Ambrose Andrews @znalo@librem.one

Antarctica holds 90 per cent of the world’s ice. Complete melting of the West Antarctic ice sheet would cause a global sea level increase of 3.3 metres

The Antarctic ice sheet is melting. And this is bad news for humanity
https://theconversation.com/the-antarctic-ice-sheet-is-melting-and-this-is-bad-news-for-humanity-200972

Fracking Australia's Beetaloo Basin will result in anywhere from 39 - 117 million tonnes of Co2-e every year (according to federal government Freedom of Information documents). The only way that this development has been allowed to proceed is because the NT government committed to 'offsetting' all the emissions from the production and onshore combustion of Beetaloo gas.

Even if you accept the premise that this is possible according to physics, to date there have only been 124 million carbon offsets generated in Australia in TOTAL since 2012.

This week the Australian Govt's CSIRO released a report suggesting that there will be up to 156 million carbon offsets available EVERY YEAR to the gas industry in the NT - conveniently & comfortably being able to cover all the emissions from the Beetaloo development. The report suggests that 30 million offsets from planting trees will be available every year. To be clear this is the equivalent of planting across 3 million hectares (assuming the land is conducive to optimal growth & trees are not lost by bushfire). 30 million offsets will be available from soil carbon - even though Australian soils are still losing carbon from land conversion & will continue to lose carbon as Aus gets hotter and drier. The report not only assumes dramatic increases in planting trees, it assumes that around 50 million hectares of Australia's rangelands (the 'outback') has lost 95% of its vegetation and can be regenerated as a way to offset emissions.

This is an infuriating interview with @pollyjhemming, Senior Researcher at The Australia Institute. Polly is amazing, but the interview is infuriating because of the outright deceit practiced in the field of Climate Data and Carbon Credits. I kept wanting to stop the interview to scream and throw things. An enlightening, fascinating, and enraging conversation!

"There's so many vested interests now, and the lines between government and industry are so blurred in Australia, that it's really hard to know, even when government is telling you things, the extent to which that is real and what the real story is."

https://adsei.org/podcast/polly-hemming-on-the-ways-climate-data-is-misused/

"The world remained firmly in warming’s grip last year, with extreme summer temperatures in Europe, China and elsewhere contributing to 2022 being the fifth-hottest year on record"

"The eight warmest years on record have now occurred since 2014"

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/climate/earth-hottest-years.html

The Luddites did what every science fiction writer does: they took a technology and imagined all the different ways it could be used – who it could be used for and whom it could be used against. They demanded the creation of a parallel universe in which the left fork was taken, rather than the right.

https://locusmag.com/2022/01/cory-doctorow-science-fiction-is-a-luddite-literature/ #scifi #sciencefiction #art #scifiart

Personally, I wish that the "code red" response that ChatGPT inspired at Google wasn't to launch a dozen AI products that their red teams and AI ethicists have warned them not to release, but to combat the tsunami of AI-generated SEO spam bullshit that's in the process of destroying their core product. Instead, they're blissfully launching new free tools to generate even more of it.

Vale Will Steffan

Global tributes have flowed for Professor Will Steffen, the eminent climate scientist and communicator who passed away on Sunday night in Canberra.

Three of his friends & colleagues remember the giant of a man:

#Climate #climatechange #Australia

https://theconversation.com/weve-lost-a-giant-vale-professor-will-steffen-climate-science-pioneer-198873?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1675196299-1

RELEASE: Leaked phone forensics software and documentation from Cellebrite and MSAB. https://ddosecrets.com/wiki/Cellebrite_and_MSAB

These companies sell to police and governments around the world who use it to collect information from the phones of journalists, activists, and dissidents. Both companies' software is well documented as being used in human rights abuses.

Help keep DDoSecrets operating in 2023 with a $15 donation: https://DDoSecrets.Charity

The climate emergency is changing the global water cycle #watercycle #climateemergency https://theconversation.com/new-report-shows-alarming-changes-in-the-entire-global-water-cycle-197535

a good explanation of offset credits #climatechange

Great one from Ketan Joshi well worth a read. #GlassOnion #climate https://ketanjoshi.co/2023/01/07/glass-onion-mocks-silver-bullet-solutionism-and-skewers-tech-bro-climate-saviours/ @ketan

Excellent piece from @mikejones and @bestqualitycrab for @theconversationau covering the funding issue with #Trove at the National Library of Australia (who I don't think are on Mastodon).

Trove is an #API, which I've demo'd before at places like VALA, which makes the NLA's collections easily query-able.

Trove is #digitalinfrastructure for #digitalhumanities, #socialscience, #archives, #museums and other #GLAM activities.

And it's invisible. Which means it doesn't attract the funding or attention it deserves. Trove archives over 6 billion digital items. Items which speak to Australia's #CulturalHeritage.

If Trove were a supercomputer, it would be funded. If our digitalhumanities were as sexy as #STEM, Trove would be funded. But they're the same type of thing - digital #infrastructure that helps research. Trove is #ResearchInfrastructure. And we should fund it properly.

https://theconversation.com/troves-funding-runs-out-in-july-2023-and-the-national-library-is-threatening-to-pull-the-plug-its-time-for-a-radical-overhaul-197025

#OtD 25 Dec 1914, 100,000 troops on the Western Front during WWI held an unofficial truce where they refused to fight one another. German soldiers began singing Silent Night, and were joined by British troops who then met up and exchanged gifts https://libcom.org/history/christmas-truce-1914-steven-johns

The idiots are #Kiwifarms are offline again, good.

plz RT!

in light of [everything], shall we do a little #NEISVoid intro thread?

if you’re looking for more chronically ill / disabled mutuals, reply here with a short intro & maybe let us know who you want to chat with!

After five days of voting and tens of thousands of ballots cast, 32 candidates were narrowed down to two PayPal billionaires. Now, in a very tight race that came down to the wire, the votes are in and a winner has been chosen.

2022’s Worst Person in Tech is…

🔮 PETER THIEL 🩸

#tech #peterthiel #elonmusk

🚨 THE FINAL TWO 🚨

Tens of thousands of voters narrowed 32 candidates down to just two.

Peter Thiel: Puppet master. Democracy opponent. Fascism funder. Palantir founder. Gawker destroyer.

Elon Musk: Snake-oil salesman. Transit and train opponent. Monkey killer. Twitter destroyer. Journalist banner.

Cast your vote to choose who takes the title of Worst Person in Tech.

🗳️ VOTE HERE: https://forms.gle/FeSbpPVERbLmCMBe7

#elonmusk #peterthiel #tech

Excellent piece by Sarah Curnow (who I don't think is on Mastodon), quoting Vanessa Teague from ANU's College of Computing, Engineering and Cybernetics, and Thinking Security, that explores the gaping holes in #MyGovAU and how identities can be forged across interconnected systems without validation.

Data breaches compound each other ...

#infosec #privacy

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-12-18/ato-tax-hacked-via-mygov-services-australia-exploit/101781656

#introduction
Connections are important! So posting again.
I’m here for #rustlang #embedded #linux #electronics #pcb #design and similar. #makers if you’re interested follow I’ll follow back let’s connect

BOOST for visibility please 🙏