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Deep down, I think we're pretty much all fucked. We've gone too far and there's no way back. And I think you agree. But, hey, there is a glimmer of hope. It's

by jfoutz 5y ago

Deep down, I think we're pretty much all fucked. We've gone too far and there's no way back. And I think you agree. But, hey, there is a glimmer of hope. It's not going to do a damn thing, but cycling instead of driving is still a bit of defiance, even if it's only symbolic. Realistically, we do have power and control over where and how we work. There is some real muscle in smart people working on hard problems. May not a win. I'm sure you understand the consequences of that. At least, I can go down swinging. As you say, things are going into overdrive. I'm not going to tell you how to live your life. I am going to encourage you to hold off on that heroin experiment for a while, maybe don't move to a tent in a national park just yet. Things are changing. We don't get a free pass. Some things are going to be real ugly. Maybe, MAYBE, things will be ok. The iceberg is out there. We're probably going to hit it. We all still have some agency (I hope). If you have to rearrange deck chairs, go for it. Give it a minute. We aren't sunk yet. It doesn't have to be an apocolypse just yet.

adflux 5y ago
You know whats worse than people who say climate change doesnt exist? People like you who spout off unsubstantiated defeatist nonsense about "why it's too late" and "it doesn't matter". Because people like you trick others into thinking the same, and not giving a damn.
- cassepipe 5y ago
  I don't feel tricked into not caring when threatened with living on a barely livable planet. I don't know if he or she is right but if anything, when I read it, it rather made me think about what would ecological armed struggle against the biggest polluters would look like.
  - Chris2048 5y ago
    If the biggest polluters petrol/oil, then you'll be fighting people with working vehicles.
- afarrell 5y ago
  Agreed. We live in a world with many grave challenges—and yet the correct response is still hope.
  - chinathrow 5y ago
    No, the correct response is action.
    - 0_____0 5y ago
      not mutually exclusive
    - afarrell 5y ago
      True, yet Action is impossible to coordinate without hope.
- snek_case 5y ago
  There's a lot of pessimism and cynicism in the world these days. I think movies make that clear. There are so many movies about dystopian futures where everything is hopeless and everything is inevitably going to shit. The general mood is very different from what you saw in movies from the 1980s. Personally, I think that any action we can take towards making things better will pay off. Action is better than inaction. There will be negative consequences to climate change, but acting sooner could save millions, even hundreds of millions of lives, so don't give up now. We're just finally starting to see real adoption of electric cars and grid-scale batteries, those industries are set to boom. The solution is at our doorstep, now is not the time to just go "ah, fuck it, why bother?".
kortilla 5y ago
What a boring anti-science trope. At least the anti-science denialists aren’t so negative.
PedroBatista 5y ago
Since you’re unsurprisingly taking a beating here in HN, let me reframe your general mood. The planet is and will be fine, it’s our way of living and society that will go, and that will not happen in your lifetime. So there’s no need for you to suffer with that gloom. Another even more practical reason: it’s unproductive. Most of that anxiety is offloaded from those in true power and resold by “the media”. It’s obviously a serious problem but they are feeding you mostly bullshit in order to meet their revenue targets or agendas. Don’t be a victim of them before being a victim of climate change.
- sofixa 5y ago
  > The planet is and will be fine, You can't know that. Rising temperatures, acidity and water levels in oceans, deforestation, overfishing, drastic temperature amplitudes and higher frequency of natural disasters can all be devastating for whole ecosystems, which could have cascading effects. Nobody can reliably predict how all of that will turn out, but it could turn out really bad. Will the planet "be fine" if a big portion of ocean life is extinct and huge swaths of land are uninhabitable? Depends on your definition of fine i guess.
  - PedroBatista 5y ago
    Huge amounts of life and species have died out in the past and will continue to happen. This time we have an hand in it, but you don't see any other species aware or preoccupied by it, so it's also morality issue. My response was in order to address this generalized anxiety and guilt that's mostly unproductive and in some cases quite maquiavelic. So yes, "the planet" will be fine. Our coddled asses attached to our infantilized minds probably not, so instead of this schizophrenic attitude ranging from "We're doomed!" to "I want to talk to the manager", maybe we should be more productive and do our best while understanding we might not get what we want and that's "fine".
  - bregma 5y ago
    The ecosphere has been around for billions of years. It's been through much much, MUCH worse. It'll be fine. Maybe some hairless apes might suffer a bit, and a few thousand species might be replaced by something else, but in the long run the planet is going to thrive.
thow-58d4e8b 5y ago
To put things in perspective We've already warmed up the planet by about 1C from pre-industrial times, and...well, pretty much nothing consequential happened Based on the most likely temperature impacts of the most realistic emission scenarios, we're looking at an additional 0.8C (optimistic) to 1.5C (pessimistic) on top of that by the end of the century, with the temperatures plateauing shortly afterwards. No, Earth will not become the next Venus, nor will Greenland and Antarctic melt (it's -30C there right now)
- adrianN 5y ago
  You assume linear relationships between temperature and "bad things happening", but the climate system is not linear at all.
- dTal 5y ago
  Greenland is literally melting. Google it.
- taneq 5y ago
  looks around Yep, yeah, nothing consequential happening around the world. No widespread unprecedented flash floods in multiple areas of the globe simultaneously. No megafires burning on multiple continents. No temperature records being broken and re-broken by wide margins multiple times a year every single year. Nothing really at all. I don't know what they're talking about. ...is "Greenland and the Antarctic are still cold" really your hot take on climate change?

