this post was submitted on 02 Dec 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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[–] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 68 points 2 years ago (5 children)

Remember all those end of world disaster movies over the past 20 years? ... We're at the middle part of the movie where everyone is denying the few mad scientists who are warning everyone. We also believe that there will be some sort of super hero last minute hail Mary save that will save us from the brink of destruction ... I don't think that will happen tho :(

[–] Sheeple@lemmy.world 43 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Except it isn't even a few mad scientists this time

It's a good 99% of scientists

[–] oDDmON@lemmy.world 23 points 2 years ago

Yet the media treat the other 1% with at least as much deference.

[–] neanderthal@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

And like 75%+ of humans.

[–] Nobody@lemmy.world 29 points 2 years ago

We’re at the part of the movie where the 1%ers and politicians who caused the disaster are giving up on the planet and making plans to run and hide on private islands.

[–] nomecks@lemmy.world 15 points 2 years ago

Just don't look up!

[–] ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 9 points 2 years ago (1 children)

last minute hail Mary save

Nuclear war and the subsequent nuclear winter would save us. You doomers just aren't willing to think outside the box.

[–] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 6 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Nuclear winter will definitely cool the planet, especially if hundreds of bombs are used ... but it will mean turning the planet into a snowball.

Nuclear winter will mean destroying most or all plant life for years or decades or even a century. Many people will die either from the bombing or the radiation but the majority will die slow deaths from starvation years after.

Sure there may be some wealthy important people that will hold out in bunkers and underground shelters but once their food supplies run out, they'll have to come out, and when they do, they won't find anything. The survivors will have to raise new generations with far less, even if they do survive living in an irradiated landscape which won't be safe for hundreds of years.

The planet will definitely be cooler .... but it won't be liveable for humans.

This isn't a race to save the planet by cooling it off, the planet's fine. It's dealt with disasters and changes far more destructive than us.

We need to do something about the climate to save ourselves and our species. Nuclear war places us in as much danger of extinction as doing nothing about climate change.

[–] ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Did I seriously need to put a /s at the end of my comment?

[–] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 7 points 2 years ago

In this day in age ... Yes, it's almost required.

I felt like you were being sarcastic but I've encountered more than enough people in my life to know that there are people out there who fully believe in what you sarcastically said.

I can't tell any more who is being sarcastic, who is ignorant, who is willfully antagonistic or who is sarcastic anymore. There are far too many people out there who state unrealistic ideas who find like minded people to reinforce one another.

Whenever I write a sarcastic comment on a forum like this, no matter how clearly it is for me or even others .... I always note (sometimes very clearly) that I'm being sarcastic.

There are people out there who will understand your sarcasm.

And there are people out there who will turn your sarcasm into prophesy or gospel.

[–] voracitude@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Permanently Deleted

[–] Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 years ago

Don't look up. Just focus on the next 24 hours in front of you!

[–] NegativeLookBehind@kbin.social 50 points 2 years ago (1 children)

It’s ok guys a handful of people are gonna profit big time

[–] Fades@lemmy.world 33 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

How are WE the fools???? WE can do absolutely nothing about it and those that can will not.

[–] JohnnyEnzyme@lemm.ee 15 points 2 years ago (3 children)

How are WE the fools???

We're the fools because capitalism was never going to fix this issue on its own, therefore it came down to the voting populace to become better-educated on this stuff, spread that awareness as much as possible, vote every year for representatives that take CC seriously, and to contact our local / regional representatives as often as possible, asking them what their solutions were.

As the primary mechanism in terms of creating such vital change, we've done a fraction of that over the decades. Now here we are.

[–] JoBo@feddit.uk 7 points 2 years ago (1 children)

You know voters don't get to choose who, or what, is on the ballot, right?

This is a problem of structural power, not individual responsibility.

[–] JohnnyEnzyme@lemm.ee 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I'm talking about group responsibility, not hoping for structural power to solve issues it was never designed to.

In the States, if you're a voter who waits until the last step of the process to vote, then yes-- you get that limited menu of selection. As we've seen, this is a pretty great way to fail to address the real-world problems of unsustainability.

[–] JoBo@feddit.uk 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Yeah, you're right. It's everyone else's fault, for not being as committed as you are. Too busy keeping a roof over their heads and food on the table or some such trivial nonsense.

Power is the problem. If all you can do is scold people for not being activist enough, all you will ever do is fuck people off.

[–] JohnnyEnzyme@lemm.ee 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Hah. Like I'm personally any kind of avatar on this stuff.

No, I'm not scolding anyone-- I'm pointing out how we could have responded effectively to the issue in the past tense, as it now appears we're ruddy-well borked, and pretty much missed ~95% of our biggest opportunities to make effective change. And in case you're wondering, these are hardly my unique thoughts, and in fact are attributable to much smarter, more aware people than I, across a range of science-based and sociological-based platforms & orgs. I'm merely a little canary who happened to be in the room, TBC.

Sure, any individual can say 'well I had my own life, job, interests, etc to pursue and couldn't be bothered with this shite,' but we're talking about the body of people across 40+ years. If they can't understand the forest is on fire or the mountain is about to landslide, then despite whoever their leadership is, in the end it's on them.

Indeed, we still have an absurdly high number of people in the States who don't even understand what ACC actually is, and of course are deeply resentful of the idea that humans had anything to do with it(!)

So blame whatever specific components you like if it makes you feel better, but in the end, it's a fundamental failing of our high-tech, freemarket-capitalism civilisation to address these crises in a reasonably prompt manner.

EDIT: I will of course say this-- if you're late to the game, and if you're late in absorbing and understanding this stuff, then yes... it's indeed a heavy pill to swallow, and I completely understand not feeling like you're personally responsible. And indeed, people in our relative class are barely responsible, compared to the reprehensible wealthy and exploitative corporations, especially those who promote real disinformation, such as the Koch Bros, right-wing extremists, bogus 'think tanks' and so forth.

[–] JoBo@feddit.uk 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Patronising, naive, self-righteous bullshit. I've been in this game a lot longer than you have and wagging your fingers at people will get you absolutely nowhere. The problem is power and you need to work on challenging it, not just whining because other people aren't doing enough to challenge it.

[–] JohnnyEnzyme@lemm.ee 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Well, matey, you're certainly a bundle of fun, yourself... with deep respect to the power of projection.

In closing, may I ask what "game" you're thinking of, and especially-- does it involve understanding what the body of worldwide science orgs have been saying for many decades now..?

[–] Kanda@reddthat.com 1 points 2 years ago

Who'd have thought that encouraging the general population to just make an effort, educate themselves and act differently wouldn't work?

[–] ohlaph@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

And the guy leading the climate talk says science doesn't prove oil has lead to change. He's an oil baron...

[–] 768@sh.itjust.works 0 points 2 years ago

Wrong. We can help "flatten the curve".

[–] Maeve@kbin.social 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Is there some useful purpose for the @blahj spambot polluting discussion threads?

[–] OpenStars@kbin.social 2 points 2 years ago

I cannot seem to block it, on Kbin right now. So... it is teaching me the error of my ways, I suppose? :-P

(I regret choosing Kbin over Lemmy, and may need to switch if this kind of thing is going to happen constantly. Even now I have strong hopes for Kbin's future but... it just isn't ready yet.)