God when are people going to get tired of this disgusting, useless, tween angst attitude toward life?
Conservatism has dragged America fifty years behind in tech progress and wasted all of our resources on destruction over building. I wish this country would get fucking NUKED. America is a dismal failure on every level
My dude, only 24 years have elapsed in this century https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/21st_century, the 25th year has only just started. Try again next year.
Extreme poverty worldwide is down from 38% to 8.5% since 2000. Global median income has doubled in that period. And yes, that's adjusted for inflation.
Oh, and renewable energy generation as share of the global energy mix has consistently beaten expectations during that period, too. Solar, specifically.
Bullshit. Global inequality is on a constant rise. The extreme poverty crap is propaganda by the world bank who lowered the poverty line for no other reason than to make capitalism look good.
That stuff about renewaple energy is simple greenwashing. The only year since 2000 when CO2 emissions went down was in 2020 thanks to COVID.
Doesn't look that way to me, given that the change has been pretty smooth and shows up on specific regions and adjusting for outliers and inflation (and matches the rise in median income).
More importantly, it's not incompatible with global inequality on the rise. Different stats measure different things.
Renewable energy beating expectations is the opposite of greenwashing, it specifically compares actual generated renewable energy against previous projections. If you want to poke holes into it for the sake of... denying anything good has ever happened, I guess? you should instead point out at how disproportionately that growth is driven by China.
And again, that's perfectly compatible with CO2 emissions going up. Different stats, different things.
And again, that’s perfectly compatible with CO2 emissions going up. Different stats, different things.
The only reason to care about renewables is if they prevent climate change. Why am I supposed to be happy solar panels exist, if CO2 emissions are increasing?
Because more solar means that the increase in CO2 was much less than it would've otherwise been without solar. An ocean liner doesn't turn on a dime. First emissions increase less than they would've, then they increase at rates lower than years past, then they stop increasing, and then finally they can begin decreasing
Because those are two separate parameters. Less solar panels don't mean less CO emissions, they mean more. You are cutting down on one metric even if you're not reversing the trend.
That is an absurd question, by the way. Why are you supposed to be unhappy we're making more solar panels in this scenario? What is the downside?
I don't know too much about the median income, but I'd wager that it was mostly because the really poor country got a bit better off. Also, at least according to Wikipedia, the latest definition of extreme poverty was made in 2015, before the recent inflation spikes.
And "beat expectations" is just a non-statement. What were the expectations? And how does it matter if we're still on track for a climate catastrophe? We've crossed the 1.5°C target.
but I'd wager that it was mostly because the really poor country got a bit better off.
That's what happened. The bimodal world income distribution has become unimodal as the working class of East Asia has seen a lot of improvement. Inequality in the first world went up since a lot of working class jobs left their countries while the wealthy were able to get richer.
Hey, I'll take poor countries getting a bit better off before any benefits to any American any day. That's good news, so point made.
As for "beat expectations", I was going off a specific study showing multiple official forecasts and how far behind actuals they all were, but unfortunately I don't have it handy.
But the data is the data, so here's another example from an Australian blog post: https://evcricketenergy.wordpress.com/2025/01/02/2030-renewables-in-australia-forecast-2024-update/
And some data on renewable generation overtaking fossil fuels in the EU: https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2024/09/Report_Wind-and-solar-overtake-EU-fossil-fuels-in-the-first-half-of-2024.pdf
I don't know why people look at this as such a binary. Climate change isn't an on-off switch. This has to happen regardless. Faster is better than slower. Climate catastrophe or not, we need to figure this out, it's about how bad things get before we do and how much extra work and impact we have to deal with from going over certain thresholds. Going over 1.5 doesn't mean we can give up now, we still have to get the renewable transition done, even if now we also have to deal with a bunch of humanitarian crises that wouldn't have happened had we transitioned sooner.
But energy use is way up and AI data centers have erased all gains from renewables.
Cool, but that's unrelated. We need the energy transition to happen anyway. Energy consumption is still climbing regardless, so we still need to move things over to renewables on top of whatever other actions we take. When it comes to climate stuff people tend to want a silver bullet or claim that anything short of that is useless, which I find kind of infuriatingly counterproductive.
Also, data centre power consumption has been up on aggregate on a very smooth curve since the 2000s. AI or no, those things have been burning through an increasing amount of energy over time. They need to generate that energy from clean sources in any case, which requires a faster energy transition.
