Starting to panic about climate change

[DorothyL]

I keep reading how climate change is getting really bad and how we're reaching the tipping point/point of no return. It keeps me awake at night and makes me feel so anxious and worried for my children. I struggle to feel happy because I keep thinking that we're literally facing the apocalypse. How can I deal with this?

That's another thing we can do.

Lets stop buying strawberries and asparagus in December and mange tout all year round.
I'm boycotting everything with palm oil. Takes some time to read the labels and work out where it's hidden, but it's doable.

Climate change certainly exacerbated the conflict in Syria. There was a serious 4 year drought there that forced those living in rural agricultural areas to move to the city.

This is an interesting video, it is long, two hours but it is worth it. It's very like an Adam Curtis documentary. My favourite quote from it is: 'Denial takes tremendous energy.'

To be honest, there's one aspect where I agree with the moronic denialist fuckwits - it'll all make less difference than we think. But not because it isn't a real threat, because we'lll figure out better renewables, better use of materials, etc... and women will have fewer children as they get richer. The green dream of slim people eating local food is unlikely.

On that note, one simple change with a big impact is switching to ecotricity for gas and elec. 60% of the energy comes from renewables and profits get reinvested in more renewables.

Oh thanks for the ecotricity tip. I'll be looking into switching.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-38285300

I know that agriculture is a huge contributor to CO2, but to say that methane rise is as a result of agricultural practices is disingenuous to say the least. CH4, methane, is rising because the Tundra is melting.

Sorry to get slightly metaphysical, but I basically think that all fears/anxieties like this boil down to fear of death, and if you can face that (and all your thoughts/beliefs around it), then the mechanism that causes it won't seem so frightening, if that makes any sense. Also speaking as an agnostic/leaning-toward-atheist FYI.

We all have to die, and many, many things are more likely to kill us and/or our children any time soon than global warming, so in some ways I think it's possibly a way of deferring that primal fear to something that is actually a little less tangible.

I agree global warming is a big problem, and that drastic action is needed if we want humanity as a species to continue to live on this planet. But fear, at least fear that impacts on my life? No. The worst that can happen is that we die.

Funny how quickly our hopes for the future change - to "my great grandchildren are completely fucked but I'll probably be ok", and "life will be extremely difficult but some humans will survive and anyway we all have to die one day." While on the other threads people are still obsessing about after school activities.

"The worst that can happen is that we die."

I disagree. I am not afraid of death. I am afraid for my children: experiencing the horror of war and famine. Living a life of uncertainty.

For me, any anxiety comes from being totally powerless, and at the mercy of whims of governments and market forces I can't influence.

Posting one last time to you op.

Get off this thread which isn't helping you and get help in RL please for the sake of your family if not you.

Just wanted to repeat the call for a climate change topic...

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/site_stuff/2764769-Please-can-we-have-a-climate-change-topic?

The worst that can happen is that we die.

I also disagree with this.

I am personally not bothered by the prospect of my death. And at a stretch, I could even accept the end of the human race as we know it. But the stakes are higher than that. It's not just humans, it's all the other life on this planet too. We face the prospect of destroying the natural world beyond recognition. The mammals, the ocean life, the forests and grasslands. Iraq used to be covered in forest, but human agriculture turned it into a desert. If we continue on as we are, we WILL turn the whole world into a desert. It's inevitable unless we do something about it, and it will be even worse than iraq, because of the climatic effects which may make the planet inhospitable to all but the most basic lifeforms. The timeframes for this happening aren't way off in the future either, but over the next 100-150 years or so. Could even be sooner if some of the more destructive possible feedback loops kick in.

I cannot be blasé and philosophical about this, and say "well, gosh, we all have to die sooner or later."

It's not the same thing. Not on the same scale at all.

I cannot be blasé and philosophical about this, and say "well, gosh, we all have to die sooner or later."

Please don't get me wrong. I don't disagree with this, and I do think there is need for urgent action. However, I don't think the fear should be such that it impacts on your day-to-day life in a negative/unproductive way, hence my advice to the OP. Nothing should be so frightening that it unbalances your mental health into a state where you are suffering and feel powerless.

