this post was submitted on 14 Jul 2023
298 points (97.8% liked)

World News

32315 readers
564 users here now

News from around the world!

Rules:

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

"The North Atlantic just completely destroyed its June average temperature record, breaking the previous record by more than 0.4 °C (0.7 °F).

A stunningly sharp excess for such a large body of water."

https://berkeleyearth.org/june-2023-temperature-update/

top 45 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 46 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Something I'd heard about climate change many years ago was that it would happen almost imperceptibly slowly at first, then suddenly when we reach the tipping point, it would start happening very rapidly. I think we're right at the sharp edge of that tipping point and things are going to get very interesting very quickly.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)

"Interesting" - the understatement of the century

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

It's related to the old-timey curse that sounds like a complement. "May you live in interesting times", because as interesting as it may be to read in the history books, It wasn't as fun for the people living in those times.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Indeed. One can only wish to live in exceedingly boring times..

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

It's just that you can't be bothered to write up history with all the orgies and drugs.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

god I wish we didn't live in such interesting times

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

And now the change had the inertia. There's no stopping it now.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

The slow change and then tipping point is probably less to do with building up inertia and more in line with how a buffered system works.

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

Previously inhospitable land could become more accessible

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

And the inverse, which seems important.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I can't help but think of the climate activists who defaced the Van Gogh painting. Except they didn't -- because the painting is actually behind protective glass. I sincerely doubt most people got that fact from the outrage news cycle that followed that incident.

So who came out to be the villains of the story? The oil and gas industry, where Exxon had relatively accurate warming models decades ago and still funded climate change denialism? No, of course not. Because every major media's headline was about how expensive this painting is and didn't immediately explain the lack of actual damage, nor did they actually cover the climate travesty we are living through. The villains were the climate protestors, who are objectively correct and chose a non-destructive way to get attention that was immediately spun against them.

An example from fiction is in the film Armageddon. Yes, it's a dumb movie, but it was a hit nevertheless. At the start of the movie some Greenpeace protestors are on a ship protesting the offshore oil rig, which shows Bruce Willis's character cavalierly assaulting them with golf balls as he points out that they're hypocrites for being on an ocean-faring vessel which requires... drum roll OIL! To operate!! Wow, such an epic own! This kind of argumentation is used to this day. "You want to raise taxes? Why don't YOU pay more taxes on your own. You want to curb carbon emissions? Why don't YOU stop driving a car." Fuck off. Such a "Yet you participate in society" moment.

So what are people supposed to do? Roll over an accept it? Do we all just wait and see until civilization collapses? Because I cannot see functioning societies as we know them existing in 150-200 years. Maybe even 100 years. Personally, I don't think anything will change until some heads of some certain people actually start rolling. The COVID response taught me that even with full, modern medical knowledge the response from the people in charge will be too little, too late, if anything at all. Just a big fucking collective shrug. Like the emoji. "🤷‍♂️ we cannot close businesses for two months to nip this novel airborne virus in the bud. We cannot use emergency powers to produce masks and give them to people for free, we will instead just have random meaningless shortages as the price goes up during the critical early moments. We will suffer indefinitely, instead. We don't have the money to do it right once now, only to do it wrong into perpetuity."

The oil and gas industry and their funded allies hold the keys to the doors, they squat on every position of power, they have all the money, and they have a media engine designed to keep a full 30-40% of people on their side with flagrant misinformation or lack of coverage.

I'm not personally doomer about climate change. It doesn't stop me from sleeping at night. But I am realistic about it. We're fucked. Nothing's changing. The Joe Biden promise: Nothing will fundamentally change under his watch. He's keeping that one.

Edit: We are also flying more than ever before! Hooray! This certainly will help. https://nitter.1d4.us/flightradar24/status/1679865495112019968

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I can’t help but think of the climate activists who defaced the Van Gogh painting. Except they didn’t – because the painting is actually behind protective glass. I sincerely doubt most people got that fact from the outrage news cycle that followed that incident.

If it makes it ~~better~~ worse, Britain then promptly passed a bill that makes "disruptive" protests like that illegal. The government policy towards the climate crisis there is still the same ol' "Keep Calm and Carry On".

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

God forbid the slightest bit of discomfort, or even unease, about any agitation against the biggest threat our planet has seen since either the Permian or K-T extinction events. We cannot have that.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The end is near, The end is near, the time has come. No escape found, As we witness the damage we've done.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sometime I think the Mayan calendar people were right. The world ended in 2012, it's just a slower process than John Cusack movies would lead us to believe.

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

So it’s been over a decade obviously, but I believe that’s actually what they were marking in 2012 with the end of their calendar. Not the end of the world but the end of our current era

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Its a cyclic calandar and the last major cycle ended. If there were still ancient Mayans maintaining the calendar they would have calculated another major cycle.

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

That’s it! Thank you for correcting me, if it had been a snake it would’ve bit me

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Is anyone readying a list of climate criminals? Individuals. Not companies. What are we going to do with them? Real consequences.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Read the Ministry for the Future for inspiration.

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

Looks good. I am going to read that. Thanks.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

"We destroyed the planet but for a beautiful we generated a lot of value for shareholders."

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

The quite comprehending of the ending of it all 🎶

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'd like to point out that there are other spikes in the temperature historically. So while the temperature is rising year over year, the large increase here may be an anomaly.

Let's keep working on reducing our CO2 emissions...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

But this spike is spikier than the last el Nino spike, so even if spikes do occur, this is the spikiest spike so far.

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

Without actually seeing the numbers and just looking at the graph, it seems like there are several historical instances of a similar year-over-year spike of similar magnitude - around 1860, 1990 and a few more (I am doing that from memory, dates not exact).

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

El Nino strikes again

load more comments
view more: next ›