441–450 of 523 posts
What is the likelyhood of a runaway feedback loop occuring?
Zero. The hotter the planet gets, the more water evaporates from the oceans, which condenses into clouds, which reflect sunlight, which cools the planet.
I find your absolute certainty disturbing.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wonder what percentage of CO2 comes from programmers commuting to work.
Go remote! the planet, along with your family, sanity, and happiness will thank you! Every working programmer today can stand up, walk to their boss' desk, and have the conversation about going remote, even if only part time (for now). If they say no, ask how you can work towards that in the future, and if they don't relent, find a different job (don't immediately quit, obviously; now you have leverage in knowing tha…
What can be done to prevent a climate catastrophe? Start an economical catastrophe. We need to immediately, and meaningfully, move away from oil, gas, and other carbon heavy industries in any way that we presently have the means to do so. If everyone who is presently in the market for a new vehicle could afford to buy an electric one, we'd probably be in better shape. If every household could put solar panels and tak…
EDIT: downvoters, feel free to add your opinion, what seps we can take in 12 years to prevent climate change. I will gladly hear any opinion, especially if it is not as drastic as mine. 1. Drop coal and gas as energy sources immediately. Use renewable and nuclear energy as main power sources. Phase out nuclear after couple decades, when we hopefully can get all our energy needs from renewables. EDIT: forgot to add in…
1. yups. this needs a law. 2. why not radical? we have "good enough" plant-based replacements, and these will improve a lot when meat/dairy/eggs/leather simply becomes out-lawed. (needs a law too) why point one "stop immediatly" and point 2 being just reduce as a personal choice? 3. this i do not get. we have seen (again and again) that educating women greatly changes the reproductive rates. we can just do that! the…
2. Go, tell the farmers they are not allowed to eat their chickens' eggs. I will wait for you to report their answer. Or do you intend to enforce your decree by force?
3. If you are allowed to tell other people how many children to have, I am allowed to tell you how many children to have: You may have none.
> also, with 1 and 2 in place, we have prolly no need for the one-child policy. we'll have food and land plenty!
I wonder if you actually believe what you say.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, as comfortable as you will be able get with global wars, refugees, food shortages, etc. going on. Governments and countries are not very stable under these conditions. Probably shouldn't expect your wealth to crisis proof your life in this scenario. Won't hurt but we'll all be much better off organizing to avoid this future.
>> Well, as comfortable as you will be able get with global wars, refugees, food shortages, etc. going on. I think the crisis will be contained to the poorest parts of the world. Especially the tropics. This area is going to be the first to bear the brunt of climate change related problems. I dont foresee Global wars happening. The politicians are too smart for that. They will try to contain the damage to the extant…
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/oct/09/austr...
Good luck with that.
space mirrors
We are past the point where we we can fix this with discussions & civil discourse. Not to say that we shouldn't try. But a leaflet campaigns and discussions aren't going to reduce emissions. The best solution would be not to have kids (too late for me) and adopt instead if you must, not to own a car, try to own as little as you can (it will make you happier too). Plant stuff, pick up gardening, go offline and go outs…
Personally, I don't feel like me rescinding my earthly possessions and refusing to procreate will do anything to help anyone, other than maybe quench my own conscience. That whole approach is referred to as hair-shirt environmentalism, I believe. Bruce Sterling once observed that if you're trying to combat Climate Change solely by minimizing your individual impact, the logical conclusion would be to stop living altog…
Although I believe what GP meant is that nothing _anyone_ can do will improve the situation, so do what you can to prepare, e.g. learning to grow vegetables would be quite useful in case of food shortages.
Give money to Democratic candidates challenging Republican incumbents, right now. If we believe in evidence-based science, then all evidence points to Republicans being anti-science. You don't have to be a committed lifelong Democrat to see that the current Republican party is fighting climate change efforts at every turn and needs to be displaced in order for political progress on the issue to happen.
> If we believe in evidence-based science, then all evidence points to Republicans being anti-science. I am conservative and tend to lean-republican. I am not anti-science. Please stop generalizing.
It's difficult to attribute something as vague as pro or anti science to a large group of people. I wouldn't want to get into that flame war on HN. However, OP has a point that Democrats are more likely to be concerned about the real impact of climate change.
[0] https://news.gallup.com/poll/231530/global-warming-concern-s...
Look at cars; anyone here make any solar powered products to keep cars warmer in winter and cooler in summer to reduce idling time to heat and cool the interiors for the occupants... NOPE no one does (a good business idea btw).
Speaking of solar; why is my laptop plugged in right now (beside the fact that its a Dell and meh battery life)?... Oh yeah; IDK of any solar boosters that would either run it or at least help eliminate the drain... build that, market that. All these things would help.
Are cows put into enclosures at night that capture and scrub the CO2 they emanate... NOPE they're not.
These are just a few things based on my experience in the construction industry and casual observation. Let's buy some time until the issue can be solved in a financially viable way.
What can be done to prevent a climate catastrophe? Start an economical catastrophe. We need to immediately, and meaningfully, move away from oil, gas, and other carbon heavy industries in any way that we presently have the means to do so. If everyone who is presently in the market for a new vehicle could afford to buy an electric one, we'd probably be in better shape. If every household could put solar panels and tak…
Electric cars tend to put out less CO2 compared to gasoline cars only if you drive them for more than 5 years and don't replace the battery. https://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/attach/2015/11/Cl... And yes, 12 years is nothing. Countries could start replacing all cars with electric ones for free right now, CO2 would just go higher and higher. The answer to this environmental catastrophe is not manufacturing ne…
How?
I wish people would stop fixating on this magical 12 years figure. It's not a countdown. If we keep our current carbon emissions the same for 12 years we'll see 2 degrees of warming. If we do nothing. If we continue to do nothing after that point it doesn't stay at 2 degrees. It gets hotter and hotter, and the effects get worse and worse. If countries start replacing cars with electric ones for free now, and we still don't reach zero emissions in 12 years, we might see 2 degrees. But we might avoid 3 degrees, or 4 degrees.
We don't have 12 years left and then game over. We have 12 years until things start to get really bad. And then the UN will come out and say we have 12 years left to act to avoid 3 degrees, and we'll all have these same fucking stupid arguments on the internet again in between news bulletins about famine and the various migrant crises.