If you want to end divisiveness you shouldn’t jump right into highly charged subjects like … ( wait for it) … the weather.
I’ve been having the same problem running out of newspaper with the woodstove at our shop. Mostly it seems like the paper is much thinner, but also we miss a delivery about one day a week. I don’t know if that is a business strategy to randomly wean us away from reading the paper in hard copy. In a pinch I’ll get a copy of the Chronicle to start my fire but I check who may be nearby when I pick it up so that nobody I know sees me pick it up.
Anyway, it looks like we’ll burn exactly a cord of seasoned hardwood this year which is maybe 10-15% less than usual. There is a more scientific way to judge the season. In the weather section of the PS there are statistics for Heating Degree Days which gives month and year to date numbers and the “normal” to compare it to. As of Sunday we had 5338 HDD compared to a “normal” of 6055, which is 717, or 11.8% fewer HDD than “normal” which is the average of the last 30 years. The insidious thing is that the “normal” gets updated periodically and as the climate gets warmer the “normal” goes up. So while we may be 11.8% warmer than todays normal we might be 15% or 18% warmer than 30 or 40 years ago. I don’t have that older info at my fingertips so I made up those numbers for illustration, but they’re probably not far off.
Climate is a touchy issue. I remember my boss at a local home panelization business saying “we won’t have to worry about that for 100 years.” I asked him if he had grandchildren. He didn’t fire me, actually, he thought about it and commented about it a day or 2 later. That was about 37 years ago and we’re worrying. So here’s the political part: Jimmy Carter tried to get us to wean ourselves from overconsumption, instituted CAFE standards on autos, put solar panels on the White House. Reagan derided him for instituting a nanny state and ripped the solar panels down, not to be replaced. Current news indicates the rumors of Reagan colluding with Iran to get elected may be true. In 2000 Al Gore won the popular vote but SCOTUS essentially gave the election to GWB over 500+/- votes in FL. And in 2016 Hillary won the popular vote but lost to Trump. Each of these elections had historic implications on our ability to manage our energy consumption and conservation policies, and every 4 - 8 years we lost that much more time to make small adjustments to our lifestyles. (Giving credit where due GWB signed the legislation eliminating wasteful incandescent lightbulbs, but GOP blames that on Obama) So now we are seeing the clear evidence of climate change in our daily lives along with the devastating and expensive effects of more powerful storms, sea level rise, etc. The changes we need to make now are far more drastic and expensive. These costs are disruptive and they are behind a lot displaced of political anger. People who called themselves “fiscal conservatives” are the ones who pushed costs onto future generations and just like compound interest the costs have compounded. The “fiscal conservatives” were the ones arguing against setting gas mileage standards for autos - standards that saved individuals and collectively the whole country. Maybe we need to stop listening to the “fiscal conservatives” because they cost us the most.
great... I don't mean this is good, but great tat someone understands the issues (the ones I can say that #pos_tefanik does NOT)
1) Jimmy Carter set us on the right path
2) iran contra reagan decided having a planet humans could live on was not important}]
(The only thing I can think is the rich thinks everyone but them will die and then the planet will be safe)
3) Mr. Parwana.. sounds like you have read some.. one of the most frightening things I have read, related to HDD, was in The Fifth Extinction. Corn, which is one of the crops that feed the planet, needs the night temps to cool down to a certain temperature or the tassels won't germinate into corn (https://agcrops.osu.edu/newsletter/corn-newsletter/2018-24/night-temperatures-impact-corn-yield)
The only hope for that is for Canada to become the corn belt and maybe Americans don't mind a deserts in Ohio and Iowa
Yes, you get at the flip side of heating, cooling, and there is a statistic for Cooling Degree Days. It’s not a number we ever paid attention to around here 40 years ago or more. Very few people had air conditioners, most cars didn’t have air conditioning. We had heat waves but they were typically tolerable because we didn’t tend to get too much humidity and it usually cooled off at night so you could open your windows and cool your house down. So while we may save some heating energy in the winter we are using a lot more in the summer and this includes nearly all retail and commercial buildings. All the extra equipment is costly, uses resources to make, and uses a lot of electricity famously leading to rolling blackouts and power outages. And as you note there are biological consequences including higher death rates, mostly among the elderly the very young and people with health compromises.
People used to come to the Adirondacks because it was cool in the summer --- to get away from city heat (because there was no A/C)
Now they will ONLY come if there is A/C
There are many things about the human brain process that doesn't make sense to me. But two big ones are related to climate change.
