The Pandemic’s only going to go further into the past and this comic is set in a nebulous present, so unless you’re proposing that the Pandemic isn’t going to end that’s not actually true.
It’s pretty obvious it’s not going to end, Thag. The virus it’s based on is the same family as the common cold. What’s going to happen, is that we’re going to continue indefinitely with temporary reprieves of ever shorter duration until society collapses because it’s a great head of panic to keep us all under control.
thejeff
That it’s the same family means little. SARS was also the same family and that was easily contained.
There is nothing inherent to this disease that keeps us from beating it. There is nothing inevitable about this. If we fail, it’s entirely a failure of politics and human weaknesses.
The refusal to take it seriously and the refusal to help others.
It would be some time regardless, mostly because even with our best efforts getting the whole world vaccinated would be a huge logistical challenge, but it’s a challenge that is certainly beatable.
Eh, it might seem hopeless, but I give it another year, two tops.
But stay wary — even if the pandemic doesn’t destroy the world, it may very well only pave the way for other artificial and natural forces to finish the job.
The first and foremost of those dangers is climate change. If we don’t address mass fears of nuclear power we can use along side other carbon-free sources, remind me to start building an ark.
Thanks! But we might want to at least try addressing fears of nuclear power and the broader problem of climate change first before throwing in the towel.
WanderingLynx
We don’t go gentle into that goddamn nightmare.
Old Age should find us safe after the fight
Rage, rage against the twisting of the facts.
Clif
The fear is largely irrational and visceral. If we can’t effectively address fears of the Covid vaccine how are we going to effectively address nuclear fears that have been festering since WW2 with contributing factors like Chernobyl, Fukushima, and bad disaster meltdown movies.
I’d start working on the ark. Either that or start pushing for something that might work, like say starting cautious seeding of the upper atmosphere with reflective particles to see how long they last and what kind of effect they have.
Wagstaff
That last suggesgion would likely fall under the “chem trails” category by conspiracy theorists, so that’s a no-go.
I can see six options from here:
1. Just hope that people and politicians will realize en mass fhG the dangers of global warming far outweigh the dangers of nuclear power (the safety of which is proven by France and Oklo-Formation in Africa).
2. Build a moon-sized umbrella that could block solar rays and at least buy us enough time to prevent irreversible damage from heat, but not the damage from carbon dioxide.
3. Find a way to shift the orbit of Earth further away from the sun like that one episode in Futurama.
4. Just hope we find some previously unseen advancement in solar or wind power or energy storage that could potentially make up for the opportunity cost of nuclear power.
5. Find a way to petrify all humans for thousands of years like in Dr. Stone, and start civilization over from scratch.
6. It’s a losing battle. The climate change apocalypse is inevitable. Life is cruel.
Deanatay
You forgot:
7) Kill off 90% of humanity. once the corpses finish decomposing, the temperatures should even out in a decade or two.
8) *SIGH* AS AN ALTERNATIVE (wusses), move 90% of humanity into space habitats. That way they die in space, and temperatures even out even quicker. 😉
That’s not gonna stop conspiracy theorists from getting attention at the expense of other people.
Yeah… at least by the looks of it now, I’m gonna have to start building that ark as soon as I can.
Chris (the other one)
OK, I’ll address the broader fears of Nuclear energy: Fukushima and TMI
Nuclear Energy is carbon free, and as long as Humans run reactors AND humans are lazy then that is enough said.
I agree, Nuclear energy is carbon free, it will eventually kill are carbon-based lifeforms… therefor Earth will be carbon free.
Chris (the other one)
OH my God! I completely forgot Chernobyl… shame, shame on me
Wagstaff
Did you also forget the Santa Fe incident? Or the Smog of London?
khn0
Well we can also adress the problem of where the nuclear waste goes (hint: not in poorer countries seashores this time please), because otherway it’s only a matter of gaining a few decades (that is, if it’d be doable at all to replace all power plants in time for the energy to be decarbonated, lol)
Wagstaff
Usually it’s just stored on-site in the plants themselves. Powering a large city for a year produces less then two cubic meters of waste.
There might be a role for nuclear power, but currently renewable capacity is being built out faster than nuclear power has ever expanded. Even in places like China that don’t worry too much about people’s fears.
A radical breakthrough in nuclear power plant tech could change that – fusion is the most obvious candidate, but there are others. Any such breakthrough would likely need decades to make it from concept to working reactor, which means it’s not going to be our climate change savior – we don’t have that kind of time.
Current reactors can be made sufficiently safe (in the short run, though long term waste is huge issue), but that requires strict standards for design, construction, operation and maintenance. All of which increase costs (and construction time) and need to be monitored by outside groups, since the temptation to cut corners is huge.
