Well, it seems like I just lit up the room with a little inspiration, and you’re still whining that it’s too hard to get off your arse and actually try because nobody has left you a bulletpointed list of solutions to try.
If you can’t be bothered to be hopeful and at least try to make the world a better place, even in your own back yard, then get the fuck out of the way, because you’re helping nobody with that attitude, and there’s no time to waste on hand-wringers.
I do believe I clearly said that I don’t feel we should just give up, but neither do I think we should ignore one of the main obstacles facing us. Apparently you feel that examining that problem is the same thing as giving up. I can’t think of too many problems that get solved by refusing to discuss them and telling everyone who brings them up to shut up and get out of your way.
I don’t expect you to singlehandedly hand us the solutions to all the world’s problems, but if you shout at us to “DO SOMETHING” then I’m interested in what something or somethings you, personally, feel will be effective at surmounting the massive roadblock of wealthy, powerful regressives and denialists. Hope is important, but it’s not a solution to anything unless it’s paired with action, and without a plan of action, it’s hard to conjure hope from nothing at will. I’m asking for optimists’ answers to this question because I haven’t been able to find any of my own, not because I believe they don’t exist.
Certainly, everything I’ve tried to do to make the world a better place (which I indeed have, despite your assumptions) has only been able to impact individual people- friends, family, coworkers, a stranger on the street- or has failed entirely, or has been limited to really obvious things like voting which make a difference, but not fast enough or powerfully enough to save us in the long run if other factors remain the way they are. I don’t expect myself to personally save the world any more than I expect you to do it, but my entire life experience and every piece of evidence is telling me that whatever we may be accomplishing to save the environment, it’s not yet enough to reverse the tide against the billionaires, corporations and politicians.
Given all that, when I see an environmental optimist I can only assume they know something or have some idea or strategy that I don’t, and I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask what it is. Not everyone can generate hope on blind faith- for some people, inspiration is being given a reason to hope.
I think that’s great and to just keep doing what you’re doing. We can only drive awareness at this point. They have billions of dollars, we have billions of us.
If it ends up being an issue then it will be tough to ignore but, I wasn’t trying to start another argument. For your information:
And oil. Lots and lots of oil.
And coal. Lots and lots of coal.
Ah yes.
And these days (a list is offered at the link):
So many excavation equipment companies out there, worldwide. I wonder what the stock market makes of them… 
What type of material could we develop to stretch tarps and sunshields over crops?
Here’s one idea already being used…
In Texas, I am told the official recommendation is 40% shade cloth for plants, 60% grade is for people.
Our greenhouses in central Texas simply must have shadecloth on them to keep their contents from frying alive. There’s a tricky balance between shutting down a plant’s photosynthesis and keeping the temperature inside the greenhouse within an acceptable, biota-friendly range.
I’ve bought stuff from here:
Closer to our living space, I’ve hung 90% shadecloth to keep the sun off our south elevation.
For the sake of argument, these people live in a desert in the U.S., offgrid by choice and design, and have become climate-hackers of sorts.
I find the use of shadecloth over water-quality reservoirs supplying irrigation water in hot countries both interesting and well-studied, since it’s something of an off-label approach and it does slow evapotranspiration.
https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C44&q=shadecloth+agriculture+&btnG=
No shadecloth? Still need to irrigate those fields? In some contexts, no problem:
Looks like I have lots of reading. Thanks for the info.
If you are going to take the plunge, I’ll tell you what my civil engineer boss told me a while ago: the Aussies and the Israelis (especially in the Negev) lead the way in terms of managing to live and make things work (including agriculture) in very hot dry places.
My rabbit-holing usually involves trying to keep up with what those folks are doing, not just in ag, but fire protection, high performance buildings, greywater and blackwater management, cooling tech (including paints), and related topics.
NB: I am definitely not saying climate breakdown means a hotter drier future for everyone. The classic definition of climate change breakdown is “hotter summers, colder winters, wetter bigger storms, drier longer droughts” globally. (I am working to eliminate the term “global warming” from my vocabulary because it is simply not accurate.)
As much as I enjoyed the Mad Max franchise, it still makes me chuckle that it is full of monster V8s when gasoline is a scarce commodity and something like a little 4 cylinder Honda or Toyota would be more practical.
Just had an experience here that reminds me of this discussion very much. A mom called concerned because her child has a severe peanut allergy, and an epi-pen for treatment. She is convinced the epi-pen would be too traumatic for him and wants a more “natural and gentle” options. I explained that the natural option when a person with severe peanut allergy eats peanuts is to die a really horrible death, and the epi-pen, while not enjoyable, was a much better option. She cannot bring herself to allow her child to be hurt. I could not get through to her what the choices here were. This is a very similar situation. “If we address this existential problem, there may be costs and inconveniences in the short term. We cannot let that happen!” Trying to explain short term inconvenience to folks who just cannot seem to see the long term is incredibly frustrating.
I’m a mechanical engineer at an AE firm, so work keeps me updated on those.
Thanks again for the info.
Oof. Man. That sounds right out of some medical drama show. Sorry you have to deal with that in real life.
Would something like medical pictures showing severe reactions and or case studies where kids died help in something like that, or is the cognitive dissonance too strong? Or calling in the dad or other family member who can then convince her?
She’s the reasonable one. Sigh…
Or underground human farms.
