Open Thread - Thurs Feb 15 2024 - Climate Thoughts
Climate Thoughts
Like many people, I've been trying to come up with a 'plan' to get through the next year of election farce and all the fake 'concern' by TPTB about things that actually really do matter to me. But those things only matter to the politicians during election years.
For instance, the recent 'remarkable' action by the Biden administration to stop LNG... something, something mumble mumble. Ok, ok, the administration put a temporary pause on Department of Energy permits for LNG (liquified natural gas). It's a good action; but to me it seems to be a very small, very non-consequential, doesn't really mean a whole lot actually, action. It's a temporary pause, temporary. That means, to me, that as soon as the elections are done, it'll be revoked. It doesn't actually do anything to LNG sales, which will continue as before, and grow, perhaps double by 2028, because it doesn't stop the construction of the 10 new LNG ports already permitted. Yes, it temporarily halts the permits for 6 other facilities, and yes, that's a 'big' deal, in that it does halt a lot of emissions but... it doesn't do that much for things as they are right now.
So, what do we do about this? How do we deal with this feeling of ... I dunno, despair, disgust, resignation, whatever, in respect to climate? In respect to anything?
Climate Change: Flooding in California last March - image from this CNN article.
I recently read an article on Medium by a writer who calls himself Climate Survivor, entitled 'You Don't Matter'. He was writing about the actual carbon 'footprint' (did you know that idea was developed by BP in the early 2000's, to make it so that WE little folks are the only reason for the climate disaster and it's OUR responsibility to stop it?) a human, an American human even, makes and how it doesn't matter. The climate catastrophe is too big for the little things a single human can do to make a difference. Climate Survivor goes into this in detail, computing how much emissions it would save if, for example, he didn't exist. It would save enough emissions to stop the climate disaster by 0.2 seconds!
It's a good article, but it's depressing and might make some people angry. I dunno. It didn't do that to me, but it was depressing. He states things I've known for a while (like my work to help the climate doesn't do anything - globally) but been unable to acknowledge. Anyway, he ends with a list of things to do to keep one's mental health and so on. He suggests not being judgmental. For example, If someone doesn't drive an EV, that's ok. If someone does, that's ok. We should have compassion for others, even if they are driving weird or taking up too much room, or whatever. Suffering is coming, and it's going to be bad. We don't know what people are going through now, and we don't know what's coming for them. So just be nice. Compassion for others is really good, but compassion for oneself is also important. He says, 'Practice self-care, whatever that means to you'.
Climate Survivor points out that acting globally is basically impossible for an individual to do, but acting locally isn't. So, plant flowers or a garden, create beauty, donate time to help others, help your community. Make things beautiful around you, help people get food and homes. I've come to realize that this is a step that is very important to me, and has been for a long time. I try to help the animals, help the plants, help the insects that are around me. For example, I don't recycle thinking that it's gonna stop the deluge of plastic into everything. I recycle because I don't want MY plastic to kill that bird, or cut off this turtle's head, or blind that raccoon so it walks into traffic. I pick up the little caterpillar that's lost on the driveway and carefully put it onto a plant or tree to the side so it doesn't get crushed by my car. And so on.
If you want to drive an EV, go solar, be a vegan, whatever, do it. Enjoy it, get satisfaction, meaning, and value from it. Just realize it doesn't make you morally superior. Be kind, be thankful, and be as happy as possible. And that, I think is some good advice! That's the attitude I'll be taking, for example, even if I'm protesting nukes at the nearby Navy shipyard, or trying to stop buying petroleum products, for the same reason I don't buy factory meat, it means something to me. It's local things that I can influence, not global. What do you think?
Climate Survivor ends with:
Ultimately, what I am saying is that you do matter. You matter to your family, to your friends, and yes, to your pets. You matter to the place you live. You matter because you can create and witness beauty and joy.
Can you save the planet? No. No one can. It’s too big to save. But you can do what you can to help yourself and the people and places you love.
At this point, that’s all any of us can do.
I should note, Climate Survivor probably calls himself that for many reasons. But one of the main reasons, I think, is that he (like Hecate from CC99%), his wife, and his cat, lived near Paradise, CA and suffered through and survived the Camp Fire. Barely. It burned down his house and everything around it. And he's having to survive the total crapshow that has come after (like with insurance, etc). So yea, he's a climate survivor.
