But everyday choices are made that result in a great many people suffering and dying. There is a reason why you are concerned with this "path" more than others.
The everyday choices do add up for individuals, but the big changes that need to take place need to happen amongst government and corporations who are the biggest polluters. They have to make changes based on the evidence rather than simply what consumers or voters want (which is tricky in free societies and does require legitimate debate). That's not happening (at least not as fast as we need it to), even if more people make sustainable choices. The fact we can't hold those organisations accountable or get them to change rapidly enough means we are undermining our planets ability to sustain life in general and our lives as well.
Where, now, is the way to where light resides?
As for darkness, where, now, is its place,
That you should take it to its boundary
And that you should understand the roadways to its house?
Have you come to know because at that time you were being born,
And [because] in number your days are many?
Have you entered into the storehouses of the snow,
Or do you see even the storehouses of the hail,
Which I have kept back for the time of distress,
For the day of fight and war? Job 38:19-23
Fair enough. It's dangerous though and we can probably agree we are on a much more scary path than either of us would like.
The everyday choices do add up for individuals, but the big changes that need to take place need to happen amongst government and corporations who are the biggest polluters. They have to make changes based on the evidence rather than simply what consumers or voters want (which is tricky in free societies and does require legitimate debate). That's not happening (at least not as fast as we need it to), even if more people make sustainable choices. The fact we can't hold those organisations accountable or get them to change rapidly enough means we are undermining our planets ability to sustain life in general and our lives as well.
My point was that the same could be said of our continued allowance of cars, of military weapons, of sponsoring and intervening in conflicts in other nations, of not intervening in conflicts of other nations. We all live on this world and our choices do have an effect. Choices we make everyday, both nationally and individually, have consequences. If we were to trace all of thpse consequences we would find that pur choices result in a loss of life. We can argue if we, as a civilization, ate differently, transported ourselves didifferently, believed differently, acted differently, then less people wpuld suffer. This is just speculation.
We should want cleaner energy, safer transportation, more sustainable business, healthier working and living conditions. These are all good ideas. But not when the discussion is between one side denying any problem exists and another shouting you're all going to die, we get nowhere.
Look at the nuclear energy program. The vilification of nuclear energy and the denial of any risks of nuclear energy has in many ways kept us in reliance on fossil fuels and increased the chances of suffering due to a reliance on fossil fuels.
We should be making steps forward to reduce pollution. Fear mongering is counterproductive to rational discourse.
Times have always been tough for a rather large swath of human society. Frankly, we have been doomed since our inception. If we weren't so freakin' adaptable... we might have cause for panic.
I'm going to try not to ramble and get straight to the point; I think it is now almost certain that we will experience catastrophic climate change within the century. Believe it or don't believe it; agree or don't agree; is it really going to make much difference?
In the spoiler is a video by Jason Unruhe (of Maoist Rebel News). It is a response to a study which deals with the probable failure of efforts to prevent catastrophic climate change. I know the politics may be off putting or not to your taste, but he has expressed probably better than I can in a thread the level of frustration, fear, anger and incomprehension I now feel and have been trying to process for some time.
For those who want to read the Full Study for yourself the link is here. I have read it and, in its essentials, it is as bad as the video suggests: http://www.lifeworth.com/deepadaptation.pdf
This is obviously not the "mainstream media" and doesn't carry either the weight or credibility of sources we trust but essentially it is probably a matter of time before someone actually "calls it" and says that we have gone beyond the point of no return. There is plenty of materials out there if you want to put everything together. Mark Lynas' book "Six Degrees" would be a good place to start and the video below deals with some of the same material (which are also summarised here). Honestly, read the book, share it and think on it. The video doesn't do it justice and the experience of reading gives time to let things sink in better.
As a non-scientist, I have tried to keep up with the research on climate change and I'm at the point where this is "enough" for me to confirm what I had already begun to suspect after Trumps' election and the announcement of the US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement in 2017. According to a report by the International Panel on Climate Change, we now have 12 years to avert climate change of 1.5'C and would have to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050. Given the level of political dysfunction that now passes for daily news headlines, I think the facts indicate it should be no longer controversial to argue that is an extremely remote possibility. This is not simply the failure of one individual, one party or one country, but that there has been and is now a global systematic failure to address real threats facing the world. However we got here and whoever got us here, I think we are now beyond the point of no return.
I don't have a point to this thread and yet still reluctant to post it because "saying it" makes it more real somehow. Maybe sharing this will help people go over things and help re-evaluate and something better will come out of reflection. We can hope. Maybe go and spend time with friends, family members and loved ones (or treasured pets who can be great therapy to be around). we need each other and when all is said and done, whatever possessions, status symbols, power, money, labels or identities we throw around and pretend they are important- its the people around us who we rely on and who make us who we are. I find myself thinking that hopefully we will learn how to have a different kind of conversation as time moves on but I don't know really where to start. I don't know where things go from here. I just know I have to start somewhere...
According to two different studies published in Nature in the past couple of years, none of the developed nations that signed the Paris Agreement is on course to accomplish its goals to reduce GHG emissions to predicted levels, but even if all parties to the Agreement were to achieve their targets, it still wouldn't result in limiting global warming to 2°C above pre-industrial levels.
Thus Trump's pulling out of the Paris Agreement will undoubtedly have little, if any, effect on the global temperature in a few years or by the end of the century. Indeed, I seriously doubt that any country could pump out enough CO2 in the next few years or decades in order to significantly affect the global temperature by the end of the century. Certainly no particular country could reduce its CO2 emissions in order to significantly affect the global temperature by the end of the century. The same might not be the case for emissions of those GHGs that have many, many times the global warming potential of CO2.
