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Ask HN: Is Climate Change even possible to change course on?

2 points by O__________O ↗ HN
Background: Friend sent me a link to website today that’s been covered on HN before, looked into it, and based on my estimates, using that technology, it would cost over $100 trillion to get the current global production of carbon dioxide to zero; not mentioning specific tech intentionally, because I am trying to avoid making this post about it alone.

Is Climate Change even possible to change course on? Is the average person able to make a difference, if so, how —if not, what should they know?

7 comments

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allears
Climate change is not an on/off switch. It's been slowly building up for many years, and even if we somehow manage to reverse the trend, it will get much worse before it gets better. It's too late to avoid some very serious and fatal effects of climate change. Of course, the planet will be fine, Earth will simply re-adjust, but the human race (and many other species) are going to have a rough time of it. That said, it's not too late to make a difference. We may have hard times ahead, but we can still avoid a total wipeout, and maybe even preserve the best parts of our civilization and find a more realistic balance with Mother Nature. As an individual, it's important to moderate your energy use and carbon footprint. There's many ways to do this, and lots of information available about it. But just as important, if not more important, is to make your voice heard. Vote for candidates who support climate action. Support awareness among your friends and family. Be willing to challenge climate change deniers, or people who want to bury their heads in the sand and say it's no use. It's like the fourth quarter, and our team is behind, but we still have a chance. Don't be discouraged, have a positive outlook, and we can still turn this thing around.
O__________O
Thanks, appreciate response, based on my experience posting these on HN, already exceeded my expectations. Though I agree with everything you said, reality is no single (average) person is able to may a significant impact. CO2 emissions alone worldwide are currently around 36 billion metric tons, which mean 4.6 metric tons per person per year. I personally would be perfectly happy to do whatever it takes, but also know short of aliens showing up with a magic, safe, usable, etc source of energy, humanity neither has the will power, nor self-control, nor ability to solve the problem using technology.

Happy to be proven wrong, but as far as I am concerned, right now I have changed my position to unless billions of people rapidly change course, humanity is rolling the dice and odds are not looking good.

Guess I was hoping I was wrong, that there was some new scalable, economic tech coming — or there was new away to “share” the message that has been proven to make a difference — instead nothing has changed.

bonniemuffin
Bill Gates' recent book "How to Avoid a Climate Disaster" is a pretty comprehensive look at the landscape of how to change course on climate. I liked it. It's fairly optimistic overall, but it'll definitely take LOTS of large solutions, not just one giant investment even if we had $100 trillion to dump into a single solution. There's no single solution that will solve it, but there are lots of smaller ones that will make a big difference if we move forward on all of them in parallel.
O__________O
Thanks, I will look at it, aware it’s out, know when he was pitching it that to me there appeared to be factual inaccuracies, but after spending far amount of time trying to sort it out, gave up; specifically his meat recommendations not only didn’t appear to add up — but he also appeared to have conflicting interests via number of different investments; which in turn, lead to me questions it in sum.

I know Bill has had a lot of experience dealing with global efforts, learned a lot, and even has had number of clever ways to get people to listen. Issue to me is that at 10,000 reviews on Amazon, I figure that if there was actual new and useful information it would have already made a difference; quick look at the one-star reviews makes me wonder how to evaluate his take on what progress means.

And yes, completely agree it going to take a number of solutions, mainly mentioned $100 trillion solution since to my friend, and I guessing a lot of people, they just keep wishing there was a magic, cheap solution — but there’s not; which to me is largest problem, individuals not acknowledging billions of people need to change, this is not about just throwing money or technology at the problem.

tamaharbor
If we look to colonize another planet as a solution to climate change, we will need to adapt to the atmospheric differences. Why don’t we just adapt to the future different climate here on earth?
O__________O
Humanity’s ability to adapt is extremely limited as it relates to global climate changes — and odds of humanity existing in the billions or more anywhere else is also unlikely too.

If you have an reasonable explanation of why either of my statements are flawed, happy to listen.