• corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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    5 months ago

    we should take use and

    “take use” is a weird construct.

    harness the resources that we have.

    Here’s the thing: Every ounce burned creates emissions, which harms the atmosphere, which is already at a tipping point, and this on a 20-year lag. Burning the already extracted oil that’s being stored now will be enough to absolutely destroy to planet to where we can’t live on it, and we’re currently in the future we made 20 years ago, and the future we’d have if we only drastically reduced consumption just after Y2K but didn’t stop using it completely. We did neither, and so we have all this stashed oil we’re eager to use.

    So we don’t even have to extract another ounce if we want to wreck the planet to where we’re extinct: We just need to use our reserves. Extracting that oil is no longer important, then. We can shut the rigs and walk away, and it’s already too late unless we make some serious investment in reversing what we’ve already done. We haven’t made appreciable progress yet, so killer heat-waves and ‘small’ killer storms that only cause a few hundred-billion-dollars worth of damage and a few thousand deaths each year is a nightmare scenario we’re only going to experience for a short time before it gets worse and keeps getting worth for 20 years – or more, if we keep going.