To think that in a few years' time we'll be amazed at all the trivia we're discussing now?

[Frogmarchpoodle]

I've just seen an article about the imminent collapse of an enormous Antarctic Ice Sheet which is expected to raise sea levels by 3 metres. It was in the Express of all places, but is not just a scare story. Here's a link to an explanation in a scientific journal: Antarctic changes to have catastrophic consequences

That is scary. There are going to be so maybe dire consquences due to climate change.

I don't know about people's reaction though. Or how the media will handle it. At the moment there is an immigrant crisis being whipped up. And in the future there will millions (billions?) of displaced people.

It’s not imminent though, it’s just in the next 300 years

To be honest, chatting about trivia is the only thing that keeps me sane.

We’re utterly fucked. Climate crisis imminent. AI apocalypse that no-one is prepared for and in massive denial about. Increasingly febrile, aggressive, fractured society.

Human civilisation will see me out but we are witness to the beginning of the end.

YABU to think that serious problems in the world stop people talking about trivia. If anything they make it more essential to talk about trivia to take your mind off it all.

I suppose I wonder whether if people thought about and took in the reality of climate change and focused on it, they might actually be able to influence politicians to do something about it. Trump seems to want to accelerate climate change as much as he possibly can. But the Americans don't seem to care about that at all. (no doubt a small, quiet minority do).

Where to start? I read and listen to podcasts. Also i have a science background, which means i at least have an interest in climate change and human psychology.

Here are some relevant ideas that I have managed to cobble together over the past few years:

• Most people don't understand the science and/or have no interest in learning around it beyond sensational headlines (observations i have made in my extended family, friends and aquitances - their eyes just glaze over if I try to talk about this!)

• Faced with hard realities people react in different ways (can't remember the %), ranging through anger, panic, pragmatism, denial and pessimism. Pragmatic behaviour is not how the majority would react.

• The gulf between the rich/power and the rest of us is too much. Most will do whatever to retain their wealth/power or don't care enough to change what has been working for them. As people get more successful they lose empathy with those lower down the scale.

• Also power and organisational systems can be very hard to change. Governments and international organisations should be pushing through new regulations, but that is really hard. Voters don't want their quality of life to regress, and businesses don't want to reduce profits.

• We are living in an attention economy, which messes up our ability to think through issues. Emotion becomes the fault, rather than reason. "Stolen Focus" by Johan Hari is excellent.

Reading up on the concept of societal collapse is very interesting. The basic premise is that our western civilisation is unsustainable anyway. But add climate change and it becomes much worse.

I actually think that part of the problem is that humans are too optimistic by nature. Hope is wired in to our species. That helps people not to take an inconvenient truth seriously. Most of us are also very selfish. Our children, and even more so their children, will go through enormous suffering because we demanded the right to jet off abroad several times a year, etc etc, in the knowledge that we were contributing to the problem. My DSis is intelligent and fairly clued up on climate change, so I was surprised when she recently told me that she was desperately hoping that her 30+ DD would have a baby soon. She just wants to be a grandmother. She was really shocked when I said I was hoping my DCs wouldn't have children. We are leaving that generation such a terrible legacy, and they have no choice in being born. But we're still putting ourselves first.