Forum: Story Ideas

I don't hate the idea of Pelaton bike mind control (because my inner conspiracy theorist thinks it's true)

I don't know about mind control, but it does seem like modern equipment like that is conditioning their minds as much as their bodies. When I see things like that, my mind sees gerbil wheels in a cage. A country full of people normalized to think human gerbil wheels are a good idea.

That's odd. In a warming world you would expect more wind levels as the atmosphere retains more energy from the sun.

Actually no.

Wind (and weather more generally) is driven not by raw temperature, but by temperature gradients. To generate wind, it has to be hot here and cold there. Hot air rises here and cold air sinks there creating a circulation that becomes wind. The greater the difference in the temperatures between here and there the stronger the wind.

In a warming world, the poles warm more than the equator, reducing the temperature gradient between the equator and the poles. This will reduce the strength of the prevailing winds.

Weather in general is something of a heat engine, acting to move heat from point A to point B. Once the temperature equalizes between A and B the heat engine stops working.

Not necessarily. Global temperature rises are not universally popular.

The lessons of human history are that we prosper when temperatures are warmer and suffer when they are colder.

The lessons of human history are that we prosper when temperatures are warmer and suffer when they are colder.

True... if the population was half or less from what it is now.

True... if the population was half or less from what it is now.

It is mostly still true today and would still be true if global population were to double from what it is today.

In a warmer world, more food can be produced from less land.

To the extent that the relationship between warmth and human prosperity has been broken, it was broken by technology and energy, not population.

In a warmer world, more food can be produced from less land.

That's not necessarily true. Specific seasons are needed for some crops.
It would be more accurate to say, different foods can be produced from the same land.
A historical look at what crops faired better at the equator and which failed miserably needs to be considered. Then there is the quantity of light available. Warmer weather means more cloud cover. Also the latitude doesn't change thus dusk and dawn do not change.
There are many variables at play, just the temperature alone will not equate to more and stronger growing seasons.

Global temperature rises are not universally popular.

I'd much rather live in the fridge than the oven.

I'd much rather live in the fridge than the oven.

There is no realistic chance of global temperatures rising that much in the next thousand years.

There is no realistic chance of global temperatures rising that much in the next thousand years.

Not on a continues scale and not globally 'oven' hot but we've had heat waves here in the last 10 years that have never been seen here before. Winters are almost gone as far as snow and ice is concerned. The last elfstedentocht (200km 11-cities skating race) here was 25 years ago. That's the longest time gap ever. It's definitely warming up.

Oven hot would be 300+ degrees Fahrenheit. There is zero chance of even the hottest places on earth getting that hot ever.

but we've had heat waves here in the last 10 years that have never been seen here before.

Well, not since humanity has started officially tracking such things, which is only the last 200 years or so.

If the look at the paleo climate records if you go back hundreds of thousands or millions of years, it's been much hotter than it is today.

That's in contradiction of the current narrative.

True, but it is how real weather and climate work.

So if there is less extreme weather events, that means there is no climate crisis...

The climate priestess Thunberg says y'all is going to climate hell.

I can even recall a study claiming a reduction in extreme weather events although it does seem to be outnumbered by the claims of an increase.

There is a way of measuring cumulative hurricane/typhoon activity called ACE (Accumulated Cyclone Energy).

https://climatlas.com/tropical/

There is somewhere between no trend and a slightly declining trend in ACE over the last 40 years.

Who said i ever thought politicians cared about the world? I was trying to illustrate their collective intelligence level by giving an example :P

The collective intelligence of all politicians world wide is approximately -infinity.

older ones who have already had successful careers and can afford low paying government jobs.

I'm going to say that this group would likely be a significant improvement over career politicians.

With successful careers outside of politics, they have an idea how things work in the real world.

this group [relatively wealthy office holders, or older ones who have already had successful careers] would likely be a significant improvement over career politicians.

With successful careers outside of politics, they have an idea how things work in the real world.

Agreed. I'm reminded of a bon-mot (that I can't remember the source of):

Politicians, like diapers, should be changed frequently, and for much the same reason.

With successful careers outside of politics, they have an idea how things work in the real world.

A CEO of one of the large multi-nantionals is usually surrounded by sycophants who refuse to tell that CEO he or she screwed up or has a bad idea. In the real world, most people don't have the insulating layer of peons they have to protect them from the consequences of bad decisions.
Effectively, they are politicians themselves even though they are not part of a government.