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Climate change: IPCC report is 'code red for humanity'

bbc.com

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Re: Climate change: IPCC report is 'code red for humanity'

#191

Post by fragmede »

matco11 wrote: post #16

> This pact aims to keep the rise in global temperatures well below 2C this century and to pursue efforts to keep it under 1.5C. It seems to me that continuing to communicate just the average temperature increase is a missed opportunity to engage with a greater portion of the population. 1.5 or 2 degrees do not seem like much, but once one understands that’s an average made out of much bigger positive and negative sw…

1 or 2 just isn't a big number. How about using the number of Joules it would take to heat the Earth's atmosphere by 1 degree (Celcius, because we're not Philistines). It'll be an approximate (as is any measurement at planetary scale, eg 1 AU) but that's fine.

Re: Climate change: IPCC report is 'code red for humanity'

#192

Post by collegecamp293 »

helsinkiandrew wrote: post #23

> Climate change: IPCC report is 'code red for humanity' What almost alarms me more than the thought of a climate apocalypse is that I don't think this (a UN report) is going to have any effect on the opinions of 40% of the public who see climate change as some kind of job destroying conspiracy. Nothing short of Florida disappearing under the sea is going to make any difference, perhaps we (as a species) don't deserv…

Well, the 40% are certainly not going be convinced if the "first United States Special Presidential Envoy for Climate" flew on his private jet 16 times to places like Martha's Vineyard since January. Can the leaders of climate action actually live up to their own standards?

Re: Climate change: IPCC report is 'code red for humanity'

#193

Post by skinkestek »

cblconfederate wrote: post #78
skinkestek wrote: post #31

So now we can get rid of fast fashion, mandate reusability for products, reintroduce basic woodworking, metalcrafting and sewing/repair work in school and with that get rid of a huge chunk of the needless shipping? Or are we still going to go after individuals eating traditional food while thought leaders fly across the globe in private jets (no kidding) telling us we need to change our diet? PS: I'm already a enthus…

What about tourism ?

Already cut massively thanks to COVID-19.

I say we should try to keep it at a level close to where it is now.

But we need to set the expectations here and I guess today's influencers and thought leaders won't be of much help :-/

Re: Climate change: IPCC report is 'code red for humanity'

#194

Post by czzr »

rich_sasha wrote: post #170

It’s just so hard to know what actions have what impact on CO2 production. Some are high-pain, low-gain (switching devices off instead of standby?), some are opposite (cycling instead of driving when possible etc). For that if for no other reason, I’d rather if consumer prices included an explicit CO2 tax. The here can be a rebate for poorer people, or personal allowance, whatever, but there would be a fixed yardstic…

The inability of the US to pass a carbon tax will be one of humanities great tragedies. That they are the theoretical champions of the free market is just piling cruel irony on top of that.

Re: Climate change: IPCC report is 'code red for humanity'

#195

Post by johnchristopher »

konspence wrote: post #93
matco11 wrote: post #16

> This pact aims to keep the rise in global temperatures well below 2C this century and to pursue efforts to keep it under 1.5C. It seems to me that continuing to communicate just the average temperature increase is a missed opportunity to engage with a greater portion of the population. 1.5 or 2 degrees do not seem like much, but once one understands that’s an average made out of much bigger positive and negative sw…

There's nothing to "keep" under 1.5C, we are pretty much already there when error bars are considered. 2C is going to be breached regardless because even if we went carbon neutral today we have decades of locked in warming. Why the scientists are not communicating this information which has been in pop-science (as early as An Inconvenient Truth (2006), which documents the lag between CO2 rise and temp rise) is beyond…

> Why the scientists are not communicating this information which has been in pop-science (as early as An Inconvenient Truth (2006), which documents the lag between CO2 rise and temp rise) is beyond me.

I might be biased but popular newspaper in my country have interviews in which scientists do talk about that.

Re: Climate change: IPCC report is 'code red for humanity'

#196

Post by ggm »

baxtr wrote: post #153

The world's population was at around 5.3 bn in 1990 and is now approaching 7.7 bn. This ain't a popular opinion on HN, but I think a key factor to getting climate change under control (whatever that means), is to reduce the growth and to stabilize the population.

It's stabilising. Look at the curve. Increasing wealth in Africa and Asia correlates strongly to a drop in birthrate. The problem isn't unconstrained population growth, it's the energy budget inherent in the population we have already, as standards of living rise worldwide.

30y and we didn't double. We probably won't hit 10b

Re: Climate change: IPCC report is 'code red for humanity'

#197

Post by ianai »

rich_sasha wrote: post #170

It’s just so hard to know what actions have what impact on CO2 production. Some are high-pain, low-gain (switching devices off instead of standby?), some are opposite (cycling instead of driving when possible etc). For that if for no other reason, I’d rather if consumer prices included an explicit CO2 tax. The here can be a rebate for poorer people, or personal allowance, whatever, but there would be a fixed yardstic…

Agree, though the ability to add a tax to goods/services for carbon seems unlikely in the US. I suspect people might be more agreeable if they knew there was a direct relationship between carbon tax and carbon abatement-and couldn't be squandered on something else (like cutting taxes for wealthy/multi-national corps). i.e. $1 of tax means $1 toward sequestration, or something like that.

Re: Climate change: IPCC report is 'code red for humanity'

#198

Post by InsomniacL »

thewhitetulip wrote: post #121
h4kor wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Covid put a minuscule dent into the carbon emmision, but we are basically back to normal. Death don't have a great effect as the general carbon production (oil, coal, gas) are still rising.

True. But I was thinking that since a million people have died there would be some dent in carbon

4,300,000 covid deaths[0] 7,885,000,000 world population [1]

0.05% of the world population has died from covid. Numbers may be wildly wrong but would have little overall effect.

[0] https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ [1] https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/

Re: Climate change: IPCC report is 'code red for humanity'

#199

Post by sammalloy »

Aerroon wrote: post #181
sammalloy wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the biggest problems I've come across are older people who say or think "I've got mine, I won't be alive when the shit hits the fan, so I don't care." If you can address that aspect of the problem, then you're probably half way there to solving it.

To me it looks more that people from rich countries got theirs, but people from poorer countries aren't allowed to have theirs. The people from rich countries will stop them because of climate change. It's easy to demand that others change their behavior.

With respect, climate change is impacting poorer countries far worse than than rich countries. The projections from India are particularly dire.

Re: Climate change: IPCC report is 'code red for humanity'

#200

Post by ash »

ur-whale wrote: post #96

Every one is focused on climate change. But climate change is just a symptom, and absolutely not the disease. No one seems to want to discuss or even mention the actual root cause of climate change, namely: there are simply too many people on the planet. Go back to less than 1B human on planet earth, and climate change will stop being a problem in a heartbeat. But the implications of such a drastic population decreas…

World population is projected to (at least) level out by 2100.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Projections_of_population_grow...

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