Preparing for An Unfriendly Future (Climate Change, Authoritarianism, etc)

[Rippounet]

7 minutes ago, Babblebauble said:

The thing I fear most is (selfishly) that individual rights for Americans who aren't wealthy will be eviscerated further but the living standards won't decrease very much at all besides more and more random acts of violence as the decades drag on. I see this coming because the outrageous American military capacity is going to make insisting on terms of trade agreements very easy. And there will be so much violence involved in getting your groceries that nobody's gonna care what country we're bombing as long as the avocado and Disney+ content keeps rolling in.

In this way the descent to fascistic Empire is already well begun.

In the infamous words of George H.W. Bush: "The American way of life is not up for negotiations. Period."

[Kalbear]

3 hours ago, DMC said:

I rarely find these threads worthwhile, but at least in this one I found out Kal hates pets.

I've got 6 cats, 2 dogs and 5 ducks.

They're all bastards. 

[Jaxom 1974]

Greenhouse cliffs, fusion dreams, ruse of religo-fascist like politicla parties...we need a moon base, some advances in nano technology...this thread is getting a little too Ben Bova here...

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

22 minutes ago, Jaxom 1974 said:

Greenhouse cliffs, fusion dreams, ruse of religo-fascist like politicla parties...we need a moon base, some advances in nano technology...this thread is getting a little too Ben Bova here...

Did you learn nothing from Moonfall? 

[A True Kaniggit]

We're all gonna die.

https://youtu.be/EwLmJCu38FA

Spoiler

Atlantis

 

[JGP]

lol

I kind of find solace in the possibility of something else picking at our remains a hundred million years from now, out of some warming tundra or dwindling bog. I'm alright with that.

      

[Rippounet]

38 minutes ago, A True Kaniggit said:

We're all gonna die.

https://youtu.be/EwLmJCu38FA

More recent (and pertinent to the thread) version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsmqLTiGXJE

Edit: there are climatologists who said they definitely felt what JLawrence's character expressed in that scene.

[Jaxom 1974]

55 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Did you learn nothing from Moonfall? 

Yeah. At this point we might need some freaking nanobots to help get us off this rock!

[A True Kaniggit]

12 minutes ago, Rippounet said:

More recent (and pertinent to the thread) version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsmqLTiGXJE

Edit: there are climatologists who said they definitely felt what JLawrence's character expressed in that scene.

Hahaha. 

Just to expand with movies/tv shows, The Newsroom clip.

https://youtu.be/XM0uZ9mfOUI

Edit: Toby from American The Office is brutally honest. 

 

[Rippounet]

How about this one? Not quite accurate of course.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6bntLeOE6c

[Ran]

Become a prepper. Learn to hunt and grow your own food. Get out of cities. Homeschool. Go off grid. Get some property in Wyoming and make sure to have sufficient tinfoil and shungite to block the 5G. Vote libertarian or found an anarcho-syndicalist commune. Be a bulwark of certainty in a world of countervailing opinions and "nuance". 

And always remember: Don't Panic.

[RhaenysBee]

I’ll regret this, but no, sorry. The world today is statistically the best possible of the ones we had so far, or if it’s not we have no way of knowing that. There’s even less certainty or clue about what the world tomorrow will be like. I also have a shit enough mental health that I’m done with carrying the problems of the world I have no control over on my shoulders. I also refuse to (or at least attempt to refuse) encouraging and growing my hyper vigilance and preparing for the worst case scenario. Maybe if we all stopped worrying about the future and started living in the present or controlling the present, the future would look all that better. I don’t know, because I’m shit at it too, but it feels like the better thing to keep trying than panic. That said, manual skills are always handy, fun and great for mental health - I do very small sewing projects. 

 

[Raja]

8 hours ago, Rippounet said:

In the infamous words of George H.W. Bush: "The American way of life is not up for negotiations. Period."

Of course he said this.

To the overall point raised in a few posts - I think people have different levels of what they find concerning & different reactions to those issues which are affected by life experience & proximity to the issues talked about here. The approach I take is that it isn't really up to me to tell them 'Look, things have never been better' or 'You're being hysterical', when I haven't had that personal experience or even if I *have* had it, it's clear that people can perceive these changes quite differently, which is okay! It's how life is. 

[Gorn]

Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die; and it shall be well with us.

