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Climate-change conversations feel like the most important topic on Hacker News. After reading all the comments I'm tempted to go back to the main page and look

Climate-change conversations feel like the most important topic on Hacker News. After reading all the comments I'm tempted to go back to the main page and look for something distracting, about emacs or Rust or some other vanishingly minor technology to divert my attention. The biggest hacking challenge is shifting our collective behavior. How do we (let's just say we in the USA, because that's the culture(s) I know best, and we continue to do significant environmental harm) make changes so that we use far fewer resources per capita? I call my political representatives now and then, and I do my small part (keeping the house temperature close to the outside temperature, as low as 59F or as high as 85F or so, anyway; I'm not the only occupant. Minimizing driving trips by maximizing appointments and errands, and living close to work. Minimizing travel- grudgingly flew to the Midwest from the PNW once for Christmas in the last three years, plus one family road trip in the same span, plus several shorter car trips- I consider these luxuries. Eating meat a few times a month. Not buying stuff for "retail therapy"- making do with what I have, and actively de-acquiring stuff & letting go of diverting hobbies so I can think more clearly and focus on what matters: the health of myself and my family, the growth and education of my child, and environmental health for all living beings. Volunteering with the local food shelf.), but I still feel like I could be doing more and I'm not sure how. So I look for answers, here on hn, in books, in the news, and in conversations. I haven't slipped into doomerism or other denial; life is interesting, there is much out of my control, and to stay sane I try to operate within my control and not stress about the rest. I'm trying to expand my control to support the narrative I like: strong local communities thriving on the resources available to them, with some trade with cities but not dependency on trade, and plenty of land and sea that we're part of rather than in dominion over. Romantic? Sure, and I accept that life isn't easy and that I and every bleeding-edge-of-life thing will die. Why not go out with all my available senses full of a minimally-polluted world? I grew up in a logged-off area in the Midwest. I live in a heavily logged area of the Pacific Northwest. In the forests nearby, forests only as old as me, there are massive stumps, reminders of what the forest use to be. Can we 8+ billion people have hundreds-year-old forests again? If we are too numerous, how do we scale back our numbers without dystopia? If some of us just use too much resources, how do we scale that back with just enough conflict, ideally without war? How do we change our culture?

ocschwar 3y ago
One challenge is that we are a status seeking species. We fly to a remote beach because the one nearby is just as comfortable but won't make the same waves when we post a selfie on Facebook. We buy houses and cars to show how far we've gone instead of just for the sake of staying dry and warm and getting around. For the fifty years of the Cold War, we had a corporate sector that channeled our status seeking in ways that would keep the assembly lines running, the same assembly lines that could be retooled in hours to restart the Arsenal of Democracy in case of war. The result was consumerism as we know it. The case of Greta Thunberg throws it into relief. She has imposed a lot of restrictions on herself, but as she frequently points out, she remains very comfortable. But, we can't magically drive 8 billion people to copy a single person's disinterest in status seeking when that disinterest is caused by a brain pathology. What we have to do is rechannel that status seeking drive into directions that help the issue instead of worsening it.
- abyssin 3y ago
  I sometimes dream of a situation where we seek status through virtuous behaviour. Unfortunately there’s no religion with sufficient authority at the moment to gather a big enough community where this would take place, at least none that I could see myself joining. And at the same time consumerism is quite aggressive when you decide to opt out of it. It becomes hard to socialize when you publicly state that most of the available work contributes to worsening the environmental conditions and earns you money that you can’t spend on something else than consumerism.
- meristohm 3y ago
  Fair points. How to help people find a healthy sense of purpose without the pitfalls of many (all?) religions (this may reveal my ignorance about religion; perhaps the problem isn't religion itself but how we humans interpret and implement religious practices?) seems key. Culture shapes behavior, individuals can affect culture, and culture transcends individuals; if I have a positive impact towards decreasing the amplitude of climate-change catastrophe (part of what matters to me while I'm alive), that may help me die with more grace, knowing that my contributions will carry on awhile. After I'm dead nothing matters to me anymore (presumably), but while I'm alive it feels right to push for what I value.

ocschwar 3y ago

One challenge is that we are a status seeking species. We fly to a remote beach because the one nearby is just as comfortable but won't make the same waves when we post a selfie on Facebook. We buy houses and cars to show how far we've gone instead of just for the sake of staying dry and warm and getting around. For the fifty years of the Cold War, we had a corporate sector that channeled our status seeking in ways that would keep the assembly lines running, the same assembly lines that could be retooled in hours to restart the Arsenal of Democracy in case of war. The result was consumerism as we know it. The case of Greta Thunberg throws it into relief. She has imposed a lot of restrictions on herself, but as she frequently points out, she remains very comfortable. But, we can't magically drive 8 billion people to copy a single person's disinterest in status seeking when that disinterest is caused by a brain pathology. What we have to do is rechannel that status seeking drive into directions that help the issue instead of worsening it.

abyssin 3y ago
I sometimes dream of a situation where we seek status through virtuous behaviour. Unfortunately there’s no religion with sufficient authority at the moment to gather a big enough community where this would take place, at least none that I could see myself joining. And at the same time consumerism is quite aggressive when you decide to opt out of it. It becomes hard to socialize when you publicly state that most of the available work contributes to worsening the environmental conditions and earns you money that you can’t spend on something else than consumerism.
meristohm 3y ago
Fair points. How to help people find a healthy sense of purpose without the pitfalls of many (all?) religions (this may reveal my ignorance about religion; perhaps the problem isn't religion itself but how we humans interpret and implement religious practices?) seems key. Culture shapes behavior, individuals can affect culture, and culture transcends individuals; if I have a positive impact towards decreasing the amplitude of climate-change catastrophe (part of what matters to me while I'm alive), that may help me die with more grace, knowing that my contributions will carry on awhile. After I'm dead nothing matters to me anymore (presumably), but while I'm alive it feels right to push for what I value.