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Many scientists don’t want to tell the truth about climate change. Here’s why

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2023/10/03/1-5-degrees-celcius-un-climate-change-report-barbara-moran

Climate scientists, in an effort to stave off despair, aren’t telling the truth about our warming planet. In reality, we're incredibly close to the point of no return: when rising seas drown island nations and almost all coral reefs die. I’m here to tell climate scientists — and my fellow climate journalists — to knock it off, writes Barbara Moran.

Many scientists don’t want to tell the truth about climate change. Here’s why

23 comments

RageAgainstTheRich

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Is nobody here reading the actual article? The article isn't saying that the world and humanity are doomed. It's saying that a 1.5c degrees limit is basically impossible, but that every 0.1c above that is still worth fighting against! Please don't comment a bunch of doomer stuff, because while the kitchen is on fire, we can still fight to save the rest of the house damnit! Every "we're doomed, let's give up." Is another win for the fossil fuel industry and the people in power.

Arotrios

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Exactly this. The powers that caused the crisis want you to give up. They want you to think its hopeless and inevitable, because if it isn't, revolution is the only option in the face of their obstruction. And not a small revolution either - it will be one that is simultaneously political, economic, and cultural.

And such a revolution is inevitable - the question is whether or not it will be one of positive change, or one that arises from the world's collapse into chaos and fire.

The powers behind the crisis intentionally manufacture and market despair to keep you from uniting with others to fight against the slow heat death of the world. Don't buy into it.

Nudding

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The powers that caused this don't think about you at all. They won, it's over my guy. We are past the point of no return lol.

adam_y

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Right?

Poor people and folk from less developed countries are disproportionately going to be made to suffer horrendously before they die.

This is not about stopping it. It is about damage reduction.

It's like saying we shouldn't really care for people who come into the accident room because they are going to die, eventually, anyway.

In my experience doomers are just looking for a convenient excuse not to do anything, but they suddenly become really motivated when it's their home that is flooding, or on fire, or flooded and on fire.

beSyl

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Thank you for this comment.

riodoro1

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Now go and explain that to the oil ceo’s.

We are rolling back our emissions targets instead of actually doing something. At this point having hope is misleading. Trust me, capitalism will grow to the last fucking day before it implodes on itself. We’ll be manufacturing useless plastic trash till the last day.

mayo

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I don't think it's about being doomed and giving up. For me it's just accepting the fact that a change of course is going to happen at whatever rate it is going to happen because the people who are driving it will do whatever they are compelled to do or want to do. Whether that is fast, or slow, or not at all barely feels like any of my business. I do what I can individually.

nonfuinoncuro

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The latest Mindscape podcast discussed exactly this point with Hannah Ritchie

Nudding

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Yeah except we can't.. Because fossil fuel companies control the United States, which controls the world. We're way past doomed lol

Tolstoshev

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qdJzXuisAndVQb2

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Uff, brutal.

TropicalDingdong

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Close?

Bro look at the annual temperature curves. We broke it. Its done. We probably needed a global blanket ban on fossil fuels 35 years ago. The warming we're experiencing isn't even from this years emissions. Its a 25–30 and we've only continued to increase emissions over that time frame.

Its over kids.

Coffeemonkepants

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I'm pushing 50 and I tend to think that there's maybe one or two generations left to live before society collapses due to this shit. The copium being taken by some people on where we're at is pretty nuts, not to mention the outlandish solutions people are proposing like putting reflective particles into the atmosphere to 'dim the sun', rather than just do the things scientists have been shouting for decades. I've done my part (which amounts to measurably nothing). But as you said, it's over kids. We're at the part of a roller coaster ride where the first couple cars have started down that hill and there's no way to stop the acceleration of everything else, only unlike the roller coaster, the bottom is the end of the ride.

TropicalDingdong

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I tend to think that there’s maybe one or two generations left to live before society collapses due to this shit

I'm in the 1-2 decades camp. Maybe less. I think you'll (and myself) will be plenty young to enjoy some of the terribleness.

It took a boat going a bit sideways in a ditch to grind the global economy to a practical halt. Climate change makes something like the pandemic look like a feather duster. The whole system is ridiculously fragile.

Coffeemonkepants

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Very true. I mean, people think rising sea levels just means losing beach front property, and they ignore the cataclysmic chain reaction of mass fish die off, acidification, and severe weather. Not to mention the increasing temperatures are allowing for pathogens - in particularly fungi to adapt to higher average temperatures, which means humans (and other mammals) won't be able to use fevers to fight them off. We'll continue to see more novel diseases, pandemics, etc. It's for the best anyway. The sooner the earth can get rid of us, the sooner it can return to equilibrium.

