They wish. I don’t want my or anyone else’s children and grandchildren to suffer for our collective inaction.
I agree, except that Hollywood’s contribution to global warming is still small compared to the damage done by the fossil fuel industry and its direct adjuncts.
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Definitely, using a paper straw (or even no straw) instead of plastic is going to do nothing at all as long as the top 100 carbon emitting companies lag in their response. It’s those companies that will determine our fate, not regular folks. Governments of the world should tax the living crap out of these companies until they substantially reduce their emissions, or like with all things capital, insurance companies should sue them for damages.
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Nor do I, but we’re not the people who generally grow up to become C-suite executives at major corporations
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Not to mention the US military.
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Hey, don’t worry, when the Gulf Stream dies in a short while, all of Canada and most of the northern US will be scraped off by mile high glaciers and come on down South for a stay.
(Ok, that was just a bad movie plot, but back in 1988 I heard an MIT climate researcher modeler seriously state that the whole mile high glacier wall extending as far as NYC a thing kept popping up in their models, so they included it as a low-probability outcome.)
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Refer to:
The word ‘inevitable’ is what’s problematic in that statement.
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I know, right? I was very intentional in how I wrote that.
To look at it differently, I will “rage against the dying of the light” simply because I can. I’m under no illusion that it will do a damn thing to change the outcome.
But, and damn that’s a big but, I would very much welcome the realization that we had, against all odds, changed the outcome.
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That sounds… hopeless. Futile, even.
Now that sounds like hope still exists, at least.
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I know, right? That’s my brain dried to a crisp in Covid-19 / 2021. I’m gonna reboot the ol’ Pessimistic Optimists Club if it kills me!
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I think the important thing to worry about at this point is not “how can we stop it” (so that we don’t have to worry about dealing with the effects). It’s clear that ship has sailed, and the people who had/have the actual power to stop it never had any intention of making any effort at stopping it. They are all rich and powerful, and can simply swtich to a different private island if they need to without worrying about their bank accounts.
No, the important thing now is how are we going to deal with the changing climate. We can’t stop it. We have to live with it. Coastal cities like Miami are already constantly flooded with seawater, and no amount of “seawalls” will have any effect (due to porous bedrock). So, what are they going to do? Abandon it and relocate further up-hill? Ship in tons and tons of rocks to raise the elevation? Build on stilts and turn it into another Venice? What are farmers going to do? The crops they used to grow don’t do so well now. It’s hotter/drier then it used to be. They will have to (in some cases) switch their crops to more heat/drought resistant crops, or, in some cases, abandon cultivation and because the desert is taking over and the isn’t water available to irrigate. Some areas are going to get a lot more rain, and flooding is going to be more common. Infrastructure needs to change to expect it, and handle it on a regular basis.
There are going to be migrations of people from drowning coastal areas to more inland locations, and from dustbowl former-farmland locations to new areas (just like happened in the 1930s in the US)
We need to start preparing to deal with the effects, because we will be forced to one way or another.
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Simultaneously holding both ideas/outcomes in opposition to each other is my challenge for the day, and as days go, it’s been a heck of a year.
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I am picturing a slow motion replay of the Titanic after hitting the iceberg. First, denial. “Nothing could possibly be wrong. Waiter, more wine please”
Once reality sets in, fence off the lower decks to keep the poors from taking space on the lifeboats.
In the end, most everyone was screwed.
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Sounds too much like 1984-kind-of-thinking for my tastes.
I prefer to phrase it this way:
I know it doesn’t look promising, but I still fight like hell anyway.
Cheers and may you live to see the dawn.
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