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submitted 1 year ago by btaf45@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world
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[-] Nepenthe@kbin.social 81 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I am really dreading the devastation I know this El Niño will bring. As the situation deteriorates, it makes me wonder how I can be most helpful at a time like this. Do I keep trying to pursue my research career or devote even more of my time to warning the public?

“It’s as if the human race has received a terminal medical diagnosis and knows there is a cure, but has consciously decided not to save itself.“
—Prof Lesley Hughes

When a patient receives a likely terminal diagnoses with one obtainable cure, they typically do everything in their power to get to it unless that means leaving themselves or others permanently destitute. Their coming death is very close. So is the only way out.

The cause in both these statements is that global warming will NEVER be an immediate threat. Humans are wired for immediacy, and if the threat is not a right now thing, they switch to ignoring and adapting. Our psychology is wired to try to address the tiger and to adapt to what is unfortunately continual environmental collapse.

Those who understand we literally cannot do that and that a great many of us will die are not equipped to handle that information without simply sinking into increasingly immobile despair, because...what the fuck can I do about it?

I already eat little, don't even own a car, my worst offense is having internet but it's necessary for work. My other options are to become homeless again or Amish.

People in many countries are suffering greatly already from natural events that have been kicked up to 20. All I can do is watch. And I do. But more and more as someone who has a large stomach for suffering, even I'm beginning to evaluate what good it's doing me, as a civilian, to watch.

I can't help, or I would have. Whatever's going to happen to me in the future is unavoidable. My choices then are between Despair and Not Despair. This is why the masses won't pay attention. They don't have the bandwidth for the entire planet.

The politicians, however, have no excuse for this, and had we less tendency to shut our eyes and stomp our feet and more biological ability to plan in long term, they would be on pikes in the 00's.

[-] bobs_monkey@lemm.ee 36 points 1 year ago

Do I keep trying to pursue my research career or devote even more of my time to warning the public?

Unfortunately, at the risk of sounding defeatist, warning the public is pretty much a lost cause at this point. The ones that are receptive already know (and are seeing it first hand this summer), and the ones who aren't have their heads so far up their own asses that they're receiving AM radio. And realistically, there's not much for the average person to do; it's the industrial -scale operators that are the largest problem, and they'll resort to murdering their opposition (both figuratively and literally) before giving up a cent of profit. We as a populace need to full on revolt and take back our health and planet, but we are so effectively convinced our enemies are our neighbors that I really am not sure what to do here.

[-] umbrella@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

there’s not much for the average person to do

Not individually, no. Collectively, even if we don't have everyone, we can go pretty far and we did not too long ago, many times. This is what we should be advocating for, I don't think there are any other alternatives at this point.

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[-] Impulsivedoorholder@reddthat.com 17 points 1 year ago

The true dispair is knowing that the ones primarily responsible for the issues we are facing (private jets, mega yachts, hundred million dollar properties, etc.) are completely untouchable by us.

We just get to watch in horror as our world decays and the rich get richer.

[-] exi@feddit.de 3 points 1 year ago

I don't know where you take that from but the super rich are a tiny tiny fraction of the problem. They don't buy containerships full of stuff, they don't eat millions of animals per day, they don't constitute the vast majority of travel.

Yes, on a per person basis they have an extremely large footprint, but it's still a drop in the bucket compared to the industries that feed the consumption of the average citizens.

[-] WhiteHawk@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago

Industries that pollute so much because the rich are spending their money lobbying against laws that could stop them

[-] exi@feddit.de 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

That's in no way a rich people thing. Polluting less often means that stuff people are used to will cost more or will be less available.

The greens in Germany suggested that maybe meat is too cheap and people should eat it less and maybe also don't drive your car so much. And a good chunk of the population lost their fucking mind at the audacity to suggest doing something in two sectors that massively contribute to climate change.

The reality is that effective action against climate change is hugely unpopular and politicians realize that it's often political suicide because people hate change and there is no way to combat climate change without lifestyle changes for every single citizen.

