100 U. S. Cities are committed to transition to 100% renewable energies
100 U.S. Cities are Committed to 100 Percent Clean, Renewable Energy | Sierra Club
10 U. S. States commited to transition to 100% renewable energies
California is leading the way. 9 others are following
Nine states campaign for 100% clean energy
10 years ago, Costa Rica committed to 100% renewables until 2022. They reached it last year!
I hope this thread does not turn into discussion of posting links to public service announcements and press releases.
What is regarding me, I'm interested in having exchange of thoughts about the topic. As this is not the primary topic on this forum here, I would let go this thread if there's no further interest about it. (Seems so, for now). I'm not interested in constantly piling up new links/news on the subject and won't post any more to it.
Other topics may deserve an own thread so the discussion stays mainly focused on the subject.
My thoughts are simple, I think if we are going to have a casual discussion on any topic, we should either:
However, posting links to others's public service messages, etc. is not really the best use of the forum.
We are not hear to promote third party causes by posting links to their public service announcements.
Anyway, that's my thought.
The discussion started out interesting, but it has deteriorated to posting links, so I agree we should not post unless anyone has their own words or work to add to the discussion. It's cool when we read the ideas of our forum members, even when we have differences of opinions, but it's not cool when we start posting links for the sake of posting links to other people's ideas.
So, if you have something cool to say, please post it 
Thank for understanding.
Unfortunately, as i see it, climate change is, so to say, a done deal.
We can only amend and prepare for the upcoming and current consequences of changes we caused.
Things are moving, but to slow, chained by infinite layers of bureaucracy and responsibility shifting.
A change in <insert industry> which will benefit the environment but lower the profit, we shall postpone, give time, adjust, consult, sue ...
Regards
Peasant.
Discussions are good but...
here is what you can do immediately:
P.S. the "numbered list" looks funny.
tl;dr The mentality of "I can do nothing; my commitment won't change anything" is the type of mentality one lobbying effort is targeted at. Be careful what information you consume, what you consider true and be careful to not let such information take your motivation and energy from you.
Yes, it is bad. But is it really that bad? What I'm seeing is, there are huge powers underway for their own goals which oppose transformation. Is it the lame bureaucrats, that block everything, that they are not flexible enough to move?
The impression "It makes no sense - I can do nothing." is exactly what THEY want you to think. Who are THEY?
THEY are the automobile companies. The companies that deny and want to avoid the change to new technologies. Because change is difficult and risky. They(in germany) faked emission tests here to avoid the need to change. They(in the US) sued a US state(california?) because the state introduced regulations that required the reduction of emissions produced by cars. Now both - some US and most German automobile companies are in trouble because of that. The chinese cars emisson level is way better than theirs and they are way behind because of their refusal to change and to adapt to a new situation.
THEY are the energy companies. The companies that built new power plants using coal in the last few years. At a time it was absolutely clear that this technology is a dead end. But they feared doing the new, the right thing. And so they built it and now the want the money back, they invested. So they tried with massive lobbying campaigns to introduce laws which blocks the change and influences people. "Renewables are verrryy expensive. Windmills kill masses of birds. When we switch to renewables, the lights in our country will go out! Renewable Energy will never fulfill our needed quantity of energy." A lot of that FUD(fear, uncertainty, doubt). And lots of people buy that stuff. Even I got caught by that sometimes. Now I know the arguments brought up are not new and will be used over and over again when needed, just for the reason that the do have an effect.
THEY are some of the people with a lot of money who use it to protect their profits and block the change.
Story I
Near my parents home town/village there is now a wind farm/wind power station. It is producing hydrogen, when the power cannot be injected into the public power network. So before the windmills are shut down, they now produce hydrogen(from water). There's a combined heat and power plant. When the public network will accept power again, the power plant will burn the hydrogen and produce power and heat which is used for heating a school a kindergarden and a beer factory. Overall a great technical achievement as a project with energy storage capabilities and efficient use of produced electricity and heat. Students of the secondary school built a mobile phone app for the civil investors to get live data out of the site.
The project was initiated by the mayor. There was huge resistence to this project. "Oh my god. Those windwheels are too noisy. There's too much shadow from that. It kills massive amounts of birds." A citizens initiative formed to stop the project. It was a long fight. The project was finally done. Interesting point: The head of the citizens initiative was the wife of the director of the nearby nuclear power plant(which is currently in shutdown state due to german nuclear-power-exit). So the intention here is: bring down energy change if anyhow possible; hopefully they can/must(!) switch on the nuclear plant again, because there's not enough other energy available. And use all possible people, groups, organizations and reasons to drive towards that goal.
