Mastodawn

Tracy Oct 18, 2023

Bread and Circuses

This should be front-page headline news every day, leading every TV newscast.

And yet it's not. Why? Because if it was, that might deter us from accepting the perpetuation of BUSINESS AS USUAL.
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If global temperatures increase by 1° Celsius or more above their current levels, billions of people will face wet-bulb temperatures every year so intense that their bodies will not be able to naturally cool themselves. Indeed, if global temperatures exceed 2° above pre-industrial levels, four billion people will encounter intolerable heat and humidity on a yearly basis, often in regions where air conditioning and other forms of relief are not widely available. That could include more than two billion people in Pakistan and India, one billion in eastern China, and 800 million people in sub-Saharan Africa. Once global temperatures rise 3° above pre-industrial levels, much of the U.S. Northeast, Southeast, and Midwest will also regularly experience unlivable wet-bulb temperatures.

There is no universe in which this development will not lead to millions of deaths. "It is important to understand that wet-bulb temperatures of 95°F (35°C) are not conditions we can just get used to," Dr. Peter Reiners, a professor of geosciences at the University of Arizona, wrote for Salon in 2021. "Human bodies have fundamental physiological limits; our planet's perturbed, angry climate doesn't care about them."
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Just one degree more above current temps will put BILLIONS of people at grave risk of death from climate chaos.

FULL ARTICLE -- https://www.salon.com/2023/10/16/heat-is-making-our-planet-uninhabitable-why-isnt-this-the-top-news-story-around-the-world/

#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateEmergency #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual

Heat is making Earth uninhabitable. Why isn't this the top news story around the world?

A recent study found that millions will be displaced as climate change makes their regions too hot to live

Salon.com

Lil Meow Meow Oct 18, 2023

@breadandcircuses

This, blended with megalomania and stupidity.

Dr. Brad Rosenheim has moved!Oct 18, 2023

@breadandcircuses I think people read this type of news and they think, "Well, it won't be me or my family. We're in the developed world." And they turn the page, flushing it from their head. The irony, of course, is that the likely safest people are the ones living in systems that have supported the most warming. There is no guilt. Only a sense of victory.

Lack of compassion and empathy are the only logical reasons that we continue with business as usual.

A Lloyd Flanagan Oct 18, 2023

@Brad_Rosenheim Lack of compassion and empathy seems to be the defining characteristic of our time.

Pete Alex Harris🦡🕸️🌲/∞🪐∫Oct 18, 2023

@Brad_Rosenheim @breadandcircuses

Three of the countries in the list of high-population areas facing millions of deaths a year have nuclear weapons.

So large numbers of people in the developed world run the risk of experiencing temperatures exceeding 10,000 degrees C if their preferred course of action is continued industrial growth while walling off the poorer populations to let them die.

CoolBlenderKitten Oct 18, 2023

@Brad_Rosenheim @breadandcircuses
Yes, I thought that too when reading this. Sad but true. After COVID I don't have much trust in most people anymore

Dr. Brad Rosenheim has moved!Oct 20, 2023

@breadandcircuses Case in point - we have a history of bowing to corporate interests to preserve individual liberty over common good.

https://mastodon.social/@realTuckFrumper/111267007173300006

ReallyCanadianFly Oct 18, 2023

@breadandcircuses I wish people would put some thought on just how much extra energy has to be retained to heat an object the size of the earth 1 degree.

Urzl Oct 18, 2023

@breadandcircuses Yes, but it would bother the amoral inhuman immortal corporations to whom humanity has surrendered the entire world to do anything about it.

Hugh Young-Bish Oct 19, 2023

@gooba42 @breadandcircuses

Have we surrendered? They took it by stealth while we were watching the Kardashians and all their empty predecessors.

Urzl Oct 19, 2023

@hugh @breadandcircuses Absolutely we have.

We *intentionally* abdicated our responsibilities to vote or otherwise hold political entities to task with full understanding of the consequences.

Hugh Young-Bish Oct 19, 2023

@gooba42 @breadandcircuses

Who's we? You started by saying "humanity" but we are not homogenous. We are mindless drones and voices crying in the wilderness and everything in between.
A central issue is that wealth and power feed and grow each other, and though knowledge is power, wisdom is not.

