Record-breaking increase in CO2 levels in world’s atmosphere
Experts issue warning after finding global average concentration in March was 4.7ppm higher than same period last year
www.theguardian.com
www.theguardian.com
JFC, we can't even slow down. We can't even slow the accelleration. We are going to cook to death.
...and then the number will go down.
...and then the number will go down.
The increase in CO2 emissions is still within the margins simulated decades ago. However, the leading economies have screwed up over the last 2 to 4 decades, and what these economies don't like to hear is that the "authoritarian" and emerging markets are the drivers of renewable energy and public transportation infrastructure, which often amuses me as, for example, a very large and vocal era bubble is still very much in favor of big cars and nuclear reactors as they see them as a necessity, while the countries I mentioned are totally against them for resource, efficiency and ultimately cost reasons.
We're a reactive species. We won't take action until well after the tangible, undeniably catastrophic things are actively happening.
We are not likely to see a downward trend before 2030, iirc. Even then, the temperature will rise of course. We are pretty much locked in to at least another 50 years of steadily increased global temperature. Considering how fast the temperature has risen the last 10 years, it's not looking great.
Yet some are still talking as if 1.5 degrees is possible. Sure, in theory there is still a slight chance. But that requires zero CO2 pollution TODAY. And removal of CO2 in the atmosphere. Which we don't have the tech for yet.
Yet some are still talking as if 1.5 degrees is possible. Sure, in theory there is still a slight chance. But that requires zero CO2 pollution TODAY. And removal of CO2 in the atmosphere. Which we don't have the tech for yet.
I was just thinking about how we never switched back to paper from plastic bags after the pandemmy.
It just feels like there's like this newer, crazier, everlasting urge to make money now, everywhere, everyone. Maximize profits at all cost. Store ALLLLL the nuts away for the winter for the big blizzard coming through that'll freeze and destroy all.
I don't think there's any stopping it?
"Rich person! STOP! Care about things outside of your purview!"
lmaoooooooooo
It just feels like there's like this newer, crazier, everlasting urge to make money now, everywhere, everyone. Maximize profits at all cost. Store ALLLLL the nuts away for the winter for the big blizzard coming through that'll freeze and destroy all.
I don't think there's any stopping it?
"Rich person! STOP! Care about things outside of your purview!"
lmaoooooooooo
We are doing something. The problem is that we are doing it within the capitalist framework. We think that capitalism can run as usual and fix climate change at the same time.
I don't think emerging economies are particularly against nuclear energy. I think most realize that, as a practical matter, nuclear energy is necessary for decarbonization for a variety of reasons, so each is making its own evaluation of the appropriateness of nuclear energy based on its situation.
India has the second most number of nuclear reactors under construction.
China has the most nuclear reactors under construction, with around 40% of the world's current under construction capacity. China plans to have ~20% of its electricity from nuclear energy by the time it reaches net zero.
Indonesia plans to use nuclear power as part of its net zero plan. One domestic company just submitted proposals to build a thorium reactor plan.
Pakistan is planning nuclear build out and signed a deal with China to build them, though I think it does not currently have any under construction.
Nigeria has a nuclear power plant and has been trying to build nuclear power plants, though it has none under construction.
Brazil keeps starting and suspending nuclear power plant construction.
Bangladesh is building a nuclear power plant.
Mexico is the first large emerging economy that is not doing nuclear build out, going by order of population.
Ethiopia is trying to obtain nuclear expertise from Russia.
Philippines is trying to obtain nuclear expertise from America.
Out of the 10 largest emerging economies by population, 9 are building out nuclear power or trying to do so. There are a lot of other emerging or developing economy countries, but the 10 largest have around half the world's population. The smaller emerging economies are less likely to build nuclear power, but each is making a decision based on their own resources.
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A plan, where not even the product stands (look at France's EPR and all SMRs) is not even remotely comparable to actual record breaking installation numbers on power generation thanks to renewables, especially taking into account your mentioned markets.
Collectively, we're doing the bare minimum to make it look like we're doing something. Objectively it's nowhere near enough, and no democratic party wants to run on a mandate of real action because of how vastly unpopular it would be in the short term.
