37° heat is depressing.
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@MiaMarkTwo @hemlockcookie 'Less distant than we think' - I keep thinking about this. It is far less distant than we think. It's already here for some people, in some places on earth.
@CiaraNi @hemlockcookie The acceleration in consequences we've seen in the last 20 years is going to be absolutely dwarfed in the next 20, now that there's a global weakening of every kind of climate protection law. Then there's data centres ...
I don't like to think about it very much either. It isn't going to be prevented by me sorting my household waste any more than me boycotting the World Cup will stop it, but at least I'm not actively making it worse.
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@CiaraNi @TCatInReality
I did not say that it doesn't matter what we do as individuals

What I meant is that the economic incentives are way more effective and they require political action.@jakobtougaard I think we need to be able to talk about the concept of a mass boycott of fossil fuels through a mass boycott of holiday flights without qualifying it at the same time with 'well, it won't really make a difference'. Collective actions and mass boycotts are political actions. They are made up of multiple individual actions. I think immediately pointing at the politicians and the billionaires every time the subject comes up prevents us even having the conversation.
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@CiaraNi You're speaking what's on my mind, thank you!
@malte Thank you for saying this - I've been demoralised by the general reaction I see around me, both in 'real life' and online. People are putting so much effort into explaining away any need to modify our behaviour in any way. So I am encouraged to hear that it's not just me!
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@tompearce49 @CiaraNi @annaf @marjon I hope this heatwave will help 95% of the population understand that the problem is not just climate change itself, but also how we live, our culture, and even our philosophy of life.
@experimentmapass This was my hope too, so I am now demoralised after the first few days of harsh heat where I am. It seems to be having the opposite effect - so many people are coming up with so many 'reasons' why it will make no real difference if individual people modify their individual behaviour. It's starting to feel very 'I'll give you my city-break flights when you pry them from my cold, dead hands on a warm, dead planet'.
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@harib_murshidi @CiaraNi not mention 'moon-phase' wristwatches, or even lambourghinis.
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@malte Thank you for saying this - I've been demoralised by the general reaction I see around me, both in 'real life' and online. People are putting so much effort into explaining away any need to modify our behaviour in any way. So I am encouraged to hear that it's not just me!
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@CiaraNi @TCatInReality I think there's 2 factors. One is that people who want to do the right thing feel overwhelmed and simply surviving with wars, cost of living, AI Trump etc. That it won't make a difference and making small changes might make you feel better doesn't move the needle so it's hard to keep going when doing the right thing is harder (eg public transport is worse, holidaying locally with poorer weather and more expensive).
@RoBo2 Mass boycotts of holiday flights or fast fashion could move the needle. Mass actions are just multiple individual actions. If someone feels overwhelmed, taking part in a collective campaign that costs them nothing (literally and figuratively) could help them feel less helpless.
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@anderslund @malte This is encouraging, tak! Det er også en god idé, din mor har der.
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@harib_murshidi @CiaraNi not mention 'moon-phase' wristwatches, or even lambourghinis.
@dckim @harib_murshidi On the plus side, as long as those billionaires keep flying private jets and sailing private yachts and wearing expensive wristwatches and driving Lamborghinis, then the rest of us don't have to do anything. We don't have to give up holiday flights or fast fashion or regular mobile phone upgrades or make any changes whatsoever to our consumer behaviour. Thank heavens for billionaires!
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@Eetschrijver @hemlockcookie Yes, good point. We don't have the freedom to do ordinary stuff in this heat.
@CiaraNi
We're, in fact, close to the point where we'll be lucky to survive a heatwave at all. I live in central France, not a hot region, and we hit 47⁰C in the shadow last Monday. More than a thousand people died of heat-related causes in just six days, only in France.
@hemlockcookie -
@dckim @harib_murshidi On the plus side, as long as those billionaires keep flying private jets and sailing private yachts and wearing expensive wristwatches and driving Lamborghinis, then the rest of us don't have to do anything. We don't have to give up holiday flights or fast fashion or regular mobile phone upgrades or make any changes whatsoever to our consumer behaviour. Thank heavens for billionaires!
@CiaraNi @harib_murshidi a well written straw argument.
We are all exceptionally rich, for the most part.
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@CiaraNi @harib_murshidi a well written straw argument.
We are all exceptionally rich, for the most part.
@dckim @harib_murshidi I think we need to bring the 10% (or whatever the figure is; it's somewhere around that) into the conversation as well as the 1%. Those of us who have the privilege to over-consume and take unnecessary flights are a small minority of all people on the planet. Collectively, we have actual consumer power to boycott and give clear signals to politicians.
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@experimentmapass This was my hope too, so I am now demoralised after the first few days of harsh heat where I am. It seems to be having the opposite effect - so many people are coming up with so many 'reasons' why it will make no real difference if individual people modify their individual behaviour. It's starting to feel very 'I'll give you my city-break flights when you pry them from my cold, dead hands on a warm, dead planet'.
@CiaraNi @tompearce49 @marjon also we’re always being told that it’s wrong to focus on personal actions so I’m constantly feeling guilty for even existing, but I’m also the only family member / close friend who’s joined a climate group so I can’t help think the two things are linked.
I’m not living a perfect eco life, of course but I just imagine a world where you say ‘hey there’s this big problem’ and people around you are like ‘let’s work on this together, you’re not alone’ that would be awesome, I must be so naive or something but I honestly thought that would happen if people had enough information. I probably still do!
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@dckim @harib_murshidi I think we need to bring the 10% (or whatever the figure is; it's somewhere around that) into the conversation as well as the 1%. Those of us who have the privilege to over-consume and take unnecessary flights are a small minority of all people on the planet. Collectively, we have actual consumer power to boycott and give clear signals to politicians.
We should try to get the word out on this for people to press the money into shoe-boxes and sit idle during vacation.
The economist are always pressing towards a 'full-employment' which will guarantee a maximal consumption for their profit-books.
More and more, expend all you can at all times. That's the prevailing motto. If you can't spend it invest it to be spent some other way.
Insatiable
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@CiaraNi @tompearce49 @marjon also we’re always being told that it’s wrong to focus on personal actions so I’m constantly feeling guilty for even existing, but I’m also the only family member / close friend who’s joined a climate group so I can’t help think the two things are linked.
I’m not living a perfect eco life, of course but I just imagine a world where you say ‘hey there’s this big problem’ and people around you are like ‘let’s work on this together, you’re not alone’ that would be awesome, I must be so naive or something but I honestly thought that would happen if people had enough information. I probably still do!
@annaf
"I just imagine a world where you say ‘hey there’s this big problem’ and people around you are like ‘let’s work on this together, you’re not alone’ that would be awesome" - that would indeed be awesome. The way things are going, we need that. -
@dckim @harib_murshidi On the plus side, as long as those billionaires keep flying private jets and sailing private yachts and wearing expensive wristwatches and driving Lamborghinis, then the rest of us don't have to do anything. We don't have to give up holiday flights or fast fashion or regular mobile phone upgrades or make any changes whatsoever to our consumer behaviour. Thank heavens for billionaires!
@CiaraNi @dckim is this some kind of a taunt to the 'poor of the world' or something ?!
correct me if I am wrongThe 'regular' things you have mentioned are also not a regular thing for the majority of the world population i.e. the global south ! I for one have not even seen the insides of an airliner yet,

