There is a big difference between belief and hope. I may not believe we can turn but i hope we can and will do everything in my power to make it happen.
When I feel down about climate change, I try to think about your second point: the trajectory on climate change has changed SO much in the past ten years. Back in 2012, people didn't talk about these things anything like they do now.
As much as some might disagree, I reckon 3 (3?) People are largely responsible for the "conversation"..... and "moving the needle" A Swede A former South African (now US) And previously, to a lesser extent, a US politician (Oh, there's an English guy as well..... Named a boat😉) It's great that (other) Billionaires are now putting money into green energy. (Mind you, we now know one is betting *against* one of those doing the most good.... Bad move Bill)
@@rogerstarkey5390 There's a big difference between betting that Tesla won't be successful (in terms of selling electric vehicles and pushing the market in a greener direction) and betting that the current stock price is overvalued (now that every other car manufacturing company is shifting to EVs) and due for a correction.
@@2minutestomammoth or bill Gates really doesnt like elons political ideology or lack thereof and has enough braincells to know that there isnt enough lithium on thos Planet to produce enough batterys to shift all cars to electric drive.
@@rogerstarkey5390 EVs aren't the solution to climate change, public transport is. But I don't hear of any billionaires investing in that. How about don't rely on billionaires?
i am a 13 year old in canada and i have been worrying about climate change for 2 years. I have always had a hard time finding reasons how we are fighting the climate crisis. but this video has really shown me that there is stuff being done
16 years old and have been hoping to become an atmospheric science major since I was 4. I hope that my career can point us to better answers and a better future in regards to climate change. It's one of the few things that keeps me hopeful.
@@loturzelrestaurantI hate holy koolaid. He is intolerant of all religion and spirituality and crank wellness ideas that may not have a scientific basis but make me happy. He says don’t drink the koolaid I say I do what I want.
Imagine the Dutch giving in to despair in the face of rising sea levels. They wouldn't give up in the past and they won't give up in the future. Hope springs eternal.
My overall despair/defeatism (not just about the climate, but that's a big one) has just gotten me kicked out of the community containing the online friends and acquaintances that inspired me the most. Everyone feeling despair, consider if your own despair is leading you into habits (such as reflexively criticizing [outwardly or in your head] anything that makes you feel a twinge of hope or happiness) that are corrosive to your own mental well-being and that of others, and take steps to repair your faltering morale before any more damage is done to your life or that of others. Remember that you've got just as much of a right to be happy as anyone else, possibly more with how much you evidently care about the state of the world, and that while you may not feel able to make a difference, the difference created by wallowing in despair can only be a net negative -- for yourself and for others who you may be demoralizing. Sometimes we all need to take some time to enjoy life so that we're mentally present and capable of effectively being positive influences on the world at all. Take care of yourselves.
While I will gladly hold onto my doom and despair, I also see the “climate problem” as a gradient rather than a line in the sand we either cross or not. Like I don’t think there will be a monumental turning point, but it will just gradually get worse and worse until we can make it better. I guess similar to a frog in hot warm not trying to jump out until it’s too hot.
We each need to ask ourselves what we are willing to do to improve our future. Getting our governments to step up is on the list, but so are many other things. We should each do whatever we can, regardless of what others are doing, but hope that others will join in when they are able. Thanks, Simon for helping to keep us motivated.
"personal responsibility" is something we should fight back against. We need to demand systemic changes, as the options we have for food and living ultimately determine our choices. It's hard to live ethically in an unethical world, and individuals have no real power over industries
@@annesmith9642 certainly, I'm just pointing out that the larger issue is simply the fact that our economy is underpinned by corporations and industries that keep things as they are.. since we know that if they had to pay for negative and positive externalities, virtually none of them would be profitable.
I'm one of the doomers but an eco conscious doomer. I don't have any "hope" but I still push to change and avoid consumerism. Buying stuff doesn't bring any real happiness. And I invest in electrifying my home (also some in stocks eco friendly stocks). And if things are going to be bad, I'd rather it be a slightly less harsh landing for the people. A podcast I recommend is Breaking Down: Collapse. Two down to earth guys discuss the struggles we will see in our lifetime. Also a really interesting read is The Limits to Growth. They have multiple different versions from 1970. One was just released this year I haven't read yet.
I don't know any "doomers" that aren't extremely devoted to spreading information and trying to do their part. This whole discussion is so obnoxious to me. Just piles of toxic positivity. Like no, go read the IPCC report, start paying attention to the news headlines. So many people are going to suffer and the people that could stop it are letting it happen. It's disgusting and there's no hope for the tens of millions of people that are going to be displaced and killed in natural disasters, heat waves, at border crossings, in wars.
Good luck on your new home and thanks for the 'hope'. As one of those math and science types, I've been watching the graph of 'e' on this for some time. It's generational. Carl Sagan went before U.S. congress in the 1980's to explain to them what is clearly in evidence today.
Having read the IPCC report myself, I totally agree with your stance. There has been plenty of apocalyptic end of the world messaging when it comes to climate change, but the scientific literature does not suggest it will be anywhere near an extinction event for humanity even in the worst case scenarios for the year 2100. Even assuming beyond the worst case scenarios where the Earth warms back to a peak temperature not seen since the Eocene over 50 million years ago, which would be well over 10 times the current amount of anthropogenic global warming, it will likely still be habitable by humans in large enough areas to suggest that human extinction directly from climate change would be unlikely. (Though such a level of warming would incur a severe loss of life and there is a real possibility that such an extreme change could cause extinction-level interstate warfare.) Will climate change be bad for humanity? Yes. Will it be costly, both in terms of resources and possibly human lives? Yes. However, it is worth remembering where these dangers come from. Dangerous extreme weather events in limited areas, and losses and shifts in food and water supplies. Humanity currently produces enough food to feed over 10 billion people, and we're not at any sort of maximum nor close to the need for mandatory rationing. Even with relatively severe losses in crop yields, it is still very much within our capabilities to feed the world, at least for a time. The largest issue in the coming century will not be a global lack of food and water, but a lack of affordability. Production, even if more costly and with a higher overall demand, is unlikely to be the ceiling we hit, but rather decision making on whether or not to provide food and water to those that cannot afford it on the market. (Which historically speaking, almost always ends in letting the global poor starve to death.) So personally, I am not particularly worried about humanity's survival for at least the next few generations. It will be expensive, but we have the resources to more or less shelter us from most of the upcoming dangers. I am worried about the global poor, who will be on the receiving end of almost all of the suffering that climate change will bring because they lack the resources needed to protect themselves. I earnestly hope that we can implement a solution to help those people in need, but I'm also very doubtful that this century will be the one where the desire to will overcome the greed that humanity has shown throughout all of our history.
Well, there is a possibility of H2S release from the oceans, that can kill a lot of life and damage the ozone layer, like how it happened in PTME, but i think the release will not be like in PTME, because in PTME H2S release was influenced by a pangea(I heard it influenced ocean streams and extinction themselves, like when the warming started, a desert in the center began expanding - forcing the life to migrate to shores, where it can be killed by H2S), and temperature increase (10C(Which i think won't happen)). So the current release of H2S release will be different due to continent positions(There are more land in the northern hemisphere, so ozone here will not be damaged so much, and the positions of continents also influence streams) and the magnitude of warming. But we also need to study how much life was killed by H2S during PTME, and size of release during PETM(Which is more similar to current warming).
We don't need despair, and we don't need positivity either. Even in the 2 degrees scenario that is becoming more and more likely, hundreds of millions will die and BILLIONS will be displaced. We've already seen how fragile the global supply chain is with the pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, so imagine what the destruction of whole ecosystems and whole countries being rendered uninhabitable will do. Even with everything being done, emmissions are still rising globally. Sure, while someone living in North America or Europe might be "fine" or at least wouldn't face the apocolypse at home, climate change along with all the other escalating ecological disasters are *global* problems that aren't going away. We know who is responsible for this problem and why they are doing it, and despair or positivity won't fix that, we should be *furious*.
Been watching a lot of climate town and not just bikes recently. I find they’re not negative but talk more about how we can change things, also makes me wish I could move to the Netherlands or make the uk like them haha. I’m not too negative because I don’t think it will ever get to as bad as some people say even if we did nothing, but we are doing things, more and more over time. So I think we’ll get there eventually, also selfishly the uk will probably do better than most
I find myself gawping at the Dutch way of life as well. Manchester is fairly bike friendly these days and constantly has new infrastructure underway. I've just switched to the bike being my main way of getting around. Loving it so far.
I will link a discussion here on UA-cam from 4 climate/atmospheric scientists who discuss how bad things could get, and what uncertainty there is about several crucial factors. I think it might help you watching that. It also covers the impact from climate change on the UK and I think you may be surprised.
The utter whiplash I feel whenever I talk about climate change is so disheartening. I'm always told I need to keep my chin up and stay hopeful, but the climate apocalypse is already here. It's already started. And our politicians made it clear that voting will not save us. They do not care about what we need. So the only options left are doomerism or violence. And I'm not a violent person. But, then we start the cycle over again because "doomerism contributes to the problem"
@@DavidJamesHenry That's exactly why it works. It has a higher rate of success than violence because it reveals the difference between the violent oppressors & the peaceful resistors.
5:25 I love that you actually are aware of stuff like this, it is legit hilarious to all of a sudden say that, as most other channels don't, so there's less connection with the audience in my opinion, basically always add memes/ something like this 5:28 when possible :D
Great video, Simon! 'Doomerism' never accomplishes anything, and it's important that we keep a level head if we are to actually reach those who still don't believe that we need to take action.
Climate change deniers aren't the ones writing policies anymore. now it's people who know full well what we're headed towards that are willfully avoiding the needed actions. We're screwed. My attitude doesn't matter. The only useful thing I could do is Wynn Bruce myself in front of Chase Bank's HQ but I'm too much of a coward to do that.
From 1965 we doubled our share of renewables in energy mix (from 6,06% to 12,55%) (knowing that energy as a whole increased drastically). I am hopeful that there is going to be a time when we could stop using fossil fuels, but we are going to do it, that's another story
"From 1965 we doubled our share of renewables in energy mix (from 6,06% to 12,55%) (knowing that energy as a whole increased drastically)." That's the thing. In 1965 we emitted 11.32 billion tons of CO2. In 2020 we emitted 34.81 billion tones of CO2. (our emissions in 1965 were already unsustainable) The earth's atmosphere does not care how much we use renewables. It is completely indifferent to how many solar panels we put up. It only cares about how much CO2 it is in the atmosphere. If our energy consumption must go up every year then it is possible to both add more renewables and still add more fossil fuel burning. That's what we've been doing. To solve this we would have to question things most people wouldn't dare questioning.
Just because I have lost hope (which I have), it doesn't mean I don't still act. I don't need hope or optimism to act, I just know that change is still possible. But hope and false optimism has only hurt me so far, and thus I don't need that or even want it. That's my take. PS: I really can't stand the viewpoint that it's too late and having negative feelings about it, when that is combined with no change whatsoever (politically or consumer-wise) to one's own behaviour.
@@LeanAndMean44 the US military is huge... But unfortunately Russia, China, France, UK, Germany, India.... And every single nation is contributing to this dystopian scenario.
