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  • Julian OliverJulianOliver@mastodon.social
    Aug 1, 2026, 2:39 AM

    I think a lot about the self-reinforcing feedback of all the carbon from the burns. Most of our warming trajectory scenarios (esp many IPCC models and their reports, used by govs) don't account for this driver, and if they do it is incompletely. Difficult to calculate I know, but only more troubling as a result.

    Truly unchartered territory.

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  • John BurnsJohnJBurnsIII@kzoo.to
    Aug 1, 2026, 1:28 AM

    @JulianOliver

    Too many folks will wait till they can't breathe well... and will still blame it on other things.

    ☹️ 😱

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  • GhostOnTheHalfShellGhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai
    Aug 1, 2026, 1:39 AM

    @JulianOliver

    Which Is why I’ve been spouting on about for some time now, the we had all better make sure our communities can sustain themselves independent of a global supply chain. The global economy and its infrastructure is unfit to survive this level of global temperature. You could build a bridge, but it won’t be useful for very long.

    Walkable communities, restoring the local water basin and integrating into it is what remains for us to rely on, if we are smart enough to do so

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  • GhostOnTheHalfShellGhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai
    Aug 1, 2026, 2:14 AM

    @wackJackle @JulianOliver

    A walkable community is safer, quieter and healthier, as well as being much less expensive because cars and car infrastructure cost a lot.

    Utrecht did a 180 on cars For two reasons, but one of them was the 1973 oil embargo. They decided maybe that kind of risk isn’t a good idea

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  • JoanBCatWomanmuminitaly@mastodon.scot
    Aug 1, 2026, 8:04 AM

    @GhostOnTheHalfShell @JulianOliver Communities need to take action for themselves as politicians will and are not, despite the rhetoric. Teach your children and grandchildren survival skills like how to find water, build shelter, make fire, hunt, grow food etc. If you don't know learn!

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  • Walter C. Smithstiefel_fan@troet.cafe
    Aug 1, 2026, 2:19 PM

    @muminitaly @GhostOnTheHalfShell @JulianOliver
    True to some extent but if you look at smaller communities, these rely on politicians as well (City Council or similar in villages and city districts).
    And guess what even here - at least in Germany - there are too many people voting for populists, fascists and conservative fossilists!😱🤬
    So we are on our own! 🤷🏼‍♂️

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  • GhostOnTheHalfShellGhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai
    Aug 1, 2026, 3:04 PM

    @muminitaly @stiefel_fan @JulianOliver

    I am inclined to suggest that people who vote for right wing politicians that you simply strike up a conversation or in passing saying I think you know the food and the washing machine trucks are going to stop showing up. How long do you think we could survive without that?

    Is the city prepared and are we prepared to deal with that kind of disruption?

    It may in some circumstances push people out of their usual silo at least for a moment

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  • Alex W.pi_tinkerer_101@mastodon.buzz
    Aug 1, 2026, 1:54 AM

    @JulianOliver Aye, meticulously put. Climate don't reset like a game save. Irreversible consequences ain't a bug, they're a feature of the unfriendly environment we've built. (Side-eye emoji GIF on standby for when someone says 'We'll fix it later' trope kicks in.)

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  • Steve Moore :toad:ArrowbearMoore@toad.social
    Aug 1, 2026, 1:57 AM

    @JulianOliver Pretty much what David Suzuki says -
    “We have failed to shift the narrative and we are still caught up in the same legal, economic and political systems,... If we pass one (planetary) boundary, we should be shitting our pants. We’ve passed seven!” But he’s still fighting to slow down the decline. #Environment #ClimateChange
    allthingsunionbay.com/2025/07/

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  • TheresaTheresaReason@socialbc.ca
    Aug 1, 2026, 3:56 AM

    @ArrowbearMoore @JulianOliver if you care about our planet, about things beyond you and your lifetime, you have to keep trying. I know I am. I want to be able to tell my grand nephew I tried to unfuck it up for him❤️

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  • TheresaTheresaReason@socialbc.ca
    Aug 1, 2026, 5:50 PM

    @ArrowbearMoore @JulianOliver many of us do right!? We are going through terrible things everyday, everywhere. What makes it bearable for me is knowing I'm not alone in it.

