Mastodawn

Bread and Circuses

Scientists are now saying we are “out of time” to keep global heating at under 1.5°C. It’s simply too late. We’ve delayed any action far too long.

All our talk and meetings and phony “Net Zero” pledges don’t mean anything to an overstressed climate system that is rapidly breaking down.

You can’t fool Mother Nature.
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The target of keeping long-term global warming within 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) is moving out of reach, climate experts say, with nations failing to set more ambitious goals despite months of record-breaking heat on land and sea.

“We’ve run out of time because change takes time,” said Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick, a climatologist at Australia’s University of New South Wales.

As climate envoys from the two biggest greenhouse gas emitters prepare to meet next month, temperatures broke June records in the Chinese capital Beijing, and extreme heat waves have hit the United States.

Parts of North America were some 10C (18F) above the seasonal average this month, and smoke from forest fires blanketed Canada and the US East Coast in a hazardous haze, with carbon emissions estimated at a record 160 million tons.

In India, one of the most climate-vulnerable regions, deaths spiked as a result of sustained high temperatures, and extreme heat has been recorded in Spain, Iran, and Vietnam, raising fears that last year’s deadly summer could become routine.

Countries agreed in Paris in 2015 to try to keep long-term average temperature rises within 1.5C, but there is now a 66% likelihood the annual mean will cross the 1.5C threshold for at least one whole year between now and 2027, the World Meteorological Organization predicted in May.
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FULL STORY -- https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/6/30/out-of-time-temperature-records-topple-around-the-world

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual #CO2 #Emissions

‘Out of time’: Temperature records topple around the world

Despite record heat, critics cite ‘worrying lack of momentum’ during climate talks with little progress on fossil fuels.

Al Jazeera

Chris Grumpy&GettingGrumpier Jul 3, 2023

@breadandcircuses Yes, couldn’t agree more, but we should have started doing something in the 1980s, but then, there were far more climate change deniers! Now we wring our hands whilst still doing very little.

eiZen Jul 3, 2023

@FusewireTheLoud
This is the book which describes what happened:

Losing Earth: The Decade We Could Have Stopped Climate Change
(Nathaniel Rich)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44444940

@breadandcircuses

#ClimateCatastrophe
#GlobalWarming
#ClimateChange
#ExtinctionLevelEvent

Losing Earth: The Decade We Could Have Stopped Climate …

An instant classic: The most urgent story of our times,…

Goodreads

@eiZen @FusewireTheLoud @breadandcircuses
Apathy, ignorance, & arrogance will cause humanity to flame out prematurely. In Uni lectures on climate change & environmental degradation in the '70s, way too many students were disinterested, completely under the spell of consumerism. Hereditary delusion, or illusion?

eiZen Jul 4, 2023

@ArrowbearMoore
I turned to full-scale climate activism in the last couple of years and I have to admit I will end up being apathetic by myself, fully exhaused by fighting windmills of ignorance, delusion, and denial, no matter who, politicians, "normal" people, friends.

I just don't stop because... then what?

#ClimateCatastrophe

@FusewireTheLoud @breadandcircuses

Frank Westphal Fella Jul 4, 2023

@eiZen @ArrowbearMoore @FusewireTheLoud @breadandcircuses

I've bottled this same fatigue. I've come to the conclusion that humans will survive, but only after massive population loss. The ones that are left, will finally know how to live sustainably on planet Earth. At least we can say we tried.

@eiZen @FusewireTheLoud @breadandcircuses
Just watched The Great Simplification, an animation by Nate Hagens, which sums up what has been stewing in my noggin for 50 years. I'm not sure how escalating CC fits into Nate's view, but would like to hear some discussion about it.
We are most definitely going to have to think in ways not yet familiar to us.
https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/animations

Animated Series | The Great Simplification

The Great Simplification

Marc Jul 3, 2023

@eiZen @FusewireTheLoud @breadandcircuses The 1850s: the decade we could have stopped climate change. https://www.climate.gov/news-features/features/happy-200th-birthday-eunice-foote-hidden-climate-science-pioneer

Happy 200th birthday to Eunice Foote, hidden climate science pioneer

American Eunice Foote was an amateur scientist and women's rights pioneer from the mid-1800s whose experiments foreshadowed the discovery of Earth's greenhouse effect.

