Why are we at Media Lens utterly terrified by climate collapse while other people we know are mildly concerned, blithely indifferent or cockily contrarian? The simple answer is that we are doing this full-time and ‘doing this’ includes reading the unfiltered reports and thoughts of top climate sc
  • Jordan Lund@lemmy.oneEnglish
    622·
    1 year ago

    I’m surprised they didn’t mention a key tipping point I’ve been following: melting permafrost.

    It’s dangerous because once all the permafrost in Alaska, Canada, and Russia starts melting, the gasses it releases are a self fulfilling prophecy. The warming caused by permafrost melt is enough to keep melting permafrost.

    Good report on the dangers here:

    https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/01/1110722

    Current estimates are that an increase of just 1.5°C in global temperatures over average would be enough to hit this tipping point and we’re already at +0.8.

    https://worldbusiness.org/permafrost-the-climates-tipping-time-bomb/

    Continuing to increase at a rate of 0.08°C per decade means we’ll hit this in approximately 80 or 90 years? Except that, since 1980, we’ve been warming at a rate of +0.18°C per decade, so we should hit the tipping point by 2062, tops.

    Eh, what do I care, I’ll be 93 years old, assuming I’m not already dead by then. :)

    https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-global-temperature

    • Polydextrous@lemmy.world
      451·
      1 year ago

      I mean…this is the same thing they’ve been saying for years. That’s the “point of no return,” because the warming is exponential. Decades, they’ve been saying this.

      But, here comes the new fucking DIRECTOR OF THE U.N.’S CLIMATE EXPERTS saying, “1.5c warming is not the end of the world.”

      He said that shit, like, last week. We really do need to put the workforce into building guillotines. The world needs some guillotin’ing.

      He added: “Nevertheless, we should not despair and fall into a state of shock when the world exceeds 1.5 degrees.

      “Every action we take to mitigate climate change helps. Climate protection is always cheaper and protects people from the dramatic consequences of global warming. This is all the more true if we have exceeded the Paris climate target.

      “The world won’t end if it gets more than 1.5 degrees warmer. However, it will be a more dangerous world. Countries will struggle with many problems, there will be social tensions.

      “And yet this is not an existential threat to humanity. Even with 1.5 degrees of warming, we will not die out.”

      The context for this is that he thinks the “doom” coming from climate alarmists will paralyze people.

      • shastaxc@lemmy.world
        16·
        1 year ago

        “Not an existential threat to humanity” is a pretty low bar. I’d prefer no increase at all to mortality rates.

        • Polydextrous@lemmy.world
          4·
          1 year ago

          But even the lowest bar he could set isn’t true. We need the air, the water, the plants, the animals, the not-forest fires, the not-monumental hurricanes and tornadoes, the lack of drought and the lack of torrential flooding…all of this is already ramping up, literal centuries before they predicted. THAT is how much we seem to have misjudged how desperate this situation is.

          Like, ten years ago, he story was, “if we don’t stop, our children’s children will start to see some extreme weather events.” And then it was, “when this generation grows up, we will have a much harder time.” And now it’s, “holy shit, it’s already happening.”

          And this fuckin turd comes out with some bullshit platitudes. Gross.

    • littlewonder@lemmy.world
      21·
      1 year ago

      Oh, if you want to pee your pants, watch the Arctic Sinkhole episode of Nova that’s available on the PBS Nova YouTube right now. Terrifying examination of the current state of permafrost.