kokotg
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Posts posted by kokotg
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1 minute ago, livetoread said:
I wish everyone would take the advice given on multiple other threads to just not engage with that poster. It always derails things and never goes anywhere productive, no matter the topic. It's okay to let their postings stand ignored, no matter how out there or provocative they are.
I think a lot of people aren't aware of the history...if I take a week off from the chat board I can feel hopelessly out of the loop! But, yes. There are things about which reasonable people can disagree, and then there are...things that are not like that.
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31 minutes ago, regentrude said:
So you are saying that climate change does not actually exist, and that politicians are making up the temperature charts that show the warming and inventing the increase in severe weather events? And none of it actually happens?
Wow, that would be a great international conspiracy orchestrated across world boundaries...(but wait, there are people who believe Covid was invented like that, too.... and the entire world played along)If you dig a bit, you'll find there are quite a few things artehaus thinks we're all being duped about.
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32 minutes ago, Innisfree said:
Most people didn’t have the information, or the scientific literacy, to be held responsible for the situation we’re in now. Even up to the early nineties, there was widespread uncertainty about climate change among the general public.
Some people did know that fossil fuel use was causing climate change, even a century ago. They were largely employed by the fossil fuel industry. Others have benefited politically from an affiliation with that industry. Those are the people I hold responsible, along with those who are in denial today.
The whole sad history has much in common with the story of big tobacco.
People who didn’t mean to do any harm have been played for dupes by those who continue to profit in money and/or power. There’s no point arguing over who is more to blame, unless you put those who profit from the status quo squarely in the center.
A pertinent read: Merchants of Doubt, by Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway.
The big tobacco comparison keeps coming to my head as well. And I think having people arguing about whose parents/grandparents/kids/neighbors used the most fossil fuels is probably exactly the kind of distraction a lot of the people in these industries love to see.
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48 minutes ago, Annie G said:
That reported mpg surprises me. I bought a gently used 1975 VW Rabbit that easily got 30 mpg putting around town. Most of my friends got similar mpg and even my dad, who drove a VW van got around 25. Sure, my teen friends driving muscle cars got crummy mpg.
We walked a whole lot more than than many folks do today. I don’t recall there being a pick up line at our elementary school or junior high like I see now. We rode bikes to friends’ houses- our folks rarely drove us.
Cars had lower mpg but I wonder if folks lived closer to their jobs than many do today. I grew up in metro Atlanta and while there were plenty who lived in Marietta and worked in Atlanta, it wasn’t common to commute from more distant suburbs.My dad commuted from Canton (well, almost) to Atlanta in the 70s/80s. And my mom drove me to private school in Sandy Springs for several years. They were not role models of environmentalism for sure.
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50 minutes ago, SKL said:
And industry has gotten a lot cleaner over the past century. Especially industry in highly developed countries.
US emissions are decreasing. Fuel economy is way up. General public knowledge is way up.
It's untrue that industry hasn't done anything but destroy the world faster.
Some of us love to hate capitalists and will distort the truth for their agenda. Ironically they even love to hate the current manufacturer of the most fuel-efficient cars out there.
The tone of the climate discussion has been wrong for decades. It doesn't benefit anything.
It's extremely well documented that corporations covered up research on climate change for decades. I don't have any issue blaming them.
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11 minutes ago, Heartstrings said:
I think that’s where blame, in so far as it makes sense, comes in. This whole thing with climate change started long before any of us were born. It started in the Industrial Revolution. They didn’t know what they were causing, they couldn’t have.
This doesn't really have much to do with your larger point, but right before I read your post, I was reading the wikipedia entry on the history of climate change denial, where I found out that the first research into the effects of carbon dioxide on climate happened back in 1824, and by the end of the century the ways in which increased carbon dioxide would increase temperature were pretty well understood. There was an article in Popular Mechanics in 1912 that talked about how burning so much coal could have a substantial effect on global temperatures over time. So, yeah, industry not being willing to give up money now to save the world later has a very long history!
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1 minute ago, kokotg said:
not that much. But the increase is accelerating.
Here's the chart about carbon dioxide: https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-atmospheric-carbon-dioxide
If I'm looking at it right, carbon dioxide took longer to hit the 25% increase predicted (but it's there now) and the resulting temperature increase was not as dramatic. But both are still continuing to rise dramatically as predicted and accelerating over time.
