#state programs

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from Anthropocene Magazine:

U.S. states can decarbonize on their own for about the same price as a federal-led effort to reduce emissions by the same amount, according to a new study. The findings underline that a “coalition of the willing” could not bring the country to net-zero emissions on its own. But they also represent a hopeful vision of how climate action in the U.S. could continue despite Trump Administration rollbacks.

The Biden Administration pursued ambitious decarbonization policies via the Inflation Reduction Act and other initiatives, while the Trump Administration has taken a very different approach to climate policy. The situation highlights the volatility of national-level climate action in the United States, even as the American public broadly supports developing alternative energy sources, and urgent action is needed to avoid locking in fossil fuels with new infrastructure.

Enter “climate federalism,” a concept that casts U.S. states as laboratories not just of democracy but of climate action. In theory, this bottom-up approach might be more effective and durable than top-down action. In the new study, researchers sketch out what it might look like in practice.

“Ultimately the most important takeaway here is that state-led action can achieve substantial emission reductions, even without federal support, but that the world looks very different from one where there is federal coordination,” says study team member Jeremiah Johnson, an environmental engineer at North Carolina State University. “This has some important implications, not just for those states that choose to participate, but also for those who don’t.”

Johnson and his colleagues identified 23 U.S. states that are most likely to pursue net-zero emissions by 2050, based on the number of climate policies currently on the books as well as their overall political leanings. They fed publicly available energy system data into a computer model to estimate the cost of decarbonization and predict the green technologies that the states would likely turn to in their efforts.

Action by this group of states could reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by about 46% by 2050, the researchers report in the journal Nature Communications. The researchers then used the same model to explore what federally coordinated action to reduce national emissions by the same amount would look like.

Federal led climate action would be about 0.7% cheaper than state action, the researchers found. “We were surprised [the state-led] emissions reductions would be achieved at costs comparable to federal actions,” Johnson says. Since only about half of U.S. states were expected to pursue net-zero emissions, “we expected to see this considerably push up the costs of achieving deep decarbonization.”

However, the mix of green technologies that would be used in a state-led decarbonization effort would be different from the federally coordinated one. The state-led effort would lean heavily on green manufacturing technologies to decarbonize industry, while the federal approach would rely more on clean energy such as solar and wind power.

The net-zero states would likely rely on electrification to reduce emissions from transportation and industry, as well as direct air capture to neutralize residual emissions. They might also purchase more electricity from neighboring states, leading to the potential for “emissions leakage.” In the state-led scenario, “we observed substantial new electricity exports from the Great Plains states into the Upper Midwest while those exporting states increased fossil fuel-based use,” Johnson says. “This would undercut the efforts of net-zero states unless their policies are designed to address this.”

The state-led scenario also leaves some cost-effective mitigation opportunities on the table, such as bioenergy with carbon capture and storage in the Southeastern United States, where states are unlikely to pursue decarbonization without federal action. Still, if state-led action is the only option, this can lead to substantial progress on climate, the study shows.

[krakenshipwreck]

as the details start to emerge, it's pretty fucking cool that the kraken are seemingly the only NHL team that said hell yeah we want the PWHL and we want you in our arena and we want to make space for you in our practice facility and we're going to put our money where our mouth is and make this happen.

[mimi-0007]

Valerie L. Thomas (born February 8, 1943) is an American data scientist and inventor. She invented the illusion transmitter, for which she received a patent in 1980. She was responsible for developing the digital media formats that image processing systems used in the early years of NASA's Landsat program.

[reality-detective]

CIA BLOODLINES: OBAMA, HARRIS, AND THE SYNTHETIC PUPPETS OF GLOBAL CONTROL

THIS WAS NEVER POLITICS.

THIS WAS PROGRAMMING.

Barack Obama was not “elected” — he was engineered. A CIA-manufactured Manchurian candidate, born in Kenya, raised abroad, and conditioned like a weapon. Barry Soetoro was the Agency’s first full-scale success: an MKUltra asset wrapped in a Harvard diploma and sold to America as “hope.”

His stepfather, Lolo Soetoro, was not a loving parent — he was an Agency asset embedded in Indonesia, trained in psychological suppression and eliminations.

Obama wasn’t raised.

He was programmed. 🤔

[lonestarflight]

Armstrong and Scott with Hatches Open

"Astronauts Neil A. Armstrong and David R. Scott sit with their spacecraft hatches open while awaiting the arrival of the recovery ship, the USS Leonard F. Mason after the successful, but early, completion of their Gemini VIII mission. They are assisted by USAF Pararescuemen Eldrige M. Neal, Larry D. Huyett, and Glenn M. Moore. The overhead view shows the Gemini 8 spacecraft with the yellow flotation collar attached to stabilize the spacecraft in choppy seas. The green marker dye is highly visible from the air and is used as a locating aid."

Date: March 16, 1966

NASA ID: S66-18602

[ri-afan]

Anyone got a story where Amity Park becomes independent without the rest of the USA noticing until some hero stumbles upon (or crash lands in) it?

[thecosmicangel]

Manifesting is Instant ✨✨✨

If you need proof or help understanding how manifesting is instant this is why…..

Manifesting is instant because our physical reality (3D) is our mirror, just like when you look at yourself In the mirror if you smile the reflection instantly smiles. So by default when we waver by looking for evidence in the 3D, doubt or start giving opposing thoughts more attention our physical reality has nothing else to do but to show us our own reflection. The 3D will do this by showing us the opposite of what we want , by reflecting our uncertainty, this can appear as a "delay" in our desires manifesting. So once you understand that you already have what you want, & trust your desires + don't waiver you shift into your desired reality, this will then be reflected back to you in the 3D by manifesting your desires in physical form. Your inner state is the only factor you need to "work" on by daily affirmations, or anything to help saturate your mind with the new story to help you believe it. Our physical world is always & instantly reflecting our inner state. Maintaining a consistent belief, trust and focus on what we want without letting doubt interfere is the key to manifesting your desires. In other words when you move the 3D moves, it’s an instant direct reflection of your inner state.