It's really tricky balancing hope and despair and not cycling between them. I think both are useful responses at certain times, but either emotion can result in complacency. Personally, I've found that channeling my emotional energy when I'm feeling hopeful into taking personal climate action has helped me remain more resilient and persevering during the dark times. Thus, if you're like me and you now feel a bit better after watching this video, I'd suggest channeling some of that energy into doing something meaningful. Remember, watching a UA-cam video does nothing without accompanying action. Do you pay $50-$100 or more per month for digital subscription services that you don't necessarily need? Why not consider adding on another subscription (or better yet, replacing some unnecessary subscriptions) to donate to effective climate change organizations? I'd recommend doing your own careful research first so that you believe more firmly in what you're paying for, but here's one place you might start your search: Giving Green, a non-profit that compiles carefully-researched short lists of the most effective organizations for advocacy and for offsetting. (If you decide to offset, I personally recommend going above 100% of your calculated footprint if you can afford it since many offsets aren't as effective as advertised-even good ones. Besides, all that carbon you emitted from before signing up isn't just going to disappear!) Here's the link: www.givinggreen.earth
Regarding the first point that anything we do will make a difference in the long haul. Three problems with this reasoning. 1) If we only slow down, but not reverse, our CO2 emissions, all we have done is delay the disaster. 2) If we hit a tipping point, such as the permafrost releasing its methane, then small reductions in CO2 emissions made in the past will be of limited value. 3) Even if we somehow manage to stop climate change and we “only” suffer a 50% extinction rate, …… gee, whiz, that really isn’t cause for hope. Kind of like telling a stroke patient that only half of their body is paralyzed.
These are kind of all really bad points. As for 1) Yes, true, but we already have functioning carbon capture systems, if we delay it, we'll be able to catch a lot more over time. 2) True, but it's only a hypothetical, and still, there's tons of different tipping points, preventing any one of them is useful, and so, every percentage of a degree matters. 3) I don't in which world you live in that you don't think having half a body is better than no body. 50% of life is a huge amount, even in the face of tremendous death, it's nothing to scoff at.
I have similar views as you. But i think it is important to "scare" people, because some are still in denial and also not to let down our guard too much.
Scaring them doesn't change people's minds. It only makes them think you're an alarmist. You have to educate those who are yet open to being educated. That's the only thing that works. All the others are not within your grasp.
Most people are aware. Most people want something done. What makes most sense, to me, is to tell people what they can do and what can be done to improve things.
@@tarikmehmedika2754 Yes. But they are mostly in less populated states in the interior. And, interestingly, many of those interior states are where we find the most use of wind energy and growing solar generation. Personally, I don't care if some continue to deny. And I suspect a lot of the deniers deny because "that's what our team does" while understanding that they are lying for the team. What I want is results. More wind. More solar. More storage. More EVs.
@Jazzzzz, Please, see someone right away. More & more psychotherapists are becoming familiar with climate anxiety & worse. Call your doctor & get a referral. The Climate Mobilization has online group discussions as a starting place. Let us know you're OK or at least started on something. Good luck.
It's a good video, and much needed. As a Nebula/CuriosityStream subscriber, I find myself still watching your videos on YT. Maybe it's the lack of comments (I know right.. Am I missing YT comments!?) or the fact that I block YT ads anyway. Just my 2c. =)
Do you think we can reduce emissions fast enough relying only on current system (capitalism) without major changes if the system? Coral reefs are unlikely to survive 1.5C warming according to most recent research - can we keep them alive? How about other planetary boundaries we also breached?
@@jeremyjackson7429 The despair you feel is not founded on fact but on cherry picking & one-sided interpretation. Things are very bad & getting worse & those in charge are preventing sane action, but it's not hopeless yet & everything can change in a day. Psychiatrist Judith Lipton said the best therapy for despair is action, but I think the best therapy for lots of things is therapy, & action is a good way to help it work.
1.5 was already hit a decade ago when using the 1750 baseline. And hitting 1.0 above 1750 (in the 80s) was enough to trigger runaway climate change. So the time to take drastic action was back then, if not earlier.
@@J4Zonian It was the deadline to dramatically cut emissions and be alarmist. Now its far too late because of all the feedback loops and tipping points already passed. Extinction is only a matter of when, not if.
Thank you Simon for sharing your opinion. I disagree that having no hope causes inaction. I got actively involved in Extinction Rebellion after I saw a poster saying WHEN HOPE DIES, ACTION BEGINS. I see hope as potentially dangerous. When there's hope that someone will solve the problem, one is not moved to go and solve the problem oneself. When engineers are saying they can build enough renewable power, or nuclear power, or spiritual gurus are saying 'all we need is a mass change of consciousness' and vegan activists are saying all we need to do is to go vegan, those are very comforting suggestions. You and I both know that none of these things will 'solve the problem'. We need to do so much more - these things included, but even doing all these will not allow our civilisation to go merrily along as before. What we actually need to do is SO vast that it will never happen, not voluntarily. I continue my deep green lifestyle because I want organisms which survive the anthropocene to be around for millions, or billions of years after our species goes. ALL living organisms are worthy, humans are not special. Let's keep the planet habitable at least for the woodlice and slime-moulds, oak trees and pigeons.
We have a number of greenhouse emission sources. Electricity and transportation are two major sources. We are now at the point where it becomes cheaper to use renewable electricity and travel in electricity powered vehicles than to continue to use fossil fuels. We are going to lose more of those woodlice and slime-moulds. We cannot stop the use of fossil fuels overnight, nor can we pull excessive GHG down out of our atmosphere quickly. But we can make things 'worse bad' by a large factor.
@@bobwallace9753 How do you propose to replace fossil liquid fuels (almost all transport) and home heating (mostly fossil gas) with electricity? I mean, we know *how* to use electric alternatives, but where does the power come from in your scenario?
@@compostjohn Mostly wind and solar. Minor contributions from hydro and geothermal. Run vehicles on electricity, which we are already doing. There's still a problem to solve with ocean transport and long distance flight but synfuel created with RE and biofuel are two workable solutions. Heat using heat pumps, which we are already doing. Heat pumps are amazingly efficient, returning about 5x as much heat per unit energy compared to resistance heating. In really cold climates use ground effect heat pumps. Aside from locations with deep permafrost, you don't have to go very deep to find warm soil. Much, much warmer than the outside air.
@@bobwallace9753 I see that you may not comprehend the scale of the problem, in the UK at least. Here, if one breaks down our total energy consumption, you get about a quarter which is electricity. This is made by nuclear (under 20%, very reliable, low carbon) and wind/solar/other renewables (somewhere between 20% and 30% annually, not reliable, but low carbon) and fossil gas (just under half, reliable, high carbon) and, there is currently no grid-scale storage and no CCS. Another quarter is gas, used in the home for central heating and cooking, and some industrial use. Much of this could be converted to electric. Heat pumps are good, but 5x is the very best they can do, in optimum conditions with GSHP or WSHP. ASHP, the cheapest, is the least efficient. Even so, converting all our heating to electric would be massively expensive. I like the idea of renewable biogas myself. And a full half is fossil liquid fuels, for cars, motorbikes, taxis, vans, buses, lorries, tractors, diggers, chainsaws, lawnmowers, boats, ships, and aircraft. If you can imagine switching all these over to electric, or 'synthetic fuels' then you've got a wonderful imagination. Some of the electric uses are much more efficient than ICE vehicles, however, we're still looking at increasing the current renewable electricity sector by at least 3 to cover current nuclear and gas powered electricity (assuming you're an anti-nuclear luddite, as you didn't mention it) and by 6 to cover gas heating, and by maybe 9 or 10 to cover current energy use from liquid fuels. So now you see the scale of the problem. If you're still optimistic and hopeful, that we can do this in the timescale needed (UN says next 3 years) then bravo. I'm a realist. I know much of this isn't going to happen. I'm doing as much as I can and if you research me you'll see I'm an early adopter and a trailblazer. I'm comfortable being a doomer, who does more than most, despite not being drugged by hope.
@@compostjohn I understand the scale. Do you understand that we need to use the fastest to install and least expensive low carbon generation? Heat pumps are the most efficient way to heat. We can cook, very efficiently, with induction hobs and convection ovens and/or microwaves. ICEVs waste approximately 80% of the energy we pump into them EVs lose only about 10% in the form of usable heat. "cars, motorbikes, taxis, vans, buses, lorries, tractors, diggers, chainsaws, lawnmowers, boats, ships, and aircraft" We are already running all that stuff except long range ships and airplanes on electricity. Batteries may improve to cover those needs. Or we might have to produce synfuel from RE. We do not have enough arable land to produce the amount of biofuel that would be need to fuel all transportation. We've attempted to grow fuel with algae but haven't had ample success. I am not an anti-nuclear "luddite". I am a realist who knows the cost of new nuclear energy and the amount of time to bring new reactors online. I also know that nuclear needs storage and backup generation. A fact that nuclear supporters either fail to understand or, if they do, conveniently leave that cost out of their arguments. You'll notice that I did not bring up nuclear safety and the unsolved problem of used nuclear fuel. We can, I think, make reactors adequately safe. And even if we melted down a dozen or two it would be less damaging to us than extreme climate change. I also know the cost of new wind and new solar. And I can see how close we are to very affordable storage.
I wish to be optimistic ... , but the big fossil companies with their fossil business model (f.e. exxon, gazprom, saudi aramco, ...) and almost every industrial sector dependend on fossil resources (f.e. cars with combustion engines, chemicals, steel producer and so on) fight against consistent change or at least use their political influence to prevent a fast conversion.
1:25 cant the warming be undone by removing the CO2? I know this will take decades or even more, but once we finally reach net 0, we could go net negative and put CO2 into the Ground again cant we?
This was probably the least convincing video essay Simon has ever made. He's right. And we can't NOT try. But I'm thoroughly unconvinced we can unwind capitalism in time (or even realize that capitalist ideas of resource exploitation and endless growth are the problem).
Oh yes. Because capitalism is the only financial and political system to pollute the environment and if we were living under communism we would all be hugging trees
You miss a very major point. It's capitalism (potential profits via lower costs) that will work to save our butts. We are not going to clean our grids or convert to EVs via cottage industry. This is a very major undertaking that requires massive large scale efforts. Our legacy vehicle manufacturers have to see that they can make more money manufacturing EVs than manufacturing ICEVs. They have begun seeing that. Over the next few years the great capitalist engine, vehicle manufacturing will flip form greenhouse gas emitting vehicles to battery powered vehicles. The same is happening with utility companies. They are moving to wind and solar because wind and solar have become a less expensive way to source electricity.
@@bobwallace9753 wait, have you spent more than a few Tesla conference calls looking into this issue? Trying to gauge whether engaging here is worth the effort. One challenge question: how are you defining the ‘capitalism’ that will ‘save our butts’ and, bonus question, when is all this saving going to kick in?
@@falsificationism I define capitalism as a system of trading what one has (capital) for something they want. Labor is capital. Essentially none of us work for free. We engage in the capitalist practice of 'something for something'. Now, what I think is our route to salvation is large scale capitalism. The world demand for new cars is about 70 million per year. There's no way we quit fossil fuel based transportation unless very large car companies quit manufacturing fuel powered cars and move to electricity powered vehicles. We don't green our grid unless the utility companies, great big capitalist organizations, switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy. As individuals we can't afford to install massive wind turbines with 140 meter hub heights. Governments won't do it because too many voters oppose spending money that way. It will only get done if the utility companies see a better way to make money. I've been very concerned about climate change since the 1990s. I was mildly concerned in the 1980s. I've searched for workable ways to significantly reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. I do not know what you mean by "a few Tesla conference calls'. I do hope you realize that Tesla has forced the world's car producers to start a rapid movement away from ICEVs to EVs.
