Your parents ignored this

I've been hearing about climate change consistently since the 1980s. Multiple iterations of liberal (and moderate conservative) politician have campaigned on a variety of (free market) mechanisms for capping or curbing carbon emissions. We even had a huge surge in R&D for green energy alternatives and electrification - first in the 70s and then again during the gas cost explosion of the 00s - that is (thank fucking god) finally paying off.

So I won't say they "ignored this". I will say that we had a very wealthy, very influential minority entrenched within the political class that profited enormously from fossil fuel extraction and deliberately suppressed decades of prior efforts to reduce emissions, both domestically and globally.

The Boomers weren't blind to climate change. They weren't even apathetic. They were outmatched, outplayed, and outspent. Much like with slavery in the 1800s and women's liberation in the 1900s and human rights in the 2000s, this is a fight that liberals have spent a lot of time losing. What wins they achieved felt significant in the moment, but remained dwarfed by the stubborn intractability of their wealthy, reactionary opposition.

Finally, this is the first time I saw this graph that DIDN'T use logarithmic scale for time - which makes this sharp spike look "natural".

Sam Altman (OpenAI) is a Millennial. So is Zuckerberg. LLMs are one of the big energy sinks right now, reaching 1,000 terawatt-hours by 2026 and the current rate of use is doubling every year. For comparison, total global commercial (excluding industrial and transportation, so, office buildings - lights, AC, computers) energy use is 50,000 TWh.

It's still being ignored. Boomers are out of the work force (if not politics), and Gen X is just starting to retire. Between Millenials and Gen Z, they hold 32% of the voting power in the US, the same as Boomers. And Gen Z is only just entering voting age, at 8%.

Half the voting population is under 50 and global temperatures keep increasing. There's every indication sticking your head in the sand is a cross-generational behavior.

Not just ignored, but vehemently dismissed as “woke” quoting the fossil fuel lobby almost verbatim. Repeatedly. Over generations and overwhelming scientific consensus.

Did they ignore it? Yes but the only reason they ignored it was because...

1. The oil industry (and other adjacent industries) did their best to make sure everybody doubted the science of climate change

2. Governments (the U.S gov't in particular) took the oil industry's side and subsidized their ventures

3. Libertarian think tanks (like the Heritage Foundation and ALEC) took money from Big Oil to misinform the public about climate change and its connection to fossil fuel burning.

The average person hasn’t ignored it. Most people have made major changes to their consumption over the past 20-30 years without noticing it.

• LED lighting instead of incandescent or CFL lights.
• TVs are flat panel instead of tube (same for computer monitors)
• Electric cars are way more prevalent
• Most electronics use rechargeable batteries instead of single use
• Consumer goods contain fewer harmful chemicals

Change is being made, it’s just going too slow because individuals have very limited options while a handful of corporations are responsible for the vast majority of pollution. We’re not ignoring it, we lack the ability to make reasonable change to the situation.

Our parents didn't ignore it.

Our Governments, and the corporations who bribed those governments, just didn't give a shit enough to listen.

Next generation is going to post this map but with higher temps

AI is going to fix this by increasing the scale of the Y axis.

And people think I'm crazy for starting an algae farm... There is no quick fix. "Science will figure something out"

I am part of that science, and I can barely afford to scale beyond what I consider my carbon footprint.

narcimalgae on YouTube, although the algorithm killed it (500 to 6 views on my last video)so I may move to peertube soon.

At what point on this graph is ecoterrorism justified?

I may be nitpicking here but I think people are misinterpreting the caption.

They aren't directly saying, "your parents ignored this and now we're fucked"

It's saying, "IF your parents ignored this and you found out, you'd be mad"

Implying that, "YOU should not ignore this, because what will YOUR children think of YOU?"

A lot of people are focusing on saying "uh well my parents aren't to blame" or "they wouldn't understand" but that's not the point of the message.

I don't think this is gonna be a very popular response but here's my 2 cents after reading a lot of comments.

We are all products of out time. I'm not gonna blame ordinary people for believing what they were told when it was the general consensus at the time.

That doesn't excuse that behavior today. Today we know better.

But when my parents grew up, burning your garbage in the fire pit was considered recycling. It was the norm.

Today my parents and grandparents don't burn plastic in a fire pit. Because today we know better. But I don't think they ignored it 40 years ago. They just didn't know better.

Good thing we educate people on how to do what we can. Unfortunately, what individuals do doesn't matter much.

In school I did a project on climate change and in that research, I found that 1 single coal PowerPlant in Germany, released more co2, sulfur, monoxide and what not, in 1 month. Than every single registered vehicle in Sweden combined, does in a whole year.

So being a good citizen and taking my bike to the store and work instead of car (even during winter). Feels like a fart in the wind knowing that. Not to mention cargo-ships and what they use on international waters.

You dont understand. The poor billionairs need their money nowwww!

Relevant xkcd

People of every generation were told it doesn't matter and that it won't be a problem. With the advent of social media and associated algorithms, the village idiots are loud, organised and getting others to bark at the moon with them.

No you don’t understand.

Jesus.

That’s all, any questions will be met with a holy sword to the clavicle. Jesus!

And we're just meme posting ab it xD
At least our parents weren't pretending

Younger generations are ignoring it as well. They're busy blaming past generations, while they themselves are some of the biggest contributors to our current climate crisis.

Phew, looks like the industrial revolution just saved us from falling below the safe climate zone! /s

Wow, so nature was getting colder to give us a bit more room to make some extra heat and we beat that to death.

I was just thinking about the poor air quality today and yesterday here in the Midwest, and then I see this. I want to be hopeful we can change this in my lifetime, but I am also not optimistic.

This is my boomer dad whenever he complains about it being extremely hot in the summer, cold in the winter, too much rain, etc. Always responds well it won't last too long and that's just nature, nothing we can do about it because it has a mind of its own.

Hell yeah, bring back pangea. I want dragonflies the size of baseball bats.

The shopping realization for me is that I can't find this kind of graphs online with my average ass searching skills.

I can find linear graphs from the last 200 years or log graphs from the last 2000, but not what is show in this picture. No ship average joes think it looks natural, I'm convinced no one sees this graph, they see the shitty confusing ones. I bet many people don't have any idea what a log graph even is.

And what were they supposed to do other than go out and vote in their own best interest?

Economists are orgasming so fucking hard at this you wouldn't beliee