IPCC sixth report.

[spread-tee]

https://www.ipcc.ch/report/sixth-assess ... g-group-i/

I've had a very quick skim, it makes for scary reading, positive feedbacks and tipping points are close with a good deal of certainty, the 1.5 degree target we have been aiming for is very likely going to be broken within a couple of decades.

COP26 in November needs to actually announce widespread action immediately, not just more talks about planning for more talks, which is pretty much all these summits have done so far.

Anything less is just a waste of time and tantamount to admitting they don't have a clue or dont give a monkeys.

MPs need to be receiving lots of mail demanding action.

Desp

[Oliver90owner]

Does it give any indication of the time scale for ‘normality’ (at least a peak in temperature) to arrive if we were to stop burning fossil fuels TODAY?

The hole in the Ozone layer has taken decades (so far) to heal. I would expect the temperature to rise further before even stabilising, as that CO2 has go somewhere, more greenhouse gases (water vapour, for instance) will be helping to blanket the Earth and bolsinaro (and others, as well) is still cutting down the rain forest….

[Bugtownboy]

That’s the big issue, isn’t it. How do we get everyone to take it seriously.

Even the U.K., where the CO2 figures look ‘good’ compared to other G7/8 countries, but is that because we’ve offshored or devolved a lot of our manufacturing?

When you consider, during the first lockdown, the UK’s CO2 output reduced by 7% - are we going to have to achieve figures in excess of this permanently and consistently.

Given the level of unrest about subsequent lockdowns and, given the naysayers commenting about the conspiracies around CC on some forums, how much public support is there really going to be ?

[spread-tee]

That’s the big issue, isn’t it. How do we get everyone to take it seriously.

Even the U.K., where the CO2 figures look ‘good’ compared to other G7/8 countries, but is that because we’ve offshored or devolved a lot of our manufacturing?

When you consider, during the first lockdown, the UK’s CO2 output reduced by 7% - are we going to have to achieve figures in excess of this permanently and consistently.

Given the level of unrest about subsequent lockdowns and, given the naysayers commenting about the conspiracies around CC on some forums, how much public support is there really going to be ?

Nail on the head mate, we really really need the vast majority to change the habits of a lifetime in fairly short order, diet, clothing, transport, housing, jobs , the list goes on and on, it is a massive ask even for committed greenies like us I suspect.

Oliver, IIRC from something I have read before, if we stop burning today it will take a couple of hundred years ish to stabilise at some new equilibrium hopefully not too much more than 1.5 degrees hotter. But there were a lot of provisos attatched, such as have we irreversibly flicked some switches to a positive feedback position, Amazon Rain forest, Methane Clathrates etc. If something like that is the case we could be looking at a lot longer possibly thousands. I will search the new report for more info when I can.

Dare I say it, I have a horrible feeling in my water we should be doing a lot of research into CO2 absorbtion and Geo-engineering to try and lower the temperature.

Desp

[Bugtownboy]

Nail on the head mate, we really really need the vast majority to change the habits of a lifetime in fairly short order, diet, clothing, transport, housing, jobs , the list goes on and on, it is a massive ask even for committed greenies like us I suspect.

We had a bit of a lifestyle review during lockdown, as you do, and decided to change some aspects of ours. SWMBO has been buying clothes off FleaBay - she likes Boden (a good ‘middle class’ brand so I’ve been told).

Bought a few things - the number that turn-up still with tags attached is shocking. Considering she’s paying circa £5 for a £60-80 piece of clothing. Shocking.

We could pay for ‘new’, but, as a society, our wastage of resources is becoming obscene - we have no comprehension of what we’re actually throwing away, or, at least, it’s value.

Whether or not you accept our influence on CC, you cannot argue with the rabid, over consumption of natural resources.

Even the thickest has to accept this is no longer sustainable.

[Oliver90owner]

Even the thickest has to accept this is no longer sustainable.

Not a chance of that happening! Furthermore it is not the ‘thickest’ who are the real problem.

I will search the new report for more info when I can.

Thanks Desp.

RAB

[Bugtownboy]

Even the thickest has to accept this is no longer sustainable.

Furthermore it is not the ‘thickest’ who are the real problem.

Yep, typed in haste without consideration.

[AE-NMidlands]

I find it difficult to reply to this because I want to say so much that it would rapidly become something like a Green party manifesto (or so I would hope.)
UK may be a small country but we must play our part or even contribute / suffer more than the average - probably much more so given our colonial and historic use of fossil fuels.
UK energy use in very round numbers is split 40% -30%-15%-15% between transport, housing, industry and services.

The current tax system is heavily biased against all sorts of "good" things, like housing improvements where repairs attract VAT while new-build is exempt, paying people to do things (like repairs) is penalised by national insurance being charged to both employer and employee - while importing new stuff is so cheap that you can't understand how the price even covers the transport.

I would like to see a massive change in taxation to put most on resource use, probably weighted towards energy. Wealth and high income still need taxing because the rich won't be touched by resource taxes. Imported resources should get harsh treatment to prevent export of our carbon bill on the sly.

Housing has to be addressed, with the current fashion for abandoning all planning completely reversed. No developments unless energy-efficient, renewable-ready and with active travel/public transport access. All to have rainwater harvesting and run-off controls. Lots of redevelopment (with walk-to-work housing) of inner-city and urban and brownfield sites.

Dramatically increase the costs of private and freight transport (40% of energy use,) while making public transport much better: bus use has been declining and (with train travel) increasing in price for a couple of decades or more (- outside London), while motoring has got cheaper. Too much stuff is being moved unnecessarily and too many journeus are made for trivial reasons. If mandating much more use of public transport suppresses demand then so much the better.
This on top of the tax changes above will/should have several effects:

stuff generally should cost a lot more, it should get a lot more expensive to import it too. All this should drive a culture of repair and re-use, which will put money into the local economy. Fashion (especially "fast fashion") is now recognised as totally irresponsible. It's designed to stop you continuing to wear perfectly good clothes.
I hope industry will be driven by the re-jigged tax regime to look at their costs and adapt. A lot of service industries are just froth and would have been inconceivable in more straitened earlier times, so might dwindle (but the repair sector would pick that up.) It wouldn't be so bad if we went back to something a bit more like the 1950s.
A

[spread-tee]

I'll drink to that, and buy you one as well.

Cheers

Desp

[Bugtownboy]

I agree too - do I get a beer as well ?

Seriously, complete sense. In some ways the pandemic gave an opportunity to reconsider how society works. OK, been hi-jacked by the great re-set conspiracists, but we do need to reconsider how our society and economy works.