NOAA Retires Extreme Weather Database (cnn.com) 113
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNN: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Thursday its well-known "billion-dollar weather and climate disasters" database "will be retired," a move that will make it next to impossible for the public to track the cost of extreme weather and climate events. The weather, climate and oceans agency is also ending other products, it has recently announced, due in large part to staffing reductions. NOAA is narrowing the array of services it provides, with climate-related programs scrutinized especially closely.
The disasters database, which will be archived but no longer updated beyond 2024, has allowed taxpayers, media and researchers to track the cost of natural disasters -- spanning extreme events from hurricanes to hailstorms -- since 1980. Its discontinuation is another Trump-administration blow to the public's view into how fossil fuel pollution is changing the world around them and making extreme weather more costly. [...]
The database vacuums loss information from throughout the insurance industry, among other public and private sources. According to the database, there were 403 weather and climate disasters totally at least $1 billion in the United States since 1980, totaling more than $2.945 trillion. As of April 8, there had not been any confirmed billion-dollar disasters so far in 2025, but it lists four events as having the potential to make the tally, including the Los Angeles-area wildfires in January. Between 1980 and 2024, there were nine such disasters on average each year, though in the past five years, that annual average has jumped to 24. The record for one year was 28 events in 2023. "What makes this resource uniquely valuable is not just its standardized methodology across decades, but the fact that it draws from proprietary and non-public data sources (such as reinsurance loss estimates, localized government reports, and private claims databases) that are otherwise inaccessible to most researchers," Jeremy Porter, head of climate implications for and co-founder of First Street, a climate risk financial modeling firm, told CNN via email.
"Without it, replicating or extending damage trend analyses, especially at regional scales or across hazard types, is nearly impossible without significant funding or institutional access to commercial catastrophe models."
The disasters database, which will be archived but no longer updated beyond 2024, has allowed taxpayers, media and researchers to track the cost of natural disasters -- spanning extreme events from hurricanes to hailstorms -- since 1980. Its discontinuation is another Trump-administration blow to the public's view into how fossil fuel pollution is changing the world around them and making extreme weather more costly. [...]
The database vacuums loss information from throughout the insurance industry, among other public and private sources. According to the database, there were 403 weather and climate disasters totally at least $1 billion in the United States since 1980, totaling more than $2.945 trillion. As of April 8, there had not been any confirmed billion-dollar disasters so far in 2025, but it lists four events as having the potential to make the tally, including the Los Angeles-area wildfires in January. Between 1980 and 2024, there were nine such disasters on average each year, though in the past five years, that annual average has jumped to 24. The record for one year was 28 events in 2023. "What makes this resource uniquely valuable is not just its standardized methodology across decades, but the fact that it draws from proprietary and non-public data sources (such as reinsurance loss estimates, localized government reports, and private claims databases) that are otherwise inaccessible to most researchers," Jeremy Porter, head of climate implications for and co-founder of First Street, a climate risk financial modeling firm, told CNN via email.
"Without it, replicating or extending damage trend analyses, especially at regional scales or across hazard types, is nearly impossible without significant funding or institutional access to commercial catastrophe models."
When does it stop? (Score:5, Insightful)
I just read an article that was 'hopeful', pointing out Trump is losing more cases than winning that are brought against him because of the government's actions. Show me the parts of his agenda that are good for Americans, where a win for him isn't a loss for everyone else.
Free press, an impartial adversarial judicial system, due process... pretty much everything Americans have held as necessary to their pursuit of happiness is being destroyed while those who aren't cheering it on sit idly by.
You're less than a couple of years away from being in a Russian oligarchy. Maybe far less. The market pain is going to start hitting hard in a few weeks, and it's not going to let up. They're going to try and blame others to solidify their grip on power. New groups will be chosen as the scapegoat and persecuted.
This is the future of the US, because nobody wants to pay the price of fighting tyranny if they still have hope somebody else will do the bleeding for them. I can't fight for you, I'm busy worrying my country will be selected as your next external 'enemy' and then I'm going to have to fight and it won't be FOR you.
It doesn't (Score:5, Insightful)
In order for that to happen the Democrats would have to wield the power they have in order to shut down voter suppression. This would involve basically ignoring court orders as needed in order to ram voting rights cases up to State supreme courts where they have majorities.
They absolutely have the power to do it but the problem is the kind of centrist Democrat who would be in charge of doing it does not under any circumstances want to wield power. They are obsessed with proprietary and process and procedure believing it is sacred above All Else.
Now ordinarily what would happen is the left wing of the party and the left wing Independence would give them a kick in the rear and they would get off their asses and wield the power and solve this problem.
