this post was submitted on 11 Dec 2023
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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.

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‘Megayachts’ are environmentally indefensible. The world must ban them. (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 10 months ago by lettruthout@lemmy.world to c/climate
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“The rich gazed at their superyachts, and decided they were not enough. The new breed of megayachts, which are at least 70 metres (230ft) in length, may be the most expensive moveable assets ever created.”

“First and foremost, owning a megayacht is the most polluting activity a single person can possibly engage in. Abramovich’s yachts emit more than 22,000 tonnes of carbon every year, which is more than some small countries. Even flying long-haul every day of the year, or air-conditioning a sprawling palace, would not get close to those emissions levels.

The bulk of these emissions happen whether or not a yacht actually travels anywhere. Simply owning one – or indeed building one – is an act of enormous climate vandalism.”

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[–] ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works 24 points 10 months ago (4 children)

This is just a "feel bad" story rather than an actionable policy suggestion since, as the author acknowledges, regulating these yachts is going to be rather difficult because they can just sail somewhere else. Plenty of countries will welcome them in return for the economic activity associated with being a haven for the super-rich.

[–] blazera@kbin.social 20 points 10 months ago (2 children)

let them sail somewhere else then

[–] sour@kbin.social 5 points 10 months ago

without rich people

[–] ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works -4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

If the yachts already exist anyway and so the carbon footprint will be the same, it seems better for them to exist here where they put a lot of money into the local economy rather than somewhere else. I suppose that has to be weighted against the potential to discourage future yacht construction...

[–] blazera@kbin.social 12 points 10 months ago

Let em put their money into the local economies of somalia when first world ports no longer welcome them.

[–] conditional_soup@lemm.ee 7 points 10 months ago

I've wondered about that. Ireland, Delaware, and Bermuda are all notorious tax havens, but are any of them actually any better off than they would be otherwise? I get the feeling that the benefits are going to a very select handful of people, and not, uh, trickling down.

[–] walrusintraining@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Could regulate the manufacturing and maintenance/repairs.

[–] Unforeseen@sh.itjust.works 6 points 10 months ago

Or deregulate the torpedo industry