Ultrathread I: Thread of the Year - 2014

[sensesmaybenumbed]

The fact you live at home would have a huge impact on this.

Life on campus at uni was fantastic.

 

[Misanthrope]

The fact you live at home would have a huge impact on this.

Life on campus at uni was fantastic.

I lived on campus at Uni in Oz. It was fun. I'd need to attend a US university to be able to compare the two.

A mate of mine was there on a basketball scholarship and had a great time, but that might have had a bit to do with the sporting aspect.

 

[muzby]

Life on campus at uni was fantastic.

this.

so much this.


although SMBN did live in the shittiest, worst part...

 

[sensesmaybenumbed]

I didn't know you then, for the record.

Also, I wouldn't be throwing stones if I lived in the huts of UV.

 

[muzby]

pfft.. they called it arsescott house for a reason...

 

[Rhino_NQ]

Canada is awesome

 

[Misanthrope]

So, climate change.

Real or made up or real, but not affected by humans?

 

[RHCP]

I don't think it's made up, and even if it was, we need to be moving to renewable energy sources and trying to cut back on pollution no matter what the answer is.

 

[Misanthrope]

I don't think it's made up, and even if it was, we need to be moving to renewable energy sources and trying to cut back on pollution no matter what the answer is.

That's always been my favourite stance on it.

Our options are:

- It's real. Do something. Avoid catastrophic damage.
- It's real. Do nothing. Whoops.
- It's not real. Do something. World still slightly better off.
- It's not real. Do nothing. World continues to become more polluted and fossil fuels continue to deplete.

Seems like a no-brainer to me.

 

[RHCP]

Exactly. If it wasn't an issue in the slightest, if we had no concept of global warming, we can still only burn so much coal before it's all gone.

 

[Dragon2010]

The earth is going to change it's self slowly, regardless. Human intervention is affecting it, and we are damaging it. That's a given. We can't just live on the planet and take, take, take without giving back.

The future of renewable energy lies in solar (Given how strong radiant energy is), IMHO. But it's not as simple as a fix than just throwing a carbon tax on it, people need to initiative, go green, be conscious of the environment etc.

As my lecturer said (Something roughly along the lines of); "Mother nature will survive what happens to her, we'll be the ones that won't".

 

[Bazal]

So, climate change.

Real or made up or real, but not affected by humans?

We don't understand the mechanism, the reason, the extent, what we can do about it. Public perception is largely still based on science that has proven to be either inaccurate or outright falsified. We discovered last year that warming thus far is negligible when it was expected to be obvious. I can't see why people hate on 'deniers" with religious fervour when we've really got no idea.

I'm not a so called denier myself though. I think of myself as someone who thinks we need to understand it much better than we do, and stop treating it like a religion. Based on evidence it's just as likely to be a natural change and that's the problem...all the evidence ever presented is circumstantial.

 

[Bazal]

The earth is going to change it's self slowly, regardless. Human intervention is affecting it, and we are damaging it. That's a given. We can't just live on the planet and take, take, take without giving back.

The future of renewable energy lies in solar (Given how strong radiant energy is), IMHO. But it's not as simple as a fix than just throwing a carbon tax on it, people need to initiative, go green, be conscious of the environment etc.

As my lecturer said (Something roughly along the lines of); "Mother nature will survive what happens to her, we'll be the ones that won't".

That last line is spot on. People overestimate our own power. We can change the world, but if it doesn't like the change, it'll fix the problem. Chaos and balance

 

[afinalsin666]

I reckon it's just human arrogance at work again. We vastly overstate our importance. However, the world clearly is changing, so let's adapt to that shit, because we won't be able to affect it either way.

 

[Drew-Sta]

I think its hard to deny our pollution isn't doing something. What it is doing is the real debate.

In my mind I find the human species to be needlessly wasteful and environmentally destructive. The problem with my view is those who share my view do so in a religious way.

 

[afinalsin666]

We are Drew, but we are working our way out of that, slowly.

The problem that everyone overlooks while driving Priuses and using bio degradeable cups is that the world is on different playing fields. We had our industrial revolution, but plenty of lesser countries are still going through theirs. Now we are enlightened to the fact that we f**ked up, but nothing will change unless we stop these second world countries from going through their revolutions. That is just not going to happen.

 

[thorson1987]

Here's one to get conversation started:

If you had to be born in a culture other than your own, which would you most like to have been born in?

You can play it safe and pick another western, Anglo culture if you so desire.

Norway

If I was born into the same situation in the US as I was here than I would've been completely screwed for life so that influences my viewpoint.

Scandinavia probably for me.

Yep, if I had of been born in the US more chance my dad would have had to involved with war alot more then he was here.

