Topic: Climate Change Discussion Thread (perhaps the most important topic of our times)

@OwlHighway1Revisited Summers are too hot, winters are too cold.

Would somebody please think of our future children?

@Magician fair point

@jump Oh quite, the fate of 'the planet' isn't in much doubt - it would take some going to actually blow it to pieces, so it's likely to go on spinning and orbiting through space for quite some time, but I really don't think anyone who's ever put any real thought into these issues has thought otherwise - it's really stating the obvious to say that the planet will be here regardless.

The people who chant 'save the planet' are just bandwagon jumping moms that want to 'do the right thing' but perhaps haven't thought about the detail that much.

And yeah, I thought about acknowledging the 'different era' contextual aspect, but couldn't be bothered

While they are technically, I think that we won't have to worry about dwindling reserves for a really long time, because the total reserves of any mineral or material are so damn large. New technologies are constantly being discovered that allow us to extract various reserves that previously couldn't be done so economically (an example being fracking for oil and gas), delaying the "peak" over and over again. In the future, we may be able to extract lithium, uranium etc economically from the sea, thus accessing a supply that could last us thousands of years.

@OwlHighway1Revisited Can you tell us why you were made? 😜

@gcunit I would, but last I checked the site doesn't like it when I talk about God.

Lads, it’s easy enough to ignore the thread if you’re not interested in the topic so there’s no need for emo death talk.

*edit this made more sense before other people’s posts were deleted.

@jump grand idea

It's in the title. It's one of the, if not the most important topic of our times. It's an urgent matter that lives in humanity's consciousness. What will become of us, of this situation? Can we change our ways? Will we make it?

These are historic times. The least we can do is give it a bit of our time and attention. Otherwise it's like you lived next door to Woodstock and never went out to take a peek. Sorry was too busy watching tv.

The question'll be: where were you? What did you do? If we're not doing our part, if we choose to ignore the problem and indulge in distraction, we become part of the problem. That doesn't mean we can't live our lives or enjoy life. But we can also do our part. Which, amongst other things, can be what we're doing right now: talk about it.

It's time for humanity to step up to the plate. If not, the consequences will be grave. They already are. Fortunately, in every crisis lies an opportunity for change. As Al Gore puts it, a lot of good stuff is happening. But more needs to be done.

Edit: on topic, just came across this game on itch io: https://molleindustria.itch.io/green-new-deal-simulator

@F-ZeroX I'll start using more paper products then, and not litter.

(I'm not trying to sound sarcastic, I just don't know what to do)

I think this threads fair because it’s talking about the planet, personally that’s why I thinks it’s harmless to have it on here. Now this might make me sound like a fat hypocrite down the line but this is how I feel about it now lol

and if you got nothing nice to say, don't say/post anything.

if anyone needs me I'll be in the chit-chat thread getting toasty

We're all in this together. Humanity has to think solutions and work together to resolve this. Like a brotherhood. Good things can come from this. For one humanity now has planetary consciousness and awareness of interconnectedness of ecosystems and our deep reliance and connection to nature. And as Al Gore points out, a lot is being done already by many people around the world. But he's calling out the ones who are actively working against us (and got us here in the first place), which is necessary. I mean, life is at stake here.

@OwlHighway1Revisited Hey, every bit of effort counts man 👍. In a hyper capitalistic, individualized society, perhaps the biggest thing we can do as citizens is moderate our consumption. Buy less stuff (a lot of which we don't really need or use much), use your stuff for a longer period of time before replacing it. That and setting up platforms of sharing, lending and cooperation.

There's a lot of neighborhood initiatives like 'repair cafes' where people can come for small repairs to household appliances, bikes and such, which are otherwise still functional. Or sharing a car or things like gardening tools amongst neighbors, so you don't all have to buy everything individually. This brings down the cost of living (which is currently a problem) and also, perhaps more importantly, reconnects neighborhoods, which is like medicine in a time of polarization and loneliness epidemic. Get to know your neighbors again, make new friends.

Taking care of nature and each other means disconnecting from a lifestyle which is destructive, has no future and leaves us burnt out and depressed. I dunno bout you guys but I'm done chasing the carrot of always having to have the next best thing and being super successful in every aspect of your life. It's exhausting and leaves you feeling unhappy and inadequate. Lonely too cause we're all too busy and compete with each other rather than support.

Making a change doesn't mean super heavy work, giving up everything or suffering. It can be an enriching and rewarding experience and is in fact necessary. It rekindles us with true values of life, like kinship, community, creativity, helping others and feeling supported yourself in turn. It fills our need for meaning and belonging and beings us back to a more natural way of life, from which we have strayed far only relatively recently, leaving us in crisis.

@F-ZeroX I'm young and able! I will do my best!

I feel like I need to add that the biggest lie they managed to tell us is that our input matters. All the campaigns environmental consciousness, telling us to save electricity, to recycle, not to be a bad consumer, it all has 1 goal in mind. To shift the blame to the people and AWAY from the industries that are actually responsible for 90% of the problem.

That way whenever things get worse they will always tell us that it's because the population, the humanity, the unblame'able masses did not do enough. And it will all amount to nothing.

