It’s time for less failed climate change conferences, and more individual actions. We’ve heard this by now but climate change is a global emergency beyond borders. In the latest IPCC report, which took seven years to produce, thousands of scientists warn that climate action must be taken NOW.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, said some governments and businesses were “lying” in claiming to be on track to achieve climate goals. He warned: “Some government and business leaders are saying one thing but doing another. Simply put, they are lying. And the results will be catastrophic.”
Key takeaways: 💨 Coal has to be phased out for the world to stay within 1.5C; currently planned new fossil fuel infrastructure would cause us to exceed 1.5C. 💨 Methane emissions must be reduced by a third. 🌳 Growing forests and preserving soils will be necessary, but tree-planting can’t fully compensate for emissions by the fossil fuel industry. 🌎 Investment in the shift to a low-carbon world is about six times lower than it has to be. 🌐 All sectors of the global economy, from energy and transport to buildings and food, must change rapidly. New technologies around hydrogen fuel, carbon capture, and storage will be needed.
Scientists state that catastrophic climate change could render a significant portion of the Earth uninhabitable if we continue to produce high carbon emissions and reach tipping points. Less developed nations will suffer. To date, 1,859 jurisdictions in 33 countries have issued climate emergency declarations affecting over 820 million people.
Tell us about your political leaders in the comments and share changes you hope to see.
Sources: The Guardian, Scientific American 📷: gretathunberg
213 likes
alexsea Going vegan is the most important thing and the first thing we should do. We can only indirectly influence what our politicians do, but we can directly influence what goes on our plate. And if 8 billion people do that, it has an immediate impact - for the animals, for the environment, for us!
And if you save someone, you do it completely or totally and not only half or possibly next year!18 likesReply
sanleeping Totally. Direct action is the only thing we can trust. 9 likesReply
stevenneoh Add: population control because fewer people = lower emissions. Procreation should cease to be seen as an inalienable human right (in fact, I can only think of selfish reasons why you'd have a kid). Birth control programmes in various parts of the world could get more support. Not to mention the elephant in the room: anyone born today will likely spend their adulthood in a world that's truly and climatically horrible to live in.16 likesReply
alexsea In principle I fully agree with you, every additional human being is a disaster for the planet at the current numbers - only I personally do not want to experience what is common in communist states, every life is precious and innocent per se. Conceivable for me would be a medical legal intervention to prevent the emergence of a life, the reproductive instinct (which in humans is basically no more different from a gesture of getting to know each other or being nice together..) can not be contained, we are descended from a chimpanzee species in which violence and sex is an instrument of power, unlike the bonobo monkeys, who also solve conflicts with sex, but are absolutely peaceful and empathetic.. 🙏1 likeReply
andala I agree and population control is the ultimate taboo, stirs so much aggression it is impossible to have a balanced conversation about it. I think one way governments could help would be to make adoption easier and quicker. Plus education because in too many communities being a childless woman is considered shameful. 5 likesReply
alexsea Yes, not thought about this point.. so veganism is the only most impactful and realistic solutionReply
mparramon I think population control is a false dilema, as it assumes that people can only affect emissions negatively. People have the power, not only to convince others to reduce their emissions, but also to affect them positively. By developing solutions that multiply reduction efforts or even counteract them, like carbon capture technologies or whatever human ingenuity could invent, people can do much more by having a chance at life than if they were never born in the first place!2 likesReply
mparramon abillion is a proof of that actually :D by being alive and contributing to it, we're multiplying our impact and doing much more than what we could if we weren't alive in the first place ;)Reply
ullu@mparramon But how does that work if people who have a negative impact also multiply at the same rate? Like sure, more people are being born to become vegan and join abillion and have a positive impact. But, its also true that more people are being born to kill and abuse animals and essentially negate whatever impact those vegans have. There is a net zero effect. If anything, your reasoning is more sound if you are trying to promote adoption. If you raise an adopted child to have a positive impact (like being vegan and joining abillion), then you prevent them from going into a family who will teach them to have a negative impact (eating meat). So you create a net positive effect where there ordinarily would have been a net negative effect.3 likesReply
mparramon Then it's for us (and our children) to double on the efforts to drive as many people as possible to become not only carbon neutral but carbon negative! Adoption works for sure, but that shouldn't stop us from having children. Every life is a potential carbon negative champion, and also a chance for a breakthrough that dramatically helps us reverse the climate crisis 💚 you can tell I'm a die-hard optimist, I think we need more of that to reverse the doomerist tide 🚀1 likeReply
bluesoul Totally agree @stevenneoh , it is said that the single biggest impact you can have on climate change is to not reproduce, with being vegan as the second biggest.6 likesReply
mparramon The issue with that is it will be the non-vegans that will reproduce, and so they will win after all! 😱 check my other comments on this post regarding my POV on this 😊💪Reply
bluesoul I disagree, there are non-vegans who are anti-natalist too, this isn't a beliefsystem exclusively linked to veganism. Even though it's hypocritical for a non-vegan to say that they are an environmentalist and citing this as the main reason to not reproduce, there are people who do just that. And when you have children as a vegan it is neither guaranteed that they go or stay vegan or join abillion, no matter how hard you try to convince them as eventually, they have their own free will and you can try to convince but not force them, nor is it only possible to convince someone to go vegan when they are your biological children, as there are already many organisations today like Anonymous for the Voiceless etc. who convince complete strangers to go vegan, so I really don't see the point how the only way to get people to go vegan is by reproducing. I also wasn't made vegan by my parents, who aren't even vegan themselves, and my parents also weren't the ones who introduced me to abillion, they don't even know about the app.3 likesReply
mparramon For sure reproducing is not the only way. But not reproducing as a way to decrease emissions is a false dilemma, as I mention above. More people = more opportunities them to devise and implement carbon negative solutions! And also for ways to spread animal rights and eventually eliminate animal suffering 💪Reply