In any case, I just want to say to you and anyone within the sound of my voice right now: DO NOT DESPAIR!!! Carbon removal technologies are on their way to save us! Just take a good hard look at the one I noted in the thread. I do not have the slightest doubt that such carbon removal technologies will be developed, implemented, and will prevent catastrophic global warming. In fact, these technologies might be so successful, we might even have to wear our parkas in July. (People in New Zealand already do that. It's crazy.)
I simply find it implausible that humans will not soon be able to engage in a degree of weather control in the upcoming years. It seems to me that, e.g., breaking up or scattering a hurricane or deadly cold front should be no more difficult than sequencing the human genome. I won't be giving any advice on how to control the weather, however. But I will be happy to sell my opinion on how to prevent earthquakes.
I'm going to try not to ramble and get straight to the point; I think it is now almost certain that we will experience catastrophic climate change within the century. Believe it or don't believe it; agree or don't agree; is it really going to make much difference?
In the spoiler is a video by Jason Unruhe (of Maoist Rebel News). It is a response to a study which deals with the probable failure of efforts to prevent catastrophic climate change. I know the politics may be off putting or not to your taste, but he has expressed probably better than I can in a thread the level of frustration, fear, anger and incomprehension I now feel and have been trying to process for some time.
For those who want to read the Full Study for yourself the link is here. I have read it and, in its essentials, it is as bad as the video suggests: http://www.lifeworth.com/deepadaptation.pdf
This is obviously not the "mainstream media" and doesn't carry either the weight or credibility of sources we trust but essentially it is probably a matter of time before someone actually "calls it" and says that we have gone beyond the point of no return. There is plenty of materials out there if you want to put everything together. Mark Lynas' book "Six Degrees" would be a good place to start and the video below deals with some of the same material (which are also summarised here). Honestly, read the book, share it and think on it. The video doesn't do it justice and the experience of reading gives time to let things sink in better.
As a non-scientist, I have tried to keep up with the research on climate change and I'm at the point where this is "enough" for me to confirm what I had already begun to suspect after Trumps' election and the announcement of the US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement in 2017. According to a report by the International Panel on Climate Change, we now have 12 years to avert climate change of 1.5'C and would have to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050. Given the level of political dysfunction that now passes for daily news headlines, I think the facts indicate it should be no longer controversial to argue that is an extremely remote possibility. This is not simply the failure of one individual, one party or one country, but that there has been and is now a global systematic failure to address real threats facing the world. However we got here and whoever got us here, I think we are now beyond the point of no return.
I don't have a point to this thread and yet still reluctant to post it because "saying it" makes it more real somehow. Maybe sharing this will help people go over things and help re-evaluate and something better will come out of reflection. We can hope. Maybe go and spend time with friends, family members and loved ones (or treasured pets who can be great therapy to be around). we need each other and when all is said and done, whatever possessions, status symbols, power, money, labels or identities we throw around and pretend they are important- its the people around us who we rely on and who make us who we are. I find myself thinking that hopefully we will learn how to have a different kind of conversation as time moves on but I don't know really where to start. I don't know where things go from here. I just know I have to start somewhere...
TLTR.
But we've always been screwed.
If'n it ain't one thing, it's another.
Overpopulation, lawyers, pollution, politicians, cost of living, & lawyers.
Just enjoy the ride to spite them.
I'm going to try not to ramble and get straight to the point; I think it is now almost certain that we will experience catastrophic climate change within the century. Believe it or don't believe it; agree or don't agree; is it really going to make much difference?
In the spoiler is a video by Jason Unruhe (of Maoist Rebel News). It is a response to a study which deals with the probable failure of efforts to prevent catastrophic climate change. I know the politics may be off putting or not to your taste, but he has expressed probably better than I can in a thread the level of frustration, fear, anger and incomprehension I now feel and have been trying to process for some time.
For those who want to read the Full Study for yourself the link is here. I have read it and, in its essentials, it is as bad as the video suggests: http://www.lifeworth.com/deepadaptation.pdf
This is obviously not the "mainstream media" and doesn't carry either the weight or credibility of sources we trust but essentially it is probably a matter of time before someone actually "calls it" and says that we have gone beyond the point of no return. There is plenty of materials out there if you want to put everything together. Mark Lynas' book "Six Degrees" would be a good place to start and the video below deals with some of the same material (which are also summarised here). Honestly, read the book, share it and think on it. The video doesn't do it justice and the experience of reading gives time to let things sink in better.
As a non-scientist, I have tried to keep up with the research on climate change and I'm at the point where this is "enough" for me to confirm what I had already begun to suspect after Trumps' election and the announcement of the US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement in 2017. According to a report by the International Panel on Climate Change, we now have 12 years to avert climate change of 1.5'C and would have to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050. Given the level of political dysfunction that now passes for daily news headlines, I think the facts indicate it should be no longer controversial to argue that is an extremely remote possibility. This is not simply the failure of one individual, one party or one country, but that there has been and is now a global systematic failure to address real threats facing the world. However we got here and whoever got us here, I think we are now beyond the point of no return.
I don't have a point to this thread and yet still reluctant to post it because "saying it" makes it more real somehow. Maybe sharing this will help people go over things and help re-evaluate and something better will come out of reflection. We can hope. Maybe go and spend time with friends, family members and loved ones (or treasured pets who can be great therapy to be around). we need each other and when all is said and done, whatever possessions, status symbols, power, money, labels or identities we throw around and pretend they are important- its the people around us who we rely on and who make us who we are. I find myself thinking that hopefully we will learn how to have a different kind of conversation as time moves on but I don't know really where to start. I don't know where things go from here. I just know I have to start somewhere...
