On Friday, the globe hit 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees) above pre-industrial levels for the first time in recorded history
The dismaying reality is that it is driven by the wealthy. I got rid of my car, I shop local, and everything in the home is low emissions. No reduction in my personal life can ever offset the way they live.
The truth of the matter is that it’s impossible to stop climate change in the short and mid term without degrowth in energy consumption. World leaders gathered and celebrated when they agreed to trade responsibilities for CO2 emissions, when a market-oriented world economy was always going to provoke this result unless there were explicit limits to the production of contaminant energy sources.
Driven by the wealthy and enabled by the stupid.
If this topic ceased to be a partisan issue, we might actually see real change and limits enforced.
A world where pollution producers would need to price cleanup and management into their production (which would in turn incentivize cleaner alternatives).
Where corporations might be held liable for damages from their climate or eco negligence.
But as long as this remains an issue that the masses are going to be divided over, the world is going to burn as stupid people insist 3rd degree burns on asphalt is just part of the circle of life.
It’s not driven by the wealthy, because there are far fewer wealthy people than everyone else.
Individual shopping habits are a band-aid until we can fully replace how some of those habits work.
Carbon taxes would be infinitely preferable to voluntary changes, but we can’t pass carbon taxes because people will go absolutely insane if asked to pay the true cost of their goods.
I mean, over the years I’ve heavily reduced my meat intake, am super conscientious about transportation (haven’t flown in a decade, keep my revs low when I drive, and try to get all my errands done in efficient ways as to minimize gas usage), turn off lights, ration my hot water usage, don’t eat out at wasteful restaurants, buy “ugly” produce from the grocery store, promote renewable energy solutions whenever possible, compost, recycle, and create extremely little garbage. Yet, at my work, several of our AC generators that we use to power the facility use more oil in one day than my car does in its entire lifetime. Several handfuls of billionaires and their families emit the same amount of carbon as the poorest 66% of humanity. Seems to me, if we want to solve climate change, we have to get rid of the biggest polluters first, then transition to clean energy.
And the biggest polluters are corporations/industry, and the rich.
I wonder if I’ll be alive for the moment everyone goes from “This is bullshit and I’m going to ignore it” to “Oh no who could have seen this coming?”
Some people will never admit anything is happening. They’ll just blame everything on something else.
We are already seeing the effects of climate change. If they were going to admit it, they would have done so already.
There are constant cycles of ‘fuck around’ and ‘find out’ that are naturally occurring, pay too close attention and you’ll see more than you want to. Like 5g conspiracies were always fucking dumb, but I’ll be damned if I didn’t hear almost nothing serious about them after someone decided to try and bomb a city block over it.
We’re gonna go from ignoring it to seeding the atmosphere
This will disproportionately effect the poor and developing countries, so the thinking of elites and super rich is that there’s still plenty of time to rectify the situation.
Rectify it? No, they know they’ll be gone before their life is disrupted so much that money can’t fix it.
That time is now before they get worse killler robots than they do.
Eh, humanity had a good run I guess
didn’t we pass the point of no return like 10 years ago
🎵*it’sthe end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine!*🎵
You mean pledging to eventually tackle the problem 20-30 years down the road and doing nothing about it in the meantime hasn’t solved the problem?! I’m shocked! 🤯
Every time I hear “carbon neutral by 2050” I’m always thinking yeah like it’ll fucking matter at that point, Honda (or whomever).
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And my cousins are having kids. 🤦
It’s China generating all the pollution. Their ‘reported’ emissions are 13.7 billion metric tons versus the US’s 5.9 billion. And 90% of China’s fuel consumers are private, one-off shuttles that don’t even report their emissions. US is contributing a tiny fraction of global emissions and it’s falling. Yes, US industrialized earlier and has contributed more in total, but we can’t time travel, we have to look at who is emitting NOW. China’s emissions are rising and nobody there cares to put a cap on it. You want to stop the world from cooking? Talk to China.
Edit: it’s odd how many tankies are on lemmy. Obviously we should take steps ourselves to stop emissions too but China is the world’s true problem when it comes to emissions. US has been steadily falling while China is rising rapidly and that’s only what’s actually reported
I’m not a big fan of China, but that’s just dishonest. Yes, China emits more than twice the co2 US emits. But that means that its per capita emissions are still way below those of the US, even after western countries outsourced a lot of their own pollution to China. Yes, you NEED to talk to China if you’re going to solve it, but pretending that it is more on them than on the west is ridiculous.