2) why people need to heat to 75° in winter, but in the summer they need to cool down to 65°
1) why is the concept of a billion in the northern and southern hemispheres burning billions of fossil fuels to keep warm, would not affect the climate of the planet
ugh
The people who think the science/intelligence of man will save us, don't give credit to the ignorance of man to not save the planet
Yes, except it isn’t due to the ignorance of man, rather it’s a function of the arrogance of man and following dead-end paths of economic theory. A lot of American economics have been shaped by people like Walt Rostow who pushed for mass consumption to be economic policy for the US and much of the world. Throw on people like Milton Friedman and you get the death spiral we find ourselves in. A child can understand that unlimited growth is simply not sustainable on a limited planet.
Maybe that is part of the problem. The belief that things are limitless and not our environment is a Ponzi scheme that we build thinking that there’s always more ahead.
Civility is a noble goal and it should be the preference. But it shouldn't be a straitjacket. Yes, some people use incivility to divide people and advance their selfish goals. But other people hide behind civility to parry legitimate criticism... and advance their selfish goals. Realize that this is a tricky needle to thread.
Take the Warren County board of supervisors. There are a lot of 'go along get along' members on that board who don't challenge leadership. The result is a lot of nonsense goes on there that shouldn't and countless examples of bad governance.
The few supervisors who question the status quo are often dismissed as being rude or uncivil. This is because them trying to be civil gets them ignored.
One of those people is Doug Beaty, whom the Post-Star (when you were editor) enthusiastically got behind for the position. He and Travis Whitehead (another guy you got behind) are sometimes prickly precisely because they ask questions that much of the rest of the board really don't want to address but ought to.
I've discovered that any well functioning board - political or otherwise - needs at least one person on it who is not afraid to be a pain in the (butt) by asking detailed questions that other members either didn't think of or don't care to answer.
I think this is great-please let us know how it goes!
If you want to end divisiveness you shouldn’t jump right into highly charged subjects like … ( wait for it) … the weather.
I’ve been having the same problem running out of newspaper with the woodstove at our shop. Mostly it seems like the paper is much thinner, but also we miss a delivery about one day a week. I don’t know if that is a business strategy to randomly wean us away from reading the paper in hard copy. In a pinch I’ll get a copy of the Chronicle to start my fire but I check who may be nearby when I pick it up so that nobody I know sees me pick it up.
Anyway, it looks like we’ll burn exactly a cord of seasoned hardwood this year which is maybe 10-15% less than usual. There is a more scientific way to judge the season. In the weather section of the PS there are statistics for Heating Degree Days which gives month and year to date numbers and the “normal” to compare it to. As of Sunday we had 5338 HDD compared to a “normal” of 6055, which is 717, or 11.8% fewer HDD than “normal” which is the average of the last 30 years. The insidious thing is that the “normal” gets updated periodically and as the climate gets warmer the “normal” goes up. So while we may be 11.8% warmer than todays normal we might be 15% or 18% warmer than 30 or 40 years ago. I don’t have that older info at my fingertips so I made up those numbers for illustration, but they’re probably not far off.
Climate is a touchy issue. I remember my boss at a local home panelization business saying “we won’t have to worry about that for 100 years.” I asked him if he had grandchildren. He didn’t fire me, actually, he thought about it and commented about it a day or 2 later. That was about 37 years ago and we’re worrying. So here’s the political part: Jimmy Carter tried to get us to wean ourselves from overconsumption, instituted CAFE standards on autos, put solar panels on the White House. Reagan derided him for instituting a nanny state and ripped the solar panels down, not to be replaced. Current news indicates the rumors of Reagan colluding with Iran to get elected may be true. In 2000 Al Gore won the popular vote but SCOTUS essentially gave the election to GWB over 500+/- votes in FL. And in 2016 Hillary won the popular vote but lost to Trump. Each of these elections had historic implications on our ability to manage our energy consumption and conservation policies, and every 4 - 8 years we lost that much more time to make small adjustments to our lifestyles. (Giving credit where due GWB signed the legislation eliminating wasteful incandescent lightbulbs, but GOP blames that on Obama) So now we are seeing the clear evidence of climate change in our daily lives along with the devastating and expensive effects of more powerful storms, sea level rise, etc. The changes we need to make now are far more drastic and expensive. These costs are disruptive and they are behind a lot displaced of political anger. People who called themselves “fiscal conservatives” are the ones who pushed costs onto future generations and just like compound interest the costs have compounded. The “fiscal conservatives” were the ones arguing against setting gas mileage standards for autos - standards that saved individuals and collectively the whole country. Maybe we need to stop listening to the “fiscal conservatives” because they cost us the most.
