216
I lov ethe large open grass field in this one. Reall makes me imagine how cool and beautiful the world could be.
The amount of energy and resources that it would take to have so many non-aerodynamic non-lighter-than-air flying cars, not so much.
Would be even better if it wasn't a monoculture and had a thriving ecosystem of different plants and animals :3
Who is electing your government? Who is feeding the corporations by buying their products? If you think your three friends not caring, and my three friends not caring, and OP's three friends not caring is all inconsequential and there's no point in changing their minds, then how do you envision change happening? That is a geniune question; do you actually have a plan of action, or is it just "the corporations and governments are the ones who have to do something"?
Like the saying goes, "no individual drop of rain sees themselves as responsible for the flood", or something along those lines.
If you think your three friends not caring, and my three friends not caring, and OP’s three friends not caring is all inconsequential and there’s no point in changing their minds, then how do you envision change happening?
Material conditions compress to the point that people begin risking their lives and livelihoods for the sack of access to physical necessities. The institutions that subsist on a stable, pliant public begin to fail as more and more economic surplus gets plowed into law enforcement. Food shortage and riots, combined with public hostility towards energy companies, make working in the fossil fuel sector too dangerous compared to the money it brings in. Natural disasters do enough damage to domestic infrastructure that generating and transporting fossil fuels cannot continue at the same rate.
Like the saying goes, “no individual drop of rain sees themselves as responsible for the flood”, or something along those lines.
Floods don't happen because a large number of water drops decide to spontaneously leap over the side of the river bank. You need the terrain to change. You need a lot more water or a sudden compression of space all at once.
Without that, the current keeps all the little droplets moving in the same direction.
Now, unlike water droplets, individuals can be forces of radical change. But they need to be prepared to take radical action. Telling your friends "have you heard about this thing called climate change" isn't going to cut it. Telling them "have you heard about this movie How To Blow Up a Pipeline" isn't going to cut it. Telling them that you're decamping from society to form a guerrilla chapter of Greenpeace is a start, assuming you don't think any of your friends will rat you out to the police.
But even then... its three droplets against hundreds of thousands moving in the other direction. And all the individual droplets know that.
As for the first part of your comment, I'm not fully sure that I understand. From the context of the conversation, it sounds like you disagree with me and are saying your plan is "food shortages will happen and civilization will begin to collapse, and that is how things will change"; and I'm not saying that won't happen, but I am saying it would be morally reprehensible not to try and do something about it before it got to that point. If anything, the possibility of that happening is all the more reason to try and raise awareness to the problem before it gets that bad, so I'm not sure why you are disagreeing.
As for the rest, it sounds like you're overanalyzing both what is just a simple metaphor, and what is a two strip comic panel. To overanalyze and counter your own analysis, the rise of the water is usually caused by heavy rains, which is what the "water droplet" part of the metaphor is referring to; and the comic strip is meant to be an oversimplified and funny way of saying we should raise awareness to the problem and convince them to take action - whatever action you prefer; it's meant to be absurdist. It is not literally saying "you should tell your friends climate change exists". And if your preferred solution is forming a guerrilla, then that is what the comic is telling you to talk to your friends about. You can't form a guerrilla on your own; or, if you do, there's no one to protect you or keep the fight going when you get taken to prison/killed.
And if for some weird reason your friends haven't heard of climate change, then yes, that quite literally would be the start, unless you want your friends to think you're a loon and call the cops on you.
But even then… its three droplets against hundreds of thousands moving in the other direction. And all the individual droplets know that.
Exactly, and that's why you raise awareness by talking to people. If you get 3 friends and I get 3 friends, we now have 6 friends. And if each of those manages to get another 3 friends, then now we total 26 - that seems like a much better number to start a guerrilla with. And if you keep that chain going long enough, you'll get enough droplets to change the current.
Sometimes when I have discussions like this with someone, I feel like we are standing in the rain and we both agree with need some kind of roof to shelter us. And then when I say "we should build some kind of support structure, maybe get some tools and materials" the other person turns hostile ^(or^ ^politely^ ^disagrees,^ ^but^ ^90%^ ^of^ ^the^ ^time^ ^they^ ^turn^ ^hostile)^ and goes "No! What we need is to build a roof!". Like I'm not even necessarily disagreeing with whatever your proposed solution is - a roof, voting, boycotts, blowing up pipelines, forming a guerrilla - I'm just saying that to get the solution you need a solid foundation.
how do you envision change happening?
By taking action. Words are cheap. Actions speak louder than words.
