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The Uninhabitable Earth

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Re: The Uninhabitable Earth

#21

Post by dota_fanatic »

latch wrote: post #15

It's pretty hopeless. I used to think we'd adjust in time, but that was when the decline looked more linear (or at least I thought it looked more linear). Of the many people who I know who are seriously concerned re climate change, I'd say 2 have taken truly meaningful steps . It's not the handful of climate change deniers that's the problem. It's the overwhelming number of people who want to say they're green, but s…

What kind of drastic change should one take? Not having kids, OK, drastic but doable. Cutting out meat, driving less, etc, OK.

But what about the rest of the production chain that assumes you're the same as everyone else (whom continues to use and depend on that production chain), which is an ocean of waste compared to what any single person can do? We can individually push the needle very slightly, but it does nothing to push the needle on our behalf within the bigger economic machine. All those wasteful international processes are pushing forward faster than ever. It's like we're bleeding out and you just recommended dabbing the wound with a string of thread.

What are some realistic things that an individual or group of individuals can do to prepare?

Re: The Uninhabitable Earth

#22

Post by thesmallestcat »

Well, one of the clearest consequences of global warming is that an entire continent becomes habitable as well as a large part of the northern Canada and Russia. Everything I've read about global warming indicates an increase in arable land even when accounting for desertification.

Re: The Uninhabitable Earth

#23

Post by throwanem »

dota_fanatic wrote: post #21
latch wrote: post #15

It's pretty hopeless. I used to think we'd adjust in time, but that was when the decline looked more linear (or at least I thought it looked more linear). Of the many people who I know who are seriously concerned re climate change, I'd say 2 have taken truly meaningful steps . It's not the handful of climate change deniers that's the problem. It's the overwhelming number of people who want to say they're green, but s…

What kind of drastic change should one take? Not having kids, OK, drastic but doable. Cutting out meat, driving less, etc, OK. But what about the rest of the production chain that assumes you're the same as everyone else (whom continues to use and depend on that production chain), which is an ocean of waste compared to what any single person can do? We can individually push the needle very slightly, but it does nothi…

Move north, I suppose, ahead of the great land rush to come.

Re: The Uninhabitable Earth

#24

Post by gambiting »

ancarda wrote: post #8
dmm wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm an american and if you told me it was 27C outside I wouldn't know whether that was hot or cold until I reflected for a moment and compared that number to cpu core temps. Ignorance on my part, certainly, and not excusable but perhaps typical.

Out of interest, why don't you capitalize "American"? Edit: I'm genuinely curious and not asking to annoy anyone; I might be misunderstanding grammar rules or rules of HN. I ask because I'm not sure this was a mistake; all over the web I see people who write with good grammar, but never capitalize "American". Is it considered rude to capitalize "American"?

I don't know about OP, but in some languages(Polish for example) you capitalize proper nouns(so you would capitalize America) but not adjectives(so American or Polish or German would never be capitalized) - so it could be just a cross-language mistake.

Re: The Uninhabitable Earth

#25

Post by nickthemagicman »

phkahler wrote: post #10
ancarda wrote: post #3

It sounds very grim, is there any chance/hope of us getting out of this situation or is it just beyond any action at this point? I get the feeling from the article we're doomed.

Don't worry, this is a pure climate alarmist. You can tell by this quote and others: "But no matter how well-informed you are, you are surely not alarmed enough." This person is literally saying we need to be alarmed. I really didn't understand the part where they said methane has 34 times the greenhouse effect as carbon over a period of time and then changes the timeframe to bring the multiplier put to 84 times. To…

I got the same feeling. It's a pretty sensational article that leaves out a lot of details but simultaneously has some really good information.

