What do you think of climate change?

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an MIT article item caught my eye because it outlines how AI is able to spread fake news (like about the climate change issue)
A college kid’s fake, AI-generated blog fooled tens of thousands. This is how he made it.

…The trick to generating content without the need for much editing was understanding GPT-3’s strengths and weaknesses. “It’s quite good at making pretty language, and it’s not very good at being logical and rational,”

A college kid created a fake, AI-generated blog. It reached #1 on Hacker News. | MIT Technology Review
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also recalled another recent posts WRT Laudato Si
harshcshah said:
It seems to me that Pope Francis in Laudato Si intends to convey a metaphorical and not literal understanding of the earth as a “sister” and a “mother”, therefore “reverence” for creation should only extend as far as we have been given, by God, dominion over creation and the responsibility to be stewards of it.
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truth is, technology exists that is able to quickly AND easily sow misinformtion which leads to social discontent sadly because far too many cannot think critically, lack basic understanding of science


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and to various degrees, far too many have unaddressed psychological disorders (whereby it is difficult to separate fact from fiction)

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science is a search for the truth (of cause and effect of phenomenon found in nature)

at university learned math which is the common language of science AND is very useful because when trying to describe a phenomenon like the path of an apple falling from a tree, its useful to tell the truth from a lie

having gone to catholic schools before going to a public university to study physics, I also know people people of faith have something also called the “truth” BUT for example the aramaic language (which was used at the time of jesus) is kinda under political attack, by some who favor the hebrew language


point being, when discussing the truth (in a religious context) there always is going to be some political bias

to understand what I am thinking ponder Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address, where he mentions ideas from the bible WRT the civil war
…Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces but let us judge not that we be not judged.

Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address - Lincoln Memorial (U.S. National Park Service)
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since I stared this thread over a year ago, started using pictures to try and convey basic ideas associate w/ climate change

fact of the matter is most american’s don’t have the formal science background necessary to grasp why scientists have come to the consensus that mankind is indeed causing global climate change (and see risk)

sure there are pretty well know scientists who say global warming is a religion


but watching this video (as just another knucklehead) noticed no scientific proof is offered,… this would be akin to asking a podiatrist (i.e. a foot doctor) to give their expert opinion about covid-19 which is a virus (so here ya need to listen to what virologist and an infectious disease specialist have to say about the matter)

given the global pandemic that is having an effect on organized society, sadly there are consequences (whether or not people actually believe the virus exists AND/OR actually understand the science)

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also started using pictures because its a way to convey a complex idea such as relative risk

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FWIW the reason I included the trump crying wolf image, is because reading various financial news reports, TRUMP has a history of failed business ventures AND I hope the USA does not end up like TRUMP airlines, various TRUMP casinos, etc. (in other words bankrupt)

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sadly this too is also a BIG problem, fortunately many catholics are working on that issue, so I concentrate on problems like climate change because sadly too few actually understand the subject

there was a study done in my home town about how much people actually understand the issue (sadly the answer was essentially none)
Why Doesn’t Everyone Believe Humans Are Causing Climate Change?

…Climate illiteracy isn’t just limited to the general public, either. Ranney recalls a scientist’s

presentation at a recent conference which said that many university professors teaching global warming barely had a better understanding of its mechanism than the undergraduates they were teaching. “Even one of the most highly-cited climate change communicators in the world didn’t know the mechanism over dinner,” he says.

…When Ranney surveyed 270 visitors to a San Diego park on how global warming works, he found that exactly zero could provide the proper mechanism.

Why Some Don't Believe Humans Cause Climate Change | NOVA | PBS | NOVA | PBS www.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/tops.12187
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as a catholic had high hopes, Laudato Si would inspire people to ponder the environmental issue

unfortunately people all too often take the easy path fall back up identity politics and do not take the time and effort to consider the various costs using science

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FYI all the money in the world IMHO can’t provide a basic need that creation provides,… IOW consider for a moment where we get clean air to breath (hint it isn’t made in some man made factory)

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truthfully have not been following the issue too closely, sure I read stuff on the topic (like what the pope has to say on the issue AND for the most part I fully agree w/ the sentiments expressed)


to give ya an idea of my own mindset, another hot-button issue is #BLM and here too I don’t follow the issue too closely,… same thing applies to the topic of gender equality or gay rights, I don’t actively follow the topic nor am I too interested in the drama of the issue (one thing I did read that I the pope said AND I fully agree w/ is his comment,… who am I to judge)


being a science geek I mostly care about how efficiently is something being run and is the person doing a good job being truthful and not running things into the ground (basically I fall back on math telling me is something kosher or not)
 
phaster said:
no scientific proof is offered,
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I suppose so. But yesterday and today the temperature hit 110 degrees and at the same time the electric company announced rolling blackouts because the grid could not handle the power required to drive the air conditioning. Further the safety locations providing shelter from the excessive heat have shut down and closed their doors because of the Corona Virus pandemic.
 