[-] whoisearth@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 year ago

The cold hard truth is our societies need to change from the ground up but it's a death sentence for any politician to lobby for the changes required. Imagine if a politician came out and said "meat is now banned" and "petrol is now banned"? They would be laughed into obscurity.

We are fucked because we do not yet want off this ride. We want our cheap consumption. The fix is nuanced and multi-facetted and I don't know if we will get there. Look for geo-engineering to science us out of this. We aren't going to do the right thing. We'd rather seed the ozone with sulfer dioxide to lower the earth temp.

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Humans adapt just fine, billionaires though.

The only reason we haven't made the major life changes we need to make is because it isn't profitable.

We are not profitable, unless we consume. Unless our money continues to funnel to the top hands we will continue to perpetually destroy our planet. Simple as that.

As citizens, we can only access the changes we need to make based on the size of our income. I can't afford to get an electric car, fresh ingredients are expensive, I can't buy a house to then fit it with solar panels.

This change has to come from the people that have the means to change it for everyone, hence the top 400 people holding some 98% of the US currency hostage.

This is not a problem civilians can solve. We can try, but we will fail. The footprint is from the people that can stop it and the only major lifestyle changes would be difficult, but doable for us, it'd be near impossible for the billionaires to adjust to such a degree, and I'm not confident they ever will.

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[-] kool_newt@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

When a patient receives a likely terminal diagnoses with one obtainable cure, they typically do everything in their power to get to it unless that means leaving themselves or others permanently destitute. Their coming death is very close. So is the only way out.

I think our situation is more like that of a decades long cigarette smoker. They know their habit is deadly, and know exactly what the remedy is, but most of them will smoke until they die or until it's too late because quitting feels impossible. There are smokers that do quit though, everyday.

[-] DeanFogg@lemm.ee 74 points 1 year ago

Don't forget kids once we hit 130 were gonna start dropping like flies, going outside will be dangerous, your AC bill will be astronomical and the rich people will all be fine in their bunkers!

[-] Impulsivedoorholder@reddthat.com 22 points 1 year ago

We hit 125s pretty regularly out here near PHX. Death Valley hit 130 already. So I guess get ready to start dropping.

[-] freewheel@lemmy.world 19 points 1 year ago

I lived in Phoenix for a while, 05-08ish. I grew up and live in Florida now. The difference really is the "dry heat" that everybody treats as the big joke. You can still sweat in 125 and dry air. 125 in humid air doesn't let you sweat.

[-] PreachHard@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

Yeah someone always comes out the Woodworks from Phoenix to tell everyone how they're babies. Once we start hitting more high wet bulb temps everyone's fucked.

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The heat has been constant this year. We are 30 days now of over 110F, a handful of those days hit 120+.

I've been here for a years now, but this year the heat is hitting different. Humidity is definitely another animal, but 120s is nothing to bat your eye at.

[-] kgbbot@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 year ago

Where in Florida‽ In South Florida the last couple of weeks have been awful and the Coral is dead. But the one cloudy day was manageable.

[-] Draedron@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago
[-] SCB@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

130 F bro. They mean 130 F.

Water hit 101 F off the coast of Florida, so getting there.

[-] RagingNerdoholic@lemmy.ca 52 points 1 year ago

Over the last few weeks I’ve found myself wondering is this finally going to be the year when any doubts about the climate change crisis are blown away by a spate of costly climate extremes. That could be one benefit of 2023 being off the charts like this.

Narrator: it wasn't

[-] onionbaggage@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago

That's the problem. Everyone knows it's legit at this point. But there are a lot of people who have a vested interest in pretending it's not. Then as COVID taught us 30 percent of people just don't want to be told what to do so will say fuck you and do the opposite just to piss you off.

[-] kanzalibrary@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Yeah, I don't understand why they can so peacefully ignore this like water wars are near to happen. When I say we need to find a solution on how to save water and keep it for emergency, their respond like "hell nah, still don't happen today so I don't care. Better buy fuckin Iphone 15 Pro Max just to piss you off because I have more money to buy it rather than invest save water solution for my family like you said".