Thanks for reading and here's the open thread - and remember, everything is interesting if you dive deep enough, so tell us about where you're diving!
Comments
Happy Thursday!
Hope all is going as well as it can. We have.. snow?? yea, snow here today in the very early hours. And rain and it's above freezing. I think the snow'll be melted by late morning. So how's it going there? Whatcha up to? Whatcha been learning?
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Hey, good morning
-
Appreciate your perspectives on personal initiatives
compassion and acceptance. Valuable insights.
Finding a balance between action and inaction matters.
A post from yesterday's OT somewhat ties into your
theme, except perhaps for the last line.
https://caucus99percent.com/comment/610608#comment-610608
Thanks for the OT Sima.
Good Thursday, QMS!
I hadn't gotten into yesterday's OT yet, so I appreciate the link. Am reading it right now and it does really fit into what I'm thinking/feeling. Thank you!
I hope you are doing well. I read a comment you made about a customer wanting to take a catamaran to Rio. That would be very interesting and maybe a lot of fun, but a long trip! Have a great weekend.
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Good morning...
Remember it was our country which blew up the Nord Steams causing the greatest methane release in history...not a word about it from Greta.
My fear is climate is to be used to manipulate us...eat bugs not meat...though regeneratively raising cattle will soak up carbon. Control of farms allows for control of food and control of people. ... and on and on.
I'm still stuck in recycling, composting, using my own cloth bags at the grocery, planting trees, and so on...not because I think it will save the environment, but because I think it doesn't make it worse.
None the less I've been questioning the whole climate fear mongering. Is Greta a PR stunt by TPTB to sell it (control and all) to young people. Seems so to me.
Hey, let's follow the example of the elite, hop on our private jet and lecture working people about spewing carbon.
There's plenty to ponder about the whole issue. Thanks for the OT!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
I can't imagine wht she would, or could say -
She started out trying to increase awareness and maybe provoke action by citizens and governments through student demonstrations and student strikes. There's really nothing for her and her peers to do or say except maybe "shame on he evil empire".
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Good, insightful comment...
Greta can't do much about the nordstream pipeline, and the Ukraine war and all that. And if she is doing something, I'm pretty darn sure our media won't let us know. Her twitter account has posted links, in the past to analysis about the nordstream explosion and what it means. So she is following it, or her team is.
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Hello Lookout!
I'm not sure what Greta has said about Nordstream, not sure we are allowed to know. She's been arrested, tried, sentenced, and once acquitted by a British court, various times for protests and so on against oil industries. So, I dunno. Me, I got in trouble in Britain a long time ago, for joining protests against hunting. That's about it for getting arrested for protesting for me so I kinda admire that she keeps on keeping on, with that.
I think Climate definitely is being used to manipulate us. Definitely. I think climate change and the eventual destruction of a lot of current life on earth is real too. Maybe that's just current human life, maybe that's all life. I dunno. And there's not a lot to do about it, what you wrote here is spot on:
'I'm still stuck in recycling, composting, using my own cloth bags at the grocery, planting trees, and so on...not because I think it will save the environment, but because I think it doesn't make it worse.'
Keep on keeping on!
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Good morning Sima, thanks for the observations and OT.
You address a recurring theme of the form "If everybody did 'x', it wouldn't solve the problem (and it wold inconvenience us), so fuck it, why bother. The parenthetical portion is often unsaid, but always present. Historically there have been periodic waves of the more extreme "We're all going to die (of the plague, or whatever), so let's party our ass off until we kick it." That formulation was, when in play, often class restricted to those with sufficient wherewithal to do so.
Rhetorically, it was oft opposed by "we are morally obligated to not give in, but to fight and make this world a better place", or variants based on "behave theyself or you won't get to hebbin". This last theorem was oftentimes countered with "Those of us with sufficient cowrie can buy entry by
briberydonating goodly sums or by peerforming good deeds such as slaughtering infidels and pagans.It has always seemed to me that an important goal of life is personal comfort and pleasure, and that living the best life one can involves living in a benign, comfortable, healthy and pleasurable environment and circumstances. Ergo, it only makes sense to work to create such an environment and circumstances. Whether or not it solves this, that, or even any, let alone all of the worlds problems isn't really relevant, you are here, now, and can both enjoy and impact the herenow so as to make it more enjoyable, and really owe it to yourself to do so. If you don't intend to or enjoy living in a small bubble, you need to spread your deshittification process to an ever widening area, perhaps in conunction with others of a like mind. One more flower isn't a landscape, but it is, nonetheless, a flower where there was none before.
be well and have a good one.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Excellent, and Insightful
Great discussion of how people confront, or don't, calamities and crises. I think you are right, as is Climate Survivor, make the world a better place, where you are, locally, maybe even just in your own yard. Enjoy life as much as possible, and do the best you can.
