‘It’s too late’: David Suzuki says the fight against climate change is lost - iPolitics
The overall message here I think is: action is still necessary, but the reality is that we're too caught up in politics and economics and we missed our chance at mitigation. Now we need to look to how to cope with what's coming.
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I understand why he's despairing and frustrated after so many years of effort, but I hope his framing doesn't quell people's efforts. It's definitely too late to stop climate change from happening, but we can still effect how bad it gets, so please don't give up.
That's the point, though, is we can't. Once these points are passed, we could literally be at 0 emissions tomorrow and it'll still keep getting worse.
Do what you can but face facts. We're fucked.
That is not a position backed by our current climate science knowledge. We do have a certain amount of climate change baked in right now, absolutely. And it will remain like that for quite a long time, and yes, if we went net-zero, it will stay that way for many decades, maybe even a century or two.
But we can influence how bad that period is, and if it will ever level off (for future generations, not in our lifetime).
If we throw up our hands and do nothing, we are guaranteeing our doom as a species. If we continue to fight, we can ease the pain and horror we and our future generations will have to go through, survive as species, and far in the future, bring the climate back to what it was pre-industial revolution.
I hope youre right.
Doesnt really matter whos right in theory, because nothing of the sort will happen as long as fasco-capitalism rules the earth.
Exactly
Without overthrowing global capitalism, we will absolutely not slow this roll in any meaningful way. Every time someone passes a good law somewhere else a company just ignores it. And so on.
We've fucked it. The time to take this seriously was 30, 40 years ago. But PEOPLE IN POWER made sure that climate change was a hoax to half the population so they could keep getting rich. And its been that way since.
Nothing has changed. Nothing. Every month I see widely respected science reporting telling us "oh NO, its much worse than we thought." Read the actual reporting and tell me, are we doing better? Isn't AMOC about to collapse no matter what?
Dont get me wrong, I love nature and intend to fight for it every chance I've got anyway. Im on the side of life, here.
But im gonna lose.
Hope is a lie. We don't get to hope anymore. What we need is determination.
Edit: cowards.
Yall just don't get it. Do all you want, the US Navy ALONE does enough damage every year to doom us all. Are we gonna stop all shipping? Or are we gonna keep doing damage for the next 5-10 years as tipping points get passed? These are self-perpetuating problems, once crossed.
Right now, RIGHT NOW, our world is being murdered. Some life will continue. But we are fucked.
Ok cool, looks like we should all just commit suicide right now then.
Come on then fellow doomers, let's all hold hands and fling ourselves off the nearest cliff.
Is that your response to existential crisis? It's not mine.
Grow up.
But yours is just to whinge about "there's nothing we can do" and yet you tell me to grow up.
Piss off you emotional vampire.
Nothing has changed. Nothing.
Alternative energy is cheaper and more viable than anyone 40 years ago could've ever thought possible. China is building out insane amounts of solar energy, and India is starting to as well. The EU is reducing emissions, if slowly.
Yes, the US going hard right and abandoning climate goals is a shitshow, but they're not the entire world. Good things are still happening.
And im not saying they aren't, or that we shouldn't do them.
Im saying it's not nearly what we SHOULD be doing, and we don't deserve to rest comfortably knowing some techbros and Chinese manufacturing are working on it.
Look at what the rich and powerful are doing. They're literally preparing for the apocalypse. They've lied about climate change time and time again but they know what's coming.
The US doesn't exist in isolation, the damage this country does affects everyone. That's how this works. And it will be the Global South who suffers most, unfairly, as always.
So, again, I tell you to be realistic about the future. Sure yes do everything we can - but deal with the existential crisis now when you've still got AC.
This is an anarchist instance, we're on the same page. Ending capitalism is the only real way out of all of this.
But right now, at this very moment, things are not doomed. They could be doomed in the future, but that isn't written yet. So yes, fight like hell, but realize that a lot of people who read comments like "We're fucked. It's over", or read the OP's article, will come away thinking we've already reached a human extinction level event, which we absolutely have not yet, and can still influence.
It's important to frame it that we can still make a difference, otherwise people will simply give up and not worry about trying to fix things since they believe it's all fucked and pointless, which can be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
It will keep getting worse, yes, but we can still impact how many generations down the line that will keep happening. That's what's hard at this point: giving a shit about descendants we will never meet.
Look again i get it, im with you
For me, though, my descendents are right here in front of me. And what's keeping me going, personally, steers closer to anger than hope. They will suffer. My kids.
Humans 100-200+ years from now will know nothing else. Im sorry for them. But im here now, and now is a time to face facts. Civilization is going to end, for all intents and purposes. Our world, the human world, is dying, and we won't be able to keep up except as mammals 65mil years ago did, hiding in holes.
What we should be doing now, is avenging the future.
Yes we can. We always have been able to. The problem is the willingness is not there yet. It will get worse before it gets better.
As for being able to, there are so many solutions. Watch this video by Gwynn Dyer it's great.
We should stoke anger. Hope made us blind and we sleepwalked into warming.
It's too late for justice. Now only revenge remains
No we can't. Nothing is going to stop the profits.
Yes we can. Doomerism only guarantees our failure. Collective action still matters, it still has an effect.
Capitalism will bring us to ruin if allowed to continue, and we will indeed need to have a reckoning with it, or perish. If you want that reckoning to be tried, then join in your local communities, organize, unionize your job, help your friends and family unionize theirs, and prepare together.
At least then we'll have a chance.
I don’t have kids and I just don’t care anymore. We fucked the planet and humans will never escape it before it collapses us as a species. Fuck em and fuck it. I just gotta make it like 30 more years.
Doomerism isn't the answer. You may not have kids, but other people still will, and they'll have to live through the world we leave them. Instead of giving up and saying fuck it, use your anger, hope, love, whatever you need to fuel you, and do what you can. Plant trees to create shade you will not be under, find ways to minimize your energy usage, get to know your community, talk to them, prepare together.
It's far more fulfilling than waiting out your death in despair, so even if you think it's all useless, you'll have a much better time of it either way.
Oh I'm not in despair, eat drink and be merry for tomorrow you may die.