Climate Change Too Slow to Get Under Control

[Otto_Harper]

This is a long, but very important read.
Excerpt:

The melting ice sheets on Greenland and Antarctica are climate change’s most dangerous Big Bad, capable of altering the very face of the planet. All the adaptation we could muster can’t hold back the 25 feet or so of sea level rise that Greenland alone could unleash, not to mention the couple hundred more locked up at the planet’s southern extreme. And increasingly, scientists have found that these ice behemoths are teetering on the edge, approaching tipping points that will more or less lock in all or significant parts of their melt within only fractions of a degree from where things stand today.



One would think, then, that the world might show some increased urgency in the face of such imminent calamity. Miami, Shanghai, much of Bangladesh and the Netherlands, and many other places—gone. Trillions of dollars in real estate submerged, not to mention the sheer calamity of many millions of people seeing their homes lapped up by the waves and the geopolitical chaos such an event would undoubtedly spawn.



And yet. And yet emissions rose again in 2023. And yet demand for oil and gas will rise in 2024. And yet the supposedly landmark result of COP28, the United Nations climate talks held in December in Dubai, included in its agreement to transition away from fossil fuels massive loopholes and the traditional lack of teeth that plagues global agreements. The collective shrug at this Ice Sheet of Damocles can be chalked up to a strange quirk of this particular brand of apocalypse:



The ice sheets are melting too slowly for us to stop them.

https://atmos.earth/the-time-paradox-of-climate-change/

[Aussie105]

1. There will be much rending of clothes and cries of anguish . . .

"Why weren't we told? Why didn't anyone stop this?"

It will happen when coastal cities go under.

And coastal cities - most of them are large and important, seeing shipping by sea and coastal ports are very much a part of their growth in human history.

Now NY city - how many feet of sea level rise will it take to submerge every street and building?

[Irish_Dem]

2. The billionaires and politicians decided long ago to do nothong

About climate change.

They do not want to spend any money on it.
Even though their business practices have caused the damage.

Too expensive.

Just let the regular person suffer the consequences and let them pay for it.

[Blues Heron]

3. COVID lockdowns showed what we need to do to even make a dent in it, so thats out obviously.

[thucythucy]

4. So many people couildn't even be bothered

to wear a piece of cloth across their face. I even saw comments here on DU about people not wanting to live in "a faceless society."

So it's no wonder that we can't make even the most minimal changes in our behavior to prevent a global catastrophe.

There was gas rationing during WWII. Imagine the outcry if we tried that today.

[Blues Heron]

5. exactly, the outcry would be deafening. Every new condo building is decked out with firepits, strings of lights

every new coffee shop is lit up like a lighting showroom. Our neighborhoods are being lit up like movie sets or prison yards. Its an immense cultural doubling down on waste, the equivalent of sticking your fingers in your ears and going lalalal i cant hear you.

[markodochartaigh]

6. Less than 5% of the excess energy

goes into melting icecaps, and, because of the latent heat of fusion of water, the ice caps are an incredible energy sink. Even with ice shelf destabilization, by the time enough energy has been released to raise sea level by a few meters so much energy will have been absorbed into the atmosphere and oceans that serial cereal harvest failures are almost assured. Three or four grain harvest failures in a decade in Argentina, the US and Canada, Ukraine, India, and/or China will cause horrible destabilization and likely kill billions. Scientists are working on heat tolerant RuBisCo activase but this should be funded on a Manhattan Project scale.