I’ll keep this short and sweet. Some random guy on the internet compiled together and summarized a bunch of climate research papers analyzing global trends and a bunch of different slow actors that are all going to kick in soon like the permafrost in Russia or the polar ice caps etc.
While I have not yet gone through the sources the author links and quotes extensively, this still has me extremely worried and I think that unless society somehow drastically changes and devotes a significant effort in doing something about it, we’re all going to die within half a century.
I’m sorry for bringing doomerism into a safe space like Beehaw, but I’m scared and I can’t sleep.
Also I’m not going to link the document in question because the author goes on a rant about billionaires and greed, and while I haven’t decided whether or not I agree I’m not sure the tone fits the community.
Sorry again and have a good one !
Hey OP. Kudos on acknowledging your feelings and expressing them ;)
TL;DR: your reaction makes a lot of sense, don’t stay alone with this, lots of empathy
Where I speak from : I’m a white and socially cisgendered male, 35 yo, living in France. I had the chance to go to university and to have several educations.
I have been a climate change and biodiversity collapse educator and activist for 3 years, and I’m currently struggling with crippling adhd, depression and anxiety after a rough burn out.
I try to base my opinion on the IPCC reports which I regard as the best science consensus provider on climate-related matters (more on the IPCC at the end of the post).
In my opinion, being terrified by climate change is a very appropriate emotionnal response.
What scientists say about the amount of suffering climate change already inflicts to hundreds of thousand is hard to fathom, and imagination fails to grasp how much worse it’s going to get in the coming decades.
To my understanding, humanity as a species is not under threat, and we will not all die in 50 years. But a huge amount of people already suffer and die from climate change and it’s going to get much much worse. As usual, the less privileged you are (and the less you contribute to climate change), the worse you have it.
CO2 emissions keep going up when scientist agree that they should be cut in half by 2030 and divided by 3 or 4 by 2050.
The IPBES (same as IPCC but for biodiversity) current analysis reinforces the “we’re in deep shit and we’re diving faster and faster” feeling.
And while individual action is absolutely necessary, it is by large insufficient without structural collective change.
I also feel terrorized. And so angry. And more sad than I’ll ever by able to express. And so fucking frustrated.
I found that sense of community is what keeps me going. I met some great people in environmental ngos, and getting together to do something about it is a great feeling. Having a drink together and ranting about how hard it is to witness our collective failure makes is really not as bad as doing it bu myself. And crying among friends feels a lot better than crying alone, for me.
So I wish for you to find people around you who understand the world in the same way you do, who care as much as you do. I wish for you to find safe spaces in which you can stop pretending it’s ok, in which you don’t need to explain yourself, to have a debate about whether or not climate change is a big deal, in which you can let your emotions flow. I wish for you to find meaning, belonging and even happiness in action.
Take good care of yourself, the wolrd needs you in good shape !
Btw, compiling and summarizing together papers about the mechanism and impact of climate change is exactly the job of the IPCC. They take in account thousands of papers from all the fields related to climate change, write a draft an publish it, wait for questions/criticism/corrections to be sent by all the scientists who want to contribute (for several months) and then they correct their draft and publish the final version. I recommand reading at least the key points of the “Summary for policymakers” of the 6th assessment report..
How is a rant about billionaires and greed ever a thing to shy away from? The class war and it’s associated wealth inequality/endless growth mentality are essential drivers to the climate change problem that’s keeping you up at night. You can’t disconnect the two if you actually want the problem addressed.
Not sure if this helps at all, but you’re not alone: I feel a sense of dread every time I find myself holding an empty plastic container.
It might feel like you’re sticking your head in the sand, but what I do – and what I suggest for people suffering from climate anxiety – is actively avoid reading reports like that. Sure, they’re informative (and it’s important to stay informed), but at the end of the day it’s not worth your mental health.
If there’s one thing we know about the problem of climate change at this point (despite what massive corporate contributors have tried to tell us) it’s that you as an individual cannot fix it and you did not contribute very much to it. Plus: you already know it’s bad. Those statistics are meant for people whose minds and behavior will be changed by them.
Instead of reading reports that are informative (but unhelpful), spend time researching who to vote for, how to get involved with organizations who are making change, and which companies are truly focused on sustainability so you can vote with your money.
Climate change is an unfortunate reality and you’ll never feel good about it, but you can feel better if you’re focusing on what you can change.
Thank you for the advice. I was planning on getting more informed on the topic so as to be able to talk to others about it better, because right now I think it would come across as incohesive rambling.
As to the part about me as an individual not being able to fix anything, while on one hand that is true and I already do what I can personally, the one thing I can try to do is to get more people involved because it feels like we’re a train hurtling towards a cliff and two people on board even know where we’re heading.
To be honest I am quite young and now it feels like most of the meaning in my life is ruined, and I don’t think I can go back to how I was before. My plan for now is making trying my best to avert what’s coming my life quest, but I don’t know how that will make me.
I’m sorry for ranting but I guess I am quite emontionally distressed now, which is kind of the first time this happens to me and I don’t know how to process it.
Thanks for your time and sorry again!
Hey, no need to apologize! This is something I’ve had a tough time with for a while, so it’s also helpful for me to articulate some of my thoughts to someone else.
As far as getting other people interested: that’s a fantastic reason to spend time learning about a topic! Good on you for taking an educational stance on something so important.
The fact that you’re new to this information about climate change does change (slightly) what I was saying previously: I’m in my 30s and I’ve been reading report after report for over a decade and only recently decided to avoid them.
The fact that you’re new to this is challenging because it’s important for you to learn about climate change, but it’s not exactly a topic that inspires hope. I’m not sure which specific report you’re referring to, but you do need to remember that there are a lot of reports out there that are really overblown and sensationalized.
Climate change is definitely a threat, but environmental science is also ridiculously complicated. It’s easy for people with little understanding of a topic to make commentary on it (and sound convincing because they’re using technical terminology!) But they may not be qualified to make the claims they’re making.
As you educate yourself, I’d stick to intro-level educational resources from universities and science organizations – they tend to be less “doom and gloom,” more focused on solutions, and they avoid making over-the-top claims.
Also, remember that climate change is, well, change. And change is scary. But the fact that the future is going to be different doesn’t mean that everything is going to become terrible one day and be terrible forever until we all die in under 100 years (which as many people have said in this thread, is extremely unlikely.) The future will have good times and bad times, just like there are now. But this kind of change means that we need to adapt and be more resilient than ever: luckily, humans are excellent at adaptation.
So don’t let this report ruin your life: you’re right that you won’t be the same again after learning about climate change, but that’s normal! It’s a part of learning and growing. “Ignorance is bliss” is a phrase for a reason: it really does suck sometimes learning about the world, because not everything about the world is blissful. But now you’re going to take climate change seriously and help others do the same, and that’s a powerful thing.
So again, focus on what you can control, maybe find some less intense resources to learn from, educate your peers so they can help move things in the right direction, and take a deep breath. You’re going to be okay!
I feel a sense of dread every time I find myself holding an empty plastic container.
Niche thing to break out given the context, but the best purchase I’ve made in the past decade is a SodaStream, a couple of extra carbonating bottles and an inline water filter for the kitchen sink.
I didn’t realize how much of my aggregate shopping mass came from paying usurious prices to have water from somewhere else delivered via fossil fuel to a store so I could pick each bottle up once from the shelf, again from my cart to checkout, again to get it back in the cart, again to put it in the vehicle, again from the vehicle to the pile outside the front door, again to bring it inside for final staging, again to put it in the fridge, and finally, again, to drink it. And 99 cents for the privilege.
(It’s now two cents a litre thanks to a 10-pound tank + adapter.)
Being easier on the planet can save time, money and effort, even though it looks somehow less convenient on the surface.
Many things are outside of your control. You were given life outside of your control, and you will die outside your control. Whether you die of cancer at 50 or climate change at 50, you die all the same.
We still have a moral duty to make the best choices that we can with the information that we know. A lot of the existential crisis though, I think, stems from a fear of mortality. Coming to grips with the fact that you must die sets you free to act rightly within the world.
I’d say don’t let fear control you.
