[Biosphere Collapse] 420 days of blazin' it

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > C-SPAM > [Biosphere Collapse] 420 days of blazin' it

(Thread IKs: Stereotype)

Maed: Aug 23, 2006

if every intelligent civilization isn�t inherently doomed to kill themselves off, why are there no aliens? checkmate zodium

# ¿ Apr 15, 2023 16:43

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 11, 2024 19:46

Maed: Aug 23, 2006

Brendan Rodgers posted:

The Milky Way has had the elements necessary for life for billions of years. You don't need FTL to colonise a galaxy if you have billions of years.

which leads to my conclusion that all civilizations destroy themselves before perfecting space flight because that is much much much more likely than life not evolving anywhere else in the galaxy

# ¿ Apr 26, 2023 17:58

Maed: Aug 23, 2006

Trabisnikof posted:

and this is another problem trains can't fix.

if we replace cars with trains 1 to 1, we'd still need acres of parking lots for trains at the stores, railroads to everyone's homes, mainlines with 4x tracks in each direction. replacing cars with trains doesn't stop suburban sprawl or separation of uses with only railroads to connect them.

uhh street cars, bikes, and walking exist. you have the worst takes in the thread

# ¿ May 12, 2023 19:53

Maed: Aug 23, 2006

SniperWoreConverse posted:

Wasn't "God's forest" a huge stretch of holy cedars that went from the Mediterranean to Euphrates and was entirely hosed up by human climate modification at the dawn of writing?

& now the last relict population is in Lebanon and is extremely endangered

And back then there were lions and ostriches and all kinds of wildlife just hanging out

And our ancestors basically wrecked the whole thing millenia before any of us were born

Also the sumerians invented number and compound interest

Lol

sometimes I try to come up with a list of top 5 worst human inventions, agriculture is definitely on there, we shoulda never planted anything, that�s when it all started going to poo poo

# ¿ May 17, 2023 16:00

Maed: Aug 23, 2006

ooo I hope it gets hot and humid enough in nyc for roaches to start flying again

https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20160812/bushwick/roaches-love-this-disgusting-heat-so-much-it-makes-them-want-fly/

# ¿ May 17, 2023 16:18

Maed: Aug 23, 2006

Stereotype posted:

trees are cool and there should be way more of them. we should replace all roads with trees

# ¿ May 19, 2023 14:49

Maed: Aug 23, 2006

Cold on a Cob posted:

a friend of mine that's gung ho on EVs said there's no way most cities can even have half the people have those installed in their houses because the local grids are not set up for it. like not impossible but on top of the thousands the homeowner has to spend to set them up the utilities would also have to upgrade a lot of things at significant cost.

idk how true that is but he's really sad about it and says he did his homework on this, so i believe him

e: he did say something about the new low range commuter cars being a good compromise tho and not requiring the 240V circuit. i'm parroting what he said though, my dream is to move somewhere with decent transit again and just park my car for most of the time

the problem with cars is that they�re cars and extremely resource intensive yet extremely low capacity, doesn�t matter what drives them. the only solution is transit but *gestures at the us*

# ¿ Jun 1, 2023 16:04

Maed: Aug 23, 2006

cash crab posted:

https://waqi.info/#/c/43.705/-79.384/11.3z

[chuckles] i'm in danger

157? pfft that's rookie poo poo ours was 199 in Brooklyn last night, I assume they just didn't wanna have it go higher than that since 200+ colors and descriptions sound super crazy though and it was even higher

e:

lol

Maed has issued a correction as of 18:16 on Jun 7, 2023

# ¿ Jun 7, 2023 18:14

Maed: Aug 23, 2006

thank you I really needed some good cover art for my one man post-synthpop rock band tribute to Thom Yorke

# ¿ Jun 7, 2023 22:14

Maed: Aug 23, 2006

with all this fire stuff and me living in nyc now and growing up in Pittsburgh I was curious if someone in the thread might be able to help me with something

I sent pictures of the smoke in nyc to my mom who first was in Pittsburgh in 1968 and she said it was even worse every day there. I tried finding some estimated AQI for Pittsburgh back in the 50s and 60s when my dad grew up there but since Google is straight trash now I can't find any historical estimates, just the last decade. anyone know where I might find that data or just know offhand what the average AQI probably was?

