this post was submitted on 06 Dec 2023
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[–] [email protected] 44 points 11 months ago (15 children)

I don't even know why they bother publishing the same fucking articles every week. At this point people are numb to the information.

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[–] Bahnd 41 points 11 months ago (2 children)

We know... but can anyone really do anything? We reguraly get scientific breakthroughs that may help, but are too new to meet the scale required. We regurally hear PSA like "Recycling helps" or "Only you can prevent forest fires" but once again, the scale of the issue is far larger than paper straws or other feel good wishcycling programs. We reguraly see that the ~100 companies directly responsible for the problems not suffering any concequences, investigations into wrong doings are met with armies of lawyers, lobbyists (see bribery), and limp-wristed regulations with fines that are considered "the cost of doing business" instead of a penalty to be avoided.

For me, the fear and panic of impending climate collapse has given way to apathy and resignation. We know its a problem, its just that the scale requires real global action, its a global prisoner's dilemma, and im not confident people will get it right.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Change is happening. We're reaching peak carbon this year or the next 2 years. China is widely forecast to emit less Carbon next year than this year.

https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-global-co2-emissions-could-peak-as-soon-as-2023-iea-data-reveals/

We just need to keep chipping away. This problem was created over 100+ years and it takes time to turn the ship.

[–] dangblingus 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Unfortunately, even if we stopped using all petroleum products right this second, there's still that nasty 50 year lag between emissions and atmospheric outcome. We'll be seeing the Earth get hotter and hotter for many years to come before it changes, and by that time, the cascading system failures of Earth's biomes may be well past the point of no return.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

there’s still that nasty 50 year lag between emissions and atmospheric outcome

Are you sure about that?

Humans have caused major climate changes to happen already, and we have set in motion more changes still. However, if we stopped emitting greenhouse gases today, the rise in global temperatures would begin to flatten within a few years. Temperatures would then plateau but remain well-elevated for many, many centuries. There is a time lag between what we do and when we feel it, but that lag is less than a decade.
https://climate.nasa.gov/faq/16/is-it-too-late-to-prevent-climate-change/

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

it takes time to turn the ship

The time it would take to turn the ship is waaaay more time than it'll take to travel the very short distance to the rocks the ship is heading towards. That ship gon' crash.

[–] Burn_The_Right 6 points 11 months ago

We don't have 100 years to get on the right track. Soon, a global heating feedback loop will become prominent enough that it will make "the right track" an ineffective solution.

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[–] Candelestine 38 points 11 months ago (23 children)

Personally I'm of the opinion that tipping points should not be a focus. I think people have reached a level of fear saturation, and no more fear can influence the system, it just precipitates right back out. While you can replace one fear with another, this can be inoculated against with faith, which is fairly accessible and common.

I think we need to actually take a page from Biden here, and stop pumping fear and consequences, and start pumping hope. Our stick is so waved the thing is fraying, but our carrots are underutilized.

Guys like Elon Musk, of all fucking people, are beating us in the hope dept. How the fuck did that happen?

[–] [email protected] 28 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Because the truth has limits on how hopeful and how simple it can be. Whereas the lies of billionaires have no such limitations.

I agree with your point that the messaging isn't working. But pushing hope without radical reform of our current systems is basically just trying to diffuse the reaction to the facts without actually changing the facts leading to the reaction.

[–] Candelestine 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Agreed. But I think we need to focus our attention away from actual solutions to major problems, and onto minor solutions to minor problems, that will give us a footing for actually being able to take steps forward again.

We need to fight the battle right in front of our faces, instead of focusing on our more standard long-term views. Otherwise we're going to be strategically and tactically outmaneuvered by people that follow fewer rules than we do.

It's a feasibility and priorities consideration.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago (14 children)

The problem with that being that the "minor solutions" aren't really solving the problem. We've been doing "minor solutions" for many years now, and we have only accelerated in our destruction of the environment.

We need drastic change. Failing some deus-ex-machina-esque invention that quickly and cheaply solves the issue with no sacrifice needed, then we have to be demanding radical change. If that isn't possible, our other option is to just fail and die.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago

Agreed. Everyone that cares already knows. Those that don't care aren't listening.

It's time to write about workable solutions for those who care. What we can do to prepare, what we can do to mitigate, and what we can do to survive in this new world coming our way.

[–] agent_flounder 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

We need organization and action of the masses commensurate with the danger. That would give me some hope for once.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago (7 children)

My realizations over the years:

Even if we make our cars less carbon-polluting by 25%, if we end up driving more, we could still end up polluting more.

Even if the western nations pollute less, developing nations will still pollute a lot more and will get us to tipping points anyway, albeit perhaps slightly slower.

Global warming effects are scary, but what's worse is global cooling and Ice Age. Once the ocean's balance is messed up by diluted salinity due to melted ice caps, who knows where this can go.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago (10 children)

Developing nations need electricity and primary energy growth. They need it to pull people out of poverty, and guarantee basic human needs like food, water, shelter as well as basic human desires like education, employment, and transportation. Western countries should be using their immense economic power to make renewable sources of energy the more cost-effective solution. They're not.

China is on track to hit peak oil (this year) and peak coal (next year). This is due to their EV adoption rate (~40% and growing fast) and their solar panel installation rate (this year, more than the entire sum of all US solar panels). China dominates the supply chain: they make up more than half of all battery exports and more than 80% of all solar panels exports worldwide. In less than a decade, China has drove down the cost of EVs to parity with ICE vehicles ($10000/car) and drove down the cost of solar to be less than that of traditional fossil fuels.

The West could have done the same. Instead, we kept jacking off our O&G producers and giving them billions of dollars in subsidies while solidifying the advantage of established car and solar companies rather than driving innovation from competition.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Even if the western nations pollute less, developing nations will still pollute a lot more and will get us to tipping points anyway, albeit perhaps slightly slower.

Ehh, it's worth noting that developing nations tend to pollute a lot less per capita. And as they develop they can transition to cleaner forms of energy, as they gain the economic ability to do so.

Pointing at developing nations is a convenient excuse for developed nations to avoid taking the actions we need to take.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

We should be subsidizing renewables in developing countries so that they never have a reason to use fossil fuels in the first place.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

…but where will BP or Shell make their billions then?

Also: things like blue ammonia and blue hydrogen are far more polluting than oil even diesel fuel, yet those ghouls managed to greenwash it into appearing better.

From Cornell

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

My thing is what we are seeing with coal. This should be a no brainer but its use is still increasing!!!

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[–] Shade 7 points 11 months ago

Just go with it and die from it when the time comes. The way money decides for us how this will go, there's no stopping it. Fuck it. It ain't important if earth lives on anyway

[–] ObviouslyNotBanana 7 points 11 months ago (3 children)

I loved waking up to this knowledge.

[–] 18_24_61_b_17_17_4 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Should've woken up earlier. Then it could've been the 4th shitty thing you'd heard today and it would've stung less.

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[–] Holyginz 6 points 11 months ago

And yet I get asked by people why I have anxiety and stress when reports like this come out.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I heard stopping eating meat can help climate issues but I don't think we have to stop eating meat we just need to start eating the rich. The other other white meat.

a gift of an angry looking little girl shouting "I'm hungry"

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (2 children)

What now? Nothing seems to help to get the population and politicians to care

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (9 children)

What now?

War, famine, death, breakdown of society, collapse of civilisation, rise of warlords, etc.

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