@@georgethompson1460 Wrong, I love nuclear but at the moment oil and gas are the only sources capable of providing cheap and reliable energy to billions of people. The reason they are more expensive now is because governments limited their supply while promising solar and wind can replace them (the law of supply and demand). Governments also banned fracking, with which Europe wouldn't have been reliant on Russian gas.
Stop "blaming the victim". People who have given up hope are victims of ineffective political leaders and/or corrupt business men. I've poured 45 years of my life into protecting the environment and now you are dumping a guilt trip on me for being depressed. Thanks a lot! That bit of shaming will clear up my depression in a matter of minutes.
@@clf400 I have seen several videos where various climate scientists say people “shouldn’t” feel hopeless. Also, the authors of the latest IPPC report criticized people who have given up hope. I even saw a clip of Barack Obama make statements to this effect. The problem is with the word “should”. This implies a moral imperative. For people like me who are trying to recover from a guilt-ridden Christian upbringing, the term “should” kicks off a string of self-hate emotions. The whole discussion about “hopelessness” is misplaced. Feeling hopeless is the tip of the iceberg. The real issue is despair and depression. In many cases (including mine) the depression is intensely painful, leading to thoughts of suicide. Depression is a mental illness. It isn’t cured by telling people they “shouldn’t” feel that way. That just rubs salt into the wound. To restore people’s hope we need decisive action from political and business leaders. Without immediate significant changes, hope simply isn’t sustainable for many people.
@@clf400 Yes, I do have a problem. But I am not alone. Many, if not most, of the people who feel it is hopeless are suffering from depression. The more a person cares about the environment, the harder it is to avoid depression. Some folks, like Simon Clark, have the personality traits to hang on to hope-against-hope. But lots of us don't. ---- Believe me, no one wants to feel it is hopeless, but the endless bad news wears a person down eventually.
My biggest concern is that we don’t have the political will to do what we have to do to head off runaway global warming. The US certainly doesn’t currently have the political will. A lot of US residents don’t believe global warming is a real problem and they others don’t want to pay the price to mitigate global warming.
I think worst case scenario is something on a large scale is done and we keep the apocalyptic climate change from happening, this will likely result in a significant decrease in quality of life, much like a new dark age, will this lead us inevitably to extinction is up to question but it will not be great time to live in. Ultimately we will make the climate significantly worse, but hopefully this blunder teaches us, and at worst possibly teaches whatever intelligent life comes after us what not to do. I think at this period of history what philosophy is best to look at is one of historical optimism, yes human history is covered in conflict and violence, often for reasons that seem stupid, but with perspective one can understand that these conflicts aren’t a result of the inherent flaws in human kind that will inevitably lead us to our doom, but because of heightened differences that seemed irresolvable at the time. This isn’t something to be depressed over, this deep down gives us hope as it means we are in a process of learning as a species, we can’t possibly know what’s coming next so we find our own way, like guts even threw all the violence and conflict finding a reason to exist through struggle, but on the scale of humanity. Deep down we are all working towards something greater and are all an important part of that process.
@@pauljackson2409 There's this neat book called _How to blow Up a Pipeline_ Most importantly, carefully so no one gets hurt. Primary target should be fossil fuel infrastructure that's under construction (because yes, there's still new fossil fuel infrastructure being built) - or if not, at times during the year when you don't kill people by disabling gas infrastructure. Not just at random times but as a reaction to when a climate caused disaster strikes. There are a lot of tactics to be learned from movements that dared more and succeeded.
Surely the best solution is to reduce emissions therefore faster, and then we can also work on Carbon capture to remove emissions from the atmosphere and start repairing the damage.
Hopeful, yes, battery technology is improving rapidly. And everybody wants EVs and no CO2. Solution, every building is connected to the grid and every home with an EV car battery plugged into the grid from any where and trading power with the grid will change everything. 1/ EVs with battery 100kwh vs a TESLA home battery 14kwh (@ $14,000), so just plug your car into the grid. 2/ in the USA 300 million vehicles 3/ in the USA 200 million buildings with rooftops for solar PV panels 4/ 40% of the grid is for home supply and it will become the grid supply. 5/ 60% of the grid is for everything else and it will take the 40% from the home supply to the grid. 6/ the power companies now only have to supply 20% and not 100%. 7/ petroleum can become a strategic military supply asset, for control of the skies in war time. 8/ the MONEY WILL BE IN THE GRID. 9/ the automatic plug in gadget will be the 'killer' invention. 10/ daily drives are only 10% of a vehicles full range, the long drive. EV batteries will easily be topped up daily. 11/ EVs will be plugged in 24/7, except in rush hour. 12/ energy will be cheap, being connected will cost something. 13/ roof top solar PV is affecting the grid now and more batteries are needed, Big Batteries will help the grid now, community batteries, and the the EVs will take over and expand in number, EVEN THE NUCLEAR SOLUTION AGREES WITH MORE Electric Vehicles. If nuclear the the grid has to triple (x3) in capacity at huge expense, to charge the EVs and supply the homes and the industries. Every country including every dictatorship will need their own nuclear industries, 100,000 SMRs world wide, like BWRX300 GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy and Rolls Royce's. The USA is the biggest target in the world. The USA military will grow explosively in size, and budget. Look at little Putin shutting down the USA. Nuclear will increase all costs because of all its extra needs. Skilled Workforce and financial and time are huge factors against this option. Do not get lost in the shiny new things, it is every other thing associated with it that is hopeless. Massive monopoly investments, and locked in for 60 to 100 years if they get the chance.
Denial by distraction, you can be happy this way forever, and at about the cost of a cup of Tea. Or, how to misuse a meditation of mumbles to good personal effect. If Nuclear Reactors were safe enough to construct the weapons designed for 50X destruction, you would think that process could be reversed even more safely to protect us.., as a reasonable and rational objective strategy and alternative to funding weapons manufacturing for our elimination. Ie completely impersonal real action everyone can participate in.
@@magiccloud3074 thank you for sharing your experience ! I still feel that by not adressing the severity of the situation (this video claiming that we can still avoid 1,5 degrees of warming is especially ludicrous) these kind of videos don’t advocate for the change we need to our economies and societies…
@@magiccloud3074 oh I’m sure that he means well, the problem is ideological -the failures of liberal to really challenge the system in any meaningful way, and thus to provide any real solutions… that’s what concerns me
Comimg from EU (not france) and listening always to experts on energy pricing: the fact that renewables produce cheaper than carbon is a source of despair. The misinformation about nuclear is so rampant, and the danger of 100%-renewables-electric-car distopya is even more than gas. Total absence of discourse about public transit, total absence of SERIOUS information about.....everything, mostly
Regarding the second point: Yes, Climate change protests are reassuring. Activists are making themselves heard. That said, protests don’t give me any hope. Considering how massive the BLM protests were and how little change came about, protests at best have limited impact. The corrupt politicians and business leaders simply hide in their offices for a few days, maybe making a vague promise or two. After the protest is over, they just go back to business as usual. To make any real difference, protests have to be sustained for decades. Can we afford to wait twenty years? Considering that the civil rights movement has been ongoing for 60 years and cops are still shooting innocent Blacks in the back, I really don’t put stock in protests…..
@@pauljackson2409 Hmmm... you sound like a conspiracy theorist..... a couple of women set up and ran the whole BLM movement just to steal a bunch of money..... I am not saying that there aren't crooked people out there who are willing to rip off gullible suckers. It stands to reason that any mass movement will have a few con artists who are trying to make a quick buck. ---- In my prior post, my point was that protest movements take a long time to effect any change in society as a whole. For example, the women's rights movement goes all the way back to the suffragettes, over a century ago. Black rights goes back to before the Civil War. Heck, LGBTQ is the new-kid-on-the-block, only dating back to the 1960's. ---- The slowness of change to the social order is why I don't think that a couple of climate change protest marches is going to save our bacon on climate change. We simply can't wait a century or two for society to change....
Have you ever heard about Solarpunk? Its an artistic genre that shows a positive outlook on the future, how things could look like if we DO get our things together. It is the antithesis to Cyberpunk and has given me so much hope in times of despair and anxiety and really reminded me once more why its worth fighting for a better future. And I joined a local climate group, who engage with certain institutions on a local level which also helped getting out of this feeling as you're actively doing stuff.
With all the horrible things and people dying prematurely and tragically, I find it hard to care about anything I general even myself, so how and why should I care about climate change at all? Or anything else?
If nothing could ever get better, then we'd all still be hunter-gatherers and you'd have already died of malaria. But really, if you find it hard to care about _anything,_ then you might be depressed. What are you doing to fix yourself?
I'm much more optimistic than a few years ago. For me the 2 big things are 1st long as we avoid run-away im not to worried about 2.1 vs say 2.3 more than all the other bad things that have sucked in the past, 2nd climate action seems to be becoming the new thing for national prestige so states are becoming much more willing to invest in it- like the space race, colonies, or cathedrals before them.
Problem is, Climate isn't the only way society is going to shit. The arguably bigger problem is wealth concentration and inequality. Wages are stagnant while costs rise, meanwhile the wealthy set new records for net wealth and wealth growth. The middle class in the Western world is stagnating or backsliding, which is triggering a resurgence of far right reactionaries. Meanwhile, while the developing world is growing wealthier, making global poverty statistics look good, they're peaking far earlier than the West did. Look at China. Their quality of life for the middle class hasn't quite reached the levels in the West yet, but they're already suffering much the same symptoms of jobs being outsourced, and long hours with shit pay. Not only does this directly reduce quality of life, it also stops a substantial amount of the change required to actually solve climate change. Yeah, you might see some transitioning to renewables, but there won't be any fundamental change in urban planning or patterns of consumption that would really curb energy use and emissions. Meanwhile, how much of the Western reductions are just exports? You have a slightly greener society at home, meanwhile the same amount of damage is being done somewhere else where keeping track is less feasible, and you have some extra damage done while the products are being shipped over. From a purely technical perspective, sure, there's hope on climate change. But looking at the whole picture, once you factor in ALL of the economic and political factors? Any real action to combat climate change will be too little, too late. We might avoid the "truly apocalyptic" scenario, but we'll still end up in a pretty goddamn apocalyptic scenario.
Here's a potential carbon sequestering that might be headed our way. Cultured meat. It looks like we are going to be able to grow real meat in vats rather than on the hoof, foot, and fin. Take cells from the very best tasting cows, pigs, chickens, and fish and grow them into 100% real meat. The process is working right now. It's just a process of scaling up and probably excellent tasting cultured meat will cost less than run of the mill meat from slain animals. If that happens, and it's likely, then we will free massive amounts of land now being used for grazing and growing animal feed. That land can return to forest and prairie grass. Both trees and perenial prairie gasses put down deep roots. To grow those roots they pull carbon from the air and that GHG carbon ends up safely out of the carbon/atmosphere loop. And no more cow burps full of methane. It's the burps, not the farts.
Good to see some positive news. I'm actually at the point where I can see us as the species we are that were too curious for our own good so we could advance rapidly since the dawning of civilization while still adapted for a much more different time with many tribalistic tendencies still in the back of our minds, having us pick sides because we need to belong to one group or another What would be your takes on overshoot? I'm fairly convinced that this way of life that we in the first world have become too accustomed is unsustainable to say the least, but I also understand that my own preconceived notions distort my ability to see the things impartially. Confirmation bias is something that affects us all
@@engineeringvision9507 I was talking of humanity in a general sense. We got entrenched into this fantasy world around us that we built, completely disconnected from reality, and advanced rapidly thinking everything was for our use and the whole world belonged to us as a species. We need to wake up and stop seeing the world from a humancentric point of view and realise the true craziness and absurdity of the current norm, and accept that it's unsustainable to the extreme. The populations have been blinded by this technological growth, not realising the true cost of it and still not seeing it, completely under the Illusion that we can carry on in this way and things will be perfectly fine.
