Interesting Links for 26-10-2019

[andrewducker]

Trying to Plant a Trillion Trees Won't Solve Anything

(tags:trees globalwarming co2 )

The Acid Sludge Streaming Out of Germany's Coal Mines

(tags:germany coal pollution )

'Being an Englishman in Glasgow has changed my views on independence'

(tags:UK Scotland Europe independence )

If we treated Trick-or-Treaters like Cosplayers

(tags:video Halloween cosplay )

Trainspotting 2 car park in Edinburgh controversially given heritage award

(tags:cars design Edinburgh Scotland )

"Gaming disorder" is actually unhappy people using gaming as a way of getting their needs met

(tags:gaming mentalhealth )

Migrating Russian eagles run up huge data roaming charges

(tags:headline eagle birds mobile_phones phones )

Europe's new lie detector for travelers is pseudoscience

(tags:fraud lies Europe immigration )

Recommendations from the first meeting of China's urban policy unit in 38 years

(tags:China cities design )

The British government is planning to diverge from the EU on regulation and workers' rights after Brexit (yes, I'm shocked too)

(tags:UK Europe rights doom )

Data protection experts want watchdog to investigate Conservative and Labour parties

(tags:dataprotection conservatives Labour )

Comments

[malobukov]

> Trying to Plant a Trillion Trees Won't Solve Anything

Red herring. The idea is not to plant trees but to cut them down, selectively, and use wood for construction.

Mature and stable forests are carbon neutral. Young growing trees absorb CO₂ from the air, fallen decaying trees release it. If we keep cutting down big trees, new trees will take their place, and carbon bound in harvested wood will remain there.

Europe's new lie detector for travelers is pseudoscience

[jack]

I know how much of... everything is just "go along with this, this is the way it's done, we know it makes no sense" but I keep forgetting how much that applies even to extremely dangerous ideas in important places :( It feels so futile ever knowing anything when things that are just completely bogus just happen and so many people just accept it.

75% accuracy on 32 people? Was one of them an internationally wanted terrorist? Or someone desperately trying to pass an interview to save their life? Or not? I don't know if they had bigger studies as well? Or not? It sounds like it's envisaged as some sort of first-pass, on people who otherwise might be able to just come straight through. But I assume, in practice, it's essentially random, but gives a good excuse to choose between "sorry, nothing I can do, computer's orders" and "well, obviously something went wrong, go straight through" depending on a human's discretion :(

Re: Europe's new lie detector for travelers is pseudoscience

[andrewducker]

Yeah, it really is terrible.

[ninetydegrees]

=>Trying to Plant a Trillion Trees Won't Solve Anything

Several things I learned through various documentaries about scientific experiments and people's reports (and I apologize for my very approximate recounting and lack of scientific knowledge and references):
1) Like malobukov said we need to cut trees more selectively and give them time to grow. One guy had a PEFC plot of land and nothing would grow on it anymore because cutting young trees and replanting new ones was progressively killing the soil (there was no time for a give and take to really take place and no real ecosystem because it was all the same essence of trees and little else).
2) Planting trees (and other things) in areas which had become arid because, again, the soil was "dead" works (in one case, it was an area which had been repeatedly trampled by cattle, which we now tend to keep in the same field instead of moving them from one pasture to another). It progressively brought back all kinds of flora and fauna.
3) We also killed forests (and still do in some areas) to make space for intensive monoculture. We know this progressively kills soils too, makes food less rich in nutrients in turn, blahblahblah, soil which we then pollute with fertilizers and other chemicals. Making space for trees is also making less space for monoculture, urban expansion,...

So no, planting trees isn't THE solution to saving the planet. Of course not. I don't think anybody with common sense believes this. But it's A solution that can work for certain purposes in certain areas providing we change other things as well and it's part of a whole process.

[andrewducker]

I'm definitely in favour of tree planting, at least partially for the reasons you state.

I think this was purely a reaction to the claims making the rounds that "We need to plant a trillion trees to stop global warming".