Luke Hansford

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Climate emergency

🌱 Seedling3 min read

Current situation

As of 2023, the actual policies being implemented by governments puts us on a path to 3.3°C warming by 2050.1 On top of this, it's believed that emissions are underreported by 23%, which is not accounted for in the above number. It also doesn't account for reduction of photosynthesis as the globe warms (photosynthesis has an upper heat limit).

The Swerve

Focus on the swerve. Believe it or not, the swerve is a happy ending...All we've got left is the swerve. 2

Cory Doctorow talks about "The Swerve", i.e. the course correction we as a species need to make to stop our proverbial bus from driving off a cliff. "It won’t be nice", but it is our "most hopeful future"

Our happy ending isn't averting the disaster. Our happy ending is surviving the disaster. 2

Carbon offsets

Carbon offsets tend towards being scams. See this John Oliver episode for examples. I'm sure there's some nuance though, so it's something I want to research more.

Ethical travel

How to ethically travel is something that I'm still trying to figure out. As an expat I fly pretty frequently. When I lived in Europe, train travel was an option, but Phuket presents a challenge: no trains and bus and car travel is too far (roughly 900km to either Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur), not to mention the abysmal road safety record in Thailand, so flying becomes the default choice. On top of this I need to regularly visit family in Australia and Borneo, so again flying is the only option. Tim Bray makes good arguments that we should be shifting towards slower forms of travel, but unfortunately that isn't a possible choice for us yet.

Of course, I’ve just ruined everyone’s vacation plans because they don’t get enough time off work for this kind of extravaganza. Well, that’s a bug too. As is the notion that it’s ever a good idea to travel at one time-zone per hour. 3

Impacts

Temperature

  • Today, 0.8% of global land is too hot for human existence. On a pathway to 3°C net warming, 19% of global land would be too hot for human existence (i.e., home to a third of humanity).

Climate refugees

  • Roughly 1 billion people will be displaced for every 1°C of warming.

Resources to learn about climate change

Companies fighting climate change

  • Running Tide. Carbon capture in oceans using kelp.
  • Norrsken Impact 100. List of startups having a positive impact on the world (not all climate change related).

Organisations fighting climate change

Investing in climate change solutions

Job boards for climate change

Open source climate projects

  • Open Sustainable Technology. A curated list of open technology projects to sustain a stable climate, energy supply, biodiversity and natural resources.

Climate change education

Reporting

References

  1. Emissions Gap Report 2022

  2. The Swerve 2

  3. Slow Travel

Linked notes

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