Stoicism can work wonders in making this bearable. By focusing on what I, personally can do - aside from using a sniper’s rifle to eliminate the 0.1%, that is - I can achieve some manner of peace in this world.
It’s going to end badly, of course. I have friends who are climate scientists, and the reality is orders of magnitude worse than what even the published data directly points to, much less the politically-massaged “alternative truths” that politicians trot out.
Simply put: I would be utterly shocked if humanity exits this century with anything more than 2B people still alive, and at any tech level above that of the Iron Age. And that is the best-case scenario that arises from the “Business As Usual” path that capitalism refuses to budge from.
Have fun. Keep loved ones close, try to build strong, tightly-connected communities where everyone can watch everyone else’s back. Practise the communism/socialism that will allow that community to be truly resilient to outside threats.
Good luck.
What a beautiful answer.
Here in Europe I am seeing a resurgence of local communities, after their hecatomb along the 2010s - which is amazing.
Meeting with people to build something positive in your corner together is the true antidote to the doomscrolling epidemic and all that comes with it.
Great advice from Philippa, 10/10.
My coping mechanism:
Block/filter out the news!
(Except for positive/uplifting news)It does wonders for your mental health!
Most news sources are for-profit,
and they did some research,
apparently depressing news draws more attention / clicks, which results into more profit for them, but it isn’t good for your mental health.Other news sources just drive an hidden agenda, and aim to manipulate you to believe whatever the rich guy that owns the news site wants.
Also, try to have fun while humanity is sliding down in the background!
Whether you’re depressed or acknowledge and then ignore the facts, will have zero impact on the final outcome which will apply to the whole world.
So might as well aim to be happy in the meantime :)
Regarding the climate it’s important to listen to the actual science from the IPCC reports. Not the newspapers wanting to sell you despair. Not the social media posters who scream “things are worse than we thought” for every little weather event that happens.
To quote Dr Mann (and I really urge everyone to read the whole piece):
I often encounter, especially on social media, individuals who are convinced that the latest extreme weather event is confirmation that the climate crisis is far worse than we thought, and scientists and climate communicators are intentionally “hiding” the scary truth from the public. It is the sort of conspiratorial thinking that we used to find among climate change deniers, but increasingly today we see it with climate doomists. Such sentiment emerged, for example, during the mid-June 2022 heat wave, where one individual tweeted at me and my climate scientist colleague Katharine Hayhoe: “Again we see that climate science as often presented to the public is too conservative, avoids what at the time are deemed worse [sic] case scenarios. BUT these are becoming our reality TODAY.”
This is not true, or at best partly true. I responded, “Actually, the warming of the planet is very much in line with early climate model predictions. Some impacts, such as ice sheet melt and sea level rise, and the slowdown of the ocean ‘conveyor belt’ are exceeding those predictions.” Current policies alone likely keep warming below 3°C (5.4°F), nowhere near the “worst-case” scenarios.
https://www.aps.org/apsnews/2023/09/climate-doomism-disregards-science
it’s important to listen to the actual science from the IPCC reports
Yeah, no.
Those reports have been massaged by politicians, capitalists, and policy makers to present things in a much better light than they already are.
Simply put, many “reports” are so watered down as to be essentially bullshit.
Look at the scientific papers that are used to build those reports. That is what will truly bake your noodle.
… or as Dr Mann puts it:
I often encounter, especially on social media, individuals who are convinced that the latest extreme weather event is confirmation that the climate crisis is far worse than we thought, and scientists and climate communicators are intentionally “hiding” the scary truth from the public. It is the sort of conspiratorial thinking that we used to find among climate change deniers, but increasingly today we see it with climate doomists.
That’s you.
Wow. Talk about gaslighting and malicious misdirection.
You sound like a conservative voter that’s only recently gotten around to admitting that climate change actually exists, and isn’t actually some left-wing conspiracy. Only now your shtick is “it’s not so bad”.
Spoiler alert: it’s exactly as bad as many climate scientists say it is. And there are a crapton of them that are far more pessimistic than even I am, as they are nose-deep in the emerging data.
Ignore the politicians and policy makers.
Who are you to claim you know better than Dr Mann? Have you even ever read any actual climate science papers or do you get all your doomism from other doomers?
Did you know that IPCC AR6 downgraded the “worst case scenario” - or maybe that’s something you just ignore since it doesn’t fit with your world view.
my defeatism comes from the politics around climate change.
so we’re on track to avoid the apocalypse under current policy, too bad there’s a global shift to right wing authoritarianism happening around the world at the worst time possible for the environment. so many countries are walking back on climate policy and agreements. just like good IT security, when it’s working right no one will notice the good it’s doing, so many just see it as waste. or worse, they only see the burden it imposes on them.
I’m partially convinced that it’s just human nature to forget why we prevent things every 3 generations or so. i think it’s only a matter of time now that we have the technology to actually destroy the world. we have to be able to prevent it every time, but they only need to succeed once. it’s going to be nearly impossible to create effective climate policy for a quite a while if trump kills the epa like he wants.
Exactly. Don’t listen to the doomers and instead read the IPCC reports.
The sky is falling.
Truth is it always was.
According to science we have passed a stage in global climate change, we have not passed THE stage. Unless my information is wrong. We can still turn things back towards good, we just may not be able to reverse the damage we will have already started.
Barring some new technology, of course. What we can do now is wholly dictated by our current understanding. I feel it is important to remember that this understanding may change.
Unfortunately, you don’t make sense.