When fear gets too out of hand it becomes a problem; However there’s a side of fear that can also prompt us to improve a situation, where we can recognize the threat which then allows us to educate, inform, act, and build a better world.
There will be a lot of challenges to face, especially considering the limits to change based on how rampant wealth inequality is, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to feel frozen and shocked at not being able to instigate positive change.
If the bad things are going to happen, there’s little we can do to stop it, once it has been set into motion (no one person led to climate change). What we can do is control our response. We can do our best to mitigate what risks we can, and ultimately we can do our best to make the most of the situation we are in. That’s the one thing we can do as individuals to make things better for our future selves and our descendants, we can be compassionate to those around us and work to inspire our communities to do that too.
All in all, nothing tonight that you can think up will change the climate or the world’s response to it. We can worry about the future, but we only will know what the future holds as it occurs, so it doesn’t do much good to assume that the worst is necessarily going to happen. Catastrophizing sucks, and I know what you’re struggling with right now. Perhaps a counselor/therapist could help you understand and manage your anxious thoughts. You’re definitely not the first or only one to have these fears, so don’t feel bad about it. I hope some of the comments put you at ease and help you get some rest.
I used to get very anxious and stressed out about this. I started reading a book that reframed my mindset on the issue. Now I don’t get nearly as stressed or anxious as I used to.
Being stressed and anxious about the issue is coming from a mindset that we could still prevent it, and wanting to do something to “stop” it from happening.
So maybe try thinking about it like this instead:
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Humanity will not end with Climate Change. It will become different, and worse. But it will not end society.
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Animals and nature will not end with Climate Change. They will become different, and worse. But it will not end all other forms of life.
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Climate change is not something to stop. It is already here. The world you used to know is already gone. Accept that you live in a different world, and that’s ok.
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Mitigation is still a good thing, we should still be actively trying to mitigate what we can. But it won’t make things the way they used to be.
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Start preparing and planning your life around these changes. It will help you feel more empowered, and help you accept our new reality.
My recommendation is to read “How to Prepare for Climate Change: A Practical Guide to Surviving the Chaos”. Reading that book in some ways felt like going through the five stages of grief. But in the end I felt like I came out feeling healthier, and more capable of helping mitigation efforts because I didn’t feel paralyzed by fear anymore.
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Thank you for verbalising this, I’ve been feeling similarly. Like you I try to go back to the sources and read them often finding that the danger is being sensationalised by the media. Recently though I’ve seen a few papers where the findings have been much worse than is being reported and that worries me very much. I’m mostly able to only worry about things I have control over as others have suggested but the oncoming climate crisis is so encompassing and existential that I’m finding it hard to temper my worries.
I don’t have a lot of words because I’m in the same boat, but I’m really sorry that you’re having to go through this. :-(
A lot of people want you to be fearful. Fearful people make for very avid readers and sharers of media. Fearful people spend a lot of their precious time convincing other people to be fearful. Fearful people often don’t make the most rational decisions.
I’m not downplaying the problem or saying climate change is some sort of fairy story, but I am saying that it is almost impossible to have a 100% impartial birds-eye-view of what is a tremendously complex problem, especially if you just ingest whatever random media crosses your door.
There is no point beyond which the entire game is lost and we should just lie down and rot. Things can always get better, and things can always get worse. So act, get involved in local action and put pressure on government to make the right calls. Act with the hope of a better future in your heart, and save the despair for when the end is known beyond all doubt. It’s just another day at the office.
I also think it’s important to have hope for technological advancements. Carbon capture technology exists and is improving rapidly. We need to get to net zero, of course, but we can also go negative and cool the planet to pre-industrial levels.
The world is changing rapidly, both for the worse and for the better.
Yes, there is going to be a mass extinction event. But mass extinctions have happened before and biodiversity recovered. We also have technology to save species and reintroduce them later, too. A hundred years from now, when CO2 is back under control, who knows; maybe we’ll be able to “print” extinct species’ zygotes from saved DNA code.
The problem with carbon capture is that yes it exists, but is not nearly close to good enough for our needs. Add to that the fact that we physically do not have enough materials on Earth to implement it on the scale required and that becomes a tough pill to swallow.
