Two tiny things I've started doing since the heatwaves became social small talk.
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Two tiny things I've started doing since the heatwaves became social small talk.
I use the phrase 'climate collapse'. Klimakollaps. Not climate change.
When anyone moans about the heat in isolation, as if it's just a rare hot day today, I mention the death toll and wonder aloud: 'What are we going to do about climate collapse?' Just to bring it into the conversation.
I know it's very Old Woman Yells At Climate Collapse. But it's just weird that we refuse to even mention it.
@CiaraNi The sick part is that leaders around the world is not doing enough to prevent it from getting worse...
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@CiaraNi I'm with you with the omission of the word "crisis" and sure, we should use any means to bring it up. But the focus on the environment instead of climate isn't nuance, it brings back the attention where it should be: the environmental movement was concerned with forest, fauna, sea. Material things destroyed by behaviour we can change. The use of climate has been a deliberate choice to shift the attention to a nebulous system we can affect but can't control, thus easier to dismiss.
@alx I agree with your points. I'm just thinking about a much earlier stage of the conversation. About trying to get it talked about at all. The phrase 'climate change' is familiar to all. 'Climate collapse' escalates a concept people know. I don't think those who want to keep it a taboo subject are thinking about climate contra ecology or whether they can or can't control it. Many in the 10% of fliers and over-consumers just prefer not to contemplate changing their and our collective behaviour.
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@CiaraNi I feel like a stuck record on this. Every time someone mentions the weather or says they're hot 'I know! It's only going to get worse too. We really need to get serious about climate change'
@caffetino It's so frustrating, isn't it. Maybe it's the heat that's making me cranky, but I've decided that I'm not taking part in any more 'Blimey, it's hot today!' conversations without mentioning the elephant sweltering in the same room.
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Two tiny things I've started doing since the heatwaves became social small talk.
I use the phrase 'climate collapse'. Klimakollaps. Not climate change.
When anyone moans about the heat in isolation, as if it's just a rare hot day today, I mention the death toll and wonder aloud: 'What are we going to do about climate collapse?' Just to bring it into the conversation.
I know it's very Old Woman Yells At Climate Collapse. But it's just weird that we refuse to even mention it.
@CiaraNi I just try to keep my nerves when I talk to former deniers, and I avoid saying "we've known for decades, what did your generation do?", or "When did you last take a flight?" because it leads nowhere. And yes, Climate collapse is the right word. 30 C today in Eindhoven... And that seems to be the new "normal".
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@CiaraNi I'm not sure it was you saying it yesterday, but anything else that simultaneously killed thousands in every country would be receiving a very different media treatment
@ehproque So true - 12,000+ deaths and rising, in a selected few European countries alone, in a matter of weeks - I can barely imagine the war footing we'd all be on now if that was the death toll from terrorist attacks!
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@juliette I am comforted to learn that it's not just me.
"This is the hottest day of my life."
"The hottest day of your life so far."
I am starting to tire of people making mention of climate collapse seem like a mood killer and social faux pas. We're going to tone-police ourselves and the planet to death, all because those of us in the 10% don't want to feel guilty about all the city-break flights and consumer goods.
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@BenCotterill @Walrus It's an almost impressive level of cognitive dissonance. Oblivious or deliberate or both. I keep hearing these same kinds of conversations too - a regular one is people flying to Spain on yet another charter holiday, then complaining bitterly about how the heat there ruined their holiday.
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@wendinoakland @juliette Exactly
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@CiaraNi you might consider another word: climate crisis (DE: Klimakrise), because it suggests: "it's a problem, but could be solved by humans", it is nothing already full defined, it is in the move. a collaps in the opposit, is a done thing, nothing todo there, just pass by and (try to) go one with your own live.
@woehnlich I used to say 'climate change'. Then upped that to 'climate crisis'. Now I've escalated it to 'climate collapse'. I don't think the people who want to keep the subject social taboo are silencing it because they think humans can't do anything. Almost the opposite - they know the 10% of humans who over-consume can do something, and collectively make politicians and companies do something, but most people don't want to consume less. So I've switched to 'climate collapse' for emphasis.
