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10 years ago: climate change? What climate change? Today: oh yeah, climate change is real, but we should have done something about it 20 years ago, now it's to

• jacquesm 3y ago
  Indeed. And the annoying thing is that it's the people that didn't believe in climate change 20 years ago that made that a reality. There was a HN comment about this long ago that summed up those stages nicely. It's frustrating to me on a personal level. Back in the early '00s it was pretty clear to me that we were headed for a massive problem. I did what I could to cut all kinds of ways in which we - as a family - were contributing. But in the end it had zero effect because the real agents of change weren't budging, not even a micro meter. So here we are today. The house I live in is more than energy neutral (my plans have been accelerated a bit on account of Putin's madness). But I make myself no illusion that it will matter, it's just a token bit of resistance, a tiny drop of green in an ocean of black. Things I wonder about (but no longer worry about): will my children make it through this crisis that we have created? Will our political institutions somehow survive? How big a population - assuming we survive in some numbers - will there be left and will there still be enough structure standing that we don't have to start all over from scratch? If you really start to think about the possible consequences of climate change you won't be having many good nights of sleep going forward. And there isn't a thing that you personally are going to be able to do about it, except maybe as a figleaf for your personal mental health. Very, very frustrating.
• tremon 3y ago
  Make that 50 years ago. There's plenty of reports from the 70s that show that certain industries were well aware of the damage being done.