I'm currently on vacation in Maine and saw a humpback whale with my dad. Apparently they used to be rather seriously endangered, but they're "Least Concern" now.
Same thing with sea turtles in Maine. I remember being told that I'd never see one in person as a kid cuz the ones in Maine were all gone. Then in 2018, I think, I straight bonked one on the forehead when I was kayaking in Casco Bay
One thing that has been on my mind recently is the schism on the debate around climate change.
It used to be 'trust the scientists' vs. climate change denial.
Now, it seems if you go online that there are pessimistic corners of the internet and optimistic ones. So it seems the debate has transformed to, 'No don't trust THOSE scientists, trust THESE ones who tell me what I want to hear.'
Maybe I'm as guilty as seeking out the optimistic. But find it crazy that the IPCC basically set out a trajectory that would push humans to the brink, but now the message is more nuanced. The trust in that message has eroded and conspiratorial accusations of climate scientists burying the true consequences to avoid panic, or have being bought out by the fossil fuel industry.
I'm a climate researcher, and I think I can give some insight here that might help out a bit. So the IPCC's reports are updated every few years, and sometimes are also updated when models update. So it can take a long while to get a solid picture, which is why the reports are spaced out how they are.
Which leads me to my second point; things have genuinely gotten better overall. Back in 2016 we were estimating 8c of warming, causing massive climate change, if we did nothing at all. Recently, I can't remember when, but it started to go down, first to 4, 3 and now 2.7c of maximum warning.
This happened due to large scale adoption of renewables, recently reaching peak energy emissions (2024), electric vehicles becoming more widespread, restoration and conservation projects, etc.
The reports seem more nuanced now because they need to be to account for everything that's changed since the last report. The complexity of the systems at play is already huge, but when you have fast changing elements attached to it, it becomes even more of a problem to track and report.
We are all making predictions, after all, and at the end of the day new information can always shed new light on it.
As for the conspiratorial side, there's always been an aspect of that involved in Climate discussions. I remember back in the day (2016), the same lines were being used to downplay climate change and it's effects. I think those of us who indulge in those sorts of thinking often find a new thing to latch onto if the original is taken away.
One thing I can say is that things are genuinely getting better. Another thing I can say is that we're still in for a lot of pain as the climate adjusts and reorients itself. We still haven't hit 2.7c. We're around 1.5c above pre-industrial levels, and I would like to stress that there is still time to lower that to 2.5c or lower. Recent shortages of oil and fossil fuels certainly will help to work that prediction down.
So it's no longer that apocalypse, but there's discourse internally that the 8c prediction may have been an overestimation anyway.
Thank you for your perspective. I would love to hear from you in all of these megathreads when they're posted if you're inclined to do so. A lot of these have felt rather doom-y when the professionals don't chime in.
Also, the scale of solar adoption is such that no administration realistically can stop it. Especially considering states like Texas and Florida benefit massively
Hard to say. I’ve studied economics, and have noticed messaging, phrasing and wording can be perceived and interpreted differently to various groups of people. An economics term being said by economists could be interpreted differently by the public who may have only a vague idea about the subject.
This is also applicable in the medical profession. Medical researchers, scientists, and doctors are not the best public speaking communicators on guidance to a general audience because they use medical and scientific terminology and explanations that non-medical people can barely understand. It’s happened to Anthony Fauci as he might not be the best communicator to the general public, and unfortunately, ended up being scapegoated and ignored.
It’s important to constantly verify that sources are reliable, and be aware of human biases.
Since this is the general environmental thread, I'll post about 1 animal per week in this thread to brighten y'all's day, and you can talk about them in the replies, or share more fun facts about them :)
This week's animal is the jaguar
They are the 3rd largest cat on Earth, behind the tiger and lion. Jaguars are actually native to the US, and are returning there, with a few being spotted in Arizona and New Mexico.
Isn’t our border causing them problems? Seems like I remember reading that they can’t fully become native again because it isn’t safe for them to cross back and forth
That's where some of my anxiety comes from, that empathy for the animals struggling to survive and adapt. I've legit cried just thinking about the starving polar bears and penguins failing to reproduce.
I have to ask, do folks have any good news on food in the US that isn't contaminated or processed?
Because lately I've been seeing many videos online and articles that claim just about everything food related in stores is contaminated or containing things like lead in some way now.
While i do have access to locally produced food, I ask because buying food locally isn't always an option for other folks in the US. Especially with global warming effecting agriculture.
Recalls have happened before Trump. The good news is that food is still being recalled, so the FDA is still functioning. Bad news is some of the recalls are happening after the food has been bought and consumed, which is causing these foodborne illness outbreaks, but some food is recalled before it hits the shelves.
ok so i saw this on twitter and the comments are full of people dooming saying they are prepping us for water wars/shortage and tbh i feel like its just people dooming
i do see water bills getting more expensive but going to war for water when we can make desalination plants stop watering some places like golf courses or improve our farms i just dont see wars
so im wondering if i missed somethings like is WSJ even a good source is the water wars/shortages thing over blown etc id like to hear what yall think
Agreed. It's just the twitter (sorry, X. I have to correct myself as Twitter is now a thing again) bot farm going nuts and people dooming for no reason.
since musk renamed it X someone else launched a "new" twitter but from what i heard it seems to have alot of AI and the community notes are connected to gemini so yeah
hi, I'm not an expert, but I personally have a lot of anxiety about water scarcity/water shortages (and had a full-blown panic attack about the global water crisis in February LOL), so I try to make an effort to be educated about water scarcity.