# ¿ Jun 8, 2023 20:07

Maed: Aug 23, 2006

Bruce Hussein Daddy posted:

not what you asked for but "Pittsburg in the late 1960s"

yeah I've seen tons of pictures and jesus christ it looks bad, just really curious now what kinda aqi that would be with it spiking to 430 in Brooklyn last night

# ¿ Jun 8, 2023 20:32

Maed: Aug 23, 2006

plants feel pain too, pain is simple a signal in response to some physical trauma. when a plant�s leaf is bitten by an animal the cells on the edge of the bite release signals to nearby cells to strengthen their cell walls as well as things like starting extra poison production if the plant can do that sort of thing. they can even signal to other nearby plants to do the same thing. nature sure is amazing too bad we�re working on killing all of it with us

# ¿ Jun 25, 2023 19:53

Maed: Aug 23, 2006

SniperWoreConverse posted:

Is that pain or nociception tho

? pain is just the perception of nociception, we know we perceive it as that oww feeling but that part is inconsequential and we can�t know what it feels like in other animals but it seems silly to me to assume it�s much different

# ¿ Jun 25, 2023 19:57

Maed: Aug 23, 2006

ELTON JOHN posted:

plants do not feel pain

wtf is this poo poo I didn�t say they were conscious I said they have the same kind of chemical responses to physical trauma as us that lead to a response to stimuli. the owwie part we feel at the end isn�t the point at all and doesn�t matter when talking about suffering it�s just the particular way we happen to suffer

# ¿ Jun 25, 2023 21:34

Maed: Aug 23, 2006

I just had ants get into my kitchen through the air conditioner so personally I say kill em all

# ¿ Jul 5, 2023 16:05

Maed: Aug 23, 2006

Microplastics posted:

Bugs have incredible reproduction rates and mechanically murdering them with our windshields - even considering the sheer number of those windshields - is basically nothing. Just nothing

A single bird can do as much damage

good thing we're also changing the climate too fast for them to adapt to, are killing all the birds too, and are destroying their natural habitats

# ¿ Jul 5, 2023 18:22

Maed: Aug 23, 2006

Cup Runneth Over posted:

https://twitter.com/bibishoff/status/1680554077334171651

once we kill all the trees we will have poison ivy forests

my mom accidentally cut one of those with a chainsaw while cutting up a downed branch, she breathed in the poison ivy chemical and had to go to the hospital and get steroids for her lung inflammation, it was very scary. stay safe out there goons

# ¿ Jul 16, 2023 20:11

Maed: Aug 23, 2006

The Oldest Man posted:

Vegas is actually trying to manage their water situation and will probably hang on decades longer than Phoenix will

until California just straight up steals all the water at least

# ¿ Jul 16, 2023 20:38

Maed: Aug 23, 2006

Zeta Taskforce posted:

What bothers me is more than producing a poo poo ton of food for humans unsustainably is producing a poo poo ton of food for animals unsustainably. What makes me really mad is producing a poo poo ton of food for foreign animals unsustainably. Quoting the article, its behind a paywall, I am using my free one per month to look at it.

How a Saudi firm tapped a gusher of water in drought-stricken Arizona

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/07/16/fondomonte-arizona-drought-saudi-farm-water/

BUTLER VALLEY, Ariz. � A megadrought has seared Arizona, stressing its rivers and reservoirs and reducing water to a trickle in the homes of farmworkers near this desert valley.

But green fields of alfalfa stretch across thousands of acres of the desert land, shimmering in the burning sunlight. Wells draw water from deep underground, turning the parched earth into verdant farmland.

For nearly a decade, the state of Arizona has leased this rural terrain west of Phoenix to a Saudi-owned company, allowing it to pump all the water it needs to grow the alfalfa hay � a crop it exports to feed the kingdom�s dairy cows. And, for years, the state did not know how much water the company was consuming.

The lack of information was a choice.

