All Things Environment

[PizzaSnake]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate- ... oaa-finds/

"In fact, according to the newly released “State of the Climate in 2020” report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Earth is arguably in worse shape than it’s been.

While humanity grappled with the deadliest pandemic in a century, many metrics of the planet’s health showed catastrophic decline in 2020. Average global temperatures rivaled the hottest. Mysterious sources of methane sent atmospheric concentrations of the gas spiking to unprecedented highs. Sea levels were the highest on record; fires ravaged the American West; and locusts swarmed across East Africa."

Too many humans.

[Typical Lax Dad]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate- ... oaa-finds/

"In fact, according to the newly released “State of the Climate in 2020” report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Earth is arguably in worse shape than it’s been.

While humanity grappled with the deadliest pandemic in a century, many metrics of the planet’s health showed catastrophic decline in 2020. Average global temperatures rivaled the hottest. Mysterious sources of methane sent atmospheric concentrations of the gas spiking to unprecedented highs. Sea levels were the highest on record; fires ravaged the American West; and locusts swarmed across East Africa."

Too many humans.

The Earth will fix it. Don’t worry. Was watching The Matrix last night. Agent Smith was right….



The planet will he fine. We won’t be.

[lagerhead]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate- ... oaa-finds/

"In fact, according to the newly released “State of the Climate in 2020” report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Earth is arguably in worse shape than it’s been.

While humanity grappled with the deadliest pandemic in a century, many metrics of the planet’s health showed catastrophic decline in 2020. Average global temperatures rivaled the hottest. Mysterious sources of methane sent atmospheric concentrations of the gas spiking to unprecedented highs. Sea levels were the highest on record; fires ravaged the American West; and locusts swarmed across East Africa."

Too many humans.

The Earth will fix it. Don’t worry. Was watching The Matrix last night. Agent Smith was right….



The planet will he fine. We won’t be.

If we stop with masks social distancing and vaccinations the earth will fix itself. Man effing it up.

[Typical Lax Dad]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate- ... oaa-finds/

"In fact, according to the newly released “State of the Climate in 2020” report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Earth is arguably in worse shape than it’s been.

While humanity grappled with the deadliest pandemic in a century, many metrics of the planet’s health showed catastrophic decline in 2020. Average global temperatures rivaled the hottest. Mysterious sources of methane sent atmospheric concentrations of the gas spiking to unprecedented highs. Sea levels were the highest on record; fires ravaged the American West; and locusts swarmed across East Africa."

Too many humans.

The Earth will fix it. Don’t worry. Was watching The Matrix last night. Agent Smith was right….



The planet will he fine. We won’t be.

If we stop with masks social distancing and vaccinations the earth will fix itself. Man effing it up.

You know many viruses jump when man disrupts habitats.

Habitat loss linked to global emergence of infectious diseases

[6ftstick]

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/taliban- ... 32022.html

“We believe the world has a unique opportunity of rapprochement and coming together to tackle the challenges not only facing us but the entire humanity,” Balkhi said. “These challenges ranging from world security and climate change need the collective efforts of all.”

Now they're on the right side eh.

[Typical Lax Dad]

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/taliban- ... 32022.html

“We believe the world has a unique opportunity of rapprochement and coming together to tackle the challenges not only facing us but the entire humanity,” Balkhi said. “These challenges ranging from world security and climate change need the collective efforts of all.”

Now they're on the right side eh.

What do you expect? The previous administration backed them and signed a Peace Agreement with the Taliban.

[PizzaSnake]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate- ... oaa-finds/

"In fact, according to the newly released “State of the Climate in 2020” report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Earth is arguably in worse shape than it’s been.

While humanity grappled with the deadliest pandemic in a century, many metrics of the planet’s health showed catastrophic decline in 2020. Average global temperatures rivaled the hottest. Mysterious sources of methane sent atmospheric concentrations of the gas spiking to unprecedented highs. Sea levels were the highest on record; fires ravaged the American West; and locusts swarmed across East Africa."

Too many humans.

The Earth will fix it. Don’t worry. Was watching The Matrix last night. Agent Smith was right….



The planet will he fine. We won’t be.

