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Maybe I am pessimistic but it seems no one cares about climate change these days. All of Los Angeles is sweltering now. Just pointing fingers and dropping indiv
by uncomputation 1mo ago
Maybe I am pessimistic but it seems no one cares about climate change these days. All of Los Angeles is sweltering now. Just pointing fingers and dropping individual names while the world continues to heat slowly. Any suggestions to get involved are welcome, I don’t want to be just a complainer.
- shikshake 1mo agoGet politically involved, vote and and volunteer for local pro-climate candidates. Talk about and promote public transport, cycling, better zoning and infrastructure etc. People underestimate the power of local politics. On a macro scale all you can really do is vote for national level candidates that care about these issues. Luckily it’s not hard to see which ones do and which ones don’t.
- SoftTalker 1mo agoIndividually you can't do anything. You can drive an EV, set your AC to 78, or whatever makes you feel good but only national governments can make the regulatory changes that will really have an impact. I even roll my eyes at my city council spending even one second on climate change policy (and they have spent whole meetings on it). Our city of 80,000 people could disappear from the face of the planet and it would not make a bit of difference.
- estearum 1mo agoYou can vote
- tyre 1mo agoEntirely depends on your district. There are many districts where it doesn't matter, especially with gerrymandering. Better to volunteer for a swing district. You can write letters or fundraise from home, anywhere in the country.
- estearum 1mo agoIt's absolutely worth voting even in a "safe" district because political mandates are won separately from political power itself. You should also volunteer for a swing district though! Very good idea.
- SoftTalker 1mo agoYes you can but you'll have to vote against your immediate self interest and comfort. The sort of changes that will have an impact on the climate will mean giving up a lot of what makes modern life convenient and comfortable.
- bluefirebrand 1mo agoI think there are gradients to this It would be hard for me to vote against indoor plumbing if that was needed to save the planet I would vote against "Same Day Delivery" in a heartbeat though, if it helped
- estearum 1mo agoNot to mention there are plenty of environmental improvements that are vast and near-term quality of life improvements. The only penalty on many of these things is financial, but even that is only in the near-term, and in the medium to long term become financial wins.
- tgsovlerkhgsel 1mo agoBest the corresponding parties can do is banning plastic straws (no impact but feels great) and massive bureaucratic hurdles for air conditioning in private homes (because it's an "unnecessary luxury" and if your apartment is unbearably hot during a heat wave where the temperature doesn't drop below 25 even at night, you're just not correctly using shades and windows).
- estearum 1mo agoNot really. We've made significant enough progress on this issue to prove that policy-driven progress is in fact possible. This type of cynicism is both unwarranted and unhelpful.
- tgsovlerkhgsel 1mo agoThese changes were often not driven by the "green" parties though.
- Noaidi 1mo agoBoth parties in the United States are pretty much turning a blind eye to climate change. What we need to do is start boycotting parties, telling them we won’t vote for them unless they have really strong climate platforms. We need to make them want our vote.
- dalyons 1mo agoThis is some “both sides” absolute bullshit. The Biden administration passed the IRA, huge incentives for personal and commercial renewable energy production, EVs, all kinds of things. Trump is paying people to burn more coal, blocking solar, canceling wind. Could the dems have done more, sure. Are those programs perfect, absolutely not. But one party is moving in the right direction and the other is actively trying to accelerate climate change. Gtfo with that both sides crap.
- cdaringe 1mo ago100%. Would have gone even harder if some moderates didn’t gunk up the works too. The both sides bit is jaw droppingly ignorant if you pay attention to regional and national politics.
- Noaidi 1mo agoThey are both not doing enough. Yes, the Republicans and Trump are much worse, I was not saying they were same at all. But what needs to happen is far from anything the Biden administration has done or proposed. IF you think what Biden has done was good enough then you do not understand what is happening with the climate right now. Yes I will vote for a Democrat over a Republican, but I am not expecting change to come from them, it needs to come from us. The Democrats get money from the same corporations.
