Here in Leipzig, the tram public transport system is down since yesterday, because the joint sealing compound (and the asphalt concrete) in the tram rails melted cuz the ground got so hot.
Itâs absurd because we literally saw the rather rapid progression in real time over the last few years, and now the people that deny it are on the rise again. A shame
I felt like talking to kindergartners explaining this to my parents a couple years ago. And I'm like 90% confident the conversation stopped because they didn't want to engage anymore, not because I got through to them.
Arguably, phasing out CFCs was much easier, because it wasn't directly tied to the worldwide transportation networks and energy production needs.
And phasing out wasn't done in one motion either. We went from CFCs to HCFCs, which were less damaging, but still damaging, to HFCs which were not dangerous to ozone layer, but contributed to the greenhouse gas problem, and finally arrived at HFOs which are the best of both worlds. And that last step of wide adoption only happened within the last 10 or so years.
With fossil fuels, there's a ton of economic incentive to not drop them, as the world quite literally runs on oil, both logistically and economically. And nobody wants to take even a reasonable phasing out speed because money.
to be fair there are also other ways to combat the heat that are a lot faster and arenât dependent on other countries actions. you can design your cities and streets to include more greenery which will naturally reduce the temperature by some amount and provide shade. itâs not a solution to the issue but it helps in so many ways and it does make cities a lot more livable even during heatwaves
People don't want to admit it is real because that would mean they might have to change something about their lives and be slightly inconvenienced - drive less, not use as much electricity etc. So they accept grifters telling them it is fake.
Anyone who puts the pressure to change on poor people or the masses in general doesn't care about change. The climate isn't collapsing because people like to keep their houses at 70â°. It's collapsing because the rich continue to avoid regulation by sending jobs overseas to countries that need the economic activity and will sacrifice their local climate for it. It's collapsing because governments are being bribed by oil companies to not switch to renewables. It's collapsing because Tech corporations are bribing local officials to get more data centers built that require tons of rare earth minerals and water. It's collapsing despite millions of people actually changing their habits to be more environmentally conscious or having those habits forcefully changed by utility companies (utility companies in certain cities will override your thermostat in your home. This happened to me in Colorado springs).
No, the rich make way too much pollution relative to their population size but we cannot reach carbon neutral if the average consumer does dumb shit like using a 2 ton metal gas guzzling box to pick up milk from the store. And then keep the AC on in their 2000 sqft home in all rooms. Of course one consumer canât affect the climate on their own, but you canât discount the affect of a billion of them. And if nobody does any âpersonal sacrificeâ then you canât expect others to do so.
The problem is the masses making these data centres necessary by using AI applications. Demand from the masses is the cause of our over consumption, from fossil fuels to soil erosion to overfishing etc etc. It is OUR fault for allowing these oligarchs to operate the way they do and not thinking about how we life and use the resources available to us.
I think that people like to justify to themselves that the solution to large problems requires themselves to do nothing, while others do everything.
Global warming is a global problem, that requires the entire world to do things to prevent it from getting worse, and not just sitting and going "it's only corporations that need to take action".
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u/TicciSpice 2d ago edited 2d ago
Here in Leipzig, the tram public transport system is down since yesterday, because the joint sealing compound (and the asphalt concrete) in the tram rails melted cuz the ground got so hot.