Between the heat waves, worsening fires, floods, looks like life is not going to be pleasant.
A large percentage of the world’s economic hubs will be underwater, millions, if not billions will lose their homes, livelihoods and lives.
Thinking about this gives me major anxiety, and my therapist suggested that I discuss this with ppl, so let’s have a discussion @polo77j@Aragorn@Californiagrown@unreal24278
@simo74 THis is why I like hard training, keeps my mind off of stuff like this
I believe you read about the floods in China. This shit happens all the time. This was nothing compared to all the natural disasters that occurred over the past decades. It may not be climate change related.
There have long been heat waves in Nanchang during the summer to the point there’re always people dying when they occur. People have been hiding out in old WW2 tunnels when this happens ever since they were built and they still retain them for this purpose. There’s a reason why it’s called “the furnace of China”.
While I’m not denying the existence of climate change, my point is natural disasters will happen regardless of whether it exists or not.
Politics are what’s hampering progress. And it’s not just on “the other side”. I’ve written in your log about how I worked with climate change activists before and their own internal politics fuck things up too. This was over a DECADE ago.
Also, while, again, I’m not denying the existence of climate change, IME they are not unopen to vastly overstating certain things to scare the public while profiting off of it.
You can see this as a good thing since it compels people, which compels governments to make the necessary policy changes to deal with this.
But don’t get scared needlessly by some of the more outlandish claims.
Btw, I’m not going to get into any climate change debates. I’ve acknowledged it is happening. That’s it.
All I’ve said was public sentiments and profit also go a long way. I did not work with the aforementioned climate activists for free.
And since I didn’t know balls about climate change at the time, you give me scary statistics and ask me to do an effective media campaign, I’m gonna give you something that REALLY fucking scares people. I’m not going to be bothered to go verify, nor look up conflicting evidence and then debate the client on whether this shit is real if I’m getting paid to do a job.
Have you been to Australia? People here think covid is like the Bubonic Plague. Climate change is seriously something to worry about, if we could get people to think about climate change akin to how Australia thinks about covid people would stop driving cars, we’d all go back to the dark ages and the planet could cool down.
Is your anxiety about climate change or do you worry about other risks, like getting seriously ill, being in a serious accident, victim of crime, natural disaster, mauled by an animal, etc?
Oh boy. I predict this thread will turn into a complete train wreck like every other climate thread I’ve been involved with in about… Oh 30 more posts or so lol.
But what the hell.
I can definitely relate to this. I think a lot of us can, only with different things for each person. For myself though, I have never really found it useful to worry about things I have absolutely no control over. Being concerned about them is one thing, but having active anxiety about them… Is a waste of resources. Worry robs us of all happiness in the present - moments that we are happy, and gives nothing back in the moments that are difficult.
I understand that the mind is a complicated thing and that anxiety is a complicated problem to face, so don’t take this as criticism of you. But I have worked very hard to redistribute mental resources towards things that I can actually influence in my life. It eases this feeling. All of us have many things that we cannot control, and I think understanding and learning about those things is important but worrying about them does nothing objectively speaking… Then again, the mind is rarely a logical beastie
Yeah, this is something that’s always been a problem. The only difference now is the news coverage and hand wringing you get with each event now. China is GIGANTIC (obviously), and this shit has always been happening there. For centuries. For that matter the southwest of the US has always dealt with water shortages and droughts.
You can make a case that the frequency we are seeing is increasing, but these sorts of natural disasters have been ruining lives for centuries without news coverage. Shoot, not too long ago it could still happen without catching international news.
This emphasized part is exactly what my major problem is. I hate it when science turns activist. It’s the same thing as when journalism students go to school because they want to “change the world” or something like that - news flash: THAT IS NOT THE PROPER FUNCTION OF NEWS JOURNALISTS. Same goes for scientific activists willing to fudge things to scare people. Not the proper function of science.
Also note (for others who may read this, not you) that there is a big difference between exaggerating or fudging things in order to scare people or “move the needle” on policy… and legitimate debates on methods, models, or statistics which are 100% parts of science work and debate…and can also get very heated lol.
I’m not a climate change denier, but I’m not one to blindly trust scientists, let alone politicians, both of whom have vested interests in ginning up as much Climate Change Anxiety as they can.
Scientists want funding, politicians want votes and “green” corporations are after the same kind of green stuff as every other corporation.
Beware anyone who warns you about grave outcomes in the future and insists that electing them, funding them or re-engineering society is needed to avert them. We had scientists in the 1970s telling us that we’d all be underwater in 2021.
Humans are also very good at adapting to changing environments and planetary conditions. We’re much better at that than conducting large scale social experiments enforced by governments.
I’m generally more worried about what our governments might do to prevent an uncertain future than what the planet is going to do.
It is kinda outside what you can control. I worry about stuff outside of my control, but it doesn’t make sense. Keep that in mind when you start worrying about this stuff.
You can do stuff that will help in your own small way. The good news, is this stuff is usually good for the green stuff in your wallet. Fuel efficient cars, not keeping the house as warm in the winter or as cold in the summer helps both the environment, and your wallet.
Even if we accept that the climate is out of control and that it’s significantly impacted by humans and that the science has it all figured out, you could go 100% draconian on all the proposed left wing measures and it wouldn’t make the slightest dent even according to the left wing science. The western world could go 0 emissions on everything and it wouldn’t matter with places like China and the developing world.
The real issue I have with all of it is that no one seems to actually believe the doomsday predictions (especially the side that is pushing the doom and gloom). CNN pushing the snot out of the rising sea levels while buying buildings in Manhattan. When according to their own coverage it’ll be under water and worthless in a couple decades.
The good news is that, the doom and gloom models and scenarios have all been wrong to this point. BUT no, it’ll never be a unifying topic.
Idk, but some estimates put it at 60-80 years for the city thing.
No, I very very very highly doubt it will happen suddenly, but I do believe the problems will pile up. ie apartMent in Shanghai might get flooded and need remodeling a couple of times, might need to relocate because said apartment is unlivable, then might need to move to another country altogether. Might even get caught in some natural disaster
And eventually (hopefully after I’m dead), Shanghai goes underwater
All this is assuming that I will be able to afford relocating/ repairing damages, both of which will almost certainly entail a lower quality of life
I’m not all that confident in my ability to adapt given my disproportionate response to the COVID situation
As someone who has had mental health battles throughout life I would encourage you to not worry so much about problems that haven’t happened yet.
This ain’t climate change denial. I think it’s real and concerning. But we don’t know the effects of what it will be like or even if some of us will be alive when some of that hits. We have no idea what type of innovations may help (or hurt) us in that department.
Spending today worrying about how awful the world MIGHT be years from now feels like a sure fire way to waste your life. By all means do the things you think will help climate change today or take any steps that could be positive if it makes you feel better. Just because horrific things could happen doesn’t mean they will. I mean I’m not spending a bunch of time worrying about a nuke being dropped on me even though we have plenty of nukes in the world and plenty of people who don’t like the US.