Carlin said it best:

"Besides, there is nothing wrong with the planet... nothing wrong with the planet. The planet is fine...
the people are screwed! Compared to the people, THE PLANET IS DOING GREAT: Been here four
and a half billion years! Do you ever think about the arithmetic? The planet has been here four and a
half billion years, we’ve been here what? 100,000? Maybe 200,000? And we’ve only been engaged in
heavy industry for a little over 200 years. 200 years versus four and a half billion and we have the
conceit to think that somehow, we’re a threat? That somehow, we’re going to put in jeopardy this
beautiful little blue-green ball that’s just a-floatin’ around the sun?
The planet has been through a lot worse than us. Been through all kinds of things worse than us: been
through earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drifts, solar flares, sunspots, magnetic
storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles, hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets
and asteroids and meteors, worldwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays,
recurring ice ages, and we think some plastic bags and aluminum cans are going to make a difference?
The planet isn’t going anywhere... we are! We’re going away! Pack your stuff, folks! We’re going
away and we won’t leave much of a trace either, thank God for that... maybe a little styrofoam...
maybe... little styrofoam. "

[Typical Lax Dad]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate- ... oaa-finds/

"In fact, according to the newly released “State of the Climate in 2020” report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Earth is arguably in worse shape than it’s been.

While humanity grappled with the deadliest pandemic in a century, many metrics of the planet’s health showed catastrophic decline in 2020. Average global temperatures rivaled the hottest. Mysterious sources of methane sent atmospheric concentrations of the gas spiking to unprecedented highs. Sea levels were the highest on record; fires ravaged the American West; and locusts swarmed across East Africa."

Too many humans.

The Earth will fix it. Don’t worry. Was watching The Matrix last night. Agent Smith was right….



The planet will he fine. We won’t be.

Carlin said it best:

"Besides, there is nothing wrong with the planet... nothing wrong with the planet. The planet is fine...
the people are screwed! Compared to the people, THE PLANET IS DOING GREAT: Been here four
and a half billion years! Do you ever think about the arithmetic? The planet has been here four and a
half billion years, we’ve been here what? 100,000? Maybe 200,000? And we’ve only been engaged in
heavy industry for a little over 200 years. 200 years versus four and a half billion and we have the
conceit to think that somehow, we’re a threat? That somehow, we’re going to put in jeopardy this
beautiful little blue-green ball that’s just a-floatin’ around the sun?
The planet has been through a lot worse than us. Been through all kinds of things worse than us: been
through earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drifts, solar flares, sunspots, magnetic
storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles, hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets
and asteroids and meteors, worldwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays,
recurring ice ages, and we think some plastic bags and aluminum cans are going to make a difference?
The planet isn’t going anywhere... we are! We’re going away! Pack your stuff, folks! We’re going
away and we won’t leave much of a trace either, thank God for that... maybe a little styrofoam...
maybe... little styrofoam. "

Maybe we get lucky and discover a planet in another solar system to sustain human life.

[PizzaSnake]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate- ... oaa-finds/

"In fact, according to the newly released “State of the Climate in 2020” report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Earth is arguably in worse shape than it’s been.

While humanity grappled with the deadliest pandemic in a century, many metrics of the planet’s health showed catastrophic decline in 2020. Average global temperatures rivaled the hottest. Mysterious sources of methane sent atmospheric concentrations of the gas spiking to unprecedented highs. Sea levels were the highest on record; fires ravaged the American West; and locusts swarmed across East Africa."

Too many humans.

The Earth will fix it. Don’t worry. Was watching The Matrix last night. Agent Smith was right….



The planet will he fine. We won’t be.

Carlin said it best:

"Besides, there is nothing wrong with the planet... nothing wrong with the planet. The planet is fine...
the people are screwed! Compared to the people, THE PLANET IS DOING GREAT: Been here four
and a half billion years! Do you ever think about the arithmetic? The planet has been here four and a
half billion years, we’ve been here what? 100,000? Maybe 200,000? And we’ve only been engaged in
heavy industry for a little over 200 years. 200 years versus four and a half billion and we have the
conceit to think that somehow, we’re a threat? That somehow, we’re going to put in jeopardy this
beautiful little blue-green ball that’s just a-floatin’ around the sun?
The planet has been through a lot worse than us. Been through all kinds of things worse than us: been
through earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drifts, solar flares, sunspots, magnetic
storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles, hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets
and asteroids and meteors, worldwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays,
recurring ice ages, and we think some plastic bags and aluminum cans are going to make a difference?
The planet isn’t going anywhere... we are! We’re going away! Pack your stuff, folks! We’re going
away and we won’t leave much of a trace either, thank God for that... maybe a little styrofoam...
maybe... little styrofoam. "

Maybe we get lucky and discover a planet in another solar system to sustain human life.

