Climate Change | UN Report: Code Red for humanity

[WPMUFC]

I always feel so happy when scientists say they can't currently explain abnormal things.

The world has been its hottest on record for 10 months straight. Scientists can't fully explain why

NASA's senior climate advisor Gavin Schmidt says while climate change and the onset of El Niño explain a significant portion of last year's heat, together with other contributing factors, there is still a margin of heat at the top that can't be explained.

He said that was concerning.

"If we can't explain what's going on, then that has real consequences for what we can say is going to happen in the future," Dr Schmidt said.


Dr Schmidt said there was always room for error, but usually scientists could explain what occurred upon looking back at the data.

He said this time it was not adding up. And the climate models were giving them no answers either.

"It means there's something missing in what we're thinking about here," he said.

"Either something has changed in the system and things are responding differently to how they responded in the past, or there are other elements that are happening that we didn't take into account."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-09/data-can-t-explain-off-the-charts-heat/103649190

 

[Murder on Zidanes Floor]

The Cloud now has a greater carbon footprint than the airline industry apparently

 

[Buster15]

The Cloud now has a greater carbon footprint than the airline industry apparently

That is just mad.

 

[decorativeed]

The Cloud now has a greater carbon footprint than the airline industry apparently

That's not surprising. Every single email sat in your inbox will be there forever, sat on a server that requires continuous power to run. Multiply that by everyone in the world with an email address. Then add every single video uploaded to youtube, every file on G-Drive or Teams or Dropbox. All continually powered on just in case you ever need to access them. It's going to be multiplying exponentially from here on, too.

 

[Murder on Zidanes Floor]

That's not surprising. Every single email sat in your inbox will be there forever, sat on a server that requires continuous power to run. Multiply that by everyone in the world with an email address. Then add every single video uploaded to youtube, every file on G-Drive or Teams or Dropbox. All continually powered on just in case you ever need to access them. It's going to be multiplying exponentially from here on, too.

Combine that with the (imo) dumb idea around AI, Crypto and constant IT shit we don't need and we're just adding excess computation and information for the sake of it.

I'd suggest we do three days a year solstice with no power, no internet etc.

 

[decorativeed]

Combine that with the (imo) dumb idea around AI, Crypto and constant IT shit we don't need and we're just adding excess computation and information for the sake of it.

I'd suggest we do three days a year solstice with no power, no internet etc.

It gives me great justification to ask people to stop CCing me into emails at work that I've no need to be in.

 

[Ahmer Baig]

Record rainfall in UAE.

https://gulfnews.com/uae/weather/ua...mount-of-rainfall-in-75-years-1.1713319645595




Man made problem.
When mess up with nature you don’t know what you get


https://english.alarabiya.net/amp/N...ing-missions-in-2024-to-tackle-water-scarcity

 

[Tarrou]

Combine that with the (imo) dumb idea around AI, Crypto and constant IT shit we don't need and we're just adding excess computation and information for the sake of it.

I'd suggest we do three days a year solstice with no power, no internet etc.

I like this idea. Of course it would end up getting politicised with half the people doing it and the other half taking the piss. Still better than nowt though!

 

[Buster15]

https://news.sky.com/story/renewable-power-reaches-record-30-of-global-electricity-13131048

At last a piece of encouraging news that renewable global energy production has reached 30%.
Still means that non renewable is 70%. But the report confirms that the move to renewable energy is moving forward at a pace.

 

[MegadrivePerson]

In less encouraging news the UN says we are on the verge of a climate abyss.

‘The stakes could not be higher’: world is on edge of climate abyss, UN warns | Climate crisis | The Guardian

 

[GazTheLegend]

"the stakes could not be higher" says organisation that allowed a veto by Russia on denying nuclear proliferation in outer space the other day.

feck them all, feck the UN, feck every single government on the planet, I am happily chucking every piece of plastic I own in the bin and drinking out of plastic straws, you are nothing but a disposable work slave to them anyway look at what they let you "own" now.

