What should a person do if they are seriously concerned about climate change? Andrew Ross LongAndrew Ross Long, Behavior Change Professional 61 upvotes by Ethan Hein, Kyle Pennell, David Slattery, (more) So, you wanna know what you should do about the impending doom of climate change, do you? As it happens, Ive given this some thought. The first thing you should do is make a promise to yourself: never let an opportunity to talk about the reality of climate change pass you up. Even in my circle of well-educated, broad-minded, science-loving friends, I still hear things like, Wow, the weathers pretty weird. Yeah. that sucks. At which point I have to say, If only humanitys ruling oligarchy wasnt so intent on destroying a livable climate! Or, more commonly if I want to avoid a long discussion, Yeah, climate change. (head shake) The more we can assert reality as reality vs. the fake reality that others are paid to peddle, the better off well be in the long run. I think. If it makes you feel good, you can change your lightbulbs, get rid of your car (or buy an all-electric, I hear they have some fancy new ones these days (cough Tesla Motors cough) start riding a bike, stop eating meat, buy a small wind turbine, install solar panels, and paint your roof white. However, dont for one instant think this is either necessary or sufficient to have done your part for the preservation of a livable climate. You should lobby your elected representatives to place a tax-and-dividend on carbon. There is a citizens lobbying group doing just that: Creating the political will for a sustainable climate.. Give them money, or find a local chapter, or write some letters, or whatever you need to do to support this plan. Its revenue neutral, it gives money back to people, and most people would get more than they paid in additional taxes. You should confront anyone and everyone who will listen with the inevitability of replacing our crumbling, aging energy infrastructure with renewables and cleantech. Apart from Germany, most countries national energy policies would be like if people in the 1950s were standing around saying, Oh, a computer? Why do we need those, weve still got tons and tons of trees to make abacuses! Republicans are easy targets for this item, because they love money, and especially love when they are able to make it out of thin air, and wind turbines and solar panels are literally machines for making money out of thin air. I am not making this stuff up. If youre afraid of apocalyptic climate-driven or financial meltdown scenarios, you should learn how to grow vegetables. Not: how to shoot guns. (Read Jon Davis answer to Is it better to own a gun for self-defense, or is that more likely to cause problems? for why.) Not: how to stockpile gold coins. Not: how to fortify your gated compound. Cooperation will rule the 21st century just as surely as competition ruled the 20th. Or humanity will pass from the annals of history, with only our floating garbage patches to mourn us. (Plus, vegetables are delicious even in the most non-apocalyptic scenarios. And you can sell them.) If you want, you can try to move house to stay clear of the path of devastation, but thats a little bit like trying to change seats on a burning 747 that lost an engine and is in a bit of a death-spiral that may or may not be recoverable. (See Andrew Ross Longs answer to What human-habitable place will experience the least severe effects of climate change in the next 50 years? for why). The truth is, were all riding on the same spaceship, people, and were all going to have to learn to steer the spaceship together, or the spaceship is going to lose its life support, and then well be proper f * * cked. You should definitely support any legislation that stops deforestation, or encourages reforestation. Trees eat the carbon dioxide thats killing us and shit oxygen we breathe. Thats a win-win for us. You should also support Biochar. Financially. Materially. Personally. Ecumenically. You should do whatever it is you have to do to not stress out about it so much. Paradoxically, educating yourself at a high level on this topic has the potential to be profoundly depressing. You want to avoid that, if possible, because youre no good to anyone if youre profoundly depressed. Actually, a much better path would be the path of Elon Musk, who is so smart he decided that humanity needs to become multi-planetary as soon as possible if were going to survive as a species, and then invented a couple of technologies to change the world and become a billionaire so he could make that happen. Good work if you can get it. You should build a resilient, loving community. This should probably be #1 in terms of importance. The spaceship, and its passengers, are suffering right now from nothing more complicated than a profound lack of resilient, loving community. Our technological prowess has vastly outstripped our spiritual maturity, and in our haste to chase what might be better, weve lost much of what once was good. And we wonder we still feel so lonely, staring into our Facebook feeds and Twitter streams. Take away love, and our earth is a tomb! as Browning wrote, and so we must not, whatever we do, lose any more love -- rather, we should be making more and more and more of it, all the time. Hope this gives you a good starting point. Written 31 Oct, 2012. Quora
Posted on: Mon, 01 Sep 2014 04:39:05 +0000
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