this post was submitted on 10 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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[โ€“] sirjash@feddit.de 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What are you suggesting? That people find a way that doesn't impact anything in any way and can easily be ignored? And today's climate protests are easily the most non-violent protests the West has seen in a long time.

[โ€“] neanderthal@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago

I'm not opposed to more active protest, but I don't think drivers in the Netherlands are a good target.

Considering the Netherlands is the poster child for how to run a transportation system on Not Just Bikes, I think they are barking up the wrong tree. In places like the US, blocking roads will just cause more emissions from all the idling vehicles. I live in the US and can say with confidence that it wouldn't change much.

US transportation reform is a whole other thing. It will take at least a decade to undo all of our car dependency even with a large effort. The best the we can immediately do in the US is encourage telework, 4 day work weeks or longer and fewer shifts, and peer pressure people into not driving canyoneros and monster trucks unless they frequently drive off road or on dirt roads.

As far as the Dutch fossil fuel usage goes, since Europe has usable rail system, maybe protest air travel?

My suggestion is go for the biggest and most immediate bang for buck so to speak. Beef production is one of the worst contributors and the easiest to change. It is also generally more expensive than other proteins. Maybe start slipping leaflets into the beef sections of stores showing the staggering difference in GHG emissions AND cost. It can have immediate results too! We can collectively eat less beef right now.