CubbyTustard

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I am with you. The collapse of atmospheric and oceanic weather systems is imminent and once food production plummets I expect things to get dark quick. It didn't take much for the grocery store shelves to empty up in 2020.

player2

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One time I mentioned to my boss how I think humanity is doomed to destroy life on Earth because we never learn from our mistakes until it's too late.

My boss said that she is optimistic that we'll get climate change under control because of her young daughter's generation. I immediately backpedaled and agreed that we'll probably figure it out and technology will save us, but I was just lying to both of us feel better.

Of course we need to keep trying to solve these climate issues, but a lot of people are in denial about how bad things already are and underestimate the kind of societal shifts that need to happen right now because of the cognitive dissidence many of us hold, even scientists.

dudewitbow

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I would have responded with how many gen y/z are in congress right now if someone was that optimistic.

player2

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Based on current trends, I'd say 40 more years until gen-z is old enough to get seats in Congress! 👴👵

Rottcodd

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This is a large part of why I don't pay much attention to the whole topic of climate change - because at this point, it's already inevitable.

There isn't sufficient political will to do anything meaningful about it, and that's historically most of the problem, but at this point, it doesn't matter anyway. The Earth's climate is such an enormous and complex system that it has significant inertia - much more than we have force with which to counter it quickly enough to make any meaningful difference.

So what's going to happen, no matter what, is that the climate is going to change fairly drastically, and with profound and far-reaching consequences.

The planet itself will be fine. It can and will adjust, and in fact, has already gone through similar phases. High carbon content and higher average temperatures just means more plant growth.

Whether humanity survives or not is less certain, but I expect we will.

First though, we're going to have to wake up to the problem, and unfortunately, the only thing that's going to wake wnough people up is for it to be so serious that the politicians can't lie about it, and the people can't ignore it.

And it will be.

beSyl

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I disagree with this take. The effects of climate change are not binary.

There is no doubt that we are feeling the effects of man-influenced climate change. However, that does not mean that we should just give up. There is a difference between +1.5c and +2.0c. It is a fight worth fighting for.

The reason why you don't pay attention to the topic of climate change is because you do not give 2 shits and/or are not willing to change your ways and make any sacrifice.

I am sorry but it seems to me that you are misinformed.

The issue is not about the survivability of the planet or of humanity...

TheTetrapod

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Why do you assume they aren't doing their best to prevent climate change, just because the don't consume every thinkpiece that goes around?

Rottcodd

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The effects of climate change are not binary.

And nobody said they are.

I said that inertia means that they're already inevitable and that the only thing that's going to wake sufficient people up is if the consequences are so dire that the politicians can no longer lie about them and the people can no longer ignore them. That's just the way it is.

There is no doubt that we are feeling the effects of man-influenced climate change.

And yet a significant number of people continue to believe that it doesn't even exist.

That's part of my point.

However, that does not mean that we should just give up. There is a difference between +1.5c and +2.0c. It is a fight worth fighting for.

You can't even convince them that it exists. What on earth leads you to believe you can convince them that it not only exists, but could get worse?

Unfortunately, there's only one thing that will convince them it exists and potentially spur them to action, and that's if the effects become so pronounced that it's literally impossible for them to deny it (and for the politicians to lie about it). And at this point, already, inevitably, the consequences are going to get that bad. That too is part of my point.

The reason why you don’t pay attention to the topic of climate change is because you do not give 2 shits and/or are not willing to change your ways and make any sacrifice.

Fuck you. You don't know the first fucking thing about me.

I said exactly what I believed and why, but you've chosen to effectively call me a liar and accuse me of just being yet another self-absorbed piece of shit.

Seriously - fuck you.

WalrusDragonOnABike

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I think you underestimate how popular taking action to stop climate change is. Even in places like Texas, it has super-majority support. The idea that it is a controversial issue is just made up to feed into climate apathy.

Monument

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Echoing the other sentiments - We’re pretty hosed on this.

The forests in Canada aren’t going to un-burn themselves. And even if we could instantly stop emitting any more carbon, or start to decrease our emission levels, methane is being released via melting permafrost and early evidence indicates some self-reinforcement from that.

Our best bet is to do the best we can, try to get our governments to not listen to moneyed interests, and hope that technology breakthroughs and dumb luck slow down the speed of the transition to the point that humanity can safely migrate to climate havens and figure out how to build out infrastructure to cope with climate change, rather than go to war and exterminate ourselves.

But lets be real - fixing/maintaining things has not really been humanity’s strong point. We’re definitely going to mess up managing our mess up.

Can_you_change_your_username

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https://youtu.be/pNYp6oc37ds?si=vEWDwsS1VX4Vb5od