First of all, and most of all, I want to give a massive salute to all those people who refuse to give in to climate doom, and couldn't give a damn what climate doomers say.
If you're determined to keep pushing for meaningful action on climate change no matter what the charts and graphs are saying, you are golden.
You will save this planet. Just keep going. You've got this.
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Climate Doom is reaching a tipping point. There are only so many parts per million our atmosphere can take, so we need to act, and fast.
It's really important to know what what climate doom is and why it's so toxic and unhealthy.
You should learn to recognize it in yourself and in others. As with any mental illness, Early diagnosis is crucial.
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Climate Doomers are the new Climate Deniers. Many climate doomers don't realize this, but they could be sponsored by Big Oil.
The reason I say they are the same is because they both lead us in different ways to the same outcome. They lead us to exactly the same place. They lead us to inaction. They lead us nowhere. They lead us to a burning world full of people with graphs and charts saying I told you so.
Nobody wants that world.
There's a weirdly popular misconception about what is meant by Climate Doomerism.
Do you think climate doomer is an insult designed to dismiss anyone making doomful warnings about climate change?
Do you think climate doomer an offhand way of saying you're overreacting to the massive climate breakdown we are facing?
Yeah well, it's not that.
It's really not.
You can tell me the world is on fire. Because it is.
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Here's the important part. Saying the world is on fire doesn't make you a climate doomer. It's the next part that's important.
If you tell me the world is on fire and we HAVE to do something about it, I will say-
"Yes! God Yes! I'm so happy you're here. Let's go do something about it. Now!"
If you tell me the world is on fire and there's NOTHING we can do about it, I will say-.
"No! God No! You are a Climate Doomer. Get help. Now!"
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I know everyone with half a brain cell is worried about climate change. We all should be talking about it. But there are ways of talking about it that are healthier and more effective than others.
Find whatever works for you, just please, for god's sake, don't be a Climate Doomer. And if you can't help yourself, can you at least try to suffer in silence? You're doing everyone's heads in.
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I will be adding everything I can find about climate messaging and the perils of climate doomerism here. Please feel free to send me articles and your thoughts. I'm always listening.
Sadly, I will be muting all the inevitable climate doomer replies. It's not personal but once you say we're doomed, there's really nothing more you can say about it, is there? You're out of the game. Just try to enjoy the short time you have left, QUIETLY!
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"I keep saying I respect despair as an emotion, but not as an analysis. You can feel absolutely devastated about the situation and not assume this predicts outcome. The facts tell us that the general public is not the problem; the fossil fuel industry and other vested interests are; that we have the solutions, that we know what to do, and that the obstacles are political; that when we fight we sometimes win; and that we are deciding the future now."
Rebecca Solnit
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jul/26/we-cant-afford-to-be-climate-doomers
Recovered Climate Doomer Sean Youra has advice for those who are suffering from the same sort of fatalism that he once felt.
“Stop engaging excessively with negative climate change content online and start engaging in your community. You can be one of those voices showing there is support for the solutions.”
#ClimateAction
#ClimateDoomIsTheNewClimateDenial
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/03/24/climate-doomers-ipcc-un-report/
"Climate "doomers" believe the world has already lost the battle against global warming. That's wrong - and while that view is spreading online, there are others who are fighting the viral tide."
Marco Silva,
Climate Disinformation Specialist,
BBC.
"I don’t want to talk about whether pessimism is accurate. I want to focus on whether it’s useful. People might defend doomsday scenarios as the wake-up call that society needs. If they’re exaggerated, so what? They might be the crucial catalyst that gets us to act on climate change.
Setting aside the moral problem of stretching the truth, this claim is wrong.
Scaring people into action doesn’t work."
Hannah Ritchie
I will repeat this point because it's so important and massively overlooked, especially on Mastodon.
It has been scientifically proven. Scaring people into action on climate change doesn't work.
To all those people posting doom and scary charts and graphs and imploring us to follow the science on climate change, I have one urgent request.
Can you please just follow the science on climate change messaging?
"We need optimism to make progress — yet that alone isn’t enough. To contend with environmental crises and make life better for everyone, we need the right kind of optimists: those who recognize that the world will only improve if we fight for it."
Hannah Ritchie
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https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/23622511/climate-doomerism-optimism-progress-environmentalism
"So, are we doomed?"
"If you take away one thing from this blog post, let it be this: No, we are not doomed.
