Climate Change

Buh?

XR have taken over a chunk of Covent Garden, with more action planned in the next 2 weeks

www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/aug/23/extinction-rebellion-blocks-busy-junction-in-london


I was going to Seven Dials for my birthday dinner, but have switched to the City in case they start raging at Steakhouses

Fair play to them. They know how to cause chaos.

I learned 5 minutes ago that the Chief Exec of BP is called Bernard Looney. And said this:

“We’re a cash machine at these types of prices,” declared the BP chief executive, Bernard Looney, cheerfully, referring to oil at $85 a barrel and gas still at multi-year highs.

Just yesterday. As COP26 began

Earth will right itself. It's humans that are fucked

Very true. Ugh.

Life finds a way, especially on our little planet. However the worry is that we could end up like Mars or Venus...in which case life is fucked.

It's all getting a bit grim now...

I mean, it was always pretty bad but lately I feel it's just piling on.

The lack of action to what is quite probably the largest threat we've faced in recorded history WRT the survival of the species and so many other species. The staggering amount of science illiterate and science denying no-vax people. The speed and ease of the spread of misinformation and most troublingly at all not a clear and effective counter to any of these things.

So many of the solutions to effectively counter climate change through individual efforts require a budget that's unfortunately out of reach for so many people. It's easy to propose switching to EVs but the up front cost is higher. Solar panels are great if you own your house. In my case the county will not allow me to put up panels basically because they aren't pretty.

No news here of course, all things we're aware of, it just feels like it's coming to a tipping point and I personally feel pretty powerless to do anything meaningful to stop all this.
I'll try and debate anti-vax people I know when the argument pops up but the level of opposition to it is staggering.

Sorry, bit of a rant there...

The really depressing thing is that 1.5c is totally achievable. From a scientific point of view. And the solutions are all out there.

But the changes needed to get there will never be agreed to be governments. Politicians needs to be honest with us and say life is going to have to get worse for a while - economic growth will slow, you won't be able to buy whatever you want, you can't eat meat, you can't go on holiday, your energy supply isn't guaranteed, etc. etc. And no gov't is going to say that.

Any action short of that is not enough, and we'll get another 5-10 years of western consumption while the world burns and leaders talk of "the market" and "science" making the difference. If you take a step back it's completely mad - if we took 10-15 years to pause, consume less and develop green industries we might have centuries more economic growth. But instead we'll go for breakneck growth now and then nothing afterwards.

We all need to be forced to consume less. That doesn't win votes.

If things get bad enough and it affects the richest countries and people enough then action will happen very quickly. The pressure is building, it’s just taken 30 years too long.

The individual choice thing is massively overstated and designed to deflect attention away from corporations and governments. Individual choices need to be made by, or at least heavily influenced by, governments to have any effect. I avoid meat and airplanes because I think it's the "right" thing to do, but I don't pretend that I'm making any difference on my own. Things that damage the planet need to be harder to consume. It's that simple. 

Think of the plastic bag charge here in the UK. We've known they've been damaging for decades. Yet it was only when the 5p charge came in that use of them dropped by 80+%. We need that approach to meat, planes, clothes, energy etc. but western governments are obsessed with the market sorting these problems so as not to upset the huge industries (and jobs and taxation) involved.

You mean like these tree things we're chopping down so determinedly?

imamazed:

Sure, the trouble is that with no-one forcing industries and large polluters to change what they're doing the only recourse we have as individuals is try our hardest. Except that costs money many don't have.

If only there was a way we could unite consumers and force their hands. Though of the population a good chunk isn't bothered by climate change. Another chunk has no income to switch to boycotting the cheaper, more polluting, alternatives.
And the usual politics, "I won't follow that initiative if the left/right is on board".

So I guess any organisation of people that's left will then be so fringe as to attract the insane environmental types (we shouldn't hurt the chakra of butterflies type people) which would alienate even more people...

Oh sure, you're right, there's not a whole lot we can do individually. I suspect more frequent floods/droughts/heatwaves will engender more and more people to the cause, but not enough and too late. I suspect the biggest differences most people can make, over and above consuming less and divesting pensions away from fossil fuel companies, is to campaign. But that's a luxury isn't it really?

Personally, I'm resigned to the fact that we're completely screwed.