tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post1740137152820575593..comments2024-03-24T11:01:27.668-04:00Comments on Resource Insights: Climate change, water and the infrastructure problemKurt Cobbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05330759091950742285noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-44689417925429815872018-09-04T13:44:41.325-04:002018-09-04T13:44:41.325-04:00"The Expanse", while being one of the ve..."The Expanse", while being one of the very, very few US/Canadian sci-fi shows that even just take climate change into consideration when making a prediction of the future, clearly isn't interested in dealing with the topic in any depth. We see an arctic ice shelf melting and the Statue of Liberty being rebuilt on a higher platform in every episode intro, but that's about it as far as acknowledgement of climate change goes. Even the massive overpopulation of Earth (30 billion) is only rarely mentioned, and the books the show was based on don't even show that the vast majority of the Earth's people live in cramped, slum-like squalor. The books just say that reproduction is regulated / taxed and that most people live off of the equivalent of food stamps because there just isn't work for many of them. The books' and show's writers have a socially important message to tell, but it's primarily about the brutal exploitation of the people working in ressource-mining colonies in the asteroid belt (much like "third world" countries today), which is largely the result of leaving space colonization to capitalist companies.<br /><br />A sci-fi show that actually dealt with climate change head-on, resulting in a scarily realistic vision of the US in 2075, was last year's "Incorporated". (The first episode mentions that New York had to be abandoned just like various island nations. The show is set in Milwaukee, which now seems to have a hot and arid climate, at least outside the still well-watered, climate-controlled, walled "green zones" where the middle and upper classes live.) Plus, that show was even more bitingly anti-capitalist by showing what life would be like for most people if governmental structures (like FEMA or police) were to be overwhelmed by the flow of internal refugees and mega-corporations got even more free reign to price gouge and exploit working-class people desperate for a steady income. Of course, the North American public didn't want to see a realistic version of their society's collapse (as opposed to all those comfortably impossible apocalypse scenarios caused by aliens or zombies) and the advertisers probably didn't like the much more in-your-face anti-corporate message than in "The Expanse", so "Incorporated" was quickly cancelled after the first short season.Vivinoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-5423858578308341302018-09-03T10:36:43.409-04:002018-09-03T10:36:43.409-04:00Michael, thanks for the assist on the link. I'...Michael, thanks for the assist on the link. I've now updated it.Kurt Cobbhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05330759091950742285noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-26098960613523401572018-09-03T08:06:21.556-04:002018-09-03T08:06:21.556-04:00Just a small point. The American Society of Civil...Just a small point. The American Society of Civil Engineers is hardly an independent un-conflicted party to the infrastructure situation. I am a civil engineer and these "report cards" are an embarrassment to the profession, as they are superficial and self serving. The society is lobbying for more public spending for the enrichment of its members.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-36960011697966907152018-09-03T07:50:54.087-04:002018-09-03T07:50:54.087-04:00The Achilles heel of modern civilization is its co...The Achilles heel of modern civilization is its complexity. Take a megacity like New York City. Practically all of its varied infrastructure from sewage and storm drains, electrical wires, internet cables, gas pipelines, old telephone lines, etc. are buried under the streets and are subject to the corrosive effects of ground water penetration. Over time all of this infrastructure which makes city life possible will fail if it is not periodically replaced. The predicament we're in is that all of this infrastructure is presently serviced by fossil fuel driven machinery and when fossil fuels go into terminal decline who will do the work to maintain all this infrastructure? Will millions of people have to dig up the streets by hand? Will there be a functioning economy to replace all this hardware? Very unlikely. As I see it, there is no workaround to this predicament. september 16https://www.blogger.com/profile/15706057903915423554noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-46258751092198073282018-09-02T17:20:48.940-04:002018-09-02T17:20:48.940-04:00As long as we are prisoners of a credit/debit-base...As long as we are prisoners of a credit/debit-based monetary system that requires infinite growth to avoid collapse, I think we are fubar. Infinite growth on a finite planet, what (else) could possibly go wrong?Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01817300209906244470noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-52633055425926893082018-09-02T14:32:54.185-04:002018-09-02T14:32:54.185-04:00Kurt, here's a better link for the Bloomberg &...Kurt, here's a better link for the Bloomberg "Miami water problems" article than the one you used:<br /><br />https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-08-29/miami-s-other-water-problem<br /><br />Great article!<br /><br />~ MichaelMichael Dowdhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16915893031346978453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-91280226425958672802018-09-02T13:08:59.955-04:002018-09-02T13:08:59.955-04:00Why limit the conversation to saving all of civili...Why limit the conversation to saving all of civilization? This is a no-win situation. Many cities like Miami and New Orleans are built where they should not be. The same goes for Las Vegas. Despite our very best efforts, we're not going to win the climate war.<br /><br />The entire discussion about climate change adaption continues to revolve around saving all of civilization, which is utterly ridiculous. It also presupposes capitalism as the solution when it was the cause. All of the elements that created a climate on steroids need to be abandoned. That is the conversation that should be undertaken.<br /><br />We do not need more power, more infrastructure, more people, more money, more resources, we need less of all of these things. And we need to evolve our civilization to using less, abandon the ideas of saving the present civilization because we cannot - and because we should not. Why keep repeating the same mistakes of the past?<br /><br />Human civilization must adapt if we are to survive at all, of which there is serious doubt, a 4C temperature increase destroys all food crops - and water supplies will either be far too much in the form of deluge and flooding, or far too little, in the form of extreme drought. The idea that we can maintain the same infrastructure, resource usage and population in a non-stable climate is absurd. We must adapt everything we've come to accept. <br /><br />Even "cities" are obsolete in the new world. They are not self-sustaining and require massive energy and resource inputs - and have enormous carbon footprints (by industry, business, per capita, at all levels).<br /><br />Start thinking of climate change as "forced evolution" at break-neck speed and apply this to civilization. If humans survive, it won't be because we held onto old concepts and ideas. We will be forced to radically re-engineer everything. ~Survival Acres~Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-4012356085730958942018-09-02T11:56:19.748-04:002018-09-02T11:56:19.748-04:00System complexity is both easy to overlook and dif...System complexity is both easy to overlook and difficult to understand.<br /><br />In last week’s post you discussed plans to protect the Gulf Coast refineries with a sea wall. But, as I mentioned in my comment, a refinery is not a stand-alone entity. It is part of an enormously complex system involving hundreds of other companies, utilities and workers of all types. If they try to protect those large facilities they will be tripped up by some part of the system that was not protected and that maybe no one even knew existed.<br /><br />It puts one in mind of John Donne’s,<br /><br />“No man is an island, entire of itself; . . . therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.”<br /><br />Regarding Miami, have you seen the new term ‘Climate gentrification’? CNBC ran a story on August 29th showing how property on higher ground toward the center of the city is appreciating much faster than coastal property. The report is based on a Harvard study.ChemEnghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05168251215012150114noreply@blogger.com