The impression I got with the Gohmert asking if the forestry service could alter the moons or earths orbit wasn't that he thought it might be possible but that he had been convinced global warming and the forest fires were due to things out of our control of humans (like orbits) and so was implying that if the forestry service couldn't affect orbits then there was nothing to be done.

Still dumb but misinformed dumb instead of outright dumb.

I think we’re done, lads. Even the Daily Mail – the Daily fucking Mail – have given up and accepted that we’re all screwed.



Still not quite admitting that climate change is real, but accepting that ragnarok is coming anyway.

Yossarian wrote:

We’re reaching the point with this where the only way out is going to be the equivalent of a moonshot but on a global (or at least EU/US/China) scale. There are devices that can capture carbon from the air and store it, but we’d need hundreds of millions of them. We could make hundreds of millions of them, and quickly, if we chose to do so as a species.

The main issue is so far, most of them are re-using the captured carbon as synthetic fuel. There's no incentive to sequester it, and the technology is expensive, so that's how they recoup costs.

Diluted Dante wrote:

Yossarian wrote:

We’re reaching the point with this where the only way out is going to be the equivalent of a moonshot but on a global (or at least EU/US/China) scale. There are devices that can capture carbon from the air and store it, but we’d need hundreds of millions of them. We could make hundreds of millions of them, and quickly, if we chose to do so as a species.

The main issue is so far, most of them are re-using the captured carbon as synthetic fuel. There's no incentive to sequester it, and the technology is expensive, so that's how they recoup costs.

This is kind of what I mean about it being a moonshot. This would have to be something that’s funded by governments and done with no expectation of making that money back.

Needs a war-like mobilisation now to stop it. None of this carbon neutral in 30 years shite. Flights grounded, airports closed, imports and exports cut down to essentials etc.

Private planes need banning.
Im sure I remember seeing that the lockdown did little to change aviation pollution because so many private flights were still happening.

Edit: Private jets really. For mi/billionaires swanning around the world. Not talking Cessnas.

Ban all planes. You really need people to see it like WW2. “What about my holiday to Crete?” Fuck you there’s a war on. “You want me to walk to work?” Fuck you there’s a war on.
“I need my South Korean skin care products.” Fuck you there’s a war on.

It’s going to need a big disaster for people in the West to see it that way. A big disaster involving white people, not an Indian village getting wiped out. New York under 2ft of water, thousands dead. That sort of thing. By the time one of those comes along though, it will probably be too late. It probably already is.

Erm, look up?

Yeah it's impossible I think. Whoever the opposition is can win just by saying you can still have foreign holidays. Needs a mass public mind switch. Instead of thinking it can be business as usual and a gradual easy transition, they need to go for the one who can best deliver change as quickly as is needed. Then the extreme position wins. 

It's a bit like the 1930s. It's going to be a series of Chamberlains all the way up until the strategy completely, irrecoverably fails.

JFC

https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/warnings/floods

SpaceGazelle wrote:

… people are going to shrug and ask, what's the point?

This is a very real issue for those of us who already feel a bit educated on the climate crisis. It’s one of those rabbitholes where you thought you understood the problems, but then you learn a bit more and realise you previously knew nothing. The problem is bigger. And then you learn a bit more, and realise you still knew nothing. The problem is even bigger. Etc etc.

When I learned the scale and speed of continuing coal-powered industrialisation in China, I noped out. Nothing we do here can make a blind bit of difference. Then you learn about the population increase in India. Nothing we do here can make a blind bit of difference. 

Personally, that doesn’t make me lose hope. I think we in nations like the UK have the privilege of cultural influence, which we can try to wield in a responsible fashion. (I know, I know. Fucking British exceptionalism. But it’s all we’ve got left.)

I’m not giving up my sports car or my high-data-use Internet habit. But I’m helping to organise a pre-CoP26 conference to bring some big multinational corporations together in one room and tell them to stop bickering and get on with saving the fucking planet – because private enterprise are a better hope than our Government.

Also needs European counties to club together into a green buyers club. Stop buying your shit from dirty old China. Team up with a non-insane US government then suddenly the biggest purchasers in the world are only buying green. China then no longer have a viable economy without going green.

No it’s nowhere near enough on its own. And even that seems impossible.

It’s not enough on its own, but it will buy us time to do the rest of it.

Did you actually just Google ‘Chinese butt’ for that gag? Because that is commitment and I can respect it.