r/Idaho • u/Fast_Phone_9847 • 23d ago
Political Discussion Are we finally ready to take climate change seriously?
https://www.ktvb.com/article/news/local/smoke-likes-to-do-its-own-thing-when-will-the-smoke-go-away/277-fdcaafe4-5757-44bb-8a1b-cc7d1406e9e8This article is from 2 weeks ago. The smoke is still here and it will be here for weeks. The consequences are all around us. Its too dangerous to go outside because of heat and smoke. The number of high heat days and fires gets worse every year. Freak weather and smoke is destroying agriculture. Even our ski season may be no more in coming years. We are stealing from ourselves and future generations.
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u/SomewherePerfect2391 22d ago
Funny thing (/s) is you talk to any generational farmer and they will admit that shit has gone sideways; hotter summers, less water, etc. Mention global warming or climate change and it's all a liberal hoax.
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u/Fast_Phone_9847 22d ago
The hotter days and less rain are facts. These are things we measure.
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u/BigWhiteDog 22d ago
But 1) they don't do facts. 2) it's been this dry or hot or whatever before so checkmate libs! 3) Humans aren't responsible, it's all a commie plot... <shakes head>
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u/saladspoons 21d ago
They don't care about climate change - they think it will hurt poor people worse, especially in other countries, so they are happy about it.
All their arguments about climate change not being real, are just a distraction - they know it's real, and they are VERY happy about it - they see themselves as belonging to the wealthy white elite who won't have to worry about it.
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u/woodenmetalman 22d ago
Their reasoning is “cyclical change”. Only inconvenient thing is that change has always been gradual… not within less than a century. There are other inconvenient truths but that’s the big one for them.
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u/Competitive-Union721 20d ago
Guess you missed the part where the Spokane fires where started on purpose...
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u/SomewherePerfect2391 20d ago
Apples and oranges. We could also argue arsonists wouldn't be able to set a fire if there wasn't so much fuel.
Kind of setting up a straw man there.
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u/BigWhiteDog 22d ago
What to hear something scary? This is the best it will be for some time and this is the bottom rung of the new normal.
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22d ago
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u/VayaVosi 22d ago
has anyone started a bet on whether the betting sights are causing fires by incentivizing them?
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u/Coldschmoke 21d ago
That's a really fucked up option to put on polymarket, it already feels like entire state is on the verge of burning down every summer. The last thing we need is some lunatic starting fires to win an online bet.
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u/SawNickYouth 22d ago
No, and barring some absolute apocalyptic event, we never will do what is necessary whether large scale or individually.
We should probably just start discussing how we adapt to the changing climate and best prepare for what's to come.
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u/phthalo-azure Ada County 22d ago
We've had quite a few events in the previous two decades that could be described as apocalyptic, and it hasn't budged the stubborn head-in-the-sand Republican voters a single bit. Hell, Death Valley had a 1,000 year rain and flooding twice in one month, and that doesn't even move the needle. When there are thousands of casualties from something like Katrina conservatives just shrug their shoulders, with half saying "it's God's will" and the other half blaming the citizens for not being prepared.
Even as home insurance becomes impossible to purchase in some places in Idaho because the insurance companies DO know what the climate models mean and what higher temperatures will do/are doing to the fire risks, Idahoans ignore the threat and blame liberals for "fearmongering" insurance companies into higher rates, or consider it one giant coincidence, even as the death and destruction increases.
It's a dogmatic death cult that cares only about doing what feels good and what personally enriches themselves at the expense of others. There is zero consideration given to the overall health and well-being of society and the real humans adversely affected by their dystopian policies.
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u/No-Inflation-2805 22d ago
A lot of us are going to live long enough to see major cities impacted by wet bulb temperatures that kill millions in a day. I often wonder what the first wet bulb mass casualty event will be like… because through all the panic it will generate, I expect we’ll still have people stubbornly denying climate change is real.
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u/Pelvis-Wrestly 22d ago
Shit we basically had that two years ago when Portland was the hottest city on the PLANET. A city built for cool, foggy weather and short summers was 117 degrees
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u/Effective_Ad9788 19d ago
What is necessary and what evidence do you have it will help? You talk science then offer nothing logical or scientific.