I’m hopeful that some farming techniques may be promising and that not everyone’s going to die, but relying on technology that doesn’t really work yet seems foolish.
At any rate I’m not gonna sit around and twiddle my thumbs, I’m probably going to become an activist this summer instead and see where that takes me
Well put. My personal litmus test for any piece of media is this: if it makes you scared, angry, or horny, your red flags should be raised. It’s likely that the article/video/whatever is trying to manipulate you. The fact that OP mentioned a political rant tells me the video might be using climate change as a tool to make people angry in a political direction. Acknowledging this doesn’t take anything away from legitimate political criticism or climate research. But anger and fear are tools to bypass your reason.
We’re so thoroughly screwed, that it’s the best I can do to get through the day without having a massive panic attack about it.
I try not to talk about it in real life because everyone is so in denial or like me, can’t deal with the fact that we’re still pretending “this is fine” while the house is on fire.
If you’ve never considered therapy, here is a sign to talk to somebody professionally. In my experience, existential dread is best discussed with building up a foundation of good mental health practices. A couple of more specific thoughts:
Every generation of humans have thought they’d be the last. We are a resourceful species.
What does the future hold? How will climate change impact our lives? It’s really unknown at this point. All the articles and science in the world is educated speculation.
There are new technologies being created but in a lot of ways the pandemic showed us that people really cannot seem to get it together. If you are passionate about the environment, there is many areas of activism and volunteering to get involved with.
Ultimately, you cannot control what happens with the climate or the future. A lot of times anxiety can come from situations we can’t control but so much of life is out of our hands. Learning to live in the moment and go with the flow is an art.
I appreciate the advice and I am considering therapy right now.
I’m unsure about returning to my previous “carpe diem”-esque lifestyle, because at the moment I am pretty convinced that disaster is coming within the decade and I’m afraid that every moment will be tainted by this fear. I also don’t know if I want to talk to other people about this, because I don’t want to push this onto them and make them feel the same way as I do now.
And yes, every generation thought they’d be the last but I do think ours is in a bit of a more dire situation. Maybe that’s just a dumb take on my part, but that’s how I feel at the moment.
Sorry for basically dumping all my yucky feelings right now but I guess it had to come out somehow and I’m not waking up my roommate at 4AM
If you can’t stop the (possible) coming disasters, what’s the point in paralyzing yourself with fear? Do what you reasonably can to prepare, and enjoy the life that you have now while it’s here.
Things will certainly get worse, and disasters will happen in the coming decades, but the end is not right around the corner. The decline will be slow, and it’s still possible that solutions, or at least mitigations, will be found. Look for little ways to contribute something positive, and try to appreciate the moment.
I want you to at least consider stepping away from the news if you can. Focus on what make you happy, what make you enjoy a life. Do you have a hobby? Is it something we can play with sometime?
“You will find that if you look for the light, you can often find it. But if you look for the dark, that will be all you will ever see.” - Uncle Iroh in Legend of Korra
I am not going to deny that those topics you brought up are serious topics indeed, but it requires balanced mind to be able to confront such challenges and to ward off those who prey upon your vulnerability, so don’t neglect yourself.
I am an environmental geologist and I do not have good news for you. I am also an eternal pessimist, and the two do not mix well. What I’ve personally found is that avoiding the news helps tremendously, especially when it comes to topics I have virtually no control over. It’s not just burying my head in the sand, the news didn’t used to be formatted to polarize you and force feed you fear by the bucketful like it is now. It’s better for my own mental health to focus on my inner sphere, the things I can affect and have some control over. I follow my local news to a degree, I stay up on the things that impact the work I do, but otherwise I do anything and everything I can to avoid the news and I legitimately sleep better for it. I also try to impact things that will make a tangible difference to real people in my area. Think of it this way - if what you think is true (it’s not that bad but it’s still not good) then you and I have no way of controlling if the planet kills us and everyone else in fifty years. But what we can control is if something we do makes a difference to our neighbor. We can something that puts a smile on a friends face, or helps someone we love (or maybe we don’t even know) have a better day. Those are active choices we can make and have control over.
Not saying it’s for everyone, but that’s what I’ve found helps me the most.
