Figures and previews from the forthcoming IPCC AR6 (due out in July) are starting to come out. They're not looking great. Limiting warming to 2 degrees C or less is now virtually impossible, as even the most optimistic net carbon zero projections put us at 2.1 degrees of warming by 2100. More realistic target is now in the 2.5-3.5 degrees of warming range, which is likely to be extremely bad for a lot of people.

The authors of the IPCC report suggest that only an "immediate and radical transformation" of the global economy and governance would allow us to avoid the worst of the oncoming climate catastrophe. This kind of language is a marked difference from earlier IPCC reports, and reflects a growing sense of urgency and impending doom within the climatology community broadly.

  • cosecantphi [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Literally every boomer I've talked to about climate change says they don't care because they'll be dead by the time it gets too bad. Followed by blank stares when I tell them their children won't be. That's when they start arguing that it's all natural cycles and it'll be fine.

    It's maddening. Like fuck, I'm not asking for much! Why is it so hard for them to agree that this is a significant problem that we need to fix?

    • Azarova [they/them]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Kinda a wild shot in the dark but I would imagine it would be pretty tough to accept that your generations lifestyle and politics has inescapably doomed their children and grandchildren. Maybe I'm giving them too much credit though, maybe they just actually don't give a fuck that they burned the world down.

      • 5bicycles [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Maybe I’m giving them too much credit though, maybe they just actually don’t give a fuck that they burned the world down.

        It's this one. Shout out to the cool boomers as I don't want to generalize an entire generation, but the prevailing mentality is that children are property. It's how you get the whole thing about how the schools are teaching the wrong thing and whatever the youth, i.e. anyone who isn't a boomer, is doing is bad, even outside moral panic.

        To them, someone dying their hair blue is basically their car starting to rust.