Every single month in the last 12 months has broken temperature records for the respective month. For ocean surface temperatures - it's now a 14 month streak
If we choose to continue to add greenhouse gases to the atmosphere then 2023/4 will soon look like a cool year, in a similar way to how 2015/6 now appears
Yesterday I joined @ScientistRebellion and other climate movements in Helsinki to remind our leaders that climate action and protection of nature must be the centre of EU policies.
May has been the warmest month recorded in Finland, extreme climate events are happening world-wild, sea is rising forcing people to leave their homes...
I am baffled that people actually still believe buying an EV will not have an immediate positive impact on their family's monthly budget. And yes, I know the initial cost is out of many people's range, but I also know for a great many, it is in their range. So lets talk operating cost:
Case in point: Our EV is at the doctor getting rear end surgery (due to no fault of ours or its, insurance covered, yay).
We received a courtesy car we nicknamed "The Beast". It's a Dodge Journey. I figure one trip to work and back (160km) would probably cost $50. I was forced to use it today so I took the time-hit and drove it to the Transit park-and-ride 35km away instead.
It means leaving 15min early and getting home 45min later. But that's another topic...
What taking the bus does do immediately is saves me more than half the cost of fuel for The Beast.
A full 160km roundtrip in the EV is about $5 worth of electricity. $50 vs $5.
Fossil fuels? In this economy?
P.S. Oh ya, and you want to talk "range anxiety"? Not only is The Beast only good for around 200km on $50 of gas... that's almost half a tank! Which is not far from the EV on range. Sorry, I'll take the EV "anxiety" any day of the week!
En route to #Geneva to attend a #PhD jury at the Geneva #observatory, which is located near the French border outside Geneva.
Instead of renting a #car, as I used to do in the past, this time I’m renting… a bike to go from the station to my #hotel (about 16km away) and the diary to the observatory.
I have come to the conclusion that fighting directly against our capitalist rulers in an attempt to overthrow them will never succeed. They are too rich, too powerful, and completely unwilling to act rationally.
So our best choice now is to "be the change we want to see in the world," to demonstrate a better way of living. By doing that, we will also prepare ourselves and those we can involve in the effort to survive the coming collapse of modern industrial society and perhaps emerge from the rubble with a chance to help our species move forward.
My cup overflows with anger toward these lying, deceiving, murderous, oil and gas companies. So this morning, I did something I've never done before in hopes the people coming home from their long weekends in Tofino and Ucluelet get the message.
Theoretically, it is still possible that all the leaders of major governments could jointly choose to enact radical degrowth policies — but a realistic look at the world today makes it clear how unlikely that would be.
No matter how much we want it, how loudly we yell, or how hard we protest, I can’t see that happening.
So what’s the alternative?
Since I began posting regularly here at Mastodon a year and a half ago, many people have asked in comments: What can we do? What actions can we take?
My answer has always been that the most important steps you can take are personal and local. No, I don’t mean just lowering your carbon footprint, although of course that’s a good idea. I mean beginning to make the big changes now on a local level that are coming to us, sooner or later, whether we like it or not.
We must simplify. We will simplify, at some point, so why not start now? Be an example. Find others who want to change, and join with them. Build a community. Create co-ops, clothing and furniture exchanges, neighborhood gardens, seed libraries, tool libraries, and establish teaching and training sessions.
Develop systems of sharing resources — such as low-carbon transportation, small-scale solar or wind power, engineering know-how, financial assistance, medical expertise, and more. The possibilities are endless.
You can do this. We can do it. Together, we will change our world.
Rupert Read (@GreenRupertRead) was formerly part of Extinction Rebellion and is now co-director of the Climate Majority Project. Although I don’t agree with everything he wrote in the essay linked below, I do want to emphasize this piece of good advice…
When we are failed by our leaders, when the system fails, this does not absolve us from responsibility. On the contrary, everything is now at stake. If you care about anything at all, then whether you know it or not, you care about the climate crisis. For we are on track to have it sweep away all that we hold dear.
