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#feedbackloop

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#Greenland is getting greener. That could have huge consequences for the world

By Angela Dewan, CNN
Published February 13, 2024

"Warmer air temperatures have driven #IceLoss, which has in turn raised land temperatures. That has caused the melting of #permafrost, a frozen layer just beneath the Earth’s surface and found in much of the #Arctic, and that melt releases planet-warming #CarbonDioxide and #methane, contributing to more #GlobalWarming. #PermafrostMelt is also causing #LandInstability, which could impact infrastructure and buildings.

"'We have seen signs that the loss of ice is triggering other reactions which will result in further loss of ice and further ‘greening’ of Greenland, where shrinking ice exposes bare rock that is then colonized by tundra and eventually shrub,' one of the report’s authors, Jonathan Carrivick, said in a press release. 'At the same time, water released from the melting ice is moving sediment and silt, and that eventually forms wetlands and fenlands.'

"The loss of ice is creating what’s known as a #FeedbackLoop. Snow and ice typically reflect the sun’s energy back into space, preventing excessive heating in parts of the Earth. But as ice disappears, those areas absorb more solar energy, raising land surface temperatures, which can cause further melt and other negative impacts.

"#IceMelt also increases the amount of water in lakes, where water absorbs more heat than snow, which increases land surface temperatures.

"Greenland has been warming at twice the global mean rate since the 1970s, and the study’s authors warn that more extreme temperatures in the future are likely.

"Greenland is the world’s biggest island and is mostly covered by ice and #glaciers. Around 57,000 people live in the country, which is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark. Much of the population is #indigenous and many people there rely on natural #ecosystems for their survival.

"Michael Grimes, the report’s lead author, said that the flow of sediments and nutrients into coastal waters was particularly problematic for #IndigenousCommunities that rely on fishing, as well as for hunters on other parts of the island.

"'These changes are critical, particularly for the indigenous populations whose traditional subsistence hunting practices rely on the stability of these delicate #ecosystems,' he said.

"'Moreover, the loss of ice mass in Greenland is a substantial contributor to #GlobalSeaLevelRise, a trend that poses significant challenges both now and in the future.'"

cnn.com/2024/02/13/climate/gre

CNN · Greenland is getting greener. That could have huge consequences for the worldBy Angela Dewan
Replied in thread

@vij
I don't think the Punditry Class on The Left understands that THEY are responsible for this #FeedbackLoop down the Rabbit Hole.

They say, "#Biden needs to drop out" b/c the polling is so bad.

The people being polled say, "#Biden needs to drop out" b/c they keep hearing the pundits saying he needs to drop out.

Rinse & repeat. 😡

And worst of all, by NEVER saying "Despite doing an amazing job…" they're simply lending credibility to The Right's false claim Biden's been a failure.

Replied in thread

@theusasingers
I don't think the Punditry Class on The Left understands that THEY are responsible for this #FeedbackLoop down the Rabbit Hole.

They say, "#Biden needs to drop out" b/c the polling is so bad.

The people being polled say, "#Biden needs to drop out" b/c they keep hearing the pundits saying he needs to drop out.

Rinse & repeat. 😡

And worst of all, by NEVER saying "Despite doing an amazing job…" they're simply lending credibility to The Right's false claim Biden's been a failure.

My general #OpenSource maintainer conundrum:

I love, love, love sharing my knowledge, learning from others & seeing how some of the libraries & tools put out over the years have been enabling and having positive tangible impact on the practice of others. It's one of the joys in my life! I also do want to work more on docs & examples and consider this work very important (and rewarding).

Yet, let's consider:

- the massive scale of the thi.ng/umbrella meta-project (currently ~190 sub-projects)
- a combined 157+ million NPM downloads so far, with some individual packages having 500k+ downloads per month (though most have less)
- ~3300 stars on GitHub (~5000 for all thi.ng projects combined)

...there's generally very little feedback/contribs/discussion (or it comes in very shortlived salvos/bursts that I sometimes can't keep up with context switching, though very rarely).