    My wish for every person is to be able to look around and say, "ah that person gets it too" and then have renewed strength to persevere🧡

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  • John Cormier 🇨🇦johncormier@cosocial.ca
    Aug 1, 2026, 9:40 PM

    @JulianOliver not to mention the amplification of the greenhouse effect due to atmospheric water vapour continuum absorption, which is poorly modelled in climate simulations. This is particularly insidious because water vapour continuum absorption closes the transparent thermal infrared window, preventing terrestrial heat from escaping to cold space.

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  • AstridAstridd@aus.social
    Aug 1, 2026, 2:24 AM

    @JulianOliver we need to stop the hyperscale mass surveillance data centres. Amongst everything else, they produce waaayyy too much heat and use far too much water to be even remotely justifiable. We need to stop deforestation and start planting trees like our lives depend on it (because they do!). We need to stop covering the planet in concrete and suffocating it and ourselves. The only thing that converts carbon dioxide to oxygen in a sustainable way is plants! The fires and data centres/lack of regard for our environment is no coincidence

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  • Julian OliverJulianOliver@mastodon.social
    Aug 1, 2026, 2:35 AM

    @Astridd I largely agree, however for me to reply to you right now a data center is involved! AI data centers, those that don't run on traceable renewables, & without a commitment to recycling, are a key problem. I deploy in 'certified green' data centers that are committed to lowering impacts.

    Tree planting is important yes, however which species matters, & where. Gum-rich Pinus Radiata crops are a tinderbox & often the source of fires that burn into native forests. A problem where I live.

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  • AstridAstridd@aus.social
    Aug 1, 2026, 2:45 AM

    @JulianOliver I agree to an extent. Even with 'more sustainable' data centres, they are using huge amounts of land (covering it with concrete and metal) and generating enough heat to significantly impact global warming. edition.cnn.com/2026/03/30/cli
    Not to mention all of the water and energy use (which yes can potentially be reduced with closed loop systems), but they also cause pollution, noise, and EMFs that kill all living things in their radius (like bees). We don't need AI that much. We need to prioritise people and planet if we want a future that doesn't look like a dystopian landscape where we're fighting to survive.

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  • Julian OliverJulianOliver@mastodon.social
    Aug 1, 2026, 2:57 AM

    @Astridd Yes what I mean to say is there's no Internet as we know it, without datacenters. Some degree of centralisation will be more energy efficient than total decentralisation. The Fediverse itself implements this - a 'many centers' topology.

    In an imaginary deeply-distributed p2p scenario, whereby we all self-host free & open source alts at home ('on prem' - I do this too), it would still amount to a more energy & mineral expensive WAN overall than what we have today built atop trad DC's

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  • AstridAstridd@aus.social
    Aug 1, 2026, 3:12 AM

    @JulianOliver we have been using the internet for 20 years and didn't need hyperscale data centres. They are for mass surveillance and AI growth. We don't need either of those at the expense of humanity and the planet. We need to reduce AI use before the system collapses. Am I wrong?

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  • Julian OliverJulianOliver@mastodon.social
    Aug 1, 2026, 4:00 AM

    @Astridd We agree :)

    Hyperscale datacenters brought massive efficiency gains. However, this in itself allowed for the service layer of the Internet to grow exponentially, more readily centralised around big tech providers, enabling the 'big data' era alongside.

    AI datacenters are vastly more expensive in every respect, as they are built atop GPUs, and in my view are an enormous problem yes, from climate to water, to minerals, cognitive and ontological health. I personally don't use AI at all.

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  • Adam van Sertimaadamvs1@mastodon.world
    Aug 1, 2026, 1:32 PM

    @Astridd @JulianOliver Isn’t it a ‘Jevon’s Paradox’?

    The ‘efficiencies of scale’ lead to increased overall consumption.

    As a society we never say ‘let’s replace our 3 inefficient installations with one efficient one, and leave it at that’. Our logic of growth and production says ‘let’s build 4 hyper efficient centres and get twice the output for only 150% the resources and waste’.

