#solar panel rate
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10 Practical Uses of Solar Power for Residential Homes - FreyrEnergy:
In recent years, solar power has emerged as a versatile and sustainable energy solution for residential homes. From reducing electricity bills to minimizing carbon footprint, the uses of solar power in homes are diverse and practical. Let's delve into 10 practical applications of solar power for residential homes:
Top Uses of Solar Power in Homes:
Let us check the uses of rooftop solar panel in residential, serving as an alternative, renewable, and green energy source.
Alternative Electricity Source:
Solar panels installed on residential rooftops serve as an alternative source of electricity. By harnessing sunlight and converting it into electricity, homeowners can power their appliances and lighting, reducing reliance on traditional grid electricity.
Solar Water Heating:
Solar water heater systems utilize solar energy to heat water for domestic use. These systems are cost-effective and environmentally friendly alternatives to conventional water heaters, providing hot water for bathing, washing, and other household needs.
Solar Cooking:
Solar cookers harness sunlight to cook food without the need for traditional fuel sources such as gas or electricity. They are ideal for outdoor cooking and can be used to prepare a variety of dishes, ranging from simple recipes to elaborate meals.
Solar Ventilation:
Solar-powered ventilation fans help regulates indoor temperature by expelling hot air from attics and other enclosed spaces. By reducing the need for air conditioning, these fans contribute to energy savings and enhance indoor comfort.
Portable Solar Chargers:
Portable solar chargers allow homeowners to harness solar energy system to charge their electronic devices, such as smart phones, tablets, and laptops. These chargers are convenient for outdoor activities and emergencies, providing a reliable power source wherever you go.
Solar Lighting:
Solar-powered lights and lamps illuminate residential spaces without the need for grid electricity. They are ideal for outdoor lighting, landscaping, and decorative purposes, enhancing the aesthetics of homes while reducing energy costs.
Solar Security Systems:
Solar-powered security cameras and lights offer enhanced security for residential properties. These systems utilize solar energy to operate, providing continuous surveillance and deterrence against intruders without relying on grid electricity.
Solar Water Filtration:
Solar-powered water filtration systems purify water using solar energy, making it safe and drinkable for household use. These systems are especially useful in remote areas where access to clean water is limited.
Solar Air Conditioning:
Solar-powered air conditioning systems use solar energy to cool indoor spaces, reducing electricity consumption and environmental impact. These solar power systems are energy-efficient and cost-effective alternatives to traditional air conditioners.
Solar Home Energy Storage:
Solar energy storage systems store excess solar power generated during the day for use during periods of low sunlight or high energy demand. These residential solar panel systems help homeowners maximize their solar energy savings and achieve greater energy independence.
Conclusion:
The uses of solar power for residential homes are numerous and practical, offering homeowners an opportunity to reduce their energy costs, carbon footprint, and reliance on traditional energy sources. With advancements in solar technology and increased awareness of environmental sustainability, solar power is poised to play a crucial role in shaping the future of residential energy consumption.
Freyr Energy, a leader in solar panel system solutions, is dedicated to making solar power accessible and affordable for homeowners across India. With their expertise and support, homeowners can seamlessly integrate solar power into their homes, reducing electricity costs and promoting environmental conservation. Embrace the power of solar panels for home and take the first step towards a greener and more sustainable future.
#uses of solar power#rooftop solar panel#solar water heater#solar energy systems#solar energy system#solar panel systems#solar technology#solar panels for home#solar panel system#solar power system#solar power systems#solar panel price#solar energy in india#solar power in india#solar panel rate#solar panel cost
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Solar Panel Company in Gurgaon | Rooftop Solar for Home Installation
Elevate your home's energy efficiency with our leading Solar Panel Company in Gurgaon. Specializing in rooftop solar installations, we offer reliable solutions tailored to your needs. Experience sustainable living and substantial energy savings with our expert services.
#Solar Panels Companies#Solar Energy Company#Solar Panel Installation Companies#Solar Company in Gurgaon#Solar Solutions#Best Rated Solar Companies#Solar System Installation Cost#Solar Rooftop Solutions
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New Blog 🆕
Want the best SEG tariffs/SEG rates for March 2024?
NXTGEN Energy have got you covered! 🙌
Check out and compare the current rates all listed in our blog post.
Read more here: Best SEG Tariffs/SEG Rates in March 2024
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Finally figured out why my crypto rig wouldn't power on while in the rig.
I need standoff screws. I knew I was missing something🤷🏿♂️🤦🏿♂️💪🏿
#standoff screws#computer#complete#headache#time#hopeful#joyful#finally#run#make money#portable solar panels#all black everything#techie#mining farm#giga power#hash rate#kpw
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The Best News of Last Week
1. Arizona governor Ok's over the counter birth control
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) has expanded access to over-the-counter birth control that will “soon be available to Arizonans,” according to a press release.
Arizonans 18 and older will soon be able to go to their local pharmacy and purchase oral contraceptives without a doctor’s prescription.
2. ‘Great news’: EU hails discovery of massive phosphate rock deposit in Norway
A massive underground deposit of high-grade phosphate rock in Norway, pitched as the world’s largest, is big enough to satisfy world demand for fertilisers, solar panels and electric car batteries over the next 50 years, according to the company exploiting the resource. About 90% of the world’s mined phosphate rock is used in agriculture for the production of phosphorous for the fertiliser industry, for which there is currently no substitute.
3. U.S. Is Destroying the Last of Its Once-Vast Chemical Weapons Arsenal
Decades behind its initial schedule, the dangerous job of eliminating the world’s only remaining declared stockpile of lethal chemical munitions will be completed as soon as Friday.
4. Chinese scientists create edible food packaging to replace plastic
By incorporating certain soy proteins into the structure, Chinese University of Hong Kong scientists successfully created edible food packaging.
5. World's 1st 'tooth regrowth' medicine moves toward clinical trials in Japan
A Japanese research team is making progress on the development of a groundbreaking medication that may allow people to grow new teeth, with clinical trials set to begin in July 2024. The tooth regrowth medicine is intended for people who lack a full set of adult teeth due to congenital factors.
6. No Longer Endangered: The Bald Eagle is an Icon of the ESA
When the Endangered Species Act (ESA) was enacted in 1973, bald eagle population numbers across the country showed that the species was close to disappearing. Before the ESA, in the 1950s and ‘60s, eagles were shot routinely despite the protection. The ESA listing helped bring public attention to the issue.
Through the early 1970s and into the early ‘80s, numbers increased gradually. Then, as you got into the ‘90s, there was still gradual growth. From the late ‘90s into the 2000s, the population really exploded. There was a doubling rate of every several years or so for a while.
7. Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon drops 34% in first half 2023
Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon fell 34% in the first half of 2023, preliminary government data showed on Thursday, hitting its lowest level in four years as President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva institutes tougher environmental policies.
Data produced by Brazil's national space research agency Inpe indicated that 2,649 square km (1,023 square miles) of rainforest were cleared in the region in the half year, the lowest for the period since 2019.
----
That's it for this week :)
This newsletter will always be free. If you liked this post you can support me with a small kofi donation:
Support this newsletter ❤️
Also don’t forget to reblog.
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from 🧵
the entire palestinian coastal plain from haifa to rafah is underlain by a large aquifer. gaza possesses a significant lobe of it, in large part because of this: this is Wadi Gaza, known as Nahal Besor in Israel, one of, if not the largest drainage basins in the Naqab.
