International News and Politics Thread

[GGGGG-Men]

Wasn’t much interest in the PM change in Japan (understandable) so figure I’ll just have my own catch-all thread for Intl stuff.

Protests around the world and its picking up in Thailand: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/19/w...e=articleShare

Democracy v Royal Family and Military rule.

Seems like Hong Kong has inspired many.

[Scoots]

Wasn’t much interest in the PM change in Japan (understandable) so figure I’ll just have my own catch-all thread for Intl stuff.

Protests around the world and its picking up in Thailand: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/19/w...e=articleShare

Democracy v Royal Family and Military rule.

Seems like Hong Kong has inspired many.

The Arab Spring had a ripple effect ... unfortunately the PTB tend to ride them out and years down the line things don't change much. Our current race based protests, I fear, are doomed to similar outcome. The PTB talk about change, show some little token of change "starting" while in the background they erode the ground you are standing on.

[GGGGG-Men]

The Arab Spring had a ripple effect ... unfortunately the PTB tend to ride them out and years down the line things don't change much. Our current race based protests, I fear, are doomed to similar outcome. The PTB talk about change, show some little token of change "starting" while in the background they erode the ground you are standing on.

I think we’re seeing more impactful cultural shifts now that the usual (this will fade away). Maybe not here. Americans have short attention spans thanks to atrocious cable “news” setting the standard.

[GGGGG-Men]

Nigerian State Plans to Castrate Convicted Child Rapists

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/17/w...astration.html

But it’s castration before execution. Seems silly.

[Scoots]

Nigerian State Plans to Castrate Convicted Child Rapists

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/17/w...astration.html

But it’s castration before execution. Seems silly.

Ever see Louis CK's most recent SNL monologue?

[nastynice]

I don't know if you guys heard, Sudan is facing record floods and a lot of displacement. These are the global warming predictions coming to fruition, as lots of inhabited land there is becoming unlivable.

Poor countries like Sudan dont have much at their disposal to combat global warming, so our local situation isnt as dire as theirs, but it certainly seems to be a prelude of what to expect around the world over the next 2 decades.

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[GGGGG-Men]

Ever see Louis CK's most recent SNL monologue?

Ha


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[Scoots]

I don't know if you guys heard, Sudan is facing record floods and a lot of displacement. These are the global warming predictions coming to fruition, as lots of inhabited land there is becoming unlivable.

Poor countries like Sudan dont have much at their disposal to combat global warming, so our local situation isnt as dire as theirs, but it certainly seems to be a prelude of what to expect around the world over the next 2 decades.

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I don't know about the Sudan, but China's mass flooding supposedly has a lot more to do with their infrastructure choices than global warming.

Loads of concrete that doesn't absorb water and dams failing. The same issue that hit Houston

[GGGGG-Men]

I don't know if you guys heard, Sudan is facing record floods and a lot of displacement. These are the global warming predictions coming to fruition, as lots of inhabited land there is becoming unlivable.

Poor countries like Sudan dont have much at their disposal to combat global warming, so our local situation isnt as dire as theirs, but it certainly seems to be a prelude of what to expect around the world over the next 2 decades.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

Yeah it’s horrible there. India just got destroyed by crazy floods.

The issue is that it impacts the poorest first.

I believe Sudan was one of the 3 regions facing famine in the coming year or so. Covid has fast tracked all of that.


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[nastynice]

I don't know about the Sudan, but China's mass flooding supposedly has a lot more to do with their infrastructure choices than global warming.

Loads of concrete that doesn't absorb water and dams failing. The same issue that hit Houston

Well, it's a combination. Just like the fires. Part of the equation is global warming. Part of it is we now have to do things differently in order to cope with it.

For example, we clearly have to approach wildfire prevention differently now to address the changing climate.

I think Louisiana has been dealing with this problem for decades, I think they have some huge water pump system which pumps water out of the ground to stop the city from sinking. It's all swamp there.

So more and more cities are going to have to take expensive adaptive measures in order to cope.

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[Scoots]

Well, it's a combination. Just like the fires. Part of the equation is global warming. Part of it is we now have to do things differently in order to cope with it.

For example, we clearly have to approach wildfire prevention differently now to address the changing climate.

I think Louisiana has been dealing with this problem for decades, I think they have some huge water pump system which pumps water out of the ground to stop the city from sinking. It's all swamp there.

So more and more cities are going to have to take expensive adaptive measures in order to cope.

But also what we have been doing independent of climate change has exacerbated the results. Like Mexico City for instance, used to have a lot of exposed volcanic rock which is very porous and absorbs a lot of water very quickly. Over time they paved over the volcanic rock and now instead of water being absorbed it runs off, so they add infrastructure to handle a "normal" level of rain, but if the rain goes up 10% of a "normal" rain season for whatever reason the result is a disaster. Then when you get something like Hurricane Harvey hitting a largely paved over Houston you get record flooding, but the biggest cause is the man made changes to Houston rather than global climate change. China has paved over a huge amount of land and has dramatically increased the number of dams in the country ... when the rain goes up 10% the results are FAR worse than the last time they went up 10%.

The fact that the severity/frequency of severe weather events has gone up through climate change doesn't change the fact that we made the situation worse for ourselves locally too.

[nastynice]

But also what we have been doing independent of climate change has exacerbated the results. Like Mexico City for instance, used to have a lot of exposed volcanic rock which is very porous and absorbs a lot of water very quickly. Over time they paved over the volcanic rock and now instead of water being absorbed it runs off, so they add infrastructure to handle a "normal" level of rain, but if the rain goes up 10% of a "normal" rain season for whatever reason the result is a disaster. Then when you get something like Hurricane Harvey hitting a largely paved over Houston you get record flooding, but the biggest cause is the man made changes to Houston rather than global climate change. China has paved over a huge amount of land and has dramatically increased the number of dams in the country ... when the rain goes up 10% the results are FAR worse than the last time they went up 10%.

The fact that the severity/frequency of severe weather events has gone up through climate change doesn't change the fact that we made the situation worse for ourselves locally too.

Sure, good point.

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[nastynice]

Major protests in Bogota Columbia over police brutality after video of someone dying in custody goes viral.

Numerous countries around the world had police protests.

Started from BLM, USA.

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[GGGGG-Men]

If you’re a fan of Hotel Rwanda, check out what’s going on with him these days: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/18/w...e=articleShare

[Scoots]

Major protests in Bogota Columbia over police brutality after video of someone dying in custody goes viral.

Numerous countries around the world had police protests.

Started from BLM, USA.

Hong Kong protests have been going a lot longer than the BLM protests. I think what we're seeing is the positive to the internet. People are learning that they don't need to put up with government BS.