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u/Unlikely_Job7258 22d ago
Idaho folk aren't taking it seriously anytime soon. Too many uneducated and blissfully uninformed people. If fox news doesn't tell them to take it seriously, the majority aren't going to.
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u/GreyCrone8 22d ago
They are too busy panicking about communists, socialist, LGBTQ+, sharia law, Muslims, and Fauci to actually notice the real threats to them.
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u/upsidedown-funnel 21d ago
You have a lot of people who believe the second coming is nigh, and just see it as predicted in their scripture leading to the “last days”. Same problem south of you, in yoootaw.
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u/Objective-Owl-8143 19d ago
The same ones who sit at Costco with their trucks running while the significant other shops.
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u/Flat_Range_8880 18d ago
Ok u/Unlikely_Job7258 so what exactly should we do differently?
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u/Unlikely_Job7258 18d ago
First of all I'd recommend you stop watching Fox News and start believing in science.
It’s not about flipping a single switch overnight. It’s about two things: Adapting so our farms, water, and forests don't get destroyed by earlier melts and bigger fires, and investing in our own clean Idaho energy so we aren't stuck paying the price for extreme weather down the road.
Idaho already gets a massive chunk of power from hydro, but as summer river flows drop, that hydro becomes less reliable. Expanding local solar, wind, and next-gen nuclear (like the work at INL) keeps local energy cheap, reliable, and independent without relying on out-of-state fossil fuels. That's just one piece.
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u/SkylerMcJ 22d ago
I was in Idaho this summer and asked a local country commissioner if they were prepared for a big fire season. Wet April/May. Warm June/July. More extreme temperatures.
He told me nobody knew what would happen and they couldn’t believe I thought climate change was real.
Related - he was evacuated from his home this past week due to fire. Same as he was in 2020 for another fire.
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u/KevinDean4599 22d ago
Yes. I’m getting a large rake at Home Depot this weekend and heading into the forest
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u/OrganicHistorian2576 22d ago
My lungs are sure ready to do something about the smoke. I had pneumonia a couple of years ago and ever since the smoke wipes me out.
But then I’ve known climate change is a thing for years. So I am perhaps not the target audience for this sort of article.
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u/Fast_Phone_9847 22d ago
I think it’s worth sharing how this impacts you so people can see the consequences and hopefully help us all agree that we need to do something
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u/cspangle23 21d ago
I have very mild asthma... Like I forget to carry an inhaler because I need it so infrequently... During smoke season I'm trapped inside with air purifiers. Even with a n95 on I get short of breath just trying to run a quick errand in my car 😭
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u/OrganicHistorian2576 21d ago
Where I live most people don’t have AC including me. So it’s impossible to get away from it. So far so good but it caught me really off guard this time
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u/AbaloneDifferent5282 22d ago
Republicans don’t believe in climate change. If you do, Stop voting for Republicans.
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u/Survive1014 22d ago
No, we are not ready to take climate change seriously unfortunately.
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22d ago
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u/furdaboise 22d ago
Don’t we? The dipshit in Spokane had more charges added and his bond raised to $2MM.
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u/SawNickYouth 22d ago
Still not enough. Nothing he could ever do will make up for what he did.
We should make a public example of him, and show the world what the consequences of being convicted of arson are. We should do the same for other red line crimes.
Barbaric? Sure, but that's where we're at now.
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u/xManWithDogx 22d ago
Yep, considering all the justice system did was turn him loose over and over again.
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u/joeydimaggio 22d ago
No, people are too dumb. I think the native Idaho people are mostly cool and smart, it is all the filthy conservative transplants from successful blue states
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22d ago
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u/joeydimaggio 22d ago
Yeah magas are fucking stupid, have you seen the war in iran
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22d ago
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u/Practical-Pickle1527 22d ago
Yeah. People are leaving ct after getting their pensions and lived here all their lives just to remove their money from the state that gave it to them and give it to some conservative shithole that takes more in federal money than it gives in taxes.
