Will We Solve the Climate Crisis? If so, How?

@dannyboy We've been climbing back up now for two years and although the new high appeared to happen in 2028, we are well on the way and will continue the ascent.  Also it could happen sooner.  Sometimes when I am meditating very long distances (meaning long time into the future), events happen faster than I thought they would happen.

@jeanne-mayell 2028 seems watershed/important for a lot of reasons, most specifically because it's the next presidential election cycle after this one and I too feel like we're building toward that big moment.  I doubt highly your dates are off, and yes - the ascent has been good to live through, especially since it was right after the election of TFG that I found this place because I needed the hope and faith then more than I ever have in my life.  My how far we've come... but my how far we still have yet to go.  

I just want it here now lol.

@dannyboy Oh Lawd!! I feel you on that one!!! I am sooo ready for it now!!!

@dannyboy  I remember reading the comments and predictions on this site during Thanksgiving 2016. I was in such despair and it was the only thing that made me feel better. I am so grateful that I found the gift of this community, and for Jeanne, who created it. I could never have imagined what it would come to mean to me.

Back in 2016, who could ever have imagined the level of sheer insanity that awaiting us? I mean, if we could run a reel of 45's greatest offenses and show it to our 2016 selves, who on earth would have believed it? 

As for the climate crisis, it's here (95 degrees in NYC today) but I feel hopeful that humankind will find solutions and we will eventually wake up and walk in the same direction. 

@lynn 

This is so true.  It was hard to believe it as it was happening let alone being able to envision it taking place.  How many of us used to wake up wondering what horrible things was tweeted/ ordained overnight?

@dannyboy @cc21's recent cartoon of how people's lessons create positive change reminds me of another cartoon by the same author. it's about how hard it can get when we are close to major change but still slogging along trying to make positive change happen.

@jeanne-mayell ❤️ Love, love, LOVE this!

@dannyboy, so many good things are happening, both small and at scale. On my little project, the choir is getting larger, so I have a lot of hope. From where I sit, I see these things flowing toward the same destination, much akin to a river and its tributaries leading to the ocean. Naturally, while I am well aware a more blue, more progressive house and senate will expedite things - I can't fathom your fellow citizens returning defendant one - I also think that business, namely insurance, defeats any manner of rhetoric that may originate from the GOP. While those philosophical tributaries have yet to join the main river, they will; it's too late to build dams to block progress, especially on this subject.

Posted by: @jackofhearts

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While those philosophical tributaries have yet to join the main river, they will; it's too late to build dams to block progress, especially on this subject.

You know how to build and grow a metaphor my friend!  👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 love this!

@jeanne-mayell This brings to mind the 9 of Wands in the Tarot. The interpretation that I usually go with is a person planting a forest, or a grove of trees, looking ahead with frustration, at how much is left to do, then being reminded to look back and see how much has been done.

@jeanne-mayell Hi Jeanne, do you have any sense of Ian for the Cape next week?  I have that weird calm knowing sense of danger, but definitely don’t feel sure of myself either. Thank you 

@jeanne-mayell Oops. I meant LEE. 

@earthangel @jeanne-mayell Just wanted to say that some of us were talking about hurricane Lee earlier today. To me, it does feel like one to watch. I think it is still too early to tell, but I sense that the northeast should really keep a close eye on this one.

I love the ongoing discussion about climate change, how close we are to irreversible cataclysmic changes, and why we can still feel hopeful.  I'm including a link to an article found in 'Only Good News'.  The ezine is based in Europe, so if there are equally good things happening in the US, I haven't found a reliable source.  

https://www.onlygoodnewsdaily.com/post/huge-new-ocean-cleanup-system-launches

I'm also not very technical so I'm not sure I posted this link accurately.  If not, here is the information:  htttp://www.onlygoodnews.com.  The article is:  "Huge New Ocean Cleanup System Launches". 

I'll take any good news, anywhere, about anything right now. 

Hi guys

Oops, looks like our eucalyptus trees are playing a role in these wilds fires overseas.

Portugal, Greece, Spain, Chile, California and now Hawaii have all battled wildfires this year as high temperatures and strong winds have whipped small sparks into violent infernos. 

But fire needs fuel, and what these places also have in common is an invasive species — Australia's eucalyptus tree.

