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What are some of the biggest "canaries in the coal mine" today and in the immediate future?

Thank you for taking our questions.

Exactly how unprecedented is our current situation compared to what you've found in the record?

Asking for your educated speculation here. Have we already hit the tipping point?

Finally, is there any indication that the tipping points are reversible? For example, if a new technology came online tomorrow that magically returned greenhouse gasses to better than pre-industrial levels, would it matter?

Thank you for your work and answers.

Thank you for this AmA!

Money aside: how are our chances to survive rising temperatures, changing landscapes, stronger storms and flutings? Are we well enough equipped, with modern technology, to grow enough food? I think about anything, from solar powered greenhouses to stuff I don‘t know exists.

Assuming CO2 emissions remained static, how much carbon capture and storage would be necessary to reduce atmospheric CO2 to 1900 levels and how much energy would it cost to do it?

It is unclear what affects the plume will have further away without modeling data available, but as I mentioned in my other comment, long distance air exposure is somewhat unlikely given the nature of the chemicals released. They will tend to degrade and breakdown before they fall out of the atmosphere.

To what degree will states like Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and Maine suffer because of this?

Thank you for your response. At the end of the day I hope you make sure to take care of yourself. As I get older I become increasingly pacifistic, but I still recognize that some people simply do not have a choice.

War can bring out the worst in people. People that would have otherwise been amicable become enemies because of their nationality. And the generational PTSD and animosity takes a long time to heal from.

This poem still gets me.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44329/the-man-he-killed

There's no doubt that some of us who went off to cover wars have had some mental health issues further down the track. It would be impossible not to - just the sheer emotional pressure of being away from home and doing all that sort of stuff is tricky enough but facing extreme personal danger at every single minute of the day, obviously does some crazy things inside your head.
But everybody copes differently. And of course, it gets worse as you get older and your brain seems to want to reflect on those things that you'd pushed away - and now wish that you hadn't seen some of things you've seen. At the time it you could block it out easier.

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The companies that send people to wars seem to be more aware of it now and there are discussions - but the breed of people who do this are a certain kind and they will go no matter what..

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And watching war films - or reading about it.. Yeah.. Been there done that, let's leave it at that..

We didn't really prepare ourselves to go to these wars, reporting stuff. Mental health wasn't talked about much in those days, although more than it was even less talked about during World War Two and stuff like that, of course.

But we were young and silly and living in the Middle East, working for an amazing company called Newsforce who supplied war cameramen to television broadcasters. We were young and silly, adventurous, sometimes very brave, most times very stupid. But there was no where we wouldn't go to ply our craft - which was to film and edit news stories for some of the biggest and best news broadcasters from around the war zones in world.
It was very, very exciting and interesting. I remember I was 21 years of age in Baghdad during Gulf War one looking around going my goodness gracious me. What's a kid from way outback Australia doing here working for the BBC?
We did it for I guess excitement, adventure. Ego. But that changed for me and I kept going because I really believed that I was doing something righteous and good. Filming starving kids in Africa. Spending three years going into Bosnia. Trying hard to bring the World's attention to all this stuff that was happening that, to be honest, not many people cared about. So no real mental preparation just young and stupid and wanting to do things that nobody else could or wanted to do. I will point out though, that the bravest cameramen that I ever worked with, were two girls from CNN.

They were braver, cleverer, more intelligent than all of us and it gave me an amazing appreciation that you didn't have to be a man to be the best war cameraman. You could be a fabulously talented camera woman.

Misconceptions about war reporting? A million. But the worst one that I keep hearing to this day, is that, oh people don't shoot at you if you're The Press. That's a load of horse waddle. We were as shot at, shelled and bombed as much as any one else. Sure. We weren't ALL killed, but there were a lot that were killed. My girlfriend at the time of Somalia, an Italian reporter called Ilaria ALPI was gunned down on purpose. So the misconception that we're safe going into a war zone is just 1,000% Wrong.

Missed your last question, sorry for the second comment.

I'm on the geoscientist side of things. It's definitely a different line of thinking than engineering. It's interesting to get our geos and engineers in the same room to hear different approaches to problems.

Awesome. Always have to take care of those staple clients. Long term monitoring and clean up is definitely a steady workflow to be part of. My office almost strictly does site assessments and dang near zero long term. It's all short term so we jump from project to project. We're lucky that we've established a reputation in our city so we have work flowing in (too much, but we manage!) constantly.

And I agree, it feels like in our game either you're consuming smaller businesses or being consumed. It's a little wild.

Glad to hear you guys are doing well!

I'm afraid my diet is pretty much focused on Indie films that might not have had / or will have great exposure BUT two short films that came through ÉCU (as award-winners) are THUNDER ROAD and SKIN - both went onto be made into feature films and were great.

We typically work in tandem with large consultants, specializing in NAPL remediation. I worked with Amec now Wood on several projects. And yeh it does seem like consolidation happens every day with environmental consultants. We have been lucky to have a few good staple clients with the addition of some ad-hoc work for special clients and other consulting firms.

Are you an engineer or a geologist?

That is more of a mechanical engineering question, i don't have the expertise to comment on the best method to relieve a pressurized vessel which may explode. Additionally there isn't much public data on how that decision was reached.

I do not have a PE but i am currently studying to get my PE. Since I work for a small firm it hadn't really been necessary for me to get my PE up to this point. But as of a recent promotion the owner of the company has asked me to pursue my PE.

Always nice to hear that the smaller consulting businesses are still thriving. Feels like the big players are constantly buying everyone up. We were with Wood, sold off, and was recently bought up by WSP here in Canada. They're kind of a huge player now with the buyout of another major consulting firm the year prior.

Either way! Good luck with everything! Wishing nothing but straightforward remedial work though I think we both know those projects don't exist. Lol

Hi!

Here is a cut and paste from the Academy's website. The doc that I shot (TWIN TOWERS) did a seven day theatrical release in LA.

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To be eligible for 91st Academy Awards consideration, a documentary feature must complete both a seven-day theatrical release in Los Angeles County and a seven-day theatrical release in the City of New York during the eligibility period.
OR
2. The film must have won a qualifying award at a competitive film festival, as specified in the Documentary Feature Qualifying Festival List, regardless of any prior public exhibition or distribution by nontheatrical means. Proof of the award must be submitted with the entry. The Documentary Feature Qualifying Festival List is available at www.oscars.org or may be obtained from the Academy.

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Hope that helps!

Our ethos is very simple. Tell us a good story and tell it well.

I have competed in a lot of film festivals, and been to many others as well. Full stop. I never appreciated the ones where the festival director said oh, we have a specific genre this year, be it films with only red cars full, or only horror films this year or only this or that genre.

We pride ourselves on discovering, projecting and promoting the World's best indie films. Full stop. And that's what we have been doing for the last 18 editions. There is no set-in-stone criteria at all. We think our audiences deserves the best of the best from the World of indie filmmaking - and from the widest possible geographical sweep possible.

We're open to anything and everything. Just make it great cinema. We will be announcing ÉCU 2023's Official Selection on the 2nd of March on www.ecufilmfestival.com if you are interested.

Do you think that the burn was necessary or would other options (like pumping to new containers, etc) be available? Of course there is suspicion that NS took the easiest/cheapest route to avoid an explosion.

For more AMAs on this topic, subscribe to r/IAmA_Director, and check out our other topic-specific AMA subreddits here.

Thanks for the answer!

Do you have your PE license? If so, what was the licensing tests like for you?

I think my tips for any aspiring screenwriter is first of all, make sure you read a lot of books. And make sure you read a lot of scripts. There are a lot of them online at the moment for free, full stop. You won't be able to write a great script unless you read a lot of great scripts. I actually keep the Steve Jobs screenplay on my desktop. And every now and again when I want to read a bit of clean, concise great writing. I open it and read a few pages.. And then like any form of creativity - even though we may be naturally gifted and all out geniuses - it is really the hard work that matters. And if you do not have a routine, I repeat, if you do not have a routine, you will find it very, very difficult to finish a screenplay or shoot a film or direct a film, if you don't work on it every day. It is all about putting in the hard work! The creativity will eventually flow from your fingers. Not on the first day. Maybe not on the hundredth day, but it will happen - you just have to keep grinding away.

Here at ÉCU - The European Independent Film Festival we pride ourselves on playing a slate of the World's best indie films every year. The stories are wide and varied, from many dozens of countries on the planet - but the ones that we play are all films that evoke a form of emotion. That to be is what cinema is about.