 

[decorativeed]

"the stakes could not be higher" says organisation that allowed a veto by Russia on denying nuclear proliferation in outer space the other day.

feck them all, feck the UN, feck every single government on the planet, I am happily chucking every piece of plastic I own in the bin and drinking out of plastic straws, you are nothing but a disposable work slave to them anyway look at what they let you "own" now.

That'll show them.

 

[GazTheLegend]

That'll show them.

I do the little I can to hasten the apocalypse. I'm doing MY part! If everyone else would do the same I'm sure we can push climate change to 2025, come on people I believe in you!

 

[Bosnian_fan]

GazTheLegend is not really too much in the wrong.

Climate change will never be sorted out, or shall I say, capitalism/consummerism will never sort climate change out, as long as the basic idea is to keep business as usual in terms of lifestyle. Yes, mega companies have brought us there, but through catering to our needs, or convincing us that we should perceive many unnecessary things as our needs.

Any talk about mitigating effects of climate change (and I think we are way past that point anyway) that doesn't start with degrowing the economy and seriously attempting to cut down consumer culture is doomed to fail from the very start.

That said, I am absolutely not trying to pin the guilt on the average Joe. A huge portion of world's population doesn't have a choice anyway.

 

[nickm]

GazTheLegend is not really too much in the wrong.

Climate change will never be sorted out, or shall I say, capitalism/consummerism will never sort climate change out, as long as the basic idea is to keep business as usual in terms of lifestyle. Yes, mega companies have brought us there, but through catering to our needs, or convincing us that we should perceive many unnecessary things as our needs.

I think we are going to have to let go of the idea that we can solve climate change through lifestyle changes alone, I think that's over. It's going to take technology, and geoengineering, and huge amounts of it. And that is going to be very expensive. And even then some stuff will be just too far gone to be fixed.

 

[nickm]

Nobody is thinking on how life should be changed, how we should adapt our egos and wants and live more modest lives. Well, that wouldn't sit well with capitalism, so for current system, it is a no-go from the beginning.

Well, what do you expect? Capitalism is the engine of China how saw a staggering, unprecedented reduction in poverty over the past 30 years. You will have quite a task on your hands to convince countries like that to go back to living "modest lives" (ie being grindingly poor again). I don't believe that asking people to wear hair shirts is the answer to climate change any more, because the example of the last few years shows it does not work. What does work- or has a chance of working - is technology and science and we need far, far more of it.

 

[nickm]

The Cloud now has a greater carbon footprint than the airline industry apparently

And that should not be a problem in a world where we know how to create zero carbon energy - from nuclear, wind and solar. The problem isn't that the Cloud is using too much energy, or bitcoin is wasting too much energy, it is that we haven't been increasing zero carbon baseload power for long enough. I doubt whether anyone in France, for example, has ever had to think about the carbon footprint of their server farms, because they solved that problem in the 1970s.

 

[decorativeed]

I do the little I can to hasten the apocalypse. I'm doing MY part! If everyone else would do the same I'm sure we can push climate change to 2025, come on people I believe in you!

I mean it's futile either way, but the idea that anyone in charge will notice you're having a little tantrum about it is just as silly.

 

[Bosnian_fan]

I think we are going to have to let go of the idea that we can solve climate change through lifestyle changes alone, I think that's over. It's going to take technology, and geoengineering, and huge amounts of it. And that is going to be very expensive. And even then some stuff will be just too far gone to be fixed.

I don't really think technology will save us this time. We are never going to build up to capacities which may be necessary, and even then, the number of uncertainties is huge. About your other post, well I do agree that nobody is going back, but i just don't think science nor technology have the answers for what is going on.

 

[Stack]

I don't really think technology will save us this time. We are never going to build up to capacities which may be necessary, and even then, the number of uncertainties is huge. About your other post, well I do agree that nobody is going back, but i just don't think science nor technology have the answers for what is going on.

The other part of all of this is that the world is nowhere near doing enough and wont really react globally until the shit actually hits the fan. Huge sacrifices are needed now so the damage for our grandchildrens children generation is limited. We just dont want to or dont believe we have to make those sacrifices yet.

 

[nimic]

GazTheLegend is not really too much in the wrong.

