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> The status quo is murder, and it’ll keep getting worse without action I'm in full agreement with you here, but the time to act was at least 20 years ago. The

> The status quo is murder, and it’ll keep getting worse without action I'm in full agreement with you here, but the time to act was at least 20 years ago. The changes necessary at this point to make a dent in climate change are things that I have gotten downvoted for so much that I realize if the HN community can't be convinced then the rest of the world surely will not. We made tremendous progress in reducing carbon emission in April 2020. If we were serious about a serious last ditch effort to correct the issue we would have decided to remain at the April 2020 level of economic activity, and cool down from there. Instead we collectively could not wait to get the economy humming again. The only "solutions" people take seriously are things that require more industrialization and more energy. Certainly green energy can be part of the solution, but only after we massively reduce carbon emissions... which have only gone up. People can't even collectively agree to wear masks or get vaccinated. Pandemic is wildly easier to solve than climate change, and wildly easier to reason about see and understand, but we absolutely failed. We also collectively learned nothing from pandemic. A few decades ago people where just as enthusiastic about "Green" movements, and we have seen things only escalate. I understand that bargaining is part of grieving so continue doing what you're doing, but for other out there I think it's important to be honest about the situation.

notabee 5y ago
This is an important point. It's not fruitless to continue to pursue mitigation, but complete mitigation in the sense that we can expect our future lives to look anything like present day is a pipe dream. At this point mitigation is simply damage control. Short of completely miraculous technology, there will be no rewinding this situation. So what that leaves is adaptation and preservation. Learn new ways to live and things to live for, like you were saying before. Preserve what we can of the natural world, even if all that boils down to are fancy zoos and aquariums. Save the genetic code of as many creatures as possible, and freeze it in a vault next to the South Pole. We already have a seed vault but we need more, and that one has been subject to melting and flooding already so we need to do better. It's only when we can clearly admit the scope of the problem that we can pursue the most effective actions at this juncture.

notabee 5y ago

This is an important point. It's not fruitless to continue to pursue mitigation, but complete mitigation in the sense that we can expect our future lives to look anything like present day is a pipe dream. At this point mitigation is simply damage control. Short of completely miraculous technology, there will be no rewinding this situation. So what that leaves is adaptation and preservation. Learn new ways to live and things to live for, like you were saying before. Preserve what we can of the natural world, even if all that boils down to are fancy zoos and aquariums. Save the genetic code of as many creatures as possible, and freeze it in a vault next to the South Pole. We already have a seed vault but we need more, and that one has been subject to melting and flooding already so we need to do better. It's only when we can clearly admit the scope of the problem that we can pursue the most effective actions at this juncture.