5 ms·

I think when it comes to climate change, you can end up in one of three buckets: - denier (perhaps the happiest group) - defeatist (I recycle and cycle to wor

by abraae 9y ago

I think when it comes to climate change, you can end up in one of three buckets: - denier (perhaps the happiest group) - defeatist (I recycle and cycle to work, but what can I do? I'm just one person, its all so bad, I'm depressed) - activist (I'm going to do something about this now, they can't do this to my children) I think one of the biggest problems facing us on climate change is somehow making better use of people who care than letting them fall into defeatist mode.

colordrops 9y ago
Well, don't let my depression lead you to the wrong conclusion. I'm am (somewhat) active - I donate to climate causes, it's my number one issue when voting, I drive a hybrid, only buy organic food, minimize eating meat, minimize consumption, grow some of my own food, bike when I can, minimize electricity use, etc. I do recognize that it's not enough and we all need to basically go back pre-industrial lifestyles to really make enough of a change to matter.
- abraae 9y ago
  Yeah, that wasn't aimed at you. More a general observation that one of the biggest problems with climate change is how we think about it. I'll bet there are a lot of people who have more or less given up. I've talked to some people who are not really deniers but rather people who don't want to know, and find it easiest to not think about it at all.
  - colordrops 9y ago
    I think part of that "giving up" comes from there not being a plausible vision to a sustainable future. If all it took was cutting down, even significantly, on daily indulgences, and a clear set of numbers showed that, then I believe we could get people on board. But the main issue is that power brokers, both in policy and in media, refuse to make those sacrifices, and their decisions have several of orders of magnitude more effect than individual actions. And the individuals know it.
- anigbrowl 9y ago
  No, you're not active. You're still a consumer, you've just changed your consumption choices to feel less bad. Join an activist group and start protesting, picketing, learn about direct action tactics, and interrupt the smooth running of the machine that is killing you and destroying your future. Trust me, even taking small actions against an impossibly large problem feels about 1000 times better than sitting there wringing your hands over it.
  - colordrops 9y ago
    Hence why I said somewhat active, and ended my post with "I do recognize that it's not enough and we all need to basically go back pre-industrial lifestyles to really make enough of a change to matter." What are some things that you are doing?
    - anigbrowl 9y ago
      I'm a political activist. I'd prefer not to go into specifics while I have [ending charges :) I don't mean to suggest that I have The Best strategy or tactic that you should deploy right now. These are hard problems we're talking about, and my long-term aims are plotted over 10-30 year timescales, and realistically the chances of achieving those are very tiny. I pursue a political approach because that's where my knowledge and skills seem likely to have the most effect. I'm not sure that we need to necessarily go back to pre-industrial lifestyles in some sort of neo-primitivism movement. Perhaps I'm wrong and this will be forced upon us, but I believe that our capacities for invention and redeployment of our resources make it possible to change direction as a species. That has never been done before, and it will be fearfully difficult, even dangerous. But I prefer failure to passivity. I've mentioned the 'deep green resistance' group partly because this thread is focused on ecology and partly because it's a good overview of the different theories and techniques of activism. Maybe if I were talking to one of the authors I'd get castigated for being too focused on political considerations and not putting the environmental issue at front and center of my efforts. But that's where my bets are placed for the time being.
      - crispinb 9y ago
- Dylan16807 9y ago
  Isn't organic food more costly to make? > I do recognize that it's not enough and we all need to basically go back pre-industrial lifestyles to really make enough of a change to matter. Bah. Charge a dollar per kg of carbon released and the problem will almost solve itself. It's much more a problem of political will than it is a problem of technical capability.

by abraae 9y ago

colordrops 9y ago

Well, don't let my depression lead you to the wrong conclusion. I'm am (somewhat) active - I donate to climate causes, it's my number one issue when voting, I drive a hybrid, only buy organic food, minimize eating meat, minimize consumption, grow some of my own food, bike when I can, minimize electricity use, etc. I do recognize that it's not enough and we all need to basically go back pre-industrial lifestyles to really make enough of a change to matter.

abraae 9y ago
Yeah, that wasn't aimed at you. More a general observation that one of the biggest problems with climate change is how we think about it. I'll bet there are a lot of people who have more or less given up. I've talked to some people who are not really deniers but rather people who don't want to know, and find it easiest to not think about it at all.
- colordrops 9y ago
  I think part of that "giving up" comes from there not being a plausible vision to a sustainable future. If all it took was cutting down, even significantly, on daily indulgences, and a clear set of numbers showed that, then I believe we could get people on board. But the main issue is that power brokers, both in policy and in media, refuse to make those sacrifices, and their decisions have several of orders of magnitude more effect than individual actions. And the individuals know it.
anigbrowl 9y ago
No, you're not active. You're still a consumer, you've just changed your consumption choices to feel less bad. Join an activist group and start protesting, picketing, learn about direct action tactics, and interrupt the smooth running of the machine that is killing you and destroying your future. Trust me, even taking small actions against an impossibly large problem feels about 1000 times better than sitting there wringing your hands over it.
- colordrops 9y ago
  Hence why I said somewhat active, and ended my post with "I do recognize that it's not enough and we all need to basically go back pre-industrial lifestyles to really make enough of a change to matter." What are some things that you are doing?
  - anigbrowl 9y ago
    I'm a political activist. I'd prefer not to go into specifics while I have [ending charges :) I don't mean to suggest that I have The Best strategy or tactic that you should deploy right now. These are hard problems we're talking about, and my long-term aims are plotted over 10-30 year timescales, and realistically the chances of achieving those are very tiny. I pursue a political approach because that's where my knowledge and skills seem likely to have the most effect. I'm not sure that we need to necessarily go back to pre-industrial lifestyles in some sort of neo-primitivism movement. Perhaps I'm wrong and this will be forced upon us, but I believe that our capacities for invention and redeployment of our resources make it possible to change direction as a species. That has never been done before, and it will be fearfully difficult, even dangerous. But I prefer failure to passivity. I've mentioned the 'deep green resistance' group partly because this thread is focused on ecology and partly because it's a good overview of the different theories and techniques of activism. Maybe if I were talking to one of the authors I'd get castigated for being too focused on political considerations and not putting the environmental issue at front and center of my efforts. But that's where my bets are placed for the time being.
    - crispinb 9y ago
Dylan16807 9y ago
Isn't organic food more costly to make? > I do recognize that it's not enough and we all need to basically go back pre-industrial lifestyles to really make enough of a change to matter. Bah. Charge a dollar per kg of carbon released and the problem will almost solve itself. It's much more a problem of political will than it is a problem of technical capability.