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

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

youtube.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

741–750 of 884 posts

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

#741

Post by allan_s »

kylebenzle wrote: post #647
vegetablepotpie wrote: post #566

You can do something about this. I got involved in climate advocacy in 2021. Since then I’ve successfully lobbied my local government to start an energy resources study, which will look at ways for my community to quickly transition to renewables. A small thing. But if we all do small things, it will add up! Still though. My state, Arizona has really terrible people writing awful laws. This legislative session they’r…

I disagree, strongly. I think the next phase will be people like me, not climate change deniers but climate change doomers. The US could go carbon neutral tomorrow and it wouldnt make a dent because of China, India and Russia. 3 Billion people pumping pollution into the the air like their is no tomorrow vs. a couple hundred million reducing their footprint isn't going to make a lick of difference. I think people have…

The issue is that Chinese people think the same.

Be as good as you can, regardless of others, so that they will have no whataboutism to hide behind.

Don't underestimate the power of peer pressure, even at the nation-level.

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

#742

Post by nojvek »

ianai wrote: post #649
zug_zug wrote: post #637

Just a contextual note -- one thing Sabine says is: AI won't help because we know the exact solution, we just aren't willing to do it. Presumably she's referring to her first proposal -- a carbon tax. It's my understanding that there's nearly consensus among economists that a carbon tax is the most efficient solution to global warming, but political consensus that it would never happen when framed as a tax. If you do…

It's finding a way to input the external costs of consumption of emissive products into their final price(s). In reality, a gallon of gas causes significantly more damage than the price paid at the pump - it was like $16/gallon when I saw a figure for it around 2010. Imagine how much differently a world with $20/gallon gas would look. There'd probably be massive pressures from all corners to move away from oil.

I am personally pretty opposed to taxing co2 emissions and playing games with carbon credit.

We should not be making energy expensive for the lay person.

Provide subsidies to build new solar, wind and nuclear farms - sure.

The world will quickly adapt renewable energy if it is much cheaper and convenient to use it.

In similar vein, for god sake don’t tax solar panels above usual tax rate. I’m looking at Arizona.

The biggest mistake any democratic government can make is life more expensive and miserable for their population.

That seldom goes well.

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

#743

Post by jcfrei »

zug_zug wrote: post #637

Just a contextual note -- one thing Sabine says is: AI won't help because we know the exact solution, we just aren't willing to do it. Presumably she's referring to her first proposal -- a carbon tax. It's my understanding that there's nearly consensus among economists that a carbon tax is the most efficient solution to global warming, but political consensus that it would never happen when framed as a tax. If you do…

A carbon tax will not be politically viable for two simple reasons: 1) Some people who would need to pay can't really afford it: It's people living in old houses or who have to drive very far to work or rely on cheap energy for heating and electricity - It's not gonna affect the software engineer who drives his Tesla to work.

2) Another big chunk of the working population would lose their jobs because their industry gets shaken up: Those working in polluting industries (coal and gas) or the huge part of the economy that's surrounding petro-chemicals (gas stations clerks, heating engineers, fuel truck drivers), etc.

You would need to redistribute the CO2 tax income as welfare checks but again: That's not a politically viable solution because the fear of job losses pretty much outweighs anything else.

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

#744

Post by graphe »

LudwigNagasena wrote: post #563
Aachen wrote: post #508

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Finland achieved energy self sufficiency last year thanks to a good combination of nuclear + solar + hydro. Energy means, well, energy. Finland still drives combustion vehicles (a lot of them, last I was there they drove some of the oldest cars in the EU on average due to high taxes for buying new ones) and probably mostly heat with energy not originating from the trio you mentioned. I think you meant electricity,…

Let’s also not forget another human activity, also a kind of energy consumption, but in a more direct way, aka eating. Livestock produces around 15% of global greenhouse emissions according to my quick Google search. And I am sure some Finns like to eat meat.

Agriculture in general is less than 15% of the US and the US likes to eat meat. Agriculture including farming plants in total is 10-11%. https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emis... If the plant farming was higher than animal farming, would you suggest they not farm?

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

#745

Post by trimethylpurine »

ianai wrote: post #686
trimethylpurine wrote: post #678

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'll still mine oil for tires and roads, and you'll have gasoline as a byproduct. You'll use the gasoline to mine lithium and to transport used batteries. And you'll bury the batteries somewhere out of sight. Just like we're doing with nuclear. None of these solutions actually help preserve live. Life can thrive in a carbon rich atmosphere. It has before. But many years from now when the lithium batteries decay and…

We just fundamentally disagree on the criticality of hydrocarbons. In your version of the future, we’re all dead. In mine, the future might include a better life for all.

In your version of the future, we create the battery and the nuclear problems and we still have to deal with the hydrocarbon problem. In my version we discuss what to do about the hydrocarbon problem.

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

#746

Post by jgilias »

Geee wrote: post #454
pk-protect-ai wrote: post #145

I no longer worry. I'm extremely pessimistic about the impending climate change. I believe Sabine isn't pessimistic enough about what to anticipate. Consider the tundra methane emissions and the explosive release of methane-hydrates from the oceans, along with water vapor, a potent greenhouse gas. The disaster looming over all ecosystems (a mass extinction event) that will happen in decades and the doom-phase could l…

There won't be an extinction event. We already know that warm periods in Earth's history are the most friendly for all kinds of life. And we know that cold periods kill species and reduce biodiversity. In the most catastrophic case Earth will end up as a tropical paradise, resembling the Eocene period [0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eocene#Flora

Yes, and the inhabitants of this new tropical Earth will do recreational dives to see the ruins of the places where the vast majority of people live now.

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

#747

Post by sambazi »

phtrivier wrote: post #139
sambazi wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

dafuq did i just watch?

It's called "comedy". It has a track record of getting things right that dates back to Aristophanes. Sadly their publications are frowned upon in academic circles because they use less charts than farts.

has some seinfeld vibes to it but the insecurity is so real and totally kills it for me

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

#748

Post by mgaunard »

ianburrell wrote: post #738
mgaunard wrote: post #724

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not up to individuals to fix it. Your impact is nothing. Cars matter very little in the big picture as well -- it's a distraction to blame the little people. The vast majority of pollution is caused by industrial processes. The fix here is simple: regulate and enforce the regulation. The main polluting countries are: the USA: too afraid to do anything in case it affects their economy, political caste too corrupt…

We don't care about pollution, for climate change only the pollution of carbon dioxide matters. The majority of carbon dioxide is produced by transportation and heating, much of that from individuals. There are a lot of people that want to deflect from action on climate change by focusing on the oil refinery and not the tailpipe. Your list is suspiciously missing China, the biggest producer of CO2. Saudi Arabia is do…

I listed the countries blocking progress, not the one that produced more according to some arbitrary metric.

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

#749

Post by j4yav »

tim333 wrote: post #732
j4yav wrote: post #518

What happened to this link, it’s now a video of some people yelling?

Still works for me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S9sDyooxf4 "I wasn't worried about climate change. Now I am."

For a while it was linking to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCo3XwTRg9o

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

#750

Post by pintxo »

nradov wrote: post #648
zug_zug wrote: post #637

Just a contextual note -- one thing Sabine says is: AI won't help because we know the exact solution, we just aren't willing to do it. Presumably she's referring to her first proposal -- a carbon tax. It's my understanding that there's nearly consensus among economists that a carbon tax is the most efficient solution to global warming, but political consensus that it would never happen when framed as a tax. If you do…

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.

The plan for Germany was to give out climate money to everyone. E.g. all additional funds acquired through increased carbon taxes where supposed to be equally returned to the population on a per head basis. Turns out even Germany does not have a Government process for that. And parts of the current coalition, which happen to be tasked with creating that process, are more interested in stalling implementation as long as possible.
Post reply on HN