Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

IPCC: Climate scientists consider ‘life changing’ report

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 80 posts

Re: IPCC: Climate scientists consider ‘life changing’ report

#21

Post by claydavisss »

Yet I doubt even these scientists have engaged in radically rewriting their lifestyles to reduce climate impact. If they had, they would have video conferenced instead of flying to Korea.

Basically no one in the West other than the very poor live a low impact life.

In the US in particular, we are really only very good at telling others how they should change. Case in point was the "March For Science" that took place a while back...in San Jose the parking for the event was full of giant SUVs...yet they all seemed so angry.

Re: IPCC: Climate scientists consider ‘life changing’ report

#22

Post by ced »

Sol- wrote: post #11

I guess governments will just skip the prevention step when they realize their own inaction made that impossible and just try to find ways to adapt to the inevitable changes instead. There's pretty much no way, purely for political/human reasons, that keeping the temperatures below 2 or even 3 degrees seems feasible at that point, so humanity will just have to deal with it and adapt over the next century. Shame about…

Right. We'll claim it's too late to "prevent global warming", keep our lifestyle exactly the same because it's "radical" to suggest otherwise, and shoot for +5 degrees in 50 years instead of stabilizing at +2/+3.

Re: IPCC: Climate scientists consider ‘life changing’ report

#23

Post by claydavisss »

lancewiggs wrote: post #2

Nothing is more important than getting our reaction to climate change right. It’s so frustrating that so few genuinely helpful companies are emerging out of our ecosystem. We can and must do better. And quickly.

What are you doing? If I must change, why not you? The people telling me to change must also change. People think this is an adolescent response but really, it boils down to us merely sneering at each other and not doing anything.

edit: totally predicted...people are reacting with a simple question about actual change by downvoting my comment into Oblivion. You need no better explanation for our fate.

Re: IPCC: Climate scientists consider ‘life changing’ report

#24

Post by 2sk21 »

claydavisss wrote: post #21

Yet I doubt even these scientists have engaged in radically rewriting their lifestyles to reduce climate impact. If they had, they would have video conferenced instead of flying to Korea. Basically no one in the West other than the very poor live a low impact life. In the US in particular, we are really only very good at telling others how they should change. Case in point was the "March For Science" that took place…

Carbon pricing is probably the only way to effect a change in behavior.

Re: IPCC: Climate scientists consider ‘life changing’ report

#25

Post by claydavisss »

2sk21 wrote: post #24
claydavisss wrote: post #21

Yet I doubt even these scientists have engaged in radically rewriting their lifestyles to reduce climate impact. If they had, they would have video conferenced instead of flying to Korea. Basically no one in the West other than the very poor live a low impact life. In the US in particular, we are really only very good at telling others how they should change. Case in point was the "March For Science" that took place…

Carbon pricing is probably the only way to effect a change in behavior.

Doubt it, most in the West can afford moderate price spikes, and anything more profound will be viewed as job-killing. Indeed this was the exact response from Jerry Brown when asked about more impactful carbon taxation...he specifically stated that he refused to put "10 million people out of work".

Re: IPCC: Climate scientists consider ‘life changing’ report

#26

Post by lazyjones »

CalRobert wrote: post #4

It always seems odd to me that people still plan their lives as though the world fifty years from now will be basically the same as now. I hope they're right, to be honest. But we're talking 3+c warming (5.4F) and that could be horrific. I guess it's nice if you want a winery in Norway but that's small comfort.

I don‘t like alarmism. Most of it is simply proven wrong in the long term. People are good at adapting most of the time. For example, I got myself air conditioning in a country famous for skiing. People in poor countries will probably suffer much more, but they need to tackle their population growth issues anyway. In essence, there are life-changing problems affecting us every day (who would have thought 50 years ago that we‘d need barriers againt car attacks at all major public events?), don‘t obsess over one thing like some sort of religious freak („the end is nigh...“).

Re: IPCC: Climate scientists consider ‘life changing’ report

#27

Post by stinos »

claydavisss wrote: post #23
lancewiggs wrote: post #2

Nothing is more important than getting our reaction to climate change right. It’s so frustrating that so few genuinely helpful companies are emerging out of our ecosystem. We can and must do better. And quickly.

What are you doing? If I must change, why not you? The people telling me to change must also change. People think this is an adolescent response but really, it boils down to us merely sneering at each other and not doing anything. edit: totally predicted...people are reacting with a simple question about actual change by downvoting my comment into Oblivion. You need no better explanation for our fate.

edit: totally predicted...

Well maybe because of your general tone and because you didn't seem to react to the OP directly. You see, with a question like "If I must change, why not you?" you imply the OP said you must change while he/she doesn't. But the OP came nowhere near mentioning such thing. On the contrary, OP used we.

Re: IPCC: Climate scientists consider ‘life changing’ report

#28

Post by dm319 »

lazyjones wrote: post #26
CalRobert wrote: post #4

It always seems odd to me that people still plan their lives as though the world fifty years from now will be basically the same as now. I hope they're right, to be honest. But we're talking 3+c warming (5.4F) and that could be horrific. I guess it's nice if you want a winery in Norway but that's small comfort.

I don‘t like alarmism. Most of it is simply proven wrong in the long term. People are good at adapting most of the time. For example, I got myself air conditioning in a country famous for skiing. People in poor countries will probably suffer much more, but they need to tackle their population growth issues anyway. In essence, there are life-changing problems affecting us every day (who would have thought 50 years ago…

I think alarmism is a retrospective assessment. We can probably say a lot of our reporting on current Western terrorism is alarmist - numbers wise, it didn't compare to road deaths or regular shootings.

But global warming will be/is unprecedented and will affect the whole world. Immediate action is unlikely to reverse this process either.

Your comment about population growth issues is disgusting.

Re: IPCC: Climate scientists consider ‘life changing’ report

#29

Post by logancg »

madaxe_again wrote: post #18
2ion wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It always seems odd to me that people still plan their lives as though the world fifty years from now will be basically the same as now Even planning for anything 10 years in the future is a daunting task. For any prognosis there are a dozen more claiming different results or different trends with different outcomes. It's an information flood that does not let you make a definite judgement since it's overwhelming,…

You also have to adjust for the fact that most of what climate scientists publish is already conservative. Get them talking one-to-one and their predictions for the next decades are dire. Me, I take a pessimistic view - I don’t think you have to have a large percentage change in, say, crop production, or storm damage rebuilding costs, for economies to feel the effect - prices rise, labour is diverted from growth to m…

I'm curious: if you think so much about climate change and its effects, and even plan your actions and location around it, have you considered directing your energy to combatting climate change with your skills on a systemic level? (For example, building sustainability companies, being part of climate activism, earning-to-donate?)

I'm in a similar spot but optimistic about systemic action.

Re: IPCC: Climate scientists consider ‘life changing’ report

#30

Post by tqkxzugoaupvwqr »

tobyhinloopen wrote: post #19

I guess I'll be investing in building houses on Antarctica or something. Oh wait, it will still be dark there the majority of the winter... hmm...

Too shortsighted. You also need to invest in housing in the Arctic region, as well as in shuttling between the Arctic region and Antarctica. The inhabitants will likely want to move to their summer home every half year.
Post reply on HN