Cool, cool... Though your optimism is a luxury itself. Us in the tropics are already taking a brunt of climate change with all the scalding heat and whipping typhoons. If you want economics, then famine is your best friend. Emigration is highly likely, and suddenly Bob next door is interested in immigration policies. Sometime in the election period, trademark trust fund baby politician harp racist music, and Bob's the uncle that justify millions of funds to a military complex in blowing up a refugee boat of brown colored people is in the best of the country. It might look bad right now; but it's going to get worse. Don't worry though. You can all watch it happen in 4K in the comfort of your room.
Yeah, the moral responsibility of our society will get challenged and I cannot imagine your situation or the situation of the refugees, but I can try to advocate for the humanity in humans of my country. I think many people were immoral, based on false scarcity and beliefs. But I cannot prove it. I started to hate every single human in my country, who voted for a party, which gave human rights only to some people, but not to other. But this is not the way, how someone can change their mind. Because hate is never a sustainable solution.
With the historic contempt for science and expertise in general in the US, I think any progress at a national level will be slow. Maybe at the state level.
I've been down that despair way for almost two decades. Things do look better now but only after so long. My trust and hope in humanity is very low because of this. And because of Covid denialists, rise of right-wing and lately Russia's war. Even if we make it out of severe climate change crisis by the skin of our teeth, it's no thanks to majority of the humankind.
Sure more people care about the climate today, but do you know who are they? The younger generations, socialists, and those who have love ones to care about. The people who doesn't care about the climate change is the older generations of people who would say "I won't live long enough to see this shit happening". Or people too busy working day and night, living within this predatory system that siphons away energy for the luxurious lifestyle of the few. And the problem now is that, doesn't matter how many people calling for climate action, as long as people who doesn't care hold onto power, which are the older and elitist groups, nothing will ever change until this planet is at her last legs.
@@liasonlee1248 the point is it wasn’t 10 years to late. The “scientist” got it wrong. And I’m pretty sure they got it wrong this time also. So they will focus on something else by 2030. That’s the difference with younger people. They haven’t been around and can’t see the patterns being repeated.
@@ghostviggen well, I get what you mean, but those "scientist" didn't got it wrong, they just did it on purpose, they know the correct answer, but they publish it wrong anyway on behest of self interests.
What do you think of the decision of the German government to bring back coal power plants to reduce the dependence on Russian gas while still continuing to shut off nuclear plants that can still be used?
personally i dont feel a huge amount of dispair over climate change because while some people say a point of no return and apocalypse is inevitable, doing the right thing is *also* inevitable, it will just cost a lot. first of the lives of those poorer, then the wallets and maybe lives of those who delayed the solution to begin with
I think there is also an equal virtue in accepting the possibility that we are doomed. Not with fatalism, but with a Taoist acceptance. Eventually we all will die, sooner, later. It’s important we come to terms with this, and perhaps climate change gives us an opportunity to cope with the inevitable loss of everything. Still, however, try to save the planet while we can (though we are more doomed than it), and I don’t think we are fucked by any stretch. But we might be, and one day we may be struck with a meteor. One day our end will come.
@@loturzelrestaurant I agree! I’m not a hopeless schmuck by any chance, but I still keep in mind all possibilities. I strive for the one which suits what humans are: living things. Living things should live upon a living earth.
I'm one of those who have despaired. And I appreciate you trying to lighten it, but there came a point where I had to stop kidding myself. We discover runaway processes, we don't predict them. So there is no way to rule them out and given the frequency we discover new ones and the magnitude they have already I simply don't see a way to stop anything anymore, let alone reverse it. Which we'd need to, to avoid a runaway train. We're already seeing major impacts on the world. Famines are already inevitable and we're going to see more mass migration this decade than ever before. The list goes on, but it's clear to me that the last round has been called for. Might as well pick a good drink.
here is the problem with your analysis we have already set off the methane feedback loop and it's too late we are headed to 3 degrees not by 2100 but by 2050 or earlier
too late indeed, but perhaps we should let them have their hopium. Let them delude themselves and find themselves surprised when they realize it was too late anyways 😂
Yes! Think about positives - we will run out of fossil fuels relatively soon. So we only have so much carbon to be released to loom in the atmosphere xD
Climate-Anxiety/Hopelessness are valid Feelings that i wanna fight by pointing out YOU can do Things. Its not hopeless, even if painting your Roof White to deflect heat is too costly. Watch and spread good Climate-Coverage, which often will tell you more SPECIFIC Things you can do as a normal Person: EVEN such small, cheap Things as painting Roofs White to reflect Heat and going to your next-best School-Board and request the Schoolfriendly Climate-Coverage of UpisnotJump and Not Just Bikes to be shown everywhere, helps. And thats the Stuff EVERYONE can do. Those positive things are just the start. Buying strangers Brilliant and Nebula, painting Roofs White, planting Trees, theres so much to do.
Arguably, since fossil fuels are limited, eventually the same amount of human emissions will be made regardless. Although, the slower it happens the more time the world has to adapt to it, so the less damage it will do.
We dont HAVE to use all fossil fuel on earth we can leave what we dont need in the earth. The more renewable energi we get the less we need. Also we need substitutions for plastik
@Formation13 That's one of the dumbest arguments I've seen, & I've seen them all. I've never liked the thing about the stone age not ending because we ran out of stones, but you should be aware the stone age ended, & there are still stones.
Climate despair cannot be averted unless we also start talking about overpopulation and possible ways to curb it. The topic is so carefully avoided by everyone talking about climate change that I have to assume it is considered a taboo. Taboo or not, there is no hope of a sustainable future if there are 7 billions of us on this world. Or 9. Or 11.
you can't talk about it because if you do. Then you have to deal with the nuts. That think you are part of an international conspiracy. There is no solution
I worry too, but Solar panel, electric batteries and wind turbine pollute within 1 per cent of what we are trying to replace not to mention child labor involved in the resources needed like in china and when you mention nuclear reactor the cleanest thing on the earth they turn away because it doesn't have a good sound too it. I'm in, but we need to start talking about real solution not just things that sound good on the surface that makes us feel like I'm better than you. Remembered if you really care you may have to work with people that don't agree100 percent. Of course you can keep calling them name get them fired and that will really help the cause.
@utube Sorry, no. Solar, wind are the cheapest sources of energy; they & other renewable energy sources are much, much cleaner than fossil fuels in terms of both greenhouse gases & other pollutants. Renewables keep getting better as the technology improves while fossil & fissile fuels get worse. F&FFs’ EROEI keeps dropping, pollution gets even worse, they get more expensive. There are 30 million slaves in the world; I’d love to see your condemnation of all the things they produce--your food, clothing, furniture, electronics... Cobalt is used to refine oil & other F&FF & military applications, while the EV industry is abandoning them, led by Tesla & BYD. Where are your comments about those other, older industries? Find new sources; you need information rather than disinformation. I’ll be happy to help with that.
You can't always depend on capitalist economic sense that "growth is good", building more renewables will never get us to the goal where we wished for, in fact it will hasten humanity's collapse. What we need is "degrowth" and "people first", we need to dismantle the entire global capitalist system that haunted this planet for decades and find a new balance between humanity and nature.
The only solution is central planned economies under socialism, but now its too late. The methane feedback loop has already kicked in and humanity is headed to extinction soon. Humanity was supposed to overthrow capitalism in the previous century. The failure to do so was its demise...
Just remember. Big oil companies have made it seemed like it’s hopeless to fight climate change.
Right but so have the organizations who claim to be against it, I.e. climate alarmists. It’s not hopeless and we cannot give up.
The carbon /toxicity footprint of the military industrial complex anybody?
And so have climate extremists.
@@lorenzoblum868 the carbon/ toxicity of the postal system anyone?
We need renewable energy companies to become a political actor just like the Big oil
Another pressure on switching to renewables is the current high price of oil and gas. Clouds and silver linings and all that!
How did you comment 21 hours ago?
@@darthmaul216 It was a rift in the space time continuum caused by poor financial decisions. (I'm a Patreon member)
👀 The Connections (2021) [short documentary] 🔥
So what about people who are struggling to get to work because our total car dependency society
The carbon /toxicity footprint of the military industrial complex anybody?
This was exactly what I needed to hear from someone whose expertise I respect. Thank you vey much for making this message part of my doomscrolling.
👀 The Connections (2021) [short documentary] 🔥
There is a big difference between belief and hope. I may not believe we can turn but i hope we can and will do everything in my power to make it happen.
👀 The Connections (2021) [short documentary] 🔥
The carbon /toxicity footprint of the military industrial complex anybody?
@@lorenzoblum868 to quote that ancient meme:
IT'S TOO DAMN HIGH
When I feel down about climate change, I try to think about your second point: the trajectory on climate change has changed SO much in the past ten years. Back in 2012, people didn't talk about these things anything like they do now.
As much as some might disagree,
I reckon 3 (3?) People are largely responsible for the "conversation"..... and "moving the needle"
A Swede
A former South African (now US)
And previously, to a lesser extent, a US politician
(Oh, there's an English guy as well..... Named a boat😉)
It's great that (other) Billionaires are now putting money into green energy.
(Mind you, we now know one is betting *against* one of those doing the most good.... Bad move Bill)
@@rogerstarkey5390 There's a big difference between betting that Tesla won't be successful (in terms of selling electric vehicles and pushing the market in a greener direction) and betting that the current stock price is overvalued (now that every other car manufacturing company is shifting to EVs) and due for a correction.
@@2minutestomammoth or bill Gates really doesnt like elons political ideology or lack thereof and has enough braincells to know that there isnt enough lithium on thos Planet to produce enough batterys to shift all cars to electric drive.
@@rogerstarkey5390 EVs aren't the solution to climate change, public transport is. But I don't hear of any billionaires investing in that. How about don't rely on billionaires?
👀 The Connections (2021) [short documentary] 🔥
i am a 13 year old in canada and i have been worrying about climate change for 2 years. I have always had a hard time finding reasons how we are fighting the climate crisis. but this video has really shown me that there is stuff being done
There are other videos made all about how people are fixing climate change, there is a lot being done.
16 years old and have been hoping to become an atmospheric science major since I was 4. I hope that my career can point us to better answers and a better future in regards to climate change. It's one of the few things that keeps me hopeful.
Hope is important.
Second Thought, Holy Koolaid and Hbomberguy
all handles this well: theyre known to be not gloomy
but also not 'high on Hopium'.
Keep going! We will need you and your work.
@@loturzelrestaurantI hate holy koolaid. He is intolerant of all religion and spirituality and crank wellness ideas that may not have a scientific basis but make me happy. He says don’t drink the koolaid I say I do what I want.
Imagine the Dutch giving in to despair in the face of rising sea levels. They wouldn't give up in the past and they won't give up in the future. Hope springs eternal.
My overall despair/defeatism (not just about the climate, but that's a big one) has just gotten me kicked out of the community containing the online friends and acquaintances that inspired me the most. Everyone feeling despair, consider if your own despair is leading you into habits (such as reflexively criticizing [outwardly or in your head] anything that makes you feel a twinge of hope or happiness) that are corrosive to your own mental well-being and that of others, and take steps to repair your faltering morale before any more damage is done to your life or that of others. Remember that you've got just as much of a right to be happy as anyone else, possibly more with how much you evidently care about the state of the world, and that while you may not feel able to make a difference, the difference created by wallowing in despair can only be a net negative -- for yourself and for others who you may be demoralizing. Sometimes we all need to take some time to enjoy life so that we're mentally present and capable of effectively being positive influences on the world at all. Take care of yourselves.
