this post was submitted on 07 Dec 2023
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Climate - truthful information about climate, related activism and politics.

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Discussion of climate, how it is changing, activism around that, the politics, and the energy systems change we need in order to stabilize things.

As a starting point, the burning of fossil fuels, and to a lesser extent deforestation and release of methane are responsible for the warming in recent decades: Graph of temperature as observed with significant warming, and simulated without added greenhouse gases and other anthropogentic changes, which shows no significant warming

How much each change to the atmosphere has warmed the world: IPCC AR6 Figure 2 - Thee bar charts: first chart: how much each gas has warmed the world.  About 1C of total warming.  Second chart:  about 1.5C of total warming from well-mixed greenhouse gases, offset by 0.4C of cooling from aerosols and negligible influence from changes to solar output, volcanoes, and internal variability.  Third chart: about 1.25C of warming from CO2, 0.5C from methane, and a bunch more in small quantities from other gases.  About 0.5C of cooling with large error bars from SO2.

Recommended actions to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the near future:

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[โ€“] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Great article with many different layers of solutions.

I'm not anywhere near zero waste and my habits are still very "traditional" and wasteful.

But, one thing I'd recommend everyone to spend 10 minutes at the transfer station watching people throwing stuff out of trucks and cars into the giant pile. Go to Goodwill outlet "the bins" and watch giant blue tubs of yesterday's clothes, shoes, cookware, furniture, tools, and appliances parade through their last appearance before being added to that pile. There's knowing and there's seeing. Experiences can work on you a lot more forcefully than words and big plans, just let it sink in and change your feeling toward buying everything new and buying disposables.

[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

I think that's a great recommendation. I really admire your admission of not being anywhere near zero waste. Me neither! But it's better to do better than do nothing. The zero waste movement can get quite fanatical, which is a turn off. Especially if it's about shopping for things to be zero waste with.

I don't do everything right, but I do bring my own bags. But it took years, and like any habit, and like you said, it's about feeling. I'd walk into a store, and it would start to feel weird if my hand is empty. If you forget to bring your bag today, bring it tomorrow. The feelings develop over time.

I know because I've switched recently to getting my bread and croissants in a wax-cloth bag (instead of the throwaway papers). It's been about six months, and I get it right ... about half the time.