• @[email protected]
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    352 years ago

    There’s too much red in this picture. They really should use another baseline. If red would start only at 40 Degree Celsius, the globe would look much more welcoming.

    Look, I’m just trying to give productive feedback.

  • @[email protected]
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    42 years ago

    Something I’m noticing is that while America continues their pattern of climate denial and destructive hyper-individualism, China - for all its flaws - seems to be leading the charge on the single greatest existential challenge of our time.

    China is rapidly expanding renewables and green tech. They’re on track to become the world’s renewable superpower. While Americans absentmindedly whine and complain about society improving, China gets right to work on constructing a green national infrastructure to actually address the root causes of the crisis.

    China understands collective action and planning are the only way humanity can overcome existential threats. China’s top-down governance, however authoritarian some claim, efficiently marshalled resources to minimize devastation during the COVID pandemic, but what’s possibly more important is their collective culture, the populace’s eager willingness to listen to the authorities, and make personal sacrifices for the benefit of society as a whole. None of that “freedumb” nonsense or pearl-clutching. Imagine if the US mandated decisive actions, not “choose your own experiment!”

    This is serious; we cannot rest on our laurels and we cannot go back to brunch. We haven’t the luxury of half measures. Rather, we need the appropriate sort of complete and holistic mobilization asap to transition to greener, more sustainable models. To survive impending eco-collapse will require global equity, not privileged nations hoarding pie while the rest burn. We’d be wise to learn from China’s example. Obviously they’re not perfect - no one is - but I think their climate policies reveal what truly ambitious climate action looks like: bold, large-scale interventions that prioritize the collective good over individual freedoms.

    • @[email protected]
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      2 years ago

      The Chinese Propaganda Machine is already affecting Lemmy like it did on Reddit lol.

      Seriously though I’m kind of sick of it and China’s lying as they make more and more coal plants and have mini environmental disasters like the rent-able electric car trend that so many companies did just to make bang over buck from the CCP over it that failed during covid.

      China is not your friend nor is the friend of the world infact it is actively harmful to both human rights and the environment at large.

      Anyway unlike other people I do have sources for what I claim here.

      See https://energyandcleanair.org/publication/china-permits-two-new-coal-power-plants-per-week-in-2022/ https://www.scmp.com/abacus/tech/article/3029238/thousands-shared-electric-cars-seen-discarded-hangzhou

    • @[email protected]
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      32 years ago

      china has a rapidly aging populace, an unsustainable birthrate, and far too many peasants to support - they’ve got a very small window of time to prepare for the collapse of the country. when it happens, they’ll retreat, eastwards, to where the larger cities are (which isnt in the western 4/5ths of the current borders). that region you’ve highlighted will be abandoned - it doesnt really matter if it’s 22c or 52c. presumably the russians or the indians will pick it up, but probably wont settle in that area.

      superpower though? lol no. regional power in southeast asia, at best. manufacturing is leaving china as we speak. in 10 years most of our “made in china” stickers will be “made in nigeria”, or “made in argentina”

      • @[email protected]
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        12 years ago

        Don’t underestimate China’s power to fuck things up for everyone to ensure it’s survival. The CCP has shown it’s willing and able to do anything they deem useful, regardless of the human cost. Uncontrolled powers in this day and age are absolutely terrifying.

    • NotAFuckingBot
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      2 years ago

      As the CCP seems to want to own the world and everyone in it, it only makes sense that they want to save their toys from the flames. Well, as long as they aren’t Muslim, dissenters, a sovereign Taiwan, or anyone else that they don’t like.

      I realize that this is a kneejerk reaction, but your post’s core is still ‘America bad, China good, so bend over like a good sheep, stupid’.

      Valid concerns, but still opportunistic propaganda disguised as concern for the world, so perhaps the message shouldn’t be delivered via tankie.

      That being said, try to stay cool, bud.

    • @[email protected]
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      1642 years ago

      I think the worst part of it is that its not actually hopeless, at least not in theory. It’s just that we, or more accurately the people with actual power, refuse to act because it would mean slightly less profit.

      • @[email protected]
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        532 years ago

        I fully believe that if the world comes together, a united global effort, it is solvable, but we won’t.

        • @[email protected]
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          142 years ago

          I am fully convinced that won’t materialize until a major Western city or province/state/territory/[insert administrative unit here] gets catastrophically and irreparably fucked up.