Oooh, interesting. Like whall, if my family were in the same circumstances in America I'd be f**ked. Extremely f**ked. So probably Sweden. Swedish accent is the best accent.

Sweden is GAY

canadia for me..

most maple leaf rooters that i have met seem to be pretty decent people...

you seem to get the best parts of north american culture, but it almost seems to have a mix of aussie culture in there...

Canadians I have met are just like us, with a stupid accent.

I learnt not to ask where in the US they were from whilst drunk. Some get a bit offended by that.

So, climate change.

Real or made up or real, but not affected by humans?

Of course its real. Has happened ever since the Earth came to be.

I don't think it's made up, and even if it was, we need to be moving to renewable energy sources and trying to cut back on pollution no matter what the answer is.

Nuclear

The earth is going to change it's self slowly, regardless. Human intervention is affecting it, and we are damaging it. That's a given. We can't just live on the planet and take, take, take without giving back.

The future of renewable energy lies in solar (Given how strong radiant energy is), IMHO. But it's not as simple as a fix than just throwing a carbon tax on it, people need to initiative, go green, be conscious of the environment etc.

As my lecturer said (Something roughly along the lines of); "Mother nature will survive what happens to her, we'll be the ones that won't".

Solar is definitely better than wind. But We should concentrate on Nuclear energy. The Greens can go and get f**ked.

We don't understand the mechanism, the reason, the extent, what we can do about it. Public perception is largely still based on science that has proven to be either inaccurate or outright falsified. We discovered last year that warming thus far is negligible when it was expected to be obvious. I can't see why people hate on 'deniers" with religious fervour when we've really got no idea.

I'm not a so called denier myself though. I think of myself as someone who thinks we need to understand it much better than we do, and stop treating it like a religion. Based on evidence it's just as likely to be a natural change and that's the problem...all the evidence ever presented is circumstantial.

Agreed

 

[Jason Maher]

I like to deliberately annoy Canadians by asking them which state they are from.

 

[Rhino_NQ]

one of these days im going to here about a tidal power plant being built in one of the 3 areas I picked in a feasibility study I spend 18 months doing back when I was an undergrad working for PB. I started off in the power team and worked on renewable energy projects. I know for a fact that taxes and building massive 500MW Plants of solar/wind out in the sticks wont make a difference. It is the hundreds of thousands of smaller efforts by individuals or businesses that as a collective will make a difference with the big projects thrown in on top.

Although solar is the most well known and for a good chunk of this country the most strongest and readily available source one thing that gets overlooked is what we as beasts create ourselves...shit. I had a hand in working out how much of the surrounding suburbs could be powered as well as the place itself soley on the amount of shit that is plonked out each animal in Taronga zoo. The results were pretty surprising. Many European zoos have taken this initiative as well as poultry farmers to a point that during transportation of cattle they are actually equipped with diapers to be emptied at the other end with the resulting energy supplied covering the fuel costs of the vehicle to carry them the several hundred miles.

Many other ideas that a feasible but sound crazy but the one thing I did notice is that all these awesome initiatives and ground breaking technology trials and projects are being done everywhere else in the world except here.

 

[Red Bear]

I think its hard to deny our pollution isn't doing something. What it is doing is the real debate.

In my mind I find the human species to be needlessly wasteful and environmentally destructive. The problem with my view is those who share my view do so in a religious way.

It comes with the dominant thought processes - that is the focus on a neo-liberal market system that classes environmental concerns as externalities and only values resources for the money they can generate. It's taken to new levels with a government that seems to cherry pick what 'sustainable development' is to suit them - see the releases on coming into power from Greg Hunt which just focuses on the economic aspects, rather than the social and ecological components that make up sustainable development.

What annoys me most though is just how pissy the current government is regarding alternatives to coal. Coal and other fossil fuels won't disappear completely till they run out, but there are feasible, renewable options out there. Yet this current government is not just supportive of coal, it's actively discouraging these alternatives, through funding cuts to the CSIRO and attempts to dismantle the CEFC and other renewable energy targets. We're completely out of step with the rest of the world on this, given the efforts in both Europe and the States and even places like China trying to do something about their pollution.

Meanwhile, despite going on about ending subsidies to renewables and such, we have our Prime Minister banging on about how we have too much locked up forest in Tasmania. This after a deal was painstakingly struck between relevant stakeholders (forestry, environmentalists etc) that enabled a sustainable forestry industry, suddenly they want to just f**k that off. Yet this is a forestry industry that has been heavily subsidised, and whose issue is not that there is not enough forest to chop down, it's that there is not enough demand for their products because what people want in timber - ethically sourced, not old growth forest etc, has shifted.

This thought that we can just plow away without negative consequences is madness IMO.