Cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/12956314
"I push back on doomism because I don’t think it’s justified by the science, and I think it potentially leads us down a path of inaction,” said Mann during a talk last Thursday at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.
“And there are bad actors today who are fanning the flames of climate doomism because they understand that it takes those who are most likely to be on the front lines, advocating for change, and pushes them to the sidelines, which is where polluters and petrostates want them.”
it’s not that doomers are denying that it can be stopped. it’s just that, given the data an behaviour of people&politics, they don’t really see that it will be stopped
Yeah that’s my thing too - I have no doubt that scientifically it can be stopped - there’s even a real example with how crazy quickly nature started to recover during the COVID lockdowns - but it would require people to not be selfish, stupid assholes so it’s never gonna happen.
Well tbf, it will happen as the selfish stupid assholes die from climate change with everyone else
Doomers are nihilistic assholes. If you dont think the politics will do it, then fill your hands and do direct action to force them.
“Doomers” don’t think there is literally no way to stop it. They generally think that the people who can pull the lever will continue not to do so because they’ve resisted it for decades. It’s lack of faith in our collective will and dedication to action, not that there is no course of action that can stop it.
I can’t blame them. I still advocate for change and work towards it, but they’re not the problem. It’s climate change deniers and politicians who refuse to do anything about it.
Blame is being misdirected here as usual. Which contributes to why people are “doomers.”
You can pulll the lever. That’s my point. There are more people who want to stop the climate catastrophe than not.
We are many. They are few. Rise.
LOL I can’t even get people to eat LESS meat and ride bikes. You’re utterly delusional.
just popping in because this was reported - I would suggest being supportive of others who are trying to accomplish the same kind of things you are rather than calling them “utterly delusional”
As opposed to them calling the people who wants to do the same thing as them but feeling hopeless about our chances “nihilistic assholes”. I’m sure that’s a very supportive and productive thing to do.
ok I got a bike lane put in in my city and bike ridership is up 15%.
I gave my mum a Palak Paneer recipe and now she eats it once a week
My district saw a 10% swing in the last election and surprise elected a green candidate.
I think your the delusional one if you think change isn’t possible. just a few years ago conservatives were hoarding incandescent bulbs.
Congratulations; the dent you’ve made is a rounding error. There are 100 companies which cause 71% of carbon emissions, and you aren’t changing how those companies operate without Molotov cocktails
Can’t hold a pitchfork while your stuck inside your hummer.
Where do those 100 companies get their money from? That 15% increase in local bike riders is a 15% reduction of petroleum industry income - if we can get similar results elsewhere.
From little things big things grow.
There is a world of difference between getting a bike lane installed and getting the world superpowers to collectively stop polluting.
More bike lanes -> more bikers -> more people voting for bike lanes. And then suddenly gm is marketing their fancy overpriced bike to you instead of their car.
Congratulations, these are wonderful achievements. A lot of us are doing what we can. Just because we haven’t done everything you have done doesn’t mean we aren’t trying.
And if your trying then you aren’t a doomer.
But people do that more now than they ever have, many individuals do take steps to help the environment. We don’t need all the masses to rise, just enough dedicated action from a portion can have massive impact.
Individual decisions are necessary but nearly negligible. Focus your work on the infrastructure of corporations.
But politics is us. This is what democracy is all about.
The problem is the population at large still doesn’t understand the gravity of the situation.
Agreed! Giving up is giving in to oligarchs who have profited relentlessly off of our suffering and the defiling of our home. Stand up! It’s better to die on your feet fighting than on your knees, groveling to the rich while they pickpocket your dying corpse.
Climate apocalypse is here for us all. Wanton apathy and inaction leads only to guaranteed failure!
That’s the same thing.
Of course, that’s a political problem not a scientific one.
Yes but the outcome is just as bad.
The problem about doomism is that it promotes inaction in the less educated “because things are fucked anyway”.
To be honest I think the doomers are right, not because there isn’t still time to fix most of it (there probably is) but because the political will to actually do it isn’t there. Which is an uphill battle because the more we delay the more drastic measures are needed which require even more political will to actually do. Those two things are getting ever more out of sync. The political will has been slowly increasing but not as fast as as the urgency and need for measures.
But the sentiment that results from doomism makes this political will even worse.
I think the real problem is not understanding that it’s not a binary bad or good (not understanding might be understating motivations… it is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it and all that).
Yes, realistically we are already well committed to a path that is going to cause great hardship for future generations. But it isn’t going to be an extinction level event by itself. We most definitely can still make things worse, even if we’ve already messed up rather badly.
Hell, even nuclear war wouldn’t necessarily be an extinction level event- like something like 97% of people would die, but for that remaining 3% of people, life will suck while they restart the 1000 year process of bringing humanity back out of dark ages II.
Doomerism is the result of fossil fuel propaganda. The open strategy of O&G right now is to convince the public that no progress has been made, the world is already over and it’s not worth trying to fix.
The greatest barrier to reducing climate change is the ultra wealth financing denialism of climate change and the tight grip they have on what the average person thinks is real through immense lobbying, owning media outlets and controlling what they publish, and unlimited disinformation campaigns. Maybe it’s frowned upon to talk about those things at such a rich university, but if you’re not talking about those things are you really helping the situation or are you maintaining the delusional status quo of “we can get to it when we get to it”
Yay, it can be stopped. Somebody else get on that right away.
