"Act now idiots!"
 

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[Closed] "Act now idiots!"

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Considering that's what scientists have been saying ever since I can remeber, what makes them think the public, political and economic systems we have will listen now.....

Climate report: Scientists politely urge 'act now, idiots' - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-45775309


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 6:50 am
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Requires the politicians of the world to co-operate, and is therefore doomed to fail.


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 7:14 am
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And was followed on the radio news about young people being unable to buy houses even with 10% deposit.

The think tank solution - build more houses even on green belt - joined up thinking?

An economy based on growth and house building will not be sustainable.


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 7:25 am
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<span style="text-decoration: underline;">An economy based on growth and house building will not be sustainable.</span>

What other economy can there be. Assuming population growth.


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 7:35 am
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People don't care enough to do anything about it.  Politicians won't do anything about it as it's not a vote winner.  Businesses won't do anything about it as it will lessen profits.  Can't see much getting done about it.


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 7:38 am
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40 years ago when I was a young sales rep working for Findus..I got chatting to a random customer in a North Eastern Co-op store on Heaton Road in Newcastle ..

The guy was a bit of an oddball but there were two things that he said to me back then that have stuck with me ..the first was with regard to climate change ( although it didn't have that moniker back then ) ..he said that in 200 years time Newcastle would be submerged and Hexham would be known as Hexham -by - the Sea..( Hexham is approx 25 miles inland ) ..

The other little nugget was that vitamin C would help to ward off cancer ..

I walked away thinking the bloke was a complete and utter nutter !...

Now..it makes me wonder ..

Maybe he was a time traveller !😁


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 8:19 am
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he said that in 200 years time Newcastle would be submerged

...it's not all bad news then!


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 8:21 am
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  Businesses won’t do anything about it as it will lessen profits. Can’t see much getting done about it.

Pollution and energy waste/use costs business money, most I know are going through significant energy efficiency and reclamation projects along with renewable self generation.

Business and people will lead politicians on this one.


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 8:24 am
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The other little nugget was that vitamin C would help to ward off cancer

Was it Linus Pauling (otherwise brilliant scientist who went a bit bonkers over Vitamin C) or maybe he was just quoting him..


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 8:52 am
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He was maybe just quoting him ..he was oddball ..but looking at the pic of Linus that you posted ..not that oddball..


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 8:57 am
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Scientists politely urge ‘act now, idiots’

I can't think of any more effective way to ensure buy-in than calling the people you want to join your cause 'idiots' 🙂


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 9:06 am
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Well we are creating the Sixth Mass Extinction, why not carry on and let whatever habits the earth after us .. habitate it.

🤷‍♂️

Nothing humans can do now apart from watch and enjoy the spectacle.


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 9:07 am
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It's the solution to The Fermi Paradox

All intelligent civilisations eventually reach a level of technological advancement sufficient to destroy themselves.

And then they do.


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 9:30 am
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imo the fermi paradox is an just another excuse for our own demise, and based on human experience alone.


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 9:46 am
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I can’t think of any more effective way to ensure buy-in than calling the people you want to join your cause ‘idiots’

I know but as this is the first time they have raised the issue of man made climate change we should give them a bit of slack. Maybe by the time they have brought it up for the millionth time they will have a more polished message 😉


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 10:03 am
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And was followed on the radio news about young people being unable to buy houses even with 10% deposit.

The news is with a 10% deposit they could not afford a property. When I got my flat they wanted a 30% deposit then would lend me 120k. Down to some affordability risk assessment.


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 10:21 am
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Unfortunately it's hard to envisage a world without economic growth. It's what the whole financial house of cards is based upon. Something has to give and environmental meltdown will bring down the banks anyway, so they are betting on future technology to come to our rescue.


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 10:23 am
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I do think we are doomed.

But if you could persuade businesses there is economic growth to be had by not burring fossil fuels there may be a slim chance of keeping the warming to something like 2 or 3%.

Current politics wont do it.

It will take a non political leader in business to make it socially unacceptable to not be green.  Or some finance bods to come up with a scheme to make green investments pay more than burning fossil fuels.

Still very little likelihood of that happening, so enjoy the environment now, its already starting to change and soon it will be very different.


