Politics

[sgt_zim]

One other thing we know for certain, a lesson from freshman chemistry. Cold water holds CO2 much better than warm water does. As the seas warm, they release CO2.

Another fun fact. Below 200 PPM CO2, most of life will cease to exist as vegetation growth slows or even dies off. At 400-500 ppm CO2 right now, we're hitting it sweet.

 

[Doug3006]

I use to think human population had little influence on climate change. Then I saw a graph of world population and I modified my thinking. Consider the population of California in 1900 was around 1 million people and now it's 35+million. I am a firm believer in climate change, as the geologic record is pretty convincing about the rise and fall of sea level many, many times over millions of years. Just too many people in the world. How's that for an inconvenient truth?



View attachment 504592

Doomsayers have been warning of population driven calamity for centuries. What they always fail to factor in is man‘s ingenuity. We increase the carrying capacity of the lands we inhabit. More food is grown today per acre than ever. In the US we’re growing more food than ever while reducing acres in cultivation. The link between human activity and climate change is tenuous and is being leveraged by the ruling class to exert more control.

 

[Brent in Az]

For those that think Zelenskyy is some type of hero, you might want to take a much closer look at who he really is.

 

[Brent in Az]

Buffoon Biden , trades the Merchant of death, for an America hating lesbian basketball player.

The exact type of shitty deal the Democrats would make for a political storyline.

 

[John Wasmuth]

For those that think Zelenskyy is some type of hero, you might want to take a much closer look at who he really is.

Oh boys howdy, now you done it……. I’ll make pop corn……

 

[sgt_zim]

Doomsayers have been warning of population driven calamity for centuries. What they always fail to factor in is man‘s ingenuity. We increase the carrying capacity of the lands we inhabit. More food is grown today per acre than ever. In the US we’re growing more food than ever while reducing acres in cultivation. The link between human activity and climate change is tenuous and is being leveraged by the ruling class to exert more control.

A story of modern agriculture.

Dad grew up sod-busting in NW Louisiana in Webster parish in the 1940s and 50s. Dad had to take over the family farm in 1949, at the ripe old age of 12.

Traditionally, they'd grow 20 acres of corn, with an average yield of 15 bushels per acre - about half of which they kept for themselves, and the other half to feed their pair of mules. The year Dad had to start running the show, an LSU extension service county agent stopped by to recommend that Dad should apply newly commercially viable nitrogen fertilizer to his corn patch, at a rate of about 100# per acre. Dad, not being a dummy, decided to do a test acre under the new method. He was warned by the old timers he was wasting an acre. About 3 or 4 months later, they pulled about 100 bushels off that 1 acre. The next year, they only planted about 5 acres of corn, and had plenty to sell.

Corn has benefitted the most from the fertilizer. Today, common practice across the corn belt is about 200# per acre, and yields in the neighborhood of 225 bushels per acre. That's a staggering 1000%+ yield improvement since 1950. Wheat and rice have also benefitted, but with more humble gains in the neighborhood of about 300-400% since that time.

We currently sow about 90 million acres of corn annually. To achieve that yield without nitrogen, we'd have to sow about 1.7 billion acres in corn. In all of the lower 48, there are only about 1.8 or 1.9 billion acres.

 

[CoElkHunter]

A story of modern agriculture.

Dad grew up sod-busting in NW Louisiana in Webster parish in the 1940s and 50s. Dad had to take over the family farm in 1949, at the ripe old age of 12.

Traditionally, they'd grow 20 acres of corn, with an average yield of 15 bushels per acre - about half of which they kept for themselves, and the other half to feed their pair of mules. The year Dad had to start running the show, an LSU extension service county agent stopped by to recommend that Dad should apply newly commercially viable nitrogen fertilizer to his corn patch, at a rate of about 100# per acre. Dad, not being a dummy, decided to do a test acre under the new method. He was warned by the old timers he was wasting an acre. About 3 or 4 months later, they pulled about 100 bushels off that 1 acre. The next year, they only planted about 5 acres of corn, and had plenty to sell.

Corn has benefitted the most from the fertilizer. Today, common practice across the corn belt is about 200# per acre, and yields in the neighborhood of 225 bushels per acre. That's a staggering 1000%+ yield improvement since 1950. Wheat and rice have also benefitted, but with more humble gains in the neighborhood of about 300-400% since that time.

