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Author Topic: Global climate crisis - failure to act is no longer an option  (Read 13633 times)

PerditaPickle

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Global climate crisis - failure to act is no longer an option
« on: August 28, 2019, 03:46:29 pm »
So a while back we had the All Talk No Action thread in this sub-forum (https://ecauldron.com/forum/faith-in-everyday-life/all-talk-no-action/); since then, climate crisis news seems to have been almost everywhere (and so it should be).

I feel like the no action/sitting-on-our-laurels route is no longer an option, for any of us.  But also, in some ways, it's becoming easier to take action what with all the 'publicity' around this topic.

I therefore want to hear from nature worshiping Pagans in particular, but also from anyone & everyone:  how are you all "ramping up" your individual action/s when it comes to tackling climate change?  And are you taking part in any collective action/s?

My own response to follow in a reply, in due course.

There is no Planet B.
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Uneryx

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Re: Global climate crisis - failure to act is no longer an option
« Reply #1 on: August 29, 2019, 11:33:15 am »
So a while back we had the All Talk No Action thread in this sub-forum (https://ecauldron.com/forum/faith-in-everyday-life/all-talk-no-action/); since then, climate crisis news seems to have been almost everywhere (and so it should be).

I feel like the no action/sitting-on-our-laurels route is no longer an option, for any of us.  But also, in some ways, it's becoming easier to take action what with all the 'publicity' around this topic.

I therefore want to hear from nature worshiping Pagans in particular, but also from anyone & everyone:  how are you all "ramping up" your individual action/s when it comes to tackling climate change?  And are you taking part in any collective action/s?

My own response to follow in a reply, in due course.

There is no Planet B.

The thing that really bothers me about the kind of climate activism I see online is that the wrong people are being bothered.

I run in fairly liberal circles, and I can't scroll five posts without being hit by a meme screaming at me to DO SOMETHING!! NOW!! YOU MUST ACT!! Graffiti has popped up around town quoting Greta Thunberg's "I don't want you to have hope I want you to panic".

Here's what I already do: I recycle. I keep my carbon footprint fairly low. I donate my money to people who are actively taking action, when I can. I try to bake and make more of my own food. I pick up litter when I go hiking. I pester my elected representatives, when they're actually taking calls and not ignoring their phones as is frequently the case. I will be attempting to vote those reps out come 2020.

All of that is meaningless when it is corporate and government selfishness and greed that is killing the planet. All the paper straws and donations to Indigenous Amazonians and car free days won't do a single. fucking. thing. as long as no one is challenging, really challenging, large corporations and the governments that enable them to do and be better. Individual social media "activism" that mainly consists of screaming at one's timeline and thinking you've done something doesn't do jack shit, except exacerbate my already not-insignificant anxiety.

And frankly, I don't have a lot of hope for the future. Bolsarano is refusing aid because his fee-fees got hurt by Macron. Donald Trump thinks you can nuke hurricanes. Men like these have spread their cancerous greed throughout the highest levels of government globally, acting only in their own selfish interest to make more money. And they've convinced a non-negligible percent of the population that they're the good guys. Nothing will be done to save the planet while these fascist fucks are in office, and no pretty words or public outrage are going to change their narcissistic minds.

The solution, in my book, is to vote these asshats out. But fascism is like ivy - the tendrils and roots go very far and very wide, and just when you think you've gotten the last tendril out, you find a brand new pocket and it's about to kill your favorite tree. And it's eradication certainly won't happen while everyone on the left is too busy screaming at each other for not doing enough. They WANT us burnt out and distracted and chasing paper tigers and in-fighting. They want us to be too busy yelling at each other to do something that we don't actually do something tangible.

Sometimes I even feel like this is our reckoning, our punishment, the end of man's hubris, the natural result of overpopulation of an invasive species.  Look upon your works, ye mighty, and despair. A mass extinction event for mankind would probably do the planet a lot of good. As much as I'd like to roll over and go "welp, fuck humanity" however, I know that the people who die won't be the greedy bastards at the top.

I'm so tired. I am one very anxious woman who has spent the last three years in a state of near-panic. Doom and gloom are very bad for my mental health, and yet I cannot fucking escape it. There are those, in fact, who would say 'boo-fucking-hoo, your mental health is not more important than the planet'. But I know there are so many more besides me who just... can't do it anymore. Who have been fighting for the planet and against fascism since before 2016, who make small daily efforts towards the larger effort of convincing companies and governments that they need to cut their bullshit. For fucks sake, stop yelling at me, stop yelling at financially poor, burnt out, tired, stressed, depressed, anxious people to do something, now now now NOW NOW NOW, and start yelling at the people who are actually responsible and CAN turn the tide.

