Hot take: The people who control the Democratic Party don’t care if Donald Trump wins the election. If they did care, they would offer a better candidate than Joe Biden to oppose him. #USA #Politics

It looks like YouTube is closed off again for people (like me) using ad blockers. And I can't find a single Invidious instance that's still working either. Just error codes everywhere, as if YT is killing them. Has anyone else experienced this? Are there any known solutions?

"You worry too much. Everything's going to be fine. Humans are the most adaptable species on the planet. We've always adapted before, and so of course we also can adapt to climate change." Ever hear something like that? Andrew Dessler (@npub1dzxl...40ny), a climate scientist and Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at Texas A&M, offers a response to the optimistic "We'll adapt" crowd... __________________ “Humans have always adapted.” If you’ve followed the climate debate, you’ve inevitably come across these soothing words, usually made by someone rich, often working for a think tank whose agenda is stopping action on climate change. The argument taps into the romantic notion of human resilience, suggesting that adaptation is not just possible but a simple, cost-free solution to the climate catastrophe unfolding before us. This view is overly optimistic. Adaptation, far from being an easy way out, is shaping up to be an absolute nightmare. Here’s why. __________________ FULL ARTICLE --

Adaptation to climate change will be an absolute nightmare

Why the easy way out is no way out at all

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual

We urgently need to get off fossil fuels — coal, oil, and gas. Right? Does everyone agree with that? Human extraction and burning of fossil fuels is destroying Earth's delicately balanced ecosystem and radically altering the stable climate that sustains us. Our industry and commerce are quickly making this world unlivable both for people and for countless innocent species who are dying now and who will disappear along with us in the near future if something doesn't change fast. But the problem is, where do we go from here? How can we sustain our complex modern society *without* using fossil fuels to power it? And… take another step beyond that. Are we even asking the right question? Does it truly make sense to try and find a way to sustain an unsustainable way of living? Indrajit Samarajiva (https://indi.ca/about/) is a writer living in Sri Lanka. I’ve pointed to his essays before, and now I want you to consider his challenging response to the type of questions I’ve posed above. _______________________ The common understanding of winning the climate fight is that we stop using fossil fuels, stop emitting (and even capture) CO₂, and carry on with a virtually indistinguishable type of civilization. Broadly, we change the engine, but not the type of vehicle or where it’s going. The general vibe is that one type of product (fossil fuels) is bad, and so we should switch to consuming other products (renewables!). If you look at the marketing of our climate change fight, the promise is that you can have the same lifestyle but in an electric vehicle and with a different type of milk. The promise is that the future will be even better, faster, more comfortable, and without all that pesky guilt weighing you down. As the Miller Lite slogan goes, “same great taste, less filling.” This type of marketing is just another emission, called bullshit. All of the ‘solutions’ to climate change are just marketing slogans to ‘keep capitalist and carry on’. It’s like cigarettes telling you that they have ‘less tar.’ Okay, but what about all the other shit? Infinite growth on a finite planet still gives you cancer in the long run, which is where we are. As you can see, our stated goal of ‘fighting climate change’ is precisely the problem, which is human domination of the natural world. It’s the very idea that we should control nature that caused the problem. You can’t mitigate the effects of this hubris with more cause. What are we proposing, really, with all this 'green growth' and ‘innovation’? We’re proposing to bind nature in lithium chains instead of hydrocarbons. That’s all. We’ve gotten away with it for so long that we think we can pull a fast one on nature again, but nature will not be fooled. This is just the same old hubris in new packaging. This attitude of ‘fighting’ and ‘winning’ over nature is precisely why we lose. Nature is a balance. One species ‘winning’ is an oxymoron. _______________________ There’s much more in Indi’s potent essay, including numerous links to his previous work and to other useful information sources. I hope you’ll read the whole thing. FULL ARTICLE --

indi.ca

Why We Need To Stop Fighting Climate Change

How do you fight a force of nature, and should it be done?

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #Capitalism

Compare the two photos below … which is worse? One reflects a large amount of emotional and psychological damage. When we saw that the iconic tree at Hadrian’s Wall had been cut down, evidently in an act of vandalism, our souls suffered. The second photo reflects a huge amount of physical damage to our environment, to biodiversity, and ultimately to the climate. Yet it’s just a random shot of quotidian deforestation. Nothing special about it. Nothing unusual at all. Do you know that over 40,000,000 (forty million!) trees are cut down *every day* in the world? THAT is the true outrage. See --

TheRoundup

How Many Trees are Cut Down Every Day? [2026] - TheRoundup

Senior researcher Arabella Ruiz reveals the statistics on how many trees are cut down every day and the consequences of deforestation, including...

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #Trees #Deforestation #Biodiversity #BusinessAsUsual

If you’re looking for great accounts to follow, here are some of my favorites! @npub1d02x...emgm 👏 @npub1vjh4...s57p 👏 @npub14k23...ed68 👏 @npub175vz...ea5p 👏 @npub1kvp2...qung 👏 @npub1fh6l...zu76 👏 @npub1cf87...ntj0 👏 #FollowFriday

Pave paradise, put up a parking lot...

