I try to be optimistic. I drag my sorry old self off to casually (pun intended) teach kids something useful in the local state high school - the shortage of teachers and the burning-out of those still struggling there is shocking, but that's another story. Mainly, I tell the teens to "pay attention to the world because you're going live with whatever is happening a lot lot longer than me."
Today I had to show them a vid on growing lab meat for food, how the cost of producing this is coming down and how it'd also mean a reduction in deforestation and a drop in green-house gases (fewer cow farts!). And the kids stopped yakking and sneaking peeks on their mobile phones and started to take it in. Ok, primarily they engaged with it on the level of what eating it would be like (food being the second favourite fixation for most), but the environmental benefits also snared their interest.
So I still hold on tight to that sliver of optimism.
I think we reached the point of no return a decade or so ago. And now we need to mine stuff to make batteries, wind turbines, and electric cars but the reliability of the renewable energy to supply 24/7 operations isn't quite there yet so we have to burn more gas to to reduce the future need to burn gas. If we had invested properly in solar, batteries etc as we knew we had to 20 or 30 years ago, things would probably be different. It's really fucking depressing if you think about it too much
However, the creative process picture perfectly describes the procrastination that nearly killed me on my Ph.D. confirmation I just completed today...why do we do that?!
The romantic chance of a pearl ...versus something reliable that ticks all the boxes / fear of being a hack? Some kind of lizard-brain-meets-analysis-paralysis malfunction?.
Procrastinators' confession. I'm Anita and I now seem to spend more times reading book reviews than actual books. I'm setting myself up to be an ASB Reading Club Failure! The fear, the fear.
Also JB's post -and in a way JB? - reminds me New Grub Street by George Gissing, is one of the best novels I've ever read and I would be better off rereading it instead of reading a review of some book by someone who is often just bringing home the bacon, which is fine, you have to bring home the bacon, there's nothing wrong with it, but why don't I just read the book if it sounds promising? Why do we do that?! (it can't be just me, can it?!)
We are a self-sabotaging mob of intelligent nut bags aren't we? I've read in a few places it tends to be more intelligent people that procrastinate, (not sure if that's true), but it's cold comfort regardless, like the 'intelligent people tend to suffer anxiety and panic attacks more'...joy!
It's the Titanic 2040, those oily fuckers will float off to Mars, you'll be playing beautiful tunes to the very end. I'll be listening enjoying every last note.
I can't help feel energised because at some point, someone/everyone will hit that moment which was so potently crystalised in the Hunger Games: Mockingjay Pt I "If we burn, you burn with us".
I keep thinking that the best thing we as humans could do is voluntarily, one-by-one, simply stop inhabiting this world. Then I remember that most of the people responsible for the inaction on climate would benefit from that and then I think the best thing we as humans could do is, one-by-one, stop THOSE arseholes from living on the planet.
Lol You'd be amazed at the people in my circle that no nothing of the Batavia. Let's hope that it's all boys on Mars when the Batavia scenario unfolds this time. I reckon Branson would be Elon's bitch in no time
Yes. This ever-flaring freaking demand for war with China is a great addition to our politics and discourse in the last couple of years. Just what we need.
In the mid 90s a mate of mine studied human ecology - the relationship between human societies and the living systems all around us (sustainability studies, basically) - and one day he encouraged me to do the same, suggesting that climate change would determine our futures. I dismissed him with "surely we couldn't be having that much of an effect on something as massive as the Earth". The conversation continued, and he convinced me to start reading the science. A few months later we renewed the conversation. My first words were "Oh fuck, we're in some deep trouble..."
I spent most of the next two decades working in various jobs either teaching people about human-induced climate change and sustainability, or working directly on the issue through activities like energy efficiency. For much of that time I thougth we had a hope to turn things around, even as emissions continued to skyrocket (they are now over 50% higher than when the first IPCC report was released in 1990). I drove my family, friends and colleagues crazy with my expressions of desperation about how we all had to change dramatically NOW. Then Wrecker Abbott got in on the back of bald-faced lies about the carbon tax and the mining tax and he kinda broke me. I kept doing what I was doing, but with a sense of inevitable doom, crushed by the weight of inertia of behind the extractive capitalism collective insanity.
