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Jopsy Pendragon

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Beebo Brink

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About those small lifestyle changes.....

UN Says Climate Genocide Is Coming. It’s Actually Worse Than That.

We are on track for four degrees of warming, more than twice as much as most scientists believe is possible to endure without inflicting climate suffering on hundreds of millions or threatening at least parts of the social and political infrastructure we call, grandly, “civilization.” The only thing that changed, this week, is that the scientists, finally, have hit the panic button.
 

Archer

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Serious question: Why do people fixate on arguing whether or not climate change is "man-made"? Do they think that if it's just a normal cyclical thing, we don't have to do anything and it'll just go away on it's own? I don't get why some folks are so invested in that argument.
 

Kara Spengler

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Sid

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Serious question: Why do people fixate on arguing whether or not climate change is "man-made"? Do they think that if it's just a normal cyclical thing, we don't have to do anything and it'll just go away on it's own? I don't get why some folks are so invested in that argument.
If it is man made, we can reverse it.
If it is the lang term cycle of nature, we only can try and adapt.
IMHO it is both. We will have to live as environmental clean as we can, and we will have to adapt. The climate change seems to speed up and even if we can reverse things, that is easier said then done.
The stupidest thing to do is wait and see. And that is what we (humanity as a whole) are mainly doing at the moment.
 
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Jopsy Pendragon

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Serious question: Why do people fixate on arguing whether or not climate change is "man-made"? Do they think that if it's just a normal cyclical thing, we don't have to do anything and it'll just go away on it's own? I don't get why some folks are so invested in that argument.

Magic thinking. "There is no climate change. If there is, then it's God's will. If it's God's will, then it's because people aren't obeying God's Representatives on Earth... So sit down shut up and do what we tell you, and God will fix the weather, or whatever, for us."
 

Beebo Brink

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Innula Zenovka

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Dire warning on US climate change impacts

Unchecked climate change will cost the US hundreds of billions of dollars and damage human health and quality of life, a US government report warns.

"Future risks from climate change depend... on decisions made today," the 4th National Climate Assessment says.

The report says climate change is "presenting growing challenges to human health and safety, quality of life, and the rate of economic growth".

The warning is at odds with the Trump administration's fossil fuels agenda.

The world's leading scientists agree that climate change is human-induced and warn that natural fluctuations in temperature are being exacerbated by human activity.
The report: Fourth National Climate Assessment: Executive Summary
 

Beebo Brink

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Unchecked climate change will cost the US hundreds of billions of dollars and damage human health and quality of life, a US government report warns.

"Future risks from climate change depend... on decisions made today," the 4th National Climate Assessment says.
What a hideously inadequate description of what is happening.

As dire as this seems to sound, the reality is even more stark, but only a few voices are raised to point that out. All too often climate change warnings are framed in this oblique way that implies that we can prevent the cost/risks if only we would act now. It creates the illusion of normalcy now, and normalcy later after we've acted.

The reality is that seriously damaging climate change is already baked in. We're already experiencing hurt and it's just a taste of what will-- not may -- follow, even if we dropped our carbon emissions to 0 today. Gases already in the atmosphere will last for hundreds of years, and they've already set climate feedback loops in motion; they won't stop or turn back. Nothing we do now can reverse the damage that is starting to manifest all around us: droughts, floods, mega-storms, permafrost thaw, destabilization of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, melting of the glaciers, rising oceans, rising acidity levels in sea water. Normal is gone and it's not coming back.

The emission goals of the IPCC are not about averting climate change. They are about the hypothetical assumption that we can stop the runaway climate change train before it fucks us over so hard our civilizations crumble and even, quite possibly, our species dies out (taking most other species along with us). We don't even know if the brakes will work, which is a moot point since we show no signs of even trying to slow down.

The biggest event of human history, and it can't get as much news coverage as Stormy Daniels. We're such a peculiar animal.
 
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Pamela

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danielravennest

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The handwriting is on the wall for the death of fossil energy:

ExxonMobil signs 250 MW Texan Solar PPA

When your own product is too expensive to use and you switch to renewables because it is cheaper, the end is coming. It will take a while, though. Replacing the whole nation's energy infrastructure can't be done in a year, or even a decade, but it is on the way.
 

Beebo Brink

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The media narrative about global climate change is finally catching up to reality.

Portrait of a planet on the verge of climate catastrophe

As recent reports have made clear, the world may no longer be hovering at the edge of destruction but has probably staggered beyond a crucial point of no return. Climate catastrophe is now looking inevitable. We have simply left it too late to hold rising global temperatures to under 1.5C and so prevent a future of drowned coasts, ruined coral reefs, spreading deserts and melted glaciers.
Emphasis mine.
 

Beebo Brink

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The Optimistic Scenario
Why It's Misleading To Say We Only Have 12 Years To Avert Dangerous Climate Change

So, forget about deadlines. The simple truth is that stopping climate change gets harder if we leave it later.

It's like putting off paying your credit card bill. The interest just keeps mounting and the total bill gets ever worse. There is no cutoff point, except bankruptcy - which is best avoided.
The Not-So-Optimistic Scenario
There Is A Real Risk That Earth's Climate Could Run Out Of Control

Our greenhouse gas emissions may have pushed the Earth towards a dangerous threshold, beyond which the climate will keep heating up of its own accord even if we stop pumping out carbon dioxide.

So say 16 earth system scientists, writing in the journal PNAS. They do not have hard evidence, so for now the possibility is theoretical, but it cannot be dismissed out of hand. The implication is that we need to work much harder to limit climate change, to avoid passing this threshold.
 

Kara Spengler

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Reality check -- How much is this going to affect you? If you're in your 60s or 70s, just go on with your life. Chances are you're going to check out from other causes before climate change gets you. Unless you live along the coast. You might want to move away from low-lying ground. Seriously. Move.

Prepare for chaos -- If you're in your 20s or 30s, start preparing now. You've got time, but not much, so make the best use of it. This means everything from where you choose to live (move AWAY from the coasts, folks, and away from the deserts) to keeping an emergency/bug out kit stocked. Keep down debt, pare away possessions. Above all, though, make connections. You'll survive best if you have a network of family and/or friends. Loners are vulnerable.
Yet again gen X falls into limbo. :)
 
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Kara Spengler

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If you're in your 40s now, you're screwed. You'll be in your 70s or 80s when things start going south, so young enough to live through it but too old to fend for yourselves. Good luck, you'll need it.
A little higher but yeah.
 
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