I feel deeply sorry for all the creatures and plants and ecosystems we are in the process of destroying.
I've come to believe the world would be a better place without any people at all. We are headed towards and earth in which there's few other large animals except us and the animals we farm.
Earth might possibly have been the most precious jewel in the entire universe and we've trashed it.
It only became a systemic issue after we developed industrial farming practices without regard for the delicate balances we relied on, by way of extracting the nutrients in the soil to sell on the market in some way or another. This isn't to say we need to dismantle industrial farming, but we should alter the ways we do agriculture to be more conscientious of the natural environment and promote sustainable agriculture. But this may be impossible without some serious crisis in the short/medium term.
What do you mean? This sounds like industrial farming.
But we can make it more friendly. Technology has advanced, it can be the problem and the solution also.
Like vertical farming without soil.
Or some fungi or insect protein factories, that are powered by solar.
See:
https://climate.copernicus.eu/copernicus-2024-world-experien...
https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/Space_f...
And the trajectory for emissions is still only going up and not expected to change until 2040 at the earliest. We’re royally screwed.
It’s like we only have people who either deny climate change is happening at all, or swallow this bullshit wholesale, and nothing in between.
We have the technology to generate all of the energy we need from renewables. We have electric cars. We can use as much energy as we want and still get back to 1800s level carbon emissions if we just decide it’s worth paying for, and the worse things get, the more we’ll think that. We’re not going to wait until New York is under water.
It’s now even getting to where we are doing so just because it is cheaper. In 2040 nobody will be building a fossil fuel plant. Barely anyone is now. Over 80% of new power generation is renewable globally, a number that will only increase.
It’ll be fine.
That is really un-fair to the people building super computers to calculate trillions of volumetric elements with hundreds of variables.
The general math has been known since 1896. And even those original gross calculations have turned out to be surprising close.
Current models are just continuing to dial in, refine. Where are these giant errors you speak off?
"In 1896 Svante Arrhenius calculated the effect of a doubling atmospheric carbon dioxide to be an increase in surface temperatures of 5–6 degrees Celsius. This 1902 article attributes to Svante Arrhenius a theory that coal combustion could eventually lead to human extinction."
Even oil company models from the 1970-80's (before they were denying it), have turned out to be correct.
We've known the science for these calculations for over a 100 years.
But yeah, I guess I'm being pulled into responding to an anti-science bot again.
Are humans causing climate change? Absolutely. Is the world going to become uninhabitable? No. We adapt, we use technology. Don't depress yourself into nihilism. Apocalyptic thinking has a rich history, you are becoming a member of yet another fad.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Environment_Pro....
\2 Who's to say animals don't experience beauty, primates, dolphins, octopus, etc are all pretty high on the IQ scale and likely have EQ.
\3 Lastly, what makes human experience such an important factor for the environment in any case? Modern humans have been about at most 2 million years while life on earth has been about for magnitudes more time.
2. It’s possible that some animals can experience some amounts of beauty, but certainly not on the level of humans. Also the lives of humans are rich and varied in ways that other animal lives just aren’t.
3. If you don’t see why preserving something as unique as humans is important… I don’t think you’re really considering how special we are.
US Midwest is being hit by a 'weaker' Jetstream, that allows more cold arctic air in the winters. So winters are getting colder even while the summer is hotter.
It is called Climate "Change". It is a giant complex system, the effects are dynamic and to the random person walking outside can appear random, floods in the desert, moisture in different areas. Some areas getting dry, some wet, some hotter, some colder.
Or the belief that the earth is better off without us. I’d argue intelligent life is worth it if the cost is having no more polar bears. (Obv it’s better to have both and they’re not mutually exclusive, just making the point.)
Earth is just a big rock floating in space and full of bugs without us.
Maybe the world IS ending, but anecdotes and single summers are not valid talking points
[0]https://www.noaa.gov/news/2023-was-worlds-warmest-year-on-re...
Human-caused climate change is as much an established fact as is possible in this field. Alternative "theories" are as much as an established non-fact as is possible in this field. Here are 428 references on the subject which will need to be disputed in order to change that fact https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change#References (not actually 428 because there's multiple references to the same paper but in different locations, etc. You get my point.)
Despite actions like UK declaring a climate emergency, the Paris Agreement, etc, it's not clear to me that the world is going to take the actions necessary to prevent massive climate-change related disasters. When those disasters take root and trigger refugee crises the likes of which human society has never encountered, any green-energy and green-material initiatives are probably out the door as nations turn to the cheapest, fastest, shortest-term energy and materials solutions possible to either handle the influx of refugees or the war materials needed to turn them away.
What are you seeing that makes you think this won't be the case? Are you seeing improvements in green technology and believe those will be deployed quickly enough to curtail climate change? I'm skeptical: we had a huge reduction in emissions lain at our doorstep by COVID and for many industries work continued unabated as we did our jobs from home, but irrational established mentalities are forcing emissions back up by making people come into the office at threat of firing. If green energy, green materials, or sustainable practices offend established sensibilities in the same way, why would they take root?
Then I shared why many of my generation don't believe we can turn away from this, not because of our technology, but because of our sociology, our politics. Similar to how people believe AI will "free people from labor" despite improvements in technology almost never reducing labor loads but instead just getting people fired.
* A significant reduction in the consumption of ozone-depleting substances (ODS) has been achieved globally since 1986. This reduction has largely been driven by the 1987 United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Montreal Protocol.
* The largest historical extent of the ozone hole — 28.4 million square kilometres — occurred in September 2000. This area is equivalent to almost seven times the territory of the EU.
* The 2023 ozone hole has been larger compared to 2022.
https://www.eea.europa.eu/en/topics/in-depth/climate-change-...
You can answer your own rhetoricals you know.
Since a lot of people that say it is 'solvable', and we'll 'adapt', seem to also be the same people saying we don't need to do anything, or argue against 'solving' the problem. Actually trying to block solutions.
It goes like this, 'the problem is solvable', 'so we don't need to try and solve it'.
Basically arguing for kicking the can down the road.
'Surely someone will solve this, so I don't have to, and furthermore, I'd really appreciate not being bothered with this anymore.'
We found a problem, reported it, people believed the scientist, and we identified and adapted to solve the problem. We fixed it.
Same with 'Acid Rain'.
We don't hear about it. Because we identified a problem, believed the science, and fixed it.
I'm continually dumfounded that we used to be able to adapt and fix things, but suddenly with "CO2", this one molecule that we've know was a green house gas for a 100 years now. Suddenly this is the thing people don't want to believe.
Before covid I lived in a city and took public transportation every day. Now that I work from home I live in the suburbs and I drive every day. Projecting WFH as the solution for every problem is silly.