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Is It Time to Abandon Climate Change Pessimism and Focus on Adaptation?
(weather-fox.com)
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.
What do you gain from arguing against optimism? This is a long process and it will improve. You can't look at things now in the United States and accurately extrapolate into the future. China and Europe are stepping in the right direction.
Because if we are too optimistic and prepare for the wrong future, hundreds of millions of people will die that didn't need to.
Climate adaptation is necessary to prevent people 50 years from now from resorting to fossil fuels, war, or ecosystem destruction to try to avoid starvation.
I'm optimistic about our ability to affect change. The difference between 2.5K warming and 4.5K warming is hard to comprehend, and we still have that to play for. How soon will New Orleans or Miami or Amsterdam be surrendered to the sea? What refugee infrastructure awaits their inhabitants? How much has the world economy prepared for the loss of these cities and the surrounding regions? It depends on us. There is so much we can still do that matters.
Being optimistic is not the same as being completely delusional. Optimism by itself will not lull everyone into compliancy. Only the feeble-minded believe that their belief is sufficient for success, but they'll get farther than someone who doesn't believe success is possible. Too much pessismism will cause many to not even try.
Why'd you come back to this conversation after 2 months?