Better find people with "off-grid passionate" commune to prepare early before it start happening rather than discussing, debating, or doing nothing bout that.

[-] kool_newt@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

There's about 1/3 of us, I call them the "idiot army", Hillary called them "deplorable". I think it's just an artifact of the normal distribution of critical thinking skills and character traits like empathy.

I don't believe these are "bad" people so much as easily taken advantage of and mislead (by the actual bad people) into being useful. I think one of the things MAGA has done is activated this group, that's why I call them the "idiot army", Republicans (e.g. Bannon) learned how to activate this group more effectively and explicitly than groups had in the past.

Some things act as human sieves and can be used to identify your victims (like how spam is geared to make the less gullible of us delete them but the more gullible might respond). If you're a right wing political operative, these techniques can also be used to identify and manipulate those who could useful towards your goals.

You gotta think like an evil genius.

For us, we should realize that for this group, things are never going to click. Instead, we should be looking toward how we can thrive despite 1/3 of us being idiots. Identify techniques to prevent bad actors from using this 1/3 to gain power.

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[-] Putykat@lemmy.world 48 points 1 year ago
[-] ScootsMcmuffin@reddthat.com 7 points 1 year ago

beat me to it

[-] Hellsadvocate@lemmy.world 40 points 1 year ago

Did everyone see this? https://www.politico.com/news/2023/07/28/far-right-climate-plans-00107498

I can't wait! I hope they kill us all faster. How exciting.

[-] Amir@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 year ago

I don't think I wanted to see this today

[-] girlfreddy@mastodon.social 27 points 1 year ago

@btaf45

The super-shitification** by sold-out governments and the H U G E fossil fuel industry against 50+ years of scientific climate change warnings hasn't forced any changes, it's unlikely watching it play out will do anything. In fact all we're seeing now is even more drilling operations beginning and even less care about the human cost.

At this point we can only hope for the best and prepare for the worst because we ain't seen nothing yet.

** with apologies to Cory Doctorow

[-] Sanctus@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

We all know what we really need to do.

Echo six going dark.

[-] agitatedpotato@lemmy.world 23 points 1 year ago

Man that's environmental scientists catch phrase lately, "No one wants to be right about this." I really wish people(cough governments) would take them seriously.

[-] Wanderer@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago

I got a feeling governments do. It's just an unpopular opinion to do it and the government cares more about that. It's the public that are the issue.

[-] ArcticCircleSystem@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Doesn't most of the world think climate change is bad? ~Strawberry

[-] Dark_Blade@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

Even if everyone agrees it’s bad, nobody wants to deal with the decrease in quality of life it’ll take to fix it; least of all those who won’t suffer as much, or will be dead long before the worst of it starts to hit.

[-] yata@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago

Yeah, that is a major problem with how Western democracies are put together. It is going to cost a lot of money to do anything effectively, so governments would rather postpone any action until the next government takes over, then it will be their problem. And of course this line of thought continues with the next government.

Long term plans with any meaningful changes are just not suitable for our kind of political systems.

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[-] BlueberryGod@mastodon.social 9 points 1 year ago
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[-] Wanderer@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago

I really hope Tony Seba is right on his forecasts. It's the only thing that brings more hope. Electric cars, solar, batteries and precision fermentation. He's been right a lot so I have faith.

Having said that we need a huge carbon tax (including on trade) like today.

[-] alvvayson@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

Sorry to burst the Tony Seba bubble, but he was wrong about self-driving electric cars and he is also wrong about batteries.

(Solar he is probably right on).

We only have two really big, proven guns in the fight against climate change: carbon tax (or, the power of the market) and atomic energy (or, the power of E=MC^2).

[-] AlwaysNowNeverNotMe@kbin.social 10 points 1 year ago

Carbon credits system is 100% shell game.

[-] WhiteHawk@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Carbon credits are a great idea in theory, their implementation is just horrible

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this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2023
617 points (98.0% liked)

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