Hey everyone, I've lurked on this sub a little bit, but this is the first post I'm made, so I'm sorry if this gets asked a lot. But with so many studies saying that there aren't enough resources to go around, humans can't undo changes they've made at this point, carbon capture is still years away etc. is there reason for hope? Do we really have a chance or should I just pack up shop and set up a bunker. I'm sorry if this sounds like a joke but honestly I don't know what to do. This shit has me so worried it consumes almost every thought I have. How do you all cope?
I understand the despair. I live in a tiny, globally insignificant European country, and watching climate deniers like Trump and Bolsonaro getting elected on the other side of the Atlantic, woving to do away with environmental protections, is super disheartening. It's hard to stay optimistic. If you want to try and do something productive about it, you should check out /r/ClimateOffensive. It's dedicated to try and take action about climate change in a grassroots fashion. It's not guaranteed to work, but it sure beats sitting around and despairing. If you want, consider joining, even if just to hang out. It's about trying to stay optimistic and engaged, that's the most productive thing you can do at this point.
I don't think the media portrays this very well, but this isn't an all-or-nothing situation. Each half-degree of warming is very meaningful and has consequences above and beyond that before it. The 1.5 degrees and 2 degrees C marks are politically the goals, but even if we go passed those marks, it is worthwhile to fight to prevent every bit of warming possible. This will result in saving lives in the most vulnerable communities.
Also, just for the sake of mental health, would giving up really make you feel better?
It is hard to find a balance, but I think varying your viewpoint instead of just looking at the macro-view (which is very overwhelming, I agree) all the time helps. I personally work in adaptation, and that has helped me put it in perspective. Changes are here and more are on the way, so we can prepare and work to limit them as much as possible, but that's really all we can do. It's just a matter with accepting that, honestly.
If you spend just a little time reading past posts in this forum, you'll see that this question is a constant refrain here.
So: Repeating here my comment from another post on a similar topic :
In a word, the solution is: Adaptation.
Which people are pretty good at in the long run, as long as we have access to some key tools: science, technology, finance, and a modest amount of global coordination.
Technology is a big one. Eventually technology will develop solutions to three problems:
1) Making fossil fuels a minor source of energy supply, instead of a major one like they are now.
2) Finding a way to extract and sequester the excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
3) Making the global climate a tunable environment, like a laboratory or a manmade lake or your bedroom.
The question is, how quickly will these problems encounter technological fixes? #3 probably isn't happening in this century, but seems possible for the next. #1 and #2 are unpredictable, but it's reasonable to guess that major strides will be made in this century.
In the meantime, technology will also be needed to enable populations to adjust to some local phenomena:
1) Sea-level rise, by investing in coastal defense. (A technology which has existed for millennia.)
2) Ocean acidification.
3) Ecosystem pressures, possibly including some collapses. These could be severe, although note that ecosystems have collapsed in the past and civilization has adjusted well enough to those.
4) A higher-energy troposphere, which might mean more severe storms.
The financial system is an integral part of developing the necessary technologies, making the necessary investments, and possibly developing the necessary global coordination. In fact, for now burning fossil fuels is probably also an integral part of that process.
There's more than technology needed, of course. There's also a great need to amass huge amounts of data — so climate risks and fixes can be properly modeled and priced, for instance. Most of that data isn't available now, but amassing it in the future is another part of the solution.
But again, the solution condensed into a single word is: Adaptation. Which people are pretty good at, once a pressing need develops. If you are very concerned about climate risks, then you'll be constantly improving capacities to adapt — yours, and your society's.
The climate is not one of the top hundred most important influences on your life decisions. It might not even be in the top thousand. Its influence could easily be negligible.
Anyone who decides not to start a family will get full encouragement from me; I think plenty of people make ill-considered decisions about that. But regardless of my encouragement, you should invest in whatever makes you feel happy and fulfilled, and enables you to play a constructive role in helping other people reach their goals.
Also here's another comment on a similar topic:
And this one too:
And amplifying that one:
And more about the process of climate adaptation:
And finally, a possible way to frame realistic optimism:
Two things have really, really helped my climate anxiety. One is accepting that we have already failed to 'stop' climate change but that every reduction in C02 helps slow and reduce the impacts so there is meaningful work to be done. The other thing is that climate action is the cure for climate anxiety. Talk to other people who understand, call your representatives, get out there and make people wake up. Some of them will notice and you will feel a lot better when you feel less alone.
I started this website and have been having modest success organizing: climatepledgecollective.org
Hey guys, first off I'd like to apologize. I didn't realize this was such a discussed topic but I should have gone further into this sub before making a post, I'm sorry about that. And to everyone saying I am ill informed, and the topic of discussion was vague, you are exactly right. This is not even close to my field of study, and I mostly know what I've heard on news networks and social media. But the last few months this has honestly consumed most of my thoughts and made it difficult to function. I'm really sorry that you had to explain this stuff again for what is probably the thousandth time, but I do sincerely appreciate it. I'll try my best to take everyone advice and get more informed. Sorry for clogging up the sub, mods feel free to delete this post if it's and issue, I totally understand. Sorry again, have a good week everyone
May I offer some sources to be informed? Try Project Drawdown for solutions. Vox tends to do pretty good analysis on climate issues as well.
Oh dear, another victim of the doom cult. See previous examples and the replies there.
https://www.reddit.com/r/climatechange/comments/9qb9xa/just_how_fd_are_we/
https://www.reddit.com/r/climatechange/comments/9n4s5k/how_should_i_live_when_facing_catastrophe/
https://www.reddit.com/r/climatechange/comments/9mxhq0/is_there_no_hope/
Like most of the others, the post is so vague that it's difficult to reply to. What exactly are you worried about? Do you really believe that the whole world is about to burst into flames and disappear in a puff of smoke? Or vanish beneath the waves?
Well, maybe you could read this:
18 examples of the spectacularly wrong predictions made around the first "Earth Day" in 1970
https://www.reddit.com/r/climateskeptics/comments/9s6h94/18_examples_of_the_spectacularly_wrong/
If you think that climate change will result in you having to live in a bunker, you don't understand climate science very well. Sorry to be so blunt about it.
Maybe, just maybe, instead of being an asshole, you can explain why it isn't as bad as it sounds. Some people are genuinely fearful after the latest reports came out of mass extinction of animal life and also mass migration because of droughts/food shortages etc. Gotta love reddit taking what sounds like a young fearful person, and making em feel worse.
Anyone who feels concerned enough about this issue to review past posts in this forum will see lots of answers given to this pretty repetitive question. My repetitive answer is here.
People who are really concerned about this stuff are generally concerned enough to know the basics already, when they're readily available (not just here, but from many sources). Pointing that out isn't being an asshole. It's dispatching casually repeated questions in an efficient way.
Thanks my man
Since my first reply wasn't very helpful, I'll link you to a lengthy discussion I've had elsewhere on this sub related to these things. This was a discussion over a month or more where someone was similarly freaked out: https://www.reddit.com/r/climatechange/comments/99zezd/what_is_your_opinion_on_this/e4t83dd/
You should read my comment history where I go to great lengths to explain these things to people. In fact, I'll link OP there now.
Nah I gotcha dude, it was to hit a point home thought you know? Sorry if I sounded ill informed
That was probably not helpful on my part. I've linked to another conversation that began a couple of months ago where someone was freaked out. (This was a reply to a different comment of yours.) In fact, I'm going to copy/paste something I wrote via PM recently. The person who contacted me asked why I am optimistic. Here's what I wrote in response:
I would say that it is the confluence of several factors that give me hope for the future regarding climate change. Taken alone, each of these may not amount to much, but together they mean a great deal. Here are the major factors that have led to my present optimism:
When we look at actual changes in measured temperature, the climate appears to be less sensitive to changes in greenhouse gases than previously believed. This has two immediate policy implications.
- Things are not as grim as previously believed. (Rather, things are not as grim as those who are not well acquainted with the latest research believe.)
- Mitigation efforts will be less effective than previously believed. This is a gnarly one and take some unpacking, so I'll just note it here and move on for now.
Global human fertility has been falling for 50 years or more and will reach replacement fertility in twenty years or so. Global population will peak about 20 years after that. Future emissions scenarios are functions of population, economy, carbon intensity, and other things. Population peaking sooner than expected rules out the worst scenarios almost by itself.
There are fewer coal resources than most people realize. The worst emissions scenarios are built on demand models. In other words, they assume that there are enough fossil fuels in the ground to satisfy future demand, no matter what that demand may be. It was unfortunate that actual resource constraints weren't built into those models, but now that we have a better idea of these constraints, we can rule out the worst emissions scenarios. Further, we can now recognize that because these resources are finite and fewer than we thought, they are effectively self-taxing. What I mean by that is that the cheapest and easiest resources are consumed first. (The lowest hanging fruit is picked first, as it were.) After that, it gets more costly, on average, to extract the next Joule of fossil fuel energy.
Countries that don't take too kindly to ENGO propaganda are doing some great research and development of energy technologies like advanced nuclear power that actually will go a long way toward reducing carbon emissions.
Amara's Law seems to be accurate: We overestimate the impact of a technology in the short term and underestimate it in the long term. Thus, while some technologies that we are researching now don't seem to be having much of an impact, some of those will actually have large impacts in the future.