NOAA Climate.gov

eiZen Jul 4, 2023

@prairiedog
Yeah, a classic, in every aspect: the article, the ignored woman in science, the ignorance of the scientific results.

Let's at least repeat her name here:

Eunice Foote - foreshadowed the discovery of Earth's greenhouse effect back in the 1850s.

@FusewireTheLoud @breadandcircuses

Samhain Night Jul 4, 2023

@FusewireTheLoud @breadandcircuses My science teacher in the the mid 80’s said we could stop global climate change right now, but we won’t because people won’t believe in it until it affects them and by them it will be too late. I think a lot about how right we was.

Wolfgang Feist Jul 3, 2023

@breadandcircuses

But: That doesn't mean that "now everything is lost anyhow".

It's even more important, to take measures to reduce CO2-Emissions now! It DOES matter whether it will be +1.8 °C or +3°C. Every tenth of a degree counts.

NOYJ Jul 3, 2023

@WolfgangFeist @breadandcircuses I admire your positivity; it’s inspiring: even though I think we’re incontrovertibly fucked, it doesn’t mean we should throw our hands up in the air and set fire to our houses in recognition of our failure and hopelessness. There’s still damage limitation to do, which will help folks (some of them our children, our children’s children…)🙏

Clinton Anderson SwordForHire Jul 3, 2023

@breadandcircuses I sort of console myself with the knowledge that I'm not going to live anywhere near long enough to see the worst of it, and neither is anyone I'm evefy going to know, or even just meet.

We're eff'd in the B.... And the Billion and Trillionaires of this world who could effect real positive change, are the ones who are doing the exact opposite.

I'd suggest a planet wide rebellion but there aren't anywhere near enough torches and pitchforks.

ChookMother 🇦🇺🦘Jul 4, 2023

@ClintonAnderson @breadandcircuses Are you sure youre not going to live to see it? Some climate-caused things are happening decades earlier than expected, eg rise in sea temperature and melting of arctic and antarctic ice cover. Both of these have roll-on effects that will effect you, if they're not doing so already.

Clinton Anderson SwordForHire Jul 4, 2023

@anne_twain @breadandcircuses I'm not going to live long enough to see it get anywhere near as bad as it's going to get

Sterling Baldwin Jul 3, 2023

@breadandcircuses we are absolutely out of time for 1.5, and IMO 2.0 as well.

VHasch Jul 3, 2023

@breadandcircuses

Tipping points are always a surprise, and they always show up early.

It's not like there weren't warnings.

My favorite line from Blade Runner: "Then we're stupid, and we'll die." (Pris)

Amadeus510 Jul 3, 2023

@breadandcircuses Algeria ?

My camera shoots fascists Jul 3, 2023

@breadandcircuses

OK, I will start taking the high-speed electric trains and buses that run everywhere instead of driving… Oh, wait, never mind.

Well, cool, I'll at least go pick up an e-bike and ride it to work... oh they're kinda expensive and riding in this city is scary dangerous because there is no bike infrastructure.

Okay, then I will definitely sign up for the free utility-intertie photovoltaic program that has been universally offered across the country to anyone… What, there's no such thing? How about a free solar water heater installation program? Nah?

Pick any sector of modern society and there's virtually nothing an individual can do that will matter. Making change at scale comes down to policy and regulations.

IMO at this point, it will take massive, disruptive civil resistance campaigns to force governments to act. Not polite marches once a year, but a mass campaign of nonviolent protest and disruption that they can't ignore.

Aethelstan Jul 3, 2023

@Mikal @breadandcircuses a strong President would declare a climate emergency and reallocate funds for defense and energy departments and put army corps of engineers to work rebuilding the grid and adding wind and solar generation everywhere, retrofitting buildings with insulation, and building out mass transit projects. A strong President would say no selling one-use plastics without actual recycling accountability. Where can we find one of those presidents?

NorcalPM ☑️

verified_coffee

@Aethelstan @Mikal @breadandcircuses Such a President would need a commanding majority in Congress to accomplish even part of that, so we need to build support from the ground up for all of these progressive policies so folks in Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas, Iowa, etc. will elect Dems to the house and senate. Otherwise, these things will never come to pass.

My camera shoots fascists Jul 3, 2023

@norcalpm @Aethelstan @breadandcircuses

These things will not come to pass no matter who is in office unless there is a mass, disruptive mobilization of people that makes the civil rights movement look rookie-league.