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 10:36 am
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Buisness are certainly not all on board with energy saving - look at how lit up our city centres are at night with building lit up externally and internally.


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 10:45 am
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Politicians will only pursue policies that keep them in power and businesses will only make, produce or provide things people want, i.e things that will make a profit.

This is really down to the public to act and that starts with an individual making a conscious decision to change their habits.

However there needs to be clear information on what individuals can do, e.g. is getting the bus and train to work really better than a car? Should I buy that product over another product, or not buy either?


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 11:04 am
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Buisness are certainly not all on board with energy saving – look at how lit up our city centres are at night with building lit up externally and internally.

A significant majority are though as most understand that every light bulb is costing them money. People I am working with are doing energy audits all around the place, offices may be last on the list but industrial sites and factories are a top priority.

We are quizzed on environmental policy and waste management during tenders as companies want visibility as to what happens to stuff once it's passed on to a supplier.


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 11:05 am
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Politicians will only pursue policies that keep them in power and businesses will only make, produce or provide things people want, i.e things that will make a profit.

And for a business to produce something with the least amount of waste (which you have paid to purchase then pay to dispose of) with the least amount of energy (which you pay for) and distribute in the most efficient way (as you pay for that)

Supermarkets are a good example with better loading of trucks and more efficient distribution centres down to having doors on the chiller cabinets to make them more efficient. New tesco stores had solar and wind with water capture going on so progress is being made there/


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 11:11 am
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Very depressing on a Monday morning.

Looks like it'll all go a bit "Hunger Games".


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 11:21 am
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i was thinking about this on my (cycling) commute this morning. And grew despondent.

It's all very well asking the population to help out, but there's only so much the average Joe can do. It definitely needs more of this:

It will take a non political leader in business to make it socially unacceptable to not be green. Or some finance bods to come up with a scheme to make green investments pay more than burning fossil fuels.

The average carbon footprint of a European is about 10 tonnes a year. A transatlantic return flight can be about 3 tonnes per person. I've got mates who do that several times a year on business. One friend flies most weeks. They can tonk out more carbon in a month than I do in a year. Most feel vaguely guilty about it, "but it's for work, what can you do?"

I barely drive, I can't replace any more lightbulbs, I don't have kids or a dog or a big house. I could perhaps spend money I don't have on solar panels, but what's the bloody point? One new international business conference, or fashion show, or film festival will outweigh that a million times over. At some point we'll have to stop expecting consumers to subsidise the rich and the business class. But I don't really know what that will have to look like. A massive tax on kerosene would hit Average Joe and his 2 weeks a year in Spain just as much, and probably wouldn't feel very fair.

I dunno. Sorry for the whinge...


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 11:28 am
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Pollution and energy waste/use costs business money, most I know are going through significant energy efficiency and reclamation projects along with renewable self generation.

Ten years ago, the chemicals lab I was working in was outfitting a new wing and they asked us what we'd like to see in it. Lots of suggestions - a wind turbine on the roof, solar panels on the roof and I suggested a water recirculating system for the condensers and coolers.

All of it got rubbished - oh we don't have time for that, need to get everything in place urgently, producation has to start in 2 months time...

A month after production began, the company got fined £50,000 for putting too much water down the drains - something that a water re-circ system would have completely avoided. Cost of that system to install from scratch in a new-build lab would have been about £6000.

They don't care - environmental concerns, especially long term ones come in a very distant  "we'll think about it" when set against short term profit. Politicians don't care either since long-term projects aren't a vote winner - everyojne wants something NOW not in 15 years time.


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 11:43 am
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TBH I think we're already too late. The political and social systems are just too slow to change. But then again maybe my attitude is part of the problem - we've all been told about this for so long and nothings changed that we assume it's aforgone conclusion.

Just look at the resent sifi books and disaster movies - they're all post apocalyptic, or leave the already f'd up planet for a new one. There is never any media that portrays a fixed world where we actually did or are doing something about this. In the 70's, 80's and 90's there were many more films that showed a 'fixed' world - can't think of one in the 00's.

I should be bringing up my daughter in a macgyver meat Bear Grills kinda way rather than sitting around watching Watfu on Netflix with her....


