Catastrophic change looms as Earth nears climate ‘tipping points’, report says
Catastrophic change looms as Earth nears climate ‘tipping points’, report says
Polar ice, coral reefs and other Earth systems could cross irrevocable thresholds soon, but urgent action could stave off the worst effects.
I don't even know why they bother publishing the same fucking articles every week. At this point people are numb to the information.
Semantic satiation
They aren't numb, they just don't give a shit. Never did.
Sure there's a solid chunk of the population who doesn't give a shit and doesn't believe there's a problem to begin with.
But a lot of people do give a shit but are realistically powerless to effect change. Turning all your lights off and walking to work isn't going to change shit. It's big business that is mainly at fault here. They've just spent years brainwashing everyone to think that if we don't leave the water running while brushing our teeth it's magically gonna solve all our problems.
So what are people who can't make an actual dent in the problem to do with a weekly "ANOTHER TIPPING POINT HAS BEEN REACHED" sort of article? It's basically noise now.
We know... but can anyone really do anything? We reguraly get scientific breakthroughs that may help, but are too new to meet the scale required. We regurally hear PSA like "Recycling helps" or "Only you can prevent forest fires" but once again, the scale of the issue is far larger than paper straws or other feel good wishcycling programs. We reguraly see that the ~100 companies directly responsible for the problems not suffering any concequences, investigations into wrong doings are met with armies of lawyers, lobbyists (see bribery), and limp-wristed regulations with fines that are considered "the cost of doing business" instead of a penalty to be avoided.
For me, the fear and panic of impending climate collapse has given way to apathy and resignation. We know its a problem, its just that the scale requires real global action, its a global prisoner's dilemma, and im not confident people will get it right.
Change is happening. We're reaching peak carbon this year or the next 2 years. China is widely forecast to emit less Carbon next year than this year.
We just need to keep chipping away. This problem was created over 100+ years and it takes time to turn the ship.
Unfortunately, even if we stopped using all petroleum products right this second, there's still that nasty 50 year lag between emissions and atmospheric outcome. We'll be seeing the Earth get hotter and hotter for many years to come before it changes, and by that time, the cascading system failures of Earth's biomes may be well past the point of no return.
it takes time to turn the ship
The time it would take to turn the ship is waaaay more time than it'll take to travel the very short distance to the rocks the ship is heading towards. That ship gon' crash.
We don't have 100 years to get on the right track. Soon, a global heating feedback loop will become prominent enough that it will make "the right track" an ineffective solution.
Eh, we will try to geo engineer our way out when it becomes apparent (everyone agrees even those batshit insane gopers) that we are well and truly fucked.
Personally I'm of the opinion that tipping points should not be a focus. I think people have reached a level of fear saturation, and no more fear can influence the system, it just precipitates right back out. While you can replace one fear with another, this can be inoculated against with faith, which is fairly accessible and common.
I think we need to actually take a page from Biden here, and stop pumping fear and consequences, and start pumping hope. Our stick is so waved the thing is fraying, but our carrots are underutilized.
Guys like Elon Musk, of all fucking people, are beating us in the hope dept. How the fuck did that happen?
Because the truth has limits on how hopeful and how simple it can be. Whereas the lies of billionaires have no such limitations.
I agree with your point that the messaging isn't working. But pushing hope without radical reform of our current systems is basically just trying to diffuse the reaction to the facts without actually changing the facts leading to the reaction.
Agreed. But I think we need to focus our attention away from actual solutions to major problems, and onto minor solutions to minor problems, that will give us a footing for actually being able to take steps forward again.
We need to fight the battle right in front of our faces, instead of focusing on our more standard long-term views. Otherwise we're going to be strategically and tactically outmaneuvered by people that follow fewer rules than we do.
It's a feasibility and priorities consideration.
Agreed. Everyone that cares already knows. Those that don't care aren't listening.
It's time to write about workable solutions for those who care. What we can do to prepare, what we can do to mitigate, and what we can do to survive in this new world coming our way.
We need organization and action of the masses commensurate with the danger. That would give me some hope for once.
hope
Sremoved**
Are we supposed to be really excited about one of our apocalypse options?
