Why Climate Change Will Crush Civilization Like a Bug
medium.com
medium.com
It sounds increasingly like "wait for the end". This guy is talking about power lines melting due to heat. And land that gets so much rain, heat, dry, and frost no crops can survive a growing season.
I have time and resources but no idea even where to put them.
I can't imagine even building an indoor garden will work in that kind of environment, neighbors will just come take whatever you have. There's too many of us, too much instability.
Seriously if anyone knows how I can help, please let me know. When my local community started suffering from lack of fire fighters I joined up. When ambulances got more scarce, I signed up and am becoming an EMT. I already don't drive and eat vegetarian, and barely consume anything. What's level 2 look like for this? I won't accept "watch the world die", so how can I help?
It states up front that the actions of an individual are basically meaningless in a global system but then lists things that you can do that will make a difference if enough people do them.
The problem is American politics. Dealing with climate change is hard, but it's the Americans making it impossible. We are among the most prolific producers, both individually and in aggregate, and we're the only ones widely denying that the problem even exists. The rest of the world is reluctant to make (and stick to) a deal without American help.
The thing with climate change deniers is that they're not just wrong on climate change. Climate change denial is a conspiracy theory, and people who believe one conspiracy theory are often open to more. The US is intermittently run by conspiracy theorists, doing all kinds of harm.
That's the thing you can affect. You make it clear that you will not tolerate conspiracy theories. You tell people, "Voting is not just one day every few years. It has consequences that affect me, personally. We cannot be friends if you are going to make choices that hurt me. The time has past where we can just 'agree to disagree'."
You cannot do anything about this problem on your own. It must be a group effort. Solving it yourself would be like trying to contribute your part to solving traffic by building a few feet of your own road.
Like I said, this is ugly. Our friendship is the only real lever we have on how people act. People are going to tell me that we shouldn't let politics pick our personal lives, and that my approach here will just increase divisiveness. But I think divisiveness is already far past a tolerable level and extreme actions are required.
So... feel free to ignore me. But I think this needed to be said.
I know people who have tried this on me. My life is better off now that they're no longer a part of it, when they've made attempts to reconnect I've ignored them.
But most importantly, when they pulled this behavior, it actually influenced me to oppose the position they were supporting out of spite. Like any sympathy I had to their position if I was on the fence, was erased. Call me petty, call this irrational, but it's human nature and I know I'm not the only one.
I bet most people won't admit this but I will: if a friend presents me with an ultimatum like "support climate action or else I won't be your friend anymore," I will oppose climate action, because fuck you.
Do not do this if you want the world to improve.
This speaks about you.
[1] https://www.epa.gov/inflation-reduction-act/inflation-reduct... [2]https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indica.... [3] https://globalenergymonitor.org/press-release/chinas-coal-po... [4] https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/india-increase-coal-... [5] https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/germany-approves-bri... [6] https://www.politico.eu/article/nuclear-reactors-germany-inv...
Now, sure, many people who are concerned about climate change don't go to that kind of extremes. But many do; the article we're discussing fits that mold (or at least the title does). On the other hand, not everyone who opposes certain measures to aid the climate is a climate denialist, either.
So be careful about "you're with me all the way, or you're an enemy" logic.
In fairness, you did say you're doing this to denialists. But be careful that the logic of your own position doesn't drive you further.
Maybe that points to something you can do. Get involved in protecting the environment locally. Eat local food and pressure producers (you are now their customer) to farm better. More local green spaces. Better water and waterways management, forest management, whatever is relevant.
Climate is local to some extent, as is resilience to change.
I think the author is a bit alarmist - powerlines melting will not be a common problem. They work even in very hot climates. Also not cynical enough about governments - they are heavily influenced by people with solutions to sell. That is why they push offsetting by planting trees (relatively ineffective) far more than they do protecting existing carbon sink ecosystems, for example.
- Greatly increased drinking water storage capacity.
- Significantly more storm drainage and storm surge protection.
- More organized mass evacuation plans and more robust shelters for stronger storms.
- Build new structures partially underground for wind and forest fire resistance.
