Climate discussion at a psychological level (Introduction)

by David Turell , Saturday, February 08, 2025, 16:29 (26 days ago) @ David Turell

Sabine Hossenfelder on why cooperation is ending:

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzQZTClvbmsnnRhLJGMGCpgpBPlZ

"It’s 2025 and the tide is turning on climate change. To me it looks like this will be the year when we’ll stop trying to prevent it from happening and instead focus on adapting to it.

***

"The likely reason fossil fuel companies are abandoning climate goals is that they expect demand to increase. Many multinational companies including Gucci, Nestlé, and Easyjet, have downgraded their ambitions to reduce carbon emissions. It’s not hard to guess why: Carbon neutrality isn’t helping their business.

***

"The trend away from carbon neutrality is obvious, but it’s not just driven by financial incentives. Increasingly, it is driven by the race for artificial superintelligence. We’ve heard a lot about how energetically expensive AI training is, so much so that some guys in Silicon Valley have predicted they’ll build a 100 GigaWatt gas plant to power their superhuman intelligence.

***

"You might think that Trump's new buddy Elon Musk could help him see the light. Alas, Musk has declared that “Climate change risk is real, just much slower than alarmists claim.” And that is true in the sense that if you’re a billionaire it will take much longer until you feel the consequences. (my bold)

"Musk has also voiced his support for the German Alternative fur Deutschland, AfD, a party which currently ranks second in polls for the federal election that’s coming up at the end of February. The AfD wants to get out of all climate agreements, and dig, baby, dig for coal.

"In its official 2025 party program the AfD writes that “Climate change has always happened […] The question of how large the human contribution is has not been scientifically settled.” Yes, it’s 2025 and we still have climate change deniers in the government.

"But it won’t make a big difference either way. As we discussed in an earlier episode, most countries' net zero “plans” are empty words anyway. They’re economically unachievable. It’s only a matter of time until they’ll be abandoned and no amount of suing by climate activists is going to do anything about this. Because there is no institution on this planet that could enforce a law against billions of people unable or just unwilling to change their lifestyle. Unless the superintelligent AIs take over. Maybe that wouldn’t be so bad."

Comment: note the bold. I agree with Musk. What I didn't quote is the large lists of companies abandoning their carbon programs. Ignore the folks still panicky.