Accepting and Using Climate Change. Ian Welsh. Nov. 21, 2019.
A couple days ago I was thinking about the problem of surveillance states and I realized “this problem is likely to become less of one because of climate change.”
And I started thinking about all the opportunities and good things climate change makes possible.
My grieving was done.
My pre-grieving, I suppose.
I see grieving for climate change and ecological collapse everywhere. Informed people who have done their homework know it’s going to be bad, really bad, and that they and those they care about are going to be hit by it. For a lot of people it rises to the level of trauma, even though most of it hasn’t happened yet. It’s like the moment you really know you’re going to die or that something else horrible WILL happen. You can get caught on it, and traumatized by something which isn’t here yet.
But then there’s the point where you hit acceptance.
Alcoholics Anonymous has a prayer, ““God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.”
But acceptance doesn’t mean resignation. It doesn’t mean “oh, nothing can be done.” If I know there’s going to be a famine I can stock up food. If I know I’m going to die, I can write a will and say my goodbyes. If I know here is going to be climate change I can take that into account in my actions going forward.
Knowing something is going to happen, that it can’t or won’t be stopped is freeing and empowering. I am now able to stop worrying about the fact that it is going to happen, and plan for it.
When I was young I used to read a lot of adventure novels. One of the criticisms of such fiction is that the protagonist’s seem to just shrug off bad events: they aren’t effected much emotionally. But what they do do is take those events into consideration in their plans and actions.
Adventure fiction thinking is a pretty good way to live your life, actually, if you can pull it off. What is, is. What will be, will be, but you can adapt to it.
Here’s the truth about climate change: it’s going to suck more ass than anything since the Black Death. That’s a lot of ass.
But it’s also an opportunity. You want change? You don’t like society today?
I don’t. I mean, I fought like the dickens to avoid climate change because the price of this change is too high. Like billions of dead too high.
But we lost. It’s happening.
And horrible as it is, it’s still an opportunity. The good will go away, but so will a lot of the bad.
The society created after the Black Death was, in many ways, much better than the one that came before.
That’s our challenge. There will be real breakdowns in how we run our society. The challenge is to replace with them with something better.
Some things better.
And because you’ve accepted the truth of climate change and that it isn’t going to be stopped, you have an advantage over the deniers. Those who act in alignment with what IS and what will be are always stronger, more nimble and more capable than those running around in denial.
Climate change is coming. It’s going to suck horribly.
How are you going to use it to make your life and everyone else’s lives better?
A couple days ago I was thinking about the problem of surveillance states and I realized “this problem is likely to become less of one because of climate change.”
And I started thinking about all the opportunities and good things climate change makes possible.
My grieving was done.
My pre-grieving, I suppose.
I see grieving for climate change and ecological collapse everywhere. Informed people who have done their homework know it’s going to be bad, really bad, and that they and those they care about are going to be hit by it. For a lot of people it rises to the level of trauma, even though most of it hasn’t happened yet. It’s like the moment you really know you’re going to die or that something else horrible WILL happen. You can get caught on it, and traumatized by something which isn’t here yet.
But then there’s the point where you hit acceptance.
Alcoholics Anonymous has a prayer, ““God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.”
But acceptance doesn’t mean resignation. It doesn’t mean “oh, nothing can be done.” If I know there’s going to be a famine I can stock up food. If I know I’m going to die, I can write a will and say my goodbyes. If I know here is going to be climate change I can take that into account in my actions going forward.
Knowing something is going to happen, that it can’t or won’t be stopped is freeing and empowering. I am now able to stop worrying about the fact that it is going to happen, and plan for it.
When I was young I used to read a lot of adventure novels. One of the criticisms of such fiction is that the protagonist’s seem to just shrug off bad events: they aren’t effected much emotionally. But what they do do is take those events into consideration in their plans and actions.
Adventure fiction thinking is a pretty good way to live your life, actually, if you can pull it off. What is, is. What will be, will be, but you can adapt to it.
Here’s the truth about climate change: it’s going to suck more ass than anything since the Black Death. That’s a lot of ass.
But it’s also an opportunity. You want change? You don’t like society today?
I don’t. I mean, I fought like the dickens to avoid climate change because the price of this change is too high. Like billions of dead too high.
But we lost. It’s happening.
And horrible as it is, it’s still an opportunity. The good will go away, but so will a lot of the bad.
The society created after the Black Death was, in many ways, much better than the one that came before.
That’s our challenge. There will be real breakdowns in how we run our society. The challenge is to replace with them with something better.
Some things better.
And because you’ve accepted the truth of climate change and that it isn’t going to be stopped, you have an advantage over the deniers. Those who act in alignment with what IS and what will be are always stronger, more nimble and more capable than those running around in denial.
Climate change is coming. It’s going to suck horribly.
How are you going to use it to make your life and everyone else’s lives better?
No comments:
Post a Comment