Correction: as the average temperature goes up over time the “normal” # of heating degree days go DOWN.
great... I don't mean this is good, but great tat someone understands the issues (the ones I can say that #pos_tefanik does NOT)
1) Jimmy Carter set us on the right path
2) iran contra reagan decided having a planet humans could live on was not important}]
(The only thing I can think is the rich thinks everyone but them will die and then the planet will be safe)
3) Mr. Parwana.. sounds like you have read some.. one of the most frightening things I have read, related to HDD, was in The Fifth Extinction. Corn, which is one of the crops that feed the planet, needs the night temps to cool down to a certain temperature or the tassels won't germinate into corn (https://agcrops.osu.edu/newsletter/corn-newsletter/2018-24/night-temperatures-impact-corn-yield)
The only hope for that is for Canada to become the corn belt and maybe Americans don't mind a deserts in Ohio and Iowa
Yes, you get at the flip side of heating, cooling, and there is a statistic for Cooling Degree Days. It’s not a number we ever paid attention to around here 40 years ago or more. Very few people had air conditioners, most cars didn’t have air conditioning. We had heat waves but they were typically tolerable because we didn’t tend to get too much humidity and it usually cooled off at night so you could open your windows and cool your house down. So while we may save some heating energy in the winter we are using a lot more in the summer and this includes nearly all retail and commercial buildings. All the extra equipment is costly, uses resources to make, and uses a lot of electricity famously leading to rolling blackouts and power outages. And as you note there are biological consequences including higher death rates, mostly among the elderly the very young and people with health compromises.
People used to come to the Adirondacks because it was cool in the summer --- to get away from city heat (because there was no A/C)
Now they will ONLY come if there is A/C
There are many things about the human brain process that doesn't make sense to me. But two big ones are related to climate change.
2) why people need to heat to 75° in winter, but in the summer they need to cool down to 65°
1) why is the concept of a billion in the northern and southern hemispheres burning billions of fossil fuels to keep warm, would not affect the climate of the planet
ugh
The people who think the science/intelligence of man will save us, don't give credit to the ignorance of man to not save the planet
Yes, except it isn’t due to the ignorance of man, rather it’s a function of the arrogance of man and following dead-end paths of economic theory. A lot of American economics have been shaped by people like Walt Rostow who pushed for mass consumption to be economic policy for the US and much of the world. Throw on people like Milton Friedman and you get the death spiral we find ourselves in. A child can understand that unlimited growth is simply not sustainable on a limited planet.
Maybe that is part of the problem. The belief that things are limitless and not our environment is a Ponzi scheme that we build thinking that there’s always more ahead.
As in more coal more fuel more fresh air
Great idea! Hope it catches on.
Yes, the newspapers have gotten really thin and the matches done seem to burn as long
Yea, the plastic on my laptop doesn't burn anywhere near as well as old fashioned newsprint.
Civility is a noble goal and it should be the preference. But it shouldn't be a straitjacket. Yes, some people use incivility to divide people and advance their selfish goals. But other people hide behind civility to parry legitimate criticism... and advance their selfish goals. Realize that this is a tricky needle to thread.
Take the Warren County board of supervisors. There are a lot of 'go along get along' members on that board who don't challenge leadership. The result is a lot of nonsense goes on there that shouldn't and countless examples of bad governance.
The few supervisors who question the status quo are often dismissed as being rude or uncivil. This is because them trying to be civil gets them ignored.
One of those people is Doug Beaty, whom the Post-Star (when you were editor) enthusiastically got behind for the position. He and Travis Whitehead (another guy you got behind) are sometimes prickly precisely because they ask questions that much of the rest of the board really don't want to address but ought to.
I've discovered that any well functioning board - political or otherwise - needs at least one person on it who is not afraid to be a pain in the (butt) by asking detailed questions that other members either didn't think of or don't care to answer.
I just hope these meetings will make a difference.
Amen. Let us all get to work.
Ben Driscoll
Warren County Board of Supervisors
"I Work for You Party"