The Sixth Extinction (Environmental News)

[Balderdasha]

Just posting this here out of interest because the Tyre Extinguishers are in the news today: https://www.tyreextinguishers.com/ho...te-an-suv-tyre

Definitely not encouraging anyone to follow those instructions.

[Nefertiti2]

What's possible if you have a functioning rail system

https://twitter.com/lucemcdowell/status/1599347307153080320?s=20&t=cSqGrCSxmiC83Qg2MJg1qg

[Nefertiti2]

31st of December temperatures

France

https://twitter.com/ClemSenechal/status/1609088553757347840?s=20&t=CwgoxPNo8dJjLbHivyPRoA

Germany

https://twitter.com/Peter_Jelinek/status/1608947508436434949?s=20&t=CwgoxPNo8dJjLbHivyPRoA

[ad hoc]

31st of December temperatures

France

https://twitter.com/ClemSenechal/status/1609088553757347840?s=20&t=CwgoxPNo8dJjLbHivyPRoA

Germany

https://twitter.com/Peter_Jelinek/status/1608947508436434949?s=20&t=CwgoxPNo8dJjLbHivyPRoA

It's 10 degrees here* at the moment. This is the coldest place in the country and usually at this time of year it's well below zero. Minus 20 is not an unusual temperature on "szilveszter".

(*I flew home today)

[Nefertiti2]

https://twitter.com/PeteApps/status/1609683053059919872?s=20&t=E5TKqz_-r7p62uqQSC-lgA

[Nefertiti2]

https://twitter.com/GeoffreySupran/status/1613611667254046721?s=20&t=exRWpq3f3u8eaFj9bPXc-g

[Nocturnal Submission]

I quite like the fact that the founders of Europe's first green political party (citation needed) were two estate agents and two solicitors: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64815875

[Balderdasha]

This is on the news a lot this weekend, homes being destroyed in Norfolk before they fall into the sea: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-64930989

A few things struck me. One is people expressing surprise. The projections suggest that a huge amount of Norfolk is likely to be below sea level by 2030. This is not a one-off high tide, it's only going to get worse.

Second is that the people who are losing their homes seem to have only been in them for three or four years. I suspect it's that as the sea advances, these properties become vaguely affordable so people who can't afford to buy anywhere else are drawn towards them. Plus they must have beautiful views and people don't imagine that disaster will ever strike. One guy had already picked up his house and relocated it further from the coastline, but the sea had advanced towards it again. He was planning to move it again but the loss of coastline happened a lot faster than he expected.

The third thing I find interesting is that looking on Rightmove, houses only slightly further inland in Hemsby are still selling for £400-500,000. Everyone in this country appears to have their heads completely in the sand (heh) about what's coming in the next 10-20 years.

[Balderdasha]

Another thing is that the local government has voted to put sea defences in place, but estimate it will cost about £15 million whereas funding available from central government is only a fraction of that. It's not a feasible long-term solution.

[Fussbudget]

When I saw that story about Hemsby I thought I was having déjà vu, and sure enough the first two articles about coastal erosion I found going back (here and here - warning, Guardian links) both have pictures of houses in Hemsby falling into the sea from ten and three years ago respectively. Incredible that people are still buying houses there

[ursus arctos]

This has been a chronic problem in both riverine and coastal flood plains in this country since at least the 1990s and one that is continually made worse by the expansion of state-backed flood insurance for areas under threat and poltically motivated pledges to "rebuild" communities that have been decimated several times in my lifetime.

We have a similar dynamic around wildfires.

[San Bernardhinault]

This has been a chronic problem in both riverine and coastal flood plains in this country since at least the 1990s and one that is continually made worse by the expansion of state-backed flood insurance for areas under threat and poltically motivated pledges to "rebuild" communities that have been decimated several times in my lifetime.

We have a similar dynamic around wildfires.

100% this. Also, it's mostly - in the end - federally backed. The state appeases all their voters by giving them the moon on a stick, and when it turns out that the moon on a stick actually draws the tides higher and inundates their properties because they should never have been built on sea level flat plains that were once salt marshes, and all the houses and property is destroyed, the state says "We will rebuild" and then gets the federal government to pay for their mismanagement and incompence. There are so many billions that DeSantis and co leach from FEMA and other federal funds while keeping their state taxes low. At some point the rest of country should try and cut them off. But if you do that the people who're fucked are mostly fairly poor people.

