The Green Room

[PedalUma]

New bikes take a lot of raw materials to make. Did anyone see about Afghanistan's treasures of minerals such as lithium? China shares a boarder with Afghanistan next door. I like the idea of recycling as much as we can such a batteries or making new bikes from old ones instead of mining all those raw materials and filling up landfills.

The Taliban are sitting on $1 trillion worth of minerals the world desperately needs

The swift fall of Afghanistan to Taliban fighters has triggered a humanitarian crisis, with thousands trying to flee the country. It's also brought renewed focus on Afghanistan's vast untapped mineral wealth, resources that could transform its economic prospects if ever developed.

www.cnn.com

 

[Art Deco]

New bikes take a lot of raw materials to make. Did anyone see about Afghanistan's treasures of minerals such as lithium? China shares a boarder with Afghanistan next door. I like the idea of recycling as much as we can such a batteries or making new bikes from old ones instead of mining all those raw materials and filling up landfills.

The Taliban are sitting on $1 trillion worth of minerals the world desperately needs

The swift fall of Afghanistan to Taliban fighters has triggered a humanitarian crisis, with thousands trying to flee the country. It's also brought renewed focus on Afghanistan's vast untapped mineral wealth, resources that could transform its economic prospects if ever developed.

www.cnn.com

View attachment 97159

I did see that article, but I am not thinking that China is going to invest in Afghanistan without the USA spending millions to keep some kind of peace there. If China actually tries to run much of anything in Afghanistan, they will be the fourth major power to make such a mistake...Britain, Russa, and the USA so far. It's certainly possible, but I'm not expecting anyone to be able to mine much there.

 

[PedalUma]

You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous of which is "never get involved in a land war in Asia,".

The Chinese can just run trains of raw materials from the boarder without needing to set a boot on the ground.

 

[Art Deco]

You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous of which is "never get involved in a land war in Asia,".

The Chinese can just run trains of raw materials from the boarder without needing to set a boot on the ground.

I had forgotten that quote. Here's another describing Afghanistan " My brother and I against my cousin; and my cousin, my brother, and I against the outsider."
Edit for pic...

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71Q1HVgrbVL._AC_SR438,658_QL65_.jpg

 

[Mulezen]

The Chinese have interest in pushing through their concrete version of the Silk Road, and also want to access the rare earth deposits. Though the border is small China has millions of related Muslims in slave labor camps. That is sure to present problems.

 

[Art Deco]

Another record ...

Rain fell at the normally snowy summit of Greenland for the first time on record | CNN

For the first time, precipitation at the summit of Greenland, roughly two miles above sea level, fell as rain on Saturday and not snow.

edition.cnn.com

 

[john peck]

I did see that article, but I am not thinking that China is going to invest in Afghanistan without the USA spending millions to keep some kind of peace there. If China actually tries to run much of anything in Afghanistan, they will be the fourth major power to make such a mistake...Britain, Russa, and the USA so far. It's certainly possible, but I'm not expecting anyone to be able to mine much there.

China has it´s own radical Islamics to deal with without getting involved with Afghanistan, but perhaps
minerals could be a motive. Successful conquest of ´stan´ seems to have eluded the rest of the world for
millenia. Maybe itś time for the Afghans to solve their own problems. I´m not optimistic. We don´t seem to
have done all that well here at home either. I am growing numb to government & religion in general.

 

[st0ut]

China has it´s own radical Islamics to deal with without getting involved with Afghanistan, but perhaps
minerals could be a motive. Successful conquest of ´stan´ seems to have eluded the rest of the world for
millenia. Maybe itś time for the Afghans to solve their own problems. I´m not optimistic. We don´t seem to
have done all that well here at home either. I am growing numb to government & religion in general.

The People Libertion Army doesnt have to worry about pesky little things like human rights when dealing with others its deems unwanted

 

[john peck]

Our government is broken, completely unable to function in an expedient & efficient manner. It may
have been serviceable back in 1800 when we had largely illiterate population of 5 million. 5 years ago
we were promised to have an infrastructure plan. 5 years!!! All the political parties seem to be good for
is cancelling each other out. It takes enough paperwork to fill a wastebasket just to get one emptied.
For the 20 years we´ve been lied to about having trained a viable Afghan security force that has never
existed except on paper. 2 trillion dollars? In whose pockets has that money gone? The Roman Empire
collapsed when fully 1/3 of ´Roman Citizens´ were on government payrolls
It will another 5 years before the gov takes any meaningful action on climate as long as it takes a 2/3
majority to get anything done.

