Does anyone else feel paralysed by climate change?

[onebeauplace]

Just that really. Having seen all the covid induced panic (most of which was justifiable IMO), I can't really understand why there isn't the same panic and associated action over climate change. Do people think it just won't happen, or if it does happen that it won't happen in our lifetime, or do they feel like nothing they do will make a difference anyway, or is it that the changes we would need to make are too big and overwhelming to think about?

This is not a judgy post BTW as I really only started learning more about climate change a couple of years ago and I am not perfectly eco friendly in any way shape or form. Often I do just feel totally paralysed by it myself, feel like anything I do is pointless and wonder why more people aren't freaking out because there are real things to freak out about here. This is going to hit in most of our lifetimes - by as early as 2040 we could be seeing extreme changes that will cause a huge drop in living standards. Our children will definitely be affected.

How do others deal with this? I'm going through a complete existential despair thing at the moment where I feel there isn't really any point to anything as the future I sort of believed I had as a child isn't there, and certainly isn't there for my young DD.

Does anyone else feel paralysed by climate change?
no.
weren't we all meant to be under water by now? or was it that Britain would effectively be a desert state by now? i remember a major story where we were told in 20 years we'd have cacti in the garden instead of grass. Think that was a good 20 years ago.
Anyway, it's beautiful weather here and I'm loving it

Yes, I have moments when i wonder what the point is. Those of us who would like to live responsibly, maybe even do without some things for the sake of the planet, seem to be in such a minority still, surrounded by people saying "isn't the weather great!" and buying things and throwing away things constantly.

My perspective is that there is a limit to what I, just one person, can do, but I'm going to do that anyway. And I switch off from it when I can by enjoying the wildlife around me.

I mainly feel powerless because anything I do, or we all do individually makes no dent in it. I could change my entire life to being self sufficient and living in a tree and it wouldn't do anything.

Also the politics of it all is demoralising. Even locally the local councillors are wanting to introduce more, bigger, roads rather than a decent cycle network. No doubt because some developer is making a mint on it. What can I do in the face of that?

All I can hope is that my DC don't have kids so they don't have to worry like I do about their future.

I mainly feel powerless because anything I do, or we all do individually makes no dent in it. I could change my entire life to being self sufficient and living in a tree and it wouldn't do anything.

That's exactly how I feel.

No, I don't feel paralysed because my job is 100% about working to prevent it at a much more impactful level than personal actions - think investment, carbon taxes, regulatory change and elimination of fossil fuels. There is so much we can and are doing, from energy efficiency, energy transition, sustainable everything, resource management etc.

We CAN do it, and actually, feeling completely gloomy and helpless is in fact a "soft" form of climate denialism - if we feel we can do nothing and have no agency, then we will stop fighting because we think we can't win... but we can win!! And the changes are not as huge as you think, especially not after what we've been through as a society with covid.

I would recommend reading "The New Climate War" by Michael Mann - it's excellent.

Xiaoxiong thank you for such a lovely post

I'm well aware my gloomy attitude doesn't help! I do do what I can. Covid has almost made it worse because you see so many people who don't understand the severity of the situation. I feel like it's the same with climate change. That people are willing to dismiss it solely based on the fact that the paper sometimes say things are going to happen that don't. That's what makes me worry. I know (able bodied) people unwilling to make the tiniest possible changes (like washing laundry at 30c for instance). It feels like a massive uphill battle. I know I don't do enough myself.

Yes, I agree. And it’s getting worse - this heatwave, the floods in Germany, the heatwave in Canada a few weeks ago, the freezing in Texas over the winter. I’ve only really started worrying recently, but feel rather defeated by it all

This heatwave was a normal summer back in the 70's.

It's the realisation that actually my DD's life is going to be severely- and I mean severely - impacted by it unless we change all our habits to a huge degree and big corporations stop dicking around. I definitely took the life I lived as a child and young person for granted.

I really do hope there is hope. I want to believe that there is! Difficult however when it is 33 degrees in London today.

This heatwave was a normal summer back in the 70's.

It categorically wasn't, data tells you that.

@JaneJeffer

This heatwave was a normal summer back in the 70's.

Mmm. No. No, it really wasn’t.

