Global warming appears to have shifted into a faster gear. After removing the effects of El Niño, volcanic eruptions, and solar cycles, researchers found that the planet has warmed at roughly 0.35°C per decade over the past ten years, compared with just under 0.2°C per decade from 1970 to 2015. The acceleration, which becomes visible around 2013 to 2015, appeared across five major global temperature datasets with more than 98% statistical certainty.
I have difficulty accepting that corporations did this and therefore we should all keep going with the status quo. Although an individual’s choices don’t amount to enough in and of themselves, the choices of masses of individuals drive the consumer market. The more disposable shit we buy, the more disposable shit corporations make.
We as a society have normalized be everyone individually owning 17 appliances that are used 0-2 times per year, having 53 outfits made by overseas slave labour, and accumulating gigabyte after gigabyte of data that must be managed. And if you tell someone this, they will say it’s all necessary - what the pandemic taught me is the degree to which people cannot identify the difference between essential services and non-essential, as everything becomes justifiable based on niche situations and the blanket defense of mental health.
If we all forever point the finger and say that someone else is actually responsible, and therefore we refuse to make changes, then nobody is ever going to get started. Much like on a national scale how the US simultaneously blames climate change on China and India (“we shouldn’t bother doing anything, they’re bigger!”) and Canadian forest fires (although by the previous logic, a country with 1/8 the population should be incapable of changing their climate).
…this message brought to you by Exxon-Mobil corporation.