Now, I just hope we can mitigate the disaster a bit, avoid some of the worse tipping points in the climate system that would send us careening towards 5C global temperature increase next century, although even that is probably forlorn. We've flicked the first switch in the climate system and the cascade of tipping points is well underway. Now I just try to enjoy every day, and cross my fingers that change over the coming decades will be enough to halt the system at some point in the cascade. I don't know what else to do.
Yeah, perhaps a story I shouldn't have told. But I want people to know it's okay to do just do the best you can in the face of a system that resists every attempt to change it. For some people that will be fighting tooth and nail every day of their lives - and some of those people will actually change the system! For others it might be giving up and just getting on with living their lives focused on being the best person they can be to those around them. That's closer to where I've landed.
I hit a point where I couldn't bang my head against a stone wall any more. I realsied that I could do my little bit, but that human history will be what it will be. And once I realised that and accepted it I actually became a lot more content. I am now just grateful for every day I live my simple but wonderful life, and do my small bit to make the lives of those around me a little better. I am an athiest, but the serentity prayer has become a kind of mantra for me: have the courage to change the things you can, the serenity to accept those you can't, and the wisdom to know the difference.
I hope that clarification lifts any darkness I may have brought to your morning Birmo. You are certainly fighting the good fight and doing what you can on behalf of many like minded people like us out here who read your blog. And we deeply appreciate you and your efforts.
I try to be optimistic. I drag my sorry old self off to casually (pun intended) teach kids something useful in the local state high school - the shortage of teachers and the burning-out of those still struggling there is shocking, but that's another story. Mainly, I tell the teens to "pay attention to the world because you're going live with whatever is happening a lot lot longer than me."
Today I had to show them a vid on growing lab meat for food, how the cost of producing this is coming down and how it'd also mean a reduction in deforestation and a drop in green-house gases (fewer cow farts!). And the kids stopped yakking and sneaking peeks on their mobile phones and started to take it in. Ok, primarily they engaged with it on the level of what eating it would be like (food being the second favourite fixation for most), but the environmental benefits also snared their interest.
So I still hold on tight to that sliver of optimism.
Teacher in today's world? Endless respect madam. Thankyou
Sneaked the seeds into those brains. What a great teacher does.
I think we reached the point of no return a decade or so ago. And now we need to mine stuff to make batteries, wind turbines, and electric cars but the reliability of the renewable energy to supply 24/7 operations isn't quite there yet so we have to burn more gas to to reduce the future need to burn gas. If we had invested properly in solar, batteries etc as we knew we had to 20 or 30 years ago, things would probably be different. It's really fucking depressing if you think about it too much
On Environmentageddon I got nuthin'.
However, the creative process picture perfectly describes the procrastination that nearly killed me on my Ph.D. confirmation I just completed today...why do we do that?!
The romantic chance of a pearl ...versus something reliable that ticks all the boxes / fear of being a hack? Some kind of lizard-brain-meets-analysis-paralysis malfunction?.
Procrastinators' confession. I'm Anita and I now seem to spend more times reading book reviews than actual books. I'm setting myself up to be an ASB Reading Club Failure! The fear, the fear.
Also JB's post -and in a way JB? - reminds me New Grub Street by George Gissing, is one of the best novels I've ever read and I would be better off rereading it instead of reading a review of some book by someone who is often just bringing home the bacon, which is fine, you have to bring home the bacon, there's nothing wrong with it, but why don't I just read the book if it sounds promising? Why do we do that?! (it can't be just me, can it?!)
We are a self-sabotaging mob of intelligent nut bags aren't we? I've read in a few places it tends to be more intelligent people that procrastinate, (not sure if that's true), but it's cold comfort regardless, like the 'intelligent people tend to suffer anxiety and panic attacks more'...joy!
Perfectly sensible maximization of the possibility of getting it right. No one said that wouldn't be stressfull.
It's brilliant authors all the way down JB: you, Rick M, Gibson, Steinbeck...This is a keeper. Thanks.