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 12:15 pm
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Ten years ago, the chemicals lab I was working

They don’t care – environmental concerns, especially long term ones come in a very distant  “we’ll think about it” when set against short term profit. Politicians don’t care either since long-term projects aren’t a vote winner – everyojne wants something NOW not in 15 years time.

I see a very different attitude these days to 10 years ago, projects like the ones you are talking about are going head.


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 12:24 pm
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Most people on here drive a diesel vehicle to a trail centre every weekend, fly 2 or three times a year on holiday and burn a woodburner for fun.

WE are the idiots they are talking about in that report so don't kid yourselves.


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 12:26 pm
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No one has yet mentioned the most obvious fix of all.

There are far too many humans on this planet; rich westerners, disenfranchised city poor, subsistence farmers and everything in between.

Our growth is wholly unsustainable.  We need a major re-set of expectations; stop breeding vast and increasing numbers of new humans.  To even the thickest politician, it must be obvious that we cannot keep on growing more people indefinitely, we have to stop before there is no where left to stand. Nor water to drink and air fit to breathe.

I knew 40 years ago that I didn't want to breed any more rich westerners in my name; better to help the ones who are already here live more enjoyable and productive lives.


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 12:33 pm
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A predicted slowing population, automation and cleaner energy have the potential to revolutionise capitalism, as old economic models will die off and humans will have less and less to contribute to society. However, if - as the IPCC predict - we're already on course for a 3C rise, it's all too little, too late.


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 12:35 pm
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fly 2 or three times a year on holiday and burn a woodburner for fun.

there was a thread on here a short while ago where you could "boast" about how many airports you had been to. Many could not hide their glee 😉


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 12:41 pm
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there was a thread on here a short while ago where you could “boast” about how many airports you had been to.

I think I posted, the majority of mine were for work but I try and tag holiday on to that to make the most of the travel.

To balance some of that out I've not owned a car for over 3 years now, use public transport as much as I can, walk and cycle most places and don't have a wood burner.

I also spend a lot of my working life trying to make businesses more efficient.


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 12:46 pm
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One of the main ways is which we humans contribute to society is by consuming, hence economic growth demands increased population, automatons don't go shopping.


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 12:49 pm
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We could adopt the proposal of:

Eat the Rich.

Wasn’t that an option mooted by some Punk group or other 🤪💃


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 1:14 pm
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Eating the rich is not sustainable, now eating the poor.....


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 1:20 pm
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It won't be climate change that gets us, the human race is rapidly getting weaker and sicker, a pandemic of epic proportions is on the horizon, might even sort out the climate change conundrum.


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 1:22 pm
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 hence economic growth demands increased population, automatons don’t go shopping.

Hence the 2nd biggest challenge of the century to avoid violent revolution and find a way for people to live when manual labour becomes near obsolete.


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 1:29 pm
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Just look at the resent sifi books and disaster movies

This is my go-to for how the future will look also 😀


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 1:31 pm
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It's not about how it'll 'look' - more about how pop culture influences public opinion and subsequent actions, or inaction.


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 1:34 pm
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you've been able to buy green energy for some time, it's a matter of choice. also read an article a few months ago about the rise of green energy overtaking an supplanting fossil in the foreseeable, leading fossil fuel extraction operations in danger of having 'stranded assets' - extraction equipment which no-one has any use for any more. is the situation serious? yes, at least for those with kids. is nothing changing? no. is it changing fast enough? only time will tell i guess.


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 1:45 pm
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https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2018/oct/08/nobel-prize-2018-sveriges-riksbank-in-economic-sciences-awarded-live-updates

It's not entirely true that economic growth is incompatible with stopping climate change.


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 1:50 pm
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Point of order: It wasnt the scientists that said 'Act now idiots,' but an 'observer from greenpeace' commenting on the repprt.

It really is quite a key piece of work as up until today the most quoted danger level was 2deg C above pre-industrial temps. They are now saying 1.5 dg C. Since we are currently at 1 deg above pre-industrial temps thats just cut our buffer in half.

I encourage peopl to actually read the headline statements (about three pages):

Headline statements

Or if you have a little mroe time, the summary for policy makers:

SUmmary for policy makers


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 1:52 pm
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Hence the 2nd biggest challenge of the century to avoid violent revolution and find a way for people to live when manual labour becomes near obsolete.

