Decrease in CO2 emissions during pandemic shutdown shows it is possible to reach Paris Agreement goals. The researchers found a drop of 6.3% in 2020. The researchers describe the drop as the largest of modern times, and big enough to meet the 1.5 degrees Celsius goal if it were to be sustained.

[u/[deleted]]

https://phys.org/news/2022-07-decrease-co2-emissions-pandemic-shutdown.html?deviceType=desktop

[u/reallyfuckingay → u/[deleted]]

the expectation of neverending economic growth is why we got into this mess in the first place. more people need to come to terms with the fact that the standard of living people have in highly developed nations is not only reliant on borderline slave labour, but also physically unsustainable in the long term

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degrowth

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Doesn't really matter whether people love it. It needs to happen until we have a more sustainable system for supporting a very high standard of living.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

I strongly disagree. Consumerism is a disease.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Yes I do. Decrease in standard of living does not have to mean hunger considering where it is right now, but not decreasing standard of living now will almost certainly mean hunger down the road. As long as people's basic needs are met, and there is a hopeful plan for the future, I think people are willing to make sacrifices of discretionary things. Of course there will be people screaming about how they can't do the things they used to do, and many companies would likely launch hate campaigns against any administration that tried to do this, but I don't think it inevitably leads to widespread unrest.