Salting atmosphere test launched quietly.

Scientific American: Geoengineering Test Quietly Launches Salt Crystals into Atmosphere.

A solar geoengineering experiment in San Francisco could lead to brighter clouds that reflect sunlight. The risks are numerous.

The experiment, which organizers didn't widely announce to avoid public backlash, marks the acceleration of a contentious field of research known as solar radiation modification. The concept involves shooting substances such as aerosols into the sky to reflect sunlight away from the Earth.

The move led by researchers at the University of Washington has renewed questions about how to effectively and ethically study promising climate technologies that could also harm communities and ecosystems in unexpected ways. The experiment is spraying microscopic salt particles into the air, and the secrecy surrounding its timing caught even some experts off guard.
[.]
"The idea of interfering with nature is so contentious, organizers of Tuesday's test kept the details tightly held, concerned that critics would try to stop them," the Times reported. The White House also distanced itself from the experiment, which is being conducted with the cooperation of a Smithsonian-affiliated museum.

"The White House distanced itself from this experiment." Shocker! We know if asked about it, Kareem Abdul-Jean Perrier will, "refer to the University of Washington and the Smithsonian for further details."

"The world is our guinea pig!" These kinds of experiments need to stop.

 

Illegals Complain That Winter Is Too Cold.

Twitchy: Illegals Complain That Winter Is Too Cold Here.

Hit the Twitchy link for more.

Germany blanketed in snow.

LINK

That's not really that bad. Maybe for Germany's weather?

Daily Mail: Flights are cancelled in Germany and Switzerland while avalanche warning hits Austria after snow sparks travel chaos on continent.

Oh noez! Europe is having a Wind Drought. So much for turbine power.

Green Matters: European Wind Turbines at a Standstill Amid an Ongoing "Wind Drought".

But as of recently, barely even a breeze has made its way through the through the winter air.
[.]
"Britain is in the middle of a wind drought — and the timing couldn't have been worse. For several days now, the U.K. and western Europe have been calm, with barely a breeze," Thomas Moore writes for Sky News.

"It is not until Wednesday, or even Thursday, that speeds pick up in Scotland and the North Sea, where most of our wind farms are. That shows in the mix of energy being used in the freezing conditions."

"The risks could increase with global warming," [🤣 - DD] he continues. "Scientists working for the United Nations' intergovernmental panel on climate change have looked at what could happen to wind speeds in future. Even if the world reaches net zero soon after 2050, limiting the rise in temperature, winds will weaken significantly in the northern hemisphere." ["Even if." FFS. Retardicus Maximus. - DD]
[.]
According to Yale Environment 360, the phrase "wind drought" is exactly what it sounds like — it refers to an extended period of time that an area lacks wind, or experiences slower-than-usual wind speeds. In 2021, wind speeds were 15 percent slower than in previous years, making for one of the least windy periods in the U.K. in nearly 60 years.

What are "usual wind speeds"?

Git yer fans out folks, them turbhans ain't gonna spin themselves!

Story Archived

77" of snow since Thursday and more on the way.

Lake effect snow storm, Western, NY.

Accuweather.

I feel for them.

Finland March 2020, "No we'll NOT run out of toilet paper." Finald August 2022, "We're RUNNING OUT of toilet paper."

August 2022:

AW Journal (Archived): Finland warns of toilet paper shortage.

The Finnish company Metsä Tissue, one of Europe’s largest manufacturers of sanitary and hygiene products, has announced the threat of a shortage of toilet paper due to the energy crisis. The company announced this in a press release published on Friday, August 26.

“In recent weeks, Metsä Tissue has been forced to reduce production for several days at its factories in Zilina (Slovakia) and Kreuzau (Germany) due to high electricity prices,” the report says.

March 2020:

Forest.fi (Archived): Five facts about toilet paper – no, we’ll not run out of it.

If ever anything is certain, it is that stockpiling toilet paper in Finland or in most other Western countries is pointless. There will not be a shortage of toilet paper.

Two mills in Finland make tissue paper: the Metsä Tissue mill in Mänttä and the Essity mill in Nokia. Both are producing toilet paper at full capacity. Maintenance shutdowns at many mills have also been postponed until later.

