this post was submitted on 26 Nov 2023
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Climate - truthful information about climate, related activism and politics.

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Discussion of climate, how it is changing, activism around that, the politics, and the energy systems change we need in order to stabilize things.

As a starting point, the burning of fossil fuels, and to a lesser extent deforestation and release of methane are responsible for the warming in recent decades: Graph of temperature as observed with significant warming, and simulated without added greenhouse gases and other anthropogentic changes, which shows no significant warming

How much each change to the atmosphere has warmed the world: IPCC AR6 Figure 2 - Thee bar charts: first chart: how much each gas has warmed the world.  About 1C of total warming.  Second chart:  about 1.5C of total warming from well-mixed greenhouse gases, offset by 0.4C of cooling from aerosols and negligible influence from changes to solar output, volcanoes, and internal variability.  Third chart: about 1.25C of warming from CO2, 0.5C from methane, and a bunch more in small quantities from other gases.  About 0.5C of cooling with large error bars from SO2.

Recommended actions to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the near future:

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[–] silence7@slrpnk.net 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

If it covered methane emissions on the basis of CO2e, it could.

A carbon tax has been politically really tough to pass in the US though.

[–] lntl@lemmy.ml 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

yeah, would never pass federally. there's got to be a state where this type of thing could get a foothold.

if it were me, if start in a place with a high gasoline tax, eliminate it, and replace it with a carbon tax that costs less.

now there is precedence. a foot in the door

[–] silence7@slrpnk.net 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The highest gas tax in the US is California, at $0.51/gallon. That's not high at all.

[–] lntl@lemmy.ml 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I found 78¢ in CA. CA is a top three fuel consumer, so a carbon tax there would impact lots of folks. once someone does it, others may follow

[–] silence7@slrpnk.net 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

That's what happens when you add in sales taxes, which are applied to everything. It's not going to happen so long as it looks like a backdoor way to increase the tax over time.

[–] lntl@lemmy.ml 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

so many reasons why it won't happen:

  • backdoor to increase rates
  • hurts automotive industry
  • hurts ff industry
  • hurts poor people
  • hurts agriculture
  • hurts manufacturing
  • hurts retail
  • hurts small businesses
  • hurts big businesses
  • etc

ultimately, one cannot make an omelette without cracking eggs

[–] silence7@slrpnk.net 2 points 11 months ago

You need to get it past the WSPA first, and they know what it is.