Not to mention the fact that no matter what we do, china will pollute half of the world until they all drop dead there

@skywake Though I understand your point that technological innovation could probably minimize (or even restore) a lot of damage (done) in the future, I think the most important thing until then (as it always has been) is to focus on the first aspect of the Trias Energetica, that is, minimizing (energy) consumption. It is something each and everyone of us can do (to a certain degree of course) right here and right now.

@OwlHighway1Revisited Ganbatte (with the most positive meaning: "Do your best/good luck" in Japanese) - there are a lot of things you can do to minimize your environmental footprint and no, you don't have to do them all, and no, you are allowed to "cheat" or "make mistakes" or "be human", but thinking about it is already a good start and showing good will and intention to do something for Mother Gaia and her inhabitants that lies within your power is even better .
For example, I have stopped eating fish and meat for years now, I do a lot of my groceries at local farms and stores for they come without packaging, at the moment I am building a small tiny house on wheels from mostly secondhand or biobased materials and I am a volunteer at an organisation called "Milieu Defensie" (something like Extinction Rebellion but with a slightly different approach) in the Netherlands, which focuses on convincing the biggest polluting companies of the Netherlands to change their ways of doing business.

@Princess_Lilly I both agree and disagree here. Yes, I think you are completely right that a lot of industries and bigger companies have an exorbitantly huge share in deliberately destroying a lot of the environment (hence my reason to do vollunteer work at Milieu Defensie, which focuses precisely on that point), but in my opinion there is also so much I, or better said we "the people" (sorry I am a fan of the band Muse and their new album "Will of the People" has really strenghted the fire in me to stand up and act more and more) can do (such as "fighting/nudging" those companies and industries to change), not that it will change everything (or anything at all in the long run - I did see a few others here talking about the planet living on without humans on it - which I completely understand), and especially not "overnight".

@jump Ahhh *****, was that also the place where they had that Triathlon between the turds...?

@Definitely-Not-Leon
To be blunt, if you want system wide change you need system wide change. It's not about individual responsibility and never has been. I mentioned technology as one of the biggest hopes as it's one of the biggest system wide pressures that's actually doing some heavy lifting

Sure, ultimately that ends up with more efficient consumption and, more importantly, shifting to cleaner sources of energy. But it's technology that allows that. As an example you could go out and tell people to get off mains gas. But that doesn't happen without heat pumps, solar hot water, induction cooktops etc being viable options. And you don't really negate the emissions until the grid has solar, wind, hydro, storage etc. Which energy companies are only moving to because the tech is getting cheaper

The biggest tools to fight this are technology, economics and government policy. All I'm saying is that the first one is the only one really motoring along ATM. The other two are mostly just moving in reaction to the first.... if at all....

digital or physical?

@skywake Hmmm, I rather have these kind of talks in real life, for it allows for a real dialogue and these are merely small fragments of all the stuff going through my mind and we can talk about, but that means I will need to use up a lot of energy to get to Australia (that is where you live right?), so that will have to wait until the technology can get me there without the usage of (a lot of) energy.

I just want to say this before I fall asleep, I am not sure if I said anything about individual responsibility (for example see my comment to Princess_Lilly on what Milieu Defensie is doing here in the Netherlands, but more importantly with my point about the focus on minimizing (energy) consumption I mean this system wide, that is, for example, on the one hand companies and industries need to stop creating an overflow of (mostly nonsensical and luxury) products (don't get me wrong, (even though I wish everyone in the world had access to at least primary goods and services) luxury products are okay, but things have gone way out of hand for a while now), while on the other hand people need to reduce the stuff they buy and use up all the time. This change in attitude/behaviour as I will call it might already do a lot in the here and now, without relying on any kind of new technology.

And again I agree with you completely that technology should evolve all the time (although a lot of technology has also facilitated to the problems we have nowadays), for it could probably sort out a lot of stuff in the future (I hope that one day humanity will create energy sources that are (almost) infinite (I am really looking forward to the results of what all those scientists from over the world are doing in France with ITER (nuclear fusing project)) or figure out how to prevent starvation or droughts, et cetera), but right now (and maybe it will never work) it is impossible to supply the whole world with technological innovations such as heat pumps, solar energy et cetera, for there is not enough material to build these, let alone people to install these...so again, technology will hopefully resolve a lot of stuff, but that will still take a lot of time, while changing behaviour of each and everyone could theoretically be possible right now (yes I know that it doesn't work like that, haha).

Let me use a small and simple example: 5 t-shirts in your closet is better for the environment than 10 t-shirts in your closet, that is something you could change right here, right now by giving away 5 of your t-shirts to other people and has everything to do with additude/behaviour and nothing with technology. But 1 t-shirt in your closet that will never rip and is able to change its form, size and colour is even better, but we do not have that...yet? Technology could give us a t-shirt like that, if that is the main focus of all the t-shirt scientists and companies in the world, but instead we have I don't know how many companies that make t-shirts (some better than others)? This also has something or maybe everything to do with behaviour and attitude, so to conclude, I still think in the here and now a lot can be won by focusing on minimizing (energy) consumption and changing attitude/behaviour, while technology should continue to evolve in the background to facilitate a better future . If technology could fix everything in the here and now, I would probably sign for that immediately, but as of now, I don't think (and sorry to sound doomy and gloomy) that will come quick enough for a lot of problems the world is facing right now (not saying that minimizing (energy) consumption will change that...).