A story at Europe Says (Archived) simply states, "Finnish firm warns of toilet paper shortage as energy costs wipe out production." That firm is...you guessed it, Metsä Tissue who, as we can see from above, in the span of a little over two years said, "There will be no toilet paper shortage," to, "There's a toilet paper shortage." 

The comments at the Europe Says story are interesting.

Here's a select few, hit the link for the rest:

ShortRound89 says:
August 26, 2022 at 6:28 pm

Water is the way.

Key_Proposal_1715 says:
August 26, 2022 at 5:08 pm

About time people stop using paper and use water instead
^ [Water...until water restrictions hit, which is already happening. - DD]

asdwarrior2 says:
August 26, 2022 at 7:53 pm

Time to learn to wash your ass and have a dedicated ass towel
^ [A "dedicated ass towel." Yeah, that sounds sanitary. No pathogenic issues there! - DD]

TP Shortages! Coming soon to the U.S., only a matter of time. Either real or because of panic/hoarding buying. Biden has his diaper stash and a Caregiver who changes it and wipes his butt so he doesn't care. He's unaware of this TP existential threat as he is everything else.

Heck, with all the money we'll be making under Biden's YUGE tax cut for the middle class, we'll all be able to afford our own Groom of The Stool!  

I'll pass and take a different path to being rich and influential.

 

* This story may be dated as the Draft version of this was written before my taking a week off from updating.

Germany faces TP shortage.

ScoopTrade: Germany faces toilet paper shortage due to soaring gas prices.

RT: Germans warned of toilet paper shortage.

Alahed News: Germans Warned of Toilet Paper Shortage.

The crisis on the European gas market could lead to reduced production of toilet paper in Germany, according to Martin Krengel, chairman of the nation’s paper industry association, Die Papierindustrie.

“We are particularly dependent on gas for the production of tissue paper. Without it, we will no longer be able to provide security of supply,” Krengel said in a statement published on Thursday.

According to data provided by Die Papierindustrie, each German citizen uses an average of 134 rolls of toilet paper per year. “In the current energy crisis, our top priority is to provide people with this important commodity,” Krengel stressed.

Last month, the Bavarian Paper Association warned that operating paper plants may become unprofitable if they are forced to work at reduced capacity due to natural gas shortages.

How's the global warming going? Oh, it's bad. Look at the maps!

Looks like a job for Brave Pete Buttigieg!

Show us how it works, Pete.

UK heatwave triggers national emergency.

The National News (July 16, 2022): Second Cobra meeting called as UK heatwave triggers national emergency.

Londoners urged not travel on Monday and Tuesday with 80 per cent chance record temperature could be set and warning lives are at risk.

BBC (January 28, 2021): Renewable energy overtakes fossil fuels for first time as UK's biggest source of electricity in 2020.

For the first time, renewable energy overtook fossil fuels to be the biggest source of electricity in the UK in 2020.

Wind, solar, bio-energy and hydro (water) power generated a record 42% of UK power last year, while fossil fuels - mostly gas - produced 41%, according to a report by energy experts Ember and Agora Energiewende.

In 2019, renewables generated 37% of the UK's electricity, compared with 45% for fossil fuels.

How's that green, renewable energy working? The AC running good? Better get those child laborers in third-world countries to hurry up and increase their lithium and cobalt production. The Stiff-Upper-Lippers are having a heatwave.

-

Update/Addition: Ooof ..hit the BBC link and scroll all the way to the bottom (which I didn't do the first time) and READ THE COMMENTS. They kind of all read like this:

"This is awesome, great news."

"The world will live longer." 🤣🤣🤣

"This is awesome."

"This is great news that renewable energy overtakes fossil fuels."

 I hope these same commenters enjoy their heatwave.

Hungry? Eat some insect bread and a bowl of ground crickets or mealworms.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) continues to permanently push its insect-eating message:

“In Finland,bread was made from crushed insects. There are 70 dried and ground crickets in each loaf.Crickets make the bread a good source of protein."

 

Link 

Forbes: Eating Insects Could Cut Your Environmental Impact By More Than 80%, Finnish Study Says.

You may have read that eating meat contributes to climate change. And eating less meat is one the best ways to help the planet.

