Has Civilization Passed the Environmental Point of No Return?

darohitster · 2012-05-24T00:50:24.075962+00:00

Elaborate?

Nokavi · 3 days

The leader of the Revolutionary Communist Party of the USA, an...interesting bunch, to say the least. They very much favor the personality cult around him, and follow some kind of formulation of the Maoist ideology.

I went to a talk by Carl Dix, one of the higher-ups in in the RCP, where he discussed how the US is currently in the mid-phases of a genocide against blacks in the country, through what could be referred to as the prison-industrial complex (although he stated numerous times that the term was a distraction from the inherency of the system to capitalism). It was a good speech, but it got kind of odd at the end when he started talking about how the way out was to follow Avakian, and how Avakian was a genius and "knew the path forward to socialism." Again, personality cult. But whatever works, I guess--the RCP is quite organized, and they seem to be starting up a fairly sizable campaign against mass incarceration.

juancamdingo · 3 days

For some reason, I thought the title meant that they found an actual living and breathing turtle that was this size, not a fossil. Quite the letdown.

Why does it seem that animals back in the day, circa tens of millions of years ago, were all much much bigger than their present day descendants?

-EDIT- Probably should have read the whole article. Thanks fellas

dgodon · 3 days

Err, did you not read the article? It gives a brief argument for why its dead.

In fact, we have been giving up on desegregation for a long time. In 1974, the Supreme Court rejected a metropolitan integration plan, leaving the increasingly black cities to fend for themselves. A generation later, public schools that had been ordered to integrate in the 1960s and 1970s became segregated once again, this time with the blessing of a new generation of justices. And five years ago, a splintered court delivered the coup de grâce when it decreed that a school district couldn’t voluntarily opt for the most modest kind of integration — giving parents a choice of which school their children would attend and treating race as a tiebreaker in deciding which children would go to the most popular schools.

DonManuel · 3 days

"New nuclear" as in "new old nuclear"--no surprise that the first nuclear plants of the Gen III+ design are going to run into unexpected costs and problems.

More interesting would be whats happening in China--they're building more reactors than any other nation, so provided that the experience in building and manufacturing is somehow diffused to other nations and companies, we will certainly see the cost go down somewhat through this decade.

[Insert final obligatory comment about LFTRs].

luckyburns · 3 days

Nice science-fiction idea, but I can't even begin to imagine how expensive this would be. And not to mention who would pay for this--a joint venture between the US and China?

Seems like it would be way more cost-effective (and green) to put forth that money into further development of bio-fuels for aircraft and R&D for engine efficiency.

minersrevolt · 4 days

....what kind of terrible title is this?

davidreiss666 · 4 days

I agree, but also recognize that technical solutions usually depend on political-economic momentum--without funding and support, technical solutions would not come about.

davidreiss666 · 4 days

Wasn't there a speaker series sponsored by Google a while back, where one of the running themes was that the smartest people in the world were now being paid to write spam filters and figure out how to make people click on ads, rather than devising energy solutions or building space-ships? Seems to be along the lines of the thesis of this interview, that social media is killing actual innovation that Silicon Valley is famous for.

phileconomicus · 4 days

Nice read.

Although I take some grievance with his portrayal of the "solution" to climate change being mediated through a temporary suspension of democracy. I think there is an argument to be made that rather, the solution will be done through a more radical extension of democracy, past the contemporary norm of republican-parliamentary governance. The argument would run that current forms of parliamentary politics are too easily exploitable by economic elites to maintain their hegemony of industry--and subsequently, be shielded from the affects of climate change and ecological catastrophes even more so than the typical Global North consumer. Indeed, some lines of Marxist thought might even hold that climate change will create some very nice situations for the expansion of global capital and the power and profits of current economic elites, through the increasing population of displaced and desperate populations, and increased ease of access to resource-rich regions. For example, that the Arctic is now being rushed to by various nations for exploitation and oil extraction only recently possible due to the melting Arctic ice.

Thus, a better solution than some kind of eco-fascism in the name of the future would be for a more revolutionary and democratic seizure of economic and political power, such that decisions are made by those with more of a stake in the climate-change game.

ademu5 · 5 days

I hate LabView too, but its pretty darn useful for setting up complex controls systems. For example, I'm using it for controls on an experimental "nuclear test reactor" of sorts for my univeristy

mojoe1185 · 5 days

I agree--and hope that this thread encourages those who do have engaging thoughts to comment more!

mojoe1185 · 5 days

I subscribe to get links--I'm here to read, and don't feel like I have all that much to contribute to in terms of commenting on the articles or discussions.

secaa23 · 5 days

Fair enough! Which is why I wish there was a good, qualitative way to measure the performance of elite managers like Chancellors. One can hope...

secaa23 · 6 days

Or he won't, and...nothing, since there's no real system of accountability for the Regents, Presidents, and Chancellors.

secaa23 · 6 days

I left out athletics on purpose, since most of them lose the school money. Take Cal for example.

And I do too have a fairly good idea what the Chancellor and the rest of the Regents do! Most of their work is managerial work--doing the finances, hiring new people, deciding on tuition fees, constructing new buildings, that sort of stuff. You can see for yourself on their official homepage, and get even more basic information if you go to the link about the sub-committees the Board of Regents is made up of.

And now to be clear, I agree that comparing the 6% tuition hike with the hiring of a new Chancellor is silly. With the current structure of the University, a Chancellor is necessary. The reason for my scathing comment about the Chancellor and the Regents stems from a general look at the situation, one where the Regents (political appointees by the Governor, btw) are doing a worse than shoddy job of maintaining the quality of the UC. Some are even looting the investment funds and whatnot, which is partially composed of tuition fees.

secaa23 · 7 days

Keeping the financial plumbing clean and taking care of paperwork does not require somebody that needs $400k a year--a University's value and wealth is created through the professors, researchers, and graduate students, not through the administrators and management.

darohitster · 7 days

Or at least, around seven people on the r/berkeley

darohitster · 8 days

Dear God, this is the most unpopular link I've ever submitted! What gives, r/berkeley?!

Philipp · 8 days

I hope you're right. Because this kind of hysterical doom-mongering is apparently also supported by MIT researchers. Their predictions pin the date of systemic collapse at around 2030 as well, due to environmental collapse and such things.

FountainsOfWayne · 10 days

Do tell--what was your experience?

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