irrelevance

Two scientists in the UK have come to the conclusion that climate goals are unattainable. Which brings us back to the climate depression post I made last week. The problem appears to be that while people are talking the talk in public, they are not walking the walk. The reasons span from not understanding what's going on, not wanting to pony up the cost or not caring.

As I sad before: this is a management problem not a technical one.

Wind farms are big now. Up here in New England they're running into rough water. Turns out that people would rather be liberal in name only (LINO) and have their ocean view instead of losing part of the view and actually doing something about carbon emissions. People like the Kennedys, who don't want their Hyannis view sullied. My heart bleeds. They're going to try windfarms in the UK and may well have better luck. There are also attempts at harnessing ocean energy. (See here.) But they have run afoul of fishermen.

Eventually, technology may well have to step in where politicians fear to tread. Hopefully, they'll be able to.

However, there are a couple of interesting brain articles that might shed light on this problem. Some brain researchers have developed a model of how the brain learns from its mistakes. (See here.) In addition, another group of researchers have an idea how the brain tunes out irrelevalent distractions. (See here.)

All this gives us hope we can learn from our mistakes if we can manage to quit finding climate change irrelevant.


Neat Science Category:
See how the Death Valley pupfish changes phenotype to suit the environment here.