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37° heat is depressing. So is the way we’re dealing with climate collapse. The language we’re using, the excuses we’re making. Making heat records a game, excitedly watching to see if Number Goes Up. The news said the latest temperature had ‘ruined the chance of another new record’. And we all seem to agree that, conveniently, there’s no use in inconveniencing ourselves personally by consuming less or not flying until the day after every billionaire has given up their private jet.
I've worked on climate issues since the mid 1990s. And I have to tell you that personally consuming less or not flying make no difference. If you don't believe me, we had a big natural experiment with Covid, and there was a momentary bump that did nothing to stop the drivers of fossil fuel use.
People can do something and what's involved is political resistance, not the electoral kind.
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@CiaraNi @dckim is this some kind of a taunt to the 'poor of the world' or something ?!
correct me if I am wrongThe 'regular' things you have mentioned are also not a regular thing for the majority of the world population i.e. the global south ! I for one have not even seen the insides of an airliner yet,

I am considered quite poor in Canada but, I have been on an airplane before.
If you count single trips, 5 times. There and back. 3 times to Germany where I visited relatives. 2 times to British Columbia, visiting relatives again.
I assume it is very expensive, and it was at that time too.
People blame these things for 'global warming'. I think that is the theme.
In the religious sense, it makes no difference. I am happy to have just food and water and a place to live.
100%
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@DoubleTreble @jakobtougaard @TCatInReality Yes, we managed fine without airborne holidays, flying only when genuinely necessary, and people boasted about all the lovely new places and experiences they'd found in their own country. Then most people rushed back to the cheap charter holidays and cheap flights.
@CiaraNi @jakobtougaard @TCatInReality
And the a holiday in your own Country became a 'Staycation'
Which was all my childhood holidays, and our childrens too, camping around the UK.
Which they tell us they loved 🥰🥰 -
the best choice is to give away money that is in excess of your own needs, if you can afford it. Every day that we have enough food for that day is a blessing, and it's as if we have everything.
Most of the poverty that we see is people actively preventing others from getting what is provided in abundance.
That's the reality of tyranny.
