this post was submitted on 04 Dec 2023
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Discussion of climate, how it is changing, activism around that, the politics, and the energy systems change we need in order to stabilize things.

As a starting point, the burning of fossil fuels, and to a lesser extent deforestation and release of methane are responsible for the warming in recent decades: Graph of temperature as observed with significant warming, and simulated without added greenhouse gases and other anthropogentic changes, which shows no significant warming

How much each change to the atmosphere has warmed the world: IPCC AR6 Figure 2 - Thee bar charts: first chart: how much each gas has warmed the world. About 1C of total warming. Second chart: about 1.5C of total warming from well-mixed greenhouse gases, offset by 0.4C of cooling from aerosols and negligible influence from changes to solar output, volcanoes, and internal variability. Third chart: about 1.25C of warming from CO2, 0.5C from methane, and a bunch more in small quantities from other gases. About 0.5C of cooling with large error bars from SO2.

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COP28: 7 food and agriculture innovations needed to protect the climate and feed a rapidly growing world (theconversation.com)
submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Innovations summarized:

  • Accurate, accessible weather forecasts to help optimize planting and harvesting in mid/low-income regions
  • Microbial fertilizers to reduce the need for nitrogen fertilizers
  • Reducing or eliminating methane from livestock, which accounts for about 20% of human greenhouse gas emissions
  • Helping farmers and communities implement better rainwater harvesting
  • Lowering the cost of digital agriculture that can help farmers use irrigation, fertilizer and pesticides most efficiently
  • Encouraging production of alternative proteins to reduce demand for livestock
  • Providing insurance and other social protections to help farmers recover from extreme weather events

I would have liked to see more focus on finding ways to avoid monocropping, and a callout to the heavy risks of the steady corporate consolidation of the agriculture industry, but breaking up corporations isn't exactly an innovation so I can see why it wouldn't get a mention. Some of these seem fairly weak as innovations go, and some sound so inexpensive that it's a wonder they aren't already done, but all of them sound like decent steps to take.

Which among this list do you think governments should focus on the most?

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[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

Always studying the problem from the bottom up and not the top down.

The world has to deal with corporate greed at the top as it would immediately solve a lot of problems that happen at the scales of the growers and the consumers. The problems are always rooted in the corporate behemoths who contribute nothing to anyone yet want to continue generating profits for themselves are their investors.

Start dealing with problems at the top.

Otherwise you're trying to put out a raging house fire with a glass of water while a maniac is freely allowed to burn down the house with a flamethrower.

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

I see COP28, and I know that it's just the oligarchs placing the blame and the future work on the citizens and not on the fossil fuels.