this post was submitted on 04 Apr 2024
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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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Big Oil Clouded the Science on Extreme Weather. Now It Faces a Reckoning. (www.desmog.com)
submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] GrymEdm 24 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I'm not going to get my hopes up for a reckoning until they are actually paying. Poor public opinion and isolated lawsuits are not meaningful until it's costing the companies more than they earned via their decades of horribly irresponsible practices and outright lies. Anything less and it's just a reduction in net profits, not an actual punishment.

Taking Exxon Mobil as an example: they apparently made $55.74B net income in 2022, a 141.93% increase from 2021. Even if these lawsuits were WILDLY successful and Exxon had to pay 20B in one-time settlements, that's not even half a year's net income and no deterrent.

[–] lettruthout 8 points 7 months ago

Agreed. First the US should stop any form of financial support for the fossil fuel industry, then no longer issue drilling permits. In the same time more lawsuits and fines. Yeah the companies will raise their profits to remain flush with profit, but that will incentivize the transition to other energy storage systems for transportation, heating, etc.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

Actual damage is many times larger than aggregate profits of all the oil companies. They're in business due to control over government, rather than because of fair payment for the damage they do.

[–] homesweethomeMrL 16 points 7 months ago

Believe it when I see it.

[–] natarey 13 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, but do they, though? I've heard this before, and they're as indifferent now as they've ever been.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago (1 children)

There are a ton of lawsuits. It'll come down to how courts rule, and we may well get different results in different countries.

[–] natarey 3 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I've heard that before, too. I'm in the US, so I've got reason to be pessimistic about the reliability of the courts when it comes to holding wealthy people and corporations accountable.