Nuclear isn’t going to save us. It might have, had we used it more extensively decades ago to replace coal and oil when renewable tech wasn’t nearly as advanced as it is today. Of course, we could have also focused on developing renewables back then and been much farther ahead now.
khn0
renewables… like wind were developped by EDF in 1959, but then our government gave up bc of nuclear.
Speaking of which
We do have 70-75% of nuclear produced energy here.
We have a state verification agency to make sure the now private contracto which build them (formerly state-owned) doesn’t cut corners. They still do it.
Oh, and maintenance. Well it’s outsourced. And the contractor outsources it too. I’ don’t know many layers there are here, becasue really, I sleep better without knowing. What is sure is that responsibility is so watered down that if we’d do that to whisky you could use it for infants.
Nah, the solution is not nuclear. I don’t think it’s renewable energy either. It’s sinking the consumption of energy, which is only possible by collectivizing of many tools, relocating work nearest to housing, and all that.
Oh, and stop believing in a miracle tech that will sure exist in five-ten years. Tech alone won’t save our kid’s asses.
Wagstaff
No one technology or policy is gonna save us; the point is that we have no time to waste, so it’s only rational to keep ALL of our low-emission players on the field.
Nuclear power, renewables and energy policy altogether shouldn’t be seen as competitors but as partners working together to mitigate climate change as fast as possible.
With any hope, we WON’T have to use Planetina’s solution from Rick and Morty.
Roborat
We don’t need a breakthrough, there are already nuclear power plant designs that are far safer than what has already been built, they just have to get constructed.
Wagstaff
Are you referring to those new “pebble bed” reactors?
From what I’ve read, those make Simpsons style meltdowns virtually impossible.
Hmmmm…. now that I think about it, The Simpsons isn’t exactly helping climate change, is it?
Joe and Amber are a great sibling team. Imagine them as the angel and devil on your shoulder, only it’s not clear which is which because all their advice is terrible but in opposite ways.
Binary thinking might be useful for Amber’s computer science major, but definitely NOT for Joyce’s dilemmas.
WanderingLynx
Sometimes they only swap parts of the costume. Or Angel!Joe protests the tunic is unflattering and gives it a boob window. Or Amazigirl, like a good hero, gives good advice so when she’s taking the wheel, she’s also taking the halo.
It might be difficult for her to know the healthy kinds of interaction, namely because she’s been nigh starved of genuinely healthy people to use as models.
Even healthy interactions can be exhausting and need recovery time. I like seeing friends and doing things with them. It’s fun, but I definitely need alone time afterwards.
150 thoughts on “Fessup”
Ana Chronistic
Saved You a
Clickhuman interactionClif
Joyce told Amber to shut up in her own room that Joyce was invading without invitation. (Listens hard for sounds of Internet outrage.)
Clif
In other news, Joe has succeeded in rebooting Joyce, however ineptly.
Demoted Oblivious
And in a part of his brain there’s a flicker, confused about being both excited and horrified at the prospect of “next time”.
Chris (the other one)
Nah, there’ll just be some extra-spicy
mcnug…Spiderman’n’Thor fanfic tonightDeanatay
Wait…. SpiderThor? What kind of a crack ship is that??
HenrEek
I guess its the 90’s cartoon Spiderman?
John
“These are not the hammer.”
RassilonTDavros
…yeah, I’d been wondering when that was going to come up.
Mae
Joe is trying, and really, isn’t that a big step forward?
Or at least two steps forward and one step back.
Jamie
He was always trying. It’s just that now he’s really trying.
Jeff
I think it means something to Joyce that Joe is trying to be a real human. We’ll see if it means enough though.
Johan
I adore stupid clumsy Joe who is trying.
DailyBrad
He takes two steps forward, he takes two steps back
They go together ’cause opposites attract
woobie
Everyone will be adults during the pandemic. Eventually.
Thag Simmons
The Pandemic’s only going to go further into the past and this comic is set in a nebulous present, so unless you’re proposing that the Pandemic isn’t going to end that’s not actually true.
Swissaboo
That is in fact pretty clearly what they’re proposing.
He Who Abides
Proposing? That’s just a fact right now.
Needfuldoer
The Leopard variant is feasting on faces right now…
Daniel M Ball
It’s pretty obvious it’s not going to end, Thag. The virus it’s based on is the same family as the common cold. What’s going to happen, is that we’re going to continue indefinitely with temporary reprieves of ever shorter duration until society collapses because it’s a great head of panic to keep us all under control.
thejeff
That it’s the same family means little. SARS was also the same family and that was easily contained.