Imagine the worst villain in the scariest horror movie. Then imagine something even worse — that’s the oil industry, which fully intends to be around for the next “60, 70, or 80 years.” They are murderers, openly declaring their aim to continue with Business As Usual until they destroy Earth’s biosphere. READ THIS --

Climate Justice Social

Bread and Circuses (@breadandcircuses@climatejustice.social)

We know, and have known for a long time, that "carbon offsets" are a scam. (See https://climatejustice.social/@breadandcircuses/109449916188231905)...

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency #Capitalism #Greenwashing #BusinessAsUsual

How does it make you feel when you read the things I post about the climate crisis? Or when you see news stories about what capitalism and consumerism are doing to our beautiful planet? Does it make you angry? I hope it does. And I hope that this anger will propel you into action. ____________________________ "Anger is most powerful emotion by far for spurring climate action, study finds" FULL STORY -- https://archive.li/S78xm #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency #ClimateAction

#SilentSunday

I haven't read this book, but based on the description it looks like a good one... ________________________ A sense of urgency pervades global environmentalism, and the degrowth movement is bursting into the mainstream. As climate catastrophe looms closer, people are eager to learn what degrowth is about, and whether we can save the planet by changing how we live. This book is an introduction to the movement. As politicians and corporations obsess over growth objectives, the degrowth movement demands that we must slow down the economy by transforming our economies, our politics and our cultures to live within the Earth's limits. This book navigates the practice and strategies of the movement, looking at its strengths and weaknesses. Covering horizontal democracy, local economies and the reduction of work, it shows us why degrowth is a compelling and realistic project. ________________________ LEARN MORE --

Pluto Press

Exploring Degrowth - Pluto Press

An introduction to the degrowth movement worldwide

@npub1zct6...4nkp #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #Degrowth

Climate change means, among other things, that we can’t take *anything* for granted any longer. There is no normal now. Used to be we would talk about how important it is to keep our tropical forests and other areas of vegetation intact, because they act as carbon sinks, absorbing CO2 from the air during photosynthesis. But now even this — one of the most basic science facts we learned in high school biology — is in jeopardy. "Parts of tropical rainforests could get too hot for photosynthesis, study suggests" https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/23/world/tropical-forest-heat-photosynthesis-climate-scn-intl/index.html #Science #Forest #Trees #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis

If you’re looking for great accounts to follow, here are some of my favorites! 👏 @npub1nr6q...6wqx @npub1z4ev...jhuf @npub1zxt6...mvdn @npub1a59s...uh2u @npub1jf3j...dfcf @npub1falw...x5g3 @npub13rw0...nfd8 #FollowFriday

When it comes to your personal impact on global warming, it’s not only how you *spend* your money. It’s also how you *invest* your money — assuming, that is, that you are among those wealthy enough to enjoy such a luxury. _______________________________ A recent study finds that U.S. elites are disproportionately responsible for the extreme weather events linked to climate change like heat waves, droughts, floods, tropical storms, hurricanes, and rising sea levels. Study co-author Jared Starr, a graduate student at the University of Massachusetts, notes that the top 1% of American households are responsible for more emissions (15-17%) than the lower earning half of households put together (14% of national emissions). "Our study is the first to link U.S. households to the greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution generated when creating their incomes," said Starr. "We found that the highest-earning top 10% of households are responsible for about 40% of U.S. GHG." Although the United States only includes 5% of the world's population, it is accountable for more than a quarter of the activity fueling climate change. This is in large part because of America's dominance as the world's foremost economic power — a dominance reflected in its large investor class, which because of its wealth is figuratively steering Earth off of the climate cliff. "For the first time, we also quantify the share of emissions related to investment," Starr explained. "The share of emissions coming from investments increases as we move up the income ladder. For the top 0.1% households, more than half of their emissions are coming from investment income." Starr used a visual analogy to illustrate his point. "If we picture this on a graph and imagine the bottom 10% households' emissions are the size of an average house, then the top 1%’s emissions would be the size of five Empire State buildings stacked on top of each other, and the top 0.1%'s emissions would be taller than Mount Everest," he said. "This scale of emissions inequality was unknown before our study. I think it is a climate justice issue and it poses a fundamental challenge to our political system to respond to this level of emissions disparity." _______________________________ FULL STORY —

Salon.com

How wealthy "super emitters" are disproportionately driving the climate crisis — while blaming you

A new study found that the top 10% of households are responsible for 40% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions

CHART SOURCE (Headline added) —

Income-based U.S. household carbon footprints (1990–2019) offer new insights on emissions inequality and climate finance

Current policies to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and increase adaptation and mitigation funding are insufficient to limit global temperatu...