        • @[email protected]
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          22 years ago

          Neoliberals won’t (nor will the reactionaries they’ve carefully trained) and unfortunatly we’ve let them infest all major political parties and media outlets across most of the globe.

          With these managed democracies, they’re able to delay actual progress until the mining and oil execs are satisified with their obscene wealth (which is never going to happen).

          Until these people are pried from their positions of power, everybody “coming together” is meaningless.

          The solution is going to require immediate, strict, drastic regulations and billions of dollars of research and investment that will never turn into profits, with much of it financed through taxing the rich appropriately.

          Neoliberals hate every one of those ideas and have positioned themselves so they can veto all of them.

          Voting genuine progressives and ensuring they keep their promises is the only way out because the best we’ll ever get out of this neoliberal psuedo-left is “Maybe we can find a way to save the world that’s more profitable than just letting everyone die”.

          • @[email protected]
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            2 years ago

            Nah, imo voting is kinda like giving your little brother an unpluged controler and pretending he is playing video games with you so that he doesnt riot. Of course we are the little brother. It changes nothing and the candidate that wins just makes everyone feel beter abbout themselves for believing they contributed when the candidate does or says something that they agree with or viseversa, the one that won and the people that didnt vote for him, when it does or say something it just makes them feel that this country is diyng cuz i dont agree with that guy, and then will blame the majority of the voters for voting on the guy while the fault is on the sistem itself.

            I say burn everything to the ground, their corrupt institutions, goverment and private/bussines, mainly banks amd administrative burecratical government institutions, make sure rich people (mainly oligarchs and corrupt politicians) cannot get influence nor voice on any kind of venture or decicion on the big picture or the world order or whatever you wannna call it and when we get the chance, replace leadership with A.I. Because at the scale the world is headed right now it will probably be the only way to purge corruption from the actions of human kind and keep everything as morally correct as posible, and im talking morally as in everyone lives as pleasantly as humanlly posible and no mass murders and rehabilitating instead of punishing and susteinability, not that dumb culture wars b.s. that americans are so obssesed with.

        • @[email protected]
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          252 years ago

          Me too, specially when I was younger I thought we could change the world for good if united. I saw cristal clear that the rich wanted to be richer at the expense of the poorer, but as I grew older and saw the reality and stupidity of the world (Like Trump, a massively rich guy being massively voted by the poorest and less educated people) I lost hope. I came to realize that education and stoicism and the best tools the human race has to progress to a healthy society. So that’s what I try to share now when I can.

          • @[email protected]
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            2 years ago

            Though I mostly agree with you, sometimes I feel human nature is just ugly.

            Some very highly educated people have done some very terrible things throughout history.

            (Sorry about submitting the half sentence, I meant to hit cancel and then decided to commit after that blunder.)

            • Move to lemm.ee
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              Though I mostly agree with you, sometimes I feel human nature is just ugly.

              This is not true. Humans are created by the material conditions they find themselves in. “Human nature” when in an abundant environment is very different, we can see this among remaining hunter gatherer tribes like the Hadza (watch/read the whole thread).

              Living in capitalism is what makes people the way you see them. Competition for resources with your fellow workers and an endless toil for the benefit of someone else enforced by the threat of homelessness and death if you don’t take part.

              Being an asshole under capitalism is as natural as coughing is in a smoke filled burning building. If you don’t know anything different you can’t see that to constantly cough is not the natural way of human beings. When you take people and put them in different material conditions you get a completely different outcome.

              • @[email protected]
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                32 years ago

                The biggest issue with our environment that drives these problems is that human brains can only reliably grok a few hundred other humans as being people. Beyond that, to a greater or lesser degree, anyone else just feels like an object (which is why we feel upset when people we know die but the statistics of how many people die each day globally don’t have a similar effect.)

                Some of us cope better than others but fundamentally any environment that requires humans to be reliant on interacting with over a few hundred other people will lead to people treating each other as objects.

                It’s why conservative people often feel it would be inconceivable to mistreat someone they personally know but will casually do profoundly cruel things to people they don’t. If you view their actions towards people outside of their sphere of personhood through the lense of what is and isn’t an appropriate way to treat an object rather than a person they often seem perfectly naturally.