- estearum 1mo agoImagine thinking that politicians give literally even one single fuck about non-voters' opinions lmao
- Noaidi 1mo ago
- thothless 1mo agowell obviously YOU couldn't. you seem to lack the willpower to sacrifice a single convenience in favor of the rest of us, per your confession below. that's the difference between you and the public servants that you roll your eyes at.
- mxkopy 1mo ago“Everyone wants the village, nobody wants to be the villager.” Maybe look into changing what you want.
- tito 1mo agoWorking at the level of 80,000 people is a lot more effective than working at the level of an individual. Working on your own carbon footprint is a $100M marketing trick played on you by oil companies like BP. Leah Stokes' new book offers instead a "carbon wave" -- how to evaluate and maximize your impact at a local, state, national, and global level. Here's a LinkedIn post. She's got a new book coming out about this: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:share:7496265286942359552/ https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:share:7496265286...
- dylan604 1mo ago> I even roll my eyes at my city council spending even one second on climate change policy Every meeting minute spent on discussing climate change is another minute not spent on authorizing things like Flock or permitting data centers. That's nothing to roll your eyes about
- xboxnolifes 1mo agoA small town's policy can influence larger city policy, which can influence national policy.
- Gigachad 1mo agoYou can do all of that, and then Elon Musk will use his hundreds of billions to install another pedofile in charge who won't give a shit about the environment.
- wolvoleo 1mo agoI remember when Musk was genuinely trying to make the world better with electric cars. Now he's more worried about which toilets people use.
- edoceo 1mo agoHe could use his assets/wealth to ensure everyone on earth has a functional, hygienic toilet. Would improve QOL for many who still live with open sewer systems.
- vachina 1mo agoHe does that by sponsoring tons of H1Bs.
- wolvoleo 1mo agoH1B gives a lot of power over you by the employer, lose your job and you get kicked out of the country too, so there's a lot of pressure. So basically cheap labour and don't complain or else. And you have to live in a country that currently hates and demonises foreigners. My manager (who is on an H1B in America) asked if I wanted to move there too. Lol :') No way. I'm not even visiting for a meeting anymore. For me to ever consider travelling there at least 2 things must be fixed: No Trump and no mandatory social media collection and device seizures at the border. Not that I have something to hide but I just don't want to and won't cooperate. I don't think this will actually happen though (the latter parts, of course Trump won't stay forever). Because the privacy invasion is a bipartisan thing.
- Noaidi 1mo agoElon Musk was never trying to make the world a better place. He was always a businessman and he was using that to con the government into giving him money so he can make more money.
- chadgpt3 1mo agoThe time for prevention has passed. The course has been set. Now Darwin rules the day - we'll see which species survive. We chose this.
- xyzelement 1mo ago// Now Darwin rules the day How many children do you have?
- deleted 1mo ago[deleted]
- mdgrech23 1mo agoI'll go against the grain but our capitalist way of life is totally incompatible with solving climate change. Likewise one country can't solve this problem alone. You need the whole world on board. I truly think the only real solution is a one world government truly working toward for the betterment of the planet and it's occupants. We all know that ain't ever gonna happen though so we're hosed.
- Gigachad 1mo agoIt seems we are no more capable of organizing than bacteria in a petri dish could avoid replicating until the resources are exhausted.
- switchbak 1mo agoHey I grew up super environmental and I have plenty of hippie cred, but this statement gave me shudders "the only real solution is a one world government". Yeesh, yeah a single government, surely nothing could go wrong.
- tapoxi 1mo agoI mean we're staring at apocalypse here so it's not like the alternative is any better.
- polotics 1mo agoThe Savior fallacy. With power more concentrated, the ability to avoid being impacted for those in power rises and rises and rises. How are incentives then aligned? I'm sure that having 10 million governments would be much better than having one to solve the issue.