- xoxo, the cosmic angel ⭐️🪽

[nasawebb]

Dust in the (stellar) wind

This new Webb image shows an edge-on protoplanetary disc around a newly formed star, surrounded by jets and a disc wind, in unprecedented detail. Read more: esawebb.org/images/

[dontforgetukraine]

October 16th marks World Food Day.

It is not the first time Russia has weaponized food as a means of control and aggression (ex: Holodomor). In Ukraine's fight against Russia's war, it has become an unprecedented guarantee of food security for the world through the "Grain from Ukraine" program. This grain is distributed by the UN's World Food Program to recipient countries suffering food shortages. This is all while Russia shells grain terminals, blockades Ukrainian ships, and wages its aggression towards farmers in its war. Remember, much of the agricultural land is contaminated with mines and other unexploded ordnance.

In order to maintain food security, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has listed what it will take.

Full and safe navigation in the Black and Azov seas.

Restoration of Ukraine's sovereign control over its ports.

Establishment of new ports

Expansion of the assortment of Ukrainian goods transported by seas.

Security guarantees are not just important for Ukraine, but for the entire world. Already Ukraine has delivered 228,960 tons of agricultural products to:

Somalia

Ethiopia

Kenya

Yemen

Mauritania

Nigeria

Sudan

Djibouti

Mozambique

the Democratic Republic of Congo

Palestine

Supporting Ukraine means supporting the world. History has already seen Russia weaponize food. Russia's war shows it is doing so again right now. If we fail to support Ukraine, don't be surprised if Russia chooses to manipulate countries that need Ukrainian grain.

[philsmeatylegss]

WE GOT INTO GRADUATE SCHOOL BESTIES!!!!

[essektheylyss]

I think Orym is a fascinating character in a way that is often underappreciated, because he is fundamentally a soldier, he was trained as a soldier, and that's... not a bad thing? It has no moral indication, and certainly doesn't imply that Orym is going dark. In fact, in the current circumstances, Orym acting as a soldier is very important and may actually get them through this in one piece.

I do feel that this aspect of his character is frequently approached in the fandom as an afterthought or even swept under the rug, or flat out viewed as a flaw to be overcome (especially given the overall landscape of military conflict in the real world), but being a trained soldier is not inherently indicative of specific morality or ideology. I think it's a judgment that also gets levied against paladins, because, much like any organized forces in fantasy are equated with modern militaries, fantasy worship is equated with Christianity (sometimes in the guise of 'organized religion' with all of its problematic connotations). It's incredibly black and white, and it doesn't fundamentally make sense in much of Exandria, but in this case especially.

You cannot fundamentally map the Tempest Blades onto any real life military, because the task of the Tempest, and Ashari culture as a whole, is protection against both extraplanar threats and also the malicious or misguided intentions of those on the Material Plane trying to fuck with the elemental planes. This is distinctly different even in universe from, for instance, Caleb, who was trained as an assassin in the name of nationalism, or Yasha, who was trained to be a leader in the name of tribalism.

And these two threats that the Ashari are tasked with resisting are both frequent, credible, and existential! Failing at this task is liable to have major sweeping repercussions for the rest of Exandria! It is highly probable that a soldier with Orym's training is expected to need to make incredibly difficult decisions in defense of the common good at more than one point in their life—decisions that would make every person who laughs at the premise of the trolley problem shit their pants.

And crucially, Orym wants his friends to get out of this. He has in fact already promised his entire life to ensure that they do, because he also fundamentally needs them to be able to do what they came for, without hesitation, because the singular mandate that he has devoted himself to is protecting the Material Realm from extraplanar threats, and regardless of the fact that the rest of them do not have the same training, that is also the task that the Hells have chosen.

If Nana Morri can get the Hells out in one piece, regardless of what choices they make, then their personal risk doesn't matter. I imagine that Orym isn't going to tell them that, because given the scope of the threat, there's not necessarily a guarantee that Morri can make that happen, so the rest of the Hells have to make the choice themselves to take the risk and trust that the others have their backs. And in the end, if Orym has to live with that no matter which way fate plays out, he will. He's already had plenty of practice.

They're at war, and that's how soldiers operate. Because when they're behind enemy lines, it's the only way missions get completed and they have a chance of making it back alive.

[dakooftacos]

that mood when the easiest thing for you to semi-freehand draw is whatever characters are in the show you're working on at the moment

[lonestarflight]

The Apollo 15 Command Module Endeavour (CM-112) prior to and after being brought aboard U.S.S. OKINAWA (LPH-3).

Date: August 7, 1971

NASA ID: link, S71-42024, S71-42037

[sickness-stricken]

“Self diagnosing is bad because if a lot of young people do it, psychs won’t take us seriously when we try to get diagnosed!”

Gonna be honest with ya chef, if someone whose job it is to diagnose people is refusing to actually analyze your behaviour under the basis of “everyone’s saying they have this disorder” that person might just be shit at their fucking job

[doctorsiren]

every time I mention Ace Attorney around my (defense lawyer) father, he asks if I’ll be going to law school now

the best bit was me telling him that if I did that, I would be fulfilling the Phoenix Wright prophecy because I’d be dropping my art degree to pursue law

[aci25]

Iran: Weeks away from having nuclear weapons since 1995