A team of miners could dismantle a mountain, but not if the miners are attacking each other, shrieking at each other to mine faster while never swinging the pick axe themselves, and muddling the message of which mountain to mine.

So, to answer your question about what I'm doing to ramp up individual actions.... nothing. Until the democrats decide who they're putting forth in 2020, until someone can point at a collective action for the Amazon rain forest besides the usual 'throw what pittance of cash I can afford to spare this paycheck', all I can do is plod steadily along, offering what magic and prayers I can, doing small individual things, in the vain hope it's doing *something*.

I don't want to panic, I want to have hope.

Altair

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Re: Global climate crisis - failure to act is no longer an option
« Reply #2 on: August 29, 2019, 12:33:36 pm »
All of that is meaningless when it is corporate and government selfishness and greed that is killing the planet. All the paper straws and donations to Indigenous Amazonians and car free days won't do a single. fucking. thing.

I couldn't disagree more. I think people in general and we Americans in particular yield our power over to others, to complacency, to a general "this is too big for me to tackle" resignation, way too easily. As we have seen over and over again, our governments are either unwilling or incapable of taking meaningful action on climate change...so that means it is up to us as individuals. For example, if even half of the eligible folks in the U.S. used our power to select our energy supply company (ESCO) to choose one that only used renewable sources, we'd make a *huge* dent in this country's carbon footprint.

(Do YOU live in a state where you can choose who you get your electricity from? Check out this interactive map to find out.)

My carbon footprint is tiny--I live in an apartment that's all of 500 sq ft to heat/cool/light, I commute by bike (or mass transit when it rains), and my electricity at home comes from a supplier that uses only renewable sources, like solar and wind. I recycle religiously and never, ever litter.

But the publicity on our ongoing catastrophe has prompted me to decide to go further by doing the following:

--I'm not going veggie or vegan, but I'm cutting way back on beef consumption; and for every time I do eat beef, I'm going to contribute $10 to some Amazon protection effort (donation recipient yet to be selected). That self-imposed "beef tax" should go a long way to helping me cut back.

--My garden is planted almost entirely with native plants, specifically so that wildlife (incl. our insects and esp. our pollinators)--many of which have been slammed by climate change--have a few more resources in an otherwise punishing city.

--In a week I leave for North Carolina to work for 6 days canvassing for Democrat Dan McCready, in his attempt to take a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives...but also, it will lay the voter activation groundwork for undermining Trump in NC in 2020. While this isn't directly related to climate change, it's no secret that Democrats in general and anyone but Trump in particular are more receptive to action on climate change.

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I don't want to panic, I want to have hope.

I couldn't agree more.
« Last Edit: August 29, 2019, 12:35:10 pm by Altair »
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The last song echoes through the ages / to ask its question all night long / And close the circle on these pages / These, the metamythos songs

PerditaPickle

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Re: Global climate crisis - failure to act is no longer an option
« Reply #3 on: August 29, 2019, 01:00:49 pm »


I won't be able to post a response for a little while, not until the weekend at the earliest.
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Morag

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Re: Global climate crisis - failure to act is no longer an option
« Reply #4 on: August 29, 2019, 07:25:28 pm »
I couldn't disagree more. I think people in general and we Americans in particular yield our power over to others, to complacency, to a general "this is too big for me to tackle" resignation, way too easily. As we have seen over and over again, our governments are either unwilling or incapable of taking meaningful action on climate change...so that means it is up to us as individuals. For example, if even half of the eligible folks in the U.S. used our power to select our energy supply company (ESCO) to choose one that only used renewable sources, we'd make a *huge* dent in this country's carbon footprint.

(Do YOU live in a state where you can choose who you get your electricity from? Check out this interactive map to find out.)

Uneryx may be USian, but she lives in BC, Canada. That is not an option up here. Also 95% of BC Hydro's power comes from hydroelectric facilities, which are considered sustainable.

Maybe US-centrism isn't useful in a conversation about the planet.

My carbon footprint is tiny--I live in an apartment that's all of 500 sq ft to heat/cool/light, I commute by bike (or mass transit when it rains), and my electricity at home comes from a supplier that uses only renewable sources, like solar and wind. I recycle religiously and never, ever litter.

Wow. You certainly have a lot of advantages over other people.

1. 500 sq ft is not an option for everyone. I know it's popular these days to feel morally righteous over needing less space than a mouse, but people are different. Some of us need a bit more space simply based on the *size of our bodies*. We have literally had to say no to potential places because the hallways and doorways were too small for my husband.

