What can be done to prevent more dangerous heatwaves in Europe?

Does Europe need to plant more trees in it’s cities?

It appears that Europe does many things right for sustainability and climate change - public transit over cars, recycling, reducing carbon footprint better compared to other parts of the world. Of course all communities can do better at reducing their carbon footprint - Is this America’s fault with their carbon footprint that Europe is suffering? America has their cars, and simply cranks up their Air conditioners when it’s hot.

What else is there to do? I thought China had success improving their renewable energy output, even though they are still polluters, is it the actions of China and the USA causing misery in Europe? How do we help Europeans suffering and prevent this from happening again?

  • bagsy@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    nothing, nothing we do now will stop the warming. if we end all fossil fuel burning, concrete production, and livestock production tomorrow, the atmosphere will continue to warm for hundreds of years before peaking. We are cooked. Grab your popcorn.

    • Strider@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      👆

      Also, it would be helpful not to worsen it with some hype, currently AI or to let go of old fossil technology. But there we go.

      • bagsy@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        I’m not saying do nothing. I’m saying nothing can be done about the warming.

    • GreenBeard@lemmy.ca
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      2 days ago

      This. What part of “well past the tipping point” do people not understand? The time to take drastic action was 20 years ago. It’s “adapt or die” time. The good news is, the elderly are more vulnerable so that should help with the population decline issue.

    • JohnnyEnzyme@piefed.social
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      2 days ago

      nothing, nothing we do now will stop the warming.

      What if (theoretically speaking, because I don’t think we’re close yet) we rolled out carbon-capture technology and implementation on a massive scale? How much useful impact would that have on mitigating CC versus how much of that is still out of our hands?

      • black0ut@pawb.social
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        22 hours ago

        Carbon capture technology was always some kind of excuse that execs had to pollute today because we could theoretically fix it in the future.

        Despite some technology that works to remove carbon from the atmosphere, it’s just not viable. We output so much CO2 to the atmosphere that we just have no capacity to even build enough carbon capture facilities to reach net zero, and that’s without taking their energy consumption into account. Even if we stopped producing CO2 tomorrow, and suddenly enough carbon capture facilities to capture carbon at the same rate we were releasing it appeared, it would still take decades to make a meaningful change.

        And carbon isn’t our only problem. Methane is a way worse greenhouse gas, and we keep releasing it to the atmosphere because it’s cheaper than trying to control it.

        This is not to discourage from building such carbon capture technology. If it’s powered by renewables and built without a significant carbon/other contaminants footprint, by all means, build it. But it won’t save us from what’s to come.

        • JohnnyEnzyme@piefed.social
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          5 hours ago

          Carbon capture technology was always some kind of excuse that execs had to pollute today because we could theoretically fix it in the future.

          You’re exaggerating. While that’s true, and fits a pattern of such executive / corporate behavior, there’s more to it from what I know. That is, various science researchers around the world really have been studying CC tech as a potential helper to mitigation, if not as a primary solution. That goes back to the late 70’s if I understand correctly.

          And carbon isn’t our only problem. Methane is a way worse greenhouse gas, and we keep releasing it to the atmosphere because it’s cheaper than trying to control it.

          Last I recall, methane is ~20x more potent than CO2 in the GH effect, and arguably represents one of the more potent tipping points.

          Even if we stopped producing CO2 tomorrow, and suddenly enough carbon capture facilities to capture carbon at the same rate we were releasing it appeared, it would still take decades to make a meaningful change.

          My original point was about if CC tech could make a dramatic difference in the CO2 we’ve already placed in the atmosphere. Not just do a ‘working offset.’ I think that still presents problems in mitigation, I’m just not sure why from a science standpoint.

    • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Sorry. But this comment made me think of this:

      Anyway? We’re fucked and the game now is to mitigate and adapt.