AlNg said:
But yesterday and today the temperature hit 110 degrees and at the same time the electric company announced rolling blackouts because the grid could not handle the power required to drive the air conditioning.
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This is one response to those who ask why not go green? What’s the harm?
 
sigh,… seems your litmus test for being “catholic” is the abortion issue

sadly the abortion debate being used as a wedge political issue that is being pushed by religious right militants trying to influence a presidential election
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Is Church Militant Schismatic? Popular Media
Hi everyone! I’m a college student at a Catholic college. But the college I go to is not always trustworthy. A Catholic professor of mine told me that Church Militant media is schismatic. I don’t like them and don’t follow them anyway (I used to but I got sick of all the anger). I just wanted to know if they are schismatic or if they’re okay to watch?
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The Real Origins of the Religious Right

They’ll tell you it was abortion. Sorry, the historical record’s clear: It was segregation.

Some of these anti- Roe crusaders even went so far as to call themselves “new abolitionists,” invoking their antebellum predecessors who had fought to eradicate slavery.

But the abortion myth quickly collapses under historical scrutiny. In fact, it wasn’t until 1979—a full six years after Roe—that evangelical leaders, at the behest of conservative activist Paul Weyrich, seized on abortion not for moral reasons, but as a rallying-cry to deny President Jimmy Carter a second term. Why? Because the anti-abortion crusade was more palatable than the religious right’s real motive: protecting segregated schools. So much for the new abolitionism.

The Real Origins of the Religious Right - POLITICO Magazine
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and FWIW this news article was not done by some left wing rag


another item worth considering is the effect religious right militants having on church attendance


having been an alter boy, gone to catholic schools, familiar w/ the bible, etc., as I’ve mentioned I pretty much agree w/ the view of the pope (who believes in forgiveness)

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just as w/ the climate change issue, one can have the facts but human nature being what it is, all too often people believe what they find comforting (even if it is a lie)

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record-breaking heat wave in the south-western USA


then there is the death valley record temp


as for the old death valley record, pretty sure that was inaccurate because old instruments were not shielded (so measurements were inaccurate)


…given the pandemic and less traffic, this is a likely contributing factor to the record heat wave (which is something I mentioned I had a gut feeling about earlier in this thread)
phaster said:
the fact that is much less man made pollution (not just in LA but also around the world) can be used to test a scientific hypothesis related to climate change

basically a lingering smog layer along w/ jet contrails act as heat trapping insulators at night, so given the clear skies which is a result of the pandemic we should expect to see a yuge “delta” between daytime and nighttime temperatures (which will confirm that global dimming is masking the global warming effects of CO2)
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it’s been over a year now since I started this thread and fact of the matter is people don’t understand the basic reason why climate change happens AND ignoring the problem isn’t going to make it go away

the harsh reality is things are not going to magically fix themselves!

basically what exists is a chicken or egg problem,… in other words teachers don’t teach what causes climate change because it requires an understanding of various branches of science,… harsh reality is most don’t understand SCIENCE and MATH (AND this fact is reflected by various surveys and formal studies)



so FWIW thought I’d try once again using info graphics to give people not familiar with the science of the greenhouse effect, a basic mental image to focus on (so that when people learn the details they have context)

i’ve outlined the basic science in a PDF (“Awareness is high, understanding isn’t”.pdf) and placed it in google docs,…

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since the google doc path isn’t easy to remember, I’ve also created a “redirect”

http://www.tinyurl.com/AwarenessIsHigh
 
Thanks for posting. I’ve found your posts in this thread interesting and informative.

What do you think is the solution? A type of Green new deal?
 
I think faith will play an important role in addressing climate change,… specifically teachings from faith is a way to evaluate the cost of material goods

as a kid remember my parents and Fr Doug, etc., preaching that material goods don’t really matter if you want to make it to heaven, then there was also the parable of the talents

my mom use to volunteer her medical services and supplies for those on the other side of the tracks so to speak, so by that exposure and that of my aunt who also set up a medical clinic in a pretty impoverished area, realized long ago for the grace of god go I,… things can get to be pretty bad

basically long story short grew up not really caring about keeping up the the jones (i.e. buying all kinds of unneeded stuff)


sadly all too often people define themselves by the “brand” clothing or the car they drive,… as I see things in practical terms blindly buying name brand clothing, vehicles, etc., is akin to an idiot being hustled for their hard earned money,… growing up in the catholic tradition, it was suggested to me by my parents that buying into name brands was kinda akin to wanting the to buy “the mark of the beast”

in a consumer culture its all too easy to get into a financial hell on earth, buying unneeded stuff on credit, and become a “wage slave”

the reason I mention how I grew up and being taught not really caring about keeping up appearances actually has an environmental impact, in that relative to my wealth I have a very small low environmental footprint




bottom line to survive the climate change mess, the public at large is going to have to learn the difference between a “want” and a “need” and as I have tried to point out, there are lessons to be learned from the bible

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phaster said:
then there is the death valley record temp

Death Valley’s Furnace Creek recorded its highest temperature in 107 years on Sunday, potentially breaking the nation’s record for the highest temperature the Southern California desert region previously set in 1913

as for the old death valley record, pretty sure that was inaccurate because old instruments were not shielded (so measurements were inaccurate)
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This temperature is the hottest since 1913, but since that’s an inconvenient date for a high temperature record, we should ignore it. We can make believe, based on nothing at all, that the old instruments were simply stuck out in the open because, you know, people really didn’t understand how thermometers worked back then.

