What's the point of being hopeful?

[Anonymous]

We have become such massive consumers, unless all 8 billion of us have major life changes, we will never save earth. It's doomed, it's irreversible. I'm tired of hearing people "care" but then contribute to global warming with single use clothes (stop with the stupid Disney shirts and holiday PJs), overeating, single use plastic etc. The government couldn't care less because the economy is more important. I have lost all hope in our society to change and even while I try to be better, it will never be enough.

[Anonymous]

There's basically nothing that any individual can do (even collectively) to make a dent in global warming. Disney shirts and holiday PJs last as long as any other shirt you can buy these days. I have no control over whether a restaurant decides to package their food in plastic or cardboard. Stop blaming individual consumers and put the blame on industry, where it belongs.

[Anonymous]

I’ve stopped being hopeful. But if it means the end of humanity, the Earth will be ok. It’s stupid, but we are a pretty stupid race.

[Anonymous]

Hope is a moral commitment. You practice that commitment regardless of the specific data because it helps you move forward and do good in the world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have become such massive consumers, unless all 8 billion of us have major life changes, we will never save earth. It's doomed, it's irreversible. I'm tired of hearing people "care" but then contribute to global warming with single use clothes (stop with the stupid Disney shirts and holiday PJs), overeating, single use plastic etc. The government couldn't care less because the economy is more important. I have lost all hope in our society to change and even while I try to be better, it will never be enough.

Why is the earth doomed? It is your premise I question. Do we have issues? Sure. That need to be seriously addressed? Sure. Doomed? That is a joke.

[Anonymous]

The earth isn’t doomed. Humanity is doomed. We may destroy the planet’s ability to support the majority of current life, but evolution will continue. The planet will persist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The earth isn’t doomed. Humanity is doomed. We may destroy the planet’s ability to support the majority of current life, but evolution will continue. The planet will persist.

+1

[Anonymous]

If it gets bad enough, people should just stop having kids and that would solve the problem eventually.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If it gets bad enough, people should just stop having kids and that would solve the problem eventually.

If everyone in the world had 4 kids we would sill have plenty of room and the earth would be just fine.

[Anonymous]

Nothing was meant to last forever, not Earth and not humanity. Just enjoy your life and treat the Earth and others with respect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve stopped being hopeful. But if it means the end of humanity, the Earth will be ok. It’s stupid, but we are a pretty stupid race.

I had a moment a few years ago when I was sitting on an overly warm, empty beach in Maine and I accepted that there is no long-term hope for humanity. Since then I've been reading a lot of natural history. The Anthropocene is just another epoch. Humans are just another species that will go extinct. I've come to have a lot of compassion for our species. We are like the average kid who is raised to think his super super special. Of course, we are going to die out. We are just another species.

[Anonymous]

I've recently begun reading about overshoot and collapse; it's heavy stuff, mostly void of hope, but I've found Michael Dowd's post-doom work (on YouTube) to be helpful for coming to terms with the breakdown of our ecosystem and civilization. I'm still in the grieving stage, but I've also become profoundly grateful for the life that I have today. Even if things don't completely fall apart in my lifetime, the world seems to be in a steady decline, and I anticipate that things will only get harder, not easier, in the years ahead.

I do what I can to make my tiny corner of the world a better place, but I know it's not making a measurable difference on a large scale. However, those same actions often bring me into connection with nature, nudge me off of the capitalist merry-go-round, and help me slow down and enjoy the time I've been given with the people I love... so they're not totally pointless efforts. :)

[Anonymous]

Are people really treating their holiday PJs and Disney Tshirt as single use? No, that's a figment of your imagination.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've recently begun reading about overshoot and collapse; it's heavy stuff, mostly void of hope, but I've found Michael Dowd's post-doom work (on YouTube) to be helpful for coming to terms with the breakdown of our ecosystem and civilization. I'm still in the grieving stage, but I've also become profoundly grateful for the life that I have today. Even if things don't completely fall apart in my lifetime, the world seems to be in a steady decline, and I anticipate that things will only get harder, not easier, in the years ahead.

I do what I can to make my tiny corner of the world a better place, but I know it's not making a measurable difference on a large scale. However, those same actions often bring me into connection with nature, nudge me off of the capitalist merry-go-round, and help me slow down and enjoy the time I've been given with the people I love... so they're not totally pointless efforts. :)

God this is all nuts. Sure you may be right. In a million or so years or 20 million. Or longer. Things have never been better on earth ever than there are now for rich, average, and especially poor. We are not near a breakdown of anything. We need to do some things. They will get done. I understand people feel like we this is a bad time. they need to look up as it is the opposite.

What decline do you see in the world?

[Anonymous]

No, I’m not hopeful. I do what I can because it seems morally more defensible than doing nothing (ie, I try to act in a way that if everyone acted that way, things would be better, not worse). My feeling is that the best we can hope for is that our efforts buy some time to allow the scientists to come up with some solutions that are bigger scale (carbon capture, better alternative fuels, etc.). Think about what we were able to do in a hundred years when humanity was focused on increasing the means of production, or the means of destruction, or the means of communication. In a little more than a hundred years, we went from “hand w guy a piece of paper with some words on it and hope he delivers it eventually” to the internet and mobile smart phones. If humanity really focused on this problem, I suspect there are solutions that we haven’t even imagined that could be in place for our grandchildren’s dotage.