And teleportation to get us there? Nope, we're done. Finis.

It's okay, we all knew no one gets out alive... The part about all humans, well, we knew that as well -- all species have gone, some just last longer than others.

[youthathletics]

SO now you are talking back and forth with yourself? You need to get out....the both of you!

[Farfromgeneva]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate- ... oaa-finds/

"In fact, according to the newly released “State of the Climate in 2020” report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Earth is arguably in worse shape than it’s been.

While humanity grappled with the deadliest pandemic in a century, many metrics of the planet’s health showed catastrophic decline in 2020. Average global temperatures rivaled the hottest. Mysterious sources of methane sent atmospheric concentrations of the gas spiking to unprecedented highs. Sea levels were the highest on record; fires ravaged the American West; and locusts swarmed across East Africa."

Too many humans.

The Earth will fix it. Don’t worry. Was watching The Matrix last night. Agent Smith was right….



The planet will he fine. We won’t be.

Carlin said it best:

"Besides, there is nothing wrong with the planet... nothing wrong with the planet. The planet is fine...
the people are screwed! Compared to the people, THE PLANET IS DOING GREAT: Been here four
and a half billion years! Do you ever think about the arithmetic? The planet has been here four and a
half billion years, we’ve been here what? 100,000? Maybe 200,000? And we’ve only been engaged in
heavy industry for a little over 200 years. 200 years versus four and a half billion and we have the
conceit to think that somehow, we’re a threat? That somehow, we’re going to put in jeopardy this
beautiful little blue-green ball that’s just a-floatin’ around the sun?
The planet has been through a lot worse than us. Been through all kinds of things worse than us: been
through earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drifts, solar flares, sunspots, magnetic
storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles, hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets
and asteroids and meteors, worldwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays,
recurring ice ages, and we think some plastic bags and aluminum cans are going to make a difference?
The planet isn’t going anywhere... we are! We’re going away! Pack your stuff, folks! We’re going
away and we won’t leave much of a trace either, thank God for that... maybe a little styrofoam...
maybe... little styrofoam. "

Maybe we get lucky and discover a planet in another solar system to sustain human life.

Probably in Vonnegut’s top 5 (behind Player Piano & Cats Cradle no doubt, in the mix w Mother Night, God Bless You Mr Rosewater & Breakfast of Champions, throw in Slaughterhouse I guess but within his CV wildly overrated) I present to you:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sirens_of_Titan

[Typical Lax Dad]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate- ... oaa-finds/

"In fact, according to the newly released “State of the Climate in 2020” report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Earth is arguably in worse shape than it’s been.

While humanity grappled with the deadliest pandemic in a century, many metrics of the planet’s health showed catastrophic decline in 2020. Average global temperatures rivaled the hottest. Mysterious sources of methane sent atmospheric concentrations of the gas spiking to unprecedented highs. Sea levels were the highest on record; fires ravaged the American West; and locusts swarmed across East Africa."

Too many humans.

The Earth will fix it. Don’t worry. Was watching The Matrix last night. Agent Smith was right….



The planet will he fine. We won’t be.

Carlin said it best:

"Besides, there is nothing wrong with the planet... nothing wrong with the planet. The planet is fine...
the people are screwed! Compared to the people, THE PLANET IS DOING GREAT: Been here four
and a half billion years! Do you ever think about the arithmetic? The planet has been here four and a
half billion years, we’ve been here what? 100,000? Maybe 200,000? And we’ve only been engaged in
heavy industry for a little over 200 years. 200 years versus four and a half billion and we have the
conceit to think that somehow, we’re a threat? That somehow, we’re going to put in jeopardy this
beautiful little blue-green ball that’s just a-floatin’ around the sun?
The planet has been through a lot worse than us. Been through all kinds of things worse than us: been
through earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drifts, solar flares, sunspots, magnetic
storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles, hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets
and asteroids and meteors, worldwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays,
recurring ice ages, and we think some plastic bags and aluminum cans are going to make a difference?
The planet isn’t going anywhere... we are! We’re going away! Pack your stuff, folks! We’re going
away and we won’t leave much of a trace either, thank God for that... maybe a little styrofoam...
maybe... little styrofoam. "

Maybe we get lucky and discover a planet in another solar system to sustain human life.

