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Friend, your specific points are generally correct. Your fears and concerns are well founded. (To be clear: I don't think that the worst results of climate ch

Friend, your specific points are generally correct. Your fears and concerns are well founded. (To be clear: I don't think that the worst results of climate change ("reduce human population back to a few hundred thousand and we start all over again") are assured, even if we're currently not even close to doing enough; but I think the odds are plenty high, and thus, plenty alarming.) As someone who has been long dancing with the despair you're dancing with right now, allow me to gently suggest something to you. > feel-good eco activism > You're doing just enough to soothe your conscience without actually depriving yourself. Let's assume that these are accurate. Then, let's assume for a moment that a person who comes to sufficiently understand the size and magnitude of the problems we're facing can go one of three ways. 1. The person has the fortitude and wherewithal to make the necessary changes, and does embrace a completely different, radical personal way of life. A small percentage of people do this. 2. The person embraces the realities, sufficient to motivate them to various changes in action and perspective, but still all together insufficient compared to the total scope of the problem. 3. Fall into despair. This is a simplification, of course. It's quite possible for a person to items 1 or 2 and also 3. My point: our greatest enemy here is despair. It's better to go part of the way, #2 above, and avoid despair than it is to do nothing. It's far better to do #2 above than it is to fall into despair. I urge you to give all people, yourself included, permission to push through various stages of acceptance and action.

buildzr 7y ago
Personally I feel it's best to just accept that we're burning this bitch and that only a major technological advancement in energy will do the job at this point. Thinking that you personally are highly responsible for it or that a single government can magically fix it is just futile and unless you're a specific kind of person who can handle that futility well, I'd even say harmful to your mental health. Knowing when to give up is important. Operations like Commonwealth Fusion Systems and Breakthrough Energy Ventures are doing far more to realistically put a stop to climate change than anyone else is at this point.

buildzr 7y ago

Personally I feel it's best to just accept that we're burning this bitch and that only a major technological advancement in energy will do the job at this point. Thinking that you personally are highly responsible for it or that a single government can magically fix it is just futile and unless you're a specific kind of person who can handle that futility well, I'd even say harmful to your mental health. Knowing when to give up is important. Operations like Commonwealth Fusion Systems and Breakthrough Energy Ventures are doing far more to realistically put a stop to climate change than anyone else is at this point.