
Climate change: 12 years to save the planet? Make that 18 months - open-source-ux
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-48964736
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Havoc
It's always ~12 months away.

It was 5 years ago and will be in 5 more years.

I've got a strong suspicion that it's game over already. Perhaps various
grades of game over still exist.

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reallydude
It's 18 months because of upcoming UN meetings. Which means nothing, so it's
making an alarmist headline to tie to a story, which has no bearing on the
reality. The UN can't keep humans from slaughtering each other, so what chance
at "Saving the planet", for whatever that means?

~~~
WalterSear
The UN was created to do one job: prevent World War III. Everything else it
has done is a bonus.

~~~
rcMgD2BwE72F
But the climate/energy crisis might very well lead us to World War III, still.

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stirlo
These sensationalist “Climate Emergency” articles and protests actually
undermine the core arguments for climate change action. It’s obvious no matter
how much political will we will be unable to make a 45% cut in 18 months.

In the end these deadlines will come to nothing as technology advances and we
develop novel solutions like a space based sun shield (launched by SpaceX
starhopper?), seeding oceans to grow carbon absorbing algae, nuclear fusion,
and new energy storage solutions. Just like “peak oil” and “global food
shortages” predicted decades ago.

Also never mind we have an excellent solution to carbon emissions in nuclear
power but the same green left protesters oppose it too.

~~~
mavhc
Solar power will come online faster than nuclear anyway, just need to make
100x more solar panels per year to have solar for all energy usage in a few
years. Seems to take 10 years to build nuclear power plants. Store excess
power in batteries or convert to chemicals. There's enough gas in the gas
pipes of the world for days of energy.

~~~
Kaiyou
To make solar panels certain materials are needed, which we do not have an
abundance of. There's also limited space as to where to put them. On the other
hand, if there weren't as many people consuming energy, we wouldn't need as
much. But killing off 95% of humanity is unethical, after all.

~~~
mavhc
Only needs a small area compared to the size of the planet.

As for mining certain minerals, seems like it's mostly economics, we've only
mined 1% of places after all.

~~~
Kaiyou
Humans don't only live on a small area, so how do you get the generated
electricity to where the humans live? And what if someone attacked this small
area? Seems like a bad idea.

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tunesmith
Pretending that the US could solve it single-handedly, and it were dispersed
among every US citizen, what would that look like? Is that just about buying
carbon offsets from non-profits that plant trees?

I'm tired of "we gotta do something", I want to know what to do and what the
math implies in terms of personal responsibility. Carbon neutral or carbon
positive behavior.

~~~
mavhc
Switch to electric everything (heating/cooling/transport) and buy renewable
electricity. Stop eating meat. Stop buying stuff you don't really need.

~~~
tunesmith
I don't doubt that that is necessary, but I'm not sure that would be
sufficient. Like, if everyone in the US switched to electric heat/cooling and
went vegetarian, does that make up for China, India, and Africa?

I feel like I want a Drake equation for climate. Number of petawatt hours /
year, number generated by fossil fuels, how much it needs to decrease (or have
its growth slowed) to reach 1.5 degrees by whenever... but something simple
that larger amounts of people can understand.

~~~
Glench
Some numbers from Saul Griffith at Otherlab:

Decarbonizing with massive electrification will bring about a new American
abundance. [https://medium.com/otherlab-news/decarbonization-and-
gnd-b8d...](https://medium.com/otherlab-news/decarbonization-and-
gnd-b8ddd569de16)

How do we decarbonize? We don’t need a miracle. Everything we need to solve
climate change is already here. [https://medium.com/otherlab-news/how-do-we-
decarbonize-7fc2f...](https://medium.com/otherlab-news/how-do-we-
decarbonize-7fc2fa84e887)

Green New Deal: How much does fixing climate change cost the US? A real-world
argument with numbers you can check for yourself.
[https://medium.com/otherlab-news/green-new-deal-how-much-
doe...](https://medium.com/otherlab-news/green-new-deal-how-much-does-fixing-
climate-change-cost-the-us-d542bb9e67c8)

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mavhc
Hottest days ever recorded in half of Europe, but no reason to panic, right?

I assume everyone realises that we're going to die, and we're too stupid to
spend 5% of GDP on fixing it, which is why the world's gone a bit crazy.

~~~
stirlo
The problem is the world won’t end, it simply changes, for every piece of land
in a Bangladeshi river delta that gets flooded there’s a piece of Siberia
where the permafrost will melt and become fertile farming ground.

~~~
kennywinker
Assuming we don’t have runaway warming. There’s a lot of co2 locked up in that
permafrost. When siberia gets too hot, where do we go after that?

~~~
mavhc
Seems like everything about the Earth is a positive feedback loop for global
warming.

    
    
      More ice melting, less reflection
      More ice melting, more methane released
      Co2 released from soil
      Less rain, less amazon rainforest
      More forest fires
      More deserts
      Clouds changing
      More water vapour
    

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change_feedback](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change_feedback)

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mistrial9
In case you want a pointer to thorough, well-written material on real things,
you can look for the State of California 2017 Climate Plans.. e.g.

[http://resources.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/DRAFT-
Saf...](http://resources.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/DRAFT-Safeguarding-
California-Plan-2017-Update.pdf)

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malvosenior
Hyperbole like this is not helpful. The planet will be fine in 19 months and
everyone will just crank the "boy who cried wolf" factor up a couple of
notches. Also, this is a statement by Prince Charles of all people, might as
well have Taylor Swift chime in while we're at it.

This who discussion needs to be reframed. "The planet" is not ending. Humanity
is not ending. We will survive. The ability to do so will rely on innovation
as it always has. The media stoking the fires of fear with pure clickbait
isn't helping the situation at all.

~~~
mavhc
It's ok, only millions will die, not billions?

Then mass migration as crops and water supplies fail, leading to xenophobia,
racism, riots. Already started.

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taylorlapeyre
What can the average person do to help? The scale of the problem sometimes
seems so large that it's impossible to imagine how one person riding a bike or
purchasing "green" energy from PG&E can really have an impact.

How can one person have a bigger impact on such a global-scale issue?

~~~
stirlo
Looking around me it seems to be stand in the street, hold a sign, block
traffic and mess up everyone’s day...

Or we could continue to be agile and innovate like humanity and technology has
always done.

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abootstrapper
This is not an “innovation” problem. We know how to solve climate change. It
is a policy and funding problem. It is a political problem. We need more
protests!

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Brakenshire
It’s 12 years to zero carbon if we want to keep below 1.5C, without assuming
massive removal of carbon from the atmosphere from the mid century. Obviously
this doesn’t stand much chance of happening, but it gives you an idea of the
scale of the challenge.

The Paris cuts are very much within our ability to do, and likely without
damaging the economy, although of course some special interests with holdings
in fossil fuels will lose their money. That’s a good start, even if it ends up
being 2-3C that’s infinitely better than the alternative.

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brogrammer5
It's just the Earth's immune system finally kicking in. We need to stop
fighting against nature and start working along with it. We cannot sustain
ourselves without this planet and we're not going to find a replacement
anytime soon.

The intelligence that makes a seed grow into a flower is the same intelligence
that will protect the Earth from these insane beings who live on its surface.

~~~
nathanaldensr
Anthropomorphizing Earth does not do anyone any good. It's not a living
creature, nor does it contain a single "immune system."

~~~
brogrammer5
If an organism were 'alive', self-sustaining and fully conscious in space what
would that look like?

