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Comment by nimvlaj30 | Hacker News Reader

> God grant me the serenity

> to accept the things I cannot change;

> courage to change the things I can;

> and wisdom to know the difference.

Civilisation as we know it, and perhaps even humanity is in the process of ending. The ending is inevitable, whether it is now or nearer to the heat death of the universe.

If you can personally try and affect change, then you should do it. But more likely, you are a slave to the same system that everyone else is. I'd recommend working on acceptance at this point.

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> whether it is now or nearer to the heat death of the universe

That makes a huge difference. Even having it wind down over a period of a few thousand years, or even a few hundred, would be a hell of a lot better than what is looking like the increasingly likely prospect of having it wind down in a few decades. That is going to cause an incalculable amount of pain.

if this is your attitude then at least get out of the way

The thought that came to mind was "ok boomer".

Edit: yeah, not positive but a knee-jerk reaction to the grandparent comment that essentially said "I got mine, Jack -- sucks to be you".

I don't understand; why would you post this? Do you think this will help the situation?

Why? Anger and frustration. Probably shouldn't have but the grandparent comment practically invited it.

There's so much we can do to mitigate the damage but that won't happen through complacency.

I agree that there is a lot to do to mitigate damage, and that complacency does not help. But posting meme responses neither mitigates damage, or reduces complacency. In my experience these kind of responses tend to reinforce complacent attitudes.

I can't see how someone posting their attitudes to climate change is "getting in the way." It's useful to know that people are starting to feel this way.

Maybe you could post your own attitudes and provide some justification for them instead? This may convince the other poster to change theirs. Currently your comment is pointless.

Ok, try this:

The money we spent on the Afghanistan and Iraq wars could have paid for true energy independence using renewables. We have a pending budge proposition to try and address it but some say we can't afford it.

How can we afford endless war but not afford investing in power that civilization needs but doesn't kill us?

Ok, I "tried this", and thinking about it did nothing to help the problem.

I try to choose the most useful response, which for me is volunteering time in organizations that develop solutions. This way I can use my personal expertise and contribute something, however small. If I find a more useful path, then I will take it.

Damn nice hate. OP was saying how he is losing sleep over climate change.

The requirements involved with contributing to slowing (or stopping) climate change do not include worrying about it. If you are losing sleep, you would benefit from changing your attitude towards it.

Civilisational decline is a constant. It is coming. Accept it now, and work to delay it if you can make a meaningful change. If not, don't lose sleep over it.

I'm doing what I can to invest in future green tech and trying to limit my consumption. I am NOT losing sleep over the fact that we probably don't have much more of a future as a race.

In your comment above, the last half semi-conflicted with the first half, which could easily be interpreted to imply that we shouldn’t really worry or do anything about it. Individually, that may be somewhat true / useful. But on a societal level it is quite harmful when it comes to climate change. I think that is why you are taking heat.

What you are saying would make sense if we ignore the context of the conversation. OP is losing sleep, which is a common way of telling the reader that their mental health is suffering due to wrestling with the concept of climate change and how society is underprepared for it.

If we ignore all that, then it sounds like I'm saying to give up. But if we take the context into account, it is evident that I'm actually giving OP advice on how to mentally and emotionally survive the coming apocalypse.

Though, maybe I should have been more clear.

> which could easily be interpreted

Perhaps there are more than one way in which to interpret certain concepts? Or maybe I'm interpreting your comment wrong?

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