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Earth Dayby
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I am once again going to do my earth day yearly begging routine. Earth Day is on the 22nd. But Earth Overshoot day for the USA was March 13th. Do you even know what that means? I never really thought of Earth Day as a serious holiday, I mean I still don't, no holidays are really serious to me. The idea of being told by some authority to feel a certain way on a certain day seems ludicrous. Ever since I remember growing up I've been hearing about climate change, with some vague uneasiness about the way humanity is going but the feeling that I was powerless to stop it. People here who have joined more recently probably don't realize how important climate change as an issue is to me. Not because I'm an environment-loving hippie, but because I understand the science behind it. And the science says things are going to be very, very fucked. I often run into two very frustrating points of view with regard to climate change: 1) Denial. Believing that somehow it's all a liberal conspiracy. Because I guess the horrible existential dread I feel about it is "trendy". I think people just fail to really see the tipping points so it's hard to conceptualize. The Paris accords try to limit global warming to 1.5C. That's not a 'nice to have' zone. It's to avoid the worst outcomes of climate change. At 1.5C 90% of coral is expected to die off. Past 2C, 99% die off. 25% of marine organism depend on the coral reefs to survive. We're going to reach 1.5-2C warming by 2050. At current policies we're looking at a 2.7-3.1C world by 2100. 2) Hopelessness. People think that since we're not going to reach the Paris Agreement limits (and to be sure, we are absolutely not, no country is actually on track to achieve their pledges) then we can give up. Like the certainty of a climate apocalypse is preferable to the uncertainty of actually trying to fix things. Let's be clear about something, we are fucked, but there's no limit to how fucked we can be. It's not like we can give up and wash our hands, it just gets more and more fucked. With current policies we're heading into a 3C world by 2100. You want to know what the future looks like? Not being able to buy fish anymore. Not being able to live in certain places anymore. Loss of water, mass migrations. Wars. Everything is more expensive. Constant natural disasters (25X the current level). Perhaps even the end of democracy. I mean, after all, democracy got us here, perhaps it will go the way of monarchy... Humans aren't going extinct, it's just going to suck really, really bad for a long, long, long time. Naturally the wealthy countries, like the United States, that are the most responsible for this disaster are also the best able to adapt to it. But I think it's so funny to see people in America complain about immigration but then support policies that are going to leave countries uninhabitable. Where the fuck do you think people in Vietnam or Egypt or the Middle East or Africa are gonna go? This crisis is going to be a refugee nightmare. This is probably the most important issue of our lifetimes. But somehow we've grown numb to it. It's not even the most important issue in the last election. Seems like everyone I know cares about climate change but a lot of them voted for Trump anyway. For people who know the stakes, that's very painful. This isn't something with a technological solution that will just be fixed by more innovation. The changes we're making right now will affect the world for thousands and thousands of years. And future generation after generation will learn about us in school, about how we let things get so far when we had the power to change it, and like we view the institution of slavery, they'll look back on us in shame. I feel ashamed right now. And there's that feeling of hopelessness again. I see so many people, people I care about, wallow in it. They spend their time shifting between pretending the problem doesn't exist and feeling like they're going to be crushed by the weight of the horror of the magnitude of what's happening. At my most cynical I think of these people as weak. Why not just kill yourself if reality is so horrible that you can't stand to reason about it? I'd rather go down fighting. So why have I interrupted your cub porn to give you this patronizing lesson? What can you do? Well the most important thing you can do is, regardless of your political leanings, stop voting Republican. Look, I hate the two party system in the US, it's bullshit and undemocratic, but it's what we have, and at the moment the Republican party's platform is to deal with the most important issue of our generation by denying its existence. I don't know why this happened. I don't know if it's because the Republican party has become corrupted by corporate interests or the idea of climate change, which requires international cooperation, rebukes conservative values. I didn't start this conversation to argue about conservatism or politics in general. And I'm not a big fan of the democrats either. I'm just stating facts. Recycling and lowering your power consumption is complete bullshit, especially if you aren't in the top 10% of earners. The only solution is government action. If you too care about the future of humanity on this planet, those people do not deserve your vote. Why the fuck are we allowing them to stay in power? The second thing you can do is donate money. So many charities are bullshit. But here's the best one I found. If you want to at least tell your grandchildren that unlike the vast majority of people, you at least tried, then donate to this charity. I donate 10% of my income because I actually want to say I tried to make a difference. I think that's a very reasonable goal. It's up to you what you want to give, if anything. I can't judge you, you can only judge yourself. The third thing you can do is get educated. It's fucking incredible to me that with 99% of climate experts in agreement somehow so many people in the US believe there is uncertainty about climate change. Or that there's some ulterior motive for climate activists to secretly make money. Or that if climate change really was a real problem, surely people would be solving it. Right? I mean surely? Surely we're not stupid enough as a civilization to sleep walk into a climate apocalypse when we could have avoided it. Look, I know nobody likes talking about this shit. I don't like talking about it. It makes me uncomfortable. But sometimes people need to be uncomfortable. You're tired of hearing about it? So am I. So work with me to change things. Learn the facts. Learn why there's this manufactured doubt about the scientific consensus. Learn the effects of climate change, immediate and in the future. Learn the lies people tell themselves to avoid having to confront the issue. And if you hear someone bullshitting about it, fucking challenge them. I'm tired of pretending that people's ignorance has value. I don't care if your aunt read some post on facebook that contradicts hundreds of thousands of expert research and understanding. Your aunts a fucking idiot. Educate her. Alright, this was a long meandering rant that I'm not going to bother proofreading, I promised I would only do this once a year so I'll stop talking about it now. I'll probably post this as a journal on Inkbunny or something. I've said what I wanted to say. It's up to you to decide what you want to do with it. |
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| Added: | 2 weeks, 2 days ago |
