This has been a doozy of a year. And it’s the best year so far blah blah. So how are you all coping? Does it hit anyone else like a bolt of lightning that probably I - we - won’t die of old age?
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The biggest threat to your life from climate change is this kind of doomerism making you suicidal. I’ve been down that road myself.
Either get off your ass and do something about it or stop worrying about it. You’re not helping anyone by making yourself sad.
I’m not suicidal.
I’m not saying you are. You missed my point entirely.
I’m asking for coping methods or strategies. For example, I sing a lot because it doesn’t contribute anything to capitalism and more fossil fuels being released, and it releases oxytocin so it makes me feel good. I also read and spend time with others, smoke cannabis, take psilocybin.
That we don’t want to die, and don’t want the planet to die, shows that we are very much not suicidal so it’s just weird you brought that up at all lol.
Does it hit anyone else like a bolt of lightning that probably I - we - won’t die of old age?
Wait, do you actually believe this?
Yes. I am friends with ecological scientists, biologists, soil scientists, ornithologists, and other various environmental researchers. The rest of my natural life would be ~40-50 years. We probably have 10-20 at most. Remember, the heating is exponential and delayed, and we’ve also exceeded several other planetary boundaries. Our governments are decades too late. We are literally already in the middle of an extinction event.
Even if everyone TODAY stopped burning all fossil fuels, we’d still have to sequester millions of tons of carbon in 10-20 years with no infrastructure for it. To do this will release more greenhouse gases. Amd we still have to address the 9 other planetary boundaries we’ve crossed including ocean acidification, soil destruction, and pollution.
The absolute best shot we have is to deflect a percentage of the sun’s rays from ever reaching earth with some kind of space blanket or shield. Likely we will just inject sulfur into the atmosphere with unknown consequences.
That you don’t realize how bad it is, is the sadder thing. We have seriously failed in educating people about science. Chemical reactions need specific energy requirements to work, which means specific temperatures. It’s a big deal to our very cells themselves that the planet is getting hotter. And again, that is only 1 planetary boundary and we have crossed others.
You can literally see footage online of people’s housing falling into the ocean, and their property wasn’t oceanfront when they bought it. You can look u0 articles about billions of sea life boiling alive off the oregon coast and baby eagles flinging themselves from their nests to die due to heat. You can see the recent article about Dubai being beyond the wet bulb temp for humans to survive. That’s not normal, ya’ll. None of this is normal.
But whatever, it’s too late. Enjoy your remaining years as much as you can, and don’t forget you can always starve yourself to death for free if you don’t have a bullet. Good luck everyone.
This is doommongering nonsense.
I’m no climate change denier at all, but the idea that the planet is basically going to be unliveable in 10-20 years is ludicrous.
Even the most pessimistic of scientists don’t believe that.
AMOC collapse could happen as soon as 2025.
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adk1189
Scientists have been forced to give “optimistic” findings relating to climate change for decades because we were told not to scaremonger. We were told no one would believe us. Well, no one believed us anyway (see: you) and now our conservative estimates are turning out to be wildly too conservative. It is exponentially getting worse and we didn’t consider numerous cascading events like the methane bubbles in the arctic permafrost.
We are literally already in the middle of a sixth extinction event relating to passing 6-8 of 9-10 planetary boundaries. It’s not doomerism, it’s literally reality. Measurably and empirically happening.
Wikipedias page on AMOC is much less pessimistic:
High-quality Earth system models indicate a collapse is unlikely and would only become probable if high levels of warming (≥4 °C (7.2 °F))[14] are sustained long after 2100.[18][19][20] Some paleoceanographic research seems to support this idea.[21][22] Some researchers fear the complex models are too stable[23] and that lower-complexity projections pointing to an earlier collapse are more accurate.[24][25] One of those projections suggests AMOC collapse could happen around 2057[26] but many scientists are skeptical of the projection.[27]
I would very much doubt an actual collapse happens anytime soon.
That’s wikipedia though, not a scientific article, and it acknowledges that many think it will happen sooner.
Here’s an article from CNN that is hours old, based on a new study, which is confident AMOC collapse will happen by 2037-2050 https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/08/02/climate/atlantic-circulation-collapse-timing
That’s pretty soon.
Likely we will just inject sulfur into the atmosphere with unknown consequences.
Kind of the only hope we have left at this point. One which I’m desperately holding onto.
Articles about insect populations being decimated by something like 70%… They are the ones most vulnerable to climate change, and they’re all dying. How people can see that and not understand is mind boggling.
The insect population part really is staggering, huh? I remember how disgusting my grandma’s station wagon got in the 90s traveling. Now I pretty much never really “need” to clean my windows off from bug guts. Usually dust.
I think we should put up a metal blanket in space. Tbh all the space junk and satellites are already doing that a little
Very very little, the planet is kinda big
What do you expect your manner of death will be in 10-20 years?
Hard to say. It could be from a power grid failure during a weather event. It could be from an earthquake (increased seismic activity due to climate change). It could be from a freak storm or mudslide. Could be from supply chain collapse and starvation. Could be from supply chain collapse/social collapse and lack of medical care. Could be bird flu or any number of novel diseases occurring due to climate change.
