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2024: Hottest year to date, and first year over 1.5ºC
(climateandcapitalism.com)
Discussion of climate, how it is changing, activism around that, the politics, and the energy systems change we need in order to stabilize things.
As a starting point, the burning of fossil fuels, and to a lesser extent deforestation and release of methane are responsible for the warming in recent decades:
How much each change to the atmosphere has warmed the world:
Recommended actions to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the near future:
Anti-science, inactivism, and unsupported conspiracy theories are not ok here.
I see so many people thinking that this isn't going to be a problem for them because they are thinking of heaters and AC and also that they'll probably die while it's still livable.
But meanwhile they put kids on this world, who will call our generations the worst people to have ever existed.
Despite what capitalism would have you believe, humans are part of nature. With the same effort that has allowed us to destroy nature faster than any other species, we can maintain or restore balance better than any other species. It makes as much sense to argue against the next generation of humans to "restore the ecosystem" as it makes sense to argue against the next generation of bees.
Let them call us, those born in the 20th century, the worst people to have ever existed. It's not far from the truth. But why let that stop us from doing the right thing: giving birth to them so they can fix this mess for future generations or die trying? Why let our shame deny the ecosystem the best chance at recovery?
Because living in a world with extreme weather events where you can't leave your house for weeks because of heat waves and never before seen storms, and possibly damage to your home(this has already happened where I live), where a home garden will die to heat waves, with constant shortages of food and water, is not a life I'd wish on my enemy, much less someone I love.
We are already starting to see more extreme heat waves and weather, we know it's happening, and we're drilling for more oil than ever, so the chances the next generation will suddenly start making big changes when the past two have done worse than nothing while being fully informed seems extremely unlikely to me. I'm pretty optimistic on most everything, but there is not a single sign pointing to this being resolved by humans within the next 100 years, if ever.
We at least didn't have kids, and I'll probably accidentally drink myself to death anyway.