After looking at a variety of disciplines, I notice that there is a very strong bias among humans, no matter what they are discussing, to overestimate impact or damage from a threat. I grew up during the cold war. Every kid my age knew that the Soviet Union was going to nuke us and we were going to nuke them, right up until the Soviet Union fell apart. Ecologists of the 1960s and 1970s absolutely knew that hundreds of millions of people would starve to death by 1980. (Didn't happen.) Pathologists knew in the 1980s and 90s that antibiotic resistant bacteria would kill millions of people by 2010. Virologists today believe the biggest threat to the world is pandemic. Cybersecurity professionals believe that it's disruption of power grids by Advanced Persistent Threats. Geologists believe it's an asteroid that we haven't found yet that will strike us and wipe out most life on earth, and if not that, a supervolcano will. Cosmologists believe a Gamma Ray burst will get us... In other words, specialists see the possibilities in their fields and have trouble assigning appropriate probabilities to those things actually occurring. Finding cases people of overestimating probabilities of bad things happening is trivial. Finding cases where people underestimated threats is actually harder. Thus, we see a bias among even the brightest of us toward alarmism.
When I put all those things together (plus a few other things that I won't list here), I am far more optimistic than most people who delve into these things.
When we look at actual changes in measured temperature, the climate appears to be less sensitive to changes in greenhouse gases than previously believed. This has two immediate policy implications.
You are referring to a small decrease in the lower boundary of the IPCCs estimate of ECS? That is totally misleading. If not what exactly are you talking about? Certainly there has not been a significant meaningful change in ECS or TCS since the inception of the IPCC. The IPCC thinks that keeping climate change under a 1.5C threshold will require massive international effort (ie unlikely). We are realistically dealing with 2C at this point. Agreed that first worlders will not be in a 2C bunker but we are still talking about significant impacts to much of this interconnected world.
You are referring to a small decrease in the lower boundary of the IPCCs estimate of ECS?
No. I'm referring to the divergence between energy balance models and GCMs. That was part of the the rationale, by the way, for decreasing the lower bound.
Certainly there has not been a significant meaningful change in ECS or TCS since the inception of the IPCC.
Sure there has. AR5 was the first report not to state a most likely value of ECS, and that was due to the divergence mentioned above. The most like value for TCR (which I'm sure you meant) was reduced from 2.1°C in AR4 to 1.8°C in AR5.
The IPCC thinks that keeping climate change under a 1.5C threshold...
Here's where you start replying to things I didn't actually say.
No I meant ECS. The lower bound of the estimate was moved down along with TCS in AR5. This reflects an increase in uncertainty and does not support your claim that 'actual changes in measured temperature' indicate a lower ECS. The ECS range is now the same as it was in the first IPCC report. I don't know how you can claim this is a meaningful change. There is no change, 1.5 - 4.5C.
Clearly you didn't read my reply. Let me state it again. We now have divergent lines of evidence. The divergence is in favor of lower climate sensitivity. TCR is lower in AR5 than in AR4. This is good news.
It is easy to look at the world and give up, but that doesn’t help. I learned to look at positive changes I can feasibly make in my own life, and then realized that other people can do it to when they have to. I know we need to change our lifestyles TODAY, but for a lot of people (myself included), that is just financially possible. But, write out a 5-year plan to significantly make these changes. The changes below won’t be easy, but they are extremely plausible. Do them, and convince other people to do the same. The amazing future utopia we all dream about can be here within the next few generations. We just have to make it there.
-Immediately cut gasoline usage by >10% by walking/biking for local errands. Within 3 years, at least one of our two cars will be hybrid or electric. Within 5 years, one will be electric, and the other will be hybrid or electric.
-Within 2 months we can cut our electric consumption by 1/4 (retrofit house with LEDs and smart thermostats to start). Within 2 years, at least 50% of my home electric will be from renewable resources. Within 5 years, at least 90%. (This one also assumes that our local utility will also be partially providing from renewable resources as pressures mount).
-Within 2 months reduce meat consumption by 75-80%. Plant a vegetable garden within a year and grow as much as possible.
-Cut garbage waste by half within 4 months. This can be roughly measured by looking at how full your garbage can is when you bring it to the curb.
-Convince my boss to setup a cogen system and consider a solar field. The cogen system make perfect sense for us (use waste heat from compressors in the drying stage of our process). The solar field is a tough sell, but if the money makes sense, he will pounce on it.
find a way to be optimistic and hopeful for your own sanity while also maintaining a realistic view about the future. it can be hard to balance those two things with all we know but helps i think to try and find some irony in life. for example, try to live a meaningful life (or in a meaningful way) despite there not really being any meaning to be had.