That’s why i suggested a magic 8 ball ;)
AMOC collapse could happen as soon as 2025 so my 20 years was extremely optimistic btw
I bike as much as possible instead of driving and lobby my local government for zoning reform.
Incredibly based, same here.
You’re a hero
I’m a silly goose with young kids and I’ve been head-in-the-sand trying to deal with my own survival. Once I had an iota of stability, I started to let the outside world in again and often wish I hadn’t.
I estimate I live in a place least likely to be dramatically affected by climate change, early on. It’s not like I’m in Florida and can’t afford to insure my home any longer because of hurricane risk. It’s not like I’m likely to be one of the 1.2 billion climate refugees by 2050.
So I try to take little steps to get prepared for something I never thought I’d need to be prepared for. We’re growing more and more of our own food, we’re expanding our water/food stores and storage. We plan to get a solar system soon (so we’re the 1/10 that makes it through an extended grid outage), while global supply chains still function.
I’ve started a little (20TB) apocalypse library, full of illustrated guides, youtube videos, books, and resources.
My biggest stumbling block is starting community. I generally don’t like people and as you’ve seen in this thread, most people don’t take climate change seriously.
And, as someone else said… weed and time in nature.
Solar panels to run the aircon.
Just have to hope no storm blows the house down.
Would like an electric car but it’s out of my financial reach at this time, so keep the old car repaired and running.
Poorly. We basically didn’t have a winter here in Chicago and the summer has been marked by severe storms.
I’m mostly just staying inside this time of year. I personally likely will not die of climate change as I’m privileged enough to be able to keep moving when I need, but I probably will die from micro plastic induced cancer.
Where did you get the idea that you’re not going to die of old age?
Depends on the rapidity of the onset of the negative effects of climate change. If it’s slow, we’re gonna lose a lot of people, but we’ll be able to preserve some form of civilization. The worst affected will be the usual poorer people and those who can’t geographically escape the heat for whatever reason.
Worst scenario is rapid onset that disrupts the global network of food, energy, manufacturing, medicines, materials, etc. that literally keep everything working. If that goes tits up in an uncontrolled way just plan on losing a very significant chunk of the world’s population very fast. At a certain tipping point we also lose the people that know how to make things work. Modern society works because we have the ability to free some people from manual labor and subsistence existence to take on highly specialized learning. From fixing the grid, to doctors, to IT specialists, to the academics that teach these specialists. Lose enough of them and you lose the knowledge of how to do anything that makes modern civilization work.
So it all depends on your views if you think you’ll make it to old age. Do you think the world will collapse quickly or will it be a controlled descent? It certainly doesn’t look like we’re going to solve a damn thing regarding anthropogenic climate change, much less reverse anything, and we’re already stuck facing the damaging climate changes we started.
If it’s slow, we’re gonna lose a lot of people, but we’ll be able to preserve some form of civilization.
Assuming this is the best case scenario, are you willing to make a prediction about number of deaths by a certain year?
The reason I ask is because I think climate change alarmism is an unscientific, nonfalsifiable system of beliefs that don’t match reality.
And part of that is that people never make solid predictions. They resist it. Are you willing to make a solid prediction with an actual timeline on it, given this is your best case scenario?
It certainly doesn’t look like we’re going to solve a damn thing regarding anthropogenic climate change, much less reverse anything, and we’re already stuck facing the damaging climate changes we started.
Yeah we’re definitely not going to reverse climate change.
As far as I can tell, the main disrupting effects of climate change are going to be higher sea levels. So lots of people will have to move, or protect their cities with dikes.
There will be more farmland than before, given the effects of CO2 on plant growth.
I don’t see any scenario where it leads to a collapse of civilization.
Hah, you’re ridiculous.
We can’t even predict the weather yet you want me to give you timelines for climate change impact and entire geopolitical and worldwide logistical systems. Not even supercomputers can predict that.
Congrats on your manufactured, pseudo-intellectual “gotcha”. Why don’t you go learn about chaotic systems and the study of anthropogenic climate change and make your own predictions…
Oh, and for the record, if we’re all cheering about redrawn beachfront property being the worst of it in a century I’ll eat my hat. If I’m right, well…you’ll probably be hungry enough to eat yours.
Youre a certifiable idiot.
Warmer seas = more energy in the seas = bigger storms, bigger droughts etc. that’s what we’re seeing already and will be getting worse in the near term. Sea levels - we don’t know enough about the deep structure of Antarctica to put a timeline on. Recent discoveries have shortened thinking as there was liquid water in areas we didn’t expect.
Got a vasectomy, because I live in the South and won’t risk bringing a kid into the world.
Is Australia that bad?
I do what I can to reduce my own CO2 footprint - mostly for my own conscience.
In every election I vote for the party with the most focus on CO2 reduction that has a good chance of making it into parlament.
I chose both my work and home specifically so I don’t need a car to commute, and am completely safe from “once in a lifetime” floods (which will probably happen every other year soon).