Soon after the company, Fondomonte Arizona, arrived in the Butler Valley in 2015, state planners suggested asking the company to install meters and report its water use, according to a memo reviewed by The Washington Post. That way, the memo argued, the state could �at least obtain accurate information� on water drained from the valley � water that could otherwise serve as backup for booming urban areas.

But the proposal �hit a stone wall,� John Schneeman, one of the planners, told The Post. It was spurned, he said, by officials in the administration of then-Gov. Doug Ducey (R) who were �cautious of tangling with a powerful company.� The proposal also ran headlong into a view, deeply held in the rural West, that water is private property that comes with access to land, rather than a public resource.

The inaction was an early sign of how state officials gave leeway to Fondomonte as a global fight for water took root in the Arizona desert. Leaving water unprotected amid a drought worsened by climate change has been a boon to Saudi Arabia, where industrial-scale farming of forage crops such as alfalfa is banned to conserve the Persian Gulf nation�s limited water supply.

A Post investigation � based on government documents and interviews with public officials, ranchers in the valley, farmworkers, and townspeople who live near the alfalfa fields � found that Arizona�s lax regulatory environment and sophisticated lobbying by the Saudi-owned company allowed a scarce American resource to flow unchecked to a foreign corporation. To advance its interests before the state, Fondomonte hired an influential Republican lawyer as well as a former member of Congress. And it sought to win over its rural neighbors, providing a high school with donations that included Fondomonte-sponsored sports bags and face masks emblazoned with the company logo to protect students from covid.

David Kelly, Fondomonte�s general manager, said the company follows the same rules that govern farming operations throughout the state while going out of its way to save water and serve the community.

�All we ask is to be measured according to the same standards as every other farming leaseholder on state land,� he said in an email. �Fondomonte has developed Butler Valley to be one of the most efficient and highly productive farms in not only Arizona, but the entire Southwest. Our Butler Valley operation utilizes best-in-class irrigation technology and equipment with the oversight and diligence of an experienced management team.�

Fondomonte, he said, �should be heralded for its water efficiency.�

State officials now acknowledge that decades of farming and explosive growth have dangerously diminished Arizona�s water reserves. The rising scarcity has deepened rifts between urban and rural communities and turned Fondomonte into a political flash point. The company is hardly alone in using state-owned land to irrigate crops: Fondomonte holds four of the roughly 20 state agricultural leases across Arizona�s three major transport basins, where state law allows transfer of water to cities. But its foreign ownership and strict limits on water use in its home country have fueled outrage here.

Last month, the new governor, Democrat Katie Hobbs, unveiled a long-awaited study showing that groundwater in parts of the Phoenix area was insufficient to meet projected demand over the next century. Her administration also recently sought details about water use on state-owned land. Only after the state threatened to cancel Fondomonte�s leases last month did the company disclose how much it pumps annually in the Butler Valley, according to communications released as part of a public-records request. Its consumption is equivalent to that of a city of more than 50,000 people, experts said.

The governor�s aides are now preparing plans not to renew Fondomonte�s leases in the Butler Valley when they expire next year, according to a staff recommendation obtained by The Post. A decision has not been finalized. If Hobbs acts, a confrontation with the company could follow, with implications not just for foreign companies with interest in American natural resources but also for the future of agriculture as drought intensifies in the Southwest and cities clamor for rural water reserves.

The Saudi-owned farm has split the local community, where Holly Irwin, a La Paz County supervisor who has opposed Fondomonte�s presence for years, said that �foreign companies have come to take our water because they don�t have any left back home.�

But Fondomonte has unlikely allies, including a cattle rancher in the Butler Valley whose land abuts Fondomonte�s farm. Boyce Andersen said he generally is �an �America first� type of person� but is now just as concerned about the valley�s water being �taken by Phoenix� instead of flowing to livestock and crops. He faulted Arizona, not the foreign-owned firm, for the grim trade-offs facing the state.

�Why did our government leadership allow this to happen?� he asked.

Fondomonte�s lush alfalfa fields represent a decades-old Saudi strategy.

