People do not understand what the reality of large portions of land that are concentrated on the coasts are going to underwater sooner than anyone probably thinks. Exxon knew in the 70s, they wrote reports about it, that's all known and verifiable.

It's the lag effect, stupid.

The last time there was this much Co2 in the atmosphere, because most of the population lives near the coast, the place you are sitting and reading this will be underwater and on a timeline not of centuries, but decades.

We just have not seen the actual effects of the thresholds we have crossed yet. It's an inevitable runaway train. The surface of Venus, our virual twin, is about 867°F, because of runaway greenhouse heating due to a buildup of Co2. Just in case anyone forgets just how powerful of a greenhouse gas Co2 is.

In some ways the destruction of our political, journalistic (as they hint at in this piece) and scientific cultures and institutions is even worse. And again done knowingly, by the same people.

So. What can we do?

The people and organisations perpetuating these crimes against humanity are not anonymous. They have names, addresses, shareholders, boards, lobbyists. They should be named and shamed. Part of me fears that we will soon be unable to do so openly or effectively, with the rise of censorship and surveillance and looming control of public discourse. It's hard not to fall victim to hopelessness sometimes. I'm trying.

because human psychology is what it is, 1.5 degrees C is the wrong number to cite. 1.5 degrees C converts to 2 million TWh of energy. 2 million TERA watt hours! 120 million Hiroshima bombs worth of thermal energy. Spread over 100 years, that’s about 3,400 Hiroshima-equivalents per day, continuously. That sounds way scarier than 1.5 degrees C.

I wholeheartedly agree, yet I don’t want this type of information delivered this way. It’s just not effective. My mind doesn’t need changing, I am vegetarian, I’m mindful about traveling, I don’t own a car. Yet individual responsibility is useless in the face of such a collective crisis, and now another day is ruined by the acknowledgment that I can do fuck all about this because I have no control over the power structures that perpetuate our predicament.

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