I've decided that we should have a climate change news thread here at Buzzjack. Compared to pre-industrial times, the world's average temperature has increased by 1.5C. The average temperature compared to pre-industrial levels rises by about 0.35C every decade. We are already seeing the effects of climate change. For example:

• More prolonged and hotter heatwaves

• Famines

• Droughts

• More severe storms

• Hotter and rising oceans

• Ocean acidification, which causes stuff such as coral bleaching

• Poverty and displacement (includes climate refugees who move to cooler places to escape the extreme heat)

• Loss of both plant and animal species

What are the causes of climate change? The causes of climate change are:

• Burning fossil fuels for electricity and heat

• Manufacturing goods, such as cement, iron, steel, electronics, plastics, clothes, and other goods

• Deforestation

• Using transportation

• Food production (mainly meat and dairy, with beef being the biggest driver)

• Overconsumption

• AI data centres, which use so much fresh drinking water to cool their systems down, and release greenhouse gases

If we don't sort this out now, we could be on our way to an unlivable world. Not just for us, but for many animal and plant species, too. Governments have promised time and time again that they will do things to sort out climate change, but this has been all empty words. We need to hold them accountable, along with other people that are the primary causes of climate change, such as the top people in big oil companies, mega-millionaires, and billionaires.

Edited Wednesday at 14:255 days by DanielCarey

Its awful I am such a fan of wildlife and it must have become almost inhospitable for many species in Southern England, France and Spain this summer.

Then there is the impact on humans too.

Edited Wednesday at 15:085 days by TheSnake

11 minutes ago, TheSnake said:

Its awful I am such a fan of wildlife and it must have become almost inhospitable for many species in Southern England, France and Spain this summer.

Then there is the impact on humans too.

The government and the mega rich just do not care. It feels like they want us to die or something. I should mention that after I posted this thread, I saw articles where the United Nations now believe that the 1.5C of global warming that everyone who signed the Paris Agreement to tackle has now been breached.

Another thing that I should mention is that if much more of the Arctic ice melts, it will cause something called a Blue Ocean Event (BOE). This is what the Blue Ocean Event would cause if it happened:

4 hours ago, DanielCarey said:

What are the causes of climate change? The causes of climate change are:

• Using transportation

This is the factor that worries me the most as a huge key in limiting climate change. There needs to be a mass lifestyle shift away from frequent car use and especially flying. That requirement affects almost everybody and I'm just not optimistic in society's abilty to accept that.

The left-populist narrative puts a responsibility on governments, businesses and the ultra-rich who all absolutely have an outsized influence over your average Joe but everybody does have an impact.

15 minutes ago, Harve said:

This is the factor that worries me the most as a huge key in limiting climate change. There needs to be a mass lifestyle shift away from frequent car use and especially flying. That requirement affects almost everybody and I'm just not optimistic in society's abilty to accept that.

The left-populist narrative puts a responsibility on governments, businesses and the ultra-rich who all absolutely have an outsized influence over your average Joe but everybody does have an impact.

I think another thing that should be talked about is overpopulation. Earth currently has over 8.31 billion people on it. I fully believe that we have a higher population of people that can be sustained. We saw in the news not that long ago that there have been more resources used up this year compared to the amount of resources that can be regenerated. The human population is definitely one of the main factors of this.

I wouldn't be surprised in the near future there will be protests, riots and uprisings due to climate change. Even though everyone has an impact on climate change, the mega rich and politicians are the ones that are primarily causing it.

I think we are perfectly capable of sustaining ourselves globally with 8+ million people. That is, if people are willing to share and redistribute the wealth just a little. Good luck to us all, that’s never happening lol

We need another huge volcanic eruption. Was reading that when Mt. Pinatubo erupted in the Philippines in June '91 there was so much ash in the atmosphere that world temperatures fell an average of 1.5 degrees.

22 minutes ago, DanielCarey said:

I think another thing that should be talked about is overpopulation. Earth currently has over 8.31 billion people on it. I fully believe that we have a higher population of people that can be sustained. We saw in the news not that long ago that there have been more resources used up this year compared to the amount of resources that can be regenerated. The human population is definitely one of the main factors of this.

The optimal human population is probably close to 0, climatically speaking, but I don't think we should be advocating for our own extinction. Eugenics is not a route we're going down so there is no solution to overpopulation, insofaras it exists, so I don't see the use in really considering it. Lifestyle / mode of transport changes are much more realistic even if they're a huge uphill battle.

In any case large parts of the world are already in or are entering into demographic crises.

4 minutes ago, CRAZY CHRIS said:

We need another huge volcanic eruption. Was reading that when Mt. Pinatubo erupted in the Philippines in June '91 there was so much ash in the atmosphere that world temperatures fell an average of 1.5 degrees.

...for like 2 years. Volcanic eruptions do nothing to interrupt the warming pattern, it just surpresses the trend for a little while.

One of the saddest things my parents ever said to me was that they were somehow relieved that they would be dead before the real effects of climate change became apparent. Going further back, they were conflicted between wanting grandchildren and fearing for their grandchildren's future if they happened.

Ultimately, my parents had four grandchildren and I really fear for their future, I'm assuming I will miss the worst effects of climate change although I'm less sure now than I used to be.

Most of the people who deny the very existence of climate change are also those most hostile to refugees. However, climate change will lead to more refugees as some countries either become uninhabitable or cease to exist because of rising sea levels. Are these loons really going to tell people whose country no longer exists that they can't come here?