Wadi Gaza is a perennial stream in a country with very few of them. it's very small but occasionally subject to massive floods; the highly permeable coastal loess topsoil gives the coastal aquifer a relatively quick recharge time. photo shows the stream inside israel
so in theory there's no reason gaza should run short of water, even with 2.4 million people relying on it. well... this is what Wadi Gaza looks like inside the Gaza Strip. you may notice some differences.
inside israel, i.e., upstream from gaza, huge amounts of water are pumped out of the aquifer in order to make all those kibbutzim and moshavim the highly productive agricultural communities that they are, and in order to sell the water to palestinians at a markup.
the river also naturally loses water through the riverbed, and this is not recharged, it doesn't have the flow rate inside gaza to carry pollutants out to sea. so they penetrate into the topsoil. where do all the pollutants come from? industrial and household wastewater.
gaza cannot import components to maintain its own water treatment plants, nor can it maintain its own energy supply, because israel restricts the importation of building materials, fuel, and other power sources (e.g. solar panels). so most wastewater goes untreated
as a result, wells are dug deeper, because the surface layers of water are contaminated. this causes horizontal subsidence, because gaza is adjacent to the sea, and saltwater infiltrates the water supply, making the water brackish. only about 5-10% of the wells in gaza are usable
can israel pump enough seawater into gaza's aquifer to render it completely undrinkable? yes, for as long as they keep the pumps going, and a few months afterwards. once they stop, fresh water flowing downhill from the israeli part of the aquifer will increase water pressure
salt water is denser than fresh water, so when fresh water flows into a brackish aquifer and water pressure increases, the salt water sinks deeper into the crust. in general, the artificial injection of desalinated water could restore gaza's water supply this way
if, of course, there were sufficient power to run all of gaza's desalination plants and water treatment plants, and if israel's water company stopped depleting the upstream aquifer (and, of course, if the risk of subsidence- and swelling-related earthquakes was mitigated)
IOW: the only reason this is a realistic plan for israel is bc they've spent the last 30-40 years already doing indirectly. even then, they'd need a lot more than five pumps. but the "permanence" of the effect is only true if the occupation and siege are also permanent
whereas, if the occupation and siege ended tomorrow, and even if 5 million people lived in Gaza, the area could regain not only its habitability but its famous and historic agricultural productivity within, at most, a couple of years.
end of thread
(Dec. 6)
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Millions of solar panels are piling up in warehouses across the Continent because of a manufacturing battle in China, where cut-throat competition has driven the world’s biggest panel-makers to expand production far faster than they can be installed.
The supply glut has caused solar panel prices to halve. This sounds like great news for the EU, which recently pledged to triple its solar power capacity to 672 gigawatts by 2030. That’s roughly equivalent to 200 large nuclear power stations.
In reality, though, it has caused a crisis. Under the EU’s “Green Deal Industrial Plan”, 40pc of the panels to be spread across European fields and roofs were meant to be made by European manufacturers.
However, the influx of cheap Chinese alternatives means that instead of tooling up, manufacturers are pulling out of the market or becoming insolvent. Last year 97pc of the solar panels installed across Europe came from China.[...]
The best estimates suggest that about 90 gigawatts worth of solar panels are stashed around Europe. That solar power capacity roughly equates to 25 large nuclear power stations the size of Hinkley Point C.[...]
The sheer scale of the problem was revealed in a recent report from the International Energy Agency (IEA).
It warned that although the world was installing at record rates of around 400 gigawatts a year, manufacturing capacity was growing far faster.
By the end of this year solar panel factories, mostly in China, will be capable of churning out 1,100 gigawatts a year – nearly three times more than the world is ready [sic] for. For comparison, that’s about 11 times [!!!!] the UK’s entire generating capacity.
For some solar power installers, it’s a dream come true. Sagar Adani is building solar farms across India’s deserts, with 54 in operation and another 12 being built.
His company, Adani Green Energy, is constructing one solar farm so large that it will cover an area five times the size of Paris and have a capacity of 30 gigawatts – equal to a third of the UK’s entire generating capacity.
“I am installing tens of millions of solar panels across these projects,” says Adani. “Almost all of them will have been imported from China. There is nowhere else that can supply them in such numbers or at such prices.
“China saw the opportunity before others, it looked forward to what the world is going to set up 10 years on. And because they scaled up in the way they did, they were able to reduce costs substantially as well.”
That scaling up meant the capital cost of installing solar power fell from around £1.25m per megawatt of generating capacity in 2015 to around £600,000 today – a decrease of more than 50pc – making it cheaper than almost any other form of generation, including wind.[...]
“Up to 2012 there was a healthy looking European solar panel industry but it was actually very reliant on subsidies and preferential treatment.
“But then European governments and other customers started buying from China because their products were so much cheaper. And China still has cheap labour and cheap energy plus a massive domestic market. It’s hard to see Europe recovering from those disadvantages.”
Trying sososo hard to make this sound like a bad thing [23 Mar 24]
#sowwy ur nationalistic fever dream got outcompeted#free market innit#now shut up and install the fucking panels#shocking revelation: combatting a global problem isnt most efficiently done through local solutions#'we cant install that many' yeah you can lol#wheres that 'become an accompished scientist' meme
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How to screw up a whistleblower law
I'm touring my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me THIS WEDNESDAY (Apr 17) in CHICAGO, then Torino (Apr 21) Marin County (Apr 27), Winnipeg (May 2), Calgary (May 3), Vancouver (May 4), and beyond!
Corporate crime is notoriously underpoliced and underprosecuted. Mostly, that's because we just choose not to do anything about it. American corporations commit crimes at 20X the rate of real humans, and their crimes are far worse than any crime committed by a human, but they are almost never prosecuted:
https://pluralistic.net/2021/10/12/no-criminals-no-crimes/#get-out-of-jail-free-card
We can't even bear to utter the words "corporate crime": instead, we deploy a whole raft of euphemisms like "risk and compliance," and that ole fave, the trusty "white-collar crime":
https://pluralistic.net/2021/12/07/solar-panel-for-a-sex-machine/#a-single-proposition
The Biden DOJ promised it would be different, and they weren't kidding. The DOJ's antitrust division is kicking ass, doing more than the division has done in generations, really swinging for the fences:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/22/reality-distortion-field/#three-trillion-here-three-trillion-there-pretty-soon-youre-talking-real-money
Main Justice – the rest of the DOJ – promised that it would do the same. Deputy AG Lisa Monaco promised an end to those bullshit "deferred prosecution agreements" that let corporate America literally get away with murder. She promised to prosecute companies and individual executives. She promised a lot:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/22/reality-distortion-field/#three-trillion-here-three-trillion-there-pretty-soon-youre-talking-real-money
Was she serious? Well, it's not looking good. Monaco's number two gnuy, Benjamin Mizer, has a storied career – working for giant corporations, getting them off the hook when they commit eye-watering crimes:
https://prospect.org/justice/2024-04-09-reform-groups-lack-of-corporate-prosecutions-doj/
Biden's DOJ is arguably more tolerant of corporate crime than even Trump's Main Justice. In 2021, the DOJ brought just 90 cases – the worst year in a quarter-century. 2022's number was 99, and 2023 saw 119. Trump's DOJ did better than any of those numbers in two out of four years. And back in 2000, Justice was bringing more than 300 corporate criminal prosecutions.
Deputy AG Monaco just announced a new whistleblower bounty program: cash money for ratting out your crooked asshole co-worker or boss. Whistleblower bounties are among the most effective and cheapest way to bring criminal prosecutions against corporations. If you're a terrified underling who can't afford to lose your job after narcing out your boss, the bounty can outweigh the risk of industry-wide blacklisting. And if you're a crooked co-conspirator thinking about turning rat on your fellow criminal, the bounty can tempt you into solving the Prisoner's Dilemma in a way that sees the crime prosecuted.
So a new whistleblower bounty program is good. We like 'em. What's not to like?
Sorry, folks, I've got some bad news:
https://www.corporatecrimereporter.com/news/200/stephen-kohn-on-the-justice-department-plan-to-offer-whistleblower-awards/
As the whistleblower lawyer Stephen Kohn points out to Russell Mokhiber of Corporate Crime Reporter, Monaco's whistleblower bounty program has a glaring defect: it excludes "individuals who were involved with the crime." That means that the long-suffering secretary who printed the boss's crime memo and put it in the mail is shit out of luck – as is the CFO who's finally had enough of the CEO's dirty poker.
This is not how other whistleblower reward programs work: the SEC and CFTC whistleblower programs do not exclude people involved with the crime, and for good reason. They want to catch kingpins, not footsoldiers – and the best way to do that is to reward the whistleblower who turns on the boss.
This isn't a new idea! It's in the venerable False Claims Act, an act that signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln. As Kohn says, making "accomplices" eligible to participate in whistleblower rewards is how you get people like his client, who relayed a bribe on behalf of his boss, to come forward. As Lincoln said in 1863, the purpose of a whistleblower law is to entice conspirators to turn on one another. Like Honest Abe said, "it takes a rogue to catch a rogue."
