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Fluffeh writes:
"For a few years the National Research Council, National Science Teachers Association, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science have been working to put together a set of standards for teaching science in public education schools. So far, nine states and the District of Columbia have adopted the standards. Wyoming doesn't appear to have issues with evolution. Instead, climate science appears to be the problem. That's not because any of the legislators have actually studied the science involved and found it lacking. The issue appears to be solely with the implications of the science.
State Representative Matt Teeters had this to say '[The standards] handle global warming as settled science. There's all kind of social implications involved in that that I don't think would be good for Wyoming.' Specifically, Teeters seems to think that having citizens of the state accept climate science would 'wreck Wyoming's economy,' which relies heavily on fossil fuel production."
(Score: 3, Informative) by bucc5062 on Monday March 17 2014, @01:08PM
You got me curious so I walked about the 'net a little and discovered that you are basically correct. [workforcewv.org] only 4.4% of non-farm labor goes to mining and logging. Kind of changes the perspective when you see that kind of number compared to the largest employer in WV, the government (20/1%). However, the Mining/logging numbers did increase from 2000 to 2012 so is that revitalizing the industry, or just minor fluctuations.
If does call into question that idea that WV is a mining state. Wyoming has a stronger mining percentage at 27.6% in 2012 and that has been a growing percentage. In one way I can then see that WY would not like to negatively impact it's mining industry for it is jobs. What is odd, when people connect global warming with "taking my wallet"? Is it just not another business opportunity? Seems to me that entrepreneurs have gotten lazy in this century, or are such greedy fucks that they get in their own way. There was a time when people took risks, spent money to get in on the next best thing. Now I just watch industry "captains" grip the wheel of their sinking ship even tighter and keep believing the all will remain the same.
Life is change. Now is the time to invest in solar, wind or other renewable energies. Now is the time to invest in changing how we transport ourselves and our goods. Now is the time for now it is still new and the market is wide. Instead, if I can't make double digit profit, if I can't increase my value by another billion in a year, it is not worth it.
I think if I had 1 billion dollars I have more fun spending it all trying to finding new, better ways to do things then playing Scrooge McDuck and go swimming in my bank vault of gold.
The more things change, the more they look the same
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday March 17 2014, @01:57PM
"discovered that you are basically correct."
I should point out that my post does not accurately reflect my dating game, even a long time ago, although all the generically discussed trends came from hanging out and talking. So yeah, WV is the chemical plant state not the coal state, and the best and brightest, like her, go out of state, get that chem eng degree like we both wanted (at that time), come home and work at the alpha employer for like six times median household income. If not more. About of third of grunts work in mining or related, about two thirds work in logging or related.
The "taking the wallet" thing is because of confusion. One side wants the wallet and cheaply and disrespectfully uses science as a distractor (look over there, not at the hand grabbing your wallet). They don't care at all about the science in and of itself other than as a convenient distractor. The other side is pissed off about the whole "wallet thief" thing, so when they say they don't care about the science (which is only being used as a distractor) the thieves go all PR rep on them about how culturally we all worship at the altar of STEM as a magic source of jobs and how can you disrespect science like that and BTW ignore this hand reaching for your wallet while we're talking about how we all worship science.
Neither side cares about the science, one side uses it as a distractor to commit a theft, and the other side gets pissed off about someone trying to distract them so as to better rob them.
The actual science of it, of course, is true, or as true as any reasonably non-controversial scientific theory can be. The totally separate question of if its a great idea to use it to help steal money, or even if it really matters in the long scale geologic picture, are two totally different topics. Or another great question is if its morally acceptable to troll people trying to steal from you. I don't do it but I admit to laughing out loud at some of it.
Personally I am pretty sure climate change is real, because the climate certainly never has been constant before, so expecting it to be constant in the future would be pretty dumb, and I'm also pretty sure on the big picture it is just noise that doesn't matter that we have little control over, and eventually the thieves will find a new FUD PR campaign to pick our pockets with anyway, so just be patient till the noise dies down.
In the long run, non-renewable costs have been so heavily optimized they are horizontal to increasing as we burn the cheap stuff up, and renewable seems on an inevitable long term collapse in price, so it seems like a pretty dumb idea to build a coal plant today instead of a solar plant, much less after another decade of coal prices going up and solar prices going down.
Also most of what we can economically burn, has been burnt, so there seems little point in worrying about it. Like it or not, we're going to stop soon enough, and there's not must we can do about the past.