Hope is important.
Second Thought, Holy Koolaid and Hbomberguy
all handles this well: theyre known to be not gloomy
but also not 'high on Hopium'.
While I will gladly hold onto my doom and despair, I also see the “climate problem” as a gradient rather than a line in the sand we either cross or not. Like I don’t think there will be a monumental turning point, but it will just gradually get worse and worse until we can make it better. I guess similar to a frog in hot warm not trying to jump out until it’s too hot.
@@thecommentator9181 You can say the "fucked" word. It's okay. Your mom isn't going to put soap in your mouth.
We each need to ask ourselves what we are willing to do to improve our future. Getting our governments to step up is on the list, but so are many other things. We should each do whatever we can, regardless of what others are doing, but hope that others will join in when they are able. Thanks, Simon for helping to keep us motivated.
"personal responsibility" is something we should fight back against.
We need to demand systemic changes, as the options we have for food and living ultimately determine our choices.
It's hard to live ethically in an unethical world, and individuals have no real power over industries
@@RBEmpathy I think there's need for both.
@@annesmith9642 certainly, I'm just pointing out that the larger issue is simply the fact that our economy is underpinned by corporations and industries that keep things as they are.. since we know that if they had to pay for negative and positive externalities, virtually none of them would be profitable.
Thank you for the video. Agree 100% Hope must be kept alive, otherwise...we don't have hope.
I am old enough that I will be dead before civilisation collapses entirely. Probably. Still bothers me.
I'm one of the doomers but an eco conscious doomer. I don't have any "hope" but I still push to change and avoid consumerism. Buying stuff doesn't bring any real happiness. And I invest in electrifying my home (also some in stocks eco friendly stocks). And if things are going to be bad, I'd rather it be a slightly less harsh landing for the people.
A podcast I recommend is Breaking Down: Collapse. Two down to earth guys discuss the struggles we will see in our lifetime. Also a really interesting read is The Limits to Growth. They have multiple different versions from 1970. One was just released this year I haven't read yet.
I don't know any "doomers" that aren't extremely devoted to spreading information and trying to do their part. This whole discussion is so obnoxious to me. Just piles of toxic positivity. Like no, go read the IPCC report, start paying attention to the news headlines. So many people are going to suffer and the people that could stop it are letting it happen. It's disgusting and there's no hope for the tens of millions of people that are going to be displaced and killed in natural disasters, heat waves, at border crossings, in wars.
Good luck on your new home and thanks for the 'hope'. As one of those math and science types, I've been watching the graph of 'e' on this for some time. It's generational. Carl Sagan went before U.S. congress in the 1980's to explain to them what is clearly in evidence today.
Having read the IPCC report myself, I totally agree with your stance. There has been plenty of apocalyptic end of the world messaging when it comes to climate change, but the scientific literature does not suggest it will be anywhere near an extinction event for humanity even in the worst case scenarios for the year 2100. Even assuming beyond the worst case scenarios where the Earth warms back to a peak temperature not seen since the Eocene over 50 million years ago, which would be well over 10 times the current amount of anthropogenic global warming, it will likely still be habitable by humans in large enough areas to suggest that human extinction directly from climate change would be unlikely. (Though such a level of warming would incur a severe loss of life and there is a real possibility that such an extreme change could cause extinction-level interstate warfare.)
Will climate change be bad for humanity? Yes. Will it be costly, both in terms of resources and possibly human lives? Yes. However, it is worth remembering where these dangers come from. Dangerous extreme weather events in limited areas, and losses and shifts in food and water supplies. Humanity currently produces enough food to feed over 10 billion people, and we're not at any sort of maximum nor close to the need for mandatory rationing. Even with relatively severe losses in crop yields, it is still very much within our capabilities to feed the world, at least for a time. The largest issue in the coming century will not be a global lack of food and water, but a lack of affordability. Production, even if more costly and with a higher overall demand, is unlikely to be the ceiling we hit, but rather decision making on whether or not to provide food and water to those that cannot afford it on the market. (Which historically speaking, almost always ends in letting the global poor starve to death.)
So personally, I am not particularly worried about humanity's survival for at least the next few generations. It will be expensive, but we have the resources to more or less shelter us from most of the upcoming dangers. I am worried about the global poor, who will be on the receiving end of almost all of the suffering that climate change will bring because they lack the resources needed to protect themselves. I earnestly hope that we can implement a solution to help those people in need, but I'm also very doubtful that this century will be the one where the desire to will overcome the greed that humanity has shown throughout all of our history.
Well, there is a possibility of H2S release from the oceans, that can kill a lot of life and damage the ozone layer, like how it happened in PTME, but i think the release will not be like in PTME, because in PTME H2S release was influenced by a pangea(I heard it influenced ocean streams and extinction themselves, like when the warming started, a desert in the center began expanding - forcing the life to migrate to shores, where it can be killed by H2S), and temperature increase (10C(Which i think won't happen)). So the current release of H2S release will be different due to continent positions(There are more land in the northern hemisphere, so ozone here will not be damaged so much, and the positions of continents also influence streams) and the magnitude of warming. But we also need to study how much life was killed by H2S during PTME, and size of release during PETM(Which is more similar to current warming).
To help switch from gas heat to electric, look into a heat pump!
Heat pumps are the future :)
We don't need despair, and we don't need positivity either. Even in the 2 degrees scenario that is becoming more and more likely, hundreds of millions will die and BILLIONS will be displaced. We've already seen how fragile the global supply chain is with the pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, so imagine what the destruction of whole ecosystems and whole countries being rendered uninhabitable will do. Even with everything being done, emmissions are still rising globally. Sure, while someone living in North America or Europe might be "fine" or at least wouldn't face the apocolypse at home, climate change along with all the other escalating ecological disasters are *global* problems that aren't going away. We know who is responsible for this problem and why they are doing it, and despair or positivity won't fix that, we should be *furious*.
Been watching a lot of climate town and not just bikes recently. I find they’re not negative but talk more about how we can change things, also makes me wish I could move to the Netherlands or make the uk like them haha. I’m not too negative because I don’t think it will ever get to as bad as some people say even if we did nothing, but we are doing things, more and more over time. So I think we’ll get there eventually, also selfishly the uk will probably do better than most
I find myself gawping at the Dutch way of life as well. Manchester is fairly bike friendly these days and constantly has new infrastructure underway. I've just switched to the bike being my main way of getting around. Loving it so far.
I will link a discussion here on UA-cam from 4 climate/atmospheric scientists who discuss how bad things could get, and what uncertainty there is about several crucial factors. I think it might help you watching that. It also covers the impact from climate change on the UK and I think you may be surprised.
ua-cam.com/video/dkDbCpn0_9I/v-deo.html
👀 The Connections (2021) [short documentary] 🔥
The carbon /toxicity footprint of the military industrial complex anybody?
The utter whiplash I feel whenever I talk about climate change is so disheartening. I'm always told I need to keep my chin up and stay hopeful, but the climate apocalypse is already here. It's already started. And our politicians made it clear that voting will not save us. They do not care about what we need. So the only options left are doomerism or violence. And I'm not a violent person. But, then we start the cycle over again because "doomerism contributes to the problem"
@David James Henry Violence won't work. Only peaceful direct action can remove those in power.
@@J4Zonian peaceful direct action will never unseat the systems of power because they maintain that power through violence
@@DavidJamesHenry That's exactly why it works. It has a higher rate of success than violence because it reveals the difference between the violent oppressors & the peaceful resistors.
You don't need saving, you need to do what's right for no other reason than it's right.
Whatever happens next, the fight remains the same.
5:25 I love that you actually are aware of stuff like this, it is legit hilarious to all of a sudden say that, as most other channels don't, so there's less connection with the audience in my opinion,
basically always add memes/ something like this 5:28 when possible :D
Yay!! The world needs more hope right now 🥰💖
👀 The Connections (2021) [short documentary] 🔥
Great video. Hope the move is going to plan. Can say animated Simon may be in line to take over the channel and I'm okay with that.
Great video, Simon! 'Doomerism' never accomplishes anything, and it's important that we keep a level head if we are to actually reach those who still don't believe that we need to take action.
The carbon /toxicity footprint of the military industrial complex Argand?
Climate change deniers aren't the ones writing policies anymore. now it's people who know full well what we're headed towards that are willfully avoiding the needed actions. We're screwed. My attitude doesn't matter. The only useful thing I could do is Wynn Bruce myself in front of Chase Bank's HQ but I'm too much of a coward to do that.
Is the map at 3:34 a reality where Wales has Walexited the union?
Thanks man. I wasn't hopeless but it'll help a lot.
Also, who's Pixel Girl?
From 1965 we doubled our share of renewables in energy mix (from 6,06% to 12,55%) (knowing that energy as a whole increased drastically). I am hopeful that there is going to be a time when we could stop using fossil fuels, but we are going to do it, that's another story
"From 1965 we doubled our share of renewables in energy mix (from 6,06% to 12,55%) (knowing that energy as a whole increased drastically)."
That's the thing. In 1965 we emitted 11.32 billion tons of CO2. In 2020 we emitted 34.81 billion tones of CO2. (our emissions in 1965 were already unsustainable)
The earth's atmosphere does not care how much we use renewables. It is completely indifferent to how many solar panels we put up. It only cares about how much CO2 it is in the atmosphere. If our energy consumption must go up every year then it is possible to both add more renewables and still add more fossil fuel burning. That's what we've been doing.
To solve this we would have to question things most people wouldn't dare questioning.
Much needed video. Thank you!
Using ecosia can truly have a positive effect
This was, actually, probably one of the most important videos on your channel!
Just because I have lost hope (which I have), it doesn't mean I don't still act. I don't need hope or optimism to act, I just know that change is still possible. But hope and false optimism has only hurt me so far, and thus I don't need that or even want it. That's my take. PS: I really can't stand the viewpoint that it's too late and having negative feelings about it, when that is combined with no change whatsoever (politically or consumer-wise) to one's own behaviour.
👀 The Connections (2021) [short documentary] 🔥
The carbon footprint of the military industrial complex anybody?
@@lorenzoblum868 I know. The Conversation has a great article about the US Military alone emitting more than a normal industrialized nation.
@@LeanAndMean44 the US military is huge... But unfortunately Russia, China, France, UK, Germany, India.... And every single nation is contributing to this dystopian scenario.
It's really tricky balancing hope and despair and not cycling between them. I think both are useful responses at certain times, but either emotion can result in complacency. Personally, I've found that channeling my emotional energy when I'm feeling hopeful into taking personal climate action has helped me remain more resilient and persevering during the dark times.
Thus, if you're like me and you now feel a bit better after watching this video, I'd suggest channeling some of that energy into doing something meaningful. Remember, watching a UA-cam video does nothing without accompanying action.
Do you pay $50-$100 or more per month for digital subscription services that you don't necessarily need? Why not consider adding on another subscription (or better yet, replacing some unnecessary subscriptions) to donate to effective climate change organizations? I'd recommend doing your own careful research first so that you believe more firmly in what you're paying for, but here's one place you might start your search: Giving Green, a non-profit that compiles carefully-researched short lists of the most effective organizations for advocacy and for offsetting. (If you decide to offset, I personally recommend going above 100% of your calculated footprint if you can afford it since many offsets aren't as effective as advertised-even good ones. Besides, all that carbon you emitted from before signing up isn't just going to disappear!) Here's the link: www.givinggreen.earth
Regarding the first point that anything we do will make a difference in the long haul. Three problems with this reasoning. 1) If we only slow down, but not reverse, our CO2 emissions, all we have done is delay the disaster. 2) If we hit a tipping point, such as the permafrost releasing its methane, then small reductions in CO2 emissions made in the past will be of limited value. 3) Even if we somehow manage to stop climate change and we “only” suffer a 50% extinction rate, …… gee, whiz, that really isn’t cause for hope. Kind of like telling a stroke patient that only half of their body is paralyzed.