Agreed.

And I'd say that this and the first challenge are very closely related, given that most labour now is obsolete and is undertaken largely because of the deeply held belief that everybody should work 5-days-a-week to earn a living, hence all the 'bullshit' jobs and entirely socially unproductive economic activity. All the labour and the stress it causes results in enormous amounts of unnecessary environmental impacts, too.

Take an overstressed office worker that sits in a unnecessary building all day working on useless tasks, requiring lighting, air conditioning, heating, unhealthy snacks to salvage some sensory pleasure from the majority of the day, etc., finishing work and driving to the gym to avoid (or at least mitigate) obesity, and the energy intensive medical care that would entail, then returning home to ready meals and... actually, you get the picture...

Anyway, I'm not so sure businesses will lead the way and solve the problem though. Energy efficiency has been increasing ever since the industrial revolution began, as energy has always cost something. But a large part of those energy savings (perhaps all of them) go into boosting the economy further and, from a climate change perspective, offsetting much of the gains.

It's the difference between 'relative decoupling', i.e. getting more GDP for less energy and carbon emissions, and 'absolute decoupling', i.e. actually reducing emissions while growing an economy.

The latter hasn't happened anywhere to my knowledge. It sometimes looks that way, like in the UK where emissions have fallen without the economy shrinking, but it always turns out to be the obvious artefact of a country deindustrializing and simply importing all the stuff it wants from elsewhere, thus avoiding recording the impacts on their own environmental accounts.

Some economist summarised this nicely in the US, saying they're been more successful at decoupling well-being from economic growth than carbon emissions...

(i.e. well-being has stalled while the economy continues to grow, but emissions are still rising, albeit at a slightly slower rate by some measures)


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 1:53 pm
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It won’t be climate change that gets us, the human race is rapidly getting weaker and sicker

Except, they have also become more intelligent. I'd rather the planet was full of more intelligent people than stone age brutes worshipping sky god's and sacrifing virgins - cheers.


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 1:58 pm
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Why are they brutes, just because they're from the stone age?

Sacrificing of virgins is something I'd suspect is far more characteristic of monotheistic religions developed since the advent of major civilisations, than the animist-type religions of hunter-gatherers that may be expected in the stone age.

And hunter-gatherers are as likely to ridicule their God's as to praise them... Which can hardly be said of the contemporary religions of us apparently more intelligent types


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 2:05 pm
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The big issue with all of the dire climate warnings that come out is that the real causes for concern seem to be largely ignored. It's easier to call the general public in the western world stupid, and bash normal people for going on holiday and eating a ham sandwich than it is to say that ever escalating coal power production in China makes almost everything else pale into insignificance.

Also, I'll never tire of the absolute lack of awareness from people who have all flown longhaul (no doubt in first class) to attend a meeting, the outcome of which is to tell everyone else to conference call rather than flying for business.


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 2:09 pm
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Not to mention N+1+1+1... bikes in the name of fashion


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 3:15 pm
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Well the good news is that we will all soon be able to ride electric scooters and the like in the UK 🙂

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/climate-watchdog-halt-global-warming-ride-an-electric-scooter-dwf2mtwlp

Britain must give up its love affair with the car and move to electric scooters, battery-powered bikes and other “low-carbon” transport, the government’s climate watchdog has warned.

Chris Stark, chief executive of the Committee on Climate Change, said UK cities should have their streets “re-engineered” to replace cars with millions of “micro-vehicles”, perhaps even including electric skateboards, all powered by batteries.

“It takes a lot of energy to move a couple of tonnes of metal around cities, but small and tiny electric vehicles are a really interesting emerging technology,” said Stark. “I especially like the idea of scooters. They let people move around fast and then you can fold them up and carry them.”

tark believes the best emerging energy alternative is hydrogen, which could be generated by nuclear, wind or solar power and then pumped to homes via pipelines.

Such clean power would also recharge the scooters, electric skateboards and electric bikes — a change that Stark believes could be made to happen within a decade. “We have seen this type of change in London; the cycle lane system is expanding and works well. We need to be open to new ideas. That means a regulatory system that is flexible and open to managed disruption.”


