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Thread: Climate Dysphoria

  1. #1
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    Climate Dysphoria

    I find myself depressed about climate change increasingly this last year. I think about it daily. It feels like grieving. It’s not just a passing thought or feeling - it is consistent.

    Does anyone else notice this?

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    Senior Member Teacher Terry's Avatar
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    I find it depressing but don’t dwell on it. So many things are wrong with this world and it’s so sad.

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    I think about it daily. But it's more like resignation and hopelessness with me (I'm so ground down by life otherwise as well). I mean I would do what I can, but heck if I know what the heck that is.

    I feel sometimes like I've personally failed since I was even voraciously reading about climate change in junior high and high school (but to belabor the obvious, it's much larger than me, so that borders on narcissistic). Among all paradoxes of life, I was born into the population overshoot, the overshoot that shouldn't have happened, and I was born, and I will probably die before I planned as a child, due to environmental collapse (I would say before my time, but who is to say what our time is, maybe all years are bonus after 40). Food supplies are already cast into chaos for some things, species that have been around for millions of years migrating and ancient patterns like salmon spawning disrupted. I grieve for them, the salmon and so on. As for humanity, my one human comfort and I cling to it is: at least I didn't breed! There will be no descendants to live in hell at least.

    I don't follow all the news there. There is a limit to what I can tolerate, I who feel horror when a local wild area gets developed (no new areas should be developed period, I don't mind urban infill so much) etc.. And that is local, that's not global destruction, and I can't bear to see it.
    Trees don't grow on money

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    Senior Member catherine's Avatar
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    I feel it... it's disheartening to see the trajectory and then see reports that the Great Coral Reef is dead; millions of species are extinct or on the verge of extinction; that salmon that used to thicken the waters of the Pacific Northwest are reduced to almost nothing; the cod of the Northeast are just about gone; the animals that remain are poached and mutilated for stupid things like ivory or soup and birds as far away as Galapagos are choked with plastic.

    And we still think that consumerism and unlimited growth are signs of health. It's like trading in your legs for a nice hat and saying "well, you can't walk but at least you look good."
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    We have the ways but not the will to amend our trajectory - old paradigms persist. I keep hoping younger generations will change the course.

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    Senior Member JaneV2.0's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by pinkytoe View Post
    We have the ways but not the will to amend our trajectory - old paradigms persist. I keep hoping younger generations will change the course.
    I'm pinning my hopes on the younger generation as well, perhaps foolishly.

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    Perhaps the young are too burdened with debt, expensive housing, expensive rents, job precarity, and distracted by their cell phones (I know that's not fair, but is it sometimes true?) to save anyone.

    At least they aren't pining for Joe Biden though! The baby boom will VOTE us into oblivion! But I will ally with younger people in wanting a future, it is their existence afterall.

    I saw a passionate youngish woman (a millenial), give a plea for radical ecologically motivated political change recently, it struck deep: "the very world we were born into, that we have based all our dreams on, is what is destroying life itself".

    It's a bit much burden and immoral to put it all on the young though, isn't it? I mean ok if one has health problems etc.. they literally can't do all a healthy young person could, obviously, but as a general all purpose hand wave it's kind of lame. The millenials seem decent, I've heard Gen Z is bringing back malls though, good grief.
    Trees don't grow on money

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    I have a pessimistic temperament, so naturally global warming (I don't like the term climate change, which is something of a euphemism) brings that out in me. On the other hand, throughout history pessimists have been sounding the death knell of the human race from overpopulation, nuclear war, the zombie apocalypse, etc., and have always been wrong. So far. Maybe we'll geo-engineer our way out of this, or figure out how to terraform Mars, so we can trash that planet too. But I doubt it.

    My guess is that if you are over a certain age, say 50 or so, and live in the developed world, global warming isn't going to affect you much unless you have the misfortune to get caught in a global-warming-aggravated natural disaster like a mega hurricane. There will plenty of problems around the edges--food prices will rise, losses from weather-related damage will greatly increase, and life in general will become less pleasant. But most of us won't live to see the worst of it.

    In the short to medium term, as usual it will be the poorest and most vulnerable who suffer the most. The problem of climate refugees will greatly increase over the next couple of decades (this is happening in Europe already), and the wealthier countries will increasingly face the moral dilemma of how to deal with it. I expect self-preservation will win out. There will be death on a historic scale.

    Yes, if there's any hope, it lies with those under 30. As they gain political power, they may be willing to undertake the kind of full-scale mobilization of resources needed to combat the problem. It will be too late to prevent serious consequences (likely it already is), but perhaps not to forestall complete catastrophe.

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    Senior Member JaneV2.0's Avatar
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    I'm a boomer who won't vote for Biden until I have no choice (I don't personally know any Biden stalwarts). I'm reduced to writing letters and emails and sending campaign contributions (as well as doing my small part personally to shore up the environment), but it's true many of us are approaching our pull dates, so we look to the likes of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and others to take up the fight.

  10. #10
    Senior Member CathyA's Avatar
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    Yes, climate change and a host of other human behaviors and choices depresses the heck out of me. It truly seems that humans really don't fit on this earth. For whatever the reason........our behavior seems to be unlike anything else on this earth. What plant or animal would constantly try to destroy it's own life support system?

    What an incredible planet this is with it's it's natural plants, animals, climate and perfect balance, but man continues to try to destroy it all. I guess I don't think too highly of mankind. Are we "naturally" greedy, selfish, constantly unsatisfied with everything, to the destruction of everything else around us? Yes, I'm totally bummed most of the time.

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