I could make decently more money and rent more living space elsewhere.Otherwise I don’t worry. Cause what else is there to do?
I could die in the climate wars, in an epic storm, in a new pandemic…
Or quietly in my bed at age 100 like my grandparents, who survived 2 world wars, the cold war, and 4 revolutions.
Who knows?I just don’t give a fuck, when I’m dead I won’t care about anything. And my own existence is full of problems and worries enough just to worry about the goddamn sun or sea levels.
Fair enough, nihilism is a valid philosophy that often helps people cope in difficult times. And it really probably doesn’t matter at this point anyway.
Yesterday I had a climate change anxiety attack. I came to the conclusion that despite wanting to have children, I shouldn’t because the earth is currently dying underneath our feet. Watching outside my window, a cat I’ve been taking care of brought her litter of kittens to take shelter under my awning, and it had me feeling very bitter, that I would never know the blissful highs and devastating lows of parenthood. All the joy and pain and love that embodies raising a child, past generations have forfeit through destructive environmental/corporate/profit-centered policies.
I was able to calm myself down, oddly enough through a few memes I saw. one of which being an old cunieform tablet that had a transcription of a man from Assyria decrying how the world was falling apart back in 1200 BC. And the second, one of Neil Degrasse Tyson saying simply, “If we can geo-engineer other planets, we can certainly fix our own.”
Made me feel a little more hopeful, that we could still prevent the worst of it, and perhaps fix what we couldn’t prevent.
Still not sure about having kids though. If I still even can, with the level of microplastic in my testes, and PFAS everywhere else.
You won’t even adopt?
If I were in a better place financially/emotionally, I ABSOLUTELY would.
Same.
Kids are very adaptive. They will grow up in this changing world and it will be normal to them. They will grow up instinctively being able to deal with things that we will forever strugle with. Kids are amazing in finding their own solutions, even at a young age.
I think it is much more important to be financially and emotionally able to support a child. You should ask yourself if you are able to do that. You can get financial and emotional support from your environment, many people do that (“it takes a village to raise a child”), but you can’t afford a full blown mental breakdown when you have kids.
I’m not trying to convince you to have children or not, just giving my two cents. There’s probably plenty who disagree, especially in a thread like this, so feel free to ignore me.
In my head, I envision year 2084 as one where humans are isolated mostly to the poles of the Earth, the only suitable farmland left. Where life is nothing like what I would recognize, and we’re merely prolonging the inevitable migration into underground dwellings, away from the harsh barren hellscape of our own creation.
But that’s not the reality. Human beings have the remarkable ability to adapt, and change our environment to suit our needs. I know that there are people smarter than I, that will figure out how to curb, and ultimately roll back the most devastating aspects of our pollution crisis. I know that we will survive, and thrive into the future, even if it means shrinking the population down from it’s current 8 billion.
But today, I can pick any spot on the globe, and find a terrible human caused crisis there, and some conservative politician doing everything in their power to make it worse (and make money off of making it worse). And that just fucking kills me.
I’ve been keeping my mind busy, learning actionable skills and survival stuff. I am learning foraging, growing food, I’ve made a real decision to not reserve my happiness for retirement, as that day isn’t guaranteed but today is. I convert the worry into little reminders about how today is the most important time to do the thing. I live immediacy and radical self reliance. I recycle, upcycle, reuse, buy second hand, adopt, occasionally dumpster dive, and reduce my negative impact on the planet. I donate to charities that help people in crisis, so more people can enjoy today while they have it. Also, instead of anxious, I get high.
I’m mostly very curious how this all plays out. I’m also a bit worried, but there’s not much I can do about that anyway, so whatever.
I wish I could travel a thousand years into the future and read all the history books.
I think these are very interesting times (and as we all know, it sucks to live in interesting times) with all the innovations and political desicions. Even the failures and missed opportunities. It’s all very interesting.
We live on an ocean-going sailboat. We make our own water and electricity. We have ~25 years of membranes, filters, and most parts. While we have the means to move around to cooler climes, going further northward means more severe storms and shorter working life of everything. So there’s that consideration.
Having the escape hatch of the boat does a lot to ease the anxiety.
Other coping mechanisms:
- fixing people’s bicycles for free and evangelizing micro-mobility
- monitoring and mapping marine health in maritime communities (kelp, fish counts, bottom conditions); yes this is “just” monitoring, but one measurement is worth 1000 opinions and hopefully helps to move the needle on getting everyone to pull together on environmental protections
- community education on aeroponics and micro-hydroponics
- community support on emergency preparedness
I’m sure I’m skipping over some of my other copium prescriptions, but those are the most salient.
Hopefully you can evolve some webs on your feet for better swimming after we all live in Water World.
This thread is ridiculous
I love this guy
Wow that’s amazing, do you have social media I can follow?
Our social media and blog are severely neglected, in large part because of surveillance and chokepoint capitalism (see: Cory Doctorow). But this would probably be the best entry point into our socials: https://youtube.com/@svcascadia