The problem with that is the left wing doesn't really want to stop voter suppression. They have a childish dream of kids 18 to 24 showing up to vote in droves and instituting Nordic style Democratic socialist reforms. They have literally been trying to achieve that for so long that the 18 to 24 set they originally started working on are in their 60s and voted overwhelmingly for Trump...
Basically we are a nation of 12-year-olds. We act like children. Left right up down center doesn't matter who it is we stopped maturing at around age 12, some of us make it all the way to 14 and then that's it. So it's extremely hard for any of us to do what really needs to be done to save our country's democracy.
It's possible to share incompetence of Donald Trump and everyone around him might save us again but it seems unlikely. I suspect the whole country is going to turn into a fascist dictatorship like China and or Russia. I hope my kid can flee the country when it happens and that Europe has enough nukes that still work to keep the US military at Bay. I'm also hoping to die before the worst of it.
Would love to be proven wrong but I have watched these last several months as the lefties and the centrists uselessly bicker over specific policy and do absolutely nothing about democracy. Every now and then one of the lefties realizes how fuck they are and does a screed about how we're going to all use violence to get back democracy. They're 12-year-olds but they're not that dumb they know it won't work. But the alternative is giving up that stupid cherished dream of theirs. and they're hobbyists in it for the fun so that's not going to happen.
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>Every now and then one of the lefties realizes how fuck they are and does a screed about how we're going to all use violence to get back democracy.
It'll happen... Eventually, when things are bad enough they can no longer fool themselves into thinking there is a choice, the sheep will fight back.
The US isn't Russia. It has a long cultural history of prosperity and resentment and selfishness, and you can't just rip that away and put a boot on its neck without pushback. There's a whole generation of ang
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There's a whole generation of angry young men having their futures torn away,
Democrats have been in the White House for 12 of the past 16 years ...
only unlike the MAGAs they're not ignorant and gullible. But they will grow up with an intense burning hatred of the right wing and nothing to lose...
Yeah, this goes a long way toward explaining why Donald Trump's support increased among this demographic group (see above about 12 of 16 years). Go look it up, I'll wait.
Don't blame me, I've voted Green (or for Bernie) for years.
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Yeah thank goodness the greens have really taken point in the battle against the administrations lawlessness. I can't wait to read all about their next court challenge to the unlawful deportations of American citizens. They're really fighting for us! You can see it everywhere: in all the community outreach they do, and all the friend of the court briefs they file. They're always there at the forefront, to defend working citizens against tyrannical government overreach, and the way they jumped to defend pres
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Never vote for the winner. Every vote past the post is a wasted vote.
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Ignore this troll. (was Re:It doesn't) (Score:2)
No, it really doesn’t. And neither does your post. What it does is hijack a discussion about the loss of a vital climate data resource—critical to public safety and long-term economic planning—and derail it into a jaded screed about how “everyone is too immature to save democracy.” It’s a logic fire sale: false dilemmas, bad-faith assumptions, historical revisionism, and a parade of straw men so dense they’d block NOAA radar. You hijacked a vital discussion about th
Re: When does it stop? (Score:1)
When you put your shit together and do something about it.
Re:When does it stop? (Score:4, Interesting)
You're optimistic, I was thinking more like North Korea....
Re: When does it stop? (Score:2)
nuremberg.
what a wonderful defense.
and given todays toys.
prison guards could remote their jobs.
I think it would be trivial to use OpenAI for Alcatraz
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What would DOGE say?
"Yes sir! No sir! Three bags full, sir!"
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Free press
Where is the press in the US not free? Who is being arrested? Which papers and TV networks are being shut down?
an impartial adversarial judicial system
LOL, you have to be fucking kidding me. We've NEVER had an "impartial" judicial system. Judges are either appointed by partisan means or by the so-called "Missouri Plan", which is a farce because it basically turns selection of judges over to trial lawyers [wikipedia.org]. Going to court has always been a crapshoot, which is why virtually everyone that can do so tries to go jurisdiction-shopping to get the friendl
The never Republican crowd (Score:2)
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Re:When does it stop? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:When does it stop? (Score:4, Insightful)
No, his core supporters are those that the rich laughed at, made scapegoats and treated like turds on the soles of their shoes. The very same rich that is standing behind Trump and benefiting from his very move. Aka you voted against your own interests while blaming people that where never to blame for your misfortune. You fell for the most successful propaganda move in modern history.
