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UN chief warns Nepal's mountains have lost one-third of their ice
- pelasaco 3y agoEl Niño effect? https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/feb/21/stronger-el-nino-events-may-speed-up-irreversible-melting-of-antarctic-ice-research-finds https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/feb/21/stronger...
- bcrosby95 3y ago> in over 30 years
- adrianN 3y agoWe most likely already emitted enough carbon dioxide to kill all glaciers worldwide. Regions who depend on glacier melt for their water supply need to act now.
- cmrdporcupine 3y agoInstead many are doing the opposite: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/renewables-pause-alberta-projects-companies-1.6942597 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/renewables-pause-albe...
- PeterisP 3y agoDoes Alberta or Canada depend on glacier melt for their water supply?
- cmrdporcupine 3y agoEdmonton and Calgary definitely do. Calgary in particular could be in trouble, depending on the Bow glacier, which is receding rapidly.
- manojlds 3y agoAct now how?
- adrianN 3y agoIf glaciers don’t store water for you, you need to do it yourself for example by building reservoirs
- kjkjadksj 3y agoThe only issue is pretty much all the good sites for a reservoir already have a reservoir by now. Whats left is expensive stuff like digging out underground reservoirs that you can imagine would take national support for a lot of places to achieve.
- chinathrow 3y agoHaving no water is even more expensive.
- seanmcdirmid 3y agoThe oceans store plenty of water, we will just have to extract the salt. Ya, and build more reservoirs, poorer countries are going to get hit really hard.
- nlitened 3y agoSun automatically extracts salt-free water via evaporation, then the vapor is conveniently carried by winds all over the world and literally rains from the sky.
- polygamous_bat 3y agoBut without vastly overengineered projects, how would we find out about the massive geniuses like Elon Musk among us? /s
- kjkjadksj 3y agoAt this point with the way political will is structured on this planet, the most direct way might be to overlay a satellite map of industrial emissions, drop leaflets to tell people not to show up to work, strike these targets, then argue you had no choice in front of the UN.
- morkalork 3y agoWell that's one way to end up dying in a nuclear holocaust.
- hulitu 3y ago> Regions who depend on glacier melt for their water supply need to act now. Yes. And the rest just sell CO2 certificates, eat popcorn and enjoy the drama. /s
- tintedfireglass 3y agohalf the world relies on water from the Himalayas and the tibetan highlands. China, SEA(Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand Myanmar) and South Asia all rely on glacial water for large scare agriculture
- adrianN 3y agoAnd they all have nukes. All the more important that they do something now that doesn’t involve a war over resources.
- vasdae 3y agoHe could start by not using his airplane anymore. We will follow his lead!
- hulitu 3y ago> He could start by not using his airplane anymore. We will follow his lead! But i don't have an airplane. /s
- pauldenton 3y agoI guess you don't have what it takes to be a climate activist!
- hulitu 3y agoAround here, climate activists are just blocking roads when normal people go to work. And the people who really have a saying are flying their private jets, undisturbed.
- tremon 3y agoGood start!
- Podgajski 3y agoIs anyone else getting tired of people saying “we must move forward on climate change“ without telling us what that looks like? Must be curb consumption nothing‘s gonna change, not that we can do anything at this point anyway. So maybe we should do nothing about climate change and let climate change do it it needs to do. And I’m 100% sure my climate footprint is smaller than that guys.
- mistrial9 3y agothe State of California produced volumes of well-written documents.. both "assessment and signs of climate change" and more "actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions" under Gov. Jerry Brown and continued by that hair-gel guy in China
- dageshi 3y agoEveryone would need to accept a significant decrease in their quality of living and very very few will actually accept that. So no, nothing of any great significance is going to happen with preventing climate change.
