This past year I went from seeing Climate Change as a "challenge to be overcome" to something that is simply happening during my lifetime. I suddenly realised that the truth is, in 20 years time 30+ degrees Summer Days will be completely normal in the Netherlands. I was jokingly asking myself when Switzerland will introduce the Siesta.
I my attitudes went from Denial to Activism to Acceptance. Interesting how the mind works. Anybody else experiencing an attitude change?
Just like to put out there that it it may be too late to stop climate change altogether, but things can get much worse and can get much better, and it is very much worth reducing emissions, preparing for a changing climate, and generally striving to survive.
I don't get the <throws hands in the air>It's just a done deal, back to netflix</> attitude, and prefer the 'Hey, our generation(s) have a task, let's get it done' one.
Climate change is continuous. 1.6 degrees is worse than 1.5. 2.2 degrees is worse than 2.1. Every ton of CO2 reduced improves the situation. This is true regardless of the harm already caused.
I’m not convinced activism is much more effective - everyone hates extinction rebellion every time they block a highway and politicians get points for saying they’ll stop it happening again. It really feels like the only real way a single person can make a difference is by running for office, and I would be a terrible politician.
Don't be so quick to disempower yourself. Everyone has something they can do (you're already doing a lot). Even just talking about it is extremely important (https://www.ted.com/talks/katharine_hayhoe_the_most_importan...)
FWIW there was a good comment piece in nature recently about activism. Summary thread: https://twitter.com/ThierryAaron/status/1564276454904430596 . There was another study - can't find it now :( that showed that actions from Insulate Britain (blocking roads) were effective.
Please keep on keeping on, we can't let up.
I live in a country where I still don't have the right to vote (maybe a decade from now). Instead of being anxious and getting stressed out everyday from thinking about the worsening climate, I feel it's better for my health to accept the fact and move on.
I had serious anxiety a few years ago about this, and ended up in Acceptance. I'm not happy ending up here, but I figure I got about 30 years left. That's pretty good, I'll take it.
I feel unmoored and untethered. The reasonable predictability of weather patterns is completely broken now.
The titanic is sinking, the best thing you can do for yourself is pop a bottle of champaign, find the most comfy chair and enjoy the spectacle.
Everybody cares about climate change, nobody will ever give up technological "progress", we're doomed, but hey, at least you can get free same day delivery on toilet paper
I think the next step is adaptation. Try to build some sort of resilient life for yourself and your family, try to help out the local community as much as possible etc. Try to not be too terrible to the people who will really suffer the most (Africa, parts of Asia etc.). This is kind of where I am right now.
Could you elaborate?
There are narrow streets, low-speed zones, even bike paths. Where's the horrible part?
Compared to Utrecht (which was the initial point of comparison here), it looks awful for cycling.
Why bike though? Plenty of places in Europe where children can walk to school.
School isn’t the only place a kid might want to go; their friends might live further away, there might be a park that would take quite a while to walk to but is an easy bike ride, etc.
Sure, I cycled, but for leisure, not transport.
I’m about to move somewhere slightly less dense though, with no local transit to speak of. From my house to the local high school is 27 min on foot vs. 7 by bike. From the high school to the neighboring town is 41 minutes on foot vs. 12 by bike. From there back home is again 41 minutes on foot or 12 by bike.
You can probably see how this might make an after-school trip possible that wouldn’t be otherwise.
That speed is totally doable on a bike, but there’s some time taken up at intersections so top speed would need to be higher to make up. (Although the main roads on these routes don’t have many signaled intersections, so maybe not too much faster.)
It certainly won't be too hot in 30 years. And sea level rise shouldn't be problematic yet this century.
I think doomerism is pretty common now, especially since groups like XR have started to become far more individualistic and neoliberal in their messaging, switching from more intense protests and occupations to more often just posting "please don't fly" things on Facebook.
My theory is that so many people in Europe especially are so incredibly wedded to their western democratic liberal ideals that they, as Jameson and Zizek said: find it "easier to imagine an end to the world than an end to capitalism", where for "capitalism" if you don't agree with a totally Marxist analysis you can really substitute any structural issue that is causing us to not take anywhere near enough action on the climate.
And it is, isn't it? It's far easier to imagine that we will keep accelerating towards climate catastrophe than to imagine that the structural changes that would need to occur for us to stop it will actually happen.
Also I literally said
> where for "capitalism" if you don't agree with a totally Marxist analysis you can really substitute any structural issue that is causing us to not take anywhere near enough action on the climate.
If you don't agree that it's capitalism, choose your own systematic issue...
