What capitalist industry and commerce has done just in the last three decades, pumping nearly a trillion tons of CO₂ into the air, has no precedent.
Never before in Earth’s history has so much carbon dioxide been added to the atmosphere over such a short period of time.
HEADLINE: Chemical analysis of natural CO₂ rise over the last 50,000 years shows that today's rate is 10 times faster
"The rate of CO₂ change today really is unprecedented," said Kathleen Wendt, assistant professor in Oregon State University's College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences. "Our research identified the fastest rates of past natural CO₂ rise ever observed, and the rate occurring today, largely driven by human emissions, is 10 times higher."
During the largest of the natural rises, carbon dioxide increased by about 14 parts per million in 55 years. The jumps occurred about once every 7,000 years or so. At today's rates, that magnitude of increase takes only 5 to 6 years.
Never in the whole history of Earth has so much CO₂ been poured into the atmosphere in such a short time.
Our rulers are literally conducting an insanely dangerous experiment, making it impossible for anyone to say with any certainty what will happen next. No one knows, because nothing like this has ever been done before.
I just can't believe the conversation going on under this post.
Folk seem to believe everything is going to just continue as it is. They are arguing about party politics, as if the human-tolerant biome were not collapsing around us.
If you're so concerned about what, for instance, big oil is doing, I'm confused about why you're not advocating in a visible way for the defeat of Donald Trump.
Oh -- I forgot. Once we put the binary goggles on, there's no such thing as incremental progress. Only good guys/bad guys. Only evil capitalists/ degrowthers. Simple world.
Part we never seem to talk about:
You WANT things to get worse.
Do correct me if I'm wrong about that, though. By supporting #Biden.
Yeah, you and Trotsky and Kirov. Big system change guys. The Long March. That always works. Never backfires. Never takes the very progressives who put themselves at the front of the march right into the abattoir.
"De-growth" = Marxism through the fucking back door.
If you were intellectually honest (which I realize is asking a lot of a Marxist) you'd reference "Marxist" and "Marxism" every time you cued up the scary music for the terms "capitalist"and "capitalism."
That way people could decide for themselves which "system" (another scary-music word) is objectively, historically the more terrifying.
At the dark skyscraper where all the capitalists get together and plot their evil strategies to ensure "growth is sustained"? Possibly that's not how it works in the real world
All this rhetorical posturing over (cue scary 🎵) "growth" objectives of some monolithic Sauron-like entity called "capitalism"=BS
It's like asking how left-handedness should adapt. Fine. By paying massive taxes/fines, or going to jail, when left-handedness moves the needle the wrong way
Billionaires in NYC literally have a group chat they used to pressure the mayor into deploying police against university student protesters but go off about how it’s absurd to think capitalists collude with each other.
@YusufToropov@breadandcircuses I don't want things to get worse, but I don't think things will get better with either candidate. Trump will just make things get worse a little faster.
So - called "environmentalists" who pretend that it doesn't make any difference whether we have a president who is openly indebted to the tune of one billion dollars to big oil so they don't have to deal with climate crisis realities -- are not environmentalists. They are ideologues.
@YusufToropov@breadandcircuses I've been a conservationist since the 1980s. Things have just continued to get worse under every democratic administration, including the last four years, so I'm not sure why you think they will magically improve under a second Biden administration. I mean, oil and gas lobbyists still have way more influence than we ever will because of $$ (hello Willow Project). I don't want Trump to win because he's a fascist but i have no illusions about Biden.
I said people who are genuinely concerned about the environment will choose the Biden administration over a man who has asked publicly and without shame for a billion dollars in exchange for letting oil companies do whatever the hell they want for the next four years.
And I said people who don't see any moral imperative in the current presidential election are not environmentalists. They are ideologues.
@YusufToropov I don't even understand what you are trying to defend here. The OP literally mapped out what has happened during the last 30 years, all within the political framework you have over there. Believing that there will be any type of change by vote is immensely laughable.
@antics@YusufToropov@Jennifer@breadandcircuses The OP decided to agree on the general point with the person you are scolding about 17 hours before you scolded them, but here you are, scolding them anyway.
Operating in atrociously bad faith, with no interesting in hearing what people actually say or believe because he’s more interested in attacking his fantasy strawman? Yeah, Yusuf is a clown.
@HeavenlyPossum@MisuseCase@Jennifer@antics@RD4Anarchy
I try very hard to be patient with those who disagree with what I post or who might be argumentative or who are misinformed. Often my first impulse is to rage-block but I want to rise above that. Still, if I am convinced that someone is just trolling and/or outright lying, then they'll get the heave-ho. Right now Yusuf is teetering on the edge... @YusufToropov
@breadandcircuses@HeavenlyPossum@MisuseCase@Jennifer@antics@RD4Anarchy@YusufToropov I gotta say I'm impressed with your conviction, but the fact that the person calls you a fake environmentalist & saying your just an "ideologue" sound like a personal attack that I wouldn't be surprised if he says that to every other climate scientists, who challenges his views. Is really sad how people are willing to sacrifice so many people's livelihood for the sake of "protecting" a political party's reputation.
@Outersider@breadandcircuses@HeavenlyPossum@MisuseCase@Jennifer@antics@RD4Anarchy@YusufToropov
Yusuf made a legitimate point but then went off into sel-defeating insults and name calling.
The point I agreed with: there will be a US Administration after this one, headed by either the proven pos who would destroy the planet if paid enough, or the current POTUS who leans in the correct direction. In a second term with a cooperative Congress he will be no worse, likely far better. Vote!
“Oil production has soared on public lands under Biden, growing by roughly 530,000 barrels a day since 2020. The country is currently producing more oil every year than any country in history, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.”