Mastodawn

Bread and Circuses Mar 13, 2024

They yell at us: "Stop being a doomer! You have to give people hope!"

To which I respond with what Greta Thunberg says: "I don't want your hope. I don't want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And then I want you to act!"

Along those lines, I strongly recommend this superb new essay from author and climate campaigner Jonathon Porritt, in which he explains that mainstream climate scientists, by insisting we should always be positive and hopeful, run the risk of becoming the new climate deniers.

Here is a brief summary...
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1. The speed with which the climate is now changing is faster than (almost) all scientists thought possible.

2. There is now zero prospect of holding the average temperature increase this century to below 1.5°C; even 2°C is beginning to slip out of reach. The vast majority of climate scientists know this, but rarely if ever give voice to this critically important reality.

3. At the same time, the vast majority of people still haven’t a clue about what’s going on – and what this means for them and everything they hold dear.

4. The current backlash against existing (already wholly inadequate) climate measures is also accelerating – and will cause considerable political damage in 2024. Those driving this backlash represent the same old climate denial that has been so damaging over so many years.

5. The science-based institutions on which we depend to address this crisis have comprehensively failed us. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is incapable of telling the whole truth about accelerating climate change; the Conference of the Parties (under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change) has been co-opted by the fossil fuel lobby to the point of total corruption.

6. By not calling out these incontrovertible realities, mainstream scientists are at risk of becoming the new climate deniers.
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Read the whole thing -- https://www.jonathonporritt.com/mainstream-climate-science-the-new-denialism/

#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency

Mainstream Climate Science: The New Denialism? - Jonathon Porritt

This is a bit of a long one! So here’s my “Executive Summary” so you can decide whether to commit the time to the rest of it: mainstream climate scientists run the risk of becoming the new climate deniers.

Jonathon Porritt

@breadandcircuses the common issue I see in climate “doomerism” is that while the articles are good at raising concern, there’s often little advice on exactly what people should do when they’re told to “act”.

Simple things like using transit, biking for more of your local needs, reducing driving, avoiding any plastics, etc. Basically, people need to be told how to live a decent lifestyle.

cognitively accessible math Mar 13, 2024

@bluejekyll @breadandcircuses Most of those "simple" things are not simple. We've got car culture, single use stuff ***everywhere***

Benjamin Fry Mar 13, 2024

@geonz @bluejekyll @breadandcircuses you’ve got to start somewhere. People’s dependence on cars is something they can change if they want to. It’s also something they can help fix locally by working with your local governments to get safer streets for non-car users.

Single use stuff is something you can choose not to buy, carry a water bottle with you all the time for example. These choices are simple, even if it makes some things less convenient.

@bluejekyll @geonz @breadandcircuses "People's dependence on cars is something they can change if they want to" is something that's only true from a position of extreme privilege. For most that's simply not an option. Want to make it an option? Step 1 is to bring salaries in line with housing cost and tax the living hell out of people holding multiple properties to make "investment" in housing unprofitable. If people can live closer to work without spending millions you'll have less driving.

cognitively accessible math Mar 13, 2024

@raptor85 @bluejekyll @breadandcircuses Yes. The whole "within our current structures individuals just need to do better" is simply mistaken. The math doesn't work.

Benjamin Fry Mar 13, 2024

@geonz @raptor85 @bluejekyll @breadandcircuses most people could bike in the US for their food needs, “… the median distance to the nearest food store for the overall U.S. population was 0.9 miles, with 40 percent … living more than 1 mile from a food store.”

https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2019/june/us-shoppers-access-to-multiple-food-stores-varies-by-region/

USDA ERS - U.S. Shoppers’ Access to Multiple Food Stores Varies by Region

ERS researchers recently calculated distances between households and the nearest and third-nearest food stores. Distance to the third-nearest store gives a sense of consumer choice and the competition facing the nearest store. The median distance to the third-nearest food store for the overall U.S. population was 1.7 miles in 2015; for rural residents, this distance was 6.1 miles.

cognitively accessible math Mar 14, 2024

@bluejekyll @raptor85 @breadandcircuses and the infrastructure to get there? Is it safe? Or do pedestrians and cyclsts die regularly doing that?

cognitively accessible math Mar 14, 2024

@bluejekyll @raptor85 @breadandcircuses (the answer is yes. )

Benjamin Fry Mar 14, 2024

@geonz @bluejekyll @raptor85 @breadandcircuses I’m not sure what answer you want. I mentioned up thread, it is important to work with you local government to make the improvements you want. It’s surprising how much change you can make happen just by writing your local council person, your mayor, your city council.

That same article mentions that the next 1/3 are within 2 miles. So that’s like 70% of the US bikeable for everyday needs.

cognitively accessible math Mar 14, 2024

@bluejekyll @raptor85 @breadandcircuses
Just because somethign is close does not mean you can safely access it without a car.
Do you understand that?

cognitively accessible math Mar 14, 2024

@bluejekyll @raptor85 @breadandcircuses I lived less than 2 miles from my junior high school but I would have had to cross an interstate *and* a major arterial to get there.

cognitively accessible math Mar 14, 2024

@bluejekyll @raptor85 @breadandcircuses now, if you knew about that little drainage tunnel....

Benjamin Fry Mar 14, 2024

@geonz @bluejekyll @raptor85 @breadandcircuses we’re not saying different things. Yes a lot of the US has horrible infrastructure, but it’s something that can change. They’re able to install safer infrastructure within months and get grants from the federal and many state governments to do it. It’s generally the will of the local community that stands in the way.

cognitively accessible math Mar 14, 2024

@bluejekyll @raptor85 @breadandcircuses (no we're not saying the same thing.)

cognitively accessible math Mar 14, 2024

@bluejekyll @raptor85 @breadandcircuses
It's rather painfully often not possible to do that. Good grief, it took about 5 years to get better signs and a crosswalk and a median almost big enough formy bike to pause at Main Street here.

cognitively accessible math Mar 14, 2024

@bluejekyll @raptor85 @breadandcircuses
On the third hand, though, I wish I knew the right rallying inspiration to get "community will" going; (sigh, do I mean "marketing," not "rallying inspiration" -- well, sort of...)
Get ebikes together :P

cognitively accessible math Mar 14, 2024

@bluejekyll @raptor85 @breadandcircuses and what is the 40% supposed to do?

@geonz @[email protected] @breadandcircuses It's victim blaming at it's finest, do people think everyone WANTS to be stuck in traffic commuting to work? but hey, why not, everyone should just quit their jobs and exclusively bike in -20 degree weather to the kwik trip living off fried chicken and oreos every day since it's the only store close enough. I'm sure people just trying to get by are the REAL problem and not the billion/million-aire classes forcing these conditions.

cognitively accessible math Mar 14, 2024

@raptor85 @breadandcircuses well some of 'em have to sell their car and do that (oh, grocery deserts too)... I can be car-free in this University Town but that is a privilege of circumstance.

Kim Spence-Jones 🇬🇧😷Mar 14, 2024

@geonz This. 👆

cognitively accessible math Mar 14, 2024

@bluejekyll @breadandcircuses and in the meantime a million times what I saved is being dumped into an estuary by an industry but hey!!! we have to "start" somewhere? They are finishing us.

Asariel Mar 13, 2024

@bluejekyll @breadandcircuses The problem is that we either would need a systemic solution or start going horseback to work. Puerto Rico is a good example of what going on with all this climate crisis.

Jenne Mar 13, 2024

@bluejekyll @breadandcircuses Way too many people i know - family, friends, colleagues - don’t want to be told. They want business as usual. There‘s enough information to act differently. If you want to. But people don‘t even start with the simple things.