Don't overstate 1.5 degrees C threat, new IPCC head says – DW – 07/30/2023
www.dw.com
Jim Skea, the new head of the UN's IPCC climate panel, said it was not helpful to imply that temperature increases of 1.5 degrees Celsius posed an existential threat to humanity.

In short, we aren’t on track to an apocalyptic extinction, and the new head is concerned that rhetoric that we are is making people apathetic and paralyzes them from making beneficial actions.

He makes it clear too that this doesn’t mean things are perfectly fine. The world is becoming and will be more dangerous with respect to climate. We’re going to still have serious problems to deal with. The problems just aren’t insurmountable and extinction level.

  • ANGRY_MAPLE@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    83·
    1 year ago

    It’s not even that Gen Z doesn’t care. Many of us just hit a point where everything feels numb. You can only get so upset/depressed/etc until your brain just kind of shuts down a bit.

    There’s grief over everything that we’ll probably never get to see/have. There’s grief over the backsliding of progress that actually seemed real to us at one point. There’s grief over the many people who just die, everywhere, for terrible and avoidable reasons. There are many animals we will already never get to see.

    Everywhere you look, people almost seem to feel pride in not knowing things. One member of Gen Z managed to have her voice heard about the planet, and she was ridiculed by grown adults. Multiple governments are now trying to decrease education, and some people somehow see that as a good thing. Wildfires are blazing like never before, the smoke is totally hazing new areas, yet people still refuse to see. Why is Gen Z expected to be the magical cure to global warming? People won’t even listen to Greta! We’re just as human as any other generation. Of course we’ll try, but the focus on solving the climate problem should have already been happening generations ago. Just THINK of all the progress we could have already made!

    Lucky us, huh? We’re also regularly encouraged to shove all of these emotions down because we could not possibly have similar problems to older adults. Fuck that, respectfully.

    Yeah, I’ve got to say, sometimes it’s damn hard to have any hope.

    I do think more of us need to vote, even if it only feels like there’s a 3% chance that something actually changes for the better…

    • SCB@lemmy.worldEnglish
      32·
      1 year ago

      No one expects Gen Z to be the magical cure to climate change. Rather, it is expected that Gen Z will continue and escalate work that is already being done.

      That’s a pretty normal thing to expect of upcoming generations.

        • SCB@lemmy.worldEnglish
          31·
          1 year ago

          The pressure isn’t on you. The pressure is on older generations right now, and things are moving. Your job there is to continue the work.

          Ideally by the time Gen Z is 40, they’ll have a whole new crisis. Nearly every generation does.

      • pinkdrunkenelephantsEnglish
        12·
        1 year ago

        You lazy idiots aren’t about to demand anything of a young kid. Shut the fuck up, grow up, and do it yourselves.

    • pinkdrunkenelephantsEnglish
      11·
      1 year ago

      I am sorry that other Millennials just gave in to their trauma and were unable to do anything to fix the problem. I am sorry Boomers and Gen-Xers caused it in the first place.

      I am a millennial and I am going to act to solve the problem in my lifetime. I might need your help, but I don’t expect you to be burdened with responsibility for older generations’ actions. We all can hold the evil shitty people accountable, and build a better and brighter future if we work together.