World will look back at 2023 as year humanity exposed its inability to tackle climate crisis, scientists say
World will look back at 2023 as year humanity exposed its inability to tackle climate crisis, scientists say
The wealthy, who disproportionately wreck the environment across the whole globe, refuse to be less destructive.
Why is the blame placed solely on wealthy individuals? While they do bear a share of the responsibility, it's also important to consider the role of everyday citizens. The choices made by voters, such as supporting climate change deniers or prioritizing short-term economic growth over long-term environmental sustainability, play a greater role in shaping policies. It's unreasonable to blame the system when the existing checks and balances refuse to act.
I respectfully disagree. The powerful people (which have considerable overlap with the wealthy people in a Venn diagram) can set the narrative and potentially influence new policies, but their power comes mainly from those who follow them.
Pretty much everybody in the market for a new car could choose to buy one with a smaller engine - precious few people actually need a pickup or SUV with a V6 or even V8.
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Long-haul or intercontinental flights are mainly luxury items - even more so in a post-Covid world where pretty much any business can be done much more efficiently by video chat.
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Many, many things are thrown away that still work or could easily be fixed, but the replacement has this fancy new feature and really doesn't cost that much more, all things considered.
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etc.
These are all things that most common people could decide to do differently at no additional cost to them, but very few choose to do.
The same goes for new laws. If you* really care about the environment, you could just work on your environmental footprint out of your own free will instead of waiting for a law or regulation that forces you to. It's not like e.g. conserving energy is illegal until a new law makes it mandatory.
ETA: * 'you' in general, not the person I'm replying to specifically.
I also respectfully disagree with your argument. If someone were to walk into a known minefield and be killed by a mine, I would not consider that person deserving of their fate but would ask why they thought it was appropriate to walk into a known minefield and what may have influenced them to think that way. When we are considering people, including ourselves, we have to consider that we are dealing with limited information and biases. You are correct that the average person is probably making decisions that ultimately support the most destructive organizations on the planet, but why are they doing that? Do the people who financially support the companies most responsible for climate change have any real understanding of the consequences of their decisions, or is it more likely that they are influenced by the culture they live in and the information they are most commonly exposed to? If the latter case is more likely, who is responsible for creating that informational environment? I do not believe that anyone is a rational actor 100% of the time, so to me the blame lies with those organizations propagating information which is profitable to themselves in the short term and destructive to our species in the long term. Us humans aren't consciously making that decision by weighing all the variables; it is happening because the system we exist in which benefits our most powerful individuals primary rewards quarterly profit rather than the ultimate survival of humans.
I wouldn't say humanity.. It always seems like the same people causing issues, do it generally in a way that extends to this, ranging from making others feel less safe, to trying to actively trigger others
Don't get too lost in the dystopian side of things. It's easy to do, and yes, all indications are that we are in dire, dire straights.
Yes, we've been told we're at a turning point, many times over the last decade. A turning point from stability to anthropocentric doom. I choose to see it as a wake-up call. Scientists pointing out challenges is a sign we're paying attention, and the growing awareness among voters, even some I'm surprised at for their reasoning to care now, shows a shift in priorities. It's a chance to use this as momentum to push for effective policies and individual action, even if my (our) generation won't benefit and will likely suffer. We can make it better for who comes after, though, and it's worth a shot.
🤖 I'm a bot that provides automatic summaries for articles: ::: spoiler Click here to see the summary As historically high temperatures continued to be registered in many parts of the world in late December, the former Nasa scientist James Hansen told the Guardian that 2023 would be remembered as the moment when failures became apparent.
Rockstrom was among the authors of the 2018 “Hothouse Earth” paper, which warned of a domino-like cascade of melting ice, warming seas and dying forests could tilt the planet into a state beyond which human efforts to reduce emissions will be increasingly futile.
The new Brazilian scientific module Criosfera 2, a solar and wind-powered laboratory that collects meteorological information, measured the lowest extent of sea ice in the region both for summer and winter.
In early July, a Chilean team on King George Island, at the northern tip of the Antarctic peninsula, registered an unprecedented event of rainfall in the middle of the austral winter when only snowfalls are expected.
Forest fires burned a record area in Canada and Europe, and killed about 100 people in Lahaina on Maui island, the deadliest wildfire in US history, which happened in August.
Raul Cordero, a climate professor at the University of Groningen and the University of Santiago, said the effects of this year’s heat were being felt across South America in the form of unprecedented water stress in Uruguay, record-breaking fires in Chile, the most severe drought in the Amazon basin in 50 years, prolonged power shortages in Ecuador caused by the lack of hydropower, and increased shipping costs along the Panama canal due to low water levels.
Saved 82% of original text. :::
It’s not an inability. It’s an unwillingness.
Exactly, you need to at least try first before saying you can't do it. And we aren't moving a pinkie toe