this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2023
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Climate - truthful information about climate, related activism and politics.

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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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My fellow Americans. Get off your asses and vote. In every election. Even in red areas. If we all get off our asses, we will generally win. Run for local office if you are able. Contact local officials and get them to take measures.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 10 months ago (3 children)

An overwhelming share of the french population supports action against climate change and say the issue is important to them

63% of french people think the government should subsidize gasoline to lower prices at the pump

[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago

The usual all against climate change, as long as I do not have to pay for it or change my lifestyle in the slightest.

[–] neanderthal 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I've never been to France. How car dependent is it? Do people need or choose to drive? For those that need, why not ask to subsidize electric vehicles, the lesser evil?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

It depends where you live. Southern france is more car dependent, places rural places as well ; In general, it's not car dependent

Lots of people chose to live 30 minutes away from their work by car and think it's normal do to so

[–] neanderthal 0 points 10 months ago

In general, it's not car dependent

I envy that. If you haven't been to the US, outside of a small handful of cities, car ownership might as well be mandatory. Old small towns are walkable/bikeable, but you still need a car because they almost never have rail or bus connections.

I live about 2km from a grocery store. The only way to get there is a road with 80-90kph car traffic with no continuous sidewalk or shoulder. Based on life circumstances at the time, this location was the best choice at the time to minimize driving.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I think this studies definition of support is flawed. Saying you support something without context on a poll doesn't translate to actual support in actions or voting.

If you don't vote, you don't support climate policy.

If you vote for politicians (especially in primaries) that oppose climate policy, you don't support climate policy.

[–] neanderthal 8 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

as well as the percent of Americans who supported each of the following climate policies: a carbon tax, a 100-percent renewable energy mandate for electricity, siting renewables on public lands, and a Green New Deal (GND). Each policy was shown given the same brief description as used in polling by the YPCCC

They did provide context. The above text was from the methods section. Maybe I am missing something?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Some people who say they support those policies vote for people who don't support those policies, others don't vote at all. I'm saying they don't actually support the policies based on their votes (or not voting).

[–] neanderthal 1 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Do you support climate policies such as ending car dependency, carbon taxes and, getting off of fossil fuels?

So you are saying the nature article is wrong because of voter turnout?

In a way, you are proving the articles point. Belief leads to action. GOP voters have a higher turnout because they think their vote matters. I think the left, particularly in red areas probably don't turn out to vote because they don't think it matters.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Well I'm in a red area and my vote didn't matter for a decade until re-districting took place and made my district competitive again.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

The article was saying a lot of GOP voters also support climate policy. I disagree for the reasons above.

They support the idea of those policies but don't actually vote for them.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I get what you're saying, but I feel like you're kinda missing the point. The false social reality is actually a barrier to action. Obviously there's exceptions, especially in this community, but generally speaking, people are less likely to take actions they believe are unpopular or "against the norm". Social contract and all. And this goes double for politicians; they're less likely to propose climate policies if they believe (albeit mistakenly) that they'll be unpopular.

You can also bet that the plastic and fossil fuels industries know this and absolutely take advantage of it.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Get off your asses and vote

the Preaident we voted in has a mixed set of policies on climate change.

However: the Inflation Reduction Act also lends a potentially unlimited amount of Subsidizing funding for renewablw energy projects. Every single time there is local development? Insist that they take advantage of this funding.

I think Biden has put the ball in our court, but local advocacy is actually now the best way to get renewablea built.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Biden has definitely been a mixed bag on climate, but here's a recent win. The admin is aware of pressure from the public on environment, they know they need us to keep winning.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

Omg hey! This is really good news! Thanks.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago
[–] kite 4 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Americans support climate policy? I'm in the deep south, and I literally know zero people who even believe in climate change. They sure as hell don't support climate policy, and most of them are loud and proud about both of these things.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago

Even in the deep south the number is much more than zero. It's more that people aren't talking about it

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago

As silence said, many Republican voters are actually with liberals on a lot of positions but simply do not speak up, and even lie on certain surveys, because they too, like us, are afraid of the fascists who live near them.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

americans are just in another realm

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

I would like all public opinion data to be reported in this format.