While falling into climate doom is a totally understandable emotional response, here’s why it’s important to fight back against that impulse.
The first and most important reason to resist climate doom is that it’s factually incorrect.
Here’s the good news: No credible climate scientist thinks we’re doomed. Zero."
https://www.carbonneutralclub.com/article/the_truth_behind_climate_doom
"Climate Doom-mongering has overtaken denial as a threat and as a tactic. Inactivists know that if people believe there is nothing you can do, they are led down a path of disengagement."
"Well meaning people unwittingly do the bidding of fossil fuel interests by giving up."
Michael E. Mann,
Climate Scientist.
"Think about it. We already have the technology to completely decarbonize the global electricity grid right now. And most of the innovation needed for the rest simply needs funding. In other words, there is nothing physically stopping us from addressing this crisis and building a better world."
"Every barrier to climate action exists inside people’s heads. It’s a matter of collective will, which always starts from within yourself."
Aaron Hagey-Mackay
"Climate Doom has the especially pernicious effect of affecting people who are engaged with the issue. If those who would otherwise be pushing for meaningful climate action think there’s nothing to be done, then we’ll all just continue to burn fossil fuels, won’t we?"
#ClimateAction
#ClimateDoomIsTheNewClimateDenial
https://www.carbonneutralclub.com/article/the_truth_behind_climate_doom
"The best way to fight climate anxiety is to take climate action. Be active. No one has the right to tell you you’re doing it wrong. If you’re helping, that’s all that matters.
Remember, those who have fought for decades against tackling the climate crisis want you to feel powerless. That’s because they know you’re not."
https://www.carbonneutralclub.com/article/how-to-turn-climate-anxiety-into-something-powerful
This is a rolling thread about Climate Anxiety, Climate Doom and Climate Messaging. It's here for you to dip in and out of.
I've put this here on Mastodon for a reason.
You might think Mastodon is full of intelligent well informed people and the reason the climate crisis seems so much worse on here is because people are posting the truth that 'the media' doesn't want you to see.
I would question that. I would ask you to question that.
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"When it comes to climate change we feel as if it is this giant boulder standing dead still and nobody is trying to push that boulder uphill to fix the problem.
The reality is that that giant boulder is already starting to roll.
It's got hundreds, thousands, even millions of hands we just need a few more hands to get it rolling faster, but it is moving in the right direction.
When we look at what is happening with people, that's where I find hope."
Katherine Hayhoe
"Positive messaging can be a powerful tool to inspire hope and action across all levels. It does not exist to put a veil over the harmful impacts and challenges of climate change, nor does it serve to greenwash, but it gives space to the inspiring and empowering stories that mainstream headlines often neglect to capture."
https://www.eauc.org.uk/the_impact_of_positive_messaging_during_a_chang
FUN SCIENCE CHALLENGE TIME!
I keep seeing people on Mastodon saying people should be made to feel terrified about climate change as that's the only way they will be motivated into action.
Scaring people in order to save the planet sounds right up my street and absolutely the best way to spend my time. I'm excited to get on board!
But first, I need to see the science. Can anybody, anywhere show me something, somewhere scientific that proves this approach actually works?
I think the issue is that the actual science is pointing to some pretty nasty consequences for not acting on the climate. For example we are already seeing heatwaves, melting glaciers, flooding, and more extreme weather patterns.
However it is not just climate, plastic pollution is also a huge problem.
So the science is being blunt and truthful, which is what people are demanding in a world full of mis information and trying to play down what is happening.
When it comes to taking action, we are going to need to make changes. Disucssing what we get from oil on here has prompted me to make some blog posts looking at this, as we get so many products from oil.
https://personaljournal.ca/paulsutton/what-do-we-get-from-crude-oil
Some plastics for example. How do we replace them, As quoted on the above, it is not always better energy wise to use other methods. I have made a start and just brought forward a blog post
https://personaljournal.ca/paulsutton/monomer-synthesis
So we need to encourage people to change what they use, find viable alternatives etc and make changes that way, the scare tactics to stop drilling for oil, won't help, We need R&D to accelerate the search for alternatives.
So I agree with you scare tactics may not work for every one and may have the opposite effect, just stop oil are just annoying people, result of that is they may drive more out of spite despite knowing what the does to the climate.
I think some of the message on tobacco prpducts about cancers etc are scary and may have an effect on some people, but there are alternatives e.g vaping or perhaps nicotine patches.
