2 Likes
Well why would they? Itās clearly caused by gays or windmills or something.
5 Likes
Gay windmill owners have a fucking lot to answer for
2 Likes
Just read that different countries, among them Norway (!) have allowed deep sea mining for commercial purposes. From 2025 on, if there isnāt a strong movement against that, under-sea robots will start destroying the basis of life of countless species we havenāt even fully discovered yet, at a depth of 4-6 km under sea level.
We still donāt know what the impact of deep-sea mining is, and yet, some companies have already received the green light to go ahead. I wonder what our resident Norwegian @magnus thinks of that. The other greedy countries are Russia, China, Mexico, and a few others are hesitating. I think that itās scandalous, and hope that there will be massive resistance against this new way to make quick bucks. Otherwise, even the deepest levels of the oceans might be destroyed within our lifetime. Countless species we donāt even know. Itās absolute madness.
Look at the video in the wwf article. In the last few years, there have been fascinating discoveries, and itās far from finished.
2 Likes
The impact is that <1% will make loads of money, while the other >99% will be fucked.
But thatās all good, because neoliberal indoctrination says it is.
1 Like
Seen this an hour ago.
I will get back to you, but I am in no position to answer tonight. But Iāll try to formulate some thoughts tomorrow.
Just a heads up so you donāt think I am ignoring you 
1 Like
Well thatās screwed it. Trump has nominated a person to the EPA whoās principles go against the very title of his job.
4 Likes
One of the many disastrous consequences of the election debacle.
4 Likes
People knew what they were voting for.
2 Likes
Yeah i could have posted it in the US election, or politics, or trump thread but felt it was more pertinent here.
Ultimately, people in the US only cared about the price of petrol. Any candidate that promises that will win votes.
Ultimately, the only way the US decarbonises itself is by some miracle technology that breaks the grip of oil (unlikely) , or by stealth (impossible). The general public dont care and campaigning on a green manifesto gets you nowhere.
2 Likes
Yep. My friend at EPA is cleaning out his office of personal items, as he expects that he will be walked out of the building sometime very shortly after Zeldin takes over as interim Administrator pending confirmation.
7 Likes
Maybe they could take some non personal items too? Trump did
3 Likes
I suspect they donāt have quite as cool stuff to steal at EPA Regional headquarters.
From the sounds of it, a lot of the employees are already heading for the exits, even ones not really senior enough to expect the ax. The first Trump EPA was too chaotic to efficiently clear out the organization, the first two years under Pruitt were paralyzed and Wheeler spent much of his time cleaning up after Pruitt. It was nonetheless a demoralizing place to be, and all the signs point to the fact that there will be far more focus this time out.
5 Likes
Interesting reading this from a couple of perspectives. Firstly in the UK there are employment regs that kind of prevent clearouts like this. So its unfamiliar territory to me. Generally even directors get more leeway in a takeover etc.
Then Iām wondering what a US without any level of Environmental Protection looks like but iām not familiar with their scope of work. I suspect that building up the US automobile industry is not one of them (quote from Zeldin).
Then lastly, I wonder what chemtrail theorists will say now?
1 Like
There is in the US as well. Only a small number of Federal government positions are political hires making them subject to the will of the president. The rest are regular employees with the same sort of worker protections as anyone else. During Trump first term they fucked around a LOT trying to find way to remove these career professionals. A common tactic was to do large scale reorganizations requiring people moved to different geographical offices (no relocation assistance provided) and unwillingness to comply would be viewed as a notice of resignation. By the end of their time in office they had stumbled upon a strategy referred to as Schedule F, that essentially reclassifies the entire civil servant rank of government into a category that can be removed without cause. They stumbled upon it too late so it was untested in the courts so it was an open question on whether it would have worked for them.
But the courts have now signaled willingness to comply with whatever he asks for, and solving this problem was the primary reason Project 2025 was undertaken. It includes step by step plans to remove large sections of government who theoretically should not be threatened by a change to the administration. Very few people have any expectation of it being effectively challenged, which is why these civil servants are all preparing for an exit.
History tells us that state regulations have some protective effect over a lax federal government. For instance, CA has stricter regulations on car emmission than the Feds do. CA is such a big market that US manufacturers cannot ignore it, and once they have to manufacture to CA standards it doesnt make sense to have a separate run producing a different set of cars to the lower Fed standards. So in some cases CA and NY can act to work on a national level even in the absence of strong federal regulation. But that is mainly related to products. It doesnt apply to process and where state regs on processes are stricter than federalā¦companies can just move out of state to a Texas
4 Likes
To add to @Limiescouse 's comments, there is an important difference between the US system and the Westminster style. In our systems, the permanent secretaries/deputy ministers are career civil servants expected to serve what government has been elected. That frays around the edges, but largely holds true. By contrast, the US system is far more political. The corresponding deputy secretary positions, assistant secretaries, and the undersecretaries positions are appointed by the President and subject to Senate confirmation. For most of those, the deputy undersecretaries are also subject to that process. Beyond that, in some departments the next two tiers are also presidential appointments, just not subject to Senate confirmation.
The effect is that for climate policy in the UK, the political is in Cabinet, DEFRA is supposed to be apolitical. In the US, the first 3 tiers are Presidential appointments, at least the next one down are nominally Presidential but de facto made by the first 3 tiers. As such, career EPA employees either become political or are somewhat capped.
5 Likes
The host country of the climate conference is pushing for fossil fuel deals under the table. Biden, Xi, Macron, Modi and Von der Leyer did not even bother to attend.
They might as well be done with the whole charade.
4 Likes
Canāt off the top of my head think of anything other than hydrocarbons that Azerbaijan has to offer
Chess players. Lots of 'em
1 Like