this post was submitted on 18 Feb 2026
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Climate
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Discussion of climate, how it is changing, activism around that, the politics, and the energy systems change we need in order to stabilize things.
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What if we stopped using oil cold turkey? Sure, still wouldn't reverse things immediately, but sure as heck wouldn't continue to make things worse....
Coal, oil, and gas, all three need to be stopped. They are the bulk of the problem, but not all of it; we also need to end some industrial chemicals like SF₆ stop deforestation, and sharply reduce methane production in agriculture.
Cold turkey will kill a lot of people as existing food systems depend on fossil fuels for everything from nitrate fertilizer manufacturing to food delivery.
A managed phase-out is far preferable because of that.
Stopping meat and dairy would instantly take care of deforestation, methane excess, and fertilizer shortages, and it would free up a massive amount of logistical capacity. Most of our agriculture is dedicated to feeding farm animals, mostly with stuff we could eat too.
This could be done cold turkey in literal hours, redirecting soybean shipments from factory farms to groceries and letting everything else collapse abruptly.
That at least is physically possible. Its also well under half the problem. So things get worse a bit more slowly if that’s all we do. It takes a lot more to actually stabilize temperatures