ext_39051 ([identity profile] telemann.livejournal.com) wrote in [community profile] politicartoons2014-06-02 12:09 pm

E.P.A. to Seek 30 Percent Cut in Carbon Emissions by 2030



New York Times: Unveiling New Carbon Plan, E.P.A. Focuses on Flexibility


The Obama administration on Monday announced one of the strongest actions ever taken by the United States government to fight climate change, a proposed Environmental Protection Agency regulation to cut carbon pollution from the nation’s power plants 30 percent from 2005 levels by 2030, according to people briefed on the plan.

The regulation takes aim at the largest source of carbon pollution in the United States, the nation’s more than 600 coal-fired power plants. If it withstands an expected onslaught of legal and legislative attacks, experts say that it could close hundreds of the plants and also lead, over the course of decades, to systemic changes in the American electricity industry, including transformations in how power is generated and used.

[identity profile] fizzyland.livejournal.com 2014-06-02 04:20 pm (UTC)(link)
But solar power users are selfish d*cks who aren't contributing to grid maintenance fees!

[identity profile] fizzyland.livejournal.com 2014-06-02 05:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Venus is fascinating. Ray Bradbury had early sci-fi stories about it being a planet of endless rain when in truth, it's a place right out of Dante's Inferno.

In any case, it seems only logical to utilize a power source as abundant as the sun.

[identity profile] yes-justice.livejournal.com 2014-06-02 06:01 pm (UTC)(link)
Wow. That is some mountain range.

[identity profile] dexeron.livejournal.com 2014-06-02 06:58 pm (UTC)(link)
I love the old Venus and Mars stories, before we really understood just how inhospitable those two worlds actually were.

Zelazny started writing right about the time when it was becoming late to write those sorts of tales (because popular perception of those worlds was changing to match scientific discovery,) but he went ahead and quickly wrote "The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth" and "A Rose for Ecclesiastes" for Venus and Mars, respectively. He figured: "I need to write these now, before it's TOO late."

[identity profile] fizzyland.livejournal.com 2014-06-02 08:02 pm (UTC)(link)
Bradbury's Martian Chronicles were wonderful.

[identity profile] cursethedark.livejournal.com 2014-06-03 08:20 am (UTC)(link)
I just finished reading the hardbound Bradbury collection from B&N, which includes Martian Chronicles. So many amazing stories.

[identity profile] the-rukh.livejournal.com 2014-06-02 09:05 pm (UTC)(link)
Venus lost lighter gasses because it doesn't have earth's magnetosphere. That's what keeps the lighter gasses from getting blown away by solar wind on earth.

[identity profile] blackdwarv.livejournal.com 2014-06-07 06:06 pm (UTC)(link)
It doesn't have a magnetosphere because it's core is both less iron-rich and because it doesn't move in relation to the surface (Which is likely caused on earth due to plate tectonics which is in turn caused by... the presence of water.)

Nobody is quite sure, but it's likely one of those chicken-and-egg issues where more iron would have caused more water to form early, which would have caused a magnetosphere which would have caused more water to stay...

[identity profile] dexeron.livejournal.com 2014-06-02 04:49 pm (UTC)(link)
Last night's Cosmos touched on it in such a great way, especially in how it acknowledged a lot of the deniers' arguments, and answered them.

Also, I think I know the second person from the left in that picture. Actually, several of that person...

[identity profile] fizzyland.livejournal.com 2014-06-02 05:16 pm (UTC)(link)
My favorite episode was the one about Clair Patterson:
The Latest "Cosmos" Explains How Corporations Fund Science Denial (http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/04/cosmos-neil-tyson-lead-industry-science-denial)

[identity profile] dexeron.livejournal.com 2014-06-02 06:59 pm (UTC)(link)
The Clair Patterson one was powerful.

[identity profile] fizzyland.livejournal.com 2014-06-02 07:54 pm (UTC)(link)
And if it were happening today, that guy would be buried, literally or figuratively.

[identity profile] angelcerv25.livejournal.com 2014-06-03 08:06 am (UTC)(link)
It must happen, or we will die. The earth is dying because we abuse it and are killing it. This is fact. If it dies, we die.

[identity profile] blackdwarv.livejournal.com 2014-06-07 06:08 pm (UTC)(link)
Not really true.
The earth isn't dying. And even if we kill each other off in a decade, the earth will spin on, and new life will form.

...what kind of life, and whether intelligence will ever form again, that is a good question, but the Earth will survive us. The question is whether we want to be around for the next few generations or no.

[identity profile] angelcerv25.livejournal.com 2014-06-08 04:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Good point, the earth is tough and will defend itself from us.

That's what's so scary.