And – as Kohn says – we've designed these programs so that masterminds can't throw their minor lickspittles under the buss and collect a reward: "I know of no case where the person who planned or initiated the fraud under any of the reward laws ever got a dime."
Kohn points out that under Monaco, the DOJ just ignores the rule that afford anonymity to whistleblowers. That's a big omission – the SEC got 18,000 confidential claims in 2023. Those are claims that the DOJ can't afford to miss, given their abysmal, sub-Trump track record on corporate crime prosecutions.
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/15/whistleblown/#lisa-monaco
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The bifacial solar cell, developed at the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), harvests reflected sunlight hitting the back of the device, offering an unconventional route to producing higher energy yields for less space and cost.
Typical advances to solar cell efficiency rates centre on iterative improvements to the side facing the Sun. This new approach could boost the energy harvesting capabilities of solar panels beyond their theoretical limit.
“This perovskite cell can operate very effectively from either side,” said Kai Zhu, a scientist at the Chemistry and Nanoscience Center at NREL who led the research.
Current solar cell technologies, which use silicon as the semiconductor material, have an efficiency rate of around 26 per cent – higher than the 23 per cent achieved in lab tests by the front side of the new panel.
The back side of the panel, however, achieves an efficiency of about 91-93 per cent of the front, which offers up to 20 per cent more power overall when harvesting reflected sunlight.
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Falling Slowly - Chapter 8
Pairing: Tommy Miller x f!reader
Word Count: 5700+
Rating: Mature - 18+ ONLY!
Warnings: Just like ao3, “creator chooses not to use warnings.” If you click Keep Reading, that means you agree that you’re the age to handle mature themes. Also by clicking Keep Reading, you understand warnings may not be complete in order to avoid spoilers for the story.
Notes: I think this may be the penultimate chapter. I haven't decided if the last parts will make it into one longer chapter or 2. I also plan on doing some one shots later on. I think. Maybe. I just love these 2 so much!
**If you want to be added to the taglist, join here or let me know!
❤If you enjoy the fic, please consider giving me a warm beverage! (It is not required in any way!)
**Divider made by @benkeibear
**Reader is not described
Main Masterlist
Falling Slowly Masterlist
Tommy Miller Masterlist
I run. I run like I’ve never run before, throwing myself over the front steps and stumbling a little before colliding with him, Tommy, who pulls me so tight to his chest I might burst, my own arms scrambling to wrap around him. His hand comes up to cup the back of my head, his face buried in my hair as I nuzzle into his chest, soaking his shirt with my tears. He pulls back just a bit, cupping my face in both hands as his eyes take me in, tears pouring from his down his freckled cheeks.
“Are you really here?” I whisper, my fingers tracing his jawline as my other hand grips his shirt, pulling him closer.
He smiles, giving me that chuckle I missed so fucking much and warmth spreads through me. “I am. And you’re here. You’re here.”
He pulls me to him and our lips meet, a sensation I had begun to think I’d never feel again. My fingers twist in his soft curls, a little longer than when I’d seen him last, his fingers tightening on my jaw, like he was afraid to let go.
But then a small voice calls my name and I break the kiss just as Jax hops out of the car, running straight for us, his little arms outstretched. I drop to the ground, my arms out wide and pull him in, his fingers clutching the back of my shirt as he openly cries loudly.
“Mommy! Where were you?”
I choke back a sob, tears flowing harder. “I know. I’m sorry, baby. But daddy got you, right?”
He nods against me. “And Uncle Joel, and Sarah, and Rose. But mommy…You scared me. I miss you so much.”
The sob pours from my mouth and Tommy drops to the ground with us, pulling us both to his chest as his own tears fall onto his little family, finally together again.
“You were shot??” I look at Sarah, my mouth hanging open as she shrugs like it was nothing.
“Yeah. It hurt like a bi-” she looks up at Joel who glares at her. “-I mean, it hurt a lot. But Rose was there. She saved my life.”
I look over at Rose, Joel pulling her into his side and kissing the top of her head. “Holy shit, Rose! Well, I don’t…I don’t even know how to thank you.”
She waves her hand, a smirk playing at the corners of her mouth. “Oh don’t worry. It was my pleasure. Plus, I think Joel has found plenty of ways to thank me.” He bumps her with his hip and mumbles something about there being kids in the room.
“Well, thank you anyway. Have you all gotten enough to eat?” I look around and everyone nods, Sarah taking another sip of water.
“Alright. Well, let me tell you about the cabin.” I tell them what I’ve done while I’ve waited, all about the greenhouse and cellar, the fishing nets that I made following a book Joel had brought here about homesteading. I did manage to snare a few rabbits that were in the freezer. I also ran through a little checklist regarding the solar panels and the best time to take a shower with the most hot water. They all perked up when I said that.
“You have hot water?” Sarah asked.
I nod, smiling. “Yeah. Fresh towels are already in the bathrooms and clean sheets are on the beds. The only clothes are the ones you’d left here last time, though.”
Sarah stands up, halfway to the staircase before she yells over her shoulder. “I don’t even care. I’d walk around naked if it meant I could have a hot shower!”
“Sarah Miller!” Joel yells and Sarah giggles, carefully walking up the stairs, the bathroom door closing a few moments later.
Joel and Rose disappear into their room, their shower turning on a few moments later and we give Jax a bath in ours, letting him play in the bubbles for a while so he can feel at least a little normal. Once he’s done, we dry him off and dress him in his pajamas, stretching his little arms and yawning big.
“Oh wait! I almost forgot! Look who wanted to come along!” I reach into my backpack and pull out-
“Rabby!” Jax yells and tugs him from my hands, hugging him as tight as he could.
“Bless you for that,” Tommy smiles. “He’s been asking for him several times a day.”
“Well we couldn’t go to the cabin without Rabby!”
Jax looks up at me. “Mommy? Can I still sleep by Sarah?”
“Oh. You want to? You know you can sleep by us, right?”
Jax nods. “Yeah. But I want to make sure Sarah ok. She is better but still hurt sometimes. I like to help her.”
I kneel to his level, pulling him in for a hug. “You’re such a good caretaker, Jax. If that’s what you want, that’s fine. But-” I hold up my finger as he looks at me “-only if you promise we can cuddle for a long time tomorrow.”
He smiles and I swear he looks just like his dad. “Ok! I promise!” He throws his arms around me. “I love you, mommy.”
I hold him a little longer than normal, kissing the top of his head. “I love you too, bud.”
He gives Tommy a quick hug before throwing himself off the bed and running out of the door, only pausing a moment before sticking his head back in. “You tuck me in, mom?”
Once Jax is tucked in, and Sarah is comfortable, I head back into the bedroom, closing the door behind me. The shower is on and I see Tommy’s clothes in the laundry basket, his pant leg hanging off the side. Smiling, I tuck it into the basket and shed my own clothes, adding them to his pile before quietly opening the bathroom door. The room is a little steamy and I can just make out his dark hair behind the glass shower door panel. Quietly, I pop open the door, getting a clear view of his whole backside, my eyes lingering on his strong shoulders and round ass before I lean forward and pinch it, a yelp from him echoing across the bathroom as he spins on me.
“Not fair!”
“How did I sneak up on you, Mr. Desert Storm?”
He pulls me in as I close the door behind me, pressing my body against his. He pushes my hair back from my face as the water soaks us, cradling my face.
“Did you? Or did I let you sneak up on me just to feel your hand on my ass?”
I look fake shocked, slapping him on the shoulder. “Mr. Miller! Do you take me for some cheap date?”
He smiles, leaning in to kiss me, our lips barely touching. “Definitely not. You were expensive.”
He presses my back into the wall, capturing my lips with his before I can reply, one hand cradling my face and the other sliding down the side of my body to rest on my hip. His nose brushes mine when he changes angles, sucking my bottom lip in to take a nip. I can feel him hardening, but then the water starts to cool and I suddenly remember where we are.
“Tommy,” I breathe out, his lips trailing down my neck.
“Mmm?”
“We have to turn off the water. With all the showers, we can’t use that much hot water. The generator won’t last.”