2. My car is my mobility device. Without a car, I don't leave my house. I'm a disabled shut-in who can't work without being able to drive. Despite my city's love affair with cycling and the constant screams at me that I'm a horrible, horrible person who deserves to die because I don't bike to work, I cannot switch to cycling.

3. Even if mass transit weren't physically impossible for me because of how painful it is (yes, some disabilities mean it's HARDER to take the bus), the infrastructure here is shit. I get it, NYC is a fucking utopia for transit. I know, because when I visited, I was astounded at how great the system was. I have literally NEVER lived in a place with transit anywhere NEAR that good.

It is so easy to say "switch to transit!" when you live in a city where it actually works.

If I were to swallow more pain pills than I already take every day to take the bus to work, I'd be cutting into my sleep time to the tune of at least 4 hours. Because it would take me 2 hours to get to work by transit -- a 20 minute drive for me.

But yes, obviously I should do that, because my health means absolutely nothing, right?

4. Here in BC we have basically one choice for power. One. It's a provincial Crown Corporation called BC Hydro. The name comes from the 32 hydroelectric facilities the company uses. However, we still need to use 3 natural-gas powered thermal power plants to help supply power for most of the province.

The exceptions to BC Hydro are if you live in New Westminster or the Kootenays. New West runs its own electricity department, and the Kootenays get their power AND their gas from FortisBC, the main supplier of natural gas in the province.

Because BC Hydro is so expensive as to bankrupt average people*, lots of folks would like to change to solar and sell back their excess power to the company. It's not really feasible for year-round power services. BC is pretty cloudy. Hard to get solar energy when the sun is, you know, blocked out by water vapor.

*One of the main reasons we haven't jumped on a lot of places to move to from our shitty basement suite is because here, hydro is included in our rent. That's like a unicorn.

5. I used to recycle religiously. I used to clean every single recyclable food item so there was no lingering bits of food on it, then put it into my blue bin that's cracked like hell because they keep slamming it down on our driveway. I used to crawl up the stairs out of our shitty basement suite, carrying that heavy blue bin and a bag of garbage, once a week, even though my back was SCREAMING in pain at me.

And then they refused to pick up my recycling. Time and time again. Because I put one piece of glass in the blue bin when it's supposed to go in the glass bin -- which my landlords, who live above us, have, and wouldn't always put out. Because there was cardboard in my blue bin, and it's supposed to go in the yellow bag, which I no longer have, because every time I've had a yellow bag the idiots who pick up our recycling have put it and the other one under the upstairs blue bin, and the landlords have taken it. I've gone through 5 of the things. I cannot keep them more than a week.

I cannot anymore. They broke me. I have recycled MY ENTIRE LIFE because it's just what you DO here in BC, and I have been broken. I do not have the physical spoons to handle their requirements. They're getting paid more than I do to pick up the recycling, and because I forgot to move a teriyaki bottle to the glass container they refuse to pick up an entire week's worth of recycling. My house piles up with trash while I try to get them to pick things up. And I'm already struggling to keep things clean. I literally live in a garbage pile because of trying to navigate when they pick things up and also trying to find room in our trash bins that the upstairs people fill up before we even get to them.

So I only recycle plastic now, and only then if it's easy to clean. Standing at the sink washing things for the blue bin is also torturous on my spine.

But yes, while Nestle steals BC's drinking water and mining companies dump their slurry into the Fraser and fracking continues in our province, obviously this broken cripple's defeat in the face of draconian recycling rules is what will kill the earth. Sure.

The only thing I can do in that list of things that are so easy for you is never litter. I never do, and I pick up other people's garbage if I have the energy. If I can actually bend down on that day without paralyzing myself from the waist down, which is what I fear every time I move wrong, by the way. I have actually exhausted my spoon count for the day picking up litter by the side of the road in my neighbourhood. Including a full, dirty diaper.

But I know that risking diseases by handling stranger's feces and cleaning up the side of the road isn't good enough if I won't do the rest of the stuff you list.

--I'm not going veggie or vegan, but I'm cutting way back on beef consumption; and for every time I do eat beef, I'm going to contribute $10 to some Amazon protection effort (donation recipient yet to be selected). That self-imposed "beef tax" should go a long way to helping me cut back.

I mean, if all your beef was coming from Brazil....??

This is what I don't get about the Amazon burning suddenly getting people up in arms about beef consumption. Seems like it's just another way for vegans to abuse people who don't follow their religion. I literally watched someone I follow on Twitter get harassed and verbally abused for eating beef. From Australia. Where she lives. Because somehow by eating Australian beef she was directly contributing to the Amazon burning.