But are you willing to go as far as eating insects? Or mostly insects, with some meat as a treat? (NOPE!-DD)

iNews: Scientists hope to feed primary school children edible insects to make the UK greener.

Edible insects are highly nutritious and have a much smaller carbon footprint than conventional meat, scientists says.

Children are to be fed bugs as part of a plan to get a new generation to switch from meat to insects – and potentially persuade their parents to follow their lead.

Pupils at four primary schools in Wales are to be offered insects to eat as part of a project to gauge children’s appetite for “alternative protein” such as crickets, grasshoppers, and mealworms.

If only California was located near a large body of water.

Yahoo: As climate-change-fueled drought worsens, California issues water restrictions for millions of residents. 

Officials in California, now in its third year of drought that scientists have linked to climate change, have issued unprecedented water restrictions for millions of residents.
[.]
...the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) has issued restrictions on roughly 6 million customers. The cutback, which begins on June 1, prohibits residents from watering lawns and plants more than one day per week.
[.]
“We are seeing conditions unlike anything we have seen before,” Adel Hagekhalil, the district’s general manager, told the Los Angeles Times. “We need serious demand reductions.”

Story Archived.

No, Adel, there is a demand for more water and you're unwilling to do what it takes to supply it. If you provide what the public needs, they can't be controlled and manipulated.

Wynn Bruce, climate activist dies after lighting himself on fire outside Supreme Court.

NY Post: Wynn Bruce, climate activist dies after lighting himself on fire outside Supreme Court.

A climate activist who lit himself on fire on Earth Day outside the United States Supreme Court Building has died, according to reports.

Wynn Bruce, 50, of Boulder, Colorado, died Saturday, a day after he set himself ablaze in Washington, D.C., the Metropolitan Police Department told Fox News.

The incident happened around 6:30 p.m. on the plaza in front of the court building.

He was airlifted to a local hospital, where he died.

A Facebook page belonging to a person named Wynn Bruce said he was a Buddhist and a climate activist.

Thank you for your climate sacrifice, Mr. Bruce. I can already tell the air and water is cleaner.

Greta Thunberg may have coronavirus.

Daily Mail: Greta Thunberg says she may have coronavirus.

Greta Thunberg says she may have contracted coronavirus and has self-isolated at home with her father.

The teenage climate activist said she appeared to have been infected along with her dad, actor Svante Thunberg.

Both began having symptoms after a recent train tour of Europe together and so have been in isolation for the last weeks, she said.

They were travelling in Europe before lockdowns were imposed by many governments across the continent in a bid to halt the spread of the virus.

In an Instagram post today, Thunberg said she suffered shivers, a sore throat, a cough and felt tired after travelling [sic] with her father from Brussels.

I kind of wondered how long this media whore would be bumped out of the limelight due to Covid-19. Was her European train tour carbon neutral? Was it a solar or wind-turbine powered train? Why did she feel entitled to a train tour? Because she's special. How Dare She! How Dare She!!

And yeah - this story gets filed under the department of "Ask Me if I Give A Flying Fuck".

Tech Waste. An Existential Threat? "Climate Change" is more popular and financially rewarding.

Scientific American: Tech Waste Is a Danger to Us All.

Hardware in general, and smartphones in particular, have taken over our lives so quickly that few of us have had the chance to think about what happens to them when we no longer use them. The answer is that they become a huge environmental and health problem in the Global South’s landfill sites.

We don’t hear much about this problem because it is out of sight, out of mind.

Electronic waste is currently 5 percent of all global waste, and it is set to increase exponentially as more of us own multiple smartphones, laptops and power banks—few of which are likely to be repaired or recycled at the end of their lives.
[.]
There is an almost limitless consumer demand for hardware, and governments do not have bottomless pockets, especially when their green policies are focused on more high-profile issues like carbon emissions.
[.]
Only the manufacturers can fix this, by creating a circular hardware economy.

No, this is not a problem that "only manufacturers can fix". Not any different than blaming manufacturers of plastic and the hysteria of the pearl-clutching-crowd crying for bans on plastic bags and bottles. People use and buy based on their wants, needs and what they feel is a good return for their money. Much of it is packed with plastic.

Do you want that plastic band around your ice cream container so you're assured no one the super market, opened it, licked it and returned it to the freezer? I'm betting no matter how much you hate and want to ban plastic, you like that plastic band.