                • Move to lemm.ee
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                  22 years ago

                  I know the research you’re talking about here but don’t think it should be viewed as something that makes people incapable of empathy to those outside their core group. It makes it harder, but that hasn’t stopped entire nations of people moving hard left towards extreme vocal empathy among one another as the working class. Unity, solidarity and love for one another is demonstrably possible among very large numbers it just requires the right set of prerequisites to achieve, these prerequisites are what socialists should be working towards ticking off in order to set the stage for a wider revolutionary movement.

              • @[email protected]
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                -12 years ago

                Aigh…let’s say you in fact can blame greed and capitalism alone.

                Haven’t we all agreed that extremes are unessential?? It’s capitalism’s fault, it’s comunism fault…world isn’t white and black it’s grey.

                It depends where you are and what it depends how you use it…fuck sake reality is way too complex for you to do these types of statement man.

                If we are going to guess then mine is we need something more in the middle…

                • Move to lemm.ee
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                  2 years ago

                  You make a statement about complexity but you’re not actually saying anything. This is all wishy washy.

                  There is no middle between “the workers hold power” and “the bourgeoisie should hold power”. There is no middle between “private property should exist” and “private property should not exist”. There is no middle between “profit should be the driving force of development” and “the human development index should be the driving force of development”.

                  Your wishy washy “we need a middle” is nonsense if you can not put into words what that fundamentally means in terms of actual functioning policy and societal design. Who holds power is THE essential question here. Capitalist society functions as a dictatorship-of-the-bourgeoisie. Socialists want the opposite, a dictatorship-of-the-proletariat. Flipping the power on its head and putting the workers in charge of the outcomes instead of the bourgeoisie.

                  If you can not fundamentally describe in absolute terminology what you think society needs to do in order to change the current situation then all you are doing in your opposition to people who do want change is supporting keeping it the way it currently is. That puts you on the side of the climate death cult driving us towards the inevitable end.

            • @[email protected]
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              12 years ago

              yeah, it’s true that some humans are really bad, but they’re nothing without (poorly educated) followers, and their followers are the one that give those humans the power to do evil things. Critical thinking is something that should be taught more often to avoid history from repeating.

          • @[email protected]
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            2 years ago

            I’m going to gently remind you that Drumpf’s base is actually on avg. wealthier than the opposition’s base. That’s why you get those obnoxious trucks, flags and infinite merchandise (courtesy of Chinese workers).

            No need to smear the common people, it’s simply a fact that democracy is not a real tool for change.

            • @[email protected]
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              -12 years ago

              Median income is BS though. If me and Elon musk make up the test then it would show we have a median income of billions. …I don’t have anywhere close to billions. So a bunch of poor people vote trump and ten billionaires vote trump so trump voters are better off on a average? That’s a joke

              • @[email protected]
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                32 years ago

                They used exit polls, so I doubt the data includes that. It’s likely that anomalies are cut out too if the data is processed this way - they also compare the median to the state median to make the comparison more meaningful, which is how we ‘know’ that his base is wealthier.

                Apologies for using Nat Sliver as a source.

            • @[email protected]
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              42 years ago

              Nono look at the 10 poorest states in America(with worse living conditions). They all voted majority Trump, some of the porest counties in the USA are literally voting 80% for trump

              • @[email protected]
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                2 years ago

                If you listen to Obama on that podcast recently (whom those people probably voted for too), paraphrasing: he says economic anxiety makes people prone to risk taking, emotional voting and feel racial resentment.

            • @[email protected]
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              12 years ago

              Yes but that’s only true due to a suite of nefarious influences having to do with things like voter suppression, gerrymandering, dark money and manufactured voter apathy.

              • @[email protected]
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                22 years ago

                We have to accept that democracy is too easy to ‘manage’ and has been since its inception. We need local democracy badly.

                • @[email protected]
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                  12 years ago

                  There are various versions of democracy. Some are far more effective at implementing the will of their constituents than others.

                  In my opinion the problem isn’t democracy itself, but rather, has to do with the many various ways in which it’s implemented.

                  The US version of democracy, for example, is very old, clunky and buggy as fuck because it was created by 18th century white men, some of whom were slave owners, and all of whom were terrified of the possibility that in creating a new (to them) form of governance they might accidentally create a new mechanism for tyranny.

                  Accordingly, they deliberately created a system that by design would be almost impossible to change short of massive civil unrest and that to this day is very unresponsive to real public sentiment.