by jfoutz 5y ago

adflux 5y ago

You know whats worse than people who say climate change doesnt exist? People like you who spout off unsubstantiated defeatist nonsense about "why it's too late" and "it doesn't matter". Because people like you trick others into thinking the same, and not giving a damn.

cassepipe 5y ago
I don't feel tricked into not caring when threatened with living on a barely livable planet. I don't know if he or she is right but if anything, when I read it, it rather made me think about what would ecological armed struggle against the biggest polluters would look like.
- Chris2048 5y ago
  If the biggest polluters petrol/oil, then you'll be fighting people with working vehicles.
afarrell 5y ago
Agreed. We live in a world with many grave challenges—and yet the correct response is still hope.
- chinathrow 5y ago
  No, the correct response is action.
  - 0_____0 5y ago
    not mutually exclusive
  - afarrell 5y ago
    True, yet Action is impossible to coordinate without hope.
snek_case 5y ago
There's a lot of pessimism and cynicism in the world these days. I think movies make that clear. There are so many movies about dystopian futures where everything is hopeless and everything is inevitably going to shit. The general mood is very different from what you saw in movies from the 1980s. Personally, I think that any action we can take towards making things better will pay off. Action is better than inaction. There will be negative consequences to climate change, but acting sooner could save millions, even hundreds of millions of lives, so don't give up now. We're just finally starting to see real adoption of electric cars and grid-scale batteries, those industries are set to boom. The solution is at our doorstep, now is not the time to just go "ah, fuck it, why bother?".

kortilla 5y ago

What a boring anti-science trope. At least the anti-science denialists aren’t so negative.

PedroBatista 5y ago

Since you’re unsurprisingly taking a beating here in HN, let me reframe your general mood. The planet is and will be fine, it’s our way of living and society that will go, and that will not happen in your lifetime. So there’s no need for you to suffer with that gloom. Another even more practical reason: it’s unproductive. Most of that anxiety is offloaded from those in true power and resold by “the media”. It’s obviously a serious problem but they are feeding you mostly bullshit in order to meet their revenue targets or agendas. Don’t be a victim of them before being a victim of climate change.

sofixa 5y ago
> The planet is and will be fine, You can't know that. Rising temperatures, acidity and water levels in oceans, deforestation, overfishing, drastic temperature amplitudes and higher frequency of natural disasters can all be devastating for whole ecosystems, which could have cascading effects. Nobody can reliably predict how all of that will turn out, but it could turn out really bad. Will the planet "be fine" if a big portion of ocean life is extinct and huge swaths of land are uninhabitable? Depends on your definition of fine i guess.
- PedroBatista 5y ago
  Huge amounts of life and species have died out in the past and will continue to happen. This time we have an hand in it, but you don't see any other species aware or preoccupied by it, so it's also morality issue. My response was in order to address this generalized anxiety and guilt that's mostly unproductive and in some cases quite maquiavelic. So yes, "the planet" will be fine. Our coddled asses attached to our infantilized minds probably not, so instead of this schizophrenic attitude ranging from "We're doomed!" to "I want to talk to the manager", maybe we should be more productive and do our best while understanding we might not get what we want and that's "fine".
- bregma 5y ago
  The ecosphere has been around for billions of years. It's been through much much, MUCH worse. It'll be fine. Maybe some hairless apes might suffer a bit, and a few thousand species might be replaced by something else, but in the long run the planet is going to thrive.

thow-58d4e8b 5y ago

To put things in perspective We've already warmed up the planet by about 1C from pre-industrial times, and...well, pretty much nothing consequential happened Based on the most likely temperature impacts of the most realistic emission scenarios, we're looking at an additional 0.8C (optimistic) to 1.5C (pessimistic) on top of that by the end of the century, with the temperatures plateauing shortly afterwards. No, Earth will not become the next Venus, nor will Greenland and Antarctic melt (it's -30C there right now)

adrianN 5y ago
You assume linear relationships between temperature and "bad things happening", but the climate system is not linear at all.
dTal 5y ago
Greenland is literally melting. Google it.
taneq 5y ago
looks around Yep, yeah, nothing consequential happening around the world. No widespread unprecedented flash floods in multiple areas of the globe simultaneously. No megafires burning on multiple continents. No temperature records being broken and re-broken by wide margins multiple times a year every single year. Nothing really at all. I don't know what they're talking about. ...is "Greenland and the Antarctic are still cold" really your hot take on climate change?