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I used to not worry about climate change. Now I do [video]

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Re: I used to not worry about climate change. Now I do [video]

#691
post #648

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In order to be politically acceptable, a carbon tax should be phased in gradually and coupled with a reduction in income tax so as to make it revenue neutral. That way it can't be framed as just another government tax grab.

Offsetting income tax would be a massive handout to the rich, who have been and continue to be the greatest contributors to carbon emissions. Instead, it should be paired with a dividend which makes it revenue neutral for the median household. Lower income families, who are more impacted by but less responsible for climate change, would be paid a benefit.

Canada’s rebate was per-capita. Most people received more in their rebate than they paid in increased fuel cost.

Re: I used to not worry about climate change. Now I do [video]

#692

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gas was just under $4 a liter every time I've been to Europe. That's about $16/gallon. People were driving to work, and sitting in traffic, just like they do in the US.

Gas was never above $2 per liter in Europe, you are mistaken. The highest gas price I've ever seen was close to $2 per liter, a bit below (~1.90, maybe).

Depends where and when. Regardless you're around $7.50 per gallon today. That's more than double the price in the US. Globally, fuel is relatively cheap right now.

Re: I used to not worry about climate change. Now I do [video]

#693

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You never worried particularly, but enough to move to a different country? That sounds contradictory to me.

That's because it's more just a nice secondary factor. ;) Mostly I moved because it amused me. I have a long history of going to places I can't actually locate on a map, eg I thought Northwestern University would be in Portland, not Chicago - imagine my shock when I stepped off the plane. Similarly with Finland. I knew so little about the place that when the opportunity to move arose I couldn't not take it, it would…

> turning down getting teleported into the inside of a black hole.

I'm good, thanks.

Re: I used to not worry about climate change. Now I do [video]

#694

It's extremely frustrating to watch our world deteriorating because politicians aren't willing to actually do their jobs and govern. I'd go even stronger and, for the US, pass regulations that all emissions of all kinds must be captured or the company will be fined double the cost of environmental remediation as executed by contractors employed by the government (scaling from 1% of the fine to 100% of the fine over X…

You say that as though politicians appear out of thin air. The root problem is that the average person isn't motivated to do anything, including voting in politicians who will do something.

That and misinformation isn't helping.

Re: I used to not worry about climate change. Now I do [video]

#695
post #264

I live in the south of france, and I really need to move to a cooler region in france. Summer are very long, nights are hot, makes it hard to sleep well. I don't have enough money to install AC. Mobile AC is too noisy. I have been postponing for 4 years now. I am reading The Ministry Of The Future, it's a great book. India will be the first to suffer from this.

how much does installing an AC cost there?

Re: I used to not worry about climate change. Now I do [video]

#696
post #595

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dude no. We know that the gasses we are releasing cause warming and we know the ratio of those gases naturally occurring vs human pollution.

How do you know?

We know because it’s measurable.

You. Literally YOU. Can trivially measure the impact of different gases on temperature.

Telling the difference between natural and human produced is probably not doable by you personally, however, human burned pollution tends to have different atomic markers from naturally occurring. We have mandatory pollution reporting. We can do basic maths to find reasonably close numbers to how much of the pollution is natural and how much is from us.

With regard to “the prediction models are always wrong” fake news propaganda bullshit:

They are always wrong in a way that’s worse for us by underestimating the bad impacts. Every time we improve the models, the outcomes are worse even faster than the models predict, and we have to find why.

Re: I used to not worry about climate change. Now I do [video]

#698
post #45

It's taboo to say this, but people worldwide have had far too many children, and I believe that overpopulation is the root of the sustainability crisis, including climate change and pollution. And that taboo is probably rooted in evolutionary psychology, people have a genetically driven tendency to criticize those who advocate having less children? So could there be an instinctual drive behind it? https://www.flashpa…

> I believe that overpopulation is the root of the sustainability crisis This has been studied long time ago by scientists such as Alfred Sauvy [1], who concluded that overpopulation is not the cause of sustainability crisis, and that greenhouse gas is the major cause. In particular, limiting the growth of population has few impact on the production of greenhouse gas, whereas changing the means of energy production a…

It's not sustainable because the more people they are, the worse their living conditions will be. Look at how densely populated Asia is. Does everyone want to live like this? Overcrowding is also not good for our mental health.

Re: I used to not worry about climate change. Now I do [video]

#699
post #654

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't misunderstand me here. I'd rather be wrong regarding my "doomism," and I no longer worry about climate change; it doesn't make sense to worry about something that can't be changed. However, I observe that people aren't scared enough to take action. They continue to dance around the issue in political euphoria. The changes to our lifestyle are happening too slowly to be effective. The gas and oil industry is doi…

Maybe people aren't scared because they disagree with your wild, unscientific assertion that "the chances of humanity surviving are incredibly slim, IMO"

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Re: I used to not worry about climate change. Now I do [video]

#700
post #688

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A global tax requires global enforcement No sovereign is going to agree to subordinate itself without all others doing the same Classic prisoners dilemma

That’s too pessimistic. Dozens of countries have some kind of carbon tax right now. Important and influential jurisdictions like California, also have them. Even oil-producing regions have them. They are universally rather timid in their scope, and politically fragile. So maybe they aren’t going to get us there, at least not in their current form. But it’s going too far to say they just don’t exist or can’t exist. We…

“Enlightened self interest” is randian nonsense. That’s how we got here in the first place

Ask Lybia how nuclear disarmament went

Go count all the slaves supplying the global market for chocolate, cobalt, mica, vanilla etc...

How about prisoners in the US making .20-.50c/hr making license plates or literally picking cotton on a former slave plantation in alabama.

Or how about slave labor in the form of migrant children working in factories for Hyundai in the US south

The concept of self-interested Neoliberalism has utterly failed and it is turning into a global catastrophe

The earth cannot sustain 8 Billion people each living at millionaire consumption standards

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