These are kind of all really bad points.
As for 1) Yes, true, but we already have functioning carbon capture systems, if we delay it, we'll be able to catch a lot more over time. 2) True, but it's only a hypothetical, and still, there's tons of different tipping points, preventing any one of them is useful, and so, every percentage of a degree matters. 3) I don't in which world you live in that you don't think having half a body is better than no body. 50% of life is a huge amount, even in the face of tremendous death, it's nothing to scoff at.
I have similar views as you. But i think it is important to "scare" people, because some are still in denial and also not to let down our guard too much.
Right!
Scaring them doesn't change people's minds. It only makes them think you're an alarmist.
You have to educate those who are yet open to being educated. That's the only thing that works. All the others are not within your grasp.
Most people are aware. Most people want something done.
What makes most sense, to me, is to tell people what they can do and what can be done to improve things.
@@bobwallace9753 Correct, but a lot of people are still in denial.
@@tarikmehmedika2754 Yes. But they are mostly in less populated states in the interior.
And, interestingly, many of those interior states are where we find the most use of wind energy and growing solar generation.
Personally, I don't care if some continue to deny. And I suspect a lot of the deniers deny because "that's what our team does" while understanding that they are lying for the team.
What I want is results. More wind. More solar. More storage. More EVs.
Thanks for sharing some optimism👌🏾👌🏾👌🏾
👀 The Connections (2021) [short documentary] 🔥
delusion. Your species' extinction is already clocked in to happen before 2040
Thanks for the video :)
I am in near constant terror and despair, my dudes. I need anything you can tell me
@@pauljackson2409 keep being ignorant pal, not gonna save you
@Jazzzzz, Please, see someone right away. More & more psychotherapists are becoming familiar with climate anxiety & worse. Call your doctor & get a referral. The Climate Mobilization has online group discussions as a starting place. Let us know you're OK or at least started on something. Good luck.
@@thecommentator9181 extinction by 2040 if I'm being optimistic
Thanks for this Simon, I have been saying exactly this to everyone for years :) we'll get there!
Hope is radical!
thank you 💖
editing mistake at 0:50
it says editing mistake at 9:72 but that's impossible. There are only 60 seconds in a minute.
thats what they want you to believe
Hey Simon. Great video. Will you do a video about carbon offsets? This is a confusing topic, I would love to see more about it being talked
"rebellions are built on hope"
It's a good video, and much needed.
As a Nebula/CuriosityStream subscriber, I find myself still watching your videos on YT.
Maybe it's the lack of comments (I know right.. Am I missing YT comments!?) or the fact that I block YT ads anyway.
Just my 2c. =)
Do you think we can reduce emissions fast enough relying only on current system (capitalism) without major changes if the system?
Coral reefs are unlikely to survive 1.5C warming according to most recent research - can we keep them alive?
How about other planetary boundaries we also breached?
@@jeremyjackson7429 The despair you feel is not founded on fact but on cherry picking & one-sided interpretation. Things are very bad & getting worse & those in charge are preventing sane action, but it's not hopeless yet & everything can change in a day. Psychiatrist Judith Lipton said the best therapy for despair is action, but I think the best therapy for lots of things is therapy, & action is a good way to help it work.
1.5 was already hit a decade ago when using the 1750 baseline. And hitting 1.0 above 1750 (in the 80s) was enough to trigger runaway climate change. So the time to take drastic action was back then, if not earlier.
@@nateisawesome766 Absolutely! The best time to plant a tree...! But since we didn't, the second best time is what we'll have to settle for.
@@J4Zonian It was the deadline to dramatically cut emissions and be alarmist. Now its far too late because of all the feedback loops and tipping points already passed. Extinction is only a matter of when, not if.
Hope is that which you have when you have nothing else left.
Thank you Simon for sharing your opinion. I disagree that having no hope causes inaction. I got actively involved in Extinction Rebellion after I saw a poster saying WHEN HOPE DIES, ACTION BEGINS. I see hope as potentially dangerous. When there's hope that someone will solve the problem, one is not moved to go and solve the problem oneself. When engineers are saying they can build enough renewable power, or nuclear power, or spiritual gurus are saying 'all we need is a mass change of consciousness' and vegan activists are saying all we need to do is to go vegan, those are very comforting suggestions. You and I both know that none of these things will 'solve the problem'. We need to do so much more - these things included, but even doing all these will not allow our civilisation to go merrily along as before. What we actually need to do is SO vast that it will never happen, not voluntarily.
I continue my deep green lifestyle because I want organisms which survive the anthropocene to be around for millions, or billions of years after our species goes. ALL living organisms are worthy, humans are not special. Let's keep the planet habitable at least for the woodlice and slime-moulds, oak trees and pigeons.
We have a number of greenhouse emission sources. Electricity and transportation are two major sources.
We are now at the point where it becomes cheaper to use renewable electricity and travel in electricity powered vehicles than to continue to use fossil fuels.
We are going to lose more of those woodlice and slime-moulds. We cannot stop the use of fossil fuels overnight, nor can we pull excessive GHG down out of our atmosphere quickly. But we can make things 'worse bad' by a large factor.
@@bobwallace9753 How do you propose to replace fossil liquid fuels (almost all transport) and home heating (mostly fossil gas) with electricity? I mean, we know *how* to use electric alternatives, but where does the power come from in your scenario?
@@compostjohn
Mostly wind and solar. Minor contributions from hydro and geothermal.
Run vehicles on electricity, which we are already doing. There's still a problem to solve with ocean transport and long distance flight but synfuel created with RE and biofuel are two workable solutions.
Heat using heat pumps, which we are already doing. Heat pumps are amazingly efficient, returning about 5x as much heat per unit energy compared to resistance heating.
In really cold climates use ground effect heat pumps. Aside from locations with deep permafrost, you don't have to go very deep to find warm soil. Much, much warmer than the outside air.
@@bobwallace9753 I see that you may not comprehend the scale of the problem, in the UK at least.
Here, if one breaks down our total energy consumption, you get about a quarter which is electricity. This is made by nuclear (under 20%, very reliable, low carbon) and wind/solar/other renewables (somewhere between 20% and 30% annually, not reliable, but low carbon) and fossil gas (just under half, reliable, high carbon) and, there is currently no grid-scale storage and no CCS.
Another quarter is gas, used in the home for central heating and cooking, and some industrial use. Much of this could be converted to electric. Heat pumps are good, but 5x is the very best they can do, in optimum conditions with GSHP or WSHP. ASHP, the cheapest, is the least efficient. Even so, converting all our heating to electric would be massively expensive. I like the idea of renewable biogas myself.
And a full half is fossil liquid fuels, for cars, motorbikes, taxis, vans, buses, lorries, tractors, diggers, chainsaws, lawnmowers, boats, ships, and aircraft. If you can imagine switching all these over to electric, or 'synthetic fuels' then you've got a wonderful imagination.
Some of the electric uses are much more efficient than ICE vehicles, however, we're still looking at increasing the current renewable electricity sector by at least 3 to cover current nuclear and gas powered electricity (assuming you're an anti-nuclear luddite, as you didn't mention it) and by 6 to cover gas heating, and by maybe 9 or 10 to cover current energy use from liquid fuels.
So now you see the scale of the problem. If you're still optimistic and hopeful, that we can do this in the timescale needed (UN says next 3 years) then bravo.
I'm a realist. I know much of this isn't going to happen. I'm doing as much as I can and if you research me you'll see I'm an early adopter and a trailblazer. I'm comfortable being a doomer, who does more than most, despite not being drugged by hope.
@@compostjohn
I understand the scale. Do you understand that we need to use the fastest to install and least expensive low carbon generation?
Heat pumps are the most efficient way to heat.
We can cook, very efficiently, with induction hobs and convection ovens and/or microwaves.
ICEVs waste approximately 80% of the energy we pump into them EVs lose only about 10% in the form of usable heat.
"cars, motorbikes, taxis, vans, buses, lorries, tractors, diggers, chainsaws, lawnmowers, boats, ships, and aircraft"
We are already running all that stuff except long range ships and airplanes on electricity. Batteries may improve to cover those needs. Or we might have to produce synfuel from RE.
We do not have enough arable land to produce the amount of biofuel that would be need to fuel all transportation. We've attempted to grow fuel with algae but haven't had ample success.
I am not an anti-nuclear "luddite". I am a realist who knows the cost of new nuclear energy and the amount of time to bring new reactors online.
I also know that nuclear needs storage and backup generation. A fact that nuclear supporters either fail to understand or, if they do, conveniently leave that cost out of their arguments.
You'll notice that I did not bring up nuclear safety and the unsolved problem of used nuclear fuel. We can, I think, make reactors adequately safe. And even if we melted down a dozen or two it would be less damaging to us than extreme climate change.
I also know the cost of new wind and new solar. And I can see how close we are to very affordable storage.
I wish to be optimistic ... , but the big fossil companies with their fossil business model (f.e. exxon, gazprom, saudi aramco, ...) and almost every industrial sector dependend on fossil resources (f.e. cars with combustion engines, chemicals, steel producer and so on) fight against consistent change or at least use their political influence to prevent a fast conversion.
1:25 cant the warming be undone by removing the CO2? I know this will take decades or even more, but once we finally reach net 0, we could go net negative and put CO2 into the Ground again cant we?
Yes, but that means we'd need to generate more than 100% of our electrical needs with renewables. That's definitely possible though.
coal and gas powered plants run on subsidies :/
This was probably the least convincing video essay Simon has ever made. He's right. And we can't NOT try.
But I'm thoroughly unconvinced we can unwind capitalism in time (or even realize that capitalist ideas of resource exploitation and endless growth are the problem).
Oh yes. Because capitalism is the only financial and political system to pollute the environment and if we were living under communism we would all be hugging trees
@@aidanmurphy7624 Huh? What are you suggesting exactly? That we should continue resource exploitation in order to...increase GDP?
Please explain.
You miss a very major point. It's capitalism (potential profits via lower costs) that will work to save our butts.
We are not going to clean our grids or convert to EVs via cottage industry. This is a very major undertaking that requires massive large scale efforts. Our legacy vehicle manufacturers have to see that they can make more money manufacturing EVs than manufacturing ICEVs. They have begun seeing that. Over the next few years the great capitalist engine, vehicle manufacturing will flip form greenhouse gas emitting vehicles to battery powered vehicles.
The same is happening with utility companies. They are moving to wind and solar because wind and solar have become a less expensive way to source electricity.
@@bobwallace9753 wait, have you spent more than a few Tesla conference calls looking into this issue? Trying to gauge whether engaging here is worth the effort.
One challenge question: how are you defining the ‘capitalism’ that will ‘save our butts’ and, bonus question, when is all this saving going to kick in?
@@falsificationism
I define capitalism as a system of trading what one has (capital) for something they want. Labor is capital. Essentially none of us work for free. We engage in the capitalist practice of 'something for something'.
