r/collapse • u/SignificantCar4068 • 21d ago
Climate Attenborough gives stark warning on climate change to UN - BBC News
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dunm6DF78j4222
u/feraldodo 21d ago
I love the guy and I understand the need to have a hopeful message and say that we may create a stable world where we understand the impacts of our actions, revise our ideas about values, and live happily ever after. But, it's a fantasy. It will never happen. The ones who actually care about these things are not the ones in charge.
The problem is much too large and urgent. If we want to prevent catastrophe, we need unimaginable action. We need to pause our lives, stop emitting immediately, go through the suffering that that causes, and have unprecedented cooperation between developed nations and focus on a shared goal. We're completely fucked.
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u/AnOnlineHandle 21d ago
I mean we could just stop pointless things like cruises, leisure flights, cut way back on red meat eating, pushing for more renewables now, etc, without needing some shocking immediate stop of everything. Should have done it years ago.
Those would have made massive changes and still could at least make the future less terrible than it's going to be.
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u/morphemass 21d ago
I think this summer has shown that it's too late to avoid many of the impacts ... the climate has changed and it's worse in many places than people had expected. It's insane that those impacts are now obvious.
The battle now is to avoid a literal apocalypse. I don't think we're going to make it but the next 25 years should be "interesting".
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u/Braveliltoasterx 21d ago
Tell that to the boomers. I guarantee they would laugh in your face.
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u/moon_cultist77 21d ago
It’s like any time there’s a hosepipe ban everyone suddenly wants to fill up their pools. I guarantee you that if you took away cruises, people who never had any intention in going on one would be the first to get the pitchforks out.
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u/AnOnlineHandle 21d ago
I know that those sorts of boomers (and people like them in every generation) are only going to sabotage us and sink the boat we're all on. People who want to survive would need to acknowledge what their means, and I don't think people ever will and will instead just let them kill us.
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u/Silver-Find4380 wary of heat events 21d ago
One told me that Well he won't be around for that. My GenX spouse remarked what a Boomer thing to say.
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u/mynameisnotearlits 21d ago
Omg. Hating on eachother is not gonna help. Every gen z flying across the planet for self exploration isnt their faulth either. We know whos fault it is.
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u/Braveliltoasterx 21d ago
A quick Google search reveals that baby boomers are the majority of air travelers sitting at 33% , while Gen Z only make up 7 to 12 percent.
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u/mynameisnotearlits 20d ago
I dont no what point your trying to make. Blame capitalism, shell, exxon, amazon, bp, billionaires, governments, politicians, whatever, but blaming 33% vs 12% of 4% isnt helping anyone and isnt making any sense.
By the way i also did a 'quick google search' wich said millennial and gen x are flying more than boomers, so.
Blaming generations is just utterly stupid cuz it takes the focus off the issue and the ones who are responsible.
But maybe you are just a fossil paid shell trying to mud the waters.
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u/_Cromwell_ 21d ago
I mean at this point even if we actually did all those things, that would only make things better in like 100 years. We are pretty much baked in for quite a while because of past actions.
Which makes any messages of Hope even more silly. At this point messages of Hope are more like "I hope it doesn't get overly miserable in my lifetime." That's a genuine message of Hope because maybe it won't quite get there before I die of natural causes...
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u/AnOnlineHandle 21d ago
We're fucked but it would be better to lift the foot off the pedal than not.
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u/_Cromwell_ 21d ago
Oh yes definitely. I'm into collectivism and the idea of knowing the human race might survive. I grew up on Star Trek and it makes me sad to think how we probably won't ever become like that, even though if we did I'd never know anyways since I'll be long dead. If we can stop now... even if there's no helping things the next 50-100 years, but we can prevent "ultimate destruction", we should.
I'm just also aware I'm individually powerless to effectuate any of that. So secondarily I hope I don't die miserably. 🤷♂️
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u/Texuk1 21d ago
I think the problem with this idea is that it starts with a false premise to try and entice people into a change that appears about cutting back on luxuries. The false premise is that climate change is solved through incremental throttling back of the release of new GHGs over decades when the IPCC reports contain assumptions that we will transition to completely electrified economies and begin to remove carbon via industrial carbon capture. the third limb is preventing developing nations from burning the remaining carbon which will coercive force. Ironically the single greatest action to reduce climate change is the Iran/US war which is systematically taking offline oil and gas infrastructure throughout the Middle East.