10 minutes ago, Suedehead2 said:

One of the saddest things my parents ever said to me was that they were somehow relieved that they would be dead before the real effects of climate change became apparent. Going further back, they were conflicted between wanting grandchildren and fearing for their grandchildren's future if they happened.

Ultimately, my parents had four grandchildren and I really fear for their future, I'm assuming I will miss the worst effects of climate change although I'm less sure now than I used to be.

Most of the people who deny the very existence of climate change are also those most hostile to refugees. However, climate change will lead to more refugees as some countries either become uninhabitable or cease to exist because of rising sea levels. Are these loons really going to tell people whose country no longer exists that they can't come here?

Even if climate change didn't exist, I personally wouldn't have children of my own. The climate crisis has really solidified that for me. People who truly their own children (and other children) should care about this, too. I don't understand people who say things like "I can't afford to think like that because I have kids".

I was having a talk about climate change with my dad today. I've recently started to become more plant-based, and I'm planning on making it completely plant-based soon. I told him that's the reason why. Instead of being supportive, he raised his voice at me and said "not everything is caused by climate change".

Edited Wednesday at 21:255 days by DanielCarey

Another thing I should let you guys know about climate changes. Climate change is already weakening something known as the Atlantic meridian overturning circulation (AMOC) system. The AMOC is what causes the jet stream (and other ocean currents) to bring weather across the globe. If the AMOC were to close, this is what it would cause for us:

1. Scorching summers for half of the year

2. Freezing winters for the other half of the year

Without AMOC, we will be saying goodbye to both spring and autumn. It’ll just be boiling summers and freezing winters.

It will never ever be a priority for governments unfortunately. They only care about doing enough to win another term.

Remember when ‘climate change’ used to be ‘global warming’? Even the name was made to sound more neutral and inevitable on purpose.

Some news in climate change:

The emissions from just two of the proposed/planned data centres in England will exceed all of the emissions of ExxonMobil (big oil company). The government wants to build them, anyway.

I think sadly the message will never quite get through to people because it involves too much changing their habits and daily lives and people just don't like doing that when things are still seemingly 'normal' and people have lives to lead, and any sort of protests or suggestions are often portrayed negatively in the media, as well as most having the mindset that governments, world leaders and corporations have the most influence so they shouldn't bother, and they certainly won't as it's not compatible with money and power. Capitalism was always leading to this.

I think it will take a major humanitarian crisis in a developed part of the world or certain countries starting to become uninhabitable for people to finally sit up and listen, and it may well be too late then.

I am encouraged that right-wing shite of 'net stupid zero' is becoming more and more laughably out of touch, and that governments are pivoting towards solutions needed, be that renewable energy, public transport, EV adoption, recycling, whatever - and for all people moan about 'doesn't matter what we do, the big polluters are China and India', at least the former of those has made huge strides in the past decade. Of course it would have all been better had this been done earlier but the move towards a more sustainable future is becoming more and more popular and/or necessary, so I have hope that we'll see positive moves in what needs to be done.

Possibly the big ones now are sustainable farming, adoption of alternatives to meat, and removal of fossil fuels from all forms of energy (read into that data centre story and it is because they don't have the electric grid so are planning to use gas-fired stations to start), but all that's the really tough part. Getting ourselves away from the use of plastics will be a big long-term one also.

Long said the news coverage of climactic disasters should be borderline apocalyptic and alarmist and thankfully the coverage of both the Nepal floods and the 2026-27 super El Niño are getting a bit more towards that, but all this, and heatwaves and bad crop harvests is very much baked in, very little that can be done except weather them. We won't see super dramatic changes (like the AMOC collapsing) either within our lifetimes, it'll be just more boiling frog stuff - that is to say it'll still collapse in a century or so but not to the point where anyone notices the point it stops working. It's a very dangerous future and there'll be bad times ahead, up to and including potential collapse of society in some of the poorer and hotter states of the world.

It's also why caring about immigration is such a nonsense, to fix the eventual waves of people fleeing climate struck countries you need to not help perpetuate a climate crisis and instead help other states weather such a thing, but of course anyone who cares deeply about immigration is deep in the culture wars and would never countenance helping the other even if it would directly help them in the future.

On 02/09/2026 at 19:35, Harve said:

This is the factor that worries me the most as a huge key in limiting climate change. There needs to be a mass lifestyle shift away from frequent car use and especially flying. That requirement affects almost everybody and I'm just not optimistic in society's abilty to accept that.

The left-populist narrative puts a responsibility on governments, businesses and the ultra-rich who all absolutely have an outsized influence over your average Joe but everybody does have an impact.

100% the convience culture of car use to buy a pint of milk at the end of the street needs to end.

22 hours ago, DanielCarey said:

Another thing I should let you guys know about climate changes. Climate change is already weakening something known as the Atlantic meridian overturning circulation (AMOC) system. The AMOC is what causes the jet stream (and other ocean currents) to bring weather across the globe. If the AMOC were to close, this is what it would cause for us:

1. Scorching summers for half of the year

2. Freezing winters for the other half of the year

Without AMOC, we will be saying goodbye to both spring and autumn. It’ll just be boiling summers and freezing winters.

Have you not watched ‘The Day After Tomorrow?

3 hours ago, Steve201 said:

Have you not watched ‘The Day After Tomorrow?

I have. That’s to do with the AMOC collapse, albeit unrealistic compared to if the AMOC actually collapsed in real life.