this post was submitted on 15 Sep 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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Accelerating the Renewable Energy Revolution to Get Back to the Holocene (agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com)
submitted 1 year ago by silence7@slrpnk.net to c/climate@slrpnk.net
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New research in global ecology and public health shows that the consequences of burning fossil fuels are much more severe than previously understood. Current global warming targets are not enough to protect us from sea level rise, ecosystem collapse, and hundreds of millions of human deaths from fossil fuel pollution. Thankfully, the cost of renewable energy technologies has dropped below the cost of fossil fuels decades faster than predicted. This has triggered a renewable revolution that is transforming the global energy system. Our paper considers the feasibility of accelerating this transition through policy, investment, and strategic research. We conclude that there is a viable pathway to restoring Earth's climate through clean electrification and carbon capture. We call for a global commitment to restore pre-industrial climate conditions within a century and describe what approaches would increase our chances of success. Accelerating the renewable revolution would move us toward a sustainable civilization by eliminating air pollution, stabilizing climate, reducing energy costs, and enhancing living standards worldwide. Because there is no safe level of climate disruption or pollution death, we believe it is our responsibility to restore a Holocene-like climate, which we know can support human civilization and other life on Earth.

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[–] kriz@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 year ago

This is great framing for a "return to the Holocene" instead of aiming for 1.5 or 2 degrees warming.

I learned from this that the time of increased warming matters just as much as the amount of warming. In other words 1 degree warmer for a couple years isnt terribly significant but 1 degree warmer consistently for a century can trigger massive collapse. So we need to aim for a return to pre industrial emissions.

I am skeptical that this can all be accomplished within capitalism and without a focus on degrowth, but I appreciate the papers optimism.