Fear doesn’t work, we’ve known this for decades. If we know what positive steps are being taken, then we can support those or perhaps build on them if you’re able.

What about this?: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210310-the-trillion-dollar-plan-to-capture-co2 We know corporations are a big part of the issue. Are there ways they’re being regulated?

That fear based, helpless feeling needs to be shot down when ever we see people spreading that. We need to take action, but no one is talking about what we, as a single household, can do. I’m not saying we alone can fix everything. What steps can we do and/or how can we support people who are doing the right thing?

  • theluddite@lemmy.mlEnglish
    14·
    1 year ago

    I’m going to politely disagree. We should be afraid, but not the helpless feeling you describe, but an actionable, productive fear. The kind of fear that you feel when you see a kid too close to the edge of the stairs, or when you meet someone obviously dangerous. It needs to be a focusing fear, because we need to act now, and it’s going to be an unpleasant process. We’re not going to be able to vote or buy or donate our way out of this. We’re going to need to be angry and loud. People aren’t going to like it, and that’s when we’ll need our fear.

    Most of us are afraid of conflict, or looking stupid, or making people angry, or getting made fun of, or even being arrested. We need to be more afraid of climate change so that we don’t care, like a parent who sees their kid in trouble and just dives, without worrying about how stupid they’re going to look after. We need to be afraid enough that the normal routines of our daily lives become intolerable, because those routines will be disrupted, whether we like it or not. The question is how we do it: We can do it now, which will suck, or when climate change comes for us, which will suck a lot more.

    As for carbon capture, it’s what I call a technological antisolution. It’s a technical solution to a political problem that is incapable of actually solving said problem, but instead monetizes it, and further entrenches existing power structures.

    Here’s what I mean – look at the big new carbon capture thing that was making the news just recently:

    https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/19/a-big-new-exxon-mobil-climate-deal-that-got-assist-from-joe-biden.html

    It’s a deal with none other than Exxon Mobile. Carbon capture only exists because it allows companies to profit off creating the problem and its “solution.” Antisolutions maximize GDP in the climate emergency. They even admit it without realizing it. From the article:

    Carbon capture is a big boys’ game," said Peter McNally […] "These are billion-dollar projects. It’s big companies capturing large amounts of carbon. And big oil and gas companies are where the expertise is.

    What a bizarre coincidence that our most well-funded “solution” to climate change relies on big oil companies!

    edit: (accidentally hit save before finishing) as for concrete steps, we need to organize. That always has been and always will be the solution to politics. We need to get together, and we need to demand that things change. It’s going to take marches, strikes, protests, walk-ins, sit-ins, boycotts, …

    If you want to see an example of how to actually challenge power, take a look at what organizers in Atlanta are doing to stop the city from cutting down their forest and replacing it with “cop city,” a training ground for the increasingly militarized police. They’ve been fighting it off for a long time now, and they’re showing us what works and what doesn’t, and, importantly, how loud and obnoxious you have to make yourself for power to listen.

    • PeleSpirit@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      3·
      1 year ago

      I’m going to politely disagree. We should be afraid, but not the helpless feeling you describe, but an actionable, productive fear.

      I totally agree that we should move forward and have that fight response. The thing I’m bringing up is, that a lot of us have a freeze response instead of the fight response you’re talking about. I think that’s what a lot of people in my area have too, I live in Seattle. I’m not speaking for all freeze responders but I need concrete action steps to follow to get me out of it. I was testing out AI a month or so ago, and every question I asked had action steps as a response. I asked the AI why they did that, if they were programmed to do that. AI said that it was mostly what their training material did.

      You’re saying get angry and loud, but at who? My state already is doing a pretty great job at the governor level. I guess what I’m asking for isn’t how bad we’re doing things, it’s obviously pretty bad. But what are we doing that’s working and how can everyone build on that? If it works, I don’t care if big oil makes money off of it but you’re making a good case that it doesn’t and it’s a facade for them to get more money. Who can we support then, and how? Who’s doing it right?

      On your edit: Wow, I haven’t heard anything about the Atlanta thing, thanks for mentioning it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Cop_City