Prolonged bouts of high temperatures in China have challenged power grids and crops, and concerns are mounting of a possible repeat of last year’s drought, the most severe in 60 years.
China is no stranger to dramatic swings in temperatures across the seasons but the swings are getting wider.
On Jan. 22, temperatures in Mohe, a city in northeastern Heilongjiang province, plunged to minus 53C, according to the local weather bureau, smashing China’s previous all-time low of minus 52.3C set in 1969.
Since then, the heaviest rains in a decade have hit central China, ravaging wheat fields in an area known as the country’s granary.
These few sentences really capture the horror of “climate change”, that so many people overlook. Yes “average global temp” might increase by 1 degree celsius, but the really immediately terrifying part is changes to large weather patterns that provide a foundation to gargantuan food production industries.
I live in Western Australia. It’s a large state perhaps 3 times the size of texas, but it’s very arid and mostly desert aside from the south west corner in which there’s a “belt” of land with appropriate conditions for cropping in which 18 million tonnes of grain is grown each year, of which 90% is exported. Suppose this year the state receives 30% less rain, then next year 30% more. Suppose that halves production this year, and washes away some of the dry top soil next year. Hell, we might even receive more rain but just a few hundred kilometers from where it usually is.
Point is, even a mild interruption to established weather patterns is going to have a huge and detrimental impact on human agriculture. It’s terrifying really.
For those wondering, one degree celsius increase means every kilogram of air has at least increased by 1°C. The specific heat of air is about 1158 J/(kg*C). Now that might not seem like a lot of energy, in fact 4g (one teaspoon) of sugar has 68,000 J of chemical energy.
The thing is, you might have noticed, there's a lot of air around us. About 5.14 x 10^(18) kg of air. So when you take a pretty normal number and multiply it by an insanely huge number, you get an insanely huge number. That's about 5 exajoules of energy. That is the total energy consumption of the US in 2021 for four million years. Or in sugar terms, equal to the energy of sugar if you converted a little over half of the Earth's entire mass into sugar.
We hit that additional amount of energy in our atmosphere in 2017.
But as an Australian myself i believe the government will ensure we’re all fed and not leave us to starve. Especially not in the Northern Territory where we can’t grow fuck all. /s (do we do that here)
"values its free time set the stage for economic stagnation", those damned People wishing to not be slaves for the ultra wealthy are to blame, not the wealthy's looting and corruption! /s
Recently, I was at the grocery store and the family in front of me at at a minimum of 9 tubs of ice cream. (2L ones). Turns out they are from Connecticut visiting Canada. According to the check out lady, people from the states load up on our local ice cream and cheeses. It seems to be quite common.
The brand of ice cream that they got has a factory + store front about 10 minutes away from me. We drive past it all the time, it’s been extremely busy with these hot temps. With lines going out the door and into the parking lot just to have an ice cream cone.
Sure, it’s anecdotal, but there’s still plenty of people in love with ice cream.
About ten years ago while visiting the Canadian side of Niagra Falls, my other half wanted a pizza and to stay in at our beautiful room overlooking the falls. So we got a fancy pizza with pretzel crust from Little Caesars and holy hell it was good - soon as we got back to America I tried to order the exact same pizza a week later and it was completely different. Different crust, cheese, etc - I was so disappointed lol
Canada and US have different food and safety laws. Milk is quite a bit different, the laws are pretty strict that US cannot export their milk to Canada. There’s hormones and such the US inject their cows with (in order to produce more milk) that are illegal in Canada. It affects the flavour and how healthy the milk is.
Canada has higher standards of what is acceptable to eat. I believe during covid they did not reduce their standards to meet demands. In the US, if the animal was sick it’s not supposed to be suitable for consumption. But in order to meet demands, they loosened that restriction. Meat quality went down during covid. In Canada the price of meat went up.
The US is also more likely to use fillers and such to cut costs. Like how back in the medieval age, they would cut their flour with saw dust. Basically that. But it isn’t necessarily the law to put that anywhere or what the filler is. There are many products in the US that cannot be sold as that product in other countries. Example: wonder bread can not be sold as bread due to all the sugar. Subway has to be classed as a desert place due to all the sugar, a specific brand of ice cream cannot be classed as ice cream due to lack of cream (and because of all the sugar), so on and so fourth.