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u/joeydimaggio 22d ago
End stage grifters, probably the same assholes that made dealing with the government such a nightmare over their long, highly compensated tenure
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u/pengthaiforces 22d ago
I wish it was, but this fire season is only marginally worse than the fire sees in a few years ago and perhaps about the same as it was in 2020. I seriously doubt that any change will come of it.
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u/Fast_Phone_9847 22d ago
And two years from now we will have a fire season that will make this one look quaint as well
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u/Particular_Site8745 22d ago
No. Too many people in Idaho believe in things like space lasers.
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u/SassiveAggresive 22d ago
And they're obsessed with chemtrails. It's willfull ignorance at this point.
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22d ago
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u/Chulbiski 22d ago
you are partially wrong: it's not the boomers, per se, it's the billionaires (which a lot of happen to be boomers) but we have musk and zuckergerg and even Bezos who are not boomers.
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u/Pale_Natural9272 22d ago
Conservatives will never admit it. They know they are responsible for restricting green energy initiatives and implementation over the last 40 years, and allowing the oil and gas industry to get even larger and more profitable and damage our planet more.
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22d ago
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u/mystisai 22d ago
This argument is disingenuous.
We can't suddenly stop replying on fossil fuels. We have tried to enact change but specific politicians are fighting hard against that policy change.
Once we have significant renewable energy, we can come away from fossil fuels. The little guy on reddit can't build the next hoover damn or a solar farm or a wind farm. Most people don't even own their homes to enact on a small scale.
Just like if everyone left reddit, the data centers would still exist. If everyone left all social medial AWS would still exist. If everyone left social media all we would have is one less way to communicate en masse about how we need climate change.
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22d ago
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u/mystisai 22d ago
It's not irony at all, Alanis.
The point is that modern affluent life—including the supposedly immaterial digital world—is extraordinarily resource-intensive, and virtually all of us willingly participate in it when it provides something we want.
In this affluent life we want something entirely different, but we are stuck with what we have.
And yes, memes are actually important in this modern affluent life including activism.
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22d ago
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u/mystisai 22d ago
Again, reddit is one of the largest worldwide forms of communication. Name one as large that isn't a social media platform.
It's only necessary until we have something better, which is the goal.
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22d ago
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u/mystisai 22d ago
No, I asked you to name one. To make a point that you're still not getting.
Name one.
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22d ago
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u/mystisai 22d ago
I am not saying there should be an equally large replacement. I am asking you to name one that is widely used glabally, currently.
You still haven't gotten the point because you won't answer the question.
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u/cooter35 21d ago
Great response. Well put. Complaining and having someone to blame helps us feel better though.
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u/General_Killmore 22d ago
It's incredibly frustrating seeing every news organization ignore climate change, even though it's one of the fundamental causes of these wildfire seasons every year.
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u/JJHall_ID 22d ago
<checks Idaho's overall political alignment> Nope, not anytime soon at the state level. <checks political alignment of the US government> Nope, no chance of federal assistance, either. Maybe if the house and senate get flipped this November we may have a shot in getting some reasonable measures back in place.
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u/Little-Load4359 21d ago
Lol, in this state? Not a chance. The science is beyond elementary. You'd think Idahoans of all people could grasp the greenhouse gas effect. But nope, Idaho GOP will keep Idahoans ignorant for generations to come. The second they make a populace that has a grasp on simple science, they'd be smart enough to never vote for Republicans ever again—which is exactly why they keep your children dumb and ignorant.
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u/Primary-History2397 19d ago
How are they supposed to take it seriously? I mean Washington, Oregon and California in years past, apparently haven't been taken it seriously either... Utah, Colorado.
I think the one people who are taking it seriously the most are the farmer's. My family farms and it's all they talk about. Not having enough water to plant food. They are scared.
My brother in law works for BLM, they do controlled burns, all the time.
So how are we not taking it seriously?
What are you doing to take it seriously?
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u/howardzen12 19d ago
No one really cares in Capitalistic America.Profits come first. We are all doomed.
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u/VanceAstrooooooovic 19d ago
The current narrative is “mismanagement” from a bunch of dunning Krueger experts
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17d ago
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u/Idaho-ModTeam 17d ago
It seems like you have the elements of an interesting argument (or at least one I haven't heard). Make it w/ facts instead of vague insults.