The Amazon isn't burning, it's being burned. And cutting out your beef consumption is unlikely to change that unless you are literally only eating beef from Brazil -- even then, are you voting in the Brazilian govts that have allowed this to happen? that have supported the deforestation of indigenous land?


--My garden is planted almost entirely with native plants, specifically so that wildlife (incl. our insects and esp. our pollinators)--many of which have been slammed by climate change--have a few more resources in an otherwise punishing city.

Man, I wish I had a garden or literally any control over the green space around our house.

--In a week I leave for North Carolina to work for 6 days canvassing for Democrat Dan McCready, in his attempt to take a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives...but also, it will lay the voter activation groundwork for undermining Trump in NC in 2020. While this isn't directly related to climate change, it's no secret that Democrats in general and anyone but Trump in particular are more receptive to action on climate change.

I'll be lucky if I have enough energy to go lodge a protest vote for our Green Party in our upcoming federal election. (Literally any vote in my riding that isn't for the Conservatives is a protest vote. We're solidly blue here.) Between working as much as I do and trying desperately to not succumb to our black-mold infested living space, I don't have much energy for anything else.
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Re: Global climate crisis - failure to act is no longer an option
« Reply #5 on: August 29, 2019, 07:38:00 pm »
I mean, if all your beef was coming from Brazil....??

Not in the US, for sure, it has on and off been illegal to import beef from Brazil (and I had seen someone say it is currently on on the illegality front).

And besides they'll probably plant soy there, the turnaround is much faster and hey, US soybeans aren't doing so hot on the world market right now for some reason.
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Re: Global climate crisis - failure to act is no longer an option
« Reply #6 on: August 30, 2019, 07:51:19 pm »
All the paper straws and donations to Indigenous Amazonians and car free days won't do a single. fucking. thing.

I'd argue that the converse is also true; if you, individually, are unable to do [insert Virtuous Action], this will not single-handedly doom the planet. You're allowed to be a finite being with finite energy.

I, for one, have limited fucks to give. I just plain do not have the wherewithal to care about All The Things, so I choose to care about things that are smaller in scope. I try to limit consumption and waste, which at my income level is about the best I can do. I'm incredibly lucky that I can get away with not owing a car.

Recently I started using those silicone stretch caps on food instead of plastic wrap - not primarily out of concern for the environment, but because reusable is cheaper in the long run (also, turns out they work a lot better for keeping food fresh.)

(Also paper/steel straws make me scratch my head. Wouldn't it be even 'greener' to just not use a straw?)
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PerditaPickle

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Re: Global climate crisis - failure to act is no longer an option
« Reply #7 on: August 31, 2019, 08:11:10 am »


First off, my apologies for not using the proper quoting codes & etc in the following post; I've had to compose this elsewhere in other software & paste it and I'm afraid it's too difficult at the minute to adjust it to include the proper coding & etc, and I don't have the time available.  So apologies again and I hope this can be excused on this occasion (I'll definitely try not to make a habit of it!).

Quote
"The thing that really bothers me about the kind of climate activism I see online is that the wrong people are being bothered."

You’re right.  I’d come to this very same conclusion myself earlier the same day, when I had to give myself a pep talk (putting it mildly) as I felt my own mental health being negatively impacted by my awareness of and concern about this issue.

The people being concerned are those like me & my friends who are already concerned and have been for years. The ones who are not already concerned are not going to be influenced or motivated by some social media and one or two news items, it's unrealistic of me to hope for that.

Besides, I note that many of the news items have already taken a dismissive tone and started stating that climate activists are asking for the unrealistic – oh, it’s too ambitious and difficult to do what XR are proposing therefore why even bother taking any action, is the message I see being given to the populace via the mass media.  (I normally don’t watch/read news because I find it too depressing, but I sometimes come across headlines and it’s not difficult to deduce the likely content of such so-called ‘news’ items from such headlines.)  This means that even those few who were not already concerned about the issue but who’s attention might just have been grabbed by all this publicity will of course tell themselves that since there’s nothing can be done according to the likes of the BBC & etc, then why bother using their time and energy up thinking about it/doing anything.

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"I run in fairly liberal circles, and I can't scroll five posts without being hit by a meme screaming at me"

Yes, me as well and I think it's why the issue was so much on my mind - I'd succumbed to the very panic that Greta wanted to instil!  My apologies if you felt that I, too, was screaming at you – I guess I was screaming about the issue, but I hadn’t meant it to seem I was screaming at anyone in particular.