                  The key is that they designed it that way not because they wanted an efficient democracy, but rather, because they wanted to protect themselves and their rights against the rise of a possible tyrant.

                  What they created was very stable, but again, it wasn’t responsive, nor was it meant to be responsive, to public opinion.

                  Since then, political scientists have figured out much better ways to run democracies.

                  One of my favorites is the Irish Republic which, in the 1920s, instituted a suite of reforms to the US model in creating its government with the result that Ireland has gone from being the last third-world country in western Europe, to now being a thriving and economically developed western European nation with a highly-educated English-speaking population that isn’t obliged to take orders from any of the world’s great powers.

                  Ireland did this by having a high-functioning modern-style democracy.

      • @[email protected]
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        52 years ago

        Not sure if this will give you hope or not, but one thing to consider is that we could still make it far worse, or put differently, that it’s still in our power to stop that from happening. We can’t change the fact that climate change already has noticeable negative consequences today, nor that global temperatures will rise by at least 1.5° towards the end of the century (compared to 1950-1980), probably more. But we do have a somewhat realistic chance of keeping it at around 2° or below (see e.g. here or here for easy simulations in your browser). The point is that every tenth of a degree counts, and our action or lack thereof now might well make the difference between it “just” getting bad with regular droughts, crop failures, some regions becoming temporarily uninhabitable due to wet bulb temperatures and so on on the one hand, or all of that at a much larger scale leading to societal collapse if we don’t act at all. We live in the worst extinction event the earth has seen since the asteroid that killed the non-bird dinosaurs, but we can still keep it at that instead of turning it into the worst extinction event the earth has ever seen. Luckily, governments (and industry) largely have at least accepted that climate change is a thing, and in Europe and the Americas green-house gas emission have actually already been sinking for the last 15 years or so. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not great, and these governments still should do much more, but it could also be worse, and the fact that we’re lowering emissions despite our politicians generally being very friendly with industry could give at least a sliver of hope. The emissions of China and India (and the rest of Asia) are still rising, but show signs of decelerated growth at least, and in Africa emissions are still fairly low and rising rather slowly, with a chance that some less developed countries might more or less just skip a big chunk of carbon-based industrialisation in favour of renewables. Altogether this means that we’re already on a way to avoid the worst possible scenarios, and still have the power to keep it towards the lower end of the scale as far as terrible outcomes are concerned.

        In addition, while individuals have always less power than whole governments or industries, there are nevertheless things anyone reading this could do, e.g.:

        • Voting for parties that favour stronger climate action, and perhaps even more importantly, not supporting those who do less or even nothing. You can also protest or try to influence your government in some other ways.
        • Reduce your personal impact by not consuming animal products (in particular meat and dairy), not flying if you can avoid it, not buying stuff you don’t really need, and not having (more) kids.
        • Tell other people you know who might listen to do those things. Many people favour climate action in principle, but are too lazy, scared or just otherwise preoccupied to actually start doing stuff on their own. You kicking them in the butt or leading by example can motivate them and in turn other people they might now.

        If you’re reading this and whether or not you’re already doing some of those things, I’m sure you can find at least some things you could do (I know I can, and I’m trying to put it into practice), which might in turn also make you feel less depressed about the situation. As mentioned before, I’m not saying that we’re in a great situation, but whining about it helps nobody, and we’re still in a situation where we have the power to stop things from getting even worse.

    • @[email protected]
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      -22 years ago

      A morbid solution for it would be an all-out war between China and India, they are about a 1/3 of the world’s population.

      Ghengis Khan proved that with enough murder you can drastically lower global temperature.

    • Bernie Ecclestoned
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      2 years ago

      Human problems have human solutions.

      The science is clear, now it’s an engineering problem.

            • DarkThoughts
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              22 years ago

              As if the voters are any better. They could vote for policy makers that bring change, or go into politics themselves. But they don’t actually want to be affected by such policy changes. It’s always the others, always just finger pointing.

              • @[email protected]
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                2 years ago

                Are you talking about American voters?

                Only about 35 percent of the eligible voters participated, so yeah. Apathy and complacent comfort is a big player in the game. I’m pretty convinced that a lot of people’s apathy comes from the lack of political agency. When business interests conflict with human interests guess who wins every time.

          • kimagure
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            152 years ago

            Asteroid problem is more solvable than political problem.
            Armageddon solved it like in 2 hours or so.