Apart from the fact that "taking action" is still not a concrete plan and your comment is still void of any real substance, are you planning on taking whatever "action" alone? Are you going to be a one-man army? Because otherwise you need to raise awareness and bring people to your side.
By "action" do you mean voting? Are you going to do it alone?
By "action" do you mean blowing up a pipeline? Are you going to do it alone?
"how do you envision change happening?"
You're so close to getting it...
If I'm so close, then help me cross the gap. Just in your other comment you said you wished "we could have grown up discussions", and now that you have an opportunity to have one and educate people you instead chose to go with a childish condescending jab with no substance or value behind it. Almost like everything you say is just virtue signaling BS fluff so you can throw blame at other people and avoid having to make changes in your life.
That's how collective action works, yes.
I do wish we could have grown up discussions about climate change instead of this sort of thing. Governments and large industrial and commercial organisations are overwhelmingly more responsible for climate change than individuals like you and me. We individuals could not be more concerned about climate change already. Everyone wants to pollute less and live more sustainable lives. Our bins have multiplied and we learnt to comply with that. Plastic straws and bags went away and we learnt to comply with that. A lot of us are driving electric cars now or taking public transport and cycling wherever possible. Cities declared clean air zones so only the least polluting vehicles were allowed in them and we're learning to comply with that. There's all sorts of taxes on vehicles that pollute too and we've learnt to comply with that.
Meanwhile manufacturers pollute our rivers and skies and we're all finding out how full of microplastics we are because of them too. How about that self righteous finger spending some more time pointing at them than at us eh? It's just annoying how it's always the end users who gets the blame for not doing enough about climate change.
And while I'm at it and no one is going to read this anyway how about someone with a brain actually spends some time on the branding side of "Climate Change". It's better than "Global Warming" because at least that reduced the amount of people denying there's a problem every flipping winter but it's still dumb. If you want people to understand the urgency of something you have to convey it in the language you use. Called it "Planet Cancer" or "Climate Apocalypse" or "Earth Burn". Anything would be better than "Climate Change" which conveys about as much urgency as a hedge that needs trimming at some point.
(Edit: Looking at the guidelines for this magazine I can see how this post may be a little too negative. If it is I totally understand it getting removed.)
Governments and large industrial and commercial organisations are overwhelmingly more responsible for climate change than individuals like you and me
Right, but those governments and commercial organizations are supported by individuals like you and me; they do not exist in a vacuum. It doesn't take a long conversation with an average person to realize they do not want to make the necessary changes to their life (either directly, or indirectly through significant change in the system) to fix the problem.
If most people were actually in favour of strong action to make significant change, then most democratic governments would be more in favour of more significant action as well, because at the end of the day most of them just want to be elected. But even in countries with a parliamentary system and multiple parties, greens barely have any power, and people keep choosing governments that either do nothing, or just the bare minimum.
For a small example of what I mean, just look how many people go out of their way to show up on vegan/vegetarian threads to talk about how much they love meat and won't stop eating it - despite the fact it's one of the largest contributors to climate change. And this is on Lemmy too, which is a lot more left leaning than the average social media platform, and even more than the real world. Then add in how many people are pro-car, especially gas, or how many people are addicted consumerists and can't stop buying things they don't need in plastic packaging; and for some more sprinkles you can also add all the "environmentalists" who campaign in favour of shutting down nuclear plants despite the fact that a) it's the second safest energy source b) even with nuclear, by 2026 fossil fuels will still be responsible for over 50% of energy production.
If anyone wants to be a grown up and have a grown up discussion, then they need to stop shifting blame around and acting like governments exist in a vacuum and corporations aren't selling anything.
If Coke decided to stop producing plastic bottles then Pepsi would up their production and their profits would skyrocket; if a government had the balls to issue laws about plastic reduction that would stop them from producing them, they would almost certainly lose the next election and there might be protests and riots; but if people just stopped buying soft drinks in plastic bottles, Coke and Pepsi would both stop producing them regardless of what the government does.
If anyone wants to be a grown up and have a grown up discussion, then they need to stop shifting blame around and acting like governments exist in a vacuum and corporations aren't selling anything.
Exactly. Thank you.
this post was submitted on 22 Sep 2024
216 points (92.5% liked)
solarpunk memes
2598 readers
186 users here now
For when you need a laugh!
The definition of a "meme" here is intentionally pretty loose. Images, screenshots, and the like are welcome!
But, keep it lighthearted and/or within our server's ideals.
Posts and comments that are hateful, trolling, inciting, and/or overly negative will be removed at the moderators' discretion.
Please follow all slrpnk.net rules and community guidelines
Have fun!
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS