Global warming will exceed 1.5-degree limit, UN says • Hacker News Board

Re: Global warming will exceed 1.5-degree limit, UN says

#111

Post by chuckadams » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 3:23 PM UTC

epistasis wrote: post #86

mistrial9 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

who wants a "strict vegan diet" ? I see detractors who want to derail the topic using distasteful, demanding examples..

The person I'm responding to is the one who brought it up. I live in a very leftist place, and there were always those at climate events demanding "strict vegan diets" however I didn't see these people out in the general world outside of my little leftist bubble, trying to actually get their idea out there. I agree with Michael Mann that what most of the public only encounters this idea of "strict vegan diets is a re…

> and in meat space

an odd place to be a hotbed of vegan advocacy.

Re: Global warming will exceed 1.5-degree limit, UN says

#112

Post by throw8393739 » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 3:24 PM UTC

Der_Einzige wrote: post #63

tekla wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> in India where the vast majority of people either eat no meat or only chicken/fish That is such a misleading comment. ~80% of people in India consume meat. That "or" is doing some incredibly amounts of borderline lying. https://www.dataforindia.com/meat-consumption/

They consume far less meat and the specific types are the uniquely least polluting types Chicken/Fish produce an order of magnitude or in some cases two orders of magnitude less pollution than cows do. Trying to gaslight me on this topic even though I'm right on the part that matters. the "or" stands in for the context of the fact that Chicken/fish are an order of magnitude healthier for the planet, and frankly, for…

> Chicken/Fish produce an order of magnitude or in some cases two orders of magnitude less pollution than cows do.

Cows are not for eating, they are holy animals in India, more like pets. I hope you are not advocating eating dogs in west!

Re: Global warming will exceed 1.5-degree limit, UN says

#113

Post by radu_floricica » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 3:25 PM UTC

I'm mostly stopped feeling autistic since adolescence, but climate change is one of those times. It's obviously real, and it's also obvious that shuffling chairs in developing countries is rounding to zero effect. We're converting to cleaner energy anyways because of pollution and better economics, so the push for decarbonization in itself is... what do you call a rounding error when it's already rounding to zero?

And it's FAR from hopeless. Again, global warming is obviously happening. But the amount of adapting and reacting to it is virtually nil. Installing AC. Tree cover in every city. Start serious discussions on what level of risk we want with geoengineering.

Because yes, there absolutely is an acceptable risk level with geoengineering. Planting trees is that. Carbon capture is also that. And better and more effective tech will definitely be available.

But we're in a social climate where I don't even dare write down examples of what those more effective methods would be, because if you're not luddite enough you're the enemy.

Re: Global warming will exceed 1.5-degree limit, UN says

#114

Post by tekla » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 3:25 PM UTC

drfloyd51 wrote: post #57

Der_Einzige wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Significant amounts of the third world are already eating de-facto vegetarian or vegan diets. Many for religious reasons (i.e. in India where the vast majority of people either eat no meat or only chicken/fish), and many others for financial reasons. Strict vegan diets would objectively massively help reduce climate change.

Religious and too poor to eat meat. Not exactly selling the idea of “strict vegan diet” to a bunch of people with enough cash for meat and incisors in their jaws. You got any examples of cultures en mass with “strict vegan diets” because lentils taste delicious?

> The consumption of meat is more common among lower-income groups. Nearly nine out of ten people belonging to the poorest 20% of India's population eat meat, compared to about seven out of ten among the wealthiest 20%.[4]

> Religion also plays a role in dietary habits. Nearly all of the Muslim (99%), Christian (99%) and Buddhists/neo-Buddhist (97%) populations eat meat. Among Hindus, a little over three-quarters consume meat, while Jains and Sikhs have the highest share of vegetarians. Only one-quarter of Jains and half of Sikhs have ever eaten meat.

https://www.dataforindia.com/meat-consumption/

Re: Global warming will exceed 1.5-degree limit, UN says

#115

Post by unchocked » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 3:25 PM UTC

Geophysically, there are 3 pillars to climate stabilization:

1. Emitting fewer greenhouse gasses. Need to do that more than ever, but we are now in overshoot so…

2. Actively remove greenhouse gasses from atmosphere. Will need to do that, but land use and dirty energy trends away from net negative. Also, it’s a 100 year project once started.

3. Shade Earth. Not regions, The whole globe. There are two ways to do that:

a. Stratospheric aerosols b. Planetary sunshades in space, at Sun-Earth L1.

That’s the whole solution space, conceptually. As long as we continue to fail within that space, we will suffer compounding effects of unmitigated climate change.