I do however believe strongly that we should (for lack of better wording), give a shit about the chaos we are unleashing/further about to unleash if we don't get our act together.

Agree with other posters - the worst is not dying. The worst is famine, disease, war and desolation in our lifetime.

I disagree. I am not afraid of death. I am afraid for my children: experiencing the horror of war and famine.

Likewise with this comment, I care what happens to my children, but I accept my powerlessness (is that a word?) over the larger things I cannot influence in any but minute ways. And again, what applies to me, applies to them... the worst that can happen is that they die.

This is just how I think. I'm not saying it's the correct way to think. But as someone who used to be riddled with anxiety, it has helped me enormously to surrender to the larger things in life I cannot control, and narrow my focus to the things that I can.

If anything is worse than dying, then we all have the option to die if we deem that a better choice. Again, I am not trying to sound blase about this, but it is very effective as an anti-anxiety strategy, which of course should not tip over into complacency.

But the OP appears to be asking for help with anxiety.

Op bloody hell hope you have left this thread.

We face the prospect of destroying the natural world beyond recognition.

Yeah - that's the part I try not to think about. Bit of bummer.

Perhaps it's crazy not to be eaten up by anxiety by this.

Everyday life - in it's pure ordinariness - takes over, takes the mind off it. People are still working, shopping, partying, getting married, having children, arguing about x-factor....

Still here. No time to make gp appointment at the mo but maybe in January.

The way Mn threads can develop is actually managing to get a wry smile from me - come on here to plead for help with crippling fear, end up reading about desolation and famine.

Thank you to all who gave good advice

I remember that Leo DiCaprio film, the scientist he interviews saying: "Sometimes I have to take a drink when I think about it..."

Leo answers " I think if I was a climate scientist, I'd be drinking all the time."

I can't remember - but there's something in that film about renewable energy - we have the capacity to make renewable energy to serve the whole world, but it'll never happen because of the politics/fossil fuels lobbyists.

And now the CEO of Exxon has been made Secretary of State by the PEOTUS, a CC denier.

I think I'll have a drink.

(Sorry OP).

This thread is a bit like now.

Sorry OP. We are talking about worst case scenarios though. I have faith famine and desolation won't happen -at least not to us. The poor bastards in the developing world though...

Woodlander I haven't been able to bring myself to watch that film. But what about the fact the cost of renewable production is plummeting, and on a local level will be difficult to curb (by central government, big oil etc)?

Hi Silent, I did some googling - he was talking about Tesla Gigafactories

www.carbonbrief.org/7-key-scences-leonardo-dicaprio-climate-film-before-the-flood#musk

I tend to agree with Silent, people are discussing the worst case scenario here and perhaps getting a bit carried away on this thread, if I'm honest and have possibly seen too many apocalyptic movies.

Global warming SUCKS. And what really sucks is how helpless we feel as individuals. I have read the most pessimistic predictions for our future as well as those from the broader scientific community. The fact is, not one person can accurately predict how this is going to go and to a point, why go on about the absolute worst case scenario? "Worse than death" is one of the most chilling things anyone can say and I'm pretty that someone has said that on a thread where the OP is clearly already very anxious, when you are talking about the fate of our children and when it is based on predictions which cannot be accurate unless you have a very special gift for clairvoyance.

I am the opposite of a climate change denier and I also consider the worst case scenarios all too frequently, but even I think that some people are taking things too far on here. Maybe start your own worst case scenario thread if you feel the need?

www.beforetheflood.com/explore/the-solutions/

And before anyone says that Trump is going to withdraw from the Paris Agreement (which is mentioned in the above links), that isn't necessarily true:

www.google.co.uk/amp/www.recode.net/platform/amp/2016/12/14/13959008/elon-musk-trump-paris-climate-change-carbon-tax?client=safari

Climate change is fact. How we respond to it isn't still unwritten.