The above could accurately describe anytime a rightwing/conservative leader has been democratically elected in any country in modern history. Millions of working class people convinced by the (billionaire-owned) mass media to vote against their own economic interests. The lack of critical thinking that allows them to be so deceived is a very deliberate consequence of chronic underfunding of education systems by rightwing/conservative governments, a vicious positive feedback loop.
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What mass media supported, promoted, and encouraged Trump's election, either one?
Waiting...
You're joking right? Wait longer. There's no way someone hasn't told you this, or that you don't know this. As a result you're either being incredibly dishonest, outright trolling, or equally likely too stupid to understand any reply made to you.
Re:When does it stop? (Score:4, Informative)
You seriously expect me to believe you've never heard of Fox News? They're consistently the most-watched news source. You may not like it (I don't either, as a matter of fact), but you don't get much more mass-media than that.
Re:When does it stop? (Score:5, Insightful)
We laughed at them for choosing ignorance and hatred and poverty even though we offered education and cooperation and prosperity.
Wow, they showed us, didn't they? Are their lives improving? No? Seems we were right to laugh at them, but probably wrong in being mostly compassionate and trying to help. We should have let them fail themselves into extinction long ago.
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Seems we were right to laugh at them, but probably wrong in being mostly compassionate and trying to help. We should have let them fail themselves into extinction long ago.
This. They've been ungrateful for our money (which is the only thing they truly worship) all along, they call us all manner of names while their states are failures and we have to keep them propped up. We should have let them go bankrupt a long time ago and taken over operations of their third world shitholes, which is what they would be without our taxes. The "republic" is just a means of making the successful states pay for the livelihoods of the assholes dragging us down and spewing hate at us. They get
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Re: When does it stop? (Score:2)
"You are just pissed that all those blue-collar rubes you've spent your whole life looking down upon(as they grew your food"
I live in California, clown. We grow more food consumed in this country than any other state.
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"Out of sight, out of mind" + "Après moi, le déluge"
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They also have no fear of the thundering herds of commoners, and are convinced of the invulnerability of their propaganda shield. Since they just convinced most of 300 million people that freaking GENOCIDE is a non-issue their confidence may be well based. [shudder]
Moving to Peru sounds better every day.
If you live in a disaster prone area (Score:2, Insightful)
This means that if a storm destroys your property there isn't going to be anything there to rebuild it. The insurance companies you're paying out so much money to will go under or they will Stonewall you with lawsuits you can't possibly win. The courts are packed with pro corporate judges so you are unlikely to get very far.
Don't even bitch. (Score:5, Insightful)
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We've neglected our democracy for far too long and we're going to lose this republic.
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Considering the only corporate- and genocide-friendly alternative we were allowed to vote for, voter apathy is understandable. As someone here said about the 2016 election, "If two people are sawing my legs off why do you expect me to thank the one who's doing it slower?"
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If there's no 3rd option where your legs aren't getting sawn off you're just full onboard for the "no legs for anyone" party?
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1/3 of you couldn't get off your fat asses to vote against it.
Thanks for blaming the victims of a system that is specifically designed to prevent them from voting. Go fuck yourself.
Re:Don't even bitch. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: Don't even bitch. (Score:4, Insightful)
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Well, dude, great thinking and you're of course right, it is always somebody else's fault.
In this case, of course, the fault of the electorate and not of the inept campaign.
No doubt about it.
Which brings only one question... Are you ready for trump in 2028?
Re: Don't even bitch. (Score:2)
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that they held a traditional campaign
I can recall in some detail all US presidential campaigns since Carter's back in 1976.
What I can't recall is a campaign before 2024 that would swap out a candidate at half-time because he could not manage.
But please go on about it being "traditional".
Re: Don't even bitch. (Score:2)
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You still choose to pretend you don't remember?
Well, let me refresh your memory then:
https://apnews.com/article/bid... [apnews.com]
Was it a rarity? Yes, the US press called it "unprecedented":
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/... [usatoday.com]
Re: Don't even bitch. (Score:2)
Re: Don't even bitch. (Score:2)
Well, dude, great thinking and you're of course right, it is always somebody else's fault.
In this case, of course, the fault of the electorate and not of the inept campaign.
You're literally blaming Trump's victory on Biden here, instead of you know ... Trump, or the adults that made an informed decision in Election Day. You're telling them they were wrong, and they can blame someone else.
It is 100% the fault of the electorate, after the election. Literally anything else requires you to explain what, going back in time, would have changed your mind that day, that someone was supposed to tell you, that you would have listened to.
Was something withheld from you that day? What the
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You're literally blaming Trump's victory on Biden here, instead of you know ...
