When it's hot our thoughts turn gently to the question of climate change, and it's unfortunate that weather reports and news media link climate change ideas to very unpleasantly hot weather. I sympathize with the effort to nudge people at a moment when they just might be feeling a little more receptive than usual to the concept. The problem is, people think back on many other occasions when they've experienced very hot weather over their lifetimes, and think the whole climate change story is full of s***.
It's very frustrating that people can't figure out the difference between "It was hot just like this when I was 10 years old" and "It is hot like this more often now because the whole average temperature is going up up up!" I ponder useful analogies - I wish weather reporters and others in the media would come up with some. People who don't understand what climate change is often are not stupid, they've just been told by their favorite politician or media talking head that climate change is a hoax, and when they check it against their own evidence of "Is this hot weather unprecedented?", everything checks out as a no.
People start getting a little shook, by contrast, when they realize massive forest fires all across the west and smoke traveling everywhere else was not a normal thing they experienced in most years. It seems new. So when they report on this hot weather they need to find a way to frame it such that it's not the temperature itself, but the aspects of heat waves that are novel now.
On the other hand, that was my "please let's help everyone understand and come together for solutions!" happy voice speaking. After trying to explain very basic elements of this stuff to people for 20 years, the real voice inside me is the cynic who says, reality will do what it does and nobody needs to believe it's going to happen because we're so far from properly preparing that we're doomed anyway. Maybe it's not such a bad thing if we don't have grandkids, because they'd surely be in a generation that truly suffers. But then I tell myself somebody will find a way to compress carbon dioxide and create some monster that eats it or whatever... The important point is that I'll be dead and gone.
It's Hot
Re: It's Hot
I forgot to post the question amidst the cynical thoughts of death and society roiled by major climate impacts. This is my actual question for people if you've read this far:
Have you considered or have you made lifestyle changes in response to the climate problem? If so which ones do you think are most meaningful?
I tend to resist this question - It comes up all the time and my response is always, how does the collective impact of such individual changes compared to what would happen if, say, we passed a few significant laws or carbon caps or carbon purchasing systems? E.g. seems like you need millions of people to do something that would be quickly outweighed by making a few regulatory changes for certain industries! So why are we focused on the habits of individuals instead of demanding better legislation?
But that's just a rhetorical strategy, because it would be great if hundreds of millions of people made little changes in their actions. So why not encourage it? Do both, right. Yet I wonder what the most bang for the buck is in this area, when it comes to individuals trying to do better things in their own lives?
A lot of people say it's meat consumption. Or stopping food waste and reducing consumption in that way more generally. Others focus on choices about the car you drive and how often or far you drive it. Others say those things pale in comparison to your choices about air travel, if that's normally something you would do. Stop mowing your lawn, etc. And again there's no reason to pick one when you can pick both or all! Yet when it comes to individual people making individual changes, It tends to work better when they pick certain things and focus on them. So I wonder what is the most effective thing? Or should we focus on mitigating our impact on things that result from climate change rather than directly causing it? Like saving water.
The easiest thing I have found to change is radically reducing meat consumption. Most people in the household don't want to eat that much of it anyway, and those that do are often pacified by something like prosciutto or sausage, where a little bit goes a very long way to flavor a dish. There are some arguments about whether bison meat or other kinds are better for these purposes. Unresolved conflict about the bison so far.
As I'm writing this I'm watching a woman out for her morning run, and she gives a stroller a big push, runs past it a ways and then runs back behind it and gives it another big push so that it rolls along as she runs past again. I've never seen this and I'm puzzled about why she isn't worried the stroller will roll off awry and fall over. Maybe you just have to be skilled.
Have you considered or have you made lifestyle changes in response to the climate problem? If so which ones do you think are most meaningful?
I tend to resist this question - It comes up all the time and my response is always, how does the collective impact of such individual changes compared to what would happen if, say, we passed a few significant laws or carbon caps or carbon purchasing systems? E.g. seems like you need millions of people to do something that would be quickly outweighed by making a few regulatory changes for certain industries! So why are we focused on the habits of individuals instead of demanding better legislation?
But that's just a rhetorical strategy, because it would be great if hundreds of millions of people made little changes in their actions. So why not encourage it? Do both, right. Yet I wonder what the most bang for the buck is in this area, when it comes to individuals trying to do better things in their own lives?
A lot of people say it's meat consumption. Or stopping food waste and reducing consumption in that way more generally. Others focus on choices about the car you drive and how often or far you drive it. Others say those things pale in comparison to your choices about air travel, if that's normally something you would do. Stop mowing your lawn, etc. And again there's no reason to pick one when you can pick both or all! Yet when it comes to individual people making individual changes, It tends to work better when they pick certain things and focus on them. So I wonder what is the most effective thing? Or should we focus on mitigating our impact on things that result from climate change rather than directly causing it? Like saving water.
The easiest thing I have found to change is radically reducing meat consumption. Most people in the household don't want to eat that much of it anyway, and those that do are often pacified by something like prosciutto or sausage, where a little bit goes a very long way to flavor a dish. There are some arguments about whether bison meat or other kinds are better for these purposes. Unresolved conflict about the bison so far.
As I'm writing this I'm watching a woman out for her morning run, and she gives a stroller a big push, runs past it a ways and then runs back behind it and gives it another big push so that it rolls along as she runs past again. I've never seen this and I'm puzzled about why she isn't worried the stroller will roll off awry and fall over. Maybe you just have to be skilled.
Re: It's Hot
Whoa. Climate change is important, but what a way to bury the lead here! What is the deal with this woman and the stroller? It seems so performative. Like- is there even a baby in the stroller, or does she just want you to think that? Is the stroller just a prop so she can do these complicated dancerobics on the sidewalk in front of her neighbors' houses? Something pathological is going on here.
Re: It's Hot
I honestly don't know but at this point if you said I had hallucinated or dreamed it while not being aware that I was asleep? It's a realistic possibility. I think it was a real thing I saw however. The dog was upset about it.
Re: It's Hot
I just have this vision of a person who secretly wants to make Olympic Aerobic Dancing a viable sport so they can win a gold medal. They know chances are slim, but they keep plugging away at it every day just in case.