I'm fascinated by the ULEZ rollout in London for example, affecting roughly 1 in 20 people who live in Greater London but generating a colossal amount of negativity and push back. I'm sure opinions will come around fairly quickly toward being largely positive towards ULEZ, but it's the kind of reaction most serious green policies are going to run into. People just hate the idea of change and disruption, even if it doesn't affect them personally and is objectively good for them in the long term. And what's worse is we don't have the luxury of time any more, so policies will need to be sledgehammers when they arrive. No transition period, just get it done right now because we're drowning/burning/starving otherwise.
We're intelligent enough as a species to recognize the way we live is going to kill us, but not intelligent enough to do anything serious about it. Which makes me think I can only conclude we're not a particularly intelligent species after all. Most first world humans are still eating beef, still jetting and cruising around for holidays abroad every year or two, still replacing clothes because they're bored of their current clothes rather than actually needing to. And so far, no one in power is willing to risk telling them to stop.
Maybe stop building more coal plants? China's economy can't crash soon enough.
https://www.carbonbrief.org/china-r...-coal-power-construction-in-2023-report-says/
https://www.carbonbrief.org/china-r...-coal-power-construction-in-2023-report-says/
Add that to shady carbon offset credits and we might have a problem.Maybe stop building more coal plants? China's economy can't crash soon enough.
https://www.carbonbrief.org/china-r...-coal-power-construction-in-2023-report-says/
Meanwhile…
The Oil Industry Is Licking Its Chops Over a Potential Trump Win
The oil and gas industry is preparing for a potential second Donald Trump presidency with a slate of executive orders ready to be signed on Day One.
www.rollingstone.com
It's almost as if....corporations have shifted the burden of adopting eco-friendly practices to private citizens rather than altering the way they industrialize/manufacture.
It's like if a handful of people were trying to bucket water off the Titanic while the ultra wealthy start burning all the lifeboats
These two things are not comparable.
Record breaking renewables doesn't take away utility from nuclear energy.
Surprised there's not been a thread about the IPCC scientists survey. Was thinking of starting a thread about it but I'd probably just get called a doomer 🙄
That would be the most informed people on the planet talking. Full link here
I can appreciate it's difficult to deal with but at this point if you aren't willing to get off your arse and try and force some hands when will you ever be? It's now or never.
- 77% of respondents believe global temperatures will reach at least 2.5C above preindustrial levels, a devastating degree of heating;
- almost half – 42% – think it will be more than 3C;
- only 6% think the 1.5C limit will be achieved.
That would be the most informed people on the planet talking. Full link here
I can appreciate it's difficult to deal with but at this point if you aren't willing to get off your arse and try and force some hands when will you ever be? It's now or never.
Don't forget to give Trump a billion dollars so he can terminate all Biden's clean energy orders.
-Looking at you oil companies-
-Looking at you oil companies-
... I'm totally baffled by the pairing of "big cars" and "nuclear power" here, when one would have solved many of the problems regarding the climate entirely if it were adapted decades ago, and at worst would have improved the situation significantly.
I mean, transport is just one cause of CO2 emissions, and commuting is just one part of transport
Maybe people commute less, but they've certainly gone back to flying around the world as much as before. And air travel is a sector where we have basically no idea how to decarbonize it ... aside from a few percent e-fuels and ideas for hydrogen planes that are little more than concept art
And not everyone works in an office, a lot of jobs are impossible to do from home
Yeah, I work in the ecology sector in the UK and have basically resigned myself to preparing for a ~3C future. I do everything I can myself (semi-vegan, with cheese being the hardest thing to find a swap for so far, but milk was an easy swap; solar panels installed on a south facing roof; hybrid car and can't wait to upgrade to electric but I know it doesn't make sense to replace until necessary; always vote with climate policies as my number 1 issue, etc etc) but it's becoming pretty clear that with the way the world operates things will only truly shift gears once the damage being done has a severe enough economic impact. And that seems to be somewhere between 3 and 4 degrees. Insurance companies have been saying 4+ degrees is about the point that things become uninsurable, so I think that's the limit society will decide is genuinely unacceptable to reach.
