I should reread Desert
that or just tune out and try not to think of living in the middle of an artificial mass extinction caused by capitalism because it’s too much to bear consciously weighing on your mind all the time
Thinking of all the natural world suffering so much and knowing it didn’t and doesn’t have to be this way hurts my soul in a way that makes it hard to want to do anything other than numb myself
Neither hedonism or revolutionary suicide are solutions and any salvageable future is gonna require an organized mass movement but with how dire things are and are accelerating and how feeble and small the left seems at this point at the same time the most craven cruel reactionary idiots are at the helm, it feels really bleak sometimes
I feel this
That seems like unbelievable amount. We’re so cooked.
When I think of the typical American mindset - I think of the cliché out of sight out of mind. But what makes me even more depressed is the thought of billions of a particular creature dying in a way Americans will pay attention to. I fear that attention-grabbing horribleness will be paradoxical. The poor American response about climate change will become even worse. I can hear a Fox News talking head in my mind…
“Look, a total of billions of lobsters and crabs and other sea creatures are dying off the coast of Maine. The water got too hot and they starved to death. This is killing the fishing industry there. I talked to some republican scien— I mean, republican researchers and they said this kind of stuff could happen in other parts of the US to other animals and plants. This is a serious problem. How we gonna compete with China and beat 'em? What we gotta do and do it fast is climate engineering.”
I assume words like “scientist” are woke now for the right. In any case - the right finally wants action on climate change. Of course it’s entirely the wrong focus and it’s entirely wrapped up in economics and flag waving.
My greatest fear with climate change, is not just that we will continue to crank up the thermostat, but that when things get bad enough it will be the US that unilaterally decides to pump sulfur into the stratosphere, put tons of microplastics up in the sky, or any of the other hair-brained mitigation ideas that have been put forward.
I have deep reservations about any of those ideas even if done in a multilateral way, carefully, backed with rigorous research, and buy in from every country on the globe. But that’s not how it will happen. It’s going to be some Democrat in 2075, when we’ve already seen four degrees of warming, trying desperately to save corn harvests.
I agree with what you said but not this…
some Democrat in 2075
I think there will be a bipartisan push for climate engineering far sooner. Within the next decade or so maybe. If I’m right - the first sign will be in less than five years when some billionaire like Bill Gates has a one hour special program on MNSBC or similar. The theme presented by the concerned but upbeat billionaire will be “we got this” when it comes to climate change. It’ll be utter bullshit but you have to get the normies used to the idea that climate engineering tech isn’t scary - not at all(!) - and blocking out the sun a bit is no biggie. And - of course - the US plan will be 100% unilateral so it will fail even before the first dollar is spent.
STEP AWAY FROM THE LAITHE!
Your timeline might be closer to the truth, we will know if the Chud Contingent begins accepting the reality of climate change in the next couple years. When Fox News starts blaming hurricanes and migrants on a changing climate it is gonna get dangerous very quick.
You would need bipartisan acceptance of anthropic climate change and IDK if that is gonna happen in the next decade, not after 50 years of oil funded propaganda. I think we will need to be well into the “find out” phase of climate catastrophe with crop failures before the average Red State politician acknowledges the reality of carbon emissions and is willing to sign onto any substantive mitigation efforts; but Republican politicians skew younger and younger people see this as a major issue, so it is possible.
You would need bipartisan acceptance of anthropic climate change
I don’t think so. I think the GOP can keep saying shit like “the science is unclear”. Thinking it over more - maybe even a massive and insane die-off of sea creatures off Maine isn’t nearly enough. Maybe it’ll take something very weird for the GOP to finally change.
A forested area the size of Maryland could burn in California and the GOP would laugh. But something popped into my head. Imagine there’s a biblical plague-like amount of rain over weeks in a very red state like Alabama. The locals say it probably hasn’t rained this much in that time span in 100s of years. Scientists say the rain might be a one in 1,000 year event. And then there are a few ginormous mudslides that coincidentally happens in a way that kill more than 100 people. The GOP keeps on saying “Climate change isn’t really manmade.” But they change their tune a little. “Still - it’s happening and it’s getting bad. We better control the weather.”
Trump - of course - is the keystone. Trump might put his two oldest sons on the board of EvilCorp’s ClimateSolutions. And Trump might end up reaping hundreds of millions (even more?) in the bargain. If he changed his mind that climate change is a problem and it must be “fixed” - his hogs be very confused at first but they’ll quickly change what they think to follow his line. After all - he’s their prophet-god-cult-leader all in one.
Imagine there’s a biblical plague-like amount of rain over weeks in a very red state like Alabama. The locals say it probably hasn’t rained this much in that time span in 100s of years. Scientists say the rain might be a one in 1,000 year event. And then there are a few ginormous mudslides that coincidentally happens in a way that kill more than 100 people.
Already happened in WNC, and the Republican response was that the hurricane was created/controlled by Democrats using Jewish Space Lasers to kill off Republican voters. That might get old after a few more super-storms, though.
This is only the beginning.
and when all the death becomes too much to ignore, the bourgeois superstructure will alternate between “who could have seen this coming?” and “this is the fault of your brown neighbor”
“this is the fault of your brown neighbor”
Tbf they’re already started with that one
They used to use racism to drive a wedge between different groups of the proletariat. They still do, but they used to too.
yeah. just saying that nothing will be learned