He lets out a huff, kissing me briefly before turning off the water. He opens the shower door and steps out, turning to offer his hand to me. I take it, carefully stepping out on the bathmat, my skin pimpling as the cooler air hits it. Tommy reaches for our towels, holding mine out to me, but I don’t take it. Instead, I take his, moving close to him to dry him off. I start with his face, his beautiful face sprinkled with those freckles I love so damn much, his dark eyes on me. I run the towel over his hair a couple of times, opting to let it air dry as his curls always look so bouncy when he does that.
And then I move down, drying off his broad shoulders, down his arms, moving to his sides, pressing kisses to his chest after I’ve dried it off. I stare up at him innocently as I gently press the towel between his legs, using my other hand to secure his erection while I dry him off, his lips parting to puff out air onto my face. Holding his gaze, I drop to my knees, drying off his legs. My tongue darts out and I give him a lick, a small “Fuck,” grunted out from above. But then he’s pulling me up, pressing his lips to mine. I drop the towel, my arms wrapping around his neck, fingers winding into his wet curls. He breaks the kiss with a quiet moan, holding up the towel still clutched in his hand.
He says nothing, drying my face, planting a kiss on my nose. I giggle and steal a quick kiss, loving the smile I get in return. He moves on to my hair, wringing out the excess water before moving down to my chest. He gently grazes the soft towel over my nipples, my breathing picks up, feeling him slide his hand under the towel to squeeze my other nipple. Then he starts to move down my stomach, reaching the towel between my legs. He grips my chin with his other hand, making me look up at him as he moves the towel slowly over my cunt, sliding his finger down me, the towel pressed between us. It feels so good but I just want to feel him, his skin. But then he presses a finger to my clit and I gasp, his grip on my chin tightening slightly to hold my gaze. His nose brushes mine as he swirls around me, gliding his nose across my skin. He pulls back enough to look at me, his pupils blown wide with lust.
He drops the towel, gripping my thighs and lifts me, my legs coming up to wrap around him as he pushes open the bathroom door. He kisses me, lips and tongue pressing into mine as he walks me over to the bed, gently laying me down as he hovers over me, settling himself between my legs. He lifts his head slightly, his eyes scanning my face, a soft look in them as he takes me in. He gently brushes some hair from my face before he slowly pushes inside of me, my mouth opening in a silent moan. He’s always stretched me, pushed me to my limits but tonight it’s different. I never thought I’d see him again, feel him again, have him split me open and pull me back together, the love surging between us.
But he’s here, sliding into place and reaching spots only he ever has. His eyes are still on my face, a smile gently tugging at the corners of his mouth as he slowly pulls out and back in, watching me writhe and moan under him. His lips softly press to mine before starting a path down my jaw, gliding over to my neck, and sucking on that spot that leaves me breathless, gasping his name as he rolls his hips into me, an extra hard and slow thrust when he’s already buried deep. My nails dig into the skin on his back, trying to ground myself here, tell him I want to stay here forever, the warmth between my thighs quickly heating. His lips still on my neck, his hand finds mine, lacing our fingers together as he presses my hand into the bed, slightly above and to the side of my head. His other hand slides down my body, tracing a circular pattern in my skin before grabbing my leg, hooking it over his hip as he adds another deep thrust. My body tenses, standing on the edge as he pulls out, his head lifting from my neck to watch my face, pushing in and thrusting hard and deep. I break, unable to stop the stream of whines coming from me, his name a whisper on my lips, a chant, a prayer as he works me through it, my body like a live wire. My breathing levels out, I feel my lips curling into a smile when my eyes find his, his brow pulled together in concentration, like he was waiting for me. I cup his face and meet his gaze, his hips picking up slightly in speed as he thrusts into me a few more times, his mouth opening, head pushing back as he whines, little whimpers as he spills inside of me, his neck straining with the force of his release. Fuck he’s so beautiful when he comes, a sight I will never tire of.
He drops his forehead to mine, both of us breathing together for several minutes. I trace patterns on his back, scratching lightly, loving the feel of him on and in me. But eventually, Tommy sits up, pulling out of me with a hiss and a groan before cleaning us both up. He comes back to bed, completely naked, and slides in next to me, pulling me to his chest, but not before kissing me, his nose sliding against mine.
“I love you so much, Tommy.”
“Not as much as I love you, darlin’.”
I wake to sound of little feet running up and down the hallway, Sarah’s voice trailing after him as she follows him downstairs. I hear noise from the kitchen and I know they’re grabbing some cereal, Jax thinking he’s being sneaky about it.
I turn my head, my eyes landing on my husband’s sleeping face and for several long moments, I just watch him. The way the dim light from the lamp hits his face, the freckles sprinkles across his cheeks and nose, the soft rise and fall of his chest as he sleeps. His lips are slightly parted, small breaths puffing out from between them and I just…how is he this gorgeous? This handsome? How did I get this lucky? Not just in meeting him and being his friend and eventually starting our family but for him and our son to have survived whatever the fuck was happening? Everything goes to shit but I get to keep my little family.
I reach out to push back a stray curl from his face, sighing as I watch him a little longer. Leaning forward, I press light kisses to his face and his nose, Tommy starting to stir from the attention. He blinks awake, looking around worried for a moment before his eyes land on mine, his dark ones momentarily robbing me of my breath. He reaches out and cups my face, rubbing his thumb along my cheek.
“You’re real?” His voice is laced with sleep, but his eyebrows pull together like he’s worried I’ll fade away. I put my hand over his and squeeze, smiling back at him.
“I’m real. Are you?”
He pulls me to him, our lips gently meeting as he holds me, his tongue slipping easily into my eager mouth, moaning when I wrap my leg around his waist.
“Mrs. Miller, I do believe you’re naked,” he smiles into my lips.
“You know, I think you’re right.”
He rolls me onto my back and I giggle as he nips at my neck. “You should really put clothes on, darlin’. Someone might take advantage.”
“Maybe that’s exactly what I’m hoping for.”
“Mommy! Daddy is showing me fishing!” Jax clings to his tiny fishing pole that we had bought him the last time we were here, stashing it as a surprise for Joel’s weekend birthday trip that didn’t turn out the way we planned.
“Will you catch us some dinner?” I ask him, kneeling to his level to straighten his jacket.
He nods furiously. “I will, mommy!”
Tommy walks in the kitchen behind Jax, another pole clutched in his hand, Sarah following close behind carrying a tackle box.
“If Joel wants to join us, we’ll be down at the lake catching dinner.”
“You didn’t let him know you were going?”
He drops his voice so only we could hear, Sarah moving to show Jax the tackle box. “Not with the sounds I could hear coming from their room.”
“Gotcha. Well if you bring home dinner, maybe we could give them some competition.”
His eyes darken and he shifts the things he’s holding to pull me in close. “That’s a deal.” He kisses me and Jax giggles, holding up a fake wiggling worm.
A couple hours goes by before Rose comes down to the kitchen to get some water from the fridge. She looks at me and shifts herself, trying to hide the marks on her neck. I smirk and offer her a high five, which she takes. “Get it, girl.”
She goes back upstairs and I finish putting together the picnic basket, heading out back to walk the small path through the trees down to the lake. I can hear Jax’s laughter before I see them, ringing through the trees. At the end of the path I stop, watching them sit at the edge of the water, the dock not having been fully completed yet. Tommy is holding up a real wiggling worm and Jax is absolutely fascinated by the fact that Sarah wants nothing to do with the real worm, laughing whenever she jumps when the worm gets too close.
“It’s just a worm, Sarah!” Jax manages to get out between giggles.
“It’s too wriggly!” She squeals as Tommy turns towards her, Jax erupting into another fit of giggles. But when they turn to the water, I see Sarah reach into the bucket and take out a real worm of her own, quickly hooking it on the end of her pole and moving to her place to cast. I really love this kid.
Tommy kneels next to Jax, holding his little arms and telling him what to do, how to pull the pole back and when to release, the little Mickey Mouse pole looking so small in his hands. Which puts a whole other series of images in my head of exactly how large those hands are. I let them be for another minute before walking up to them.
“Lunch time!”
That winter brought us some snow, of which Jax was thrilled. Fortunately, we had stashed some winter coats and gear here the first time we’d come and they still fit. Mostly. Jax would definitely need a new one.
