<story><title>40% of US electricity is now emissions-free</title><url>https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/12/40-of-us-electricity-is-now-emissions-free/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>andy_ppp</author><text>The astonishing amount of gas being flared off from US shale production can be seen from space. Nobody is actually reducing emissions as far as I can tell, we are running the experiment of far more that 2°C increases in temperature. What should we expect to happen at say 3.5°C?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>simonhorlick</author><text>Anything about 2C is extremely risky for civilised society. It’s likely that we’ve already surpassed the tipping point for the West Antarctic ice sheet which over time will lead to meters of sea level rise. Changing weather patterns and simultaneous breadbasket failures will mean food becomes a lot more expensive - if you’re lucky enough to have access to it at all. At 3.5C many places on the planet become uninhabitable. People aren’t able to work outside for much of the year due to wet bulb temperatures. Regular storm surge causes a large percentage of the planets population to migrate. Salination of ground water and water for crop irrigation becomes a serious problem. Mountain glaciers that provide clean drinking water for millions of people dry up. In all, it’s hard to see a situation where we’d be able to maintain a reasonable quality of life under the conditions of &amp;gt;2C of warming.</text></comment>
<story><title>40% of US electricity is now emissions-free</title><url>https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/12/40-of-us-electricity-is-now-emissions-free/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>andy_ppp</author><text>The astonishing amount of gas being flared off from US shale production can be seen from space. Nobody is actually reducing emissions as far as I can tell, we are running the experiment of far more that 2°C increases in temperature. What should we expect to happen at say 3.5°C?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>chrisco255</author><text>We&amp;#x27;re nowhere near any such levels. Temperature trends are roughly 0.13C per decade and have not accelerated in spite of the bigger issue of nations like China and India expanding global coal demand.</text></comment>