I thought some of you could use some optimism while sweltering. I should probably be writing more on resources and the latest in climate solutions, but at the moment, my desire to be online and/or write is much like a combustion engine running on fumes and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. But I did think the barrage of weather-related doom could use a bit of context.
As I posted last night on Cole’s rightfully worried post:
“There are some bad actors who would happily fan the flames of doomism, because it takes those who would be the most engaged, those who would be on the front lines, and it puts them on the sidelines…
And so, what I call the inactivists, the forces of inaction — polluters, and those who promote their agenda— they’ve turned to these other tactics, and one of them, ironically, is doomism. There are some bad actors who would happily fan the flames of doomism, because it takes those who would be the most engaged, those who would be on the front lines, and it puts them on the sidelines. That is something I’ve really been fighting against.
Look, the reality is, if the science told me that we are f’ed, and there’s nothing we can do about it, I would have to be truthful about that. But the fact is, we can very much do something about it. You’ve got on the one hand, all these people saying it’s too late, we can’t stop the meltdown, we have to plan for the end of human civilization.
Yet, on the policy front, we’re on the verge of truly meaningful climate action here.” Michael Mann, author The New Climate War.
So I’ve curated a few articles and one video to reflect some facts on doomerism. (This is a quick hit of things I had bookmarked already)
And as I also said last night on the thread, there are actually a lot of practical and immediate solutions that are being developed, researched, and implemented. We are not in some hopeless situation without the tools to solve it. But it will take action – and being all doom and gloom leaves us feeling defeated and less likely to take that action. Let’s not do that, okay?
This heatwave is a climate omen. But it’s not too late to change course
Climate Solutions: Climate Doomerism, It’s a Thing, Let’s Not Do ItPost + Comments (209)