Climate change, depression and having fun before it all goes south

Ah, but we did know. We knew back in the 80’s that something should be done, perhaps earlier, and instead we put in power someone who reassured us that all would be well, and cut spending on alternative energy, family planning, and gutted environmental regulations – all the things that might have made a difference. My kids say no one over 50 should vote, because they won’t be around long enough to care what happens. They’re right!

Some climate scientists now say it is indeed too late, that the data coming in is far, far beyond the worst case models they predicted. Guilt is fine, the next generation will indeed hate us as they struggle through fires, hurricanes, famine, and war. The sky is falling. The doomsayers wish they were wrong, hope they’re wrong. It doesn’t seem to be so.

The engineers believe technology will provide a solution, but technology got us into this mess didn’t it? A species with a big brain and opposable thumbs but too emotional and childish to grow up and really use that analytical ability to fix this massive problem, instead of creating more problems.

Eric, yes, many of us are depressed. What can you do but go out and enjoy what remains to be enjoyed? There still is beauty, while it lasts. And the Beaujolais nouveau should be out soon, right?

I mean I think things are pretty great.  Things change, enjoy life.  :)

Chaffworthy

Are you talking to family about this? Do you have a therapist? Do they know you drink?

You could make a pretty convincing graph showing IPAs cause global warming.

Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming our newest member to CHAFF!

Rule # 1:  BYO IPA.  ;0)

What have you got against the south?

I’ve been backpacking in the mountains of TN/VA/NC for 40 years and have seen some terrible changes in that time.

First off, all the towering and mighty hemlocks in my mountains are now dead—due I guess to free trade with Japan and the arrival of the woolly adelgid.  Capitalism killed our forest.

Second, there’s a terrible feeling of claustrophobia when I go backpacking in Eastern wilderness areas—due to our population skyrocketing, the take over of mountain roads for motorcycle tourism and harleys with no mufflers and screaming ninja bike noise pollution, the neverending tens of thousands of loud overhead jet flights from big airports in Atlanta, Chattanooga, Knoxville, Asheville and Charlotte etc—and flying directly over every one of our wilderness areas.

The hotter summer temps and seeing a hell of a lot more rattlesnakes than I ever saw in 1975.

The terrible air quality in GSMNP—the worst air pollution of any NP with air as bad as Los Angeles.

The best advice I have to a Younger Me—a backpacker in his/her twenties—Go to Alaska and get out of the East.  It’s eat up with sprawl and development and non-stop growth.  Projected US population by 2050?  450 million.  Will we get more wilderness?  Naw.  We’ll get more sprawl.

Alaska is seeing some of the worst impacts of climate change already, and it will increasingly be adversely impacts more than the rest of the USA.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/15/climate/alaska-climate-change.html

I just got back from a pre-winter backpacking trip and while out I mused about a report on my little camping radio of our disappearing frogs and turtles—so I wrote this relevant rant in my Trip Report—

“Good weather, bad weather; it’s all the same to Miss Nature, we just have to smell the changes and plan our hunker spots, like the ants or the salamanders or the spiders or squirrels—we’re all in this together.”

“I heard a blurb on the radio about turtles and frogs disappearing because of habitat loss due to human sprawl and it got me to thinking about nuclear war and how we’ll starting disappearing too after we destroy our habitat with atomic radiation and nuclear detonations. Then humans might better understand the plight of the frogs and the turtles as our land is ruined—just as we ruin the land for them we ruin the land for ourselves. Of course this is based on the premise that humans are no more valuable and important than frogs and turtles of which I wholeheartedly agree.”

“In fact, which frogs and turtles have ruined human habitats and are causing our disappearance as we are doing to them? Human centrism is in fact a racism against all other creatures on the planet. Hell, we eat them. Can’t get much more racist than that.”

“No one talks about the rights of frogs and turtles, or thinks about their homelands. Let’s build a hundred million more homes and to hell with them. I gotta think about something else. Maybe oatmeal and the killing of a couple thousand mere Oats.”

When I start to go down that depressing road, I remind myself that we humans and our time on earth are nothing more than a thin grease layer in the geologic column.  This provides a twisted sort of perspective. The difference between us and all the other species that have gone extinct (most of them, in fact) is that we know we are doing it to ourselves.

(Clink of bottles clinking together.)

It’s not in chaff yet?

Jenny A- might have to borrow your line “The difference between us and all the other species that have gone extinct (most of them, in fact) is that we know we are doing it to ourselves.”

That’ll get em rolling at Thanksgiving dinner.

“The difference between us and all the other species that have gone extinct (most of them, in fact) is that we know we are doing it to ourselves.”

Some of us.  Unfortunately, not nearly enough of us.  And then, there’s the “End of Times” crowd.  They can hardly wait.

I actually blame Eric’s generation.

Tipi, “No one talks about the rights of frogs and turtles”. Never been to CA?

One of Southern California’s most popular high country climbing areas has been closed for decades due to the endangered mountain yellow-legged frog.  We talk frogs a’plenty here.

I call it a issue of Demand/Supply. As long as “we” all demand new cell phones, bigger TV’s, everything shipped Amazon Prime, big SUV’s, food convenience, etc. this issue will not go away. Kinda drives me nuts when people blame politicians. Sure cuts to spending can hurt the cause but let’s be real….it is “us” that are hurting the cause.

Karen, good luck with that.  Our family has agreed to disagree on issues like this.  We have some family members that know humans are exceptional when compared to all other creatures, and different rules apply.  (Not rules backed by science….)  Sometimes my cynicism gets the best of me, but I love this body, this planet, and the beauty that surrounds us every day and the ability to appreciate and enjoy it.  Perhaps we are unique in the whole universe in this regard – maybe not, who can say for sure, but I will enjoy and treasure it while I am here.

Happy Thanksgiving!

What have you got against the south?

Soooo obviously ill mannered!

That should be “the South”…….

(This should help move this thread to Chaff where it rightly belongs)

Brian Devlin, I respectfully disagree. Consumers are a tiny portion of the problem. Here’s my source:

https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emissions

That said, consuming as a purpose of life, a way of life, is unsatisfactory, to me. If we can find ways to fulfill ourselves and reduce our carbon footprint, huzzah!

I love used stuff. Thanks for sharing through Gear Swap and elsewhere.

Very Chaff-worthy thread here. My take: OP can not overcome his sense of climate guilt. I mean, driving a Prius and donating to Green Peace, that should take care of any guilt!

The only real solution is for young people to stop having babies and for old people to take a long walk in the woods and never come back, or swim out to sea if you can swim;  and we are all far too greedy to do that

^^^^ about as against nature as it gets. There are other awful solutions that better align with the natural world than that one^.

This belongs in chaff where misanthropy is all the rage.

Karen, we are more aligned than you think. Of course consumerism highly influences materials needed for Industry, our zest for large SUVs and daily package delivery – Transportation, the trend/”need” for larger houses- Electricity, heating. Everybody wants more, bigger, faster, etc. On top of that the general public just really sucks at recycling awareness and from what I see this new generation is horrific.

That’s true Brian. Industry responds to consumer trends. But big oil still plays the winning hand, along with the rest of resource extraction business. It’s also not lost on me that my entire state (Alaska) is still utterly dependent on it. We observe, research, document and produce climate change, hand in hand.

i sometimes wish I hadn’t had kids, because of the world they will be forced to contend with. But my head was in the sand too, not really believing it would come to this. Now I do what I can, and always try to do more. And selfishly glad I’ll be gone for the nasty stuff ahead.

My gosh, what does it take to drive a thread into chaff?