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“All of that is meaningless when it is corporate and government selfishness and greed that is killing the planet.”

You're right.  There’s a colleague at work with a sort of blog who'd written that big changes always begin with individual changes/actions (or something similar - he's trying, rightly, to encourage people to e.g. turn off lights & fans when they leave the room and things like that; trying to tackle energy wastage, which does add up when it’s an organisation which employs thousands of people).  It was this blog (thing) which inspired me to post my question in the terms that I did, but I was being hurried and thoughtless with my language when I posted.  So, again, I’m sorry for that.

Quote
“And frankly, I don't have a lot of hope for the future. Bolsarano is refusing aid because his fee-fees got hurt by Macron. Donald Trump thinks you can nuke hurricanes. Men like these have spread their cancerous greed throughout the highest levels of government globally, acting only in their own selfish interest to make more money”

You’re right, again, and I do agree.

Quote
“Sometimes I even feel like this is our reckoning, our punishment, the end of man's hubris, the natural result of overpopulation of an invasive species.  Look upon your works, ye mighty, and despair. A mass extinction event for mankind would probably do the planet a lot of good. As much as I'd like to roll over and go "welp, fuck humanity" however, I know that the people who die won't be the greedy bastards at the top.”

You’re right yet again on both points – I’ve had to restrain myself so many times from posting on social media that the end of the human race is the best thing which could possibly happen to this planet!  Unfortunately, however, it won’t just happen quietly over night like a light going out; an unimaginable number of people will, of course, suffer an unimaginable amount in the process.

Quote
“I'm so tired. I am one very anxious woman who has spent the last three years in a state of near-panic. Doom and gloom are very bad for my mental health, and yet I cannot fucking escape it. There are those, in fact, who would say 'boo-fucking-hoo, your mental health is not more important than the planet'. But I know there are so many more besides me who just... can't do it anymore. Who have been fighting for the planet and against fascism since before 2016, who make small daily efforts towards the larger effort of convincing companies and governments that they need to cut their bullshit. For fucks sake, stop yelling at me, stop yelling at financially poor, burnt out, tired, stressed, depressed, anxious people to do something, now now now NOW NOW NOW, and start yelling at the people who are actually responsible and CAN turn the tide.”

Yes, I do understand – I had originally wanted to include something more in my original post asking about what was being done by sections of the populace, collectively/on more than just an individual level.  But I was struggling to articulate & phrase it so I ended up cutting out that section.  I regret that now, as it caused the original post to become focused in an undesirable direction which I had not meant to affect anyone’s mental health.  Sorry, once again.


My friend, who learns martial arts, finally confided in me yesterday that the entire reason she learns is so that when the last survivors of the human race are fighting for the final, finite scraps of food and drops of water she might stand a chance of surviving amongst them!  I’ve all of a sudden come, in the past few days, to believe: my friend has the right idea (if only I had any energy to take up a martial art)!!
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PerditaPickle

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Re: Global climate crisis - failure to act is no longer an option
« Reply #8 on: August 31, 2019, 08:19:12 am »


Once again, I'm afraid I won't be able to post a response to this for a while, probably not until next weekend  at this point (or possibly even the weekend after, as next weekend's already pretty full as things stand).
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Altair

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Re: Global climate crisis - failure to act is no longer an option
« Reply #9 on: August 31, 2019, 06:51:50 pm »
I'd argue that the converse is also true; if you, individually, are unable to do [insert Virtuous Action], this will not single-handedly doom the planet. You're allowed to be a finite being with finite energy.

I, for one, have limited fucks to give. I just plain do not have the wherewithal to care about All The Things, so I choose to care about things that are smaller in scope. I try to limit consumption and waste, which at my income level is about the best I can do.


This.

The goal of my post was not to indict the practices of others--not Morag or anyone else--nor to congratulate myself for a small footprint (NYC population density basically forces that on us here). It was intended as an exhortation to individual action, whatever steps you consider doable, rather than an all-too-common resignation and abdication of one's own agency.

I find that kind of complacency very difficult to take, in *any* situation, including climate change. There's a problem? Do SOMETHING to try to fix it. Otherwise, why the hell are we here?

Maybe US-centrism isn't useful in a conversation about the planet.

I offered one solution that's not only US-centric but only available in certain states within the US. (Here's that map again, to find out which states let you choose your energy supply company, so that you can make a "greener" choice for your electricity). I offered it because it's A) a solution I'm familiar with, and B) one that's relatively easy for many, many people in those states to adopt. Also because, while climate change is a global problem, one of the planet's principal culprits in contributing to the problem is the US.

That I offered that suggestion shouldn't be mistaken for a failure to recognize climate change's global proportions.

