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Earth is warming faster. Scientists are closing in on why (2024)

economist.com

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Re: Earth is warming faster. Scientists are closing in on why (2024)

#51

Post by realusername »

alkonaut wrote: post #46
nxm wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean China and India which are building coal power plants at record pace as we speak.

While they do, 2025 was also the first year that the fraction of coal dropped in both China and India. In india it dropped by 3% and in China by 1.6%. So they build out fossil, but they build out non-coal power faster. China also hopes to peak coal in absolute terms by 2030. That's something at least.

Unfortunately, the environnement doesn't work with percentages but raw emissions

Re: Earth is warming faster. Scientists are closing in on why (2024)

#52

Post by bluescrn »

Johnny_Bonk wrote: post #4

Looks like comments are being deleted on here... the climate change denial crowd is only growing :/

A lot of it isn't 'climate change denial', it's more a realisation that we don't have realistic solutions, especially while humans continue to do what they always do - fight wars over territory/resources/religion.

May people on HN might have home solar, a heat pump, and a shiny new EV, but expensive green tech that's limited to the middle-class and up in the wealthiest countries isn't going to make much of dent in global emissions.

Re: Earth is warming faster. Scientists are closing in on why (2024)

#54

Post by red75prime »

letmetweakit wrote: post #32
rwyinuse wrote: post #25

The good news is that this pretty much proves we can somewhat slow down climate change by spraying certain chemicals into the air. Obviously it would be better to limit co2 emissions radically, but that's not going to happen thanks to the idiots who rule America these days. The prospect of geoengineering is the only thing which gives me some hope for the future.

I’m far from being an expert but geoengineering gives me the shivers. Dumping boatloads of chemicals into the atmosphere, a lot can go wrong.

Fortunately, we have volcanoes that were doing it in an uncontrolled manner for a long time. I think we have survived.

Re: Earth is warming faster. Scientists are closing in on why (2024)

#55

Post by PunchyHamster »

azan_ wrote: post #33
estearum wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should do some reading on why there are few actual climate scientists pushing this idea, and instead it’s mostly people with totally unrelated backgrounds like marketing or economics.

Why is that? Could you say something more?

Interacting with complex systems produces complex side-effects.

And ecosystem is complex enough that we can't really predict those side-effects before they happen and they can make other things worse.

Just spraying random stuff that happens to work on paper is equivalent in subtlety to electroshocking patient to fix their mental issues.

That is not to say it is not possible, but on top of being expensive it would require a lot of care to not make stuff get worse in other ways.

Re: Earth is warming faster. Scientists are closing in on why (2024)

#56

Post by briantakita »

bfrog wrote: post #53

[flagged]

Mr Claude is already on it. He wrote an article titled "How Climate Change Affects the Behavior of Pet Hamsters and How Paying Carbon Taxes Can Help". Game changer!

https://claude.ai/share/cc12416b-723a-45af-ba13-4f342b005dd3

Re: Earth is warming faster. Scientists are closing in on why (2024)

#57

Post by PunchyHamster »

mosura wrote: post #49
orson2077 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good lord, read Termination Shock by Neil Stephenson. Stratospheric aerosol injection is effective, but comes with severe risks, and can even be used as a strategic weapon (e.g. inject your sulphur over X and disrupt the monsoon in the Punjab, fucking their agriculture).

Careful now, that is dangerously close to admitting weather manipulation has been known about and possible for decades, and not merely a conspiracy.

it has been known and done many times in open, what you're on about ?

Re: Earth is warming faster. Scientists are closing in on why (2024)

#58

Post by fenwick67 »

rwyinuse wrote: post #25

The good news is that this pretty much proves we can somewhat slow down climate change by spraying certain chemicals into the air. Obviously it would be better to limit co2 emissions radically, but that's not going to happen thanks to the idiots who rule America these days. The prospect of geoengineering is the only thing which gives me some hope for the future.

Sulfates are not good to spray into the air, they are bad for you

Re: Earth is warming faster. Scientists are closing in on why (2024)

#60

Post by jakkos »

nxm wrote: post #36
rwyinuse wrote: post #25

The good news is that this pretty much proves we can somewhat slow down climate change by spraying certain chemicals into the air. Obviously it would be better to limit co2 emissions radically, but that's not going to happen thanks to the idiots who rule America these days. The prospect of geoengineering is the only thing which gives me some hope for the future.

You mean China and India which are building coal power plants at record pace as we speak.

Per capita, China and especially India emit far less CO2e than the US.
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