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 3:24 pm
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The big issue with all of the dire climate warnings that come out is that the real causes for concern seem to be largely ignored. It’s easier to call the general public in the western world stupid, and bash normal people for going on holiday and eating a ham sandwich than it is to say that ever escalating coal power production in China makes almost everything else pale into insignificance

You do know who it is actually driving the economic expansion of China don't you? I assume that you also know who the biggest historical polluters are?

But yes, it's that evil yellow tide and nothing to do with us.


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 3:25 pm
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Sacrificing of virgins is something I’d suspect is far more characteristic of monotheistic religions developed since the advent of major civilisations, than the animist-type religions of hunter-gatherers that may be expected in the stone age

Do you know what Kuru disease is, and how people get it? Papua New Guinea ring a bell?

The Vikings were good at sacrificing women as well...

http://sciencenordic.com/vikings-abused-and-beheaded-their-slaves

The idea that hunter gatherers were playful, co-operative hippies as implied by the article you posted has been debunked.


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 3:29 pm
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Sure, but you said stone age, which is a period of a few million years within which humans were primarily hunter-gatherers. Metal sword and axe wielding Vikings have nothing to do with it.

Yes, Papua New Guinea rings a bell, I named my first pet (a guinea pig) Papua when I was about 7 years old. It's a more defensible example than the Vikings, I'll take that, but countless others could be given to defend a different point of view:

https://cas.uab.edu/peacefulsocieties/

I fail to see how increasing intelligence bears any relation to decreasing brutishness. Steven Pinker may argue otherwise, but I doubt that even his conclusions wouldn't suggest 'intelligence' is the driving force for lower violence.


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 3:44 pm
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To add to that, I didn't say all hunter gatherers are peaceful, playful and co-operative. I asked why you were characterising them all as brutes.

Many are peaceful, other's are perhaps better described as 'brutes'.

And then there are the handful of brutes living in the peaceful societies and the handful of pacifists in the brutish societies... So basically humans have always been a complicated bunch and probably always will be.


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 3:59 pm
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Because, as Jarred Diamond has rightly pointed out, nation states and modern warfare have replaced constant small scale violence with national conflict that has now become to risky with too little reward.

The prehistoric average for violent deaths globally, is around 15 percent.

That makes world war two look like a quaint paintballing match.

Let's not mention the fact that IQ or lack of, correlates pretty well with propensity to violence in modern humans as well.


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 4:01 pm
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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3404054/

.

Anyway - the hunter-gatherer world, was Idiocracy meets the walking dead with spears. Not something I really want to go back to


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 4:09 pm
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I'm going to opt-out of continuing to hijack the thread, and get is back on track to where we are in complete agreement

You do know who it is actually driving the economic expansion of China don’t you? I assume that you also know who the biggest historical polluters are?

That's spot on and I think it's where a (or the) major problem now lies with tackling climate change.

China's emission per-capita based on what they produce are now about the same as that in Europe. But on a consumption basis, they're much lower than ours or those in any developed country, except in some big affluent Chinese cities.


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 4:15 pm
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China’s emission per-capita based on what they produce are now about the same as that in Europe. But on a consumption basis, they’re much lower than ours or those in any developed country, except in some big affluent Chinese cities.

The advantage there is that they can be rapid adopters of technology during expansion as opposed to a very entrenched west.


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 4:26 pm
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There are far too many humans on this planet;

Agreed, but the farmed animal population is growing way faster than the human population, so theoretically, if the price of meat was artificially inflated the farmed animal population could be reduced................


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 4:49 pm
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The advantage there is that they can be rapid adopters of technology during expansion as opposed to a very entrenched west.

Except they don't think they should pay the cost of it, they think the west should -  as essentially historic reparations.

Which I can understand. privileged westerners like to moan about overpopulation because it's a convenient get out of jail free card that fits their prejudiced world view.

They'd rather keep their iPhones and share the planet with more non-human mammals, than to have to give these things up and live with other non western humans that have the same standard of living as them


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 5:19 pm
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Also, I’ll never tire of the absolute lack of awareness from people who have all flown longhaul (no doubt in first class) to attend a meeting, the outcome of which is to tell everyone else to conference call rather than flying for business.

this comes up every time some celebrity recommends anything environmental, but if that one flight and the results from it convince a thousand others not to fly, I'd call that a great use of their carbon


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 5:56 pm
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<div class="bbp-reply-author">raybanwomble
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Except they don’t think they should pay the cost of it, they think the west should –  as essentially historic reparations.