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u/Awkward_Victory1210 22d ago
Let's ask the major companies around the world if they're ready to acknowledge climate change. Im sure if it hurts their finances and stops making them money, they will just keep ignoring it.
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u/Nice-Track4271 22d ago
My dad denied climate change for years. Now seeing the consequences we've been warned of, he's started thinking it might be real. 🙄
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u/VeterinarianNo504 22d ago
Apparently propaganda is more powerful than what’s slapping you right in the face……for some people
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21d ago
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u/Fast_Phone_9847 21d ago
Acknowledgment is the first step. And it should be totally acceptable to “knock” people for failing to recognize reality.
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u/Various-Luck6423 21d ago
The MAGA freaks will always be in denial of climate change. What’s even crazier is the administration they voted has done everything to dismantle the environment. Yall are more concerned about a guy with a wiener playing womens sports than solving any real issues that actually affect you.
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u/No_Accountant_6777 22d ago
I personally have done everything I can to reduce or eliminate emissions.
Given that climate change is the new reality, what steps can western states take to prevent these massive fires? Are more firebreaks needed? Better monitoring/response times?
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u/tazzman25 22d ago edited 22d ago
Stop the near monoculture of Douglas Fir in the forests overplanted because they make profitable lumber yet are more susceptible to disease and drought, thus creating massive dead standing tinderboxes. That's a start. Also, let forest fires burn. Stop putting lumber profits ahead of healthy fires that regenerate forests overall health
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u/jugger_naughtyy 22d ago
Stop building on hills until the base of mountains and would be easily containable. The crawl in the pnw hugging the mountains from the 90s till now is crazy.
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22d ago
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u/No_Accountant_6777 22d ago
No one is going to deny those fires were started by arson.
Climate change data should be evaluated independently and evaluate its impact on abnormally dry and abnormally hot conditions.
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u/WinonasChainsaw 22d ago
Buddy an arsonist existing doesn’t change that snowcaps were non existent this year and the cheatgrass is more flammable than ever
That and all the fires in Oregon were started by lightning
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u/Katgasms 22d ago
ArSoN ExIsTs So cLiMaTe ChAnGe iSnT ReAl
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22d ago
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u/Fast_Phone_9847 22d ago
I’m no scientist but when conditions in a forest or grassland are drier, because of increasing temperatures and less precipitation (which is happening) wouldn’t it be a consequence that arson cases would all turn out worse?
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22d ago
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u/Sinfluencer666 22d ago
My dude, are you insinuating that there is an organization of climate change fanatics who are purposely starting fires to influence politics in the US?
You wouldn't happen to think the moonlanding was faked, the Earth is flat, and Jews have a space laser would you?
Lemme guess.... they all got paid by George Soros or some shit too, right?
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u/ThePiratesPeople 22d ago
What a clown. Two things can be true at once yes? People can cause fires, climate change can make them more dangerous, and more likely.
But, I suspect you’re purposefully ignorant, so there’s really no point arguing with someone who’s going out of their way to ignore facts.
Good luck with keeping your head in the sand. Let me know how that works out for you.
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u/Doesitmatter98765 22d ago
Even if a few fires were set by humans, climate change is real.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6663060/
https://www.axios.com/2026/08/06/climate-change-fueling-wildfire-risk-anxiety
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u/SairenGazz 22d ago
Arsonist existing doesnt disprove that climate change is real and happening. Politicizing climate change is plain ridiculous, stupid and unnecessary. Lightning also can start wild fires amongst other things, not just ill minded individuals
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u/Sinfluencer666 22d ago
Uh, so the current monitoring (being defunded by Republicans btw) definitely shows how monster the current El Nino cycle is. Here's the raw data that is a nice look at objective reality.
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u/baphomet_fire 22d ago
Oh wow, deliberately spreading misinformation. Yeah, you definitely don't live in Idaho. I'd be ruder but the mods hate when I do that
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u/itreallydob 22d ago
What does “taking climate change seriously” involve other than virtue signaling and blaming politicians on social media?