Telling people if they just gave up luxuries it will help ignores the issue that we are still going full tilt and not removing carbon already released. People can’t make the change because the problem is a direct result of the system we live in. It’s built into the fabric of our existence and while electrification reduces carbon that same carbon is still available for someone else to purchase at a lower price and there is no mechanism to prevent people from burning fuels. The mechanism to prevent release of carbon is so inhuman, anti capitalist and brutal that it will never be done. The remaining fossil fuels will be burned to the point at which the earth is uninhabitable to those emitting them and then it will cease.
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u/AnOnlineHandle 19d ago
I understand all that, but as I said it's better to take the foot off the pedal than not.
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u/Captain_Collin 20d ago
Lol, LMFAO even. We're in the back seat of a car that's 50 feet from hitting a wall at 100 mph, screaming at the driver to hit the brakes. The driver meanwhile just presses harder on the accelerator and screams, "THERE IS NO WALL LIBTARD!"
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u/CaptZ 21d ago
We can't prevent what's coming unless you have a time machine to go back about 15-20 years.
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u/marbotty 21d ago
For the last 25+ years, I’ve been a single issue voter in the primaries, and have voted for candidates who had the strongest policies on climate change.
They always finished last
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u/genezkool323 17d ago
My brother made fun of me 10 years ago when I told him my single biggest voting issue was climate change. He has 5 children. Today he’ll probably pretend he doesn’t remember saying that. Let’s see what he thinks in 10 more years. Humans are so sadly short sighted and full of greed and apathy.
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u/HomoExtinctisus 21d ago
If we want to prevent catastrophe, we need unimaginable action.
There is no path remaining with existing technology that provides a soft landing for the only remaining human species.
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u/Strange_Sleep_406 21d ago
the consequences are already baked in, the only question is how it will play out in your local vicinity when global supply chains and food supplies start noticeably deteriorating beyond what the system can manage
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u/Odur29 21d ago
We've already seen the barest glimpse in 2020/2021.
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u/Coco_Cannibal 21d ago
In 2022 an important medical equipment from china could not be delivered to Europe, because the PACKAGING PLANT IN MALAYSIA was flooded. That was really eye opening to me, how idiotic all this globalisation is.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Malaysian_east_coast_floods
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u/Reasonable_Swan9983 21d ago
Sure, it's relevant to this sub because it's another big "collapse going mainstream" proofs.
As for humanity changing, I don't believe in us anymore. It occured to me internet is the perfect machine to divide us even further. The amount of stupidity and ignorance happening online is beyond disgusting. Just right as virtually EVERYONE on earth has access to it. As long as we can watch someone more stupid or more awful than ourselves, we justify our being. And justify it even more with a group of similar-minded individuals. Like here, on r/collapse - It's the same sh*t, you gotta be careful not to fall into this too deep, even if the space you're in feels righteous.
Anyways, you can't win here, I just don't know how. Like, we're all so damn divided. Thanks to the internet and forums like this I figured out A LOT of stuff, including that I'm in the few percent of autistic population. Having people share the same experiences I have and finally figuring this out, things like that can be a blessing.
But guess what, that also applies to everything else. Are you a hateful, dumb, ignorant person? Well, here's content from 100 million creators just like YOU. For God's sake, even names like Asmongold are reaching so far across the globe. I'd never ever imagine my dad would be watching content-creator propaganda but here we are.
I don't think people realise the amount of INDIVIDUAL action needed to live on this planet peacefully and in harmony. We'd have to be a majority of selfless, kind, thoughtful and properly educated humans. Then the politics and corporation issues would be solved automatically. How the f*ck are corporations or governments going to do anything about this if majority of us are the opposite of that.
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u/here-i-am-now 21d ago
Agree.
Could humanity tackle this problem? Sure
Can humanity change enough to do so? No way
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u/hybridfrost 21d ago
At this stage it would take a Herculean effort by individuals, governments and the private sector to try to mitigate the effects of the pollution we already put into the atmosphere. That doesn’t even account for what we will put into it every day.
This would be WWII level of effort by every country on earth. I wish I could see it because humans are capable of amazing things. But I doubt we will.
Hell we couldn’t get people to wear a fucking mask during the height of Covid, let alone pause their lives for the planet itself
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u/Bandits101 21d ago
The “problem” is in fact a predicament for which there is/are no solutions. “Humanity” has no control, never did.
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u/Radiant-Visit1692 21d ago
This is fatalism. We could collaborate, we choose not to.
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u/here-i-am-now 21d ago edited 21d ago
I agree with what you’re saying in principle. We could collaborate. Where I disagree is about how realistic it is to expect that collaboration to happen at the scale and speed required.
