Climate Dysphoria

[Gardnr]

I will vote for anyone that can beat the present imbecile.

+2 in our home!

[ApatheticNoMore]

I certainly don't have a problem with voting for whoever runs against Trump in the general (in some states like here it doesn't actually matter, but they can for symbolism, I like to give orangebarf the finger too).

Just in the Dem primary we actually have decent choices and I hope this country makes them. Like Greta Thunberg says we must be brave and uncomfortable (although just voting for the best the primaries offer is neither uncomfortable nor revolutionary, it's just obvious).

This is Biden on climate:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-u...-idUSKCN1SG18G

Way to little, way too late, buddy. A day late, a dollar short ...

But even Biden is partly symbolic to me: the need for real changes, and we have a symbolic retreat to the status quo prior to Trump. But he'll probably lose popularity pretty fast anyway, when people do some more research later on. I hope.

[ApatheticNoMore]

As for food, yes it will be affected by climate change. Already is. I'm a bit of an olive oil connoisseur (it costs some money but it's not wine). Last year much of California's crop was lost (to erratic climate plus fires also due in part to climate) as was much of Italy's. Who cares noone really needs olive oil? Ok, we don't need added fats, we may like them, and I use it for sauteing and salad dressing and the like. I see it as a signal of probably a much larger problem, that I don't follow as personally, with how food is getting affected by climate change.

But we waste so much food we have quite a lot of slack if climate just steadily worsens (food waste itself is a major source of green house gasses - sad but true). But with abrupt climate change that seems increasingly more likely, I don't know, maybe we all starve, it could happen, human extinction one way or other due to climate changes, plus other environmental destruction is a possibility.

On I bad day, I hardly care about humanity or my own life, it all seems so awful in other ways, but I always grieve for the plants and animals (sometimes especially plants, I have a bond with plants) ... It's why even the developments of natural areas are absolute horrors to me.

[pinkytoe]

Just read that local beekeepers are having/had a devastating year - colony collapse. I have a grim sense that we all know that rough days are ahead.

[CathyA]

It makes me so frightened for my children.....

[catherine]

I
But even Biden is partly symbolic to me: the need for real changes, and we have a symbolic retreat to the status quo prior to Trump. But he'll probably lose popularity pretty fast anyway, when people do some more research later on. I hope.

That's why I'm for the Green New Deal. As aspirational as it is, we need that kind of vision. If we get just halfway there, we'll be in a much better place than we'll be if we settle for Democratic incremental policies or Republican regressive policies.

[catherine]

I've been following the actions of the Extinction Rebellion, and I'm signing up for the Vermont chapter. They are a great non-violent environmental action organization that started in the UK last year, and it has spread here and other countries.

https://extinctionrebellion.us

Below is a foundational talk on their website--it's long but worth watching-- but one of the points in it is very relevant to this thread--that the opposite of hope is grief. And once you get beyond grief there's courage to do the right thing.

That makes so much sense to me--to get beyond the dysphoria, feel the pain, and then move forward with action. Their action takes from the playbook of MLK, Gandhi and Mandela--to stage non-violent protests, get arrested and do anything that will bring attention to the problem.

A very motivating statistic the speaker of the video, Dr. Radbrook, talks about is that it only takes 1-3% of the population to effect change--that's all it took for the wheels to start turning around with the Civil Rights movement.

The organization is also non-consumerist, so you won't find merchandise on their website, and they don't allow you to use the symbol for fundraising or profiteering. I think that's really cool, too.

[Tammy]

Interesting - moving through grief to action.

[JaneV2.0]

Trump has a 40% approval rating--much more than the 33% required for change to happen, so the opposite of positive change is even more likely. We're already seeing environmental protection laws gutted and an institutionalized hostility to climate science.

But, trying not to feel powerless, I have all the hope I can muster that the youth of the world will take up the cause and outlast those who would destroy the planet for their own selfish ends.

[catherine]

But, trying not to feel powerless, I have all the hope I can muster that the youth of the world will take up the cause..

I may not be young, but as they say in Spamalot, I'm not dead yet, so I'm not yet powerless to TRY to do my small part to change things.