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The role of Amazon fires in the record atmospheric CO₂ growth in 2024

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164 points bikenaga | 3 comments | 27 Sep 25 15:02 UTC | HN request time: 0.62s | source
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TSiege ◴[27 Sep 25 21:58 UTC] No.45399683[source]▶
Something to keep in mind in the comments when talking about climate change and CO2 levels is that it’s not the level so much as the rate. We’re on the path to doubling (or have doubled if you look at CO2 equivalents) global CO2 levels faster than likely any other time in earths entire history. We have the CO2 levels equivalent to a time period when the earths poles didn’t have ice caps and instead forests in the span of about 200 years.

Every organism and ecosystem you’ve ever encountered in your life is adapted to an Ice Age climate, but we’ve recreated the conditions of a Hot House earth. Species and ecosystems adapt on much slower time scales. They cannot adapt to changes this abrupt, which means they will necessarily collapse if we do nothing and allow emit CO2. Every other time in earths history that the CO2 levels have rapidly risen it’s lead to a mass extinction. Yes it’s been hotter before but that change happened gradually. It’s like the joke about poison vs medicine, it’s the dose that kills you.

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jvanderbot ◴[27 Sep 25 22:32 UTC] No.45399913[source]▶
I have total fatigue about it. It is true, and also it is terrifying, and also it is completely debilitating to imagine doing anything effective about this.
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softwaredoug ◴[27 Sep 25 22:38 UTC] No.45399951[source]▶
The silver lining politically: its not like the impact goes away. So progress won't just grind to a halt from one bad administration or one country's government. And there is a lot of progress happening.
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1. grafmax ◴[28 Sep 25 10:53 UTC] No.45403380[source]▶
The US has turned to authoritarianism. It seems naive to think this is going to go away in an election.

Our government is owned by the ultra wealthy who pursue their own narrow interests at the expense of the common good. Some of these people are just cynical; others identify their narrow interests with the common good. In either case they’ll continue to steer our world toward self destruction.

The best thing to do isn’t to hide one’s head in the sand or place our faith in failed institutions. These are two kinds of denial. We should be building a base of popular power in labor unions. The ideology is solidarity and striking holds actual power over the ownership class. It’s really the only thing that has a chance of leading society out of the collapse we are witnessing around us.

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2. softwaredoug ◴[28 Sep 25 13:03 UTC] No.45404038[source]▶
No. Of course we shouldn't "place faith in our institutions" but there is a degree of "If Gorman is going to burn, let it burn all the more brightly". You can galvanize a lot of individual / collective action without the government when people see consequences enabled by authoritarian structures.

You might argue the ONLY progress -- in the US -- is not at all from the gov't but from private players genuinely caring about the issue. A lot of people wake up in the morning and decide they'd rather work on an important issue, like climate, than squeezing a tiny bit more profit for some soulless corporation.

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3. grafmax ◴[04 Oct 25 03:15 UTC] No.45470229[source]▶
I see the point you’re making now. Interesting perspective! That is a pretty cool angle I didn’t think of before. I’ll have to mull it over. Thanks!