Climate Nearing “Point of No Return”

[Ag3ma]

I'm very behind Nikki Haley. She's so practical.

Honestly, as long as it's a serious politician with decent experience and an idea of running the country credibly and responsibly. I do think Haley is in that sense a viable pick.

But whilst the debate is mired in the myopic trivialities of the Republican base, there's too little to really assess them on. And given that by the time they can spread their wings they'll have all lost to Trump, there never will be anything to assess them on.

 

[Silvanus]

This misses the logic. If those efforts are a hoax, supporting them doesn't help mitigate climate change. And some thing are bull crap. Rich people flying to exotic locations to discuss how we should eat more bugs aren't helping anything, resenting that behavior doesn't worsen the climate.

Transitioning away from fossil fuels unarguably does help mitigate climate change. And that's the one single thing Ramaswamy specifically mentioned being against.

 

[Kwak]

New potential ways we may have made the earth unlivable.

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/08/23/world/tropical-forest-heat-photosynthesis-climate-scn-intl/index.html

Leaves’ ability to photosynthesize – the process by which they make energy from carbon dioxide, sunlight and water – begins to fail when their temperature reaches around 46.7 degrees Celsius (116 Fahrenheit).

While this may seem high, leaves can get much hotter than the air temperature, according to the report published Wednesday in Nature by a group of scientists from countries including the US, Australia and Brazil.
...


Currently, 0.01% of leaves are passing the critical temperature threshold beyond which their ability to photosynthesize breaks down, the report found, potentially killing the leaf and the tree.


This percentage, while small, is poised to increase as the world warms, the report said, posing a threat to the world’s tropical forests – which cover roughly 12% of the planet and hold more than half of the world’s species. They also provide a vital role in sucking up and storing carbon and helping to regulate the global climate.



Tropical forests can withstand around 4 degrees Celsius (7.2 Fahrenheit) of additional global warming before they reach a tipping point in terms of their ability to photosynthesize, according to the report.

If warming exceeds this level, the amount of leaves surpassing critical temperature thresholds could rise to 1.4%, potentially causing large-scale leaf loss and the death of the whole tree, the report found.

This level of warming is not expected under current climate policies, which are estimated to bring 2.7 degrees Celsius of warming above pre-industrial levels. But it is within the range of the most pessimistic climate scenarios if the world continues to burn fossil fuels.

While these figures may seem small, the risk is significant given how critical tropical trees are for life, the climate system and the planet.

 

[Trunkage]

I'm very behind Nikki Haley. She's so practical.

Yeah, I think she did the best on the stage that night. She was at least talking about some policies. I might not agree with them but at least she has a more cogent plan/future for America

 

[tstorm823]

Transitioning away from fossil fuels unarguably does help mitigate climate change. And that's the one single thing Ramaswamy specifically mentioned being against.

I wouldn't say unarguably, but it's not worth making the argument in this context, as Vivek contradicts himself frequently enough on this topic to be indefensible even by just the standard of consistent internal logic.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

I wouldn't say unarguably, but it's not worth making the argument in this context, as Vivek contradicts himself frequently enough on this topic to be indefensible even by just the standard of consistent internal logic.

Because Vivek doesn't actually believe in anything. He'll say whatever will get him the most attention. He'll shout fire in a movie theater if it gets press coverage.

 

[Gergar12]

Vivek has a house in my city of Columbus, Ohio in Upper Arlington or UA. It's super safe from climate change vs. even Buffalo New York with lots of winter storms. I think he knows about climate change, knows it's human-made, and is just milking this to get funding from conservatives and the fossil fuel workers/lobby.

Why not get a house in Texas or Florida or Colorado even? Why get a house in the safest city in America from climate change, why would this educated Havard grad with parents that are well-educated do this? Even though I knew well in advance in 7th grade it was human-made when I was a neocon despite having both parents not go to high school. Because it's for power, conservatives here know CC exists but do so knowing their property values will skyrocket like San Francisco, and that we are well above sea level rise.

Now is the area(Columbus, Ohio) where I live safe from heat, draught, and storms, No, but it;'s safer. He admits climate change is real but wants to make the US into a climate pariah by killing existing clean energy, killing lots of people who will die in countries he's not in like the hottest zones in Africa but hey that's a 2035 problem, and if he wins he won't be POTUS by then.

 

[Ag3ma]

Because Vivek doesn't actually believe in anything. He'll say whatever will get him the most attention. He'll shout fire in a movie theater if it gets press coverage.