Probably in Vonnegut’s top 5 (behind Player Piano & Cats Cradle no doubt, in the mix w Mother Night, God Bless You Mr Rosewater & Breakfast of Champions, throw in Slaughterhouse I guess but within his CV wildly overrated) I present to you:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sirens_of_Titan

Ordering it today

[Farfromgeneva]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate- ... oaa-finds/

"In fact, according to the newly released “State of the Climate in 2020” report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Earth is arguably in worse shape than it’s been.

While humanity grappled with the deadliest pandemic in a century, many metrics of the planet’s health showed catastrophic decline in 2020. Average global temperatures rivaled the hottest. Mysterious sources of methane sent atmospheric concentrations of the gas spiking to unprecedented highs. Sea levels were the highest on record; fires ravaged the American West; and locusts swarmed across East Africa."

Too many humans.

The Earth will fix it. Don’t worry. Was watching The Matrix last night. Agent Smith was right….



The planet will he fine. We won’t be.

Carlin said it best:

"Besides, there is nothing wrong with the planet... nothing wrong with the planet. The planet is fine...
the people are screwed! Compared to the people, THE PLANET IS DOING GREAT: Been here four
and a half billion years! Do you ever think about the arithmetic? The planet has been here four and a
half billion years, we’ve been here what? 100,000? Maybe 200,000? And we’ve only been engaged in
heavy industry for a little over 200 years. 200 years versus four and a half billion and we have the
conceit to think that somehow, we’re a threat? That somehow, we’re going to put in jeopardy this
beautiful little blue-green ball that’s just a-floatin’ around the sun?
The planet has been through a lot worse than us. Been through all kinds of things worse than us: been
through earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drifts, solar flares, sunspots, magnetic
storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles, hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets
and asteroids and meteors, worldwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays,
recurring ice ages, and we think some plastic bags and aluminum cans are going to make a difference?
The planet isn’t going anywhere... we are! We’re going away! Pack your stuff, folks! We’re going
away and we won’t leave much of a trace either, thank God for that... maybe a little styrofoam...
maybe... little styrofoam. "

Maybe we get lucky and discover a planet in another solar system to sustain human life.

Probably in Vonnegut’s top 5 (behind Player Piano & Cats Cradle no doubt, in the mix w Mother Night, God Bless You Mr Rosewater & Breakfast of Champions, throw in Slaughterhouse I guess but within his CV wildly overrated) I present to you:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sirens_of_Titan

Ordering it today

My favorite author (tied w Camus but not exactly same) so I’ll believe just about anything. And I can watch the scene where Rodney D in Back to School goes “F**k me?! Hey, Kurt, can you read lips, *heck you*! Next time I'll call Robert Ludlum!”

But this is insane if true:

According to The Harvard Crimson, Vonnegut "put together the whole of The Sirens of Titan ... in one night...[H]e was at a party where someone told him he ought to write another novel. So they went into the next room where he just verbally pieced together this book from the things that were around in his mind."[3]

[Typical Lax Dad]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate- ... oaa-finds/

"In fact, according to the newly released “State of the Climate in 2020” report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Earth is arguably in worse shape than it’s been.

While humanity grappled with the deadliest pandemic in a century, many metrics of the planet’s health showed catastrophic decline in 2020. Average global temperatures rivaled the hottest. Mysterious sources of methane sent atmospheric concentrations of the gas spiking to unprecedented highs. Sea levels were the highest on record; fires ravaged the American West; and locusts swarmed across East Africa."

Too many humans.

The Earth will fix it. Don’t worry. Was watching The Matrix last night. Agent Smith was right….



The planet will he fine. We won’t be.

Carlin said it best:

"Besides, there is nothing wrong with the planet... nothing wrong with the planet. The planet is fine...
the people are screwed! Compared to the people, THE PLANET IS DOING GREAT: Been here four
and a half billion years! Do you ever think about the arithmetic? The planet has been here four and a
half billion years, we’ve been here what? 100,000? Maybe 200,000? And we’ve only been engaged in
heavy industry for a little over 200 years. 200 years versus four and a half billion and we have the
conceit to think that somehow, we’re a threat? That somehow, we’re going to put in jeopardy this
beautiful little blue-green ball that’s just a-floatin’ around the sun?
The planet has been through a lot worse than us. Been through all kinds of things worse than us: been
through earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drifts, solar flares, sunspots, magnetic
storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles, hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets
and asteroids and meteors, worldwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays,
recurring ice ages, and we think some plastic bags and aluminum cans are going to make a difference?
The planet isn’t going anywhere... we are! We’re going away! Pack your stuff, folks! We’re going
away and we won’t leave much of a trace either, thank God for that... maybe a little styrofoam...
maybe... little styrofoam. "

Maybe we get lucky and discover a planet in another solar system to sustain human life.

