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

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

#301

Post by bilater » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 5:35 PM UTC

ThrowawayIP wrote: post #16

multiplegeorges wrote: post #2

Not much of a surprise. Government action has been anemic at best. Industry action (overall) has been net negative. The only hope now is exponential growth of (solar and wind)+batteries making other sources uneconomic. This seems to be slowly happening, so I hope we hit the exponential curve soon and we're there quicker than we expect. This only stops it. Then, to fix it, we'll need a massive Direct Air Capture indus…

The technology-will-save-us mentality is part of the reason we are here. We live in a society that doesn't do anything unless it makes money for some set of decrepit old men. We had the means to avoid this (strict vegan diets, ground based mass transit, dense development & re-wilding, energy transition) but people made money doing the opposite. And more people made money sabotaging solar+battery pricing in the US. So…

No that's not how the world works. Most of climate change happens not because some decrepit old man lives on his yacht but poor people in third world countries get their first air conditioners. As they should.

The only way is through. Most of are not going to be living the suffocating life you think we should. We will grow, innovate and accelerate out of this.

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

#302

Post by irthomasthomas » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 5:37 PM UTC

multiplegeorges wrote: post #2

Not much of a surprise. Government action has been anemic at best. Industry action (overall) has been net negative. The only hope now is exponential growth of (solar and wind)+batteries making other sources uneconomic. This seems to be slowly happening, so I hope we hit the exponential curve soon and we're there quicker than we expect. This only stops it. Then, to fix it, we'll need a massive Direct Air Capture indus…

[flagged]

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

#303

Post by WarmWash » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 5:39 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…

>The impact of the decisions of big oil are nothing compared to the collective decisions of individuals.

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

#304

Post by croes » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 5:41 PM UTC

rrr_oh_man wrote: post #220

croes wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Making money" is the incentive system of society. Then explain voluntary work or all the people risking their lives for other people they don’t even know. Human society existed before money. And nobody said that a vegan diet would have stopped climates change, they said strict vegan diets, ground based mass transit, dense development & re-wilding, energy transition. Just picking one and say that would help is a na…

> Human society existed before money. That is a very broad claim that can be challenged easily. Maybe it would make more sense to say: "Money is not everything, and pockets of altruism exist"?

You need a society for money so society comes first means there was society before money

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

#305

Post by agentultra » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 5:46 PM UTC

Big congratulations to the world leaders and policy makers who were at the signing of the Paris Accord. Went home. And did very little about it. Now we output more CO2 faster than we ever have in our entire history.

At least the economy is doing okay… oh wait.

Maybe the reason action hasn’t happened is because the solutions would drive down income inequality?

Was hoping my kids wouldn’t have to live with the worst of it but it looks like we failed at that.

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

#306

Post by martinpw » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 5:50 PM UTC

woodgala wrote: post #28

epistasis wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is quite ironic that capitalism and the profit motive are now the best hope for staving off climate change, all thanks to the technologists and entrepreneurs that have mad renewables and storage so cheap. The 2020s climate action movement in the US (and the UK) was disastrous in their strategy, action, and outcomes. I was there, I followed along because it seemed like the best way to get climate action, but things…

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.

I had thought this administration had killed energy star, but it seems like it actually survived. A rare piece of good news:

https://www.npr.org/2026/02/03/nx-s1-5684126/energy-star-tru...

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

#307

Post by breezybottom » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 5:59 PM UTC

epistasis wrote: post #254

breezybottom wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Paris Accords have very specific policy goals. Your criticism is incoherent.

The Paris Accords are the exact opposite of the 2020s movements I criticize, Sunrise and XR.

Another sweeping claim that doesn't actually say anything. How is it the "exact opposite"?

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

#308

Post by radu_floricica » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 6:11 PM UTC

m00dy wrote: post #124

radu_floricica wrote: post #113

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? An…

Can you explain what 'Luddite' means in a broader context? Not all of us grew up learning British history :)

In the context of climate change, it is the opinion that more industrialization and technologization cannot help solving the problem, except in a few narrow acceptable directions (solar, wind, hydrogen etc).

An example would be the european reaction to AC. It's a way of using technology to solve warming, its costs are perfectly acceptable, but it is still frown upon because... well, it's beyond the scope of a HN comment to diagnose why, but it's an example of technology being able to mitigate a problem but not being allowed to.

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

#309

Post by dariosalvi78 » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 6:13 PM UTC

roughly wrote: post #300

dariosalvi78 wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

climate change became to be discussed as an issue since the 80s. I am in my late 40s and I have been hearing about since forever, and yet so little has been done since then. Now you can understand why I, as probably many here, have zero faith in this being solved in any sensible way. Go and get depressed... or maybe go and eat your Brazilian meat burger, drive your SUV and book your flight to Hawaii, it won't last lo…

What’s always struck me as interesting about these conversations is that both you and I and many, many of the other people we talk to are willing to make significant life changes to deal with this problem, and yet we all seem convinced the blocker here is that everyone else is an asshole. It seems to me that assholes do in fact exist, but by all measures make up a much smaller percentage of the population than we’ve…

I tend to attribute most problems to low intelligence and/or ignorance more than plain asshole-ness. I don't disregard the complexity of fixing climate change, and the need for global cooperation, but we have had plenty of time and too little was done, even in more peaceful times than today.

I think that the problem won't be solved by us, it will balance itself out. A bigger chunk of the planet will become more hostile, human population will shrink, we will live at much lower scales, consume less and pollute less, for thousands of years to come.

I hope I will be proven wrong.

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

#310

Post by jltsiren » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 6:17 PM UTC

rfgplk wrote: post #267

Tadpole9181 wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Wiki page above didn't really go into it much, but how much of the cost of nuclear power is self-inflicted? I.e. regulatory costs and actually paying the cost of externalities up-front. And if we were more consistent at building such facilities and producing said fuel, would there be cost reductions from scale?

~99% of the cost is due to red-tape regulations. It's so obscene that they require certified backup genererators for the backup generators and 3-4 layers of fail safes. Then you need to wait YEARS to get all the permits and licenses. Oh and if you get preapproval for a componant (say the generators) but too much time has passed from installation until you actually are ready to go, you need to go through the process a…

Nuclear power plants are ultimately not that different from coal power plants. Typical estimates for the capital costs of coal power are ~$4000/kW, which can be used as a lower bound for the costs of nuclear power.

The costs are high, because construction industry has suffered from poor productivity growth for decades. Renewables are getting cheaper, because they rely more on mass-produced stuff and less on hiring people to construct a big specialized building to house the power plant. Regulatory costs of nuclear power also largely come from poor quality control in construction industry. Regulators require something specific, subcontractors try doing that but often don't get it right, and regulators order them to tear it down and try again.