Who else is feeling the cognitive dissonance of today's extraordinary claim of possible microbial life signature on Venus while we crash earth's ecosystems.
The question of life on earth's neighbours - Mars & Venus - rightly destabilises us psychologically. Historically, it is tied to our scientifc understanding of globalwarming & making tools to monitor it. From Sagan, to Soviet Vega program, to Jim Hansen... history.aip.org/climate/Venus.…
"Phosphine=sign of Life" is plausible only coz we know little of possibilities of early life. We guess E. coli makes it here, but don't know. Life made earth flip from CO2 to O2 before (Lovelock). Are we, with our hand stuck in the fossil jar, too, early life?
Too soon to tell.
Many congrats to Jane Greaves & her team who persevered for many moons in looking for life in the solar system. A stunning discovery that's sure to send us off flycatching to Venus again! And thanks to ppl at Atacama & Hawaii for observing on Corona planet
Jane Greaves @jgreaves6 in a total BOSS MOVE is gonna be immortalized in history as the woman who may have discovered extra-terrestrial life... & doesn't even go on about it on twitter!!
Such a fun announcement: cardiff.ac.uk/people/view/91…
The clouds are balmy (~30C) & at same pressure as earth. Is life "clinging on, tucked up inside water droplets in the clouds, the last remnant of a once rich ecosystem forced to adapt to a strange environment by a rapidly changing climate" lrb.co.uk/blog/2020/sept…@chrislintott
Never felt the Two Cultures divide more acutely. Ppl in science are thrilled/sceptical/raring to send probes to Venus while normies are full of Weltschmerz - no head, no heart, no soul. Life, truly is wasted on the living.
Master trolling by Russian space agency: “We believe that Venus is a Russian planet. Our country was the 1st & only on Venus. Our equipment was there,& it conducted research" rt.com/russia/500773-…
Will accelerate joint missions w NASA, ESA, pvt firms...
2/ Ecology: With super hot oceans, we are very worried about this Atlantic hurricane season. THIRTY storms are predicted plus minus 5, depending on el nino
3/London, Zurich, Bermuda are home of reinsurance.
Insurance model rely on risks being 1 Uncorrelated 2 Calculable 3 Paid for by mkt returns elsewhere
But #globalwarming upends Insurance
It correlates risks (global!); creates catastrophic fat-tails; and crimps returns everywhere.
what reading one book by Brett Christophers does to a mf
‘while it is possible to prevent businesses from doing profitable things, it is impossible to make them do things they consider insufficiently profitable’. Why do all this 'market failure' nonsense ft.com/content/b2b6fb…
Brett Chrisopher's work on Rentier Capitalism has been eyeopening. Asset Managers like Blackrock now run the roads we drive on; the pipes that supply our drinking water; the farmland that provides our food; electricity & heat. Nice profile
Under capitalism, profit expectations drive companies’ invstmt decisions. Building solar/wind & selling the electricity they generate, however, generally is not a very profitable business What sort of returns do investors earn, asks Brett Christophers time.com/6958606/climat…
Yes, BJP still sets the terms in the Indian parliament. But it will not have the decisive electoral majority of 2019-2024 lok sabha where it ran bills with zero opposition or consultation. After this election it will have to respect India’s opposition and democracy
India's stock market slides. Their logic?
BJP not winning in a landslide -> forced to have a NDA coalition government that will inevitably have to be more pro-welfare
--> hence the BJP cannot do nakedly pro-rich liberal reforms --> Oops, sell sell sell
Adani's reversal tells you everything.
"In 9yrs of Modi’s tenure, Adani’s wealth grew from $8bn to $137bn. In 2022 alone, he made $72bn, which is more than the combined earnings of the world’s next 9 billionaires" ht @AnnPettifor
1/ "What's happening in Guyana isn't just happening there. All over the globe, oil companies are racing to tap as many of the remaining fossil fuel reserves as they can"
@jeffgoodell :
2/ This is not a a story of Guyana’s PM lecturing western liberals over hypocrisy climate, oil & Amazonian forests.
But a geopolitical story of developing country elites working with western firms (Exxon) to sell to western markets (oil goes to europe) phenomenalworld.org/analysis/offsh…
3/ "Guyana is now producing nearly as much oil as Venezuela -1 of the largest oil exporters since the 1920s & founder of OPEC
This amazing article on Exxon shows that the logic of imperial exploitation of natural resources is alive & kicking"-@GaraviniG phenomenalworld.org/analysis/offsh…
White House request to Congress for $106 billion in emergency funding for foreign aid.
A budget tells you more than words about actual priorities. Full breakdown in this PDF incl military aid to Ukraine, Israel, intl development (World bank) etc Thread whitehouse.gov/wp-content/upl…
2/ UKRAINE: US so far has sent more than $75 billion to Ukraine. Of new $106B, Biden asks $61B for Ukraine.
~$50B military aid, loans for military gear, DOD stocks of weapons etc (Pg 4-27_
~$11.75B economic (pg 42)
3/Reminder why Biden's request for emergency funding looks the way it does-$106B for ukraine,israel,border, humanitarian. US congressional politics when governed by Dem president+Dem senate+Republican house makes funding requests look like a dogs breakfast