You're literally blaming me, a foreign observer, for the failure of the Democratic party of the USA to run a presidential campaign against one of the dumbest fucktards that has ever ruled a country. Twice.
LOL.
Re: Don't even bitch. (Score:5, Informative)
Wow dude, that's twisted. Biden was done serving his country, period. Then democracy leaves it up to the voters.
Too bad we don't have democracy here. Not only has the public been manipulated through decades of spoiling education to avoid the creation of educated voters, but we also have voter suppression. This nation was founded as an oligarchy, with only landed white males permitted to vote, and they've used a variety of suppression tactics since to make sure that same class has an outsized vote in politics. And here you're pretending that's not true. Why are you trying to help them do it? That's all your denialism achieves.
Re:Don't even bitch. (Score:4, Interesting)
Nah.
America is not ready for a female president. It does not matter how well qualified, especially compared to the competition, people will not vote for her and will rationalise away arguments that evaporate as soon as the voting is done. No one really cared about Hillary's emails eose they'd be pushing for the same excessive punishments for Hegseth, Walz and etc. No one really cared about the price of groceries and eggs otherwise they'd be complaining even louder now.
The fault lies with the people who voted for Trump or stayed at home. They saw one term, they knew who he was.
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America is not ready for a female president
Apparently not. So why then did the Democrats put forward a third losing proposition, after Hillary Clinton (and Biden 2), knowing full well what will happen? Was letting trump get easily elected a reasonable move, given the damage he's doing? I'm sorry, but I think not.
Moreover, I don't think that Harris was really a Democratic proposition at all. She was in the extremely unfortunate position to be the stopgap that the Democrats put in place to dress the bad performance of Biden and thus burnt without much
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So why then did the Democrats put forward a third losing proposition
Hindsight is 20/20. Maybe the Dems thought that people just had something against Hillary.
Was letting trump get easily elected a reasonable move, given the damage he's doing?
They didn't "let" him. The fault is with the people who couldn't bear to have a woman in charge no matter how corrupt the competition.
Moreover, I don't think that Harris was really a Democratic proposition at all. She was in the extremely unfortunate position to be the
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> Apparently not. So why then did the Democrats put forward a third losing proposition, after Hillary Clinton (and Biden 2), knowing full well what will happen?
Because we didn't know. Republicans have a hate-on for Hills and have been literally making shit up about her since 1992. I mean it. They ran a dark propaganda campaign from the moment she and her husband became prominent which started with pretending a business failure she lost money on was a scam, and went all the way through to literally accusi
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Republicans have a hate-on for Hills and have been literally making shit up about her since 1992.
Well, I recall the 2008-09 Democratic primaries. I would not say the negative attitude is exclusive to the Republicans. But Clinton was, in the end, sunk by that last Comey statement, which later on turned out to be complete bullshit.
With Harris the situation was...
Harris was, unfortunately for her, overshadowed by the previous hiccups of the campaign. Whatever my opinion of her would have been if she were a prime candidate, she had a very tough uphill battle.
What was surprising is that she appeared to take off well, and then her campaign
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or stayed at home
Given how America insists on voting on Tuesdays, limiting voting hours, and actively undermines the postal voting system, "staying at home" is a not so much an insult on people who have checked out of democracy but a reflection of your own ignorance on the challenges faced by many to vote.
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Would you like a ladder to climb down from your high horse?
I wasn't criticising the people who couldn't practically vote. I was criticising the people who chose not to.
Re: Don't even bitch. (Score:2)
Did Biden do enough to prevent the victory of trump?
Whoa, election is already over, blame passed on to eligible voters. Why are you treating the people that helped elect Trump like children? These are fine upstanding citizens that take full responsibility for winning and you don't get to take that sense of ownership away from them. Everyone that stayed home instead of voting knows full well they delegated their say to someone else and got exactly what they wanted. I will hold them to it because I won't accept an adult blaming someone else for not changing th
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tl;dr
Biden's fault that people voted for orange turd.
Re: Don't even bitch. (Score:2)
lackluster bureaucrat with zero leadership ability
Yes, that is EXACTLY who we need right now now, someone that knows how the government works, how world governments work, remembers their oath, and is entirely forgettable. Trusts the opinion of others to help them nominate smart people to top jobs, and trusts the experience of the Senate to do due diligence and approve them. Then basically sits back and let those qualified people do their fucking jobs.
You've also described the best CEO for whatever company you work at. Because we all know how snake oil sale
Re: Its like... (Score:2)
Same as Covid (Score:4, Insightful)
Stop counting, and the numbers don't get any bigger.
What if we just stop counting the national debt? Can we keep spending like drunken sailors?