Our hottest summers in the UK have all taken place from 2002 onwards.

"I really do hope there is hope. I want to believe that there is! Difficult however when it is 33 degrees in London today"
It's Summer.
It's getting a lot cooler and pissing down at the weekend.
Chill ( literally :-) )

Bigger picture, nakedmolerat!

I do and I don't. I think there's a certain inevitability about it - planets / species / anything really aren't meant to be around forever. We've probably sped up the process but that's partly a result of everything that's made us what we are and our world and our lives would look incredibly different without some of the activities that we've engaged in over the last few hundreds of years that have had a direct impact on the climate.

I'm scared for my young kids, I think their lives as adults is going to be tough.
I read recently humans will most likely be extinct in 100 years if we don't change now

I'm terrified for my grandchildren if my kids going onto have kids as that will be there generation. Can you imagine this planet as extinction looms

I try not to think about it ,as it's very upsetting

Agree with @CharlotteCollinsneeLucas, and @Xiaoxiong. Agree with @Dollpiglet overall, but I do think that individual action is important too.

Yes, you're right. I feel very frightened too. I am changing my own ways, as is my DH (his own choice, not mine). One way to help make a difference is to switch your energy supplier for one who solely uses renewable sources (Bulb or Octopus for example). This also means that the "Big Six" can have less money and influence. Another step is to switch your bank to one that does not invest in fossil fuels or deforestation. If you can find a zero waste independent food shop near you, take your old containers and shop for supplies there. Buy second hand. Whether that's through charity shops or private sellers on EBay. Whenever you need something new, ask yourself first if you can borrow it, make it or get it second hand. Buying new should be a last resort. Whichever country you live in, try to purchase goods and services based in that country. Shipping things over isn't so good for the environment.

Individually, do these actions do very much? No. But when many, many people are doing them - the more the better - they will tip the scales in our favour.

8onebeau*
when I was at school in the 70's there was a lot of talk about climate change. The difference was that the fearmongering was all about a mini ice age being caused by us.
that never transpired and since then the shift focussed to global warming.
That never transpired.
Since then it has shifted to climate change with extremes of weather.
that hasn't transpired either.

I do my bit and look for ways to help more but I feel paralysed though. Whatever I can do on a personal level is essentially meaningless unless all govt's work together and all the big companies seriously change their ways.
I try hard not to worry about it because I'm worrying about something I'm powerless to fix.

Just because something didn't transpire in the past doesn't mean it won't in the future. It's already happening. You can see it.

If someone told us all two years ago there would be a global pandemic which would mean we would be banned from seeing family and friends and schools would close for months on end, by that logic you wouldn't have believed it because previous "scare stories" didn't come to fruition.

I don't really see how one can deny climate change. It's right there in black and white. There's no ambiguity to it. The ambiguity is more about when. At the moment it looks like it's happening faster than we thought it would.

And @Xiaoxiong is right (love your username, by the way. It reminds me of some animated films I watched many years ago). Being paralysed by fear is at least sitting up and taking notice, but in the long run, it won't help. We need to turn fear into action.

Global warming never transpired?? Molerat, that's the cause of the extreme weather!

We have already given up flying, I can't see us ever flying abroad again which means my DD probably won't do that until she's older and chooses to herself.

I really recommend Shelbizleee's youtube and instagram for some excellent ideas. Both personal lifestyle changes and "the bigger picture."

youtube.com/c/Shelbizleee

Not really, because I know there are people out there like Xiaoxiong and my dad (formerly, he's retired now) working out actual solutions at a big scale, which is how this needs to be tackled.

A lot of this stuff isn't new; my dad (energy engineer) was working on renewables and power generation efficiency back in the 1960s and 70s.

Some of the consumer-level stuff is largely pointless, in terms of global impact, and there's a lot of capitalism-driven stuff going on right now that doesn't add much except to certain companies' bottom lines because it's just about getting people to Buy More Stuff.

One of the most impactful things we can do, actually, is try to ensure that girls in the developing world are educated and have access to reproductive healthcare. Education and emancipation of women has been shown, time and again, to have beneficial impacts on all kinds of things beyond the obvious including the environment.