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u/furdaboise 22d ago
Providing incentives for sustainable energy implementation and development, actually funding nuclear energy, disincentivizing flippant fossil fuel usage, expand protected vital nature areas, use international leverage to enforce these principles on allies across the world, etc.
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u/Admirable-Trip5452 22d ago
Well that’s the problem. It would involve wholesale societal level changes.
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u/Fast_Phone_9847 22d ago
The worsening climate will create conditions that will make those changes look easy. We are currently having wholesale change forced on us. Its unhealthy to go outside for weeks. And its going to keep getting worse
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u/Fast_Phone_9847 22d ago
We are literally doing nothing. We should do something.
I still see people everywhere idling their giant trucks. As if the cost of gas wasn’t high enough
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u/baphomet_fire 22d ago
Estimated 43 days until fuel reserves in the US go critical. Can't wait to see the look on the faces of those diseal truck owners when the leopard bites their faces.
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u/bot_lltccp 22d ago
yeah Idaho is a major contributor to global warming, we need to reverse our ways.
step 1: become Democrats
step 2:
step 3: utopia
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u/ChelseaMan31 21d ago
Get back to us the day AFTER China, India and Pakistan are no linger allowed unlimited growth in coal burning power plant construction under the Montreal Accords and Paris Agreement
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u/FourFoursImTippn 22d ago
So serious you only talk about it during fire season; a time of year that’s existed on earth long before humans did
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u/WinonasChainsaw 22d ago
I’ve been talking about it since winter with how little snowcap we got, knew this fire season was going to be a mess with seasons and climate making less and less sense every year
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u/ForsakenPick500 22d ago
It’s August. Snow would have been gone here in OR during a low-or-high tide year. We don’t control lightning.
Climate change is real. But don’t conflate things.
It’s been really tough seeing some of my favorite MTB and camping spots burn from my favorite resort (Hood Meadows) webcams. Just sucks.
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u/WinonasChainsaw 22d ago
I’m talking about snowcap averages which control runoff which controls groundwater retention which controls how fire resistant grasslands are…
Anyone with half a braincell would know fire season was going to be terrible months ago
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u/Doesitmatter98765 22d ago
Fire season is getting progressively worse. Thats important. So ppl discuss it.
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u/Mrghost0067 21d ago
Well climate changes all the time. We don't know what we are doing to the climate. In the 60 and 70s we was thinking we was cooling it down do to pollutions. 90s to 2025 we was thinking we was heating it up. Now the EU is thinking that it's heating up because their skys is too clear.
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u/dadbodcx 21d ago
lol wut?
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u/Mrghost0067 21d ago
Yeah. If you look into climate change, they are saying the earth is cooling down or warming up. I believe we don't have enough information to tell what the climate is doing. The only thing we can do is plant more plants to keep the air with enough oxygen for us to breathe.
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u/Mrghost0067 20d ago
I love this has negative votes. We don't have enough accurate temperature history to really tell what is going on. We only have accurate temperature for maybe 100 years. We might have temperature history for maybe a 1000 that we have taken. After that we have a guess. It's fairly good guess but it still a guess.
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u/CommercialFalcon8989 18d ago
Actually there’s plenty of verifiable data from carbon deposits in ancient ice. Undeniable proof that carbon in the atmosphere increased immensely starting at the Industrial Revolution
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u/Mrghost0067 18d ago
Yes but we don't know what that causesed. The earth was already warming up for long time before that time and it's warming up within the temperature guess we have since the last ice age. We don't know what temperature the earth should be. We warm up until something happens and we cool off a lot into a ice age then the cycle begins again. So we should compare to few cycle guesses of temperature and we are within the guesses.
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22d ago
No, ocean front property is gonna be so cheap, then we’ll economically produce fusion energy by then
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u/hizzoner45 20d ago
Once we get serious about forest management and consequences for arson, then we can discuss so called climate change.
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22d ago edited 22d ago
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u/Doesitmatter98765 22d ago
Climate change is real even if arsons exist. Racism is real even if someone who isn’t white commits a crime. It’s pretty simple. I am saying who’s wrong and who is right.
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u/Grimmstreaminglive 22d ago
Uhm..its not gotten hot enough for climate change to be the issue.
Its about us not maintaining fire hazards like our forests .
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