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We ARE fixing climate change! [1]

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Date: 2022-07-27

We are making progress despite everything.

I wrote this because of a comment I read which (paraphrased) said “humans will almost certainly be among the casualties of global climate change, and the biosphere will be better off without us”.

I feel this sentiment is entirely counterproductive in any discussion on climate change. No problem has ever been solved by essentially saying that there’s nothing we can do about it, or that things will be better if we fail to solve it and everyone dies as a result. And this may be blunt, but it needs to be said; if you don’t have anything that you can contribute to a discussion about a problem other than nihilist sentiments like the above, then you really have nothing to contribute to it. It’s better that you focus on problems that you can positively contribute to.

As for why I said that we are solving climate change, I believe it’s best to let Kurgesagt address that in his video below. I highly recommend that you watch the video in its entirety before commenting, but to summarize:

Trend lines (such as the total degree of heating and emissions) are looking much better than they did a decade ago; we are already most likely off the >4C path, for example, and most industrialized/industrializing countries have reduced or at least mostly flattened the curve on things like emissions.

Renewable energy has become much cheaper, enough so that much new power output comes from things like solar and wind. It’s almost a third of the total energy production of the world by now.

Because of these things, emissions are no longer tied to growth. Developing countries can therefore benefit from the advantages of industrialization without having to emit anywhere near as much in the process.

We still have a long way to go of course, but those things and more were achieved not only without political and financial support, but despite pushback from fossil fuel polluters and the politicians who profit from us doing nothing.

Hopelessness is understandable, but it causes people to feel they can do nothing, and that makes it easier for the people trying to delay necessary action to keep doing so. If we do not believe it is possible to deviate from an awful future where humanity is dust, we will fail to see or take the opportunities that still exist even today.

We are fighting an uphill battle, and while we are still a long way from winning it, we have made undeniable progress forward. The last decade may have felt like largely a waste, but it bears repeating: we made noticeable progress during that same decade despite the money poured into the fossil fuel industry and the efforts to delay or prevent alternatives .

We’ve most likely averted the worst case scenario of a 4+C world. Now it is our job to keep pushing to avert the next most likely scenario of a 3C world so we end up in a 2C one instead. Things are serious, even dire, but we are not doomed.

Thanks for reading (and watching the Kurzgesagt video) and please pass the word on. This is too important of a battle to allow ourselves to fall into the trap of hopelessly believing that we are doomed.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/7/27/2113037/-We-ARE-fixing-climate-change

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