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2 minutes ago, SKL said:
They predicted an increase of 7 degrees F between 1969 and 2000? What was the actual increase?
not that much. But the increase is accelerating.
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3 minutes ago, SKL said:
Besides which the scientists were still predicting an ice age when I was a kid. Who exactly was supposed to know that global warming was gonna be a concern for the grandkids?
I'm fascinated by this turning point: https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna38070412
QuoteMoynihan wrote in a September 1969 memo that it was "pretty clearly agreed" that carbon dioxide content would rise 25 percent by 2000,
"This could increase the average temperature near the earth's surface by 7 degrees Fahrenheit," he wrote. "This in turn could raise the level of the sea by 10 feet. Goodbye New York. Goodbye Washington, for that matter."
"I would think this is a subject that the Administration ought to get involved with," Moynihan wrote to John Ehrlichman, who in 1975 was convicted of conspiracy, perjury and obstruction for his role in the Watergate break-in and cover-up.
Imagine if people had jumped on this back in the day and kept it from becoming a weirdly politically polarizing issue! But it was always the people with the money and power who really could have done something.
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14 minutes ago, SKL said:
Maybe the constant message of "your world is screwed" is actually a deterrent to taking action that might help. I mean if you were told "the planet will definitely blow up 6 hours from now" what would you do?
you said your kids won't do small things that you feel are helpful for the environment. I didn't say that about my kids. But I do think that, like lots of us in this thread are saying, my kids understand that the time when small, individual actions could make a difference is in the past. We need big, systemic changes. I feel kind of hopeless sometimes in the face of that. My kids are building lives for themselves, making art, learning, and, yeah, doing what they can to be responsible humans in the face of a very uncertain future. I find them incredibly brave.
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16 minutes ago, livetoread said:
I haven't given up hope on a technology breakthrough that might spare us the worst. Even if we do come up with something though, we humans, let alone animals, will still suffer a lot before any relief happens.
I do think there's a lot of fascinating work being done on this type of stuff (carbon recapture, et. al.) I don't know...the way climate change happens seems so straightforward and easy to understand (too much carbon!) that I feel like there must be a workable solution. And I think humans are capable of doing big, great things. If we want to. It sounds so absurd when people talk about stuff like carbon recapture being "too expensive." Like....money is a made up thing! We're all going to feel very silly that we couldn't fix the world because it cost too much money when, like, water and rice are the only currencies that count.
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3 minutes ago, dirty ethel rackham said:
However, like mentioned above, individual changes are a drop in the bucket compared to what is needed. I am pessimistic that there the will to make the changes on the scale necessary (governments, corporations) will ever happen. Greed wins.
Maybe my biggest source of hope is that climate change is getting awfully expensive (see: insurance premiums in Florida, among many other things).
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Adorable! (I thought this post was going to be about beer, though 😂)
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17 minutes ago, Farrar said:
Honestly, yes. I would love to say that as something I have little control over, I don't spend time thinking about it, but I honestly do. It worries me a lot. I'm not on the level of doom that my kids have -- they think humanity has a mere century left if that. But it's already here and it could get very, very bad very soon. It's accelerating.
It's heartbreaking how much my kids take it for granted that the world as we know it will be gone within their lifetimes.
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Seeing how many people aren't worried has me more worried now than I was before I opened this thread. It must be incredibly frustrating to be a climate scientist. Good job, climate scientists, chugging along Cassandra-like! I do have some hope for a big solution to save us all from ourselves. Like how Malthus was wrong because he didn't foresee nitrogen fixation. But, then, nitrogen fixation killed a lot of people, too.
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Hiking, traveling, planning travel, yoga (just on YouTube, but we do it together), watching TV, watching baseball, going to the local brewery with other couple friends.
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21 minutes ago, mommyoffive said:
It’s our first go round with trying to figure out timing given that we’ve had covid recently. DH could get another shot, but he had covid in January, and we’ll be traveling (in our RV, and to mostly outdoor and/or uncrowded places) all summer. I’m thinking he’s likely better off getting it shortly before school starts…except for how there might be a different version by fall. Hmm.
