the climate story right now is in a very weird state of flux
a) the warming we've priced in is bad and really starting to show itself
b) the renewable story is astoundingly good and getting better
we are left with "warming is going to get worse but almost certainly not as much as it could have"
it's always important to demand better, but part of the reason that the story of climate policy isn't sticking is partly because bad news feels more plausible and partly because the people most invested in this policy understand its limits. www.notus.org/biden-2024/v... hard to sell "mixed-positive"
I think a lot of folks steeped in climate doomerism have internalized "we break 1.5/2C and we're Totally Doomed" but every tenth of a degree we can prevent, warming-wise, is very important!
1.6C > 1.7C > 1.8C, etc
it is important to take the good news as evidence that we can limit the damage
absolutely
it's a weird balance to strike, because we absolutely have not done enough and there's endless work to do here - both in mitigation and repair
the message that I hope we can take is "it's worth doing that work, because the work we've already done is making a difference"
I also think that there’s people who are saying “we’re not done, there’s a lot to do, I don’t want to imply this is enough” because news nuance is hard.
not only does it limit maximum damage, but time and severity (the integral on the suffering graph)
like, let's be real, the best cases were never on the table no matter what anybody yelled about, but it's sure as shit shaping up to be pretty far away from The Worst Case
the fact that the best cases weren't on the table is what pisses so many people off. the reason that they weren't on the table is because of a lack of obstruction by the GOP and resistance from the fossil fuel industry. Neither of which act in good faith.