Look around your house. How much plastic is there is in everything? I'm betting, at some point in their journey, fossil fuels were used in transporting those items to your home. Plastic is versatile and affordable, same for fossil fuel.

Consumers play a large part in tech waste. The question is, is the Tech-Obsessed-Must-Have-the-Latest-Device-Crowd willing to do their part? And a circular hardware economy has a limit, it's not an endless loop.

Tech Waste can wait. We have to solve the Existential Threat of Climate Change first.

I've referenced the stories below in the past and I'll use them again:

Amnesty.org: Child labour behind smart phone and electric car batteries.

GreenTech Media: With demand for cobalt and lithium surging, companies need to be aware of where they’re sourcing from.
-
Scientific American Archived
-
(Feb. 17, 2020 typo fix "is" to "in")

Gas-powered lawn equipment ban proposed in Santa Maria.

Santa Maria Times: Proposed ban on gas-powered lawn equipment worries Santa Maria-area landscapers.

California regulators have proposed a ban on the sale of gas-powered landscaping equipment, worrying Santa Maria Valley landscapers who say the move would impact their ability to serve their clients.

State regulators with the California Air Resources Board said they plan to ask board members to sign off on a plan by the end of the year to gradually reduce the emissions from items like lawn mowers and leaf blowers to zero.

The move is an important one to reduce air pollution, said Karen Caesar, a spokeswoman for the board.

Caesar said the work put into reducing pollution from car engines hasn’t translated at the same level for lawn mowers, and that the devices often emit more harmful gases than cars.

According to CARB, running the best-selling leaf blower for one hour releases as much smog-forming pollution as driving a 2017 Toyota Camry from Los Angeles to Denver.
[.]
“When you’re talking about mowing a school, an electric piece of equipment to mow an area that big doesn’t exist,” he said. “You’d have to change 12 batteries to mow one grass area — that’s insane,” [said Neil Towery, general manager of All Weather Landscape Maintenance in Santa Maria].

Ernie Torres, who owns PJD Landscape Management, said electrical equipment wouldn't be practical for commercial landscapers.

-
Santa Maria Times Archived

Is there anyone, anywhere, who gets more time off the job than Congress and federal employees?

Josh Kraushaar @ Twitter:

I hope "The Gang of Eight" is apprised of this and they approve.

Pikachu has lost weight. Why?

Nintendolife: Why Pikachu Is No Longer As Chubby As It Once Was.

When Pokémon first arrived on the Game Boy in 1996, Pikachu was illustrated as a plump electric rodent that looked far from agile. It wasn't until later on in the series, the face of the pocket monster franchise got an artistic makeover, making him slightly less chubby.

What was the reason behind the change, though? If it wasn't already obvious, it was due to the influence of the anime series at the time. During an interview with the Yomiuri Newspaper in 2018 – as recently shared by YouTuber Dr. Lava – the character designer and art director of the Pokémon series Ken Sugimori explained these changes in detail:

   "We were also influenced by the introduction of the [anime]. Since the animation had them doing a variety of movements, including human-like gestures, we changed the shape of Pikachu's body to make acting easier. While Pikachu was originally very short and stout, we gradually gave it a more defined neck and elongated its spine.

    "The Pikachu appearing in the Pokemon series after the broadcast of the animated series was influenced by how it appeared in the show. Also, I had no idea they were going to make it cry 'Pikachu.' It's like a cat crying out the word 'cat.'"

If you miss the older version of Pikachu, the recent release of Pokémon Sword and Shield on the Switch somewhat makes up for it, with the addition of Gigantamax Pikachu. This Pikachu has little resemblance to the famous one we know and love nowadays and is arguably closer to the original Pokémon design.

Gigantamax Pikachu. Is that similar to Mechagodzilla? Who would win a battle between the two of them?

I wonder if this will be one of the Top Tech stories of the year?

Where TF is this magic Weather station?

It's still wrong. Or, 75 is much cooler than I remember.

The above result is from a search on Duckduckgo using, "weather 55101", the general zip code for St. Paul.

I guess the AC is going on tonight!

Something tells me this is incorrect.

But who am I to argue with experts in the meteorological sciences.