In California, the Tasmanian blue gum has become a shady home to birdlife, treasured by some communities, but feared by others.    

Because the eucalyptus tree loves fire and fire loves it.

And now, as temperatures across the globe increase and the Earth's relationship with fire continues to distort, there are places where Australia's eucalyptus tree has become a problem.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-09/wildfires-portugal-greece-california-hawaii-euclyptus-trees/102760264

Maybe getting rid of these plantations might need to happen. We live in an environment of eucalypts and know what they can do which is why over the cooler months there is a smoke haze everywhere as they do hazard reduction burns to get the fuel load down. The highly flammable dead leaves and that is probably not happening overseas.

Regards to all

This is heartbreaking. This is an essay by a Canadian woman who spent time during her university years planting trees in northern Ontario. She did not know she was planting seeds of destruction.  Just wrenching.

We Thought We Were Saving the Planet, but We Were Planting a Time Bomb https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/15/opinion/wildfires-treeplanting-timebomb.html?smid=nytcore-android-share

I jogged on the treadmill this morning so instead of doing my normal lunchtime walk, I stayed inside (even though it was a beautiful day) and worked out my brain instead.  I watched ths Ted Talk from Hannah Ritchie: https://www.ted.com/talks/hannah_ritchie_are_we_the_last_generation_or_the_first_sustainable_one  

I would love to discuss this with anyone who has the 11 necessary minutes to watch this!  

@dannyboy, that took place just down the road from me :)

I found two different points she raised to be interesting.  On the one hand, we know people are choosing not to have children, and on the other, the carbon footprint reduction that happened naturally in the UK.   I hate to say that I see a positive connection between the two, but... 

The point on solar dropping was also important. The other half of that is all commodities naturally have their price trend toward 0.   I will use oil to explain - and rant.   Middlemen (persons?) impact what the consumer sees.  See Gas vs Oil.  Despite the soundbites, if I take a barrel of oil in 1980, which was 140 USD, it would be 566 USD in today's dollars.  Instead, the 80 USD barrel today is between 20-25 a barrel in 1980.  Gas, on the other hand, once dis-mediated from oil, has been able to rise counter to where it ought to be, and despite a lot of noise from the middlemen... the on average 19 cents per gallon in taxes paid in the US do not account at all for price point being double what it would otherwise have been.  We have the same phenomenon here in Canada... with the added bonus of the exchange rate being pocketed in an accounting two-step.

@jackofhearts I filled up again today and had to double check what world event might be causing the 50 cent jump that took place between yesterday when i thought "I should get gas before it goes up again" and this morning when I filled up again at 50 cents higher than yesterday.

The solar and wind piece is amazing.  And... I created a small learning module on it with my mentor last summer... he provides a few graphs and ideas, we work together to flesh it out, and I program it for the web.  it's here: http://www.misocialstudies.org/Math/IL.html  

We were both amazed in looking up the cost of solar over time - we didn't actually update the graph we used in the previous frames to adjust for a larger scale because the drop was so dramatic, fast, and started at such a high rate we were afraid it would skew the graph for the intended middle school audience.  In the end - Coal and nuclear energy are all increasing in price.  Gas hasn't moved significantly (to your point above) in terms of cost to get it, though we obviously feel very differently when we fill our vehicles, and the power of the future - at least until we invent some of those crazy middlemen is solar and wind, though the genie may be out of the bottle for solar because while it's still pricey to install upfront, the game changes when you're selling back to the power company and not the other way around.

On to her and her message specifically - I want to reframe my thinking on climate change to us being the start of the "sustainability generation" because I think we're on that path even though in many cases it's too late for GenXers like me to have our second act be like the early scenes of our first act.  But I want to think that my daughters may see some semblance of normalcy when they hit THEIR second act and we can get there.

@dannyboy that's a very cool teaching tool you did there!

the big innovation in solar was figuring out how to make panels not break from... too much sun, that technology is relatively new (in terms of solar ) which may make the graph go even steeper. I anticipate in 5-10 years building materials for roofs will make solar the default rooftop, and low-voltage batteries that are now being used for siding in houses will also be the norm.  What will help it of course is when power companies that have done a lot to block consumers from using alternates realize suburbia can help provide industry the power to run a plant.   I do hope we leave the world at least going in the right direction :)