Is climate change irreversible now?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In order to make meaningful change, we need to tax fossil fuels at a very high rate. I can't imagine this is a politically viable option. But until we enact change at the societal level, individuals choosing to give up meat or bike to work aren't really doing much to save the planet. Then of course there is the issue that many other countries would need to do the same. It's all quite overwhelming to think about.

Yes I agree. (OP). I actually think the only way this is really going to get mitigated enough to stop an apocalypse is if a kind of violent revolution happens. The Bourbons were willing to let people starve and die because they couldn't even imagine giving up their comfortable position and easy life - so in order for France to be saved, the royals and the aristocrats had to be dragged out of their palaces and guillotined.

Without something like this happening on a global scale, there is no way we are going to be able to stop the momentum of global warming.

Agree 100%. Violence on a national scale - a global scale, really - is the only thing that will stop the destruction of the planet. We’ve passed the point of a peaceful solution to this. Revolution is the only possible way out of this now. The elites, and their bourgeois middle class sycophants who are emulating them, have to face justice.

[Anonymous]

To have any significant impact we would need to reduce the population of the world drastically. I don't think that would be a good thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In order to make meaningful change, we need to tax fossil fuels at a very high rate. I can't imagine this is a politically viable option. But until we enact change at the societal level, individuals choosing to give up meat or bike to work aren't really doing much to save the planet. Then of course there is the issue that many other countries would need to do the same. It's all quite overwhelming to think about.

Yes I agree. (OP). I actually think the only way this is really going to get mitigated enough to stop an apocalypse is if a kind of violent revolution happens. The Bourbons were willing to let people starve and die because they couldn't even imagine giving up their comfortable position and easy life - so in order for France to be saved, the royals and the aristocrats had to be dragged out of their palaces and guillotined.

Without something like this happening on a global scale, there is no way we are going to be able to stop the momentum of global warming.

Agree 100%. Violence on a national scale - a global scale, really - is the only thing that will stop the destruction of the planet. We’ve passed the point of a peaceful solution to this. Revolution is the only possible way out of this now. The elites, and their bourgeois middle class sycophants who are emulating them, have to face justice.

Unfortunately, thanks to social media and the "information age," this becomes more challenging as it's easier for those in power to brainwash and divide the masses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think most of us agree if we can help stop climate change and do our part, it's worthwhile, no matter how small a part.

However, the realist in me feels that it's the wrong perspective.

We should actually be pouring all our money, focus, PR into finding solutions to both maximize the time we have left that has the temperature holding stable and figuring out the plan for when instability happens. I doubt it will take until year 2050 or whatever - I'm thinking by 2025 or 2026, before 2030, we will be at the mercy of weather for most of US.

Ultimately, people are emotional beings and there's just too much weirdness and craziness and greed going on to really impact a positive change on this subject. I don't see us stopping travel, not using plastic to make most products, banning energy sources we would need in order to help climate change. There's just no possibility of us all doing enough. Whether you elect public officials who vow to make it an important cause or not, you gotta face the reality that the world needs and wants what we have. I don't believe for a minute we can just change our lifestyles over the course of a few years so I think we're pretty much going to suffer in 5-10 years.

What we CAN do that would be effective is figure out technology to curb the suffering. Hey, if we're gonna mess up the planet anyway, we may as well come up with some meaningful ways to survive the messed up planet sooner rather than later!!

My thoughts exactly

[Anonymous]

Honestly, I am looking ahead at 2022 in dread. Wondering which state will be frozen, flooded, burned, or blown off of the map.

[Anonymous]

According to the UN's new report on climate change, the next 18 years the world will be sicker, hungrier, poorer, gloomier and way more dangerous in the next 18 years with an “unavoidable” increase in risks.

Makes me so angry. And angry with myself too. My kids are going to inherit a furnace from me and I don't know what their quality of living is going to be like at all.

I guess it is irreversible now, but the UN report did say that we can contain it if we act quickly.

I already don't use plastic (if I can help it), drive a hybrid, and conserve water usage. But all of us are just individuals who live on salaries and can't make decisions for oil and gas executives.

[Anonymous]

It might be irreversible in Russia, under Putin the Plunderer.

That doesn't mean climate change is irreversible for the rest of us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It might be irreversible in Russia, under Putin the Plunderer.

That doesn't mean climate change is irreversible for the rest of us.