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for future reference, it's very easy to get courses approved through the college board...you just have to "adopt" the sample syllabus, and that's pretty much it. But for my kids' classes where I didn't do that, I listed them as "x class with AP exam"
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2 hours ago, jen3kids said:
Newfoundland is beautiful. My sister and I took our parents last July for a week and I would have stayed for a month if I could have! We only explored the west side of the island and I hope to go back someday to explore the rest and Labrador as well!
We've been trying to plan this trip for years now, and it's never worked out for assorted reasons--so we're very excited! We'll be there around 5 weeks. We spent several weeks in Nova Scotia a few years ago and loved it.
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44 minutes ago, Laura Corin said:
Long-term dog/house-sitting? When our old dog dies, we have our eye on that.
yes--that's a great idea. We've used the Trusted Housesitters site to find people to stay at our house several times now, and always had great experiences. Although that reminds me that that's one of the big issue with long term overseas travel...our own dogs! The ones we have currently won't be around in 10 years, but I do like to have a dog or two...that's one of the big appeals of RV travel. Hmm.
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Just now, Faith-manor said:
Portugal offers a retirement visa for 90 EUR with proof of ability support self without working in country plus as well as proof of life and health insurance. There is an option to renew for 5 years. Portugal is beautiful, and not as expensive as other European nations. I don't know about renting an RV to tour the country, but rent in small towns is often reasonable on modest apartments.
DS spend a few days in Portugal during spring break of his study abroad semester last year and loved it! Thanks...yeah, I should look into possibilities in other countries, too--probably it's not that hard to piece together a lot of time abroad every year if we're willing/able to move around. Need to figure out how to afford it all, too!
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23 hours ago, Arctic Bunny said:
I bet Vancouver Island would have longer seasons… For example, this is the first one I found, and appears to be year-round, but maximum stag is 6 months less a day. But I imagine lots of long seasons out there.
yes, that could work! I should try to get more excited about RVing in Mexico, but I follow a bunch of RVers who've been in Baja this past winter/spring, and it just doesn't appeal to me. I don't think I'm enough of a beach person. Or, rather, my favorite beaches are the cold, rocky kind. Hence the summer in Newfoundland!
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2 hours ago, cintinative said:
I am wondering if there is any input on AP Art History--not to derail the thread--it might be useful to the OP
I know OP has said it won't work for her kid, but I've been through AP art history (at home) with two kids now: it's not a difficult exam as far as the skills that are called for, but there's a TON of material to cover, so it can be time consuming and overwhelming (and it's a lot of memorization compared to most exams). I really enjoy doing it, but it also would be nice to be able to slow down a bit and linger over some things.
Human geography is not, IME, a particularly time consuming one. I've had two kids do it as a 2 hour 1x/week class (plus some but not a ton of homework--total time commitment of no more than 4 hours most weeks, I'd say, including the class), and do well on the exam with just that plus a few weeks going through a test prep book.
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26 minutes ago, Arctic Bunny said:
Is this helpful? There’s also this. And it says the wait for the extension is 173 days right now. So you would have to apply for an extension at pretty much the same time as you arrived. US Citizens are allowed to enter without a visa, but they must still be able to prove they have money to support their stay and that they have a reason (job, etc) to return to the US.
ah, yes--that looks like the answer! thanks! We wouldn't have jobs to return to in this case, but it must be somewhat common for retired people to stay for a long time? I mean, it's a common situation for Canadians RVing in the US; there must be some people who do it the other way around!
15 minutes ago, Arctic Bunny said:Lol, I was assuming it was for the summer…. But it my neck of the woods you wouldn’t have to worry about exceeding 6 months! I mean, it’s the middle of April and I just shovelled a foot of snow, with more on the way!
it's true...I guess there'd really be nowhere to stay in an RV outside of May-September for the most part, so more than 6 months would only be an issue if we wanted to extend it with some airbnbs on either end or something.
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Poll: comfortable square feet per person
in The Chat Board
Posted
I put 3-400. We have just under 3000 for 6 people (well, usually just 4 now, but maybe 5 again next year), and that feels plenty big; we'd be fine with smaller if the house used the space well. We also have done several 2 month stretches with all of us in around 220 sf, though, when we travel in the summer with our trailer and been fine; the house feels ridiculous when we come back from a long trip (and, paradoxically, I usually feel restless like a caged animal for a few weeks while I settle back in to stationery life).