Re: Global warming will exceed 1.5-degree limit, UN says

#116

Post by epistasis » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 3:25 PM UTC

locknitpicker wrote: post #89

epistasis wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No it isn't, the idea that strict vegan diets would have stoped climate change is just nonsense. Run the numbers. "Strict vegan diets" is the attitude of US activists telling the developing world that they need to change their behavior before the US activist is willing to accept driving less or adopting dense urban infill housing. "Making money" is the incentive system of society. Technology has now aligned society's…

> "Making money" is the incentive system of society. Technology has now aligned society's incentive systems to promote climate action. This personal belief is grounded on an assumption that all mankind follows a neoliberal or even libertarian economic model. Back to reality, west Europe is firmly a social democracy where states impose behavior through law, regulation, and policy, which is topped by a federal system t…

My supposed "personal belief" is not normative it is descriptive.

Misconstruing this as normative, and attributing it to a political belief, is your cognitive dissonance trying to reconcile where actual climate action is coming from.

We must understand the world as it is, if we are to effectively change it to a better state.

Re: Global warming will exceed 1.5-degree limit, UN says

#117

Post by woodgala » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 3:27 PM UTC

epistasis wrote: post #35

woodgala wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about energystar? That had significant impact. Remember how we fixed the ozone hole? It’s entirely possible to drive change through policy or community. We just choose not to do it because the Epstein class wants culture war not class war.

Yes, policy does change things!! You give examples where a community got together, changed policy, affecting all of society. This is precisely the opposite of the disastrous 2020s action, which had no concrete policy demands, which leaned into the culture war. They ceded the ground to the right wing, who does that sort of culture war much better, as they have focused their efforts on it for so long. With culture war,…

I see. Thanks!

Re: Global warming will exceed 1.5-degree limit, UN says

#118

Post by tekla » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 3:29 PM UTC

collingreen wrote: post #92

WarmWash wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spoiler: It's individuals who are driving that demand. The impact of the decisions of big oil are nothing compared to the collective decisions of individuals. Big oil isn't going to kick down your door when you buy an EV and switch to solar. There is no rancher in the grocery aisle slipping steaks in your cart.

Spoiler, the oil and other energy industries have done a world changing amount of lobbying and regulatory capture in order to drive decisions that cause more and more fossil fuel use. This includes everything from subsidies to industry stagnating regulations to reduced enforcement to suburban sprawl. Look at how the current US administration shills for big coal. Pretending they haven't shaped the world around the con…

Spoiler, you exist in incredible luxury because YOU benefited from paying for goods and services made extremely cheap from oil.

You also have the oil on your hands, and its not washing off easily.

Re: Global warming will exceed 1.5-degree limit, UN says

#119

Post by throw8393739 » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 3:29 PM UTC

newyankee wrote: post #102

epistasis wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No it isn't, the idea that strict vegan diets would have stoped climate change is just nonsense. Run the numbers. "Strict vegan diets" is the attitude of US activists telling the developing world that they need to change their behavior before the US activist is willing to accept driving less or adopting dense urban infill housing. "Making money" is the incentive system of society. Technology has now aligned society's…

Also while developed countries are affected , developing countries like Bangladesh, India are disproportionately affected, mostly a function of geography and a lot of history (very high population etc.). Honestly once AI becomes powerful enough most of these people will literally be leftovers with nothing left to contribute to the world with civil war precursors you see in other forms today essentially the same sympt…

> most of these people will literally be leftovers with nothing left to contribute to the world

A lot of people from bangladesh and india are working in Russia. China and Russia are also investing, and building factories there.

Re: Global warming will exceed 1.5-degree limit, UN says

#120

Post by Avicebron » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 3:29 PM UTC

locknitpicker wrote: post #89

epistasis wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No it isn't, the idea that strict vegan diets would have stoped climate change is just nonsense. Run the numbers. "Strict vegan diets" is the attitude of US activists telling the developing world that they need to change their behavior before the US activist is willing to accept driving less or adopting dense urban infill housing. "Making money" is the incentive system of society. Technology has now aligned society's…

> "Making money" is the incentive system of society. Technology has now aligned society's incentive systems to promote climate action. This personal belief is grounded on an assumption that all mankind follows a neoliberal or even libertarian economic model. Back to reality, west Europe is firmly a social democracy where states impose behavior through law, regulation, and policy, which is topped by a federal system t…

> This personal belief is grounded on an assumption that all mankind follows a neoliberal or even libertarian economic model.

This personal belief is usually coupled to people who have become wealthy following this belief. So it tracks that they would declare any solution that doesn't allow them to continue their plundering impossible.