At times when the Dems did have majorities, did they ever attempt such sweeping radical transformations? Nah. Anything we've achieved has been fought for.

I'm not disagreeing that we need to vote in the most progressive climate candidates possible (but not that anti-vax dude, fuck no), but unless we are shutting down streets and oil companies and banks on the regular, they still won't act.

But, please, I'd love someone to prove me wrong here.

Aethelstan Jul 4, 2023

@Mikal @norcalpm @breadandcircuses thanks for the thoughtful reply! Two points: 1. the massive BLM riots seemed to produce nothing - other than a “defunding” punchline and an “antifa boogeyman” for RW pundits. 2. What if the president ignored the supremes, and did what was right? As long they have enough partisans to uphold a veto…
But yes, all of this requires the elected individual to hide their virtue pre-election.

My camera shoots fascists Jul 4, 2023

@Aethelstan @norcalpm @breadandcircuses

I don't accept and strongly object to the casual description of BLM protests as riots. But I'm going to stick for the moment to the question of strategy. If that mass protest movement wasn't immediately effective at forcing policy change (it was effective in MANY other ways), that means we need better protest and organizing strategy. Not less protesting and organizing.

I think it would be great if Biden and every politician grew a spine and ignored the Supreme Court. The only way it's going to happen is through massive mobilizations.

I know it's trite to keep mentioning, but most of our environmental protection laws were signed by Nixon, and not because he was a nice guy.

NorcalPM ☑️

verified_coffee

@Mikal @Aethelstan @breadandcircuses I believe that if we see a Biden 2nd term that you may see him be far more aggressive and enact practices that do ignore or counter the $upremes, especially if dems can increase their numbers in Congress. Going too far right now will just give the Republicans fuel for their “anti big government activism” arguments. God forbid we see a 2nd Trump term because he is going to go full bore in the opposite direction.

Aethelstan Jul 4, 2023

@norcalpm @Mikal @breadandcircuses we can hope that not facing re-election personally Biden (and the party) could find the courage. If. If that’s what he wants. Not sure he is on board on the crisis timeline.

Aethelstan Jul 4, 2023

@Mikal @norcalpm @breadandcircuses sorry - you are so right. I did NOT mean to imply BLM protests were riots. I was at one in Boston with the kids. Only that “riots” was the mainstream media presentation — and hence my frustration with the results. How do you change minds by such events when subverting the protests was so easy for the “proud boys”?
My main point here is that government needs to step in as hard as the emergency demands.

Dave Goldsmith Jul 3, 2023

@Aethelstan @Mikal @breadandcircuses

My camera shoots fascists Jul 3, 2023

@Aethelstan @breadandcircuses

No such thing as such a president. You don't get to be president without catering to Big Oil, Big Car, Big Ag and, overall, Big Money. Even such a mythical creature who wanted to take dramatic action would require massive public mobilization to force their hand or at least give political cover for such action.

Bill Orcutt Jul 3, 2023

@Mikal @breadandcircuses

I agree that there are many areas of climate mitigation that require government action & that we need nonviolent protest to force action. But, there are many actions that we can take without waiting for our corrupted leaders.

Everyone who is trying to figure out what they each can do to actually mitigate global warming should visit the following links!

“Eating our way to extinction” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaPge01NQTQ&t=10s

10 things you should know about industrial farming https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/10-things-you-should-know-about-industrial-farming

Meet the People Getting Paid to Kill Our Planet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOcLyyVyb6o&t=36s

Can healthy food save the planet? https://eatforum.org/learn-and-discover/can-healthy-food-save-the-planet-animation/

Eating Our Way to Extinction | Full Film | 4K

YouTube

Humble Fan of Atty. Woo Jul 3, 2023

@breadandcircuses
Nobody believed Greta Thunberg.

Woodchaz Jul 3, 2023

@breadandcircuses
If you really want something to keep you up at night, look up acidification. I try not to think about that one.

Nicole Parsons Jul 3, 2023

@breadandcircuses

What do drug cartels when addicts stop being addicts?

They target school children.

What do oil oligarchs do when their captive consumers move to renewable energy?