Actually windfarm resistance by environment protection organizations is quite strong in germany and as I'm observing in the media this resistance seems to being used by others to bring down efforts in these areas.
Story II
The german Nuclear Plant "Kalkar" was successfully avoided through massive citizen protests. The companies ignored the protests as long as they could. But finally they could not just pull it through. At the last step of the initial launch of the plant they gave up. It was a glorious victory of the green movement. But the way they stopped it was just another attack to the motivation and energy of the people. They didn't say: "We are sorry. We realized that you don't want it. So we refrain from doing it." or "Yes, we now see it's a dangerous technology, we can not do this.". No they said, after having spent billions of EUR/Deutschmarks into this project: "We carefully reviewed the situation, and we realized, it does not give a good amount of profit." (After having spent billions, they got to this insight? Seriously?). So they denied any effect of the massive protests to this decision! They want everybody to think: "Protest is pointless. You can never win! Don't fight! Just give up!"
Conclusion
I do not believe it's bureaucracy. It's the companies fighting against everything that costs them profits - irrelevant if every human being dies in this fight. And that can be broken. Never let anyone make you believe you have no power. Never let anyone steal your motivation! Be careful what information you consume and what information you consider to be true.
We are very late - that's true. There may be things which cannot be reversed already. But can one really say we lost the war, before even starting to fight?
The links I wrote in the last post are not to bomb you with useless information. Those are stories to show you where it had worked, where the fighting is about to be won. Where victories in single battles had already been achieved. To show that there is a lot of people, people throughout society - even people with a lot of power - which are doing the right thing.
My personal TODO list
Update
Hey, wait... We're here at unix.com! Aren't here some super skilled IT/electronic engineers? Maybe I should ask them to think about ideas of apps/systems/devices which can help with climate change?
Regarding Kalkar:
it was a fast breeder - the few existing ones did not breed as promised, and during operation showed that managing the risks (much higher than the other non-breeding types) was 1. more expensive than estimated and 2. led to too many unplanned downtimes. None of them made profit.
Kalkar was designed with some new techniques, but during construction more and more indications showed up that it would not become profitable.
The people protest certainly caused an earlier withdrawel - the nuclear industry leaders were thinking of another round of redesign/reconstruction.
Hi stomp...
(Apologies for any typos.)
YES! It IS really that bad.
The general consensus is like my post #4. We have hit the knee of the diode and the change is now entering true exponential phase.
This is not just for global warming and climate change but greenhouse gases increase and sea level rise to name but two more.
Ocean ecosystems are failing, (corals as an example), due to the absorption of this heat and carbonic acid created from excess CO2.
The danger is not just sea level rise due to melting ice caps but expansion in the volume of the oceans even with just 1 to 2 degrees C average increase over the globe.
Increased ocean temperature will significantly increase water vapour in the atmosphere adding to the greenhouse effect AND creating massive flooding worldwide; this will be on a scale like nothing we have ever seen before. This has already started!
Then there is lack of oxygen for the animal kingdom as huge swathes of forests are destroyed worldwide and more humans use the oxygen content in the atmosphere.
Man made discarded waste into the oceans and landfill will cause untold problems; landfill WILL eventually release large quantities of the greenhouse gas methane and related chemical cousins.
I could go on but I think I have said enough on the subject...
Barry.
Hi Barry!
You misunderstood me here. Of course we're dead meat, once we hit 3°C rise - or maybe earlier. But we're not at this point so far. At the moment the chance is there to turn the tide. Some effects can not be reversed but the chances already for a living are there. What I meant with "Is it that bad?" is: Is the game already over? And this is not the case for me.
@Neo:
About that video-thing: A professional Youtuber and his crew made a video on saturday of about 1 hour length. Called "The destruction of the cdu"(cdu = ruling party in germany). 7.000.000 views so far. It really pulls all younger people in and gives a lot of trouble to the party.
Yes, you are right.
I admire Stomp for his passion, but he seems to ignore the history of the planet, the realities of global politics and the true socio-economic conditions of the WORLD at large.
Stomp, world is a lot bigger than Germany and your German friends (and I am sure they are great people, no doubt); but living in "the German bubble" and viewing the fate
of the planet from "the German perspective" is not realistic, on a global scale.
(Actually, you could substitute the country "Germany" with just about any modern, smaller sized, well developed country like "Sweden" or "Norway", etc).
