@stevel Extremely cool!

@gerrymcgovern @zenmorph Great observations and points.

One of the things that is giving me some hope these days is a podcast, of all things. An audio drama. Lost Terminal. A hopepunk, solarpunk series based in the post-collapse world, after climate collapse and 'the resource wars'. It's based in technological and scientific and natural science reality, showing ways to live in a restructured human society. So much hope and civilization. Great drama story too.

https://lostterminal.com/

@jawarajabbi It is so frustrating. Good for you trying to make the point. Even if she didn't want to hear, maybe somebody else will hear and listen.

@ehproque @miki @FreakyFwoof

"adapting to unpredictability is *hard*"

A great point.

@Brokar It's a mess. The deflection is strong on all sides. Politicians and industry deflect by pointing at individual carbon footprints. Individuals deflect by pointing at industry and at individual billionaire's private jets, as long as they do nothing, we do nothing. And yes, the GAI energy waste on top of all this is downright distressing.

@miki @FreakyFwoof That's a great phrase. Suitably accurate and alarming.

@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.)

@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.

@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.

@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.

@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.

@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.

@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.

@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.

@delafin @juliette

'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.

@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.

@essjayjay Good phrase. I'll borrow and use that too. Gets straight to the point.

@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.

@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.

@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.