We currently sow about 90 million acres of corn annually. To achieve that yield without nitrogen, we'd have to sow about 1.7 billion acres in corn. In all of the lower 48, there are only about 1.8 or 1.9 billion acres.

That's an amazing increase in production within some 70 years! Any idea how much soybean production has increased?

 

[Ray B]

And where do you suppose all that nitrogen fertilizer comes from??

 

[CoElkHunter]

And where do you suppose all that nitrogen fertilizer comes from??

Natural gas? "Manufacturing 1 ton of anhydrous ammonia fertilizer requires 33,500 cubic feet of natural gas". Just looked it up. Seems like a LOT of gas for 1 ton of fertilizer?

 

[Red Leg]

For those that think Zelenskyy is some type of hero, you might want to take a much closer look at who he really is.

https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineWarVideoReport/comments/zfz9jv

I am 85% of time very supportive of Tucker's monologues.

That said, and trying to be fair, most of the ones I like are about as biased as the one you posted. They are supportive of positions I also hold so I am happy to join the applause and laugh at the bias. But when posting them as some sort of evidence, the trick is to know when you are playing the left or when you are being played to support one of his narratives.

I listened to him live. To believe what he implied (he very carefully doesn't allege it precisely) Zelensky canceled the Eastern Orthodox Church in Ukraine. That would have indeed been a bold move considering two thirds of the Ukrainian population is Eastern Orthodox.

Instead, what he is actually talking about is an ultra conservative Russian sect that is extremely supportive of whatever the God ordained leader of Russia wants to do - serious Dark Ages divine right of the ruler stuff. Compared to FDR putting Japanese Americans in concentration camps, curtailing their Russian advocacy within Ukraine is pretty mild stuff.

Everyone has an agenda - right or left. The challenge for us is to navigate the space between them.

 

[WAB]

A story of modern agriculture.

Dad grew up sod-busting in NW Louisiana in Webster parish in the 1940s and 50s. Dad had to take over the family farm in 1949, at the ripe old age of 12.

Traditionally, they'd grow 20 acres of corn, with an average yield of 15 bushels per acre - about half of which they kept for themselves, and the other half to feed their pair of mules. The year Dad had to start running the show, an LSU extension service county agent stopped by to recommend that Dad should apply newly commercially viable nitrogen fertilizer to his corn patch, at a rate of about 100# per acre. Dad, not being a dummy, decided to do a test acre under the new method. He was warned by the old timers he was wasting an acre. About 3 or 4 months later, they pulled about 100 bushels off that 1 acre. The next year, they only planted about 5 acres of corn, and had plenty to sell.

Corn has benefitted the most from the fertilizer. Today, common practice across the corn belt is about 200# per acre, and yields in the neighborhood of 225 bushels per acre. That's a staggering 1000%+ yield improvement since 1950. Wheat and rice have also benefitted, but with more humble gains in the neighborhood of about 300-400% since that time.

We currently sow about 90 million acres of corn annually. To achieve that yield without nitrogen, we'd have to sow about 1.7 billion acres in corn. In all of the lower 48, there are only about 1.8 or 1.9 billion acres.

It has made dramatic improvements, but the national average is more like an increase from 100 to 160 bu/ac. (very rough numbers) in my lifetime. Our family land is some of the best on the continent and pushes 300. Inflection points in yield were driven by multiple factors; synthetic fertilizer, roundup ready genetics, equipment.

Fertilizer production costs range from 27 to 35 times the price of gas plus $100 to $200 per ton. So at $2 gas, an old plant would produce at $270/ton, a new plant at $154. This is a very broad cut. A new world scale urea plant costs about $1.5B. Years ago I ran the second largest nitrogen complex in the US. Back then our plant’s estimated replacement cost was roughly $3B.

Probably way more than you wanted to know.

 

[Red Leg]

Strieff does good work over on Red State - hardly a left leaning site. He is worth reading to offer some balance to Tucker and the other neo isolationists.

Putin's War, Week 41. The Mud Freezes in Ukraine Setting the Stage for the Next Round of Fighting

redstate.com

 

[Ray B]

What offramp is acceptable and face-saving to the Russians yet provides for terms acceptable to Ukraine.

