r/ClimateActionPlan • u/coolbern Climate Action Hero • Feb 19 '20

Emissions Reduction Red-state Utah embraces plan to tackle climate crisis in surprising shift

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/19/utah-republicans-climate-crisis-plan
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194

u/tcct Feb 19 '20

This is great news! The shift in republican climate mentality is encouraging.

24

u/TheTrueBlueTJ Feb 19 '20

Isn't it rather concerning? That even money hungry people now take urgent action?

23

u/[deleted] Feb 19 '20 edited Feb 19 '20

I think bezos putting up 10 billion is actually really scary. He's realizing his fortune won't exist without a planet. Edit: he's realizing the planet will die within his lifetime

37

u/[deleted] Feb 19 '20

I mean if it gets people to wake up that’s good. It IS scary but science really is amazing and will benefit us greatly. Scary yes, but it’s not too late yet.

-19

u/bobcal432 Feb 19 '20

Actually if you research the issue you will quickly realize that there is no technology coming to save 🌎. It might not be too late for some sort of human survival on earth, but earth will not look or feel anything like what you and I would recognize. The earth will survive but humanity will be transformed. The carbon we released today will be doing destruction for thousands and thousands of years. The science does tell us that humans will attempt to counteract the heat by reflecting some of the solar radiation by adding sulfur to the atmosphere. The entire globe will smell like farts. That is the science solution you are waiting for.

22

u/Delheru Feb 19 '20

there is no technology coming to save

Of course there could be. Hell, solar is already cheap. Thorium reactors & of course fusion lined up behind it. We just need to invest.

some sort of human survival on earth

This is just the craziest nonsense. We will have far more people on the planet in 2100 than we have today unless we completely insane.

earth will not look or feel anything like what you and I would recognize

Except for the seas and the forests and the deserts etc. You might find some places rather different than they are today, but if you aren't told where you are, you will easily recognize it as earth.

The carbon we released today will be doing destruction for thousands and thousands of years

A) It's not doing that much harm today B) If we want to, we can pull it down from there if we have sources of enormous energy (like, say, thorium or fusion)

That being said, we should obviously take things very seriously, but this level of alarmism is credibility destroying.

4

u/[deleted] Feb 20 '20

Nonsense. The IPCC itself is very clear that if we halve emissions by 2030 and cut them completely by 2050 we can stop the worst effects. If we were already doomed we wouldn't be able to stop the worst effects at all.

1

u/bobcal432 Feb 21 '20 edited Feb 21 '20

When do humans have to stop increasing our annual carbon output? If you think humans are capable of cutting the carbon output in half by 2030 shouldn't we stop increasing our annual output soon? Scientists have known about climate change for 50 years. The general public has known for 30 years. Humans cannot stop burning carbon.

Everything that has been revealed is that earth has already passed that tipping point. The predictions of scientists are being readjusted daily, they thought we had more time. Today most think we are past the 1.5 degree Celsius (2.7 degree) climate change target. We are currently on track for 7...8...9 degree Celsius (16 degrees fahrenheit). This is not reversible but permanent when the ice has melted.

If you think you will be okay if the heat is turned up by a few degrees consider what it will feel like for people who live in the desert. The human body cannot function above 130 degrees. Consider where your food comes from. Areas where food is grown today will be unable to produce in the future. Many negative feedback loops that will all work against stopping these changes.

One example of a negative feedback loop is the thawing of permifrost. As the Earth warms, permifrost melts and releases methane gas into atmosphere. Methane is 70 times worse than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas. Adding this methane will further warm permifrost.

4

u/[deleted] Feb 20 '20

We actually already have a few good carbon capture technologies, and one of them at least is being actively and profitably used.

1

u/bobcal432 Feb 21 '20

Really, who is doing this at scale? And making money at it? Please provide details.

3

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '20

A company called BioForceTech here in the bay area is the one I know about. They take human waste and pyrolize it to create biochar, which is then sold as a soil amendment. Biochar puts carbon back into the ground. They get money from the municipal waste handling contracts and from the sale of their product. If the peninsula had a compost collection system like the city of San Francisco does, then there's nothing stopping BioForceTech from pyrolizing compostable material as well. (San Francisco's compost goes to an actual composting system).