this post was submitted on 18 Dec 2023
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Discussion of climate, how it is changing, activism around that, the politics, and the energy systems change we need in order to stabilize things.

As a starting point, the burning of fossil fuels, and to a lesser extent deforestation and release of methane are responsible for the warming in recent decades: Graph of temperature as observed with significant warming, and simulated without added greenhouse gases and other anthropogentic changes, which shows no significant warming

How much each change to the atmosphere has warmed the world: IPCC AR6 Figure 2 - Thee bar charts: first chart: how much each gas has warmed the world. About 1C of total warming. Second chart: about 1.5C of total warming from well-mixed greenhouse gases, offset by 0.4C of cooling from aerosols and negligible influence from changes to solar output, volcanoes, and internal variability. Third chart: about 1.25C of warming from CO2, 0.5C from methane, and a bunch more in small quantities from other gases. About 0.5C of cooling with large error bars from SO2.

Recommended actions to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the near future:

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Meet the Young Activists behind the New California Youth Climate Lawsuit | Young people are taking action on climate because too many adults are not (www.scientificamerican.com)
submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

I'm not sure, but I think that is the point they were making. The fossil fuels industry isn't some machine or an alien being, but a collection of humans, each of whom is very deliberately choosing wealth and power over correct behaviour. Likewise the politicians who deliberately choose to let them or, worse, help them get away with it. And don't get me started on the economists who treat corporations as machines or aliens who must be appeased rather than harnessed to the benefit of society.

The general public has known for at least 20 years what is necessary. The political class has known for at least 40 years. Industry has known for at least 50 and probably 60 years. Depending on how you read the research, scientists have known for as long as 150 years.

Actually, if you consider carbon emissions as just another case of dumping waste into the environment in the naive hope that nature will take care of it, everybody from all classes and sectors has known what was needed since at least the creation of the first national park designed to protect nature from destruction.