About all this climate stuff. At the end of the day, what if we’re wrong? Maybe there’s no problem at all. Some people don’t seem to think there is.
Well, I’m a big fan of the precautionary principle, and the “theory of anyway” (as Sharon Astyk puts it — doing things because it’s the right thing to do anyway, regardless of whether or not there’s an eco crisis).
My new theory of anyway is that I do it anyway because I hate ugliness in the world. I also hate unnecessary work. So basically, I’m just an artistically minded person who is also very lazy.
Along these lines, I also don’t like to think very hard to get dressed in the morning. So even if there’s not a climate crisis, I’m going to keep aiming for a capsule wardrobe (albeit sort of a wacky boho version), eschewing trashy-looking single-use plastic cups, resisting the burden of car ownership, and so on.
And, environment aside, I am very likely to continue my participation in government, particularly local government and neighborhood governments. The reason being that human ergonomics are at stake. Livable human settlements. Oh, yes, and beauty also. Maybe I really do need to ramp up the aesthetically offended artist identity ha ha. People seem to listen when I talk about how this or that is tacky and ugly.
People might also say, well, if you’re wrong, haven’t you’ve been wasting your time all these years? Writing a book, writing this blog, showing up at city commission meetings, all that nonsense.
And my answer would be no. Because I have always found multiple benefits in whatever I am advocating and whatever I’m doing. And showing people how they too can get multiple benefits from everyday lifestyle choices related to the environment.
I would actually love to be wrong about some of the stuff I am reading and hearing. It’s really horrific. Supposedly even plants are starting to die out. Like, from not being able to deal with the environment we’ve created.
I checked in on Twitter early this morning for the first time in a while, and one of the first threads I stumbled on was a very grim thread about climate stuff. Definitely would love to be wrong about it. But, I can’t just dismiss it either.
It’s healthy to not be too rigid about our beliefs. Passion and conviction are good, but need to be tempered with mental flexibility.
That said, I’m going to share some of the links I saw in the Twitter thread. (Yes, Twitter is known as X now. I miss the little birdie, and think Twitter was a much better name.)
• Here’s the thread itself, from Aashis Joshi. “Three recent pieces of research show that climate change has gone beyond any hope for control. Ecosystems are facing utter ruin & with them, our societies & civilization. We need to be aware to prepare ourselves, at least psychologically, at least to some extent.”
• One of the articles screenshot says that trees are struggling to “breathe” and store CO2 as the climate warms (Eric Ralls; earth.com).
• The other two bits of grim news are that extreme wildfires are increasing (Guardian); and that the climate is more sensitive to greenhouse gases that had been thought.
• And I concur with Lobo’s comment, and continue to take the same approach: “The only hope for preventing runaway global heating, and also collapse from other forms of ecological overshoot, has been deep societal austerity, a kin to the ‘home efforts’ of World War II. If any hope remains, the same approaches are the only rational path.”