          • DarkThoughts
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            112 years ago

            Is it though?
            CEOs don’t want to risk their profits.
            Politicians don’t want to risk their terms.
            Voters don’t want to lower their living standards.

            No one really wants to do something.

            • @[email protected]
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              02 years ago

              Voters not wanting to lower their living standards is the real elephant in the room. You tell someone that they should eat 1 less hamburger a week and all of a sudden you’re dodging bullets.

              • trainsaresexy
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                12 years ago

                I think this is our natural reaction because we aren’t aware of the scope of lobbying and corruption that influence global politics and supply chains.

              • @[email protected]
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                2 years ago

                I think going after industry makes more sense. Other than the idea of climate change, which for most people feels abstract, they don’t have much of an incentive.

                Going after industry, governments can create regulations the companies have to follow, and those companies pay people to solve those problems, and they’re going to solve those problems, because they want to stay in business.

                Why are we banning plastic bags at grocery stores, putting it on the consumer to source and buy grocery bags, when a majority of the stuff being sold at those stores comes in some kind of plastic container? Why not push companies to make non-plastic packaging, or have no packaging where it makes sense?

                Instead of telling people to get 1 less hamburger, put quotas on a meat production (or just standards to get rid of factory farming which will naturally bring the volume down). This will drive up the price and people will buy less of it. Now, instead of unsold meat being thrown away, there is less being produced in the first place.

                How about requiring them to find ways to reduce the amount of resources (energy, water, etc) that go into their production lines?

                How about a tax on low quality fast fashion that ends up in the trash after one wear, so it no longer makes sense to buy, and people can go for longer lasting stuff that isn’t made to be consumed and thrown away?

                If you want to change the behaviors of a population, you don’t shame them until they comply, you tweak the dials that lead to big change.

    • @[email protected]
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      2 years ago

      Not sure if this will give you hope or not, but one thing to consider is that we could still make it far worse, or put differently, that it’s still in our power to stop that from happening. We can’t change the fact that climate change already has noticeable negative consequences today, nor that global temperatures will rise by at least 1.5° towards the end of the century (compared to 1950-1980), probably more. But we do have a somewhat realistic chance of keeping it at around 2° or below (see e.g. here or here for easy simulations in your browser). The point is that every tenth of a degree counts, and our action or lack thereof now might well make the difference between it “just” getting bad with regular droughts, crop failures, some regions becoming temporarily uninhabitable due to wet bulb temperatures and so on on the one hand, or all of that on a much larger scale leading to societal collapse if we don’t act at all. We live in the worst extinction event the earth has seen since the asteroid that killed the non-bird dinosaurs, but we can still keep it at that instead of turning it into the worst extinction event the earth has ever seen. Luckily, governments (and industry) largely have at least accepted that climate change is a thing, and in Europe and the Americas green-house gas emission have actually already been sinking for the last 15 years or so. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not great, and these governments still should do much more, but it could also be worse, and the fact that we’re lowering emissions despite our politicians generally being very friendly with industry could give at least a sliver of hope. The emissions of China and India (and the rest of Asia) are still rising, but show signs of decelerated growth at least, and in Africa emissions are still fairly low and rising rather slowly, with a chance that some less developed countries might more or less just skip a big chunk of carbon-based industrialisation in favour of renewables. Altogether this means that we’re already on a way to avoid the worst possible scenarios, and still have the power to keep it towards the lower end of the scale as far as terrible outcomes are concerned.

      In addition, while individuals have always less power than whole governments or industries, there are nevertheless things anyone reading this could do, e.g.:

      • Voting for parties that favour stronger climate action, and perhaps even more importantly, not supporting those who do less or even nothing. You can also protest or try to influence your government in some other ways.
      • Reduce your personal impact by not consuming animal products (in particular meat and dairy), not flying if you can avoid it, not buying stuff you don’t really need, and not having (more) kids. Edit: Also try to favour public transport over driving your own car, and if you need a car, try to use a small, electrical one to reduce emissions.
      • Tell other people you know who might listen to do those things. Many people favour climate action in principle, but are too lazy, scared or just otherwise preoccupied to actually start doing stuff on their own. You kicking them in the butt or leading by example can motivate them and in turn other people they might now.

