[antibasilisk]

Faster than expected, Venus by Thursday.

>Humanity needs to act now.

And do what exactly? The kill count from shutting down all emission-producing parts of society would be enormous, and it still wouldn't be enough to keep global warming at a level that is habitable for a good chunk of people on the planet.

Net zero carbon by 2030 is a joke, literally nobody is on track to meet those targets and BOE will happen before then at the rate we're going anyway.

[oezi]

It tragically comical that all it would take is something like 2% of GDP over a couple of years (until 2050) to fix.

We rather spend it on the military or pensions.

[gus_massa]

You can shut down the military if every other country agree. That looks difficult.

But how do shut down pensions?

[oezi]

Most developed countries spend something like 12% of GDP on pensions. You would have to tighten the belt on those generations who caused the climate catastrophy not shut down pernsions.

[gus_massa]

At least here in Argentina, the pensions are quite low. The retired persons can't make a strike, so the government cuts the pensions a little each time they need some money. [Every government, form every party. The opposition claims it's unfair, but when the government switch party, they make their own cut.] Now the minimal retirement salary less than US$200 (depending of the exchange rate).

France tried to increase the age of retirement and people got angry. An alternative solution is to cut the pensions a little, but I guess people will get angry too.

In USA the system is different and they save they money and later get their money back, so cutting it is more obvios stealing, but I guess it's possible because they can't make a strike. [We tried something like that. The banks got a nice direct cut, the government got another nice indirect cut, and after some years we decided to make all retirement public again and in the transition the banks got a nice indirect cut, the government got another nice direct cut.]

Remember that one day you will retire, and you may like to have a good enough retirement salary. You don't want to be blamed for whatever new problem appears and get a 20% cut of your retirement money. (Are solar panels more difficult to recicle than expected? Did the wind turbine kill too many birds? Probably not, but it's difficult to guess the problems will know in 50 years.)

[quacked]

2% GDP until 2050 would allow for every single chemical and material used in farming, building, and mining in the world to become part of a net zero carbon supply chain?

[oezi]

2% of GDP is the estimate to go 100% renewables for the entire energy sector (not just electricity) for developed countries. For instance for Germany the estimate is 500 to 3000 bn EUR in total.

[quacked]

And this would stop global carbon emissions? What about the shipping industry, the mining industries, the fuel required to do all the shipping and mining and farming, etc. etc.?

My understanding is that nothing short of a massive, forced reduction in resource consumption will do anything to seriously slow down carbon emissions and curb climate change, if indeed it can be curbed.

[antibasilisk]

We don't have until 2050, we have -15 years or so.

[oezi]

Well I am not sure it helps to dwell in the past.

[antibasilisk]

It helps to realize when your panicking is going to create a worse disaster because you haven't accepted the current situation.

[Enginerrrd]

BOE= Blue Ocean Event, or where all the ice in the Arctic ocean melts.

[TheOtherHobbes]

The kill count from not fixing the problem will be so much higher.

We're going to be destroyed by the narcissism and sociopathy of our supposed leaders.

And I don't mean our elected politicians, who are largely ornamental. I mean the individuals who buy and sell them.

[antibasilisk]

>The kill count from not fixing the problem will be so much higher.

There is no scenario where the situation is fixed, there are only situations where it MAY be 'less disastrous', but it's entirely speculative.