• SuiXi3D@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    The entire world runs on fossil fuels.

    They power the machines used to gather materials. They power the machines that move those materials around the world to be turned into goods. They power moving those goods around the world to be sold. They power moving them again once they’ve been sold. And if we’re really lucky, they won’t use any more at that point.

    The electricity you use. The gas in your car. The gas you use to heat your home or cook. The gas the Amazon van uses to get stuff from the warehouse to your door. The gas used by the semi truck to move stuff from one warehouse to another. The gas used by the cargo vessel to move stuff across the sea. The gas used for the mining equipment for the raw materials to make stuff. The gas used in the machines to turn materials into stuff.

    Hell, the gas used to harvest crops and move them around and keep them cool, if need be.

    Yes, we can and should be working on ways to divest from fossil fuels at every opportunity, but even if everyone was perfectly on board it wouldn’t happen overnight. It’ll take a few lifetimes at best.

    • QHC@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      We could have started in the 70s or 80s or 90s and maybe we’d be a significant way into those lifetimes, instead of just thinking about starting now.

    • ∟⊔⊤∦∣≶@lemmy.nz
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      1 year ago

      For sure. I 100% agree. But I am also 100% against severely economically and entropically unviable ways to reduce carbon in the atmosphere.

      • lildictator@feddit.nl
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        1 year ago

        As far as I can tell, we can either pay now for decarbonization, or we pay much more in the future for not having decarbonized. I know which one I would rather see.

    • schroedingershat@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Inactivist baloney. The first four are under your direct control and can be changed in weeks. The fifth and sixth will change themselves within 5 years as diesel will be uncompetitive. Half of international shipping is just fossil fuels, and half of what remains is short enough range that currently commercialising battery tech is sufficient. Mining equipment is already going solar because flying diesel to remote sites is ludicrously expensive.

      Most of the remaining emissions can be eliminated by the global top 10% being ever so slightly less craven and greedy, 99% of red meat is nutritionally unnecessary and accounts for the majority of agricultural emissions and crops.

      We can and must get most of the way there in a decade, and the only obstacles for doing so are people like you.