I’m sure there is a difference between the measurement stations then and now. I’m also pretty confident that the difference would not lead to a 4 degree inaccuracy. The old record - which, actually, is still the current record - is 134 degrees. Given that CO2 levels were over 40% lower back then it is no wonder that this record is being “cancelled”.

It really is a wonder that anyone cares given that it is the unique physical characteristics of the valley that makes it so hot. Basically, it is an entirely local phenomenon, and in no way reflects the global temperature. Whatever that may be.
 
sigh,… the news reports of high temps in Death Valley are part of a larger pattern of a mega drought in the South Western USA

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simple fact of the matter is the basic science of climate change has been pretty well understood for a pretty long time (according to published papers)


and the concept of a mega drought in the South Western USA is something I’ve been aware of since the early 1990’s

sad fact of the matter is, what causes climate change isn’t understood by the public at large AND
…some teachers, with good intentions, teach climate change in three inappropriate ways. One approach is to teach both the scientific perspective on climate change and the skeptics’ perspective on climate change. But doing so suggests there is not a scientific consensus on the cause of climate change, and it gives credibility to perspectives that are not supported by the scientific community and climate data. A second approach is to encourage students to come to their own conclusion about the cause of global warming and climate change. And the third approach is to engage students in debating climate change. These approaches promote doubt and denial about climate change and suggest that it is a scientific controversy, which it is not. They also contradict the scientific community and the climate data and give credibility to science skeptics and their nonscientific data.

Teaching Climate Change | American Federation of Teachers
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as it stands idiotic debate is overshadowing the basic science AND the fact that we only have one planet

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www.ThereIsNoPlanet-B.org

www.ThereIsNoPlanet-B.org
 
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Theo520 said:
Los Angeles wasted $ten million on a fleet of electric-powered police cars, never used them, and now is dumping them at less than half their original price.
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A less biased report on these vehicles can be found here:

  • The vehicles were never purchased. They were leased, and the city decided not to renew the lease.
  • The vehicles were used, but not nearly enough to justify having them. They had only a few thousand miles on them. But it is wrong to say they were never used.
  • The vehicles failed, not because they were electric, but because the intended used scenarios - community outreach - just didn’t materialize to the level they had projected. Therefore this story is not even tangentially related to climate change.
 
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LeafByNiggle said:
A less biased report on these vehicles can be found here:
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Not really, even your source cited the below reference, they weren’t used for the purpose intended.
But our investigation of department records found some electric cars are sitting unused with only a few hundred miles on them, and with hidden cameras, we found others are allegedly being misused.
Goldstein Investigation: LAPD Electric BMWs Appear Unused Or Misused – CBS Los Angeles
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I say it a “less biased” report because it not contain such verbiage as:

“This is typical of momentary, leftist, hooplah programs. Oh, its a big celebration when a city or state goes all-in on some foolish left-wing idea. They spend millions on it and everyone nods their head saying what a wonderful thing it all is. Then, when they think no one is looking, they shutter the whole thing they wasted millions of tax dollars on because it was always a childish boondoggle from word go.”
 
phaster said:
sigh,… the news reports of high temps in Death Valley are part of a larger pattern of a mega drought in the South Western USA
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“News reports”? Well that figures given the history the news has in hyping global warming. The science, however, suggests otherwise.

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So yes, as you said: fake news.
 
It is hard to tell because of the scaling of the graph, but I think the slope of that short spike at the end is higher than any other slope in that 1200 year graph.
 
Ender said:
“News reports”? Well that figures given the history the news has in hyping global warming. The science, however, suggests otherwise.

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So yes, as you said: fake news.
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the stable genius graced us yet again with pearls of wisdom

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sigh FWIW seems TRUMP missed,…
…with California experiencing longer and more ferocious fire seasons. The five largest fires in the state’s recorded history (since 1932) have occurred in the past three years.

In a 2015 report, the U.S. Forest Service said climate change has brought fire seasons that are now on average 78 days longer than they were in 1970. It said the agency spent more than 50 percent of its budget on wildfires, up from 16 percent in 1995.

By 2025, the report said, “two out of every three dollars the Forest Service gets from Congress as part of its appropriated budget will be spent on fire programs.”

https://drive.google.com/file/d/15VvkrBymKsYhVcRkCvbyW_DemD8xO80k/view
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