You believe people are willing to give up their “comforts” and “toys”. We (the west anyway) are too indoctrinated into the “must have” propaganda to relinquish those things. Shame.
And your solution is…?
the earth will be fine. we, however, won’t be, as you point out. And I agree: at this point, it’s probably just as well. I’d rather us go extinct than breed Space Capitalism and wreck any more planets.
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Succinctly stated. The USA is going to be a dystopian nightmare as things collapse. Hell, “we” can’t even care enough about each other to wear masks and shelter in place during a pandemic. The Road by Cormac McCarthy is our most likely outcome in the USA.
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Unfortunately he is dead. Jacques Cousteau who spent his entire life on the oceans predicted (from the state of the oceans) that we had 50, 100, 150 years left before complete devastation.
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I loved watching his documentaries when I was just a lad in my teens. He was someone who knew how to live fully each day as if it was his last. Along with a nice glass of wine or two…
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Hi Drone,
I agree with your post except the “earth will be fine” part.
It depends on your definition of “fine” and “earth”.
For me earth is a living being that we humans are killing which will never be fine with me.
While it may ease the minds of some (and there are days I wish I had that mindset) to believe that “the earth will be fine”---- when we courageoulsy look at the deaths we are causing that are part of earth’s living system it is far beyond horrific.
Grief from these deaths, these mass murders of ecosystems is infinite. There is no healing from grief that ratchets up every day as the killing/death toll increases exponentially.
I too would rather go extinct then live in a world devoid of biodiversity.
Fireflies as one example. The fireflies each night over the past 2 weeks have been heartbreakingly beautiful. I can’t get over the fact that there are fireflies!!! They are amazing!! I would not want to live on a planet where humans killed them all. That is just one species . … I could go on . .
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While McKibben is right about this, he’s lost a lot of credibility due to new information about him, and others in the environmental movement, in the new Micheal Moore documentary, Planet of the Humans, which shows that McKibben and other big names in the movement have taken substantial money from, and in turn endorsed, environmentally unsound biomass fuel schemes that use as much energy to produce as they provide. Probably the major reason that Moore’s film has come under such intense ridicule from more mainstream environmentalists. Watch it for yourselves and decide.
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A small beacon of light:
~https://www.aljazeera.com/ajimpact/european-investors-threaten-pull-money-brazil-amazon-200619153257579.html
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Your optimism is impressive. I rather think that the global warming already in effect will lead to more losses of our usual lifestyles and those of us addicted to the comforts and luxuries of western living will not react in any way except to exacerbate our decline into chaos and wholesale destruction. Witness the “Karens” who are more and more gracing us with videos of their whining, complaining, and threatening because they are slightly inconvenienced at the expectation that they wear a fucking mask. Do we really think that these men and women are going to pitch in in a global effort to redesign our lifestyles and investments towards global preservation? Or is it more likely that they lash out at the scapegoats that are presented to them by the real perpetrators of our demise? I feel a sense of guilt at the world to which I have helped condemn my children and grandchildren and yours.
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I had to look up the “karens”. I thought they were a pop group or something. Never heard that expression before. Must be “murrican.” LOL. Thanks for the new word i learned today.
Decades of environmental protections wiped out by this president and congress in a matter of three years. Destruction is so much easier than construction, is it not?
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It’s in the human best interest to slow, stop or reverse this situation in any way possible to avoid our extinction. Either way always remember, that no matter what, the earth will win and continue on long after the human species has disappeared.
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And not only the Italians:
~https://glacierhub.org/2020/03/10/french-resort-in-the-pyrenees-sparks-debate-on-the-transportation-of-snow-to-ski-slopes-by-helicopter/
The question that you seem to be overlooking is how are you going to feed all these people living underground. Food production is going to collapse as things get too hot above ground. And just how much hollowing out can you feasibly do to actually build entire cities underground. It’s really not based in reality. And then there is the political will to do so and god forbid the financial costs. The oligarchs have already built their underground bunker/condos for themselves. They are not going to waste money on the rest of us when they can steal it all for themselves in the meantime. And then there is the question producing energy for the cities underground. While it makes for a good sci-fi solution it really does not exist in our reality. And finally just imagine the chaos of choosing who gets to live because you are never going to build enough space for the billions living right now.
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I think you are overlooking a few things. What about the human capacity for generating waste: sewerage, trash, dead bodies. Do we just put them on elevators to the surface of the earth? What about the human drive to dominate others politically, leading to the same destructive power dynamics and greed that got us to where we are now? What about the human tendencies towards jealousy, hate, disagreement, selfishness, fear, suspicion, insecurity, that will inevitably lead to discrimination and murder? The only underground existence I prefer will be six feet under.
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“I’m scared” is better than “I’m not scared.”
Now, step 2 is “We’re going to think about various fixes and either partial or complete solutions for the problem.”
Imagine human beings actually thinking about new problems! Human beings maybe even solving problems. Human beings solving problems in a timely manner before they get hit in the head with a two by four, not after for once! Worse, the Democratic National Committee actually putting a line item into their budget.
Hmmm…
Nah, that’s a load of baloney. Never mind.
If I ran the circus I’d have artificial snowmaking machines installed on pieces of tundra, in order to restore the Arctic’s original albedo for as much of the year as possible. I’d want a $1000 windmill-powered micro machine for about every 2000 feet.
To restore the Arctic Ocean’s ice pack to its normal thickness I’d want a seawater pump every mile or so. A sketch is at klinkmansolar .com/arctic.htm
You must remember that what we are experiencing now is from what we put into the atmosphere around 30 years ago. So we still have 30 years of ramping up even if we completely stopped burning carbon right now. And that is not going to happen. And there will be more feedback loops like methane taking place as well. Short of divine intervention I just don’t see any way of slowing the coming collapse let alone stopping it now.
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I sell AC units for a living… sounds like a huge sales opportunity for me!!
“Honey, where’s my snorkel coat and boots???”
(snark)
Denial of global warming is an act of war. The ruling class want natural disasters to occur so they can call starvation, disease, war and death the “actual” Armageddon. DJT#45 has declared war against the American people and the world in too many ways to deny that war is his intent. His worst lie among his repertoire of constant lies is “I don’t want war with anybody.” When he said that, perhaps his meaning was that he wanted war with everybody.