My partner didn't know CO2 emissions are still rising Is that a common misperception? Does that explain some of the backlash against climate policy? - ThreadSky

femkenijsse.bsky.social • 92 days ago

My partner didn't know CO2 emissions are still rising

Is that a common misperception? Does that explain some of the backlash against climate policy?

Comments

thierryaaron.bsky.social•91 days ago

A very common public misconception is that if emissions stabilise then so will tempreture!

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-006-9107-5

femkenijsse.bsky.social•91 days ago

Absolutely. Removed that from Wikipedia's main climate change article only three weeks ago.

danielwilliams965.bsky.social•91 days ago

Just another artifact of 'Big Climate'; paid for and run by economists to maintain fossil fuel revenues

Still no mention of shale being the major driver of the past decade of warming..
https://danielrwilliams.medium.com/hydrofracturing-the-real-cause-of-recent-global-temperature-spikes-cfe108a1aedc

rosjackson.co.uk•92 days ago

It's very easy to assume climate info is general knowledge, especially if your work touches on it, but it isn't, and there's a lot of misinformation to contend with too.

dvschroeder.bsky.social•92 days ago

Most people probably have no idea. But among those who do, it's easy to confuse the country you live in with the world as a whole.

coxypm.bsky.social•91 days ago

Evan? He's a super bright guy, so it's worrying if he thinks we've got emissions under control. Was he thinking about UK emissions, which are falling? (Global emissions are not yet).

femkenijsse.bsky.social•91 days ago

No, he was referring to global emissions. Learned from The Rest is Politics that it's still rising.

His thinking wasn't that it's under control, but that it's declining too slowly.

coxypm.bsky.social•91 days ago

I see. Despite the record emissions in 2023, global emissions are almost flat, so hopefully, Evan will be right soon....;-).

femkenijsse.bsky.social•91 days ago

My bet (and I should check my own modelling) is that this year will be the peak.

coxypm.bsky.social•91 days ago

I'd love to see that modelling, and let's have a celebratory meal if you are right!

diggtruth.bsky.social•91 days ago

May be your national media don't cover the subject well enough?

aardgoose.info•91 days ago

Worse, a lot of it just lies.

philollenberg.ca•91 days ago

dominiquesoenens.bsky.social•91 days ago

Worldwide rising, but decreasing in Europe, no?

femkenijsse.bsky.social•91 days ago

Yes, the EU achieved an astounding 8% drop last year (https://climate.ec.europa.eu/news-your-voice/news/climate-action-progress-report-2023-shows-largest-annual-drop-emissions-decades-2024-10-31_en). The surge in renewable electricity is really delivering now.

scott-matthew.bsky.social•91 days ago

Wonderful to see real progress.

kaymau.bsky.social•91 days ago

I see this in a lot of smart and generally well informed people.
So frustrating.
And yes, I blame the media.

rockwallaroo.bsky.social•91 days ago

I don't think it's a common misconception.

ejwwest.bsky.social•91 days ago

Along with the usual long debunked “trace gas”, it’s volcanoes, it’s the sun, it’s plant food, etc arguments that have been around for decades.

femkenijsse.bsky.social•91 days ago

Is climate denial moving back to that? I thought it had mostly moved towards solutions (so conspiracy stories of how polluting EVs are, how expensive solutions are, how people will be forced to enjoy cycling etc).

jonmoore.bsky.social•91 days ago

My impression on twitter at least is the deniers are increasingly using both old and new arguments. They are very vocal but what is unclear how much impact the arguments have. Climate Change: The Movie brought a lot of the old denier arguments back.

thedisproof.bsky.social•91 days ago

I debunked the climate denial movie here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQlEAL6N80g

jonmoore.bsky.social•91 days ago

If you don't already follow @thedisproof.bsky.social on here or twitter, it is worth doing as he regularly debunks the major deniers.

thedisproof.bsky.social•91 days ago

Thankyou Jon :)

ejwwest.bsky.social•91 days ago

There’s definitely that too, claiming net zero is too expensive (whilst ignoring the costs of doing nothing). But in “the other place” climate science denial is still a big thing. It apparently absolves them of having to propose alternative policies to net zero.

captinfido.bsky.social•47 days ago

With factory farming,and deforestation at an all time High..I see Climate Denial as an easy way to do Nothing..for the ignorance to be a political ploy..to allow this intolerable lack of responsibility concerning our environment.CO2 levels are rising,due to ManMade Climate Crisis.

frankreif.bsky.social•92 days ago

That technologies are accelerating exponentially.

When really the fastest acceleration was probably about 100 years ago.

donlinn.bsky.social•91 days ago

The overwhelming majority of people are oblivious to the entire subject because they're under-educated, not paying attention, or don't care because they're busy doing jobs, paying bills, raising kids, etc.

Sad but true...

femkenijsse.bsky.social•91 days ago

This is not what polling suggests: 80% is worried or very worried about climate change in Europe: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/policy-institute/assets/peritia-climate-change%E2%80%8B.pdf

People often care, but may be unaware or unable to change

donlinn.bsky.social•91 days ago

I'm in the US. Those are interesting numbers for Europe.

femkenijsse.bsky.social•91 days ago

While the numbers are a bit lower in the US, still a majority is concerned and 72% support climate policies: https://ourworldindata.org/climate-change-support.

Even some republicans in Congress might not want to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act (mostly because it's good jobs): https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/trump-biden-climate-bill-renewable-energy-b3e5fe03

individkid.bsky.social•91 days ago

Lots of scientists claim emissions are not growing as fast, in the US. Not growing as fast could be confused with not growing, and in the US could be confused with in general. That's why I believe a focus on barrels of crude per day would be the best.

jmayday.bsky.social•92 days ago

Is your partner distracted or a pod connected to the matrix?

femkenijsse.bsky.social•92 days ago

His logic is that there has been a lot of climate action since Paris, which implies we must be over the peak

diggtruth.bsky.social•91 days ago

That too is a severe misconception!

jmayday.bsky.social•92 days ago

The backlash is manufactured by interests that have specific industries interests. The same levers being used by many right wing power brokers. It is sad.

femkenijsse.bsky.social•92 days ago

While this is a major driver of the backlash of course, it's not the whole story

Five years ago, protest managed to break their narratives. The illusion that Paris and protests were fully successful might be a reason fossil industry is gaining traction again

doctorvive.bsky.social•91 days ago

Both the reasons you've given for your partner's misapprehension are narratives advanced by mainstream climate communicators.

May I screenshot your responses here and tweet about them so I can warn against these kinds of messages?

femkenijsse.bsky.social•91 days ago

Of course, feel free!

tomvasseur.bsky.social•91 days ago

Seems to me that most don't know but would guess towards emissions rising; people also hugely underestimate the impact of climate change, though, an even bigger issue

The comments under climate-related videos on YouTube of vrtnws (Flemish public TV) reflect the general public's knowledge well

tomvasseur.bsky.social•91 days ago

What plays a part in backlash in Europe is that people feel we're a bunch of suckers shooting ourselves in the foot for putting in work climate action while "they're still building coal plants in China"

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