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submitted 11 months ago by boem@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

On Friday, the globe hit 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees) above pre-industrial levels for the first time in recorded history

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[-] Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 153 points 11 months ago

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.

[-] SuddenDownpour@sh.itjust.works 51 points 11 months ago

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.

[-] kromem@lemmy.world 30 points 11 months ago

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.

[-] sic_1@feddit.de 20 points 11 months ago

But I drive my car less, that should do it! /s

This is the reason we're should focus out efforts to make a ruckus and force decision makers to enforce carbon neutrality BY NEXT YEAR instead of by next century. Of course that won't happen but that would be the reasonable way.

[-] Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 27 points 11 months ago

A general strike? Say the word

[-] PugJesus@kbin.social 11 points 11 months ago

God, I wish.

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[-] dangblingus@lemmy.world 48 points 11 months ago

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.

[-] PizzaMane@lemm.ee 25 points 11 months ago

And the biggest polluters are corporations/industry, and the rich.

[-] metaStatic@kbin.social 45 points 11 months ago

no one wanted to be held accountable for the triage so we let everyone bleed out, safe in the knowledge there was nothing we could have done.

[-] scarabic@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Wealthy nations are making progress, but too little and they’re starting from a bad place.

Poor nations are busily repeating the industrialization process that made the wealthy nations wealthy. Anyone want to tell them they don’t have the right to do so?

I wonder if the window of opportunity on geoengineering is also closing. Because this emissions reduction thing isn’t going anywhere.

“But there are risks with geoengineering! We don’t know what might happen!” So: let’s get testing and find out, the way we do with everything else. Doing nothing on this spells certain doom. I’ll take an unknown quantity over certain doom.

[-] jray4559@lemmy.sdf.org 44 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

No duh, because not a single country has made any real attempt to lower their citizens' emissions.

It will take sacrifice from all of us to stop warming.

Forget 1.5°C, honestly, forget 2°C as well, keeping it under 3°C is likely the best that we can hope for right now. You're needing to throw out our gas-based car infrastructure, reduce our reliance on jets as much as possible, lower not just meat consumption but also almonds/alfalfa/etc., and that is just to get started.

Really, I don't see the average voter letting that happen. What's going to happen is eventually, sometime 30-40 years from now, a heat wave is gonna thrash the Middle East, consistent 130°F days for a solid month, 100,000 people dead, and the very next year planes will be in the air, making clouds to block the sun.

We are not ready to give up the things that the developed world will have to give up to truly back away from this coming apocalypse.

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[-] reverendsteveii@lemm.ee 36 points 11 months ago

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?"

[-] PizzaMane@lemm.ee 15 points 11 months ago

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.

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[-] naturalgasbad@lemmy.ca 28 points 11 months ago

The fact is that this was a conscious choice, even recently. The switch to natural gas that everyone is touting is one that is designed to cause higher short-term emissions.

Methane is really bad over a 20-year time frame and only really lets natural gas equal coal over a 100-year period (assuming typical fugitive emissions rates). The transition from coal to natural gas is accelerating the rate at which we boil ourselves alive.

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[-] Tikiporch@lemmy.world 26 points 11 months ago

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.

[-] anon_8675309@lemmy.world 15 points 11 months ago

Rectify it? No, they know they'll be gone before their life is disrupted so much that money can't fix it.

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[-] Boomkop3@reddthat.com 20 points 11 months ago

Yes but they're paying for an already protected forest to be protected, so it balances out right?

Fortunately the EU is making that kinda advertisement illegal

[-] Etterra@lemmy.world 10 points 11 months ago

Eh, humanity had a good run I guess

[-] nutsack@lemmy.world 10 points 11 months ago

didn't we pass the point of no return like 10 years ago

[-] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 7 points 11 months ago

I've been day saying this for the past two years now, humanity is fucked, and soon.

The amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is a direct result from the energy we took from burning fossil fuels. To get all that CO2 out were going to have to wait Millenia for earth to do it (that is, if it still can) or spend that same amount of energy to get the CO2 out.

To put that into something understandable: we're going to have to spend ALL the energy we produced over the last two centuries on too of the energy we need for ourselves to be able to get CO2 back to preindustrial levels. Basically, for the next two to four centuries were going to have to spend at least 50% of our world energy budget to scrubbing CO2 and NONE of that energy is allowed to generate CO2. Actually, NOTHING from humanity can generate CO2 to reach that. If we continue spewing CO2 then you can double that number.

To put that into perspective, adding all required work and infrastructure, energy -all energy- will become 3-4 times as expensive for the next few centuries

People will not understand the issue and will not want to pay more, rich people will not want to foot the bill even though they could, so we won't do anything and things will get worse and worse until we all die.

One possible alternative might be spraying sulphuric acid into the atmosphere, that might buy us a few valuable years while we fix shit but what will happen is that we'll just spray the crap out of it and call that a solution while we continue to spray CO2 into the atmosphere like there literally is no tomorrow for humanity

We're fucked

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[-] HurlingDurling@lemm.ee 6 points 11 months ago

🎵*it'sthe end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine!*🎵

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this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2023
596 points (99.2% liked)

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