When spring finally came, Jax started begging both Tommy and Joel to finish the deck so they could go out fishing. Sarah joined in the begging simply because she wanted to jump off the deck and do backflips into the lake. Whatever they said worked because one day, about a week later, Tommy and Joel came downstairs dressed in jeans and loose fitting shirts. Joel moved around the kitchen island to the fridge, talking shop to Tommy who stopped behind the barstool I was sitting on, placing one hand on either side of me on the counter, leaning forward to press a kiss to the top of my head, his chest pressed against my back.
“Shit, I forgot something,” Joel grumbles as he stomps off towards the garage, the sounds of clanking quieting when the door closes behind him.
Tommy’s hand leaves the counter, wrapping around me and holding me to him, while his other hand snakes down the front of my shirt, grabbing one of my boobs.
“Sir. There are children in the house.” He pinches my nipple in response and I gasp.
“They’re already outside,” he speaks low in my ear, his nose nudging my hair aside as he kisses at my neck.
“Get a room,” Joel grunts out as he comes back in, noticing Tommy’s hand down my shirt.
“Sounds good to me. Let’s go, Daisy.”
“Not until you’re done with the deck, asshole,” Joel chuckles, grabbing the box of tools and heading towards the door.
Tommy groans as he removes his hand from my shirt. “Guess that’s my cue. I’d much rather hammer your deck,” His eyes are twinkling and I would beg him to take me here if it wasn’t for the kids running around just past the windows.
“You build that deck and we can do whatever you want.”
“You’re a menace, Mrs. Miller.” He kisses me and then heads outside, meeting up with Joel as Jax and Sarah chase after them.
A short bit later, Rose comes downstairs wearing one of Joel’s shirts, a slight limp to her walk. She gets a glass of water and stands across from me at the kitchen island, taking several gulps before putting the glass down and wiping her lips.
“Good night?” I smirk.
She flushes but nods. “You could say that.”
“You wanna go oggle our men while they build shit?”
“Hell yes.”
So Rose and I make a little cooler with drinks for everyone and some snacks for the kids and head outside, Rose grabbing a few folding chairs and an umbrella on the way. We get to the water and set everything up, chairs opened, cooler between us, and drinks in hand as we sit on the chairs, watching Tommy and Joel converse and gesture between some of the poles submerged in the water. On the first run of spring, they managed to score some wading gear so they had on these ridiculous looking pants with boots, but at least it was keeping them dry.
Rose and I, however, were definitely not dry.
Tommy and Joel stopped for a moment to wipe their brows and then decided to shed their shirts, tossing them towards Jax who eagerly tried to catch them and put them on the ground. My eyes roamed my husband’s body, his olive skin glistening with sweat and water, his chest heaving as he catches his breath. Then he reaches for a tool of some kind, which I couldn’t care less about, but fuck do his muscles move under it, bending and twisting with his movement and I push my legs together quickly, catching Tommy smirking when he caught a glimpse of me watching him.
“Do…do you think it could be uh, movie night? For the kids? Tonight?” Rose speaks to me but her eyes are glued to Joel.
“Movie night?” Mine are still on Tommy, who is now trying to torture me by stretching his arms above his head.
“Y-yeah. Might be a good…”
“A good…what?”
“Huh?”
“Movie night?”
“Oh right. Um a good…distraction. For the kids.”
“Oh, that sounds good. Let’s make it kids only so it’s special for them.”
“How ever will we pass the time?”
2 years later…
“And this one is yarrow. Good for fevers. The harvest is actually looking pretty good this year.” Rose fusses over several groups of small flowers, some white and some yellow, mumbling to herself as she does.
“Are they ready to pick?” Sarah asks curiously.
“I believe so. Here, let me show you both how.”
Shortly after they arrived, Rose asked me if she could have some space in the greenhouse to grow some herbs and plants for holistic medicine, to which I enthusiastically agreed. She spent the better part of the year foraging what she could, or showing Joel and Tommy what they looked like in that book of herbalism she had left in the cabin so they could keep an eye out for it when they go on runs. They never go far or often, but every once in a while we need something that we can’t produce ourselves. And now Rose has taken to showing Sarah and I exactly how to grow, harvest, and dry the plants, as well as what they’re used for and how to use them. When I had asked her why a surgeon cared about holistic medicine, she shrugged and said “It works.”
Sarah followed her around asking a ton of questions and I gave them their space. I listened, taking mental notes and actual ones, but honestly, I love how close Sarah and Rose had gotten. Almost like a mother and daughter. Which makes sense, now that Joel and Rose had gotten married. Or as close as married we can get.
2 years later…
“Where are you taking me?” I stumble again and Tommy grabs me, helping me step over a root I had tripped over.
“Not much further.”
“Jax will wonder where we’ve gone.”
“He’s 7 now. He’ll be fine. Besides, he was in on it.”
“You teamed up?”
“Yup.”
“Traitors.”
Tommy chuckles. “We’ll see.”
We walk for what feels like miles, but really is probably only about a half mile from the main cabin. Tommy stops walking and grabs my shoulders, walking around to stand behind me.
“Ready?”
I nod and he unties the blindfold. I blink rapidly a few times, adjusting to the light but when I finally can focus, I see a campsite. A little 2 bedroom tent has been set up, a small campfire that’s already going with a hanging little cauldron above it that has the most amazing smell coming from it, 2 camping chairs with a cooler between them, and a blanket spread on the ground. There’s a small slope down the hill and we can see the water from the campsite and, assuming I have my position correct, we will be able to have a gorgeous view of the sunset.
“Tommy, this is…I don’t know what to say!”
He wraps his arms around me from behind, pulling me into his chest, kissing the side of my head. “So you like it?”
“Like it? This is gorgeous Tommy! I - how long have you been planning this?”
He chuckles next to my ear, sending goosebumps down that side of my body. “A while. I found a calendar and did a little math and figured out our wedding anniversary is sometime around now. And we never really got to celebrate it since…well, since.”
Since the outbreak.
I turn in his arms, slipping my fingers through a couple of his belt loops and hold him to me, my eyes meeting his. “I love you, Tommy. So much. This is…this is amazing.”
“I love you too, darlin’.”
He leans down to kiss me, sliding his tongue into my willing mouth almost immediately. We make out for a moment before I place my hands on his chest, pushing him back slightly.
“I have to ask - what’s in the cauldron?”
He smiles and I swear it gets lighter. “My famous vegetable soup!”
My eyes open wide. “No way. Really? You found everything?”
He nods. “Yeah. I’ve been lookin’ for some stuff when we go on runs. We have most everything else here. I know how much you love it so I thought I’d save that surprise for this special occasion.”
“How long until it’s ready?”
“Hhm..let me check.” He lets go of me and stands by the cauldron, grabbing the mitt to move it off the fire so he can look inside, mixing it a little with a big spoon. “Looks ready now. You hungry?”
“Fuck yeah.”
The soup was delicious, even with a couple of missing ingredients, the perfect thing to warm us up. It’s not super cold but it will be once the sun starts to set. Tommy had even baked some bread without me knowing and damn this man can bake too. Once we’re finished, he walks the dishes down to the lake and rinses them in the water since we won’t need them anymore and tucks them in a bag. When he’s done, he walks up to me and extends his hand to me.
“Come watch the sunset with me?”
“I’d love to.” I take his hand and he pulls me up, walking me over to the blanket he had spread out with a clear view of the setting sun. He sits, kicking off his boots as he does, and beckons me to him as he reaches for a thick blanket. I kick off my boots and sit next to him, tucking myself into his side as he covers us with the blanket and wraps his arm around my shoulder. For a bit, we just sit and watch the sun set, the wind lightly blowing through the trees, the animals doing their nighttime routine. It’s peaceful. One can almost forget about…everything. As the sun sinks behind the line of trees, Tommy turns to me, hooking his finger under my chin to turn my head up to him.
“I love you, Daisy.”
“I love you, Tommy.”
He kisses me, soft at first but as his tongue slips in, his need grows, adding to the fire that’s rising in my belly. He lays me back, slotting himself above me and settles between my open legs. His lips kiss a path down my neck and find that spot behind my ear that makes me whine his name. I feel him grinding against me as I try to wrap my legs around him, but he grabs my thigh, preventing me from doing it. He slides down my body, eyes looking up at me until he reaches my pants. He pops open the button on my jeans with practiced ease, quickly hooking his fingers into my belt loops and pulling down, bringing my panties with them. I lift my hips to help, thankful I’d already kicked my boots off as Tommy shimmies my pants down and off, exposing me to the cool air as he sets them down on the blanket. He looks up at me, a smirk sliding into place.