I welcome any and all other suggestions, large and small, for any jurisdiction across the globe. We have the ability to make an impact by taking on what we as individuals can, while our governments continue to shirk their duty.

...in the US, for sure, it has on and off been illegal to import beef from Brazil

I know. I had read about this ban. While triggered by the burning Amazon, my decision to cut way back on beef has more to do with the effects of cattle raising on forests in general, and not the Amazon specifically.

As a 21-year-old I remember visiting the Mexican state of Chiapas back in 1984, and even back then they were lamenting how their highland forests and others like them--including areas like the already limited wintering ground for our troubled monarch butterflies--were being chopped down to make cheap grazing land so we in the US could get burgers cheaper at Burger King than at McDonald's. I don't know if that was apocryphal, but it prompted a lifelong boycott of Burger King (and god, as a kid how I loved their onion rings!)...but now I've decided, to really make a difference, beef in general has got to be curtailed in my diet.

I'm not giving it up entirely--as Sefiru so aptly put it, I only have so many fucks to give!--but I can step up my choices that much.

We CAN do this.
« Last Edit: August 31, 2019, 06:53:27 pm by Altair »
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The last song echoes through the ages / to ask its question all night long / And close the circle on these pages / These, the metamythos songs

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Re: Global climate crisis - failure to act is no longer an option
« Reply #10 on: August 31, 2019, 10:19:03 pm »

And besides they'll probably plant soy there, the turnaround is much faster and hey, US soybeans aren't doing so hot on the world market right now for some reason.
Cucumber would be an excellent new source that would really help the world facts for enhancement upgrades.
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Re: Global climate crisis - failure to act is no longer an option
« Reply #11 on: September 30, 2019, 11:28:45 am »


Apologies for the long delay in replying, I've had my fingers in a few pies offline lately (probably a few too many for my own good if I'm honest).

Also, further apologies for not using the proper quoting codes & etc in the following post; I've once again had to compose this elsewhere in other software & paste it and I'm afraid it's too difficult at the minute to adjust it to include the proper coding & etc, and I don't have the time available.  I know I said I won't make a habit of it, and I genuinely won't but it just so happened that this thread had the two quite lengthy replies in it for me to respond to.

Quote
"Some of us need a bit more space"

In truth, I/we could do with more living space, and in particular storage space.  However we're restricted by living in England and not being anywhere close to being able to even distantly see wealthy on the horizon.  In fact it's worse than that, because we're forced to rent and consequently put up with defective double glazing, inefficient heating and no freedom to invest in anything like additional insulation.  But we're not in a position where we can do anything about any of that.

Quote
"My car is my mobility device. Without a car, I don't leave the house"

My husband is in the same position, leaving him pretty much housebound except when someone picks us up in their vehicle.  I don't drive anyway, but if I did it'd make the choice to refrain from doing so a really agonising one, as my chronic health condition leaves me 'spent' upon making any journey by public transport at all, and really into 'spoon deficit' if there's any leg of it which requires more than a little walking (like, more than about 5 minutes at one end or another, or between connections, let alone at both ends and between connections, which is usually the case).

Quote
"the infrastructure here is shit."

I'm sure I'm probably better off here than where you are, but transit isn't great here either and it's actually getting worse as time goes on. You see it used to be subsidised by the government but years of overzealous (if not outright malicious) austerity have put paid to that (ha!) so previously already infrequent services are consistently scaled back or cut altogether.  Depending where one needs to get to if there's an hourly service going near that's really rather lucky.  Often, though, for even somewhat out of the way places it's more like every other hour, with sometimes as much as 40 minutes walking to get to where one needs.  If I need to attend a half hour meeting it's a nightmare because I can be looking at up to 5 hours travel time for the round trip, where the connections don't marry up conveniently.  And governments think this'll be anywhere near a viable option for people who're in many cases already paying out to insure, tax and maintain their cars?  It's laughable, or would be if it wasn't so damn infuriating.

Quote
"Here in BC we have basically one choice for power. One."

This is the type of thing activists would want to campaign against.  And probably some are, it just doesn't make for a very newsworthy story (apparently) so it isn't covered and one consequently doesn't hear about it often, if at all (except maybe on social media).

Quote
"I used to recycle religiously. I used to clean every single recyclable food item so there was no lingering bits of food on it"

Yes I sympathise, as I've been here on a daily basis, week in week out too.

Quote
"I used to crawl up the stairs out of our shitty basement suite, carrying that heavy blue bin and a bag of garbage, once a week, even though my back was SCREAMING in pain at me."

