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There is unequivocal evidence that Earth is warming (2024)

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Re: There is unequivocal evidence that Earth is warming (2024)

#221
post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there's a strong argument for generalized systems collapse. It's a silent civilization killer, could be happening right now!

But which system first? Could be climate, could be financial, could be political (as in "politics is the alternative to violence")

I'm talking more about a slow decay that is not obvious to a single generation. One person in one lifetime wouldn't even smell it, but everything would be slowly corroding underneath.

Definitely not a big single disaster scenario. More like a "wait, we don't fix things anymore" or "wait, we have way less food variety than before" realization when it hits.

Re: There is unequivocal evidence that Earth is warming (2024)

#222
post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've banned this account for breaking the site guidelines. Please don't create accounts to break HN's rules with. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

What rules did I break? I'm confused. Edit: Ah ok an IP ban. I guess time to use a proxy. Moderation has rules. Censorship does not. Censorship is bad dang mmmkay? Editing again to post later cause you nuked replies for some reason: Sorry I don't conduct in personal attacks. I think you're confused. Feel free to list whom I attacked and where. No, censorship doesn't change definitions based on who uses it. Unless you…

An entire thwack of personal attacks, for starters. Not allowed here. I don't think that's so confusing.

> Censorship is bad dang mmmkay?

It's one of those words that mean different things depending on how people want to use it. I wouldn't personally use that word as opposed to moderation, curation, etc., but then I would say that wouldn't I. In any case, HN isn't an anything-goes site and never has been. If we didn't do some version of moderation/curation/censorship/befugioning, it would be an entirely different place. Probably not one even you would enjoy—I don't suppose you like ghost towns or scorched earth any more than the rest of us.

Re: There is unequivocal evidence that Earth is warming (2024)

#223
post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Even the crotchetiest and most out-of-touch people I know basically accept that the Earth is warming now. POTUS tweeted "WHATEVER HAPPENED TO GLOBAL WARMING???" a few weeks ago when a record cold wave came in. I suppose you were talking about people you personally know, but it seems like there's a good chance many who voted for him would say it too. Anyway, I guess there is a growing collective admission that the c…

> Anyway, I guess there is a growing collective admission that the climate is changing even if the crotchety ones will still quip about it not being warmer at some given time and place. It's unfortunate that "global warming" caught on instead of "climate change." Rather than a collective admission, I feel what's happening is the crotchety people are dying off, leaving us millennials and GenZ to clean up the mess. Thi…

That was always the plan.

Re: There is unequivocal evidence that Earth is warming (2024)

#224

Very exciting to live in an apocalyptical era. I'm looking forward to discover which one of the several global threats to humanity will put us down first.

> Very exciting to live in an apocalyptical era Reminds me of that advice about depression more generally. Something like "If you can't be optimistic, settle for being curious about the way it all unfolds"

Given the known past history, I think this is one of the first times ever we can actually prevent an apocalypse-level event. I'm also looking forward to see amazing attempts at prevention of collapse and recovery.

Re: There is unequivocal evidence that Earth is warming (2024)

#225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The issue seemed to completely drop from public discourse during the Biden presidency Biden signed into law the largest investment in clean energy in US history, dwarfing everything that came before. Half the economy was trying to get their hands on some of that stimmy.

Both were true, the IRA handed out a lot of money to green projects at the same time the administration quietly greenlit a massive boom in oil production. (The Biden administration issued more new drilling permits than either Trump administration).

> at the same time the administration quietly greenlit a massive boom in oil production

Hard to get re-elected when gas is expensive. Voters are uninformed but you have to work with what they are, not what you wish they would be.

Re: There is unequivocal evidence that Earth is warming (2024)

#226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Even the crotchetiest and most out-of-touch people I know basically accept that the Earth is warming now My family is fundamentalist protestant, very midwestern, and I think about half of them believe that the earth is warming. Not trying to "win", just trying to say that a lot of this depends on the crowd you interact with. I don't know the percentage, but certainly there are still way too many people that don't e…

"Climate Change" implies that some sort of "constant climate" is even attainable, irrespective of desirable.

It implies change over a couple human lifetimes. Change faster than has ever occurred before, and due to human activity.

Re: There is unequivocal evidence that Earth is warming (2024)

#227
post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> many of the changes we are talking about don't even really cost us anything This is the part that seems to vary widely based on which warming alarmist you're talking to. Many of them are not saying there are things we could do that "don't even really cost us anything" that would deal with the problem--they're saying we need to devote a significant fraction of global GDP to CO2 mitigation. Things that "don't really…

> Building a lot more nuclear power plants is the key thing that doesn't really seem to be happening right now I mean, this is the clear and obvious one. Nuclear theoretically should be much, much cheaper than it is if it were not for the regulatory costs thrust upon it. It also harrows out people who are legitimately concerned from "moralist concern junkies". You'd think climate change being a global existential cri…

> Nuclear theoretically should be much, much cheaper than it is if it were not for the regulatory costs thrust upon it

Solar and wind theoretically would also be much, much cheaper if not for the regulatory costs. [1]

Everything is regulated and all regulations have costs. I'm not morally opposed to nuclear energy. Is there a comprehensive study on which specific safety regulations are unnecessary and the LCOE if they were removed?

1. https://www.volts.wtf/p/how-to-make-rooftop-solar-power-as

Re: There is unequivocal evidence that Earth is warming (2024)

#228
post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Across the world, according to BNEF, the cost of grid scale battery packs has fallen another 45 per cent in 2025 following a 40 per cent fall in 2024. The UK-based energy think tank Ember has now also reached the same conclusion, underlying its unexpected impact on solar power. from: https://reneweconomy.com.au/the-plunging-cost-of-battery-sto... citing: https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/global-electricity-...…

Rising from an extremely low baseline. Actual deployed grid scale battery storage worldwide remains minuscule in relation to daily electricity consumption. Sure let's deploy it where we can but it's delusional to believe that this represents a realistic alternative to nuclear or fossil fuel power for industrial base load requirements in most countries anytime soon. The numbers simply don't add up.

Things are changing very, very fast.

https://theconversation.com/big-batteries-are-now-outcompeti...

Re: There is unequivocal evidence that Earth is warming (2024)

#229
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not per capita. The US is still the worst large country. If you account for offshoring manufacturing then the US looks even worse. https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-greenhouse-gas-emissions

The climate doesn’t care about per capita obviously.

I guess partisanship blinds even otherwise intelligent people to logic and makes them repeat nonsense.

The climate "cares" about cumulative emissions. On that score the US is by far the leader. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/cumulative-co-emissions It's not even close.

Pretend China is 20 countries. Each country now has lower emissions than the US. Anyone can play that stupid game. Give up the games, think about solutions. China is working hard. Are we?

Re: There is unequivocal evidence that Earth is warming (2024)

#230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The plan was always to put economic pressure on China to catch up to the rest of the developed world, but we can't exactly tell someone else to stop crapping their pants while we are still crapping our pants.

2030 is just around the corner. China has pledged to cap their CO2 emissions at 2030 levels. If they're trying to meet this goal, it would explain the thousands of new coal-fired plants they're building right now. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj4y159190go https://www.carbonbrief.org/chinas-construction-of-new-coal-...

They build new coal plants but those either replace old ones or are idle. Nearly 90% of all new electricity comes from solar and wind.
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