- amluto 1mo ago> All of Los Angeles is sweltering now. I think that, if people who believe in climate change want to be convincing, it would be more effective to avoid blaming specific instances of weather on climate change without strong justification. Especially when the weather isn’t even abnormal. Los Angeles, especially inland and in the valley, is hot in the summer. It was hot in the summer 30 years ago and it’s still hot in the summer. It’s the typical hot season right now, and the valley appears to be only slightly above season average temperatures today, and coastal LA seeks be slightly cooler than average. Apparently it will be unseasonably cool in a couple days.
- tayo42 1mo agoI haven't paid much attention to la lately.is this true? San Diego is having an unusually hot and humid summer. Water temperatures are nearly tropical right now too
- acwan93 1mo agoYou’re correct that LA is usually hot (95F+) this time of year, but the humidity is what’s abnormal. The dew point in Disneyland was higher than in Disney World yesterday due to a tropical storm that dissipated west of the LA basin. More tropical storms are approaching LA and that’s increasing humidity is why it’s sweltering.
- megnaro 1mo agoA separate LA Times article explained that the humidity is due to lingering effects of a recent hurricane/tropical storm. "Forecasters attributed the punishing humidity to the remnants of Tropical Storm Iselle moving over the state, as well as unusually warm ocean temperatures due to a combination of a months-long marine heat wave, a powerful El Niño and climate change. "Dew points in the Los Angeles Basin have been “really high,” hovering around 70 degrees in many places, with a few coastal areas like Redondo Beach and Torrance reaching a dew point of 73 to 75 on Friday, said Ryan Kittell, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard. The metric measures the moisture content in the air." https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-08-28/forget-florida-la-humidity-is-off-charts-this-summer-whats-going-on https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-08-28/forget-f...
- scythe 1mo agoRenewable energy is expanding faster than ever. And it's hard for people to look at that and think we're moving too slowly. But we still are. That's the basic cultural disconnect. When nuclear power became a thing in the seventies, there was massive planning around a presumed nuclear-powered future. The largest energy storage facilities in the US were all built around that time. This turned out to be a mirage as the cost of nuclear went up with the safety expectations of the electorate, while petrochemical prices dropped. But this time it's not prices we're predicting, it's temperature, which is much more reliable.
- wolvoleo 1mo agoNuclear has a lot of environmental impact too. You need to mine a lot of earth to get a little uranium, and a lot of that activity is very polluting and a lot of that activity is not climate neutral. Then you have the waste problem that's not figured out, proliferation etc. We can't go cherrypicking environmental problems. That way we roll from one crisis into the next. There's so many issues we're causing, like entire ecosystems going extinct. Sooner or later that will lead to crises too. We have to stop externalising. And yes the electorate wants to be safe and for good reason. Even Fukushima polluted a lot. It's not just about death tolls.
- grebc 1mo agoModern lithium batteries or solar panels for that matter don’t get magiced out of nothing. Those materials are mined also. At least forethought is given to handling/disposal for nuclear since it’s a known issue.
- wolvoleo 1mo agoWell yes but lithium is easily recycled and solar panels are made from sand and nowhere near rare earth. See how the soviets destroyed half the Czech countryside looking for Uranium for their bombs and power plants: https://www.rferl.org/a/soviet-uranium-mines-explored-abandoned-photo-exclusive-radioactive/33581234.html https://www.rferl.org/a/soviet-uranium-mines-explored-abando... Uranium mining is a dirty business and if we're going to be needing a lot more of it due to expansion of nuclear and leaving the mining to the lowest bidder it will be very polluting.
- WarmWash 1mo agoThe right thinks it's a hoax and the left thinks it's on corporations (not themselves) to fix it. To put it plainly, everyone wants the problem to go away without having to change anything about their lifestyle.