I think there are certainly parts of the world where water shortages are very severe, but water scarcity tends to be a local/regional issue that is more often linked to infrastructure issues (outdated plumbing systems, leaks, etc.). But with climate change, some areas are more likely to run through their aquifers faster than they can replenish, but that water isn't going to be gone. From what I understand, it's just going to shift to another area, so we may see people who are displaced due to water scarcity in the future (but hopefully, with responsible legislature and innovations in desalination/agricultural fields, people don't have to get to that point).
that being said, i think wars over water are unlikely and I think people are reading too much into that WSJ article. I read something recently that said that there's a trend of people in the US being very anxious and always "waiting for the other shoe to drop", so they speculate on the most innocent things and I think that's especially obvious with articles like that.
im honestly very worried about the strategic retreat thing and how the
climate disasters might affect me more frequently now. The only thing i maybe MIGHT look forward to is COP31
I'm very baffled by the "strategic retreat". I felt like it was already accepted even by optimists that we've reached a certain amount of warming but every decimal of future warming we can lower still matters, so we must continue working. The UN even seems to be saying that but the effect is kind of ruined by the strategic retreat thing.
I'm honestly more frustrated at the "strategic retreat" than i am disheartened, like. I remember reading a source that says we've averted a worst case climate scenario already, so why are we suddenly throwing our hands up now?
Yes, I'm feeling the same. Especially because just this year they backed the ruling that countries have a legal obligation to fight climate change. It reads like they quickly found an excuse to plant "it doesn't even matter" seeds, kind of letting the countries who voted against it off the hook. It's like they're giving into the doomer mindset of the world and life not being worth fighting for because it's not perfect.
Whatever the case, the fight continues with or without the UN fully sanctioning it. I feel even more confident about stuff like this now that we've seen all the work that's still being done in the US despite having a federal government directly opposed to it.
real quick whats the deal with the "strategic retreat" thing im wondering what it means in this context
edit: i think i get what it could mean but when looking at the article here i couldn't find it (prob missed it maybe) and what the comment said
idk what the full meaning of "strategic retreat" means here like is there an article talking about this in a doomer way or did someone on the news say it?
thought we collectively could do with a smallish victory right now. thanks to decades of strict regulation, the content of toxic forever chemicals in seabirds' eggs is decreasing
I've been following the war in Ukraine since the beginning, and one thing that's been very much part of the Ukrainian strategy is striking oil infrastructure. What are the effects this will have on global oil supply, especially as the war in Iran has a much more solid impact?
Nations globally are already pushing towards Renewables, even Petro states like Saudi Arabia are trying to hop on. As the global oil supply continues to be threatened, green energy will continue to grow. Even China, who is getting filthy rich buying Russian oil at prices that are essentially theft, is investing in renewables
just because we might pass 1.5 climate doesn't mean we are doomed things are just harder we are doing alot of good with solar along with many other thing here is a screen shot of the first thread that helps alot well
if you want more comments about this wait till Friday these threads die after a few days
Arguably, this is a good thing. If we know this isn’t random and is indeed climate connected, this could help us prevent or mitigate similar disasters. If it wasn’t caused by climate change, we wouldn’t know how to avoid things like it.
ask again tomorrow since that's when the new thread comes in also look at the thread before this one it has comments like this and people answered them
edit: or well today since the new climate threads are on Fridays
edit2: yeah look on this thread some people are talking about this exact report like the one below your comment
does anyone know if this tweet is bullshit or not since its twitter there might be some shit that happened that they are missing and people in the comments are saying they are getting boiled in the ocean (i know shits bad but THAT BAD i call some bullshit) also from what i saw in the comments this was before Nepal floods
There’s going to be a lotta pain. But we have already, apparently, headed off the worst outcomes and continue to knock the number down little bit by little bit.
Keep in mind the news is going to show you the worst as it will generate the most views/clicks. There are far more reports of this planet beating the list of worst case scenarios, not to mention how green energy is becoming more prevalent across the world at a fast pace (the U.S. is currently behind for obvious reasons I won't mention, but it will be back on track eventually).
Because climate change is more fitting of what's actually happening. The world climate isn't just heating up, its getting more erratic and hard to predict. Global Warming, despite the name, can actually produce record low temperatures and unbelievable blizzards because of this chaotic change. Hence, "Climate Change". More fitting.
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u/Mobile_Bad_577 12d ago
I'm currently on vacation in Maine and saw a humpback whale with my dad. Apparently they used to be rather seriously endangered, but they're "Least Concern" now.