[Luzifer's right hand]

1 hour ago, RhaenysBee said:

I’ll regret this, but no, sorry. The world today is statistically the best possible of the ones we had so far, or if it’s not we have no way of knowing that. There’s even less certainty or clue about what the world tomorrow will be like. I also have a shit enough mental health that I’m done with carrying the problems of the world I have no control over on my shoulders. I also refuse to (or at least attempt to refuse) encouraging and growing my hyper vigilance and preparing for the worst case scenario. Maybe if we all stopped worrying about the future and started living in the present or controlling the present, the future would look all that better. I don’t know, because I’m shit at it too, but it feels like the better thing to keep trying than panic. That said, manual skills are always handy, fun and great for mental health - I do very small sewing projects. 

 

Those statistics only work if you ignore the destruction of the environment.

Having a good time on borrowed time is not a bad approach though just don't forget to use contraceptives.

[Ormond]

"Worst case scenarios" in anything are not likely to completely happen, but I think that ironically one of the main reasons for that is when those with power in the world become convinced that there is a non-negligible chance that they COULD happen if changes aren't made. And that involves getting people to think about worst case scenarios seriously. 

I guess one thing that gives me hope on the political side of this is what seems to be the strong positive correlation between support for authoritarianism and age. If I remember correctly, that was NOT the case in Germany when the Nazis were taking power -- if anything there was a slight tendency for younger people in Germany in the 1930s to be more supportive of Hitler than older people were. If climate collapse or other factors leads the young to support right-wing authoritarianism, then we will really have a bleak future for a century or two. 

[Luzifer's right hand]

26 minutes ago, Ormond said:

"Worst case scenarios" in anything are not likely to completely happen, but I think that ironically one of the main reasons for that is when those with power in the world become convinced that there is a non-negligible chance that they COULD happen if changes aren't made. And that involves getting people to think about worst case scenarios seriously. 

I guess one thing that gives me hope on the political side of this is what seems to be the strong positive correlation between support for authoritarianism and age. If I remember correctly, that was NOT the case in Germany when the Nazis were taking power -- if anything there was a slight tendency for younger people in Germany in the 1930s to be more supportive of Hitler than older people were. If climate collapse or other factors leads the young to support right-wing authoritarianism, then we will really have a bleak future for a century or two. 

The last time I looked most climate change predictions from the 90s/00s that were palatable to the public have turned out to be way too optimistic.

We are on track for realistic worst case scenarios I believe.

Optimism is just as damaging as denial I believe.

[Ormond]

3 minutes ago, Luzifer's right hand said:

The last time I looked most climate change predictions from the 90s/00s that were palatable to the public have turned out to be way too optimistic.

We are on track for realistic worst case scenarios I believe.

Optimism is just as damaging as denial I believe.

If you have no optimism at all, you would believe that the worst case scenarios are completely unavoidable. And that would lead to as much inaction as denial would. 

Complete pessimism leads to just completely giving up. 

[straits]

19 hours ago, Knight Of Winter said:

>>we in 2022 are living better,

Okay - how long can humans sustain this standard? The third world, places which caused single-digit pollution and emissions, are currently footing the bill. In the future it will be our descendants.

>>more enlightened

What does that even mean? Who, and about what?

>>- 20 years ago if would have been (also) climate change and terrorism on the rise.
>>- 50 years ago if would have been Cold War and far far more widespread authoritarianism and lack of democracy than today

50 years ago you had western liberal democracies actively subverting anti-colonial movements because "muh communism". France genocided over a million Algerians. The UK ethnically cleansed Chagos island(s) and is not letting the people back (they need it for a US military base). And America did... too many things to list.

...

>>Really, looking from this perspective: what is it specifically about present day that makes our particular set of issues so unique and unsolvable; or to induce such pessimism?

Precisely the fact that we are dealing with a culmination of extreme systematic over-extensions that humanity has been committing over the past 200 years is what makes the current set of issues tough to tackle. None of our skeletons in the closet are skeletons. They are alive, and they are knocking at the doors. And some of us are letting them in.

Edit: to the confused - a glance at wikipedia will help

[Luzifer's right hand]

Just now, Ormond said:

If you have no optimism at all, you would believe that the worst case scenarios are completely unavoidable. And that would lead to as much inaction as denial would. 

Complete pessimism leads to just completely giving up. 

Inaction produces the least harm considering how our civilization is set up. 

I loled when people said that some of the positive effects of the pandemic for the environment would stick around and that it is a starting point for a better future. Look how the world doubled down on environmental destruction once economies started to recover. The war in Ukraine makes it even worse, more off-shore oil and gas production is already on the table in countries that have the options and fracking too. Lockdowns were the best thing that ever happened to our environment.