The world's surface area is 196.9 million square miles, Germany's surface area is 137,988 square miles (just using Germany as an example)
Divide 137,988 by 196,900,000 and we get? 0.000700802437786 if I did the math right.
Of course, this is not meant in any way to be a slight on Germany. I have very good, close and long time devoted German friends.
But then I read your posts, I read the posts of a great person who seems to miss the fact that 99.999 percent of the world is not Germany or part of German thinking.
The world is a huge place and vast parts of the planet are socially and economically under developed; and those countries are global polluters and they are not worried about the planet, they just want to feed their families and not starve to death!
This is what many people do not realize. The world is huge and many parts of the planet are socially and economically disadvantaged and therefore most of the world of "have nots" are exploited by the "haves".
It is not realistic, in my view, that the "haves" of the world are going to all of a sudden stop exploiting the "have nots", who are by far the greatest number of people on the planet.
The world is "what is it" based on human nature, not some "altruistic ideal" of human nature which does not exist in the vast majority of the "dog eat dog" parts of the world where people are very poor and economically (and socially) depressed.
It's simply evolution.
The human species on planet Earth, as a whole (not only the "haves") have not evolved to such a state where their individual needs outweigh the needs of the planet; and even the "haves" are so selfish that most of them just want to get richer at the expense of the "have nots".
This is the problem.. It's human nature (not science or "the cool, green trends of today" ) and that the Earth's population at-large is not going to evolve fast enough, in my view, to stop catastrophic climate change.
Beware!
Most "professional YouTubers" (or their professional media promotion and PR companies) buy YT views and it's not that expensive or unusual for organizations, governments, or even terrorists or activists to buy millions of YT views these days.
Social media metrics "likes, subscribers, comments" etc are easily sold and bought; and are sold and bought by the millions every minute of every day, for a few dollars.
It's big business. Some "sell likes networks" are global in scale and can "like" your video from all over the world in a matter of seconds.
Careful !
Hi Neo,
thanks again for your sincere/serious participation.
Well, the task we are confronted with is huge beyond imagination. It regularly knocks me off my feet. What I'm giving is so little, I can not ever hope to move a thing.
But for me this is not about being realistic, it's about having faith and vision. Scott Peck wrote: With a humanist and rational mindset you can make a living and form a great society when times are good. But when you are at the abyss you have to believe that there's some greater force that you participate in, to act even if there seems to be no hope.
It may be only a tv series what I quote now, but one episode touched me deeply: Deep Space Nine. There were some crazy hyperintelligent scientists. Crazy and therefore being locked up to not do any harm. In the episode they solved tremendous tasks but when confronted with the No. 1 enemy of the show the calculated that it is not possible to win. The foe is far too strong. Since Cpt. Cisco is the chosen one - he refused to accept that realistic view. He had faith and did anything he could do and as it is a tv show - it all went good with the support of the prophets.
Does anyone of you really know that it impossible to avoid climate change? Is anyone of you so intelligent that you KNOW that? Are all of you so afraid of failing, so you deny trying? The Incredably able and enourmously competent tech engineers?
That's what I like about Hans-Josef Fell, what inspires me. He has such an immensely strong vision.. He has faith and he's years ahead of me in thinking where the path leads to. What could be done. I saw that once, when I watched him, when I was younger and I see it now as I'm again watching his activities.
It's a mindset shift from the very sad things that are really happening towards what we can achieve.
Yes of course it is. I do know little about the world. That's true. Some of what you say is also true.
When I look at the numbers, of top emitters of carbon dioxide are these:
USA is a rich country. They can do it. Same goes for Europe. Both can do if the will is there.
China is a huge emitter too. But they are the number one in terms of driving climate protection and renewable energies. It's a political system and an evil "treatment" of people, of mass surveillance, of suppression and of killing people in large numbers they consider as undesired or a threat. That's one of the other real problems, that causes a lot of fear within me. But in terms of the climate goal, they're absolutely in.
India is very big country, with huge number of people and a - so far - relatively low footprint of emission. If the wealth of india with its enourmous population will rise, emissions will rise strongly with them. That's indeed a problem.
What regards the many other regions and countries: Yes, people are dying and starving there. They
already live with the effect of climate change. The escape their homes because they can not live there any more and try to get a living thousands of miles away.
The rich and privileged countries(=we) are called to help, to share technologies, to invest money.(In brazil they're absolutely crazy slashing and burning even more huge amounts of rainforest. They must have a living so they do it. The world could buy that to protect these invaluable resources) It's nothing that can be done at an individual level. It's a matter of the community of all countries of the earth that have to be formed and need to act as one. The rich and privileged countries must lead. We must lead, because we are the ones that have most responsibility in that mess.