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateJustice #CO2 #Emissions

Renaee Churches has a suggestion... ____________________________ If we accept the reality of climate breakdown, we have a chance to make amends and to save as much of the natural world as possible while we still have a relatively intact society with the social order to get things done. Think orderly descent — powering down the global enterprise. What possibilities open up if we accept defeat? If we say we have failed, and that the breakdown of our civilization will continue to unfold in our lifetime? With the energy we will save from abandoning the energy transition, we could deploy the Mirrors for Earth Energy Rebalancing (MEER) project that will provide heat relief or local cooling so some communities can survive a bit longer and grow crops before having to move. This is a small scale, grassroots, and accessible technology that corporates have no interest in currently, as it won't make them money. We can make amends to wild creatures and First Peoples everywhere, love the damaged and degraded places of the Earth, as well as protecting the remaining precious wilderness from the force of global capital. Other projects could include a Universal Basic Income to replace the many ‘bullshit jobs’ that people are enslaved to, that produce no real value, and a massive commitment to housing access and affordability as a basic human right for all. Imagine the creative energy, mourning, cooperation, and humility that would abound. Imagine setting the younger generation free. Free from the obsession with career, money, working, superannuation, and other irrelevant concerns in a collapsing world. The massive mental health crisis affecting youth today may be alleviated if they heard some truth-telling or plain speaking from adults — a deep, heartfelt apology from our generation to theirs. ____________________________ 💚 Beautiful 💚 More like this, please! FULL ESSAY -- https://medium.com/@renaeech/responding-to-rebecca-solnits-article-in-the-guardian-on-doomers-a12b0f8106e9 #Climate #Environment #Nature

Wildfires, floods, dams bursting, human lives lost, ecosystems destroyed — who should pay for all this? You and me? HELL NO! #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency #ClimateJustice #Capitalism

Sometimes when I post climate graphs reflecting, say, global temperatures or sea ice coverage, a commenter or two will complain that the x or y axis does not start all the way at zero, and thus the graphic could be exaggerating the magnitude of change, at least to a casual observer. I have a lot of faith, however, in those who read my posts, and I’m confident that nearly everyone here is smart enough to understand what they see, without having reply guys explain it to them. 🙄 Anyway, the image I’m posting below, prepared by Zach Labe (@npub1fh6l...zu76) does not suffer from any such irregularities. That is, the axis starts right at zero — and that’s what makes it, for me at least, so alarming. The amount of total volume of Arctic sea ice lost in such a short span of time is astounding. We have radically altered the planet in the geological blink of an eye. Human industry is converting our planetary biosphere into something we have never known, and we may not survive the changes. SOURCE OF GRAPH —

Zachary Labe

Arctic: Sea-Ice Thickness/Volume

Near real-time visualizations [Arctic Climate Seasonality and Variability] [Arctic Sea-Ice Extent and Concentration] [Arctic Sea-Ice Volume and Thi...

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency

I wish I didn't have to tell you about this again, but I do. It's not being reported much in the news — and you know why? Because it's not 'new' (the origin of the word 'news'), it's old. This has been going on for months now, and corporate news outlets are simply tired of reporting it. But it is still happening. Canada's boreal forests are burning up. At least 1100 fires are still active, more than 700 out of control. Over 13 million hectares have been burned so far, with no end in sight. It's an unprecedented climate and environmental disaster. #Canada #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency SOURCE OF MAP --

Homepage | CIFFC

Climate optimists like to claim that as soon as we reach “net zero” — the point when we are (theoretically) emitting less CO2 than the amount being absorbed by oceans, rocks, or plants, and taken out of the atmosphere through carbon capture — then global warming will stop almost immediately. It’s a nice message, one intended to make us feel better, reassured that our leaders know what they’re doing. Don’t worry, we are told, everything is under control. By 2050, if not sooner, they’ll have the situation turned around. In the meantime, we can all relax and go ahead with Business As Usual. 😃 Keep shopping, keep buying, keep driving, keep flying. And don’t forget to do your part: buy those paper straws and recycle that water bottle! BUT — there are big problems with this phony net zero claim, and the way countries report their emissions is one of them. Investigators have found huge discrepancies accruing through the use of spurious carbon offsets, outsourcing, and other UN-approved loopholes. Also, CO2 emissions from the military are not required to be included, nor are emissions from international trade. See —

the Guardian

Greta Thunberg on the climate delusion: ‘We’ve been greenwashed out of our senses. It’s time to stand our ground’

Governments may say they’re doing all they can to halt the climate crisis. Don’t fall for it – then we might still have time to turn things a...

Some estimates suggest that actual emissions could be at least *twice* as high as what’s being shown in the official reports. No wonder global temperatures keep rising even though we’re constantly assured that great progress is being made. In addition, there’s a risk that climate change itself will trigger “natural” emissions of greenhouse gases as peat bogs dry out, as drought-weakened forests burn, as permafrost melts, and as the sea floor warms, releasing previously frozen methane clathrates. So it’s not just the emissions of human industry we need to worry about. See — https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fstory%2Fthe-arctic-is-a-freezer-thats-losing-power%2F The point is, net zero is NOT zero. Don’t fall for their lies. It’s time for real change, for system change. We must demand the end of #capitalism and a pivot toward #degrowth. #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency #CO2 #Emissions #Greenwashing #BusinessAsUsual

It's time for another week of BUSINESS AS USUAL, a co-production of the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee, sponsored this time by Saudi Aramco, Ford Motor Company, and the US military-industrial complex. 🎶 "Keep driving, keep flying, keep shopping, keep buying! We've got this, everything's fine." 🎶 😃 #Politics #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual