We are racing down a mountain at full throttle. Our children are in the back seat. The speedometer is buried. The road curves sharply ahead. On the outside of the curve is a cliff with a 200 meter drop. On the other side is a vertical rock wall.
Here are some ideas I came up with to help push people into taking action. Sure we need systemic changes like ending car dependent cities and heavily reducing fossil fuel usage. Doing nothing is smashing through the guard rail and off the cliff. Doing one is slowing enough to MAYBE survive crashing into the mountain. Doing both is slowing down enough to navigate the curve.
There are some things we CAN do.
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Start spreading the word on social media for unofficial things like moo-less Monday. Don’t eat beef on Mondays. Weather Wednesday, where you adjust or turn off your HVAC. This could be a whole other thread.
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Start getting louder and louder. Remember, we need to both act AND influence enough people for systemic changes.
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Consume less. Be as efficient with resources as possible. There tons of things you can do here that are minimal effort and barely noticeable.
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Political action. Vote. Run if you are able. Contact politicians at all levels. Talk with people about things that have benefits beyond just climate. E.g. transit reduces traffic.
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Stay strong. Don’t succumb to doomerism.
Actually we are in a bus with our children, hurtling down your mountain at 120kph, approaching the death bend, the bus driver is a deranged psychopath who can only think of getting home in time to watch the football. He will not tolerate being distracted while driving so he has hired an armed guard with orders to shoot any passenger moving from their seats.
Some panicking fellow passengers have covertly formed a committee to pursuade everyone to wave their hands out the windows to create sufficient drag to slow the bus down…
It may already be too late but we need more radical action than ‘no moo Mondays’ to address this problem.