“You can be as loud as you want to, darlin’.”
And before I can say anything, he pushes my legs apart, holding them with his broad shoulders, dipping his head between my legs, nibbling at my inner thigh while lightly tracing around where I want him desperately to be. He teases me for several moments, chuckling when my please grow louder before finally giving in, sliding his tongue around me, in me, sucking, nipping, licking, and moaning into me as I come, his name tumbling from my lips as my thighs try to close but remain in place by his broad shoulders. My fingers twist in his curls and I hold him to me, Tommy dragging out my orgasm by pulling another almost immediately. My fingers relax in his hair and he lifts his head, wiping his mouth on his sleeve, his grin wide and bright.
“Feel good, darlin’?”
I nod, finally catching my breath. “I’ll feel even better when you’re inside me.”
“Yes ma’am.”
He helps me take off my top, shedding his own clothes as well before grabbing my wrists, pinning them above me as he pushes in, a soft “fuck” coming from him as he settles, my body forming to his. His hips are slow and methodic, pushing deep inside of me, pulling a leg over his hip to get even closer, deeper, pushing at the back of me as I writhe under him, moaning and gasping when he hits a spot just right. His hips snap, hitting that same spot hard and faster and my body tenses, my release pushing from every part of me as I come, screaming his name for the world to hear, begging him for more when I come down, more closeness, more him. And he obliges, pulling out and flipping me over, his fingers digging into my hips as I push them back, my release making it easy for him to push in quickly, setting a rapid pace that hits me at new angles. He grunts and whimpers, his hips slamming into me before pulling me up to his chest, my hands gripping his forearm wrapped around me as we both come, breathing heavy and smiling when we come down.
We don’t bother getting dressed as we head in the tent, setting our clothes off to the side as we crawl into a double sleeping bag that Tommy had picked up on one of their runs. He wraps himself around me and I push into him, cuddling for a while before we make good use of that sleeping bag.
1 year later…
“Perfect kick, Jax!” Sarah yells to him as she stops the soccer ball with her foot, Jax fist pumping the air with excitement.
“I’ve been practicing!”
“And it shows! Let’s go again.”
Sarah had been showing Jax how to play soccer, officially, as she says, for the better part of a year. As best as she can without an entire team, but Jax takes it seriously, wanting to impress his cousin with his maneuvers.
Rose and I are sitting on the back patio, taking a short break from gardening to watch the kids. I take another sip of the delicious lemonade Rose had made with the lemons we had grown in the greenhouse. It’s not as sweet as I’d like it to be, but it’s a delicious treat. I’m laughing at a story she’s telling me when the sliding door rips open and Joel’s voice booms out.
“Everyone inside. Now.”
There’s an edge to it, one I don’t like. This isn’t a drill and the kids sense it too, immediately stopping and running into the house, Joel closing and locking the door behind us, the shutters already closing.
“Joel?” Rose questions but he shakes his head.
“Get into your spots.”
“Which spots?”
Tommy walks up, handing Joel 2 guns from the back room, handing another to me, his eyes large and worried.
“The ones for raiders.”
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According to Bloomberg, China is on track this year to install more solar panels than the entire total the US has installed since the development of solar panels in the 1950's.
Also, China has met its Climate Targets for 2025 two years early. Just astounding progress in renewables development in China. It is the fruit of decades of huge investments in actual green energy. Not bio furnaces or some other capitalist scheme, real progress.
Clearly it's investments are paying off.
Most US States are actively blocking progress in home solar by enacting laws and policies that make it illegal to sell your own excess electricity at market rates, taking away one of the biggest incentives for investing in home solar and artificially depressing home solar sales. A clear market manipulation by both Parties to protect the cash cows of their donor benefactors.
Both Parties are responsible for this policy because both Parties are controlled and co-opted by the very Fossil Fuel companies gobbling public subsidies and belching carbon, that can't actually compete with renewables in a fair market.
Also, an industrial policy would be great. Specifically a green industrial policy.
Any time now...
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Best Solar Panel Installation Company in Gurgaon, Delhi NCR - Rishika Kraft Solar
Switch to Clean Energy! Rishika Kraft Solar - Gurgaon's best solar panel installers. Get a free quote on eco-friendly solar power systems for your home or business. We offer financing & expert installation.
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🌞 Maximize Your Solar Savings! 🌱
March 2024 brings great news for solar energy enthusiasts! With the latest SEG tariffs, you can now earn more by selling your excess electricity back to the National Grid. 💰⚡
The Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) scheme is not just about energy independence; it’s a smart financial move. The top rate currently stands at a whopping 35 pence per kWh! That means an average household could pocket around £190 annually. 🏡💸
Don’t miss out on the opportunity to make your renewable energy work for you. Check out the full details and find the best SEG rates for your needs here: Best SEG Tariffs/SEG Rates in March 2024.
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Yes, we can stop climate change - and solve ecological problems in general
In the last few years, I have seen again and again a particular social response to climate change that can leave human civilization just as devastated as denying or ignoring climate change: and that is doomism, and fellow-traveler ideas of eco-fascism and eco-austerity. Make no mistake: climate change is a very serious issue that can cause noticeable damage to Earth and a hell of a lot of damage to humanity, but people absolutely love to take it to lurid extremes, like "Mad Max hellworld" and "Earth becoming the second Venus by 2100". In this post, I'm just going to lay out numerous reasons why the situation is far from hopeless, why sensationalized narratives of climate change are just a petty excuse for inaction, why "we'd better start taking mud baths to get used to being in the ground" rhetoric is incredibly dangerous (not to mention a betrayal of the weak and vulnerable by the strong and well-off), and why, ultimately, things aren't as dire as "the common wisdom" proclaims - so that people can stop feeling crushed by hopelessness, and start solving all of the very, very real environmental problems the way they're already being solved. All my examples will be sourced from the IPCC reports and real-world accomplishments in eco-restoration, via an extremely helpful blog called Doomsday Debunked, which just reprints all the IPCC and IPBES findings that doomist media and activism deliberately omits.
Most of this post is adapted from one I already made before elsewhere - but perhaps on Tumblr it's going to become more popular and widespread. I'm going to split it into three different sections: climate change mitigation, biodiversity recovery, and why "green austerity" is not a brilliant idea, will not save anything, and is ultimately an outdated falsehood that emerged from a place of insufficient knowledge and understanding. Almost all paragraphs contain links to sources/more info, but they may be hard to see in some custom Tumblr themes - be sure to mouse over if you want to find the links.
CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION AND YOU: how renewable energy really can save the world!
Here's the biggest thing first: Climate Action Tracker, which is a pretty damn respectable source, has slashed off 1.1 to 1.5 degrees Celsius off its average warming projections since 2010, according to their own records. Hell, in 2018, three degrees of warming was a pledge, and four degrees was the expected upper limit; now three degrees is expected if the current level of fossil fuel consumption continues without any reduction - and two degrees is the policy target, while optimistic projections are inching closer to 1.5 degrees. And to "achieve" 5 degrees Celsius of warming, which is misleadingly described by journalists as "business as usual" when by our current day it's anything but, we would need an economic mobilization from now to 2100 to burn all the coal that we can possibly burn. With coal plants shutting down in reality simply due to being unprofitable, I don't have to tell you how "realistic" and "plausible" that is. The takeaway from this is simple: the Paris Agreement and environmental activism work, and I really don't see them winding down unless we let doomism reign supreme.
A specific example of policy and technology that can seriously reduce climate change is the amazing growth of solar power over the last 10 years. I am old enough to remember the early 2000s, when solar photovoltaics (the panels that convert sunlight directly into electricity) were an unproven, esoteric, and expensive technology, and people meant solar water heaters when they said "solar power"… but nowadays? There is literally predictions that if solar energy keeps growing at current rates, and considering it already beats fossil fuels on price, it might simply price out gas, coal, and oil before 2050, rendering them entirely obsolete. Even now, investment into coal or gas power plants is seen as an incredibly stupid thing to do, because they might become "stranded assets" - too expensive to run, and unable to even recoup their initial cost.
