Switzerland and Italy Redraw Border Due To Melting Glaciers (bbc.com) 38
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: Switzerland and Italy have redrawn part of their border in the Alps due to melting glaciers, caused by climate change. Part of the area affected will be beneath the Matterhorn, one of Europe's tallest mountains, and close to a number of popular ski resorts. Large sections of the Swiss-Italian border are determined by glacier ridgelines or areas of perpetual snow, but melting glaciers have caused these natural boundaries to shift, leading to both countries seeking to rectify the border. Switzerland officially approved the agreement on the change on Friday, but Italy is yet to do the same. This follows a draft agreement by a joint Swiss-Italian commission back in May 2023.
Statistics published last September showed that Switzerland's glaciers lost 4% of their volume in 2023, the second biggest loss ever after 2022's record melt of 6%. An annual report is issued each year by the Swiss Glacier Monitoring Network (Glamos), which attributed the record losses to consecutive very warm summers, and 2022 winter's very low snowfall. Researchers say that if these weather patterns continue, the thaw will only accelerate. On Friday, Switzerland said that the redefined borders had been drawn up in accordance with the economic interests of both parties. It is thought that clarifying the borders will help both countries determine which is responsible for the upkeep of specific natural areas.
Swiss-Italian boundaries will be changed in the region of Plateau Rosa, the Carrel refuge and Gobba di Rollin -- all are near the Matterhorn and popular ski resorts including Zermatt. The exact border changes will be implemented and the agreement published once both countries have signed it. Switzerland says that the approval process for signing the agreement is under way in Italy.
Statistics published last September showed that Switzerland's glaciers lost 4% of their volume in 2023, the second biggest loss ever after 2022's record melt of 6%. An annual report is issued each year by the Swiss Glacier Monitoring Network (Glamos), which attributed the record losses to consecutive very warm summers, and 2022 winter's very low snowfall. Researchers say that if these weather patterns continue, the thaw will only accelerate. On Friday, Switzerland said that the redefined borders had been drawn up in accordance with the economic interests of both parties. It is thought that clarifying the borders will help both countries determine which is responsible for the upkeep of specific natural areas.
Swiss-Italian boundaries will be changed in the region of Plateau Rosa, the Carrel refuge and Gobba di Rollin -- all are near the Matterhorn and popular ski resorts including Zermatt. The exact border changes will be implemented and the agreement published once both countries have signed it. Switzerland says that the approval process for signing the agreement is under way in Italy.
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100% agree. It's great to have insightful non-trolling unsarcastic comments on here once in a while.That's a good idea regardless of climate change. If not the growing of own food, at least the solar power. Depending on oil is stupid unless you physically own an oil well. Even if the US doesn't need foreign oil imports, it would allow us to export oil in large quantities which will reduce the price of oil, and that in turn will result in less funding of terrorism.
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The United States already produces more crude oil than any country, ever.
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=61545 [eia.gov]
If it isn't already "reducing the price of oil", it never will. Of course, that's no surprise to people who understand that the oil market is global. "In a world with many consumers and producers, a single country or organization can no longer control crude oil prices set in highly liquid global markets".
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/081315/opec-vs-us-who-contr [investopedia.com]
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If the US offers more oil for export, of course the prices will reduce. It's basic supply/demand economics. If there is more supply of something in the market, the price will reduce.
Re:See how bad climate change is? (Score:4, Interesting)
The US exports most of its oil because paradoxically, our old, no longer updated refineries weren't built to handle US oil but mostly Saudi oil types.
There are several types of oil, it's not that simple.
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You're half right. It's not a case of "old and no longer updated". Your refineries get updated all the time with billions being spent by several companies to upgrade their assets. For example Whiting refinery in Indiana is a *massive* refinery and half of it is just over 10 years old, practically a baby in the refining world.
It's a question of supply chain economics. You don't want your refineries to be designed to run on expensive crude. The US crude runs at a premium compare to many crudes in the world so
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You're wrong, as has been demonstrated many times over many years. For one thing, oil has a low elasticity of demand. This means the demand for oil doesn't change significantly when the price changes. Secondly, the supply of oil is also fairly inelastic because setting up extraction is complex and costly. Since both supply and demand for oil are not very responsive to price changes, oil price swings tend to be dramatic, producing impacts on other areas of the economy. Refining capacity with respect to
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Best way to do that would be to raise gas/carbon taxes in the USA. They are so low that people buy pickup trucks to drive 20000 miles per year on the highway with nothing to haul.
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And just why would we want to do that to ourselves....it would raise prices even MORE, more inflation and cramp the lives our our citizens.
So, it's a free country...and apparently people enjoy doing that...
