The issue isn't just isolated to those living around it. Methane is an extremely potent greenhouse gas (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-bad-of-a-gree...), letting it leak out like that for a year has likely caused significant environmental harm.
Methane is removed from the atmosphere due to chemical reaction within about 12 years, so good news: with the leak stopped, the effects of the leak will taper off relatively quickly.
I thought that would have happened too when other subreddits were quarantined or banned (and it briefly did when fatpeoplehate was banned) but honestly the banned discourse does not show up on the front page or /r/all, as they intended.
However, because of this, Reddit is becoming increasingly sterile, single-minded, and most importantly ad-friendly to the point where its fairly difficult to have an honest discussion about anything remotely controversial.
Unfortunately their selective banning of communities that I would associate with the "far-right" has seriously hurt any attempt to migrate away from Reddit (specifically Voat.co is unbearable for me trying to participate).
I don't know if there will ever be a straw to break the camels back, but I have been actively searching for reddit alternatives for years and have not found a truly viable replacement.
> its fairly difficult to have an honest discussion about anything remotely controversial.
Like most media companies, reddit wants to promote its political agenda. It's natural and common (and expected of the traditional media), but since reddit doesn't pay for their own content, can only be done with censorship.
So they're making it difficult to have an honest discussion about anything they have an opinion about.
That's particularly concerning because reddit seems to be a natural monopoly, having operated for years with no successful competition. Perhaps this censorship will be the impetus that finally allows some competition to break through.
Voat had so much potential... shame how it is today. I still post almost everyday like I did so many years ago to provide actual content rather than vitriol but it's like shouting into a storm.
Still some possibility there, the leadership is open to fairness and free speech. It's the user base that has rotted.
The FPH folks seem to have moved to /r/fatpeoplestories. A similar subreddit all things considered, just a lot less hateful (and not focused on the sort of doxxing that was ubiquitous on FPH), which is pretty much what we'd want I guess. Is a similar dynamic plausible for T_D? Not very clear.
Unfortunately the problem seems to be a Prisoner's dilemma for countries - curbing CO2 emissions without all other countries doing so puts said country at an economic disadvantage. It also puts a large onus on developing countries that don't have the established industry to easily convert to "greener" technologies/industries. Top that with most Western countries being in relatively low threatened areas comparatively and you get a large populace happy to remain ignorant.
I'm convinced the only possible savior at this point would be a Superpower aggressively enforcing environmental regulations to the point of going to war over it, but that seems unlikely.
> I'm convinced the only possible savior at this point would be a Superpower aggressively enforcing environmental regulations to the point of going to war over it, but that seems unlikely.
It could feasibly handled economically. I've wondered if a stronger world govt a century or so down the line saying eco friendly or tariffs. I can't speak to liklihood, but it seems feasible.
"Miami-based Carnival pleaded guilty Monday to six probation violations, including the dumping of plastic mixed with food waste in Bahamian waters. The company also admitted sending teams to visit ships before the inspections to fix any environmental compliance violations, falsifying training records and contacting the U.S. Coast Guard to try to redefine what would be a "major non-conformity" of their environmental compliance plan."
So not only did they knowingly dump plastic waste into the ocean, but they also actively tried to cover it up, implying they were fully aware of being guilty. And they get a paltry fine with no one going to jail for this criminal charge?
At this point the judge is just as guilty for allowing this behavior to continue.
"The company also admitted sending teams to visit ships before the inspections to fix any environmental compliance violations, falsifying training records and contacting the U.S. Coast Guard to try to redefine what would be a "major non-conformity" of their environmental compliance plan."
Unreal - I couldn't imagine being on those "teams"... your task for the day/week is literally to commit fraud. Wow.
Sending teams to fix problems ahead of inspectors is a strange charge, I wish they provided more detail on that. Self policing and fixing problems is exactly what corporate should have been doing.
This sounds like they only did the self policing ahead of inspection, and as soon as it passed it was business as usual, which is not how a company should behave.
This is how literally every "inspection" of everything ever works at scale.
"Oh, the X department has a review coming up, better send the X review prep team to make sure X is Xing like they should and light a fire under their ass to fix it if not".
Sure X is supposed to be ensuring compliance continuously but we all know where that falls on the priority list so hence things only ever get fixed in the pre-inspection inspection.
Edit: Yes I know they falsified records. I'm talking about the general case here.