      If you’re reading this and whether or not you’re already doing some of those things, I’m sure you can find at least some things you could do (I know I can, and I’m trying to put it into practice), which might in turn also make you feel less depressed about the situation. As mentioned before, I’m not saying that we’re in a great situation, but whining about it helps nobody, and we’re still in a situation where we have the power to stop things from getting even worse.

      • @[email protected]
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        32 years ago

        Thank you this was actually really nice to read. I feel like everywhere I look is more bad news about the climate it’s nice to see we can at least still mitigate it

      • @[email protected]
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        52 years ago

        Can also create isolated cells to coordinate … I’m gonna stop before this gets added to my file.

        • @[email protected]
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          02 years ago

          Yes, my list is by no means complete. I’m sure there are many more things any of us could do, it’s more meant as a list of some examples to give people starting points for practical things to do.

      • @[email protected]
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        02 years ago

        I don’t have hope and I have a specific prediction why but since hope is our only chance I won’t share that.

        • trainsaresexy
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          182 years ago

          I don’t think this is a hot take anymore. Middle/lower class are sick of hearing that everything is our problem. It isn’t.

        • @[email protected]
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          2 years ago

          I know this won’t change your mind or anything, but this is probably pretty close to the mindset of some other ~1.5 billion first world countries’ populations’ mindset. And those combined account to currently around ~37% of CO2 emissions. So if all people like you (if you consider first world countries’ people to be people like you) all came together and did more we could have some pretty huge impact. Of course the other ~63% may still fuck things up, but this is a much different comparison than just you against the rest of the world, you’re not very unique in that regard.

          • Sightline
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            22 years ago

            Ok now apply the fact that at least 45% of the western world is brainwashed by the fossil fuel industry. They’re low IQ repeater bots who would glady kill every single one of us because climate change is a “hoax”.

            • @[email protected]
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              12 years ago

              I think a very small minority “would gladly kill every single one of us”, not 45%. If it were 45%, there’d already be open civil war all over the west.

          • @[email protected]
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            82 years ago

            I’m so tired of people turning everything into an awful prisoner’s dilemma. Everyone should just aim to be the best person you can be and stop fretting about whether everyone else is trying quite as hard as you. It doesn’t need to be complicated.

            • @[email protected]
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              42 years ago

              Right? On a global scale, though, “best person you can be” should be something like, “let’s try to behave in such a way so that if everyone behaved like me, the world would be a good place”. That is hard though, to think like that.

              • @[email protected]
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                42 years ago

                What can help is the knowledge that by doing so it is impossible not to on some level inspire others to do the same to some degree by example.

                If you’re a selfish jerk that will cause people around you to be .001% (or something) more selfish and jerky. If you are kind and good that will push the needle the other way similarly.

                Except the amount more those people are better or worse for knowing you then also influences how much better or worse the people they know are etc and so while it is a small effect per person, the diffused effect is meaningful, cumulative and self-reinforcing. It doesn’t take a lot of people within a community either giving up and being the worst or finding enough of a spine to try to be good to start to tip the balance of the whole community in either direction. It also means that as you are better and kinder, your immediate external world gradually becomes a little better and kinder which makes it easier and more rewarding to be that way in an endless virtuous cycle.

  • @[email protected]
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    2 years ago

    I don’t own a car and walk or bike everywhere I need to. I buy clothes and things I need second hand and support local shops when it comes to food and drink. I live in a small apartment/flat and recycle everything I can.

    I don’t even care about the state of the world anymore. I’ve given up - the world is fucked. Can’t do anything about it, and I’m doing everything I can - so I’ll just carry on and live my life. Yeah, people will be fucked down the line, but what am I supposed to do more than what I’m already doing?

    • Adonnus
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      12 years ago

      I’m somewhat in the same boat. I do what I can but now I’m disenfranchised from the whole engagement. I’ll continue to be a steward for the environment but don’t expect me to be optimistic or angered by the state of affairs.

    • @[email protected]
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      32 years ago

      Talk about it and get angry. Show your sphere of influence how concerned you are; friends and family will pay more attention to you than they will to any scientist, celebrity or politician.

  • @[email protected]
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    162 years ago

    And people thought I was kidding when I wondered a few years ago when we would have to face the problem of not even being able to drive due to melting tires from the heat.

      • @[email protected]
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        32 years ago

        Lettuce is a luxury food with very little nutrition and high water requirements…

        Chances are good that the majority won’t retain access to it for very long really since it will make the most sense to grow something more efficient.

