this is usually an interesting discussion to have, and there are a lot of interesting questions to ask in this field–so let’s ask and talk about a few. feel free to answer as many as you want, or ask your own of people in the comments. here are two groups of three that i think are good to start:
- Do you suffer from anxiety about climate change and its effects?
- Have you ever made significant individual lifestyle choices because of climate change?
- Have you ever thought of leaving where you live because of potential future climactic effects? Have you actually moved already because of them?
- Do you think the world can limit global warming to 1.5C or 2C? Where do you think we’ll “level off” in terms of warming–especially if you don’t think we’ll meet either of those goals?
- What do you think of proposed technologies like carbon capture? Do you think they’re useful, or a technocratic waste of time? Can they be viably used at large scale on any reasonable timeframe?
- Do you support something like climate reparations either now or in the future? Do you think such a thing is even viable?
Edit: This somehow got posted to a different thread after I edited it? I had to repost it here.
-Do you suffer from anxiety about climate change and its effects?
Hahahahaha yes. Every day. It’s tough going about your daily life knowing full well there’s no future unless we have a revolution yesterday. It’s especially hard when the sky is full of smoke at the end of every summer (I live in the PNW).
-Have you ever made significant individual lifestyle choices because of climate change?
I became a vegetarian for unrelated reasons, but climate change is part of the reason I stick with it, if that counts. Otherwise, no. What could I even do that would have a significant impact on climate change? Nothing. Even my vegetarianism is worthless in that regard. It’s not consumers like me who are causing it, it’s the giant corporations who won’t stop slurping down oil and shit. I suppose if I want to be a moral person, I should go vegan and stop using my car, but my diet is restricted enough as it is and public transport here is so shitty I’d have to sacrifice hours every day to still be able to get to work on time. Why make myself miserable for something that won’t matter in the end anyway?
-Have you ever thought of leaving where you live because of potential future climactic effects? Have you actually moved already because of them?
A little, but where would I go? The PNW is already one of the better places to be, and it’s still awful here. Anywhere else would surely be worse.
-Do you think the world can limit global warming to 1.5C or 2C? Where do you think we’ll “level off” in terms of warming–especially if you don’t think we’ll meet either of those goals?
Of course we can, and of course we won’t. We’re barely even trying. I have no idea where we’ll level off, but it will likely be at an apocalyptic temperature.
-What do you think of proposed technologies like carbon capture? Do you think they’re useful, or a technocratic waste of time? Can they be viably used at large scale on any reasonable timeframe?
I don’t know enough about them to say. My immediate instinct is distrust of anything that doesn’t involve radically changing how our society functions, but anything is better than nothing.
-Do you support something like climate reparations either now or in the future? Do you think such a thing is even viable?
Sure, might as well throw that in on top of all the other reparations we ought to pay. But good luck getting the high emitters to agree to anything like that, even assuming climate change doesn’t kill us all within a few decades.