Halls of Shrewd'm / US Policy❤
No. of Recommendations: 6
Apparently the 2020 Trump rule has removed protection from 25% of our wetlands. This was only discovered when someone used machine learning to determine what was a wetland, and therefore the true reach of the rule.
https://phys.org/news/2024-01-white-house-deregula...I would normally post this on the science board, but I don't want to pollute that board with politics. And this could easily devolve into politics, even though it's just an article about a study.
"Using machine learning to understand these rules helps decode the DNA of environmental policy," said author Joseph Shapiro, an associate professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics at UC Berkeley. "We can finally understand what the Clean Water Act actually protects."
No. of Recommendations: 1
I've talked about this. The Obama administration radically redefined what a 'wetland' was using the Waters Of the United States stuff.
No. of Recommendations: 3
"Using machine learning to understand these rules helps decode the DNA of environmental policy," said author Joseph Shapiro, an associate professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics at UC Berkeley. "We can finally understand what the Clean Water Act actually protects."
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Yikes. We mere humans pass some regulation and then AI steps in to tell us what the scope of that regulation is. The machines have final word? No, not literally, we are "free" to ignore the AI advice.
But, as we have learned, to ignore science can get you branded a heretic, so it safer career wise for politicians, regulators, and scientists to agree with the wise AI. Not only safer, but satisfying when the wise AI is recommending something you want anyway.
eg, Wise AI analyzes infinite information and concludes that beef is bad and eating bugs is better for your diet and for the environment. Ears perk up at the World Health Org and the WEF and at Biden's FDA and CDC, let the regulation making proceed. Wise AI has said "bugs not beef" and AI is science....
We are crossing the Rubicon and the other shore is the lands of our AI overlords and is in sight.
No. of Recommendations: 5
But, as we have learned, to ignore science can get you branded a heretic
You misspelled 'idiot.'
.... as we have learned, to ignore science can get you branded an idiot.
No. of Recommendations: 3
Fascinating -
So they input data on all the waterways, tributaries, ditches, etc., and using the latest available data, and ruling, can now predict whether a site is covered by the clean water act. So we just have to let the locals check the data on their sites, refine the data, and it should help us figure out what's covered. To be litigated by humans though. I like the idea of someone knowing that before they buy the property.
No. of Recommendations: 6
I like the idea of someone knowing that before they buy the property. Me too, but....
Real estate purchasing always has been and always will be speculative. We try and discover all the risks prior to close, but there's often something that a seller either does not know, is not disclosing, or is not required to disclose.
Too, things change. The building moratorium ends, zoning changes made, and surprise! a 4 story 300 unit 'affordable' apartment complex gets approved on the property across the road and a rehab gets approved for the motel block away. Say goodby to your quiet neighborhood, goodby to street parking.
Billionaire buys a chunk of land and wants to build a private golf course whose normal maintenance chemicals would pollute streams that overflow periodically. That was one of Trump's 'wants.'
I say f*ck 'em. We need the waters of this planet more than we need golf courses and unregulated pig farms.
Trump has been backed by ranchers, farming groups and golf course operators, who claim the so-called “Water of the United States” (Wotus) rule impinged upon landowners’ rights.https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/2...