Climate change will never be sorted out, or shall I say, capitalism/consummerism will never sort climate change out, as long as the basic idea is to keep business as usual in terms of lifestyle. Yes, mega companies have brought us there, but through catering to our needs, or convincing us that we should perceive many unnecessary things as our needs.

Any talk about mitigating effects of climate change (and I think we are way past that point anyway) that doesn't start with degrowing the economy and seriously attempting to cut down consumer culture is doomed to fail from the very start.

That said, I am absolutely not trying to pin the guilt on the average Joe. A huge portion of world's population doesn't have a choice anyway.

This is incorrect. The thing about climate change is that literally any amount of mitigation is better than nothing. Going "ah well we can't fix it, so why bother trying?" is how you end up with a 3.5 degree increase hellscape. We are certainly well past reaching the 1.5 degree goal, and probably even 2 degrees, but the consequences just get exponentially worse the higher we let it go.

 

[Eriku]

This is incorrect. The thing about climate change is that literally any amount of mitigation is better than nothing. Going "ah well we can't fix it, so why bother trying?" is how you end up with a 3.5 degree increase hellscape. We are certainly well past reaching the 1.5 degree goal, and probably even 2 degrees, but the consequences just get exponentially worse the higher we let it go.

Yeah, making people think that is part of the playbook. First deny the climate is changing, second deny humans have an impact, third you admit we do but that it’s futile and will only add economic woes on top. The stages of grief for greedy fecks.

Also, weird to rant about the UN allowing Russia to veto. Them’s the rules, and they can’t just toss them out. It is what it is, and they’d have to reform before you can do that, unless you want to open up for tyranny according to the whims of those at the top.

 

[nimic]

Also, weird to rant about the UN allowing Russia to veto. Them’s the rules, and they can’t just toss them out. It is what it is, and they’d have to reform before you can do that, unless you want to open up for tyranny according to the whims of those at the top.

Yes, it's a complete non-sequitur.

 

[Stack]

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[Wibble]

This is incorrect. The thing about climate change is that literally any amount of mitigation is better than nothing. Going "ah well we can't fix it, so why bother trying?" is how you end up with a 3.5 degree increase hellscape. We are certainly well past reaching the 1.5 degree goal, and probably even 2 degrees, but the consequences just get exponentially worse the higher we let it go.

And ignoring each and every mitigation tactic, for any reason whatsoever, then givingvup because no one will solve the issue alone, plays right into the fossil fuel industry's and climate deniers' hands.

We need to use a variety of things to mitigate an even worse disaster. Soon we won't be able to fiddle while Rome burns because the fiddle will have melted.

In the end reducing co2 in whatev3r ways possible will have by far the most impact. carbon capture and geoengineering sound good, especially if you don't want to do anything in everyday life to help the situation, or want to carry in burning fossil fuels, but scale they could operate at in a useful time frame would be of negligible help. But if in addition to tackling CO2 emissions then why not? Every bit helps.

 

[Wibble]

Yeah, making people think that is part of the playbook. First deny the climate is changing, second deny humans have an impact, third you admit we do but that it’s futile and will only add economic woes on top. The stages of grief for greedy fecks.

Also, weird to rant about the UN allowing Russia to veto. Them’s the rules, and they can’t just toss them out. It is what it is, and they’d have to reform before you can do that, unless you want to open up for tyranny according to the whims of those at the top.

From Yes Minister

Bernard Woolley: What if the Prime Minister insists we help them?
Sir Humphrey Appleby: Then we follow the four-stage strategy.
Bernard Woolley: What's that?
Sir Richard Wharton: Standard Foreign Office response in a time of crisis.
Sir Richard Wharton: In stage one we say nothing is going to happen.
Sir Humphrey Appleby: Stage two, we say something may be about to happen, but we should do nothing about it.
Sir Richard Wharton: In stage three, we say that maybe we should do something about it, but there's nothing we *can* do.
Sir Humphrey Appleby: Stage four, we say maybe there was something we could have done, but it's too late now

 

[GazTheLegend]

I mean it's futile either way, but the idea that anyone in charge will notice you're having a little tantrum about it is just as silly.