        • @[email protected]
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          22 years ago

          Potatoes. You don’t need a lot of light and they grow from the sprouts of old potatoes. They do need some water though. Same with other root vegetables like carrots and sweet potatoes. But I’ve never managed to get a sweet potato to grow. Carrots and potatoes and tomatoes grow good in the fall and winter in az. Now I’m just trying to figure out what to grow to can for the summer months.

        • @[email protected]
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          72 years ago

          We can change the rubber formulation so the Tg shifts up or down. This is actually part of the difference in winter and summer tires.

        • Hup!
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          2 years ago

          They start to lose integrity around 200⁰C or 390⁰F… we’ll be dead long before our tires randomly soften to the poi t rhey deform.

          But you’re right that friction under even slightly higher heat means they’ll wear out significantly quicker. Drivers might need to change them every 1-2 years instead of 3-5, as a hypothetical.

          • @[email protected]
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            62 years ago

            I live in the Phoenix area. Every summer, as it starts to heat up (so like april…) you start seeing the tire debris everywhere, and the higher frequency of cars pulled over with flat tires… Heat is absolutely a factor in premature tire failure, whether or not the rubber is literally melting.

            • Hup!
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              2 years ago

              I mean of course some people don’t change their tires when they’re supposed to, or continue driving on flat tires to get to move their vehicle from the place it originally went flat. So sure when not being used as designed, of course there is a bias towards rubber tearing in the triple digits instead. If you’re not an idiot driving on safety hazards it’s extremely unlikely.

  • @[email protected]
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    102 years ago

    It’s strange - in the UK we’re usually getting toasty this time of year too, but we’ve had unusually mild weather despite many other parts of the world experiencing record temperatures. Feels like the mildest summer we’ve had in about 10 years.

    • @[email protected]
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      92 years ago

      This might be because we’re in an ill niño weather event. This brings hot coast to the southern hemisphere particularly South America. And it means the North is cooler particularly north Europe and Canada. This will flip back and forth over the years

  • @[email protected]
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    1242 years ago

    Some reuters reporting here.

    Including…

    Prolonged bouts of high temperatures in China have challenged power grids and crops, and concerns are mounting of a possible repeat of last year’s drought, the most severe in 60 years.

    China is no stranger to dramatic swings in temperatures across the seasons but the swings are getting wider.

    On Jan. 22, temperatures in Mohe, a city in northeastern Heilongjiang province, plunged to minus 53C, according to the local weather bureau, smashing China’s previous all-time low of minus 52.3C set in 1969.

    Since then, the heaviest rains in a decade have hit central China, ravaging wheat fields in an area known as the country’s granary.

    These few sentences really capture the horror of “climate change”, that so many people overlook. Yes “average global temp” might increase by 1 degree celsius, but the really immediately terrifying part is changes to large weather patterns that provide a foundation to gargantuan food production industries.

    I live in Western Australia. It’s a large state perhaps 3 times the size of texas, but it’s very arid and mostly desert aside from the south west corner in which there’s a “belt” of land with appropriate conditions for cropping in which 18 million tonnes of grain is grown each year, of which 90% is exported. Suppose this year the state receives 30% less rain, then next year 30% more. Suppose that halves production this year, and washes away some of the dry top soil next year. Hell, we might even receive more rain but just a few hundred kilometers from where it usually is.

    Point is, even a mild interruption to established weather patterns is going to have a huge and detrimental impact on human agriculture. It’s terrifying really.

    • Aussiemandeus
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      92 years ago

      But as an Australian myself i believe the government will ensure we’re all fed and not leave us to starve. Especially not in the Northern Territory where we can’t grow fuck all. /s (do we do that here)

      • @[email protected]
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        52 years ago

        When Westralia seceeds you territorians should come with.

        We shall hoard our wealth of grain and hydrogen and watch the world burn.

    • IHeartBadCode
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      352 years ago

      For those wondering, one degree celsius increase means every kilogram of air has at least increased by 1°C. The specific heat of air is about 1158 J/(kg*C). Now that might not seem like a lot of energy, in fact 4g (one teaspoon) of sugar has 68,000 J of chemical energy.