[hobbes]

Hurrah! Something else to keep me awake at night.
Phosphogeddon!

[john the revelator]

Yeah, there is also Nitrogeddon
Basically so much nitrogen is being used in fertilizer that it is being converted from inert gas in atmosphere to eco-toxin.

Nice chart that sums up limits being breached (probably out of date)

https://www.ecoenclose.com/blog/nine...ry-boundaries/

(Glad that someone else is discreetly reading the Guardian without puffing their cheeks in outrage and demanding that the editor by hung)

[Nefertiti2]

https://twitter.com/SenSanders/status/1637940358448398337?s=20

[Ginger Yellow]

This EU carveout for "efuels" from the ICE ban is some bullshit, though sadly not particularly surprising given the power of the German auto firms. Even setting aside the extremely dubious claims for carbon neutrality, it is so obviously going to create a massive black market in petrol and/or defeat devices.

[anton pulisov]

Are there even any e-fuels on the market? Seems like pie in the sky.

[Ginger Yellow]

Are there even any e-fuels on the market? Seems like pie in the sky.

No

Supposedly there's an experimental production facility in Chile, but that's it as far as I can see. Which is why this is transparently an end-run around the ban, as not only is there no efuel on the market, the whole point of efuel is that it can be used in ordinary ICE cars. An "efuel only" carve-out is in practice no ban at all. There will be some sort of handwavy attempt to enforce it through registration or technology (eg handshakes at the pump), but there is currently no way to distinguish an efuel car from any other car, because they're the same thing. And "carbon neutral" efuel will be so expensive that the only reason anybody would buy an "efuel only" car, outside of supercars, maybe, would be if they intended to use non-efuel to run it.

[anton pulisov]

European countries will be phasing out internal combustion engine anyway. France, Norway, Netherlands, Sweden off the top of my head. Probably more. The French, Japanese and American car companies are racing ahead with electric car technology.

The German car manufacturers really trying to make themselves irrelevant here. Seems to be due to their bullshit macho autobahn culture. It's their illogical equivalent to America and it's guns.

[Ginger Yellow]

European countries will be phasing out internal combustion engine anyway. France, Norway, Netherlands, Sweden off the top of my head

I doubt they'd legally be able to stop people from buying German cars.

[hobbes]

I doubt they'd legally be able to stop people from buying German cars.

They could stop them registering them.
Or tax them\the fuel out of existence.

The French, Japanese and American car companies are racing ahead with electric car technology.

The Chinese and the South Koreans would like to be added to that list. Kia\Hyundai have been right at the cutting edge especially.

[Ginger Yellow]

They could stop them registering them.
Or tax them\the fuel out of existence.

You buy them in Germany (where they would be registered and taxed) and drive them/have them delivered to you in France. I find it hard to believe this would be preventable under EU rules. And that's assuming that Germany doesn't attempt to litigate against countries trying to enforce a ban saying that if it's type registered in one country it should be legal in all.

[hobbes]

Then you go the fuel tax route, I guess. Expense them off the roads. It might not be perfect but it would allow you to minimise the numbers and possibly provide a fund for allowing a tax break for EVs.

[Eggchaser]

The Japanese are most assuredly not racing ahead in the EV world, their offerings are woeful and they're still wedded to hydrogen fuel cells.

E-fuels are just another slow walk by the usual suspects, like that "fuel from algae" sideshow that Exxon used to grant farm for all it was worth, before quietly shelving it as impossible to scale up.

[ad hoc]

You buy them in Germany (where they would be registered and taxed) and drive them/have them delivered to you in France. I find it hard to believe this would be preventable under EU rules. And that's assuming that Germany doesn't attempt to litigate against countries trying to enforce a ban saying that if it's type registered in one country it should be legal in all.

But even in the EU you have to register your car where you are (there's a 3?6? month grace period in most countries but cars aren't like other products because they're taxed and licensed and insured and so on