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Process your emotions first. Get to a place where you feel positive about facing the problem. At the end of the day, global climate change is a good problem to

Process your emotions first. Get to a place where you feel positive about facing the problem. At the end of the day, global climate change is a good problem to face, like WW2 was a good challenge, and it decomposes into smaller problems, recursively, and there are real things you can do. Government's are the only actors that really matter; so it's time to get political. Understand the legislative and executive options; if there's something in-play, help out. Politics is, in general, labor intensive so volunteer. The more local the law, the more leverage you have - so don't ignore state and local law. If you work for a carbon intensive industry, quit. Triage your environmental concerns: landfills << carbon emission. Heck, nuclear waste << carbon emission. So don't get distracted by plastic straw bans or Fukushima/Chernobyl, etc. Politically, care about stopping: fracking, offshore drilling, pipeline investment, and (this one is important): carbon money in politics. Culturally, embrace a voluntary contraction: make more things locally, at home, using local material. Replace your PS5 (dream) with a treehouse; replace Spotify with your dad's guitar. Get out into nature, and enjoy her company.

sva_ 5y ago
For a moment I suspected you'd end this with "turn on, tune in, drop out".
ben_w 5y ago
> replace Spotify with your dad's guitar. Now I’m wondering what the inherent CO2 is in those two, and how much variation there is between guitars.
- ta988 5y ago
  The difference is likely negligible compared to changing one habit like caffeine consumption or numbers of hours using computers or tvs.
dantheman 5y ago
The only actors that matter are technologists developing better sources of energy generation, energy storage, and carbon capture are really the only thing that matters. Isn't fracking a great source of natural gas? Isn't that much better than oil?
- tremon 5y ago
  Fracking also increases the supply and therefore reduces the price of natural gas, which leads to more gas consumption and less investment in greener alternatives. Coupled with the ecological hazards that fracking itself imposes, I don't see how we can consider it a net positive.
- javajosh 5y ago
  >a great source of natural gas It is, but fracking allows a large volume of methane to escape into the atmosphere as waste[1], which is itself a potent greenhouse gas[2]. [1] https://www.epa.gov/uog#air https://www.epa.gov/uog#air [2] https://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/lookingatearth/methane.html https://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/lookingatearth/methane.htm...

sva_ 5y ago

For a moment I suspected you'd end this with "turn on, tune in, drop out".

ben_w 5y ago

> replace Spotify with your dad's guitar. Now I’m wondering what the inherent CO2 is in those two, and how much variation there is between guitars.

ta988 5y ago
The difference is likely negligible compared to changing one habit like caffeine consumption or numbers of hours using computers or tvs.

dantheman 5y ago

The only actors that matter are technologists developing better sources of energy generation, energy storage, and carbon capture are really the only thing that matters. Isn't fracking a great source of natural gas? Isn't that much better than oil?

tremon 5y ago
Fracking also increases the supply and therefore reduces the price of natural gas, which leads to more gas consumption and less investment in greener alternatives. Coupled with the ecological hazards that fracking itself imposes, I don't see how we can consider it a net positive.
javajosh 5y ago
>a great source of natural gas It is, but fracking allows a large volume of methane to escape into the atmosphere as waste[1], which is itself a potent greenhouse gas[2]. [1] https://www.epa.gov/uog#air https://www.epa.gov/uog#air [2] https://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/lookingatearth/methane.html https://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/lookingatearth/methane.htm...