Global temperature rise expected to reach 3.1 degrees this century

People suggest that what we do as a country will make no difference, but I find the reference to countries to be often unhelpful in this matter. Countries are just artificial lines drawn around the world, but ultimately, we are all inhabitants of the same planet and everyone has the capability to do less damage to the planet. Of course, that's a bit simplistic because the daily lives and living conditions of some people dictate that they have bigger personal priorities to deal with. But people use the fact we live in a small country as a convenient justification for doing nothing.

If we are referencing countries though, then in the case of China, I am actually a little optimistic because (a) they have such a large share of the global population and as a result, what they manage to achieve has a large bearing on the global effort but also (b) despite the headlines about how many coal fired power stations they have, they have a clear and fast tracked strategy to transition to clean energy and are doing so faster than any other country on the planet.

Other huge population countries concern me more. Such as India, Sri Lanka, much of South America, and the USA.

 

Yes I know all that Brush....I only posted the article people were asking for....don't shoot the messenger.

 

I don't claim to be knowledgeable on the science of climate change. I've enjoyed reading the posts by both sides of the discussion and can see merit in the points made by everyone - whether I agree with them or not.

One thing I am sure of is that the world is much less able to absorb CO2 given we've cut down huge swathes of the planets lungs in the form of rainforests etc.

 

Don't disagree.

If you break down to the individual level it again highlights the issue though. For climate change to be high on your priority list in life would likely mean you fall into a small group of society worldwide.

So en mass it's not priority and individually it won't be a priority for the majority of humans. Bleak outlook

 

Whatever we do as a nation regarding " doing our bit" will pale into insignificance with the likes of Russia, China,India not towing the line

 

China have burnt a lot of fossil fuels to get themselves into a position of an industrial superpower. They are now turning to low carbon and will probably get there before everyone else, but they have caused a lot of damage getting there. The Yanks are just plain mad, their emissions per person are probably one of the highest in the World. Eg taking planes to get to work for cripes sake!

 

Technically, 5 is one of the square roots of 25. The other is -5.

All positive numbers have 2 square roots. All negatives number have two imaginary roots (multiples of i). So the square roots of -25 are 5i and -5i. Although then you get into more fun maths...

 

Brazil is ~93% renewables - mostly hydroelectic. I believe they one of the greenest large county in terms of electric generation and 50% of the population of South America.

India is 32% renewables. Not that far behind the USA (40%).

 

Yet Brazil have huge amounts of livestock and deforestation of the amazon continues, though last year it had an 11% reduction... Yet still lost 11.8m hectares.

I saw an article a few days ago that outlined how many trees we're cutting down. I was shocked, that I had to check it. Then I had to check how many trees are planted.

We currently plant around 1.83bn trees each year. That sounds healthy, it sounds a very big number. But in 2023 we cut down 15.3bn. Just think about that, let it settle. Then wonder how we stand a chance when we're mining, digging, cutting, emitting and destroying our natural world constantly.

When you look at plastic, deforestation and air pollution... We treat this planet like its a toilet... Sadly, it doesn't flush so what we pollute, we live in.

 

Brazil is perhaps not the best example to highlight...it's pretty vicious as far as the human cost goes.

https://igarape.org.br/tempering-the-human-cost-of-building-brazils-dams/