There is nothing inherent to this disease that keeps us from beating it. There is nothing inevitable about this. If we fail, it’s entirely a failure of politics and human weaknesses.
The refusal to take it seriously and the refusal to help others.
It would be some time regardless, mostly because even with our best efforts getting the whole world vaccinated would be a huge logistical challenge, but it’s a challenge that is certainly beatable.
Opus the Poet
That’s kinda a bad attitude, eventually the human race will die from the pandemic without reproducing.
Rose by Any Other Name
Was… that some sort of joke that I’m missing?
Because people are still reproducing just fine. If anything, the pandemic encouraged reproduction. Not much else to do.
Wagstaff
How many of those reproductions you reckon were accidents?
Clif
Dunno. I thought it was the pandemic that was reproducing.
Tunasammich
I know a ton of people who had kids on purpose the past couple of years. You’re not in your late 30’s, that’s why this is inconceivable to you
Wagstaff
I mean with the times as though as they are, it’s actually quite the disservice to bring children into the world as it is right now (to the children).
thejeff
Joke, I assume. Playing off the idea that everyone will be adults in the pandemic – if everyone is adult, there are no children.
Wagstaff
Eh, it might seem hopeless, but I give it another year, two tops.
But stay wary — even if the pandemic doesn’t destroy the world, it may very well only pave the way for other artificial and natural forces to finish the job.
The first and foremost of those dangers is climate change. If we don’t address mass fears of nuclear power we can use along side other carbon-free sources, remind me to start building an ark.
Clif
Hey, Wagstaff. Remember to start your ark.
Wagstaff
Thanks! But we might want to at least try addressing fears of nuclear power and the broader problem of climate change first before throwing in the towel.
WanderingLynx
We don’t go gentle into that goddamn nightmare.
Old Age should find us safe after the fight
Rage, rage against the twisting of the facts.
Clif
The fear is largely irrational and visceral. If we can’t effectively address fears of the Covid vaccine how are we going to effectively address nuclear fears that have been festering since WW2 with contributing factors like Chernobyl, Fukushima, and bad disaster meltdown movies.
I’d start working on the ark. Either that or start pushing for something that might work, like say starting cautious seeding of the upper atmosphere with reflective particles to see how long they last and what kind of effect they have.
Wagstaff
That last suggesgion would likely fall under the “chem trails” category by conspiracy theorists, so that’s a no-go.
I can see six options from here:
1. Just hope that people and politicians will realize en mass fhG the dangers of global warming far outweigh the dangers of nuclear power (the safety of which is proven by France and Oklo-Formation in Africa).
2. Build a moon-sized umbrella that could block solar rays and at least buy us enough time to prevent irreversible damage from heat, but not the damage from carbon dioxide.
3. Find a way to shift the orbit of Earth further away from the sun like that one episode in Futurama.
4. Just hope we find some previously unseen advancement in solar or wind power or energy storage that could potentially make up for the opportunity cost of nuclear power.
5. Find a way to petrify all humans for thousands of years like in Dr. Stone, and start civilization over from scratch.
6. It’s a losing battle. The climate change apocalypse is inevitable. Life is cruel.
Deanatay
You forgot:
7) Kill off 90% of humanity. once the corpses finish decomposing, the temperatures should even out in a decade or two.
8) *SIGH* AS AN ALTERNATIVE (wusses), move 90% of humanity into space habitats. That way they die in space, and temperatures even out even quicker. 😉
Wagstaff
Very funny, Thanos.
Clif
Not much to do with chem trails. See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratospheric_aerosol_injection
Wagstaff
That’s not gonna stop conspiracy theorists from getting attention at the expense of other people.
Yeah… at least by the looks of it now, I’m gonna have to start building that ark as soon as I can.
Chris (the other one)
OK, I’ll address the broader fears of Nuclear energy: Fukushima and TMI
Nuclear Energy is carbon free, and as long as Humans run reactors AND humans are lazy then that is enough said.
I agree, Nuclear energy is carbon free, it will eventually kill are carbon-based lifeforms… therefor Earth will be carbon free.
Chris (the other one)
OH my God! I completely forgot Chernobyl… shame, shame on me
Wagstaff
Did you also forget the Santa Fe incident? Or the Smog of London?
khn0
Well we can also adress the problem of where the nuclear waste goes (hint: not in poorer countries seashores this time please), because otherway it’s only a matter of gaining a few decades (that is, if it’d be doable at all to replace all power plants in time for the energy to be decarbonated, lol)
Wagstaff
Usually it’s just stored on-site in the plants themselves. Powering a large city for a year produces less then two cubic meters of waste.
thejeff
There might be a role for nuclear power, but currently renewable capacity is being built out faster than nuclear power has ever expanded. Even in places like China that don’t worry too much about people’s fears.
A radical breakthrough in nuclear power plant tech could change that – fusion is the most obvious candidate, but there are others. Any such breakthrough would likely need decades to make it from concept to working reactor, which means it’s not going to be our climate change savior – we don’t have that kind of time.
Current reactors can be made sufficiently safe (in the short run, though long term waste is huge issue), but that requires strict standards for design, construction, operation and maintenance. All of which increase costs (and construction time) and need to be monitored by outside groups, since the temptation to cut corners is huge.
Nuclear isn’t going to save us. It might have, had we used it more extensively decades ago to replace coal and oil when renewable tech wasn’t nearly as advanced as it is today. Of course, we could have also focused on developing renewables back then and been much farther ahead now.
khn0
renewables… like wind were developped by EDF in 1959, but then our government gave up bc of nuclear.
Speaking of which
We do have 70-75% of nuclear produced energy here.
We have a state verification agency to make sure the now private contracto which build them (formerly state-owned) doesn’t cut corners. They still do it.
Oh, and maintenance. Well it’s outsourced. And the contractor outsources it too. I’ don’t know many layers there are here, becasue really, I sleep better without knowing. What is sure is that responsibility is so watered down that if we’d do that to whisky you could use it for infants.
Nah, the solution is not nuclear. I don’t think it’s renewable energy either. It’s sinking the consumption of energy, which is only possible by collectivizing of many tools, relocating work nearest to housing, and all that.
Oh, and stop believing in a miracle tech that will sure exist in five-ten years. Tech alone won’t save our kid’s asses.
Wagstaff
No one technology or policy is gonna save us; the point is that we have no time to waste, so it’s only rational to keep ALL of our low-emission players on the field.
Nuclear power, renewables and energy policy altogether shouldn’t be seen as competitors but as partners working together to mitigate climate change as fast as possible.
With any hope, we WON’T have to use Planetina’s solution from Rick and Morty.
Roborat
We don’t need a breakthrough, there are already nuclear power plant designs that are far safer than what has already been built, they just have to get constructed.
Wagstaff
Are you referring to those new “pebble bed” reactors?
From what I’ve read, those make Simpsons style meltdowns virtually impossible.
Hmmmm…. now that I think about it, The Simpsons isn’t exactly helping climate change, is it?
Doctor_Who
Joe and Amber are a great sibling team. Imagine them as the angel and devil on your shoulder, only it’s not clear which is which because all their advice is terrible but in opposite ways.
Yotomoe
They just swap the halo and horns depending on the subject matter.
Wagstaff
Binary thinking might be useful for Amber’s computer science major, but definitely NOT for Joyce’s dilemmas.
WanderingLynx
Sometimes they only swap parts of the costume. Or Angel!Joe protests the tunic is unflattering and gives it a boob window. Or Amazigirl, like a good hero, gives good advice so when she’s taking the wheel, she’s also taking the halo.
Wagstaff
*wakes up next to the Voxola-Muzak hybrid system, next to three empty cans of Red Bull and a pile of what looks like coconut smoothie*
Stephen Bierce
So that’s what happened to all my sister’s coconut yoghurt.
Wagstaff
Oh Stephen! I’m so glad to see you!
*vacuums up and sprays down coconut smoothie and Red Bull cans*
*detaches Voxola PR-76 and components from Muzak panel*
*returns Muzak panel back to the fuse-lacking state in which it was found*
Stephen Bierce
You’re gonna need these.
*hands over a bag of fuses*
Wagstaff
Oh sweet!
*installs fuses one by one back into Muzak panel*
Demoted Oblivious
Scowling gravatar checks out with the comment. ?
WanderingLynx
What a good party
BBCC
Some people aren’t exhausted by human interaction, Amber.
Thag Simmons
Weirdos
Delicious Taffy
Yeah, buncha freaks.
Varangian
Truly fucked up people.
Keulen
Indeed. They should get some help.
Reltzik
But they might ENJOY that, which would interfere with the help they get.
Wagstaff
It might be difficult for her to know the healthy kinds of interaction, namely because she’s been nigh starved of genuinely healthy people to use as models.
Opus the Poet
What about her time with Walky… nevermind I’ll see myself out.
Clif
Good one though.
thejeff
Even healthy interactions can be exhausting and need recovery time. I like seeing friends and doing things with them. It’s fun, but I definitely need alone time afterwards.
StClair
the hell you say
Yotomoe
I’m only exhausted by emotional interaction. Well negative emotions. Positive emotions like “this is cool” isn’t all that exhausting.
Mydnyt