The standard impression of an outside negotiator coming in an offering a verdict as if it was an athlete and baseball team in arbitration is not going to work. the negotiator would need to be well informed enough to know what each side is doing well and each side is doing poorly. Additionally it is needed to know the time-frame of continued conflict and supply issues for each combatant. Also needed is the expectation both realistic and unrealistic of the parties. The stopping of the war benefits both parties in that further destruction of property and deaths are avoided. So is a plan could be presented where both sides could get what they wanted- or at least some of what they wanted and were content at giving up other things it could be shown that ending the war would benefit both sides, But as noted it takes a very intelligent, educated, non-condescending astute person to be able to work the parties through the process so that when done each party is satisfied with the deal. I don't know about leaders of the other nations but I am quite confident that no such person exists in the Biden administration.

 

[VertigoBE]

I don't have the information in front of me, but I recall another historical measure of atmospheric gases. It is of oxygen. The level of oxygen has fluctuated between 15 and 25%. In terms of parts per million I suppose 15% would be 150,000 parts per million- considerably less than 300. However the results of the change in oxygen affected wildfires. the cycle was plants growing and making more oxygen, increasing the percentage, then at about 25% things became very flammable- The Earth had significant wildfires- burning the plantlife converting a lot of oxygen to CO2. As the saturation of oxygen decreased fires decreased and virtually went out at oxygen levels of 15%, then the cycle resumed. When I was in high school 60 years ago the percentage of oxygen was noted as 20%- I suspect presently it is within a percentage point or two of that.

In modern agricultural greenhouses, for the production of tomatoes, they actively burn gas, for heat, but also to push the filtered burn, in the form of pure CO2, into the greenhouses.

Current global levels of CO2 are around 400ppm. In those greenhouses they push this to around 1000ppm. Makes for faster growing and better tomatoes especially.

And no problem to work in them, or breathe in it. There is still sufficient oxigen for humans.

People who believe the goal to be the reduction of CO2 to zero, are dim witted.

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

Strieff does good work over on Red State - hardly a left leaning site. He is worth reading to offer some balance to Tucker and the other neo isolationists.

Putin's War, Week 41. The Mud Freezes in Ukraine Setting the Stage for the Next Round of Fighting

redstate.com

There was another interesting and sad article linked in Redstate:

Felony Warrant Issued for 'Non-Binary' Biden Official Sam Brinton After 2nd Luggage Stealing Incident

redstate.com

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

Doomsayers have been warning of population driven calamity for centuries. What they always fail to factor in is man‘s ingenuity. We increase the carrying capacity of the lands we inhabit. More food is grown today per acre than ever. In the US we’re growing more food than ever while reducing acres in cultivation. The link between human activity and climate change is tenuous and is being leveraged by the ruling class to exert more control.

With higher crop yields, while for the most part is a good thing, there is the well established facts about microclimates being created in corn country. Everything has its cause and effects, ying and yang, and there's no free lunch.

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

 

[VertigoBE]

PROXY (INDIRECT) MEASUREMENTS​

Data source: Reconstruction from ice cores.
Credit: NOAA

View attachment 504587

When using such graphs as proof of something, one must always first ask, what came before or after the chosen dataset. In this case, why did they cut off the analysis at D - 800000 years. 800000 years is still but a blink in earths climate. And it is well documented that CO2 levels in the dinosaur times were far higher than now. Which is precisely why there was such abundant plant growth that allowed for the megafauna.

Call me not convinced on your listed graph. But take a look at the following one:

 

[sgt_zim]

That's an amazing increase in production within some 70 years! Any idea how much soybean production has increased?

Nitrogen fertilizer didn't affect soybeans much, since they're legumes/nitrogen fixers. But every species of grass - corn, wheat, rice, rye, sorghum, and sugar cane are all members of the grass family - were positively affected

 

[sgt_zim]

Natural gas? "Manufacturing 1 ton of anhydrous ammonia fertilizer requires 33,500 cubic feet of natural gas". Just looked it up. Seems like a LOT of gas for 1 ton of fertilizer?

Sounds like a lot, but it isn't, really. Depending on whose numbers you go with, we have 500 trillion CF of NG in proven reserves presently. Personally, having worked for a service provider for Chesapeake Energy in the late oughts and early teens, I'm inclined to believe it's a lot more than that. They capped something like 95-98% of their NG wells - south Texas in Eagle Ford, west Texas/NM in the Permian, northern and central mid-Con in Oklahoma, Barnett in east Texas and NW Louisiana, and Bakken in ND, plus a few other places. They were also pretty busy in eastern Ohio and western PA.