this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2023
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[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 year ago (3 children)

It’s crazy to me that the highest populated countries that are most affected by it by that article (China and US) are contributing the most to it (unchecked capitalism) and still refuse see their connnection to their own discomfort

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/29/china-wind-solar-power-global-renewable-energy-leader

Not a China shill but I’m pretty sure they see the connection and have been investing heavily in renewables.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Bit of a stretch to say that they are "most affected by it" when there are pacific islands that are going to be sinking off the map pretty soon.

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

You might want to look into what China is doing. They definitely see their connection to emissions and are definitely doing something about it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Do you have links to show what they're doing? Because as far as I was aware, the only climate issues they're trying to fix is air pollution in big cities like Hong Kong. I haven't seen anything about them trying to save the planet.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Have a look at this and look at the links inside for more info: https://web.archive.org/web/20230716192140/https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1680243524124516352.html

People will bring up coal to challenge the argument that China is serious about taking climate change. China is building many new coal plants, which seems counterintuitive. I, and I'm sure they, would prefer not to. But they're not quite ready to fully transition off, so the next best thing is upgrading then. If you look into the details, they're replacing old plants with incredibly efficient ones. Here's a separate link about that: https://www.americanprogress.org/article/everything-think-know-coal-china-wrong/

We had a bit of a discussion about all this, here: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/971810

Edit: China is also building high speed rail to help other countries transition away from cars and old, inefficient rail. E.g. in Indonesia: https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202208/1273572.shtml and in Laos: https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/china-laos-open-6-billion-high-speed-rail-link-2021-12-03/ . This is part of global plans, such as the BRI (Belt and Road Initiative).

There are environmental concerns with BRI, e.g. https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440221078836 and https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/02/the-potential-climate-consequences-of-chinas-belt-and-roads-initiative/ . The World Bank's view is negative-to-mixed: https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/regional-integration/brief/belt-and-road-initiative .

It must me remembered, however, that many if not most of the states that China is working with aren't even close to their 'fair share' of global emissions: https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(22)00044-4 . As the tech improves, the emissions attached to BRI development will reduce.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So what? Not like there is anything anyone of of us can do about it. And our politicians don't give a F as long as oil companies pay their bills.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Given capital strikes are a thing, simply not taking money doesn't mean they are immune the influence of those entrenched interest groups. But it's certainly better than outright corruption.

[–] moistclump 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Now you work to change the rules of society so that we can stop adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, and limit the amount of additional warming we see.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

At the risk of sounding doomerish, nothing will change until it's too late or there's a revolution and heads roll.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

undeniably. I do not think that word means what you think it means.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

i had the same thought: NPR did a story on alaskan pipelayers & plumbers that were starting to experience the effects of climate change on the soil about 15-is years ago and then revisited them again about 5-ish years ago. in the first set of interviews from 15 years ago, a big majority refused to attribute the issues that they were experiencing to climate change and in the second set 5 years ago, they nearly unanimously refused to attribute the issues to climate change.

climate change is now politics and any and all politics will be denied if you want it bad enough

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

PetroDragonic Apocalypse incoming

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

The current heat right now is pure torture.