#climate inaction

[climatecalling]

12 excuses for climate inaction and how to refute them

Using moral clarity to counter defeatism around the climate crisis.

Fortunately, Thunberg is just one of many great minds helping us summon moral clarity to address the tricky problem of framing the climate crisis. That includes the writers David Wallace-Wells, George Monbiot, and Anand Giridharadas; the historian Jill Lepore; and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), among many others.

As we dump more carbon into the atmosphere and the planet cooks, their arguments about what we’re up against — and why we must act now — are essential to cutting through the ties that keep us quiescent.

These thinkers have inspired us to overcome our own psychological roadblocks in facing the climate crisis. The words of writer James Baldwin are helpful here too: “Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

Drawing from these and other wells of wisdom, we’ve put together 12 short answers to some of the most stymying questions to help you work through climate despair, cynicism, defeatism, and paralysis.

[cli-meme]

[climatecalling]

The climate disaster is here – this is what the future looks like

Earth is already becoming unlivable. Will governments act to stop this disaster from getting worse?

I’m not going to quote from this. It lays it out all out. It’s grim but there is still hope because the worst can still be averted.

[climatecalling]

Opinion | The Climate Crisis Is Your Crisis, Too

Minimum Viable Planet is a weeklyish newsletter about climateish stuff, and how to keep it together in a world gone mad. This week, we look into sharing the climate crisis panic without having it backfire on you.

“If it was really bad, wouldn’t THEY be doing something about it?

“If you grew up in a place where your government, however crappy, could nonetheless be counted on to keep the lights on, this was a privileged but practical response — other people are taking care of this. ... If the world was heading towards global catastrophe surely people with the power and skill sets to reverse course would be on it, and would tell the likes of me what and how to change. Right? ...

“In other words, your confidence in the technological, political, and economic dimensions of the dominant social paradigm is inversely correlated with your concern for the environment. ...

“I know this revelation is extremely ARE YOU KIDDING ME to anyone who didn’t grow up with supreme confidence in the system, who suffered from poverty, violence and injustice, who knew things were unequal, unfair, corrupt, racist, or just plain stupid. ...

“The other day my mom mentioned that there are many around her who just don’t think it’s that bad. And I realized it’s because they simply have bad cases of DSP [dominant social paradigm]. Life has always been fine for them. Things have always worked out. How is climate any different than any of the previous global ills and chills? It doesn’t seem that much worse. Clearly, climate is some other person’s problem.

“So how do we counter this? Merely telling people they are privileged has a tendency to backfire and make them double-down on their confirmation bias. ... Better, I think, to share others’ moments of awakening—of coming to the realization that we are the THEY. And that they won’t change without more than a wee bit of pressure from WE.”

[climatecalling]

Greta Thunberg: After two years of school strikes, the world is still in a state of climate crisis denial

We can have as many meetings as we like, but the will to change is nowhere in sight, says climate activist Greta Thunberg, and others

“This mix of ignorance, denial and unawareness is at the very heart of the problem. As it is now, we can have as many meetings and climate conferences as we want. They will not lead to sufficient changes, because the willingness to act and the level of awareness needed are still nowhere in sight. The only way forward is for society to start treating the crisis like a crisis.”

[cli-meme]

[thoughtlessarse]

Tackling climate crisis will increase economic growth, OECD research finds

Third of global GDP could be lost this century if climate crisis runs unchecked, says report

Taking strong action to tackle the climate crisis will increase countries’ economic growth, rather than damage their finances as critics of net zero policies have claimed, research from the world’s economic watchdog has found. Setting ambitious targets on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, and setting out the policies to achieve them, would result in a net gain to global GDP by the end of the next decade, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), in a joint report with the UN Development Programme. The calculation of the net gain, of 0.23% by 2040, would be even greater in 2050, if it included the benefit of avoiding the devastation that not cutting emissions would wreak on the economy. By 2050, the most advanced economies would enjoy an increase of 60% in GDP per capita growth, while by the same date lower income countries would experience a 124% rise from 2025 levels. In the shorter term, there would also be benefits for developing countries, with 175million people lifted out of poverty by the end of the decade, if governments invest in cutting emissions now. By contrast, a third of global GDP could be lost this century, if the climate crisis were allowed to run unchecked. Achim Steiner, executive secretary of the UNDP, told a conference held by the German government in Berlin on Tuesday: “The overwhelming evidence that we now have is that we are not regressing if we invest in climate transitions. We actually see a modest increase in GDP growth, that may look small at first … but quickly grows.”

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[occupyhades]

Operation Deimos

The eyes of the LORD are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good. Proverbs 15:3 (ESV)

If he holds back the waters, there is drought; if he lets them loose, they devastate the land. Job 12:15 (NIV) 

Spain hit by fresh flash flooding as wrecked cars seen floating down street

Just days after more than 200 people were killed in flooding in Valencia, Spain, the country has been hit by fresh flooding in Girona north

People didn’t realize what was going to happen until the flood came and swept them all away. That is the way it will be when the Son of Man comes. Matthew 24:39 (NLT)

Commentary: Spain’s flooding tragedy is a small taste of what climate change has in store

As meteorological disasters become increasingly common, more investment in civil warning systems is essential, says Bloomberg Opinion’s Lara

Then the fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was given power to scorch the people with fire. And the people were scorched by intense heat, and they cursed the name of God, who had authority over these plagues; yet they did not repent and give Him glory. Apocalypse 16:8-9 (BSB) 

2024 set to be the first year above 1.5C of global warming

Unless the impossible happens 2024 will be the hottest year on record.

I have summoned a drought on the fields and on the mountains, on the grain, new wine, and oil, and on whatever the ground yields, on man and beast, and on all the labor of your hands. Haggai 1:11 (BSB)

Climate change parching the American West even without rainfall deficits

A new study finds higher temperatures increase evaporation enough to cause drought without any reduction in precipitation.

Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. Apocalypse 3:2 (NIV)

Americans told to flush toilets less as 48 states amid record drought

The majority of the US is experiencing moderate to severe drought conditions that have led to fire bans and water conservation efforts in se

Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you. Apocalypse 3:3 (NIV)