Is degrowth the answer?
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Global consumption of raw materials is set to rise 60% by 2060.

Already, the technosphere, the totality of human-made products, is heavier than the biosphere. From the 2020s onward, the weight of humanity’s extended body — the concrete shells that keep us sheltered, the metal wings that fly us around — has exceeded that of all life on Earth.

Producing this volume of stuff is a major contributor to global heating and ocean acidification, and to the rapidly accelerating extinction of plants and animals.

The extractive activities that lie behind the concrete, metal, and other materials we use are disrupting the balance of the planet’s ecosystems. The mining industry requires the annexation of large tracts of land for extraction and transportation; its energy consumption has more than tripled since the 1970s.

Is degrowth the answer? The insufficiency of engineering and green growth programs has informed the waxing interest in “degrowth” strategies. This term is not intended to suggest that all economic sectors should shrink, but that for society-nature relations to regain some balance, the unsustainable global use of materials and energy must radically reduce, and in an egalitarian manner.

As the scale of the environmental crisis grows more daunting, even moderate voices — not degrowthers — have recognised that certain sectors, such as shipping and aviation, will have to be cut to virtually zero over the next 20 or 30 years. What does this mean for critical minerals? According to degrowth advocate Jason Hickel, political means should be forged through which to plan priority sectors.

Reducing luxury and wasteful sectors such as SUVs, aviation, and fast fashion would free up critical materials for the green transition. “Factories that produce SUVs could produce solar panels instead,” suggests Hickel. “Engineers who are presently developing private jets could work on innovating more efficient trains and wind turbines instead.”
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FULL ARTICLE -- https://theecologist.org/2024/feb/22/there-nothing-green-about-urban-mining

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #Degrowth

Mein Bild des Tages. Salzburger Landesregierung (FPÖ und ÖVP) plant per Verordnung, 5581 geschützte Vögel im Salzburger Land abzuschießen. Raben, Elstern, Eichelhäher, Graureiher und Kormorane. 🤬

#jagd #vogel #graureiher #biodiversitat #Zivilisationskrise #eichelhaher

Sometimes in news reports about the increasing pace of climate change, you might see someone refer to a "temporary overshoot."

That means they're essentially admitting we now have zero chance of avoiding 1.5°C above baseline and little chance of staying under 2°C. But they use the word 'temporary' because they want you to believe that even if world temperatures do go that high, it will only be for a short time.

See, the plan is that by 2050 or so we will have invented some fancy new technology that will quickly and easily capture and remove a HUGE amount of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere — and somehow accomplish that without using an equivalent amount of fossil fuels to do it. It’ll be a green solution! Yay! We’re saved! 😃

No such technology exists, of course, nor is one likely ever to be invented. We might just as well hope to develop perpetual motion machines. 😕

However, by selling you on the idea that a temporary overshoot will be okay, that there's nothing to worry about, that our leaders have everything under control, they're allowed to carry on with Business As Usual.

This carbon capture 'solution' is just a capitalist scam, a snake-oil remedy concocted by the fossil fuel industry and their financiers to buy more time so they can continue making piles of money while trashing the planet.

Don’t believe them.

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual

Happy Perihelion Day 2024! The Earth is closest to the Sun today for the entire year.

The Sun is also apparently larger in the sky on this day than on any other day of the year. This comparison of two images made on the days of closest and farthest approach in 2005 show the apparent size difference at the two extremes of our orbit.

📷: Anthony Ayiomamitis

#PerihelionDay #Astronomy

#Böllerverbot wär ja schon geil.

Aber wär's nicht auch ganz geil, wenn erstmal bereits geltende Regeln durchgesetzt würden?

Böllern (ohne Ausnahmegenehm.) nur am 31.12. und 01.01., nicht in der Nähe von Einrichtungen wie Krankenhäusern etc., nicht in Menschenmengen, schon gar nicht auf Menschen gerichtet, generell Einsatzkräfte nicht behindern oder gefährden und all sowas...

#Vollzugsdefizit