this post was submitted on 08 Jan 2024
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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.

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Some things are easier to change than others - and the really hard things often don't require money, but a change in people!

Edit: Sorry for the shitty OP, I should have known better than to post in a hurry.

It reads as if the population is primarily responsible for combating the climate crisis, while industry and government are off the hook because money has little effect.

What I actually meant to express was that technological adjustments that only cost money are easier to implement than changes to people's habits. Perhaps this is a naive idea because it assumes that there is the political will to make these investments and that the industry is forced to cooperate accordingly. Addressing the climate crisis requires many changes, and economic profitability must be secondary. But achieving this is perhaps one of the most difficult adjustments society requires.

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[–] Risk@feddit.uk 2 points 10 months ago (7 children)

I disagree that the really hard things don't cost money.

Eating less meat does, at the surface, cost the consumer less money. If I go in to the supermarket, it's cheaper to buy a bunch of chicken wings than it is to buy some plant based protein (not to mention my kids will actually eat the chicken). And yes, I know, "ThErE aRe pLeNTy oF cHeAPeR WaYs to EaT a nOn-MEaT DiEt.". Thank you, Mr Vegan, we're talking about converting the masses here. Government's can change that by changing subsidy weights, but then it's not really an individual-led change at that level.

Same for decarbonisation of heating - if I want to install a heat pump and insulate my home better, that costs money!

As for flying yes, that's more about regulating air travel to make it cost more and stopping the practice of airlines having to fly empty flights to retain their use of that flight plan. Again, not really an individual-driven change. Especially because the impact of flying disproportionately leans towards the more wealthy and business.

[–] yessikg@lemmy.blahaj.zone 0 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Many poor people already have a mostly plant-based diet because it's cheaper. All you really need is rice, beans, and veggies

[–] Risk@feddit.uk 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

And therefore all those poor people are not the people you're trying to convert to a plant-based diet.

[–] yessikg@lemmy.blahaj.zone -1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

No, my point was that the amount of people to convince is low

[–] Risk@feddit.uk 2 points 10 months ago

I'm not sure that's true.

This article implies an awful lot of people are meat eaters, globally.

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