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action expresses priorities
Oct. 16th, 2023 02:33 pmWe humans keep pluggin' away, making art, making babies, making fantastic tech; I watch it all with love and wonder.
And with pity, horror, and despair. Ten years ago I said that the end of this century would be a charnel house. And I've been trying to prepare myself, to distance myself from the sure knowledge of our genocidal future.
At this time, the one thing that mankind needs to accomplish to survive as a society is to find solutions to climate change. But finding solutions to climate change are barely on most people's radar. Surely not as the most important thing. At this specific point in time, it seems not only tone deaf but cruel to say that finding solutions to mitigate and survive climate change is still where we need to put all of our money and time.
Every crisis draws attention from our long-term survival. About ten years ago, while I was finishing my BS at NMU, I had a dream that's still with me. I was looking at a city from above -- fires with billows of thick, black smoke. And a voice was speaking, as if someone was explaining to me, "It wasn't the weather that ended us. It was the wars, the endless wars."
After all this time, I can still see it.
Climate scientists are quick to point out that there is hope. Being paralyzed with despair is dangerous because we can always do something that will change things, even very bleak things, for the better.
I honestly don't think that humans are paralyzed by despair. I think that we're collectively too stupid to see the need to act in ways that will hurt so much more in the here-and-now than we're willing to suffer.
I want to say something about the civilians being slaughtered in Ukraine, Niger, Israel, and Gaza. But I really can't stand to say anything. Except that, like mega-fires, drought, and hurricanes, war is part of climate change. War is what will end us.
And with pity, horror, and despair. Ten years ago I said that the end of this century would be a charnel house. And I've been trying to prepare myself, to distance myself from the sure knowledge of our genocidal future.
At this time, the one thing that mankind needs to accomplish to survive as a society is to find solutions to climate change. But finding solutions to climate change are barely on most people's radar. Surely not as the most important thing. At this specific point in time, it seems not only tone deaf but cruel to say that finding solutions to mitigate and survive climate change is still where we need to put all of our money and time.
Every crisis draws attention from our long-term survival. About ten years ago, while I was finishing my BS at NMU, I had a dream that's still with me. I was looking at a city from above -- fires with billows of thick, black smoke. And a voice was speaking, as if someone was explaining to me, "It wasn't the weather that ended us. It was the wars, the endless wars."
After all this time, I can still see it.
Climate scientists are quick to point out that there is hope. Being paralyzed with despair is dangerous because we can always do something that will change things, even very bleak things, for the better.
I honestly don't think that humans are paralyzed by despair. I think that we're collectively too stupid to see the need to act in ways that will hurt so much more in the here-and-now than we're willing to suffer.
I want to say something about the civilians being slaughtered in Ukraine, Niger, Israel, and Gaza. But I really can't stand to say anything. Except that, like mega-fires, drought, and hurricanes, war is part of climate change. War is what will end us.
