Johannes
Dr. Elizabeth SawinProposal to stop referring to covid in the past tense and climate change in the future tense.
Emily PawleyAlso can we stop describing *actually occurring* deaths and damage as "risks" of death and damage?
James
Pepijn Schmitz@bethsawin Seconded.
SUEuropean@bethsawin
Thirded.
Thirded.
Carla Martin@bethsawin Absolutely Elizabeth. With you every step of the way.
Young W has moved@bethsawin Also, just this moment received an email from Planet Word, a language museum in Washington, DC, talking about the connection between language and climate change. Very important topic! Go read their blog entry here: https://planetwordmuseum.org/from-the-founder-planet-word-and-climate-change/ It also has a link to a fascinating talk.
British Tech Guru@bethsawin Agreed. Covid is a very much underplayed, very dangerous threat.
The climate has always changed. Where we disagree is over the negligible impact man has over it.
Ariaflame@britishtechguru @bethsawin Given the strong effect we've had over it this past century, I'd say not 'negligible'. It's not that it changes, it's the rate of change. And right now the rate of change is far far too fast.
Xeon 🇨🇦🌻🐕🏈♿️☯️♋️🏳️🌈🖖It is hard to imagine you are being genuine about wanting discussion, when in your own profile you describe yourself as a Galactic Villian. I am open to being shown you mean otherwise, but don't really expect much of my comment either.
Suffice to say long ago (13 yrs) the myth of Volcano's being worse than humanities contribution to climate destruction (the rate of climate change) was already being debunked. Let us discuss.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/earthtalks-volcanoes-or-humans/
Nell Desperandum@britishtechguru @bethsawin
Right, but where we should agree is that there is accelerating change and there must be ways to at least mitigate the impact on our lives.
Like not building houses on flood plains, for a start.
Right, but where we should agree is that there is accelerating change and there must be ways to at least mitigate the impact on our lives.
Like not building houses on flood plains, for a start.
@disalmon1 @bethsawin Sure - change is happening as it always has. We might be able to mitigate some of it. The fact is there have been 5 mass extinction events on Earth. It is unlikely that there will not be a 6th, 7th and 8th. No matter how much mitigation is employed, mankind is unlikely to survive the next event.
@britishtechguru @bethsawin
I hate to be a pessimist, but I think we’ll have destroyed the environment, and ourselves with it, before the next event.
On the other hand, if we simply destroy ourselves, with war, greed and disease, the rest of nature will carry happily on.
I hate to be a pessimist, but I think we’ll have destroyed the environment, and ourselves with it, before the next event.
On the other hand, if we simply destroy ourselves, with war, greed and disease, the rest of nature will carry happily on.
@disalmon1 @bethsawin The human race has always been harmful and destructive. The universe will probably breathe a sigh of relief when the human race is vanished.
@britishtechguru @bethsawin
True, but I would like my great grandchildren, currently full of life and hope, to have a chance to grow up.
I just hope Elon Musk’s ambition to colonise Mars never happens The moon is already a rubbish dump.
True, but I would like my great grandchildren, currently full of life and hope, to have a chance to grow up.
I just hope Elon Musk’s ambition to colonise Mars never happens The moon is already a rubbish dump.
@disalmon1 @bethsawin if musk colonizes Mars, do you think we can send all the useless people to Mars?
@disalmon1 @bethsawin Perhaps they already send all their criminals, lunatics and social undesirables to Earth? I bet you've looked at somebody and realized that they really aren't from the same planet!
@britishtechguru @bethsawin
Funny you should say that. I immediately thought of John Redwood & Jacob Rees Mogg. 🤣
Funny you should say that. I immediately thought of John Redwood & Jacob Rees Mogg. 🤣
@disalmon1 @bethsawin Oh yes.. John Redwood - the architect of the 1980s economic collapse and the destruction of the mining industry.
Paul Harmsworth 🇩🇪 🇬🇧 🇺🇸
Worthülse@bethsawin Sorry, this won't work. In the present, we already have Putin.
Yusuf Toropov@bethsawin seconded
Paul "Princejvstin" Weimer@bethsawin you have a second to the motion.