Probably in Vonnegut’s top 5 (behind Player Piano & Cats Cradle no doubt, in the mix w Mother Night, God Bless You Mr Rosewater & Breakfast of Champions, throw in Slaughterhouse I guess but within his CV wildly overrated) I present to you:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sirens_of_Titan

Ordering it today

My favorite author (tied w Camus but not exactly same) so I’ll believe just about anything. And I can watch the scene where Rodney D in Back to School goes “F**k me?! Hey, Kurt, can you read lips, *heck you*! Next time I'll call Robert Ludlum!”

But this is insane if true:

According to The Harvard Crimson, Vonnegut "put together the whole of The Sirens of Titan ... in one night...[H]e was at a party where someone told him he ought to write another novel. So they went into the next room where he just verbally pieced together this book from the things that were around in his mind."[3]

Sort of like Verbal Kent

[Farfromgeneva]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate- ... oaa-finds/

"In fact, according to the newly released “State of the Climate in 2020” report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Earth is arguably in worse shape than it’s been.

While humanity grappled with the deadliest pandemic in a century, many metrics of the planet’s health showed catastrophic decline in 2020. Average global temperatures rivaled the hottest. Mysterious sources of methane sent atmospheric concentrations of the gas spiking to unprecedented highs. Sea levels were the highest on record; fires ravaged the American West; and locusts swarmed across East Africa."

Too many humans.

The Earth will fix it. Don’t worry. Was watching The Matrix last night. Agent Smith was right….



The planet will he fine. We won’t be.

Carlin said it best:

"Besides, there is nothing wrong with the planet... nothing wrong with the planet. The planet is fine...
the people are screwed! Compared to the people, THE PLANET IS DOING GREAT: Been here four
and a half billion years! Do you ever think about the arithmetic? The planet has been here four and a
half billion years, we’ve been here what? 100,000? Maybe 200,000? And we’ve only been engaged in
heavy industry for a little over 200 years. 200 years versus four and a half billion and we have the
conceit to think that somehow, we’re a threat? That somehow, we’re going to put in jeopardy this
beautiful little blue-green ball that’s just a-floatin’ around the sun?
The planet has been through a lot worse than us. Been through all kinds of things worse than us: been
through earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drifts, solar flares, sunspots, magnetic
storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles, hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets
and asteroids and meteors, worldwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays,
recurring ice ages, and we think some plastic bags and aluminum cans are going to make a difference?
The planet isn’t going anywhere... we are! We’re going away! Pack your stuff, folks! We’re going
away and we won’t leave much of a trace either, thank God for that... maybe a little styrofoam...
maybe... little styrofoam. "

Maybe we get lucky and discover a planet in another solar system to sustain human life.

Probably in Vonnegut’s top 5 (behind Player Piano & Cats Cradle no doubt, in the mix w Mother Night, God Bless You Mr Rosewater & Breakfast of Champions, throw in Slaughterhouse I guess but within his CV wildly overrated) I present to you:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sirens_of_Titan

Ordering it today

My favorite author (tied w Camus but not exactly same) so I’ll believe just about anything. And I can watch the scene where Rodney D in Back to School goes “F**k me?! Hey, Kurt, can you read lips, *heck you*! Next time I'll call Robert Ludlum!”

But this is insane if true:

According to The Harvard Crimson, Vonnegut "put together the whole of The Sirens of Titan ... in one night...[H]e was at a party where someone told him he ought to write another novel. So they went into the next room where he just verbally pieced together this book from the things that were around in his mind."[3]

Sort of like Verbal Kent

Maybe a little better intentioned in life

[Farfromgeneva]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate- ... oaa-finds/

"In fact, according to the newly released “State of the Climate in 2020” report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Earth is arguably in worse shape than it’s been.

While humanity grappled with the deadliest pandemic in a century, many metrics of the planet’s health showed catastrophic decline in 2020. Average global temperatures rivaled the hottest. Mysterious sources of methane sent atmospheric concentrations of the gas spiking to unprecedented highs. Sea levels were the highest on record; fires ravaged the American West; and locusts swarmed across East Africa."