The technology is there. If the will is there too, incredible things can be done, like the reversing of the desertification on a global scale to get carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. 100% Renewable Energies is more than just possible.
And about that Germany bubble thing: Fell has lots of hope too. And that's not because looking to germany. If you look only at germany, you may get deeply depressed and need a stronger faith than everywhere else, because of the lack of action in this country. His hope comes from other parts of the world, where the things are really brought forward. One way of thinking about the change is that it costs so much money. Another way Fell introduces is: If you enable the rules for the right things - structures can emerge that help everybody. I can bring some evidences or examples of this if you like.
The video
What's regarding the video: I'm trying to be as attentive as possible to detect such manipulations. In doing so, I'm watching myself and my emotions when I consume something. Where does it lead me? To truth? To aggression towards others(individuals,groups,...)? To energy? To apathy? The person who talks in the video is speaking the truth. He points with the finger into the wound of the climate change problem of inactivity of the goverment. And that's the important part of the thing. What regards manipulation: I hope they get me not too often 
Statement
The chinese blockbuster "A wandering earth" may or may not be some sort of propaganda too. But it show's what's needed: A civilization that's working together in the face of extinction. And then things of unimagined scale may happen.
HI Stomp,
In my view, you may be missing my main counter-argument and point.
You are seeming focused on the technical details of climate change, emissions, GDP, footprints as if the problem is mostly technical in nature, exists without being dependent on other social, political and economic realities on Earth.
Climate change and pollution / emissions is but a symptom (this is my view, not everyone's obviously) of a much larger problem on planet Earth.
So, in my "realist view" worrying and treating "climate change" is like treating a stage 3 or 4 cancer patient by focusing on problems with their skin and hair. Or, for example, treating the skin lesions of a person with full blown AIDs or Ebola. These are symptoms of an underlying disease, not the core underlying illness.
Climate change and pollution, while serious of course, is a symptom of the problems with planet Earth, not the cause of the problem. So, by focusing on the technical aspects of climate change and pollution, likewise, is to focus on treating the symptoms of a disease versus the underlying root cause. Of course, there is nothing wrong with treating symptoms of a disease. Treating symptoms provides us comfort. When we have a cold, we treat the symptoms (fever, headache, cough, etc) until the virus runs its course. There is yet no cure for the common cold. Treating full blown AIDS or cancer patient's symptoms, so they can be more comfortable is a noble thing to do; but it will not stop the cancer or full blown AIDS sufferer from dying from the disease.
The root cause of this "climate change" and "pollution" problem is rooted in how humans have evolved as a species. It's evolutional biology.
First of all, just to start somewhere, there is greed and social-economic problem which are deeply rooted in the world.
The rich and powerful are intoxicated by their wealth and power and influence and most spend their time in the sensual realm. They desire more fame, bigger mansions, more social network followers, and more beauty, etc. Just look around you. You can have a great idea and post some issue on social media about pollution, cybersecurity, climate change on LinkedIn, and few people pay attention However, a young woman posts photos of her sensual face and she can build an entire cult of followers and her "brand". This is self evident.
How crazy is it that human females (for example) must spend big money on makeup and cover every part of their face with chemicals to compete with other female and males in a society? Why do human females need to wear makeup and human males generally do not. Imagine if dogs or cats did that? You would think the dogs and cats were crazy, putting on lipstick, covering their faces with makeup, and then taking selfies and promoting themselves on social media!
Young men and women from economically underdeveloped very poor countries start cultivating their social network (FB, Instagram, etc) at a young age so they can exchange their sensual and sexual "attributes" with "richer" people from developed countries as soon as they are "legal age". This is the fabric of the under developed world. This is a result of the evolutionary path of homo sapiens and the social and economic inequalities that dominate most of the world's population. The vast majority of the people on our planet struggle just to eat from week-to-week!
What I am describing is a human condition which is the underlying social-economic fabric of most of the planet. The homo sapiens' fascination and addiction to wealth, beauty, fame and all sensual things is the underlying cause (actually it is ignorance which drives humans to such nonsense, but that's another story). Dogs and cats do not have this mental / social disease (to my knowledge). But of course, dogs and cats don't live in a world where advertisers and special interest groups are constantly pushing memetic information into their minds. Dogs and cats do not sit around and watch cable TV, YouTube or play on Facebook or Instagram most of their "awakened state".
