this post was submitted on 23 Aug 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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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Pretty bad doomerism takes here.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I feel it's time for people that care to start moving on the the acceptance phase of our future. Whether that is beginning to accept austerity in what we eat/wear/do and wait for the collective "we" to join us when they need to adapt more rapidly than we chose to, or if we give in and join the "it's already too late, let it burn" side.

I try to stay positive, because I've always tried to conserve and be responsible, so it isn't too bad, but I feel bad for the next generation or 2 at least. They asked for this even less than we did. But I feel the sooner we get on acting like this is a done deal the better, because most people aren't going to care until they're hurting.

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

I feel it’s time for people that care to start moving on the the acceptance phase of our future.

I've recently started to feel this way as well. One need not look any further than this thread itself to see that we're fucked. The discussion here is a perfect example of how we seem to be frozen in some sort of complex "prisoner's dilemma" between the public, the media, the politicians, the industry, etc. All this finger-pointing going around, when the reality is that most people AND (especially) most companies in the entire developed/industrialized world shares a large part of the blame for this, and because of the mentality (human nature) and manipulations (capitalist nature) at play, nothing will be done in time before our species starts to be completely decimated.

I've been recommending this article to people who seem to share this realization, because it not only describes what we're thinking, but it also provides some resources to help us process this.

Edit: At the same time, I still would like to fight like hell to change our course. But I just don't want to fight alone, and I fear that that's what it would mostly feel like. Alone, or very, very few people by my side.

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

I'm only in my thirties. I don't really think I had like..... A huge hand in all this.

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

Well it can't be the billionaires or the boomers, so it must be your fault.

This is what late stage capitalists actually believe

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

We should still try to do something, because it can become worse. So it's still an actual problem to make other people believe it's a thing...

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

That's an odd way to spell "what the insatiable greed of like seven corporations has done to us."

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Those 7 corporations. Would those be companies whose products we keep buying?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, if people really wanted, they could make their own phones and all they own by hand. These damn socialists!

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

"We can't make our own phones, so there's literally nothing we can do!"

Do you have a plant based diet, or try to reduce meat consumption to the best of your abilities?

Do you walk or take public transport when you could walk?

Do you avoid buying things you do not need?

If you answered "yes" to all that, then congratulations! You are part of a different 1%, and you are also just arguing for the sake of arguing.

If you answered "no", then you're part of the problem. You can pretend otherwise all you want, but you are one cog that keeps the system going. The system isn't magical, other wordly, or some fundamental law of the universe. The system is people and their choices.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah to those 3.

However, I wasn't intending to argue with someone with such a simplistic view of how the system works, anyway. If you think it's all up to the customer and the corps nor the system have no blame in comparison, it's just a lost cause, so sort yourself out.

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

If you think it’s all up to the customer and the corps nor the system have no blame in comparison

When did I or anyone else say companies and the government do not have any blame? Can you link me the comment and quote the relevant bit?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They have trained you all your life to blame the victims.

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

Who is consuming their products? I'm doing my damn best not too while striving for structural change, and I'd bet the other user is too. What about you? People taking your stance are usually the ones trying to make excuses to keep consuming mindlessly.

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

I find articles like this so frustrating. It feels like it is aimed at being a wake-up call to the reader, but at the same time offers no solutions, no advice and still lays the blame at the feet of the average person for not doing enough. "What we have done to ourselves" is not advocate enough I guess?

Perhaps I'm not the target audience for the article. I grew up in an environmentally conscious home we'll before it was trendy and have been worried about climate change for as long as I can remember. It's hard to see an article like this as anything other than an effort to drive traffic...

I'd be happy to hear what others got out of the article if it was more positive than my read of it.

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

Climate despair is the new climate denial, and these doomer editorials are oil industry propaganda pivoting.

If we can't do anything about it then nothing has to change and rich people keep getting everything they want.

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

I'm honestly super sick of this take. I keep seeing people say that the oil industry is responsible for doomers, and it's as bad as climate denial.

Is it though? Of all the people I know, the only ones that take the situation at all seriously are the ones that actually truly believe we are in serious trouble. Only those people are voting primarly based on climate issues, taking part in protests, or making changes to lifestyle. The vast majority of people don't actually believe we are in serious trouble. The vast majority of media is still feeding us the line that things are basically going to be fine with some incremental changes.

Oil companies are advocating for market solutions to the problem and continuing the status quo as long as possible. The idea they are trying to cause the greater population to actually believe they are doomed is insane. A population that actually believes they are doomed might take drastic action.

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

I dunno, I have the unfortunate experience of association with a lot of libertarian types. All of them believe we're in serious danger, all of them believe it's too late, and all of them are leaning hard into that "fuck you I got mine" mentality because it's too late for anything else.

They do nothing to help except vote libertarian or green.