Re:Same as Covid (Score:5, Insightful)
"What if we just stop counting the national debt?" This is precisely what la Presidenta was suggesting back in Nov.-Dec. in the guise of increasing the debt limit by about $5 trillion if memory serves correct. That was just to grease the skids so that Congress could slide down to another $5 trillion in a year's time.
You want the U.S. to stop spending like a drunken sailor? Start by rescinding the Bush and la Presidenta tax cuts thus cutting the yearly deficit, start taxing the wealthy and polluting industries like they deserve so we do not lose productivity to environmental damage, fund education and science and health care so that people are not creating a hit on the health programs after waiting until they are at death's door before they can get any help (i.e., vaccines, gov. research on vaccines and cancer). And start increasing our reliance on renewables and stop contributing to global warming which is creating weather related disasters.
The way to decrease spending is to make smart investments. The U.S. junta and the Maggots do not understand that.
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The U.S. junta and the Maggots do not understand that.
You can't make a man understand something when his whole identity is built around not understanding it. Anti-intellectualism is the only thing they all have in common.
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The way to decrease spending is to make smart investments. The U.S. junta and the Maggots do not understand that.
The Democrats don't understand that either... which is why we are where are. Money and the love of money has turned this country inside out. There is no recovery possible until total collapse, and then, we likely will not be the USA anymore, we will be a subsidiary of Russia or China.
Money is a hell of a drug.
Of course. (Score:3)
This was done to protect the fossil fuel industry...!
Re:It's importnant to know economic damages... (Score:5, Insightful)
If not the NOAA, then who? The NOAA is the agency that was doing it, and knew how to do it.
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Actually, they didn't and that's the problem. This DB was rife with bad data, bad processes, and questionable assumptions all tailored toward delivering headlines but not much in the way of actual science.
Donald Trump's is the most eagerly awaited (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: Donald Trump's is the most eagerly awaited (Score:2)
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Re: Donald Trump's is the most eagerly awaited (Score:2)
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Depends on his goals. If his goal was to kill an evil healthcare exec, he succeeded. If he intended to remain free afterwards, not so much.
I don't know that I can agree that his vigilante action was justified - he killed a man not involved in his personal suffering - but overlooking that part, some goals require sacrifice to achieve. Maybe he feels his freedom was a price worth paying.
Re: Donald Trump's is the most eagerly awaited (Score:2)
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Was he? Mangione took out one of the cogs in the machine. He didn't break the machine or even significantly alter its functioning.
What would happen to the MAGA movement without Trump? I don't claim to know. Maybe it would eat itself. Maybe it'd continue doing damage under its own momentum.
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Luigi killed a man who needed killing, but A) it wasn't a guy involved in Luigi's healthcare issues and B) he's only one person.
Ideally, the threat of violence gets the job done, and you're going to need a big mob ready to take on a lot of targets. One vigilante isn't fixing your problems, you need a big cultural movement. One where everyone understands what's at stake and is ready to sacrifice their finances, freedoms, and lives. It's a big ask, but the outcome is worse if it doesn't get done.
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The American people didn't choose him. The American process did. The American process doesn't need the average American to do anything and in fact, does everything possible to prevent the average American from participating. That doesn't include any of the outright fraud.
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You DO know, that Trump won the popular vote in addition to winning the electoral college, right?
He won every swing state....etc.
Seems the American people DID choose him....
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We sure did choose him and now we have to live with the consequences of that result.
Frankly that what is needed, for people to feel the consequences of their decisions, maybe that is the prosperity promised or maybe it's suffering but we need to feel it.
Db (Score:2)
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it's the fastest way to fix Global Warming (Score:2)
all you have to do is stop keeping track of the weather and sing happy songs and everything will be just fine!
More like NOAA has other reasons (Score:2)
No Funny anywhere? (Score:2)
Ripe story, but no jokes? Sadness.
Not a bad discussion, but "loss of agency" is my basic response.
Re: Circular Reasoning (Score:3)
Re: Circular Reasoning (Score:2)
I think their sentiment is more along the lines of donâ(TM)t worry about the arsonists because there are natural forest fires. Yes there are waves, yes, there are storms, but can we please stop steering towards the rocks? Pick your analogy.
Re: Circular Reasoning (Score:2)
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Point is, even if these things happen naturally, it is still not great to do them deliberately (prescribed burns excluded).
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This time it's not "slow climate change", though. Previous large shifts too, centuries or millennia to accomplish the changes we're making in a decade.
One of these things is not like the other . . .
Re: This is no good (Score:2)
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