I did a short, small speaking tour a few lifetimes ago (that is, before COVID), talking with small groups about climate change, generally to liberal but older/elderly crowds. I went out prepared to wag my finger at them for not doing more or for discounting the problem. Instead everyone I met was acutely aware of the issue and seriously depressed about it. They weren't inactive because they hadn't heard they were in the song, to use Bowie's wording; they were inactive because they didn't know what to do. My copy of Drawdown became my most useful prop, and people were incredibly grateful just to be told that there were actually solutions out there.
Warning people without giving them the tools to do something about it just makes folks curl up in a ball crying -- or deflect by saying it's not really a problem. A lot of the folks who don't look like they know they're in the song really do know, but without something they can do, they're going with the "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die" approach. Can you blame them?
But fixes exist, and in fact some are already working.
Fixes definitely exist. The question is whether they will be implemented at scale or in time to mitigate the worst effects. The problem of climate change is not that we don't know how to avoid it -- we do, and have for decades now. The problem is getting the politicians to mandate it, and making sure the mandates stick. That doesn't get the individual off the hook or deprive them of all agency -- esp. in a democracy -- but it can feel like a pretty impossible task in the face of the powerful forces who would prefer to deny or ignore the problem.
So I try to do my part, as a teacher, writer, consumer, voter. But I admit that I am not particularly optimistic. It is a particularly thorny political problem, and would be even if there were not well-funded bad actors working full-time to poison the well.
The well-poisoning is definitely a huge issue, but even there we've seen a strange form of progress. I'm told that outright denial is much less common these days, and has been replaced by statements of helplessness and despair as an excuse for more foot-dragging. The parallels between attitudes on climate and major depression are pretty interesting...
Have you read Robinson Meyer's articles in The Atlantic about what he calls the "Green Vortex"? That's where I've gotten most of my hope from in the last few years, when it comes to policy.
Where exactly does Climate Change really figure on the dystopian future scale, what with micro plastics in the food chain (already been detected in unborn infants), forever chemicals (Teflon is with us permanently) in the environment, and heavy metals in the worlds water supply?
Ironically the clock used to be much more optimistic - from left to right to the center, it showed the number of days, hours, minutes, and seconds that had passed in the year; from the center to the right it showed the number of seconds, minutes, hours, and days left until the new year.
The clock is so absurdly precise, showing even the number of seconds its creators say we have left (do they really believe it?) that it lacks credibility. Five years is only someone's estimate or guess. Nobody can accurately predict how many days, hours, seconds (dare I say years) are available to take action. Creating less pollution is one of the reasons I no longer drive. I stopped driving more than 7 years ago and rely heavily on electric transportation (trolleys and trains). I wonder whether the clock's creators are doing as much.
I did a short, small speaking tour a few lifetimes ago (that is, before COVID), talking with small groups about climate change, generally to liberal but older/elderly crowds. I went out prepared to wag my finger at them for not doing more or for discounting the problem. Instead everyone I met was acutely aware of the issue and seriously depressed about it. They weren't inactive because they hadn't heard they were in the song, to use Bowie's wording; they were inactive because they didn't know what to do. My copy of Drawdown became my most useful prop, and people were incredibly grateful just to be told that there were actually solutions out there.
Warning people without giving them the tools to do something about it just makes folks curl up in a ball crying -- or deflect by saying it's not really a problem. A lot of the folks who don't look like they know they're in the song really do know, but without something they can do, they're going with the "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die" approach. Can you blame them?
But fixes exist, and in fact some are already working.
Fixes definitely exist. The question is whether they will be implemented at scale or in time to mitigate the worst effects. The problem of climate change is not that we don't know how to avoid it -- we do, and have for decades now. The problem is getting the politicians to mandate it, and making sure the mandates stick. That doesn't get the individual off the hook or deprive them of all agency -- esp. in a democracy -- but it can feel like a pretty impossible task in the face of the powerful forces who would prefer to deny or ignore the problem.
So I try to do my part, as a teacher, writer, consumer, voter. But I admit that I am not particularly optimistic. It is a particularly thorny political problem, and would be even if there were not well-funded bad actors working full-time to poison the well.
The well-poisoning is definitely a huge issue, but even there we've seen a strange form of progress. I'm told that outright denial is much less common these days, and has been replaced by statements of helplessness and despair as an excuse for more foot-dragging. The parallels between attitudes on climate and major depression are pretty interesting...
Have you read Robinson Meyer's articles in The Atlantic about what he calls the "Green Vortex"? That's where I've gotten most of my hope from in the last few years, when it comes to policy.
To me it really feels like fear mongering. This doesn’t necessarily promote change or alter opinions, but only reaffirm what you already believe.
If you feel that way about it then you're in the cohort to whom the clock's urgent message is not directed.
Where exactly does Climate Change really figure on the dystopian future scale, what with micro plastics in the food chain (already been detected in unborn infants), forever chemicals (Teflon is with us permanently) in the environment, and heavy metals in the worlds water supply?
Just read this while bored in class
Ironically the clock used to be much more optimistic - from left to right to the center, it showed the number of days, hours, minutes, and seconds that had passed in the year; from the center to the right it showed the number of seconds, minutes, hours, and days left until the new year.
The clock is so absurdly precise, showing even the number of seconds its creators say we have left (do they really believe it?) that it lacks credibility. Five years is only someone's estimate or guess. Nobody can accurately predict how many days, hours, seconds (dare I say years) are available to take action. Creating less pollution is one of the reasons I no longer drive. I stopped driving more than 7 years ago and rely heavily on electric transportation (trolleys and trains). I wonder whether the clock's creators are doing as much.