Photos reveal melted lampposts, power line poles split in half and charred homes in the Texas Panhandle as the state battles its second-largest wildfire in state history.

Just a reminder that it’s still February, people.

  • TherouxSonfeir@lemm.ee
    3114·
    9 months ago

    Lies I hear:

    global warming is fake

    if we recycle and use electric cars we can fix the planet

    we are not past the point of no return

    we are making real progress to fight climate change

    I’m sorry if that ruins your day, but maybe you need to wake up.

    • Sekoia@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      256·
      9 months ago

      Those last two points are just doomerism that is either

      1. Wrong and actively unhelpful, you’re discouraging people from helping
      2. Right and useless since all it does is spread negativity. If it’s all over, why make it worse for people?
      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
        112·
        9 months ago

        I don’t want to be a doomer, but I do kind of feel like climate change is going to get worse and worse and we will pay a terrible price.

        I’m not one of those “civilization will end” types, but I think there will be a lot more refugees and a lot more war. If the Himalayan ice caps melt, a lot of Asia is very fucked.

        • Sekoia@lemmy.blahaj.zone
          6·
          9 months ago

          There’s a pretty big difference between “it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better”, and “it’s already over, we’re all fucked”.

          The original comment presents things poorly: we are past several “points of no return”, but saying the point of no return implies there’s nothing to be done.

          Additionally the last point is… pretty much entirely wrong. We have absolutely made significant and noticeable progress against climate change. It’s not enough yet, but it’s absolutely not nothing.

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
            1·
            9 months ago

            I understand that. I’m just suggesting that doomers might not be 100% wrong because I think a lot of bad stuff is going to happen, so we shouldn’t just dismiss dire predictions entirely.

            I just don’t think this will be the end of our species or even human civilization everywhere. But in some places? Quite possibly.

        • MotoAsh@lemmy.world
          1·
          9 months ago

          If everyone’s living in refugee and migrant camps, how is that not a collapse of civilization?

        • TherouxSonfeir@lemm.ee
          21·
          9 months ago

          I’m not specifically saying that suddenly the planet is going to swallow up humanity as a whole. But, as you said — climate refugees — plus an uncertain food and water supply, and disastrous weather are going to cause humanity to fight amongst themselves. We will end up destroying ourselves to “survive.”

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
            31·
            9 months ago

            I think there will be plenty of places where life will go on without everyone having to till the soil. But there will be a lot more death and pain.

            • TherouxSonfeir@lemm.ee
              21·
              9 months ago

              The death and pain will come from the people in bad areas attacking those in the good ones.

              • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
                52·
                9 months ago

                That is not something you can predict with any certainty. That may happen and it may not. We can’t know at this point. But there will definitely be a price paid for our continued fossil fuel use.

        • muntedcrocodile@lemmy.world
          11·
          9 months ago

          Moat people in the first world will be fine at the small cost of thousands of dead poor people. But then again never mind the poor people.

      • TherouxSonfeir@lemm.ee
        54·
        9 months ago

        • Right, and with little proof to say otherwise. Climate scientists outside of fund-raising organizations and profit publications aren’t too optimistic.

        • I’m not going to sugar coat reality just because a person wants to believe everything is going to get better.

        We are fucked. Don’t be delusional. Focus on how we can best handle the inevitable disaster, instead of ignoring it and not making a plan for humanity to adapt as much as it can—in time.

        • PlantJam@lemmy.world
          21·
          9 months ago

          Things will absolutely get better. After the inevitable disaster, of course, and we may not be here to see it, but they will get better.

          • TherouxSonfeir@lemm.ee
            32·
            9 months ago

            Humanity won’t be here to see it, but yes… there will still be a planet after human influence is washed away.

          • Rhaedas@kbin.social
            1·
            9 months ago

            Better is a very relative term. A ramp up to a hothouse Earth will be better for exotherms to spread out more. Doesn’t work well for most other species still here now.

            If it was just humans that were impacted, then I’d be sad about the lost potentials we may have had, but be fine with life going on for the rest. The crime is that we’re dragging down just about everything else with us.

          • Rhaedas@kbin.social
            1·
            9 months ago

            Better is a very relative term. A ramp up to a hothouse Earth will be better for exotherms to spread out more. Doesn’t work well for most other species still here now.

            If it was just humans that were impacted, then I’d be sad about the lost potentials we may have had, but be fine with life going on for the rest. The crime is that we’re dragging down just about everything else with us.

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
            1·
            9 months ago

            You can’t predict that for sure. Things did not get better 65 million years ago for a lot of species. But it’s possible things will get better for us.

    • SeaJ@lemm.ee
      1·
      9 months ago

      On your second point, I don’t think any expert on the subject has ever claimed that recycling and electric cars will fix 100% of the issue. People unfortunately like simple solutions though so when they hear that you should recycle, they think that will fix the problem. Fixing climate change and the environmental damage we have done is not something that can be fixed with one action. Is recycling good? Absolutely, especially recycling metals. Are electric cars better? Sure. Even better? Use a bike or a train. Should billionaires fly less? 100%. None of those come close to solving the climate problem on their own.

      You are correct that we are passed the point where we can avoid major environmental and economic damage. We hit the 1.5°C mark last year and this year is not looking better. Our job now is to minimize the damage.

      • TherouxSonfeir@lemm.ee
        11·
        9 months ago

        I don’t think we should give up and make it worse. I do think we should try to make it last as long as we can. I’m not gonna run out and buy a big truck just to hurry things along.

        Realistically, humanity will die eventually no matter what we do. Everything dies. Unfortunately, to remove our dependency on all of the various things that are bad for the environment would require trillions of dollars in investments that will never return a “profit,” and near 100% worldwide support. Humanity cannot agree on anything as a whole.

  • nxdefiant@startrek.website
    9·
    9 months ago

    Second largest fire in Texas behind Greg Abbot himself. It would be third if Ted Cruz ever actually showed up for work.

  • rekabis@lemmy.ca
    6·
    9 months ago

    Welcome to Climate Change, where massive wildfires in North America during winter become normalized.

    Canada is gonna have a fun year WRT wildfires this year. Western Canada is still in the grips of a massive drought, we got only a fraction of the winter precipitation we needed, and a good chunk of that was in rain instead of the snow that would produce watershed runoff well into the summer.