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:
How much each change to the atmosphere has warmed the world:
Recommended actions to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the near future:
Anti-science, inactivism, and unsupported conspiracy theories are not ok here.
is destroying the planet still profitable? yes? then nothing will change.
Direct action is the only way. Make the status quo more expensive than doing the right thing.
it's not like we don't know who's personally responsible. it's like 10 fucking people. set their yachts on fire with them in it.
It’s really, truly difficult to keep a positive mindset with these kind of news, but sadly avoiding them doesn't make things better. I can’t help thinking that we’re starting to get a peek at the abyss of human extinction. I’m sorry.
Many scientists believe we're already well into a man-made extinction event. Species are going extinct 35x faster than they have in the last million years. And the mass extinction before the Triassic Period killed 90% of all life and took a mere 10 degree rise
Sadly, this will probably not make humans extinct. It'll kill a lot of people and make life worse for even more, but some humans will survive. It's a question of how much damage it does to the planet. I guess we could end up in a venus situation, but that's probably unlikely. I'm not sure what'd have to happen to get to that point.
It would be interesting to see any detailed analyses on what is likely to persist in terms of human civilisation.
I’ve just consigned the whole idea to something more or less like the world wars where everyone afterward will wonder “what the fuck happened” but eventually accept their fate (humans are good at being slowly boiled unfortunately). To some extent there will be some memory of what was and why it was lost, but I suspect it’s unpredictable how that gets culturally encoded.
I'm really dreading this next summer here in Canada. Last year the forest fires were brutal (picture having no AC, poisonous smoke and 30C (86F for the Americans) outdoors and about 35C (95F) inside) and we had hardly any snow so far this winter, so next year the entire fucking place is probably going to be on fire all summer long.
Also we're definitely getting an AC before then lol.
If you haven't already, consider a heat pump instead. It can do cooling and heating, generally more efficiently (in terms of energy, maybe not money depending on local gas prices) than alternatives. It's basically the same device as an air conditioner, except it can be reversed so it can heat too.
One of the most shocking things about this climate change so far is that the summer is no longer a season to look forward to. For the last two years the skies have been white, orange or brown and the air has smelled of smoke for large stretches of the summer and on into the fall. Evidently the powers that be will do nothing unless they are made uncomfortable, and making them uncomfortable means more than polite protesting.
Good news (if you can even call it that) is that depending on how widespread the fires were you might have an easier time with wildfires this coming year
I highly recommend a few good air purifiers though, it's been a godsend since I picked one up a few years ago
We felt it here in the states, too. We (where I live, not far from Canada) were dealing with the smoke down here most of the summer, praying for rain up there to put the fires out. We ended up spending most days looking at the air quality reports and watching which way the wind was blowing to see if we had to stay inside or not.
It fucking sucks.
We can't do anything because no one will give up cars, factories and other dumb shit they do. Nothing we can do will even come close to balancing all that out.
The human race is too selfish to save itself. Now look at this post while in traffic in your gas-powered car.
When scientists get fed up (understandably), that they were ignored all life long and still many don't believe them today:
“We are now in the process of moving into the 1.5C world,” Hansen told the Guardian. “You can bet $100 to a donut on this and be sure of getting a free donut, if you can find a sucker willing to take the bet.”
“Passing through the 1.5C world is a significant milestone because it shows that the story being told by the United Nations, with the acquiescence of its scientific advisory body, the IPCC, is a load of bullshit,” Hansen said.