Re: The Uninhabitable Earth

#26

Post by latch »

dota_fanatic wrote: post #21
latch wrote: post #15

It's pretty hopeless. I used to think we'd adjust in time, but that was when the decline looked more linear (or at least I thought it looked more linear). Of the many people who I know who are seriously concerned re climate change, I'd say 2 have taken truly meaningful steps . It's not the handful of climate change deniers that's the problem. It's the overwhelming number of people who want to say they're green, but s…

What kind of drastic change should one take? Not having kids, OK, drastic but doable. Cutting out meat, driving less, etc, OK. But what about the rest of the production chain that assumes you're the same as everyone else (whom continues to use and depend on that production chain), which is an ocean of waste compared to what any single person can do? We can individually push the needle very slightly, but it does nothi…

Re kids: I was saying if you have kids, surely that's even more reason to act.

I'm not a survivalist. No idea if you want to prepare? Move north and stock up on guns, ammo, seed, water and soil?

But, I'm not sure I understand what you're saying. Well over 50% of Americans and Europeans view climate change as a threat. That's 500 million of the most affluent humans on the planet. The "economic machine", by which I assume you mean $3 bottled water, SUV, McMansions, beef, exists for them; not the other way around.

Re: The Uninhabitable Earth

#27

Post by cageface »

thesmallestcat wrote: post #22

Well, one of the clearest consequences of global warming is that an entire continent becomes habitable as well as a large part of the northern Canada and Russia. Everything I've read about global warming indicates an increase in arable land even when accounting for desertification.

The article specifically addresses and disagrees with this claim.

Re: The Uninhabitable Earth

#28

Post by cagenut »

dota_fanatic wrote: post #21
latch wrote: post #15

It's pretty hopeless. I used to think we'd adjust in time, but that was when the decline looked more linear (or at least I thought it looked more linear). Of the many people who I know who are seriously concerned re climate change, I'd say 2 have taken truly meaningful steps . It's not the handful of climate change deniers that's the problem. It's the overwhelming number of people who want to say they're green, but s…

What kind of drastic change should one take? Not having kids, OK, drastic but doable. Cutting out meat, driving less, etc, OK. But what about the rest of the production chain that assumes you're the same as everyone else (whom continues to use and depend on that production chain), which is an ocean of waste compared to what any single person can do? We can individually push the needle very slightly, but it does nothi…

The energy consumption (and therefore carbon emissions) per capita in the west/US comes almost entirely from the feedback loop between single-family-detached housing and the car-or-two it takes to live in that kind of sprawled out lifestyle. Put another way, Transportation and Housing (heating & cooling) are the #1 and #2 sources of carbon emissions for suburban, exurban and rural dwellers.

People who simply live in urban cores automatically cut their carbon emissions in half: http://coolclimate.berkeley.edu/maps

If you live in a 5+ unit building, do not own a car, rarely fly, sign up for your utilities low-carbon supply option, and cut out red meat, its possible to be a full order of magnitude below the american average. http://shrinkthatfootprint.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Am...

So the #1 thing an American can do to fight climate change is be "pro-city". Move there. Encourage building/density there. Help fix the schools. Use, vote for, and demand more and better public transit.

People who insist on having a yard and several feet of air-gap between them and their neighbors are the real climate change deniers.

Re: The Uninhabitable Earth

#29

Post by paulpauper »

ancarda wrote: post #3

It sounds very grim, is there any chance/hope of us getting out of this situation or is it just beyond any action at this point? I get the feeling from the article we're doomed.

If it is any solace, people have been predicting he end of the world for a very long time; all predictions thus far have failed.

Re: The Uninhabitable Earth

#30

Post by yardie »

rdtsc wrote: post #19
panic wrote: post #14

An analysis of possible solutions: http://www.drawdown.org/solutions-summary-by-rank

Number 1 based on plausibility is refrigerant management. I have a story about that. Someone I knew in Eastern Europe working with large refrigeration equipment hoarded the bad kind of Freon knowing it would go up in price as the supplies dwindle. Then they charged an increasingly high price for it on the black market. Eventually equipment that uses that king of refrigerant will break down beyond repair but that migh…

Guys like the one you describe are a rounding error in modern industrial refrigeration. Like a major company may use him they transition to modern equipment but at the scale they need he would raise all sorts of red flags not just in government regulators but insurance and investors doing their diligence. They are going to want to know why an expensive line item is going out.

TLDR; you're friends business model doesn't scale and relies on very unique edge cases.

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