Yes once again I sympathise because I'm here as well on a weekly basis, though in my case I have to come down two flights and it's my limbs that scream at me more so than my back.

Quote
"And then they refused to pick up my recycling. Time and time again."

Yes, believe it or not I'm here as well on a fortnightly basis!  In our case it's because we live in an apartment block and the neighbours persist in doing things to the communal recycling bin (which I believe to be a 660 litre one, serving 18 households) which prevent the local council from collecting it.  For example putting bags of regular refuse in and or/glass items, or just totally unrecyclable items such as: old mops, old sets of shelves, cushions off of unwanted furniture & etc etc.  I used to sort though it and pull out the bags & etc of non-recyclable stuff until one day I came across a load of syringes which had been wrongly disposed of in there!  So now I've taken to smuggling much of my recycling into work and disposing of it there (in the hope that they do actually recycle this) - or if a friend calls round I ask them if they're likely to have any room in their household's 140 litre bin that fortnight, and if so then I ask them to take away a small bag of our plastic bottles, tin cans etc (all have been rinsed out).

Quote
"My house piles up with trash while I try to get them to pick things up. And I'm already struggling to keep things clean. I literally live in a garbage pile because of trying to navigate when they pick things up and also trying to find room in our trash bins that the upstairs people fill up before we even get to them."

Yes, mine too, and therefore I do know how frustrating, even distressing it is!

Quote
"obviously this broken cripple's defeat in the face of draconian recycling rules is what will kill the earth. Sure."

That was not what I meant by my OP at all and I'm really very sorry that it appears to have come across that way to everyone!  As per my reply to Uneryx last month, I'd originally intended to include something more in my original post asking about what was being done by sections of the populace, collectively/on more than just an individual level.  But I was struggling to articulate & phrase it so I ended up cutting out that section and, as mentioned, I regret that now.  I'm really not trying to shame anyone for any sort of perceived inaction on an individual level, I'd just made an assumption (which one should never do) that a majority of people here would likely be following the issue of the climate emergency and there'd be ideas & etc that they could share as to how it can be tackled, collectively.  If that makes sense?  (As I'm still struggling to articulate what I mean.)

Quote
"while Nestle steals BC's drinking water and mining companies dump their slurry into the Fraser and fracking continues in our province"

^ these are the sorts of things I was envisaging groups campaigning about (e.g. Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth etc - and even smaller, more local groups).  I'm sorry again that my OP neglected to reflect this thinking.

Quote
"The only thing I can do in that list of things that are so easy for you is never litter. I never do, and I pick up other people's garbage if I have the energy. If I can actuallybend down on that day without paralyzing myself from the waist down, which is what I fear every time I move wrong, by the way. I have actually exhausted my spoon count for the day picking up litter by the side of the road in my neighbourhood. Including a full, dirty diaper.

"But I know that risking diseases by handling stranger's feces and cleaning up the side of the road isn't good enough if I won't do the rest of the stuff you list."

That's not the case, at all - no-one should have to risk disease by handling feces, and I do recognise that not everyone is able to clean up the side of the road.

Also, and again I do now recognise that I neglected to allude to this in my OP, it really makes no difference how many individuals do clean up the side of the road while big industry is still creating the level of pollution that it is, and governments are allowing them to do it!  This is what lobbying groups & etc need to be, and are, campaigning on - and they could use our support, even if it's just a quick share on social media.  (This is where I believe that 'slacktivism' does actually have it's place.

Quote
"I mean, if all your beef was coming from Brazil....??"

I'm not going to talk much about meat or beef, because I'm vegetarian but I do occasionally eat soya, which is as bad as beef - it's difficult to avoid because I do enjoy eating with friends as a social activity from time to time and in a lot of places the only vegetarian option is some form of soya.  I don't want to boycott my friends in the process of boycotting the places they might want to buy food from.  My causes are not necessarily their causes.

Quote
"This is what I don't get about the Amazon burning suddenly getting people up in arms about beef consumption. Seems like it's just another way for vegans to abuse people who don't follow their religion. I literally watched someone I follow on Twitter get harassed and verbally abused for eating beef. From Australia. Where she lives. Because somehow by eating Australian beef she was directly contributing to the Amazon burning."

It's my belief that this is largely a social media thing - people see a meme (of which there's lots) and they pick it up & run with it though it cannot hope to convey the whole story.  A lot of people have jumped onto unfamiliar bandwagons which they see cropping up & trending and whatever but not necessarily (for whatever reason) gone away to do their own research.

