De Laurentiis rather than the director himself. The
result was so disheartening to Lynch that he insisted on having final
cut on all his films moving forward; if you enjoyed just how far-out
Twin Peaks: The Return got, you've got the Dune debacle and the
contractual hardball Lynch was willing to play with Showtime as a result
to thank...
- - - - -
Once I finally got around to reading the books, criticism of the
adaptation felt even more off-base. The elements that seemed strangest,
like the near-constant voiceover narration of the characters' thoughts,
were no more or less than an attempt to translate the relentless
interiority of Herbert's writing. In a time when social media induces us
to share nearly every idea we have for public consumption, including the
idea of whether or not our ideas are worth sharing, Herbert's singular
"Character X thinks something, Character X decides how to talk about it,
Character X says what they decided to say, Character X thinks about how
what they said was received by Character Y, Character Y thinks something
in response, and so on" daisy-chain structure of representing human
thought, and Lynch's cinematic simulacrum of it, are actually relatable...
- - - - -
More than anything else, this is what makes immersion in Dune such an
attractive prospect. Paul Atreides found anonymity, friendship, and
freedom in the secret ways of the unconquerable Fremen desert tribes
(Fremen, "free men," get it?); his life after that point was a prolonged
struggle to export that sense of freedom to others. Consciously or not,
Herbert himself summed up the promise of Paul's life in his introduction
to New World or No World, repackaging it as a plan for the survival of
the species and the planet we live on.
"The thing we must do intensely is be human together," he wrote. "People
are more important than things. We must get together. The best thing
humans can have going for them is each other. We have each other. We
must reject everything which humiliates us. Humans are not objects of
consumption. We must develop an absolute priority of humans a head of
profit - any humans ahead of any profit. Then we will survive.
Together." Dune is one small, goofy, vital way of sharing something
wonderful with each other, and with nothing and no one else.
https://theoutline.com/post/5333/dune-revival-2018-david-lynch
[cartoon insight]
*Your Memory is Worse Than You Think
<https://thenib.com/can-you-trust-your-own-memory>*
New research has shown that your memory is like a Wikipedia entry - you
can get in there and edit it whenever you want, but so can other people.
by Line Hoj Hostrup
https://thenib.com/can-you-trust-your-own-memory
[informed political interviews]
*This Day in Climate History - July 14, 2015
<http://on.msnbc.com/1I0Zxqa> - from D.R. Tucker*
July 14, 2015: MSNBC's Chris Hayes continues his series on the
California drought.
http://on.msnbc.com/1I0Zxqa (Part 1)
http://on.msnbc.com/1I0Yvdy (Part 2)
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