We're Not In Kansas Anymore@bethsawin
Totally agree...😧
Totally agree...😧
Jesper@bethsawin climate changed*
RadicalWoman111@bethsawin
I'd like to add an amendment to the proposal that "climate change" be referred to as "climate crisis." 🙂
I'd like to add an amendment to the proposal that "climate change" be referred to as "climate crisis." 🙂
Brett Bumeter@RadicalWoman111 @bethsawin happy to second both motions if not already seconded.
Seems like a fast track for unanimous consent should be a thing here too
AM so there 
@bethsawin @RadicalWoman111 yes, calling it only “climate change” only confuses people as we see some examples of in this thread
Ms AB ☕@bethsawin Done, ages ago already. World really needs to catch up. 💚
Tiakuh Son
cbn2@bethsawin Our entire household has COVID for the first time in the pandemic. (Probably jinxed myself by saying we'd never had it here right before the first positive.) Anyway, it's absolutely present. We are all symptomatic (thank goodness we had the bivalent vaccine, so hopefully will have no serious cases).
@cbn2 I hope you all have mild symptoms and swift return to feeling well
Timo@bethsawin I agree. For COVID, people seem to be referring to phase 1 of the pandemic as the entire event. For GW, a comparison to the 5 stages of grief is appropriate. People are still in the denial stage.
@bethsawin The grief thing is about loss of some major percentage of the mammal habitat on Earth, particularly affected humans. Just wait until we get to the Anger part. There's gonna be some trouble.
SFborn1940@bethsawin Proposal accepted.
mvanderheide
Evelyn 
Tofu Golem@bethsawin
As Rebecca Watson pointed out:
Malaria kills and infects lots of people all over the world, but is not classified as a pandemic. When governments say a pandemic isn't a pandemic, they are telling you which lives they don't care about. In the case of malaria, that would be poor people in warm countries.
In the case of COVID-19, over 90% of the dying are unvaccinated people. I think the lives the gov't doesn't care about are Republicans (good) and African-Americans (bad).
@tofugolem your info on black Americans is a little dated. " October 21, 2022 – The COVID death rate among Black Americans—which was the highest in the U.S. for many months during the pandemic, due to health disparities—is now lower than that of white Americans."
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsph-in-the-news/covid-death-rate-now-higher-in-whites-than-in-blacks/
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsph-in-the-news/covid-death-rate-now-higher-in-whites-than-in-blacks/
@timo21
That's awesome news! Thanks for the correction.
While I would prefer if the death count were lower, I am a lot less worried about it.
My brother coined a beautiful word for people who cause their own death by refusing the science: stupicide.
Now I can use that word much more freely.
jingle jangle christmas boy@bethsawin proposal approved
Environmental Eccentric@bethsawin I vote Yay.
@bethsawin I wish I could give you double stars. We seem to have stopped talking about #covid. is it because it has fallen back to a #profitable level after over-shooting the maximum profit point of the health corps? The factual number don't seem to point to any other conclusion.
Savah Rellcast@bethsawin proposal accepted
Lucy Bernholz@bethsawin Couldn't agree more - I've just published a paper talking about "Writing the future in the present tense"
Brooke <3@bethsawin I’ve been using this cool chrome extension and it helps clean plastic out of the ocean with each tab you open. Pretty cool. Helps me do good!
David Neto@bethsawin
Overlapping crises.
Are you familiar with William Gibson's "jackpot" concept?
Occultic Acid@bethsawin
Proposal to change the name of climate change to climate destruction
Proposal to change the name of climate change to climate destruction
parallelarts@bethsawin This is one of the most simultaneously succinct, far-reaching and effective sentences I have ever read. #ClimateEmergency #ClimateCrisis #Covid #LongCovid #Pandemic #GlobalConsciousnessShift #language
AlceaNot gonna happen.
Not with humans anyways
Unprecedented 2023
A. Rivera@bethsawin Second, and yes, I also block climate change deniers, antivax fuckbagels, and other assorted twatwaffles.
RDS (shawphd on Twitter)@bethsawin @bloodravenlib Same. No interest in that sort of dangerous twaddle.
@shawrd773 @bethsawin Word, nor am I interested in "debating" it. Those twatwaffles are not owed a "debate."
Agnieszka@bethsawin a good one
Jules Beaumont
Bob Stepno@bethsawin We are living in the present imperfect tense.