Two tiny things I've started doing since the heatwaves became social small talk.
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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.
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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'm using that. One of the issues I have these days (and long ago) are the euphemisms. They're just not strong enough anymore. Calling a lie mis or dis info, I understand but calling things a lie leaves no doubt and the media didn't do that for a long time.
"Climate Collapse" does it for me (yikes) and it's why I think I'll go for my morning walk now.
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@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.
@gerrymcgovern All of that is so true. For now, I'm trying to escalate the familiar 'climate change' to 'climate collapse' for emphasis in conversations where everyone's talking about the heat as if it's a one-off random hot day today. Nobody's fault. Not part of a global problem. Sure what can you do. Sure wasn't it like that in '76. Ah sure let's have an ice-cream. I wonder if I could say 'civilizational collapse' without instant denial. You are correct of course. Everything is interconnected.
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@CiaraNi I'm using that. One of the issues I have these days (and long ago) are the euphemisms. They're just not strong enough anymore. Calling a lie mis or dis info, I understand but calling things a lie leaves no doubt and the media didn't do that for a long time.
"Climate Collapse" does it for me (yikes) and it's why I think I'll go for my morning walk now.
@bedifferent Agreed. And yes, yikes indeed.
"Calling a lie mis or dis info, I understand but calling things a lie leaves no doubt and the media didn't do that for a long time,"
Great point. We made it socially impolite to call a lie a lie; to say that a liar lied instead of 'misspoke'; to say that we need to do something collective about climate collapse ourselves even though Elon Musk has a private jet.
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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
"But it's just weird that we refuse to even mention it."Or it's all carefully choreographed.
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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.
@CiaraNi @delafin @juliette
❝...These billionaires WILL fucking kill you, to keep doing capitalism on a boiling planet. They're installing fascism so you don't have a choice, they're controlling police states because they mean to preserve their world order, with violence--that's actually why security forces exist, everywhere...❞
- AnarchoNinaWrites -
@gerrymcgovern All of that is so true. For now, I'm trying to escalate the familiar 'climate change' to 'climate collapse' for emphasis in conversations where everyone's talking about the heat as if it's a one-off random hot day today. Nobody's fault. Not part of a global problem. Sure what can you do. Sure wasn't it like that in '76. Ah sure let's have an ice-cream. I wonder if I could say 'civilizational collapse' without instant denial. You are correct of course. Everything is interconnected.
@CiaraNi And you're exactly right too. Calling it climate collapse will be enough to get you called a heretic.
But if you really want to head for witch burning territory, then you'd say that the core underlying driver is white male supremacy culture!
They always come for the old, wise women first.
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@CiaraNi
"But it's just weird that we refuse to even mention it."Or it's all carefully choreographed.
@clintruin I didn't really mean 'weird', it was an on-the-fly choice of word. Yes, the silence is not 'weird' in the sense of mysterious. We are very deliberately not mentioning it. Because, I think, of social pressure among the privileged minority who over-consume not to normalise the idea that we can and should change our behaviour.
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@clintruin I didn't really mean 'weird', it was an on-the-fly choice of word. Yes, the silence is not 'weird' in the sense of mysterious. We are very deliberately not mentioning it. Because, I think, of social pressure among the privileged minority who over-consume not to normalise the idea that we can and should change our behaviour.
@CiaraNi
Having gotten a feel for the thread, I kinda figured you were being glib. This said, I always look for opportunities to point out none of this is accidental. -
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 am using terms Climate Catastrophe (Katastrofa Klimatyczna) and Global Heating (Globalne Ogrzewanie). I have also noted that Greenhouse Effect is less frequently used by media than it used to.
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@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.
@CiaraNi sure, the familiarity with the expression "climate" is a valid argument, but I am not sure people are less familiar with the word "environment", which is where the environmentalist movement started.When people around me use "climate", I simply respond by not using the word myself and using "environment", which up to now everybody seemed familiar with. I don't think anybody is keeping it as taboo.