Incidentally, I don't know if AI datacenters have "erased all gains". I don't have a direct comparison handy, but the numbers I see around for those two things seem an order of magnitude apart. If you have good sources I'd love to take a look, though.
I suspect the claim that AI has consumed all gains is hyperbole, given that it used to be applied to crypto.
Regardless, those assholes are still using too much power, privatising the benefits, and socialising the fall out.
Sure? But, again, the question is whether there have been positive changes this century. Separate negative changes are not a counterpoint.
AI power consumption would have been AI power consumption. The unexpectedly fast adoption of solar is there regardless.
Obviously, that depends how you're counting.
In the year 2,000, if you projected solar adoption, you might now be pleasantly surprised.
However in the year 2,000 if you projected progress on climate change, you'd probably now be horrified.
Solar adoption wouldn't be a positive if not for climate change.
Lord of the Rings (movies) came out this century. Let's give credit where credit is due.
It feels to me like it all went to shit when Bush stole the election from Gore - using the Supreme Court I might add.
I'm 37 this year and I remember being a kid at a time when we were all more optimistic and well off. When a middle class existed in the west. When we were told the world was our oyster and we just had to study and work hard to get anything we wanted. That piece of advice was valid to a handful of us millenials, diminishing to those born in the 1990s. My husband is 31 and has never been on an overseas holiday - the differences in privilege just being born 6 years later are stark and upsetting. It's only gotten worse for younger generations and the people who did all this are cackling as they push their boots in harder on our throats.
As a pacifist I just don't know what to do anymore other than try to live my life among the damned and hope it resolves itself before something comes for me and mine.
Born 1980 remember all the privilege we had before that day. Hell at 19 I lived on my own in one bedroom apartment. I remember working at Walmart in my 20's and still afford to have an apartment of my own. Started to go down hill in 2006. Before then I never needed roommates or someone else help pay bills.
Even at 22 making 6.25 an hour and had a studio apartment. You couldn't do that now on 12 an hour. Not without living in a getto.
Well, that was a soft coup, so yes.
They literally ignored election results.
I ate a really nice curry in 2014.
I learned how to make a really nice curry.
And that places closed a week later because of health code violations right?
So much good stuff has happened (in addition to all the bad stuff that also happened). The US elected its first black president. The ACA although far from perfect is a massive massive improvement over the situation that existed before it. There have been lots of improvements in medicine like rna vaccines, which have been in development for decades, and thankfully all that hard work came to fruition right when the world needed it and it saved millions of lives worldwide.
And tons more good stuff happened. We're talking about 25ish years, so of course tons of good stuff happened in addition to everything else
Let’s see if the the ACA survives or if it’s replaced with concepts of a plan.
It's not over until next year.
Has anything good even happened?
Yes, definitely. Americans are realizing that their country is shit too and they are not exempt from falling into an Autocracy. Maybe that will teach them a bit more compassion with other people around the world and will stop the arrogance of bringing "democracy" (because it's "clearly the best form of state") to countries who don't want it.
The american system is not a guarantee for the wellbeing of the people, and now that americans finally understand that, we can start actual constructive dialogue based on mutual respect, i hope.
Lol, ok, they totally didn't realize their country used to be good and will vote for anything thatll fix it, or at least, shake the fucking jar.
Not according to those who think that the new century only began in 2001 because the Christian calendar has no year 0 or smth.
So in the year 2000 it wasn't a new century? Seems pretty stupid
A lot of good games came out on the PS2. That was good.
PS3 too. I have to say, video games have gotten worse since that era ended. Not immediately, though.
Boomers 401k and McMansion values exploded
Their rich owner daddies got richer
Rest of working people gonna need to work harder so they can live their best lives!
Have you read about the first quarter of the prior century?
Robber barons and spiraling inequality:
Ooh! The dust bowl of the 30's and the, I'm sure, many many ecological and natural disasters heading our way will have nice synergy on your list as well.
The US will be playing the role of the Weimar Republic this time around, BTW.
Saw this post right below:
“# Steam On Linux Ends 2024 With A Nice Boost To Its Marketshare, AMD Linux CPU Use At 74%”
Guys, I don't think I will make it to the end. I could live to 122 years old but I don't want to.
Doom Eternal came out
Lots of good stuff has happened. It's not in the news though. Or on the ticktwits or whatever bullshit they're indoctriniating children with today.
Ok, Boomer.
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