https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/07/24/big-heat-and-big-oil
A rapid end to burning fossil fuel would arrest the heating that has caused extreme damage in recent weeks; and that rapid end is possible.
I think we all know rapid change is possible if the right motivators are there. Not sure how you get people and legislators to make the rapid change we need.
A few things we can do as individuals is fly less, eat less meat, drive less (where possible).
On a larger scale, write to your representatives, and vote for people who actually put climate change at the forefront of their agenda. It's now time for us all to be really pushy.
A few things we can do as individuals is fly less, eat less meat, drive less (where possible).
I'm really sick and tired of living this and hearing this advice for the last 30 years and still not a single fucking dent has been made with this lie.
If you are reading the above comment thinking that the individual level changes will do anything to improve the environment, you are forgetting the largest pool of polluters on the planet are U.S. and Chinese militaries, followed by the fossil fuel industry, followed by the industrial manufacturing of mainland China and India.
They are all literal unstoppable imposing juggernauts; no matter what you do at the individual level, if you can't stop those polluters, you may as well be scooping thimbles of water out of the ocean manually since that has a higher likelihood of doing something productive. Over the last 30 years I've been living with minimal carbon footprint and going broke trying to do this.
I'm fucking done trying to live green anymore, it's been all a waste of my time and sanity thinking I have made a difference these last 30 years desperately thinking I can help save the environment separating and recycling everything meticulously and reading that they throw it all in a fucking landfill anyways, growing my own sustainable garden and eating vegan and composting my own waste, realizing pesticides are still killing insect and flora diversity while animals are still suffering in fucking droves every single fucking day for people to eat shitty fast food; no matter how much time I've spent protesting online and in person, etc, meanwhile the earth is heading to a heating apocalypse and everything I've been doing as an individual is fucking useless.
Giving up and joining in on the destruction definitely isn't gonna help
What you've been doing isn't useless, it's what other people should also be doing.
Can definitely relate.
There's a quote I came across a while ago (can't remember where, sorry) in a video talking about climate despair, like:
anything you can do is worth doing; nothing you can do is enough
That helps me sometimes fwiw.
I completely understand the sentiment, and it is very frustrating living in the greenest way you can and it not seeminging to make a dent. But we can only really impact our circle of influence and control around us.
We have seen change on the economic level, if you look at the rise of dairy free milks a d plant based foods, 5 years ago they weren't main stream and now they are. All we can do is try and push the small changes with our wallets and hope to see the chnage to economies. As more people talk about climate change and write to their representatives the more these issues will be pushed to the fore as politicians will see them as important.
I have no idea if any of this change will happen soon enough, but I don't think the alternative is acceptable.
I FEEL you. All these systems, gas powered cars, factory farms, wasteful manufacturering, it was all here when I got here. There was never a time that I have lived on this planet where it was not heating. I didn't choose to participate in these systems, I had no other choice. I do what I can, but in the end, how much choice did I have? Did any of us have?
As the article says: The earth's temperature is going to increase, no matter what we do — because the earth is not in equilibrium currently. The oceans will continue to warm up, even if we stop all emissions of CO2 right now. Which is not to say that action is meaningless. But there is such a thing as being too late.
People who will adress climate issues don't receive millions in donations for their political campaigns.
I don't disagree. However, if we are to depend on a system owned by our enemies, we are bound to fail.