May not be much, but, I’m hoping my GF and I will be on the same schedule by September. This will allow us to travel in one car together. We also just had a chimney inspection that will help us upgrade to more efficient furnace that will vent through the chimney.
Fantastic, every step is worth it!
Also, I wish you had someday a decent public transportation where you live no to be tied to the car.Unfortunately, the timing for trains/subway doesn’t work to our schedule. Even if it did, I’d also need a bus from the nearest subway stop.
Is it really?
Do these small personal changes matter anything at all in the big picture?
It seems to me we all, like everyone living in a rich country on the entire earth, need to drastically change our way of living, in order for it to actually matter anything.
It just seems so improbable that we will be able to stop this thing, that it seems pointless to even try.
Sorry for the negativity. But I really have a hard time feeling anything other than hopelessness, and in the end indifference, when it comes to the climate crisis.
Only people who are too lazy to do anything say stuff like this. There are 8 billion of us. If everybody did something small that would make a huge difference.
Imo that’s a harmful look on this issue. Everyone should contribute, of course, but this will never be enough. The real impact can only come from country/worldwide policy changes. Research your election candidates on those topics and vote!
One doesn’t exclude the other. For sure, systemic changes are most powerful and freaking necessary right now, so yes - research your election candidates and vote!
But at the same time do everything you can on personal level. It probably means lots of sacrifices. Smaller and bigger ones. E.g. I can stop using car for most of the trips, however I have to sacrifice time, because pubtrans is not good at my place. But I still live in a city, where there is some pubtrans. What about people who don’t have it in their area, that don’t live in a city but in a countryside or suburbs? They have to sacrifice a lot more than me. Are they willing to? Would I be willing to if I was in their shoes?
I disagree with “only”. I think it oversimplifies the issue. People who aren’t lazy, but are frustrated by corporate/governmental/civil inaction, say stuff like that, too.
A disheartening number of people simply don’t accept science. Others are too selfish or greedy to do anything that doesn’t have a short-term benefit. Climate change should be recognized as an urgent threat to the entire world, but instead, it’s become politicized.
People constantly do dumb things that are against their own best interests. When considering the problem of climate change and our reactions to it, it’s easy to become exasperated.
It’s not that they’re lazy, it’s that the cost of the amount of change necessary to make that huge difference cannot be afforded by the vast majority of those 8 billion people. The “small” change mentioned above about upgrading to a more efficient furnace is probably over $1000. And we constantly hear that “56% of Americans can’t cover a $1,000 emergency expense with savings”. The problem could have been solved by a bunch of small changes 50 years ago. Then it could have been solved by government intervention 30 years ago. Today, we have such a wealth gap that 8 billion “small” changes (assuming “small” is something most people can actually afford) would add up to something so negligible, it honestly wouldn’t be worth the effort.
I’ll leave this clip here. We could have solved this with government intervention. The fossil fuel industry made that impossible through lobbying and astroturfing. Now humanity will find out the hard way why it shouldn’t ever let that happen again.
It is not so much lazyness. It is more a feeling that nothing I do would matter at all in the end.
Every little thing helps. There are 8 billion of us.
I agree. I choose to participate in polluting as little as possible; but it does feel pointless so I also chose not to have children. They’ll have enough soldiers for the upcoming water wars. I’m not adding another.
And I still know tonnes of people, especially at my workplace, that drive SUVs with “Fuck you Greta” stickers and that complain about everything and anything that is even remotely related to climate change.
Their world is totally different than ours. Their minds have been poisoned by corporate and capitalists propaganda via private and public media. I advise to support some peoples media, like e.g. this website we’re posting on, the more supporters the more money which gives possibilities to enlarge its influence.
Or spend tonnes of hours on talking with people, so that we can drag them out of their capitalistic media back to the community of real people where they trust their friends more than some capitalistic news bullshit. However this is waaaay more time, energy and emotion consuming. I don’t know how else we could.One huge issue is that the real community is gone. There might very well be no one to set them straight. They’ll only meet like-minded brainwashed people in their own community.
This is incredibly depressing to me, it’s very hard not to feel hopeless.
I cope with it by activism. Doesn’t have to be something related to global warming, just anything, it makes you feel able to change world a little. Also, by working in a volunteer labor, you concentrate on presence and not waste your thoughts on things you have no power over.
I hear ya.
I get mad vs sad, but I’m not sure that’s any better, frankly.
I am just apathetic. But I do think about people who have kids that have a bery bleak outlook. I don’t feel anything but I’m sure if I did I’d be angry for them. I don’t see any point in thinking about it much anymore when we have countries that have no regulations and the US trying to deregulate everything. Whatever… short sightedness and greed.
Come join us on slrpnk.net and get some optimism from folks working on the solutions.
Same this is such a hopeless timeline…
Hey friend, I’ve been there, I know the feeling.
It’s not a solution or anything but this video was pretty helpful for me in dealing with some of those feelings, without pretending they don’t exist.
Hope you’re doing okay ♥
is this really a change of any sort?
its depressing, but in practice every year has been the most pollution heavy year, right?