If you want to pump out hope, then get the politicians and voters to actually do something. And by something I mean actual proper actions and not just some band aid solutions that barely get us below 3 degrees. So far I see absolutely fucking nothing.
My realizations over the years:
Even if we make our cars less carbon-polluting by 25%, if we end up driving more, we could still end up polluting more.
Even if the western nations pollute less, developing nations will still pollute a lot more and will get us to tipping points anyway, albeit perhaps slightly slower.
Global warming effects are scary, but what's worse is global cooling and Ice Age. Once the ocean's balance is messed up by diluted salinity due to melted ice caps, who knows where this can go.
Developing nations need electricity and primary energy growth. They need it to pull people out of poverty, and guarantee basic human needs like food, water, shelter as well as basic human desires like education, employment, and transportation. Western countries should be using their immense economic power to make renewable sources of energy the more cost-effective solution. They're not.
China is on track to hit peak oil (this year) and peak coal (next year). This is due to their EV adoption rate (~40% and growing fast) and their solar panel installation rate (this year, more than the entire sum of all US solar panels). China dominates the supply chain: they make up more than half of all battery exports and more than 80% of all solar panels exports worldwide. In less than a decade, China has drove down the cost of EVs to parity with ICE vehicles ($10000/car) and drove down the cost of solar to be less than that of traditional fossil fuels.
The West could have done the same. Instead, we kept jacking off our O&G producers and giving them billions of dollars in subsidies while solidifying the advantage of established car and solar companies rather than driving innovation from competition.
It's not that simple to electrify with renewable. We'd need to mine wayyyy more copper for wiring. We'd need to produce wayyy more rubber for insulated coatings of all those wires. We'd need wayyy more transformers. And if every garage in America has a car charging in it, then we'll need wayyy more batteries and We'd have a lot more load on our electric infrastructure. In the end, we'd still need fossil fuel infrastructure to account for when the sun's not shining and wind isn't blowing.
Even if the western nations pollute less, developing nations will still pollute a lot more and will get us to tipping points anyway, albeit perhaps slightly slower.
Ehh, it's worth noting that developing nations tend to pollute a lot less per capita. And as they develop they can transition to cleaner forms of energy, as they gain the economic ability to do so.
Pointing at developing nations is a convenient excuse for developed nations to avoid taking the actions we need to take.
My thing is what we are seeing with coal. This should be a no brainer but its use is still increasing!!!
Even if the western nations pollute less, developing nations will still pollute a lot more
But that's still less bad than if the western nations don't pollute less.
Plus the more advanced nations can develop the technologies and techniques that all countries can implement for the benefit of all of us.
If there is the political will.
.
Giving up isn't the answer, no matter how overwhelming the problem looks. Because the alternative is a very unpleasant march towards extinction.
Just go with it and die from it when the time comes. The way money decides for us how this will go, there's no stopping it. Fuck it. It ain't important if earth lives on anyway
I loved waking up to this knowledge.
Should've woken up earlier. Then it could've been the 4th shitty thing you'd heard today and it would've stung less.
If I'd have woken up earlier I wouldn't need to go to bed. At least that's how it felt.
Don't worry, soon you'll fell numb hearing informations like this, like some of us already do.
It used to affect me deeply too, until I realised people truly don't care, especially the wealthy ones that have the means to do something about it.
I'm still doing my part trying to follow the principles I believe in, but if you asked me if I'm going to be shouting from the top of my lungs to warn people that we really are getting to the tipping point, I wouldn't.
The tipping point (for me) was already crossed 15 years ago, and if the masses still don't get it, then they'll never get it.
Enjoy life for what it is, following your principles and being true to yourself, but don't let it bring you down, unless you want to turn into a grouchy old lady, or a man, yelling at clouds.
I already am pretty numb to it. I do my best to help lighten the burden on the planet but I do expect it to get worse before it gets better, sadly.
And yet I get asked by people why I have anxiety and stress when reports like this come out.
I heard stopping eating meat can help climate issues but I don't think we have to stop eating meat we just need to start eating the rich. The other other white meat.