Resource over-use is caused by government intervention. It's the governments who try to pump up their GDPs with various policies, which causes ever-growing consumption and resource use. They literally control the interest rates to get everyone to consume as much as possible.
However, whether it grows is another question. Today, we are seeing a massive collapse in populations around the world, which is a huge problem and no one really knows the root cause.
Please engage in the conversation rather than trying to score internet points on a platform that is specifically trying to avoid such.
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/09/05/world/thwaites-doomsday-g...
Thwaites gone would constitute a sea level rise of 10 feet, iirc.
There is some concern that a bracing portion of the glacier may collapse soon, which would take Thwaites from 4 to 6% of contribution to sea level rise.
The truth is richer European nations are unlikely to be the worst directly affected. No doubt there will be crop failures, disasters and deaths, but we will probably escape the worst of it. We have the resources to build effective infrastructure. The warmer climate could even make Europe more hospitable once we've adapted to it.
However, we won't be able to escape the consequences of the enormous humanitarian disaster due to many in poorer countries becoming climate migrants. I expect populist right wing parties to take an even tougher line on migration as the crises deepen, and possibly society in general to become more authoritarian as a result. Significant wars too, possibly.
Accepting it as inevitable means accepting hundreds of millions of people being displaced. If we want to deal with that gracefully, we need to start planning for how the rest of the world will absorb those individuals. Otherwise I fear we're going to be responsible for a lot of horrifying acts in the next century...
Try to account for possible scenarios when deciding where to live. Not too far south, on high ground.
I do find it hard to get used to the idea that everything will (probably) keep getting harder. More frequent pride spikes, weird weather, more instability. But even within that I think you can carry on happily if you only focus on what you can control. Possibly this attitude is what helped get us into this mess in the first place.
I understand the despair. But it is not too late and the problem is not "human nature". The problem is a status quo that can be abolished.
All the money my local bank is putting in local project will go to Total and Exxon, i will stop my hiking vacations and choose all inclusive hostels on others continents, and visit cities or areas that will become unlivable in the future.
Or maybe not. But i decided that this next five years will be the last years I'm really caring.
Now I realize it just doesn’t matter to the people really behind the wheel.
Eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we’ll die. Fuck it
If there is a physical signal strong enough to orient the capable majority of 8 billion people with a common vector field in regard to the climate situation, I haven’t seen it yet.
We're on the cusp of something major. There's no guarantee it will get here in time to save us. But it's a real possibility.
Is like saying civilization-scale delegation is a failure, like saying mankind is a failure
> Quiet quitting
Maybe, but also maybe they’re all just like me, maybe my nihilism and apathy is raging against the machine despite my desire
If you're able to help to any degree, for any reason, then you've done your part. It'd probably be healthier if it were hopeful and motivated by wanting to build a better world, but if it's nihilism and rage, then that's okay. If all you can do is work less or consume less, or just not to stand in the way, then that's okay; that's enough.
Democracy is not optimal for decision making (far from it), but at least it does allow the activists to have boots on the ground. Under other forms of government, activists tend to go more like IEDs on the ground.
Still, considering the worst-case scenarios, if we're going to go authoritarian (a big IF!), I'd rather get there instead of being decimated by global warming rather than after.
To be clear I do not advocate authoritarianism and would like to see direct democracy (or more direct, at the very least). I don't believe authoritarianism is compatible with surviving climate change, and even if I did I didn't think it would exacerbate climate change, I wouldn't advocate for it because I believe horizontal structures make better decisions & create more just societies then heirarchical ones.
but also
> I am not a fan of democracy
> Capitalism is not an eternal fact of nature
In our lifetime, when capitalism is the weaker fundamental force driving man’s priorities, I’ll come and give you all of my money.
What? Democrats just passed the Inflation Reduction Act, while Republicans are the lead villains in the world when it comes to aggravating the problem.
https://earthjustice.org/blog/2022-august/inflation-reductio...
I don't know how you can say that. I know exactly where jet fuel comes from and knew my flight to Britain was going to melt something like 2 m^2 of arctic ice.
Don't get me wrong, I try to avoid travelling and reduce my footprint where I can, but like they say, there is no ethical consumption under capitalism. Consuming less is great, but the problem is that this economy is structured in a way that will kill us, not that we need to consume things to live.
Big change has to come from the bottom up. If the electorate doesn’t ask for changes to be made, politicians aren’t going to make them. Now that climate is a political left/right issue, it’s even less likely for meaningful change to happen. The right seems to have forgotten how much of our existing environmental protections were put in place by Republican administrations (especially Nikon’s).
I doubt many of us will give that up voluntarily. Most people don’t want to walk away from Omelas.