 

[Mulezen]

Amidst the fire, floods, and pestilence I thought this nifty new wind machine a breath of fresh air. https://archinect.com/news/article/...bine-farms-that-could-power-80-000-homes-each

 

[Art Deco]

Amidst the fire, floods, and pestilence I thought this nifty new wind machine a breath of fresh air. https://archinect.com/news/article/...bine-farms-that-could-power-80-000-homes-each

Very nice. Five of those giant 1000 foot units floating offshore equals twenty five regular turbines, they say.

 

[tomjasz]

The People Libertion Army doesnt have to worry about pesky little things like human rights when dealing with others its deems unwanted

Minimum wage employees qualifying for food stamps doesn’t give the USA the moral high ground. Just sayin...

 

[Art Deco]

Minimum wage employees qualifying for food stamps doesn’t give the USA the moral high ground. Just sayin...

Only as long as they only work part time (to qualify for Medicare, food stamps, subsidized child care, rent and heat) , Wal-Mart and the rest of the mass employers will be happy to have taxpayers pick up the real costs of keeping their people alive (but too desperately poor to refuse to work s**t jobs).

Actually Wal-Mart is apparently better than many employers now, but that's a totally different rant from weather and climate so I will shut up on that.

But those restaurant workers aren't exactly rushing back to work, are they?

 

[tomjasz]

Only as long as they only work part time (to qualify for Medicare, food stamps, subsidized child care, rent and heat) , Wal-Mart and the rest of the mass employers will be happy to have taxpayers pick up the real costs of keeping their people alive (but too desperately poor to refuse to work s**t jobs).

Actually Wal-Mart is apparently better than many employers now, but that's a totally different rant from weather and climate so I will shut up on that.

But those restaurant workers aren't exactly rushing back to work, are they?

Interesting response. Surprising really. I had a rough two months in 1978. No job no money and no prospects. Devastating really. Life changing and very motivating. I have empathy for the underemployed. Walmart took full advantage of tax payers and had high numbers of employees qualified for assistance. I’m thinking I’d be looking for new work if I were a server in these covid days.

 

[Art Deco]

/rant While Wal-Mart isn't so bad compared to to Uber and delivery workers, many restaurants, and the " gig economy " in general they all keep the faith of "the rich must get richer while the poor get poorer".

Read back through this thread and you can see that clean tech could be well established by now, but the money just isn't there, and there are mostly political and business reasons for that. /endrant

 

[john peck]

Amidst the fire, floods, and pestilence I thought this nifty new wind machine a breath of fresh air. https://archinect.com/news/article/...bine-farms-that-could-power-80-000-homes-each

Less labor intensive than harvesting wave energy, pivots 360 down wind, built on a buoy of some sort, I think
it could be made storm proof.

 

[tomjasz]

The green market is a tough sort. Here we were offered

Read back through this thread and you can see that clean tech could be well established by now, but the money just isn't there, and there are mostly political and business reasons for that. /endrant

no need to read back. We’re paying more for our electric by supporting wind power on our grid. I learned that due to a state mandate paying more for wind power rather than investing in solar farms our utility MUST use our electric payment for building more sustainable systems. No burning fuels.

 

[john peck]

I can´t get the current U.S. drought monitor map to load here? None-the-less, I think all here should go
to the monitor site & take a good long look at the monster devouring the western United States. Forget
Covid; we´ve got something more important to worry about. The same thing driving this drought is driving
the storms & floods in the east. We can´t deal with the one issue without addressing the other. Doing so
requires a totally new industrial mind set & type of infrastructure.Those areas in dark red must be shaded
& planted with desert tolerant vegetation. There are many such plants that are also good food if nurtured.
I can think of none more suited to the task than the flood of climate refugees arriving from the south. The
global ocean conveyor is collapsing. This bodes far worse consequences than the pandemic.

 

[Mr. Coffee]

This bodes far worse consequences than the pandemic.

I figure in 2023 or 2024 when we really get the pandemic under control worldwide nature is going to smile, or at least smirk, at us and really give us a whack upside the head. I'm talking like either coastal flooding that makes southern Florida even more uninhabitable than it currently is, or a wildfire that torches half of a western state, or the Colorado River system just giving up the ghost and there being not just less water, but no water for tens of millions of people.

It is hard to imagine how our society or system would survive if there were tens of millions of permanently displaced people dumped out onto the streets.

 

[Mr. Coffee]

A funny thing about green buildings is how people defeat them. They have very sophisticated electronic monitoring and control systems, windows that can't be opened, and thermostats that cannot be accessed by occupants. In the real world people will do such things as prop doors open to the outside when the AC is running. Put space heaters under their desks or duct tape a heating pad to at thermostat. They are too hot for men and too cold for women. If no one is in them they work perfectly during a test.

If you've ever worked in an office building even old-style buildings had awful and incompetently managed climate control. I can't imagine that you'd solve that problem with different tech.