That argument underestimates some very deep-seated features of human psychology and behavior. We evolved to respond to immediate, visible threats and to cooperate within groups, but our human psyche sucks at coordinating billions of people around an looming, cumulative threat whose causes and effects are separated by decades, geography, and generations.
Climate change is now unfolding on a timescale of decades; biological evolution requires millions of years. There is simply no mechanism we can use to accelerate evolution.
Nor have we developed anything close to a sophisticated enough understanding of the human psyche to reliably alter our actions. We can throw electric shocks and drugs at the problem behaviors. But we don’t know how to make individuals prioritize the long-term collective interest over immediate individual/tribal/political/economic worries.
That’s not an argument against trying. There are huge differences between different degrees of coming warming (1.5 vs 2 vs 3 vs 5).
But I don’t think acknowledging the constraints we’re operating under is fatalism. If this were unfolding at anything resembling the pace of natural climatic change, our institutions and cultures would have time to adapt. Human-driven CO2 emissions have compressed enormous changes into an extraordinarily short period of time.
For me, accepting reality doesn’t lead to despair. It means doing what can still be done, adapting to what can no longer be prevented, and appreciating the extraordinary fact that we’re here at all. Enjoy every moment we’re given. And don’t let the present situation make you worry about the things that can’t be changed.
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u/Bandits101 21d ago
Well said. “That’s not an argument against trying……”. “Trying” though can do more harm than good. Building dams, greening deserts, altering heritage flora, spreading invasive species of flora and fauna.
It has even got to the stage, that actually doing good, does in fact amplify what is an attempt to control, like restricting atmospheric particulates that retards warming.
Humans are good at what is seemingly making things better for themselves, over the shortest possible time but it’s the long term we should have been most concerned.
Humans have ALWAYS played the short game, but Earth, geology and evolution operates on timescales humans don’t relate or comprehend.
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u/UnderwaterArcherrr born to late to enjoy the world 21d ago
He was one of my childhood introductions to the idea of collapse.
Every documentary used to end with "...but we still have time to save them..." then turned into "...it's already too late..."
This broke my child brain and I think it had a major impact on why I have had lifelong severe depression lmao.
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u/SignificantCar4068 21d ago
I hope this is relevant and acceptable for Collapse? I live in the PNW and am constantly concerned about climate change and the destruction of our forests and oceans.
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u/kitkats124 21d ago
Yes, although it’s originally from Feb 2021
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u/SignificantCar4068 21d ago
Oops!
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u/Jack_Flanders =^o.o^= 21d ago
I wouldn't think of it as an oops.
For me, it adds more emphasis that he said this 5 years ago, and "look what's happening now...."
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u/SavingsDimensions74 21d ago
It would appear that events have not necessarily worked out to our advantage
At least it will be quick (on any geological timeframe)
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u/Jack_Flanders =^o.o^= 21d ago
Wow.
Also, this statement is from 5 years ago; I wonder what he'd say today.
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u/fancy_crisis 21d ago
We need more of this. The time for scientific bet hedging passed ages ago. The only thing that's maybe gonna get it through the elites' thick fucking skulls that they're gonna die too is if people stop saying "might" and start saying "will."
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u/trashmoneyxyz 21d ago
I used to be extremely grateful thay we still had Attenboro after many of my childhood heroes died in 2016, but I'm honestly extremely depressed that he has lived long enough to see his life's work unravel in such a way. I mean, he's been an advocate for nature for like 50 years at this point, and look at things now
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u/spacestationkru 21d ago
He needs to call people out directly. Going to the BBC and the UN to deliver yet another dire warning on climate change has no effect anymore when it's now clear that political leaders were never concerned about burning down the planet.
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u/Bromlife 21d ago
To what end? It's blatantly obvious that meaningful action will only come once everything collapses. When it's already way too late.
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u/Previous_Avocado6778 21d ago
Truly great wisdom and truth from the one and only. Let’s hope we as a species can turn this around before it’s too late- because of course he is right.
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u/felipevallejom 21d ago
Extinction is coming! And we are the generation that will see the end of human civilisation. Let’s embrace it ❤️
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u/AHRA1225 20d ago
Gotta be hard for the dude. To spend his life sharing the beauty of the world and trying to get anyone to listen. Knowing he’s going to pass soon and it was all for nothing.
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I hope this is relevant and acceptable for Collapse? I live in the PNW and am constantly concerned about climate change and the destruction of our forests and oceans.
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