The public's seeming inability to discern between people who want to govern to carry out policy and those who want to govern for the sake of occupying office for their own egos is quite alarming.

 

[Kwak]

A red circle highlights an emperor penguin breeding colony on ice at Smyley Island (left). Before the chicks were waterproof, their home was consumed by the ocean. Source: Communications Earth & Environment,

Brutal moment thousands of emperor penguins killed by extreme ocean event

There's a sad reason likely driving what experts have called a "catastrophic breeding failure"

au.news.yahoo.com

 

[Hawki]

GOP presidential candidates avoid discussing climate change on campaign trail

The 2024 Republican presidential campaign season is in full swing and candidates are stumping on a host of key issues. But one topic that’s missing from their agenda is climate change. Despite a summer of record-setting heat, new polling shows that Republican voters still don't see a warming...

www.pbs.org

 

[Kwak]

And you know they have the best research money can buy, they just usually like to suppress the results.

Exxon says world set to fail 2°C global warming cap by 2050

Oil and natural gas are still projected to meet more than half of the world’s energy needs in 2050, or 54%, Exxon Mobil Corp said on Monday, with the world failing to keep global temperature increases below 2 degrees Celsius.

www.reuters.com

Oh well, nothing can be done I guess, may as well continue to make profits till then.

Seriously, KillTheRichAndTakeAllTheirStuff.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

That's the part that kills me: all the big energy companies know climate change is happening. We know that all the big energy companies know climate change is happening. A significant number of people are just pretending it isn't

 

[Thaluikhain]

That's the part that kills me: all the big energy companies know climate change is happening. We know that all the big energy companies know climate change is happening. A significant number of people are just pretending it isn't

And this has been the case for decades, generations, and we just watch things get worse.

 

[Ag3ma]

Vivek has a house in my city of Columbus, Ohio in Upper Arlington or UA. It's super safe from climate change vs. even Buffalo New York with lots of winter storms. I think he knows about climate change, knows it's human-made, and is just milking this to get funding from conservatives and the fossil fuel workers/lobby.

I spotted this from Ramaswamy, too:

Vivek Ramaswamy says he wants Elon Musk to be his presidential adviser

Republican candidate and biotech entrepreneur names Twitter CEO when asked about potential advisers should he win election

www.theguardian.com

The worst sort of vapid name-dropping. Ramaswamy is the emperor's new clothes - all headline chasing, no substance.

 

[Silvanus]

That's the part that kills me: all the big energy companies know climate change is happening. We know that all the big energy companies know climate change is happening. A significant number of people are just pretending it isn't

"Everybody knows the boat is leaking, everybody knows the captain lied" - Leonard Cohen.

No other song really sums up the dysfunctional way humans will know of a problem, and know that everyone else knows, and carry on anyway.

 

[Absent]

And this has been the case for decades, generations, and we just watch things get worse.

We don't just watch, we also keep voting in favor of that. We enable it, heroise the culprits, vilify their critics, and elect in position of power those who question it the least.

 

[Satinavian]

That's the part that kills me: all the big energy companies know climate change is happening. We know that all the big energy companies know climate change is happening. A significant number of people are just pretending it isn't

A couple of the big energy companies did invest heavily in renewables and closed/sold off much of their fossil business. Others didn't or even took it as opportunity to snatch up more for cheap.

You can guess how different their lobbying efforts look like nowadays.

 

[Seanchaidh]

The public's seeming inability to discern between people who want to govern to carry out policy and those who want to govern for the sake of occupying office for their own egos is quite alarming.

if the policy sucks anyway, does it really matter?

 

[Hawki]

Executive summary – Renewables 2022 – Analysis - IEA

Renewables 2022 - Analysis and key findings. A report by the International Energy Agency.

www.iea.org

I have a hard time believing this, but if true...holy shit. 0_0

 

[Hawki]

Renewable energy boom may help us limit warming this century to 1.5 ̊C

Record adoption of clean energy technologies over the past two years keeps targets to avoid global warming above 1.5 ̊C within reach, according to a report from the International Energy Agency

www.newscientist.com

For extra context, I remember modelling done on this by (I think?) Zeke Hausfather, who concluded that if we met every Paris target over the coming century, warming could be reduced to 1.8 degrees by 2100. The shift to 1.5, while hypothetical, is still a notable shift.

As for the IEA, I've often seen it said that the IEA has repeatedly underestimated the spread of renewables, now, I see people saying it's overestimating it. Make of that what you will.