Do people just not understand sarcasm anymore? I'm just being vaguely facetious about this modern trend of pretending somehow that there's any moral high ground to be gained by recycling plastic / using cardboard drinking straws all while rockets and missiles are being fired at the 1200bhp tanks burning through oil, and fighting next to a nuclear plant, there's attempts to move weapons of war off planet. By the United nations, for instance.

It's at best a complicated and extremely nuanced discussion to have because really when people say things like "we must"... They're usually people who drive their company Tesla and drink soy lattes and think that's enough. What "we must" in actuality means is "we must drive those people right on the edge of poverty into oblivion, because the planet can't sustain our endless attempts at growth". If you say "we must destroy billions of lives in order to preserve the future generations" you're on the right lines but it feels vaguely marvel-villain esque. Who am I to tell people in poverty their gas and food prices are going to become ruinous so that my progeny have a 1% better chance at existing beyond the 22nd century?

 

[Balljy]

I haven't seen much about it on the news, but a lot of South East Asia has had a couple of months of record breaking temperatures, and they don't look like stopping soon. The Philippines have just announced that they're looking to move the whole academic year permanently to avoid the months of April and May in the future as schools have been badly impacted over the last few weeks.

 

[nickm]

I don't really think technology will save us this time. We are never going to build up to capacities which may be necessary, and even then, the number of uncertainties is huge. About your other post, well I do agree that nobody is going back, but i just don't think science nor technology have the answers for what is going on.

Will technology save us? Don't know. Is technology the only thing that can save us? Increasingly, I think so (although it'll come with costs of its own). The amazing switchover to solar and wind is one example - that's not happening because the UN wanted it to, it's happening because solar is now so cheap, and cheap batteries are becoming ubiquitous, it's mad not to install it. Having said that, no technology can stop the rise in sea levels, but maybe technology can make it easier to live with the consequences.

(I mean if you really want to stop global warming and hold it to a non disastrous level while we fix stuff on earth, you can put a giant sunshade in space at the L1 point between the Earth and the sun, costing a few hundred billion maybe). That's the kind of mad geoengineering idea I think needs to be on the table. I don't really think our current solutions are up to the size of the problem).

 

[Sweet Square]

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[Wibble]

Do people just not understand sarcasm anymore? I'm just being vaguely facetious about this modern trend of pretending somehow that there's any moral high ground to be gained by recycling plastic / using cardboard drinking straws all while rockets and missiles are being fired at the 1200bhp tanks burning through oil, and fighting next to a nuclear plant, there's attempts to move weapons of war off planet. By the United nations, for instance.

It's at best a complicated and extremely nuanced discussion to have because really when people say things like "we must"... They're usually people who drive their company Tesla and drink soy lattes and think that's enough. What "we must" in actuality means is "we must drive those people right on the edge of poverty into oblivion, because the planet can't sustain our endless attempts at growth". If you say "we must destroy billions of lives in order to preserve the future generations" you're on the right lines but it feels vaguely marvel-villain esque. Who am I to tell people in poverty their gas and food prices are going to become ruinous so that my progeny have a 1% better chance at existing beyond the 22nd century?

But railing against something that does make a difference because there is something else that doesn't is simply a recipe for never doing anything because it is too hard. You might as well say there is no point using renewables anywhere in the world because many places still burn fossil fuels for power or that moving towards EVs is pointless because a huge number of gas guzzlers still exist.

And what is the "we must destroy billions of lives in order to preserve the future generations" that you speak of?

Surely the logic is to do what you can and do what little (if anything) you can to address the things you can't?

 

[calodo2003]

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[Buster15]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cxee01m5yero

This sounds like very good news. The UK is developing a novel way of producing cement from recycled cement blocks and using electric furnaces instead of coal furnaces which could cut the greenhouse grass emissions to almost zero.
Cement production is a major cause of CO2.

 

[Murder on Zidanes Floor]

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I'm fine with this as I live on a hill.

 

[calodo2003]

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[calodo2003]

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