Then on top of that, dogs and cats do not try to convince each other that their ideas, religious, social, or political views are superior to others. Dogs and cat do not exchange currency and worship money and coin. In fact, no animal on Earth does this but humans; that I am aware of, but I guess if I was an expert on the topic, I might find other species that have some form of currency, like bees and honey or dogs and bones, but I'm not an expert in that area and am getting out over the tips of my skies here.
Climate change, emissions, pollution and the like are only symptoms of the problems with glitches in the process of human evolution.
Yes, there are species of animals and insects who fight wars for control of territory; even dogs and cats fight for territory, but they do not destroy the planet in the process (this I think is a fact). Even tribal warfare between ants often is good for both species and the environment, according to some Discovery Channel videos I saw recently!
Stomp, I complete understand and admire your optimism and hope for the human race in terms of climate change. I also admire everyone who is working, passionate about it, and who is treating this symptom of the underlying disease of homo sapiens. Treating symptoms are normal and good, but it does not solve the underlying disease.
On the flip side, the world is focused on "populism" because people of one social-economic class feel very unhappy with people of another social-economic class. Brexit, Trumpism, etc etc. Racism, nationalism and hate are on the rise globally. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. There are various forms of warfare and terrorism going on 24 hours a day because of ideological difference between humans. People kill other and hate each other based on differences in ideas! Imagine that!
The problem, in my view, is that humans have not evolved quickly enough to have the mental and emotional maturity as a species to stop hating, to stop killing, and to stop being addicted to sensual pleasures (money, power, ideas, sex). As long as human kind is addicted to sensual and material pleasures (which includes ideas , memetics and mental formations, not just external material sensuality) they will be greedy, self-serving and self-destructive. As long as humans are greedy and self-serving they will put themselves above the need of the planet as a whole. As long as the rich and famous are mostly interested in getting more richer and more famous, and the poor are left to their own sad fate, the world will continue to plunge deeper into this human-created darkness the less fortunate live in every day.
This is one big reason many "smart people" believe that as a species humans are past the tipping point regarding climate change.
The underlying solution is not "counting emissions and CO2". That is just a symptom of the underlying problem - that human kind has harnessed machines and information in way which the evolution of the human mind, as a whole, is not ready for. They have harvested the power of machines and information primarily for sensual gain. It's like giving a 2 year old a loaded gun, if you get my meaning. The ways humans think, as a species (not as all individuals) is toward the self and not the planet.
What I am describing is result of the cause and effect (causality) of how humans have evolved from simple life forms to mammals (monkeys and apes) and then to homo sapiens. The human mind, and indeed the entire realm of human social consciousness is a result of evolutional biology and the probability is that homo sapiens will continue along this materialist, addicted to sensuality, self-centric path. I do not claim I am anything but human myself and know how addictive fame, fortune and sensual pleasures can be; and I have also been "stung" by this "bee". It's human nature!
In closing (sorry for such a rant), if aliens from an advanced civilization were looking at Planet Earth from afar and were inclined to wagering (gambling); placing a bet that homo sapiens will evolve fast enough to solve the underlying problems from the process of human evolutionary biology before homo sapiens destroy the Earth's natural resources, is a low probability bet. If course it is possible that humans will rise above this state of addiction to all thing sensual and material, and many humans (as individuals) have.
But sadly, the species of homo sapiens as a whole, and their self-focus on sensuality and materialism are really quite primitive, don't you think?
See also: Wikipedia - Human: Transition to modernity
First of all, I'd like to say, that I have no really plan for my points. I say what's important to me and maybe my image of thought may become clearer while discussing, even to me
I don't want to counter argument here. I share my thoughts and I'm listening and reading the others thoughts. And if one has no hope, that's absolutely ok for me. There's no one view. There's a view of of each one participating. And each view is right and each view is evolving further in every moment.
Why focus on technical issues?
The technical issue is the first barrier of individual and group resistance. Some years ago, when the renewable resources act was underway, lots of people said: This is not possible to reach solar/wind/... energy share of the hole more than x %. Now lots of years later a multiple of that goal had been reached and when talking about the transition to 100% renewable energy the same issue is being brought up again. The fact that people believe in the technical change are encouraging other people, these start doing it.
Get to the core before fixing on the surface?
