Fogbow

Let’s think about that microchip shortage. What’s it really about? Well, there are three factories in which the majority of the world’s chips are made. Three factories — each hit in a different way. The one in Japan caught fire due to an equipment malfunction — apparently the blaze took hours to put out because of the conditions. The one in Texas was hit by an historic snowstorm, which knocked out power for days. The one in Taiwan is being affected by the worst drought in half a century — and microchips require huge amounts of water to manufacture.

These are all effects of climate change. They might not be the kinds of monocausal direct effects climate change deniers and American pundits look for — the hand of God roasting a factory alive — but they are very much caused by living on a rapidly heating planet. It should be eminently clear to see that when factories are freezing and burning, that is what climate change does to an economy before your very eyes. (And even if you think the Japan fire had little to do with global warming, the face of the matter is that without climate change, two of the world’s largest chip factories would still be open.)

The “chip shortage” is something that the world doesn’t really grasp yet, in its full importance and magnitude. It is the first climate catastrophe related shortage to hit us at a civilizational, global level. In a world of stable temperatures, guess what, we’d probably still have microchips to power our cars and gadgets and AV studios, because factories wouldn’t be losing power or be so parched they don’t have enough water. But they are — and so we do have a microchip shortage that has been caused by climate change, aka global warming.

That’s the first such catastrophe, but it won’t be the last. The chip shortage is just the tip of the immense shockwave rolling down the volcano. It’s just the first burning rock soaring through the ash-filled sky. Today, it’s chips. Tomorrow? Well, some of the things that are already becoming more and more costly to produce are steel, food, and water. That is because all those things rely on energy, and energy is getting more expensive.

Suranis wrote: ↑Sun Nov 07, 2021 8:59 pm
Its a blog that's very interesting, and its interesting in a terrifying way. Because his central point is that energy has been chronically underpriced for centuries. And the reason it has been is that no-one has factored in the price of cleaning up the mess fossil fuels leave behind them. And the only ones with the money to pay for them are powerful and they have all the money. So unless government's man up and start taxing them in the 90% level, we are going to be paying them.

Its worth a read, at least.

Lani wrote: ↑Mon Nov 08, 2021 12:21 am Just topped $4/gal at the Costco pump. Others range from $4.52 to $4.67.

Suranis wrote: ↑Sun Nov 07, 2021 8:59 pm https://eand.co/why-everything-is-sudde ... f5a091f403
[snip]

Its worth a read, at least.