Cat 5 Milton One Of The Strongest Hurricanes On Record
Cat 5 Milton One Of The Strongest Hurricanes On Record
The National Hurricane Center says Milton is one of the strongest Atlantic storms on record. The Category 5 hurricane's winds are 180 mph. Hurricane warnings are now in effect for parts of Florida. Here’s the latest. - Videos from The Weather Channel | weather.com
So apparently we are now in the find out of the fuck around part of climate change. My only question is if Florida is still going to retain it's electoral votes once it's fully submerged underwater?
You're viewing a single thread.
Massive destruction of the United States by natural disasters is the only way the global north will do something about the climate crisis.
And even then, only if it impacts the bottom line.
In the cold war, the Pentagon continually did calculations to see who would be better/worse off after a nuclear confrontation. There were people who thought that if the calculus favored the US at all that was enough to justify a nuclear war.
I've always suspected similar models have been used to calculate the impacts of climate change. Billions might die, but if it destabilizes China that's a worthy sacrifice to maintain US hegemony. Better to be king of a dying world than give up an iota of power.
Couple that with the corporate competitive death drive.
China out-developing the US might be the only real hope.
In the cold war, the Pentagon continually did calculations to see who would be better/worse off after a nuclear confrontation. There were people who thought that if the calculus favored the US at all that was enough to justify a nuclear war.
For Dr. Strangelove Kubrick got a lot of inspiration from the Rand Corporation and other ghoulish orgs and people who were pressing that concept. An example...
Herman Kahn (February 15, 1922 – July 7, 1983) was an American physicist and a founding member of the Hudson Institute, regarded as one of the preeminent futurists of the latter part of the twentieth century. He originally came to prominence as a military strategist and systems theorist while employed at the RAND Corporation. He analyzed the likely consequences of nuclear war and recommended ways to improve survivability during the Cold War.
Kahn posited the idea of a "winnable" nuclear exchange in his 1960 book On Thermonuclear War for which he was one of the historical inspirations for the title character of Stanley Kubrick's classic black comedy film satire Dr. Strangelove. In his commentary for Fail Safe, director Sidney Lumet remarked that the Professor Groeteschele character is also based on Herman Kahn. Kahn's theories contributed to the development of the nuclear strategy of the United States.
I believe he was the first person to use "scenario" in its modern meaning. He needed a way to describe the future in stories as if written by people in the future. He used scenarios to suggest that a nuclear war could be won.
---
Ninja edit
I just realized he was a shitposter for evil. He just made shit up to rationalize apocalyptic mass death, destruction, and suffering.
"Look, guys - if the Soviets kill x tens of millions of us but we kill y tens of millions of them - we win. Lemme explain..."
Reading history from back then, it's terrifying how many airforce generals had to be metaphorically put in a full Nelson while they frothed and screamed to launch! Launch! Launch!
The us air force is about 1/2 completely delusional apocalyptic christian fascist death cult by personnel and it is an existential problem for the world.
The possibility of World War III has been on my mind. But just now I had a surreal thought about how the world could end in negative feedback loop of nuclear war, regular war, and climate change.
Israel goes to war with Iran and because it's an "extinction war" Israel launches "limited" nuclear strikes which - of course - leads to global chaos, instability, and more war. "Limited" nuclear war is now no longer unthinkable so eventually there's another. Chaos becomes the norm. Meanwhile - the world has had a sizeable number of regular wars due to the chaos, climate chaos, and the gigantic number of climate refugees. Because all of this - there's no appetite for cooperation so any workable climate engineering project has any hope of working.
At this point - it hardly matters if there is a World War III or not. The earth is already in a death spiral of chaos, climate chaos, and war.
It's grim comfort but afaik there's no scenario currently where life on earth, and probably people, will be wiped out. Even if most of us die someone will live, and hopefully remember us, and do better next time. This isn't some eco-fash "humans are the virus" thing. Just, we've been around for 450k years, and I think even if we really, really, really fuck this century up it won't be our last chance.
Even if it gets to a point where everyone here and everyone we know is fucked, it's still worth trying to fix things and preserve knowledge for the benefit of the people who come after us, because there will almost certainly be people after us. It might take a thousand or ten thousand years for things to calm down, or they might figure out how to thrive on a hot chaotic earth, we can't know right now. But it's not over, even if it ends up being over for us.
Idk if our current mode of production regardless where it’s being done really favours the environment though. I’ve read about swathes of the rainforest being cut down to mine minerals to build solar panels. We really need to rethink our relationship to technology and the earth if we want to avoid mass environmental destruction.
Yeah I agree, my main consideration is a development that in equal steps undermines the power of the West's governments and bourgeoisie, while also providing a materially beneficial offramp for a critical mass of them. Thus hopefully sidestepping nuclear war and other MAD-like outcomes.
Some of that development might be delayed until some of the ideologically hawkish people die and are replaced by cynical self-interested people who can be bought out.
It's too late to avoid it. At this point it's more about how much can we preserve.
I think it's largely too late. When Germany is (maybe? If i read that right?) In the path of a hurricane we're facing something no one is ready for.
What I think is going to happen is that major population and industrial centers are going to be destroyed faster than they can be repaired or moved, which will create knock-on effects damaging the whole economic system. Like there will be one single vital doo-dad factory that supplies 90% of a critical doo-dad, it'll get flattened, and the doo-dad shortage will reduce the production of doohickeys by 30%, which will have it's own effects.
And meanwhile the us and gulf nations will have millions of utterly impoverished refugees fleeing from region to region ahead of storms and heat bubbles, swamping city and state resources while the feds try to find a way to means test cholera.
Many of the gulf states are already in horrible shape, and this new normal of very strong storms is going to beat them flat and send their people fleeing.
Just trying not to think much about what happens in the rest of the gulf where the economy is even worse than say mississippi. : (
It's real fucking grim.
We already have a fucking IV fluid shortage because of the previous hurricane and my hospital, in fucking CALIFORNIA, has begun rationing bags.
I think it's largely too late. When Germany is (maybe? If i read that right?) In the path of a hurricane we're facing something no one is ready for.