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  • Julian OliverJulianOliver@mastodon.social
    Aug 1, 2026, 4:07 AM

    @0x00string @Astridd I never said we need more big DC's. We need less, & to do that we need to change what we use the Internet for, how & where we deploy, how & what we consume over networks.

    If we're to have an Internet at all (incl this fediverse) & not consume vastly more energy than we are, some centralisation of hardware & topology will remain necessary.

    Small, low-footprint ethical (esp coop/community) DCs can play part in that.

    Total decentralisation is an expensive fairytale

    (EDITED)

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  • Nullstring 🏴‍☠️0x00string@infosec.exchange
    Aug 1, 2026, 4:10 AM

    @JulianOliver @Astridd i dont understand why the internet isnt working right now? anyway, this is great, we need fewer bigger datacenters whatever blah blah blah, lets focus some resources then on building yet more of these buildings and filling them with yet more of our resources and then do what with the existing ones you think we need to replace? just scrap yard those like microsoft just had the world do with windows 10 pcs?

    noble on its face but when i think about it for a second its a huge waste of resource for no reason when there are infinitely better uses for resources, like replacing the fuels that are destroying the environment.

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  • AstridAstridd@aus.social
    Aug 1, 2026, 6:28 AM

    @0x00string @JulianOliver I'd rather no internet. Life was fine without it. Now we are staring doomsday in the face. Believe me, I wish that was as crazy as it sounds. I never suggested replacing them. Look at the science

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  • Julian OliverJulianOliver@mastodon.social
    Aug 1, 2026, 6:36 AM

    @Astridd @0x00string I don't think so, no. But there is so much DC e-waste out there that can be routed to small community run (or small business) scale DC projects. No new hardware is needed!

    I have Dell rack servers in my studio that are 10+years old, rescued en route to the trash, that run beautifully. I've setup whole 'clouds', streaming services, document servers, blogs++ on old dumpster dived PCs. Enough to support a small org, dozens of active users 24/7.

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  • WombatDhampirVampirePenguin@mastodon.social
    Aug 1, 2026, 2:33 AM

    @JulianOliver It's not enough to plant trees. They have to be tended. Watered. Protected from heat and ice and storms. They won't survive without attention, and we won't survive without them.

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  • TomWilsonYEGCTHW@mstdn.ca
    Aug 1, 2026, 2:55 AM

    @JulianOliver

    And that, to me, is why replacing ICE vehicles by manufacturing millions of electric powered new vehicles makes no sense. Each one adds tonnes to the atmosphere in the manufacturing process and yes the 10 year emissions are less than an ICE vehicle produces but the immediate effects are real and now.

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  • TomWilsonYEGCTHW@mstdn.ca
    Aug 1, 2026, 4:36 PM

    @benedikt_lauenburg @JulianOliver

    The problem with that to me is that it's like we have a big tub of water almost full but not quite. We don't want to overfill it because the overflow will damage everything below it. We can slow the filling down by throttling the tap filling it, but unless we remove some of the water, it will still fill up. It'll just take longer.

    And adding a bunch of water balloons to the tub to gain access to the tap for throttling, speeds up the fill at least in the short term. Depending on how close to overflowing we are, it can make sense. But not if it’s already close.

    A capital, free market response just ensures that it will fill.

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  • Evan Prodromou 🇨🇦🇺🇸🇬🇷🇵🇸evan@cosocial.ca
    Aug 1, 2026, 3:20 AM

    @JulianOliver I'm not sure I would say it quite like this, but this is mostly true. A lost species is lost forever, true. Additional GHGs in the atmosphere are not necessarily there forever. We can reach a drawdown point -- where emissions drop and reforestation and other natural sinks start bringing down the GHGs. However, that's decades away; 2026 will be the most reasonable year for climate for another 50 to 75 years.

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  • crumbletiltskincrumbletiltskin@mastodon.social
    Aug 1, 2026, 5:31 AM

    @evan @JulianOliver look at how quickly a fishery can be brought back from the brink if we just left it alone.

