@debasisg@mstdn.social @breadandcircuses @ClimateHuman I don't know if there's really any great alternative at this point if we're to maintain the lifestyles to which we've become accustomed. Like, ethanol sounds great – sustainable carbon cycle and all that – but would it even work if we switched to that wholesale? land use, energy required to process, etc? I remember a few years back it looked like the answer was "no" – have things gotten better?
With governments like Germany moving away from nuclear it is starting to feel hopeless.
@danielquinn The idea that our lifestyle is good is indeed weird. People are scared that somebody takes their car away, but nobody talks about the people who can't drive cars but have no access to public transport (due to age, sickness, disability, etc.). What about their quality in life? And what about the right to hve healthy food, clean air, beautiful surroundings? I'm not keen to keep today's lifestyle, I want a better one.
@danielquinn @ech @debasisg @breadandcircuses @ClimateHuman
By the way, I know many people who have electric cars, heat pumps and solar panels. They don't have them to fight climate change. They have them because they make less noise, dirt, and stress. They see them as a higher standard. So it's time to stop telling people that the protection of the environment takes something away from them. Itp's time to talk about the advantages of new technologies - anbd to make them affordable.
@danielquinn @ech @debasisg @breadandcircuses @ClimateHuman No, there is no solution where we tighten our belts just a little and it's all fine.
We need to decarbonize by over 90% in about a decade to avoid catastrophe. 90%!
To do this, we'd have to give up private cars, give up flying, give up meat, and likely we would still not hit the target.
(I myself have never owned a car, have no kids, a plant-based diet, don't fly, etc etc.)
@TomSwirly @ech @debasisg @breadandcircuses @ClimateHuman
That 90% encapsulates a lot of preconceptions though. It rules out lab-grown meat, investment in rail/transit/cycling, and vertical farming while taking as a given that we won't replace freight emissions.
Indeed we only need to get to pre-1990 levels, hardly the stone age, and that era was rife with gross inefficiency.
A Green future is something amazing. It will require change, sure, but it's not the end.
@ech @debasisg @breadandcircuses @ClimateHuman
The problem is the premise that we currently have a lifestyle we want to maintain.
If you approach this problem with "how do we maintain a world where everyone has to drive 2 tonnes of steel and glass to go anywhere" then it does seem insurmountable. If however you imagine a world where we drive less, fly less, and eat less meat, yet are safe and healthy, then suddenly it's not just possible, but desireable.