Today I went to work, worked in the garden, made dinner, cleaned the dishes and waited for the world to end.
If this climate change were natural, I'd be sad at how much it will cost to save what can be saved, and how much will be lost. But I myself won't live to see the worst of it.
What makes me angry today is that the same climate denialists are applying equally motivated reasoning to make a lot of people's lives worse right now. Climate denialism is a conspiracy theory, and they see conspiracies everywhere. American national discourse is non-existent because every issue is immediately shut down with "if you want it, it must be part of your attempt at world domination." The reasoning is appalling, but they've been trained on climate change (among others) to accept just outright stupidity.
And I'm at a complete loss for what to do. Everything I believe in stems from being able to make a solid case and have it be accepted by at least a majority. If that fails the alternatives are awful.
But yeah we 'lost' in past few years non-trivial part of population and the correction is nowhere in sight. Discussion doesn't seem to be possible, facts on one side and bad emotions on the other are missing each other pretty badly.
I don't care about conspiracy theory losers. They're not powerful enough to put the blame on. At least not the majority of it.
Even then, they will just say it's always been like this, that's what young people born in 2000s are saying now.
Economically: fishermen, businesses near low-altitude ski stations, mediterranean farmers (Spain, Italy, Greece, Maghreb). Quality of life-wise: Iran, Northern African countries now have to live with 45-50C temperatures every summer. Disasters-wise: increased intensity of floods in South-East Asia, China, Taiwan, South Korea during rainy season, ...
The list goes on. The thing is, QOL improvements based on economic growth often counter-balance these in the short term. But growth is slowing down and warming is speeding up.
20 dead bodies were brought into the morgue in Phoenix AZ every day last week. They have a backlog of over 300 unexplained deaths from July alone. You don't have to go as far as Africa to find unlivable conditions.
As for the Phoenix numbers, I assume you're referencing this situation[1]; as of a week ago, Maricopa County had 24 confirmed heat-associated death year-to-date, with another 249 deaths under investigation. Maricopa County has four and a half million people, over 60% of Arizona's population; even if all 249 deaths under investigation end up being heat-related, that's still way fewer than deaths from diabetes, suicide, or drug overdoses[2] (reasonably assuming that the causes of death in Maricopa County are proportional to that of the state of Arizona as a whole).
That is to say; "unlivable" is a stretch.
[0]: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5...
[1]: https://abcnews.go.com/US/arizona-maricopa-county-phoenix-me...
[2]: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/states/arizona/arizona.ht...
With that said. I don't trust the article nor do I enjoy reading it. It makes odd claims, and comes from a place running articles that I have a real problem with. Things that reach into my childhood and that would probably (very high) mean my death had I been born a bit later. You can disagree, but I am oft correct to a point where my hope that you are correct is sincere.
One thing of note is the term conspiracy theory. There is nothing wrong with observing a situation and coming to the conclusion that something isn't right. It is natural and more important than I think people are willing to admit. The conspiracy portion of the term is quite simple to achieve given almost everything involves at least one other person. A news network doing an interview with a person being a great example. Or there is this article where a writer/editor/business are in a conspiracy. The other requirement being a theory. Theories got us where we are today, often with others involved.
If you truly want to use your words to fight climate change, go talk to those with an alternative theory and present your facts to win them over. All you are doing now (and this is fine, I am not critisizing you here) is complaining to already converted people.
Lastly, and this will be the first time I have made this public, I think we should shift the goal posts as a society. No more stopping climate change. Let's change it to controlling the climate. The climate will change without us here and targeting THAT also targets climate change. The key difference is what it means to the person. One goal makes you a bad person because you like to enjoy a long drive. The other goal makes you a good person because you are fighting the world for the sake of your fellow humans.
It goes without saying that we need to reach both goals anyway at some point. Best start early.
Reduce industrial activity? Look at the Mauna Loa CO2 levels from 2020 to 2023 which do not appear to deviate from their regular increase of around 2.3 or so ppm. So even a 'devastating' industrial economic shutdown had no perceptible effect on the relentless increase.
Certainly one contributor to recent warming is the 10% increase in water vapour in the atmosphere brought about by the January 2023 under-sea earthquake off Japan. It's estimated to have projected trillions of gallons of water into the sky thus causing a substantial heating effect.
https://www.aier.org/article/the-devastating-economic-impact....
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-02-16/tongan-volcano-impact...
https://www.npr.org/2022/08/03/1115378385/tonga-volcano-stra...
It may all collapse earlier than you think. We seem to observe year after year that it is changing faster than what our models conservatively predicted.
We're not talking about a hundred years, we're talking about decades. If we don't change society in a major way in the next 2 decades, we're pretty much done.
Most people alive today will live to see how bad it gets (and many of them won't survive it if we keep on doing nothing).
Don't be scared, homies!
Many people whose consumption is very great complain of time stress, diseases of affluence, a sense of purposelessness, etc. Going back to the per capita material and energy throughputs of the 1960s by raising consumption for many and decreasing it for a few could easily make both groups significantly better off.
My optimistic side says that technology will fix it (AI & superconductors?) and we'll look back on this like we look back at kids doing nuclear war drills in elementary school during the cold war.
I have a feeling that there will be some massive humanitarian crisis--mass migration due to floods maybe.
Then some nation(s) will roll the dice and go for the quick 'fix' of tossing reflective 'glitter' into the atmosphere.
I'm going to reveal my ignorance, but is this a genuine idea that has been floated by researchers/engineers?
Yep. I have a variation of Hofstadter's law.
Climate Change Law: "The amount of time it will take to see the dangerous effects of global warming will be shorter than estimated. Even when taking the Climate Change Law into consideration."
still, living like they orbit one another, my grandfather, the planet, & grandma, his moon assigned by some gravitational pull. they have loved long enough for a working man to retire. grandma says she’s not tired,
she wears her husband like a coat that survives every season, talks about him the way my parents talk about vinyl— the subject salvaged by the tent of their tongues. grandma returns to her love like a hymn, marks it with a color.
when the world ends will it suck the earth of all its love? will i go taking somebody’s hand, my skin becoming their skin? the digital age is taking away our winters,
and i’m afraid the sun is my soulmate, that waste waits for a wet kiss, carbon calls me pretty, and i think death is a good first date.
i hope when the world ends it leaves them be, spares grandpa and his game, grandma spinning corn into weight,
the two of them reeling into western theme songs, the TV louder than whatever’s coming.
Go to your city council meetings. Argue to remove minimum parking requirements. Argue for mixed use zoning. Support public transit projects, affordable housing projects.
Check out: https://www.climatechangemakers.org/playbook-parking-mandate...
https://www.climatechangemakers.org/preview-contact-your-cit...
Contact your local government leaders and tell them what policies you’re pissed about. It’s free and takes only 30 ish minutes of your time or less.
Point is that we can organize and there are things we can do.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightning they Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height, Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And then he would get a roaring applause for being the worst kind of cynic that exists: someone who has no ideas or thoughts other than pandering to people's sense of self-importance.[1]
Truly glad that that waste of space is dead and buried.