So, your part of the planet can be saved but Russia cannot? Not sure I’m following your…logic?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:According to the UN's new report on climate change, the next 18 years the world will be sicker, hungrier, poorer, gloomier and way more dangerous in the next 18 years with an “unavoidable” increase in risks.

Makes me so angry. And angry with myself too. My kids are going to inherit a furnace from me and I don't know what their quality of living is going to be like at all.

I guess it is irreversible now, but the UN report did say that we can contain it if we act quickly.

I already don't use plastic (if I can help it), drive a hybrid, and conserve water usage. But all of us are just individuals who live on salaries and can't make decisions for oil and gas executives.

We will see. My sense this is flat false. Yes there is global warming and climate change. But everything will be fine. Since the end of WWII the world has been more peaceful, less dangerous, with less sickness and less poverty. Are there still issues? Sure. But there is no reason to think that will reverse. In fact I think it is going faster now. We will be fine and better than fine.

Will is help to quit plastics? Of course. Do hybrids help? Not in the slightest. Water is not an issue in this part of the country so conservation is great but you are fixing a problem that does not exist.

The future is bright. This doom and gloom is nonsense. It is driven by the green energy lobby which is the opposite but the same as oil and gas.

We have a problem. We will deal with it as best we can. It will work out.

If it does not? There really is not an alternative.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even if we were in a "calm apocalypse" does it really matter if it can't be changed?

OP here. It does matter. Do you have kids? What exactly would you plan to leave them if our civilization is being destroyed by Nature?

The dinosaurs were destroyed by nature. It's the natural progression of things. There will be a time on earth post humans and it doesn't bother me.

I also take this philosophical outlook. Humans are doing what humans do and will live with the consequences

[Anonymous]

I actually feel the same way as PP above me and the person he's quoting.

I'm not really an anti-natalist, but I don't think humanity has done a really great job at being stewards of the planet. We are a very smart species, and a very hard species, but have we really prioritized goodness and personal responsibility?

It's ok if you all disagree with me. Not looking to be right or "win" an argument.

I'm okay with it if humanity goes extinct within a couple hundred years. And I don't say that with any blame towards humanity in my heart, or any anger. We are animals with conditioned brains and we act according to that conditioning. It is what it is.

[Anonymous]

Maybe Putin will put us all out of our climate changing misery?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe Putin will put us all out of our climate changing misery?

The outlook is grim just based on what’s baked in and we keep guzzling fossil fuels. At 51 I am finally totally at peace that I didn’t have kids - not just because I thus shrank my lifetime carbon footprint significantly, and because bringing someone into the world to watch it burn seems very cruel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It might be irreversible in Russia, under Putin the Plunderer.

That doesn't mean climate change is irreversible for the rest of us.

So, your part of the planet can be saved but Russia cannot? Not sure I’m following your…logic?

Pretty obvious what PP meant - Putin and his ilk are plundering Russia, drilling for fossil fuels because it's how they earn ANYTHING now after being sanctioned, and spreading misinformation, so mitigating climate change there is unlikely.

I choose to have hope that Russians will overthrow their government, personally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think most of us agree if we can help stop climate change and do our part, it's worthwhile, no matter how small a part.

However, the realist in me feels that it's the wrong perspective.

We should actually be pouring all our money, focus, PR into finding solutions to both maximize the time we have left that has the temperature holding stable and figuring out the plan for when instability happens. I doubt it will take until year 2050 or whatever - I'm thinking by 2025 or 2026, before 2030, we will be at the mercy of weather for most of US.

Ultimately, people are emotional beings and there's just too much weirdness and craziness and greed going on to really impact a positive change on this subject. I don't see us stopping travel, not using plastic to make most products, banning energy sources we would need in order to help climate change. There's just no possibility of us all doing enough. Whether you elect public officials who vow to make it an important cause or not, you gotta face the reality that the world needs and wants what we have. I don't believe for a minute we can just change our lifestyles over the course of a few years so I think we're pretty much going to suffer in 5-10 years.

What we CAN do that would be effective is figure out technology to curb the suffering. Hey, if we're gonna mess up the planet anyway, we may as well come up with some meaningful ways to survive the messed up planet sooner rather than later!!

My thoughts exactly

Your plan means that only the rich will survive. The very people that caused this mess in the first place will suck up ever more resources so that tjey can “adapt”. The poorest always suffer the most.