Which is fair enough really- we got to have a polluting industrial age, it's where so much of our advantage comes from, and we've used up that opportunity for everyone else so they'll not be able to take that shortcut.

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Posted : 08/10/2018 7:25 pm
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I can’t think of any more effective way to ensure buy-in than calling the people you want to join your cause ‘idiots’

I think the time for politeness has now passed: When a polite letter stops being effective due to being repeatedly ignored, you have to start using bricks.


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 7:35 pm
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A friend of mine has just returned from the states, and was shocked at the sheer lack of any nod towards going "green". He drove around in a huge gas guzzler, saw no attempt at recycling anything whatsoever, no led bulbs, nothing to make him think, "hmmm, well at least they are doing that". I've visited Russia and China in the last few years and got the same impression. These are big countries with big economies and a big impact on the world. It really does make you think why bother, its too late.


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 9:00 pm
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A friend of mine has just returned from the states, and was shocked at the sheer lack of any nod towards going “green”.

Which states? Some are some are not.

He drove around in a huge gas guzzler, saw no attempt at recycling anything whatsoever, no led bulbs, nothing to make him think, “hmmm, well at least they are doing that”.

I could get the same cars as europe out there,same fuel efficiency etc as hire cars

These are big countries with big economies and a big impact on the world. It really does make you think why bother, its too late.

When you decide that until everyone else does something we should not then it won't work.

Simple bit of logic and strategic planning, don't be the last one using a diminishing resource


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 9:09 pm
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Most people on here drive a diesel vehicle to a trail centre every weekend, fly 2 or three times a year on holiday and burn a woodburner for fun.

For the first time in roughly fifteen years I’m having to drive to work, 30 mile round-trip in a 16 yo diesel Skoda. Last holiday abroad I had where I flew was via EasyJet to Switzerland for a biking holiday in Chamonix, I think in ‘95. The only burning I do is hedge trimmings in my incinerator, ‘cos Leylandii and Pyrocanthus don’t compost very well. I lead a very extravagant lifestyle, very representative of the STW massive, me...


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 11:00 pm
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People are not going to change their ways to help with climate change.  For 99% of the world's population there is no direct effect upon their day to day lives from our warming planet at the moment.  You could tell them a million times whats happening, but all they are experiencing (especially here in Europe) are a spate of warmer summers, colder winters and a few scary storms.

They don't see, or are affected by, disappearing icecaps, shrinking glaciers, rising sea levels or expanding deserts.  When they are being overwhelmed by migrants who have very gradually left uninhabitable parts of the globe it will be too late for all.

Governments need to act in unison and agree that the only realistic solution is a virtual stop to economic expansion and the ever growing demand for energy.

Sadly it's energy production for the economies of the world and food production for the people that are causing the problem (obvious, yes).  And the best 'bang for your buck' is to burn fossil fuel.


 
Posted : 08/10/2018 11:33 pm
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I am a climate change researcher.

I specifically look at the Arctic where warming is over twice that of the global average. People there are dealing with the effects first hand now. Permafrost melting & coastal erosion are forcing whole communities to consider moving. Food security is another major issue, where susistence hunting is still a huge part of the life and culture.

The current change induced by warming isn’t felt so strongly by Europe...yet. Most models predict the Arctic will be seasonally free of ice by 2050, that isn’t very far off. An ice free Arctic cause a slowdown/shutdown gulf stream, so there is potential for winters to get considerably more extreme.

Sea level rise through the melting of ice sheets will increasingly come into play. Given how close has the Thames barrier come to flooding during storm surges, it isn’t going to take much. What happens if London floods? And this is just a token example.

This report should be taken very seriously.

But I believe the necessary change (at the government level) won’t happen and if they eventually do it will be too late. (Ironically said by the researcher who will be close to 20 flights this year to conduct climate research and attend conferences).