It is not a question of hope and despair. This is a crisis. There will be time to react emotionally later. Right now we need to buckle down and act. Find out the largest fossil fuel emitters near you, and set up direct action campaigns to disrupt their systems. Pacifism and legal action suggested. Organize Apolitical lobbying campaigns in your local, regional, and country wide government. This is not about left or right. This is about life or death. We have had some very shocking news recently for anyone who wasn't in touch with the problem of climate change. People will be listening now who weren't before. people who were listening before will be more willing to act. Create the change that is necessary for the survival of our environment. we cannot trust the systems in place to move fast enough, so act first and ask for forgiveness later. Look up Ende Gelande. A perfect example of a form of direct action that we can scale to be able to save ourselves, despite what oil company lobbyists, and climate change deniers might want.
I find new ways to help. Whatever it is. I try to be strategic about it but honestly I just hope if I read more and do more and get more experience I will be able to help in a bigger way.
And yeah.. if I don't do these things I get anxious and/or depressed in a massive way. Full on panic attacks and can't sleep. So I just accepted that I guess I'm gonna have to do something about it.
Work gets rid of the bad feelings.
The most frustrating thing is that we all are aware of the need to do more for not just the planet but more so for each other. However there is a lot of apathy about it. Many say "well I don't see any difference to the weather" however if one opens their mind just a little bit it may occur to them that there is a World outside of their town or city. It may be ok where you live but it won't stay that way. It is not just about temperature or rising water levels, air pollution is vitally important too, the list is much bigger than this.
People in Norway and Philippines are noticing rising water levels and around the world the effects are starting to be felt, once we decide to look out for each other, that's where the real change will occur.
If everyone just does a little bit then huge changes would be made instantly, companies are putting their ESGs together so that their clients, investors etc can see that they are being environmentally responsible, a good article is here https://targetingnetzero.com/
Nothing is every hopeless, Mother Nature will be here long after, we can help her repair or she will do it by herself.
We can all contribute, and even if it is 30 mins per day, it all helps.
Yeah we have a chance, to reverse this stuff from happening, but it's gonna take some activism and personal accountability, we need to start first by voting people in who support climate change and will do something about it, then start going Carbon negative AND one day carbon neutral . Don't get me wrong, it'll still turn out bad in the next 12 years. But we as humans are good procrastinators. We will figure something out, especially since we are entering an age where automation is set to make capitalism alot less useful, thus we can focus on bettering our planet. Also there are certain unforeseen technology s coming down the pipeline that should help us in our fight, AGI, Carbon Negative Factories, Green cars becoming affordable w/ graphene batteries for 20 minute charges. People will die unfortunately, maybe in large numbers, but we will survive this. Though there is another battle that we might not win, and that's with AI. So who knows.
Hey, Finder23, just a quick heads-up:
alot is actually spelled a lot. You can remember it by it is one lot, 'a lot'.
Have a nice day!
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5.6y
Hey man the bot's trying his best, no need to shit all over him like that
As the apocryphal oil baron once said: "The stone age did not end because we ran out of stones."
Easy. Don't be pesimistic.
Sure just don't go to /r/GlobalWarming with it, the mods there only was pessimism.
In all seriousness though, I think the media only focuses on the "exciting" bad stuff, that's what you can expect from 20th Century Fox. There are plenty of new technologies and approaches being discovered and improved. If we stopped trying to go to and terrafarm Mars we would be a lot farther into a serious solution. Also if people started to take personal responsibility and didn't mindlessly reproduce so much.
I sometimes feel guilty for taking a breath ... .
I get the feeling when shit is going to hit the fan, humanity will simply kill themselves faster then the new hot earth climate will. What will technically solve the problem.
As for solving the problem without hitting the fan. Meh, every solution will hurt the economy and no government wants to hurt the economy. So we are in this vicious circle where everyone says they have to do something, but "secretly" just keeps going how they always went. Also most people at power are a bit older, so they do not care at all that the earth is going to be fucked in a year or 20.
I pretty much already accepted that I am going to die in a riot for food-stamps.
Hey, thomas15v, just a quick heads-up:
goverment is actually spelled government. You can remember it by n before the m.
Have a nice day!
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I do fall between hope and despair, but I'm optimistic most of the time.
2 missing replies
I often go between hope and despair, but there is no use in despair. Its paralyzing. We have to keep trying and spreading the message. Change is coming and the speed of which will increase substantially soon.
We are in no better time with our technological advances to defeat this beast. Direct Air Capture is already on the scene and costs are plummetting. This is a new an emerging industry with so many benefits. So much so, I think even Republicans will be on board. Check out climeworks and carbon engineering.
Clean meat is coming.... hopefully by the end of this year. JUST foods say they'll have chicken for us to purchase and Memphis Foods will be available in 2021. The impossible burger is pretty yummy too and it's being sold nation wide at White Castle. Support these movements!
Change is in the air. Keep fighting the good fight and show people how easy it is to live green. Support businesses that support sustainability and live as an example.