The clathrate gun/Arctic methane bomb hypothesis has been effectively disproven at the current time. The release of methane from clathrates is endothermic, meaning it takes in more heating than it releases; a direct opposite of a gunshot/explosion, which is an exothermic reaction. More modern research also turned up the fact that methane has been seeping upwards at a constant rate for millennia now - we just didn't monitor it. Seabed disturbance could possibly upturn some of the clathrates, but ocean warming alone simply can't do it - it would take thousands of years of warming for the temperature change to propagate to the kind of depth that methane clathrates are found at.
The hypothesis of runaway greenhouse effect has effectively been disproven too: with a more powerful greenhouse effect, Earth's albedo grows just as fast as the heat-trapping capacity, meaning runaway warming is highly unlikely and the only cause are human industry CO2 emissions, which can be obsoleted by renewables and thus stopped.
The biggest threat from climate change as it is now appear to be extreme weather events; for example physically straining heatwaves, or severe floods from large amounts of rainfall. And those are serious problems. But heatwaves can be deal with by adapting our environments - the most obvious example being to plant some trees instead of layering our cities in concrete. Similarly, flood management isn't some arcane art; we know how to do it. It's just been ignored due to complacency and budgetary stinginess.
The expectations of social collapse from climate change are… overstated, let's say. The IPCC's own worst-case scenario is NOT "Earth as a lifeless desert" or "collapse of human society"; the situation IPCC associated with three-degree warming is that hundreds of millions risk being displaced by sea level rise and temperatures in the tropics getting too hot for comfortable life with no weather difficulties (NOT THE SAME as "you go out at any point during the summer, you die in ten minutes"), and the UN Sustainable Development Goals will be left in ruins. In other words, the poor people of the world will go back to starving and suffering, and the rich, especially in the West, will for the most part retain their quality of life. And so to me, as a non-Western, not-ultra-rich person, doomism is a personal affront, and doomism from solarpunks and environmentalists is a grave betrayal.
Speaking of the IPCC reports: the last one states with decent confidence that as soon as we stop pumping CO2 into the atmosphere, temperatures will begin to drop. Just think on this for a minute.
The "1970s MIT supercomputer that predicted the collapse of civilization by 2040"? That computer was not just less powerful than a smartphone from five years ago - it modeled the world as a single pixel, primitive even by the standards of the day. (Link to article that features actual model comparisons, via browser-based Javascript emulation. 'Nuff said.)
The so-called "deep adaptation" paper that managed to put people into therapy by its sheer grimness? Junk science that was rebuffed by Michael Mann - the author of the "hockey stick graph" of global temperatures, so not a climate denier by any means - in a four-letter tweet.
Earth turning into a second Venus by 2100? Yeah. That's… not gonna happen. We literally don't have enough fossil fuels to induce a greenhouse effect this bad, at any timescale, and I don't know if we could do it even if we started importing dry ice from space and cracking carbonate minerals for their carbon content to deliberately destroy the planet for some stupid reason.
And just because I feel like mentioning it: no, Earth can't run out of oxygen for us to breathe, barring an invasion of Galactus or some other planet-devouring alien.
BIODIVERSITY + CONSERVATION: lies, damned lies, and statistics
The infamous notion that we are heading for a world without insects was based on a study where half the map was blank, and some countries only counted the domestic honeybee (which relies on humans to thrive). Not all plants need insects to pollinate them, either. But at the same time, overuse of insecticides in agriculture is a serious issue with many adverse effects, and it has to be fought against. There is currently a campaign in Europe with this aim. Native grass lawns in cities help a lot too, more than you would think at first.
Similarly, there is a general notion that we are "in the middle of a sixth mass extinction", except we're not "in the middle". We're in the beginning of one. Now, if we all start/keep behaving like the Glukkons from the Oddworld series of games, or the Blargs from the first Ratchet & Clank game, for a few hundred more years - then we're totally going to face an impoverished biosphere with half or more known species dead. But if we do that, I'd say extinction of species would be far from our only problem.
The number one agricultural land use that drives deforestation is grazing cattle and growing crops to feed them; cropland and cities simply don't compare. Ergo, just by shifting to plant-based diets supplemented by lab-grown meat cultures and sustainable fish, we can rewild nearly 30% of Earth. And climate impacts there can be reduced too, if you simply buy local.
For a reforestation success story on a massive scale, look no further than the Loess Plateau.
Conservation success stories are actually plentiful; however, they do not get aired on the news because good news does not draw in views, clicks, and outrage. You can just go through this article on Doomsday Debunked to see how successful nature conservation can actually be.
The only two biomes that are most endangered by climate change are coral reefs (which would be replaced by the more resilient sponge reefs at 3 degrees of warming or around that), and the mountain glaciers, which will take thousands of years to recover, unlike the polar ice caps that'll be back in a couple of decades. But even corals have shown more resilience than expected before, so the scale of devastation is not nearly as huge as people might imagine.
GREEN AUSTERITY: "Friendly fire! Stop shooting, you pointy-eared leaf lover!"
A common, in fact extremely common, idea is that the only way to save the planet is accepting massive reductions to our quality of life - and by "massive" I mean "living in dugouts and doing subsistence agriculture while literally billions of people die for lack of warmth and medicine". Not only is this unacceptable, it's also a complete lie. The best way for someone living in the car-dependent, fossil-fuel-hungry sprawl of North America to reduce their carbon footprint is actually moving to a country with walkable, bikeable cities and good public transportation, like the Netherlands… or preferably, reforming and rebuilding their own local environment to this standard that used to exist in NA before its suburbanization that included zero public transport due to auto industry lobbying. NotJustBikes is an entire YouTube channel that explains this better than I ever could.
Another common idea is that building enough renewable generation capacity is just not possible with existing resources here on Earth. But consider this for a moment: when we mine metals and make them into electric engines or batteries, they don't go anywhere, with the only possible exception being metal flaking off due to corrosion. The metals composing wind turbine generators, electric vehicle motors, and batteries, or silicon composing the solar panels, remain in place and can be recycled several times, if not infinitely. Oil and coal that our current civilization burns for fuel EMPHATICALLY CANNOT be recycled - the entire problem we have is that they turn into carbon dioxide and clog our atmosphere, while soot and other exhaust fumes damage the health of people living in cities. Getting rid of 99% or more of fossil fuel infrastructure doesn't seem like that hard of a choice when you remember that feeding a renewables-based infrastructure requires a far more modest production capacity.
The issue of soil depletion from intensive agriculture is not only exaggerated by the negative/doomist framing (no, we are NOT going to run out of topsoil in 60 years!) - it's also a problem of mismanagement rather than an inherent agricultural problem. Stop oversaturating fields with fertilizer, introduce polyculture and crop rotation, and you'll see how much better things can get.
Similar to the above: the production of fertilizer does not require fossil fuels, no matter what some people might be saying. The three types of fertilizer are nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium. All of those are abundant chemical elements on Earth, and circulate through the biosphere freely; nitrogen is the 70% of our atmosphere and cannot possibly run out, and phosphate with potassium are abundant in the Earth's crust. The only direct use of fossil fuels in fertilizer production is the Haber-Bosch process that condenses nitrogen from the air into ammonia, and guess what molecule it needs for that? Hydrogen, which is the stronger half of the elements composing hydrocarbon fuels and which we could have in abundance by simple electrolysis of water!
Related to the above: it is beyond ridiculous how cow manure is dumped into rivers or similar by most modern farmers, when with right subsidies it could be transformed into cheap-as-free fertilizer to be used in agriculture. Someone should go create subsidies for large-scale composting...
Surprisingly enough, even consistent economic growth - which I am not a fan of by any means - can be achieved on a finite planet, because economic growth is all in what you count and how you count it. If we calculate economic growth not by production, but by improvements in human condition and condition of ecosystems (i.e. an economy that grows with the growth of trees), then we'll see that right now some world regions (like, again, North America) are failing as much as countries poor in money, but also that there is an enormous space for growth measured in sustainable prosperity.
The much-touted problem of water wars is an actual problem only for regions way, way inland. Any coastal countries have access to efficient desalination; it's not 1850 anymore. Water doesn't disappear from the world after people use it in cities and industries, it goes right back into the soil/atmosphere/rivers and oceans, so we can't "run out of water".
