The dismaying reality is that it is driven by the wealthy. I got rid of my car, I shop local, and everything in the home is low emissions. No reduction in my personal life can ever offset the way they live.

No duh, because not a single country has made any real attempt to lower their citizens' emissions.

It will take sacrifice from all of us to stop warming.

Forget 1.5°C, honestly, forget 2°C as well, keeping it under 3°C is likely the best that we can hope for right now. You're needing to throw out our gas-based car infrastructure, reduce our reliance on jets as much as possible, lower not just meat consumption but also almonds/alfalfa/etc., and that is just to get started.

Really, I don't see the average voter letting that happen. What's going to happen is eventually, sometime 30-40 years from now, a heat wave is gonna thrash the Middle East, consistent 130°F days for a solid month, 100,000 people dead, and the very next year planes will be in the air, making clouds to block the sun.

We are not ready to give up the things that the developed world will have to give up to truly back away from this coming apocalypse.

I mean, over the years I've heavily reduced my meat intake, am super conscientious about transportation (haven't flown in a decade, keep my revs low when I drive, and try to get all my errands done in efficient ways as to minimize gas usage), turn off lights, ration my hot water usage, don't eat out at wasteful restaurants, buy "ugly" produce from the grocery store, promote renewable energy solutions whenever possible, compost, recycle, and create extremely little garbage. Yet, at my work, several of our AC generators that we use to power the facility use more oil in one day than my car does in its entire lifetime. Several handfuls of billionaires and their families emit the same amount of carbon as the poorest 66% of humanity. Seems to me, if we want to solve climate change, we have to get rid of the biggest polluters first, then transition to clean energy.

I wonder if I'll be alive for the moment everyone goes from "This is bullshit and I'm going to ignore it" to "Oh no who could have seen this coming?"

The fact is that this was a conscious choice, even recently. The switch to natural gas that everyone is touting is one that is designed to cause higher short-term emissions.

Methane is really bad over a 20-year time frame and only really lets natural gas equal coal over a 100-year period (assuming typical fugitive emissions rates). The transition from coal to natural gas is accelerating the rate at which we boil ourselves alive.

Being vegan is the most impactful change that individuals can make.

But we won’t change.

It is totally hopeless.

This will disproportionately effect the poor and developing countries, so the thinking of elites and super rich is that there's still plenty of time to rectify the situation.

Yes but they're paying for an already protected forest to be protected, so it balances out right?

Fortunately the EU is making that kinda advertisement illegal

It's China generating all the pollution. Their 'reported' emissions are 13.7 billion metric tons versus the US's 5.9 billion. And 90% of China's fuel consumers are private, one-off shuttles that don't even report their emissions. US is contributing a tiny fraction of global emissions and it's falling. Yes, US industrialized earlier and has contributed more in total, but we can't time travel, we have to look at who is emitting NOW. China's emissions are rising and nobody there cares to put a cap on it. You want to stop the world from cooking? Talk to China.

Edit: it’s odd how many tankies are on lemmy. Obviously we should take steps ourselves to stop emissions too but China is the world’s true problem when it comes to emissions. US has been steadily falling while China is rising rapidly and that’s only what’s actually reported

didn't we pass the point of no return like 10 years ago

Eh, humanity had a good run I guess

And my cousins are having kids. 🤦