If you care about the arts, or about disability rights, or about your own children, then you care about this: for they will all, on a default setting, get swept away by the climate meltdown. So you must, at minimum, consider what you can do to change this situation, to avert or cope with this mother-of-all-threats hanging over us now.
How can you be most effective in the shared struggle for a future? If you are rich, it is probably by throwing your money into the ring (and thus, in due course, becoming not-rich). If you are in business, the raft of things that you ought to do starts with lobbying hard for government to regulate the business world more effectively, to reward ecologically sound behaviour, and end the race-to-the-bottom that competitive markets otherwise create.
For teachers and academics, it is about teaching and researching the crisis, and communicating it lovingly and truthfully, supportively and efficaciously. For creatives, the way forward is somewhat similar: put your talents into helping imagine how we can get through this. Until we can see a path through what is coming, we are unlikely to get serious enough about building it.
For many people, the work will be to get seriously involved in climate-preparedness, in resilience-building in your community, as best you can. The beauty of such preparedness-building is not only its practical value, but its tendency to wake up others to the crisis.
Feeling small and relatively powerless does not absolve you. So long as you have any power or voice whatsoever, you are obliged to use it. You are not absolved by wondering if it is perhaps too late. Too late for what? Yes, it is way too late for a smooth ‘net zero’ transition, or for us to be able to stay in the climatic ‘safe’ zone.
It is too late for this civilisation to continue to exist. But it is not too late to co-create a new one; it is not too late to transform and adapt; and it is never too late to seek do the right thing in the place you find yourself.
Yesterday we learned how climate scientists feel about the looming existential threat of global climate change. They’re terrified. It’s obvious to them and it should be to us that the only rational option is to change course, quickly and decisively.
So, are we ready now to face some hard questions about what level of degrowth is actually necessary? To examine what that might look like, and how different it would be to live in a truly ecologically sustainable society?
Today I will devote an extended series of posts to the best description I’ve found yet about how severe our present situation is, and what we can and should do in the face of such daunting challenges. I’m going to excerpt heavily from a recent long article by Ted Trainer, an Australian academic, author, and advocate for degrowth. Trainer is a retired lecturer from the School of Social Work, University of New South Wales. He has written numerous books and articles on sustainability and is developing Pigface Point, an alternative lifestyle educational site near Sydney.
In the linked article, Trainer criticizes and debunks inadequate proposals such as the Green New Deal, along with the whole idea of ‘green growth’. He argues, however, that we must not only reject capitalism but also must recognize the inability of Marxism or even state-centered eco-socialism to make all the necessary changes that could avert societal collapse and global catastrophe.
This is a brief introduction. Eight separate posts will follow soon…
ARTICLE TITLE: A (Friendly) Critique of the Degrowth Movement
SUBTITLE: Sufficient degrowth cannot be achieved without enormous and radical transition to some kind of simpler way.
THEME: The recent spread of degrowth is encouraging — however, the movement is founded on a number of confusions and mistaken initiatives. This is understandable given its early stage, and can be regarded as a healthy exploring of possibilities. The literature welcomes pluralism, but we should try to find unifying directions.
Major bad #ClimateCrisis news just published in today's #Guardian - "Exclusive: Planet is headed for at least 2.5C of heating with disastrous results for #humanity poll of hundreds of scientists finds - World’s top #climate scientists expect #GlobalHeating to blast past 1.5C target.
Hundreds of the world’s leading climate scientists expect global temperatures to rise to at least 2.5C (4.5F) this century, blasting past internationally agreed targets and causing catastrophic consequences for humanity and the #planet, an exclusive Guardian survey has revealed.
Almost 80% of the respondents, all from the authoritative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( #IPCC), foresee at least 2.5C of global heating above preindustrial levels, while almost half anticipate at least 3C (5.4F). Only 6% thought the internationally agreed 1.5C (2.7F) limit will be met."
Numerous experts said they had been left feeling hopeless, infuriated and scared by the failure of governments to act despite the clear scientific evidence provided.