- wk_end 1mo ago“Both-sides”ing this is ridiculous. Certain leftists might sometimes disproportionally blame corporations for the issue rhetorically but they aren’t broadly opposed to the kinds of taxes and regulations - on corporations or individuals - that would be needed to bring carbon emissions down. If you insist on finding a way to criticize leftists on the climate file, a much better tack would be pointing out how some environmentalists have opposed nuclear power or densification.
- pvaldes 1mo ago> some environmentalists have opposed nuclear power At some point we finally will need to admit that they were not fools for saying that. Fresh water is vanishing. Nuclear plants need water (and absence of arsonists) to not go out of control. They will need ten years (or most) to be built. At this point the place may be in the way to be flooded by the sea, or in the way to became a desert. Can a new nuclear plant return their investment if they will be operative only for ten years more before to turn into a rusty reef?. Probably not. Had we spent this pile of money into renewables, we would be in a much better position.
- WarmWash 1mo agoThe next two replys are people telling me it's corporations... Maybe 10ish years ago the left was all on board with individual action, but now it has heavily shifted to "I can drive my SUV because it's on Big Oil to fix the climate"
- tzs 1mo agoFor most individuals there is no lifestyle change they can make that will matter. Fixing it requires collective action. The way individuals can meaningfully contribute is by supporting politicians that will make policies and rules and regulations the meaningfully encourage that collective action, and when they have a choice between more than one corporation for some product or service that are not too different as far as impact on the lifestyle goes choosing the one that is better from a climate change point of view. The politicians and the corporations (encouraged by incentives and regulations by the politicians) can then bring about changes that will make it so the lifestyle changes for individuals that help with climate change also improve the individual's situations so people voluntarily make them in large numbers. For example there are a lot of people in the US who would be better off if their next car was an EV except the public charging infrastructure isn't good enough for their needs. Build a lot more public chargers that support 800V cars and many of these people will pick an EV. This is something government can bring about. For an average individual it is perfectly fine, to use a sports analogy, to play the game as it is now while supporting league wide changes to the rules to make it a better game in the future.
- tito 1mo agoCome join our El Niño session on Wednesday with Stripe's climate scientist Zeke Hausfather: https://luma.com/tu0uvbx1 https://luma.com/tu0uvbx1 We'll talk climate science, impacts, and what we can do to avert the worst impacts of the worst El Niño in human history.
- taneq 1mo agoIt’s a thing you can avert? Or do you mean one in the far future which we might avert by reducing carbon emissions now?
- tito 1mo agoWhoops, my bad. Edited. We can avert the worst impacts of the worst El Nino in human history.
- defrost 1mo agoThey appear (I skimmed) to be investing in all any feasible ideas to capture CO2 from the air - this is a good thing. The numbers are daunting and the returns are scant, but the effort is one that should be made. The upside is I saw little sign of Gorgan LNG style Carbon Capture; where a massive source of CO2 greenwashes releasing 100 units of CO2 by stuffing 1 unit back in the hole it came from.
- dylan604 1mo agoFor every ton of CO2 pulled from the air is another ton that something else will emit. Once the emitting is lowered, pulling it out of the air might have a chance
- Noaidi 1mo agoMy best advice is not to approach people with numbers and figures and all the danger, start with saying you’re concerned about the future. It’s kind of an open ended conversation starter. The big problem is this is all driven by consumption and it’s hard for people to cut back on consumption. I don’t know how to explain to people how a simple life is much easier than the complicated life of the rich and famous they see every day on the Internet. I don’t think there is an answer for this, I think there’s way too much propaganda on the other side of the equation. My only hope from this El Niño is that it creates such damage and disaster that it starts waking people up. I think if it affects the ranchers and farmers that will be a big plus because they are usually on the side of not believing in climate change. What I do right now is just keep talking to people and preparing, but I’m lucky since I live in a minivan full-time. I mean, I can drive anywhere. The weather suits me.
- reenorap 1mo agoSf Bay Area didn’t have a single day above 100 this year. Not counting Livermore etc. it’s the first time in a long time I can remember the entire summer being so nice and relatively cool.