
Earth Will Likely Be Much Warmer in 2100 Than We Anticipated, Scientists Warn - rbanffy
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/xwvx5q/earth-will-likely-be-much-warmer-in-2100-ipcc-projections?utm_source=mbtwitter
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mac01021
> Last week the US Senate passed a bill allowing oil drilling in Alaska's
> Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as part of a sweeping tax overhaul bill.
> However oil prices would have to substantially higher to make it profitable
> to drill there. “It will be interesting to see who wants to go there,” said
> Sanzillo.

So who is advocating for this legislation and what is the incentive to pass
it?

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existencebox
Cynical long-term prediction ahead:

The powers that be have wanted this for years. Energy interests from the time
when oil was MUCH higher priced, politicians from the favor it would curry
with their lobbying interests, etc. The trump administration has simply given
them a wide open window to push it through, even if it's not immediately
useful. In the long run, given legislative trends, it will likely be harder to
unwind any of these decisions, so they've "locked in" their gains, so to say.

Look at the broader scope of anti-reserve legislation; many reserves are being
shrunk in a manner that will lead exclusively to states selling off public
land to private interests. There's 0 compelling public benefit from this other
than deriving a small amount of revenue for the states in which they're
located; (/s since the US is clearly lacking usable land, _of course_ the
answer is to lay claim to some of the more precious unused land we have /s)
ignoring even a potential decline of sport/tourism dollars. All of this seems
like a bunch of maneuvering to trade American natural heritage for a small
amount of political favor and economic benefit for handfuls of
empowered/aligned entities.