Interesting fact: we don't actually require any particularly specialized carbon capture technology to remove all the excess CO2 from the atmosphere, and will not require us to divert society's resources to expensive machinery. The old adage about the best carbon capture technology that's called "planting trees" still holds - and what's even more interesting is that there actually are even better methods that are not much more complex… and produce other things for the environment and for civilization in the process.
CONCLUSION
To sum things up: yes, the situation is serious, and "already bad enough" as Michael Mann put it (admittedly, he's been leaning into negative framing himself… but it can't be all positive, the problems of climate change really are dangerous, especially to the world's poor), and there's been a lot of environmental damage due to industries and rich consumers deliberately ignoring the externalities/knock-on effects of their resource use - but it's not nearly as horrifically bleak as some people presume. Right now there is great momentum behind climate action - which, yes, is partially propelled by increasingly hostile weather, but also by an understanding that social progress, democracy, and collective action are vital to build any form of a decent society, as well as by seeing new opportunities rise from cheaper renewable energy, better cities, and other innovations that will both stop climate change and make life actually worth living no matter where you might be. And in these conditions, throwing in the towel or surrendering to eco-austerity or even eco-fascist thinking is the worst possible action any one person can take. The green, sustainable, egalitarian future is not merely a dream or flight of fancy - it's eminently attainable if only we keep pushing for it and help eachother achieve it. But of course, there are people who stay up nights thinking how to take that future away from us, and now that climate change denial is no longer tenable, with more and more people believing their own eyes, the doomism and inactivism have become their primary, perhaps only, means of holding onto their power…
I hope this post will be helpful to people here who find themselves in the grip of doomism and hopelessness. I expect some people to disagree, but I prefer to believe the sources like the IPCC, IPBES, Climate Action Tracker, and all the climatologists behind these organizations' reporting - who've been closely watching both the worsening extreme weather from climate change, and the emergence of all the simple, usable, life-improving technologies and social practices to combat it. If we don't believe these people, then really, who can we believe? And if you do trust their reports on all the positive things being done and planned for environmental needs, it is not simply an idea that we can deal with climate change and restore, then protect our environment - it's objective reality, it's respectable science, and thus, it's good hard common sense.
More information: Doomsday Debunked (layman explanations and positive framing, also covering a ton of other "not actually the end of the world" topics for scared people), Carbon Brief (more technical and a bit less brazenly optimistic, but showing things like the absolutely crazy speed of renewable energy development), Not Just Bikes (an urbanist YouTube channel showing how cities can be improved, not made poorer, in the process of reducing fossil fuel use and car dependency).
#climate change#global warming#solarpunk#bright green environmentalism#hope#reasons for hope#psa#problem solving#debunking doomsday#long post
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Random Robot Snippet
Is it obvious I've been in a robot mood for the last few days? Here's a random word-vom I wrote about a tiny discarded robot being repaired.
Word count: 900ish
CW: POV description of a robot in disrepair, some robot-themed body horror (maintenance while awake) but portrayed softly.
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2%
You stumble through the street, wishing it wasn’t night. All of the businesses are closed, and your solar panels aren’t picking anything up from the street lamps…
1%
You curse your size, the smallest model of family companion, only six inches tall. Six inches that move at a negligible speed as you try desperately to find anywhere to charge… but you know deep down that this is the end for you…
0%
You desperately stumble in view of the sky, hoping that maybe, just maybe, you’ll recharge when the sun co
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5%
System Status: Critical
You wake up. You weren’t expecting that. As you take in the fact that you’re alive, you notice an odd sensation by your arm. Ah. It’s missing. The wires that previously sent power to your fingers have been spliced into a power plug, which must be where you are getting charged from. You notice additional problems as your warning system slowly warms up. Namely, that your chassis is open, exposed to the elements. It just now occurs to you that you have no idea where you are. The room is dark, and you appear to be on a wooden surface, sat in a slumped-over position. Several tools are nearby, as well as spare wires. You begin to panic, your cooling fans turning on automatically to control the heat coming from your processor.
You hear a voice, talking. The words are hard to hear over the roaring of the fans, but you can make out some of them. “Project”, “Replacement”, “Help it”. The voice seems to be speaking to no one, you can’t hear the reply, but they sound adamant. Finally, you hear them move away from the door, as the room returns to silence, and you fade into sleep mode to charge faster.
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50%
System Status: Stabilized
Your internal clock is broken, you lost internet access long before you were discarded. You have no idea how long you’ve been here. How long since you were in the street. Hours? Days? Longer? The solar panels making up your “hair” have finally activated, but at an extremely low generation rate. That must be what woke you up.
You’re now laying flat on the surface from before. Your pressure sensors feel something. You boot up your optical nodes, and see… gloved human hands, almost as big as you are, poking at your now-exposed chest cavity with rubber-tipped tools. It feels… odd, the sensation of having your insides meddled with while still awake. You take in the form of the human, their tied-back hair, their oil-stained coveralls, clearly from working on something bigger, and presumably more important than you.
Their face, covered by a welding mask, turns up to look at you, clearly noticing the blue lights from your optical nodes, and they speak in a muffled voice. “Oh, hello! You’re awake! Can you… can you speak?”
“Yes. Where am I?”
“Oh good! Sorry, I know this must be scary, this is my robot workshop. I guess you could think of it as… a bot hospital. I found you sitting in a dumpster, but I know your model had AI, I couldn’t just let you be discarded!”
Discarded, you think, taking extra time to process the word. It wouldn’t be the first time.
“Where is my arm?” You ask, as your optical nodes glance over at the missing appendage, and the mess of wires in its place. “What are you doing?”
“Oh! Your arm is safe, I was doing repairs on it, and I figured ‘Hey, the chassis needs power anyways, may as well give it a jump’. I’ll put it back when you’re fully charged. As for this,” they say, pointing to your open torso, “Just a bit of an upgrade for you. On the house,” they say with a wink.
Your fans calm down as your processor slows to normal levels. This human means well? You don’t understand why they would care for an outdated, defective unit like you, but that hardly matters if they’ll help repair you. You stay awake as they continue to poke and prod, occasionally causing a power flicker but always apologizing. The way they treat you… it’s almost as if you were a human yourself. Now that they know you’re awake, they speak slowly and softly, narrating what they are doing and why. “I’m removing this, but I’m replacing it with this better one, okay?”
“Okay”, you reply, not that you have much of a choice. If they wanted, they could be, no, should be scrapping you for parts… but they don’t. Finally, it burns at you enough to ask.
“Why are you helping me?”
They go quiet at this. You worry that you said something wrong, something to upset them. Instead, they lift their mask and look at you, a gentle gleam in their hazel eyes, as they respond. “I’m helping you because you were hurt. Nobody should be thrown away like that.”
You think to argue, to tell them that you were defective, replaced by a newer, more capable model, but you hold your metaphorical tongue, afraid of upsetting this human who currently has access to your most vital parts. “You don’t believe me”, they say. You don’t. After a moment, they speak again. “That’s okay. Whether you believe me or not, I’m going to help you, okay? So just be patient and trust me.”
And, with no other option, trust them you shall.
#not my usual fare but this is my tumblr.com i post what i want#... at 10pm because the hell with 'visibility'#g/t#giant/tiny#g/t writing#robots#robotposting#my writing
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According to a CNBC investigation, retail giant Amazon — which made solar power a key pillar of its plan to reach zero emissions by 2040 — secretly switched off all rooftop warehouse solar panels amid multiple fires and safety concerns.
The issue here isn't necessarily that Amazon clearly had some faulty tech on their hands. And if equipment is catching fire and threatening employee safety — as AmazonBasics products have done before — it should definitely be powered down. But the company failed to make the malfunctions and the subsequent shut-downs known to the public, which means that the company was apparently withholding info about both employee safety and its environmental efforts and impact.
Internal documents obtained by CNBC showed that between April 2020 and June 2021, there were at least six separate incidents of rooftop solar panels either catching fire or suffering electrical explosions. Forty-seven North American Amazon warehouses had these panels installed, meaning the dangerous malfunctions impacted roughly 12.7 percent of all such sites.
"The rate of dangerous incidents is unacceptable," an Amazon employee reportedly wrote in one internal report obtained by CNBC, "and above industry averages."
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