Too many humans.

The Earth will fix it. Don’t worry. Was watching The Matrix last night. Agent Smith was right….



The planet will he fine. We won’t be.

Carlin said it best:

"Besides, there is nothing wrong with the planet... nothing wrong with the planet. The planet is fine...
the people are screwed! Compared to the people, THE PLANET IS DOING GREAT: Been here four
and a half billion years! Do you ever think about the arithmetic? The planet has been here four and a
half billion years, we’ve been here what? 100,000? Maybe 200,000? And we’ve only been engaged in
heavy industry for a little over 200 years. 200 years versus four and a half billion and we have the
conceit to think that somehow, we’re a threat? That somehow, we’re going to put in jeopardy this
beautiful little blue-green ball that’s just a-floatin’ around the sun?
The planet has been through a lot worse than us. Been through all kinds of things worse than us: been
through earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drifts, solar flares, sunspots, magnetic
storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles, hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets
and asteroids and meteors, worldwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays,
recurring ice ages, and we think some plastic bags and aluminum cans are going to make a difference?
The planet isn’t going anywhere... we are! We’re going away! Pack your stuff, folks! We’re going
away and we won’t leave much of a trace either, thank God for that... maybe a little styrofoam...
maybe... little styrofoam. "

Maybe we get lucky and discover a planet in another solar system to sustain human life.

Probably in Vonnegut’s top 5 (behind Player Piano & Cats Cradle no doubt, in the mix w Mother Night, God Bless You Mr Rosewater & Breakfast of Champions, throw in Slaughterhouse I guess but within his CV wildly overrated) I present to you:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sirens_of_Titan

Ordering it today

I will reiterate my favorite and clearly his best ever by a “country mile” is Player Piano, his first book. Sirens just fit into your back and forth w Pizza better IMO.

So less related to environment per se but it’s me and I’ll birdwalk from time to time so, imagine how prophetic Vonnegut’s first book is written basically 70yrs ago in 1952. For those that don’t know it here’s the wiki plot description.

Player Piano is set in the near future, after a third world war. While most Americans were fighting overseas, the nation's managers and engineers faced a depleted workforce and responded by developing ingenious automated systems that allowed the factories to operate with only a few workers. The novel begins ten years after the war when most factory workers have been replaced by machines. The bifurcation of the population is represented by the division of Ilium, New York into "The Homestead," where every person not a manager or an engineer lives, and the other side of the river, where all the engineers and the managers live.

Player Piano develops two parallel plotlines that converge only briefly and then insubstantially, at the beginning and the end of the novel. The more prominent plotline follows the protagonist, Dr. Paul Proteus (referred to as Paul), an intelligent, 35-year-old factory manager of Ilium Works. The secondary plotline follows the American tour of the Shah of Bratpuhr, a spiritual leader of six million residents in a distant, underdeveloped nation.

The purpose of the two plotlines is to give two perspectives of the system: one from an insider who is emblematic of the system, and one from an outsider who is looking in on it. Paul, for all intents and purposes, is the living embodiment of what a man within the system should strive to be, and the Shah is a visitor from a very different culture and so applies a very different context to whatever he sees on his tour.

The main plotline follows Paul's development from an uncritical cog in the system to one of its outspoken critics. Paul's father, George, was the first "National, Industrial, Commercial Communications, Foodstuffs, and Resources Director." George had almost complete control over the nation's economy and was more powerful than the President of the United States, who by then had effectively become a puppet. Paul has inherited his father's reputation and social status but harbors a vague dissatisfaction with the industrial system and his contribution to society. His struggle with that unnameable distress is heightened when Ed Finnerty, an old friend whom Paul has always held in high regard, informs him he has quit his important engineering job in Washington, DC. Paul and Finnerty visit a bar in the "Homestead" section of town, where workers who have been displaced by machines live out their meaningless lives in mass-produced houses. There, they meet an Episcopal minister, Lasher, with a M.A. in anthropology, who puts into words the unfairness of the system that the two engineers have only vaguely sensed. Paul eventually learns that Lasher is the leader of a rebel group known as the "Ghost Shirt Society," though Finnerty instantly takes up with him. Paul is not bold enough to make a clean break, as Finnerty has done, until his superiors ask him to betray Finnerty and Lasher. However, Paul purchases a rundown farm, managed by an elderly heir of the prior owners. Paul's intention is to start a new life by living off the land with his wife, Anita, but Anita is disgusted by Paul's wishes to change their lifestyle radically. Paul and Anita's relationship is one of emotional distance and personal disagreements. She and Paul had married quickly when it seemed that she was pregnant, but it turned out that Anita was barren and that it was just a hysterical pregnancy.[3] "Of all the people on the north side of the river, Anita was the only one whose contempt for those in Homestead was laced with active hatred.... If Paul were ever moved to be extremely cruel to her, the cruelest thing he could do... would be to point out to her why she hated [Homesteaders] as she did: if he hadn't married her, this was where she'd be, what she'd be."[4]