- adrianN 3y agoOr we could keep our standard of living and just build more renewables…
- beAbU 3y ago"just"
- dageshi 3y agoWe've been building renewables for a while now, has it actually made any significant decrease in fossil fuel consumption? "Despite further strong growth in wind and solar in the power sector, overall global energy-related greenhouse gas emissions increased again," said the president of the UK-based global industry body Energy Institute, Juliet Davenport. https://www.euronews.com/green/2023/06/26/wrong-direction-fossil-fuels-still-dominate-despite-growth-in-renewables-report-reveals https://www.euronews.com/green/2023/06/26/wrong-direction-fo... That was some quick googling on my part, it seems not? You can produce more energy via renewables and people will simply expand demand to absorb it, in much the same way you can build more roads and car usage will expand to congest it. But certainly I'm not saying we should stop building more renewables, I just think people will happily use fossil fuels and renewables as much as possible because cheaper energy allows for better standard of living.
- bloopernova 3y agoToo much doom and gloom in my comment. My apologies.
- wolverine876 3y ago> it continues to do nothing > Not many will read this far, and that's OK. I can't force anyone. > try to make your software use less energy? I mean this in the best way, because I believe you want to solve the problem: That is the message of a quitter, and you are spreading your despair to the rest of the locker room. The enemy is celebrating your bizarre embrace and spread of their message. Nobody needs that cancer on a team. Lots of people are doing what you are - that's probably where you got the cancer, but that makes it worse, not better. That makes it more important to lead in a different direction. The other option is to stand up and start contributing and leading. Our position is good: The good people outnumber the bad, by a lot; we've just been convinced to quit and spread that message among us. Stand up, get to work, get organized, like all the prior generations have done. What will be our legacy to future generations?: 'We quit. We didn't do anything. It was hard. We felt hopeless.' Imagine if our predecessors had done that. Are we going to be the worst generation, or the best?
- pauldenton 3y agoWho is the enemy? Who is the worst generation and who is the best?
- hulitu 3y ago> Who is the enemy? Who is the worst generation and who is the best? You don't watch the news ? Don't you ? /s
- wolverine876 3y agoThe news blithely paints its sanguine picture. It's a crisis. What do you do during the crisis, make sarcastic comments or act?
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- wolverine876 3y agoGuterres, the UN chief, is telegraphing fear and despair, and everyone knows it on some level. This appeal is merely Guterres putting head in sand. The problem isn't knowledge of the catastrophe, it isn't science, it's simply a socio-political force: The reactionary right - the right-wing movement, in the US, Europe, etc., that embraces extremism, demonizes (literally at times) anything liberal, including classical liberalism like human rights and freedom.[0] Everyone knows that they are the obstacle to solving climate change, that unless they are dealt with then nothing will happen. If Guterres, the UN, leaders, activists, etc. - and you and I - are not dealing with that problem explicitly and directly, we're hiding from it. And that spreads like a cancer; others see you and I, and especially leaders hiding, and they despair and give up too. Worse, they see where the power lies and for safety and conformity, follow it. [0] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/04/opinion/sunday/conservative-intellectuals-republicans.html https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/04/opinion/sunday/conservati...
- Dalewyn 3y agoYou might want to check yourself in the mirror.
- wolverine876 3y agoYou're just shooting down people who are working. Get to work! We need you.
- Dalewyn 3y agoI'm a center with conservative leanings, I vote Republican. Your extremism is doing an awesome job at reaffirming my political decisions.
- wolverine876 3y agoStop these pointless conversations and BS excuses and do something!
- kyleblarson 3y agoAs a general rule I do not listen to people who fly hundreds of thousands of miles per year in private jets while suggesting that others sacrifice.