It doesn’t surprise me that it’s so different. About 15 years ago I had a burger at a McDonald’s Donald’s in Mexico and it was so different, it was so good. It was like eating at an actual higher end burger joint. The lettuce and tomatoes were fresh, the patties were juicy, the buns weren’t a sweet, wet mess. And it was bigger, too.
Oh no, I totally know it - there's a reason why I'm starting a micro-homestead to raise my own meat and fruits/vegetables - because I want to heat good healthy food, not all that other junk.
I was just so shocked at the difference in taste between the two pizzas which is not something I regularly eat anyway
Little differences add up! I’m glad you have the ability to have a homestead. We can do a garden and in theory we have the space to raise chickens or rabbits for meat/eggs but we’d probably get too attached to the chickens/rabbits to get them butchered. We do have a garden but I think most of our crop is going to fail. It’s been so hot and rainy here. Our back garden flooded again yesterday. Our upper garden is fine but there’s less space.
Well yeah, what are we waiting to work ourselves to death? Where this stupid idea of having free time came from? What the shareholders gonna think about it??
I suppose this kind of “journalism” has the only scope of making americans feel better.
The researchers studied how drinking affects different people. They looked at three groups: light drinkers, heavy social drinkers, and those with alcohol use disorder (AUD). At first, people with AUD seemed less impaired after drinking a moderate amount, but when they drank a lot like they usually do, they became significantly impaired in their motor and thinking skills. Even worse, their impairment didn’t go away even after three hours. The study shows that experienced drinkers with AUD may feel like they can handle more alcohol, but too much still affects them badly. This research could help people understand the risks of drinking too much and lead to better ways to prevent harm caused by excessive alcohol use.
How does this practically work? Russia fires all the executives, replaces them with their own and redirect the profits? No impact to the remaining employees?
Probably something like that. Heck, probably most of the local executives are Russian, so they were probably in on the government take over. Now they are running the company for Putin. Danone and Carlsberg deserves to have their operations taken over since they decided to continue to run their business in that company.
Perhaps asking in a wefwef community/magazine would be more productive if you really want an answer. Otherwise, it seems like you’re just complaining about seeing someone because you personally aren’t interested. Those of us commenting and upvoting, however, are.
Probably because of shrinkflation and because they’re taking all the good stuff out of it. Seems like most of it is no longer ice cream but “frozen dairy dessert”.
I would be amazed if they weren’t hit harder, many orthodox jews live in dense communities and there is a genetic disposition to immunodeficiency disorders.
We’re looking at class warfare,” Nathanson said. “It’s become more than just about their work agreements, but also about statements they want to make about society and fairness. Working-class people are looking to take their anger out on the studio executives."
The subtle insinuation in that phrasing, that the executives are not at fault here, but merely benevolent rulers upon whose heads their workforce has spitefully misplaced the blame. AI capabilities have significantly improved, and now the human writers are demanding unnecessary expenses like money and job security. Pah!
A strike is certainly not the outcome we hoped for as studios cannot operate without the performers that bring our TV shows and films to life,” the [Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers] said. “The union has regrettably chosen a path that will lead to financial hardship for countless thousands of people who depend on the industry.”
Privately, company executives say their businesses won’t feel much financial pain for several months. Without widespread production, costs will be lower, which translates into higher profits — at least in the short term.
Studios also are expected to begin canceling TV writers’ overall deals to find more savings.
I couldn’t help but notice how the article didn’t even mention the studio exec who said the plan was to wait until writers stating losing their homes before negotiating.
If there’s class warfare happening, they fired first.
I really hope that knowledge only emboldens them. There needs to be a contingency plan for when this point is reached. The most important action in this situation is to band closer and prop your colleagues up instead of crumbling, or they'll keep using the tactic to force workers on their knees.
They seem to be forgetting they need celebrities to promote their movies and shows. None of them will be doing press junkets. Not even podcasts. Do they think their PR departments can replace something like that? Sure, maybe that won’t stop people from going to see the next Marvel blockbuster, but it’s not going to be good for their industry as a whole.
Remember when the Kennedy name was a mark of quality for politicians and not a surgeon general's warning? "Caution: May contain high levels of crazy."
And to think that phony "No Labels" organization actually supports this guy! How about we elect a politician that actually DOES stuff instead of spreading conspiracy theories and demonizing already disenfranchised groups of people? Denying a transgender person health care never put food on my table, just sayin'.
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