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Earth is now heating up twice as fast as in previous decades

newscientist.com

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Re: Earth is now heating up twice as fast as in previous decades

#121

Post by amanaplanacanal »

surgical_fire wrote: post #91
irishcoffee wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Per capita doesn't mean nearly as much as total. If the countries above the US were instead on par or below the US as it relates to totals, we wouldn't have the same issue we have now.

If the US went to zero we also wouldn't have the same issue as we have now. Why should the US be entitled to pollute the world while everyone else has to live without any confort?

Rich people are fine with poor countries staying that way, as long as it doesn't impact their lifestyle somehow.

Re: Earth is now heating up twice as fast as in previous decades

#122

Post by bdcravens »

morkalork wrote: post #74
bdcravens wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except many of the same champions of AI are also speaking out against population decline (Musk, Altman, Bezos, etc)

It's a real weird contradiction. They don't want the population to decline but they also want to replace everyone's jobs with AI and skip out on UBI. So what's the point?

Some of it's rooted with racial bias (most of Musk's discussion on the topic are focused on the birth rates of white people). Most of it I think is based in the continued dominance of the west. AI is good for information, but we're a LONG WAY from the robots doing the messy work required for human civilization to continue to function, so there won't be any shortage of work for a long time.

Re: Earth is now heating up twice as fast as in previous decades

#124

Post by gdulli »

ptaffs wrote: post #80

The Book "Don't think of an Elephant" by George Lakoff covers how the term "climate change" has been pushed by those with a status-quo agenda, to reduce the urgency and engagement with "global warming". The linked article uses both, but global warming more dominantly, including "heating" in the headline.

"Global warming" was bad branding because stupid/dishonest people smugly use any instance of unusual cold weather as an argument against it.

Re: Earth is now heating up twice as fast as in previous decades

#125

Post by yongjik »

21asdffdsa12 wrote: post #24
MSFT_Edging wrote: post #5

We may lose stable seasons for growing crops, but at least the chat bot can embed an ad into your question while you wait for your burrito taxi. What is the point of this convenience when it really seems to just be making people miserable and isolated? We're driving off a cliff, and our elected government has a death drive.

Worse, they have a "i want to flee responsibility" drive. You can see it in there eyes, when they hold press conferences, while having on the paper the verbose "you are absolutely right". They want the perks, not the responsibility that comes with power.

Also the terminally online crowd blaming rising prices on greedy billionaires, and global warming on the same billionaires. Tell them about carbon tax and they will non-ironically ask "Why should I pay more when it's the billionaires' fault?"

I'm not saying billionaires are victims, but everybody wants it to be someone else's fault and none of their own fault. It's exhausting.

Re: Earth is now heating up twice as fast as in previous decades

#126

Post by whatevaa »

casey2 wrote: post #95
MSFT_Edging wrote: post #5

We may lose stable seasons for growing crops, but at least the chat bot can embed an ad into your question while you wait for your burrito taxi. What is the point of this convenience when it really seems to just be making people miserable and isolated? We're driving off a cliff, and our elected government has a death drive.

2 more weeks til "stable seasons" collapse. Good thing greenhouses have existed for millenia.

Better start building them then, gonna need a ton of them. Also doesn't help against heatwaves and during droughts.

Re: Earth is now heating up twice as fast as in previous decades

#127

Post by MSFT_Edging »

andai wrote: post #98
MSFT_Edging wrote: post #5

We may lose stable seasons for growing crops, but at least the chat bot can embed an ad into your question while you wait for your burrito taxi. What is the point of this convenience when it really seems to just be making people miserable and isolated? We're driving off a cliff, and our elected government has a death drive.

Also our unelected culture.

Hearts and minds

Re: Earth is now heating up twice as fast as in previous decades

#128

Post by karmakurtisaani »

yongjik wrote: post #125
21asdffdsa12 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Worse, they have a "i want to flee responsibility" drive. You can see it in there eyes, when they hold press conferences, while having on the paper the verbose "you are absolutely right". They want the perks, not the responsibility that comes with power.

Also the terminally online crowd blaming rising prices on greedy billionaires, and global warming on the same billionaires. Tell them about carbon tax and they will non-ironically ask "Why should I pay more when it's the billionaires' fault?" I'm not saying billionaires are victims, but everybody wants it to be someone else's fault and none of their own fault. It's exhausting.

But maybe perhaps the billionaires should be the ones driving the progress, as the power they wield is very much disproportionate?

Re: Earth is now heating up twice as fast as in previous decades

#129

Post by api »

ajuc wrote: post #88
api wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we tame fusion at scale this could become an actual issue in the far future. As it stands we have nothing that can out-scale solar or wind. Fission maybe if we went all in on breeders and stuff but that would not be cost competitive with renewables plus batteries. Breeder cycle fission is complex and expensive. Hopefully if we get really good at fusion we will go LARP The Expanse with it instead of boiling the oce…

It will become an issue in 150-200 years even if we just continue on our current trajectory.

Only if exponential growth continues, but population growth is already falling off a cliff and that is the ultimate driver.

If population stabilizes or contracts, then the only way this could happen is if per capita energy use continued to increase exponentially to the point that we were radiating enough heat to do this. That seems unlikely.

The only scenario I can imagine where per capita energy use goes that high is the "The Expanse LARP" scenario where people are rocketing around on fusion rockets, and that's not on Earth anymore so it doesn't matter.

What terrestrial products or services would demand power use per capita across the whole population that high?

Re: Earth is now heating up twice as fast as in previous decades

#130

Post by ajuc »

dpark wrote: post #103
ajuc wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's an easy 19th century solution to cars and planes - public transport. It could reduce the usage significantly, save people lots of time, reduce pollution, make people healthier through making the environment more walkable, reduce crime. We don't do it not because the technology isn't there, but because it's more profitable for people to induce consumption by planning our cities and suburbs around cars. There's…

> save people lots of time Public transit is rarely a time saver for people who give up their cars in favor of public transit. > reduce crime In what way? Car break-ins presumably go down when there when fewer cars, but does overall crime drop? Doubtful.

> Public transit is rarely a time saver for people who give up their cars in favor of public transit.

It saves time when you don't put 10-lane motorways and in your cities nor turn them into parking lot wasteland.

> In what way? Car break-ins presumably go down when there when fewer cars, but does overall crime drop?

Public transport reduces inequality, which is the main cause of crime. If you have whole groups in society that cannot get what they need working within the system - some of them will work outside the system. Public transport makes working within the system easier (barrier to entry to work/study in the good places gets lower). It also smooths around the strict urban class divisions (it makes sense for rich people to live in the city, which makes the elites more likely to invest in the city, which makes it more likely for non-elites to be able to work with the system).

The opposite is car-dependand suburbs + crime-ridden inner cities with no way out other than crime.

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