The damage, the atrocities and suffering done by humans to other humans, animal and the planet as a whole is beyond compare. A lot of humans are that way. The society is that way too. Everyone who is willing to see will be or had been shocked by those numerous facts already. And yes, healing is desperately needed. As you told people want to present a version of their selves that is appreciated by their environment. May it be through money, economical success, beauty, possesions, abilities and all other things one may imagine. And lots of people running away of the inner pain by the same or other addictions. I assume the reasons are many and the connections are complex. I do not think it's because man is evil. I think more like man is often in frustrated and desperate lack of basic needs, like love, appreciation, safety and so on and that the world, we live in does not meet that needs. Many may not even really know what it is they need or trying to achieve things, they were educated to do but which rather are doing harm to them. But as I said. It's probably not that easy. And I myself tasted some of this healing, my soul has desperately cried for, that's why I believe even that healing can be done.
Yes, healing has to take place, but now is not the time. Now we have ~10 years left and if we had not act enough when that time is over, we maybe well on the way to be healed, but in some decades later we are dead.
So how to do it?
So, if in my opinion healing right now is not recommended, one may ask, how to get self-centered people to work together? The answer may the realization of the global catastophe. The realization of death, if we do not do, what has to be done. Of course this is not easy, because lots of people just running away from it. It's too scary. As long as the day to day life is ok, so one can run away, people are tending to do so. But the time to realize what's happening will come for everyone. The question is: Will it be too late, when that happens for enought people necessary?
When thinking about it, I am reminded at the 5 stages of grief from Elisabeth Kübler-Ross(book: "on death an dying"), that are appearing when a person is faced with the truth of it's own nearing death:
If you'd really accepted the truth, that you are going to die and maybe all other people with you, then you may - and even only temporary for the phase of crisis - step out of your live you had lived so far. The ultimate insight comes that if they do not change radically and at instant all will be lost. It's maybe like a woman who is pregnant realizing that if she keeps on smoking, her child will for very high probability be suffering from some kind of disease in its life. So many stop smoking then even if they had tried it many times before and always failed.
Thinking that way, the task is to support and speed up the walk on the path to this insight.
More and more people are actually really realizing what's at stake.
Update - About Manipulation
I just watched a video, where Hans Joachim Schellnhuber was talking(5/2019). He's the founder and director of the german institute of studies climate effects in potsdam. One of the veteran climate warriors and scientists if not the one scientist who is in the climate discourse for ages now. In his experience there was a point when (fossil fuel industries) had decided to agitate against climate change in order to avoid financial consequences to their businesses. They had a plan of different stages, layed out like this
Part of that strategy was it to discredit scientists. He also mentioned the "Serengeti -Tactics" was a method used. Separate scientists who are a bit apart from the core of the scientific society, people that where maybe a bit unusual of some kind. Attack especially their works to sow distrust to the topic in whole.
It's unlikely, in my view, that optimism and hope will overcome greed and selfishness to avert sustained damage to planet Earth.
Most of the world is still mired in corruption and poverty.
The majority of the people on the planet dislike or even hate others who do not agree with their world views.
Populism and nationalism and various forms of racism and extremism are predictably on the rise globally.
These are all symptoms of a world which is in social and economic decline (economic decline for the majority on the planet, not the few wealthy at the "top").
In a world which is in social and economic decline, the wealth is consolidated into the hands of fewer and fewer people, and the poor are exploited by the rich, and the rich are mostly interested in getting richer. The poor become poorer and the social-economic class struggles continue.
Under these realistic circumstances, it seems like a fantasy to me to believe that the terrible effects of pollution, and the rise of misinformation, populism, racism and nationalism are going to change humankind so they will "rise up and save the world" from the disastrous effects of climate change and the politics of racism, hatred and division.
I hope I am wrong; but if I had to bet large money on the outcome and could live long enough to see the results of the wager, the odds seems overwhelming in favor of a dystopian future for Planet Earth.
Honestly, this is "real life" and not a movie where at the end some hero or small group of superheroes are going to fly in and save the planet against all odds. This is not "Avengers End Game" or a Star Wars movie. This is real life with real pollution, industrial waste, greed, selfishness, corruption, materialism, consumerism, nationalism, racism, misinformation, disinformation and all the other things which are like a cancer eating away at our world.
Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum - Wikipedia
The PETM was a period when world average temps were 8 degrees C warmer than today. It lasted for ~200000 years and saw ferns growing in what are now polar regions. The PETM is used a base model to project what the current changes to CO2 levels will impact. However the modern delta CO2 level is huge compared to the PETM. On the order of several magnitudes of Carbon more today than back then.
See:
Temperature and atmospheric CO2 concentration estimates through the PETM using triple oxygen isotope analysis of mammalian bioapatite | PNAS