      The thing is, you might have noticed, there’s a lot of air around us. About 5.14 x 10^(18) kg of air. So when you take a pretty normal number and multiply it by an insanely huge number, you get an insanely huge number. That’s about 5 exajoules of energy. That is the total energy consumption of the US in 2021 for four million years. Or in sugar terms, equal to the energy of sugar if you converted a little over half of the Earth’s entire mass into sugar.

      We hit that additional amount of energy in our atmosphere in 2017.

      • @[email protected]
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        262 years ago

        The air increasing by 1⁰C isn’t too crazy.

        The ocean increasing by 1⁰C is an insane nightmare. Do you know how massive a heat sink the ocean is? For it to change, even by 1⁰, is terrifying.

      • @[email protected]
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        152 years ago

        And we’re gleefully adding thermic energy to this constantly at a rate of about four Hiroshima bombs every second.

    • Bernie Ecclestoned
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      2 years ago

      China is massive though, Mohe is further north than Mongolia, it’s 2,200 km north of Beijing.

      It’s nowhere near the central wheat fields so it’s not really comparable

      • @[email protected]
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        222 years ago

        I’m not saying the agricultural circumstances are comparable.

        I’m saying that it’s the changes to weather patterns, hot or cold wet or dry, that are scary.

        “It was hotter” is IMO a bit of a distraction, because no one really knows what that means in practical terms.

        Like in the linked Reuters article, the higher than usual rainfall could well be more problematic than the higher maximum temp.

  • Chozo
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    372 years ago

    Have you ever had a friend or relative who was just in such poor health, who you basically expected to keel over and die any day now? If so, you probably know what I mean when you eventually just accept that the person you once knew is already dead, and all that’s left is a husk that’s just riding out the last bit of momentum they’ve got until they fade away. And then when they finally do die, it doesn’t even hurt, because you’ve already had time to grieve and process your emotions in advance.

    That’s kinda how I feel about the earth these days. I feel like the earth is on hospice care, and at that point that we’re just making it as comfortable as we can for it to die.

    Maybe that’s a little melodramatic. But it really does just feel hopeless these days.

    • Arotrios
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      102 years ago

      I feel you. I don’t think it’s hopeless, but I do think we’re in for a rough ride. That being said, I actually have a lot of faith in the upcoming generation. I think that if they get angry enough, they have the potential to arrest what’s happening and even turn it around given how well they work together. Greta gets a lot of hate, but hell, I haven’t seen someone make as successful a series of environmental stands since Julia Butterfly. If her generation keeps showing that fire, I think there’s still hope for humans to live in harmony with the earth.

      • @[email protected]
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        82 years ago

        As much as I also have hope in the next generation, there isn’t a damn thing we can do anymore. If every single human being disappeared right now, the earth would continue warming and experiencing climate change for 100s more years, because of the feedback loops we have set in motion and the fact that the ocean is still dampening some effects, but won’t be able to for long. Our only hope to avert complete disaster, collapse of society and maybe even the extinction of humanity is if we find a way to start pulling massive amounts of CO2 out of the atmosphere ASAP. Carbon neutrality isn’t enough, we need to be carbon negative. If zoomers can get that done, in time, then they’re a whole other fucking class of human. I hope they do, but I think the odds are against them and all of us.

      • @[email protected]
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        42 years ago

        Me too.

        Shit is fucked. There are unavoidable problems on the way, but I do have faith in today’s generation.

    • @[email protected]
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      72 years ago

      Fever is a tried and tested method in nature to eliminate infections which become too detrimental to the host.

      It will be very much that way if we can’t evolve to a symbiotic relationship with our planet.

      • morgan423
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        22 years ago

        Indeed. Everyone says they are worried about the Earth.

        In geologic time scales, Earth will be fine. Humans, and in much shorter time scales? Not so much, if we don’t get it together.

      • @[email protected]
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        182 years ago

        Yeah I feel like this is just like when the body gets a fever to get rid of a sickness. The earth is just getting a little fever to get rid of our dumbasses real quick. Then it will go right back to normal and be completely fine.

    • spicystraw
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      222 years ago

      If it’s any consolation. Earth, as in the spinning ball of dirt, will be just fine for many more millions of years. Humans, and other animal species, on the other hand are not going to be fine if the trend continuous.

      Dunno, I find it kind of consoling in a meloncolic kind of way.

  • @[email protected]
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    202 years ago

    I love that they just have to make up colors now since the previous spectrum is no so inadequate