Consumers behaviours is another discourse, mostly tied to production, not just knowledge. -
@CiaraNi And you're exactly right too. Calling it climate collapse will be enough to get you called a heretic.
But if you really want to head for witch burning territory, then you'd say that the core underlying driver is white male supremacy culture!
They always come for the old, wise women first.
@gerrymcgovern Ha
It's so frustrating, though, that we have to think so strategically about what phrase to use just to be able to bring up the subject in polite social company. Even as thousands of people are dying in European heatweaves. I hope the social attitude switches soon - that the heretics are the ones who try to keep the subject unmentionable and taboo, not the ones who want to discuss what on Earth we are going to do. -
@CiaraNi
Having gotten a feel for the thread, I kinda figured you were being glib. This said, I always look for opportunities to point out none of this is accidental.@clintruin You made a good point and make good points. We are in agreement. Pointing out that none of this is accidental is a great strategy.
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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 @FreakyFwoof Somebody suggested calling it "catastrophic climate chaos", and I like that. The rising average isn't so much of a problem, the rising variance is.
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@CiaraNi I am using terms Climate Catastrophe (Katastrofa Klimatyczna) and Global Heating (Globalne Ogrzewanie). I have also noted that Greenhouse Effect is less frequently used by media than it used to.
@ThePolishDispatch Now that you mention it, we were not afraid to talk about 'the greenhouse effect' and about what to do about the ozone layer back in the 70s and 80s. As I recall it (going on memory only), it wasn't socially taboo or radical to talk about the global crisis or need to do something. It was an accepted issue discussed at school, at home, socially, in the media. (We didn't discuss things online then, which I suspect is not a coincidence here.)
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@CiaraNi @FreakyFwoof Somebody suggested calling it "catastrophic climate chaos", and I like that. The rising average isn't so much of a problem, the rising variance is.
@miki @FreakyFwoof That's a great phrase. Suitably accurate and alarming.
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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 If the industry or politics talk about climate change they immediately mention everyone's CO2-footprint, trying to deflect from their responsibilities.
Everyone knows that we're running into a crisis of immense proportion, yet still they're discussing how many gas generators they want approved for their next datacenter which "we desperate need without alternative to train AI to fight climate change".
So yes, climate collapse or climate catastrophy is more fitting.
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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.
I was talking the other day to a woman I know to be- as l like to call it - "in the FOXNews information universe", meaning she's getting constant messaging that climate (collapse) change is a hoax. We were talking weather (ours here has been unusually cool) and I mentioned the super el Nino. She "hoped it wouldn't happen". I told her oh so casually that it's here, ocean temps are several standard deviations above normal and the hottest in 50 million years. Then I changed the subject.
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@CiaraNi @FreakyFwoof Somebody suggested calling it "catastrophic climate chaos", and I like that. The rising average isn't so much of a problem, the rising variance is.
@miki @CiaraNi @FreakyFwoof like I said somewhere else today: you can adapt to heating but adapting to unpredictability is *hard* (didn't want to be too much of a doomer and say impossible)
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@gerrymcgovern Ha
It's so frustrating, though, that we have to think so strategically about what phrase to use just to be able to bring up the subject in polite social company. Even as thousands of people are dying in European heatweaves. I hope the social attitude switches soon - that the heretics are the ones who try to keep the subject unmentionable and taboo, not the ones who want to discuss what on Earth we are going to do.@CiaraNi @gerrymcgovern I’ve been reading a lot of Paul Levy’s work on Wetiko (aka Wendigo), a myth of Algonquian-speaking people about a spirit of insatiable hunger and greed.
He characterizes it as a mind virus that has come to predominate the globe, spread largely by western civilization.
Our way of speaking and thinking, of separateness from nature, the earth, each other, and even our very selves is a sickness. Untended, it leads to our destruction.