- CptFribble 3y agoit's more complicated than that because of the scale of human society. example: mandatory LED light bulbs. any individual person considering only themselves, would be correct to choose filament over LED because of cost and very little electricity savings. However, every light socket in the country switching to LED in aggregate represents a significant amount of energy savings for power plants and therefore less carbon output. this is a basic complication. going one level deeper, there is the supply chain of LEDs vs filament bulbs and the relative impact of their carbon footprints and mining of rare earth minerals. This is where it starts getting difficult to parse which is a net gain for the planet. another level below that is what you cite, the costs associated with the transition itself. A lot of energy (both electrical and human) is wasted by both supporters and detractors arguing in the public sphere, spending entire global broadcasts on the subject, flying around in private jets, etc. How much of this is necessary depends on the net savings from the first two levels, which is pretty hard to calculate accurately. So you do you, but personally I try not to commit to blanket statements that erase all nuance and subtlety - generally that leads to missing important context.
- Dig1t 3y agoLED bulbs are naturally way better. People install them in their house because they last longer and a simple calculation tells you that they are a better value. Also they are safer because of reduced operating heat. The government doesn’t need to force people to use green technologies, they are usually better. Lawn care products are a good example as well. Gas powered mowers, edgers, blowers etc are being phased out because their electric counterparts are simpler, quieter, and cheaper. Not because the government forces people to use them. A first principles understanding would suggest that more efficient technologies will win in the market usually because of reduced cost. The same is happening with cars as more companies invest and scale up their technology. Government incentives are accelerating this of course, which is good.
- lnsru 3y agoMy ex-employer declared sound decarbonization program. Then forced people back to the office. That means, that I am burning 40 liters petrol a week to get there. Software group might work from a Moon base, but they’re forced back to the office too. While radiators in the office are running max temperature, the windows in the kitchens and toilets are open since there is no ventilation system. I am tired of green washing and scary climate change. If this problem would be serious the governments would mandate by law to put everybody who can work from home to the home office. Low hanging fruit to save 10% emissions.
- irrational 3y agoSeriously. I work for a Fortune 100 company that gives lip service to sustainability and fighting climate change, but is making everyone work in the office four days a week. The vast majority of us worked remote with no issues for years. Any company that makes people who could work remote come into an office cannot say jack about climate change.
- Tams80 3y agoManagers have got to make it look like they are doing something, eh.
- add-sub-mul-div 3y agoBefore WFH I took the subway to work every day and didn't need a car for a decade, now I drive daily around the suburbs. Not everyone's experience is the same as yours.
- lnsru 3y agoImagine subways being less crowded and more attractive. Mandatory home office would have more positive side effects. Less fuel burned in traffic jams too. Avoided collapse of public transportation in Munich.
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- fwungy 3y agoRemember when they told us Maldives would be sunk by climate change. It's still there. If the proportionally tiny amounts of anthropogenic CO2 are really that big a factor we are already sunk. I'm starting to wonder if there's an unconscious death cult in the developed world that fetishizes planetary doom. That is the logical endpoint for the nihilism that has overtaken developed countries.
- hulitu 3y ago> I'm starting to wonder if there's an unconscious death cult in the developed world that fetishizes planetary doom No. It is just plain propaganda. People who are afraid are much easier to manipulate. That's all.
- jonahbenton 3y agoThis is the sort of post that makes me wish for some even AI mediated chat feature on this platform. Like what?!? is this person's mental model such that they would think/utter such a thing. Breaks my mental model.
- vivekd 3y agoI think there's a lot of truth to what you are saying. However I still think man-made climate change is real and I think some of the response to it has been positive - like trying to design walkable communities. But I agree there is also a lot of unnessary fear mongering and accusations at ordinary people and doomsdayism. I hope what is essentially a positive thing (wanting sustainability) doesn't get overtaken and misused by fanaticism or people with other agendas.
- pauldenton 3y agohttps://financialpost.com/opinion/bjorn-lomborg-un-disaster-report-is-a-reporting-disaster https://financialpost.com/opinion/bjorn-lomborg-un-disaster-...
- penguin_booze 3y ago> "I am here today to cry out from the rooftop of the world: stop the madness," the UN chief said via video message, calling for an end to the "fossil fuel age". Indeed: declare RTO unlawful. What can be done from home, must be done from home (or anywhere else, for that matter).