The Earth doesn’t care. As long as the western countries keep blaming China only and China not even talking about it, as far as I know from the western media I’m exposed to solely, it will simply get rid of us.
What do you think China is producing that’s creating all that pollution? I’ll give you a hint. IT’S EVERYTHING WESTERNERS ARE BUYING.
It’s all so complex. They also produce a major chunk of renewable energy tech as I understand. Which I wouldn’t be surprised was made cheaply without longevity in mind. I’d be surprised if some of that tech lasts more than 5 years, especially for what they sold to Europe and the US. And the kicker, they continue to build coal power plants to run their production of western demanded products. The whole current status quo is a giant mess!
Do some research on Chinas main fuel consumers and get back to me. It’s mainly smaller entities who are using personal vehicles or private industry and not reporting their usage at all. Scream all you want but China is not reporting their usage anywhere near accurately because there is only systems in place for the larger corporations that are fuel consumers, and even those are largely corrupt and under reporting so they can continue doing business unabated
Edit: I see your research was “downvote and move on”
Brilliant
Being vegan is the most impactful change that individuals can make.
But we won’t change.
It is totally hopeless.
Systemic problems require systemic solutions. Hoping everyone collectively changes their behaviour isn’t a solution unfortunately.
We have all the tools and technology to make a huge dent in this problem right now if not outright solve it. The most impactful thing you can do is spread awareness and do what you can to make this a voting issue if you live in a democracy. It could even be as simple is making it a non negotiable for how you choose to vote.
Lack of climate action needs to be a death sentence for the careers of the political class or it will become a death sentence for the the rest of us.
Not having children is the most impactful individual change one can make, well over going vegan.
Becoming a vegan anti-natalist is the most impact a person can make.
I am uncertain of the numbers regarding both individually. You might be right.
Personally, I think both are important.
this is eugenicist propaganda. also, going vegan has no impact at all.
No it is not. Eugenics is an attempt to improve the genetic quality of a human population.
We are talking about an attempt to stop climate change. We are not trying to “improve” the genetics of human population.
that’s a narrow definition that doesn’t really encompass all the ways in which eugenics has been practiced. frequently, as i have done here, it is used synonymously with genocide. stop practicing genocide.
No. Genocide is murdering people. Genocide is violence against people. Forcing people, against their will to stop existing.
Asking people to reproduce less is asking people (not forcing them) to exercise their own will.
genocide is also propaganda that encourages one segment of the population to cease reproduction.
that is true, but eugenics is something very different
Braindead take. We don’t need more children to be born into a world of suffering.
We are talking about an attempt to stop climate change
those are the trappings, but the method is bare eugenics
No it is not. Eugenics is a pseudo-science about improvement of genetics. Period.
Trying to avoid climate catastrophe is not about improving genetics.
Eugenics is a pseudo-science about improvement of genetics. Period
no, it’s not, even the wikipedia article we both love disputes this claim plainly.
Trying to avoid climate catastrophe is not about improving genetics.
if the method by which you try to avoid it is eugenicist, then it is.
I’m done.
I am not into bickering for no reason.
Then what do you suggest? Thanos?
i suggest we figure out a way to maintain the habitability of the planet without eugenics.
Right, but from a “carbon footprint” perspective, making new humans is the worst thing a human could do for their footprint. What we need to get away from is the argument that our individual carbon footprints are too high. I mean, they are, but the ruling class is a lot more egregious.
from a “carbon footprint” perspective, making new humans is the worst thing a human could do for their footprint.
this is actual eugenicist propaganda. you should stop spreading it.
No it is not. It has nothing to do with eugenics. Nothing at all.
Being vegan is the most impactful change that individuals can make.
being vegan has no impact at all.
Are you joking? Industrial scale production of cow and pig meat are disastrous for the climate.
being vegan doesn’t stop production.
“Hurr durr, me not killing people doesn’t stop murderers from killing people, so I should just kill people”
where did you find that quote, and why do you think it’s relevant?
What makes you think major nations will forego their cheapest source of energy if other nations are using it?
Who cares 🤷♂️
Not enough people apparently.
Rich. Not enough RICH people care.