To be fair random inspection is the only (albeit imperfect) way to work. If you give notice you are easy to game.
That said I remember teachers doing lessons specifically because an unplanned school inspection was happening. Some things can still be gamed. Perhaps the only option is find a way to measure continuously if at all possible, and make sure the risks are high enough to not be worth taking...
What else? Probably make it financially better to go above and beyond environmentally? So it's not a cost centre.
No one goes to jail because we're talking about littering. It's just not a big enough deal. Given the severity of the underlying crime, a $20M fine is massive.
Covering up environmental compliance violations and falsifying training records is a much bigger deal than littering. This is more akin the Volkswagen emissions scandal.
There is no evidence that the company itself knew about or encouraged that falsification. If there was, the DOJ press release would have mentioned it. The employees could be prosecuted, but federal prosecutors generally don’t go after such low level conduct.
The obvious distinctions would be between management and line/staff workers, between executive management and line management, and between executive management and the board.
The typical implication of "the company" "knowing" things would be executive management (and, if the conduct actually involved executive managers, the board).
Probably not; the threshold you have to cross under Warren's hypothetical proposal is, while lower than the current one, still pretty high, and weirdly specific: Carnival would essentially have to already be operating under a judgement or consent decree covering this conduct, and a specific executive officer would have to do something meeting the four tests for legal negligence that either violated the judgement they were under, or otherwise resulted in harm the health or privacy of at least 3.3 million people.
Warren did not propose the "CEOs of companies we dislike can be sent to prison if anything bad happens" bill.
>Covering up environmental compliance violations and falsifying training records is a much bigger deal than littering.
So it's not the littering/pollution that's the important crime, it's daring to lie to the government that's the important crime?
Yes, littering is bad and the fine is too small for a company this size but the fact that people see failing to <cartman>"respect my authority"</cartman> as the true crime here does not sit well with me.
$20M is .106% of Carnival's 2018 revenue and .047% of their assets. It's also only 1.5yrs worth of CEO compensation.
Definitely not "massive" for Carnival's scale if their company is operating in the $billions.
A $500 littering fine for the average person making $50k/yr is 10x more of a hit than what Carnival was slapped with for dumping magnitudes greater of trash into the ocean knowingly.
Plus someone is going to have to deal with fixing Carnival's mess. All Carnival had to do was write a check and send out a memo saying "Try harder to not get caught next time guys".
And $20M might be massive to you, but it’s a drop in the bucket for Carnival. It allows them to incorporate these practices into their business model, as long as they’re kept beneath their economic threshold.
People need to wake up to the fact that "littering" is no longer a minor crime in the world we live in. I see it as tantamount to murder, given the environmental damage it causes.
The most frustrating part of this for me is there is no (relatively) easy way to override this behavior. Its fine to disable the addons, but please allow me to "understand the risks" and continue against Firefox's recommendations.
The feeling of no control over my web browser was why I left Chrome in the first place.
I agree with you in the sense that especially in America a lot of the bike lanes are really just faded single lines littered with gravel, and practically speaking following the Vehicular Cycling model has been very successful for me in interacting with cars.
However, while I can nimbly integrate with traffic being in shape and experienced, trying to get friends and family who are not experienced in this are usually met with an awful time, further discouraging bicycle use.
A fully segregated path, where you can get comfortable and learn without impatient drivers honking or zooming past 45+MPH would be infinitely valuable in helping. Cities need to stop half-assing bike lanes and either provide a safe, effective path or not bother because like you said they can even more dangerous.
There are plenty of intelligent solutions to the intersection problems, as well.
Its especially frustrating how cities will try almost anything to alleviate traffic instead of encouraging cycling. Its less taxing on the roads, it doesn't pollute, it doesn't require a schedule and best of all it takes up peanuts in space compared to a parking spot.
I haven't needed it in the city I'm at now, but I used to wear a USA flag as a cape when riding in less biking friendly areas. It was night and day how drivers treated me.
I just want people to be less 'secretive' about receiving parental support; in my peer group it seems almost shameful to have help, yet I can guarantee all of us have received some sort of financial help from family. It seems disingenuous to not acknowledge this fact especially when talking about government financial assistance.
Just like incest and bankruptcy, dynastic wealth transfer is shameful when we plebes do it, yet it's perfectly acceptable for American presidential candidates and the royal families of Europe.