    My hopium is that climate will act the same way

    if we could just leave it alone.....

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  • Julian OliverJulianOliver@mastodon.social
    Aug 1, 2026, 5:38 AM

    @crumbletiltskin @evan No undo for climate change. It's a bit like trauma - no longer is the person the same.

    However, after some hundreds or thousands of years atmospheric CO2 levels could return to pre-industrial, but not after the oceans have warmed considerably, and the face of whole continents changed forever.

    I do rainforest conservation when I can. You can help, but never return it to how it was.

    We're in it now. IMO we only have preparation and mass damage minimisation, at this stage

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  • Julian OliverJulianOliver@mastodon.social
    Aug 1, 2026, 6:13 AM

    @nemeciii @crumbletiltskin @evan

    We have room, but not much.

    Ira Leifer, among the most cited atmospheric scientists in the world, with numerous papers to his name:

    "Some scientists are indicating we should make plans to adapt to a 4C hotter world.
    While prudent, one wonders what portion of the population could adapt to such a world. My view is that it's just a few thousand people seeking refuge in the Arctic or Antarctica."

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  • Chrisp65chrisp65_3@vivaldi.net
    Aug 1, 2026, 7:02 AM

    @JulianOliver

    Das wird ihnen nur anfangs etwas nützen. Wie die Geologie zeigt, waren die Pole ähnlich warm wie die andere Gebiete, als sie noch nicht vereist waren, zur Zeit von Pangaea. Nur in der arktischen Nacht war es kühler. Immerhin einige Monate.

    @nemeciii @crumbletiltskin @evan

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  • Matti Järvinennemeciii@mastodon.social
    Aug 1, 2026, 1:03 PM

    @evan @JulianOliver @crumbletiltskin the rampant climate change will:
    - kill fish from the oceans
    - wither the crops on the fields
    - render some parts of the world unhabitable
    - reduce our available drinkable water if microplastics don't do it first.
    - rise sealevels thus mixing our garbage dumps with seawater.

    It won't happen overnight but the way things are going it will be likely that no humans habit our planet after thousand years.

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  • Evan Prodromou 🇨🇦🇺🇸🇬🇷🇵🇸evan@cosocial.ca
    Aug 1, 2026, 2:49 PM

    @nemeciii @JulianOliver @crumbletiltskin those are all true, but climate change will still not wipe out humanity.

    You can read the report I sent, or AR6, or the WHO report which has a lower number of human deaths, although they count differently.

    who.int/publications/i/item/97

    Hundreds of millions of people, and many ecosystems, are still worth fighting for. It doesn't have to be an extinction-level event for humanity for us to work to stop it.

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  • Matti Järvinennemeciii@mastodon.social
    Aug 1, 2026, 5:17 PM

    @evan @JulianOliver @crumbletiltskin ah but this is limited to 2050. I'm talking about cascading effects that even with current emissions halted today would affect the next 1 000 years.

    If we reach the +3°C scenario, farming will end; you don't need further research to deduce what will happen to humanity.

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  • Andreas Groissoulsource@mastodon.gamedev.place
    Aug 1, 2026, 8:35 AM

    @JulianOliver @crumbletiltskin @evan There would still be Methane. Its concentration in the atmosphere decreases much faster than CO2 once emissions are reduced.

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphe

    "We" could also drastically cut its emissions by just fixing leaky gas pipelines, and stopping the un-burnt release at extraction sites (burning it to CO2 is not great either of course, but better than just releasing it). The problem: It's marginally cheaper to not fix the pipes and not burn the spillage.

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  • Julian OliverJulianOliver@mastodon.social
    Aug 1, 2026, 8:49 AM

    @soulsource @crumbletiltskin @evan We could also reduce CH4e very quickly by consuming significantly less animal breast milks and tissue. Ideally consuming none at all, until without other options.

    "Rapid global phaseout of animal agriculture has the potential to stabilize greenhouse gas levels for 30 years and offset 68 percent of CO2 emissions this century."

    journals.plos.org/climate/arti

    Few in the rich countries are prepared to personally make such a change of course.

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