She temporarily convinces Paul to stay in his position, and to continue to compete with two other engineers, Dr. Shepherd and Dr. Garth, for a more prominent position in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

After rumors of Paul's disloyalty to the system and suspicious activity during the hosting of "the Meadows," an annual competition for high class engineers, begin circulating, Paul determines that with or without Anita, he must work with his friend Finnerty, among others, to stop the socioeconomic "system" of having machines replace humans. He quits his job and is captured by the "Ghost Shirt Society" in which he is made the public figurehead of the organization although the position is merely nominal. By his father's success, Paul's name is famous among the citizens and so the organization intends to use his name to its advantage by making him the false 'leader' to gain publicity. In the first Ghost Shirt Society meeting Paul attends, the police raid it and capture Paul.

Paul is put on public trial but is freed as the Ghost Shirt Society and the general population begins to riot, destroying the automated factories. The mob, once unleashed, goes further than the Ghost Shirt leaders had planned, destroying both food production plants and the superfluous plants. Despite the brief and impressive success of the rebellion, the military quickly surrounds the town, and the citizenry, used to the comforts of the system, begin to rebuild the machines of their own volition. Paul, Finnerty, Lasher, and other members of the Ghost Shirt Society acknowledge that at least they had tried to stop the government's system before they surrender themselves to the military.

[PizzaSnake]

And here is the problem that faces us: "design limits" are going to be increasingly tested and exceeded. Real question is, will the design parameters be adjusted for the upcoming infrastructure projects, or will the old standards (which will fail in short order) be applied?

"Furthermore, the system is only designed to protect New Orleans from a 100-year storm. Ida could test the system if the maximum surge of 15 feet reaches as far east as New Orleans.

“[A] storm surge of 15 feet could threaten New Orleans’ levees,” wrote meteorologists Jeff Masters and Bob Henson at Yale Climate Connections. “A surge of that magnitude is close to the system’s design limits, and will be higher than any observed since the levee system was rebuilt.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/ ... w-orleans/

Ninety nine bottles of beer on the wall...

"New Orleans is likely to see 10 to 15 inches of rain, and it’s not out of the question that a few isolated communities could approach 20 inches. This amount of rain will test the city’s network of 99 pumps, 96 of which are currently functional."

[Farfromgeneva]

Forget the old numbers and sympathetic to the emotional sense of “home” but recall we spent like $150-$200k/head to rebuild around there knowing the levee would break again within a generation or so and a bunch of sub $50k shotgun homes floating around there. Always felt like we just give them $250k each and help them relocate and call it a day in New Orleans.

[PizzaSnake]

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/ar ... ds/619887/

A little snippet for the data scientists among us:

“Looking through a report that analyzed temperature patterns for the region over the past 70 years, he noted, “the heatwave was statistically ‘impossible.’” Obviously, the heat wave wasn’t literally impossible, given that, after all, it happened. But the broiling temperature that the Northwest reached—108 degrees Fahrenheit at one point in Seattle, 121 degrees in British Columbia—was so far beyond the observed experience, he explained, that it exceeded even statistical models’ outmost potential extremes for the area.”

[Typical Lax Dad]

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/ar ... ds/619887/

A little snippet for the data scientists among us:

“Looking through a report that analyzed temperature patterns for the region over the past 70 years, he noted, “the heatwave was statistically ‘impossible.’” Obviously, the heat wave wasn’t literally impossible, given that, after all, it happened. But the broiling temperature that the Northwest reached—108 degrees Fahrenheit at one point in Seattle, 121 degrees in British Columbia—was so far beyond the observed experience, he explained, that it exceeded even statistical models’ outmost potential extremes for the area.”

Dr. Roy Spencer would disagree.