this post was submitted on 04 Oct 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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Bill Gates take on Climate change (fortune.com)
submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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This article is frustrating for me. Especially his take on trees. The article states the target goal/amount of trees planted would only reduce carbon 6%. Ok, but, it will reduce temperature. I live in WV near a state forest. It is typically 7°-15° F cooler at my house than in town. Additionally, the sun in the summer doesn't even hit my house until noon-ish, which significantly reduces my air conditioner consumption.

I chose to share this mostly for awareness. I am not especially fond of his perspective.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

Yeah, but ecological damage isn't about CO2. It's about global ecosystem collapse. Reforestation helps stopping damage to local wildlife, keep bees alive, etc. If we focus only on CO2 we run the risk of falling into technocratic strategies of minimaxing it's mitigation. All that while ignoring what we are trying to preserve in the first place.

Trees also help lowering local temperature, and a small but significant part of that carbon will be absorbed by fungi and stored bellow the Earth. And with diversity, they can provide resources for communities such as fruits, teas, and other good stuff.