An American engineer, Karl Twitchell, who cut his teeth in Arizona�s copper mines, served as an adviser to the first king of Saudi Arabia and led a U.S.-sponsored agricultural mission to the kingdom in 1942. That mission set in motion a years-long process of adapting desert farming methods honed in the American Southwest to similar conditions in Saudi Arabia.

Fondomonte�s parent company, Riyadh-based Almarai, was founded three decades later by a Saudi royal and businessman, Mohammed bin Saud Al Kabeer, and two Irish brothers. The food and beverage giant is still chaired by a member of the Saudi royal family. In 2011, it acquired Luxembourg-based Fondomonte, which was operating farms in Argentina at the time, capitalizing on rising global food demand.

The following year, the company incorporated Fondomonte Arizona and soon moved into La Paz County, one of the poorest and least-populated parts of the state. In 2014, it paid $47.5 million to purchase nearly 10,000 acres in Vicksburg, a town of about 500. In 2015, in the nearby Butler Valley, Fondomonte took over several agricultural leases, for the below-market rate of about $25 per acre. Those leases, totaling 3,500 acres of state land, will expire in February 2024 if not renewed.

Fondomonte also expanded to California, eventually purchasing more than 3,000 acres across the border from Arizona, near the town of Blythe. Its farming operation there is built on another precious water source, the Colorado River, a key artery for several states that governments have allowed to dwindle to dangerously low levels amid hotter, drier conditions and chronic overuse by farming regions in the Southwest.

concerning

# ¿ Jul 17, 2023 00:31

Maed: Aug 23, 2006

if america even tried to build silt striders they�d cost $1 billion each and the poor caravaners wouldn�t even have unions. I bet they�d cheap out on teaching them local geography and customs too

# ¿ Jul 17, 2023 00:50

Maed: Aug 23, 2006

jetz0r posted:

It's also pretty hot there

# ¿ Aug 23, 2023 05:38

Maed: Aug 23, 2006

Microplastics posted:

Gummy bears? What the gently caress.

I've never looked at a wind turbine and thought "mmm I could really go for a bag of those"

carbon is a wonderful element

https://youtu.be/vHuFizITMdA

# ¿ Sep 10, 2023 22:00

Maed: Aug 23, 2006

Hexigrammus posted:

I've wondered that about my friends who were cokeheads - is the total lack of empathy and conscience a cause or effect?

Google must be watching me read this thread, this just popped up on my YouTube feed. No idea how real any of this actually is, gasoline wouldn't be my first choice to extract plant alkaloids, and how the absolute gently caress do you artisanally refine stolen crude into gasoline in plastic lined open pits without blowing yourself up? The scenes of detonating seeping crude pits next to a waterway certainly look real enough.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXXiHyBitbs

it's to scare you into thinking that the perfidious savages are making cocaine from gasoline and killing Americans on purpose, it's not crude oil it's just a solvent

# ¿ Sep 26, 2023 01:41

Maed: Aug 23, 2006

good thing that building infrastructure is well known to use very little resources and carbon itself or we'd be in trouble

# ¿ Nov 14, 2023 18:42

Maed: Aug 23, 2006

someone alert the orcas about their next targets

# ¿ Nov 22, 2023 20:46

Maed: Aug 23, 2006

TeenageArchipelago posted:

nature already invented pesticide! It's called caffeine! We just need to start eating tea as a staple crop

you're thinking too small, cocaine and thc are also pesticides, let's grow much more of those instead

# ¿ Feb 20, 2024 16:31

Maed: Aug 23, 2006

Microplastics posted:

I'm not sure that's an accurate description of Gaddafi's current state

what do you mean? him and aaron bushnell are high fiving and blowing out RBG's back walls in heaven rn

# ¿ Feb 27, 2024 00:56

Maed: Aug 23, 2006

the best fps ever was unreal tournament 2004 with triple jump and low grav on, gently caress counter strike

# ¿ Mar 28, 2024 15:48

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 11, 2024 19:46

Maed: Aug 23, 2006

we're already at 1.5c, this baby is getting to like 5c by 2100

# ¿ May 8, 2024 16:43

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > C-SPAM > [Biosphere Collapse] 420 days of blazin' it