Of course, that's a lot of pain, death, and suffering for significant parts of the world to go through, all completely avoidable, so it makes me incredibly disheartened to think about. But that's genuinely the path we're on right now if you ignore the self-congratulatory speeches and look at the real action being taken. Net zero by 2050, for the vast majority of the countries pledging to meet it, is like promising to make someone a cup of tea in the next 60 seconds and then sitting down and putting your feet up while saying "you can't criticise me for inaction - I pledged that I'd make you a tea in 60 seconds, so therefore I must be working towards it." Most people are able to grasp that making a cup of tea in 60 seconds would be a herculean challenge, possibly manageable but you'd need to seriously rush to get that done, maybe even with a bit of technological magic on the kettle's behalf to help you get there. Reaching net zero by 2050 is similar to that, but to most people it's a far away enough date, and involving action and policies they don't really understand, that the lack of action to achieve that goal isn't apparent to them.
Gardening is a hobby I've become really passionate about (living in the UK), mostly for the wildlife. Putting a pond in and wildflower meadow, log piles and hibernacula, and seeing all the insects they attract, which leads to amphibians and bats etc showing up, this whole cascade of life from the improvements you're making, it's all really rewarding. But everything I add to or change in the garden is primarily with the consideration: "will this survive in 40C summers, droughts, and torrential winter rains?" I still see neighbours trying to make traditional garden staples like box hedging work and wonder how long it will take them to realize that even with today's level of climate change that's just not a plant species they can keep alive any more.
It's the mindset of wasting Ressources. I specifically mentioned public transport as well. The biggest two ressource sins in modern society is the consumption of cars as it is a commodity like slippers and power generation.
And it does, lol.
We are likely not going to do anything about it before it's too late. We are fucked as a species
That's a bit disingenous. Are you forgetting China is producing for the rest of the world? China's export is more than $3 trillion a year. But they are also the biggest producer of renewable energy, more than the rest of the world combined. It's also the biggest market for EVs, again, more than the rest of the world combined. While it's also true they have the most coal-fired plants, which is unfortunate. Maybe companies from around the world needs to bring back their factories to their own country and produce with clean energy. With you hoping their economy crashes, means they are going all out on coal and stop investing in renewable energy and putting a stop of being carbon neutral in 2060. It's no coincidence they were starting to accelerate the use of coal-fired plants again since covid-19, to stimulate economic growth.Maybe stop building more coal plants? China's economy can't crash soon enough.
https://www.carbonbrief.org/china-r...-coal-power-construction-in-2023-report-says/
OP
OP
What do we think....another generation or so before the supports start to buckle and things get really ugly?
I really do feel like we're fucked.
I really do feel like we're fucked.
Yay, we did it again!
The only way we'll avert this, is if we all become so poor that we can't afford cars, heating, AC, holidays and meat.
Billionaires and multi millionaires on the other hand can grow in numbers, they'll still be a tiny minority compared to 8 billion poor, so they're not at fault anyway, so why punish them??1
The only way we'll avert this, is if we all become so poor that we can't afford cars, heating, AC, holidays and meat.
Billionaires and multi millionaires on the other hand can grow in numbers, they'll still be a tiny minority compared to 8 billion poor, so they're not at fault anyway, so why punish them??1
I've been thinking of getting a nice bird bath for the garden lately. After reading this I'm going to do it. I'm lucky in that my back garden feeds into a lot of other back gardens so there's plenty of trees and a good amount of ecology. We get hedgehogs, bats, birds etc. We had a buzzard nest last year!
I've gone vegan, have cut down a lot on consumption etc and I'm going to be involved in some big direct action across the summer. I did my non violence training yesterday which was fantastic. May not amount to big changes but at least I'll have tried.
The rest of the world needs to stop depending on China for manufacturing so they need less energy and coal.
The endless need for growth is also going to become unsustainable as the world population plateaus.
Anything built on fossil fuels needs to be banned as soon as possible.
That's great! Any water source you can add for wildlife will be really valuable. Even a bird bath. Ponds are easy too though if you're interested. Don't need a big space (mine is really small) and don't even need to dig if you don't want to. I can't recommend this video enough for anyone interested in getting into wildlife gardening via ponds:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9R4LZTN8Xr8
And thanks for making all those personal changes. A lot of people downplay the importance of that, but I think it's one of the best ways to influence change in others when you lead by example like that, which then helps people vote for the politicians pledging to take real action here, and re-assess how they consume and which companies they consume through (prioritizing environmental values). So it does all have a compound effect in the longer run imo.