El Paso is one of those few but not insignificant number of American cities that I’ve been to so much I feel like I’ve lived there when I actually haven’t. Work and fun travel will do that progressively over time. More than anything what drew me to El Paso was the people. I really miss working with those folks and their families a lot. I’ll probably never go there for work again, but whenever I find my way back to El Paso the people are always there.
Still, that doesn’t mean El Paso lacks for things to do on your own. In Franklin Mountain, El Paso has a hill that literally bisects the city, and gives it its name. It’s a good hike, and one that if done on a weekday has the always enjoyable trait of being one you can accomplish without seeing a single other human being, which always adds a nice poetic touch to the hike.
the always typical and delightful: I want to climb that.
I can’t remember what this small structure was, but I think it was a power company site back when such things were needed
east El Paso, it’s hard to tell in this shot, but this portion of the mountain has three or four feet of hiking room, with a very clear one way trip doom fall on either side of you, it was fun
The best way to improve the climate is apparently to jet set the richest most important arrogant people on the planet into one place and get them to talk and produce nothing but bland platitudes for days. Make no mistake, lots of promises will be made, but nothing will be done.
All these countries will promise to be net zero by [insert any date here] and a bunch of corporations will produce squishy statements about how they’re committed to [insert any sanitized public relations talking point here] but it will just be hypocritical window dressing.
If they were honest, they would all scream and cry and then burn down the exhibit hall. Or better yet, not show up at all. Because the honest truth is there is no coherent plan to fight climate change. It’s all a pipe dream.
The global pandemic, the most catastrophic economic event in nearly a century, caused only a very small fraction of a dip in global emissions. Take a gander at this chart:
The economy of almost every country on the planet was detonated, hundreds of millions of people sent back into poverty, and life stopped for months on end due to lockdowns. And that cut emissions only a fraction of what they’ve risen to in the last two decades. So what’s it going to take to get emissions back down to year 2000 levels? Well, if the pandemic is a guide, I guess the answer could only be to destroy the entire human race.
The way out of this mess is apparently to replace all coal, gas, and oil with wind and solar. But these make up only a fraction of the overall power structure and it’d be 2189 before they could fully take over. Which if you believe the projections by that point the planet will be on fire and visible as a glowing molten rock from Saturn.
Then you hear the estimates that wind turbines have to cover an area the size of India. Because the planet has plenty of open space in its populated areas, right? And the same nutcases who are calling for net zero are also bizarrely anti-nuclear, because clearly this net zero power source is evil, you know, if they can’t do math.
To me this is the height of unseriousness. The planet needs nuclear power in order for the math to work, but Germany, Japan, and just about any green activist of consequence wants nuclear gone. They might as well just admit they’re selling an idea worthy of a druid occult ritual where they promise, just promise you the blood of a deer will cure your cancer. Which of course, it won’t. Unless you’re a druid reincarnated from 345 BC, then it’d work, or so I’m told.
Even the Paris accords acknowledge that they only way humanity can keep temperatures below a rise of 2 degrees Celsius has to involve “negative emissions”.
This is the idea of carbon capture and other such things that stop or even remove carbon from the atmosphere. Without significant negative emissions, the math doesn’t work either and over 2 degrees Celsius happens. And as of today, I think the total amount of carbon capture per year is less than what’s put into the atmosphere per day.
So then you get lunatic moonshot ideas of seeding the atmosphere with sun blocking chemicals, or throwing a giant sun shield between the Sun and the Earth. This Bond villain lunacy couldn’t possibly backfire, honest. I mean, we can trust the planet’s elites to not make mistakes, can’t we?
Hey to me the climate change argument is just noise. Believe in climate change or not, because it doesn’t matter what you actually think. You’re just going to have to adapt to the weather, regardless of what happens.
What does matter is the planet’s elites have only nonfunctional, delusional answers and plans which won’t work. It’s complete theater. Enjoy the ride, those who are driving are idiots.
As useful to the human race as a demolition derby event
The Arcturus Project 