"Much of the reluctance to do what #ClimateChange requires comes from the assumption that it means trading abundance for #austerity, and trading all our stuff and conveniences for less stuff, less convenience. But what if it meant giving up things we’re well rid of, from deadly #emissions to nagging feelings of doom and complicity in destruction?
What if the austerity is how we live now — and the #abundance could be what is to come?"
More #framing
Our currently comfortable lives are an illusion. It's time to wake up.
"As our region grieves, responds and starts to reconstruct after #Gabrielle, many are feeling a deeper unsettlement, a #Matrix-like wake-up call where you realise the world we lived in was based on assumptions that no longer stand."
With a clean #energy economy, #Canada could see 700,000 more #jobs than in today's #FossilFuel based economy. This country needs to get itself out of its current #austerity.
Yes, oil jobs will be lost: those are dirty, dangerous jobs. Let them be replaced with cleaner safer jobs.
Of course, "The #FossiFuel industry is really winding up the scare campaign in the face of increasingly urgent calls to accelerate the switch from #coal, #gas and #oil to a #CleanEnergy future."
They're telling lies, trying to cover up the fact that we're living the dystopia today, burning stuff that causes asthma, cancer, wildfires and floods.
Is there "hope"?
Yes, there is. It can be found in your #climate action.
"Youra has advice for those who are suffering from the same sort of #fatalism that he once felt. “Stop engaging excessively with negative #ClimateChange content online and start engaging in your #community,” he said. “You can be one of those voices showing there is support for the #solutions.” "
"The majority of people will be better off in virtually all aspects of their lives. Not only the elimination of #FuelPoverty – at last – but improved and warmer homes, #ReducedBills and much better indoor and outdoor air quality.
In short, for the vast majority, this is a significant improvement in quality of life - and, as a side benefit, no more carbon #emissions and much less overall pollution. "
"How can the #silentmajority who will do really well out of these changes, have their voices heard without being twisted by those running the show?
To me at least, the rise of civil society engagement on #climate issues along with real-world technologies demonstrating what is already possible, suggest that we may be in the foothills of a social and technical #TippingPoint."
"Currently 7 million people die prematurely EACH YEAR from #AirPollution, more than the death toll during the entire #pandemic.
Lung #cancer and #respiratory-related deaths linked to air pollution are up 160% over the past 30 years and it causes genetic mutations in some lung cancer-linked genes."
We will stop paying this price as soon as we give #FossilFuels the boot: let's do it!
"About 1 in 4 people in the #UnitedStates – more than 119 million residents – live with #AirPollution that can hurt their health and shorten their lives, according to a new report from the #AmericanLungAssociation. People of color are disproportionately affected, as are residents of Western cities. "
"The big secret here is not how bad things are but how good they can get – if we move fast enough.
Conversations with a dozen experts give a glimpse of what a time traveler from today might see as they experience life a generation from now in a United States that put its mind to solving #ClimateChange – no miracles or as-yet-uninvented technology needed. "
With my e-bike, I am almost here:
"Rent a car by the hour from nearby lots whenever they need them. "
"Strong Clean Vehicle Standards Can Deliver $44 Billion in Health, Economic and #Climate Benefits to New Mexicans.
Meaning, it COSTS every person in the state $ 22,000 to stick with the dirty cars: That's [#FossilFuel austerity].
California, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington already have enacted the full #AdvancedCleanCarII standards. #NewMexico and five other states are working on the standards but have not yet finalized them."
"The [#FossilFuel] Industry puts massive resources into convincing people that curbing the [#climate] crisis will cause too much hardship.
It doesn’t have to be that way. #Renewable#nergy, #EnergyEfficiency and conservation offer numerous advantages over fossil fuels beyond climate benefits."
We live in a fossil fueled austerity today, dealing with#LossAndDamage and #ClimateInflation, But already, at the beginning of the #CleanEnergy transition:
"New data that shows wind and solar cut $US520 billion ($A810 billion) from the electricity sector fuel bill in 2022 alone."
Clean energy kept the lights and the AC on in the searing Texas heatwave.
Clean energy took the most painful sting out of high fossil gas cost in Europe.
"The new analysis found only 2% of the population of Europe live in areas within the [#WHO guidelines for #ParticulateMatter pollution]. Experts say PM2.5 pollution causes about 400,000 deaths a year across the continent.
Traffic, industry, domestic heating and agriculture are the main sources of PM2.5 and the impact is often felt disproportionately by the poorest communities."
"Embracing imagination in activism is often framed as wishful thinking. But #RadicalImagination is a fundamental part of working toward a vision of the future for all social movements, from racial justice to decolonial movements. Imagination, world-building, dreams and utopias are used by various talented social activists who encourage us to envision a different world. #Climate activists shouldn’t shy away from this."
Was losing 6.3% of a large nation's GDP to heat on anyone's bingo card?
"In #India, 191 billion potential #LabourHours were lost due to heat exposure in 2022, an increase of 54 per cent from 1991-2000. This translated to a $219 billion potential associated income loss in 2022, equivalent to 6.3 per cent of the country’s GDP. "
"The report warns that outdoor workers are the “most exposed to #climate hazards”. It estimates that in 2022, around 1.6bn paid workers – mainly “young or middle-aged” men – worked outside. However, the report notes that unpaid labour, which is often disproportionately carried out by women, is not included in these figures."
"#Coal-fired power plants killed at least 460,000 Americans during the past two decades, causing twice as many premature deaths as previously thought, new research has found."
The #CleanEnergy transition helps us get away from this killer.
"Reducing #AirPollution to #WHO guideline levels would prevent a significant number of attributable deaths in the #EU-27; 253,000 from exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5); and 52,000 from exposure to #nitrogen dioxide (NO2).
For specific diseases, the greatest harm to human health (burden of disease) is from ischemic #HeartDisease for PM2.5 and #diabetes mellitus for NO2."
"The absence of fuel in South African power stations, hospitals in Gaza or for heating Canadian homes in winter also makes people in these places insecure.
It’s time to break up with fuel — and global energy supply chains more fundamentally — and aim to live more safely with renewable electricity produced closer to home."
Regenerative farming: "instead of #austerity, sustainability practices seed resilient and flourishing farms."
"They are young people who have returned to the land, farming in more sustainable ways in an attempt to be pioneers of a new balance.
Intriguingly, this mindset, when consented to, doesn't bring poverty or endless sacrifice without reward, but rather renewal, wealth, and the sustaining bonds of closer interconnection."
"From Barbados to Namibia to the United States, a large portion of the Climate Generation is focused on food – growing it, sharing it, and questioning the status quo approach to it."
The current conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza have shown us, among other horrors, how vulnerable centralized power generation leaves a population. Distributed, clean energy generation not only benefits the environment, but it also makes communities much more resilient to natural & man-made disasters.
"How you reduce #emissions is innately—and rightly—a #political issue, not just a scientific one. I don't think this part of the report should even be part of the #IPCC process."
Going beyond the totals is very instructive:
"It is clear that nations such as the U.S. and Russia, as well as the collective European Union, have blown past their fair share of the #CarbonBudget.
In addition to reducing #emissions as quickly as possible, the U.S. and other #developed countries could share their clean #energy technology knowledge with #developing countries and provide them with funding to create #CleanEnergy systems."
"A green transition has upfront costs. But the estimated average payback time of a transition to #renewables by 2050 from energy savings alone is only about 5.5 years, and less than a year if co-benefits like air quality are taken into account.
The mistake lies in thinking that #climate action is a sacrifice.
On the contrary, switching to #RenewableEnergy can generate economic savings and improve health today.
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