Now, what I think is our route to salvation is large scale capitalism. The world demand for new cars is about 70 million per year. There's no way we quit fossil fuel based transportation unless very large car companies quit manufacturing fuel powered cars and move to electricity powered vehicles.
We don't green our grid unless the utility companies, great big capitalist organizations, switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy. As individuals we can't afford to install massive wind turbines with 140 meter hub heights. Governments won't do it because too many voters oppose spending money that way. It will only get done if the utility companies see a better way to make money.
I've been very concerned about climate change since the 1990s. I was mildly concerned in the 1980s. I've searched for workable ways to significantly reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.
I do not know what you mean by "a few Tesla conference calls'. I do hope you realize that Tesla has forced the world's car producers to start a rapid movement away from ICEVs to EVs.
I'm glad energy prices have risen, really makes people contemplate their usage
They have risen because solar and wind can't replace oil and gas. We need more oil and gas, not less.
@@brane4859 We need nuclear, the only true green power source. Oil and gas cannot keep up with the growing energy needs of modern society.
@@georgethompson1460 Wrong, I love nuclear but at the moment oil and gas are the only sources capable of providing cheap and reliable energy to billions of people.
The reason they are more expensive now is because governments limited their supply while promising solar and wind can replace them (the law of supply and demand).
Governments also banned fracking, with which Europe wouldn't have been reliant on Russian gas.
Stop "blaming the victim". People who have given up hope are victims of ineffective political leaders and/or corrupt business men. I've poured 45 years of my life into protecting the environment and now you are dumping a guilt trip on me for being depressed. Thanks a lot! That bit of shaming will clear up my depression in a matter of minutes.
When did he blame the "victims"?
@@clf400 I have seen several videos where various climate scientists say people “shouldn’t” feel hopeless. Also, the authors of the latest IPPC report criticized people who have given up hope. I even saw a clip of Barack Obama make statements to this effect.
The problem is with the word “should”. This implies a moral imperative. For people like me who are trying to recover from a guilt-ridden Christian upbringing, the term “should” kicks off a string of self-hate emotions.
The whole discussion about “hopelessness” is misplaced. Feeling hopeless is the tip of the iceberg. The real issue is despair and depression. In many cases (including mine) the depression is intensely painful, leading to thoughts of suicide.
Depression is a mental illness. It isn’t cured by telling people they “shouldn’t” feel that way. That just rubs salt into the wound.
To restore people’s hope we need decisive action from political and business leaders. Without immediate significant changes, hope simply isn’t sustainable for many people.
@@normzemke7824 that’s sounds like a you problem buddy
@@clf400 Yes, I do have a problem. But I am not alone. Many, if not most, of the people who feel it is hopeless are suffering from depression. The more a person cares about the environment, the harder it is to avoid depression. Some folks, like Simon Clark, have the personality traits to hang on to hope-against-hope. But lots of us don't. ---- Believe me, no one wants to feel it is hopeless, but the endless bad news wears a person down eventually.
The carbon /toxicity footprint of the military industrial complex anybody?
My biggest concern is that we don’t have the political will to do what we have to do to head off runaway global warming. The US certainly doesn’t currently have the political will. A lot of US residents don’t believe global warming is a real problem and they others don’t want to pay the price to mitigate global warming.
doesn't matter if they believed in it or not because its already far too late. Homo sapiens will go extinct by 2040 if I'm being optimistic
I needed this video boss
I think worst case scenario is something on a large scale is done and we keep the apocalyptic climate change from happening, this will likely result in a significant decrease in quality of life, much like a new dark age, will this lead us inevitably to extinction is up to question but it will not be great time to live in. Ultimately we will make the climate significantly worse, but hopefully this blunder teaches us, and at worst possibly teaches whatever intelligent life comes after us what not to do. I think at this period of history what philosophy is best to look at is one of historical optimism, yes human history is covered in conflict and violence, often for reasons that seem stupid, but with perspective one can understand that these conflicts aren’t a result of the inherent flaws in human kind that will inevitably lead us to our doom, but because of heightened differences that seemed irresolvable at the time. This isn’t something to be depressed over, this deep down gives us hope as it means we are in a process of learning as a species, we can’t possibly know what’s coming next so we find our own way, like guts even threw all the violence and conflict finding a reason to exist through struggle, but on the scale of humanity. Deep down we are all working towards something greater and are all an important part of that process.
TL;DR: it's because you want the sweet ad youtube ad revenue to continue /s
To me, despair shouldn't result in giving up but *escalating our tactics.*
Exactly. Desperate times call for desperate measures
@@pauljackson2409 There's this neat book called _How to blow Up a Pipeline_
Most importantly, carefully so no one gets hurt. Primary target should be fossil fuel infrastructure that's under construction (because yes, there's still new fossil fuel infrastructure being built) - or if not, at times during the year when you don't kill people by disabling gas infrastructure.
Not just at random times but as a reaction to when a climate caused disaster strikes.
There are a lot of tactics to be learned from movements that dared more and succeeded.
3:34 Cymru am Byth
Make vlog videos I miss them
Pale guy that lives in the imperial core doesn’t experience climate despair? Shocker.
God knows how much I needed this video, Simon.
Congrats on the new house in this crazy UK market! I'm waiting for a crash for that...
Surely the best solution is to reduce emissions therefore faster, and then we can also work on Carbon capture to remove emissions from the atmosphere and start repairing the damage.
"No, not you", savage
The problem is it isn't making a difference in the areas with the highest fossil fuel usage
Hopeful, yes, battery technology is improving rapidly. And everybody wants EVs and no CO2.
Solution, every building is connected to the grid and every home with an EV car battery plugged into the grid from any where and trading power with the grid will change everything.
1/ EVs with battery 100kwh vs a TESLA home battery 14kwh (@ $14,000), so just plug your car into the grid.
2/ in the USA 300 million vehicles
3/ in the USA 200 million buildings with rooftops for solar PV panels
4/ 40% of the grid is for home supply and it will become the grid supply.
5/ 60% of the grid is for everything else and it will take the 40% from the home supply to the grid.
6/ the power companies now only have to supply 20% and not 100%.
7/ petroleum can become a strategic military supply asset, for control of the skies in war time.
8/ the MONEY WILL BE IN THE GRID.
9/ the automatic plug in gadget will be the 'killer' invention.
10/ daily drives are only 10% of a vehicles full range, the long drive. EV batteries will easily be topped up daily.
11/ EVs will be plugged in 24/7, except in rush hour.
12/ energy will be cheap, being connected will cost something.
13/ roof top solar PV is affecting the grid now and more batteries are needed, Big Batteries will help the grid now, community batteries, and the the EVs will take over and expand in number, EVEN THE NUCLEAR SOLUTION AGREES WITH MORE Electric Vehicles.
If nuclear the the grid has to triple (x3) in capacity at huge expense, to charge the EVs and supply the homes and the industries.
Every country including every dictatorship will need their own nuclear industries,
100,000 SMRs world wide, like BWRX300 GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy and Rolls Royce's.
The USA is the biggest target in the world.
The USA military will grow explosively in size, and budget. Look at little Putin shutting down the USA.
Nuclear will increase all costs because of all its extra needs.
Skilled Workforce and financial and time are huge factors against this option.
Do not get lost in the shiny new things, it is every other thing associated with it that is hopeless.
Massive monopoly investments, and locked in for 60 to 100 years if they get the chance.
Denial by distraction, you can be happy this way forever, and at about the cost of a cup of Tea.
Or, how to misuse a meditation of mumbles to good personal effect.
If Nuclear Reactors were safe enough to construct the weapons designed for 50X destruction, you would think that process could be reversed even more safely to protect us.., as a reasonable and rational objective strategy and alternative to funding weapons manufacturing for our elimination. Ie completely impersonal real action everyone can participate in.
But Jordan Peterson said we don’t have to use renewable energy…
So how come emissions aren't going down right now?
Doomerism is not as big of a problem as you make it out to be…. Very fishy trend going on lately
why
@@magiccloud3074 thank you for sharing your experience ! I still feel that by not adressing the severity of the situation (this video claiming that we can still avoid 1,5 degrees of warming is especially ludicrous) these kind of videos don’t advocate for the change we need to our economies and societies…
@@paulocezar8833 because it avoids addressing the real problem -productivism, and capitalism in particular, as the template for our societies
@@magiccloud3074 oh I’m sure that he means well, the problem is ideological -the failures of liberal to really challenge the system in any meaningful way, and thus to provide any real solutions… that’s what concerns me
@@magiccloud3074 I am subbed hahaha, love his content !
Comimg from EU (not france) and listening always to experts on energy pricing: the fact that renewables produce cheaper than carbon is a source of despair. The misinformation about nuclear is so rampant, and the danger of 100%-renewables-electric-car distopya is even more than gas. Total absence of discourse about public transit, total absence of SERIOUS information about.....everything, mostly
Those positive things are just the start. Buying strangers Brilliant and Nebula,
painting Roofs White, planting Trees, theres so much to do.
Regarding the second point: Yes, Climate change protests are reassuring. Activists are making themselves heard. That said, protests don’t give me any hope. Considering how massive the BLM protests were and how little change came about, protests at best have limited impact. The corrupt politicians and business leaders simply hide in their offices for a few days, maybe making a vague promise or two. After the protest is over, they just go back to business as usual.
To make any real difference, protests have to be sustained for decades. Can we afford to wait twenty years? Considering that the civil rights movement has been ongoing for 60 years and cops are still shooting innocent Blacks in the back, I really don’t put stock in protests…..
The carbon /toxicity footprint of the military industrial complex Norm?
@@pauljackson2409 Hmmm... you sound like a conspiracy theorist..... a couple of women set up and ran the whole BLM movement just to steal a bunch of money..... I am not saying that there aren't crooked people out there who are willing to rip off gullible suckers. It stands to reason that any mass movement will have a few con artists who are trying to make a quick buck. ---- In my prior post, my point was that protest movements take a long time to effect any change in society as a whole. For example, the women's rights movement goes all the way back to the suffragettes, over a century ago. Black rights goes back to before the Civil War. Heck, LGBTQ is the new-kid-on-the-block, only dating back to the 1960's. ---- The slowness of change to the social order is why I don't think that a couple of climate change protest marches is going to save our bacon on climate change. We simply can't wait a century or two for society to change....
For the algorithm
5:07 ''The long arc of history bends towards economic efficiency.'' lol, we're you secretly a marxist all along?
It's a reference to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Have you ever heard about Solarpunk? Its an artistic genre that shows a positive outlook on the future, how things could look like if we DO get our things together. It is the antithesis to Cyberpunk and has given me so much hope in times of despair and anxiety and really reminded me once more why its worth fighting for a better future.
And I joined a local climate group, who engage with certain institutions on a local level which also helped getting out of this feeling as you're actively doing stuff.
I prefer Fissionpunk.
With all the horrible things and people dying prematurely and tragically, I find it hard to care about anything I general even myself, so how and why should I care about climate change at all? Or anything else?
If nothing could ever get better, then we'd all still be hunter-gatherers and you'd have already died of malaria.
But really, if you find it hard to care about _anything,_ then you might be depressed. What are you doing to fix yourself?
I'm much more optimistic than a few years ago. For me the 2 big things are 1st long as we avoid run-away im not to worried about 2.1 vs say 2.3 more than all the other bad things that have sucked in the past, 2nd climate action seems to be becoming the new thing for national prestige so states are becoming much more willing to invest in it- like the space race, colonies, or cathedrals before them.
Problem is, Climate isn't the only way society is going to shit.
