- cross-posted to:
- climate@slrpnk.net
- cross-posted to:
- climate@slrpnk.net
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This is just the beginning.
How much warming we get is very much a human decision. We could stabilize temperatures at a point only a bit above current ones.
Instead, we produce 35 billion tons of CO2 each year.
Agreed, but that’s theoretical. We should mitigate and adapt as an urgent global priority, but we just won’t.
It’s like saying “the Earth isn’t overpopulated, it could support way more people.” It could… in an imaginary scenario. In reality, we’re way over carrying capacity and people aren’t going to suddenly change.
Being overly pessimistic can lead to gloom and inaction, but I think it’s important to be realistic about the critical situation we’re in.
I’m expecting to see the growth in renewables hit the point where we on net consume less fossil fuels each year sometime within the next four to five years. This makes it very much something that’s under our control: do we choose to subsidize fossil fuels and keep using them for a few decades, or do we help the transition, and phase them out as fast as we can. Doing the latter has huge benefits.
I wouldn’t say very much under our control, even if we stopped all emissions immediately key environmental systems will continue degrading for decades at least. But I agree we can and should face it, it’s in our own interest.
Anyway, I think we’re basically in agreement.
It was not warm here. It was the coldest winter in 87 years. I’ve never experienced a winter as cold as it was this year, and I don’t have the right clothes to deal with those temperatures. Within a minute of going outside the cold was biting through my warmest clothes as if I wasn’t dressed at all. Thermals, an under layer, an insulating mid layer, a thick 700 fill power down parka, gloves, and a beanie weren’t enough. I was freezing my ass off within a minute outside. These were arctic temperatures in the PNW and it was not fun.
On average, it’s been a lot warmer. But that’s the average and nobody gets the exact average.