that Texas weather
2021-Feb-18, Thursday 02:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mellowtiggerAs I keep saying, listen to your longhair hippie treehuggers.
Back in 2012, I featured a song called "Freeze A Yankee". It's so very relevant to the current situation in Texas. It's has amusing lyrics to hear while we review this week's crisis. I recommend listening to it again today while pondering the current situation.
Back in 2012, I warned of this very phenomenon striking the USA now. With barriers weakening between atmospheric zones, I expect more polar vortex movement (there's a good image at bottom of that article) in the future. I should point out, however, that some experts are remaining non-committal thus far. I and a minority of others are reminding that a heating pot of water grows more chaotic.
Texas is in really bad shape. Between food lines (covid economy) and now water lines (cold weather), Texas is making the USA look like a 3rd world country. Every single one of the counties in that state was given a winter storm warning (pictured at right) at the same time, which is unusual in such a large territory that is so far south. There are some interesting photos already to showcase the weather itself. The real story, however, is far more serious than those images. People have died already, and people will continue to die.
This disaster is mostly one of their own making. When given early warnings of this possibility in 2011, El Paso paid heed but the rest of Texas did not. Texas (but not El Paso) is separated from the national power grid. That national power grid is currently over-producing and could supplement the capacity that Texas has temporarily lost.
Conservatives for decades have spouted 2 main points of propaganda: government and regulation are bad, and the invisible hand of the market is good. That "rugged capitalism for you" philosophy led to skyrocketing prices for both energy and warm hotel rooms during this crisis.
Knowing how obvious these implications are, politicians were quick to distract from their failures with bizarre scapegoating. Literally, the governor of Texas went on Fox News and called out renewable energy technologies and the Green New Deal (which isn't even a real thing yet). Others tried to repeat the same wrong messaging. One Texas mayor went full Mad Max and assured residents that "only the strong will survive"!
People around the world were quick to point out out that wind turbines work just fine in Canada and even in Antarctica, while solar panels and batteries work just fine on Mars. In fact, exactly the opposite of Texas government claims was true, with wind energy producing even more electricity than expected for this season. It was the fossil fuel industry that failed. It sure seems to me that they were telling outright lies in order to sustain their broken and vicious "greed is good" ideology that leads to sub-par infrastructure (while enriching all of the right people).
This weather is unusual for Texas, but it's not just its own human citizens who are suffering. Turtles are in cold-shock and being tended by volunteers. Some primates are dead at an animal sanctuary. And pulling the conversation back to humanity again... has anyone checked on the prisoners in the ICE detention centers recently?
Seriously, listen to your longhair hippie treehuggers. At least any system failures resulting from their efforts would be recognized as failures, rather than signs that "rugged capitalism for you" is working as intended... which is awful if you're not rich.
Back in 2012, I featured a song called "Freeze A Yankee". It's so very relevant to the current situation in Texas. It's has amusing lyrics to hear while we review this week's crisis. I recommend listening to it again today while pondering the current situation.
Back in 2012, I warned of this very phenomenon striking the USA now. With barriers weakening between atmospheric zones, I expect more polar vortex movement (there's a good image at bottom of that article) in the future. I should point out, however, that some experts are remaining non-committal thus far. I and a minority of others are reminding that a heating pot of water grows more chaotic.
Texas is in really bad shape. Between food lines (covid economy) and now water lines (cold weather), Texas is making the USA look like a 3rd world country. Every single one of the counties in that state was given a winter storm warning (pictured at right) at the same time, which is unusual in such a large territory that is so far south. There are some interesting photos already to showcase the weather itself. The real story, however, is far more serious than those images. People have died already, and people will continue to die. This disaster is mostly one of their own making. When given early warnings of this possibility in 2011, El Paso paid heed but the rest of Texas did not. Texas (but not El Paso) is separated from the national power grid. That national power grid is currently over-producing and could supplement the capacity that Texas has temporarily lost.
Conservatives for decades have spouted 2 main points of propaganda: government and regulation are bad, and the invisible hand of the market is good. That "rugged capitalism for you" philosophy led to skyrocketing prices for both energy and warm hotel rooms during this crisis.
"The staggering imbalance between Texas' energy supply and demand also caused prices to skyrocket from roughly $20 per megawatt hour to $9,000 per megawatt hour in the state's freewheeling wholesale power market. That raised questions whether some power generators who buy in the wholesale market may have had a profit motive to avoid buying more natural gas and simply shut down instead."
- https://tulsaworld.com/news/national/explainer-why-the-power-grid-failed-in-texas-and-beyond/article_a091d31f-84d8-5538-a69c-20c2c62e26e6.html
Maybe it would be nice, just for a change, if people stopped voting for "greed is good" politicians and policies that avoid oversight?
"It’s time to stop letting people who hate the idea of government be in charge of our governments."
- https://twitter.com/slack2thefuture/status/1362251729035685888
- https://twitter.com/slack2thefuture/status/1362251729035685888
Knowing how obvious these implications are, politicians were quick to distract from their failures with bizarre scapegoating. Literally, the governor of Texas went on Fox News and called out renewable energy technologies and the Green New Deal (which isn't even a real thing yet). Others tried to repeat the same wrong messaging. One Texas mayor went full Mad Max and assured residents that "only the strong will survive"!
People around the world were quick to point out out that wind turbines work just fine in Canada and even in Antarctica, while solar panels and batteries work just fine on Mars. In fact, exactly the opposite of Texas government claims was true, with wind energy producing even more electricity than expected for this season. It was the fossil fuel industry that failed. It sure seems to me that they were telling outright lies in order to sustain their broken and vicious "greed is good" ideology that leads to sub-par infrastructure (while enriching all of the right people).
This weather is unusual for Texas, but it's not just its own human citizens who are suffering. Turtles are in cold-shock and being tended by volunteers. Some primates are dead at an animal sanctuary. And pulling the conversation back to humanity again... has anyone checked on the prisoners in the ICE detention centers recently?
Seriously, listen to your longhair hippie treehuggers. At least any system failures resulting from their efforts would be recognized as failures, rather than signs that "rugged capitalism for you" is working as intended... which is awful if you're not rich.