It's the Titanic 2040, those oily fuckers will float off to Mars, you'll be playing beautiful tunes to the very end. I'll be listening enjoying every last note.
I can't help feel energised because at some point, someone/everyone will hit that moment which was so potently crystalised in the Hunger Games: Mockingjay Pt I "If we burn, you burn with us".
Thanks for the Rick Morton reference. Yes!
I keep thinking that the best thing we as humans could do is voluntarily, one-by-one, simply stop inhabiting this world. Then I remember that most of the people responsible for the inaction on climate would benefit from that and then I think the best thing we as humans could do is, one-by-one, stop THOSE arseholes from living on the planet.
But aren't the plutocrats etc planning to moving to Mars on the US taxpayer's dime? The meek (us povvos and suckers) shall inherit the earth.
Can we hope it's like the wreck of the Batavia up there on Mars.
Lol You'd be amazed at the people in my circle that no nothing of the Batavia. Let's hope that it's all boys on Mars when the Batavia scenario unfolds this time. I reckon Branson would be Elon's bitch in no time
And with that laugh - thank you - I'm going to stop procrastinating and go face the day!
I don't often say nice one but when I do it's because you wrote a nice one. Nice one.
Yes. This ever-flaring freaking demand for war with China is a great addition to our politics and discourse in the last couple of years. Just what we need.
Paul Keating is so rude, isn't he?
Mr Yunupingu is dead. Crank up Tribal Voice and Djapana in memory of a terrific mate and a great Australian.
In the mid 90s a mate of mine studied human ecology - the relationship between human societies and the living systems all around us (sustainability studies, basically) - and one day he encouraged me to do the same, suggesting that climate change would determine our futures. I dismissed him with "surely we couldn't be having that much of an effect on something as massive as the Earth". The conversation continued, and he convinced me to start reading the science. A few months later we renewed the conversation. My first words were "Oh fuck, we're in some deep trouble..."
I spent most of the next two decades working in various jobs either teaching people about human-induced climate change and sustainability, or working directly on the issue through activities like energy efficiency. For much of that time I thougth we had a hope to turn things around, even as emissions continued to skyrocket (they are now over 50% higher than when the first IPCC report was released in 1990). I drove my family, friends and colleagues crazy with my expressions of desperation about how we all had to change dramatically NOW. Then Wrecker Abbott got in on the back of bald-faced lies about the carbon tax and the mining tax and he kinda broke me. I kept doing what I was doing, but with a sense of inevitable doom, crushed by the weight of inertia of behind the extractive capitalism collective insanity.
Now, I just hope we can mitigate the disaster a bit, avoid some of the worse tipping points in the climate system that would send us careening towards 5C global temperature increase next century, although even that is probably forlorn. We've flicked the first switch in the climate system and the cascade of tipping points is well underway. Now I just try to enjoy every day, and cross my fingers that change over the coming decades will be enough to halt the system at some point in the cascade. I don't know what else to do.
This is a bit devastating, tbh.
Yeah, perhaps a story I shouldn't have told. But I want people to know it's okay to do just do the best you can in the face of a system that resists every attempt to change it. For some people that will be fighting tooth and nail every day of their lives - and some of those people will actually change the system! For others it might be giving up and just getting on with living their lives focused on being the best person they can be to those around them. That's closer to where I've landed.
I hit a point where I couldn't bang my head against a stone wall any more. I realsied that I could do my little bit, but that human history will be what it will be. And once I realised that and accepted it I actually became a lot more content. I am now just grateful for every day I live my simple but wonderful life, and do my small bit to make the lives of those around me a little better. I am an athiest, but the serentity prayer has become a kind of mantra for me: have the courage to change the things you can, the serenity to accept those you can't, and the wisdom to know the difference.
I hope that clarification lifts any darkness I may have brought to your morning Birmo. You are certainly fighting the good fight and doing what you can on behalf of many like minded people like us out here who read your blog. And we deeply appreciate you and your efforts.
Tony Abbots safe guard mechanism.
Who ever said the resurrection was a lie?