 
Posted : 09/10/2018 12:36 am
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Personally think it would be beyond idealistic to think that, having gone in to the 'red' so punishingly to get to this point, we can expect anything other than a catastrophic crash.

Also hope that we are on the verge of another kind of technological revolution that would make us all Malthusian.

Fusion Without Borders would go some way, but there are still rather a lot of us.


 
Posted : 09/10/2018 1:08 am
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'Fusion Without Profit Motive' would be more to the point.


 
Posted : 09/10/2018 1:21 am
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A friend of mine has just returned from the states, and was shocked at the sheer lack of any nod towards going “green”. He drove around in a huge gas guzzler,

Indeed, sounds awesome 🤠

The US has (at 2014 figures) 36.4billion barrels of oil in reserve, and that doesn’t include the strategic petroleum reserve either.

Highest since 72, and a 90% increase since 08..

Makes you wonder why they are stockpiling doesn’t it??

And it’s untapped stock (in the ground) is estimated to be 198billion barrels.

Don't honestly know what you lot are on about, plenty to go round before we get flooded or the sun burns itself out..

VroomVroom..


 
Posted : 09/10/2018 8:38 am
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Governments need to act

Based on his recent track record we need Michael Gove as PM 🙂

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2018/10/07/michael-gove-let-homeowners-scavenge-waste-council-dumps/


 
Posted : 09/10/2018 8:53 am
 kcr
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Humans don't live long enough to appreciate the impact of their actions, and politics is conducted on too short a cycle for any one to pursue long term policies. If people were going to live to 200 they might be taking a keener interest in the latest report.

I think human society inevitably involves consumption of finite resources and environmental damage, and that's probably unavoidable. However, I think we need to move to an economy that minimises consumption and growth (in the traditional economic sense) and reflects the true costs of our lifestyle, instead of deferring that cost for someone else to pay later.


 
Posted : 09/10/2018 10:03 am
 mt
Posts: 48
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We don't need a politicians to do something, we all need to do something ourselves!  Hey but that's all a bit hard.


 
Posted : 09/10/2018 10:09 am
 dazh
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We don’t need a politicians to do something, we all need to do something ourselves!

Individual action, whilst important from an empowerment perspective, is completely ineffective. What is required is a macro-economic systemic solution across the entire globe. Whilst GDP growth remains the central goal of world economies, this problem will never be solved. In fact any mitigation in the form of individual action or technology such as electric cars etc simply becomes a stymulus for more fossil fuel use. We need to leave coal and oil in the ground, that requires consuming less, travelling less and working less.


 
Posted : 09/10/2018 10:25 am
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Governments need to act

with the penchant for modern neo-liberal western governments to tax consumption there will be nothing but lip service. The best thing about these kind of threads is that it shows, for all the "so called" left wing bias among the STW massive for every left leaning liberal with socialist ideals theres a middle class "my money entitles me to" tory voting blairite range rover driving right wing libertarian nin "whatabout the hiatus" fan "third world" blaming selfish **** itching to get out. 😉


 
Posted : 09/10/2018 1:25 pm
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We need to leave coal and oil in the ground, that requires consuming less, travelling less and working less.

This x 7.5 billion. One of the many pluses of working less is that you get to ride your bike more 🙂


 
Posted : 09/10/2018 1:39 pm
 dazh
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This x 7.5 billion

Well mainly just those of us in the west, however many that is.


 
Posted : 09/10/2018 2:36 pm
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I am in rural Colorado just now. While I was thinking about the new climate change report, I watched a fat man in a cowboy shirt fall out of his pickup truck with a Donald Trump MAGA sticker while speaking to the teller at a drive thru bank. I was 3rd in a queue of pickup trucks waiting to use the ATM. Just walking. They don't have walk-up ATMs here.

There is no ****ing way we're sticking to +1.5c.

Lucky for me it won't be too bad in Scotland. These folks in Colorado are ****ed though. Already ran out of water this year and all spent a month inside due to air pollution from brush fires.


 
Posted : 09/10/2018 11:57 pm
 Drac
Posts: 50352
 

Most people on here drive a diesel vehicle to a trail centre every weekend, fly 2 or three times a year on holiday and burn a woodburner for fun.

That’s one massive exaggeration.


 
Posted : 10/10/2018 5:18 am
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