Those few of you, who've been supporting this all financially: 🙏❤️🙏❤️🙏

To me this situation means I cannot justify spending an ever increasing amount time on these aspects in this social vacuum (even though I've been doing a lot of that work anyway). At the same time, I'm absolutely more than happy to do so once I hear from people about concrete needs/issues/questions etc. For example, this week alone, two new interesting example projects resulted from those interactions... (one about GPGPU, the other about data viz, see previous posts)

Objectively, I think thi.ng/umbrella is unrivalled in terms of scope, composability, interoperability, educational cross-references & examples provided. I also genuinely believe (and know from others) this is a high value resource and set of tools/patterns for a huge number of purposes. Still, what's offered is seemingly not enough to get people interested to the extend they start contributing and/or forming more of a community (that is without me having to be the bottleneck and answer every single question whilst also being the main/sole developer, documenter, etc.)

Already for almost 25 years, I've been trying hard to "pay it forward", sharing my knowledge (and income), creating thousands of code snippets, mini tutorials in readmes (~50k words), forums & docstrings, building hundreds of larger, commented example projects (~30k lines of code) to help teach/illustrate concepts/techniques, syntax, use cases, usage patterns, run workshops. With that I also hoped to maybe entice _at least some_ people to contribute & share their knowledge with any of these projects (and with others, in any form, incl. docs/examples/discussion...), but I still don't understand why this hasn't really been happening more... not to the extend I'd hoped for, by far!

Maybe it's my autism, but sometimes it feels I'm the only person who can't see the writing on the wall, can't see the elephant in the room and/or this all is a chicken & egg problem:

In the survey run earlier this year, some people said it's about entrenchment (of other more popular tools), about the "bus factor", others said it's the lack of docs or prerequisite knowledge. When asking for concrete help/advice to improve the situation, there're mainly only handwavy responses (w/ extra effort implicitly delegated to me, rather than involving offers to contribute)...

Apart from this project becoming financially more sustainable (more chicken & egg), currently I don't see a way to justify prioritizing _more_ of my time on these aspects, instead of working on features & other maintenance (of which there's both plenty). This important research (but mainly development) is also needed for many other projects I've been working on, incl. those which are providing at least potentially some income (e.g. my art projects) to continue re-investing & working on thi.ng...

As you might know, a while ago I've started working on creating some courseware, but it's been on the back-burner since realising this is a hugely risky undertaking considering the lack of general feedback. All of these things are interrelated...

🐓🥚

thi.ng/umbrellathi.ng/umbrella

"warming seawater intrudes between coastal ice sheets & the ground they rest on…expanding the cavities further in a #feedbackloop. This water then lubricates the collapse of ice into the ocean, pushing up #sealevels.
a “very small increase” in the temp of the intruding water could lead to a “very big increase” in the loss of ice—ie, #tippingpoint behaviour."
theguardian.com/environment/ar

The Guardian · Newly identified tipping point for ice sheets could mean greater sea level riseBy Damian Carrington
Replied in thread

@davidakin (Answering the rhetorical)
No. Because until we stop forcing the atmosphere with emissions it will only extend the decades of change we are only now seeing. Change is the new normal. What we see today is not as bad as what it will be next year, or the year or decade after that. Until WE change. Also: Look for the report about this year's fires emitting more CO2 than all other fire seasons in 100 years combined. #FeedbackLoop
#EndFossilFuels

Continued thread

Bannon represents a clear thru line from the #grievance-driven #MAGA base to #Congress. & his role in the meltdown that played out this wk in the #House helps explain why the #Republican Party appears to be eating its own. He is a vital part of a #FeedbackLoop of red-meat #media hits & #socialmedia posts, online #fundraising & unfettered preaching to an #angry & fervently #RightWing base that rewards #disruptions & detests institutions.