this post was submitted on 24 Nov 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:

Anti-science, inactivism, and unsupported conspiracy theories are not ok here.

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[–] charliespider 20 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Oil is one of the greatest natural resources we have just for the things we can make from it. The equipment and devices that make up our modern lives depend on oil fof their manufacturing. It should be a crime to burn such a critically important resource.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

The fossil fuels industry is going to be a bit disappointed that we also need to phase out most plastics.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'm sure the message will really hit home at COP28, Dubai.

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

I feel like we're at a point where talking about climate is pretty much useless, as nothing ever radical is going to be done even if the worlds leading scientists start talking about it non-stop, assuming nothing changes in how governments/society functions.

For anything to happen, the left has to wake up worldwide and organize some worldwide radical effort rather than what's happening right now, with climate change talk brushed aside or having some exploitable program that barely does anything.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

oh stuff is definitely being done, like building new fossil fuel export hubs!. There's a nice little loophole where exports aren't counted as emissions so we are going to massively increase that while trying to pretend we are cutting down ourselves. profit is the only thing that matters to those in power.

[–] grue 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Fix the zoning code! If you want to fix fossil fuel consumption, you have to fix car dependency. If you want to fix car dependency, you have to allow denser development so that things can be close enough for people to walk or bike.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Honestly ebikes are about the biggest miracle cure.

[–] Nudding -2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

A super flu that wipes out humanity would be an overnight miracle cure for the entire planet, no?

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

Does anyone know the break down of how we use fossil fuels? What would have the biggest impact on that, and what’s the government doing to support those changes now?

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

We have rough breakdowns of greenhouse gas emissions, like this, for 2015

What we need to do:

  • Generate electricity without burning stuff
  • Electrify everything we can
  • stop doing the things we can't

The IPCC has a bunch more detail on what parts need doing immediately

How much is being done and in which sectors varies greatly by country.