this post was submitted on 31 Jul 2023
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In short, we aren't on track to an apocalyptic extinction, and the new head is concerned that rhetoric that we are is making people apathetic and paralyzes them from making beneficial actions.

He makes it clear too that this doesn't mean things are perfectly fine. The world is becoming and will be more dangerous with respect to climate. We're going to still have serious problems to deal with. The problems just aren't insurmountable and extinction level.

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[–] [email protected] 87 points 1 year ago (125 children)

Well by all means, let's make it seem less serious than it is! That'll get people moving

Signed, an actual fucking climate scientist

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (40 children)

He's technically right, though; climate change isn't going to drive us to extinction. Yes, it's going to cause the total collapse of modern society in our lifetimes and more death and sufferring than any other event in recorded history, but there will almost certainly be tens or hundreds of millions of survivors. Maybe even billions.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

Yes, technically it's not really about the planet or the environment, or society. It is about finding a solution of an optimum between money spent and living conditions for the majority of people. I actually think we should start talking about it more from that angle.

We could go to almost zero emissions tomorrow but it would wreak absolute havoc and billions of people would die. We could go full zero carbon emissions in our energy grid, but it would cost an absolute shitton, which means the living conditions go down. More realistic is a mix of investments between avoidance and adaptation. And I don't think there is any realistic chance without nuclear energy.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Too many people can only think in binary. They see your argument and decide that doing anything would result in higher prices, lower living standards, etc. they don’t seem to be able to grasp a goal of riding that line for best results

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

Nuclear power takes a long time to build which is a problem because action should have started 40 years ago.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago

Why would living conditions have to go down?

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

People need to get it through their thick skulls that we cannot dig ourselves out of this hole without hurting ourselves in the short term. It's decades too fucking late for that. Fixing this will cause unavoidable suffering; not accepting that is going to cause exponentially more suffering. Suffering that has already begun. We as a global society had every opportunity to avoid it, but we chose not to. There is no painless solution anymore. We can all suffer now and mostly make it through to the other side, or we can try to cling to our cushy lives of excess and convenience while the vast majority of us die. Pick one; those are the only choices.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yet I don’t see why we need any suffering - we have the technology to take us a lot of the way.

While you can argue the focus on cars, EVs will make a big difference, are available for essentially no lifestyle change, and getting close to price parity. We are at the point where scaling up will tip us past. While it’s too little, too late, this is only 10-15 years. The only losers are companies that can’t change but at that rate the global car companies will be Tesla, Hyundai, and a couple Chinese brands

While you can argue storage, renewable energy generation is growing even faster. It’s 20 years behind what we need but it is getting there

For my part,I just paid ridiculous amounts to an electrician, a plumber, and an appliance retailer, to convert my cooking from gas to induction (one small step to reduce my carbon impact and improve my respiratory health). The technology exists, it should not impact my lifestyle, but at least here in the US, it needs people willing to pay more to establish the market

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