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UN says “No credible pathway” and “woefully inadequate” to stop global 1.5C

bbc.co.uk

11–20 of 349 posts

Re: UN says “No credible pathway” and “woefully inadequate” to stop global 1.5C

#11

Maybe then we should consider not kneecapping our economy and driving people into poverty? The worst thing for the environment is poverty. I'm convinced most of the measures put in place to fight climate change have been a net negative to the environment, when you consider how much they are impoverishing people and thus driving more people to disregard environmental concerns for survival.

Hm, then I wonder why rich nations have much higher per capita CO2 emissions than poor nations (https://www.unep.org/explore-topics/climate-action/what-we-d...)?

Re: UN says “No credible pathway” and “woefully inadequate” to stop global 1.5C

#12
The title is somewhat out of context, the abstract says "the international community is falling far short of the Paris goals, with no credible pathway to 1.5°C in place". So it's not saying we can't do it, it's saying we're failing and take action.

(Not to downplay it at all, we really need to get things happening right now on the policy decisions level)

Re: UN says “No credible pathway” and “woefully inadequate” to stop global 1.5C

#14
Neal Stephenson's most recent novel, Termination shock describes a near-future world where climate change's effects are becoming more visible and obvious. Without spoiling too much, it explores the politics of aerosol (sulpher) injection into the upper atmosphere to reflect sunlight away from the planet.

Re: UN says “No credible pathway” and “woefully inadequate” to stop global 1.5C

#15
post #8

I wish humanity could discard narrow-minded nationalist/short-sighted capitalist tendencies and unite against this threat. Imagine a climate pact between the US, EU, China and India where each society placed a similar focus on pivoting to renewables and developing reliable fusion energy as the Allies devoted to winning ww2 and developing atomic weaponry. Amusingly, the end of our dependency would also resolve many ge…

However, governments across the globe are run by people who lack the proper morals or intelligence to see what needs to be done.

So we should just put you in charge and then you'll sort it out?

Have you considered the possibility that it's not about morals or intelligence but that it's actually an intractable problem?

Re: UN says “No credible pathway” and “woefully inadequate” to stop global 1.5C

#16

Not a surprise, since co2 is an oxide, and therefore very stable in the athmosphere. It would take a huge amount of energy to remove it, and we don't even stop putting it in there. Janvici had a nice way to put it: the 1.5C are already signed for, which means we won't ever see the climate of today again in the next 5000 years.

> Not a surprise, since co2 is an oxide, and therefore very stable in the athmosphere. It would take a huge amount of energy to remove it,

There is an exothermic reaction that removes CO2 from the atmosphere, the formation of carbonates from weathering of silicate rocks. As this is naturally very slow, there is currently ongoing research into multiple different ways to speed it up.

Re: UN says “No credible pathway” and “woefully inadequate” to stop global 1.5C

#17
post #12

The title is somewhat out of context, the abstract says "the international community is falling far short of the Paris goals, with no credible pathway to 1.5°C in place". So it's not saying we can't do it, it's saying we're failing and take action. (Not to downplay it at all, we really need to get things happening right now on the policy decisions level)

The HN title is a summary of the subtitle (the first text after the picture and the byline)...

It's a better title than the article, as far as attention grabbing is concerned.

Re: UN says “No credible pathway” and “woefully inadequate” to stop global 1.5C

#18
> This analysis finds that new efforts to cut carbon would see global emissions fall by less than 1% by 2030, when according to scientists, reductions of 45% are needed to keep 1.5C in play.

I'm reminded of that scene in Dumb & Dumber when Mary has just told Lloyd his chances of ending up with her are one in a million:

"So you're telling me there's a chance. YEAH!"

Re: UN says “No credible pathway” and “woefully inadequate” to stop global 1.5C

#19
Fighting climate change is, and probably always has been, a losing battle. The upside is that one of the remedies to the problems caused by climate upheaval is greater energy independence - which naturally steers us towards renewables. So, we might eventually end up with a net zero carbon economy anyway - but it'll be because of a desire for local stability, rather than to help save poor people in the developing world from environmental collapse.

Re: UN says “No credible pathway” and “woefully inadequate” to stop global 1.5C

#20
Such pathways require global cooperation and will fail unless all major nations are on board. In particular, Russia is making no effort, and has no incentive or motivation to make any effort due to their vast tundra landscape. Step 1 is to get Russia on board by some means, without Russia any of these goals are senseless.
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