SFborn1940 Oct 18, 2023

@breadandcircuses Perhaps the ecosystem is behaving as it should and it is reacting to our attacking it with human-caused pollution and climate change.

Hugh Young-Bish Oct 19, 2023

@trainman @breadandcircuses

There is no "should", only is and does.

Richard Oct 18, 2023

@breadandcircuses I've wondered if we ignore the there's no profit in a solution problem of capitalism, when I've discussed it with friends and family the people who deny its an issue hear 1°c and almost all have said "1°c, it's not much, be nice to get some nicer weather"

1°c in local weather terms doesn't feel like it should matter

CoolBlenderKitten Oct 18, 2023

@thelad @breadandcircuses
I feel that is the one critical mistake sciences has made these last year's - nobody's bothered to explain what this means to people.
If they had said from the start: one degree more will amount to summers with temperatures 10 degrees higher.
And while that may still sound nice, think about what two degrees mean.
Most people never realised that 1 degree global temperature does not just mean "the temperature where you live will be one degree higher"

Richard Oct 21, 2023

@CoolBlenderKitten @breadandcircuses

It doesn't help that the media don't care about details, only headlines.

As long as I've been alive (40 some years) where I live there is an anti intellectual bias, better to be anything but a nerd so until I found "my people" everyone I knew just didn't care if it wasn't gossip or TV

Disclosure Lab Oct 18, 2023

@breadandcircuses I think it’s because the western world and particularly those in positions of power in the western world feel like they are insulated from this looming crisis. It is the wealthy who can afford gated communities, security, cars, jets, AC and heating, etc.

They’re also the ones in control of the media. Every time this is mentioned it sounds like a conspiracy but consider Bezos owning the Washington Post. Don’t tell me this doesn’t impact their coverage.

Hawkmoon Oct 18, 2023

@breadandcircuses

I fear that, like Congress, our news services have been bought to serve the interests of the few and not the public.

They are conspicuously supportive of a man facing 91 felonies and dismissive of the current POTUS.

Elisabeth Oct 18, 2023

@breadandcircuses
This was the greatest shocking moment when I first read about climate change.
I previously suspected that there had been regions impossible to live in before, like within the great deserts or antarctica. Turned out: as a matter of climate they all could be inhabitated by humans. They start to turn red into death zones only with the ongoing global heating - including, shockingly, regions which are at present densily populated - like e.g. parts of India and south-east Asia.

DarekPages Oct 18, 2023

@breadandcircuses if there are problems with natural cooling of the body, rich people will wear cooling jackets.

Hugh Young-Bish Oct 19, 2023

@darekpages @breadandcircuses
... until the supply of batteries to power the cooling and power to charge them runs out, because the people who used to make them and drive the trucks to bring them, and do everything else that kept the system going, are dead.

DarekPages Oct 19, 2023

@hugh @breadandcircuses Correct. Humanity will not survive long in such conditions.

Hugh Young-Bish Oct 20, 2023

@darekpages @breadandcircuses

There will be a bell shaped curve. Outliers on this side are dying already. Outliers on the far side may survive a long time, maybe indefinitely, but In very reduced circumstances.

DarekPages Jan 11, 2024

@hugh @breadandcircuses There is one more element: a high level of technology. The high level of technology has reduced the power of survival because people cannot (or cannot due to high integration or lack of parts) repair or modify equipment. People lose the need to do something on their own, which is the basis for survival.

Rachel Greenham Oct 18, 2023

@breadandcircuses in the past (history & prehistory) when climate change made a civilisation unsupportable in a region, its people just... left. walked away. migrated.

But now, there's no-where to go.

No, that's not quite true. There's plenty of places to go, but most of them have an anti-immigrant polity. they will drown, starve and ultimately just shoot people trying to find a new home.

there's going to be so much dying… :-(

Virginia Holloway Oct 18, 2023

@breadandcircuses I’m old enough to remember when the richest country on earth let over a million of its citizens die from an airborne virus, while leaders complained about basic prevention measures, so I’m not holding my breath about us caring about this news.