Quote
"The Amazon isn't burning, it's being burned. And cutting out your beef consumption is unlikely to change that unless you are literally only eating beef from Brazil"

Exactly.  But even the organisations which have been publicising this, including respectable ones like WWF, have been posting that The Amazon Is Burning (#TheAmazonIsBurning) as opposed to The Amason Is Being Burned, for whatever reasons (wanting to publicise the issue, but not wanting to make a political statement about the causes of issue, I'm guessing, or risk creating conditions in which their staff & volunteers could be made even more vulnerable).

Quote
"Man, I wish I had a garden or literally any control over the green space around our house."

Me too - we're in an apartment block.  I'm lucky enough to have one windowsill which seems quite a good (or at least okay) spot for plants, on which I have 5 spider plants, and counting (plus I was recently given a teeny tiny aloe vera which I'm hoping will thrive, or at least survive).

Quote
"I'll be lucky if I have enough energy to go lodge a protest vote for our Green Party in our upcoming federal election."

I am lucky, I've a friend who doesn't mind picking me up from home and taking me to the polling station.  And I'm proxy for my husband (or I will be, again, if the electoral people judge him sufficiently 'disabled' to be entitled).

Anyway, in summary, I'm sorry once again that my OP was hastily posted and carelessly constructed, appearing to be a criticism of individual people for not doing enough.  Whatever you are able to do (or refrain from doing) at all is great and those things do all add up in positive.

There are people out there who I would be critical of, those who are climate change deniers and refuse to do anything such as recycling, and often deliberately consume as much as they can.

And if anyone does have any time &/or energy and the resources available to do (or encourage a friend or family member to do) anything like a letter/email writing campaign, signing some online petitions or even just spreading by word of mouth the awareness of organisations such as the World Wildlife Fund and Friends of the Earth, then that's absolutely awesome.  Those who are in a position to go even father and be a part of the likes of Greenpeace and Extinction Rebellion, I'm in awe of them.  And if there are any here on TC, I'd love to hear from you, but I'll be starting a new thread called "Activism", soon.
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PerditaPickle

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Re: Global climate crisis - failure to act is no longer an option
« Reply #12 on: September 30, 2019, 11:31:23 am »
--I'm not going veggie or vegan, but I'm cutting way back on beef consumption; and for every time I do eat beef, I'm going to contribute $10 to some Amazon protection effort (donation recipient yet to be selected). That self-imposed "beef tax" should go a long way to helping me cut back.

--My garden is planted almost entirely with native plants, specifically so that wildlife (incl. our insects and esp. our pollinators)--many of which have been slammed by climate change--have a few more resources in an otherwise punishing city.

--In a week I leave for North Carolina to work for 6 days canvassing for Democrat Dan McCready, in his attempt to take a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives...but also, it will lay the voter activation groundwork for undermining Trump in NC in 2020. While this isn't directly related to climate change, it's no secret that Democrats in general and anyone but Trump in particular are more receptive to action on climate change.

This is great!  <3  How did the canvassing go?
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PerditaPickle

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Re: Global climate crisis - failure to act is no longer an option
« Reply #13 on: September 30, 2019, 11:38:26 am »
I'd argue that the converse is also true; if you, individually, are unable to do [insert Virtuous Action], this will not single-handedly doom the planet. You're allowed to be a finite being with finite energy.

Yes.  True.  And very nicely put.  AND I'm very grateful to be reminded of it from time to time.

(Also paper/steel straws make me scratch my head. Wouldn't it be even 'greener' to just not use a straw?)

In general, yes it obviously would - but for some, they're a necessary aid to living as independent a life as is possible for them (i.e. those with certain disabilities and health conditions etc).

I try to limit consumption and waste, which at my income level is about the best I can do. I'm incredibly lucky that I can get away with not owing a car.

Recently I started using those silicone stretch caps on food instead of plastic wrap - not primarily out of concern for the environment, but because reusable is cheaper in the long run (also, turns out they work a lot better for keeping food fresh.)

This is great, and as mentioned these smaller actions do add up - and keeping food fresh thereby limiting waste is also a great action to be taking.
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PerditaPickle

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Re: Global climate crisis - failure to act is no longer an option
« Reply #14 on: September 30, 2019, 11:46:24 am »
Cucumber would be an excellent new source that would really help the world facts for enhancement upgrades.

I know there's an argument that the plastic wrap packaging which comes on cucumbers is not as environmentally bad as all that/maybe even good for the environment (for example, in this article: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/a-lesson-in-packaging-myths-is-shrink-wrap-on-a-cucumber-really-mindless-waste-8340812.html).  But I must confess that I don't really know what you're trying to suggest, Sevensons?
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