The arguably bigger problem is wealth concentration and inequality. Wages are stagnant while costs rise, meanwhile the wealthy set new records for net wealth and wealth growth. The middle class in the Western world is stagnating or backsliding, which is triggering a resurgence of far right reactionaries. Meanwhile, while the developing world is growing wealthier, making global poverty statistics look good, they're peaking far earlier than the West did. Look at China. Their quality of life for the middle class hasn't quite reached the levels in the West yet, but they're already suffering much the same symptoms of jobs being outsourced, and long hours with shit pay.
Not only does this directly reduce quality of life, it also stops a substantial amount of the change required to actually solve climate change. Yeah, you might see some transitioning to renewables, but there won't be any fundamental change in urban planning or patterns of consumption that would really curb energy use and emissions. Meanwhile, how much of the Western reductions are just exports? You have a slightly greener society at home, meanwhile the same amount of damage is being done somewhere else where keeping track is less feasible, and you have some extra damage done while the products are being shipped over.
From a purely technical perspective, sure, there's hope on climate change.
But looking at the whole picture, once you factor in ALL of the economic and political factors?
Any real action to combat climate change will be too little, too late.
We might avoid the "truly apocalyptic" scenario, but we'll still end up in a pretty goddamn apocalyptic scenario.
Here's a potential carbon sequestering that might be headed our way. Cultured meat.
It looks like we are going to be able to grow real meat in vats rather than on the hoof, foot, and fin. Take cells from the very best tasting cows, pigs, chickens, and fish and grow them into 100% real meat. The process is working right now. It's just a process of scaling up and probably excellent tasting cultured meat will cost less than run of the mill meat from slain animals.
If that happens, and it's likely, then we will free massive amounts of land now being used for grazing and growing animal feed. That land can return to forest and prairie grass. Both trees and perenial prairie gasses put down deep roots. To grow those roots they pull carbon from the air and that GHG carbon ends up safely out of the carbon/atmosphere loop.
And no more cow burps full of methane. It's the burps, not the farts.
8
Good to see some positive news. I'm actually at the point where I can see us as the species we are that were too curious for our own good so we could advance rapidly since the dawning of civilization while still adapted for a much more different time with many tribalistic tendencies still in the back of our minds, having us pick sides because we need to belong to one group or another
What would be your takes on overshoot? I'm fairly convinced that this way of life that we in the first world have become too accustomed is unsustainable to say the least, but I also understand that my own preconceived notions distort my ability to see the things impartially.
Confirmation bias is something that affects us all
You have no right to speak for others. YOU are too curious for YOUR own good. You don't represent me.
@@engineeringvision9507 I was talking of humanity in a general sense. We got entrenched into this fantasy world around us that we built, completely disconnected from reality, and advanced rapidly thinking everything was for our use and the whole world belonged to us as a species.
We need to wake up and stop seeing the world from a humancentric point of view and realise the true craziness and absurdity of the current norm, and accept that it's unsustainable to the extreme. The populations have been blinded by this technological growth, not realising the true cost of it and still not seeing it, completely under the Illusion that we can carry on in this way and things will be perfectly fine.
Cool, cool... Though your optimism is a luxury itself. Us in the tropics are already taking a brunt of climate change with all the scalding heat and whipping typhoons. If you want economics, then famine is your best friend. Emigration is highly likely, and suddenly Bob next door is interested in immigration policies. Sometime in the election period, trademark trust fund baby politician harp racist music, and Bob's the uncle that justify millions of funds to a military complex in blowing up a refugee boat of brown colored people is in the best of the country.
It might look bad right now; but it's going to get worse. Don't worry though. You can all watch it happen in 4K in the comfort of your room.
Yeah, the moral responsibility of our society will get challenged and I cannot imagine your situation or the situation of the refugees, but I can try to advocate for the humanity in humans of my country. I think many people were immoral, based on false scarcity and beliefs. But I cannot prove it. I started to hate every single human in my country, who voted for a party, which gave human rights only to some people, but not to other. But this is not the way, how someone can change their mind. Because hate is never a sustainable solution.
With the historic contempt for science and expertise in general in the US, I think any progress at a national level will be slow. Maybe at the state level.
I've been down that despair way for almost two decades. Things do look better now but only after so long. My trust and hope in humanity is very low because of this. And because of Covid denialists, rise of right-wing and lately Russia's war. Even if we make it out of severe climate change crisis by the skin of our teeth, it's no thanks to majority of the humankind.
I have radical optimism, but I am realistic about it and currently we lack the political will.
@BladeValant546 So "radical optimism" is what we're calling pessimism now? I just can't keep these new-fangled interweb rules straight.
@@J4Zonian No just maintaining hope as much as we can and help others as much as we can.
Sure more people care about the climate today, but do you know who are they?
The younger generations, socialists, and those who have love ones to care about.
The people who doesn't care about the climate change is the older generations of people who would say "I won't live long enough to see this shit happening". Or people too busy working day and night, living within this predatory system that siphons away energy for the luxurious lifestyle of the few.
And the problem now is that, doesn't matter how many people calling for climate action, as long as people who doesn't care hold onto power, which are the older and elitist groups, nothing will ever change until this planet is at her last legs.
Because older people have already heard this story several times already, it’s always the same. 10 years to save the world…
@@ghostviggen already too late, tell them that those 10 years have long since pass.
@@liasonlee1248 the point is it wasn’t 10 years to late. The “scientist” got it wrong. And I’m pretty sure they got it wrong this time also. So they will focus on something else by 2030. That’s the difference with younger people. They haven’t been around and can’t see the patterns being repeated.
@@ghostviggen well, I get what you mean, but those "scientist" didn't got it wrong, they just did it on purpose, they know the correct answer, but they publish it wrong anyway on behest of self interests.
What do you think of the decision of the German government to bring back coal power plants to reduce the dependence on Russian gas while still continuing to shut off nuclear plants that can still be used?
personally i dont feel a huge amount of dispair over climate change because while some people say a point of no return and apocalypse is inevitable, doing the right thing is *also* inevitable, it will just cost a lot. first of the lives of those poorer, then the wallets and maybe lives of those who delayed the solution to begin with
I think there is also an equal virtue in accepting the possibility that we are doomed. Not with fatalism, but with a Taoist acceptance. Eventually we all will die, sooner, later. It’s important we come to terms with this, and perhaps climate change gives us an opportunity to cope with the inevitable loss of everything. Still, however, try to save the planet while we can (though we are more doomed than it), and I don’t think we are fucked by any stretch. But we might be, and one day we may be struck with a meteor. One day our end will come.
Hope is important.
Second Thought, Holy Koolaid and Hbomberguy
all handles this well: theyre known to be not gloomy
but also not 'high on Hopium'.
@@loturzelrestaurant I agree! I’m not a hopeless schmuck by any chance, but I still keep in mind all possibilities. I strive for the one which suits what humans are: living things. Living things should live upon a living earth.
@@quinnsine1650 :)
I'm one of those who have despaired. And I appreciate you trying to lighten it, but there came a point where I had to stop kidding myself.
We discover runaway processes, we don't predict them. So there is no way to rule them out and given the frequency we discover new ones and the magnitude they have already I simply don't see a way to stop anything anymore, let alone reverse it. Which we'd need to, to avoid a runaway train.
We're already seeing major impacts on the world. Famines are already inevitable and we're going to see more mass migration this decade than ever before.
The list goes on, but it's clear to me that the last round has been called for. Might as well pick a good drink.
The moment you lose hope is the moment you give up.
@@jeremyjackson7429 I meant no offense. I was talking more politically, as per the video.
here is the problem with your analysis we have already set off the methane feedback loop and it's too late we are headed to 3 degrees not by 2100 but by 2050 or earlier
too late indeed, but perhaps we should let them have their hopium. Let them delude themselves and find themselves surprised when they realize it was too late anyways 😂
Did the IPCC report mention a methane feedback loop that is *definitely* happening and Simon is *definitely* ignoring?
Yes! Think about positives - we will run out of fossil fuels relatively soon. So we only have so much carbon to be released to loom in the atmosphere xD
Climate-Anxiety/Hopelessness are valid Feelings
that i wanna fight by pointing out YOU can do Things.
Its not hopeless, even if painting your Roof White to deflect heat
is too costly. Watch and spread good Climate-Coverage,
which often will tell you more SPECIFIC Things you can do as a normal Person:
EVEN such small, cheap Things as painting Roofs White to reflect Heat and going to your next-best School-Board and request the Schoolfriendly Climate-Coverage of UpisnotJump and Not Just Bikes to be shown everywhere, helps. And thats the Stuff EVERYONE can do.
Those positive things are just the start. Buying strangers Brilliant and Nebula,
painting Roofs White, planting Trees, theres so much to do.
Arguably, since fossil fuels are limited, eventually the same amount of human emissions will be made regardless. Although, the slower it happens the more time the world has to adapt to it, so the less damage it will do.
We dont HAVE to use all fossil fuel on earth we can leave what we dont need in the earth. The more renewable energi we get the less we need. Also we need substitutions for plastik
@@CoBy_CoBy-97 Fossil fuels are so useful for emergency and remote power they will likely never stop being used.
@Formation13 That's one of the dumbest arguments I've seen, & I've seen them all. I've never liked the thing about the stone age not ending because we ran out of stones, but you should be aware the stone age ended, & there are still stones.
@@J4Zonian There are too many stones and stones are not used up very quickly. Fossil fuels are limited.
@@UniDocs_Mahapushpa_Cyavana you know that like stone fosil fuels slowly generate over time?
Climate despair cannot be averted unless we also start talking about overpopulation and possible ways to curb it.
The topic is so carefully avoided by everyone talking about climate change that I have to assume it is considered a taboo.
Taboo or not, there is no hope of a sustainable future if there are 7 billions of us on this world. Or 9. Or 11.
you can't talk about it because if you do. Then you have to deal with the nuts. That think you are part of an international conspiracy. There is no solution
Bill gates will save us innit
I feel hopeful because climate won't change the world too gravely in my generations lifetime.
I worry too, but Solar panel, electric batteries and wind turbine pollute within 1 per cent of what we are trying to replace not to mention child labor involved in the resources needed like in china and when you mention nuclear reactor the cleanest thing on the earth they turn away because it doesn't have a good sound too it. I'm in, but we need to start talking about real solution not just things that sound good on the surface that makes us feel like I'm better than you. Remembered if you really care you may have to work with people that don't agree100 percent. Of course you can keep calling them name get them fired and that will really help the cause.
@utube Sorry, no. Solar, wind are the cheapest sources of energy; they & other renewable energy sources are much, much cleaner than fossil fuels in terms of both greenhouse gases & other pollutants. Renewables keep getting better as the technology improves while fossil & fissile fuels get worse. F&FFs’ EROEI keeps dropping, pollution gets even worse, they get more expensive.
There are 30 million slaves in the world; I’d love to see your condemnation of all the things they produce--your food, clothing, furniture, electronics... Cobalt is used to refine oil & other F&FF & military applications, while the EV industry is abandoning them, led by Tesla & BYD. Where are your comments about those other, older industries?
Find new sources; you need information rather than disinformation. I’ll be happy to help with that.
You can't always depend on capitalist economic sense that "growth is good", building more renewables will never get us to the goal where we wished for, in fact it will hasten humanity's collapse. What we need is "degrowth" and "people first", we need to dismantle the entire global capitalist system that haunted this planet for decades and find a new balance between humanity and nature.
The only solution is central planned economies under socialism, but now its too late. The methane feedback loop has already kicked in and humanity is headed to extinction soon. Humanity was supposed to overthrow capitalism in the previous century. The failure to do so was its demise...