When COVID isn't alarmist enough anymore, time to switch topics.
Climate change: IPCC report is 'code red for humanity'
691–700 of 1001 posts
Re: Climate change: IPCC report is 'code red for humanity'
#692Just. Tax. It. We have warmed the earth because we love comfort and money. We will never stop loving those things. So instead let's use the same systems to fix this (or at least slow things down). As an individual my largest carbon impact is air travel. I like to go places, it's one of the main things I work to afford. Every single plane ticket I take should have a tax which is used to offset or capture the carbon em…
>We will never stop loving those things Did we just tax tobacco? People loved tobacco. At some point, with the right information (e.g media not bought by big business), we can realize that things that are bad for us are just bad for us. We can avoid telling us that and have someone take money from our wallet to prevent us from buying the things that kill us, but why not just better inform ourselves about the way we'r…
I'm not sure tobacco is a good comparison here. Tobacco was a relatively easy thing to tax/restrict/ban as it serves no real purpose beyond individual enjoyment.
Re: Climate change: IPCC report is 'code red for humanity'
#693Earlier quoted context omitted.
This. A 200% value-added tax on fossil fuels that rises by 10% every year would provide the capital. EDIT: To clarify, this is not a suggestion to raise capital from the tax as much as it's to raise capital from the use of fossil fuels. It's a suggestion for an increasingly punitive financial cost to force behavioural changes.
We have an infinite money printing machine. We don't need access to any capital. That's not what the carbon tax is about. We need to change behavior. We need everyone that uses carbon to pay for its use (including the externalities) so that they stop using it as much as they are. This is why poor people can't be exempt. This is why the rich can't just pay for it. We all need a massive increase in the cost of everythi…
> We need to change behavior. We need everyone that uses carbon to pay for its use (including the externalities) so that they stop using it as much as they are. This is why poor people can't be exempt. This is why the rich can't just pay for it. We all need a massive increase in the cost of everything that touches carbon (read everything)
This is a pro-climate and anti-human policy. Do you care more about human beings or the amount of CO2 in the air?
There are still billions of people who have no electricity. Let's get them closer to our standard of living before we make everything more expensive for them.
Re: Climate change: IPCC report is 'code red for humanity'
#694We bought an expensive washing machine 3 years ago thinking it will last us a long time. It already broke down twice. It's been broken for almost a month now waiting for parts and whatnot. There's a good chance we'll have to get another one. Does Electrolux/AEG care? No. They don't care about the environment, their only obligation is to their shareholders. But frankly neither do I anymore. Next time, I'll buy the che…
A handful of corporations are responsible for the vast majority of warming. It's not our fault, it's theirs. They did it, and they knew they were doing it. Any individual action may make you feel good but it does nothing to address the problem.
Re: Climate change: IPCC report is 'code red for humanity'
#695Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It’s just so hard to know what actions have what impact on CO2 production Not really. For some reason the actually quite simple problem is needlessly complicated in the discussions. Stop digging up ANY carbon from below ground where it was safely buried. Any carbon above ground is part of the cycle that includes atmospheric CO2. You need huge effort to change how much of it is in CO2 form at any time while still ha…
Ah, so we just eliminate low-cost transportation, agriculture, textiles and consumer goods and consequently starve billions of people. A modest proposal for such an ill-specified problem with unfalsifiable causes. I like it.
It’s only low cost to you because you are making other people pay most of the costs. It’s a good trick.
Re: Climate change: IPCC report is 'code red for humanity'
#696The internet causes around 5% of global carbon emmissions. It's invisible, and difficult to measure, so little gets done about it. But if you're a developer who wants to help. Check out: https://sustainablewebdesign.org/ Pretty much all the solutions to making a greener web would make the web better in general. - Send less data (efficient video, images, fonts, etc) - Make fewer requests - Use a CDN (the greenest one…
Where's that internet @ 5% of global emissions number from? It sounds suspiciously high. Networking is not that energy intensive compared to stuff that goes on in data centers and end user devices. Mobile network base stations are pretty power hungry though.
edit: there's a near 5% number in here, but it's not about internet or global emissions: https://internethealthreport.org/2018/the-internet-uses-more... - was linked from your https://sustainablewebdesign.org/ page. It's a 2017 estimate from Greenpeace about how much energy ICT sector as a whole will use as a percentage of electricity consumption by now. So it didn't predict the 'net would produce 5% of global emissions, it predicted all of global ICT would use 5% of all electricity - a much wider slice of a much smaller pie that also includes a lot of renewables and nuclear.
Re: Climate change: IPCC report is 'code red for humanity'
#697Just. Tax. It. We have warmed the earth because we love comfort and money. We will never stop loving those things. So instead let's use the same systems to fix this (or at least slow things down). As an individual my largest carbon impact is air travel. I like to go places, it's one of the main things I work to afford. Every single plane ticket I take should have a tax which is used to offset or capture the carbon em…
The problem is, just taxing CO2 emissions doesn't let you control who gets hit by the price increases. It could very well lead to increases in food and transportation costs that would be disproportionately burdensome to the poorest part of the population. Raising the cost of those items is politically very unpopular since it tends to cause unrest.
So I think what we'll get instead is some complex system of first taxing everything and then subsidizing some forms of consumption (again, food and transportation), while trying to incentivize switching over to renewable energy sources.
Re: Climate change: IPCC report is 'code red for humanity'
#698So now we can get rid of fast fashion, mandate reusability for products, reintroduce basic woodworking, metalcrafting and sewing/repair work in school and with that get rid of a huge chunk of the needless shipping? Or are we still going to go after individuals eating traditional food while thought leaders fly across the globe in private jets (no kidding) telling us we need to change our diet? PS: I'm already a enthus…
I think we should do neither. Impose a co2 emissions tax and let the market figure it out.
This is suicidal.
Re: Climate change: IPCC report is 'code red for humanity'
#699There's a chart in the article from the IPCC report showing observed vs simulated global average temperature changes. How are the scientists making these models guarding against overfitting?
I am not a climate change skeptic - I am simply asking an honest question that I don't know the answer to (which will be useful for dispelling the common argument that I hear some of my friends make). I also shouldn't have to place this kind of disclaimer in my post in the first place.
Re: Climate change: IPCC report is 'code red for humanity'
#700Just. Tax. It. We have warmed the earth because we love comfort and money. We will never stop loving those things. So instead let's use the same systems to fix this (or at least slow things down). As an individual my largest carbon impact is air travel. I like to go places, it's one of the main things I work to afford. Every single plane ticket I take should have a tax which is used to offset or capture the carbon em…
Carbon taxes disproportionately hurt low income people. Rich folks will still drive their cars, fly on jets, and use tons of energy in general. Carbon taxes also make your nation less competitive in a global economy. That’s not good when enemy states have zero compunction about using fossil fuels to overtake you economically and militarily. Carbon taxes also incentivize industry to move production to nations with little or no carbon tax. In general I find it extremely foolish to think that carbon taxes would be a good way of going about this.