CoolBlenderKitten Oct 18, 2023

@VirginiaHolloway @breadandcircuses
Yes, that was truly eye opening

climate voter/degrowthist Dec 26, 2023

@VirginiaHolloway Also, it is likely that increased temperatures have and will lead to increased viruses.

clarebee Oct 18, 2023

@breadandcircuses
Had a strange disagreement with someone who claimed media are 'fear-mongering' over climate change. My assertion to the contrary (that reality is far more terrifying than any headline) led to a permanent rupture.
This weird 'everything's fine' vibe coming from educated, left-leaning people scares the shit out of me. It's not doom-mongering to pay attention, to chart the graphs, to observe what's already happening to millions of people's lives.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/18/devastating-journey-to-escape-climate-catastrophe

Trapped as fire raged: deadly perils in Mexico for migrants escaping climate catastrophe

Higinio Alberto Ramírez nearly died in a devastating fire at a migrant center in Mexico after rising seas forced him from Honduras – but the climate crisis is not recognized as grounds for asylum

The Guardian

Slavery is violence Oct 18, 2023

@clarebee @breadandcircuses I’ve found that many of them are not actually “left leaning” they’re just too polite and cool to be openly bigoted or crass. But they are not the slightest bit interested in the changes or work that would make progress.

Bulentin0en1 Oct 18, 2023

@clarebee @breadandcircuses I fully agree on the seriousness.

But I think the biggest solutions can be found with full force innovations.

I just came back from Turkey. 100 mio ppl will not act towards climate already even if you are right, unless we give them a carrot. Full force (pushed and pulled) innovation is the only reasonable solution, freely distributed.

Violet Madder Oct 18, 2023

@clarebee @breadandcircuses

They're kinda right, for the wrong reasons.

The media's fear-mongering about climate change is a bit like.... fearmongering about how the barn door really needs to be closed, when the horses are already 4+ decades down the road and ravaging the countryside. They make a lot of noise about threats that are nowhere near the scale of what we're really facing, and thus scare people while also gaslighting them simultaneously. It's a very slick trick.

Anna F Oct 18, 2023

@violetmadder @clarebee @breadandcircuses did you listen to Roger Hallam on Political Thinking? I think it highlights what you describe here.

Alun Parsons Oct 19, 2023

@violetmadder @clarebee @breadandcircuses
We also hear a lot of climate activists say stuff like "there is still time to turn this around," and I think what politicians hear is "we're not at a crisis yet." It is time for people to stop saying there is time. There isn't time. If we act now, we're still acting too late, but we might mitigate the worst effects.

Violet Madder Oct 19, 2023

@alun_parsons @clarebee @breadandcircuses

There's time to make it less bad than it would be otherwise.

Even that much is worth fighting like hell for.

Alun Parsons Oct 19, 2023

@violetmadder @clarebee @breadandcircuses
I think the problem is what politicians and the media *hear*, we tell them "there is time", they hear "there is no urgency". But we know we're in the middle of a mass extinction. We know the Amazon is now producing more carbon dioxide than oxygen. I just see a lot of complacency from people like the IPCC.

Tom Ritchford Oct 19, 2023

@violetmadder @alun_parsons @clarebee @breadandcircuses Absolutely.

The certainty that the world as it is almost over should not prevent us from trying to mitigate the shitshow we are leaving for our children and grandchildren. It is our moral imperative to do that.

Alun Parsons Oct 19, 2023

@TomSwirly @violetmadder @clarebee @breadandcircuses I never said it should. I said there is too much complacency.

Tom Ritchford Oct 19, 2023

@alun_parsons @violetmadder @clarebee @breadandcircuses Ooops, sorry if you thought I had that impression from you.

Your sentence, "If we act now, we're still acting too late, but we might mitigate the worst effects", sums up where we are precisely (and I favorited it!) so I am very much in agreement with you.

Alun Parsons Oct 19, 2023

@TomSwirly @violetmadder @clarebee @breadandcircuses OK,fair enough!

Catherine Berry Oct 19, 2023

@alun_parsons @violetmadder @clarebee @breadandcircuses

Scientists can't win in this argument. If they say there's no time left to avoid disaster, they excuse fatalism. If they say there's time left, they excuse procrastination. If they say they are certain of their conclusions, they are attacked for being bad scientists. If they say they are not certain, they are ignored because people want certainty.

Science has done all it can to warn us. Now it's up to the people.

Alun Parsons Oct 19, 2023

@isomeme @violetmadder @clarebee @breadandcircuses
That is, unfortunately, a perfectly accurate summation of the facts.

