this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2023
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Discussion of climate, how it is changing, activism around that, the politics, and the energy systems change we need in order to stabilize things.

As a starting point, the burning of fossil fuels, and to a lesser extent deforestation and release of methane are responsible for the warming in recent decades: Graph of temperature as observed with significant warming, and simulated without added greenhouse gases and other anthropogentic changes, which shows no significant warming

How much each change to the atmosphere has warmed the world: IPCC AR6 Figure 2 - Thee bar charts: first chart: how much each gas has warmed the world. About 1C of total warming. Second chart: about 1.5C of total warming from well-mixed greenhouse gases, offset by 0.4C of cooling from aerosols and negligible influence from changes to solar output, volcanoes, and internal variability. Third chart: about 1.25C of warming from CO2, 0.5C from methane, and a bunch more in small quantities from other gases. About 0.5C of cooling with large error bars from SO2.

Recommended actions to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the near future:

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A Texas Dairy Ranks Among the State’s Biggest Methane Emitters. But Don’t Ask the EPA or the State About It (insideclimatenews.org)
submitted 1 year ago by silence7@slrpnk.net to c/climate@slrpnk.net
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[–] leafn4give@mastodonapp.uk 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

@silence7 @empiricism Research has also shown that cutting meat & dairy consumption worldwide would liberate an area of land equivalent to the whole of Africa. That land could be returned to nature and could absorb 16 years worth of global grewnhouse gas emissions.

[–] Track_Shovel@slrpnk.net 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

could be returned

Yeah. Could be. It is not easy by any means. A lot of this land like large feedlots would need significant rehabilitation efforts. Further, pedological carbon sequestration is slow, and entirely microbially driven

Even converting a hay crop to native prairie is a gargantuan effort.

We really, really, need to manage our lands better and plan for scenarios where they can be used in ways other than their initial land use

[–] empiricism@sustainability.masto.host 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

@leafn4give @silence7

The potential is certainly there. As well as liberating land for wildlife, there can be zones used for growing food using agroecological farming methods, which can also provide habitat for a variety of wildlife & locations for housing.

FYI, when you write "research has shown" please provide a weblink too that research, so that people that haven't read the relevant research & or science-based report can read it.

Fundamentally, mono-industrial farming is unsustainable.