Earth on verge of five catastrophic climate tipping points, scientists warn | Humanity faces ‘devastating domino effects’ including mass displacement and financial ruin as planet warms

floofloof@lemmy.ca to News@lemmy.world – 286 points –
Earth on verge of five catastrophic climate tipping points, scientists warn
theguardian.com
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I've long accepted that we're going to see the bad ending, as I've never had any say in what happens, and I know what kind of world we live in. We're going out with a long drawn-out whimper while capitalists scurry to ride the wave on a ship made out of the corpses of the ignorant. This was always the way things were going to happen, and revolution was always the only way to prevent it.

Ditto, except I consider it extremely improbable that revolution would fix anything. The problem is human nature — greed, ignorance, ego, tribalism; the tendency to support sociopaths in leadership — ultimately it may turn out that no amount of any ism can meaningfully safeguard us from ourselves.

What you're describing isn't human nature. We aren't all slaves to greed or supporting sociopaths. What we are is impressionable, disorganized, and willing to submit to a higher authority. Sociopaths take advantage of this by acting as our higher authority, feeding us misinformation, and keeping us thoroughly divided. A collective wake-up call is just about the only thing we could undergo to break the cycle, but we are firmly trapped within our delusions for the foreseeable future.

What we're doing isn't working. The system we have doesn't do what we want it to do. We all, on some level, understand this. To acknowledge that we want a better system that is better capable of doing good for as many entities as possible is to acknowledge that we want a revolution, because our system is incapable of doing anything that we want it to do at this point.

It's not even delusions, it's that for many our simplest means to access food and shelter directly enriches a class that is forced to play the role of humanity's antagonist just by virtue of existing as a class.

A total lack of foresight doesn't help either. We only (maybe) fix things after they become catastrophic.

Maybe. I do think the climate is pretty screwed, but at the same time there's developments in play that even a few years ago I wouldn't have been expecting within my lifetime.

It's really too early to call how this all plays out ultimately.

As an ancient group claiming we are a future recreation of a long dead original humanity had said, "Have you found the beginning, then, that you are looking for the end? You see, the end will be where the beginning is."

We may be heading for an end of many things, but we are also watching a beginning take form, and it seems to my eye to be a bit of a race between the collective environmental debts we've racked up and the advancement of a true game changer that might take what seems inevitable and turn it on its head.

What I would say is that I think people doing really bad shit in the world right now are in for a serious surprise within a generation. It's going to be increasingly hard to keep skeletons in closets and even the most powerful people in the world today may not still be on top of the food chain by tomorrow.

I too am skeptical we escape the catastrophe of climate change - but I think the path to that end may yet have some promising twists and turns along the way.

Interesting take. I‘m interested in what you see as an emerging game changer at the moment? Maybe I am too blind because of doomerism in the morning. Also, what‘s the ancient group claiming there was a original humanity before ours, whatever that means.?

Exactly so enjoy it. Eat donuts and deep fried corn dogs, drink booze and don't worry about your ibs. Smoke a cigarette, try drugs. Lol seriously who gives a fuck.

Well, I give a fuck. Barring the bits where humanity really shat the bed, I sincerely love this planet. Life is a wondrous, miraculous, utterly beautiful thing. It's depressing to see it all go to waste for the sake of capital. We could have created a paradise, but we chose a suffocating death. I wish we took "eat the rich" more seriously. It should have been a promise, not a threat.

You had me until revolution. Revolution won't fix anything, this is down to the general stupidity of the people reflected in elected politicians.

The system is rigged, politicians are bought and sold, the democratic process is agonizingly slow on purpose.

Our politicians, regardless of affiliation, have been shown to consistently push policies that do not represent their constituents. Rather, their decisions are much more in tandem with corporate interests. Corporate interests are the single largest contributions to climate change and environmental destruction. To solve something like this, we would need to essentially replace nearly every member of our governing body and update processes to allow more rapid favorable changes that accurately represent the will of the people and the betterment of the planet. We lack the power to do this with votes, as the system is rigged, politicians are bought and sold, and the democratic process is agonizingly slow on purpose. We do not lack the power to do this via revolution.

However, you are depressingly correct that we have an undereducated population, and future generations indicate a bleaker future. Propaganda and conspiracy (not theories; actual powerful groups doing shady shit that hurts the public at large) has us ignorant and fighting amongst ourselves. The longer this continues, the more hopeless a revolution becomes. To restate my initial comment: this has continued long enough that I forsee the bad ending. We will hold the elite afloat while we bicker in ignorance, and we will be the ones to accept the consequences of a system that hates us.

USA doesn't need a revolution, USA needs to fix their democracy so it doesn't favor "strong" government, but instead favors actual democracy. That is done by removing everything first past the post, and having fair democratic representation based on votes. That will enable more parties, so voters can vote closer to their interest instead of just choosing between 2 bad options. This is how almost all democratic countries do democracy better than most English speaking countries, and especially USA.
This is worth fighting for as an American IMO.

You're right. But I think you're underestimating just how monumental a task that is, as you'd have to address the overwhelming amount of influence money has in our system. Billionaires, CEOs, and investors have as much, if not more control over our way of life as any politician, and many politicians overlap heavily with those types. The people who'd need to fix the system are the people benefitting from the system being the way it is. There's no clean method of addressing that issue in a timely manner, and we need results 50 years ago.

Yes, despite it's the only sensible thing to do for USA if USA wants to improve maybe even just to remain a democracy, it requires an active movement that is very big. Democrats may be less bad than Republicans, but they still defend the status quo.
I do however think that it is easier than an outright revolution, which would also have great uncertainties about the actual end result if successful.
But it needs people that burn for it, and it needs people to connect across states. And you are right, there will probably appear massive misinformation against it financed by the 1%. And the established parties will be against it, and may even make methods used illegal, even if they are perfectly democratic according to current rules. But as I see it, it's a fight that is as important as when USA originally fought for their freedom from the British Empire.

"love me, love me, love me: i'm a liberal!"

WTF?

it's a song lyric.

I go to civil rights rallies
And I put down the old D.A.R.
I love Harry and Sidney and Sammy
I hope every colored boy becomes a star
But don't talk about revolution
That's going a little bit too far
So love me, love me
Love me, I'm a liberal

Still doesn't make any sense, maybe it's something Republicans find is funny.

it's something Republicans don't understand, actually. look up the song, maybe you'll learn something.

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