Not everything in life is about "necessity", life is short...enjoy your short time on earth while you can.
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And just why would we want to do that to ourselves....it would raise prices even MORE, more inflation and cramp the lives our our citizens.
With the tax revenues, you could reduce other taxes. It can easily be revenue neutral for the government. And therefore citizens overall wouldn't be any poorer.
So, it's a free country...and apparently people enjoy doing that...
Not everything in life is about "necessity", life is short...enjoy your short time on earth while you can.
Some people also enjoy mowing lawn at 3am in residential neighborhoods but it's still banned for good reasons (noise).
If they enjoy doing something which pollute other's air, this a text book example of a negative externality. The best way to handle negative externalities is through taxation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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This reply to my earlier post...really had nothing to do with taxation in general...but more towards that carbon taxes and higher gas taxes would cause huge increase in cost for commercial transportation, hence making the cost of goods, food, etc...even MORE expensive than they have already hit.
This is something we don't need to add onto an already
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This reply to my earlier post...really had nothing to do with taxation in general...but more towards that carbon taxes and higher gas taxes would cause huge increase in cost for commercial transportation, hence making the cost of goods, food, etc...even MORE expensive than they have already hit.
Some items would end up being more expensive. Not all equally though. Let say one apple requires 2 liters of gas to produce, and a banana requires only 1, then the cost of banana will not raise as much as apples. So people may end up eating more bananas and less apples.
But people would have more money in their pockets to buy these goods. So the overall effect would be neutral, so people wouldn't be any worse off on average.
Now, those who pollute a lot would be worse off. Those who don't would end up with mo
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And trucks are exempt from emissions standards. While they are technically "trucks" a huge number are used solely for commuting purposes.
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A carbon tax would cover it all. No need for emissions standards and all other "government planning" solutions to climate issues if you have an effective carbon tax.
Similar to a river shifting its channel. (Score:4, Informative)
https://tonyladson.wordpress.c... [wordpress.com]
https://statutes.capitol.texas... [texas.gov]
They haggle it out.
China and India could learn a thing or two (Score:5, Insightful)
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The current fertility rate for India in 2024 is 2.122 births per woman, a 0.79% decline from 2023.
The current fertility rate for China in 2024 is 1.707 births per woman,
The current fertility rate for Switzerland in 2024 is 1.561 births per woman,
The current fertility rate for Italy in 2024 is 1.302 births per woman
The fertility rate in India is at replacement, below in the other three countries. That's not 'breeding like rabbits'.
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From macrotrends:
The current fertility rate for India in 2024 is 2.122 births per woman, a 0.79% decline from 2023.
India's population is projected to grow to roughly 1.7 billion by 2050 https://www.pewresearch.org/sh... [pewresearch.org] so they're still growing quite well.
Re: China and India could learn a thing or two (Score:2)
Found the CCP bot. The land was never Chinese, it is only because of natural resources they make false claim to it.
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It's all Chinese, the land, the rivers, the sea, the whole fucking ocean right up to the docks at foreign ports including a nearby island they want reunified that was literally never part of CCP China so reunify is a funny word.
Because Mao, I mean Xi, I mean Pooh Bear says so and bullies all his smaller neighbors into submission.
Looking forward to the coming collapse of this evil dictatorship in my lifetime.
Re: China and India could learn a thing or two (Score:4, Insightful)
It's funny seeing a bunch of fellow Americans making fun of the idea of Manifest Destiny just because it's someone else doing it.
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This isn't making fun, this is criticism. You are allowed to criticize others for sins you have committed in the past. "You can't tell me to stop being a drunk and to join AA, because I know for a fact that you were an alcoholic 200 years ago!"
So yes, CRITICIZE China for breaking international agreements. The real difference here is that Manifest Destiny occured at a time (a bad period of time) when there weren't strong international agreements, very little international law, and all the powers that be w
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That's like finding it funny to see any member of Western society having issues with womens rights in third world countries given women once didn't do well for rights in our own countries.
We gave up taking other people's territory too make our own quite some time ago now. China on the other hand? They're still quite happy to do so.
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China has long maintained that everything is theirs. It says so on their no-dotted-lines map.
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but that's the point, the Roman Empire didn't exist 3,000 years ago.
India and China haven't learned? Their middle class is growing as is their GDP and science, they'll both pass up the USA.
USA built on the discoveries and science of ancients including in middle east and asia
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Did Google Approve? (Score:4, Funny)
Has Google agreed to change the border?
France-Italy border(s) near Mont-Blanc (Score:3)
In summary: each of both countries have their own idea of the border (on the watershed for Italy, and on the adriatic slope for France), and so far the dispute is not yet settled...