Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

Idliketothinkimsmart t1_j8heqra wrote

"Even if countries meet commitments made under the 2015 Paris Agreement, the world is heading for a 3.2 degrees Celsius"

Green capitalism isnt gonna save us.

50

Enk1ndle t1_j8j20ht wrote

Progress over perfection, even if we end up with a damaged earth it's a hell of a lot better than if we just said fuck it and kept doing what we were doing.

10

Idliketothinkimsmart t1_j8j48c4 wrote

That's like the difference of riding a moped into a brick wall at 90 mph as opposed to 150. Capitalism as a system is inherently driving climate change.

Portions of the planet becoming unhabitable isn't progress. Developed countries, despite driving almost a majority of emissions since the 1700's, might be able to get by, but for how long until tens of millions of migrants rightfully seek shelter, how long until wars & civil unrest are sparked over resources, how long until fascists take hold of people's frustrations and turn it against one another? That isn't progress.

6

Enk1ndle t1_j8j4seb wrote

A portion becoming inhabitable beats the entire planet becoming inhabitable, what are you talking about? You're saying extinction is the same as a 3c raise in temperature.

5

Idliketothinkimsmart t1_j8j5rrc wrote

What I'm saying is it doesn't make sense to ignore the elephant in the room. Capitalism needs endless growth. The 3.2 projection is by no means static. There's really no reason tens, if not hundreds of millions of people need to suffer so capitalists can continue to keep making money.

That's not something anyone should be interested in seeing happen.

0

Bdor24 t1_ja0q7yp wrote

A bit late to the conversation, but I'm just posting to point out that this number is very misunderstood.

According to the most recent projections, 3.2 degrees of warming is the absolute worst-case scenario. It can only happen if the world does nothing at all to improve on the policies that currently exist... and even then, it's the higher estimate in a wide range of possibilities. But if states honor the pledges they made up to 2030, that'll bring us down to 2.6. And if they honor all of their announced pledges, we get 2.0.

These numbers represent a massive improvement over the status quo that existed less than a decade ago, when the worst-case scenario was 4 degrees Celcius and failure seemed inevitable. While the Paris Agreement might technically fail (we're still very unlikely to reach 1.5), activists in every sector have already made enormous progress. It got the ball rolling.

It's not a hopeless fight. Every little bit of progress equates to countless lives saved.

1