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Is 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 nothin
by Podgajski 3y ago
Is 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.
- Podgajski 3y agoThank you, this is what I mean. They keep saying renewables are the answer, but we all know that more renewables we create the more energy we use. We’re not stopping energy consumption. So all of you who are saying this has been talked about, yeah it’s been talked about but that’s all it’s been done. What I’m saying it’s time to stop talking and time more doing.
- adrianN 3y agoNow imagine how much more carbon we would emit without the renewable terawatt hours. Btw in most countries where the renewables are being built carbon emissions do go down. They’re just being outpaced by China and India ramping up coal consumption.
- NhanH 3y agoThat’s the problem though. China is already building more renewables than any where on the world (probably more than the rest of the world combined). They still have to ramp up coal production to meet demand despite all those growth. The question isn’t about whether to build more renewable, but how.
- adrianN 3y agoWell, were I live the hurdles are all purely regulatory.
- hulitu 3y ago> Despite further strong growth in wind... Where exactly ? On the moon ? Because around here, (from central to eastern europe) i haven't seen any "strong growth in wind".
- PeterisP 3y agoThere have been a lot of wind generators built in central to eastern europe over the last decade or so.
- tastyfreeze 3y agoThe single greatest reduction in carbon emissions in the US has been switching from coal to natural gas power plants.
- Podgajski 3y agoWrong! Methane (the primary component of natural gas) has a global warming potential 21 times higher than carbon dioxide over a 100-year period, though methane persists in the atmosphere for much less time (around a dozen years) than carbon dioxide (many decades).
- hulitu 3y agoYou must start somewhere. /s
- malka 3y agoWorks wonder in Germany. Coal is so cool.
- wolverine876 3y agoI've cut my climate footprint by (as a wild guess) 90% and my standard of living has improved. I'm healthier, happier, more comfortable. Most of what I changed were things I just did based on habit - habits probably formed by my parents when they thought energy was basically free. It's not hard at all. For example, I kept changing my thermostat until I found the minimum needed to be comfortable - it turns out I could cut energy consumption there by ~75% with zero impact on comfort, and enjoy much more fresh air. The issue is politics. The reactionary right, which seems to be the most influential power in the world right now (the only one not wallowing in despair), portrays liberalism of any sort as a catastrophic, demonic threat (no exaggeration) and otherwise has the characteristics of an angry mob. They are going to attack anything associated with liberalism, including climate change knowledge, action, discussion, etc. Until that problem is solved, nothing will happen.
- bcrosby95 3y agoPeople hate change. Just look at how upset they get when Facebook changes their design. Most people love being told they can continue doing whatever the hell they want. And by the time the folly of it all is realized, it will be too late - assuming it isn't already. We should have been working on this problem 30, 40 years ago. But on the upside, I guess I have the internet in my pocket. As a species, we seemed to have handled nuclear weapons relatively well. But it looks like we really fucked this one up.
- wolverine876 3y agoRather than predict what others will do - an almost useless conversation - act. Cut your footprint. Lead and organize others. Humanity has been doing those things for centuries. Stop talking and go.
- thanksgiving 3y ago> Cut your footprint. Lead and organize others. This is necessary and indeed admirable. A family member saying they’ve given up on using gas/electric clothes dryer has convinced me to take the baby step of reducing my own use. I do t put towels in the dryer anymore. I hang them dry. Baby steps. Cutting your own footprint is good but not enough.
- wolverine876 3y ago> Is anyone else getting tired of people saying “we must move forward on climate change“ without telling us what that looks like? People have discussed what it looks like for decades.
- Podgajski 3y agoTalking is not an action that changes the effects of climate change. For example. I don’t have to say a word, or do anything to not buy consumer products.
- wolverine876 3y agoYou said that nobody talked about what it looks like. That's what I responded too. Instead of wasting time on this pointless conversation, do something.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- hulitu 3y ago> Talking is not an action That's why killing other people was always the best option. /s
- Podgajski 3y agoI don’t know why this is being downvoted, but it’s OK. It convinced me to leave hacker news because all I’m doing by using the server and my phone and the internet is contributing more to climate change.
- z0r 3y agoBeyond technological changes to the power supply and carbon taxes and regulations for industries, the bottom line is that the number of people is the multiplier for the carbon footprint. So a country like Japan, which is often ridiculed as being xenophobic and foolish for allowing their population to decline (what about the economy??? the liberals say), is really a model for a more sustainable future. Economic growth is propped up by population growth, and both of these are at odds with tackling climate change.
- kjkjadksj 3y agoJapan is hardly a model. You can’t just deny immigration in every country in the world and have the worlds oppressed and poor floating in international waters. Japan also has the US funding certain things it would have had to fund out of taxes if it were actually fully independent after wwii ended, and not a de facto client state reconstructed for american military and business interests.
- tremon 3y agoYou can’t just deny immigration in every country in the world and have the worlds oppressed and poor floating in international waters Why not? This isn't an absolute, so don't present it as one. Argue your point with something better than a false dichotomy, please.
- pauldenton 3y agoJapan is the model because they don't rely on continual immigration. Most Western countries react to young people saying they cannot afford to have kids by bringing in immigrants. Not reducing the cost of housing or raising a family. Japan doesn't just import people to solve the affordability problem and that's why they're the model. Unlike Britain, Canada, Sweden or the US
- PeterisP 3y ago> You can’t just deny immigration in every country in the world and have the worlds oppressed and poor floating in international waters. I understand that this shouldn't happen for moral reasons, but at least some aspects of that are very likely - if anything, it seems totally fictional to expect that the unequal burdens and harms of the climate changes will be shared equally by the world offering all the support, all our history and sociology demonstrates that while there will definitely be some charity and support, on the grand scale the self-interest of various groups will be a dominating factor.