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@CiaraNi I see this everywhere. With everything. No one wants to talk about the underlying systems in place. Frankly, I doubt that most people can even think that far at this point.
@esureL I'm not sure any more if it's because they can't think about it or won't think about it in case that makes us contemplate radical collective behavioural change.
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@CiaraNi
I'm right with you. As Old Women we are also most at risk
#ClimateCollapse@HeatherMJ And at the other end of the generational scale, the young people are at great risk from our lack of action - distressing to think what their lives will be like in 2040, 2050, 2060.
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@BenCotterill @Walrus It's an almost impressive level of cognitive dissonance. Oblivious or deliberate or both. I keep hearing these same kinds of conversations too - a regular one is people flying to Spain on yet another charter holiday, then complaining bitterly about how the heat there ruined their holiday.
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I always refer to it as 'climate breakdown in real-time'.
@essjayjay Good phrase. I'll borrow and use that too. Gets straight to the point.
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@CiaraNi The sick part is that leaders around the world is not doing enough to prevent it from getting worse...
@John_Ligher I think it's connected. The leaders won't take radical action as long as they know that the 10% (that minority of privileged people who take holiday flights and over-consume) doesn't care. If we collectively mass-boycotted holiday flights and stopped buying unnecessary stuff from non-local companies that sell fast-fashion and consumer tat, it might be a start, making it clear to them that we demand they do something.
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'The facts are alarming, pointing them out isn't alarmist.'
Well said. I think this is why I've started bringing climate collapse into any small talk about 'it's hot today'. We need to change the conversation, to make the social attitude switch sides. To make it more socially unacceptable to deny we must do something than to point out we must do something, something radical, and soon.
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@HeatherMJ And at the other end of the generational scale, the young people are at great risk from our lack of action - distressing to think what their lives will be like in 2040, 2050, 2060.
@CiaraNi
I grieve for my children and grandchildren.
Will politicians only start acting when people are dying in the streets? -
@esureL I'm not sure any more if it's because they can't think about it or won't think about it in case that makes us contemplate radical collective behavioural change.
@CiaraNi Yeah, maybe that too. It's a shame, though, because especially online, there's so much mental, cognitive and emotional energy being wasted on a daily basis.
Instead of discussing what $politician did today and how bad they are, imagine all this energy going towards solutions against them. How to make the underlying systems more resilient. How to drive changes and realisation in the electorate. And how to navigate these conversations successfully beyond Christmas survival guides.
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Two tiny things I've started doing since the heatwaves became social small talk.
I use the phrase 'climate collapse'. Klimakollaps. Not climate change.
When anyone moans about the heat in isolation, as if it's just a rare hot day today, I mention the death toll and wonder aloud: 'What are we going to do about climate collapse?' Just to bring it into the conversation.
I know it's very Old Woman Yells At Climate Collapse. But it's just weird that we refuse to even mention it.
@CiaraNi Good point. And perhaps we should broaden things: Environmental collapse, civilizational collapse.
Because the collapse is happening in far more areas than simply the climate. The bodiversity and soil collapse are in many ways a key accelerant of the climate collapse. The current mining surge is a huge driver of collapse. Everything is interconnected and intertwined.
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@CiaraNi Yeah, maybe that too. It's a shame, though, because especially online, there's so much mental, cognitive and emotional energy being wasted on a daily basis.
Instead of discussing what $politician did today and how bad they are, imagine all this energy going towards solutions against them. How to make the underlying systems more resilient. How to drive changes and realisation in the electorate. And how to navigate these conversations successfully beyond Christmas survival guides.
@esureL Agreed. Such an amount of mental energy being wasted by everyone trying to have the conversation and everyone trying not to have the conversation.
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@CiaraNi
I grieve for my children and grandchildren.
Will politicians only start acting when people are dying in the streets?@HeatherMJ The death tolls so far don't seem to be provoking action where they turn up on our screens holding emergency Speak To The Nation press conferences about radical collective actions, like they did at the start of the Covid lockdowns. All I can come up with as an alternative is mass consumer boycotts, perhaps. Because maybe money and big companies making smaller profits might speak louder than the death of citizens.
