Collapse

Stoicism can work wonders in making this bearable. By focusing on what I, personally can do - aside from using a sniper’s rifle to eliminate the 0.1%, that is - I can achieve some manner of peace in this world.

It’s going to end badly, of course. I have friends who are climate scientists, and the reality is orders of magnitude worse than what even the published data directly points to, much less the politically-massaged “alternative truths” that politicians trot out.

Simply put: I would be utterly shocked if humanity exits this century with anything more than 2B people still alive, and at any tech level above that of the Iron Age. And that is the best-case scenario that arises from the “Business As Usual” path that capitalism refuses to budge from.

Have fun. Keep loved ones close, try to build strong, tightly-connected communities where everyone can watch everyone else’s back. Practise the communism/socialism that will allow that community to be truly resilient to outside threats.

Good luck.

What a beautiful answer.

Here in Europe I am seeing a resurgence of local communities, after their hecatomb along the 2010s - which is amazing.

Meeting with people to build something positive in your corner together is the true antidote to the doomscrolling epidemic and all that comes with it.

Great advice from Philippa, 10/10.

My coping mechanism:
Block/filter out the news!
(Except for positive/uplifting news)

It does wonders for your mental health!

Most news sources are for-profit,
and they did some research,
apparently depressing news draws more attention / clicks, which results into more profit for them, but it isn't good for your mental health.

Other news sources just drive an hidden agenda, and aim to manipulate you to believe whatever the rich guy that owns the news site wants.

Also, try to have fun while humanity is sliding down in the background!

Whether you're depressed or acknowledge and then ignore the facts, will have zero impact on the final outcome which will apply to the whole world.

So might as well aim to be happy in the meantime :)

Regarding the climate it's important to listen to the actual science from the IPCC reports. Not the newspapers wanting to sell you despair. Not the social media posters who scream "things are worse than we thought" for every little weather event that happens.

To quote Dr Mann (and I really urge everyone to read the whole piece):

I often encounter, especially on social media, individuals who are convinced that the latest extreme weather event is confirmation that the climate crisis is far worse than we thought, and scientists and climate communicators are intentionally “hiding” the scary truth from the public. It is the sort of conspiratorial thinking that we used to find among climate change deniers, but increasingly today we see it with climate doomists. Such sentiment emerged, for example, during the mid-June 2022 heat wave, where one individual tweeted at me and my climate scientist colleague Katharine Hayhoe: “Again we see that climate science as often presented to the public is too conservative, avoids what at the time are deemed worse [sic] case scenarios. BUT these are becoming our reality TODAY.”

This is not true, or at best partly true. I responded, “Actually, the warming of the planet is very much in line with early climate model predictions. Some impacts, such as ice sheet melt and sea level rise, and the slowdown of the ocean ‘conveyor belt’ are exceeding those predictions.” Current policies alone likely keep warming below 3°C (5.4°F), nowhere near the “worst-case” scenarios.

https://www.aps.org/apsnews/2023/09/climate-doomism-disregards-science

The sky is falling.

Truth is it always was.

According to science we have passed a stage in global climate change, we have not passed THE stage. Unless my information is wrong. We can still turn things back towards good, we just may not be able to reverse the damage we will have already started.

Barring some new technology, of course. What we can do now is wholly dictated by our current understanding. I feel it is important to remember that this understanding may change.