1. Subvert democracy
2. Fry the planet in a fit of pique
3. Ally themselves with hostile foreign despots
4. Target school children

Hypx Jul 3, 2023

@breadandcircuses

It's basically time for #geoengineering. Critics of this idea are simply in denial over the state of climate change. It is already too late to "prevent it."

resipiscent Jul 3, 2023

@breadandcircuses Alarming data: 30% of the winter wheat will be abandoned (poor quality due to drought) --the highest level of abandonment since 1917.

Also, 70% of the corn is now struggling with drought. "Normally" it's only 18%.

Pablo Martini Jul 3, 2023

@breadandcircuses been in Seville when it's 40°C+ it's painful!

legraLeGra Jul 3, 2023

@breadandcircuses

covid tapped the breaks of the CO2 freight train.

But its still coming.

Badwolf303 Jul 3, 2023

@breadandcircuses What plans are countries making to house & feed #ClimateCrisis refugees? And what plans are you making for when your fancy development in #Florida, #Arizona etc., becomes unlivable & that #refugee is you ?

Derek Balling Jul 4, 2023

@breadandcircuses if we’re actually “out of time” isn’t the response “Fuck it, dude. Let’s go bowling.”

Joe Heafner Jul 4, 2023

@breadandcircuses I often wonder if it it’s worth considering taking “some kind of drastic action” against those who keep blocking progress on climate change. After all, the entire planet is at risk. And no, I don’t know how “some kind of drastic action” might look just now, but I fear it may be something we’ll have to address before too long,

Frank Westphal Fella Jul 4, 2023

@breadandcircuses

100% with you. What people don't understand is that Earth has gone through massive geological changes in it's 3.9 billion year life thus far. Earth will be fine. It's humans and other life ON Earth, that will not be fine. Billions of people currently inhabit areas that will soon be too hot to live in, unprotected, without risk of immediate death. Humans die at 135 F, within hours.

Frank Westphal Fella Jul 4, 2023

@breadandcircuses

We're facing a multi threat environmental scenario:

-Unprecedented over fishing.
-Unprecedented plastic pollution in the oceans.
-We are still increasing our carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions globally.
-Steady increase in global temperatures.

This adds up to massive scale displacement of billions of people, and global marine protein shortages over decades.

Lots of people will die. At this point it is a fact.

TobiWanKenobi Jul 4, 2023

Add to this:

- Massive de-forestation for wood
- Digging out coal and destroying the landscape while at the same time diverting the ground water away into rivers
- Using chemicals for agriculture that kill all sorts of insects
- Sealing land by paving it unnecessarily
- Burning down forests cause people are dumb
- Extracting metals from the earth while wasting shit ton of water and chemicals
- Polluting the earth with masses of manure because we need to eat meat cheaply.
- Mess with natural ecosystems because we believe to know better.
- Produce so much trash that you can build several Mount Everests
- etc.

@breadandcircuses

Frank Westphal Fella Jul 4, 2023

@TobiWanKenobi @breadandcircuses

I agree there's a huge list (like really huge... haha). That's where the fatigue comes in for most, I think. Like... they get a feel for how big the problem is and just give up.

Frank Westphal Fella Jul 4, 2023

@TobiWanKenobi @breadandcircuses

Hmmm... #fellas caring about our environment too. It's almost like fellas actually care about people and living things...

Giles Goat Jul 4, 2023

@frankwestphal @breadandcircuses

I keep telling people "the future I am seeing", sadly, is around the lines of "Mad Max" ( fighting for water ) and "Soilent Green" .. and it's NOT going to be ANY fun ..

DaSkinny ⚜️Jul 4, 2023

@breadandcircuses

Bob Mould - It's Too Late

https://youtu.be/Y-fPibdYPJM

Bob Mould - It's Too Late

YouTube

DaSkinny ⚜️Jul 4, 2023

@breadandcircuses

Sound Garden - Hands All Over

https://youtu.be/sQOOgQtLI4M

Soundgarden - Hands All Over (Official Music Video)

YouTube

spherulitic Jul 4, 2023

@breadandcircuses science journalists need to be much clearer when writing about this stuff. “The target is moving out of reach.” No, that’s wrong. The target is gone. Dead. Not going to happen. The 2015 Paris pledge has been broken, the destruction of our habitat continues unabated and there’s been no meaningful action to stop it.

Unclear communication from the science community on this does a disservice when we can certainly not afford one.