Rogowiec, Poland
Smoke and steam billow from Bełchatów power station, Europe’s largest coal-fired power plant powered by lignite, operated by the Polish company PGE
Carbon Credits are a scam. Not just because a lot of the projects are literal scams but because the fundamental idea is fucked. The market will not solve this. Quite the opposite.
(Title: Study: Carbon offsets aren’t doing their job, overstate impact) https://arstechnica.com/?p=1963543
How can you offset destruction by dislocating climate-damaging #CO2 to another place /time? You monetarize #emissions in form of a license to kill the environment while somewhere a few trees might be planted or a forest is not being cut down - in theory.
Net zero arithmetics shift a lot of waste industrial #capitalism produces to the Global South or in dubious CCS-projects - #Green#colonialism for a #white conscience.
Absolute emission reduction is the only way - #degrowth.
The best way to stop carbon from accumulating in the atmosphere is to: 1) stop drilling for oil, 2) stop fracking for gas, 3) stop digging for coal, and 4) stop burning fossil fuels.
@breadandcircuses the fossil fuel companies all decided that was the way to fix things years ago. And they decided to make money until the extinction event puts them out of business instead
Amazingly, there are people — many, I'm afraid, in positions of power and influence — who continue to assert that technology will surely save us and that capitalism can find the answers.
Uh-huh. And how's that going so far?
Although most climate scientists, when asked privately or off the record, admit they now expect a global temperature rise of 3°C to 4°C or even higher before the end of this century (see https://climatejustice.social/@breadandcircuses/109642315870697356) a few happy optimists are always ready to assure us that while a “temporary overshoot” beyond 1.5°C might occur, it won’t last because, um, because magic will happen!
That's not quite what they say, but it's almost as bad since they’re asking us to depend on carbon dioxide removal (CDR), a hopeful fantasy that we can someday cheaply and effectively remove gigantic amounts of carbon from the air and put it back in the ground.
Instead of, you know, just doing what we should have done in the first place — leave it in the ground!
Here is the truth: To avoid catastrophe, to prevent the collapse of civilization, to avert the possible extinction of the human race — we MUST stop emitting carbon into the atmosphere. This requires urgent, immediate emissions cuts, phasing down to full ZERO (not phony greenwashed "Net Zero") within a matter of years.
The science is unequivocal. The messages we are receiving from Gaia could not be more clear. If we don't change our ways, and quickly, it's game over for civilization.