Thank you for stopping by and giving us your comments and discussion. Very nice! Hope your weekend is a good one
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Climate change
and very personal steps taken to do what you think is right or necessary, can destroy friendships. Staunch believers that each person is required to be a responsible steward of nature can cause then to be hostile to non-believers or non-actors.
A former secretary would give people a public dressing down in a store for using plastic bags. She would do it to anybody anywhere who did not recycle.
She was furious with me that I didn't haul my recycled trash 40 miles away, pay a facility to take my sorted trash. (We have no place to recycle in my county.)
Energy use was not an issue with her if she was hot or cold. She set the office thermostat to very hot or very cold temperatures, I paid the bills.
Her opinion was superior to everyone else's.
These are just a few examples of the way climate change and mitigation practices have divided the public to the point where former environmentally sensitive people see hypocrisy everywhere, and they have started the whole thing is some hoax to condition them to modify their consumption of everything from food, clothing, electricity, to fuel consumption for their autos. We shouldn't have cattle, Gates is cutting down trees. We plant one, he cuts down 10,000. We ride a bicycle, our military is spewing carbon from over 800 bases.
And when anyone says the real problem is over population, the magic amount of humans is 500,000,000, I go into defense mode. That implies 7.5 billion people should not be alive. How and who implements the dying off? Who determines which people "may" continue to live? Advocating de-population is advocating death. We do not have enough decency among the population to accomplish this depopulation rationally and humanely.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
hell, between the
half million plus gone
in slava ukrania(combined)
the slaughter in occupied
palestine and all the safe
and effective going around
with boeings patio seating
catching on. . .
I’d say we have a pretty good start
Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .
Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .
If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march
TPTB
are getting there. Did you have any say in it? I didn't.
The one child policy in China was castigated by the western world. It won't happen that way.
It will be less obvious in the future.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Boeing's patio seating...
I gotta admit, that made me laugh, in a sad way. Never thought about the wars as a way for TPTB to reduce population. But, who knows? Maybe to them it's a 'beneficial' side effect.
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
That's putting
the overpopulation problem in the worst possible light. Obviously advocates for tackling this problem emphasize the humane solution through natural means -- a worldwide coordinated effort to first get the total births below the level of total natural deaths. Currently it's at an unsustainable 2.5 births for each death. Bring in the mathematicians and statisticians to determine the proper numbers and percentages, and bring in the diplomats to arrive at a reasonable, equitable solution for all concerned.
Yes, I know -- major problem with "coordinated worldwide effort". And there isn't yet a single major country with this issue on their to-do list; nor even a minor country probably. For sure, the UN has been a useless international body in recent decades. So clearly there is some serious education needed to bring this to the attention of the public and environmental leaders, who to date have avoided it as a third-rail political hot potato, but cynically tossing in the towel as hopeless is not a solution.
Still, overpopulation is at the root of our environmental and climate problems today. Ignoring it by focusing on endless feel-good worldwide conferences for the elite and deck-chair rearranging with carbon credits/taxes is a fool's errand.
Yep...
I can relate to all you are saying here. Some 'environmentalists', or perhaps we should call them jack-asses who use the environment to attack people, are just so annoying and ... whatever. And having TPTB emit more greenhouse gases per person (so what's their 'footprint', huh?) than like 100 of us little people? And have them all trying to control agriculture and using 'climate' as an excuse to control every farm, every ranch, every thing? It's NUTS.
And with that, I'm changing the tone of my comment and hoping you have a great weekend!
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
sima,
I am so with the program that people cause changes nature does not.
I know humans can, collectively, in unison, do positive things.
The complaint about overpopulation sends me into a stance where talk is not possible. Too many people is the problem equals fewer people solves the problem. The extraction is depopulation.
If that is the answer to all our woes, we should, in the interest of bees and birds, just die.
I truncate stuff like I speak to a jury.
Sorry I just don't elaborate, but cut to the chase.
Great OT, so much appreciated.
Hug Jaska for Aunt OTC, please!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
We can agree
to disagree.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981