“I think we are headed for major societal disruption within the next five years,” said Gretta Pecl, at the University of Tasmania. “[Authorities] will be overwhelmed by extreme event after extreme event, food production will be disrupted. I could not feel greater despair over the future.”
I am incredibly proud of the whole @ProtectEarthUK team and all of our supporters for planting over 100,000 trees in three short years, especially because the first year was only about 4,000!
We do so much more than plant trees (wildflowers, hedgerows, invasive removal, net regen/colonizarion, etc), but as that was our first metric it’s lovey to see the number go up so quickly.
"UN expert attacks ‘exploitative’ world economy in fight to save planet"
...
"It has driven me crazy in the past six years that governments are just oblivious to history" - Outgoing special rapporteur David Boyd says ‘there’s something wrong with our brains that we can’t understand how grave this is’"
...
"The race to save the #planet is being impeded by a global #economy that is contingent on the #exploitation of #people and #nature, according to the UN’s outgoing leading environment and #HumanRights expert.
David Boyd, who served as #UN special rapporteur on human rights and the #environment from 2018 to April 2024, told the #Guardian that states failing to take meaningful #ClimateAction and regulating polluting industries could soon face a slew of lawsuits.
Boyd said: “I started out six years ago talking about the right to a healthy environment having the capacity to bring about systemic and transformative changes. But this powerful human right is up against an even more powerful force in the global economy, a system that is absolutely based on the exploitation of people and nature. And unless we change that fundamental system, then we’re just re-shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic.”
...
Boyd said: “The failure to take a human rights based approach to the #ClimateCrisis – and the #biodiversity crisis and the air #pollution crisis – has absolutely been the achilles heel of those efforts for decades.
... https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/07/un-expert-human-rights-climate-crisis-economy
If you're not supporting Joe Biden than you're on the same side as the oil & gas industry and there's no denying that.
Are you sure that's the team you want to be on?
“...the industry and its allies have continued to press the misleading talking point that Biden is engaged in war on oil and gas, reality is that he’s been trying to put forward some modest rules on the industry,” said Alan Zibel, an analyst at Public Citizen
It's crucial to support Joe Biden if you want #ClimateAction
A new Monmouth University poll, conducted on April 18-22 shows a 10-point decline in Americans who says climate change is a “very serious” problem, falling from 56 percent in September 2021 to 46 percent in April.
The Biden administration announced recently the first-ever proposed offshore wind lease sales in the Gulf of Maine and off Oregon's coast.
The two projects could generate enough clean energy combined to power 6 million+ homes. This is a very important development to our clean energy future. #ClimateAction
The man, Bill McKibben, got 'the news' almost the same time as #BigOil did.
But he reacted quite differently.
Besides an historical overview of #ClimateChange and his #ClimateAction
he has a #DireWarning about the warming and a clear #CallToAction
"Bill McKibben on Climate Crisis: How we got here and what we can do now" [9:39 min]
by Brief But Spectacular
Quote by BBS:
"22 apr 2024
Over forty years ago, the publication of ‘The End of Nature’ popularized a topic that was then largely unfamiliar to the general public.
The book’s author, Bill McKibben, brought the subject of global warming to light and has advocated for climate solutions ever since. In this #EarthDay special on environmental protection, he talks about the oil industry's PR campaign, how renewable energies can not only help the planet but also curb power abuse, and why global warming is an urgent matter that can only be solved if all generations work together.
To take action today, go to ThirdAct.org "
New York will be the first state to receive federal Inflation Reduction Act rebates for heat pumps and other climate-friendly appliances.
11 other states have filed applications to distribute IRA funding tied to energy-efficient appliances: Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington. #ClimateAction#BidenHarris
Blocking the industrial road would be an enormous victory for opponents who have argued for years that it would threaten #wildlife as well as #Alaska Native tribes that rely on hunting & fishing.
…The move comes as the #Biden admin tries to find a balance between 2 different & sometimes opposing goals.