There Is No Longer Any "Moderate" Position Left When It Comes To Global Warming

[hatrack]

Perhaps the most politically difficult aspect of climate change is that, after decades of denial and delay, there is no longer any coherent “moderate” position to be had. To allow temperatures to rise past 1.5° or 2°C this century is to accept unthinkable disruption to agriculture, trade, immigration, public health, and basic social cohesion. To hold temperature rise to less than 1.5° or 2°C this century will require enormous, heroic decarbonization efforts on the part of every wealthy country.

Either of those outcomes is, in its own way, radical. There is no non-radical future available for the US in decades to come. Our only choice is the proportions of the mix: action vs. impacts. The less action we and other countries take to address the threat, the more impacts we will all suffer.

Politicians who hamper the effort to decarbonize and increase resilience are not moderates. They are effectively choosing a mix of low action and high impacts — ever-worsening heat waves, droughts, floods, and hurricanes. There is nothing moderate about that, certainly nothing conservative.

For years, climate scientists, advocates, and activists have been trying to get politicians to understand this about climate change: that indifference and inaction are not neutral. Every day that goes by, more damages are baked in and getting the problem under control is more difficult. The cost of preventing future impacts is tiny relative to the cost, in lives and money, of adapting to them.

EDIT

https://www.volts.wtf/p/there-is-no-moderate-position-on?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoyOTQ4MzE5MywicG9zdF9pZCI6Mzc5NjU4MTcsIl8iOiIvTkFoWCIsImlhdCI6MTYyNTE1MTQ3NSwiZXhwIjoxNjI1MTU1MDc1LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMTkzMDI0Iiwic3ViIjoicG9zdC1yZWFjdGlvbiJ9.ZrqmDLKopX9yfq2l9Ov--j2gz7jxls452XPYcZq4osA

[Girard442]

1. "Moderate positions" are everywhere an endangered species these days.

[PETRUS]

5. That's been the case for a long time.

What a lot of politicians and most of the media describe as "moderate" are positions that involve supporting an empire with military bases circling the globe, the nearly continual use of violence to achieve its aims, and an economic system that is clearly ecocidal which produces vast wealth for a few while leaving many other struggling to meet basic needs. How is that "moderate?"

[-misanthroptimist]

2. There is no realistic chance that we'll avoid 1.5C

That would entail a series of pretty unlikely events. Even holding the line below 2C looks pretty unlikely. Conservatively, surface temperatures have increased 1.1C since the pre-industrial. We are currently warming at a rate of ~0.2C/decade. The lag time between the time of CO2 emissions and the full effect of those emissions is 20-30 years. That means, roughly speaking that there is another 0.4-0.6C of warming "in the pipeline", no matter what we do.

That doesn't mean we shouldn't try. We definitely should try, and try very hard. But it seems highly likely that our civilization is doomed -and probably sooner than we've been led to believe.

[CrispyQ]

3. Interesting screen name you have.

Years ago, when he was still funny & before he went right wing, Dennis Miller did a rant on racism & ended it by saying, "It's stupid to hate someone for the color of their skin, when if you spend just five minutes talking to them, you'll find plenty of valid reasons to hate them."

And I agree that we're probably doomed & sooner than we think.

Welcome to DU!

[-misanthroptimist]

4. "Welcome to DU"

"We're doomed!"

Strange days, aren't they?

And thanks for the welcome.

[JanMichael]

6. Its all about mitigating the changes now. There is no putting the toothpaste back...

...in the tube. The time to stop the warming is gone.

Some people say they want to save the planet but the planet will be fine regardless. Humans though are on a long downward spiral that most people don't see. 2 degrees is bad, 3 or 4 or 5? Like the world is trying to shake us off.

Whether the really harsh warming impacts (serious global food shortages, water, air, extreme heat like in the PNW, etcetera) start in earnest in 2030 or 2050 it doesn't matter.

This is one of the few things that Gen X kind of "wins". By 2070, when it will probably totally suck, most us will be dead anyway.

[Delphinus]

7. I told some friends yesterday,

while discussing climate change, that the world will be fine - it's us who are going to pay dearly. It helped lead to a good conversation.