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What if we stopped pretending the climate apocalypse can be stopped?

newyorker.com

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Re: What if we stopped pretending the climate apocalypse can be stopped?

#4
post #2

Really disheartened that it will hit during my lifetime. Had hoped to dodge it, really. How do you, as an individual, prepare for this?

Primarily, make sure you live at elevation (i.e. > 20 feet). Also helps if you've got temperate or cool local weather, so it doesn't get unpleasant decades from now.

Re: What if we stopped pretending the climate apocalypse can be stopped?

#6
post #2

Really disheartened that it will hit during my lifetime. Had hoped to dodge it, really. How do you, as an individual, prepare for this?

Avoid procreating. Put your money into prepping instead of your 401k. Make a plan to kill yourself when it all becomes too much to bear. Enjoy the time you have.

Re: What if we stopped pretending the climate apocalypse can be stopped?

#7
post #2

Really disheartened that it will hit during my lifetime. Had hoped to dodge it, really. How do you, as an individual, prepare for this?

Don't have kids unless your dream is for them to suffer and live with a steadily declining quality of life from their childhoods.

Try to get rich enough before the worst effects become widespread that you can buy your way out of some of it.

Re: What if we stopped pretending the climate apocalypse can be stopped?

#8
The thing is, it's already too late to prevent pretty terrible effects of climate change, but it's not too late to stop it from getting even worse. Every tenth of a degree can make a world of difference. So while we will most certainly not stay below 1.5°, the difference between 2 and 3 degrees is huge, and the efforts we make today decide in what world we'll live in. Resigning to the inevitable now is a surefire recipe to get to the absolute worst case scenario where the survival of our technological civilization is very much uncertain.

Re: What if we stopped pretending the climate apocalypse can be stopped?

#9
"Some climate activists argue that if we publicly admit that the problem can’t be solved, it will discourage people from taking any ameliorative action at all... But the impending catastrophe heightens the urgency of almost any world-improving action... these are all meaningful climate actions"

1) Argues that giving up hope does not mean the end of attempts to ameliorate warming.

2) Proceeds to define 'climate action' so broadly that just everything is a climate action, which will disperse and confuse efforts so much, no action on climate will be taken.

Re: What if we stopped pretending the climate apocalypse can be stopped?

#10
post #4
post #2

Really disheartened that it will hit during my lifetime. Had hoped to dodge it, really. How do you, as an individual, prepare for this?

Primarily, make sure you live at elevation (i.e. > 20 feet). Also helps if you've got temperate or cool local weather, so it doesn't get unpleasant decades from now.

The most pessimistic IPCC projections estimate a 1 meter rise in sea level over the next century. For comparison sea level rose by 20cm in the past century.
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