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Ask HN: What can be done to prevent a climate catastrophe?

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Re: Ask HN: What can be done to prevent a climate catastrophe?

#171

Post by hueving »

lozenge wrote: post #133
cletus wrote: post #11

So I'm honestly not as concerned about this as I once was. Don't get me wrong: the climate is going to change, arguably we're in a mass extinction event already and people aren't going to suddenly start acting in the collective long term welfare of humanity. One of the things I like about futurism is the levelheaded optimism and pragmatism you tend to get. And I'll call out Isaac Arthur as a well-known example of thi…

Ah, techno utopianism. It ignores reality in many ways, here are two. First, if we have clean energy, are we going to shut down fossil fuel plants that have already been built? If not, then fossil fuel will just become cheaper as demand drops, making burning fossil fuels attractive again. Countries currently plan to reduce their emissions, but none are planning to reduce their fossil fuel exports. They just hope it w…

>Countries currently plan to reduce their emissions, but none are planning to reduce their fossil fuel exports. They just hope it will show up on another country's emissions balance sheet.

That's not how markets work, at all. Oil has an extraction cost, and once the price falls below the profitable threshold, the production will absolutely shutdown.

This highly visible with the boom/bust cycle of the more expensive extraction areas (dakotas, canada, etc).

So as demand continues to drop due to competition from cheaper energy, oil supply will start to collapse as well because none of it comes for free and taking it out of the ground will become a money losing proposition.

Re: Ask HN: What can be done to prevent a climate catastrophe?

#174

Post by kgabis »

roryisok wrote: post #58

We're all tired of hearing "eat less meat" etc. But honestly these things would make a difference. We need to switch everyone who drives a fossil fuel car to electric, or no car at all. So make the switch. Buy an EV. Nissan leaf is affordable. Work remote if you can. Switch your home heating from oil or gas to solar or a heat pump. It's not just about people making little changes anymore. Every household needs to get…

Wouldn't replacing every ICE car with electric one be extremely wasteful? Cars cost resources and energy to produce so it makes sense to keep driving them for as long as possible. Focusing on emissions from driving doesn't account for the whole picture. Also, in many countries majority of energy production comes from burning fossil fuels so switching to electric cars doesn't magically solve CO2 emissions problem.

Re: Ask HN: What can be done to prevent a climate catastrophe?

#175

Post by marmaduke »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #130
marmaduke wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

we don't have a tree in our apartment, and we don't flush the toilet when we pee. does that count?

It helps. The idea though is to water and fertilize trees, not just reduce use of residential water.

cool I didn't know pee was a fertilizer too

Re: Ask HN: What can be done to prevent a climate catastrophe?

#176

Post by perfunctory »

nicolaslem wrote: post #134
jsingleton wrote: post #100

I wrote a trilogy of long posts on this topic very recently so I'll just link to that. https://unop.uk/how-to-help-with-a-big-global-problem-as-a-t... In summary, it's not somebody else's problem. It's our problem and we need to take responsibility and fix it. We already have all the core technology required to solve this and we just need to make it happen. Everyone can help, particularly the talented crowd on here.

> Everyone can help, particularly the talented crowd on here. I've been thinking about that for a while, is it possible to have a positive impact on the environment writing software?

Bret Victor wrote on the subject: http://worrydream.com/ClimateChange/

Re: Ask HN: What can be done to prevent a climate catastrophe?

#178

Post by hueving »

brylie wrote: post #86
cletus wrote: post #11

So I'm honestly not as concerned about this as I once was. Don't get me wrong: the climate is going to change, arguably we're in a mass extinction event already and people aren't going to suddenly start acting in the collective long term welfare of humanity. One of the things I like about futurism is the levelheaded optimism and pragmatism you tend to get. And I'll call out Isaac Arthur as a well-known example of thi…

While I appreciate your optimism, it comes at the risk of failing to take personal action. The general sentiment is that people are uninterested in, or incapable of, making meaningful lifestyle changes , and that some future technological developments will transcend the Earth's carrying capacity to sustain us while cleaning up our collective mess. While there may be some shades of truth to that sentiment, it is still…

That's better than taking action that is actually meaningless and thinking you've done something (e.g. the CA unsolicited drinking water ban or people unplugging inactive phone chargers). People who do things like this to get their virtue signaling credit do even less to make meaningful changes because they "already helped".

There are things you can do to take personal action. The ones that actually matter are usually disruptive (e.g. eliminating your daily commute is orders of magnitude better than eating local). Most of the mainstream 'sustainable living' tips are just a drop in the bucket designed around minimizing disruption and maximizing showing off.

Re: Ask HN: What can be done to prevent a climate catastrophe?

#179

Post by DoreenMichele »

marmaduke wrote: post #175
DoreenMichele wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It helps. The idea though is to water and fertilize trees, not just reduce use of residential water.

cool I didn't know pee was a fertilizer too

Yes, it gets used in developing countries as a form of fertilizer they can afford. Though they typically collect it and sterilize it first to remove pathogens. However, they are using it at scale on agricultural fields. Peeing on the roots of a tree shouldn't cause any problems.

Re: Ask HN: What can be done to prevent a climate catastrophe?

#180

Post by dmytrish »

AznHisoka wrote: post #155
baddox wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the biggest counter to that optimism is that while those necessary technologies are being developed, civilization will perhaps be going through major disruption that causes lots of suffering and death. Humans will almost certainly not go extinct, and may even get some great technological advancements out of the ordeal, but at the scale of human lives there will be a lot of suffering.

“Humans will almost certainly not go extinct” I wish there was a prediction market where I could bet against you on this outcome...

If you are a human, you will not be able to collect your win anyway.
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