Climate optimists like to claim that as soon as we reach “net zero” — the point when capitalist commerce and industry begins emitting less carbon dioxide than the amount absorbed by oceans, rocks, or plants, along with the amount being taken out of the atmosphere (theoretically) via high-tech CO2 removal — 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 a shiny new electric SUV and recycle your plastic water bottles!

BUT — there are big problems with this phony net zero promise, 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.

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 growing 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.

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.

#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #Degrowth

If you really want to know what we're in for (and if you're not afraid of being terrified), here are a few books I suggest reading. They might help to prepare you for the reality of 100% fully-intentional capitalist climate chaos.

NON-FICTION

📙 "Hothouse Earth: An Inhabitant's Guide" by Bill McGuire, Professor Emeritus of Geophysical and Climate Hazards at University College London

Bill McGuire explains the science behind the climate crisis and presents a blunt but authentic picture of the world our children and grandchildren will inherit; a world that we catch only glimpses of in today's blistering heatwaves, calamitous wildfires, and ruinous floods and droughts. Bleak though it is, the picture is one we must all face up to, if only to spur genuine action – even at this late stage – to stop a harrowing future becoming a truly cataclysmic one. ➡️ iconbooks.com/ib-title/hothous…

📕 "Our Final Warning: Six Degrees of Climate Emergency" by Mark Lynas

We are living in a climate emergency. But how much worse could it get? Will civilization collapse? Are we already past the point of no return? What kind of future can our children expect? Rigorously cataloguing the very latest climate science, Mark Lynas explores the course we have set for Earth over the next century and beyond. Degree by terrifying degree, he charts the likely consequences of global heating and the ensuing climate catastrophe. ➡️ bookshop.org/search?keywords=O…

FICTION

📘 "The Deluge" by Stephen Markley

This very dark, epic novel offers the most accurate projection of where we're probably going that I have ever read. It doesn't flinch from depicting the greed and corruption all around us, or from portraying the ugly results of climate breakdown and societal fracturing. ➡️ simonandschuster.com/books/The…

📗 "The Light Pirate" by Lily Brooks-Dalton

On a (slightly) lighter note, this is a beautifully written, touching, sad, and haunting novel about trying to live with and survive the near-future impacts of climate breakdown. A real gem, highly recommended. ➡️ openlibrary.org/books/OL378531…

#Books #Bookstodon #Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange

🛑 Business As Usual will lead to our demise. 🛑

Sooner or later, perhaps within years, certainly within a decade or two, the fragile and tenuous structure of our complex modern industrial society will break down. It won’t take much — overlapping natural disasters, collapse of the marine food web, an even worse pandemic, serious supply chain disruption, a major crop failure — some of these, or maybe all at once, and everything falls apart.

That’s not an outcome we should welcome. It can only lead to widespread suffering and starvation, with millions and possibly billions of human deaths.

If we are to have any hope of avoiding such a catastrophic societal collapse, we must rapidly reduce the extraction and burning of fossil fuels. But that will never happen as long as capitalism remains in charge.

So capitalism must go. The system must be changed.

Those at the top, however, will not give up easily. They will have to be forced to surrender, to step down and relinquish their power. The only way I can see that happening, short of violent revolution, is through a critical mass of people agreeing that it’s time for ACTION, then joining together for coordinated civil disobedience at a level never seen before.

The primary tactic is a prolonged general strike.

But it must be carefully thought out, every step meticulously organized. This would start with activists and neighborhood leaders meeting up and developing practical plans, locating resources, evaluating areas of strength and also of weakness.

Community groups could then begin stockpiling food and basic supplies and organizing voluntary systems of local/regional assistance, whether with transportation, health care, or finances, in preparation for the strike.

And when it begins:

⦿ No one goes to work

 ⦿ No one buys anything

 ⦿ No one pays any bills

If a wide-scale action like this could last at least a month, or even better two or three months, then I think we *might* have a chance of getting our demands met.

We’re at an inflection point, a moment of decision: either stay with capitalism and face disaster, or do whatever is necessary to bring about degrowth.

#Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateAction

In a meteorological sense, tropical cyclones have a job. The Earth is heated unevenly. This is apparent to almost everyone; the poles (Antarctica and the Arctic) are colder than the tropics. What people don't always realize is that nature always tries to erase gradients. This is loosely related to the second law of thermodynamics, if you will humor me. So Earth is always trying to spread extra tropical heat to the poles, where there are heat deficits.

The way this is done is mainly through ocean currents. Large gyre systems slowly transport heat poleward through steady strong currents, allowing both latent (evaporation and condensation) and sensible (temperature radiation) heat exchange with the much smaller, in terms of energy, atmosphere. During the height of high temperature gradients, for a few months after the solstice, these ocean currents aren't enough. Heat is building up, and the gradient is getting stronger.

That's where hurricanes come in. They are violent transfers of heat from the tropics to the poles. They represent hyper exchange of energy from the oceans to the atmosphere, and eventual poleward movement. The evaporation and mixing while the hurricane is formed takes up ocean energy at the poles. The intense rain events at higher latitudes (like in North Carolina this year after Hurricane Helene) release that tropical heat to the higher latitudes. That is their job.

The more excess heat we store in tropical oceans, and the less currents can transport heat poleward, the more tropical cyclones we should expect. Nature hates gradients.

en.osm.town/@seav/113486289077…

#hurricanes
#TropicalWX
#ClimateChange
#AMOC
#HeatTransport

More than 140 banks worldwide have "pledged" to cut emissions associated with their lending and investments to almost zero by 2050.

But meanwhile...
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Less than a hundred miles from where world leaders are discussing how to meet their climate pledges, BP is drilling for gas. The project, a sprawling gas field off the Azerbaijani coast, could inject more than 1 billion metric tons of carbon into the atmosphere, striking a major blow to efforts to slow global warming.

BP has said it intends to invest heavily in new oil and gas fields in the coming years. But it would be unable to pursue these dirty projects without billions in support from big banks. Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo, along with a number of other banks, all helped BP raise more than $5 billion last year.

Since May 2021, global banks committed to "Net-zero" have poured almost $1 trillion into companies pursuing expansion of oil and gas projects that would push the world beyond its survivable limits. Taken together, these projects would produce almost seven times the annual emissions of the U.S.
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FULL STORY -- grist.org/accountability/net-z…

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #Economics #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual