If my alien overlord plucked me out of my suburban castle, packed me into a coffin, and shot me out into space, I would be screaming “fuuuuck!” as well. Even if he was taking me for a well-intentioned colonoscopy or quantum field attunement or something.
quickly
Quick in geologic time. But this is what fossil fuels are, so it’s an order of magnitude or two different than the time in which generated electricity will be used.
And you’re right, it’s very small. Everything we know is pretty small, even combined. The amount of energy the sun imparts to the Earth every day equals what humanity would use over about 12 years at current levels.
Plants fixing carbon also converts energy to a form that isn’t heat, so I think we should count that along with reflection as a way that solar energy doesn’t become terrestrial heat.
It’s not the only way. We’ve been relying on immigration to do this for us for a long time. American politics is struggling with the tension between racist idiots who don’t understand that immigrants are crucial to our economy, and those who do understand it. You can not be racist AND not understand it and that is fine too, no problem.
It’s also just a huge pain for them: not only the millions they will spend on legal but also the information they will have to put into the public record about how iOS and the Apple business work. Clearly they found this case credible enough to be a bother, but that doesn’t automatically mean they are guilty.
There are many good responses here already and I’m going to add a perspective I don’t see.
As a coworker: don’t do anything. Sometimes work is an opportunity for someone to escape the personal tragedy that has swept through their life. It’s a chance to think about something else for a while, something grounded and neutral. A time to feel normal.
That can be a very helpful support. Reminding them of the personal stuff may ruin that.
I know that you are a nice human and want to be good to them, but sometimes we need to realize that we are just co-workers to someone and not friends and family. Knowing your place can be an incredibly respectful and positive thing to do.
Add this to your other ideas about how to show sympathy. It’s just one angle. I’m not saying this is always right 100% for everyone and bar nothing.
These are people without talents who have to pay creatives for cool things. All they are thinking is that they’ll be able to get the creative assets themselves for free from now on, to run their businesses or whatever. That’s it. They don’t care about the cow when they believe they’re going to get the milk for free.
This is a crisis in my house right now. We adopted a trio of siblings when they were kittens and they have mostly got along great. But there have now been two incidents when the big orange male drew blood from his calico sister. The first went unnoticed at first and developed into a full infection requiring surgery and a drain tube and weeks in the cone, all for poor little innocent calico sister. Then again recently he cut a long slice down the bridge of her nose that made it look like her face was about to fly off her skull like a rubber band snapping. In between all this: months and years of cuddling and play. Now we’re sitting here wondering if it is responsible to wait for a third episode.