Adam Jacobs 🇺🇦Oct 19, 2023

@isomeme @alun_parsons @violetmadder @clarebee @breadandcircuses That's the best summary of just how much of a mess we're in on climate change that I've heard for a long time.

David Chavalarias - EN Oct 19, 2023

@isomeme @alun_parsons @violetmadder @clarebee @breadandcircuses

All this is true but don't forget climate disinformation which is on the rise. There are still actors that believe that thousand years of climate chaos worth it to extend their influence for few years. We published an indepth analysis of their strategies here :
https://iscpif.fr/climatoscope/?p=122

The new fronts of denialism and climate skepticism – Climatoscope

Catherine Berry Oct 19, 2023

@davidchavalarias @alun_parsons @violetmadder @clarebee @breadandcircuses

Yep. And they are part of that aggregate of "the people". It's easy to frame our current crisis as a test of whether humanity can overcome our hierarchical and tribal nature to act cooperatively on a global, decades-long scale. The penalty for failure is civilizational collapse at best, extinction at worst. I don't like our odds, but I'm quite prepared to be happily surprised.

Stephen Rockower MD Oct 19, 2023

@isomeme @alun_parsons @violetmadder @clarebee @breadandcircuses
Every disaster movie begins with a scientist being ignored.

Bilal Barakat 🍉Oct 19, 2023

@isomeme @alun_parsons @violetmadder @clarebee @breadandcircuses Unfortunately, people are the worst.

Grandpa Don Oct 19, 2023

@isomeme @alun_parsons @violetmadder @clarebee @breadandcircuses
"Now it's up to the people."

And therein lies the problem. People willing to drink bleach and stuff lightbulbs up their butt rather than be inconvenienced to wear a mask.
People who believe if they can just bring about the apocalypse they will be raptured to heaven and none of this will matter.
People whose hatred of anyone not just like them supplants anything else.

SteveBologna Oct 19, 2023

@isomeme @alun_parsons @violetmadder @clarebee @breadandcircuses Exactly right and unfortunately humans have proved to be resilient to change and learning. Vote Blue so we can fix this shit

Catherine Berry Oct 19, 2023

@SteveBologna @alun_parsons @violetmadder @clarebee @breadandcircuses

It's going to take a lot more than shifting the politics of one country to fix this. Yes, Democrats are more likely to be somewhat helpful than Republicans, but note that both parties have held the presidency or a congressional majority roughly equal amounts of time over the past 50 years, yet here we are.

SteveBologna Oct 21, 2023

@isomeme @alun_parsons @violetmadder @clarebee @breadandcircuses So you’re saying both parties are the same?

Violet Madder Oct 19, 2023

@SteveBologna @isomeme @alun_parsons @clarebee @breadandcircuses

They barely acknowledge the Paris Accords, which even IF we went all hands on deck to adhere to, would NOT BE EVEN CLOSE TO ENOUGH.

It's insulting. These assholes are not going to save us. All they're interested in is money, and helping the Republicans scare us into forgetting that.

Scott M. Stolz Oct 20, 2023

And if they are the boy who cried wolf, but there was no wolf, then when there really is a wolf, people don't believe them.

Colin H.Oct 20, 2023

@isomeme @alun_parsons @violetmadder @clarebee @breadandcircuses Beautifully put. Also important to remember that these counterpoints are not appearing from nowhere; the fatalism, procrastination, attacks and dismissiveness are all responses being actively pushed by bad actors in politics and the media to suit their own agendas.

HauntedWindow Oct 20, 2023

@isomeme @alun_parsons @violetmadder @clarebee @breadandcircuses What people need to hear is that any action they take now will have a massive impact on the future. One of the best things people can do right now is oppose the oil industry. They are just people and they can be stopped by people. So make noise, demand accountability, fill their job application systems with garbage. Make yourself a problem any way you can. Together we can make things better even if we can't fully stop the crisis.

kjetiljd Oct 21, 2023

So what should people do? I mean, many politicians say they care when they want to be elected, but when they are they neatly tuck away their concerns. So voting doesn't seem to be a very effective option.
Global climate strike? An hour a month, then an hour a week, then a day per month, then a day per week?

Catherine Berry Oct 22, 2023

That's the kind of collective action that might be effective, if a large enough fraction of the population participated.