A story notes that
[...] according to a new U.S. Army report, Americans could face a horrifically grim future from climate change involving blackouts, disease, thirst, starvation and war. The study found that the US military itself might also collapse. This could all happen over the next two decades, the report notes.
[...] The report paints a frightening portrait of a country falling apart over the next 20 years due to the impacts of climate change on "natural systems such as oceans, lakes, rivers, ground water, reefs, and forests.
Current infrastructure in the US, the report says, is woefully underprepared: "Most of the critical infrastructures identified by the Department of Homeland Security are not built to withstand these altered conditions."
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 28 2019, @12:47AM (6 children)
who said anything about climate?
My comments were about conservation and the flip side of energy availability, maybe I should have stated it better. Unless we (globally) really invest now in renewables (and/or fusion) while there are still cheap fossil fuels available to build stuff, western society is going to suffer badly when energy isn't dirt cheap the way it has been for the last ~100 years or so. Just imagine the cost of steel and concrete (both very energy intensive products) going up by a factor of 10. That's going to put a real damper on any economy.
I'm always reminded of Bucky Fuller's energy slaves. If you live in a western economy, you have the energy equivalent of dozens of slaves working for you. And many more when you step on the gas of your 200+ hp car. Yet you hardly notice the cost of your heating, electric and gasoline purchase. Thus the common statement that even many of the poorest people in the USA live better than the kings of antiquity, at least for now.
Or maybe you think that fracking will be followed by some sort of super-fracking that can extract another big increment of fossil fuel and move the inevitable off? Maybe it will be pushed out far enough that it's your grand kids that will face an energy-poor future?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday October 28 2019, @11:08AM (5 children)
We checked that box off over the past forty years and we still have cheap fossil fuels. What's mysterious about attitudes like yours is why you ignore over a century of technology and infrastructure development? Solar, wind, and hydro development happened. The "now" of your above sentence happened. And our "energy-poor" future will involve harvesting the vast energy output of the Sun, which is pretty damn cheap on its own.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 28 2019, @12:37PM
> Solar, wind, and hydro development happened.
A good start is being made now (finally) on the electric production side, but energy storage is still lacking (except for hydro where a few good sites like Niagara Falls hydro include a storage lake that is filled and emptied daily).
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 28 2019, @04:18PM (3 children)
Oh fuck you Mr. Pipeline defender, champion of corporate greed. The hard won gains WE have made are IN SPITE OF people like you. So don't go trying to take advantage of a better reality now like you aren't one of the people that try hardest to block it.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday October 29 2019, @02:21AM (2 children)
"Hard won gains" like shitty appliances, and expensive electricity and gas? I think you need to read the definition of "gain".
Sorry, I'm not an idiot. When you actually do come up with a better reality, even if by accident, I'll be all over it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 29 2019, @02:10PM (1 child)
You must've gotten cancer from the wind turbines.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday October 30 2019, @01:21AM
It couldn't be that you have nothing to say, right?