- Don't rebuild in high risk areas.
- Insurance and government compensation should cover homes leaning into the ocean or built on unstable hillsides.
- CCS using carbonates and oceanic biomass, investing up to $20 trillion USD.
- Expanded use of greenhouses and indoor factory farming.
- Beyond net zero, get to net negative.
- Desalination expansion in areas with water scarcity, including long distance water transfer to drying areas such as Arizona.
Since the scientific models have been too conservative, it's prudent to plan for the possibilities of storms approaching the strength and size of a hypothetical hypercane.
I'm getting mixed signals here.
They seem to be tottering on the edge of the new climate denial themselves.
Yes nobody "serious" just flat out denies climate change anymore but one of the layers of defense is exactly this article. Governments are only pretending. It's all hopeless, etc.
You might think you're being cool and edgy but if you're aware that what you say needs a disclaimer about not giving up on climate activism, maybe deep down you know you're effectively a tool of the fossil fuel complex?
edit to add:
> First of all all, our civilization is completely dependent on fossil fuels. If we stopped using them all of a sudden, people would riot and civilization would collapse, anyway. We need fossil fuels for supply chains, for growing food, and for about 90% of industrially manufactured products
"Need" is doing a lot of work here. We use them because our society doesn't price in the externalities. It's like saying we "need" to dump paint and dye in a river.
Also, no one is talking about stopping cold turkey, but if you don't believe there is an alternative then I guess that's your only option.
This reinforces my view that this is just someone, probably well meaning, that has absorbed too much fossil fuel propaganda at face value, and so sees no future without fossil fuels.
Crush like a bug? Like cockroaches, who survive nuclear war?
Cockroaches aren’t even particularly impressive in that regard, despite the popular myth.
https://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2006/02/23/1567313.h...
https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/would-cockroaches-re...
The post title is the title of the actual article.
Had I changed it, then yep, wrong.
But I did not.
Please explain so I do not do this again?
In the US, basically all of Central American is coming to live here in the coming decades. If we don't find a way to invite and welcome them, our society is going to break down.
Conservatives are freaking out about "invasions over the southern border" and advocating killing people. This is just the start. This is the trickle. No amount of "border security" will stop people fleeing for their lives en-mass. The US just isn't culturally prepared for this and I don't know how we can change it.
West Side Story was 1961: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhSKk-cvblc
Here you are free and you have pride
Long as you stay on your own side
Free to be anything you choose
Free to wait tables and shine shoes
Vs. the U.S. of 2024? Far closer to "None of the above".
(as to cheap housing, note that the 1961 lyrics include "12 in a room in America")
Literally, no. But...
Massive losses of higher-paying/higher-skill jobs, especially in factories, are pushing very large number of citizens into low-pay/low-skill/insecure jobs. They often react badly to the prospect of (their PoV) yet more people who the boss could replace them with at any moment.
Current accepted wisdom, for many manual jobs, is that automation/robots/AI will replace most of the human workers in the next decade-ish. For instance - the hot new trend in car washes is extreme automation - cutting the labor force by 10X or more.
Gentrification puts NIMBY's - who tend to be very poverty-intolerant - either in, or close to, many of the places where migrants might live "at unintended high densities".
Consider places like Madison. Unemployment is 2%, and houses are around 300-400K. Or Fargo, unemployment of 2.4% and houses around 250K.
But I am scared of a border of terminators with guns. I suspect a well armed, high speed, highly optimised robot army standing in front of an enourmous wall built by robotic near-free-labour would be sufficient to stop the flood of people, but I truly hope that never happens.
With the dexterity improvements of the latest robotic companies we're what, 5-10 years from this being an option? When will the migration happen? 10 years?
Likely we end up middle-skilling them to take care of the old.
Yeah, the article only mentions that climate migrants will be in the US/Europe and will cause conflicts, it doesn't talk about the rise of insular/fearful right-wingers voting in their people, who in turn will not be shy about shooting people based on the color of their skin. E.g. Italy already has a right-wing populist government.
"Please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait" - https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html