Tomorrow is Domain Name Annual Auto-Renewal Day according to google, sending me the same email daily since June 18th, google telling me that as long as I haven't changed my payment method ($10 a year) BLCKDGRD.com will auto-renew while eNom (where I think I originally registered BLCKDGRD.com before google swallowed them) has breathlessly threatened me daily since June 25th (what would have been my mother's 89th birthday) that if I don't log into google and manually renew "your domain by Jul 25, 2023 you will no longer own the domain and it will be available for registration by other parties." If you want to poach it check the morning of the 19th, my father's 91st birthday. We do this every year (though I do not anguish this as I would have a decade ago), I haven't changed my payment credit card, I'm not worried though it reminds me I no longer have access to this blog's bleggalgazing anthem, removed from free viewing by the fucks actors and writers are striking against and a reminder there was no Bleggalgazing Day (as opposed to the relentless one after the other bleggalgazing days) this past May 31. It doesn't work without the guy beneath the seats, still:
"The idea is we are collectively held by the toxic glue of retail disease, consumer society, throw-away philosophy — land theft, cultural appropriation, gunboat diplomacy, xenophobia, and after generations, we are here, in this moment, 2023, but it is so much worse"
If you think you could vote away fascist white men (even if shitlords wanted fascist white men voted away) without violent insurrection then you need to read this
How Harlan Crow Slashed his Tax Bill by Taking Clarence Thomas on Superyacht Cruises
I'd vote for Alsobrooks over Trone and Jawando over Trone and worry that Alsobrooks and Jawando will split the votes that united would beat Trone, here's hoping one drops out and supports the other
My Bandcamp shuffle, which has made me and L very happy, dialed up the below today on way back from our hike, the best covers confirm how good the original is, I love Steely Dan, unfollow if you must
This, of course, is the other video I wait for, patiently, throughout the year. As I call the tower and get ready for entering a slow glide path to retire in another 10-11 months, the consistency of its appearance is comforting.
the new york times has a newsletter "climate forward" - yesterday they spoke to al gore, who said, in part:
Despite the apocalyptic weather news, Gore is also hopeful.
Clean energy is cheaper than ever, and electric vehicle sales are surging, turbocharged by government subsidies. Put that all together, and Gore thinks developed economies could draw down their emissions with surprising speed.
“If you sketch out what the potential curves take you to by 2030 or 2040, it becomes increasingly realistic to say, ‘Yes, these expansive goals definitely are achievable,’” he said.
To make the point about how quickly renewable energy is growing, Gore quoted the economist Rudiger Dornbusch: “Sometimes things take longer to happen than you think they will, and then they happen faster than you thought they could.”
But Gore was quick to add that every second counts. The faster we stop burning fossil fuels and releasing other planet-warming emissions, the more quickly global temperatures can stabilize.
“We know how to fix this,” he said. “We can stop the temperatures going up worldwide with as little as a three-year time lag by reaching net zero,” he said. “And if we stay at true net zero, we’ll see half of the human-caused CO2 coming out of the atmosphere in as little as 30 years.”
‘Anti-climate plotting’
In other words, all hope is not lost. But Gore has no illusions about how hard it will be.
“Eighty percent of all the energy used in the world today still comes from fossil fuels,” he said. What’s more, Gore acknowledged that the oil, gas and coal companies are not going down without a fight.
“Fossil fuel companies are desperately trying to use their political and economic networks and their successful capture of policy in too many countries to slow down this transition,” he said. “They don’t disclose their emissions. They don’t have any phase-out plan. They’re not committed to a real net zero pathway. They’re greenwashing. They’re performing anti-climate plotting.”
Gore is particularly livid about the fact that fossil fuel companies continue to play a major role at the annual United Nations climate change conference known as COP (full name: Conference of the Parties to the United Nations climate convention).
Hundreds of oil and gas executives participate in the proceedings, and this year, the president of COP, which will begin in November in the United Arab Emirates, is also the head of that country’s state oil company.
Tensions are rising, and Gore said he didn’t think the COP28 president, Sultan al-Jaber, should be in the role.
“The president of COP28 obviously is not the right person for the job,” Gore said. “This is not a good time to undermine the confidence that people deserve to have in the process.”
Gore suggested reforming the COP process in ways that would limit the influence of fossil fuel companies, and removing the ability for rich countries to veto language calling for a phase out of fossil fuels, as they have done for years.
“The climate crisis is in the main a fossil fuel crisis,” Gore told me. “If the world is not permitted to discuss the phasing down of fossil fuels because the fossil fuel companies don’t want the world to discuss it, that’s the sign of a very flawed process.”
This, of course, is the other video I wait for, patiently, throughout the year. As I call the tower and get ready for entering a slow glide path to retire in another 10-11 months, the consistency of its appearance is comforting.
ReplyDeletethe new york times has a newsletter "climate forward" - yesterday they spoke to al gore, who said, in part:
ReplyDeleteDespite the apocalyptic weather news, Gore is also hopeful.
Clean energy is cheaper than ever, and electric vehicle sales are surging, turbocharged by government subsidies. Put that all together, and Gore thinks developed economies could draw down their emissions with surprising speed.
“If you sketch out what the potential curves take you to by 2030 or 2040, it becomes increasingly realistic to say, ‘Yes, these expansive goals definitely are achievable,’” he said.
To make the point about how quickly renewable energy is growing, Gore quoted the economist Rudiger Dornbusch: “Sometimes things take longer to happen than you think they will, and then they happen faster than you thought they could.”
But Gore was quick to add that every second counts. The faster we stop burning fossil fuels and releasing other planet-warming emissions, the more quickly global temperatures can stabilize.
“We know how to fix this,” he said. “We can stop the temperatures going up worldwide with as little as a three-year time lag by reaching net zero,” he said. “And if we stay at true net zero, we’ll see half of the human-caused CO2 coming out of the atmosphere in as little as 30 years.”
‘Anti-climate plotting’
In other words, all hope is not lost. But Gore has no illusions about how hard it will be.
“Eighty percent of all the energy used in the world today still comes from fossil fuels,” he said. What’s more, Gore acknowledged that the oil, gas and coal companies are not going down without a fight.
“Fossil fuel companies are desperately trying to use their political and economic networks and their successful capture of policy in too many countries to slow down this transition,” he said. “They don’t disclose their emissions. They don’t have any phase-out plan. They’re not committed to a real net zero pathway. They’re greenwashing. They’re performing anti-climate plotting.”
Gore is particularly livid about the fact that fossil fuel companies continue to play a major role at the annual United Nations climate change conference known as COP (full name: Conference of the Parties to the United Nations climate convention).
Hundreds of oil and gas executives participate in the proceedings, and this year, the president of COP, which will begin in November in the United Arab Emirates, is also the head of that country’s state oil company.
Tensions are rising, and Gore said he didn’t think the COP28 president, Sultan al-Jaber, should be in the role.
“The president of COP28 obviously is not the right person for the job,” Gore said. “This is not a good time to undermine the confidence that people deserve to have in the process.”
Gore suggested reforming the COP process in ways that would limit the influence of fossil fuel companies, and removing the ability for rich countries to veto language calling for a phase out of fossil fuels, as they have done for years.
“The climate crisis is in the main a fossil fuel crisis,” Gore told me. “If the world is not permitted to discuss the phasing down of fossil fuels because the fossil fuel companies don’t want the world to discuss it, that’s the sign of a very flawed process.”